My LIttle Pony Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Pony POV Series Butterflies Part 8
"Applejack" Side Story
Ah know you wanted to talk to Big Mac, but my brother just isn't the big long speech type. He's not stupid, oh no he ain't. He's just a stallion of few words is all. A lot goes on behind all those 'Yeps' and 'Nopes.' He's simplistic and straight forward when he wants to stay something. He's dauntless and relentless when he puts his mind to it. Yep, Ah guess he did rub off on me a lot. He's just not really comfortable with talking a lot. I know you want to hear what he thinks of things, but seriously, just leave him be. He knew Applebloom, me, and Granny Smith all needed'im badly, so he put his fears of Winona aside and plowed on through.
And when the nightmares just got worse when he tried to put them aside, he went to them fancy schmancy head doctors like the rest of us and accepted what happened had nothing to do with Winona herself. And no matter what that rat Discord did to'em, big brother Mac was and is a pony, not some dumb critter, no offense to Winona. The doc suggested he try an' get ta know other ponies more. Seems ta have worked wonders.
Ah've had a really weird mornin', can't say if it's as weird as last night when ya makes friends with the Manhattenite version of yerself and team up with four other versions of yerself, including one that's Discord's, to tangle with the Nightmare version of yerself to save every version of yerself there is.
"Good mornin' Applebloom, ready for yer Family Appreciation Day?"
Applebloom gave me this here look like Ah had two heads or somethin'. "Big Sister, Family Appreciation Day for me was last month! Remember? It was right during the Zap Apple harvest. Diamond Tiara got me all silly 'bout Granny Smith tellin' the school 'bout herself till granny and her pa put 'er in her place."
Big Mac and Granny Smith also looked at me wondering if Ah had bucked one tree too many again.
"Ah don't get what others say 'bout'em, Filthy Rich is such a nice stallion." Granny Smith reminisced.
"Ya know granny, he really ain't like that name," Applebloom said.
Granny spoke like she was on stage, "Well it's the one he was born with, usin' an alias like that, names are somethin' to be proud of."
Thank Celestia for Granny Smith's taking everypony off track! The Zap Apple harvest was last month? I looked at a calendar on the kitchen wall. The date is exactly what it should be from when I went to bed last night.
"Applebloom, ya and Sweetie visited with That Filly yesterday right?"
"Uh, yeah, you talk ta us remember? And her name is Silver Spoon."
I shook my head. This was weird. What was weirder was the more I thought about it, the more I felt a -second- set of memories popping up in mah head like mushrooms! The Timber Wolves' howls signaling the Zap Apple Harvest happening. Applebloom needing to bring a member of the family to school and only Granny bein' able. And Granny showin' just how extraordinary her life has really been!
All of that -had- happened. As much as the Cakes' twins bein' born. Right?
Applebloom asked, "Remember? Just before that whole mess with the Flim Flam Brothers and before that yer friends were looking for ya after that rodeo??"
My head spun again as more memories of things that had to have happened but Ah didn't remember happening yesterday flashed into mah head. Okay, now Ah get the Princess' warnin', this could drive any pony crazy! Was this the big bad crazy event that was gonna make things weird? Maybe this is what it's like for Pinkie all the time. Oh well. If Ah had learned anything last night, it was ta make the best of things and not whine about things ya can't change. "Yeah yeah Ah remember, Ah just had a lot of dreams last night, mess with mah head a bit, that's all."
"What dreams are those?" Applebloom asked eyein' me something fierce.
I spied somethin' on the table. Good! Distraction time! "Big Brother, will ya please give that doll back to Twili' already?"
"Nope."
Ah sighed, some things never changed.
"Have at ye red titan! Return younger maiden Smarty Pants or prepared to be sooted!" Came Spike's voice from outside.
"That's 'smote.'" Applebloom called back.
"What art thou, a dictionary?"
We all saw 'im out the window dressed up like a knight in fancy suit of armor like some left over Nightmare Night costume holdin' a lance three times his size.
I groaned, "Spike for the last time gettin' bucked by Big Mac again rescuin' Smarty Pants ain't gonna impress Rarity!"
Spike took off the beak shaped helmet and looked through the window pleading, "It might."
The whole family gave a collective face hoof at that one. At least some things never changed.
