Spike walked down the halls of the Crystal Palace. Rather, it was Prince Spike of the Crystal Empire who strolled down the hallway back towards his room. Unlike three years ago, he had grown quite well thanks to some additions to his diet that they’d imported straight from the Dragon Lands, mostly roc meat which he learned was not only quite common back in the Dragon Lands, but was also extremely delicious when roasted and seasoned well. He’d sprouted his wings finally, which had been quite an ordeal, and he was now taller than even Cadance, his new adopted mother. He wasn’t too muscular, but his friend Dragon Lord Ember told him that the muscles would come if he trained well.
In fact, that was where he’d just come from. He’d come from the arena where Shining Armor had been personally training him in several combat arts. It had been a challenge considering both of them had different body types, but it was a fun learning experience for both. Shining had managed to adapt and teach him several ways to fight. With his wings, Spike was even more formidable, and Shining had one of the guards in the palace, a pegasus named Flash Sentry, train with him in aerial maneuvers and combat. Even with three years of training under his proverbial belt, Spike knew he was still no match for the brother he’d longed to have for so long, and who he now had, even if technically Shining was his adopted dad. Still, he was able to hold his own fairly well.
As he turned the corner, he saw a couple of crystal guards walking down the hall with the six-year-old Flurry Heart. She was walking with a couple of her friends from school. When she saw Spike, her wings fluttered excitedly and she jumped into his arms. “Big brother!” she said happily. For a six-year-old, she actually could talk relatively well.
Spike’s heart warmed at this and the sixteen-year-old dragon held his little sister in his arms. “Hey, Flurs,” he said, calling her by the nickname he’d given her a while ago.
She hugged him for a bit, then he heard her sniffing. “Eeew, you’re all sweaty,” she said, waving her hoof in front of her nose like she was trying to get rid of the stench as she flew out of his grip.
Spike rolled his eyes. “I just got done training with dad,” he said, “and I was about to go shower. Where were you all going?”
“Mom said we could go out for some ice cream and scones!” Flurry said excitedly. “Do you wanna come after you shower?”
Spike chuckled and shook his head. “Hmmm, as nice as that sounds, I’m actually gonna take a nap. Dad’s training made me really tired today. Buy me a cornet, would you?” He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out some crystal bits which he gave to Flurry.
“Chocolate filled?” she asked.
He chuckled. “You know me well, little sister,” he said, ruffling her mane. “You and your friends have a good time, and I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Okay!” With that, the group of fillies and the guards walked past him, the guards giving Spike a friendly nod as they did so.
Spike went back to his room and unlocked his door, stepping inside. He quickly walked through the regal looking bedroom towards his bathroom. The shower water felt amazing on his scales, especially when he turned the temperature up to scalding hot. At least, scalding hot for ponies. When he finished, he walked over to his bed, collapsed into it, and turned around, staring up at the crystal ceiling above him.
The room he was granted by his new adopted parents was nearly three times bigger than his old one in the former Castle of Friendship. His bed was a king-sized bed, which he felt was too big for him but Cadance insisted, saying that he would grow into it. He had three large arched windows looking out onto the city of Crystalia, a balcony with two chairs, a large fireplace and a couple chairs there, a desk, a large closet full of his new clothes, a second storage closet for any miscellaneous belongings he had, a few wall mounts for the various weapons he’d been granted by the best Crystalia blacksmith, and shelves for all of his comics and other awards.
As he turned over to stare at the ceiling, something from his storage closet fell over, creating a sound of shattering glass. He stood with a groan and walked over to see what had fallen. He turned the light on and walked in, initially finding nothing as he walked through. Soon, however, he saw a small brown picture frame sitting on the ground near the back. He reached down and picked it up, staring at the picture with a sense of sadness and betrayal.
The picture was one taken during their first week in the Golden Oaks Library all those years ago. He was standing next to Twilight, both of them all smiles as they stood in the main area. He remembered that Twilight had insisted on them taking a picture ‘…for the future.’
When they’d lived in Golden Oaks, he’d only stored his copy away, but after the destruction of the library, he’d placed it on the nightstand next to his bed, prominently on display. It had been luckily locked away in a strong chest that had mostly survived. Every day, before he got up to take care of the myriad of chores needed in the castle, he’d look back at the picture of his younger self, missing his younger days and trying to gain strength from those memories.
When he’d been there that fateful day three years ago after hearing about what she’d done to Jason Wright, a being he’d never even heard of let alone met, his emotions got the better of him and he blurted out all that he’d been holding in against Twilight. Princess Luna, bless her soul, had been there listening, calmly reassuring him that he would be alright. He had sensed a profound sadness and anger, but the latter wasn’t directed at him. Starlight had been there to comfort him as well, even helping him move into his new room before he returned the favor by helping her move in with Sunburst.
He looked at the picture frame a bit more closely now, as there was something different about it. He quickly realized that the glass protecting the picture had a crack in it, one that split right between him and Twilight, separating them. There was a part of him that wondered just how Twilight and her former friends were doing. He didn’t consider them even former friends because he felt that they didn’t treat him as such. Still, they’d been in his life for years, so he couldn’t help but be a bit curious. Last he’d heard, Twilight had been in some sort of insane asylum for two years before being released and shipped off to Maretime Bay. Rarity apparently lived there too. As for the others, Rainbow and Fluttershy had been living in Cloudsdale until about a year ago when they both decided to move to a small settlement near Maretime Bay called Zephyr Heights, Pinkie was on her rock farm, and Applejack was the only one of the former Elements who still lived in Ponyville, working on her farm with her family.
