//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Honesty // Story: Merely a Mare // by Ebon Mane //------------------------------// "Twilight, tell this here madmare what a terrible idea it is to pull that there stunt over Sweet Apple Acres!" Applejack begged the unicorn that had become the voice of reason in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash had just finished explaining her trick again for Twilight's benefit. Applejack didn't understand more than a bit about the pegasus' talk of barometric pressure, humidity, dew point, and all the rest of that Cloudsdale nonsense, but she knew a terrible plan when she heard it. She stood in Twilight's library, surrounded by books, but the earth pony didn't need to read a single one of them to know that lightning and apple trees don't mix. Rainbow Dash gave a dismissive snort, "Come on, Twilight, I've been up in the clouds for years and I know weather. Applejack doesn't know the first thing about lightning; if I practice at her farm, the weather conditions are perfect most days, so it won't be anything more than a bit of a flash. I'm sure there won't be any fire. Well, no fire I can't put out quickly with a spare cloud." Applejack was not at all reassured by Dash's statement, and the pegasus' disregard for her livelihood grated on her, '"Any fire is too much fire! It takes years of hard work to grow an apple tree, Dash, not that you'd know anything about that." Rainbow Dash was in Applejack's face as quick as wind, shouting, "What? I'm up there every day, busting my flanks to give your trees their sun and rain!" "Girls," Twilight Sparkle tried to interject. Applejack studiously ignored the unicorn, preferring to argue. "Busting your flanks when you're not too busy napping most of the day away. I can't get my day's work done in ten seconds flat like you, Rainbow Dash. Have you ever even seen the sun rise? Or is it always noon when you set to work?" Twilight's patience seemed to be thinning. "Girls." The pegasus seemed to be enjoying herself. Grinning, she countered, "I'm the best at what I do, so I can get it done quickly. Some ponies can't handle that sort of thing. You really shouldn't brag about how slowly you work, Applejack. Unless you're asking for help." Applejack's anger flared at the low blow. "That's it! Hoof-wrasslin'. Now." Rainbow Dash's smile only grew. "You're on." The two began to look around, searching the library for a suitable surface. "Girls!" Twilight shouted, her voice amplified by magic. Her friends winced at the painful volume, and turned to look at the unicorn, who had put on her 'no nonsense' face. Applejack sighed; things had just started to get fun. Seeing that the belligerents were paying attention, Twilight Sparkle continued in a normal voice, "I'm going to do some research on this sort of trick. I've seen the Wonderbolts doing it, so I know it's possible. I'll just make sure that it's safe, and then we can all talk about this again. Does that sound good to you two?" The unicorn smiled hopefully. Applejack made a non-committal noise, but was distracted from her effort to find a way to extend the argument by a knock at the door. The three ponies looked at each other in confusion; the library was open and Twilight kept the entrance unlocked. Spike was usually on doordragon duty, but he seemed to have slipped away at some point, presumably to avoid getting caught up in the argument. For a few moments, the door went unanswered. Then Twilight shrugged. Her horn glowed as she magically opened the door. Paying no mind to the customer, she shouted, "We're open, come in!" It had been nearly a month since the Summer Sun Celebration, but Applejack recognized the newcomer immediately. Midnight blue cloat, light blue mane. Wings. Horn. Applejack barely had a glimpse before she found herself staring at the floor, bowing deeply toward Princesss Luna. It had been instinctive, the same sort of reaction that most ponies experienced when Princess Celestia was nearby. There was something about the alicorns sometimes, some aura of majesty, that could do strange things to ponies caught unaware. The Earth pony glanced at her friends. Rainbow Dash was grounded, nearly prostrate, and the pegasus looked quite shocked about it. Twilight, apparently accustomed to Celestia's presence, merely stared at Luna. There was a hardness in the unicorn's eyes the like of which Applejack had never seen there before. The apple farmer gathered her resolve and stole a glance at Luna, who merely looked surprised. "Oh! My apologies!" The Princess exclaimed. Something nearly imperceptible changed, and Applejack felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She straightened up, no longer feeling an irresistible desire to worship the dark princess. Applejack had perceived the alicorn as being something amazing, something literally awe inspiring, but now she just looked like a pony, if a particularly well-formed one that happened to have both wings and a horn. The urgency