"I am telling you, Bon Bon - I've seen her before!"
Lyra's oldest friend and her marefriend just shared a look. Carrot Top and Bon Bon both knew their friend could go to extremes at times... well, at any time. Everything that made her a talented musician - passion, the ability to hyperfocus, the ability to connect unite disparate elements into a new cohesive whole - made her unsuited for almost anything else. Like, say, keeping her voice down in one of the nicer restaurants in Ponyville.
"Well, of course you have," Carrot Top started, unable to hide the worry from her voice. It was always hard to keep Lyra from the worst of her conspiracies. "She's Applejack. She's been tending that stall at the marketplace for years-"
"But that's just it! You two and I have been shopping there ever since we were little fillies, ever since Granny Smith got too old to walk into town all that much. Don't you remember how big she was?"
Bon Bon frowned. "Lyra, are you saying Applejack is fat?"
"No! I mean - she was an adult!" Lyra's hooves ran through her mane in frustration. "Come on. She's lived in Ponyville her whole life, right? Do you remember seeing her as a filly?"
Now it was Carrot Top's turn. "So... you're saying she's old?"
"No! I mean, yes! I mean, maybe," she sighed, taking another bite of her daffodil sandwich. She hardly noticed it disappear in her mouth, except when she had to swallow to continue talking. "But it's something other than that. She's up to something. And I'm going to find out what!"
Carrot Top and Lyra exchanged a look. "Lyra," her fillyfriend said tremulously, "I know you've been... perceptive before." Lyra had oddly exact dreams on the night of Nightmare Moon's return, and she was able to tell the parasprites were dangerous when the candy mare had brought a pair home to be their new pets. "But when have you ever been right about another pony?"
Carrot Top nodded. "I mean, I'm not a clone. And Bon Bon isn't plotting against the Equestrian throne-"
- Bon Bon thought nervously to her fillyhood, reading unfavored books and dreaming of becoming a senator in the nonexistent New Lunar Republic -
"-and more than, it's really mean to Applejack. What evidence do you have, anyways?"
"THAT'S IT!"
Both her friends looked at her surprised as she pounded the table.
"All I have to do is find some proof! Something that shows she's where she shouldn't be! Thanks!"
Giving both her friends a kiss in her excitement (and making both blush), Lyra threw bits onto the table as she ran off.
"And I know just where to find it!"
It was the middle of summer, and the trees didn't need much maintenance besides chasing off the occasional raven. ( Applejack was glad they couldn't talk. Her own half of the conversation generally had enough blue language for both sides, anyways. ) So after tending to the critters, Applejack spent most of her time on the old maintenance. Today's task was mending the fence at the edge of the farm; she had no idea who the scoundrel that broke it was, but imagined the scoundrel in question had a blue coat, a rainbow mane, and hadn't been looking where she was going. Dropping her saddlebags to the side, Applejack brought up the hammer and nails.
It had seemed easy enough, at first; any old nag can swing a hammer. But lifting the board back in place into the fencepost while trying to hold a hammer AND hold the nail, all on her lonesome, was a bit tougher. While trying to keep her muzzle under the board and look at the nail and make sure the nail hadn't slipped, Applejack swung. It would have driven a nail straight into a barn. But even being as good with her hooves and having as strong a back as she did, there was only so much she could do: She hadn't checked the angle of her swing quite right, and the hammer struck bone with a loud crack.
"Darn it!"
The hammer flung into the grass as she reared back, shaking her hoof and examining it for any chips or cracks. As she examined her hoof, feeling the flesh throb behind the bone, the hammer landed back on the grass in front of her.
"It's been dinnertime for two hours now, Applejack," called Granny Smith, that impish smile unmistakable on her weathered face, leaning on her old cane. "Now you better come eat something before I have to put it up or toss it out."
Applejack shook her head, and grinned a little. "I guess I could use a break," she admitted, walking gingerly on the forehoof. For once, they had to go at about the same pace. Granny Smith walked apace with her, looking her over.