He sighed, putting the picture back up on the shelf face down so it wouldn’t fall so easily again. He turned away, walking back out of the darkened closet of old, forgotten memories, back into the large room full of a bright new future.
He sat on the ground in front of a large window facing the mountains of the Frozen North, closing them and entering a state of meditation. Zecora had moved up to the Crystal Empire with Spike and Starlight, setting up an apothecary shop in Crystalia while using some neighboring forests outside the city for ingredients. She’d helped him through some of his darker moments in the adjustment period, including teaching him about meditation techniques that could help calm the mind.
Slowly, over the course of ten to fifteen minutes, he felt the negativity leaving him once more. The memories would never leave him, but he could move past them and learn from them. As a winged dragon teen prince, he now had some responsibilities to those ponies in the empire, and he couldn’t let the past dictate his actions. These ponies were a lot closer to Harmony than the ponies he’d known, and his status as hero notwithstanding, the crystal ponies clearly enjoyed his company and were always kind to him.
Feeling much more relieved, he stood and went back to bed, crawling under the covers as he did so. He sighed contentedly and closed his eyes. Aside from one brief hiccup, today had been a good day. As he fell asleep, he wondered if he could try once more to convince Cadance to let him join the local adventurer’s guild despite being adopted royalty. With thoughts of adventure with a party in the ever-expanding borders of the northern empire filling his mind, he fell asleep, smiling happily at the thought.
Twilight Sparkle was walking around the house she’d been living in for the past year after having been released from her two-year stint in a mental hospital. She was using her magic to clean the lighthouse mirrors, something she did daily. With lighthouse mirrors, one had to be extremely careful when cleaning as one scratch could affect the effectiveness of the amount of light given off by the crystal lantern. As she rinsed off the rag in the nearby sink, she looked out at her new home.
Maretime Bay was a beautiful new town, and it was just on the borders of the slight Equestrian expansion into what had once been called the Undiscovered Lands. Since almost all of its citizens were former Ponyvillians, most were earth ponies. Her lighthouse was separated from it by a small canyon formed from years of erosion by a river that flowed in from the west. A large natural bridge made of earth linked Maretime Bay to her new home, and she would occasionally go into town for supplies.
Today just so happened to be one of those dreaded days, and Twilight was stalling as long as she could just so she wouldn’t have to see the faces of the ponies who she had personally failed. She didn’t want to see the glares from ponies who were now relegated to a town separated from the rest of Equestria so as to ensure they wouldn’t be harmed by other ponies.
Still, while she had finally accepted that her foalish and cruel actions had caused the death of someone who’d only wanted to be her friend, she had to endure the constant reminding glares of ponies who she’d once considered to be her close townsponies. She’d never liked being constantly reminded of her failures, and even Rarity had given her looks of pure hate she’d never expected from one of her former best friends. That is, whenever she actually saw her former friend.
Finishing up her cleaning, she teleported everything to the kitchen along with herself. Draining both soapy and rinsing buckets, she cleaned them up then placed them back into storage before she went to her room. It was smaller than her old one, but it was still enough for her. It was also the only place in the house that wasn’t exactly clean. By the time she’d finish her day, she hardly had time to clean it, which caused her even more guilt as Spike’s room back in her former home in the Castle of Friendship was more often than not a mess. She had always scolded him for it, but now she understood why.
With a heavy heart, she decided to continue putting off her going into town and actually put some effort into cleaning her room. She spent the next couple of hours cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, organizing, and washing her sheets. Finally, her room was organized and cleaned. She lay on her freshly made bed, sighing and closing her eyes as she rested briefly before she left. She missed her friends. She missed her family. She missed Spike, the little brother she’d never acknowledged. She wanted to make things right, but there were some things she now realized she could never take back.
There was a knock on her bedroom door, causing her to jump. She looked at it, then sighed. It was most likely the nurse that the Canterlot mental hospital had assigned to keep an eye on her, Nurse Maple Leaf. She lived in a smaller house next to the lighthouse, so Twilight didn’t see her too much. Initially, Twilight had been resentful of her presence, but Maple Leaf had grown on her as a nice constant in her life. She was the only pony who didn’t treat her like Tartarus. “Come in, Nurse Maple,” she said tiredly.
Maple Leaf, a unicorn mare about ten years older than Twilight, opened the door and walked inside. She was a dark brown mare with some white spots scattered on her stomach along with green eyes and a group of three maple leaves for a cutie mark. She was wearing her typical nurse’s hat and a nurse’s gown. In her green magic she held a pencil and a clipboard. “Good afternoon, love,” she said in a kindly Trottingham accent, “and how are we doing today? Better, I hope?”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Twilight said as she sat up in her bed.
Maple looked around the room and nodded. “I see you cleaned the room up. Is it time to go into town already?”
Twilight’s ears fell. “Is it that obvious?”
“You do tend to do a lot more around the lighthouse whenever you need to go into town for supplies, love,” Maple said with a knowing look.
Twilight sighed and nodded as she slowly got out of bed and stood. “I know…I need to go to town, but it gets harder every time.”
“You do realize I can go if it gets too hard,” Maple said. “You don’t have to go alone, either. I can come with you.”
Twilight shook her head stubbornly. “No, the doctors told me I needed to face my demons straight on,” she said, “and I need to do that alone.”
Maple nodded and wrote something down on her pad as she replied, “just know that I’ll be here for you if you need a helping hoof. I’m here for the long haul.”
Twilight gave her a grateful smile. “I appreciate that, Maple, but I’ll be alright. Is there anything I can get for you while I’m in town?”
Maple shook her head. “Oh no, you don’t have to spend your money on me, dear,” she said, “I know you don’t earn too much from your job.”
