Several years ago
“Pa~! Can Ah open my eyes yet?” A young Applejack eagerly complained as she hitched a ride on her father's back, front hooves covering her eyes. He had been teasing her about a special gift for a while now, and she was finally going to see whatever it was.
“Nope, not till Ah say so,” her father requested. She pouted, but dutifully kept her eyes closed and covered. She listened as his hooves lightly thumped on the ground. A nice cool breeze rustled some tree leaves, telling her they were still in their large apple farm. Suddenly they stopped moving and he scooped her up with one hoof and set her on the ground, “Keep your eyes closed for just a little longer,” he requested, no doubt he saw her attempt to peek through her eyelids.
“Ohhh, can’t Ah open ‘em yet?” Applejack whined as she stood still with her eyelids threatening to open themselves in her excitement. She heard her father walk a couple steps away from her somewhere in front of her.
“Okay dumplin’, y’all can open them now!” Her father said cheerfully. Applejack opened her eyes to the sight of her father, a brown stallion, wearing his cowboy hat, like he always does, smiling at her and proudly gesturing to something behind him. She was a little confused at first, until she recognized it. She screamed in joy, ran up to him, and gave him a huge hug like any respectable filly would.
“Come on!” her father said with a proud smile, “let me show ya around ya’re new treehouse!” He walked up to a rope and pulled it down bringing down a ramp that led up to it. She was very impressed with that feature.
...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“I’ll have a Fruit Waffle Deluxe, with extra whipped cream.” Scootaloo ordered to the waiter, who proceeded to write down said order. She happily sipped her not so healthy choice of chocolate milkshake with extra whipped cream in front of everypony, as the waiter walked away. Applejack looked ready to say something but then shrugged.
The restaurant was packed and the occasional glances Twilight's way made her unnerved and annoyed. She just wanted to have a nice meal with her friends and hopefully future students.
“So what’s the plan for today?” Sweetie asked innocently.
“We’re totally going back to the Martial Arts Festival!”
“We’re going to the hospital”
“We’re going to the hospital and then to the Manehattan Museum of Magic and Art”
All three voices said at once. Rainbow, Applejack, and Twilight who said such respectively looked at each other in confusion.
“We are not going to some boring museum or hospital.”
“Sorry no can do sugarcube, Ah’m afraid we’re gonna have to make a day out of going to the hospital.”
“We already have plans Rainbow, it’s on the list I gave you, didn’t you read it?”
They looked at each other briefly, and blinked after having all talked at the same time again. Rainbow recalled a long scroll she threw in a trashcan soon after she got to her hotel room. Applejack thought about the damage caused to the theatre yesterday by her sister. Twilight understood what Applejack meant.
“Oh, uh, I might have lost it. heh heh,” Rainbow chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of her head.
“That’s fine Rainbow,” Twilight said rolling her eyes, “Applejacks right. I clearly wasn’t thinking correctly when I made this ‘Vacation To Do’ list.” Twilight levitated said list into the open for all to see. She didn’t notice all the stares at the list from various occupants in the restaurant, as she was too engrossed in the conversation. Luckily, it was rolled up. She sighed and brought it back to her saddlebags. She brought her attention to her would be earth pony student, “Applebloom today we planned on taking you to the Manehattan hospital so you could heal some more ponies. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We’re not forcing you to-”
“Of course, Ah will!” Applebloom agreed wholeheartedly. Applejack looked upon her sister proudly, yet she felt small pang of guilt and worry. She felt like she was almost pressing this on her sister, even after Twilight just tried to make it clear they weren’t. Applejack still had to confess to Applebloom about something.
“Well, I’m happy to hear that Applebloom,” Twilight smiled then brought a hoof to her chin, “Well, it sounds like it’d be a good idea to split up today, since everypony wants to do something different. So, let’s figure out who’s doing what...”
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Rainbow
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“I can’t wait to kick some ponies flank,” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly to Rainbow, soon after they landed at the entrance to the martial arts festival. Everything seemed pretty much the same as yesterday, very lively.
Rainbow wished she knew about this festival sooner, “I don’t know why nopony wanted to come with us,” she said, “we’re awesome, and so is this festival…” she sighed, “Well, it makes since that Twilight would want to go to some museum since she’s a egghead and all, but…” she frowned as a thought came to her. “Well, I guess Applejack and Applebloom kind of needed to go to the hospital to pay for the mess from yesterday.” Rainbow’s glad Scootaloo didn’t want to go to the hospital, even if the idea of watching Applebloom heal somepony seemed awesome.
“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed. “and as much as I would like to help shop for cutesceneria supplies with Volt, Emollient, and Babs. I’d rather spend my vacation with my big sis,” Scootaloo beamed, as they walked through the crowd.
Rainbow felt pride but also like she was keeping her sister from doing something, and she didn’t like it, “we could go with them if you want to, sis.”
“No, no,” Scootaloo backpedaled urgently, “I’m good.” They approached a line filled with other fillies and colts Scootaloo's age. “Wait,” she said, halting their progress, “did you just say Applebloom is getting paid for helping those ponies?”
Rainbow forgot that Applejack wanted to keep that a secret and she let it slip. She sputtered as she recalled their conversation yesterday. They had nothing to do while waiting for the play in the theater, so they talked. Somewhere along the line, that conversation went into Appleblooms sizable paycheck from the Ponyville Hospital, and the one they’ll probably receive from Manehattans Hospital. She relaxed, when she remembered that Applejack planned on telling Applebloom about it today anyways. “Yeah, she is,” Rainbow confirmed, to a confused and shocked Scootaloo. She felt confident Applejack wouldn’t mind, hopefully.
“Then how come she never told me and Sweetie about it?” she said and sounded a little hurt.
Rainbow recognised her mistake almost instantly, “oh, hehe,” she chuckled. “That’s because Applebloom doesn’t even know about it yet. Applejack plans on telling her about it today. She wanted it to be a surprise for some reason,” she explained. She still doesn’t get why Applejack would keep that information away from Applebloom, but was sure she had her reasons.
“Oh,” Scootaloo nodded in relief, “So any idea how many bits she’s making?”
“Oh yeah.” Rainbow smirked, “Let’s just say it’s enough to pay for the theatre and then some,” Rainbow teased. Rainbow almost lost it when Applejack told her, in fact Applejack had to physically restrain her and shove a hoof in her mouth. She was actually almost a little jealous that a filly would make more in one day than she’d make in one year.
“Woah, that’s a lot,” Scootaloo said in awe, evidently she somehow heard how much it was going to cost, “and how much more are we talking?”
“I think I’ll let Applebloom tell you about it,” Rainbow grinned evilly. She didn’t feel right telling Scootaloo this information, and thought it’d be fun to watch her squirm. “Come on let's get in line already,” she said, then walked to the line.
“Aww, please,” Scootaloo complained as she followed close behind.
“No can do sis,” she said, and her sister pouted grumpily. She smirked, when she got an idea, “You know what? I’ll tell you,” Scootaloo’s ears perked up eagerly, “if you tell me what’s in that gift you brought and who it’s for.”
