//------------------------------// // In The Darkness of the Castle // Story: Moonshine and Cider // by Golden Suculents 636 //------------------------------// Applejack slowly opened her eyes, what had just happened? She felt numb, weak, all the energy in her body was gone, this wasn't like the soreness of the afterwork, she felt like every ounce of strength had been taken away, vanished instantly without any trace left, even the pale moonlight burned her eyes and forced her to close them. ...The moonlight! The cold bite of the castle floor against her belly awakened her when she finally registered sensations again. Staggering, she rose from the floor on wobbly legs, her head throbbing and still unable to open her eyes, a searing sensation in her muscles slowly vanished only to left a dull ache behind. After making sure she was still in one piece she looked for her friends, the last few hours slowly coming back to her: Every step they took revealed more and more dangers within the forest, creatures born from dark magic and illusions of terror, each one more challenging than the last, not even the ground beneath their hooves was safe, the plants, the trees, the forest itself was a predator ready to pounce, but despite it all they managed to get by, each challenge only bringing them closer. Saving Twilight from that cliff was a nerve-wracking event for sure, and the lavender unicorn putting so much trust in Applejack felt nice, but all the confidence form beating the forest vanished when they finally found The Castle of the Two Sisters and the Alicorn who had reclaimed it. First came the shock of Twilight disappearing out of nowhere when Applejack had suggested giving her space to work, then came the cry of Twilight as Nightmare turned the elements to dust in front of her, and finally when that same hopeless pony recovered in record time to talk about friendship and the true elements of harmony. Applejack was skeptical at first, all of it sounding like a solution one would see on a foal’s book, but when the stone actually started to shine and float, she had to suppress a gasp of surprise followed by a little laugh. The way Nightmare's face went from cocky to scared was priceless, and the expression of pure terror would be forever burned in her memory... "Are ya'll okay?" called Applejack while cracking open an eye, first silence was the only answer the castle dignified itself to give, later followed by groans and confirmations, even a 'did we win?' came from Rainbow, checking her wings first for any sort of damage. Before Applejack answered she scanned the room carefully, not wanting to invite misfortune by running her mouth too quickly, the room was just like they had seen it last, dark stone perfectly cut and more or less well maintained taking in account the castle was on Everfree grounds, no sane pony would dare to build in this accursed soil, well, almost no pony. She looked carefully one more time and then another, tension growing with each look, where in tarnation was Nightmare Moon? she didn't know a lot about how the elements worked, but they certainly did not vanish her back to the moon, right? One look towards a faraway window in an adjacent room confirmed this, the silhouette of the Mare was no longer on the full face of the moon, Applejack thought ironic how it made it feel... empty, like something was out of place now. Her thoughts went to a halt when she heard something, a distinctive murmur in the distance, her ears moving from one place to the other, trying to pinpoint what the sound was and where it was coming from, then came a little louder, and she recognized the sound just fine, a quiet sob. Looking towards her friends she saw them still on the ground, all of them seemed fine and with no signs of crying, Rarity, still with her back on the cold stone ground, had a pocket mirror on one hoof and running the other through her mane, Applejack snorted through her nose humorlessly and went back to the pressing issue. Her gaze landed once more on the moon, and she had to suppress a gasp from escaping her lips as she saw the silhouette back on the snow-white disc, she stepped closer to give herself a better angle, the shadow moved, but the moon didn’t, was there another pony around here? then she saw the shadow shaking and her ears were filled with the sound of sobs once more. Not losing a moment she silently looked back at her friends, confirming they were alright and trotted towards that dimly lit room, ready to find out who that pony was. "Applejack? what are you doing?" came the voice of Twilight from behind, she took a look and saw the purple mare getting to her hooves, shaking, but she was still too weak, she collapsed on one side and Rainbow was quick enough to catch her and stop her fall, still, Applejack whispered at them to stay here without further explanation, climbing a set of stairs and entering the place where the crying mare was. It was a sight to behold really, right in front of Applejack was a tall mare, even