LoE- The Blackest Night- Give and Take

LoE- The Blackest Night

Give and Take
by Kendell2 and Alexwarlorn

'No one will take anythin' from meh, ever again!' Applebloom thought, peering back up the stairs as she climbed. Took a jar of each generation with her, balancing them on her back with the skill born from a lifetime of farmwork. Nopony was there. Granny Smith and the others were in bed. Applejack and Big Mac were apparently still out.

The filly looked around the kitchen closely. What could she use? She quietly rummaged through the cabinets, through everything. She didn't find anything useful for what she needed, but her hoard accumulated a few more items, like the spoon she and Granny Smith used to cook Zap Apple Jam. It was hers after all. It wasn’t stealing. She was just keeping it safe. She took her rabbit costume for making Zap Apple Jam out of the family trunk as well.

As she placed her latest additions in the hoard, she blinked. How had she gotten sidetracked? She was doing something important! But she had looked all through the house...so she went outside. She paused at the door, remembering...that day. What if they were out there? The Black Lanterns? Waiting in the dark? Her siblings weren't here... No, she had to be strong! She had to protect what was hers! She carefully trotted outside, keeping an eye on everything as she headed to and rummaged through the barn. The youngest Apple sibling found Applejack's cache of rope and a bunch of locks they used to lock up the fences. Surely nopony would mind if she used them! This was Apple Family property, and she was an Apple!

She headed back up and looked at her hoard...This might be harder than she thought. She started by tying some of the odds and ends to the bed, ESPECIALLY the engine gauge. She wasn't letting anything take all that she had left of her parents!

She paused and trotted over to the window as she took a break after she tied down a lot of her things. She couldn't help peering out towards the Everfree Forest. Was Zecora's hut still there? Or had it been destroyed by the Black Lanterns? Or...was her stuff still there? She thought of it, all there wasting away in Everfree...soon there would be nothing left.

She wanted it. BAD. To have it to keep at least something of who Zecora had been before those monsters had gotten to her!

But she hadn't been able to handle a cockatrice on her own, let alone the rest of the Everfree Forest's monsters...or the Black Lanterns. She turned away from the forest of death and back to her hoard. Her friends still slept around it, along with everything else she held dear, where they belonged.

Though, it appeared Scootaloo was drooling a bit...which seemed to be eating a hole through the floor. Applebloom narrowed her eyes. This house belonged to her family, to her. She didn’t like the idea of Scootaloo’s drool eating down through the foundation.

She tapped her precious friend on the shoulder and whispered, “Scootaloo, wake up.”

“Uh, whao-, Dash, you sound different.”

“Ah’m not Rainbow Dash.” Applebloom said softly so as not to break the beautiful image she saw of Sweetie Belle sleeping. “Yer eatin’ a hole through mah floor.”

“What? . . . Ah dang . . . " Scootaloo sleepily rose up under her crimson glow, and banged her head into, and then opened, a window and flew outside. Applebloom gasped! No! She couldn’t leave!

Scootaloo came back a few second later with a cloud shackled in red chains and placed it underneath herself and without much of a word fell back asleep. The burning plasma didn't damage the cloud.

Applebloom felt herself calm considerably. She looked at the hole in the floor. She was torn between wanting it fixed, wanting the house being back to normal...and having something there as a constant reminder of her friend. Proof that the young pegasus had been here. Reminders were important to keep, weren't they?

She turned back to her hoard and continued tying it down. Soon the pile of 'junk' was intermeshed with innumerable knots. She looked at the locks. Where could she get some chains? Or could you lock ropes? Applejack would know but she STILL wasn't home yet.

Applebloom looked over at Scootaloo and the cloud on which she slept, the red chains around it. She grumbled. This would be so easy if she had a ring! It'd just take a few seconds and bam! Instant chains. Big Mac had been using his ring all around the farm! It had really sped things up. But nopony would give her a type of ring she wanted! Her thoughts wandered back to Diamond Tiara and her ring. It burned Applebloom up that everyone seemed to have one but her! Even ponies she didn't even KNOW had them! Sure, she'd seen Raindrop around town, but the adult pegasus wasn't even an Apple! Why did Applejack give HER a ring before her own sister?! Why had Twilight given rings to MONSTERS before her?! Rainbow had given a Windigo one! The monsters had rings but she didn't! Gilda was at least Rainbow's old friend, but the MONSTERS?! Would she be the LAST pony around without a ring before all this was over?! Just like she was shaping up to be the last pony in her class without her cutie mark. Stupid cutie pox, giving her so many cutie marks and she couldn’t even control them!