"I know how much it hurts you. And I don't mean your hoof."
It took a moment for Applejack to catch on - Granny Smith mentioned it so rarely, it was easy to forget she knew - but the mare shook her head. "It's not so bad, really," Applejack said. "Big Mac's been helping me so much lately; I haven't had this many chances to drop my guise in years!"
"I'm not talking about that spell, Applejack," said Granny Smith, with a hint of smugness. "I'm talking about your lies. I know being a liar has to hurt you."
Applejack's surprised snort caught in her throat.
"How long have you been hiding the truth, Applejack? Holing up at the farm as seasons come and go, saying hello to new Apples, goodbye to old Apples, coming out to sell a bushel or two then high-tail it back to home to do this, that or another."
She shook her head. "It's not high-tailing it, it's coming home to take care of my responsiblities."
Granny Smith paused as she walked, turning to face Applejack. "There's a lot more of us here. And in the meantime, you've spent your life buried in work."
"Yeah, but that's just the thing. I never asked to be different. I was born an Apple, and that's all I've ever wanted to be - the loyalest, hardest-working, most dependable of ponies no matter where you go in Equestria. It's just an accident that I have wings and a horn, that's all."
"Alicorns don't come along as an accident. You are no accident. You don't get a new alicorn by hitching two alicorns together and making lots of little alicorn foals," Granny Smith teased. "They happen when life needs them. It's a duty, Applejack, and you can't hide from duty."
Granny Smith fixed an eye on Applejack, and gently jabbed her flank with her cane. "And an Apple, shirking her duties? What would Mom say?"
It was a low blow. Applejack's mother had passed on almost two generations ago; she had helped lower her mother's coffin into the earth. On that day, Granny Smith had already begun showing her age, but Applejack looked no older than she had twenty years before.
Applejack's voice was much more timid. "I'm not shirking anything. I could rule this nation with the best of them!" Better than most of those stuffed-shirt nobles that swaggered so proudly at the Gala, at least! "But - if I change, it's not just that I'll have to leave. Everything about home and family will be gone. Why, being related to me, the Apple family would be right proper nobility!" She laughed. "Can you imagine the Apple family holding a reunion in Canterlot?"
"Sure can't! But then again, you won't let it happen, now, will you?" The old mare's cane gently poked her once more. "What's the matter, Applejack? Are we not good enough for you to trust?"
Applejack took a step back. She had never heard Granny Smith talk like this before. "Now just wait a minute. Why are you bein' so cruel to me?"
Granny Smith sighed. "Because it will get you to listen. First: I'm getting old, Applejack. You never will, and you might not believe this, but I want to see my big sister happy. And these lies - they make you miserable. They have for the last sixty years, and they will for the next six thousand years if you let them."
"And second... Apple Bloom talked to me the other day. Asking for help with a boy."
Applejack blinked. "A... boy? Who was it?"
"Spike, but that's not the point. The point is that she came to ask me because she couldn't ask her mother about this. And I think she's old enough to know that bit of the truth, too; don't you?"
Applejack swallowed. She had lived so long with her little web of evasions and half-truths and embargoed information that everything had grown into one great big lie.
"You never play fair, do you?"
"Never have, never will," Granny Smith grinned. "What, do I have to wrassle you for it?"
Applejack cringed. "I'm not going to wrassle you, Granny Smith."
"That's probably for the best," Granny sighed, with an old smile. "After all, you know I'll just beat you."
"What? I can still whup Big Macintosh! Don't you think you're a little old to be making promises your hips can't keep?"
Granny Smith grinned, and tossed down her cane. "Old and wily beat young and pretty any day, little missy."
Applejack laughed. "Alright, you old maid, but I'm taking it easy on you-AUGH!" She never had a chance; the moment she had agreed to the fight, Granny Smith had snuck up behind Applejack and jumped onto the bigger mare's back. For a moment, the two Apples struggled, but the fight was already over; the old mare had got her hooves around her neck and was applying the secret Sweet Apple Chokehold.