when her barrel was directly touching the stone floor she was almost at eye level with her, it was safe to assume that standing she would tower even over BigMac, Applejack tried to take in the situation while looking at her, a deep blue coat similar to the color of the sky in the early hours of the morning, right before the sun is out and a light blue mane that flowed freely to the side of her head, obscuring one of her eyes. The one eye free of hair slowly opened locking sights with Applejack’s, it was of a gentle teal color, and running from the corner was a trail of dark tears, like running mascara, it almost looked like the dark sky and its starry clouds where being washed away by the water running from her eyes. Minutes must have passed by now, or maybe just really long seconds, but Applejack finally found her voice once more, recovering from being lost in that sad gaze of hers, she chose her words carefully and pondered her steps with upmost care, not wanting to scare the mare, as if she was an injured rabbit. "Ya’ll, okay?" Apparently, that wasn't the correct option, she looked shocked for a second and after that her eyes started to water again. Applejack was taken aback when the blue mare pounced on her, wrapping her around the neck and burying her face on Applejack's chest, at first it was difficult to make out any sound out of the poor thing, almost everything that managed to break through the sobs and wails was nothing more than sad gibberish, hiccups and murmurs hidden between orange hair, but as she recovered the words became clearer and clearer, they were nothing more than a quiet hush, but in the silent rooms of cold stone of the old castle they still managed to resound and echo in the walls, finally it was clear, being repeated over and over, almost like a mantra, a silent prayer, nor entirely directed at Applejack, but still heard by her. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry..." None of the situation made sense to her, but she shoved everything aside to try and comfort the crying mare currently nested in her chest until her cries and words where now silence, the only sound being their quiet breathing and the unseen life of the Everfree outside the walls of the castle, Applejack wanted to ask so many questions and inquire about the crying mare, but she didn't dare to break the silence, fearing it may lead to more crying or worse, the mare trying to escape, it wasn't wise to corner a frightened pony and judging by the long string of apologies she knew the blue mare was feeling guilty about something. Instead, Applejack continued to hold her, running one hoof on her mane like Granny Smith used to when a thunderstorm didn't allow her to sleep. The silence was broke by the sound of metal clad hoofs making their way towards the room where Applejack was currently in, of course this made her nervous, none of her friends used the kind of horseshoe to make that noise, and she feared Nightmare Moon was back for revenge, it didn't made sense, they had just defeated her, but fear rarely was founded on rational thought, the mare with a blue coat shivered once more and hugged her tighter, her breathing once more in panic, no matter what came through that door she was ready to fight and protect herself and the blue mare of everything. Once more her expectations were shattered by reality, she was ready to see everything but this, Princess Celestia was standing before her, and instead of the easy smile that many ponies adored and often talked about was replaced by a neutral expression with serious eyes, even if said blue eyes weren't focused on her, she still felt the weight of her presence loom over herself, she couldn’t talk, she couldn't look away from the glistening presence of the princess, she couldn't even breathe until the voice of the princess shattered the silence and forced her to gasp. "It has been a really long time since I last saw you, sister" Applejack flinched at the coldness of the words and once more found herself unable to untangle the knot that had formed on her throat, she looked down at the mare between her arms and she stared back, her eyes wide open with fresh tears running freely at the sides, her mouth contorted into a painful expression with her teeth almost grinding against one another as she tried not to let her cries come out again, but it all changed from sadness to resignated determination, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, clamping her mouth shut and releasing herself from Applejack's embrace, as expected the Blue mare, Celestia's Sister, was much more taller than her, but not as much as the Solar Princess. The little princess stood in front of her sister, defiant, not wanting to run away anymore and ready to accept any punishment her sister deemed necessary for her crimes as the host of the Night Mare, she kept her eyes closed tight, even in her last stand she dared not to see the face of her only family plagued by the disappointment of her actions or the pain of