Scootaloo looked like she considered it for a moment. “Naa, Applebloom will tell me when I see her next,” her sister said confidently, ending their conversation. Rainbow was annoyed. That gift and the mystery around it had been bugging her. It couldn’t have been for Babs or else she’s pretty sure Scootaloo would’ve given it to her yesterday. She cursed herself for not getting her a sister a gift.
They remained silent while they waited in line. Rainbow looked around her as they waited and spotted some stallion looking at her or at least in her direction for a moment, either way it made her uneasy. He disappeared in the crowd soon after she spotted him. She couldn’t see him anywhere after that so she figured it was nothing, but she felt like she was being watched. She tried to shrug that feeling off, but couldn’t. She looked around some more, just to be sure.
“Here to sign up this filly Miss?” some mare asked, while Rainbow was distracted looking around one last time for the stallion.
“Huh?” she asked swiveling her head to the stand in front of her. She found Scootaloo signing some papers already. Her face scrunched up in confusion, she couldn’t have been looking for that long right? She noticed the mare looking at her oddly, “Oh yeah, totally she’s a white belt, but I have some questions…” The mare answered some of her basic questions about equipment and how to go about getting in sparring matches. Then she raised some of her concerns, “Okay,” she said, rubbing the back of her head with a forehoof, “Now, what if she wanted to use her natural pegasus magical abilities and what not?”
“Well clouds of any kind are not permitted inside, and flying is only allowed in certain rings, you’d be better off to ask the referee what’s allowed and not,” the mare answered.
“Uh, okay, but that’s not what I mean…” Rainbow said cautiously serious, “Scootaloo mind giving her a demonstration?” A thought came to Rainbow, “no ground magic, umm, just send a light breeze her way or something without your wings.”
“Ground magic? Without her wings?” The mare questioned, “I’ve never heard of a pegasus that could control the air without-” she paused as a rather rough wind blew her mane back. She looked towards Scootaloo inquisitively, “...Do that again,” and Scootaloo did.
“And trust me when I say it can be a lot stronger, like tornados and stuff,” Rainbow added. She was really proud of her sister, but she didn’t want this to disqualify her sister from sparing.
“Umm, and what’s this you said about ground magic?” the mare asked.
“That would be the ability to move through the ground like it’s water, lift up boulders like pebbles and then reduce them to dust and reform them again,” Rainbow answered. She couldn’t help but feel a little feel a little psyched up at the awesome things she’d seen her sister do. Last week was busy for them. She taught Scootaloo how to fly and the very basics of karate. They did a bunch of awesome yet egg-heady experiments with Twilight to learn more about Scootaloo's capabilities. They had her practice using them in fear she might accidently hurt somepony with them. She felt mostly confident Scootaloo wasn’t about to blow somepony into a wall like she did Twilight.
“Right…” the mare said almost skeptically, “well, just be sure to tell the referee about all this before the match and he or she will let you know, sorry but you’re holding up the line,” the mare gestured to a long line behind them.
Rainbow looked behind herself, “Oh, yeah sorry. Come on Scootaloo, let's get you into some sparring matches.” They left quickly to search for some rings her sister could spar in. Rainbow herself wanted to spar. The thrill of beating some ponies in a grand arena or small one on one ring was very agreeable to her, but for now she’d rather cheer on her sister.
The day progressed and they had a great time. She watched her sister get bested by several more experienced fighters, but she also watched Scootaloo improve significantly from when she started. The ponies in the stands seemed off to her. She kept an eye out for that stallion or any other suspicious characters. She couldn’t see anypony that was looking at her specifically but she did notice some other ponies were also looking around worriedly. She felt like somepony was scoping her out for a moment of weakness. She felt confident something was up, that somepony was out to get her. She eyed audience suspiciously. The more time that went on, the more she found herself searching for whoever was out to get her.
They finished the day by watching the last few sparring matches. Well, Scootaloo watched them. Rainbow leered at everypony around her. She felt like they all couldn’t be trusted. With the last match she ushered Scootaloo out with her, away from all those spies. They made their way back to their hotel rooms and Scootaloo asked what was wrong, evidently she wasn’t being discreet about her suspicions, a rookie mistake. They, whoever ‘they’ were, must have noticed she was on her guard as well. That’s probable why they didn’t make their move. She said it was nothing but kept up her guard as they flew back to the hotel.
It wasn’t long before they made it to the hotel, but it felt like she had ninjas following her in the shadows. There was something she wanted to ask the lobby host so she sent Scootaloo ahead confident she knew her way around. The thought of her little sister's safety didn’t even come to mind; as she approached the lobby desk glancing every which way. She felt like a tomahawk axe was gonna come flying towards her at any moment. “Hey, can you see if a Applejack checked in yet?” She asked the host, and quickly checked behind herself.
“And you might be?” The host asked almost rudely. She sat behind her lobby desk looking up at Rainbow indignantly.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the host. She didn’t like this host already, “I’m her friend.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you are…” the host mocked. Rainbow was confused for a second. “I’m sorry miss, but it’s company policy not to give out customer information. Whether you’re a friend or not.”
Rainbow couldn’t believe the nerve of this host, “Look, all I need to know is, if Applejack checked in already.”
“And I’m telling you that’s not gonna happen,” the host said aggravated.
Rainbow growled and stormed off. She almost told the host what she was going to do, but felt she couldn’t trust her to not call the guard or something. After a short wait in a elevator she made it to the hallway hers and Applejack's rooms resided. She went to Applejack's room and knocked. Nopony answered. She knocked again and still no answer, so she headed to her room. As she walked back she couldn’t help but feel that maybe Applejack lied to her about booking rooms in this hotel just to make her spend more bits than she needed. It seemed completely possible to her at the moment. Applejack thought she was being clever? Well she was unto her ‘friends’ game. Come to think of it, Applejack wasn’t that clever. Twilight must have helped her; After all, she did help Applejack’s little sister get paid more than she does in a year. They must of planned on mocking her for spending bits on a hotel room while they didn’t have to spend any bits for rooms and got Applebloom rich. Well, she wasn’t gonna stand for any of that, which is exactly what she found herself doing, so she resumed her trek to her room.
She unlocked her door, checked the empty hallway one last time and entered. She locked all the locks just to be safe, then went and made sure the curtains were closed and peeked outside for anypony suspicious. Satisfied but not fulfilled she jumped on her bed.
She looked across to the other bed and found Scootaloo reading a book. Where’d her sister get that book? She didn’t buy her any books and she knows Scootaloo didn’t bring any with her. All she brought was bits and that mysterious gift. Something about that gift bothered her. She didn’t know who it was for, it wasn’t for Babs, otherwise she would have gave it to her yesterday. That was the only pony she could think of that it’d be for. A weird idea came to her as she thought about it. Scootaloo said she came from an orphanage in a ‘big city.’ Rainbow just realized she doesn’t know which ‘big city’ she came from. What if she came from Manehattan? What if she got that present for somepony she knew in Manehattan? What if she wanted to live with this pony? What if she had a family all along and was just mocking her by pretending to want to be her family? The thought sent disgusting chills down her back. Scootaloo had lied to her before and nothing was stopping her from doing it again. She felt a bile sickening feeling rise at the thought. She felt for sure that Scootaloo was going to abandon her. She couldn’t do anything about it, not without coming off like a uncool jerk and jeopardizing their relationship as family. She couldn’t accuse Scootaloo of anything without proof. Scootaloo would just lie to her like she had many times before if she asked, but there was one thing that had all the evidence she dreaded. The present. It was all the proof she needed. She kept those thoughts to herself, but she couldn’t help but throw some angry heart broken glances Scootaloo’s way. Luckily, Scootaloo was very invested in whatever book she was reading to notice.