Applebloom looked at Sweetie Belle. The unicorn filly didn't have a ring...but how long would that last? She was a sweetheart, everyone knew it. How long until Miss Fluttershy's Corps recruited her?! She looked at Scootaloo. She couldn't be mad at her precious friend, but she could envy her. She'd been tempted to take the Red Ring she'd been offered, she was STILL tempted, maybe even more than before. She could WANT that ring...but she knew if she took it, Scootaloo would die. She'd LOSE a friend if she took it. And she wasn't losing ANYTHING ever again! She could just ask...Wake Scootaloo up and ask for a ring. She knew Scootaloo would do it.

An image of Scootaloo attacking Diamond and Silver in a berserk rage flashed in Applebloom's mind. She backpedaled from Scootaloo, not afraid of her friend but of HERSELF. That was why she hadn't taken the offer before...Scootaloo may have gotten control of herself, now, but...Applebloom didn't want to hurt anypony. And, with how angry she was now, what would THAT ring do to her? Sure, she might direct the anger where it belonged, at the Black Lanterns, but what if she didn't? What if she directed it at Applejack for not giving her a green ring? Or anypony else? That thought scared her more than the Black Lanterns.

But what about the Green Rings? They hadn't hurt anypony. Her big siblings had them. Fluttershy's Corps wasn't hurting anyone.

And yeah, Twilight was scarier now, but the Yellow Rings didn't seem to make anyone go berserk. If anything, they were making the monsters STOP attacking ponies. And Rarity's? Hers made ponies LESS likely to hurt people. But NONE of them would give Applebloom one! She didn't want to lose anyone else, but how could she protect what was hers without one? She shook her head and thought back to what she was actually doing.

The young filly headed out to the barn again, looking for chains. She was feeling bolder than she had before over the dark and them Black Lanterns being behind every tree. There HAD to be some chains somewhere! It was a farm! Why wouldn't they have chains?!

Applebloom snarled as her search once more came up empty. Where were they? She needed them! Just like she needed her friends! She needed her things! She needed a...a ring. Just...not a red one. She needed one to protect what was hers! And she needed her cutie mark! She was tired of not having one! REALLY dang tired of it! She was tired of not having the things everypony had!

Applebloom heard a whimper coming from nearby. "Winona?" she asked, trotting over to a corner of the barn. She found the little collie hunkered down under it. "Are yah okay girl?" she asked, holding out a hoof.

The little dog whined and came out from where she had been sleeping. "Yer nervous too, ain'tcha, girl?” Applebloom knelt down at her sister’s, at her family’s, pet and gave her a gentle stroking to her fur.

"It's all right. Even all the monsters in Everfree are afraid of those nasty Black Lanterns. But don’t worry, Ah won’t them zombies get yah too.”

Applebloom lead Winona into the house, to her room, and took a rope. She tied one end around the loyal dog's collar and the other around her bed post. She hadn't found any chains, so she just made do with some rope. Winona didn’t resist or try to flee, Applebloom was her master’s sister after all, so the dog felt that she could trust her. She did, however, seem to give Scootaloo a wide berth, probably because of the filly's near animalistic look as she slept. Applebloom didn't mind. She would rather Winona stay far away from Scootaloo's drool just in case.

Thinking about Winona, she remembered a pet hamster she’d once had for two years before he started getting sluggish and sleepy. One day he was gone from his cage. Big Mac and Granny Smith told her he had run away to join the circus. Applejack had told her to her face that he had died. Applejack had gotten a spanking for that. Her big sister had defended herself, saying that she’d had been taught that lying was bad, so why were they lying to Applebloom?