"D'ya call uncle?"
"Never! I'll never c-"
Using her neck, Granny Smith maintained the lock while one forehoof rose up and gave Applejack the most diabolical punishment in the Apple playbook: the noogie.
"AAaaaahaha! Okay, okay! Uncle! Uncle!"
Granny grinned, and ground the base of her hoof over the sensitive part of Applejack's forehead, where the horn ought to be. "Eh? What's that? I can't quite hear you with these old ears..."
"Ackht! Not fair! UNCLE!"
With a laugh, Granny Smith let go, and rolled off onto the grass, laughing. It wasn't the short barks of giggles or the schadenfreude-laden howls Applejack was used to, but the deep laughter from the belly that they had shared as fillies. While still panting for breath, Applejack couldn't help but giggle with Granny Smith, and for a moment as they rolled in the grass laughing, it was like the last seventy years hadn't changed them at all. After they worked their mirth out, they both rested there (Applejack to catch her breath, Granny Smith to make sure all her legs were still there) for a moment, watching Luna decorate her sky with the myriad stars.
Granny Smith was the first to speak. "Promise me - you'll come clean. At least to Apple Bloom and a few friends."
"I... I promise, sis."
Granny Smith's grin softened, and gave a soft nuzzle to her older sister. "Good. Hopefully it's while I still have at least one good hip, or I might not win next time." That old smile that Applejack had grown up seeing on her little sister's face came back. "Now, let's get back. Your dinner might not even be cold yet."
Twilight Sparkle never had much attention in the library; normal clients don't spend time at the library, they go there to get something and check it out. But Lyra was never a normal client.
This time, instead of books about physics or magic or cooking (sweet merciful Celestia not cooking again), Lyra had sprawled out before the "local interest" shelves, two dozen books in her silver-green magic. Twilight Sparkle noticed, with some interest, that Lyra's method of reading was completely different from her own. Twilight Sparkle sat up before a book left lying in front of her, as if it was a fine work of art to hold in reverent admiration. By contrast, Lyra's wispy magic held the book up to her face and turned the pages with slender tendrils, playing the books like a dulcimer or fiddle, comparing similar facts in several books at once.
At least she hadn't demanded access to the maps yet...
"Is there anything I can help you with, Lyra?"
Lyra bit her lip. Twilight Sparkle was not known to be as forgiving of her flights of fancy as her fillyfriend was... but she was also the one mare who would have the knowledge readily indexed. "I've got a hunch about something. But I need proof to go on."
There was still a bit of hesitation to the librarian - but Lyra knew just how to play her. "Okay, then. What do you need to find this proof?"
"Do you have anything about the history of the Apple family in Ponyville?"
Twilight tilted her head. "That's... awfully specific. I don't have any books about them, and Ponyville hasn't had many books written about it. I'm writing a history, though, and I have some source materials in the almanac section..."
Together, the two unicorns pored through long-unopened books, yearbooks and almanacs and old postal records. (Several of the books had to be set aside for restoration work, the prospect of which always filled Twilight Sparkle with joy.)
Lyra gasped. "Here she is, in this yearbook. She's president of the Future Family Farm Fillies!"
Twilight shook her head, trotting to take a look. "That's just not possible. That club lost its Equestrian charter eighty years ago when it merged... with..."
Lyra and Twilight looked at each other simultaneously. "No way..."
Because there, captioned as the president of the long-defunct 4F club, sat a golden mare with a blond ponytail, a broad cowboy hat, three apples for a cutie mark - and most telling of all, two hooves were demurely hidden behind the other. A move that both of them had seen many times before as Applejack welcomed them to the farm.
