//------------------------------// // Book 3 - Chapter LXXII // Story: The Sunset Trilogy // by ocalhoun //------------------------------// Book 3: Equestria Abides Chapter 38 Twilight Sparkle glided through the pre-dawn sky, skirting a thin layer of clouds below and watching her namesake last few stars of the night slowly disappear – disappearing at her command, of course. She had even experimented with daytime stars, but in the end decided that they looked much better with a dark background to be set against. And anyway, now she was just enjoying the sensations of flying: the wind rushing through her mane, the buffeting of air in her wings, and the positively delicious feeling of being totally in-tune with the sky around her... her responding to it and it responding to her, all nearly automatically, like they were both just parts of each other... she could definitely see why Rainbow had liked it so much. With that, she quickly lost her euphoria, remembering the purpose of this flight. It was the three hundred and twenty-ninth Princess Day celebration, and as her habit had become over the last century or two, she preferred to spend it away from Las Pegasus, away from all the forgetful ponies who thought it was a celebration about her, away from all the joy and shouting that so clashed with her mood on these days. She would spend the time in the ashes of Ponyville and the ruins of Canterlot, remembering the true reason for the holiday, even if nopony else ever did... She felt it was important for somepony to remember the princesses... and her friends... as something more than just dry passages in a history book. She banked down towards New Ponyville; even though the new town was built on the foundations of the old, she didn't begrudge them... After all, they were just trying to make their way in the world, just like anypony else... and in a way, a vibrant and growing little town was a far better tribute to Ponyville's memory than a sad pile of ashes could ever be. Landing in the town square, she was greeted by a small group of ponies, who quickly bowed, and more than a few Princess Day decorations. Almost automatically motioning for the ponies to rise and go back about their business, she looked around at the décor. There wasn't quite as much here as there would be in Las Pegasus... some ponies traveled across all of Equestria to celebrate Princess Day in the capital, after all. What warmed her heart though, was that the decorations that were up were largely depicting a white alicorn with colorful mane, and a dark blue one with sparkles in her mane. Thanks to her frequent visits and speeches on this day every year since before the town was even founded, this town remembered what Princess Day was really about, even if no others did. She was able to wander the streets almost entirely unencumbered by the local ponies – after decades of visiting this town every Princess Day, the locals all knew her preference for being alone with her thoughts... on this day at least. I really should visit on some other day sometime, and actually talk to them... Twilight thought idly. It wouldn't do for them to think she was always this way. Turning a corner, she noticed a Rainbowbolts poster, advertising their air show in Las Pegasus for today. She smiled for a moment, wondering how Rainbow would feel knowing that the greatest aerial team in all of Equestria was now named after her. The poor pegasus had never gotten the chance to live her dream of being on such a team, but in a way, the name Twilight had given them made Rainbow a part of the team anyway. From what she had heard, one of the new generation of flyers on the team had even managed to repeat Rainbow Dash's stunt of a sonic rainboom. Before long – just like every time she visited – without any conscious decision to do so, she found herself on the path towards the old Sweet Apple Acres. It had become her morose routine to come each year, wander Ponyville for a while, inevitably end up on a certain hill in Sweet Apple Acres, and then after some time there flit up to and... well... mope around the ruins of Canterlot for a while, always being sure to return well after dark when Las Pegasus's Princess Day celebrations would finally be over. Nopony would be trying to visit the night court after a long day of partying after all... and even if some did, Apollo could handle them on his own just this once. Now well out of the (now much smaller) town of New Ponyville, Twilight lifted her attention away from the path immediately below her feet. The sight of those acres of apple trees, now growing wild, always managed to cheer her up a little: they were the Apple family's legacy, the proud result of hundreds of years of Apple family work, and the wild apple trees growing there would stand for centuries more, a testament to her old friends. Those apple trees were more than just trees, they were – they... they were GONE! Twilight stood, frozen in shock at the scene in front of her. Rows and rows of furrowed fields stood in front of her, neatly fenced in and growing the beginnings of what looked very much like carrots and tomatoes. The trees though... the trees were all gone! “Well howdy there, Princess!” A reddish mare with white mane, a carrot on her flank, freckles on her face, and a frayed straw hat on her head came trotting up to Twilight before making a quick bow. “Welcome to mah humble farm!” The pony said, rising. “The... the apple trees!” Twilight managed to get out, though still mostly frozen in shock. “Oh them? Shore was a lot a' hard work clearin out all them, but with mah brothers we got it done!” The farm pony tilted her head off toward a distant field, where Twilight could just barely make out two large stallions pulling a huge plow in tandem. Twilight could still hardly move... this went against everything she wanted. Her eyes remained stuck on the two stallions plowing the field in the distance... when something horrible occurred to her... the tilled fields all around her, the ground all torn up... The grave site! Suddenly no longer paralyzed with shock, Twilight was running toward the old hilltop. If these ponies had plowed right over it... if they had desecrated her last memories... She would – what would she do? – No time for planning that now! ...but she knew it wouldn't bode well for the vegetable farmer running behind her and struggling to keep up. * * * Twilight heard the farmer's hoofsteps and winded breathing as she finally caught up. She had been sitting and brooding, staring at the graves, mercifully untouched, but now surrounded by a sad remnant of only five apple trees. She could feel the tension building in the muscles along her back as the earth pony approached. That was the one! Her and ponies like her were the problem... the