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// Applejack The First After Death Drabble 
// Story: Pony POV Series Origins: MAJESTY vs TIREK! 
// by Alex Warlorn 
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Hello Applejack, welcome to eternity.

Applejack had to be honest looking back on her life. She spent eons knocking Grogar back into the shadow realm every 500 years, and saw pony civilization rise to its peak, only for it to fall back to the middle ages while she tried helping ponykind reach utopia. And THEN to help raise and look after Little Discord who'd turned into an evil overlord himself and knocked down ponykind's progress AGAIN... And finally, she saw Discord possess Wind Whistle when he tried to possess Galaxy, and kill Galaxia (heh, their similar names led to some confusing times after Galaxia stopped using her alias). And Discord destroyed part of the Rainbow of Light Patch had spent centuries putting back together, all her hard work wiped away. And Mimic... she'd given up everything for them to get away safe.

And that was when Applejack did the one thing she'd never done in her life. She'd given up. She turned empty inside. She'd said she'd go and look after Surprise, and Galaxy said she'd go to look after Applejack so she didn't do anything... foolish.

Surprise was still doing what Discord had told her to do, 'Go farm rocks', and nothing any of them could do was able to remove this geass from Surprise.

Discord was still using Ponyland as his personal playground and ponies as his toys, and Applejack had given up. Applejack had given up, and had in her own way made Galaxy give up. And had left Lulu, Celly, Twilight, and Spike to carry on.

Firefly had gone off on her own to find her own way to defeat Discord while looking after poor Posey. Applejack hadn't heard of any progress from her.

Mimic had died for them, and Applejack had just given up. Ponies were suffering, her friends were struggling, and Applejack had just given up.

To be honest, part of Applejack had expected to go to the Other Place.

After all, what had she done to overcome that cowardice? What had she done to make up for it? What was she doing to make up for it as Discord just continued to randomly rain chaos?

What had she done to try and rescue Shady from her son? What had she done to help Baby Shady try to get her brother back to his senses? (Not Half-brother, they had both been born without a father after all, Shady from the mirror, and Discord from Shady herself).

As the years went by, it had become increasingly obvious that in spite of the geass, Surprise was proving very capable of taking care of herself.

Surprise had even fallen in love and started a family.

Applejack could have been searching for Baby Applejack's family, making sure they were alright. Instead, she'd ultimately become part of Surprise's. She was thousands of years old, but one is never too old to fall in love. And Discord's chaos proved at least to be an effective relationship pressure-cooker, ponies more often than not didn't want to risk a 'wait and see attitude.'

Maybe Applejack just didn't have much imagination, but she named her first foal Baby Applejack. Well, Baby Applejack had long since had a family and had grown old and died of old age. And she'd seen her daughter grow up and name her first foal Applejack, and now her first great-greatfilly had been named Applejack. Applejack herself wondered just what she'd unleashed. Oh well, it wasn't like it would go on forever would it?

And while Surprise's rock farm had grown, in no small part by somehow channeling the ambient magic that Discord's chaos was spreading. Discord still caused trouble, while Applejack continued to sit on her aging flank and did nothing. While Applejack also gave Galaxy the excuse to do nothing but teach anypony who'd listen whatever she could in honor of Wind Whistler.

Megan had given them so much, and they'd smashed it reaching for more, and now Discord was grinding it into dust, reducing everything that came before to fairytales.

And Applejack did nothing.

In her old age, she woke up in the middle of the night (Luna and Celestia had stubbornly done their hardest to try and keep Discord from messing with the day and night too much), hearing somepony calling her name, and gotten out of bed, to see herself still in bed, not breathing. And Granny Applejack had felt no pain for the first time in decades. Her husband was still sleeping next to her. 

And Applejack came face to face with... 

"Starlight?" Earth pony, Pink fur, blond mane, blue eyes, north star cutie mark, it was Starlight all right.

"Nice to talk with you again Applejack." 

"The black wings and sword are new."

"They come with my new job."

"... Is this a dream?"

Starlight slowly shook her head. "No, not really."

"Then I'm dead?"

Starlight nodded. "You're free Applejack."

"...I knew I was running out of time... I always thought maybe I'd have one more day..."

