The dinner bell rang out across Camp Comice and before long, the mess area was densely populated with an ocean of ponies. Herds flooded in loosely organized rows between folding tables, which had been haphazardly arranged in the dirt. Each table had enough space for roughly four ponies, but they were pressed together in rows of six. There were no benches or chairs for comfort; ponies sat in the dirt to consume their meals.
The crowds flowed towards the large central tent set up at the north end. The pleasant aroma of cooked asparagus wafted out from the central tent, making Fluttershy’s mouth water. There wasn’t a line so much as a general idea of a line composed out of the swarming mass which moved in and out of the central tent, then broke up in different directions. Some ponies stopped at the dozen or so smaller tents situated around the large one while others made their way to the tables with their trays of food.
Most of the ponies were dressed in a makeshift suit of barding crafted from applewood slats nailed to a leather shroud and roped together. Their helmets and chest plates were single carved pieces of applewood crafted in a crude mimicry of a Royal Guard’s. On the breastplate, each suit bore the marking of a large hexagonal diamond flanked by five smaller equally sized diamonds.
Fluttershy knew the symbol well; the breastplates depicted the Elements of Harmony that most of the founding Shieldmares had once used against Nightmare Moon. Applejack had called it a symbol of unity. Rarity said the design would keep them from losing their way; they could always see it and remember why they were doing this. Fluttershy had nothing to contribute to the conversation; she had spent the day contemplating how to tell her friends that she couldn’t be a part of this.
How very long ago that seemed.
“Wow,” Flash Sentry commented. “You know, I heard there were a lot of them, but to actually see it like this….”
“Regretting that we came and got you?” Sunset asked.
“No, not at all. It’s just impressive, that’s all. It’s no Fort Cowlick, but to think they built it out of a small town in Canterlot’s shadow is astonishing.”
“Are we going to get in line?” Trixie asked impatiently, tapping her hoof.
“I thought I’d wait for the crowd to finish,” Fluttershy admitted. “You can all go if you’d like, though. I’ll just wait here.”
“Are you serious?” Sunset asked. “Girl, these ponies worship you. They went to war because of you. Here, come with me and I’ll show you how to part a crowd.”
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide with panic. “I-I-I don’t want to be a bother—”
But there was no stopping her. “MAKE WAY!!!” she called out, shoving through the ranks of Shieldmares. “Important pony, coming through! Out of the way, small fries, you’re holding up the line.”
“Excuse you?” One Shieldmare demanded. “Who do you think you are?”
“Me? I’m Sunset Shimmer, Princess of the Fall Formal and personal entourage to Fluttershy. Now you tell me, why does a two-bit grunt think she’s in a position to keep Her Merciful from the front?”
The Shieldmare glowered. “I don’t care who you are. You can’t cut the line like this.”
“What’s your name?”
“Excuse me?”
“You name. It’s not a hard question; even a simpleton like you can get it.”
“Why should I tell you my name?”
Sunset grinned devilishly. “Because I want a name to give to Captain Applejack when I tell her who was responsible for making Fluttershy go hungry.”
Behind her, Trixie emerged with a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, marching her forward. Fluttershy’s beet-red cheeks hung low. Her eyes were on the verge of tears. “I am so sorry about this,” she choked out in a half-sobbing plea.
The Shieldmare gave out an exasperated sigh. “Fine,” she grumbled. “Go ahead.”
“Thank you,” Sunset Shimmer replied, flanking Fluttershy from the other side and moving her through the crowd. “Was that so hard?”
“That was the worst experience of my life,” Fluttershy whispered, staring in horror at the tray of broccoli and asparagus before her. She sat close to Flash in the middle of a row of tables that they’d found mostly unoccupied.
“And you’ve been in solitary,” Trixie observed from across the table.
“Three times.”
“I can’t believe you did that,” Flash said to Sunset. “What the hoof is wrong with you?!”
Sunset splayed herself unusually across the ground, resting on her hip and letting her hind legs splay out behind her. She propped herself up on the table by the knee of her foreleg, taking a chomping bite out of her broccoli in response to Flash’s question. She clearly savored the meal, making him wait for her to finish chewing before dignifying his question. “It’s called Loyalty, Beefcake. Besides, I didn’t see you stopping me.”
Flash’s looked sheepishly to Fluttershy. “You know I can’t make a scene,” he whispered. “I’m not exactly welcome here, and ponies are already staring at us as it is. What if they recognize me?”
“Pfft!” Sunset laughed in Flash’s face. “You think anyone actually cares about you?! Without that armor, you’re just some guy with weird hair. Speaking of which, seriously, you look like your mane’s giving praises to the sun. What exactly is going on there?”
“I do not have weird hair,” Flash protested. To Fluttershy, he asked, “My mane isn’t weird, right?”
“It’s scruffy,” Fluttershy observed. “Like an otter.”
“Yeah!” Flash fired back. “I’m like an otter!” After a few seconds, he turned to Fluttershy. “Otter is good, right?”
“It’s adorable.”
Flash stood up, pounding his forelegs on the table. “I am a mighty otter!” he bellowed across the mess area. Ponies at the table around them grew silent. More and more befuddled eyes turned to stare at the lunatic pony screaming into the evening sky.
“Do a trick!” a voice called out from the crowd.
“Uh, sorry,” Flash said, blushing furiously. He sat back down, trying to shrink down and disappear amidst his friends.
“Okay, now they’re staring at you,” Trixie said dryly. “Honestly, you should have—” Trixie looked up to see a dozen Shieldmares now surrounding their table.
Rainbow Dash clapped her hoof on Flash Sentry’s shoulder. “Hey, Otter Guy! How’s it going?”
Flash blanched. “It’s, uh…. It’s fine. We’re all fine.”
“Great! We’re fine too. Hope you won’t mind if we have a seat. The mess is pretty crowded.” At her signal, the Shieldmares took up places at the table, each carrying her own tray. Rainbow Dash sat beside Fluttershy, but then turned in diagonally to face the group. “So, what were we talking about?”
Twilight had thought that a private tent away from the Shieldmares would have made this conversation easier. She now found herself regretting that decision. Applejack, her Applejack, had said nothing to her for over an hour and yet Twilight couldn’t help but feel as if she was under interrogation. Somehow, this Applejack managed to intimidate her more than the Shield Captain.
The tent itself was sparsely decorated. A folding table stood in the middle of the room covered with maps and a few books. Crates sat in one corner, stuffed full of various knickknacks. Just under the side furthest from the door were a trio of lonely cots, one of which Applejack had managed to find space for and set up against the side furthest from the door.
Applejack lay perpendicular to the cot, dangling her forelegs off the edge. She didn’t move or speak or make any indication that she was even alive, save for the subtle motion of her head to follow Twilight. She silently absorbed Twilight’s story, giving no clues or suggestions as to her thought process.
Twilight, on the other hoof, moved quite a lot. She was a nervous wreck, pacing around the table in the center and using the motion to help collect her thoughts. She gestured frantically with her hooves for emphasis, inadvertently striking the table more than once.
“And that’s when we came here,” Twilight said, concluding her tale. She had hoped that finishing the story would coax some thought or advice or even chastisement out of Applejack, but still nothing penetrated that iron stubbornness. A minute passed in awkward silence while Applejack’s expression remained unchanged. “That’s it,” Twilight said, trying in vain to get the conversation moving. “That’s all I know.”
What was she thinking? Was she angry with Twilight for getting so mixed up in all of this that she’d lost sight of getting home? Did she feel abandoned or betrayed because Twilight hadn’t tried harder to find a way back? Or had she given up on Twilight ever returning, and was now disappointed to find her here?
That thought terrified Twilight more than anything in this Equestria had. Was there still a place for her at Sweet Apple Acres? In that moment, Twilight wanted to go to her. She wanted to lay with her and embrace her. To reassure her that she still loved her, that she wanted to come home, felt like the right thing to do.
But would Applejack accept it? What would happen from there? Would Twilight be expected to leave all of this behind and go home with her?
Did Twilight want to leave this behind and go home with her?
Well, yes. Absolutely, without question, yes. She wanted to escape from this awful world and never look back. She wanted to curl up in her own bed with a steaming mug of ginseng tea, a plate of Granny Smith’s special recipe apple fritters, and her favorite copy of A Legacy Lost: The Vanishment of Star Swirl the Bearded. Most of all, she just wanted to be in a world that wasn’t tearing itself apart at the seams. She wanted to be in the company of ponies who didn’t define themselves by fear and resentment so that she could remember what it felt like not to feel afraid and resentful.
She could do it, of course. She wouldn’t even need the Mirror anymore. She knew from the moment she laid eyes on Spike that Discord had shown her the way home. Through chaos magic, she could carve her own path through the Space Between, following the magical thread that connected him to the Princess Celestia of their reality. She could do it right now, in fact. She would just whisk herself, Spike, and Applejack away and never look back.
And then she would never forgive herself for turning her back on friends who needed her. Twilight fluffed her wings idly as they weighed on her mind. Somehow, in some way, her trials and ordeals had made her worthy of these wings. She was still wrapping her head around that. She didn’t understand what it all meant, but she knew that it meant something. These wings weren’t a prize, they were a responsibility. They were something to live up to.
