“The Tzinacatl never interacted with the west,” Amoxtli muttered. The Thestral squinted under her sunglasses, following Nightshade and Flurry Heart down the long drive. “They aren’t happy, but they’re listening.”
“They?” Flurry Heart asked.
“The Three Tribes,” Nightshade supplied. “It’s been a proper nightmare getting everypony to play nice. We stopped the hangings and lynchings in Appleloosa, but the city is boiling.”
“Most of the ponies worth killing already left,” Amoxtli snorted.
Flurry glanced at the closest corpse swinging from a tree. It was an earth pony stallion, beaten and stabbed in a gray uniform with Applejack’s three apples stitched onto the flank. “Overseers?” she guessed.
Amoxtli clicked her tongue. “Like the plantations. Some ponies punched down to get a better deal. We know what we’re doing with this, at least.”
Flurry hummed. “Are you safe?”
The young Thestral flitted her wings. “We’re keeping watch.”
“I meant with your tribe. Have you been…reinstated? I’m sorry; I don’t know the word.”
Amoxtli said something in her tribal dialect, then pinned her ears back. “I am fine.”
“Good.”
The next two trees had naked changelings dangling by the neck, deserters that abandoned their positions but failed to make it to the gap. Most tried to blend in or hide. Flurry had not entered Appleloosa, nor did she plan to. Caballeron’s mercenaries were still sweeping the city.
“Princess?” Amoxtli asked quietly.
Flurry shifted her head to peer down at the Thestral. Amoxtli was wearing a black Hegemony coat with blue swirls stitched into the back. Her webbed wings rustled against the leather.
“Did you kill my Moonspeaker?”
“I did not kill your Moonspeaker,” Flurry said casually. “I only met her once at the Conclave. I met a few of the warbands before we started moving.” The alicorn had rolled her sleeve up and exposed the swirling scar on her foreleg. She left it like that most days.
The Thestral shared a look with Nightshade, then nodded shallowly. “I understand.”
A gunshot rang out ahead. Flurry sneered and trotted faster.
It was a three-story plantation house with wide bay windows and white wood. There were a couple others like it nearby, and most of the orchards had already been swept through and looted. Trees had been picked clean. It was spring, and the apples were a bright red like the color of blood.
A herd of ponies gathered before the double doors to the mansion, split into two by a trio of dragons and bat ponies. Smolder let out a burst of fire that scorched the grass between the two groups, then roared, “Next pony fries like bacon!”
Flurry summoned her bubble shield around herself, Nightshade, and Amoxtli. Her sneer deepened at the crowd, namely the rainbow mohawk and out-of-place griffoness on one side. She deviated towards them.
The Air Marshal noticed the Princess and swatted her metal wing through the crowd beside her, pushing stallions and mares back. “Bow, ingrates! The Princess approaches!” Ponies dropped guns and farming tools and knelt in the road. The opposing herd was smaller, backing up towards the steps. Flurry swept her eyes toward them and registered the gray uniforms. ELF?
Apple Bloom stepped out of the crowd and backed onto the steps with a hoof on the stock of her submachine gun. Smolder snarled behind her, picking a flattened bullet out of her palm. “Step back.”
The earth pony did not listen, light orange eyes on the alicorn. Her muzzle pressed into a thin line. She was the only one from her side that did not lay down their weapons and bow.
“Give it up, Bloom!” a Manehattan accent whinnied from behind Rainbow Dash. Flurry snapped her head back and caught Babs Seed. Her frown deepened. Cold eyes flicked to Rainbow and Gilda.
The griffoness caught the look and dipped her head. “Princess.”
“Air Marshal,” Flurry addressed Rainbow. The pegasus wore a flight suit and jacket, but no other adornments. “I would think you had business with my air force in Canterlot.”
“We don’t got much of an air force,” Rainbow shrugged her false wing. “And Tempest and Sunny are prioritizing ground pounders.” The pegasus bent her knees to stand.
“I did not say you could rise.”
Rainbow froze with legs half-bent. She lowered herself to the ground, but glared up at Flurry. Goggles hung around her neck, and her fur was flushed around the mare’s muzzle. She had clearly been flying herself for most of a day. “I can fly back when this is done.”
Flurry bared her teeth, then shifted her stare to Gilda. “You have a pass this time?”
“Yep,” the griffoness reached into her jacket and flipped out a folded paper. “We’re flying in this sector. Grounded due to, uh…” Golden eyes shifted to Smolder.
The orange dragoness flexed her claw and inspected the scales of her palm. “Whichever one of you delicious sacks of meat shot at me, you’re lucky I caught it.” The two bat ponies on the porch behind her swept rifles over the gathered crowd, but nodded at the Princess.
Flurry Heart dispelled her shield and raised her wings. “Rise. Babs and Apple Bloom, step forward.”
Babs stepped out from behind Rainbow Dash with a lazy grin, but lost her expression and kept her hoof away from her submachine gun at Flurry’s scowl. “Princesh? Princess?” Her crowd of earth ponies were half in jumpsuits or overalls and half in scavenged uniforms.
Apple Bloom took one step off the porch but kept her hoof on the stock of her gun. Her eyes didn’t waver. Her soldiers stood slowly, hooves off their weapons and refusing to look up. All were wearing ELF uniforms and the two dozen were entirely earth ponies.
Flurry stated the obvious. “Neither of you are supposed to be here. I doubt Tempest is forgiving with desertion. How did you get here?”