“Please, it’s the least I can do,” Twilight insisted.
Maple looked a bit uncertain, but when Twilight continued to ask, she finally said, “Well…I’ve been craving chocolate mint chip cookies from Crumble Nation. They’re my absolute favorite.”
Twilight inwardly winced. That was where Rarity’s parents worked, along with Rarity herself. She went there sometimes, but not often. It still hurt to be there and get ignored by her once close fashionista friend. Still, she’d offered, and it was the least she could do. “Does one dozen cookies sound okay?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you, love,” Maple said.
“Alright, then I’ll get those last so they’re fresh,” she said, of course hiding the real reason for wanting to go last.
“See you when you come back, Twilight,” Maple said.
“Yeah…see you later…”
With a heavy heart, she grabbed her coin purse, put her saddlebags on, went out to the back of the lighthouse, hitched herself up to the cart she took into town, and began plodding down the road…
“Mom, Dad, I’m gonna go and play with Scootaloo at her house for a bit,” Rarity heard Sweetie Belle say from the kitchen where she was helping her mother make another batch of cookies for the small cookie business they’d opened in Maretime Bay, Crumble Nation.
“Sounds good, sweetie,” Cookie Crumbles said, “tell her aunts I said hello.”
“Will do!” Rarity heard Sweetie galloping out of the door.
Cookie came back into the kitchen and looked at her older daughter. Giving her a smile, she said, “Is the next batch ready, pumpkin?”
Wiping sweat from her brow, Rarity walked over to the oven and looked in. “Not yet,” she said, “probably another…three minutes.”
Over the past years, she’d been living with her family. Since she was unable to own any business again, she’d been forced to find another job. She’d tried leaving Maretime Bay, holding some jobs for a few months, including working in a small smoothie shop, but ponies eventually figured out that she worked there and would refuse to go to said places unless she wasn’t there. So, she was forced to return to Maretime Bay and got a job at her parents’ cookie shop. It wasn’t the busiest, considering everypony in Maretime Bay knew who worked in the kitchen, but the cookies were good enough for repeat customers. Hondo was the one who took orders so nopony would have to see Rarity.
“Thanks, hun,” Cookie said as she went back to her mixing bowl to mix the next batch of cookies.
Rarity walked over and began to wash the dishes used during the last batch. She inhaled deeply, then sighed. She was a seamstress…she shouldn’t have to work in a cookie shop…but what could she do? She couldn’t own a business ever again thanks to what happened three years ago. She was simply going through the motions of living now. Whenever she had time off, she would try her best to keep her seamstress skills sharp, but most of the time she would grow frustrated which would devolve into her going out, buying a bottle of wine from the local winery, and drinking her sorrows away until she went to sleep. The cycle would then start again.
She heard someone walking into the shop, and when she heard the voice of the pony who greeted her father, she scowled. It was Twilight. “C-Can I have two dozen original chocolate chip cookies and a dozen chocolate mint chip cookies?”
“Sure, that’ll be seventeen bits,” Rarity heard her father say. There was the sound of bits being placed on a counter and then her father said, “I’ll box those up for you right away.”
“Thanks…” Rarity could hear the uncertainty and sadness in Twilight’s tone. She couldn’t help herself, she began moving closer to the door while Hondo began boxing up the cookies for Twilight. There was silence for a bit before Twilight spoke again. “S-So…how’ve things been here?”
Hondo didn’t reply right away, but when he did, his voice was neutral but not hostile, something Rarity knew was a customer service tone. “Pretty good, all things considered.”
“Is the business doing okay?”
“Fairly well.”
“Good.” There was silence for a little bit before Twilight asked, “A-And how’s Rarity doing?”
“As well as could be expected,” Hondo said.
“Th-That’s good, I’m glad,” Twilight said.
Rarity gritted her teeth. How dare Twilight say such things!? It was her initial actions against Jason Wright that had led her to falling so far! She lost everything! She continued listening as Twilight continued, “Would you…tell her I stopped by and said hi? Oh, and that she’s welcome to drop by for tea anytime.”
“You know she won’t come,” Hondo said with a heavy sigh as the sound of something being placed on the counter caught Rarity’s attention. The boxes of cookies must have been finished.
“I-I know,” Twilight said sadly, “but please?”
Hondo was silent for a bit, then said, “I’ll let her know, Miss Sparkle.”
“Thank you,” Twilight’s voice sounded a bit relieved, “and thank you for the cookies.”
“No problem. Have a good afternoon,” Hondo replied.
When she heard the door to the shop open and close, Rarity put down the pot she’d been cleaning and trotted hesitantly out to the front of the shop. It was small, with a few tables for waiting ponies. They’d almost gotten a larger building, but they didn’t have the funds for it, so they decided on a grab and go/delivery model. It worked, but it meant they had to hire a delivery pony. Said pony was off on a delivery at the moment.
Rarity walked over to the window and watched the cart that Twilight was pulling take a left at the crossroads as she headed back to her lighthouse. Rarity knew that Twilight always made this place her last stop whenever she came into town, and the barrels of food and other supplies in the back of the cart only confirmed it. “Tsk,” she said as she turned back and strutted back towards the kitchen.
“Pumpkin, maybe it’s time you actually go visit her,” she heard her father say from his spot behind the counter.
Rarity stopped, then turned to her father. “Father dear,” she said with a stone-cold tone, “she’s the initial reason why we lost everything. If she hadn’t rejected that human-”
“You would have acted the same way,” her mother interrupted her. When Rarity turned to face her mother, she saw the indigo-colored unicorn mare scowling at her. “You know that’s true.”
