//------------------------------// // The Pearls // Story: We Three Alicorns // by zakueins //------------------------------// Applejack was looking at lot in mirrors lately. She didn’t like what she saw.  Not one bit. The healers came to Sweet Apple Acres and asked her to lie down.  “This is going to take a while,” the unicorn, Mended Heart, said.  He pulled out some odd crystals from his harness and put them around her head.  “I promise, it won’t hurt, but it will be strange when it happens.” “Ah, what happens here?”  Applejack asked, curiously. “What we’re going to do is ‘tag’ the false memory and sort it out so that you can know which one is the fake memory and which one is the real one,” Mended Heart replied.  “So, nice, deep breaths, and from the report I got from Princess Celestia, this is going to be pretty easy for you.” “What happens when it’s ‘hard’,” Applejack asked, trying to get over her fear. “Trust me, there are some memories that should stay buried,” Mended Heart sighed, and got to work. That was three days ago. Every time Applejack looked in the mirror since then, she felt...displaced.  Who is the silly pony looking in ‘th mirror, why it’s you, Applejack! She couldn’t help thinking that.  And, every time she looked at herself, she felt silly.  And angry. Because, somehow, she should have known that Apple Bloom was lying to her.  She was the Element of Honesty-and she should have been the first pony to have known that something was wrong. And, for two years, it had been so very, very wrong. “Ah can go sleep on the couch,” Big Macintosh said. They had been married for two years, and this was only their first week as husband and wife. Applejack...just found herself here the second night after her memories were worked on.  Didn’t even know how she got here, half-asleep from waking up to go to the bathroom, and now…here.  And, she was here every night since.  She realized why, why she liked being with her brother so much, why she occasionally took a sniff too long when she had gotten all the sheets washed. Big Macintosh smelled right.  He smelled of what felt like comfort and home should smell like.  The feel of his legs, the caress of his cheek, the touch… Her mind flinched from that next thought.  Brother!  Incest!  Inbreeding!  Bad!  the thoughts screamed, refusing to calm and quiet down.  Applejack grabbed those thoughts and stomped them between her hooves. “D’ya love me, Big Macintosh?”  Applejack asked, scared. He looked at her, and let the thoughts work in his brain.  He nodded to her. “Always,” he replied.  “Have since we were both foals.  Haven’t changed now, just remembered everything I love about you.” “Just stay,” Applejack cried into his chest.  “Just...stay, please.” And, he did. It took a week, but she could handle it now.  Going into town.  Dealing with the anger, the shame, the guilt.  Some Element of Honesty I am, she thought, trotting down the street with a cart of apples hooked to her harness.  Just can’t find when somepony is lying to me… “Hey, Applejack!” she heard, and saw Miss Cherlee, coming up to see her. “How are you doing?” “Been a rough couple of days,” she said, and gave the cart a tug.  “And you?” “Big Macintosh came to see me, two days after the attack,” she said.  She looked like she was about to cry, and looked at Applejack.  “He told me what he could, I know there’s some things that you can’t talk about still...and, he apologized.  He apologized.”  Cherlee looked at Applebloom in sad wonder.  “How many colts would have apologized for what happened?  He told me that he was sorry that he led me on.  How many colts would have come and asked forgiveness for that?” Applejack looked at Cherlee and she started to say something, when Cherlee hugged her, hard and tight.  “Applejack, you are the luckiest mare I have ever known.  You have a colt that is worthy of the name.  He was less scared about his own emotions, and more worried about hurting me.  For something that wasn’t his fault.” She stopped hugging Applejack, and smiled sadly.  “I’m just sad that they don’t seem to make many like him these days.  The world could use many, many more like Big Macintosh.” Applejack didn’t know what to say.  But, she had to be honest.  “Thank you...I’m...just not sure what to do next.” “Do you love him?” That question hit her like a ton of bricks across the head.  It deserved an answer, even with the tears that just exploded out of her eyes. “Aye, I do,” she cried. “And, maybe, one day…” “Find that day,” Cherlee said. “For both your sakes.” Pearls. How that kept showing up, she didn’t know-her dreams ever since the night that she had learned the truth had been of pearls. Her Momma’s wedding dress had pearls on it.  She remembered when Momma had taken it from the closet, and little Applejack had admired the pearls on it more than anything else.  They seemed so perfect, so white and shiny like a apple made of clouds.   