The pony who abandoned her friends in need to return to a comfortable life was a pony who didn’t deserve these wings. That pony was no better than the Acting Princess who dominated this world.
…
Well, maybe a little better. That Twilight had some issues to work out.
“Twilight,” Applejack said, her voice distant and solemn. This was it. Oh, horseapples, this was it. She wasn’t ready. She hadn’t even prepared an opening statement or counterarguments. She hadn’t even ascertained which argument they were going to have! She— “We gotta help these ponies.”
“Y… yeeeeeeeesssssss….”
At once, every thought and feeling in Twilight’s head collided with one another. “Yes,” she said again, blinking rapidly while her mind calibrated what just happened. “Yes!” she shouted once more, closing the distance to Applejack. “Yes, that’s exactly right! These ponies need our help. We-We can’t just leave them like this. They-They need towels—no, towels aren’t helpful. Why would I say towels?”
“They need what we had to find for ourselves,” Applejack finished for her. She reached out to Twilight, lightly brushing her left foreleg.
“Yes! That! The magic of friendship.” Twilight lifted her right hoof and pressed it to her chest, feeling her heart beating under it. “It’s something that I think they lost sight of a long time ago. You know, I have sometimes wondered what my life would be like if we’d never become friends, but this is….” Twilight swallowed hard.
“It’s a nightmare is what it is.”
“It is. I know there’ve always been some resentments here or there between different groups of ponies. We’re not always nice to each other. We don’t always get along. Sometimes we make mistakes. And there are always going to be groups and factions here and there. But war? Ponies fighting ponies with weapons instead of words? I always thought we’d moved past that. I thought we were over that. It’s not supposed to be possible, not in Equestria.”
Applejack nodded along. “Y’know, sugar, my Aunt Orange likes to say a thing. She says, ‘There’s two kinds of you. There’s the pony y’are on your best day, then there’s the pony y’are on your worst. Now, the best side of you is always one bad day away from bein’ your worst. But do remember that your worst is one good day away from becomin’ your best.”
“You’re saying we need to give Equestria a good day?” Twilight asked, making no effort to mask the confusion in her voice. “What would that even mean?”
“I’m sayin’ where they are might not be so far from us as you might reckon. Now, I don’t know how we get them back on the side of harmony. Truth be told, I’m a mite stumped on this. But what I do know is you. Twilight Sparkle’s never met a puzzle she couldn’t crack. Whatever we do to fix this, it’s gotta start at you.”
“My well of ideas isn’t as full as I would have liked either,” Twilight admitted. “Sunset Shimmer thinks that if she can become an alicorn, she can end the war overnight. The way she explained it, as an Alicorn Princess, she would become the rightful heir to the throne.”
Applejack blinked. “Is that how that works?”
“I don’t know. Nopony knows. We’ve never needed to replace Princess Celestia. There isn’t a system for it. There never has been. But Sunset is convinced that if she walks right into the Crystal Palace as an alicorn, everypony will accept her as the legitimate ruler.”
“Alright, so that’s what she thinks,” Applejack said, mulling over the suggestion in her mind. “Now why don’t y’tell me what you think?”
“You don’t want to know what I think,” Twilight said quickly. She couldn’t mask the bitterness in her voice as she spoke.
“Twilight….”
Twilight sighed. “The truth, the honest truth, is that I think it was a mistake to help her escape from Bridle Rock. I might have unleashed something terrible into this world and I don’t know what I can do to fix it. Sunset Shimmer is a time bomb waiting to go off.”
“You don’t mean that,” Applejack said quietly.
“But I do. I’ve spent the last few days with her and it’s hard to escape the fact that Sunset Shimmer is evil. She’s cruel and she’s mean and she’s manipulative. I tried to explain the values of harmony to her and now she’s faking kindness and decency to try and trick the laws of physics into making her an alicorn, but it’s not working because she’s so mean. As soon as she realizes that it’s never going to happen, she’s going to do something dramatic and terrible.”
Applejack nodded, absorbing everything Twilight was telling her. “And you reckon that leavin’ her to rot in that awful place would have been the right thing to do?” Twilight caught the disapproval in Applejack’s voice.
“I don’t know.” Twilight closed her eyes. She sat down on her haunches beside the cot, putting her left hoof on Applejack’s right. “I don’t know what’s right anymore. This place is nothing like our world and I’m not even sure if it’s right to try to hold them to our standards. What if we’re on the wrong side of this? Things are so different here. Who are we to tell them what’s right and wrong?”
“Ponies that know better,” Applejack answered softly. “Our world didn’t burn down like theirs ‘cause we made our choices right. We stuck to our values even when it was hard and spent each and every day tryin’ to learn that right from wrong y’mentioned.”
“We set Discord free,” Twilight asserted. “We might have to pay for that. And-and who knows what horrible things Sunset Shimmer might be doing in the human world because I decided to leave her there? What if that was a mistake too? Just because it seems to be working out for us now doesn’t mean it will last.”
“Is that right?” Applejack asked, pulling her hoof away. “That what was runnin’ through your head when they put you in there? Were you standin’ there sayin’, ‘Eeyup, this seems fair.’”
Twilight raised her forelegs defensively. “Okay, that doesn’t count. They thought I was a changeling. That was a mistake that anypony could have made in their position. If I’d actually been who they thought I was, their reaction would have been completely justified!” She considered her words for a second. “Well, maybe not completely. At least three-fifths justified.”
“And what about Fluttershy?” Applejack asked sharply. “You said they locked her up for treason. Treason, Twilight! You know when the last time a pony’s been jailed for treason was?”
Twilight held up her hoof diplomatically. “Okay, yes, that’s bad. What happened to Fluttershy is terrible. I’m not going to argue about that. But she’s one data point. What about Sunset? Trixie? Iron Will? The Flimflam brothers? Well, one of them anyway. Can you honestly tell me that Equestria wouldn’t be better off without them in it?”
“You know that ain’t—”
“I don’t know what I know anymore. Every day feels a little bit less certain than the last. I just don’t want to rush into any judgments. Fluttershy should never have been there, I agree completely with you about that. But overall? Maybe the good Bridle Rock does outweighs the bad.” Scowling somberly, Twilight looked Applejack in the eye. “Maybe we’re the ones who have it wrong. Maybe it’s naïve to think that a pony can change.”
“I don’t rightly know,” Applejack admitted. “I ain’t got the first idea of what’s the right way to lead to a kingdom. All I really know right now is you.” She tapped Twilight’s chest with her hoof. “And if you’re askin’ me, then I get to thinkin’ there’s a reason you’re an alicorn and that other you ain’t. I’d bet my life on there bein’ no mistake about that.”
Twilight hesitated, weighing Applejack’s words in her mind. “Thank you,” she said somberly. Applejack didn’t have the experience to weigh in too heavily on geopolitical affairs, Twilight knew, but there was wisdom in her assessment all the same.
Twilight took a seat beside the cot, putting her hoof on Applejack’s. “What about you?” she asked gently. “I don’t know how long we’re going to have to be here. Don’t you need to get back to Sweet Apple Acres? This isn’t an afternoon job like the Crystal Empire.”
“Oh, we got that covered,” Applejack explained. “Once we got to camp, Spike sent another letter to Princess Celestia, givin’ her the what’s what. Takes a while to get there and back, but she’s sure to have got it by now.”
“But what about you, though?” Twilight insisted. She slowly rubbed Applejack’s hoof back and forth. “I know you don’t feel comfortable being away from the farm. This isn’t the life you wanted; I think you’ve made that pretty clear. If you need to go back, I’ll understand.”
Applejack took a deep breath. “Eeyup, we’re doin’ this,” she muttered. Before Twilight could inquire further, Applejack said, “Twilight, since the day I met you, I felt like I was bein’ split ‘twixt two worlds.”
Applejack scowled at herself in hesitation. After a few seconds, she nodded her head to the side. “No, that’s a lie. I just lied to us. That was goin’ on long before you came into my life. See, there’s the one Applejack, she ain’t never happier than when she’s tillin’ the soil, family at her side. She takes care of Apple Bloom and sees that little filly off to school each and every day. She brings in the harvest and grinds her hooves makin’ pies and fritters and all sorts of tasty treats to sell at market.
“But then there’s another Applejack. She goes on wild adventures to the Everfree Forest and the Crystal Empire. She fights timberwolves and changelings and every once in a blue moon, a nutty chaos spirit. She likes sleepin’ in them fancy royal guestrooms and it made her mighty proud when they put her face on a mural. She also likes hearin’ them fancy big-city accents. They’re like silk for the ears.”
“What are you saying?” Twilight asked. “Is this an apology?”
“I ain’t sayin’ my sorries, sugarcube. I’ve said them enough and they ain’t never amounted to a hill of beans. Beggin’ your pardon’s just an empty promise if’n it don’t get kept. This is….” She stopped, mulling the words over. “What I’m tryin’ to say is….” Lowering her head, she sighed frustratedly. “Y’know, I might just be ramblin’. Never you mind.”
“What is it?” Twilight asked.
“Look, I had an idea in my head for what I should say when I saw you, but now I reckon it might just be corny.”
Twilight lifted Applejack’s chin with a hoof to bring her back to eye level. “I spent the last week of my life sleeping on a pile of straw in a damp cell. Everything was just cold enough to keep us from getting comfortable. If we complained, they stuffed us in an even smaller and colder room and left us in there for hours to freeze. I could use a little bit of corniness right now.”