Rarity scowled. They’d had this discussion many times throughout the years. Rarity knew that she’d made a mistake by turning Jason away, but she told herself that she did it to not only protect her little sister from the Everfree Monster as he was called for those three years, but because if Twilight had turned her away, then she must have had a good reason. After all, she had trusted Twilight and if she’d turned Jason away, there had to be a good explanation. “I admit, I may have been a bit…apprehensive, but if Twilight hadn’t-”
“Don’t try and hide from your own actions, young filly,” Hondo said.
“We aren’t,” Cookie added.
“We were part of a few crowds who chased Jason out of Ponyville.” Hondo said with his ears laid back.
“We’ve lost our friends, our self-respect, and our old home because of our own actions,” Cookie concluded, “not the actions of others. You’re a grown mare. You need to take responsibility for what you did, no matter how painful.”
“And hiding away from the world and especially from Twilight isn’t going to help you or her heal from this,” Hondo finished.
“And you don’t see the hypocrisy of Twilight doing the same thing??” Rarity demanded to know.
“We’re not her parents,” Hondo said patiently,
“We’re yours,” Cookie concluded, “and while we’re worried about her, she’s a grown mare.”
“So am I!” Rarity shot back.
“You’re certainly not acting like it right now,” Cookie said sternly.
Rarity looked at both of them, then looked down at the ground. She felt humiliated, like a foal who was being scolded by her parents. She pawed at the ground, frowning. She hated the fact that her parents were right, and as she acknowledged it, the pit in her stomach returned. The pit she didn’t want to feel. She growled and shook her head before walking away from her parents. She swallowed the bile in her throat and walked back to the kitchen. She’d be buying two bottles of wine tonight, she knew. At least it was the weekend…
“Dashie, are you hungry?” the voice of Rainbow Dash’s mother called from behind her bedroom door. “I made your favorite. Pasta and potato sandwich on sourdough.”
Rainbow was lying on her bed, staring up at the cloud ceiling above her. There was an apple of hard cider in her wing, nearly gone. It was her last bottle of Apple family cider, but it was enough to dull the pain for the moment. She sighed and looked at the closed door. “Just…leave it outside the door, mom,” she said as she drank the last of the cider.
“A…Alright, sweetie,” she said. Rainbow could hear the plate being set on a table that her parents had set just outside her room. “Did you have a hard day at work?”
Rainbow scowled. With her being drummed out of the Wonderbolts with a dishonorable discharge, she’d been forced to get a job at one of Cloudsdale’s restaurants as a server at least until a year ago. When she and her family had moved to a new pegasus settlement called Zephyr Heights, they’d been able to move their house there, setting it on the ground for the first time. She then got a job at the local tavern and inn. The pay wasn’t great and her coworkers didn’t exactly treat her with any kindness. They all knew who she was and what she’d done, so a part of her couldn’t blame them for how they treated her, but it was still tough. The customers were just as bad, leaving her measly tips or none at all. Today, she’d even had a young filly point at her and call her a bad pony. “It was the same as before.”
“I’m sorry, hun,” her mom said, “you don’t deserve that treatment.”
Pretty sure I do, Rainbow thought to herself as she put the bottle on the nightstand next to her foalhood bed. “I’m fine, Mom.”
“Okay…” her mom said uncertainly. “We’re here if you need anything, alright?”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Rainbow listened to her mom’s hoofsteps walking down the hall after a couple more seconds of silence. She turned over on her bed, sighing as she covered herself with her blanket. She hated what her life had become. She had lost everything, and there were days when she slipped and blamed that human for what happened, but while she knew she wasn’t too smart, she knew enough to know this was her fault. Sure, she couldn’t take all the blame, but her punishments were caused by her own actions.
Initially she had blamed Jason, but as time went on, and after a couple confrontations from her former number one fan and sister, she took time to self-reflect and realized that this was all on her. She’d permanently scarred and blinded someone. She’d caused the death of someone. No, she’d driven someone to suicide. The very thought made her shiver.
She didn’t want to eat, but her stomach betrayed her. Eating was another reminder of what she’d denied to Jason. She’d struck him when he’d been stealing from the Apple orchard, and had just left him to die. Still, she couldn’t just ignore the calling of her stomach. She stood, trudged over to the door, and opened it. Her mouth watered at the sight of her favorite dish.
She brought it over to her desk and placed it down, sitting at her desk. As she ate the sandwich and drank the water she’d been given, she felt tears begin falling. She looked over towards the door that led to the trophy room her parents had once held for her. She’d gone through and removed each and every award, destroying them in a fit of rage one day. That had been the day that she stopped blaming Jason and began acknowledging that she’d been the one in the wrong.
She ate the rest of her meal in silence, holding back her tears.
Fluttershy wiped her brow with a wing as she looked up at the late summer sun. Angel stood beside her, busily digging at the ground to get to some of the carrots she’d planted in her garden. Above her, the new pegasus settlement of Zephyr Heights stood on a large mountainside. It was a mix of different houses that had been moved from Cloudsdale to this new colony town, but she saw construction on a ledge for what she assumed was a cloud creation facility. Ever since Equestria expanded into the Undiscovered Lands, they’d found plentiful resources, and having a new source of clouds was a good thing for the rest of Equestria.
She looked down at her garden and nodded in satisfaction. Since she didn’t have a way to treat animals, and since animals knew what she’d done and avoided her except for Angel, she decided to pass her time by growing a garden. It kept her mind off of everything else around her, and more importantly, keeping away from the city and on this patch of wild land she’d converted to a garden helped her avoid the judgmental stares of the other pegasi in the new town.