Could the Black Lanterns only take ponies and Griffins? Or could they...the thought filled her with anger and she left, then came back in a few minutes later with dirty hooves, carrying a tiny sack that was a literal bag of bones. No living thing she cared about was going to be stolen by those zombies again.

Applebloom looked at Scootaloo's cloud and her rope after she'd tied down the remains of her hamster. She didn't want something to blow the cloud, and her friend, away while the pegasus was sleeping. She tied the rope around the cloud…

"Dang it! Stupid cow stealin’, spur ridin’, cloud-" she whispered, watching the rope slip through the cloud and hit the floor.

"Sweet Celestia!" she exclaimed, not knowing how she managed to not wake anyone as she noticed the rope was smoking from contact with the burning hot red energy of the chains. And then it was on fire. She panicked and smothered it with . . . with . . . she used herself. She gritted her teeth at the pain. She wouldn’t let anything happen to anything that was hers.

"Hmm. Barbecued Diamond Tiara with a side of hay fries," muttered Scootaloo as the smoke hit her nose. Applebloom wasn't sure how Scootaloo actually felt about the dream. It was hard to tell given that her only expression was 'sleeping guard dog.'

Applebloom's burnt stomach growled. "Dang it! Why'd ya have yah make meh hungry?" Even if the idea of eating another pony, even one like Diamond Tiara, made her shudder, she couldn't resist her grumbling stomach.

A part of Applebloom KNEW she should have been getting back to bed, to rest, to be with her friends in dreamland. Apples were early to bed and early to rise. However, she ignored the inner nagging and went to the kitchen instead. She wasn’t sure what she was hungry for she just knew she was. “Do we have any zap apple jam left?”

Sure enough, she found a jar of it left deep in a cabinet, but hesitated.

Outside of harvest time the zap apple jam was supposed to be for special occasions. It was rare. Even Granny Smith didn't know exactly how often it happened, she just knew the signs. The gaps weren't huge, but it wasn't like the normal apples they got all the time, and it was such hard work to harvest them. Maybe not hard, but really complex.

"Applejack just finally got out of her funk and got her ring workin' again, Ah think that's a special occasion!" she said to herself and got some bread. Soon she was stuffing her face with toast and Zap Apple jam like a wild beast.

Soon the jam was emptied, but found she was still hungry. So she ate the bread. All of it. She hid the jar deep in her hoard...but still felt a pit in her stomach. She was still hungry.

She returned to the pantry and grabbed a box of crackers and some peanut butter and began eating again.

"Huh? I thought both of these were full?" she asked, finally ending up with an empty bag and jar. Was she still hungry? Yeah, she was, at least she thought she was. But…

"Ugh…" she groaned, holding her still burnt stomach. She felt like she NEEDED to eat more, but she couldn't. Stupid body! Not letting her get what she wanted! Just like it didn't let her tie down Scootaloo's cloud so the young Red Lantern wouldn't float away! Everything kept trying to keep her from what she wanted!

She threw away the box and jars, then headed outside, feeling still more brave. She'd been out so many times tonight. There was no way she was going to let those zombies catch her! She decided to take another look for chains. They HAD to have them somewhere! She needed ‘em and she’d find ‘em! Big brother Big Mac had once spent an entire day looking for a nail, and hadn’t given up. She wouldn’t either.

She headed out to check where they'd left the baskets until harvest time. Sure, it might not be the most obvious place, but you never knew.

As she walked, she kept an eye out for anything that could jump out at her...then froze. Her eyes landed on the splintered stump of a tree, the lumber having been cleared away...but not the memory.

One of them was so close to Big Macintosh. Applebloom saw it but was too terrified to scream. Everything seemed to go in slow motion...then the ground exploded upwards.

Applebloom could feel the shockwaves. Even Big Mac couldn't keep his footing! Applebloom's eyes fell on the form of her older sister standing among the scattered pieces of the rotting Black Lantern's skull.

AJ grabbed the zombie by its uniform and spun around, sending it flying. Applebloom watched the monster plow into two of the others and send them crashing through...