Momma had held the dress up and said, Applejack, one day, y’find somebody that loves ya so very much, makes your life complete, makes your world better, and even when you’re down brings you up.  On that day, your Daddy will walk with you down that aisle and you will know that the pony beside you is the right one for you. You’ll find your angel, right beside ya.  And, that is what your Daddy is to me. A sharp crash, thunder and lightning, and Mamma falling away from her forever.  Applejack would wake up, nearly screaming, and Big Macintosh would stir as well.  Applejack bit down on her screams, wiped away the tears and snuggled back up with Big Macintosh in bed. Her angel shouldn’t have to be woken by her demons. “Sweetie Belle sent me a letter,” Rarity said, pinning some fabric onto Applejack as she poised in the Carousel Boutique. “Hm,” Applejack commented without saying anything.  Rarity was preparing for some gala or event and it was one of the sort that an appearance of the Elements was mandatory.  Applejack was not one for fancy, but Rarity seemed to be handling it well enough.  She was going for simplicity’s sake, but fashionable enough to be suitable. It wasn’t that Applejack couldn’t do fancy-she had been to Manehattan after all.  She could be a very fancy mare indeed.  It just seemed like so much work for so little gain or effort-getting all worked on and made up for a party that was a few hours and then you had to take it all down because you couldn’t do anything with it other than be fancy.  Little bit foods that you could eat a dozen of and never get full, fuzzy wine, music you couldn’t really dance to...never Applejack’s idea of fun. “Oh yes,” Rarity replied, taking some measurements.  “Pull yourself in dear,” she asked, and pinned some more fabric onto her body.  “She’s gotten her cutie mark, and I’m very happy for her.  Training with Meera!  Last time I was in Canterlot, I had to trade shamelessly on my history as an Element to even get box seats for her opera.” “Mn,” Applejack nodded.  She was thinking of apple trees-probably the Northern field would need bucking in a few days.  The Western field was in good shape, but they had to keep an eye out for leaf rot, and with the rainstorm that the weather ponies were talking about in a few days, it might be worth putting some mulch down. “I swear, Applejack, you’re not listening to me,” Rarity huffed.  “Meera, Applejack, Meera!  There are maybe only three sopranos her equal, and none her better.  And, Sweetie Belle has real talent for singing, which makes me happy for her.” “Hm,”  Applejack nodded again.  Southern field was fully bucked as of last week, but if they had an outbreak of vampire fruit bats again… “Have you heard anything from Apple Bloom,” Rarity asked innocently. Applejack’s train of thought derailed with all the subtlety of a train loaded with nitroglycerin hitting a mountainside.  With about the same results, as well. “Why would I have heard anything from that cuckoo?”  Applejack sneered angrily. “She’s your sister…,” Rarity replied in shock. "SHE AIN’T MY SISTER!”  Applejack yelled.  “If you wanna believe in your little fantasy of a having a sister, go ahead, but...that...thing ain’t family!” Applejack tore off the clothing she was wearing.  “Gonna be sick that night, so don’t need to be here anymore.”  She tossed the material into a corner.  “And, I don’t wanna talk about this ever again.  Or we ain’t talking ever again.” And, to Rarity’s stunned silence, Applejack walked right out of the door of the Carousel Boutique. “Got another scroll from Canterlot,” Big Macintosh said. Applejack was busy organizing the apple baskets.  It was pretty obvious that the Northern field needed to bucked either today or tomorrow.  Organizing the baskets meant that she didn’t have to listen to Big Mac. “Second one this week,” he said.  “She’s working with a pony named Steam Heart, heard of him.  Big colt in the field of steam engineering.” They were definitely going to have to get new baskets in a few months.  The last two she took down had some dry rot in them, and that wasn’t good for apples. “Am I an Apple, Applejack?”  Big Mac asked, without changing tone in the slightest. Crack. Applejack put a hoof through a basket.  She staggered and couldn’t think, then looked up at Big Macintosh.  “What sort of silly question is that?  ‘Course you are!”  Applejack replied, nervously. “I’m a foundling, Applejack,” he said. “Doesn’t matter, you’re family,” she replied. “Your parents found me, lost and alone and I had no home to go to,” Big Mac said. “Apples don’t turn away foundlings,” Applejack said.  “We don’t turn away ponies that need a home, want to work, want to make a life for themselves.” “And, how is Apple Bloom different from me, Applejack?”  Big Mac asked. Rage filled Applejack’s heart.  How DARE he use that against me!  