Her parents had been taking care of her needs thanks to their retirement fund. Not only that, but they had been selling any excess produce that her garden produced during harvest and giving all the proceeds to her. The harvest that was coming this year seemed like it would be early and plentiful. She smiled a bit despite herself. She may not have gotten to work with animals again thanks to them knowing her crimes, but she did find surprising enjoyment in the hard work of growing edible roots and vegetables. She stretched and spread her wings, letting the cool breeze from the wind cool her fur. She looked down at Angel, who had just dug up a carrot and was brushing the dirt off. “That looks good, Angel,” she said.
Angel looked up at her, a pleading look in his eyes. “Can I?” he asked.
She looked at the carrot. It was a big one, and she knew that if he ate that big of a piece, she wouldn’t be able to give him any dinner. She reached down with her wings and took it from him. “You can eat it for dinner tonight,” she promised, placing it in a small nearby bucket which had some other freshly picked fruits and vegetables that she was going to contribute to tonight’s dinner.
The rabbit looked a little upset, but nodded in understanding as he hopped around, sniffing at the ground and at the plants. “They smell ready,” he said, “all except the potatoes.”
Fluttershy picked up her watering can and began sprinkling the water around the garden. “By the end of the week they should be ready for harvesting,” she said, “so let’s wait until then.”
Angel nodded and continued helping. Angel was old in terms of how long rabbits lived, but he still acted like the same young bunny she’d saved eight years ago. She could tell by the voice she heard thanks to her special talent that he was reaching the end of his natural lifespan. He’d matured greatly in the three years that had passed since she’d lost everything. He’d lost his attitude, at least for the most part, and had been instrumental in helping her out of her funk. She’d spent weeks after the event crying in her bed while also being tormented by guilty conscience nightmares of Jason hanging from a tree. She’d never seen it, but the ghastly sight of it in her mind’s eye kept her from sleeping well.
Oddly enough, it was her little brother Zephyr who’d been the catalyst to help her snap out of it. He hadn’t been happy to hear that his big sister, a mare he said he’d looked up to, had ignored someone who had been in need. She had listened as he had called her out on her own failings over the years, something he’d never done before. He talked about how he had been bullied in school only for her to not be there to help, which hurt to hear. He then compared it to what she’d done to Jason and explained that he himself had once had a few darker thoughts about his own self-worth. He reminded her about the time he’d gone to live in the woods and how at his darkest moments he actually HAD considered it. However, she’d been there to bring him out of it. He asked her where she was when Jason had such dark thoughts.
This broke Fluttershy and as the still shouting Zephyr had been pulled out of the room by their parents, she’d broken down even harder. She’d been inconsolable for days until she’d taken stock of herself. Her brother’s words may have been harsh, but they’d been right. She had failed her mandate as a former Element of Kindness. It took her a bit more time, but she accepted that what had happened, had happened. She resolved never to forget it and to learn from it. She promised herself that she would become a better pony because of it.
That didn’t stop the looks that came her way, however. While her own self-loathing during her reflective period had been worse than the looks she got from other ponies, it still hurt her a lot. It was because of this that she decided to take up a hobby on the ground, this time gardening. It had brought her peace of mind.
From behind her, she heard the flapping of pegasi wings as somepony landed nearby. She turned around, half expecting to see her mother since she had a flower garden several yards away. Instead, she saw the last pony she’d expected to see. Her brother stood nearby, a watering can in his hoof. He looked at her with an acknowledging nod. “Fluttershy.”
“Zephyr? What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked.
He frowned a bit. “What? I can’t come by to see my parents now?” he asked with a bit of a scowl.
Fluttershy’s ears drooped. “N-No, of course you can,” she stammered, quickly trying to course correct.
“Besides, it’s nice having my name associated with this place, dontcha think?” he asked as he looked nonchalantly at his hoof.
“Ah, well, I…” she stammered.
His scowl softened and he let out a sigh, putting his hoof back down. “Truth be told, I was on vacation and decided to drop in and see how you all were doing.” He began watering their mother’s flower garden. “Mom and Dad look good in their retirement. And…well, you look a bit better than the last time we…spoke.”
The silence between siblings was awkward. The sound of watering cans being poured onto plants mixed with the mountain breeze was the only sound heard. As one, the two turned to each other to speak. “Fluttershy, listen-/Zephyr, I’m-”
The two siblings froze, then slowly Zephyr gestured towards Fluttershy. She took a deep breath and said, “Zephyr, I’m so sorry for not being the big sister you deserved growing up. I should have been there more for you, especially when you were being bullied. I know what being bullied is like, and I should have known better. I should have been better to Jason, too…but I wasn’t…”
Zephyr took this in, looking at her with a collected expression. Fluttershy had never seen him so mature before and she wondered just how the last nearly three years had treated him. His mane style had changed and looked a bit more mature, plus his accent sounded a bit more refined. She knew from what her parents told her that he lived in Manehattan working at a prestigious mane stylist shop, and he did have a slight Manehattan accent.
“Fluttershy, I’ll be honest,” he finally said, “A part of me is still upset about what you did or actually didn’t do. Still, I suppose it’s to be expected. You were always like that and always had a difficult time changing.” He sighed again. “Despite that, I was so proud when you became an Element of Harmony. I looked up to you even more and I wanted to be more like you. You had what I didn’t. A steady job you loved, friends, the adoration of the ponies, and more. But when I heard what you didn’t do for that human, I was completely upset. What I said to you that day may have been my true feelings on the matter, but I didn’t…well, my new girlfriend told me I didn’t do a good job explaining myself. I acted on impulse, like I always do. I’m not apologizing for the intent behind my words, but I am apologizing for how I expressed them.”