“Hoo doggy.” Applejack sighed. Blushing furiously, she said, “Alright, here it goes. You can’t laugh at me, though.” She cleared her throat. “Dear Princess Twilight. Here is what I learned today.”
Instantly, Twilight’s face lit up. “Applejack….” She kept her left hoof on Applejack’s but raised the right to her heart, struggling to contain the feelings welling up inside of it.
“I mean it, now. You laugh at me and I ain’t doin’ this!” Applejack said sharply. She closed her eyes and continued. “Well, it ain’t today or nothin’ I learned it, but close enough. I learned that I don’t gotta choose between the Applejack I want to be and the one I gotta be. There’s a piece of my heart at Sweet Apple Acres. Always has been. Bein’ there, workin’ the farm and bein’ with my family, that makes me happy. But there’s another piece right out here, doin’ what we’re doin’. Bein’ with you and helpin’ ponies out of a fix, that makes my life worth livin’.
“I learned with a little help from my Granny that sometimes a pony wears more than just the one hat and that’s an okay way to be. I don’t gotta choose one life or the other. Never have. Truth be told, I reckon I got a bright future ahead of me, just waitin’ for me to quit bein’ so stubborn and let it come.”
Applejack chuckled to herself. “Y’know, it’s funny. My Mama used to tell me--"
The thought was swiftly silenced by the sudden taste of Twilight on her lips. Twilight pressed her body weight into Applejack, capturing her in the embrace of pent-up passion. Her heart pounded like it hadn’t since before that terrible day at the farm. When she did break the kiss, she pressed her neck against Applejack’s. She rest her chin on the base of Applejack’s mane, feeling her warmth.
Applejack stammered. “Th-that, uh, that wasn’t what my Mama used to tell me….”
“I miss you,” Twilight whispered into Applejack’s ear. “I miss us. I’m tired of being mad. I don’t want to fight with you anymore, but I don’t want to lose you either. I wish we could go back to the way things were when we were happy.”
“Why can’t we?” Applejack asked earnestly.
“Because then nothing would change. Like it or not, this happened. I can’t let it go until I understand why. What do we take away from this? How do I stop this from happening again?”
“Sugar, I just told you what I learned.”
Twilight closed her eyes and sighed. “I know,” she said. “And I am so proud of you. But I haven’t learned anything. What if I’m the reason this happened?”
“You ain’t,” Applejack said quickly. “Sugar, this was all on me.”
“I-I know you say that, but it wasn’t just you.” Twilight pulled away from Applejack, resuming her pacing about the room. “It was Rarity too. And Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie. Probably not Fluttershy, but who knows? Maybe she secretly knew and she just didn’t want me to know she knew because she knew that if I knew that she knew then—”
“Twilight, you’re spiralin’ again.”
“Oh. Right.” Twilight stopped, turning to face Applejack again. “It’s just, maybe it’s not you. Or, at least, it’s not just you.” She closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye, she could see a malevolent orange glow burning through the crack in a violet horn. “What if the problem is me?”
Applejack stepped down to the floor, leaving her cot. “Sugar,” she said sowly on approach. With her hoof, she traced a line down Twilight’s neck just to the left of her mane’s base, where she knew Twilight to be the most sensitive. “You’re the one of all of us that ain’t done nothin’ wrong on this.”
“But what if I’m not?” Twilight insisted. “What do I learn so that this doesn’t happen again? Where’s the lesson?”
“Why’s there gotta be a lesson?” Applejack asked. “Why can’t it just be a thing that happened to you?”
A frustrated sigh escaped Twilight’s lips. “Ugh, you sound like Discord,” she muttered.
“Beg pardon?”
“Discord. He keeps throwing that at me. ‘Nyeh, why does everything need a purpose, Twilight? Why can’t a rose bush just be a rose bush, Twilight?’” She punctuated her disdain by blowing a raspberry.
“Well, why can’t it?”
“Because life doesn’t work that way. Everything has a causal origin. Something has to change and that doesn’t just mean you. If I’m doing something wrong, then I need to stop so that my friends won’t ever turn on me again.” With pleading eyes, Twilight uttered, “I need to understand why I’m a bad friend. Then maybe I can figure out how to start forgiving all of you.”
Applejack sighed. “Look, I think you might be barkin’ up the wrong tree on this, but if there’s anythin’ I can do to help, I’m with you.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said, pressing herself once more into Applejack. She reared onto her hind legs and grasped Applejack’s neck with her forelegs, hugging her tightly.
With one foreleg, Applejack returned the embrace. “What can I do for you?” she asked delicately.
“You’re already doing it.” Twilight released Applejack. “What I need right now is for you to just be you.”
In her mind’s eye, she saw worlds she’d never known. She saw Appleoosa in ruins, its buildings flattened and scattered by some terrible explosion. She saw a strange contraption with a million dials channeling a bolt of lightning into a strange table, upon which lay a pony-shaped figure under a sheet. She set out a tray full of delicious pastries in a classroom; a gift for her son’s first day of school.
And she saw lovers. So many Special Someponies across so many lives. Applejack. Rainbow Dash. Flash Sentry. Some orange stallion she’d never met before wearing a blue star-spangled cape, his face decorated by a pair of spectacles and a nervous smile. Rarity. Fluttershy. Big Mac. Trixie. Sunset Shimmer.
These were the hallmarks of lives she’d never lived, each blurring into one another. Images that came faster and faster with each passing day. Her mind palace was filled to the brim with strangely-colored threads that all led to another Twilight Sparkle. Inside her brain, it was never quiet anymore. There was still only Twilight in that special place, but she had become a cacophony.
“I need you to keep me sane.”
Applejack said nothing. She sat on her haunches and pulled Twilight into her chest. Twilight accepted the embrace and lay there listening to Applejack’s heartbeat, feeling as if her own body was resonating in time with it. Her mind palace remained as loud as ever, but with Applejack to focus on, she could safely step outside of it.
This was what tonight would be, she decided. It’d be a night for reunion and togetherness. There was still so much fear in her heart, but fear could have its day tomorrow. There was always another day for fear. Tonight, she wanted only the sense of love and togetherness that a family could bring.
She pulled her head back, looking into Applejack’s eyes. She was more afraid of this pony than any she’d ever met. She was afraid because she loved this pony more than she’d known was possible. Fear and love went hoof in hoof, it seemed. Perhaps there’d be something in that for the Friendship Journal once all was said and done. It wasn’t her lesson, of course, but it was an interesting observation all the same.
She would make a mental note of that if only her mind would shut up for two seconds and let her write one.
“I like your flower, by the by,” Applejack whispered.
“My what?” Twilight blinked, trying to figure out what Applejack could possibly be referencing.
Applejack brushed her mane away from her ear and it was then that she realized what it was. Applejack was trying to get a better look at the jeweled flower she’d found at Sensible Beach, which she’d managed to forget was even there. “It’s mighty purdy.”
“Is that right?” Twilight asked with a giggle. Twilight asked with a giggle. Even after all this time, Applejack’s dialect still brought a smile to her lips. Like silk for the ears. “It’s purdy, is it?”
“’Mighty’ purdy,” Applejack clarified. “That’s four times the purdies as your normal purdy.”
“It is not,” Twilight said, grinning from ear to ear.
Applejack nodded her head to the side. “Fine, three and a half, but y’carry the cute and round up.”
Twilight smirked. “You stole that from Big Mac.”
Applejack scoffed in mock indignation. “Hey, I’ll have you know I had some fancy mathematics of my own once upon a time. I just ain’t used ‘em in a dog’s year. I’m rusty.”
“Sure,” Twilight said, nodding her head slightly. “But you stole that line from Big Mac.”
“It was m’daddy’s, actually,” Applejack admitted. “Used to say it to me when I got mad at my homework.”
“Oh,” Twilight said somberly. “Well, I think it’s a beautiful sentiment. Thank you.” Twilight sank back down into the sound of Applejack’s heartbeat. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. She focused on it, trying to meditate on her problems away from the roaring crowd in her head. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. “Can I ask you something?” Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
“No, I didn’t quit doin’ math ‘cause of the expulsion. I just never saw the use and let it slide.”
“Not that.” Twilight sighed. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. That’s right, just keep focusing on that. “Have you ever been hurt by somepony you cared about?”
“I was one time,” Applejack admitted. “Pony I thought was my best friend in the whole wide world, and then it turned out all he wanted was to get with me. He turned real mean soon as he found out I wouldn’t go with him.”
“Sound Stage,” Twilight remembered. “I remember.” Thump-thump. Thump-thump. “Wow, that’s actually a lot worse than what Rarity and the others did to me. That is terrible. What could possibly make a pony act like that?”
“Some ponies don’t take to rejection so well,” Applejack said with a shrug.
“But why? Why ruin a friendship over….” Twilight couldn’t even finish the sentence. Already, she could feel the answer forming in her gut.
“You let this happen to me!”
Because it hurt. To care so much about a pony and to feel let down or abandoned was an ugly feeling. It had torn Twilight up inside in ways she was still feeling today.
“I never hated her, Twilight,” Luna said to her, walking the halls of the Royal Palace. “Not truly. I felt angry and hurt by her and I allowed that feeling to take control of me.”
