“Applejack, of course you can talk about about it! What did you go through?” I asked.
“Blue, nevermind. Let’s get this place cleaned up now, shall we?” The pastel orange pony changed the subject.
After she was done pouring the drinks away, I complied and helped her out with the wreck my house was now in. Nevertheless, I wanted to know what she had just brought up. I gave her a stare to make her feel uncomfortable, until she fessed up.
Applejack took a deep intake of breath. “Okay, okay! Ah hit a rough patch when Big Mac offered me a try from some of his ‘private cider’ one day. It was better than what I’ve ever tasted before! So Ah kept asking for more and more, until Ah got hammered. It was such a weird experience ta me, but Ah liked it. So Ah got into the habit of gettin’ drunk each day that passed, which made me lazy. Mah family would complain at me all the time, but Ah didn’t care... nopony helped me, as Ah got violent when anypony got near me, so I stayed that way for a long while. Ah got out of shape, mah mind was hazy, and I started havin’ physical problems, like my stomach hurtin’ a lot. After havin’ an awful breakdown afterwards though, Ah kicked the habit. Ah’m doin’ you a favour before ya get like I once was.”
“Applejack...I’m so sorry, I didn’t know...” I hadn’t actually considered the consequences, every time I drank was just to get rid of all my thoughts, nothing else.
“Of course ya didn’t know, I hadn’t told ya yet!” the stetson on her head was adjusted to a friendlier position.
I carried on cleaning up. I just had to come to terms about my memories, they were in the past anyway. What matters now is what lies ahead, because this is the world where there are no marks against my name. I’ve tried my best to be a good pony. I wanted to reform, and so I was offered to go to a different world, which I chose this one for. The only times I had been bad was when I was possessed, but that wasn’t me after all. Also I drank a lot; bad stuff. Applejack forcefully removed my means of getting the poison down my throat, but it was for the best. I looked in the reflections of the broken mirror on the floor. I had definitely grown pudgy around the edges, which was no good if I’d be going in to the group of royal guards.
“Applejack, would you...mind training me?” I asked my comrade.
“Trainin’ ya? Ah dunno, do ya think Ah’m up to the task of that?” She asked back.
I smiled at her orange face, tinged with the few pale yellow freckles on her cheeks. “Of course, you’re probably one of the most athletic ponies I know, honestly.”
She chuckled and turned her face slightly away. “Ah mean, maybe Ah can do it...Ah’m kinda okay at tellin’ ponies what ta do...”
“Okay, great. I needed somepony’s help, and who better to turn to than you? Look at me, I’ve grown fat!” I vainly remarked.
“Ya just need some exercise, then ya’ll be back on track! Let’s do this then,” Applejack excitedly said, trotting in place.
I gave her a thankful hug, and she blushed because of it. We then went outside, and prepared the course for today. Luckily the hill I was located on was quite flat, and the clearing surrounding us had a large enough area to work with. She told me to do some stretches first; I heard some cracks in my bones when I tried extending my legs to warm up the muscles.
“Now ya’ve done that, we’ll start with a simple run around yer house.” I followed Applejack at a steady pace, but she sped up, and I had to match her speed. Her brisk trot developed into a run, then a gallop. I had not worked out in years, and so I couldn’t keep up. She laughed and shrugged off her overconfidence in running, and slowed down the gallop to a run, at the speed I could compete with.
I overtook the workpony at some points, to which she took the lead right back. I would not be able to become as fast as her in my lifetime, but at least I could be fast in a way. I was more versed in knowing my strength, mind you.
I grew exhausted shortly, and had to collapse for a rest.
“Aw, is that all ya got, Blue?” Applejack asked.
“Cut me some slack, I was just in a fight with you,” I huffed.
“Heh, just messin’ with ya, didn’t mean anythin’ by it, sugarcube.” The blonde-maned mare stopped to look at the circle of trees around us. “Hey, how about we do some tree-buckin’? Ah know that bein’ a royal guard would mean defense, and buckin’ the enemy is probably what ya gotta be good at.”
“I think I have some strength left for that. Could you help me up, please?” She gave me her hoof, I took it and got pulled upwards.
Obviously this pony was knowledgeable in her field, so she showed me the absolute correct way to buck a tree. A couple of demonstrations later, I was stood facing away from one of the dark purple leaved trees. All I had to do was retract my back legs while lifting my body up, and then kick backwards as hard as I could. At first it hurt my hooves and the limbs connected to them, so I had to make intervals in between. They got shorter though, as my back legs started getting conditioned to the activity. I was eventually bashing all the leaves off of the tree since I had grown much more force, so Applejack told me to stop for now. We moved on to weight lifting.
“Now, ya’ve gotta do some push ups for me, while carryin’ these saddlebags full of bricks. I’ll add more in each side when I feel like pushin’ you some more.” My trainer gave me a set of two leather pouches that lay on my back, and put a brick in each. I had no idea where the bricks came from, but it wasn’t time to ask such questions.