Fluttershy was completely stunned. This seemed to not be the same brother she knew. He seemed a bit more well-spoken than the pony she’d grown up with. Still, a part of her soared. Truth be told, she missed him. She didn’t have any friends anymore except for Angel, and having someone in her life like Zephyr was better than having nopony. “I…I’m still sorry for what I did,” she said, unable to help herself.
“I know,” Zephyr acknowledged, “and I’m willing to try and bring that brother-sister bond back, or even build a new one. Just…don’t expect it to happen overnight.”
“Of course,” Fluttershy acknowledged. Unable to help herself any longer, the emotions of this brief but hard conversation getting to the emotional pegasus, she dropped her watering can, galloped over to her brother and flung her forelegs around him. “I missed you,” she whispered as she hugged him tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Zephyr didn’t react for a bit, but after a few moments, Fluttershy’s heart soared when she felt Zephyr returning the hug. The two remained like that, Fluttershy letting her emotions out through her tears. Finally, when she was finished, she broke the hug, stepping back and wiping what remained with her towel. “Th-Thank you, Zephyr,” she said gratefully, “and I want to rebuild that sibling bond we hardly had.”
“Glad to hear it,” Zephyr said, and for the first time since coming here, he smiled a bit. “I miss my favorite big sister.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help herself at that moment. She grinned slightly and said, “Apparently not enough to let me know you have a girlfriend.”
Zephyr actually blushed at that. “Y-Yeah, well, we’ve only been dating for a month, and it’s a bit harder than any other relationship I know of.”
“Who is she?” Fluttershy asked.
“You remember that foalhood crush I had back when you and Rainbow were in flight camp?” he asked a bit sheepishly.
Fluttershy couldn’t believe it. Sure, she knew about this crush, but in her younger age she figured it’d never go anywhere. Besides, she was always scared of said individual. “No way…you and GILDA?!”
He smirked. “Didn’t think your little brother had enough game to snag that cute hen, did you?”
“Well, she just-I don’t-HOW?!” Fluttershy was completely flabbergasted.
He chuckled. “Believe it or not, she came into the place where I worked a few months ago. Nopony else was available, so I decided to help her. Of course, I screwed it up according to her and she squawked at me and chewed me out. I guess I’ve been living in Manehattan enough to learn when to bite back at customers who are being completely rude, so I shouted back at her, telling her that if she didn’t like it, she was free to go somewhere else. Guess that got her attention because she looked back in the mirror, muttered something about it not being too bad and paid before storming out. She came back often and always asked for me. She always would claim she didn’t care for it, then I would tell her to go somewhere else if she didn’t like it. She asked me out about a month and a half ago and two weeks after that we became official. Guess she liked my backbone or something.”
Fluttershy was flabbergasted. She’d always assumed that he would be going after her first and now former friend Rainbow Dash, but she guessed that he was turned off by her actions of cruelty. “I-I don’t know what to say…”
“How about ‘Congratulations’?” Zephyr said with a snarky tone.
Fluttershy looked a bit abashed but then quickly nodded. “O-Of course I’m happy for you,” she said, “it’s just…I didn’t expect you two to end up together.”
“Eh, neither did I, but I guess I needed somepony, or somegryphon, to help me get over my other crush.”
Fluttershy’s ears went down a bit. She hesitantly walked over and placed her hoof on Zephyr’s back. “She’s taken things a lot harder than I did…”
“What she did was barbaric, Flutters,” Zephyr said, “blinding a magicless being with a lightning strike and then leaving without doing anything?” He sighed, then shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about Rainbow Dash right now.” He looked at her. “What about you? How’s your love life going?”
She was a bit taken aback by this. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Don’t try and lie to me, big sis,” he said, a small smirk forming on his face, “I mean you and Discord.”
His smirk slowly vanished when Fluttershy looked at the ground, her wings falling from their normal place at her side. “Ever since…that day…I haven’t seen him. I’ve tried to reach out to him, but I get no response to my letters. I don’t know what he’s doing.”
Zephyr was the one now who put his hoof on her back. “Eh, don’t worry about it too much,” he said, “you were always too good for him.”
Fluttershy understood that he was trying to cheer her up, and while she appreciated the sentiment, he’d gone about saying it wrong. She gave him a slight glare. “He was my friend, Zephyr. I just want to make sure he’s alright.”
“Th-That came out wrong,” Zephyr said, trying to backpedal. “I just meant that-”
“I know you meant well, but I can choose my own friends,” Fluttershy said, putting her hoof down literally and figuratively, “just like you can choose your own marefriend.”
“Henfriend,” he corrected her, but then he looked a bit sheepish. “Well, I suppose I’ve got some work of my own to do, eh?”
“We both do,” Fluttershy said before turning, giving her brother a smile, and hugging him. He hugged her back.
The two siblings held each other for a while before they both heard an excited tittering from nearby. They both pulled apart in embarrassment only to see their mother, Posey Shy, standing there with the biggest smile on her face. “It’s so nice to see you two getting along again,” the older quieter mare said. “Are you two hungry? I’m making both your favorites.”
The siblings looked at each other, then turned and smiled. “I’m ready,” Fluttershy said.
“Me too,” Zephyr said.
“Then let’s go home,” Posey said. “Dinner’s getting cold.”
Fluttershy gathered up her belongings, then called Angel back to her. Together, the three pegasi and single rabbit flew back up to have the first family meal the family have had in years.
Pinkamena Diane Pie bucked at yet another rock, watching as it began to crack open. Inside, she was satisfied to see yet another large geode full of precious ore and gems that they could sell to the nearby town of Rock Ridge. Business had been fairly good for the Pie Rock Farm despite those ponies in town learning about one of their family members having contributed, however slightly, to the suicide of an innocent being.