How many times had the fear of being unwanted wreaked its havoc over Equestria?
“I don’t rightly know, sugarcube,” Applejack answered. “You might ask Rares about it, though, if’n you remember when we get home.”
“Wait, Rarity?!” Twilight asked, horror dripping from her voice. “She’s been accosted by a pony that didn’t respect her boundaries too?”
“Uh….”
“Royal Pin! Why, I’m so happy I found—I-I mean, ran into you! I mean, I certainly haven’t been wandering around for six hours, that’d be crazy. Now, I know that the last 47 times I asked you to accompany me, you said you were washing your mane! So that’s why I brought two gallons of shampoo and a washbasin! We can wash our manes TOGETHER.”
“Somethin’ like that.”
“How many times has this happened?” The implications were staggering. She looked up at Applejack, who she could tell was trying so hard to answer these questions but probably hadn’t ever thought about them before. “Is this feeling a normal part of friendship?” she asked herself as much as Applejack.
“I wouldn’t say normal,” Applejack replied. “Normal means there ain’t nothin’ wrong with it, and that means ponies that act on it ain’t never doin’ no wrong by others. I don’t like the taste of that.”
Twilight nodded. She could agree with that logic. The behaviors exhibited by ponies that shared this feeling with her had been various degrees of awful. “What about ‘common’, then?”
“’Common’ sounds right. I can live with ‘common’.”
Common was a good word. Sound Stage had felt let down by Applejack rejecting his romantic advances. This, in turn, led him to lash out and hurt Applejack, who surely felt let down and abandoned by his actions. Did every pony feel this way at some point in their life? And if they did, then was the feeling itself bad? Or was it merely how some ponies acted on it that was bad?
“How did you forgive him?” Twilight asked. “Sound Stage, I mean. How did you let go of the pain in your heart?”
Applejack’s face turned pale. “…uh….” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, y’see, sugarcube….”
“Oh.” Twilight’s face soured. “I-I see,” she said, standing up.
“Twilight….”
“You know what, it’s fine!” She exclaimed, putting on her best fake smile. “We probably shouldn’t be talking about this anyway. It’s family night! So we should just go get Spike and have FAMILY NIGHT! It’s fine.”
Applejack rose, stepping towards Twilight. “Sugar, if we need to talk about—”
“Family night!” Before Applejack could respond, Twilight vanished through the entry flap and took off into the camp.
Twilight walked closely beside Applejack along the road between tents. Firefly lanterns hung on posts to illuminate the path. Although her cloak worked to keep the evening chill from her sides and neck, she could still feel it pressing on around her face. She wore her hood down and kept her head low to avoid attracting attention.
Twilight knew that the Captain had spoken with the Shield about their situation. She had not been privy to that conversation, however, and despite the relative assurance that there wouldn’t be any trouble, she still felt uncomfortable being exposed in public. Each moment, she felt as if a pony might jump up and shout her name across the camp. She walked quickly and avoided making eye contact with any of the ponies she passed, dreading any attention they might give her.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if this was how Fluttershy felt all the time.
“What are we gonna do about Cardinal?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence that had hung in the air between them since they’d left their tent. “We got a lot goin’ on here and all, but we also got that low-down snake in the grass back home. It might be for the best we get to makin’ our way back to the Mirror. We can take care of Cardinal and then come right back and—”
“That’s not going to be an option,” Twilight asserted. “If I understand the principles that brought you here correctly, you were able to find me because the magic of friendship connects me to you and the others. That’s a magical connection we share between us, but that only lasts so long as one of us is here. As soon as the three of us depart through the Mirror, this world becomes one tiny pebble among infinite possibilities. We’d never find it again.”
“So you’re sayin’ a pony has to stay here if’n we want to come back?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Applejack sighed. Clearly this was not the answer she’d been hoping for. Reluctantly, she said, “Might be best we split back up again. One of us sneaks back into the Empire and gets at that Mirror, and then….” She stopped, noticing a disapproving look on Twilight’s face. “Alright, what’s wrong with that one?”
“There’s nothing wrong necessarily,” Twilight admitted. “Although splitting up might be an exercise in futility. You haven’t been here very long. If anypony was going to stay here, it should be me. I’ve at least spent time with these ponies; I do know a few of them. However, and I mean no offense when I say this, but getting Applejack into the Crystal Palace would be next to impossible.
“You can see where that presents a problem. Now, there is a third option. There might be another way to get out of here, but I would need to take Spike with me to do it. And it would have to be me that left through this avenue as well, so that still doesn’t solve the problem.”
Twilight could feel Applejack’s spirits fading with that assessment. “You’re sayin’ I ain’t much use here nor there then?” She sighed. “Didn’t figure for gettin’ stuck here. Even had a whole plan worked out to make sure we could find our way home before we left.”
“No, it’s okay,” Twilight assured her. She nuzzled against Applejack’s shoulder, then kept walking past her. “You’re already helping. Besides, the others might actually be safer with you here.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. Matching Twilight’s pace, she asked, “How do you figure?”
“The last time we fought Cardinal, he imprisoned us in our minds using the Elements of Harmony. By channeling the magic of friendship through us and using us as vessels, he was able to take control of both us and the Elements themselves.”
“I remember.”
“What you probably don’t remember is the conversation he and I had after he took control of you. He told me that he didn’t actually need me for his plan. He intended to wear the Element of Magic himself, then use it to control the rest of the Elements through the bond of friendship he’d formed with the group over the few days he was with us. I was a redundancy, but he did need each of you. The plan couldn’t work without Cardinal, the Elements, and five Element-Bearing ponies.”
“And right now, he’s got four,” Applejack concluded, finishing Twilight’s train of thought. “You’re right. We beat him by the skin of our teeth last time ‘cause we had you there workin’ at the problem from the outside. Right now, best we can do is make sure he can’t strike again ‘til we got a chance to come home and put our hoof down.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t already,” Twilight admitted. “Last time, he made his move in less than a week.”
Proudly, Applejack boasted, “It ain’t like this is our first rodeo, sugarcube. We were careful. Got everypony on the same page, made sure we knew what we were dealin’ with.”
Twilight scowled at this answer. “Why would that stop him? Applejack, we’re talking about a shapeshifting illusion. He doesn’t have an actual body. If he wanted to make another attempt, he could present himself to the group as a brand new pony and we’d never know the difference. The way his magic works, he could even be two or three different ponies. At the same time.”
“We only ever saw him as you.”
Twilight stopped. “ME?! Why would he be ME?! You didn’t tell me he was ME!” She convulsed in horror at the image. “Celestia, that’s like having Discord walking around in my skin. Do I want to know what kind of weird and awful things he did with my image?”
“He didn’t do nothin’ with….” Applejack paused to reconsider her words. “What kind of horrible are you thinkin’ of?”
“The answer needs a qualifier?!” Twilight plopped down on her haunches, her face turning beet red. “Well. Good news! We’ve resolved our conundrum from earlier. The pony who remains here has been determined by default to be me, because I can never go home again.”
“It ain’t like that!” Applejack exclaimed. “The only pony she was weird and awful with was me. I think.”
“THAT’S NOT BETTER.”
“Sugar….”
“Do you know what I miss? I miss yesterday. Yesterday was a good day. I met Zecora. I only had one evil doppelganger in my life. I found a cool beach. That was nice.”
Applejack glanced over Twilight’s head at the crowd of ponies across the way. “Sugar, I don’t wanna alarm you but those ponies look to be starin’ at us.”
“They’re all staring at us. They have been since we left the tent, because I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Evil Clones! We’re having an Evil Twilight Bargain Sale. Buy two and get a third one free!”
“Who’s the third one?”
“Give her time, I’m sure she’s just around the corner. There can’t be an Evil Applejack or Evil Spike or Evil Fluttershy. No, it’s just Evil Twilights as far as the eye can see!”
“Evil Fluttershy?” Applejack grinned at the mental image. “What, she’d put teacups on your end table without usin’ a coaster?”
“Upside-down.” To Twilight’s complete dismay, Applejack laughed openly at the image. “What?!” she asked indignantly. “What’s so funny?”
Applejack took a few seconds to compose herself. “What’s funny is you, Sugarcube. I’ve missed bein’ ‘round the Not-Evil Twilight.” Before Twilight could say anything more, Applejack gave her a peck behind the ear. That seemed enough to placate her for the moment. “So y’reckon she’d sneak in your house and butter the wrong side of toast?”
“There’s a right side of toast?”
“Does a pig lie in shade? ‘Course there’s a right side. It’s the side y’ain’t holdin’ in your hoof.”
“Oh.” Twilight had honestly never considered the ramifications of holding toast before. “In that case, Fluttershy’s thorough. I’m sure she’d butter both sides of it. One side as an evil gesture to make sure you get butter on your hoof, and the other side so that your buttered hoof experience doesn’t ruin your breakfast.”
“Wait, why are we at the mess?” Twilight asked. This crowded dining area was the last place she wanted to be right now; hundreds of judging eyes waited to get a good look at her. If any of them spotted her, something terrible might happen.
“The what now?” Applejack answered.
“The mess,” Twilight repeated as though the answer were obvious.