“Bloom and her little band stole a supply truck up north and tore down through the advance,” Babs answered. “We chased ‘em.”
“I doubt you had orders to do so.” Flurry turned to Amoxtli. “Radio for Chip’s squad to get here.” The bat pony nodded and flapped her wings, twisting around and soaring through the orchard.
Nightshade bared her fangs. She rolled a hoof up her carbine. “Put that damn gun down, earth pony,” she hissed up to Apple Bloom.
Smolder pulled a pistol free from her armor and racked it. “Step back from the guns. Last warning.”
Babs waved a hoof. “Do as she says, everypony. No weapons. We just need rope.”
Apple Bloom swallowed. “Put your weapons away, everypony.” She kept her hoof on the stock and returned to the first step of the porch. The two Thestrals behind her at the top aimed at the back of her head.
“That includes you,” Rainbow said up to Apple Bloom. “Come on, Bloom.” She kept her wings up and her side shuffled away from their equipment, back to the trees lining the road. Apple Bloom’s rogue soldiers did the same on their side.
Flurry was taller than Apple Bloom, but the earth pony was stocky and stood on the first step leading up to the porch. They were at eye level. The alicorn’s horn flickered as she prepped a spell. “Put the gun down.”
Apple Bloom swallowed and shook her head. “You talked to Rarity.”
“That’s a direct order from the Princess!” Nightshade hissed. Flurry flicked her wing back at the Thestral, bending three primary feathers. Nightshade spat, but lowered her carbine at the signal.
“I did,” Flurry agreed. “Is your sister alive?”
“She’s in there,” Smolder interrupted. “We cleared the house. It’s damn empty.”
One of the ground floor windows was broken; the white wooden frame shattered around the edges. This close, Flurry noticed the paint wasn’t as pristine white as she thought. It was faded and chipped at the edges, and the wooden paneling near the ground looked rotten.
Flurry looked to the nearly hundred ponies gathered behind Rainbow Dash and Gilda. “Are these all the workers left here?”
Chips had driven Flurry through the surrounding orchards over the past week. Barracks and bunks were in every one of them as the localized workforces shipped bushels to the factories in Appleloosa. Sweet Apple Acres employed thousands of ponies across twenty-seven orchards. None of them were very happy about it, working long shifts in heat and sun under a mix of ponies and changeling overseers. Most of the land was in Buffalo territory, and what wasn’t orchards was owned by Rockfeller.
The Appleloosan Protectorate carved the Equestrian south into mining companies, oil fields, and orchards. Unlike the Crystal Empire, the Hegemony had enough population to outsource their extraction efforts. Flurry Heart had not ordered a single hanging yet, but her moniker proceeded her in every town and outpost.
Ponies and deserting changelings swung from everything tall enough to support a rope as the Hegemony abandoned the frontline. The Tzinacatl put a stop to it, and ponies weren’t inclined to argue with dragons, but the south was always self-managed, frontier justice. If it wasn’t for the griffons, bat ponies, and dragons imposing shaky order in the area, the entire Appleloosan Protectorate would be burning like the oil wells.
“We didn’t even think that bitch was still here!” a stallion shouted from Rainbow Dash’s herd. “Coward’s been hiding for months!” A few more whinnied in agreement.
“They’ve been busy trying to reunite with family and run down overseers,” Babs claimed. She turned an eye to the porch. “If Braeburn were alive, he’d be standing right with me, Bloom. Get off that porch.”
Apple Bloom shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Princess.” The mare had her mane in a ponytail like her older sister. It draped heavily across her neck, slick with sweat. “It was my decision, and my ponies were only following orders.”
Babs snorted. “Doesn’t excuse desertion.”
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Flurry retorted to Babs. “You open your mouth again, and I’m stripping my snowflake off your leg and stringing you up in a tree.”
Babs opened her muzzle with a snap, registered she was shouting at a Princess that would definitely keep that threat, then wilted and scuffed a hoof on the ground. Flurry switched to Apple Bloom. “Set the gun on the porch and step back.”
Apple Bloom did not move. The two Thestrals behind her tensed. Smolder aimed the gun down as well. “I’m going to count to three,” the dragoness warned. “Please, don’t make me kill my Professor’s sister.”
“Promise me you’ll just talk to her,” Apple Bloom pleaded with Flurry.
The alicorn sighed and lowered her head. Her horn glowed brighter.
“Apple Bloom!” a raspy voice belted from the doors. Flurry snapped her head up. One of the white double doors opened and an orange earth pony stuck her head out. Faded green eyes on a weathered muzzle glared down the porch.
Applejack’s mane had streaks of gray in the straw-blonde hairs, too much gray for her age. The bags under her eyes made her muzzle sag. She looked two decades older than she was.
The earth pony stepped out onto the porch. She was naked except for a neckerchief, no longer wearing her hat or uniform. Applejack wasn’t fat, but her barrel and legs looked like she had lost all her muscle from doing the farm work herself. Flurry blinked. She looks smaller than the pictures.
Her younger sister stared back over her withers. “Sis, please-”
“Granny would tan that cutie mark right off your hide!” Applejack spat down at her. “Princess gave you an order! Follow it!” Her muzzle scrunched. “We raised you right.”
Apple Bloom let the strap of her submachine gun fall from her shoulder. The gun slid off the step and landed on the nice paved road leading up to the manor. She closed her eyes and looked away.
