A Book Of The Past
By Polar Muffins
Ch 1: It Begins With Death
Papa lay in his rocking chair. He said it was his grandmothers. We were apple farmers. We had a quiet life. But, Papa is dying now. Mama died a little after I was born. Papa never said how.
Now, I sat in front of him. His sandy hair gleaming with white stripes. His green eyes were closing and opening. His freckled face smiled at me. He was sick. The Doctors said he wouldn’t get better, and as Papa usually does, papa mumbled about the past. My papa’s old, but he’s really tall. His name is Mac. Papa told me it was short for something, and I never asked for what. His friends called him Big Mac. He was a quiet man. He either said “Eeyup” or “Nope”, sometimes he spoke a lot. This was one of those times. Probably the last.
“Twalight,” He said in his deep southern accent. I stared up at him. Tears were in my unusually purple eyes.
“Yes papa?” I replied in my soft southern accent.
“I have a present for you sugar.” He took out a leather book. It was the one he always wrote in recently. I always asked him what was in it. Papa was always secretive, and he never told me. “It’s all ya ever wanted to know about ma past.” He handed it to me. I gingerly received it. “Now, don’t go openin’ it ‘till ah pass. Ya hear?”
“Yes, papa.” I stood up.
He reached up and petted my head. “You have your mothers eyes. Yet you look somewhat like ma sister.”
“Jacqueline. Right?”
He chuckled. “Yes. You know I always called her Applejack, correct?”
“Yes papa. You called her that because she loved apples so much an’ had an apetite of a grown man.”
Papa looked me in the eye. “Now, whatever is in this here book,” he pointed at the notebook. “is the honest truth. Just like ma sis would’ve wanted it. Ye hear?”
“Yes papa.”
“Sugar come sit on my lap.” I sat. Papa was old but he always had his enormous strength of a stallion and always will. “Twalight. You know I love you dearly. I always will. Just do me a favor.”
“Anything papa.”
“Don’t grieve over me. Except that I’m dead. When your mama died, I knew I needed to move on an raise ya.”
I sat on him for a while. Suddenly he looked at me and I knew he felt he was dying at the moment. “I love you.” were his last words. Then his head bobbed down. I looked at him for a while, then closed his eyes. I curled up into a ball, hugging the notebook. Tears appeared in my eyes and I cried. No. I sobbed. I sat there taking in all his warmth until he was cold.
I got up. Looked at him and went to the phone crying to call someone to bury him and to arrange a funeral.
~
It’s been 10 days since papa died.
I’ve grieved, despite papas wishes.
I’ve kept up the apple farm, no prob.
The problem is, I have not touched the book since that day. Too scared to know whats inside and to sad to be curious and read.
But, this morning, I woke up and decided that today I would read it. Today I would take a break from work, and read it. Papa won’t mind. He always thought that one should one day of rest from work and everything.
After breakfast I went to papas rocking chair where I had placed the book. It’s been there since papas body was taken away. At first I just looked at it. I was hesitating for a reason I did not know. I mentally slapped myself saying that whatever papa wrote here he wanted me to read. I picked it up, and sat down carefully on papas rocking chair. I opened up the book. It had old looking pages with papas neet, print handwriting.
I read.
My dear daughter Twilight. What you are about to read may shock you. You may not believe me. But I am as honest as my sister was. The first thing you need to know is my full name. My full name is Big Macintosh. I understand that you would think it’s funny that I’m named after an apple, but where I come from it’s natural. My sisters name is not Jaqueline it’s the name I always told you that I called her that as a nickname. Her real name is Applejack.
Now I bet you’re wondering where I come from. I come from ponyville. It’s not a town you know of because here, it doesn’t exist. I come from the Equestrian universe. You are not really human. You are a pony. Unicorn to be exact. You were named after your mother Twilight Sparkle. Everyone in Equestria is a pony.
I will not reveal anymore. I need to tell you the story from the beginning. Starting with the truth that your mother discovered.
Once there were two princesses who were alicorns. They lived in Equestria. The younger was much loved by her subjects. She raised the moon every night. Her subjects loved her for her kindness, her laughter and her generosity. The older was jealous. She was not very nice. The older sister was so jealous that she started spreading rumors about the younger, saying how the younger was jealous of her and wanted to make the night last forever.
The younger heard these rumors and went to the older demanding that she tell the truth. The older refused saying that the younger should try and make her. The younger agreed saying that if it was the only way to make her see reason.
The battle lasted a week, it was a horrible battle. All the ponies in Equestria starved, they were poor and all this resulted into stealing. All because there was no ruler to rule them, but finally the older summoned enough power by using the elements of harmony, to send the younger to the moon.
After this great battle, she went back to ruling and told her subjects a story that turned into this legend:
"Two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Her subjects, the ponies, played in the day but ‘shunned’ the night and slept through it, which made the younger unicorn grow bitter, eventually refusing to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. Her bitterness transformed her into a ‘Wicked mare of darkness’, Nightmare Moon. The elder sister reluctantly harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony and ‘banished her permanently in the moon,’ taking responsibility for both sun and moon, maintaining harmony in Equestria.”
No one knew the real truth. This is where your mother comes in she-