This tree. Part of HER family's orchard, part of HER family's livelihood! That HER family had spent years toiling to create! She put a hoof on the stump and lowered her head, the fragrant scent of apple wood reaching her nose. Instead of reminding her of better times, of good things (as it should have), it reminded her of a night where she had nearly lost everything...maybe she had lost more than she thought. She hadn't slept through the whole night in how long? How often had she woken up with nightmares? They'd STOLEN her peace of mind from her! HER family's peace of mind. It was just something else that the world had taken from her!

"YeS, jOin the BLACK." said Mitta. Except this Mitta held none of her inflection, tone or personality. Neither did Ruby's dead body. It was like a puppet. A Mitta puppet that was apparently struggling to move the way it wanted to - unlike the others. "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, FILLY!"

"Stop fighting it MiTTA, WE'RE finALLY FRee!" Said a corpse pony with wisps of green fur on it. "We can protect every poNy FRoM the CuRSE ForEver! No OnE nEEds To SuFFFER AnYmore!"

She didn't fight the memory this time. She wasn't throwing away ANY memory of hers! Mitta was the ONE pony in that Celestia forsaken town who had actually CARED about what they'd done to Ruby! The ONE pony who had tried to help Applebloom instead of kill her! And the Black Lanterns had STOLEN her! They'd stolen Ruby too!

Her rage filled her mind again. Zecora, her parents, Mitta, Ruby, everything kept getting taken away! And she was NOT going to let it happen again!

The youngest Apple sibling tried to pull up the tree stump with all her might. But the filly's body couldn't pull the big stump bigger than herself out of the ground. Her body had let her down again! Why couldn't she be strong like Applejack or Big Mac? Why! Why couldn't she have a ring like her big siblings? She WANTED to be strong! She WANTED to have a ring! She WANTED to protect what was hers! She wanted it more than a dragon wanted gems!

"Why ain't Ah strong? Applejack's strong, Big Mac is strong! Even Granny Smith was strong when she was a filly! So why ain't Ah!" she yelled to the heavens. "Ah WANT tah be strong! Ah WANT yah be strong. So nothin' can take nothin’ and no pony away from meh ever again!" she yelled. She wanted so many things. She wanted to TAKE BACK what the world, what those bucking zombies had taken from her!

She ran into the orchard, tears streaming down her face. She didn't know WHERE she was running, she didn't know WHY. She didn't know WHAT she was doing. Just that she had to do SOMETHING. She was tired of doing nothing! Of LACKING the strength to do anything! Of just having to stand by and watch as everything was taken from her because she LACKED power! She was tired of being a weak little filly! A weak little BLANK FLANK!

She finally stopped running when she reached a clearing. She knew this clearing. It was one of the oldest parts of the farm. They still grew apples of course, but there was some other thing that made her blood run cold thinking about this part of the farm…

She noticed two tombstones in the middle of the clearing. The soil in front of each was freshly covered. She knew exactly why…

"Apple Smith! YOU'VE BeeN keePing US waitING LONG ENOUGH! YoU JOIN US THIS INSTANT YOUNG LADY!"

"MA? . . . PA?!" Granny Smith gasped.

They both saw two specific Black Lanterns...

Both Earth Ponies. One a stallion with an acorn cutie mark. And the mare with a sewing machine cutie mark.

Applebloom felt her granny's grip lessen on her.

"YOu LISTEN tO yOUR MoTHER Apple Smith! wE'VE bEEn waitin' A LoNG tiME FoR YoU!"


Tears began streaming down the filly's face. She remembered. Granny Smith had been broken by that. She was recovering but they'd STILL hurt her. And worse? They'd taken her FAMILY! They'd taken her great grandparents and turned them into monsters! They'd STOLEN her family from her! And…

"Green Lantern Jack. A way to win YOU LACK. You have tried YOUR BEST. Now you should lay down AND REST"

They'd taken Zecora. They'd taken Mitta, they'd taken Ruby, and they'd taken her FAMILY!'

"What next you blasted zombies?! Mah ma and pa?! Yah gonna steal 'em like yah did their grandparents?! Who else are yah gonna take from meh! Who?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, looking at the empty graves.

Applebloom felt something. Something deep inside of her. Something that had been building up over the past few days. It was like a dam broke.