Applejack snorted. “Sweet Celestia sweetpea, you got taller but you didn’t get any smarter.” The faded green eyes looked over her sister’s lowered head to Flurry, then to Rainbow Dash without pausing. “Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Princess. Kept the name from Ponyville.”
“Applejack,” Flurry said flatly. She waved both wings at the two Thestrals beside the earth pony. They stepped back and lowered her weapons. Smolder holstered her pistol.
Babs Seed stepped forward with bared teeth.
“She just threatened to hang your ass,” Applejack preempted her relative. “Whatever you’re about to say, you best believe it’s worth it.”
Babs growled and stepped back, muzzle twitching. The other ponies in her herd shifted around in the trees, staring up at the porch. Tails flicked and twisted against jumpsuits with Applejack’s mark stamped on them.
“Heard on the radio you’re the new Princess of Equestria,” Applejack continued down to Flurry. Her voice was raspy with feigned gaiety. “Want the two-bit tour? You’re invited too, RD.”
“Don’t you dare-” Rainbow cut her snarl off with a burst of willpower. She glanced to Flurry with narrowed magenta eyes.
The alicorn took a deep breath and cast the detection spell. It washed over the front of the house and through the crowd. Applejack smiled slightly. “Yep, it’s me. Unfortunately. My co-owner in Las Pegasus didn’t send a truck.”
“Rockfeller?” Flurry guessed.
“Heh!” Applejack snorted. “Oh, he loves our fritters, but nah. Flim. Or Flam. Forget which one signed the deal to open the canneries. They turned tail to Las Pegasus awhile back. Reckon they’re hoping for a boat to dodge the Princess of Rope.”
Flurry stood on the road, wings extended. Her muzzle pressed into a line. She shifted her eyes to the Bab’s group. A mare had a coil of rope wrapped around her jumpsuit; she leaned against a tree below a swinging changeling.
Applejack’s eyes flicked to her sister, then back to the alicorn. Her stare turned slightly pleading, but she kept the small grin. “Want the tour? It’s your land now.”
“Remain outside,” Flurry ordered Nightshade. “Rainbow, with me. Gilda, since you’re here, grab a gun and shoot anypony that tries to get in.”
“Well, shit,” Gilda scoffed. “Princess.” She tugged her pistol free from its wing holster and sat down on the first step of the porch. The griffoness turned sharp eyes through the crowd. “Catch up when you’re done, RD. Drinks on me.”
Rainbow took the steps slowly, legs twitching up the stairs. Her eyes were locked on Applejack. The earth pony glanced at her casually, then backed into the house. She opened both doors with a quick buck.
Flurry stared into an empty parlor. The manor was barren in the interior, and dusty. The wallpaper was bare, but depicted varying kinds of apples. It looked like nopony ever lived in it. The alicorn stopped in the doorway and her horn glowed.
Applejack trotted up a central staircase to the second floor. “Ain’t boobytrapped or something, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she nickered. “You mind talking on the second floor? More privacy. And chairs. I got a few chairs up here.”
Flurry peered into an empty study. Not even bookshelves. The entire room was empty. “Where is everything?”
“Huh?” Applejack snorted. “Never bought much. Didn’t need it. Made the housecleaning easier on the staff.”
“Where are they?”
“Sent ‘em away months ago,” Applejack shrugged a hoof at the top of the staircase.
“You made money.”
“Sure did,” the earth pony boasted. “All of it in some Hegemony bank back in the Changeling Lands. Got a little bit laying around here.”
Rainbow Dash walked up the staircase, even though the parlor was tall enough for her to fly. Her metal wing scraped the banister, peeling the paint off the wood with a razor-sharp feather. The pegasus breathed shallowly.
Applejack did not react and trotted to a side room.
Flurry Heart followed Rainbow Dash up. The two Thestrals took positions at the doors with Smolder. The alicorn cast the detection spell a final time, feeling it pulse through an empty, hollowed-out shell of a manor. Aside from the creak of floorboards from Applejack’s hooves, there was no surprise.
The alicorn stopped to peer into an empty drawing room before following the prismatic tail ahead of her. Rainbow moved stiffly, her legs as mechanical as her fake wing. Her feathers screeched as they scraped a slightly ajar door. Flurry Heart followed her Air Marshal into the only furnished room in the building.
There was a single bed in the corner, facing the doors to a wide balcony. The lilac curtains had been drawn across the bay windows. Lamps mounted on the walls hummed; Flurry belatedly realized that they were the only lights in the manor aside from the chandelier above the grand staircase.
Applejack sat down at a plain wooden table. There were three other available chairs, one on each side of the rectangle. The other chairs were dusty. The chair’s legs creaked as she leaned back; there was no padding, and it looked uncomfortable.
She reached out her forelegs and grabbed the bottle of bourbon sitting on the tabletop. The earth pony bit down on the top and spat the cork out across the room. It sailed into a wastebasket with practiced aim. Flurry followed its flight to a well-stocked shelf of other liquors, and several drawers underneath a row of shot glasses.
There was also a closet door. It had been left open, and a gray uniform with black accents hung on a rack. Above it, a wide-brimmed hat sat on a shelf with Chrysalis’ trident front and center.
“Named me a colonel in the reserves,” Applejack offered, “for all the good work I did. Ceremonial. Governor Plexippus pinned a medal to my barrel in Appleloosa.”
“What good work?” Flurry exhaled.
