Applejack smiled as she looked at her friends, the nightmare of the last two days in her life was over and, despite the war, she felt she could give herself some time to relax. Rainbow shot her a strange look as she was being introduced to Derpy's foal and Applejack smiled awkwardly. Applejack turned to Big Mac, hoping to catch up with her big brother, but her vision kept getting drawn to the scar on his side. She saw such a drastic and heartbreaking change in her friends, changes that she wasn't sure she could adapt to. Fluttershy's new mane cut looked good on her, but the attitude that came with it worried Applejack. Twilight's eye showed Applejack just how much damage the war had caused. Rarity seemed fine, as did Pinkie, but Applejack had her suspicions that they were just as different as the others. At one point during the festivities, Applejack pulled Big Mac away from the crowd to talk to him privately. She hugged him, having missed him dearly.
"Big Mac, why did you come and fight in this stupid war?" asked Applejack, and to her surprise, Big Mac got defensive;
"Ah fought for you, and for Applebloom, Granny Smith, everypony! AJ ah fight because ah need to protect my family. I thought you understood that." He said, and Applejack looked at the ground.
"Ah do big brother, ah do. It's just so hard to see you all the way this way. None of you are the ponies I knew two days ago." She told him, and Big Mac's expression changed from irritation to concern. He hugged Applejack, and she squeezed tight, finding comfort in Big Mac's huge form.
"Ah'm sorry you both are in shock, but you have to remember that we are only doing what has to be done to protect ourselves." Said Big Mac and Applejack nodded, knowing that he was right. She let go of the hug and followed Big Mac back to the party, just before they went in, Big Mac turned to her and said;
"Look AJ, the main thing is that you are there for Rainbow right now, she is not going to have an easy time." Applejack promised that she would take care of her marefriend and walked over to Rainbow, who was conversing with Princess Luna.
"Rainbow Dash, believe me, I understand how you feel, to have woken up after a period of time and find things have changed. It is truly terrifying." Said Luna, and Applejack was pleased to hear her using her regular voice, rather than the Traditional Canterlot voice. Rainbow nodded, before looking at Applejack.
"You're right your majesty, unless you have somepony to share that experience with and help you through it." Rainbow said, giving Applejack a quick kiss. Princess Luna smiled, and Applejack noticed her glance at Rarity momentarily.
"I completely agree with you Rainbow." Said Luna, excusing herself to walk over to Rarity. Applejack turned to Rainbow, and looked into her magenta eyes.
"So how are you going sugarcube?" she asked, and Rainbow took a deep breath.
"I'm scared. I'm scared that we won't be able to fit in anymore." She said. Applejack hugged her, trying to be strong for her like she promised Big Mac, but she was just as scared as Rainbow. Pinkie came bouncing over to them and smiled, handing them some cake.
"I hope you like it, I made it myself, which is really, really hard in a military kitchen." She said happily.
"Hey Pinkie, how come you and Rarity seem the least affected by this war?" asked Rainbow before Applejack could stop her. Pinkie suddenly became serious.
"We may seem fine on the outside Dashie, but there is more to ponies then what's on the outside. And it took me a long, long time to get back to where I am now." She said, and Applejack's heart sank. She was hoping that the party pony would be the one to get through anything unscathed.
"I'm sorry Pinkie." Said Rainbow sadly. Pinkie resumed her usual behaviour.
"That's okay, I'm just so happy to have you both back with us." She said, the smile returning to her face. She bounced away, singing. Applejack looked back at Rainbow, who was hanging her head low in embarrassment.
"What are we meant to do AJ? Join the war? I don't think I have it in me to kill." Said Rainbow. Applejack thought it best not to mention that the Pegi-jack had made her kill Gilda in the dream reality, lest it drag Rainbow into depression, so she said nothing. The Party dwindled away after some time and Applejack and Rainbow crawled into a bunk that Luna had brought into the tent for them. In reality there were two bunks, but neither pony wanted to sleep alone that night.
"I love you Applejack." Said Rainbow as she drifted off to sleep.
"Ah love you too sugarcube." Replied Applejack, as she fell asleep, Rainbow curled up in her arms.
Applejack was rudely awoken by the sound of a trumpet; she jumped off the bed, knocking Rainbow onto the ground. Fluttershy helped her up and showed them to what she called 'Archer's stage' Applejack looked at her in fear as Fluttershy cocked an arrow and fired it onto a group of charging Minotaur. The scariest part was that Fluttershy seemed to have no problem with it. They climbed down, Applejack having to help Rainbow because of her broken wing. As they explored the camp, Rainbow vowed to end the war by any means necessary. Applejack agreed to help her, but she was unsure if it was the right thing to do. They found Rarity in a tent, sitting at a workbench building something. Applejack was shocked to see Rarity's mane a mess and the pony herself covered in sweat.
"Hi Rarity, what are ya doin?" asked Applejack, and Rarity turned smiling at the pair.
"Hello darlings, I am just putting the finishing touches on some upgrades to the earth pony armour." She told them, holding up a breastplate with her magic.
"So what, your job is to make stuff?" asked Rainbow. Rarity nodded, walking over to a table marked 'Finished products'. On it was armour and weapons, all masterfully crafted and each had their own flair that made them distinguishable as Rarity's work.
"They are awesome." Said Rainbow, picking up a sword and swinging it around. "I've never held a real sword before." Rarity laughed, gesturing them back to her work station.