She brushed her completely straight mane away from her eyes, wiping sweat away as she inhaled and exhaled deeply before grabbing her water bottle and taking a few deep gulps of water before pouring some over herself to help cool her body off. She shuddered in relief as the cooling water eased the heat of the afternoon sun. Looking around the farm, she saw that her progress was still a bit slower than her sisters today. She was less than halfway done with her stretch of land.
She heard somepony walking up behind her, so she turned and to her surprise Marble was standing there. One of her eyes was hiding behind her striped gray mane while her visible purple eye looked at her sister with concern. She looked at the piece. “You…doing okay?” Marble asked in her normal soft and quiet tone.
Pinkamena looked back at the land, then back at her younger sister. “Yeah…I’m alright,” she said. “Just taking a little break is all.”
Marble walked up and looked at the portion of the farm where she’d been working. Looking back at her older sister, she said, “You won’t…be done…before night…”
“I’m getting better,” Pinkamena said, “and I’ll be done before you know it,” she added with a small smile, hoping that it would reassure her sister of the lie she’d just told.
Marble looked around once more, then looked back at her sister. Without another word, Marble walked over to the next row of rocks and began tapping at them. Pinkamena took a few seconds to recover from what she was seeing before she trotted over. “Marble, I’ll be fine, I-”
“No, you really won’t,” Marble replied in a much louder voice than before. Her hesitation whenever she normally spoke vanished and she looked up at Pinkamena. “Pinkie, you’ve been slipping lately. Even mom’s noticed. Every time this time of year, you get a bit…distracted.”
Pinkamena paused and looked down at the ground, a wave of various emotions washing over her. She looked down. “I…guess you’re right,” she admitted.
Marble’s voice grew soft again as she walked back over to Pinkamena. “It’s…the anniversary…isn’t it…?”
Pinkamena nodded solemnly. She dug at the ground with her hoof, then sighed heavily. “I keep thinking about what I could have done differently,” she said. “I shouldn’t have listened to Twi-to Twi-to her…” A brief scowl came on her face before fading. “I didn’t…”
Marble stomped on the ground, catching Pinkamena’s attention. “You’ve been doing this for three years,” she said with a frown, “isn’t it time to start moving forward?”
“How can I forget what I didn’t do for Jason-?”
Marble held up a hoof. “I didn’t say forget, did I?”
“Jeez, are you two old maids gonna talk or get back to work?” the harsh tone of Limestone Pie said as she walked up, wiping her brow with a slightly dirty towel. She turned to Pinkamena. “She’s not wrong, you know? You’ve been moping for the past week. Everypony knows.”
“If it’s…that much trouble…you know dad or mom would…let you take…time off,” Marble added.
Pinkamena shook her head. “That would leave the farm short…”
“We handled things before you came back well enough,” Limestone said with a scowl, “but you’re just dragging yourself down along with the rest of us.”
“That’s not completely fair,” the monotone voice of Maud said as she too walked up. She looked at Pinkamena with her normal half-lidded expression. “Pinkie, we can take care of things here. There’s nothing wrong with you taking time off.”
Pinkamena looked down, sitting on her haunches in the dusty farmland and trying to hold back tears. “I have to help…” she insisted.
“And you…are helping…by not…helping,” Marble explained.
“You’re are sister, and we love you,” Limestone said, “nothing will change that.”
“But you need to accept that what happened to Jason happened,” Maud said. “Yes, other ponies had a hoof in what happened, but you need to learn from it and move forward.”
“Don’t…forget…” Marble concluded.
Pinkamena looked at her three sisters. Her eyes were full of tears, and she began to quietly sob. Marble was the first to embrace her. Maud was next, and then Limestone joined in reluctantly, lightly patting the pink pony on the head. They stayed like that for a while until Pinkamena broke the hug. “I think…I’d like that,” she said. “Maybe I’ll go to that new town where Twilight and Rarity are. I want to check on them.”
Limestone scoffed at that, but Marble and Maud simply nodded. “Go tell mom and dad,” Maud said, “we can finish up your section.”
Pinkamena nodded as she turned and walked back to the farmhouse. She still felt the massive weight of her guilt, but there was something in her that was starting to take shape. Hope.
Unnoticed by her, a single strand of her mane curled ever so slightly.
Applejack stood on the porch of her house, looking over at what remained of her family’s apple farm. She sighed in dismay at what she saw. Nearly three years ago, the outermost parts of the massive multiacre orchard had caught some sort of rot that they couldn’t cure. They’d burned the trees that had caught it, but that had only slowed things down. It was too early for apple bucking, so they couldn’t harvest anything and at the rate the rot was spreading they would barely be able to get a quarter of the harvest at best. The worst of the rot had struck in the past year, taking hundreds of trees per month. It was the worst possible thing to happen to their family.
She saw Big Mac come slowly walking over from the northeastern portion of the fields. She didn’t need to hear what he had to say to know. His expression said it all. However, she still walked up to her big brother and asked, “Did any make it?”
Big Mac spat the hay out of his mouth and said, “None.”
Applejack’s heart fell. Their livelihood for over a hundred years was dying and nopony could do anything about it. They barely had the funds to ask for an expert from Canterlot to come and help. Tree Bark, a botanist, had come in, looked over the rot, and explained that there was nothing that he could think of that could be done. He’d apparently never seen this rot before.