“Met the quotas.” Applejack gulped down a hefty amount of bourbon without flinching. “See that pouch beside the whiskey?”
Flurry glanced over at it. Rainbow trotted to the back and grabbed it with her metal wing. Coins jingled inside. The pegasus grimaced and flung it onto the table. Her feathers sliced the back open and shiny metal coins with Chrysalis’ smiling muzzle rolled across the floor as the bag deflated.
“Couple years ago, one of my workers came up real-quiet like to the manor,” Applejack began. “Wasn’t part of the serving staff. Said I could still serve Equestria.” The earth pony grinned at the bottle in her hooves. “Let her talk all night, then turned her into VOPS the next morning.”
Rainbow’s muzzle twitched. “You fucking traitor.”
Applejack gulped down another pull of the bourbon.
Flurry ground her teeth, wings twitching. “Why?”
“Heh,” Applejack smirked. “Why what? That’s a big question, Princess.”
“You’re the Element of Honesty.”
Applejack looked over to the shelves of liquor. Her eyes stopped on a rolled-up sheet of paper in an empty bottle. Flurry’s horn glowed and she unfolded it, letting the bottle fall to its side.
Her mother and Twilight stared back.
“For starters, I kept everypony from the Love Tax,” the earth pony added in a dry rasp. “Got the orchards marked as essential, so the bugs didn’t steal no workers for their factories. Some died of heatstroke or exhaustion hitting the quotas anyway.”
“Fuck you,” Rainbow gasped.
“You still drink, RD?” Applejack asked her. “Got your favorite up there somewhere.”
“Don’t…” Rainbow inhaled, “Don’t you talk to me like we’re fucking friends.”
Flurry slapped the pamphlet down atop a coin on the table, then pulled a chair back. She sat down heavily, wings fluttering against the wooden back of the chair. Rainbow remained standing, pacing before the liquor shelves. Her hooves danced on the floorboards.
“Why?” Applejack repeated. “Chair comfortable?”
“No, but I sit on crystal,” Flurry answered. She laid her hooves on the table.
Applejack regarded her bottle with dull eyes. She turned it over in her hooves. “Honesty.” She glanced up at the alicorn sitting across from her. “They tell you about the war?”
“I know why the ELF lost.”
“I’m not talking about Starlight,” Applejack snorted. “I turned that mare in because it was a doomed cause. The war. The Great War. You were just a little sprout when it started. How much do you remember?”
“You don’t get to make excuses,” Rainbow snarled. Applejack ignored her.
Flurry Heart leaned back and frowned. “I remember bouncing along in a truck while fighters strafed fleeing ponies. And I remember my mother staying to fight. I remember sitting at a table while servants turned down the radio so I couldn’t hear dad getting pushed back.”
“You remember the end,” Applejack hiccupped. “I was there at the beginning. You want honesty? All of your ponies following you around, and none of ‘em are gonna tell you the truth, Princess.”
She took a sip. “We were always gonna lose.”
“Fuck you,” Rainbow spat.
“It’s true, RD.”
The metal wing sliced the air. “Don’t!”
“You and the featherbrains tore up the sky real good,” Applejack said with mild approval, “but it didn’t make a difference. You were there, too.” The earth pony switched to Flurry. “She tell you about Vanhoover?”
Flurry frowned. “No.”
“Right at the border,” Applejack spun the bottle around in her hooves. “Had some advance notice, saw the tanks lining up with deer conscripts. Caught a few infiltrators eying our defenses. They were gonna hit that city hard. Had no chance of defending it.
“We told ‘em to evacuate, and you know what some old mare said to me?” Applejack grinned with a rictus. “‘Well, you’re here, so this’ll be over in a jiffy.’” She thumped the table and the coins rattled. “General Applejack! Farmer to teacher to general. What a career. Whole army was a joke.”
Rainbow inhaled, still pacing.
“Know you encountered ponies like that,” Applejack said to her. “Field Marshal Luna slapped a hat on me lickety-split. Same with Pinkie.” Her grin collapsed and the earth pony abruptly looked melancholy. “Me and Maud fell back hard. Snipers shot me seven times. Killed Maud with a shovel one night.”
Flurry’s muzzle scrunched. “What?”
“VOPS,” Applejack waved a hoof. “Got tired of it and told everypony to shoot me on sight if I was wearing my hat.” She brushed a hoof over her graying ponytail. “That was Tartarus the first couple weeks. Even the damn regulars could barely shoot straight. Mares with flower marks crying in the trenches. Never drank too hard before the war, started the night Vanhoover fell.”
“It fell because the army wouldn’t fight,” Rainbow argued.
“Course it wouldn’t,” Applejack snorted. “Nopony wanted to fucking die in a muddy hole. Ponies cheered every time Luna fell back from an engagement…until we were leaving their homes behind. Civilians panicked and clogged the supply lines, panzers overran the northern front. Finally stalled them at Tall Tale.”
“Blueblood,” Rainbow huffed.
“That high-horned prick,” Applejack agreed. “Blew the bridges without orders.” She turned back to Flurry and held out a hoof. “You know Tall Tale? Has a river a little like a horseshoe. They had to come right to us after Vanhoover.”
Flurry waited.
“Caused a ruckus between him and Luna. Civvies were still on the other side trying to fall back. Blue said they were too compromised by infiltrator teams. That was true enough. Didn’t matter because the bugs slammed home.”
