A Long Life

by pertelote345

The Belly of the Beast

Applejack

I ran my hoof through Cider's thick mane and pulled him in tight. His warm fur felt so nice against my che-

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Something shook me and I opened my eyes to find myself buried in some sort of flowy etherial... Oh ponyfeathers.

With an extremely dignified "Gyah!" I separated myself from Princess Celestia, who's head shot up in surprise.

Pinkie, standing over us let out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one Applejack. You know you can't be an element of harmony if you like girls!"

I sputtered.

Princess Celestia groaned. "Pinkie Pie, can this not wait a moment? I was having the most delightful dream..."

Twi snapped to attention, horn flared. "What's going... on?"

She stared at me. I stared back. Good gods she was real.

"You- Your mane..." she said.

I blinked, crossing my eyes on a grey strand. I blew it out of my face.

"Heh, yeah... I guess I've gone a bit lighter..." I mumbled.

"Don't worry AJ!" Pinkie poked in. "I have to use like, Sooo much hair dye."

I chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I guess I never was one to really pay all that much attention to my appear-"

Twilight wrapped me in a huge, tight hug. I hugged her back. Oh sweet mercy it was her...

When I let go there were tears. I wiped them away... Pinkie Pie had a giant smile on her face... and popcorn for some reason.

Twilight blinked. "Wait, why can't you be an Element of Harmony if you like girls?"

I groaned. "Pinkie just thinks that because the last two fellers we've had on board were gay and we haven't had any lesbian elements. I keep telling her we have no idea..."

"Wait, back up a second." Twilight began. "You have two stallions on the team? I thought there were only six elements of harmony. Did you discover a seventh? Is-"

"No, Twi... just hold on a sec." I rubbed my eyes. It was far to early for this. "There are only six elements of harmony you just... you missed a couple... it's... it's been a while."

Twilight froze for a moment, then shook herself. "No... I... I guess that makes sense. Celestia..."

The sun god rolled over, blinking blearily "Yes?"

I sighed, "No, I meant... I was using your name as an... It's not important." She shook herself and clopped her hooves together. "Right, No more lollygagging! If I want to figure this out I need to get organized. Spike take a note!"

"BWUH?" The enormous dragon mumbled, shifting ever so slightly and nearly pouring us off of him.

Twilight blinked. "Oh... Right... I guess you wouldn't carry around giant notebook paper or anything... Is it weird that we're on top of you?"

The dragon shook his head, carefully so as to keep the tremors under control. "Thick scales, I can't feel a thing. Why did you want giant note paper."

"It didn't need to be giant specifically, just something you could write on... I guess you probably don't do all that assistant stuff since you didn't..."

The gears in Twilight's head looked like they'd come to a sputtering halt as she tried to wrap her head around the implications.

I sighed. "Spike, would you be a sugar cube and conjure up some pens and paper?"

He nodded and released a tiny gout of flame which condensed into a full notebook and some ballpoint pens.

Twilight blinked and examined a pen curiously. "Huh? Oh wait! I've seen these before! These are like the ones from the alternate dimension!" That said, she started scribbling. "Right so step one, get a crash course in what's happened since I was gone."

I scratched my head. "Uh... there's a lot to cover there, maybe we should break that down into pieces."

"Right! Step one! Find out what happened to all my friends... three of which are dead of old age... But I have already cried about that..."

Everyone else exchanged looks.

Twilight went red. "Yes I am going to cry about it a lot bucking more but right now I am trying to be productive!"

We, as a group, nodded nervously.

"Okay, step two. Find out what happened to the elements of harmony... I'm not going to lie, you folks got a little paramilitary on me."

I eyed the anti-air cannons stationed on the roof and nodded cautiously.

"Step three, get a crash course in world history since I was gone... Step four... cry a lot, a lot more."

She started in on step four early.

We all gave her a big hug, Spike wrapped his wings around the lot of us.

"I'm sorry..." She whimpered. "I shouldn't feel like this. I still have so many amazing friends..."

I brushed her hair with a hoof. "Sugar cube, you take as much time as you need, okay. We'll be here."

Celestia coughed. "I hate to interrupt, lord knows that it's not something we can force, but I was wondering... I would not ask if it was not essential for the safety of the ponies of Equestria, but... well..."

Luna sighed. "She wants to know if you're still the element of magic. We never found another one."

Twilight blinked. "Wait, I thought you had a whole new bunch of elements? Speaking of which, after the whole Rainbow Power replacement stuff are the elements even a thing?"

Spike nodded. "I figured out a way to find out who was attuned to each element and the tree of harmony grew the elements back after you... left..."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... that could mean a lot. Did the tree sense that I was gone and would need to re-integrate?"

An itch was forming on my back. "Twi, are we going to have an extended conversation about magical theory while group hugging?"

"Yes." said Pinkie.

I sighed. "Okay, just checking."

Comments

[Sdall122]

Love the story idea but in general for me it's too fast paced and the chapter are WAY to short but these are just my opinion

[pertelote345]

5574644
Yeah, I admit one of my flaws as a writer is that I always want to hurl stuff out there. If it's any consolation the next few chapters are going to be much more chill.