Ah'm out the door and Ah'm halfway through the mornin's chores when lightnin' strikes mah brain. . . . Coming in second all over the place and running away? Ah promised mahself Ah was done runnin' away from the truth. Ah lean against an apple tree as mah head hurts. These here memories don't make a lick of sense, not for me.
The moment Ah put two and two together (enough with them mathematics jokes please!), somethin' dang plung weird happens! Ah remember what Ah remembered ah second ago, but now there's somethin' else there too. Like two fillies squabbling over the same seat.
Ah remember being ashamed of comin' in second all over the place at the rodeo, headin' to a new town to earn bits for everypony that I couldn't win. Mah friends huntin' me down, me not sayin' a thing about happened, ditchin' town again when they cornered me, and them finding out Ah was a second place loser, only for them to tell me there was no such thing.
Oh, and Rarity giving RD the talkin' to of talkin' tos for forgettin' to pick her and Pinkie back up after convincin' me to come home, makin' her listen to Pinkie blab her ear off the entire time. With RD tied to a chair and being force fed coffee to keep her awake. After they 'tortured me' with Pinkie's talkin', Ah don't blame her for bein' upset. Bein' made to wear the super frou-frou dress with a some fancy magic time-lock spell so she couldn't take it off fer a day might have been almost over the top though.
But another memory is now hoggin' the seat. Ah sent all my second, third ribbons along with the letter. Ah didn't try to hide the reason Ah was stayin' out of Ponyville until Ah earned the cash to repair town hall (Ponyville's repair funds were kinda runnin' dry and that was a position Ah'd been in myself before). Ah also didn't try to hide where Ah was. Mah friends came straight for me. Should have seen that one comin'. They told me Ah had nothin' to be ashamed of. Ah told'em Ah promised to bring back bits and Ah was gonna come eternal night or high water!
Mah friends seem to accept this and headed home . . . and brought back Big Macintosh, who said he'd work here to help things along if that was what it took. Ah said he couldn't just leave Sweet Apple Acres with just Granny Smith and Applebloom. He asked me how Ah could think workin' at Mrs. Jubilee's cherry farm was going to make MORE money as a work hoof than keeping our own farm running. Ah was kinda put on the spot fer that.
But a promise was a promise Ah said. Mah friends smiled and nodded, and did what we always do when one of us is bein' a stubborn jackass: had Big Mac hog tie me, apologize to Mrs. Jubilee, drag me onto the train, and have Twili' break into one of her sermons. For a girl who ain't know nothin' 'bout friends before she sure is a quick study. Twili' spelled it out fer how dull witted it is to keep to a promise that contradicts the reason you made the promise in the first place.
Then 'Cruelly gave me the "cruel to be kind" version of it for good measure, spellin' out how plum stupid Ah was for doin' it like that and how Ah should suck it up and pull out the thorn.
So yeah it finally sunk in.
What the buck? Mah head's still spinnin', the second one feels more like choices Ah would have made but, were they the choices the real me would have made? Dangnabbit! 'Real me?' Orangejack showed me one thing at least, Ah'm the real Applejack the same as any of us.
That was when the second headache hit about me sayin' mean things 'bout donkeys. Ponies ain't speciesist, so why would that be a phrase we've been usin' so much? Ah needed some cider. We still had some saved to ferment into the hard kind from that whole mess with the Flim Flam Brothers, which Ah struggled not to remember, figurin' out one conflicting set of memories at a time was more than enough for me, thank you very much.
As Ah down a bottle in the barn, Ah can't help but feel like somethin' important is gone now, its almost like missin' ma's hugs, or bein' without an extra coat in winter. Or a train without rails. But maybe it ain't such an all awful thing. Maybe, just maybe, as long as inside mah heart Ah'm still Applejack, it'll be alright. Yeah! Ah am still Applejack! Ah'm still real! Ah'm still me! No twisted dark and shameful past here! Only a cowpony whose been makin' her way with her family the best she always has!
Ah don't care if the choice Ah make ain't exactly what everypony thinks they should be! If mah friends really love and trust me, if they really believe in me, then they'll stick by me no matter what details get screwed around! We've been together for the long haul, and they'd never abandon me just cause of that! And that is the honest truth!