Rainbow waited till nighttime which wasn’t too long. She tried her best to appear normal and kept an eye out for Applejack. If her ‘sister’ noticed anything wrong her ‘sister’ didn’t say anything about it. Still no sign of that lying jerk Applejack, making her pay unnecessary bits. It just ticked her off. She waited till Scootaloo was asleep, and she might have dozed off a little herself. It was almost morning when she woke up dazed in a tired paranoia. Everypony was out to get her, and the one she feared most was across from her on a separate bed sleeping peacefully. She needed to see that gift before her ‘sister’ woke up. It was the only way to learn the truth. She wouldn’t trust Scootaloo’s lies. She quietly got out of bed and sneaked to the drawer her ‘sister’ kept the present in. Slowly she slid open the drawer as quietly as possible, and retrieved the wrapped box. She placed it on her back and creeped back to her bed. She flicked on a light and checked to make sure Scootaloo was still asleep. All that sparring most have really tuckered her out because her ‘sister’ made no reaction to the light source or click.
She drew her attention back the the light orange wrapped box with a neat light purple bowtie in her hooves. All she had to do now was open it, and the truth of her ‘sisters’ lies would be revealed. She went to open it but slowed down. Memories of moments they shared flooded her mind, but that was quickly overshadowed by all the lies her ‘sister’ had told her and the one that threatened to break her heart. Her hoof trembled briefly before it stilled. Slowly she reached for the seams of the wrapping.
*tsssh*
She froze. A rainbow light washed over her eyes. It didn’t affect her vision, but she felt something. It felt like a nice cool breeze blowing away a thick fog that somehow existed on a hot summer day. She felt like she just woke up from a weird horrible dream. Everypony in this dream was out to get her for some reason. Her friends got her to pay extra for a hotel room, and Scootaloo lied to her again, in the worst way possible. Then she noticed something. She reeled in shock at what was held in her hooves. None of that was a dream. She actually felt and thought those things? Something wasn’t right. Why had she thought her sister would do something that awful to her? No, something was seriously wrong. She didn’t know what, but for the moment it didn’t have its hold on her. Whatever it was. The little rip on the wrapping paper mocked her. It was hard to look at; so she set the gift down on the bed, behind herself, ashamed and nearly petrified of what she’d almost done. She was the Element of Loyalty; yet, here she was about to betray her own sisters trust, because of some baseless feelings? It felt bile and sickening to her.
She recalled how the day progressed. It all started when with the feeling of being followed and watched. She was already beginning to have that unnerving feeling of somepony watching her again, and now that she knew what it ultimately led to, it terrified her. Something was seriously wrong with her. She needed to get away and now, before she did something she’d regret. She didn’t trust herself to fight back these feelings, her crazy theories just seemed to make so much sense at the time. Without much thought she got up and went to the door, leaving the gift behind. She hurriedly unlocked it and left. Sleep addled and fear induced she failed to latch the door on her way out. Soon she found herself flying just outside Manehattan. The further she got the less she felt followed and watched much to her relief and confusion. She found a cloud to rest on then scrutinized the day to try and figure out what happened to her. Nothing jumped out or was glaringly suspect to her. She must have been at it for half an hour, before she yawned and her mind felt like ash. She decided to talk to Twilight about it in the morning, the egg head would surely know what was wrong. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, so she laid down to get more comfortable while her drowsy eyes flittered her to sleep.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Several years ago
“And up ‘ere,” Applejacks father said, gesturing to a ladder going up, “ya can have a look out at the rest of the farm, Ta make sure no pegisi are tryin’ ta sneak an apple for themselves,” he joked and she laughed at his funny voice. “Well go on, give it a try,” he said with a huge smile. She went to the ladder and was just about to start climbing when he stopped her, “Wait! Don’t forget this,” he said giving her a long eye glass telescope. She grabbed it with her muzzle without a thought and began climbing excitedly, “careful now,” her father said, as one of her hind legs slipped momentarily, so she went up at a more reasonable pace.
Soon enough she found herself at the top. The tops of their many apple trees presented themselves to her, a little further she could see the beginning of the everfree. She turned around and the barn could just barely be seen over the trees in the distance. She used the telescope to get a better view. This treehouse was the best gift ever.
“YaR!,” her father yelled, from down below, “Has ye, spotted land!” She stopped what she was doing and looked down to see her father suddenly wearing a pirate captains hat over his cowboy hat, a fake beard, and eye patch.
A grin spread across her face, “Land HOOO~!!”
…
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Sweetie
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Sweetie found herself on the street walking beside Twilight. They were headed to the Manehatten Museum of Magic and Art. She stayed close as they passed ponies and buildings. They were in the more vintage part of the city. She prefered it here, compared to where Coco lived anyday. She kind of felt bad for Coco. Coco was a nice pony who didn’t deserve to live in the slums, not that her apartment room was bad. Tacky sure, but not bad.
“So Sweetie,” Twilight said suddenly, “why’d you decide to go to the museum with me, instead of helping Babs shop for her friends cutescenaira parties? I’m a little surprised none of you wanted to help her with that.”
“We did! It’s just well, we had different things we’d rather be doing than shopping, we’re here for only one week. We wanted to do as much as possible, and we already went shopping,” speaking of things she wanted to do, “so how come we didn’t stay at the hospital to watch Applebloom for a little bit?”
Twilight sighed happily, “It’s something really amazing. What Applebloom can do, that is. I was afraid that if I started watching her, I would've forgotten about the museum altogether," she sighed, "I really didn’t think this day through when I made this list,” she said levitating said list in front of them, as they turned a corner.
Sweetie looked ahead of them, as the list levitated back into Twilight's saddle bags, to see a rather large building with columns holding up a rather impressive roof, and a large set of stairs leading to it, “Is that it?” she asked, pointing ahead past a street.
“Why yes it is,” Twilight answered. “You up for a teleport?”
Did Twilight just ask her to teleport them? “I, umm… don’t think I want to try that?”
Twilight giggled, “no, no I don’t think you’re ready for that spell yet.” she sighed, “What I meant was for me to teleport us.”
“Oh!” she yelled in understanding. “Heh, of course,” she smiled slightly in embarrassment, “I mean yeah, I’m okay with that.”
“Alright, here it goes,” Twilight closed her eyes and her horn lit up.
Sweetie felt an energy surge through her body, then was momentarily blinded by a bright white light. She blinked a couple times, then waited till the spots disappeared. It was like she’d just came inside from a sunny winter day. The spots faded and she found herself atop the stairs that lead to the museum. This was a spell she never had interest in, because she always assumed she had to be a talented pony to use it. She’d never been good at magic. She had struggled with levitation, something she’d seen every adult unicorn do with ease. All that changed when she practised and learned under Twilight, in the last week. She feared her magic now, but at least she knew ways to control it. “So, when do you think I’ll be able to learn that spell?” she asked excitedly.