"NO! Yah AIN'T takin' anypony else away from meh! Not now not ever again! And yah know what else?" she asked, trotting over to the graves. "Ah'm takin' em back! Ah don't care how, but Ah'm takin' em back from yah! Ah swear Ah am! Ah WANT 'em back!" she yelled.

She wanted to keep what was HER family's. She wanted to keep HER friends. She wanted to keep what was HER'S.

And she WANTED things as well. She wanted HER Cutie Mark. She wanted HER ring. She wanted HER things. She wanted MORE. She wanted HER power. She wanted to STOP being the one the world picks on, the one it TAKES from. She was done having stuff taken FROM her.

She was going to do the TAKING now! She was going to TAKE back her friends and family from those zombies! She was going to TAKE what was rightfully hers!

"It's mine! Nopony else's! Mah friends, mah family, everything, they're mine! And Ah will TAKE back everypony yah stole from meh!"

( = Suitable candidate located = )

Suddenly, the area lit up with an orange glow from above. Applebloom blinked, looking up slowly. Her eyes were greeted by an orange comet speeding from the sky down towards her. She'd been there when Applejack had gotten her ring. She'd seen the green meteor come down from the sky.

The filly smiled as the orange glow engulfed her and the clearing.

"My ring!"

You deserve a cutie mark -- no, a hundred, a THOUSAND cutie marks! And zapapples! And candy, all the candy in Equestria!

"And mah friends? Mah family?"

You deserve them. You deserve MORE than just them.

"And the ones the Black Lanterns took from meh?"

You deserve to take them back.

"Darn right Ah do!"

I can give the power to let you take what want. Or to let you take back what was stolen from you. So, what do you say? Do you want this Power?

"Yes! Ah want it! Ah want it now!"

( = Applebloom of Equestria. = )

( = You want it all. = )

(= Take the Orange Lantern Corps For Yourself = )

Applebloom watched with glee as the orange ring put itself on her hoof, as an orange suit formed over her body. Her midsection and elbows were black, a symbol was on her shoulders, her bow was looking in better shape and was now a bright orange. Unlike most of the costumes she had seen, her hooves were all still bare, and her neck was enclosed by an open cloth collar. Her eyes glowed orange.

"Ah got a ring! Ah got a ring!" the filly exclaimed in excitement. "Ah can't wait tah tell the…"

No...not yet...She wouldn't tell anyone yet. After all, Sweetie was the only one without a ring, she might get jealous. She might want HER ring. And Applejack didn't want her to have a ring, or Granny. She'd try to take HER ring away right now. Applebloom needed to prove herself first. She needed to prove to everypony what she already knew - that she DESERVED the ring.

Applebloom looked down at her ring. "Ah think Ah'll keep yah mah little secret for now...but that doesn't mean Ah can't try yah out a little."

Applebloom looked up. She wanted to fly home...and to her surprise, she found herself floating in the air. "Golly! That was easy! Ah guess yah do whatever Ah want yah too, huh?"

( = Correct. The Orange Light is the Light of Avarice. = )

"...Avaious? What's that?"

( = Desire. Wanting. = )

"Oh! Cool! So if Ah want tah land Ah just have tah want it?"

( = Correct = )

"Awesome! So if Ah just…"

She put her ring out...and blew a hole in the ground with a powerful orange beam of energy. It was a lot stronger than she had expected! She'd seen the others use their powers, but the size of the crater she made left her speechless!...Until she noticed she'd lit the grass on fire.

"Not again! Put it out! Ah want it to be out!"

As she spoke, another beam projected from her ring and surrounded the fire in a sphere of orange energy that shrunk and smothered the fire.

"Wow! This is amazin'! Ah can do whatever Ah WANT! Ah want ta-WHAO!" she yelled as she flew high into the sky before she could even finish her sentence. She stopped, hovering high enough above Sweet Apple Acres to see it all.

All of her family's land. All of HER family's legacy. Everything here was HER family's. "The Black Lanterns want tah take it from meh...now Ah don't have tah let 'em!" she yelled, sending out a burst of orange energy around her. She laughed. She hadn't felt so free since that night! It'd already given her back her peace of mind! It'd given her power! It was like a dream come true!