“Well, I reckon it’s a mite messy, but you try keepin’ tidy with so many ponies all at once. Hospitality only gets you so far, Twilight. Come’s a time you just gotta wait for a lull in the action and then put in a bit of elbow grease.”
Twilight stared blankly at Applejack. She took a moment to register what her partner had just said. “N-no….” Twilight responded, shaking her head. “It’s what the Royal Guard calls their dining area.”
Applejack snorted. “Well, what kind of high-falutin’ no-sense wordin’ is that?! A thing means what it means. What’s so hard about sayin’ the words ‘cookout’?”
“The Guard uses a lot of their own terminology, actually,” Twilight explained.
Grumpily, Applejack replied, “Then they should learn to talk normal like regular folk.” This earned her a snicker from Twilight. “What? What’d I say?’
Twilight smiled. Shaking her head in bemusement, she--
“Hey, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash floated in the air just over a table in the crowded mess, waving both of her forelegs. “TWILIGHT, OVER HERE!!! TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!”
Twilight winced at each exclamation of her name, hugging tighter to Applejack. She could practically feel the sharp glares of Shieldmares around her, all turning to stare at the threat in their presence. She felt like a salad bar set to be descended upon by a ravenous herd.
With Applejack beside her, Twilight cantered quickly towards Rainbow Dash’s table. As she got close, she overheard Rainbow Dash whisper to the others, “That’s them. Everypony be cool.”
Once she’d arrived in the safety of the herd, she hissed, “Don’t shout my name like that! There are--” It was then that she took notice of approximately two dozen Shieldmares seated around her friends.
Every pony at the table had a wooden mug in front of them. Some had trays with partially-eaten meals. Six mugs huddled together in the center of the table, still filled to the brim with frothing brown liquid.
“Hey, it’s cool,” Rainbow Dash replied, waving her hoof to indicate that it was no big deal. “We had a meeting. Everypony knows what’s up.”
Twilight glowered. “It doesn’t feel ‘cool’. Half the camp seems to be deciding whether or not to throw me in chains.”
“Nopony wants to do that,” Rainbow Dash said cheerfully, lowering herself back to her space at the table. She paused a moment, then clarified, “Okay, some ponies want to do that. But it’s just a few. Hundred. So relax! You’re with the good guys now. Have some cider!” She gestured to the mugs in the center of the table.
“Cider that I went to the trouble to painstakingly get for everyone,” Sunset Shimmer clarified. Grinning at Twilight, she added, “I think that was very generous of me. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Uh…” Twilight and Applejack squeezed in between Trixie and Sunset at the table. “Yes, that was very thoughtful of you.” Rainbow Dash slid two mugs across the table for the pair.
“I told them about Bridle Rock,” Fluttershy said eagerly. She was practically glowing from excitement. “Applejack listened to everything I had to say. She even thanked me for the information! Thank you so much for helping me get here. I couldn’t have done this without—”
Fluttershy’s heartfelt gratitude was interrupted Applejack choking and coughing on her cider. She roughly shoved the mug away from her and turned away from the table, sputtering and choking up the contents she’d engulfed. “What in tarnation are y’all shovin’ down your gullets?” she demanded as soon as she could breathe. “No offense meant to anypony but I gotta ask, is this swill? I mean, actual swill? Did somepony empty out a washbucket into a mug on accident?”
Twilight gave her own mug a taste. The problem hit her tongue in an instant. Applejack was right, there was something terribly off about this cider. The rich, full flavor had been replaced by a watered-down tang. She stuck out her tongue in disgust.
“It came from that cider stand over there,” Flash Sentry answered, perplexed. “Is something wrong?”
Applejack stood up from the table, following Flash’s gesture. Twilight could feel Applejack’s entire body groan at the sight.
“Ladies and gentlecolts, step on up and get yourself a mug of the coolest, the spiciest, the most refreshing cider this side of what’s left of Equestria!” Flim. In the commotion of her reunion with Applejack, Twilight had forgotten that he was even here. “You’ll only find it here, folks! The one, the only Flimflam Brothers’ Apple Cider, coming at you straight from the Quick n’ Speedy Mobile Squeezy 3000! Ain’t that right, brother?” Flim addressed a wooden carving resting on his stand, vaguely shaped like a pony. He stood there blankly, as though waiting for the carving to reply.
“Eeyup, that explains it,” Applejack said dryly.
Twilight blinked. “Is he charging money for this?”
“Well, he was, but AJ told him he could have his profits or the safety of the camp. Now he just does that,” Rainbow Dash explained.
Lyra explained, “We do try to encourage coping mechanisms in ponies under our care. Flim’s not a Shieldmare, but he can still help out in his own way. We just have to put up with a few eccentricities. It’s still better for everypony than throwing him to the royals.”
“Ha!” Flim exclaimed in the distance, ending his long, uncomfortable pause. “That is absolutely right, brother! The Granny Smith Special is a great way to close out a hard day of training! Get it now while supplies last!”
“Wow.” Twilight turned away from the stand, rejoining the others at the table. “You know, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t like the Flimflam Brothers very much when I met them, but that’s still hard to watch. I actually feel bad for him.”
“I don’t,” Applejack noted dryly.
Though the others turned away, Fluttershy continued watching Flim going through his strange one-sided routine. “This feels wrong to me too,” she said simply. For four fugitives from Bridle Rock, there was nothing to say that wasn’t already shared within the group.
“Come on.” Flash nudged Fluttershy back towards the table. “We did what you wanted. It’s only a matter of time before the Shield sets the others free.”
Twilight looked to Rainbow Dash. “I wanted to ask about that. I’m sure you have a lot going on right now. I got to see some of the spells they’re using to defend Bridle Rock while I was there. If there’s anything I can do to he—”
“We’ll let you know,” Lyra said curtly.
Something about that answer didn’t sit right with Twilight. “I realize it might not be the most important task you have to deal with,” she added, carefully eying Lyra for a reaction.
“Are you nuts?!” That reaction, however, came from Rainbow Dash instead. Lyra merely sipped calmly from her mug while Rainbow Dash exploded. “This is the most important thing we have! I mean, not THE most important, but it’s up there! We’ve been trying to find that secret prison for moons!”
Twilight had thought that such a positive reassurance would put her fears aside, and yet Rainbow Dash’s exuberance bothered her in an entirely new way. “Why is that?” she asked.
“Uh, ‘cause it’s an evil hole in the ground where ponies are sent to rot,” Trixie answered for Rainbow Dash. “Trixie thought that was obvious.”
“There some reason they shouldn’t?” Applejack asked, as perplexed by Twilight’s line of questioning as the others.
“No,” Twilight admitted. She caught the wounded look Fluttershy was giving her. “I’m not opposed to it,” she said quickly. She looked to Flash. “I’ve just been thinking about what you said. I’ve never had to think about planning a war, thank Celesti--.” She slapped a hoof over her snout. She looked at the faces around her, each souring at her expression. “I am so sorry, that was insensitive of me.”
“At least you caught it,” Fluttershy said quietly.
Turning to Rainbow Dash, Lyra gestured at Twilight. “Did you hear that? That, right there. That’s what I’m talking about. She cares enough to apologize. Without even being prompted! That’s why I trust her.”
“Ugh, fine.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You made your point. Can we move on now?”
“Right,” Twilight said quietly. “As I was saying, I’ve been trying to figure out what war in Equestria even means. I know why Fluttershy cares so much about freeing the ponies trapped at Bridle Rock. What I don’t understand is why you do. I don’t see the ‘tactical value’, I guess. Is it about numbers? Are you hoping to recruit some of the ponies?”
The table around Twilight fell silent. “What?” Twilight asked. “Did I say something wrong again?”
“Did you seriously never notice?” Trixie asked.
“I suppose I didn’t. Was there something about Bridle Rock that I missed?”
“Twilight,” Fluttershy said delicately. “What do you think happened to Apple Bloom?”
“I don’t know. Something must have happened to her, because I saw the way Applejack….” Twilight stopped suddenly. The gears turned in her head, causing the answer to click into place. “No,” she whispered. She shook her head slowly, standing up from the table. “No, that can’t be right. She wouldn’t… I wouldn’t… We wouldn’t do that!”
Twilight glanced frantically around the table at her new friends, but none of the ponies seated would meet her gaze. These were ponies who had already faced and digested this horror, who’d had to make their peace with it in their own way. The crushing weight of solemn reality weighed down upon the group. Only Sunset Shimmer seemed unaffected as she downed her cider.
“It’s not just her,” Rainbow Dash said bitterly. “She took Scootaloo too. Shoved them both in a hole, Celestia knows where, and told everypony they were going to a ‘special school’ to teach them how to ‘get along with others’.”
“Why?” she pleaded for somepony to answer. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she’s evil,” Rainbow Dash replied bluntly. “She always has been. We just didn’t see it at first. We thought she was helping.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight shrieked. “Why would she lock them away?! They’re good fillies. They’d never hurt anypony. What could they have possibly done?!”
“Twilight,” Applejack said weakly, but she made no further effort to calm Twilight’s outburst. Her pale face and wide eyes showed that she, too, was wrestling with this new, fresh horror from a world under siege.
Applejack didn’t have to say anything further. Twilight knew what she wanted. She wanted Twilight to breathe. She wanted Twilight to control her feelings and not get carried away. But she was wrong. “No,” Twilight said sharply. “I’m not going to calm down because this is wrong. This is impossibly wrong. How could this have happened? How could anypony let this happen?”