in the dark mare's voice was replaced by a distant tone as she continued, "That was rude of me. I used to hide that all the time without thinking about it, but I fear that I'm out of practice. I'll remember to keep it away from now on." "What are you doing here?" Twilight's words had an edge to them that Applejack hadn't thought the mild, bookish mare was capable of. Rainbow Dash, of course, was capable of far worse, and she cut in before Luna could respond, taking an aggressive step toward the princess, "Yeah! Did you come for revenge? We'll stop you again if we have to! Your night isn't welcome here!" Luna recoiled as if struck, but regained her composure quickly. "No. I don't want revenge. You were right to stop me when you did; I was misguided. I was wrong to want to bring eternal night to Equestria. Wrong for so many reasons...." The alicorn looked at her feet as she trailed off, sorrow etched upon her face. Applejack couldn't conceive of Princess Celestia ever allowing herself to look as vulnerable as Luna looked at that moment, and the Earth pony found herself feeling almost sorry for the princess. It seemed strange to her that she should pity one of the rulers of ponykind. Twilight's voice broke the silence, "True or not, that doesn't exactly answer my question." "I suppose not," the alicorn sighed, "The reason I came is... well... I wanted to apologize. To apologize and to beg your forgiveness. The forgiveness of all the Elements of Harmony. I want... I want to try to be a friend to all of you." The three mortal ponies were silent for a moment, trying to process what they'd just heard. Rainbow Dash reacted first: she scoffed, "You tried to kill us. You sicked a manticore on us! A manticore and trees! Well, more the manticore than the trees. Do you know how much a manticore's tail hurts when it whacks you out of the air? You dropped my groundbound friends off a cliff! You made me think... I thought I had to give up...," She trailed off for a moment, her eyes distant for a few seconds before they snapped back into focus, narrowed on the alicorn, "You think you can just walk in here and expect us to forgive you?" The pegasus hovered angrily, forelegs crossed over her chest, a scowl on her face. "I don't forgive so easily. I bet the others agree. We're not omnibenevolent like Celestia." Applejack and Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash in disbelief. The unicorn managed an incredulous, "Dash, where did you learn the word omnibenevolent?" The pegasus rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, looking sheepish. "Word a day calendar." "And here I thought I knew ya, Dash," Applejack shook her head, smiling in amusement. She hoped that the word meant what it seemed to mean; she didn't want to ask. Quiet returned to the library for a few heartbeats. Luna's whisper cut through the silence, "Celestia is not all-forgiving. She had her own reasons for welcoming me back to my old place at her side." Twilight's voice darkened, "Reasons she didn't see fit to share with her most trusted student, of course. They must be some truly amazing reasons, to cause the Princess to make such a tremendous error in judgment, to ignore justice so fully. You escape from your prison and lock Celestia away, threaten to bring eternal night to Equestria, try to kill my friends and I, and what do you get for it? A crown and a throne, and your sister's best efforts to return you to the glory and position you abdicated through betrayal so long ago. Oh, and a welcoming party, of course. We stop you, and save Equestria, and what do we get for it? A small thanks followed by a large cover up. No reward. Nopony outside of Ponyville knows what happened on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration. We aren't even allowed to mention it to ponies that weren't in Ponyville that night. Oh, how we could have put that bragging Trixie in her place.... All because the Princess didn't want your reputation ruined. Like ponies won't figure it out. It doesn't take a teleportation magician to realize that the moon looks a lot different these days, and there's a new alicorn around, and maybe, just maybe, there's something to those old stories. You won't be able to escape from the stigma of what you've done for long. When it all catches up to you, you won't have a place at the Princess's right hoof anymore." Luna had looked more and more devastated as Twilight ranted, but something in the last bit seemed to catch her attention. Applejack could barely hear the alicorn whisper, "I... think I see." The princess straitened, and her regal mask softened with compassion. She spoke with quiet surety, "This is not a contest between us. You are still my sister's favored student. What she did, she did for you as much as me. In time, you will see." Twilight Sparkle seemed to swell, shaking with rage. "Don't you patronize me! You don't know the value of what you threw away." The alicorn merely sighed. "You don't know the value of the gifts she gave you." The librarian set her teeth, jaw unmoving as she spoke two vicious words, "Get. Out." Luna looked as though she were about to speak, but thought better of it. The alicorn turned and walked out slowly, shaking her head. Twilight stared out the door after the alicorn for a long time as Applejack tried to think of something to say to the unicorn, some comfort. Before she could even try, Twilight shouted, "Everypony out! The library is closed for the day. Out!" The unicorn turned away and began levitating stray books, propelling them into bookshelves with loud thunks. Some of them managed to find their places without knocking everything else on the shelves off. Others were not so successful. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the only other ponies in the library. They looked at each other, but Dash seemed to be as confused as the farmer was. With a dark look, the pegasus flew out the open door, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake and shouting over her shoulder, "I'm going to warn the others. She's back for revenge, I know it." Applejack wasn't so sure. The Earth pony walked out, glancing back at Twilight before closing the door behind her. The unicorn still hadn't stopped shaking; Applejack had never seen the librarian in this kind of mood; she seemed inconsolable. Outside, the noonday sun beat down on what had been a bustling ponyville. Princess Luna sat alone and unmoving in the clearing in front of the library, staring at the ground. Many of the ponies that had been going about their business were now gathered in small groups, whispering in hushed tones and surreptitiously glancing at the newcomer, fear or anger written large on their faces. Rainbow Dash was already well out of sight. Applejack sighed. If what Twilight had told her and the other Elements about Luna's past was true, this was just the sort of thing that had led to her becoming Nightmare Moon in the first place. The Earth pony knew that she had to do something. She just wished that she knew exactly what it was. Applejack approached the princess and dropped to a knee in a bow, and got her attention by stating in a shaky voice, "Princess Luna." The alicorn turned her head to look at Applejack and gave a shallow smile, "Stand up. My sister was the one fond of ponies bowing to her; I've always found it to be a bit distasteful. I don't recall your name, but I do recall that you were one of the ponies who subdued me in my madness. Honesty, right? Thank you." Applejack rose slowly to her hooves, somewhat put off by the wandering of Luna's thoughts. She managed to reply, "Yes, Princess, Honesty. My name is Applejack." The alicorn broke eye contact and looked up, gazing directly into the sun's glare. "Good to see you again, Applejack. Please, call me Luna. Just Luna. I'm glad that the circumstances of our second meeting are somewhat better than those of our first. The ponies here are afraid to approach me, but you are not. You must have a purpose; what is it?" "Rainbow Dash thinks that yer here to get revenge for what we did to you." The Princess nodded, "I know." "Twilight Sparkle seems to hate you, but she didn't at your welcome celebration, and I don't know what changed." The Princess nodded again, "I do know what has changed for her. Or rather, what changed within her. She has her reasons. Everypony has their reasons, even if the reasons are unreasonable." Applejack paused. Luna's eyes hadn't left the sun; a normal pony would have been forced to look away in pain long since. The Earth pony supposed that the alicorn must have been used to her sister, or something. She tried not to let the oddness of it distract her as she continued, words spilling forth uncontrolled, "I... I know the value of honesty because I know the value of trust. My friends are all ponies that I know I can trust, but yeh've got to give the trust before you can get the knowledge. I'm not certain that yer not plottin' some sorta revenge. I can't know for sure. But I think that you're being honest when you say that yer sorry. So I'll trust you. And I'll forgive you. And I'll help you convince the others, even those two stubborn mares back there. Just don't betray my trust. Got that?" The orange mare paused for breath. The princess was crying. Applejack doubted that the tears had anything to do with looking at the sun too long. The alicorn spoke, whispered words that barely reached her ears, "Yes. Thank you. You won't regret it." Applejack looked away. She wasn't good with tears, her own or those of other ponies. Not wanting to remain silent, she said the first thing that popped into her head, "You look like you haven't eaten in a spell. You hungry? How about some apples? My treat." Shocked at herself, she looked back at Luna, fearing the alicorn's reaction. The princess replied with a wry smile and dry words, "I would love some apples. It really has been a spell since I've eaten. In fact, it feels like I haven't had a bite to eat in a thousand years."