Rainbow Dash didn't visit Rarity much. They saw each other a lot, of course, but it was a rare day that Rainbow Dash visited Carousel Boutique. But Rarity, of course, was ever the gracious host, and before she knew it, Rarity had got her dolled up and sat at the table for some spicy gazpacho - "Just the thing for a hot summer's day," Rarity had eagerly smiled, pouring a portion into two bowls.
I don't even know how she made a hat this fast.
After pausing to note that Rarity really was a half-decent cook, Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Look, Rarity. I really appreciate it, but I had some questions for you. Something that I know you're good at."
"Oh? Well, you flatter me, dear," Rarity said, obviously won. She could be so annoyingly sincere in her smugness, sometimes. "What can I help you with?"
"Well... how do you know you like somepony?"
"Oh. Oh." Rarity gave a light clap, and did her best to force her giddy giggle down, trying to seem composed. "Your first love? Who is he?"
"Uhm... she, actually." When that utterly failed to cause a reaction - Why was I expecting anything? This is Rarity - she continued, "And I don't know her name. But ... oh my gosh!"
Rarity smiled. "Well... how did you meet this mystery pony?"
"I saw her in the sky. She had these beautiful wings and huge mane, like shimmering gold - why are you smiling?"
"Oh, you should see yourself smiling, Rainbow Dash. Do continue."
"Heh." Rainbow Dash's blush reddened her cheeks, and she had to let herself grin from ear to ear before she could go on. "And - well, part of my duties as weather mare is to tell all new pegasi about the ambient currents. Civic safety, you know."
Rarity nodded. "And so you introduced yourself to her. What did you talk about?"
"That's just it! She flew off. And oh man, can she fly!" Rainbow Dash grinned. "We must have been flying for two hours together. It started as a chase, but then became - I don't know, more than that? We were egging each other on."
"Like when we go jogging?"
"Well, sort of, Rarity. You have a goal and I push you to meet it. But you don't exercise for performance, you exercise for fitness. But me and her - we were going all out. The only goal we had was more. Speed, control, power - we were at our limits."
"Ah. Another athlete."
"Yeah. And a good one!" Rainbow Dash sipped her tea. "But she finally lost me at Sweet Apple Acres."
"Well, I hope you find her," Rarity smiled, a hint of pride in her cheeks. "It sounds like you're smitten."
"Well, it won't be too hard to find her. I mean, how many alicorns can there be?"
Rainbow Dash couldn't see through the spray of tea that burst from Rarity's muzzle.
"... Rarity?"
"An alicorn? You saw an alicorn here, in Ponyville? That's..." Rarity wiped her lips delicately. "That's just not possible, Rainbow Dash."
"And why not?"
"Because there is no golden alicorn, Rainbow Dash. And I would know, because I know royalty."
Rarity took a small book from the shelf with her magic, and opened it up, setting it on the table before them. "This is the current line of succession to the throne of Equestria. All Equestrian nobility is measured by degree of relationship to one of the alicorns; blood ties stronger than marriage, and relationship to older alicorns automatically ranks you above relationships to younger unicorns. Now, look."
Rainbow Dash's eyes ran over the list of alicorns. There were about twenty mares and stallions in the list, in a highly abstract style but with each distinct. "Hey - where's Princess Luna?"
"Well, Princess Luna was believed lost at the time of this printing, but she's back, and she's technically second in the line of succession. But she has no living relatives - nopony wanted to claim membership in the House of Luna that after her banishment - so there's been no major upheavals since her return. But besides Luna, this line of succession shows every alicorn in Equestria."
"Is your marefriend in here?"
Rainbow Dash's eyes searched over the list. The youngest alicorn in the list, Princess Cadence, seemed the most like a regular pony, but as she went up the list they grew taller, more powerful, more stately, as if alicorns aged the other way around. Of the faces, only a few were familiar... and none of them were anything like the pony Rainbow Dash had spent an afternoon chasing.
"No- no! This makes no sense!"