“I can’t say, that’ll be up to you,” Twilight said as she gestured her to follow, “but, for now you really need to continue working on control. You’ve improved faster in a week than I did in several months,” she beamed as they walked inside, “but…” she frowned and looked down.
“But what?” she asked while looking at all the museum displays that surrounded the entrance. The entrance was impressive, with sunlight pouring in through ceiling windows and several displays along with two huge statues of Luna and Celestia by a large staircase in the center leading up to an open second floor. It had grand entrances with labels hanging below the top of the arcs, stating what was exhibited beyond. She was so immersed in this new buildings interior that she didn’t notice Twilight's tone.
“Well, I think it’s the life force you got, it seems to be significantly more important to ponies than I first thought,” she explained, “and if I’m right about something then…” she sighed, “well, I just hope I’m not right.” Sweetie looked to her in confusion, who was looking away. “What would you do if y-” she began, but then looked to Sweetie and stopped, “uh, nevermind. I got some things I want to talk you, Applebloom, and Scootaloo about, after this vacation is over.”
“Umm,” Sweetie had no clue what she was talking about, but she does remember Twilight saying she didn’t want to ruin their vacation with something she had to say. “Okay,” she agreed, and briefly wondered what she had to tell them. That was short lived, as a tour guide and the current curator herself came up and introduced herself to them.
Twilight asked for a basic tour of the museum. Paintings, sculptures, and objects of significant note were presented and described to them from the various wings of the rather expansive museum. “Can you take me to anything and I mean anything you have on before Discord's reign?”
“Yes, Yes, of course. If you’ll follow me!” the curator said.
“Sweetie do you want to look around for a little bit?” Twilight asked, stopping the curator in her place. “I have to see if they have anything from before Discord's reign. I need to get a clearer picture of things if I can.”
“Umm, okay,” she answered, “I wanted to look at more of the enchanted items, ever since Rarity got possessed by that book, I wanted to know more about those things.”
“Actually Sweetie, what happened to Rarity was a little more complicated than a book possessing her, it was a spell and enchant combined” Twilight began.
“Oh yeah,” Sweetie said, remembering the explanation Twilight tried giving her and her friends when they asked about it, “I still don’t get it.”
“Its-” Twilight began then stopped herself and sighed, “I’ll see you in a little bit Sweetie,” Twilight said with finality. Sweetie said her goodbyes as Twilight left with the curator who lead the way, leaving her and the tour guide there.
Sweetie looked to the tour guide who watched her patiently, “So, can we go to the enchanted items wing?”
“Absolutely,” the tour guide said with a smile, gestured her to follow, then led the way.
She was brought to the large room full of enchanted items as far as she knew. A good portion of them were just gems. There were several others however; an enchanted coffee mug that apparently was supposed to keep coffee hot, but instead made it a little too hot. A creepy painting of a filly whose eyes followed everywhere you went. A cookie jar that seemed full of fresh chocolate chip cookies, it would give a pony a chill down their spine if they tried to snatch one, and if the pony was brave enough to still take the cookie it would age, harden, and mold over as soon as it left the jar.
She continued to explore and ask about the many enchanted objects on display until she came to the clothing section. “What’s this?” she asked pointing to a small gold shiny piece of a earring with a shiny reddish black gem secured in it. It was encased much more heavily than most of the other items she’s seen so far.
“That’s The Scorched Earth Earring,” answered the tour guide, “This earring is said to make anypony wearing it extremely angry, along with anypony around it. That’s why it’s surrounded by a null metal cage, we don’t need ponies getting into pointless fights in here,” the tour guide joked.
Sweetie missed the joke, but understood not wanting ponies to be mad at each other for no reason. She continued looking at all the items on display, and couldn’t help but be drawn to the objects that were more heavily encased. They seemed more like the kind of things that corrupted her sister not too long ago.
After a little more looking around, Twilight came back and they moved to a different section of the large museum. They were there for about three hours and there was still a lot more to see. She couldn’t see Scootaloo or even Applebloom staying here that long without losing their minds in boredom. She smiled at the thought of what kind of mischief they’d get her into. She actually liked learning about the history of various things. She could show them some cool things if they come back.
After the museum they went out to eat and headed back to Coco’s before it got too dark. She kind of wanted to go to the hospital and watch Applebloom heal ponies, but she thought better of it as she recalled some gross stories her friend had to tell about the ponies that got healed in Ponyville, and she’d rather not be anywhere near that. She also didn’t fancy walking back to Coco’s apartment if it was getting or was dark out. In fact she’d rather just not be in that run-down, ill-kept, rat infested part of the city. The graffiti’ really made her nervous. She looked forward to telling her friends about the museum tomorrow morning though, and hearing about what they did.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Several years ago
“Soups up!!!” Granny Smith could be heard yelling in the far distance, as Applejack was about to lay waste to the enemy pirate ship with a cannon, while her father had been holding back that ships captain.
“Ye grool ‘s done!” her father said, “we ain’t got time for these mongrols,” he said thrusting his forehooves to the side then sweeping them towards the would be ocean, “we need ta get ta it before the sea hags and barbarian does,” he said referring to her ma, grandma, and brother. Applejack chuckled at his creative descriptions of them. He crouched down, “hop on ye!” he urged, “before the barbarian devours our share of thee feast!”
Applejack quickly jumped on her pa’s back and they were off to get their food.
...
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Applebloom
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Applebloom found herself in a large hospital with her sister following a doctor upon his request. The doctor hadn’t said much yet, after Twilight and Sweetie left them mere moments ago to head for the Manehattan Museum. Apparently, Twilight had to give the doctors the okay before she would be allowed near a patient. She didn’t understand why, but then again she wasn’t a doctor. She thought a little bit more about her friends as they followed the doctor. She understood why they didn’t particularly want to join her in her self imposed quest to heal everypony she could. They were on vacation or had cutescenarias to help plan. Hospitals admittedly weren’t a great place to be while on a vacation, and cutescenarias were a once in a lifetime thing; regardless, this was something she had to do. Honestly, she’s kind of glad Sweetie didn’t join her. The thought of Sweetie in a hospital poked at some raw memories that she’d rather not be reminded of.
Applebloom was rather fond of her time at Ponyville Hospital, after the incident that is. It felt good thinking about all the ponies she helped, and the surprise party they threw for her. She recalled miss Tornado, Bon Bon, and some others who went beyond just thanking her and offered her rewards/help for her deeds. The party went by so fast, she hardly remembered everypony she met. She felt a little better after thinking about it. She still couldn’t get the sight of one of her best friends lying on a bed, with some tubes and oxygen mask attached, out of her head. It haunted her. She felt guilty with how utterly carefree she initially was about the incident. Sweetie made it to the hospital, ‘nothing could possibly go wrong’ she thought at the time, only get better. It sickened her, how naive she was. She ignored those feelings the best she could, but it was hard while in a hospital. No matter how much she thought about the smiling faces of those she’d already helped, she couldn’t help but feel a deep dread and hopelessness in the pit of her stomach. All she could do was try and ignore it, so she did.
The doctor led them to a elevator. They entered as soon as the door opened, “So what’s the plan doc?” Applejack asked as the doctor hit a floor near the top of the large hospital.