enemy. They didn't care about anything! They didn't care about what came before them, they didn't care about how things were supposed to be! As the concerned farmer approached, Princess Twilight Sparkle whirled around, rising to hover just above the ground on her wings, horn and eyes glowing brightly. An intense wind picked up, whipping the dust along the ground as storm clouds quickly gathered to swirl around the hilltop and fill the morning sky. “YOU WERE WISE TO LEAVE THIS PLACE UNMOLESTED!” She boomed out in what only she would recognize as the royal Canterlot voice, thunder and lightning from the clouds above accentuating her every point. “THUS, YOUR LIFE WILL BE SPARED!” The earth pony was frozen at her feet, jaw dropped in shock and terror. “BUT YOU HAVE DESTROYED SOMETHING PRECIOUS AND YOUR FARM IS NOW FORFIET!” She allowed even more venom to seep into her voice, even more disapproving rage to show on her face, “YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL LEAVE THIS LAND AT ONCE, AND NEVER RETURN!” Twilight's found herself enjoying the look of loss and horror on the pony's face: it mirrored her own feelings on seeing the trees gone. Good. Now that this farmer was taken care of, she would have to go back to New Ponyville. Those two-faced ponies had allowed this to happen right in front of them, they deserved to– “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Twin voices from above accompanied by the light of a high-powered teleportation spell. Suddenly, Twilight's horn stopped glowing, the storm clouds above stopped roiling and quickly dissipated. Twilight looked up, eyes still glowing and even more enraged now. What force in the world could neutralize her magic? The most powerful magical being in all Equestria! Who would dare? There! ... There above her were... Sunny Daze and Apollo Dawn? The light faded from Twilight's eyes and she slowly fell back to the ground under the gaze of her only two remaining friends. “Wha... how did you?” She managed to get out. “Your little lighting and thunder stunt was visible all the way from Las Pegasus,” Apollo pointed out to her. “Twilight, what are you doing?” Sunny Daze asked her. Getting a little back into the spirit of things, Twilight pointed at the still-prostrate farmer. “This... this thing tore up all the apple trees in this whole place! Those were the last legacy of my friend, they were the only–” Getting a look from Apollo, Twilight skipped right to the point, “And for her crime, she and her family shall no longer be allowed to farm this land. It isn't theirs and they obviously don't care about it!” “Twilight...” Sunny began to say. “No! It's final!” Twilight cut her off. She wouldn't budge on this – it was too important. “Twilight!” Apollo shouted at her, “Remember your friend, Applejack! How would she feel about this?” “About having her legacy ripped out of the ground and burned away like so much trash? About –” “No!” Twilight was interrupted by Apollo's magic forcibly grabbing her head and wrenching her around to look at the earth pony she had been yelling at, who was now just quietly sobbing into the dust. “How would Applejack feel about having her farm taken away for something she didn't know about, something she didn't understand?” Suddenly, Twilight saw the pony... actually saw her. And with her frayed straw hat and freckles, it really wasn't hard to see her old friend Applejack in the same position, tears running down her face after unexpectedly and inexplicably losing what she loved most... and suddenly, the pony was no longer just an object, no longer the enemy: she was just sad and scared. Tears welling up in her own eyes, Twilight rushed forward, trying to comfort the mare. She scooped the surprised pony up into a tight hug, saying over and over again, “I'm so sorry!” She set the now rather confused earth pony back on the ground, using her magic to lift the straw hat back onto her head. “I was wrong... and I take it back. You keep your farm.” Still looking confused, but now rather relieved, the pony wiped some of the dusty tear streaks out of her eyes, “Ah... Ah don't know what ta say...” She surprised Twilight with another tight hug. “Thank Y'all,” she said, before dropping back to the ground and running off towards a farmhouse in the distance. “It wasn't really about the trees, was it?” Apollo asked her, coming up beside Twilight. Twilight looked back at him, her face finally unguarded, letting her sorrow, loss, confusion, and even fear show through. “This world... It's so different now... everything I wanted, everything I knew is gone... I just want it back the way it was!” Her eyes began to tear up again, this time in frustration. “Why does everything have to be taken away?” Apollo nodded to Sunny Daze, who quickly teleported away... as the most popular princess, she had important duties on Princess Day after all... she would need to get back to them. “Come fly with me?” he asked. Twilight wasn't sure what he was up to, but she no longer felt in any mood to resist, and she followed him up into the air, quickly angling off towards New Ponyville. The two royal ponies flew low over the town, Apollo pointing to foals running and playing here, a group of old ponies reminiscing on a front porch there, a young mare blushing after getting a kiss from her special somepony there... before finally leading her to land on a small cloud above the town. “It's different, I know,” Apollo said to her, “But our little ponies still live and laugh and love... and it's never going to be the same again.” She turned to him sharply at that. “but even if it's not the same, it's still good!” He looked her in the eyes. “I lost almost everypony to the past... all my friends, all my crew, everypony.” He looked down for a moment before looking back up at her even more desperately. “I can't afford to lose you to the past, too!” Her sharp expression melted away as she looked back at him... and without warning, jumped on top of him for a fierce hug and a deep kiss. The two stayed that way for a few moments, hidden from the ponies below by the cloud, before Twilight finally relented and rose up again. “Ready to go?” Apollo asked her, offering up a hoof and spreading his wings. She knew that there was a lot more meaning there than what showed on the surface... He wasn't just inviting her back to the castle. He was asking if she was ready to let go, if she was ready to embrace the new world instead of being stuck in the old. It wouldn't be easy. The old order of things, the way everything used to be... that connected her in a way. It connected her to her lost friends. She looked up at Apollo and smiled weakly. With her new friends though, maybe she could manage to move on. Finally, she realized, she really was ready to let go. The End