"Rainbow- darling," Rarity said, her voice gentle. "Is it possible that - that you dreamt her? That, with no pegasus good enough for the great Rainbow Dash, your heart created the image of your perfect Princess?"
"NO! That makes less sense! I flew with her, Rarity! We flew for two hours, all around Ponyville and all over Equestria! I flew through a waterfall to keep up with her - and that's about as much fun as flying through a brick wall, let me tell you, Rarity." She sighed. "I... it couldn't..."
Rainbow Dash sighed, and sat back. Then again, she had dreamt about that golden alicorn, the night before. Sweet dreams, of dancing together at the Grand Galloping Gala, or flying over low-lying fog clouds, their wingtips tracing the edges of the fog bank or just casually brushing each other with primaries - the sort of intimate touch that can only be done in flight by pegasi in perfect unison. She had fallen hard.
Could it have been a dream?
Rarity's hoof rested on Rainbow's. "Well... let's assume that this line of succession, for whatever reason, is incomplete. It would be very bad news."
Rainbow Dash turned her head. Her ears would have perked, if it wasn't for the ridiculously frou-frou hat Rarity had put on her head. "Why is that?"
"Because a new alicorn never brings good news, Rainbow. New alicorns mean new nobility. And new nobility tears ponies up. Anypony within five degrees of connection, give or take, becomes a noble - which means every pony's life becomes torn apart by intrigue and politicking. I know, because I once chased it myself." She smiled wanly. "Every pony related to that alicorn would have their lives changed, forever, as they became better than everyone else. And there's no guarantee the current nobility would accept them."
Rainbow Dash shook her head. She hadn't even thought of nobility factoring into it. All she thought as she chased that alicorn -
was that it was the best day of my life - that she was so awesome - that I wanted to spend the rest of my life like that - being with her
- was that she was chasing one of the best athletes she had ever met.
"I... I don't want to be a princess. I just want to be with her. Is... is that possible?"
"Mmmmh." Rarity considered this question, then gave a small sigh of defeat. "Even if you didn't marry her, you would still be a royal consort, which would still put you into an interesting political position, Rainbow Dash. But to be honest, dear - I'm hoping she was just a dream. Because if she turned out to be real, and there was a new Royal House in the line? You would fall for her. And your heart would be shattered."
Rarity rested her spoon in her soup. She was too preoccupied by the ramifications - both for her friend, and for Equestria - to eat.
"Many things follow an alicorn through their lives. Glamor. Power. Intrigue. Beauty. Command. All wonderful things. But their romances are not genuine, as much as they are practical. An alicorn's relationships are the things that create and topple empires."
"An alicorn has no room in her life for love."
The following day, Applejack had just begun to savor the delicate perfection of a warm daffodil muffin when the doors slammed open.
"I know your secret, Applejack!"
The sounds of Sugarcube Corner came to a stop. Even Pinkie Pie was always unnerved whenever Lyra had one of her ideas.
Applejack, luckily, had her mouth full of food. It made her look silly, chewing with wide fast motions of her jaws, but it gave her enough time to bite back sufficiently specific denials. She swallowed, and asked: "Do what, now?"
"Actually... there's something I want to know, too." From behind Lyra came another unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. "Lyra came to me with a theory. We went to check it out - and so far, it holds up."
Carrot Top, who happened to be at Sugercube Corner to pick up some bakery grade flour, shot Twilight Sparkle a look. The purple unicorn gave an embarrassed grin, and a soft shrug. "I'm sorry, but it does..."
"And what proof we have!" From the green unicorn's saddlebags flew a dozen texts, carried in practiced unicorn magic: almanacs, yearbooks, and even a few pages from the book Twilight Sparkle had been working on. "Come on, Twilight. Start with your notes."
Twilight looked to Lyra, a bit peeved at being put on the spotlight - but nodded. Her own research was a part of this too, after all. "All the way back in the founding of Ponyville, there was a young gold mare that helped Granny Smith reproduce the magic behind zap apples."