“The first patient we’ll be seeing today is a pegasus who suffers from severe magic deficiency. Unfortunately, this led to an awful disease we’ve mostly seen in lab mice. There’s been one experimental treatment that has proven successful on the lab mice, albeit very limited success. Most ponies don’t suffer from this severe of a magic deficiency so there’s very few recorded cases of it. Disease isn’t even the right word to describe it. It’s like her own body is attacking itself,” The doctor explained. He paused briefly, “Now, I must warn you that this patient lost most of her feathers and fur, all of her mane, and all the hair on her tail in the treatment. She didn’t want to-”
“Hold up a second,” Applejack interrupted. “Did y’all just say the treatment made her lose her feathers and fur?”
*ding* the elevator door opened and they stepped out. “Yes, we’ve bombarded the patient's body with enough drugs that it can barely function,” he explained as he led them down a hallway, “and in doing so we also stop it from attacking itself, it has worked on some lab mice... It’s the only thing we’ve found that has worked so far. Anyways all the drugs led to mane, fur, and feather loss.”
Applebloom didn’t like what she was hearing. It sounded unpleasant, to say the least. She couldn’t help but imagine a bald pegasus with no coat and feathers. It gave her the willies just thinking about it. She shaked the thought away and peeked into some of the rooms they’ve been passing and found them to be fairly big. Some were empty but others were occupied. They stopped at a door, as the doctor rambled on about things and acronyms Applebloom hadn’t learned about yet, “Is this where the first patient is?” She interrupted.
The doctor stopped his incomprehensible rambling, at least to somepony that doesn’t know the lingo, which happened to be the two ponies he was talking to. “Why yes it is,” he answered, “Now before we-”
“Can Ah talk to ya all private like for a moment?” Applejack interrupted.
The doctor looked irritated for being interrupted for the second time but quickly collected himself, “Very well, if you’ll follow me.”
Applebloom wondered what that was about as she watched them leave. Applejack stopped and turned to her, “we’ll be right back,” she said gesturing her stay there. Then followed the doctor again.
Soon they were out of Appleblooms sight and she had nothing to do but wait. She was eager to get started and she was literally right next to the room. It was driving her crazy. Until a fact came to her. They technically never said she couldn’t get started. She grinned with her clever excuse and entered the room.
The moment she entered the room she felt a tightness in her chest, and her grin faltered. Ahead of her was a lengthwise hospital bed with two chairs beside it. Laying on the bed was a furless pony half covered in a white sheet, chest ever so slightly rising and falling. She slowly approached as the tightness in her chest got stronger. She noticed some board at the end of the bed that seemed to have pictures and artwork tacked on it. She was too low to see it, so she hopped up onto one of the chairs to get a better look.
She was immediately drawn a to piece of artwork that looked like something she would’ve made five years ago with crayon. It depicted a sunny day in a park with a tree, a happy light green pegasus wearing a gold necklace with ‘mommy’ crudely written above her, a happy dark brown earth pony with ‘daddy’ crudely written above him and a smiling light orange earth pony filly with ‘me’ crudely written above her. Next to that crude artwork was a picture of a family in a park. It showed a pegasus on a wheelchair with patched light green fur and no mane to speak of wearing a golden necklace smiling, a dark brown stallion beside the mare with a weak smile, and a young light orange filly who looked thrilled. There was several more pictures and crude artworks tagged onto the board, and some ‘get well soon’ cards. The tightness in her chest only got stronger the longer she looked.
It was getting hard to look at so she drew her attention away from the board and looked to the mare on the bed. As she did, she noticed the room had another occupant. On the other side of the bed on a chair was a light orange filly curled up and asleep. The filly must have been at least four years younger than herself. She felt a little shocked she hadn’t noticed her sooner. A glint revealed a gold necklace around the fillies neck, "haaa!" she breathed in bringing a hoof to her mouth. Her mind burned. She put her attention back to the mare who’s weak breathing was a major concern. The mare wasn’t hooked up to any tubes and stuff like Sweetie had been. Salty water welled up in her eyes at the image of her friend. She blinked them away and breathed in to calm herself.
It was a shock to see the mares ribcage against her sickly skin. The mare’s forelegs looked frail and brittle. Her face was a very odd and alien sight without fur even more so with how unhealthy it looked. Some small patches of her coat and a few feathers remained. She avoided looking at her wings the best she could, the sight was anything but pretty. The color of the mare's coat reminded her of Granny Smith. Her old grandma, who’s only getting older. Who taught her how to cook, spent time telling her great stories, and so so much more. She sniffled and tried to shake her head clear of those thoughts, but she couldn’t. Pressure builded up in her eyes.
*Yawn*
Applebloom was immediately drawn from her dissenting thoughts to the young light orange filly who lazily woke up from her nap. The filly took a little bit till she noticed her, who’d frozen in place, “Who’re ya?” she asked drowsily in a country accent.
Applebloom didn’t quite expect her to sound like that, and it really bothered her for some reason. It seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. She wiped her eyes, “Um, Ah’m Applebloom and Ah’m here to help your mother get better.”
“Really!?” The filly hopped in place, all semblance of tiredness gone, “y’all are gonna make my momma better?” She still couldn’t place the voice so she ignored it, or at least tried to.
“Yep, that’s the plan at least,” she answered. She needed to get started and out of this room, it was suffocating to be in here. She hopped onto the bed and placed a hoof on the mares closest forehoof, and tried to calm herself down. The mare looked like death and felt like death. She thought about it logically, best she could.
“Hey, be careful! Momma is very fra- fragg, momma is very fra-fragile” the filly demanded and explained.
“Sorry,” she apologised as she continued her efforts. Something about this whole situation seemed somehow recognizable, but it had nothing to do with Sweetie. Whenever she glanced at the filly her heart felt like it was gonna break and she didn’t know why. She couldn’t ponder these things now though, this mare needed healed yesterday. The problem with that however, was that she had to think about the tragedy before her, which kept bringing up that sense of familiarity that relentlessly hounded her. Unfortunately, it's the only way she found that her healing abilities worked. She forced herself to think about a mother who knew her time was at an end and allowed her daughter to be there for it. A mother who gave her daughter a necklace, probable a family heirloom of some kind, most likely while still physically able, as a way to show her love. She imagined the filly across the bed from her bawling over her mother's lifeless body and all the pain she might feel. That thought sparked an old memory. The scene of her brother and sister crying over two gravestones played out. Tears welled up in her eyes as she suddenly realised who that filly reminded her of. It was so obvious to her now. A young Applejack, or rather what her sister looked like when she was young in pictures, she wasn’t even born by then.
It hit home and she could barely keep herself from wailing like a foal. Her mind wandered back to Granny Smith and how one day this will be the future no matter what she did. That one day Granny Smith was going to be no more, and all the great times they had together would be no more. Then one day in the far future her brother would be no more. Then her sister would be no more, sooner if some monster got to her while trying to save the world. This had been a revelation she’d been fighting back since Sweeties incident. Something she’d willed herself to not think about. Sure, she admitted that bad things happen, the world was cruel, and that it frankly didn’t care about justice and karma. She stopped short of addressing the elephant in the room. She couldn’t do that anymore. Not with this fragile mother and her young daughter here like this. She could barely think right now as anguish drowned her thoughts.
