Twilight Sparkle repositioned her wheel chair and wove back to the kids she had just helped cross the street. She beamed brightly as the kids hopped along on their merry way, even if a small part of her wished she could do the same.
Well, maybe not hope, she thought with a small laugh as she wheeled herself down a familiar sandy grassy path, shaded by warm and lush trees. She wasn’t much of a hopper, really, more of a runner, a pacer, as Spike would joke.
She wouldn’t have minded a good pace, it wasn’t the same flow when she had to jerk her chair around every few moments.
Twilight shook her head to remove the silly thoughts. Wishful thinking, even in a world with magic, was of no use. She was bound to this chair for an indefinite period, and she would just have to get used to it.
“Keep a stiff upper lip, as Rarity would say. Or, perhaps more fittingly, when life gives you apples, make apple cider.”, Twilight bemused as she approached her destination: Sweet Apple Acres.
Twilight had only really known the aforementioned farm and its honest manager for a few years, but despite that it felt as much like a home to her as the one she spent her fillyhood in. One could easily understand why: From its quiet and peaceful evenings to its delicious apple pies, what was there not to love about Sweet Apple Acres?
But of course, there was one thing Twilight loved most about the place, and it was…
“Applejack!”, Twilight called, a smile that hoped against hope on her face. She sat there eagerly, bracing with anticipation, her thoughts running wildly as to where this meeting would go.
For truth be told, Twilight’s visit to the farm was not her first in the last six months, but it sure felt like it. The reason was one she faced every morning when she woke up and every evening when she went to sleep.
“Thank Celestia Tirek had only grazed her.”, Twilight thought as the door swung open, a strange breaking sound heard, and a strange looking face that somehow belonged to her dear friend Applejack greeted her.
“Oh, uh, howdy, Twilight! What brings you here on this, uh, fine mornin’?”, Applejack asked, clear hesitation in her voice. She looked both ways, almost like she was trying to keep something a secret.
“Just a visit, AJ! That’s what friends do, you know!”, Twilight replied, and she wheeled herself up the ramp to start entering the house.
Applejack reluctantly allowed her inside, but her shifting eyes moved with no inhibition. “Oh, uh, great! Come on in! I was just whippin’ up a batch of apple fritters!”
Twilight didn’t know whether to laugh or worry over Applejack’s blatant and infamously horrible lying. Deciding not to trouble her friend, she decided to save her the expense of cooking some on the spot. “I’d love that Applejack, but I had a big lunch, so you don’t need to do anything.”
A strange mixture of disappointment and relief crossed Applejack’s face, before the earth pony decided to sit with her guest, after giving Twilight a little help in getting off of her wheelchair. The couch jumped a little as AJ sat down, and her face looked very red.
“Are you all comfortable like? Need me to get ya somethin’ to drink? Or maybe a pillow, or…”, Applejack began to ramble, and Twilight comforted her. She hated being fussed over, but she gave AJ a break considering…
Well, she wasn’t gonna bring it up. Not now. Maybe not ever.
“It’s all right, AJ, I’m fine! In fact, this is way comfier than my bed back home!”, Twilight joked, and a small smile that soon gave way to the regular frown formed on Applejack’s face. The two sat there for a moment in silence as the bright rays of the sun lit up the lonely and dreary farm.
“How’s harvest been going?”, Twilight asked, and Applejack winced for a moment, before replying. “Oh, well, Granny Smith and Big Mac are still not fully fit, ya know, so I’ve been takin’ up their shifts.”
“Can’t be easy. I remember when we first met, you did that without any prompting.”, Twilight giggled, and Applejack thought back to that period with a melancholy smile.
“Those were the days. Before Tirek, before all this, before I remembered I was…”
Applejack shooed the thoughts away. Dear Celestia what she would do to forget! But she couldn’t. Nothing could ever bring her back to those simple days. Nothing.
“Yeah… But I’m managin' to… Help. I’m… I’m doin’ my part.”
“You always do, Applejack! Why, you’re an Apple! If you weren’t the element of honesty you’d be the element of… Helpfulness, I guess!”, Twilight complimented, not realizing she was tearing Applejack’s heart in two directions, ripping the poor organ to shreds.
“Speakin’ of elements, you hear anythin’ from Rarity?”, Applejack asked, hoping to change the subject, but also hoping for… Another thing.
Twilight sighed, tearing Applejack’s heart in a third direction now. “Not since the funeral.”