"I know that feeling... "

"So you're an angel now?"

"An angel of death, fitting repentance don't you think? I'm not allowed into Heaven until I work off all the deaths my miscalculations helped cause."

"That was... I can't remember how many centuries that was ago..."

"That's because you're still used to a consciousness shaped by the piece of meat in your skull. It'll grow out of it eventually. And I have a lot to make up for, good intentions or not. Come along Applejack, it's time to go."

"Just one second." She kissed her husband on the forehead. "Alright, now let's go."

-

Hello Applejack, welcome to eternity.

So yeah, Applejack's new family had loved her, respected her, even admired her. But that didn't change the fact she'd sat on her flanks for the rest of her life since that day, never fighting Discord, never using those eons of experience against him while her other friends did. Only living and working on the rock farm, looking after her family. She'd been broken that day, and she hadn't ever faced the one who'd broken her, instead, staying away from him.

So Applejack was surprised when she was pretty sure she was let into Pony Heaven rather than The Other Place, or That-Place-In-Between she'd heard about for ponies who weren't really anything. Maybe this was one of those irony things where she thinks she was let into Pony Heaven for a while before finding out it was missing everything that made forever worthwhile.

"Welcome to paradise Applejack."

And before Applejack was a white unicorn mare with a blue mane, and a fancy blue flower pattern for her cutie mark. She smiled warmly at Applejack.

Applejack was going to ask who she was, but in the same instant she thought of asking she knew exactly who the other pony was. Applejack remembered her coming to Ponyland, of every pony crowning this unicorn as their queen. When she'd first arrived, with her adopted son, SPIKE! Firefly and Wind Whistler and Magic Star had actually already known her! The Moochick had been expecting her! ... She also played plenty of pranks that doubled as lessons to a lot of ponies, including Applejack herself... Applejack had remembered the pinches from the Crab-Apple Tree, and being saved from the giant who had claimed her as a slave for trespassing...  But now she remembered this pony had ordered the Crab-Apple Tree from King Neptune, and it was this pony who had outwitted the giant...

And Applejack remembered when Lucky the Stallion had been born via this mare's magic, and later her many clone daughters with the foal mirror. Applejack thought she'd been scared of all her foals dying before she did. Of her going off to save Prince Valiant after he was kidnapped by Scorpan... and... 

"Majesty!" Applejack nuzzled her queen, Majesty had never cared for enforcing royal protocol on her ponies. "It's you! It's really you! But... I forgot... everyone just forgot..."

"Yes... And I'm sorry about that Applejack, that was our darkest hour, and I didn't want you to be crushed or driven to doing something foolish to avenge me. I sadly didn't have time to include a condition for the geass to be removed when Tirek was defeated." 

Applejack sighed. "Given... given how Discord broke me... I think you had a point... "

"I saw, it wasn't how I wanted to be reunited with Mimic... but she died like I did. Fate it seems is fond of repetition, sacrificing all she had for others and to give the enemy a bloody nose they wouldn't ever forget... I am proud of her. And Applejack." Majesty hugged her. "I don't blame you! I forgive you! Mimic made her own choice. Shady made her own choice. My grandfoals and grandson all made their own choice."

"I don't think Firefly forgives me."

"Don't assume. You and Galaxy may not have been fighting Discord directly, but you were still doing what he hates. You were giving ponies meaning, their lives, their future, their past, Discord hates meaning. Surprise was fighting Discord, giving meaning to his meaninglessness. She was also following Dissy's wishes, and staying safe."

"Dissy? Oh right, Galaxia said Discord ated him..."

"In a manner of speaking, but Discord forgot a very important lesson every mother teaches: you are what you eat. Dissy and Wind Whistler are both fighting him from within, even if he doesn't notice it. How else do you think his games have fallen into patterns? Applejack, what I am saying is, is that you didn't need to be face to face against Discord to fight him, you provided harmony and order in the sea of chaos and confusion Discord was trying to turn Ponyland into."

Applejack felt a weight lift from her shoulders. "Thank you, Majesty."  Applejack gave her a hug. 

"You're welcome my little pony, now come along, we have a lot of friends waiting to see you." 

~Fin