Applejack heaved a great sigh and leaned back. She grimaced as her spine popped. “Seven days. Longest battle so far. RD did good work keeping the skies clear.” Rainbow did not respond to the nickname, still pacing through the room. She was breathing heavily.
“Maud and I held that river for seven days. Tall Tale was a lot of earth ponies. Blue yanked everypony he could to build up the trenches and keep supplies moving. Celestia hadn’t signed any conscription laws yet, so that was probably illegal. Ponies finally cared, though. News trickled out of Vanhoover about the ‘Love Squads’ sucking the populace dry.”
“You were a good general,” Flurry offered.
Applejack drank another pull of bourbon. “Really? So was Blue, and ponies called him an asshole. Bugs finally exhausted themselves on the seventh night and stopped attacking. Kept an eye out for infiltration teams, but it was quiet. My aide woke me up.”
The earth pony shut her eyes as if trying to remember the exact moment. “Said Princess Luna was looking over the trenches. I hadn’t seen her since Vanhoover, barely heard her over the radio. You wanna know my first thought?”
Flurry paused. “Sure.”
“She was gonna get her damn horn blown off by a sniper.” The earth pony chuckled with a ragged gasp, then finished the bottle. She set it down atop a coin blindly, still with her eyes closed. “Went up to the trenches all polite-like. She wasn’t in a uniform or nothing, still just crown and carcanet. The silver caught the light worse than her mane. Asked her to get down. She didn’t.”
Applejack opened her eyes. “She was staring through a bunch of papers, holding ‘em with her horn and flitting through them. Didn’t say nothing to me, but I started talking. Wanted to know the plan. We were rebuilding the defenses, brought up more anti-tank guns. We could hold that river forever with more ponies. Air force was keeping their dive bombers off us. We could do it…”
Applejack sighed. “Luna turned to look at me with the most pathetic eyes I ever saw on a pony, then melted into a shadow. Left her papers.”
Flurry Heart shuffled in her seat.
“Casualty reports,” Applejack snorted. “All she was looking at. Next morning, heard her voice on the radio ordering a fallback to ‘a better position.’ Weren’t no better position. But ponies heard that and cried in joy cause they weren’t gonna die in a hole.”
Applejack folded her hooves. “That’s when I knew we were gonna lose.” She sighed. “And we did.”
“That doesn’t excuse what happened afterwards,” Flurry said softly. “My father fought. Ponies fought all across Equestria.”
“You ain’t listening, filly,” Applejack sighed. “Your father never lost a single battle, but kept falling back because we couldn’t hold it. Every time it got bloody, we fell back with pinned ears and tucked tails. By the time we lost Bales…” the earth pony trailed off.
Rainbow growled from her position at the window.
“Met a few crystal ponies in Bales,” Applejack continued. “Your father fought better with ponies born a thousand years ago and half their memories missing. Weren’t about luck or skill. Willpower. They knew exactly what was gonna happen to them if they lost.”
“Most ponies think they’re crazy,” Flurry deadpanned.
“Yep,” Applejack chuckled. “You know, I heard a few ponies talking about how it might not be that bad if the bugs won. They needed us alive, right? Wasn’t even a VOPS agent, just some stallion that liked to sculpt clay pots and was afraid he was gonna die.
“Luna and Blue went to Canterlot for a war council during the Battle of Bales. Blue said he was gonna make it right or die trying. Dunno what happened, but Blue was assigned to the southeast and the Sisters announced their evacuation to Manehattan since Canterlot was endangered.”
“Celestia canned him,” Rainbow provided. “He never told us the full story, just that he didn’t expect them to come back for the ELF. Starlight didn’t wanna hear it.”
“Once we lost Twilight and Canterlot we lost the war. Laid down my weapons before we got encircled halfway to Manehattan, and the bugs let me go home. Had to take a few pictures. Negotiated for the rest of my brigades not to be treated as POWs. You've seen the chipped horns and horseshoes, I assume.”
“You’re a fucking coward,” Rainbow repeated from behind Applejack.
“Cause I didn’t see the point in dying?” Applejack asked. “You flew around in that plane like a true sky-high featherbrain while ponies galloped through the mud and blood. You got no idea what that scrape from Canterlot was like.”
Applejack regarded Flurry. “You ever feel like a herd creature?” Her eyes went to her horn and wings.
“No,” Flurry answered.
“Once Canterlot fell and Chrysalis crowed about it, it was like everypony’s brains flipped a switch. Suddenly, it was real. We were gonna lose. Ponies started screaming about holding every hoof of ground, got called a coward, whole works.”
She snorted. “Remember everypony partying after the wedding. We should’ve gone after her then. But we didn’t because Celestia and Luna didn’t seem worried.”
“You’re wrong,” Rainbow accused. “Ponies fought. We fought the whole time while you cozied up to those bastards.”
“The ELF was always a joke, wasn’t it?” Applejack asked behind her. Her straw tail slapped a chair leg. “Bringing back the light of Equestria one bombed garrison at a time? Years of that before rising up to fight the good fight.”
Applejack turned back to Flurry. Her eyes were glassy from the alcohol. “Starlight and Trixie never really thought about the consequences, and they never pushed. Their families died in the war.”
“Apple Bloom said you did all this to protect your family,” Flurry provided. “You haven’t given me a single reason.”
“Bugs said Big Mac was passing secrets to the ELF. Said the same about Scootaloo’s parents. And Rarity’s. Crusaders were never subtle about their battles.” Her gaze sharpened suddenly. “And as far as that filly’s concerned, that was true. She had nothing to do with it. You understand?”
