• Member Since 23rd Sep, 2014
  • offline last seen Jul 26th, 2023

Winged Cat


If you can dream it, and you wish it done, dream also of how to do it

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Jealousy. The infamous heart parasite, that feeds on and sours most flavors of love. The changelings call it "that which spoils food". For years it has nestled within Big Mac, feasting upon every exploit of Applejack's, every newspaper article bearing her name and photograph, every excited babble of Apple Bloom exaggerating Applejack's feats. He kept it under control, hidden from his family, until now.

And never noticed how much worse she had it.

Takes place shortly after Brotherhooves Social. Contains minor spoilers if you have not seen it.


Listed in Popular Stories within a day of posting! Thanks for the views and likes!

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 23 )

Yeah. If any of the Bearers have wishes to be released from duty to the Elements, it would be AJ and/or Fluttershy.

I liked it. Will read again just after I post this comment.

What can I say, I really really like this. The Bearers went to conquer one villian and had a whole season full of peace, thinking that fighting villians were a one time thing...until Discord showed up. It was then when they realized that this was for life, a job you can't quit, even if you wanted to. It's a lifetime duty now, and it can't be easy. I only wish this was longer! Feels like a beginning of a bigger story more than anything!

6770340 And they're the ones least willing to ask, for their own reasons.

Maybe I should write one about Fluttershy. Thanks for the idea.

6770544 The only way I can think to make it longer is if Applejack seriously tries to quit, and she wouldn't. She knows what happens if she succeeds, and that the best case for all concerned is if she gets talked out of it; she thus talks herself out of it.

Fluttershy, though...or maybe this would flavor Apple Bloom's follow-up thoughts once she realizes what her cutie mark has signed her up for.

Very good. AND you can write in countryisms, a unique talent that completely eludes me to this day.
Have a like to go with your Christmas horse d'oeuvres.

Wow. It seems so obvious, and yet I've never thought of it like that.

Dang, this hits you right in the feels...

6770834 Thanks! I try to go light on country speak, after complaints I'd laid them on too thick in earlier stories. (It helps that I use "y'all" IRL.) Looks like I hit a good balance this time.

6770885 A common term for that is "obvious in hindsight". There are a great many things that are that way. One of my favorites is having a number (in the various historical numeric systems) for zero, since that didn't need metallurgy or coinage or most any technology...but just ask the Roman Empire how they represented nothing.

A very nicely done story.

Poor Applejack. This story is well written, very believable, and great btw.

:applecry: Why is this..... :raritycry: :raritydespair:

6770547 I'm not so sure Fluttershy would regret becoming an Element Bearer. Applejack was already a strong confident pony before Nightmare Moon. Sure she became a bit of a better pony afterward and gained some new perspective on her stubbornness and learned to relax a little and not take on everything herself. But ultimately she didn't change much or gain much.

Fluttershy was a hyper-anxious shut-in and I got the impression her "friends," were only really friendly acquaintances. Rainbow Dash hung out with her because they grew up together in Cloudsdale but didn't really respect her. Pinkie Pie was no closer than she was to any other pony in Ponyville. There's a good chance Rarity took her on spa dates more than out of pity than anything else. Now she has the confidence to go out and make her own friends on her own initiative (Tree Hugger).

Pre-Nightmare Moon Applejack could probably have accomplished most of her heroic feats in the show with out the experience of becoming an Element Bearer. Pre-Nightmare Moon Fluttershy almost certainly could not.

6773465 Well, that's the thing. As noted, she has been unquestionably changed, and most would say for the better, by her experiences.

Does she regret it nonetheless? Or does she think she's had enough? Though you might be right: that might stretch credibility too much for a good story.

6772077
6771342 Thanks!

6773409 Because :applejackunsure:, why else?

6773517 It just means Fluttershy's feelings are a lot more nuanced on the matter. Perhaps no pony knows better how good being an Element Bearer is for Fluttershy than Fluttershy. That doesn't mean the monsters aren't terrifying and the worry about what will happen to her animals if something happens to her goes away. The fact that the arguably best thing that's ever happened to her has a very high chance of one day getting her killed is probably something Fluttershy ponders on quite often.

Actually a point to consider is that the second-best thing that ever happened to her (the fall that introduced her to her animal friends and got her her cutie mark) also had a very high chance of ending very badly.

Its almost as if a trickster deity "blessed," her in a fashion where she obtains good fortune but has to experience near-death terror first.

Discord have you been messing with causality again?

6773748 But then there was the sonic rainboom, which as she knows from Twilight's tales of alternate timelines, set right an Equestria that was bound and determined to go wrong. (I forget, did Fluttershy show up in any of them other than the one where the bullies made up with her, or might it be speculated that her fall may have been fatal in those alternate timelines that still had her fall?)

I'm not sure if Fluttershy does ponder on her likely eventual fate. She keeps on keeping on, and though her friends might miss her she knows they will carry on too. Given where she lives and works, she is perhaps the most aware of and comfortable with death (if not with all the various means of dying). She seems the most likely of the six to have killed something, in her case out of mercy (when death is the only possible remaining kindness).

6773848 I expect Fluttershy's pretty sanguine about the possibility of death. She deals with a lot of small animals, and given their lifetimes, she would have seen a lot of her friends die.

6775966 Exactly. Applejack might have seen death, but not the amount over time that Fluttershy's probably seen.

I wonder if Fluttershy might think she sees a kindred soul in Celestia that way.

Applejack blinked as her trains of thought came together, collided, derailed, walked off, went on strike to protest the sheer absurdity, realized nopony was paying them, built themselves into a giant train-themed mental robot, and collapsed when they could not decide which one would form the head.

This whole paragraph was hilarious, and the bolded bit reminded me of ToQGer.

6777299 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMgsAD3D948 was my inspiration for the latter half of that paragraph.

This is one of the sweetest things I have ever read.

DAMN YOU. I walked into this story, expecting to read it like any other.

BUT WHAT IS THIS LIQUID IN MY EYES? :raritycry:

It goes to show that this isn't a one way street. I really like that Applejack admits that she doesn't enjoy being the hero. I'm sure that Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie at times feel this way too. But there's nothing any of those ponies can do about it. Heroes of Equestria is a role that the Mane 6, Spike, and now Starlight Glimmer are going to have to play for the remainder of FIM, whether they like it or not.

However, if Big Mac wants to have a big hero moment of his own, then he's certainly entitled to have one. How about if there comes a moment where the Cutie Map calls Big Mac to something. Or maybe a moment where he has to rescue somepony. Or anything else. No matter what it is. Just give Big Macintosh a moment in which he gets to be the hero of the Apple family for once.

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