Concepts & Creations – TvE: Rise Against · 11:04pm Mar 5th, 2020
Seeing as there will be no reviews this week, time for round four of my TvE continuation. Today’s story will revolve around everyone’s favorite Apple Horse. As stated before, this series will spoil topics that will come up in the as-yet unwritten conclusion of Order of Shadows, so a spoiler alert is in effect.
Applejack doesn’t have too significant of a background to delve into compared to the others. She was still born and raised at Sweet Apple Acres, which she is still very much devoted to. Her life was, generally speaking, normal.
At what point Princess Luna entered the picture is unclear. I’m pretty sure I had a reasoning devised way back when I first conceived of this story, but the notes elude me. All I know for sure is that Applejack and Luna engaged in a brief but intense romance. We also know that she got into a brawl with Rarity over her, and it is very likely that Celestia implemented her “everyone fights over my sister” game at this point.
Eventually, things went the way Celestia always intended and Nightmare Moon ended the relationship. It’s possible that Pinkie Pie may have had a hoof in that as well, although how or why isn’t clear. What is known is that, after the breakup, Celestia decided to pour salt in the wound by having Granny Smith killed and then gifting Sweet Apple Acres to Jet Set & Upper Crust by royal decree. The pair would promptly run the farm into the ground with their malfeasance and ineptitude while Applejack could do nothing but stand aside and watch as their employee
One thing that makes Applejack unusual among the others is that she met with Broken Twilight from Twilight’s Inferno. This makes her the only one to do so aside from Twilight herself. Broken Twilight had gone to Applejack for help, but Applejack had rejected her offhoof. It wasn’t until after the events of TvE that she would come to realize she’d turned her back on an innocent and desperate pony from an entirely different world.
In the final battle of TvE, Applejack ended up in a one-on-one against Octavia. The two proved evenly matched until Octavia broke out her own unique abilities (which will be described in her OoS story when I get to it). During the fight, Applejack is shaken when Octavia points out that she is largely inconsequential to everything that is happening around her. She’s merely an earth pony farmer from a hick town with no great impact on anything at all. Even among Trixie’s group of friends, she seems to be nothing more than a hanger-on. Of course, Applejack ardently denies this, but when the fighting is over the conversation stands out in her mind for long afterwards.
After TvE, Celestia gives Applejack back her farm, which she happily returns to. For the next long while, she spends her days struggling to get Sweet Apple Acres back to how it was before Jet Set and Upper Crust ruined it. It proves a challenge; the trees are unhealthy from improper management, getting customers is harder than ever thanks to an unstable national economy in the wake of the government shakedown, and satisfying what customers she can get is difficult. The harder Applejack works, the less it feels as though she has any control over the fate of her farm.
When the story begins, Applejack is forced to swallow her pride and accept royal subsidies or go out of business. The news creates a surprise rupture in the family as Big McIntosh fiercely rejects the entire premise. She’d been so focused on saving the farm that Applejack never noticed the unrest fomenting in her own hometown, and when she takes a closer look she soon realizes the threat rising from Equestria’s depths.
The reformation of the government, the closing of slums across Equestria, and international unrest has all devastated the economy. Class warfare is on the rise as the poor – mostly earth ponies – feel abandoned or, worse, controlled by the wealthy. Political turmoil is rampant. As if that wasn’t enough, mass hallucinations have begun to plague creatures across the world with ghostly appearances of alternate versions of themselves. Revolution is stirring.
And Applejack’s family isn’t exempt. She soon comes to realize that Big McIntosh has been getting involved in the work of the revolutionaries. Applejack is friends with Trixie, she’s met with Celestia and Luna, she knows the Princesses are trying their hardest to transition Equestria peacefully. But at the same time, she also knows that the arrogance and self-superiority of the noble elite is real.
The crux of the story becomes Applejack’s efforts to maintain peace in Ponyville, preventing the revolutionaries from turning their anger into violence. In the process, she also becomes something of a liaison between the aristocracy and the common pony. Her morals and her mettle are severely tested. Her brother grows increasingly distant, and Applejack tries to guide Apple Bloom to not do the same.
The story concludes with Applejack failing to prevent bloodshed, yet at the same time finding ways to prevent an all out rebellion. Along the way, she ends up disproving Octavia’s prior claims by becoming key to improving the lot of not only herself, but also her town.
As with all of these stories, there are a lot of unknowns. What happens to Big Mac? Does Apple Bloom join the revolutionaries or stick with her sister? What leads to the escalation, and how does Applejack finally end the eventual standoff? I have no idea.
There are two other factors. One, I had seriously considered making this story involve the newly crowned Trixie. I envisioned her attempting to intervene in Ponyville personally with her new alicorn powers, only to be rebuffed afterwards by Applejack. After all, the entire premise of the revolutionaries is how the elite are controlling every aspect of their lives, so Trixie coming in horn blazing and royal decrees on her lips is only proving them right. The moment would have come with a bitter dose of “leading is hard, I am so unprepared for this”, to which Applejack can only answer with a variation of “I hear ya, sister.”
Also important is Pinkie Pie. As stated in her C&C, Pinkie eventually found one of her clones joining and even leading revolutionaries. Could this clone arrive in Ponyville with her own band, thereby instigating the escalation of tensions? Pinkie herself would almost certainly show up to give warning of this, whether it happens or not, and may have been a pivotal player in the latter third of the story.
There’s also the hallucinations, which I still can’t explain. I mean, I can but we’re not there yet.
All in all, Applejack’s story would have been the most complicated, forcing me to address a wide variety of topics that, honestly, I’m not familiar with. That would have made it all the more interesting for me to write. At any rate, hers would have been one of the last to take place chronologically.
The after-affects of Tyrant Celestia left some deep wounds to heal. It sounds like from your description that the country is on the verge of civil war.
Saving Luna is sounding like the easy part.
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I often considered writing a one-shot where Trixie and Celestia meet to discuss possible reforms and, with every existing law brought up, Celestia explains to Trixie in detail exactly how that law was designed to further sew distrust and unhappiness between the racial and political classes while, on the surface, appearing to be done for 'just' and 'fair' reasons. The only thing that stayed my hand was an awareness that people might interpret the story as politically motivated, as the laws brought up would have been reflective of real-world laws and their unforeseen destructive properties.
The point is, yes, Equestria would be on the verge of civil war. This would be partially because of Celestia's intentionally ruinous rule, but also because of a sudden lack of restriction. The new efforts to reform the government into something that actually helps the public will, of course, be resisted by those who benefited from the old ways, and with the Archons no longer keeping a tight leash on public outcry ponies gradually begin to realize that they can respond without fear of government reprisal (indeed, Fleur could even be orchestrating some of it). In many ways, the coming conflict is a good thing, as it means those who were undeservedly punished by the system have found their voice and want to change things for the better. But at the same time, it's civil war, and revolutionaries aren't always acting with the correct goals in mind.
Equestria has a chaotic future ahead. At least, it seems that way. Something is going to come along to put a kink in literally everybody's plans.