“You asking us to lie for you?” Rainbow scoffed.
“For her,” Applejack corrected. “Don’t you put that weight on her. Apples are the largest earth pony clan in Equestria. I ran off with a whinny to go fight and they would just run down a list.”
Flurry levitated up a coin. Chrysalis’ fanged, smirking muzzle stared back at her. “You didn’t even try.”
“I did try,” Applejack snarled suddenly. “I tried at my home. In Ponyville. I was the picture-perfect, dumb fucking earth pony for those bugs. Generalmajor Jachs even came by. I kept ponies safe, kept them housed, kept them alive. Kept my damn family alive by whoring myself out. You know what happened?”
Flurry Heart thought back to the overrun, overgrown forest. The Apples helped found Ponyville. Applejack saw something in her eyes and nodded viciously.
“That fucking zebra wrecked everything. The bugs didn’t even bomb Ponyville during the war; they didn’t care until those plants and monsters tore through their garrisons. Planes firebombed everything to shit trying to stop the forest. Most of the ponies I kept alive ran off to join Zecora’s resistance. How many have you met?”
Flurry grimaced and looked to Rainbow. The pegasus refused to meet her eyes abruptly.
“Yeah,” Applejack chuckled. “Real worth it, wasn’t it? Granny’s heart broke at seeing everything get torn apart by vines. That killed her more than age.” She waved a hoof at the bar. “You mind getting another one?”
“You’ve had enough,” Flurry stated.
Applejack rolled faded, glassy eyes. “ELF lied to itself the whole time. Said they were taking the high road while bombing garrisons. And every time they killed some important bug, Love Squads rolled through the towns they were trying to liberate. Idiots thought it would make ponies side with them, I’m sure.” She peered back at Rainbow. “Or did you even think about that at all?”
The pegasus was breathing raggedly. Her metal wing cut the curtains, and sunlight spilled through the hole. The shaft of sunlight hit a coin on the floor. Chrysalis’ muzzle glittered.
Applejack noticed. The premature jowls on her muzzle pulled into a deep frown. “Mare that came to talk to me was a cousin. Apple Fritter. Joined those smiling spooks during the war. She sat right where you’re sitting, Princess, and she made a bunch of promises worth exactly shit. Wanted to use our shipments to run guns.”
“They tortured her after you turned her in,” Rainbow hissed.
“Yep,” Applejack agreed. “She was gonna get the whole family killed out of pride. We can be just as prideful as the hornheads and featherbrains when we wanna be.” She batted her neckerchief with a hoof. “Y’all weren’t gonna win it. Same problem as the war.”
“We’re winning,” Rainbow countered. “Right now.”
“After making everything worse!” Applejack slammed a hoof onto the table. “Zecora, Starlight, you,” the earth pony glared at the pegasus. “Couldn’t see past your own muzzles. Call everypony that refused to help a collaborator. Least y’all got honest after you lost.”
“You are a collaborator,” Flurry nickered. “Don’t make excuses.”
“I am,” Applejack snorted. “No offense, but I didn’t expect a bird army to fling itself across the ocean. Ain’t no one gave a damn when we fell. Not my point. Starlight Glimmer started a cult and tore through time over her friend not sending her a fucking letter often enough. Where was that pony? Too much a coward to look at her own shadow. Just like Luna.”
“You’re part of the problem,” Flurry accused. “You gave up, too. You wanna argue willpower?”
“I’m not arguing anything or making an excuse,” Applejack denied. “I know how this ends, Princess.”
The room went quiet. Rainbow exhaled with a snort. Applejack’s chair stopped creaking. Flurry Heart kept her hooves folded on the table. She took a deep breath.
“I’m holding you in Canterlot. You’ll be tried after the war.”
Rainbow snapped her head over to the alicorn. “No.”
Applejack chuckled with a breathy rasp. “Hypocrite. You hanged better ponies for lesser crimes.”
“No no no no no.” Rainbow shook her head each time. “She doesn’t get to walk.”
“She’s not walking anywhere,” Flurry stated. “I’m not hanging an Element of Harmony.”
“She doesn’t deserve that fucking Element!” Rainbow screamed. Her wings flexed.
“Don’t I?” Applejack questioned. “Still honest, RD.” Her muzzle quirked. “You want some honesty?”
“Shut up!” Rainbow whinnied at her. Her wing cut down with a clank of metal, then primed again. The feathers curled inward, but they were a fraction of a second behind her real wing.
“You really gonna stand there and say it was worth it?” Applejack asked. She leaned back in the chair, propping up her hind legs on the table with her forelegs behind her head. It looked amazingly uncomfortable. “You dug a hole so fucking deep you have to believe it was. Look at you.”
The pegasus’ scar pinched over her magenta eye. She breathed through her teeth.
“Most of my family’s still alive to hate me,” Applejack snorted. “What do you got left? Mother’s dead, father’s dead, Wonderbolts gone, one wing and barely a pegasus-”
Rainbow leapt forward and sliced her wing across Applejack’s neck.
Or she would have, had the earth pony not jerked her head back. The metal feathers sliced across her cheek instead and blood sprayed onto the table. Applejack tumbled back in the chair with a crash, but did not cry out. She laid on the floor for a moment.
Rainbow stood over her. Her wing twitched again. One metal feather dripped with blood. The pegasus looked over to Flurry Heart, eyes challenging her to stop it.