"So? There were a lot of unicorns in Ponyville even then. Granny Smith didn't found Ponyville just out of her stubbornness, you know."
"There's more! I cooberated my sources," Lyra said smugly. "Ponyville High Yearbook, Edition IV. Here's this funny mare that's the president of the 4F club. Golden hair, three apple cutie mark, and this is a stunning hat she's wearing." Lyra fairly bonked Applejack in the face with the book, rubbing her nose in it before reading, "Says here her name is - oh, my stars! It says that the president of the 4F club is Applejack Apple!"
"S-so what?" said Applejack, taking a step back as Lyra stepped forwards. "Everypony here knows I was named for my grandmother..."
"Then there's this," Lyra said, as she pulled a scrollcase from her saddlebags. "Back when Mayor Mare ran for mayor the first time, she took pictures at all her campaign stops. Even put this one in a poster, because it made her look like the working pony's pony," she grinned smugly, as she unfurled the poster, whose stylized block Equestrian script framed the picture of Mayor Mare shaking hooves with a golden mare in a stetson hat, with the Apple family farm in the background. "And I spoke with the Mayor - she distinctly recalls this golden mare being a polite, sweet, and charming member of the Apple family."
Applejack tugged at the straps of her hat, and grinned nervously, as the ponies in Sugarcube Corner looked from the poster and back to her. "Well - that's a mighty coincidence, isn't it."
"There's more," Twilight Sparkle added. "I was able to find some Ponyville Free Press articles mentioning local events involving an 'Applejack'." Twilight levitated the scroll with the transcripts. "These all range in date from as recent as five years ago to as long ago as sixty years ago. I suspect there might have been others." She looked to Applejack, as her magic unrolled the scroll in front of her.
The golden earth mare was fairly sweating now. "Well - I don't rightly have a convenient explanation for all this..."
"Well, I DO!"
Lyra had slammed her hooves up onto the table, with the dozens of pieces of proof splayed before her. From there, she brought herself to a standing position, supporting herself with one leg as she cast an accusing hoof out.
"Together, we have hard physical proof and interviews, cooberated by the two of us, showing that 'Applejack' has spent her entire life in Ponyville! She never gets old! She never changes! By Celestia - she's been wearing that same hat since the founding of Ponyville! When Occam's razor swings, there is only one logical explanation!"
Applejack felt her throat go dry. She would have run, but her knees weren't obeying her brain. She had started to think of ways to tell people, but not like this...
"Applejack Apple: You're a time traveler!"
The pause lay in the air, oppressive and silent.
"I... I guess it time I came clean. You caught me." Applejack tugged her stetson tight around her head. "As a matter of fact, I do fly through time, Lyra..."
"You do? I mean, of course you do!" Lyra leaned in, eager to learn more. For once, she was right about something that wasn't the end of the world! "Why didn't you ever tell us? This is the most amazing thing in Ponyville's history!"
Struggling with her words, Applejack sighed. "It's just that... I'm not very good at it, you see." Her voice began cracking. "I only get ... through... twenty-four hours or so a day...!"
Applejack couldn't hold it anymore, and she began laughing. All the stress of the last few days burst out of her, like a balloon deflating, and she fell backwards. Even as her chair hit the floor, it only served to help her roll out of her chair, clutching her sides.
That belly laugh shattered the silence. The two dozen or so ponies in Sugarcube Corner began laughing, from the always-restrained polite laughs of Time Turner to the deep, nasally sniggers of Pinkie Pie's best belly laughs. Even Twilight Sparkle had to giggle a little. Only Lyra and Carrot Top weren't laughing.
Mr. Cake shouted over the crowd about the Time Traveller's Special (ten percent off of hot apple fritters, only good for the next twenty-four hours but any time traveller is welcome to come back whenever they want) - and Applejack only began laughing harder. Lyra took a step back - and, doing her best to hide from the crowd, slunk out the door. "Lyra!" Carrot Top shouted, as she trotted out to catch her friend.