Applejack sighed, wondering why that nearly hurt more than all the other things. It’s not like there was a shortage of things to be blue about!
“I should've… I should've done more.”, Applejack said, thought a part of her wondered if she wouldn’t have made things worse.
Twilight, sensing her friend’s pain, shook her head and placed a comforting hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “None of us knew, Applejack. None of us could have known.”
“I could've known. I should've come with her. I should've punched that darn stallion in the face, I should've saved you from…”, Applejack raved, her eyes glowing red for a moment, before Twilight once more calmed her down.
“Applejack, you are the most logical pony I know, way more logical than me. There was NOTHING you could have done. Tirek hurt us both. You didn’t put me in this chair. You didn’t do anything. Understand?”, Twilight stated, and Applejack, not agreeing but knowing that a fight with Twilight was the LAST thing she wanted, nodded.
Twilight then hugged herself as she said “…And you know, you didn’t do anything to the others as well.”
“I know I didn’t.”
“Then why haven’t they seen you in 6 months?”, Twilight asked the question that had been bothering her for that period of time.
Applejack struggled for an answer. She didn’t want to lie, but the truth, especially thanks to recent revelations, was… Well, it was complicated.
So instead Applejack told the part of the truth she could spare. “I just need some time.”
Twilight nodded with understanding. She didn’t want this to happen, but she wasn’t just going to force Applejack to do something she didn’t want to do. “It’s ok, Applejack. It’s just… They’re worried, and every time they tried to visit you wouldn’t open the door. Even Pinkie’s upset.”
“…Well tell 'er not to be. I’ll… I’ll be back.”, she lied, and Twilight didn’t detect it to her luck. Twilight knew that in the end, Applejack had to decide.
“All right. I understand.”
“…Ya really do?”, Applejack asked, hoping to feel just a little of that care without it feeling unearned.
“Of course I do! You’re my friend, Applejack!”
Never mind. It still felt unearned.
Applejack helped Twilight back into her chair, and Twilight smiled wearily as she rolled out. “I… I’m happy to see you on your feet at least! I was afraid you’d need a chair like mine too!”, Twilight encouraged, trying to raise Applejack’s spirits.
Applejack smiled grimly and let out a weak laugh. “Yeah… So was I…”
Twilight soon left the scene, and Applejack was once more alone.
But had she really been with Twilight? Had she been alone that entire time?
Had she always been alone?
Applejack sighed once more as she walked, almost floated down the hallway, knowing she had to see it again, to make sure it was real, to at least silence the childish hope that things could ever be the same.
Trotting down slowly, every hoofstep a deafening reminder of how this farm, this home, was no longer truly hers, Applejack reached the kitchen, where she stared at a wall.
For a moment she wondered if a good smack of her head on said wall would help, but she rejected the notion. She’d only smash the wall.
Instead, she moved the dusty cookbook for non apple recipes, causing a whirring sound that revealed a secret compartment in the wall, a secret room.
Walking in and letting the door close behind her, Applejack stepped into the dim light of a wooden room, creaking and ancient.
There was nothing there but a wheelchair she had needed as much as Twilight, only for that need to suddenly disappear, and a wooden desk.
A wooden desk with wooden chairs and a wooden wall that surrounded Applejack. There stood a picture frame of her long gone parents…
Her…
Her parents…
Applejack bit her lip to stop the tears, but they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t stop.
“My parents… They were my parents! This was my home! This was my family!”, she wanted to scream, but she could only whisper the words in pain as she flopped down on the desk next to the other item that sat there moroseully.
She had to hear it… She had to hear it again to kill all her hope.
She could never have hope again, not as long as she lived.
Looking from side to side, just in case, Applejack closed her eyes and as her tears rolled down her cheeks, her snout booped the round ball made of a material she couldn’t begin to identify.
The ball made a strange sound, and it began to open up, revealing a red and blue blanket with an S engraved on it, and a shiny red button.
She pressed the button, and, sitting back to endure the pain, listened to the message that had destroyed her life.
“Our daughter, our little Kara-El… If you find this message, you now know that you are not alone…”
“For you are not of this world… But of one that died long ago…”
“We, your parents, your real parents, sent you here to this farm, to this planet, because we knew that you’d need a new home, one that would let you grow up to who you are meant to be…”
“You are blessed with extraordinary abilities. Ones that will help you be the best person you can be. And, we hope, the happiest you can be.”
“For you, our Kara, you are the last mare of Krypton.”