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Applejack
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“Thank y’all kindly, Ah know it’s a larger initial amount than y’all wanted to pay off the bat, but mah hooves are kind of tied here, since mah bank is in Ponyville exclusively, and I’d rather not wait through another CSA line when possible,” Applejack said to ponies in a conference room just at the door. She really did hate the Changeling Security Agency's lines.
“If your little sister can do what the princess claims then it’s no problem at all, especially with the influx of fight related injuries, as of late. Anypony else find it odd that they’re not coming from the martial arts festival?” a pony responded.
With that Applejack shrugged and left with the doctor to head back to Applebloom, “if, your little sister can do what the princess claims,” the doctor said almost bitterly.
“What’s that supposed ta mean?” Applejack asked, catching a hint of it his attitude.
“I wouldn’t be a doctor, if I wasn’t even a little bit skeptical about this whole arrangement,” he answered as they continued walking past rooms.
“Well, Ah wasn’t there myself when she helped the ponies at Ponyville Hospital, but we’ve received plenty of thank you letters and payment because of it, and Twilight was there, so Ah’m inclined to believe my sister has crazy healing powers,” she explained.
The doctor remained silent at that. They turned the corner to the hallway that Applebloom should be waiting for them in, but the only thing Applejack saw was a nurse enter some random room, otherwise the hallway was devoid of her sister. They quickened their pace to the room they left Applebloom beside. “Woah, nelly,” and “hey!” They yelled at the same time, when they made it to the room as Applebloom darted past them and quickly into some other room. Applejack could’ve sworn she heard ragged breathing, “I’ll check on the patient. You go get your sister,” the doctor said before entering the room.
Left alone, Applejack turned around and headed for the room her sister ran in. Her first step was met with something wet, looking down she saw what could only be described as a thin trail of tears, so it wasn’t her imagination. Picking up the pace, she hurried to the room, only to hear her sisters muffled wails, like she was a foal again. She entered the room to find her sister on a bed, face smothered in a pillow crying uncontrollably. She did the only thing that seemed right at the moment. She got on the bed and threw a foreleg around her distraught sister and hugged tight. She pondered what made this happen, maybe she couldn’t heal the pony in the room? Maybe they were too late? Questions like these flew threw her head. Applebloom showed no signs of stopping anytime soon, but it wasn’t long before her sister hugged back with a crushing death grip.
“Pl-wwhaahah,” Applebloom said before blubbering into another fit gasp.
Her sister's grip actually hurt, with how much strength that was put into it. By this point, she thought that maybe the pony died right in front of her sister, right after she tried to save the pony. She still didn’t know what sent her positive strong willed sister into a crying fit, and that bothered her to no end. “I’m here, I’m here,” she said while patting her sister on the head, in hopes of calming her down. Much to her bewilderment, it had the opposite effect. Not knowing what else to do she remained silent and held her close.
Applebloom kept trying to say something, but after she made it to a certain point she would burst into another torrent of sobbing. Applejack waited patiently.
“Plea-ha-se,” Applebloom said again after she calmed down even more. She took some more calming breaths before closing her eyes then blinking them rapidly. After a little while longer she spoke up again, “Don’t,” *sniff,* “d-d, aaa Ah,” *sniff,* “Ah, can’t.” She rubbed her eyes.
“Ya can’t what?,” Applejack asked calmly, while inside Applejack was worried. Did Applebloom really just watch somepony she tried to heal, die right in front of her? This question plagued her thoughts.
“Pleasaa don’t d-d-d… Please don’t…” she threw her head into Applejack chest, “leave me,” she shrilled.
Her sisters rather strong forelegs gave her a tight squeeze that hurt quite a bit, but she remained silent about it. She wasn’t planning on going anywhere. She still didn’t know what was wrong, “Ah ain’t goin’ nowhere, sugarcube,” she comforted, patting her back.
“You’re lying.” *sniff* “That’s n-not true,” Applebloom accused and gave her a rather painful tight squeeze.
“Augh,” she grunted in pain, then quickly but gentle pushed her sister away who reluctantly released her and moved away, “that actually hurt,” she said rubbing her sore chest, “Ya’re a lot stronger than ya look.” She thinks she actually got bruised from that, but that wasn’t important right now. She ignored the tingling feeling of blood flow and looked down to her sister who looked back at her shamefully with bloodshot eyes but something else. Like she wanted her to contest the accusation she just made. Well she was going to do that regardless, she ain’t no liar, “what’s this about sugarcube?” She couldn’t bring herself to even pretend to be mad, it was breaking her heart seeing her little sister like that.
Applebloom blinked a couple times. Maybe she expected to be yelled at for accusing her sister of the one thing that the world by now should know she wouldn’t do. Maybe her eyes were itchy from all the crying. She took a calming breath, “it, what…” She breathed some more, “M-mom and Dad.”
“...What about them?” Applejack asked calmly and intrigued, as her sister's breathing hitched up slightly before calming down again. She wondered what ma and pa had to do with any of this. A surge of guilt went through her system as unpleasant memories came back to mind, she ignored them.
“...Ah-Ah don’t want you, gra-granny, and M-Mac to leave me,” *sniff,* “li-like th-they did,” Applebloom said finally, before looking down and away as tears began free falling again.
This struck Applejack deep. She quickly wrapped her sister in another hug. She understood what her sister meant. That was something she grappled with when she was younger. It wasn't pleasant. She learned to ignore the issue altogether, and eventually move on from the resulting anger and hatred. She thought about what to say. After a little while, her sister seemed settled down, so she spoke up, “Ah’m not gonna say it’ll all be okay or that it’ll ever be easy, or any of that hogwash, but what Ah will say is this. Ah love ya and so does Mac and granny, and Ah know for a fact that ma and pa would be mighty proud of ya.”
Applebloom hugged her back, much more gently this time but it stung, “Ah love you to.” She definitely got bruised from that last squeeze. “...A-Ah lied to you…” Applebloom said suddenly and stopped the hug. Applejack didn’t know how to respond so she remained silent and looked at her questioningly. “A-about mom and dad. When you asked me if Ah remembered them that one time…” Applejack instantly knew which time her sister was referring to. There’s been a couple times they’ve talked about them, but there’s only one time they talked about them at length and that was the first time. “Ah did remember them, but only in snippets. Mom played peekaboo with me and dad would carry me around…” Applejack listened closely recalling similar memories, but instead she was jealously watching as her parents played with her foal sister, “All of us smiling and happy at the dinner table, and then…” *sniff,* “A-Ah remember you and Mac a-at our parents grave and how sad everypony was after that…” she rubbed her teary eyes, “and Ah just didn’t want ya to be sad anymore, so Ah lied to you.”
“Uh...” Applejack was at a loss for words. She’s glad to be told the truth, and happy to know that her sister remembered somethings about their parents. Maybe Applebloom wanted to know more about their parents?
“Ah’m tellin’ you now, because Ah felt guilty about it, and Ah’ve been remembering more about them ever since what happened to Sweetie...” Well that answered some of her questions. She’d noticed her little sister was acting a little off after the incident with Sweetie. The most notable change was the stained bow tie atop her head. The one their mother gave her, at that thought she couldn’t help but glance up at her father's cowboy hat, resting atop her head. Applebloom would usually freak if anything happened to that bow tie, but for some reason she left it stained like that. Her sister gave a weak laugh drawing her out of her reminiscing, “Ah remember them making some funny faces when they changed my diapers, giving me a bath in the sink, rocking me to sleep, singin’ me lullabies,” she looked down, “feeding me with a baby bottle, and and a-and AH MISS THEM so much it hurts!”