The alicorn looked at a blood-spattered coin atop the pamphlet of her family.
“Heh,” Applejack chuckled. She tugged on her neckerchief and held it to the slice across her cheek. “You were faster once. I wouldn’t have been able to dodge that back in the day.”
Rainbow’s breath let out in a long, low hiss between her teeth. “I’m not doing it for you. You are a fucking coward.” The wing retracted and folded against her side. “Pinkie had every problem you did and she carried it. She never gave up.”
Applejack did not respond. The cloth masked her muzzle, blotting red with blood. When the pegasus backed up, the earth pony staggered upright and righted her chair. Rainbow backed up farther, all the way to the bottles.
“You can have as many as you want.” Applejack’s rasp was muffled by the cloth.
Rainbow Dash snagged a cider with her good wing and flung it against the wall. When she turned to the door, Flurry caught the tears in her pinched eyes. The pegasus practically fled the room and slammed the door shut behind her. Flurry’s alicorn hearing picked up a single sob before it was choked down in rage.
Applejack lowered the cloth and stared at the pamphlet on the table. “Always wondered if Jachs knew when he came down to talk. Was a queer talk, but I was a little drunk at the time. Made it easier to lie.”
“He probably did.” Flurry stared at her aunt in the hospital bed. “Would you have done something?”
“Nope,” Applejack quipped.
Flurry shook her head. “I’m not killing you that easily.”
“You’re cruel, Princess,” the earth pony said mockingly. "Heard rumors you're Chrysalis' daughter. Or, uh Mare's Daughter?"
"Maar's Daughter," Flurry corrected. “The ELF could’ve won,” she tried after a heartbeat.
“With what?” Applejack asked. “Stolen guns and equipment against the largest army on Equus? Run by a team of mares all running from their pasts? Celestia and Luna didn’t come because they knew it wasn’t gonna make it.”
Flurry was quiet.
“You know that, too,” Applejack added. Her voice turned kind. “Sorry, filly. Rebellions begin with hope, but they’re run by rope. Seems like you learned that lesson.”
“Twilight will judge you after the war.”
Applejack stared at the pamphlet. “Don’t put that on her. If she ever wakes up-”
“She will.”
“If she ever wakes up,” Applejack said again, “you’re gonna make her judge me? She lost enough. Don’t put her through that. She's got you and Spike, and she loved you both. No matter what you've done. Don't let anypony ever tell you otherwise.”
“I’m not going to tell her that I hanged her friend from an apple tree,” Flurry countered.
“It’ll be kinder in the long run.”
Flurry shook her head. The slice across Applejack’s muzzle oozed down into her fur. The earth pony batted a bloody coin around the table. “Guess it’s the Princess’ prerogative to play favorites, huh?” She jabbed her hoof down atop the coin. “You know how this is gonna look.”
“I have Tempest Shadow as my High Commander of the Imperial Army and Cozy Glow in a spy network,” Flurry deadpanned. “I don’t give a shit how it looks.”
“Knew her as Fizzlepop,” Applejack grinned. It stretched the slice on her cheek. “Knew you as a little Tartarus spawn that blew holes through crystal. Seems like that hasn’t changed.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“So do you,” Applejack returned. “What were you expecting? Some grand excuse? Maybe I squirrelled away some little orphans like Rares? Heard that sob story from a few workers.”
“The Buffalo,” Flurry stated without inflection. “You built this place on their land.”
“Weren’t using it no more,” Applejack shrugged. “Queen gave me and Rockfeller the land after a bunch of bug settlers cleared the way.” She rolled an eye to the window. “Appleloosa would’ve loved to clear them out before the war. If they’re telling you otherwise, at least half of them are lying.”
“Did you help?”
“They were already gone by the time I relocated,” Applejack said dourly. “I got my sins; that ain’t one of them. I got the manor and the plantations and room to grow. Family business is the best it ever was under the Hegemony. Had a right monopoly. Best of a bad situation.”
Flurry was silent.
“You usually talk to the ponies you hang this much?” Applejack asked.
“Sunburst,” Flurry answered. “He called me a monster and I pitched him off my balcony.”
“Got a balcony right through those doors.”
“No.”
Applejack clicked her tongue. Her eyes focused for a moment. “Don’t let her find Pinkie.”
“What?”
“RD ain’t gonna like what she finds,” Applejack continued. “Please.”
Flurry mentally traced Appleloosa to Rockville. The Hegemony is going to try and breakout around there. Bronzetail’s leading a counter-push. It was above the highway corridor to Las Pegasus, but a far shorter flight. “What happened?”
“She never gave up,” the earth pony sighed. She lifted her hoof and the coin stuck to her frog. She flexed her hoof and flicked it back onto the table. Chrysalis’ fangs spun around.
“Was it worth it?” Flurry asked.
Applejack guffawed. “With you sitting across from me? Tartarus, no.” She squinted. “How’d you get that bird across the ocean to help? Weren’t you fighting him?”
“I made a lot of deals. Ponies don’t like any of them.”
“It’s gonna get a lot worse,” the earth pony promised with a rasp. “All of it. The bugs knew the war they were fighting from the first day. Hay, from the wedding. We didn’t open our eyes until it was too late.”
Flurry Heart stood up from the chair. “I can bear it.”