“We have an agent on the inside,” Lyra explained calmly. She glanced at Applejack. “I believe you’ve met.”
“Uh, yeah,” Applejack whispered, still visibly shaken. “Just for two shakes of a dog’s tail.”
Lyra took another sip of her mug. “Our agent saw everything. The sad thing is, you’re not wrong. From what she’s told us, all those fillies wanted was to earn their Cutie Marks.”
Rarity paced frantically back and forth in the crystal throne room, her hoofsteps echoing off the crystal walls. Shining Armor stood at attention to the left, spear raised skyward, accompanied by a dozen Royal Guardponies and three Special Agents, with Sweetie Drops among them. Before the royal court, a trio of fillies known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders hugged tightly to one another, shivering in various degrees of nervousness.
Behind Rarity and Shining Armor, a flight of stairs covered in a purple rolled carpet led up the Crystal Throne. Twilight Sparkle sat with her head raised high, towering over the ponies below. She had said nothing since the Crusaders were brought into her presence, but her stern gaze had never left them.
“I just can’t understand what you were thinking?!” Rarity declared, the panic fresh on her voice. “Do you have any idea what you might have done?! This situation was delicate enough as it was!”
“We never meant for nothin’ to happen, honest!” Apple Bloom said, standing slightly ahead of her friends. “We were just tryin’ to earn our bobsleddin’ Cutie Marks. We thought we were far enough away that there wouldn’t be nopony out there.”
Sweetie Drops held up a report, reading off from it. “My agents can corroborate that no pony was present at the scene of the avalanche. However, a family of yaks were camping at the bottom of the mountain when both they and their equipment were submerged in the snow.”
“Prince Rutherford is calling this an unprovoked attack!” Rarity screeched. “He’s threatening us with war!”
“Are the yaks okay?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“None of the yaks have been seriously harmed,” Sweetie Drops reported. “A few scrapes and bruises here or there, but no major injuries.”
“That might not matter,” Shining Armor observed. “The yaks have been uncomfortable with having a large military presence on their border since we moved up here. If Prince Rutherford thinks the avalanche was just the opening volley of an assault, he may decide to make a pre-emptive strike against us. If that happens, we’ll have no choice but to go to war.”
Apple Bloom’s lip quivered. “We didn’t mean to hurt nopony,” she repeated.
Sweetie Drops glanced at the fillies over the top her report. “I think we all know you didn’t,” she said with a gentle smile. “This was an accident.”
“Right,” Rarity said, struggling to compose herself. “Right, of course. An accident. A potentially apocalyptic accident that could have terrible consequences for all of us. But we’ll manage, of course. We always have.” She looked to Shining Armor, desperation shining in her eyes. “Won’t we?”
Shining Armor cleared his throat. “The Guard’s numbers remain heavily depleted and our stores are low. We’re rebuilding, but it will take time. With half our standing military defecting, I don’t know if—"
“You’re talking about Applejack,” Twilight said, speaking up for the first time since the Crusaders’ hearing began. “Her violent mob was never part of our military. It was a mistake to even let them form in the first place; I hope you haven’t been counting them among our defenses.”
Shining Armor blinked. “I misspoke.” He gave a small bow of his head, trusting that the show of deference would appease his little sister’s temper. “What I meant to say was that the Guard is already stretched thin as it is. With all the skirmishes we’ve been having with Applejack’s forces, we don’t have the ponies or resources to fight a war on a second front. An invasion by Yakyakistan would mean the end of Equestria.”
“We’re really sorry,” Sweetie Belle insisted.
Rarity pulled her little sister in for a close hug. “Oh, Sweetie Belle, we know. You just wanted your Cutie Marks, but your timing couldn’t have been worse. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll find a way to manage all the same.”
“Why don’t you fillies run along and play?” Shining Armor suggested. “We still have a lot to discuss here and you don’t need to trouble yourselves with it.”
“Yes, sir,” Apple Bloom said somberly. As she and her friends made for the door, she stated, “We’re sorry again. We won’t do nothin’ like that again, promise. We--”
“Wait,” Twilight called out from her throne. She didn’t look at the fillies; her eyes were fixed on the reflective arm of the Crystal Throne. She said nothing for a few seconds, instead staring intently at her own reflection, at the burned visage and cracked horn that reminded her every day of the weight she bore. She would protect Equestria from any creature or any pony that dared threaten it.
Twilight rose from her throne and descended the carpeted stairs. “You,” she said, sizing up Apple Bloom with her good eye. “I know you. Why do I know you? Have we met?”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both shot nervous looks at Apple Bloom in the center. Apple Bloom gulped. “Uh, yes, ma’am,” she said earnestly. “Day of the Summer Sun Festival, way back when. We asked you to stay for brunch, me and the family, but--”
“You’re Applejack’s sister,” Twilight whispered. Her eyes grew wide with the revelation. This changed everything.
“Yes’m,” Apple Bloom said quietly. “We ain’t seen hide nor hair of her for a spell, but that’s the honest truth.”
“The war was cruel all of us, I’m afraid,” Rarity said sadly. “But I believe we can—"
“What did you say?” Twilight said suddenly.
Rarity blinked. “I said the war was cruel to—”
“No. Before.” Twilight sifted her hoof in the air, as if sorting through invisible files. “You said the timing couldn’t be worse.” She walked slowly, rounding the Cutie Mark Crusaders while thinking aloud. “Our forces could handle an attack by the yaks, but only by leaving us weak to Applejack’s insurgents. This avalanche pinned us between two hostile forces.”
Shining Armor was the first to follow Twilight’s train of thought. “You don’t think….”
Rarity was the next to get there. “Darling, these are fillies. They don’t even have their cutie marks yet! They couldn’t possibly--”
“Seal the room,” Twilight snapped at Sweetie Drops. The earth pony stood motionless, stunned by the force of Twilight’s demand. The report clenched in her foreleg visibly shook. Despite her inaction, the Guardponies behind her moved quickly, using their magic to pull the doors shut.
“She put you up to this,” Twilight said; by the tone of her voice, it was clearly a statement, not a question. “When did she contact you?” she demanded. “Did she plan this? How long has she been plotting against Equestria?!”
“I told you the truth!” Apple Bloom insisted. “We ain’t seen her since we left Ponyville! Honest!”
“You expect me to believe that?!” Twilight closed in on Apple Bloom. “We’re caught in a dangerous pincer because of you three! It’s a brilliant move, the kind that only a master strategist like myself could have come up with! Attacks like this don’t happen by accident. What do you know?!”
“Hey, leave her alone!” Scootaloo shouted, shoving roughly against Twilight.
Twilight took a step back, surprised by the force of Scootaloo’s push. Shock turned quickly to outrage, however. She narrowed her eyes and gave her horn the tiniest flick, causing Scootaloo to levitate helplessly into the air, clasped in a golden aura.
“Let her go!” Sweetie Belle shouted. Twilight scooped her and Apple Bloom up as well, lifting all three Crusaders into the air.
“Darling, you can’t think this is true,” Rarity pleaded.
“They attacked me! That proves that they’re on her side! This wasn’t an accident, it was an act of war and we let it happen!”
“You don’t know that,” Rarity urged. She looked quickly at the stallion standing across from her. “For goodness sake, would you please talk some sense into your sister!”
A solemn look fell over Shining Armor’s face. “Applejack is a traitor to the throne,” he said sadly. “I can’t imagine any pony would be so evil as to weaponize fillies. But then, I never thought any pony would be so evil as to seek Equestria’s destruction, especially so soon after we lost Princess Celestia.”
“You too?” Rarity asked, visibly wounded by her brother-in-law’s decision. “I understand we are all under a tragic amount of stress, but we must not cast aside our civility. I thought you would understand that better than anypony.”
Shining Armor closed his eyes. He breathed deeply. “I do understand,” he said. “I understand better than anypony what can happen when ponies within our own ranks turn on us. We made that mistake with the changelings and it cost us everything. I know you don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to say it. But Twili’s right. Above all else, we must not let Applejack destroy everything that Equestria stands for.”
“No,” Rarity said distantly. “No, we seem to be doing that just fine by ourselves.”
The room fell silent, but for the cries and pleas of the Crusaders. Twilight quivered; her iron persona fell in pieces to the ground. Rarity knew instantly that she’d overstepped, but it was too late to take the words back. She’d crossed a line.
“Rarity, help us,” Sweetie Belle begged.
“Rarity,” Twilight said distantly, her voice dripping fear and vulnerability. “Are you with me?”
Rarity knew this question intimately. As a former Shieldmare, her place in the Crystal Palace was always in question. She knew how the guards whispered about her. She wondered many times about the doubts and fears that hid in the deepest recesses of her wife’s heart. Time and time again, whenever she stepped out of line, she faced that wicked question: are you with me?
But it was never a demand for loyalty. It was a cry for help each and every time Twilight asked it from one of the only creatures in all of Equestria who truly understood her. Twilight had faced loss and betrayal, and yet was still determined to push through it all for Equestria. Another abandonment would do her emotional state no good. Twilight would suffer with Rarity gone, and Equestria would suffer in turn. Being here in the Palace was the only way Rarity could help everypony.