Granny had called it “Retribution from above,” and there were times that Applejack couldn’t blame her for thinking that. After all, the rot had started sometime after Jason Wright’s death and burial in the highest honor in Canterlot. Ironically, it had started around the tree which he’d used to hang himself with. Applejack turned and looked back inside the house where she saw Granny sitting at the table. She looked back at Big Mac. “What are we gonna do, Big Mac? We can’t stop this rot, and ah doubt we’ll git anything to harvest when apple buckin’ rolls ‘round.”
Big Mac looked with sorrow at his little sister. “Only one thing to do,” he said.
Applejack watched him walk past her and straight through the front door into the kitchen. She knew how hard this upcoming decision would be for him, but she knew he was right. She followed him inside, where he heard Granny ask, “Well, youngin’? What’s the scoop?”
“Granny…” Big Mac’s voice caught in his throat, and he took a few seconds to compose himself. Applejack’s heart went out to her big brother and she put a reassuring hoof on his back. He looked back at her, then nodded gratefully. He turned back to Granny Smith. “Granny,” he began in a stronger tone, “I think we should leave.”
There was silence for a few moments until Apple Bloom came slowly walking into the room, a look of sorrow on her face as she said, “L-Leave…?”
Granny Smith, however, wasn’t having it. She glared at Big Mac and said, “Ah ain’t leavin’ this farm fer nothin’! It’s been mah home fer years, ever since ah was a youngun!”
“Ah don’t like it any more than you do, Granny,” Applejack said, taking a step forward, “but look out at our orchard!” She gestured out of the window at the farm. More than half of their former orchard was gone, having needed to be burned in an effort to stave off the strange rot that had taken hold of it. Applejack knew that with the loss of the apple harvest, including their zapp apple grove, their potential future profits would not manage to break even. “We gotta face facts. It’s time the Apples mosey on out of this place.”
Granny Smith sat stubbornly at the head of the kitchen table, glaring out the window. “Ah’ve lived here fer over a hundred years,” she said, “and ah ain’t givin’ up ‘till the last.”
“Will yah quit being as stubborn as a mule and face reality!?” Applejack shouted, stomping her hoof on the table and causing a new crack to form in it. Nearby, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh jumped at her temper. “We ain’t gonna be able tah plant anythin’ in time fer next spring! And what if the new trees catch the rot?! We’ll be right back where we started!”
Everypony in the room could see Granny’s bottom lip beginning to tremble, although the angry, stubborn look in her eyes didn’t leave. “Are yah just suggestin’ we give up and throw away everythin’ mah mammy and pappy built up here?” she asked in a quieter tone.
“Yah think ah like the idea?” Applejack asked in a calmer tone, “Ah was born here, Granny, and ah’ve lived mah entire life here. Ah don’t like it none, but we can’t be foalish about it.” She reached down and picked up a piece of stationary, holding it up. “A couple days ago, ah got a letter from Rarity. She told me they got some mighty good prime farmland up in Maretime Bay. It ain’t as big as what we’ve got here, but we can more than make do with it.”
“But how are we gonna get there, sis?” Apple Bloom asked nervously. “Nopony will help us move. They hate us.”
“Nah, sugarcube, they hate me,” Applejack said, looking over at the nearby hat rack. For the past three years, ever since Jason had died, she had refused to wear her signature Stetson. She knew her own parents would be ashamed of her, so she didn’t feel worthy of it, “but that shouldn’t stop ya. Ah can leave and find mah own way. If ponies knew ah ain’t around, they may be inclined tah-”
“Now you wait just a cotton pickin’ minute there,” Granny said with a glare. She got up and trotted over to a surprised Applejack. She placed a hoof on her chest and pushed her against the wall until Applejack was standing on her back legs. “Yah dun harmed that poor human, yes, but you’ve been punishin’ yerself fer three years. Ah’ve seen the look in yer eyes. If’n yah could go back, would yah do things any differently?”
“Granny, ah…of course ah would!” Applejack said, tears in her eyes. “Ah’d invite him tah meet the family, give him a job and a roof over his head! Ah’ve seen that cave he lived in, and it ain’t fit fer anypony tah live in! Anycreature, even!”
“Listen, sweetie, what’s done is done,” Granny Smith said. “We’re all tah blame fer what happened tah our beloved town. Not just you. Besides, we’re yer family, and yer the only family ah have left.”
Applejack looked down with shame in her eyes. Most of the rest of the Apple family, upon hearing what had happened to Jason, had effectively distanced themselves from the Ponyville branch, including her cousin Braeburn. Some had come to visit for brief stints, but not many. She was grateful for said visits, but they were few and far between. Applejack’s tears fell slightly, and she said, “Ah’m so sorry…ah failed y’all…”
“Everypony failed, hun,” Granny said, “not just you.” She backed away, then turned with a heavy sigh to Big Mac. “Ah don’t like tah admit when ah’m wrong, but yer right. We can’t stay here. We’ve gotta go.” She then turned to look at the others. “But we’re gonna need help.”
“Ah may have a way we can git some help,” Applejack said, “but yah ain’t gonna like it.”
“…What is it…?” Granny asked.
Applejack inhaled, then sighed as she said, “Mercenaries.”
Granny snapped to attention. “Ah ain’t about tah let some money hungry creatures handlin’ all our belongings or payin’ fer services that’s untrustworthy!”
“At this point, ah can’t see any other choice, Granny,” Applejack said. “Ah doubt the princess will send anypony tah help us! She don’t want nothin’ tah do with us! Besides, we don’t have the ponypower needed tah help. Even if we got in touch with the family that still talks tah us, there’s nowhere near enough ponies.”
Granny scowled, but after a while she deflated. “Ah see…” she said. “We’ll use that as a last resort. If we can’t muster up enough help, we’ll…hire a mercenary or two.”