Applejack hugged her sister again, “Ah miss ‘em to, Ah miss ‘em to...” An idea came to her. Since they were having a nice bonding moment, she might aswell get it out of the way now. She had planned on telling her sister tonight but now seemed more appropriate. After Applebloom calmed down one last time she spoke up, “Ah have a confession ta make myself…”
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Several years ago
“Hey dumpling, how was your day?” asked Applejack's mother as Applejack entered the dining room while on top her father's back.
She quickly hopped off her father's back and ran to the light pink earth pony, “Ma! Did ya know what Pa made for me!?”
“Yes, I saw it just this morning, and he did a wonderful job if I do say so myself!” her ma answered.
“Aw shucks,” her pa said with a smile.
“Well, I got my own surprise for you,” her mother said with a smile, “how would you feel about having a little sister?”
“Best day EVER!”
A month or so later
Applejack and her pa had plenty of fun with her new tree house. She particularly liked the tireswing he added a couple days later. Her pa could get her really high in the air while pushing her; though, it did get a little scary at one point, so she refrained him from making her go that high again. Outside of that they played pirates, princess, board games, and card games. Her pa just had a way of making any game into something great.
Her ma on the other hoof was getting fat, because of her sister. Apparently they decided not to tell her about her sister sooner, for whatever reason. She didn’t mind to much though, it just makes the wait a lot less longer. She could hardly wait to have her own sister. Somepony new to play with, not that her pa, ma, brother, and granny weren’t great. It was just hard to have friends, since they lived so far away from town.
A couple months later
It had been a couple of weeks since Applejacks whiny little sister of a foal was born and she was already making her life miserable. She was very excited to have a sister at first, but that changed rather quickly. Her parents didn’t do anything but work and take care of her cry baby sister after she was born. They never let her take care of her sister. ‘She was too young,’ they’d say. Her mother was taking care of her sister right now, “let's play!” Applejack requested her father.
“Sorry, no can do Sugarcube. Ah got ta help your ma out with your little sis,” her father explained. She didn’t understand why, mother should be able to look after her sister by herself.
She hadn’t played with her father since her foal sister was born and even longer for her mother, and she’s been so bored lately, “Can’t granny help her?” She asked.
“Nope, she’s with Big Mac at the market,” her father rejected.
She didn’t like it, “pwease?” she asked with puppy dog eyes. Life was so dull without her dad to play with. This tactic pretty much always worked in the past, at least until her little sister was born. She tried playing in her amazing treehouse by herself but she just wasn’t as creative as her father.
“Sorry, Ah just can’t do it, but I promise we can soon sugarcube,” he said in finality. She pouted and stormed off to her room.
The next day
“Soups UP!” came a yell from below. Applejack didn’t really feel too hungry, but she could definitely eat so she made her way downstairs from her room.
“Who’s my little apple dumpling?” her ma said sweetly as she approached the kitchen. The giggling of her foal sister came soon after, as she neared the kitchen, “Yes you are, yes you are.” her ma said cutely. That’s what ma always called her.
She entered to the sight of her ma, a light pink earth pony, playing with her foal sister, and got to her seat, “Hey ma,” she greeted.
“How’s your day goin’ honey?” her ma asked genuinely with a smile.
It was nice to see her ma smile; then again, her sister wasn’t crying for once. It would’ve been good, but the lack of the use of the words ‘apple and/or dumpling’ bothered her, “Okay,” she answered.
Her ma smiled, “I’m glad to hear that,” she sighed, “also your father told me to apologize to you but we got an important order this morning so he and Mac will be gone for a couple days for the delivery.”
This surprised and angered her, “But he promised me we’d play today!” she complained.
“Aa , aa, aaa,” her ma chided, “he knew you’d say something like that, which is why he told me to tell you he said soon, which doesn’t necessarily mean today.”
“But a couple of days is like forever!” she complained getting her ma to chuckle.
“Well, I’m sorry, but there’s no helping it, we need all the bits we can get, now that your sister’s here,” her ma said, before drawing her attention back to Applebloom, “isn’t that right? Isn’t that right?” She said cutely.
So that’s how it was…
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“That’s about when it all started Ah think, before then ya were just ma cry baby sister who’d keep us up at night and wear out our parents,” Applejack explained, “Ah became jealous of ya and began ta resent ya for how ma and pa were always so stressed over ya,” she sighed and steeled her resolve to continue, “as time went on Ah only grew ta dislike ya even more until that day," hers eyes got watery.
“Ah don’t know if Granny or Mac ever told ya why Ma and Pa went to the market that horrible day…” she looked away from her sister and chuckled pitifully, “wouldn’t ya believe it. They went ta go buy baby formula and diapers for ya, because of a sale they couldn’t miss…” she blinked away some tears, refusing to look at her sister in shame, “and even though they saved some ponies from that awful beast, that was the one thing that ran through my mind like a fierce fire. A-Ah grew to hate ya so much. Ah was such a foalish filly. Ah thought ya were the reason ma and pa were miserable, ya were the reason they didn’t play with me anymore, and ya were the reason they were gone...” she sniffed.
“Ah couldn’t stand ta be around ya anymore, so Ah left…” she sniffed again, still not looking at her sister, ”Ah-Ah never wanted ta see ya again, Ah-” she breathed in deeply and calmed herself down, even now she lacked the courage say some of the awful thoughts that had ran through her head.
“Anywho, Ah moved in with the Oranges here in Manehattan as a result of all that. Ah left a lot out of ma cutie mark story. Ya see the Oranges had their own foal at the time yall met him already, and even with all the maids and butlers they had, they’d always be the one taking care of him, but because of all their butlers and maids they had time to set me straight. Ah began ta see things ma and pa did in a new light and how foalish Ah was. Ah really wasn’t a big fan of their stuffy lifestyle. Ah became confused and didn’t know what ta do anymore, until Ah saw that rainbow,” she looked down, “it reminded me of the weekend Ma, Pa, Granny, Mac, and Ah went ta Rainbow Falls, and Ah knew Ah wanted to come back home,” she said, and finally turned back to face her sister. “What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.
“So it’s true then. She was right after all, in a way...” Applebloom said defeatedly. Her eyes were shot and her ears were drooping.
She didn’t like the sound of that, “who’re yall talking about?” She rubbed her eyes clear and sniffed. Anytime she talks about her parents at length she can’t help but get at least misty eyed.
“Just a bully Ah met yesterday…” her sister frowned in anger, “She said that my parents wished Ah was never born…” Applejack was a little shocked to hear this and felt a little annoyed her sister didn’t say anything about it. Her sister smiled as single tear fell and continued, “Ah know that’s not true. Ah know they loved me and Ah know they would never do that. But-” she gasped, “but i-if A-Ah’m the re-reason they’re gone. Th-then Ah wish Ah was never born!” she exclaimed before slumping down defeatedly, like she’d just given up on everything.