I haven’t really lifted anything heavy in my time, but the time had come to get doing that. I bent my forelegs to face outwards, making me lean further towards the ground, and then pushed myself back up, and repeated the phase. It wasn’t tiring at first, but then Applejack added in a few more bricks. When I lowered myself, it was harder to bring myself in reverse, as gravity was not on my side anymore. I was only partially breaking a sweat though, so I could keep in control. More bricks were stacked into the bags. It got more difficult to hold myself up now, and pushing my forelegs out felt relieving, but I couldn’t just hold the position. I came back up, panting slightly. I was now losing my energy, albeit quite slowly. A forced exhalation came from my mouth as more of the weighty material was given to me. In a last effort, I sped up my push ups to the point that I couldn’t lift anymore, then fell to the ground, exhausted.
“Aww, and Ah thought ya had more in ya!” Applejack keenly remarked.
“Hey, you want me to fight you again?” I replied, giving a hoarse laugh.
I lay on the grassy surface as I had been pushed to the limit on the first day. I didn’t do much, but I don’t work out either. She gave me some time to rest before I started up again, this continued until dusk. I was seriously tired out now, I begged Applejack to stop the training for today. She agreed to let me off, and she later returned home after a warm goodbye. As the light orange pony disappeared from my view, I noticed over the trees on another hill, sat Destiny. She was alone, and staring upwards, not moving from that spot at all. I decided to go to her in an investigative manner.
“How’s it going Destiny!” I called to her. She turned around to see another pony in her presence, and launched upwards in shock. She had already flew away from me.
“Funny, she’s been kind of scarce as of late...” I added to the situation.
I returned to my home after waiting for her to come back, to no avail. Suddenly the white pegasus had planted herself in front of me. “Oh, you’ve come back now?” I wondered.
“I didn’t know it was you, and I was deep in thought!” she laughed. “I was just cloud watching, would you like to join me?”
“Hmm, sure, Destiny. I’d be willing to do that,” I accepted, and we lay down on the grass.
The orange sky transitioning to a lavender colour set the backdrop to the clouds passing by slowly. We couldn’t really make out any shapes, as the clouds all resembled squares, for some reason.
“So, my friend, what deep thoughts were you having?” I asked.
“Oh you know, the past, the future, that sort of stuff.” Her black and red mane waved softly through being buffeted by the mild breeze in the air. The trees around us made slight shaking sounds, birds of the evening were singing, as well as the crickets. The grass beneath us was cool, but not cold enough to be uncomfortable.
“What about the past?” I enquired.
She sighed. “Well, recently I’ve been having dreams about my family. In fact, all the time I’ve been having dreams about them. It’s been so long since I’ve last saw them you know. I wonder to this day about where they all went...”
The time had come. She had to find out about what happened now. I had kept it to myself for too long, and it would have been unfair to keep it any longer. “Destiny...”
“Yes, Blue?” She looked directly at me at this point, with her big, grey coloured eyes.
“I have...something to tell you.”
“Do tell, I’m all for news!”
“This time it’s bad news. Please try not to overreact to what I’m going to say.”
“Uh...okay...what is it?”
“Destiny...your...you see, your family...”
“What about my family...?”
“Ugh. Destiny, your family had passed away. Years ago in fact. When we first met up, there was a chariot crash, killing your parents, and your brother. I had seen it, so I covered it up by diverting you away. I didn’t know who crashed there at first, but the news was quick to reveal. And for all the time we’ve been friends, I kept it a secret from you. All I wanted to do was protect you. But you’re old enough now to hopefully accept the fact.”
The white mare seemed to turn a shade lighter. She gave me a funny look for a while, laughed nervously, then looked back up to the sky. Already the liquid was forming under her eyes. She wasn’t taking this well at all. Her forehooves clutched at her head, tightly, and she breathed heavily, but with a choked sound. After that display, she took off again. This time she wasn’t coming back.
“I’m sorry...” I whispered, holding a hoof out to the sky. What did I just do? I’ve ruined the life of my best friend. I told her the truth, and that cost me another friendship. I ran inside my house, climbed onto my bed, and wept until falling asleep.
I woke up in the morning. I was back in my human form, to my surprise.
“So how was your trip to the olden times?” Rose greeted me.
“Uh...I managed to reunite the Princesses,” I replied.
“Well done, Anne! You did well. Do you know what’s going to happen next?” She held up a pistol, and cocked it. Faint smoke was coming from the barrel. I looked over her shoulder to see a mound of soldier’s bodies stacked up.
“What...exactly is going on here?” I felt worried now. I fidgeted off of the DreamTable, and looked for Caerula. He was standing in the corner, with a few other people that inhabited this building.
“Caerula! Get yourself over here now,” Rose commanded. I exchanged glances and places with my brother hastily.