So Rarity answered in the same way she always did. “Of course, I am,” she said confidently. “I’m with you.” And just as she always did, Rarity silenced her conscience and resigned herself to the inevitable. Perhaps Twilight was right, she told herself. Maybe, just maybe, this truly was an act of war carried out through a terrible conspiracy. Maybe what was about to happen was not, in fact, a terrible crime against ponykind.
Maybe some day, she’d find some way to forgive herself.
But not without Sweetie Belle.
Twilight gave Shining Armor a nod. She released the Crusaders from her magic, setting them on the floor in front of him. “You know what to do.”
“Darling, wait,” Rarity spoke up once more. “I won’t stop you, of course not. But you know my Sweetie Belle. She’s a sweet filly with a good heart. She could hardly stand to hurt a fly; she’d never have anything to do with those traitorous ruffians.”
Twilight considered Rarity’s plea for a second. “We can’t take any chances,” she replied. “I swore to Princess Celestia that I would protect us from any creature that tried to threaten Equestria. Sweetie Belle was on the mountain. We have to assume that she’s working for Applejack.”
The idea struck both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo at once. They exchanged glances, each affirming what the other already wanted to do. “Excuse me, but I want to make a confession.”
“Me too!” Scootaloo hopped up and down, waving her forelegs. “I want to confess too!”
Twilight hesitated. This sudden change of heart was unexpected, but not altogether unwelcome. “Go on,” she urged, curious to see where this would go.
“I did it,” Apple Bloom said. “My sister said to make the avalanche and I made it.”
“It was my sled that caused it,” Scootaloo added. “We did it together.”
“How did she contact you?” Twilight inquired.
Apple Bloom explained, “It was a secret family letter drop. Shaped like a bird!”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo jumped up on her hind legs. “It goes, ‘Cacaw! Cacaw!’ Then when you look at it, it turns into a letter. It’s so cool!”
Sweetie Belle shook her head slowly at the antics of her friends. “What is wrong with you?” she whispered under her breath.
“She gave you these instructions, then?”
“Uh, yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “Just like y’said. But it was just us, Scootaloo and me.”
“Wait, what?!” Sweetie Belle shrieked. The reality of what the others were doing suddenly dawned on her.
Scootaloo looked at Rarity. “Sweetie Belle wasn’t part of it. She wasn’t even on the mountain with us!”
“That’s not true! They’re lying!”
“That’s the truth,” Apple Bloom asserted. “You do whatever you want with us, but don’t hurt her none ‘cause she weren’t even there.”
“Stop lying!” Sweetie Belle screamed with tears in her eyes. “I was there! I was on the mountain!”
Twilight considered Apple Bloom’s confession for a moment. She looked at Rarity and saw the hope blossoming in her eyes. She gave a light nod of her head. “Get her out of here,” she told Rarity.
“You can’t do this!” Sweetie Belle grasped for Scootaloo, but Rarity swept her up with her magic and pulled her away from the other two. “Tell them the truth!” she screamed, tears dripping on the crystalline floor beneath her. “I was there! Tell them!”
“Thank you for being our friend,” Scootaloo replied with a sad smile. It was the last thing either of her friends said to her before Sweetie Belle was carried out the front doors to the relative safety of the palace. She screamed bloody fury for hours. She didn’t stop crying for days.
She wasn’t the only one.
“Our asset made contact three days later,” Lyra explained, her voice stained with distant rage. “We spotted her walking alone, out by that old fountain just across from the flower shop. During the war, she and I made a promise that if either of us was ever lost and couldn’t find the other, we could both make our way there to find each other again. She told me she couldn’t support a regime that was capable of so much cruelty. She said a lot of things, but mostly that.”
“But y’saved the fillies, right?” Applejack asked.
“It was too late. The fillies had already been moved. A delegation was sent to the yaks to explain that the culprits had been caught and were being punished. Their families were told they’d been taken to a remedial boarding school to learn how to behave around our yak neighbors. They said it’d be like a summer camp and that the fillies would be well taken care of. It was just another lie.”
“Bridle Rock is built on a foundation of lies,” Flash Sentry said, scowling furiously. “Whether it’s the lies they tell other ponies or the lies they tell themselves to justify the work they do, everything about that place is just another lie.” Fluttershy patted his hoof.
“How could she?” Twilight asked vacantly. There were no words to defend this atrocity. There was no academic curiosity to be had anymore. She could not defend this; she could barely believe she ever had.
“Twilight Sparkle’s dumping ground for ponies she doesn’t want in her pretty, perfect Crystal Empire.”
Sunset Shimmer had said those words to her and they rang truer than ever before. In this world, Twilight was a monster. Did that mean she was a monster? If Twilight Sparkle was truly so terrible, then what did that say about Twilight Sparkle? She wanted to believe that she was a good pony. She wanted to believe that she was capable of great things. But here was this ugliness haunting this world, and it wore her face.
“Well, what are we sittin’ here for?!” Applejack asked. “We got innocent fillies locked away in cages just for playin’ around a little?! There ain’t no two ways about it, that pony is evil. We should get out there, save those ponies, and give her what for!”
That pony is evil. Applejack was right; Twilight couldn’t deny that anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, looking up from her mug of cheap cider-colored sludge. “Why didn’t any of you tell me?”
“I thought you knew,” Fluttershy said gently. “They were in the prison with us.”
“They were?”
“They mostly hang out with Iron Will’s crew,” Sunset Shimmer explained. “There’s this guy over there. Picture a pony made entirely out of muscles. Then imagine he ate a bull, and you get an idea for—”
“Bulk Biceps,” Applejack stated.
“Yeah, that idiot. I think he’s friends with them or something? I don’t know, it’s not my herd. Oh, and for the record, I never said anything because I don’t care. Iron Will’s crew isn’t my business. He keeps to his, I keep to mine. That’s how it goes in Bridle Rock.”
“Y’all are gonna put a stop to this, right?” Applejack asked. “We’ll go right now, all of us and all of y’all!”
“Hold your horses,” Lyra insisted. “There is a plan in motion that’s going to set everything right. We just need some time. Two or three days at the most. I promise, when we’re done, there won’t be a single pony in chains ever again. The only thing in question are each of you. Are you willing to help us with this? Will you stand with us and help liberate Equestria?”
“You can count on me,” Applejack said instantly. “Probably ain’t much of a surprise, considerin’. I might not know all the ins and outs of this place, but I know my rights and wrongs and that princess of y’all’s sure as shootin’ ain’t right.”
“I don’t want to fight anypony,” Fluttershy said. “That’s even worse than fighting changelings. I just want everypony to be safe and happy.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “That’s not going to happen without fighting. The only way Twilight leaves that throne is when we drag her off of it.”
“And then what?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash aggressively shrugged her forelegs. “And then she won’t be on it anymore. What kind of question is that?”
“Think it over,” Lyra requested. “Ideals are wonderful to have and to hold to, but there comes a time when you need to set idealism aside and make a stand. Equestria’s freedom won’t come from kindness; it has to be paid for in courage.”
“Why does courage have to mean violence?” Fluttershy asked.
“It’s just how the world is.” Lyra stood up from the table. “Rainbow Dash, let’s get the girls moving.”
“Right.” Rainbow Dash gulped down her fourth mug of cider. She slammed the mug down on the table, then burst up into the air above the table. Flapping her wings to hold her aloft, she circled her hoof and called out to the mess area. “Quit your lollygagging, ladies! Wrap it up and fall in!”
The mess area erupted with activity. Hundreds of ponies vacated their tables, turning into an ocean of horsehide and tail hair. The tide swept first to the trash cans and adjacent tray depositories, then branched out and filtered into over a dozen square herds. Each herd was four ponies wide and nine deep, all standing in a gathering field just outside the mess.
“Move out!” Rainbow Dash ordered. The air filled with the thunderous cacophony of the Shieldmares’ hooves striking the ground in a disorganized rhythm. They lacked the precision and discipline of the Royal Guard and their columns marched unevenly, occasionally swaying from row to row. Even so, the unity and dedication of these ponies to their cause was unmistakable.
“Have a good evening, ladies,” Lyra said to the group before taking her own leave.
“Did she just call me a lady?” Flash Sentry asked.
“That’s okay,” Fluttershy assured him. “It just means you don’t count.”
Flash raised an eyebrow. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Where we are?” Trixie asked. “Better a nopony than a Royal.”
“Okay, that’s fair.”
“What a load that was,” Sunset Shimmer observed. “’Ideals are nice, I’m so clever, please ignore the dozen or so ponies with weapons conveniently seated by you.’ She honestly thinks we don’t know what she’s doing?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. There was Sunset Shimmer hating everypony and being mean, right on cue. “And what exactly do you think she’s doing?”
“She was feeding us a sales pitch. She rehearsed that conversation. ‘Freedom needs to be paid for in courage!’ No one talks like that. That was a speech. And she made sure to do it when we were surrounded by Shieldmares because she wants us to feel pressured into signing up with them.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to need to explain that again, because it sounds pointless. Trixie was under the impression that that’s literally the entire reason why we came here.”
“Oh, it is,” Sunset said quickly. “Of course, that’s why we came here. That’s the whole point. We know that. They know that. So what in Equestria is Lyra trying so hard to sell us on?”