Applejack furrowed her brow and studied the tall teenager. Flurry’s horn glowed softly as she looked around the room. “Reckon you can,” she assessed after several heartbeats. "Didn't mean that as an insult earlier. About blowing holes in crystal. You're different."
“Why?” Flurry asked.
“You got cold eyes.” Applejack’s faded, dull green eyes looked up from the table. She pressed the cloth into her cheek again. “You were a cute filly. I’m sorry we lost.”
Flurry huffed. “You know, I think that’s the first time anypony’s ever apologized to me for that.”
“Reckon it hurts to do it,” Applejack answered. “You ain’t a Princess, and you ain’t Equestrian.” This time, her voice sounded slightly approving. "Didn't know your mother that well. Was surprised she stayed behind."
“I am from the Crystal Empire,” Flurry said. Her wings rustled against her jumpsuit. "My mother knew her duty."
Applejack nodded. “I’ll wait. Better be one Tartarus of an escort to get me to Canterlot.” An eye rolled to the shelves. “Might have another drink while I wait.”
Flurry Heart opened one of the drawers with a chime from her horn. She floated out an old revolver and inspected the wooden grip. There was no trigger guard so it could be fired by hoof, and the large safety pin was unhooked. Flurry popped the cylinder open.
There was one bullet inside.
“Was never my lucky day,” Applejack explained from the other side of the table. "Doubt it would be today as well."
Flurry Heart snapped the cylinder into place and tucked the safety pin back behind the trigger. The alicorn tucked the revolver against her right wing, carrying it with her feathers. Applejack watched her with a bloody muzzle. Flurry stopped in the doorway and lingered for a moment. Rainbow had vanished, but there was a long slice in the wallpaper leading to the grand staircase.
“Got one last question,” Applejack requested. “Heard you slaughtered an entire army. Radio’s been crowing about the Alicorn of Death for months. Watched all those ponies outside tuck their tails when you ordered them down, even Apple Bloom. They’re always gonna fear you.”
“They’ve looked at me like that my entire life.”
“You ever wish they looked at you otherwise?”
Flurry did not answer immediately. “Pointless question,” she finally said. She tossed her horn back. “I am what I am. The world isn’t going to pretend otherwise just because I want it to.”
“No,” Applejack agreed. “It won’t.”
Flurry left her. As she approached the stairs, her ears swiveled back at a soft song coming from the only furnished room in the house. Applejack’s voice was sour.
“Equestria, the land I love…”
“A land of Harmony…”
“Our flag does wave from high above…”
“For ponykind to see…”
She exited out the front doors. Amoxtli, Nightshade, and two dozen New Marelanders had bracketed the two groups of ponies. More Tzinacatl had arrived. The two bat ponies at the doors shuffled to the side, ears half-twisted inwards from the muffled singing.
The two herds had been disarmed as they waited. Flurry looked around. Oh, shit. She caught Gilda’s eyes from where the griffoness was fiddling with a radio. “Where’s Rainbow?”
“She took off faster than I could catch her,” Gilda admitted. “North. She kill the bitch like she said she would?”
Flurry gave her a look.
“Aw, Maar’s Hell,” Gilda swore. “Knew she was puffing hot air. I’ll fly her down, but the radio’s lit up. The ‘lings are moving to breakout and Army Group Center is swinging down to counter. I got to fly.”
The alicorn twisted back to Smolder. “Get Ember on the radio, too. They’ll make quick work and keep it contained. I gotta get to Rockville.”
“Princess?” Nightshade pointed a wing at the two groups.
Flurry groaned. “Babs, Apple Bloom, you are arrested for desertion. Appeal to Duty Price back in…wherever the fuck he’s at right now. Get your ponies off the front.”
Babs snorted. “Once we’re done here-”
The earth pony was seized in a golden aura and flung into the bark of an apple tree. She whinnied in pain from the hit, and was held there upside down. Flurry turned her burning horn to Amoxtli; the glow illuminated her eyes.
“Applejack is charged with treason and under arrest.” Her voice echoed across the orchard. “She is to be brought to Canterlot and held for trial post-war. If anypony makes an attempt on her life, they are to be shot.”
The echo faded and Flurry released the choking earth pony. She slid down from the tree and laid on the grass, hacking for breath. Apple Bloom stepped up with clear relief and tears in her eyes, but Flurry gave her a vicious snarl of bared teeth and the younger sister quailed.
Amoxtli nickered something in a tribal language and the Tzinacatl rushed the manor. She kneeled before the alicorn’s swirling mark on her leg. “As you command, Princess.”
“I do command it, and it will be obeyed.” Flurry raised her wings and horn, standing tall over the crowd. “This is my decree as Princess and Diarch of Equestria: Twilight Sparkle will judge the Element of Honesty for her crimes. She is the Princess of Friendship.”
In one moment, the anger or relief was replaced by fear. Flurry scanned over the muzzles. She locked eyes with Apple Bloom until the mare knelt, then looked to the next pony.
Her ponies knelt in the road and among the hanging bodies in the trees.
“Rise,” Flurry snarled. She jabbed a wing at Gilda. “Tell Mudbeak I have to hunt down my damn Air Marshal.” The feathers swiveled to Nightshade. “Tell Caballeron I’m shifting north. Have Light Narrative find somepony in Appleloosa to get order restored. Whatever is necessary.”
Nightshade nodded rapidly.
Flurry finally turned to Chips. “You ever been in a teleporting jeep?”
Chips swallowed and his head feathers puffed out. “No.”
“You’re about to be.”