Fierce foalhood bullying taught Applejack to keep a certain hobby of hers to herself. Years of holding it in has made her a bit skittish, but like every pony with a secret, it was only matter of time until she got caught.

Tight, dreamlike character vignette striving to capture the mood of the source pic. Pinkie was certainly a tough pony to portray in way that felt “right,” but those characters tend to be the most rewarding when things finally click.

This is an entry in the Snippet Series, an anthology of old oneshots that I (and my good buddy Str8aura) wrote based around interesting pics I found. New ones will be posted every Thursday for the foreseeable future.

Applejack wakes up early, but she doesn’t regret it.

Written for the ApplePie Contest.

This story is a sequel to Sisters

Info

A Quills and Sofas Christmas Fic Exchange gift for applejackofalltrades with the prompt "gimme any applejack ship but DONT make her straight :gun-2:", spruced up from its first draft. Inspired by Space_Kase's amazing Past Tartarus and Back, which you should really be reading instead.

Thanks to daOtterGuy for convincing me to kill many, many darlings by not adding back in the scenes I cut from the initial idea, and to Emotion Nexus for help with the shortdesc.

Longdesc

In the future of the Crystal War timeline, King Sombra has finally been defeated. But the war being over just means that its wounds can only begin to heal, and all Applejack can do is give Pinkie the home that her family's rock farm can no longer be.

Sequelness

While this is a sequel to Sisters, it can be read as a standalone without missing anything.

A forgotten past is a repeated one.

Inspired by a prompt from this guy. Driven by this song.

Rated "Teen" for suggestive themes and mild graphic images. Enjoy!

Pinkie's parents are missing, presumed dead.

Applejack is there to pick up the pieces.

Please heed the content warnings! This is a story very explicitly about grief, loss, and depression. Suicide is also an important recurring theme, and cannot be avoided!

Amazing coverart by my sibling, cereal (fimfic | twitter)

Preread by Otter and Sleps

For Bike's Applepie contest (folder | info)!! I love this ship and it's so so so rare, so I'm super happy to be contributing!