“Yes, Miss Rose?” He sheepishly said.
“Do you know what your sister has just done? No? She had crushed my other half! That’s right, Anne, you told the truth to Destiny, and now she is going to begin the path to self destruction.” Rose pulled up the gun and held it firmly next to Caerula’s head. He could only whimper in absolute terror, with the rest of us.
“Rose, please, don’t do this!” I yelled out in desperation.
“I can’t forgive you, Anne. What I can do though, is exact my revenge. Destiny’s family is gone, and now so shall be yours. Say goodbye Caerula. Say goodbye Anne.” The trigger was slowly squeezed, and a loud explosion appeared out of nowhere. My brother’s body dropped to the floor. A brutal ringing in my ears occurred as the rage and upset grew to an enormous peak.
I thrust myself forward as I dashed for the gun. I wrestled it out of Rose’s hands with force that actually broke them, tackled her to the ground, and pointed the gun in her face, with the sounds of a skull cracking going on through the sheer violence and pressure I was holding the gun with.
“You want to kill me, don’t you? If you try it, Destiny will die too. You don’t want that, do you?” She smirked as she began choking.
I was positively shaking with anger. “I don’t care. I’ve had enough now. Forget that world. Forget this world. After I kill you, I’ll dispose of myself. You’ve removed the person that kept me going in this life, and for what? You’re a liar, Rose. Destiny isn’t your other half at all. You just extracted all the light from your mind, and moulded it into her. You hated the light, and you always will. As well as all of the other gods. You also ruined our lives in the other world, by tampering with so much data throughout the years. Your role in this operation wasn’t meant to be. You poured darkness and obscene forces into our world to slowly destroy us and everything around. You possessed and broke my mind. You killed Destiny’s family. My relationships are destroyed. You even messed with those who weren’t supposed to be messed with. This is actually my revenge. The final blow. I go out with the last laugh.”
I pulled the trigger. I stood up. I pulled it again, and again, until the clip was empty. I threw the gun away. The only thing I could do now was mourn at Caerula’s side, while I deteriorated into tears and nothingness. I chose not to shoot myself for some wild reason. I didn’t know what else to do. For me, it was all over. The last member of my family had been lost to a bullet, making me in turn, lost. I got up, and moved over to the pile of soldier’s bodies. I picked through them to find any more weapons, one of which was a submachine gun; I took it and ran out into the open, breathing in the acidic air of the wastelands. The constant shooting of government agents’ guns against the rebels, or pirates should we say, irritated my hearing. I sprinted towards the agents, firing upon them in some sort of vain effort to regain my moral status. I didn’t know what I was doing, nor did I care. I just wanted to get shot and end it there.
A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me backwards all of a sudden. “What do you think you’re doing? Get back inside, now!” a male voice shouted at me. I looked behind me, and I couldn’t recognise who was pulling me. We headed back into the building, and he shut the doors behind us.
“Why did you take me back here? There’s nothing left now,” I stubbornly protested.
“Okay, everyone, please help me remove the bodies from this place, before they create a smell!” The guy ordered, and so the people got to work.
“Wait! Nobody touch Caerula!” I yelled. I didn’t want him to be chucked out like he meant nothing. “Isn’t there any cryogenics stuff lying around?”
“The government soldiers raided this place at the wrong time, I’m afraid,” the annoying male told me. “Most of what’s around us is destroyed now. There’s no choice for Caerula, I have to say.”
“Can’t he regenerate like I did?” I crazily asked. I wanted some hope in this dead-end situation.
“Was he selected by the gods? Only time will tell. If Caerula is selected, then he’ll come back to us like you did.” This person did give me a little bit of ambition, at least.
“Let’s hope he can get another shot. I wonder who his Author will be?” I asked, my emotions changing to that of an optimist.
“Could be a female, I reckon. Authors usually generate as the opposite gender of the deceased person,” he answered with his own knowledge, it seemed.
“Hey, just who are you?”
“That’s right, introductions. Yes, my name is Sean, I am your Author. The main one anyway. Rose just joined in making your story for her own kicks. I don’t even remember why I allowed her, to be honest. Not a trustworthy bunch, the Gods.”
“You...you’re my Author?”
“The one and only. You suffered quite a bad death, as I recall. A chain of Rose killing you, and you killing Glais. I must congratulate you on disposing of two of the Gods, a feat that not many of us can do on our own.” Sean shook my hand in delight.
“Thanks, I guess...” Did this guy have a grudge against his makers? If so, why?
“Okay, what shall we do now...I think you better go comfort your best friend in the other world. Don’t worry, I’ll cover everything over on this side until you return. And even if I hate the Gods, I’ll try to reason with them to bring Caerula back,” Sean generously informed me.
“Really? Thank you very much!” I felt overjoyed when he said those words. I walked back to my DreamTable, lay on the surface, and Sean gently strapped me in. All I had to do now was shut my eyes...