Twilight Sparkle bit her lip, and looked back to Lyra before offering a hoof to Applejack. "I'm sorry, Applejack," she said, sighing. "I just got caught up in all the research we were doing and all that evidence we were gathering..." Twilight Sparkle grumbled. "I shouldn't have been so eager. I better go catch her and apologize to her..."
"No, no, it's okay." Applejack smiled, wiping a tear from her eye. "And... tell Lyra I'm sorry it came out like that - and tell her I promise I'll make it up to her," she promised, rolling over to stand up again. "I guess I can't keep my secrets forever..."
Back at the fence, Applejack looked over the horizon. The sun had nearly set, Luna had begun raising her moon, and she still had nearly fifty paces of fence to clear. There was no way it would all be done by sundown; she was going to be walking home in the dark.
Well, there was a way. But she didn't have to like it.
Looking all around her, Applejack made sure that nopony was watching. And then, carefully, she let her guise slip.
Celestia, from a family of unicorn bent, drew her magic from the sun; simply by existing, it brought light and heat and life, the greatest of magics given freely to all Equestrians, great or meek. Luna, originally of pegasus stock, drew her magic from the moon; flying unseen across the sky, or brightening the night into a more romantic shadow of the day, alternately ally of lovers and children, or of dreamers and skulkers. Applejack, however, had been born to earth ponies, and as such drew her power from the earth. The power of earth was both less powerful - being, for the most part, passive and unchanging, simply the canvas upon which life happened to cast itself upon - and more powerful, being omnipresent and intimately connected with nearly every living thing in Equestira.
As she lifted the restraints she forced upon herself, she felt that omnipresence welcome her once more. It was strange; its power was both surrounding her and filling her, both her armor and her sustenance. Every bone that compressed restored to its natural state; every artificial fold in her skin smoothed out, as it once more stretched over a proper alicorn's frame. The glamour that hid her wings and horn from sight dissipated, a moment before the powerful enchantment that made them intangible faded. And her mane and coat began to glint - without the glamour keeping them dull and mundane, they shone like the brightest copper and gold.
"I missed you, too, old girl," Applejack smiled. Unlike her two ruling kin who guided their orbs in their flight, Applejack did not act to control the earth; she, instead, allowed the earth to act through her. Embracing her true nature, for all the world, like being hugged from the inside out.
It was so tempting, to stay in her true body; but now was not the time for waxing romantic. She had a job to do. Applejack cast a simple detection spell, to see if anypony had followed her. When the spell disappated without a single alarm raised, she smiled and tilted her horn.
She hadn't used telekinesis this extensively in quite some time. But as she lifted every section of timber in her grip, it felt as natural as lifting it in her hooves. Unlike most unicorns, who used their telekinesis simply to 'grab' things, she used her ability to examine it. She let the timbers' mass 'weigh' on her grip, measuring its properties, mentally comparing it to other things in their vicinity. Far less dense than the nails she was lifting in her grip, but dense enough to not splinter, as long as she drove the nails there, there, and...
There!
Once she had all the timbers in place, she didn't hesitate; the nails flew in her mental grip like crossbow bolts, piercing each piece of wood twice at each end with near mathematical precision. Walking over, Applejack reared up and rested her hooves on the wood of each section. Not only did they feel sturdy, but they wobbled even less than the day they had been first installed.
"Heh. Still got it."
With a satisfied sigh, Applejack cast the old spells; hiding her wings and horn from sight and touch, dulling her colors from earthen metals to simply earthen, and - I hate this part - compressing her body into the frame of a large, but still normal-sized, earth mare. Stretching out to make sure everything had gone right, Applejack walked lazily back towards home.
Unfortunately, when she cast her spell to check to see if anypony was watching her, she had made a slight mistake: she hadn't thought to detect rabbits...