having to punish her once more, she didn't had time to react when the solar princess hugged her and began to cry. Most of the conversation went unheard by the apple farmer, only able to decipher some words here and there, but Celestia was happy to have her sister back, and was already planning on how to break the news to the whole royal court and the Queendom, the conversation was mainly being controlled by Celestia as Luna was too stunned to speak, but as soon as Celestia mentioned going back immediately to the new castle to present her to all the nobles she recoiled in fear, unnoticed by the princess she looked back towards Applejack pleading for help silently. Of course, the farmer stood and did the first thing that came to her mind "Excuse me, ma'a- Princess" Applejack interjected making the solar princess stop on her tracks and turn to see the new element of Honesty "Oh, you must be one of new elements, I must thank you, as well as your friends, for saving my sister from that dreaded curse" Applejack was thrown off by having the ruler of the land she worked on bowing before her, what was she supposed to do now? "Come Luna, you have many ponies to meet and many things to catch up to, things have changed since the time we were crowned" No time to think, the princess was about to leave! "Will all due respect... y-your majesty- she tried again, Celestia gave her a questioning look- You see, today's the afterparty for the Sumer Sun celebration, and we had something prepared..." ...... The Farm of the apple family was once more in a ruckus despite being late into the night, all the lights were shining brightly on the barn and the main household, music permeated the air around the buildings and in the kitchen of the main house was the biggest surprise of the night Big mas was entertaining every guest at the dinner table, despite his normal quiet attitude the red stallion was mesmerizing Applejack's new friends and the Princess herself with a grand story his father had told them two about his youth, everyone enrapted by the tale, not noticing the trouble brewing at the other end of the table where Applejack herself sat alongside the princess of the night. Despite the tale, the laughs and gasps at the other side of the room the mood on Applejack's side was as dense as a carriage full of lead, after convincing the princess to go back to Poniville to conclude the celebration and move the party to the farm she didn't crossed any more words with Luna, at every opportunity that presented itself she couldn't think of what to say to break the ice and get to know the new ruler better, or how to calm her nerves about this new situation, most of the citizens of Poniville focused more on their "new heroes" and the Solar Princess to pay any attention to the tall, blue mare alongside them, something Luna was grateful for, when the party ended and they made their way to the farm Twilight lead the conversation with the Princess about what a new ruler would meant for Equestria, Luna and Applejack were at the very back of the group, still in that uncomfortable silence, even now with BigMac taking all the attention to himself so she could have a peaceful moment with the Lunar Princess she didn't had anything to say. She turned her gaze back towards Luna, she was looking at a window, one that lead to the orchard, following her gaze she saw her little sister and other 3 fillies she didn't knew playing with the dragon brother of Twilight, Spike, the sight brought a smile to her face, she looked back towards Luna, she had the faintest ghost of a smile on her face too. "Ya know, ah' have never seen a dragon before" Commented Applejack in her first attempt since the castle to make casual conversation. Luna's face went from almost neutral to full on panic for a hot second before reminding herself that Applejack had been accompanying her since the travel back to the farm, she took another second to process the fact that Applejack was addressing her and another to form and answer to the comment she had made. "We... I have met some dragons before, the ambassadors from their Lord, though I can hardly see any correlation between the rowdy and prideful ones I met and the little brother of my sister's student" Applejack then started to ask more question about what was life for Luna before the Moon thing and they quickly took a good pace in their conversation, leaving the table and finding a nice spot of grass beneath a tree close to the orchards, watching the remaining apple family members from afar. Finally looking at the sky Applejack confessed not knowing any of the constellations seen in the brig sky, Luna took no offense and instead offered to tell her all about them, how she had designed the starry sky she always adored and the story behind every one of their particular patterns, of course Applejack accepted immediately. Under the gentle gaze of the moon they sat, one wing protectively draped over an orange mare the Queen talked about the things she loved the most.