“We’re back at the storage tent?” Twilight squinted at Applejack. “Why are we back here?”
“No reason at all, sugarcube.” Applejack shot her a wry grin. “I just reckon Spike might have found his way back, is all.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t do nothin’. Let’s just have a peek inside.”
Just like that, Twilight knew this was a setup. Spike hadn’t gone missing; Applejack had planned this from the start. She followed her partner inside and sure enough, Spike lay curled up on one of the cots in the back corner.
She was, however, surprised at how unsurprising the tent seemed. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected those two to have cooked up, but she expected something. Spike by his lonesome wasn’t much of a surprise; certainly not enough to justify cloak and dagger shenanigans.
“Up and at ‘em, Spike,” Applejack said, nudging the little dragon with her hoof. “Come on, rise and shine.”
“Twilight?” Spike murmured in his sleepy drone. He rolled over to face the ponies, allowing Twilight to make out a book with a purple cover clenched in his claws. He blinked several times, then rubbed his eyes with his claws to wipe away the sleep. “Oh! AJ! You’re not Twilight.”
“Nah, reckon we both know I ain’t smart enough by half to even pretend to be her for a day. Nice try, though.”
“That’s not what Twilight says,” Spike asserted. He let out a long yawn. “She thinks you’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.”
“Yeah, well, she’s got a dog in that race so that don’t count. You find what we talked about?”
Standing up, Spike held the book aloft. “Does a pig sleep in mud?” he asked with a sharp grin.
“He don’t, not if he can help it. But it’s a nice try all the same.” Applejack scruffed Spike’s head fin with her hoof. “Mark me, we’ll make a farmhoof of you if my name ain’t Apple Mud.” Recognizing the absence of a certain pony from the conversation, Applejack looked behind her. “Hey Twilight, you wanna kick off your cloak and stay a while? We got….” The smile on Twilight’s face took the words out of Applejack’s mouth.
Twilight seemed to visibly glow as she approached her family. She wore the largest smile that Applejack had seen on her in over a moon. She walked lightly on her hooves, looking eagerly from Spike to Applejack. “By all means, go on,” she said cheerfully, as though the terrible weight of this broken world had been lifted from her shoulders.
“Go on with what?” Applejack asked, perplexed.
“You’re bonding.” Twilight took a seat beside the cot, just opposite Applejack. “You two have never bonded. When did this happen? How did this happen?”
“You were gone,” Spike said simply.
Applejack nodded. “Now, I know you and I ain’t always seen eye to eye on Spike, but somepony had to take care of the little guy.”
Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “You took care of him when I couldn’t be there?” she asked, laying a hoof on Applejack’s.
“Well, yeah. It wouldn’t do to leave him out in the cold like that. It’s like you said; Spike’s part of the family. Family don’t turn its back on family.”
“I love you,” Twilight blurted out. It took a second for her own mind to catch up to what she said. She blushed furiously and stammered, “I-I-I mean, you knew that, but-but I---”
“I didn’t, no,” Applejack admitted. “Not since the way things have been lately.” She lifted Twilight’s hoof and clapped it between both of her forelegs. “But I’d hoped y’still felt that same fire burnin’ in your heart that I got in mine.”
“For a while, I didn’t,” Twilight confessed. “I thought that if I gave it time, things would be different. I thought the pain would go away if I just waited long enough. I tried to find distractions to avoid thinking about it. Let me tell you, I’ve been pretty well distracted this last week, but the pain still never went away. It was always there, waiting to come right back whenever I found a quiet moment.”
“And now?”
“It’s still there, but there’s something else. Seeing you and Spike like this makes me feel a way I haven’t felt in quite some time. You’re learning. You listened to me, you understood how you were hurting me, and you’re making an effort to be better. That means something. There is something here, I know there is and I don’t want to give up on it.”
Twilight cleared her throat. She took a deep breath, then bare the truth in her heart. “I don’t want to be the pony that causes so much pain to everypony she meets because she’s afraid to let them into her life. Mercy is hard. It’s painful and it’s a constant struggle and sometimes it doesn’t work out and you’re left with a gaping hole where your heart should be, but it’s still better than cruelty. Isn’t it?”
“I don’t rightly know, sugar,” Applejack admitted. “I ain’t about to tell a pony how to run a kingdom. That’s over my head by a foot and a half. I know zap apples will spoil if’n you don’t get to ‘em lickety-split. I know Spike’s comin’ along to be a shrewd salesdragon.”
Spike gave Twilight a wink. “Since you’re my friend, I can get you a great deal on an apple turnover. Three bits and it’s a deal.”
“Apple turnovers already cost three bits,” Twilight answered, grinning at the little dragon.
“SHHHHH! You’re ruining my pitch!”
Applejack and Twilight shared a moment of laughter at Spike’s indignation. A second later, the dragon joined in too. In one little corner of that desolate world, mirth, love, and compassion had found a home.
“But for a thing like this?” Applejack said, returning to her point. “All I can do is what I always do when knowin’ right and wrong get blurry. I ask myself: what would Twilight Sparkle do? That ain’t never steered me wrong.”
Twilight smiled, but Applejack could still make out a distant sadness in her eyes. “What if I don’t know what to do?” Twilight asked.
“Then you sit right down and you look at the pony you are. Don’t you look at her, look at you. Think about all the choices you made that got you this far, ‘cause you must be doin’ something right. And when you got a good idea of the life you lived, you ask yourself: what would Twilight Sparkle do?”
“Right now?” Twilight asked, still wearing that beaming smile across her face. “I think she’d want to curl up on a hard, gross cot with her family and read whatever that book is that you two are being so secretive about. What is that, anyway?”
“Oh, this?” Spike turned the book around so that Twilight could see the graphic design on the cover. Two ponies dressed in silver suits stood in a metallic room, looking out at an ocean of stars beyond a viewing window in the center. “It’s The Adventures of Stellar Journey Vol. 7: The Missing Eclipse. Lyra had a copy of it from Golden Oak. Applejack said I should go find it for you to read tonight.”
“This is what you two were sneaking around about?” Twilight gave Applejack a skeptical glare. “What’s going on here? You hate science fiction.”
“Course I do.” Applejack grimaced. “Those books are all about fancy doodads that don’t amount to a hill of beans in real life. I don’t gotta know what a hyper-turbo-whatnot runs on if there ain’t none of it’s ever gonna be real anyway. If you wanna make a thing run on magic, just say it runs on magic and move on.”
Twilight had about six different counterpoints she wanted to make, but prior experience with this argument assured her that it was better to just bite her tongue. Sometimes it was better to be happy than to be right; Granny Smith was a wise pony when she’d passed along those words. Instead, she opted to simply ask, “Why did you send Spike to get a book you hate?”
“You really don’t remember?” Applejack asked. She ran a hoof along the cover. “Twilight, this is the first book you ever read to me way back when. Now, I’d just spent twelve hours harvestin’ for Nightmare Night. I was just about to spend another twelve hours bakin’ up some sweet treats for Nightmare Night. And there you were, readin’ away.”
“That’s right,” Twilight said wistfully. “I remember. The last issue ended on a cliffhanger. I’d been waiting three moons to find out what happens next. How does an eclipse go missing? I mean, it’s not a physical object, eith—”
“Either it happens or it don’t,” Applejack finished for her. “That was all you could talk about. I didn’t like you ignorin’ me, but I didn’t want to get in front of your readin’, neither.”
“That’s right. So I asked if you’d like to read it with me. Wow, I can’t believe you remembered that.”
“Course I remember. I didn’t like the book, but that don’t mean I didn’t love the listenin’. That’s what I want tonight to be about. I reckon it’d do us good to take some time and remember why we fell in love in the first place.”
Twilight responded by levitating the book out of Spike’s claws. She laid it to rest in one hoof, using her other foreleg to turn to the first page. “Applejack, it would be my greatest privilege if you would read this book with me.”
Twilight stood on the shore, feeling the sand brushing up against her hooves. She watched the waves come in, lapping at the shore before vanishing back into the ocean whence they came. This place was every bit as peaceful as she remembered. A perfect place to practice a craft that shouldn’t have been hers.
What would Twilight Sparkle do? Those words stuck with her, floating through her mind. It was a complicated question. More complicated than Applejack knew, surely. She’d seen many Twilight Sparkles since she’d been here and not all of them would have the same answer. Twilight was a spectrum, encompassing a variety of different ponies with a million different ideas.
All of them, each and every one, were her. And yet none of them were. She was a farm pony and a queen. She was a brutal dictator and a benevolent governess. She saved the world and she destroyed the world. She loved stallions, she loved mares, and sometimes she even was a stallion herself. There were as many Twilight Sparkles as there were grains of sand on Sensible Beach and they all, each and every one of them, were her.
She had only the one body, of course. It was probably right where she’d left it, laying on its side with its head on Applejack’s chest and Spike nestled in between its forelegs. But with Discord’s help, her mind was expanding in dimensions she never even knew existed. She was beginning to feel them even without making the psychic journey to visit them. She could hear multiple worlds resonating through her Mind Palace and they all made sense to her.
She was Twilight Sparkle. But here at Sensible Beach, she had a chance to be something more. Twilight opened up her mind’s eye and relaxed her perception of the possible. She took hold of this external reality around her. And she began to create.