It felt like an arrow to the heart to hear her sister say such a thing. Tears welled up in her eyes as her breathing became ragged at the sight of her sister who’s strong spirit and endless positivity was crushed into a husk of the filly before her. She reached over and hugged her again, but her sister hardly reacted, like she was indifferent to it. Applejacks forelegs trembled in despair. She didn’t even consider how her sister would take the news that they only went shopping for her that day. She was too focused on her own guilt and making sure her reasons for her feeling the way she did were justified. Even after her sister just told her how much she remembered about them and missed them. She felt like such an idiot. “S-sugarcube,” she sobbed, “i-it w-wasn’t y-your f-fault…” she hugged her dejected sister a little tighter, “it wasn’t your fault,” she gasped out all while she rained tears on her sister's back.
Slowly Applebloom raised her forelegs again for a hug, as tears began falling from her eyes. They remained like that for a while. Applejack was glad the doctors had the sense to not interrupt their moment. She breathed in and sniffed her runny snout, “Now… why’d ya go runnin’ out o’ that room like that…” She released her hug and backed up a little to look her sister in the face. “Wer-were ya not able ta heal ‘em or somethin’?”
“No, it’s not that… Ah just couldn’t be in that room any longer,” Applebloom looked down sadly. “It was one of the saddest things Ah’ve ever seen, and it reminded me of you, Granny and Mac…” she said before looking down and whispering, “mom and dad,”
“Oh, well are ya gonna be okay?” she asked.
Applebloom rubbed her eyes with a forehoof, “yeah, Ah think Ah’ll be okay… thanks,” she smiled slightly. Applejack felt relief to see a hint of that positive spirit.
“So Ah’ve been wonderin’ for awhile now. Why’d ya leave your bowtie stained like that?” she asked.
Her sister sighed, “Ah use to believe everything would always turn out alright,” she explained, “That karma or something,” she looked down, “traded mom and dad for a guarantee that things would always work out okay, if Ah always did the right thing…” Applejack wondered where her sister got such an idea. Her sister looked back up, “As time went on, Ah only got proven right by my belief. Disaster after disaster would occur, but things would always be back to normal like they never even happened, just fun adventures to experience and talk about. Then what happened to Sweetie. Ah was so worried at first, but the second we made it to the hospital. It was like all that weight was gone and Ah didn’t have a care in the world, because Ah believed everything was going to be okay, because we got her to the hospital…” she sighed, “While everypony around me was freaking out and sad Ah was, Ah was happy and a little annoyed with everypony…” Applejacks eyes widened, “Ah didn’t understand why everypony was soo upset, so Ah ignored them. So set in my belief Ah was... Thanks to Scootaloo. Ah realized the truth. Ah felt so helpless. Ah kept my bowtie stained, because Ah never wanted to be so blind to the truth again. Ah’ve tried to not think about the feelings that came with the truth since then, but Ah just couldn’t do it anymore. Not after what Ah saw in that room.”
That was a lot more of an explanation than she was expecting. She huddled close and they remained like that. After a little bit, Applebloom got antsy and wanted to get started on the task ahead of her. Applejack felt pride that her sister was still up for it. They got greeted by lots of ponies, the moment they left the room. Turns out Applebloom did heal that pony, much to Applejacks relief. Her sister never said if she healed the pony or not, just that she couldn’t stand being in that room anymore. It was a feeling she couldn’t dispel until just then. She watched as her amazing little sister helped ponies all throughout the day and even refusing to stop because it was getting late. It wasn’t till late in the night or early in the morning, depending how somepony looked at it, that they finally got done. There was no party like she heard about last time, but that was okay, Applejack was tired, yet elated at what her sister just accomplished. With all the discussion then excitement, she completely forgot to tell her sister that she was actually getting paid for it. They headed to the hotel and checked into a rather rude host and went to sleep.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Bring these to my room, and use the stairs again,” demanded the bright yellow mare with a wicked smirk, as she entered the Grand Piano Inn, to the mare behind her struggling to carry a bunch of bags full of stuff.
“Yes, of course Miss Charity!” the mare said too happily, as ‘Charity’ made way to the V.I.P. elevator, entered, and clicked it to the top floor. The door closed and ‘Charity’ frowned in boredom. The first week of ‘shopping’ around was fun to her. She now had more clothes, makeup, jewelry and things than she ever thought she’d get in her life, but by the second week even that became boring as she already had everything she could want/need. She only ‘shopped’ now to think about what to do next. Food became the one thing that she could still look forward to, and she’d just got back from a fancy restaurant. The door opened and she entered her suite. It was full of stuff that she was hardly finding time to use even though she had all the time in the world, thanks to the bracelet around her wrist. She stared at it for a little while, as she waited for that mare to get here with her stuff.
Up till now she’s just been using it to get things. She noticed how strange everypony acted around her, it was unnerving to her. They were too nice to her and annoyingly distrustful of others. She had to tell them that they could trust each other on several occasions, just so she wouldn’t have to deal with the fights they’d get into for the littlest of things. All that said, that wasn’t what really unnerved her. It was the fact that, outside of their zealous appraisal of her and blindly giving her things, they didn’t treat her much different than when she didn’t have the bracelet. The only difference then was that she had to work for it. This made her wonder about something.
After a while the mare who’d been carrying her bags finally knocked on the door, “Come in,” she yelled loud enough to be heard from the hot tub. The door opened and the mare walked in still holding all the bags and placed them on the floor, clearly relieved to finally put them down. “Leave them there, come here,” she requested.
The mare who was clearly wiped out after carrying several bags of stuff up untold numbers of stairs, smiled weakly and made her way, “Ho-How,” the mare breathed in some as she walked closer, “may I help you Miss,” she breathed in some more, “Ch-Charity?”
“Why do you like me” ‘Charity’ asked.
“Because you’re the best most outstanding pony I’ve ever met. A true model for everypony,” she said with a large smile.
“O Really? Then what do you feel about ponies who steal? Cheat? Lie? And Con other ponies?” ‘Charity’ asked.
“They’re the just worst,” the mare frowned, “they should be locked up for their crimes,” she snarled, “no, that’s too easy on them, they should be-”
“Okay!” ‘Chrarity’ interrupted, “so if you think they’re just the worst then why did you just help me steal all those things?” she asked pointing to the bags of stuff near the door.
“Because you’re the best-”
“Stop,” she interrupted, “I’m not Miss Charity, the real Miss Charity is currently suing your employer. There was no mix up and I conned, lied, and stole from you all. Does that make me ‘just the worst?’ and how does that make you feel?”
“No, not at all. I won’t tell anypony,” she grinned.
“But how does that make you feel?”
“I’d do anything for you, because you deserve it.” the mare answered.
“Then tell me the TRUTH!” she snapped.
The mare backpedaled, “I’m sorry, Miss Charity. I just feel like you’re such an amazing pony, that I can’t see you doing anything for the wrong reasons. Unlike some other ponies I know…”
‘Charitys’ eye twitched and mouth scowled “Leave me!” She yelled. The mare quickly made her way to the door, “Wait! Put that stuff away before you go!” she ordered again before settling down in the hot tub. She already knew the truth and now that she thought about it, maybe the original owner of The Believers Bracelet was onto something. It sounded like fun.