//------------------------------//
// If You Will Not Perish, Then Grow 
// Story: My Little Space Empire: Mechs are Magic 
// by Wheezyandbreezy 
//------------------------------//

After the reunion was completed Applejack gently removed herself from the beast's clutches and looked for Applebloom. Neither her nor her four wheeler were anywhere on the battlefield. She saw her sister disappearing into the distance towards the house. Applejack stomped a booted foot on the ground and cursed. "Ah'm gonna turn her angsty liddle hide into a new pair a boots!" She was about to get in Rainbow's mech to follow her, but the sound of tearing metal distracted her. 

Twilight had summoned her sword and cut the smoldering remains of a skimmer in half. A terrified slaver was levitated into the air cursing and crying. Twilight floated just above the ground, her aura burning brightly. "You people." She growled, her voice boosted by psychic enhancement. "The people of this planet have the wit and the will to tame the savage wasteland and make something of value out of it." She put a hand to the slaver's neck and began to slowly close her hand. "And all you can do is take people by violence and send them into bondage!" The slaver squirmed and struggled in the air. Twilight's teeth ground together in her mouth. Her fingers began to dig into the man's neck. His skin was singed where her fingers grasped his throat. 

Pinkie Pie stomped over to the raging demigod and called over her suits loudspeakers. "TWILIGHT STOP! We already won! Let him go!"

Twilight glared at Pinkie Pie and she shrank back in fear. "To do what?!" Twilight's voice echoed with rage. "To crawl back to his hole and cause more misery?" Her voice rose in volume and in anger. "This man who makes his living by turning freedom into servitude, AND I SHOULD LET HIM RETURN TO IT?!" Pinkie raised an arm to shield herself. Twilight's eyes went wide with shock. Her aura faded and she slowly sank to the ground. She looked at the almost suffocated slaver in her hand and peeled her hand off of his scorched neck. "Go. . . Make sure everyone knows." She raised her sword. "I will not tolerate such disgusting practice in my empire." The slaver scrambled away and sprinted towards the tree line. Winona made to intercept, but Twilight glared at the giant monster and it slunk away whimpering.

Twilight turned to a still cowering Pinkie Pie and extended a hand. "Pinkie. . . I'm sorry. . . I'm so sorry." Pinkie smiled weakly and suddenly her mortal terror was gone. 

She leapt into Twilight's arms and rubbed her cheek against hers. "It's okay Sparkly Warkly, I know you get grumpy about human atrocity sometimes."

Twilight weakly smiled but soon her face hardened and she looked hard at Applejack. The ag worlder uncertainly approached her Viceroy. "Uhh thanks fer the save Twi. Ah guess it's a good thing that y'all can read mahnds." She chuckled nervously.

"APPLEJ~!" Twilight shouted in annoyance. She stomped around for a few steps trying to gather her thoughts. "Girls, get back to the ship. Applejack, come with me." The knights slowly uncertainly made for their mechs, but Twilight teleported Applejack into high orbit. They stood looking down onto the scenic green marble surrounded by a violet bubble of psychic energy. Applejack spent a few terrified seconds drinking in the situation. She was locked in a small bubble in space with a pissed off super psychic. Twilight fumed for several minutes. "Applejack." Twilight began, but simply paced around the small bubble of pressurized atmosphere she'd provided for them.

"Applejack. You can't live like this. People shouldn't live like this!" She glared at Applejack. "How am I supposed to secure my realms, when people are this isolated, this cut off from anyone and anything that can help them?!"

Applejack was struck with a stupified silence. "Twi. . . Ah know ya don't mean that. How can y'all say that?" Twilight glared but said nothing. Applejack shook her head and stared at her hands trying to come up with an answer. "Twi. . . This is the ONLY way ah wanna live! I can't imagine being away from the soil and the fresh air." Her temper grew and her voice rose. "Ah know y'all hubworlders can't understand, but this is the only way folks should live! By the sweat of their own brow! On their own land! In freedom. To make their own decisions and succeed or fail by their own hard work!"

Twilight's eyes began to glow and her voice began to echo with psychic enhancement. "And how are they to live when they're so easily picked off by the violent! How are they to prosper when it's one clan against an army?!" She screamed.

"She's proven one clan can be very effective against an army." Twilight heard a familiar voice in her head. She snapped in the direction of the voice and was amazed to realize it was Celestia's. She was casting her thoughts all the way from Terra. Twilight felt mildly embarrassed, her mentor had caught her having a petty argument with her knight. "She and three others stood against an entire fleet and won."

Twilight sighed hard. "Celestia. How can I secure our realm, when these people are so vulnerable? It's too easy of a target for anyone who would do them violence."

"Twi plenty a people die from crime in cities. Big cities are targets durin war. Everyone's gotta faght someone. But we out here are livin proof it can be done. Generation after generation of Apples, livin, workin, fightin, and dyin." She thought about her family's grave site. She thought about Granny's life and her triumphs. She'd survived the wars, the famines, losing her husband, then her son and daughter-in-law. She'd earned her rest. A sad smile came to Applejack's face as she stared at her beloved Sweet Apple.

"The empire was born on worlds like this Twilight. Do you think the thousand worlds were built in a day? People just like these Apples risked life and limb to spread, to carve out a niche for themselves in a hostile galaxy. It is the human condition to spread and to grow, to take wastes and turn them into something valuable. Every shining hubworld started with something that drew people there. And someone had to risk the isolation and the danger to settle the barbarous country."

Applejack smiled and shook her head. "Not to disagree with yer majesty, but that ain't quahte it. We ag worlders just like our freedom's all. We don't lahke busy bodies tellin us what to do. We get along just fahne mindin our own business. And that's just how we lahke it." On Terra Celestia smiled at the ag worlder's wisdom. Someone very close to her had also spoken to her about the value of freedom. 

Twilight looked hard at the planet hovering below. "But there's got to be some kind of order. The people shouldn't have to live in fear of all their hard work, and all their beloved freedoms being stripped from them by violence."

Twilight felt a large hand on her shoulder, and two voices spoke simultaneously. "Yes, that's what you're here for Twilight."

Twilight inhaled deeply. She cast a long look about the galaxy. Instead of seeing a galaxy of suffering and tyranny, she saw trillions of souls striving for their own and their neighbors good. She saw tens of millions ready to fight to the death for the peace and freedom of the empire. She looked down to the planet and saw millions willing to suffer want, cold, and danger just to live in freedom. She looked and saw her best friend, the woman who had fought tooth and nail for her and swore an oath to fight to the death to secure her realm. She embraced Applejack firmly and tears of pride rolled down her cheeks at having a friend like her to fight by her side.

Applejack wiped her tears from her own eyes and smirked. "Now come on Twi, stop talkin everyone's ear off about danger and let's go hunt some pirates!"

Twilight smiled. "Well excuse me, I thought we was havin a pleasant discussion."