"Those are not real swords, these are real swords." She said, opening a chest next to her workbench. She pulled out two swords and gave them to Rainbow and Applejack. Applejack took hers nervously, pulling it out of it's sheathe. It was shorter than a normal sword, and featured an orange gem that ran through the centre. The hilt featured a red gem in the shape of an apple. She looked over at Rainbow, who was staring intently at her sword, as it shone with a rainbow coloured sheen. A red lightning bolt shaped gem was embedded in the hilt.
"I've been holding those for you both for about a year. They were the first custom swords I made for you girls and they are my personal favourites." Rarity told them. Rainbow started to cry, dropping her sword and running out of the tent.
"Was there something wrong with it?" asked Rarity, a little hurt in her voice. Applejack handed her sword back to Rarity and followed Rainbow. She searched all over the camp for hours, thanking Celestia that Rainbow couldn't fly away and leave her. Applejack eventually found her outside the camp, in a graveyard. Tears balled up in the corners of Applejack's eyes as she looked at the seemingly endless rows of tombstones. Rainbow was sitting in front of one, crying, Applejack looked at it and paled. The tombstone read; 'Here lies Pinkamina.' Applejack sat next to Rainbow, putting an arm around her.
"Look at this AJ; this is all because of me. I know you don't think so, but that's all I see. Hundreds of dead ponies that died because I couldn't protect myself. I got so distracted that Gilda was able to blindside me and then it started all of this." Cried Rainbow, nuzzling her head into Applejack.
"Rainbow, listen to me. Remember what you said this morning, about ending the war? Well you can't do that if you can only blame yourself. You need to blame the griffin responsible. It was Gilda that attacked YOU because she couldn't get over some creepy obsession with you. SHE was the one that lied to her father and started the war. She changed our friends. Do you know what you were doing while all this was happening?" Applejack asked, and Rainbow wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head.
"You were with me, in your mind. Ah was trying to save you and you ended up doing it all by yourself." Applejack told her. Rainbow took a deep breath, forcing back any stray tears. She kissed Applejack on the cheek, and they pressed their foreheads together, looking into each other's eyes.
"I know AJ, I do. I… Just don't know how to function around the others right now." Said Rainbow. Applejack smiled;
"You just have to be the same Rainbow Dash that Ah fell in love with. That's the friend that the girls need. Ah'm sure they want everything to go back to the way it was just as much as you. Which is why you and ah need to be there for them. We need to be there so the girls have a bit of the past to cling to. If Celest- uh… ah mean if Luna is on our side, then the girls are going to come back to us." She said. Rainbow smiled and kissed Applejack again.
"Thank you, that's what I needed, hope." Said Rainbow, standing and helping Aj up. "But I do still have a mission. I am going to find out what happened to everypony to make them like they are now. Starting with this tombstone." Said Rainbow, and they looked at it, unnerved.
"I suppose our first stop is Pinkie then." Said Applejack, tuning from the tombstone and walking back to the camp. They found Pinkie in a tent with Twilight, cuddled up together and reading a book. Applejack blushed as the two kissed, not realising that they were there. Rainbow looked at her playfully and Applejack smiled, nodding her head. Rainbow grabbed two of the largest books she could find and snuck over to the couple. She slammed the books together behind their heads, and Pinkie and Twilight jumped and screamed. Applejack and Rainbow started laughing, falling to the ground and rolling around. Pinkie joined in as Twilight gave the three a sour look.
"That was not funny, don't you think you could be doing something constructive?" said Twilight, obviously annoyed. Rainbow gradually stopped laughing, standing and looking at Twilight, her eyes still shiny with tears of laughter.
"Yes, I am here to do something very specific." Rainbow said, composing herself. She turned to Pinkie, who hadn't stopped laughing.
"Pinkie, we found a tombstone with your name on it." Said Rainbow. Pinkie abruptly stopped laughing, looking away.
"Oh, well that's not actually me, obviously." She said, and Applejack could tell she was hiding something.
"Ah figured that, now why don't you tell us what's going on." Said Applejack, walking over to Rainbow and staring down Pinkie. Twilight tried to interrupt but was stopped by Rainbow. Pinkie stood, still not able to look them in the eye.
"Just tell us Pinkie, we need to know." Said Rainbow forcefully. Pinkie gave her a dirty look;
"I don't want to talk about it okay, so can you drop it." Said Pinkie, half pleading with the two ponies. Rainbow shook her head, not accepting that answer.
"We deserve to know Pinkie, we NEED to know." Rainbow told her, trying to break her down to get at the truth.
"WHY? SO you can feel good about yourselves, knowing that you slept while the rest of us had to deal with the horror of war. Why do you want to know so badly?" Shouted Pinkie. Applejack backed away, as did Twilight.
"Because we feel guilty! We wish to Celestia that we could have been there for you and we weren't. We need to know what happened so we can try and make up for not being there for you guys." Rainbow shouted back, and Pinkie went quiet, looking at Twilight.
"Is that true?" Pinkie asked Applejack, who just nodded in response. Pinkie looked back at Rainbow and sighed.
"I'm sorry girls, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet, okay?" said Pinkie, and Applejack realised just how insensitive they had both been. She poked Rainbow, gesturing for them to leave. Rainbow followed her, looking back as Pinkie started crying into Twilight's chest.
"I'm sorry." Rainbow said, as she stood in the doorway. She walked out, giving Applejack a look of shame. They both realised what they had done was wrong, and knew that if they wanted answers they would have to be gentle. They decided to talk to their replacements next. As they made their way towards the special ops tent where the Doctor was working Applejack found herself hoping that they weren't going to cause problems for themselves or others in their quest for truth.