Her eyes fell on Everfree. "...And Ah think Ah'll start takin' some things back!"

The filly wielding the orange light flew into the forest without a moment's hesitation.  

---

Sweetie Belle yawned, slowly waking up and giving a stretch. "Good morning. Scootaloo...Uh...why are you on a cloud?"

Scootaloo grumbled, the Red Lantern filly getting up. "My plasma was burning a hole through the floor…" she muttered.

"So you drool when you sleep?"

"Not all the time!" If she still had normal blood, she might have blushed a little.

"Mornin' girls!" called Applebloom's voice.

The two of them turned to see Applebloom lying on top of her hoard like a sleeping dragon. The filly yawned and happily hopped off her hoard, still wearing all sorts of junk, just as she'd been the previous night. "Ah had a good night sleep. What about you?" She then petted Winona, the dog still tethered to the bed.

"About as good as usual," Scootaloo replied, then gave a blink, realizing the red constructs she'd used to chain the cloud seemed to have disappeared. "Weird…" she muttered. She secretly felt a little scared. Had she had a dream that had drained her anger? Could that actually happen? She'd have to ask Rainbow Dash.

"Uh...Applebloom…" said Sweetie, blinking. "Your...collection has gotten...bigger."

Scootaloo blinked, looking at the hoard and noticing a number of new additions. Some made a bit of sense, like old jars or a wooden spoon. But then there were things like planks, rope, and…

"Uh...Applebloom. Is that an old muddy stump?"

"It's not JUST an old muddy stump! It's...it's one of the trees that got destroyed when the Black Lanterns attacked the farm...Ah felt like ah shouldn't let 'em take it away from us...that we shouldn't forget what they've taken from us and try to remember what we've lost. That they win if we do that! And Ah don't want that. Ah don't want 'em tah...tah take anypony else from us."

Scootaloo felt her rage light up once again, the justified rage she'd felt last night. It felt good. "Darn right! No way are we letting those monsters get away with it!"

Sweetie looked at the hoard again. "Applebloom...how did you get a stump in here?"

"Oh, Ah got some help from a Lantern. They told meh not tah say who it was. They wanted it to be a secret."

"...You used the puppy dog eyes, didn't you?"

"...Maybe…"

Scootaloo didn't say anything, but assumed it was a Red Lantern. A lot of them probably wouldn't like anypony to know they'd fallen for Applebloom's infamous puppy dog eyes. In fact she was pretty sure all of them wouldn't.

However, she noticed something that made her double take. "Wait a minute is that…"

"Youngin's! Come down here now! You'll be late for school if yah don't eat breakfast right quick!"

"Come on girls! Breakfast time!" exclaimed Applebloom, hopping around like she was on a sugar rush. She then stampeded downstairs like she was half starved.

Scootaloo waited a moment and trotted over to the hoard, not daring to move anything and bring Applebloom back faster than Twilight if you moved one of her ink wells out of place. She just used her ring to illuminate something deeper in the hoard. She gave a gasp. "Sweetie…"

Sweetie Belle came over and stared in shock at what she saw - a large green and blue tribal mask. "Is...is that one of the masks that was on Zecora's wall?"

"Yeah, it's hard to forget. How in Equestria did Applebloom get it?"

"Well...she might have already had it before Zecora...She and Zecora were really close. Maybe Zecora gave her one? Or that Lantern that helped her with the stump helped her get it?"

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes at the mask. "Maybe...but something seems a bit off…"

"Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! Get down here! Ah'm not lettin' yah be late for school!"

"We're coming, Granny Smith!" called Sweetie. She then looked to Scootaloo. "I'm worried too, but...you know how hard finding out about...about Zecora was for Applebloom...I don't think we should bring it up...not right now…"

Scootaloo snarled. She didn't LIKE not knowing what was going on...but she knew she'd be angry with herself if she hurt Applebloom when she finally seemed to be recovering. "...Fine. but I'm NOT forgetting this, Sweetie. Something is up."

"Alright...but we probably should get going. We don't want to be late."

Scootaloo watched Sweetie run off, but took one more look at the mask. "What are you up to Applebloom?"