How dare he try and defend that cuckoo, she thought.  She just wanted to step over to Big Macintosh and hit him and beat him and… Make up for the lost two years, the years where she knew, somewhere deep inside that she had lost her angel, thought that Rainbow Dash, Rarity, maybe even Twilight Sparkle was her angel, because she knew, deep in her heart that her angel was close by… Applejack fell to her knees and panted.  Her heart was racing, roaring, like she had done the whole Running of the Leaves by herself.  Big Mac came over and nuzzled her, sitting down beside her.  His cheek was wet with her tears. “She...she made me lose you,” Applejack cried.  “She stole you from me, and made me think that I hadn’t even had you!” Big Mac didn’t say a word.  He just held her close. “Momma, daddy...they got stolen away, too,” Applejack moaned.  “I...I don’t want you stolen again, please!” “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “But...where will you go?” “I...I don’t know yet,” Applejack said. And, she cried into his mane. It rained that night.  Thunder and lightning. A downpour that was nearly at the level of the Biblical Deluge. Rainbow Dash explained it before she left for Canterlot.  “We’ve got a monster of a weather system coming down from the North,” she said.  “And, at a certain point you just have to let weather have it’s way.  The question is-do we just let it pour over a week, or do we just flush the whole thing in three or so days?  Ground team says the rivers and viaducts are good, so we’ll just give the system a good and proper slam, and it’ll rain itself out in three or four days.” The rain roared against the house.  Granny Apple was asleep, and so was Big Mac. Applejack couldn’t sleep.  She kept staring at the ceiling.  She wanted to sleep...but, she couldn’t. Then, with a sudden impulse, she carefully got out of bed, got her hat and cloak, and left the house. She had to visit somepony. The graves were still there.  Did Applejack expect their tombstones to walk off somewhere? Momma and Pappa wanted to be buried on Apple land, but they had never recovered their bodies after the accident.  The graves were merely stone markers to remember two lost Apples. Empty graves.  Empty world. Empty Applejack. She stood there in the rain, listening to the thunder and the lightning, and she didn’t know why she was here.  “Well,” she said, loudly to be heard over the storm.  “You asked me here, what do you want?” Silence. “Well?”  Applejack yelled. The rain fell.  The thunder rolled.  The lightning crackled. “WELL?!?” Applejack screamed. And...just as the sound of her voice stopped ringing in her ears. Click. The sound of something like falling marbles in the rain filled Applejack’s ears. Click. One marble at a time. Click. Falling. Click. Falling. Click. But, it didn’t sound like marbles. Click. It sounded like pearls falling off a string onto the floor. Click. Once upon a time, Applejack wondered where pearls came from.  So, she had looked it up and was amazed by what she found. Pearls came from oysters, according to her foal-level biology book, that took a small bit of irritating foreign material and wrapped it up in layers upon layers of materials that eventually became a small round ball that could be polished and cleaned to eventually create...a pearl to be worn upon a wedding dress. From an irritation-a foreign invader, a lie...came a beautiful truth. From a lie, came a truth. Applejack looked up at the sky, and understood that revelation. Apple Bloom might have started as a lie-a scared foal needing a home, running from an order of religious nuts that would summon monsters to try and find them-but she had become a truth well before Applejack had become the Element of Honesty.  A scared foal that wet the bed for some time, needed to see the dentist, tried hard to work very hard on the farm...and, in truth, had been irritating and annoying. But…from that irritating lie came a truth.  My sister, Applejack thought.  Apple Bloom...she is my sister, in every way that matters. And, family forgives.  Because Apple Bloom is a foundling, not a traditional one, yea...but a foundling. And, she’s ours. Applejack came back into the house, put up her hat and cloak, and dried herself off.  She climbed back into bed, and snuggled up to Big Macintosh.  “Have a good walk?” Big Mac asked. “I didn’t want to…,”  Applejack said, being interrupted by Big Mac kissing her. “Woke up after you left,” he said.  “Guessed where you went.  How are you feeling?” “Better,” Applejack replied. “Y’right, Apple Bloom is family, and she is a foundling. She’s an Apple to core, and she’s ours as long as she wants to be. I’ll go to Twilight tomorrow and send her a letter.” “Good,” Big Mac replied. “I’ve got all the letters she sent, you can read them tomorrow.” Applejack teased Big Mac’s flanks with her hooves.  She could feel the pressure along her side from his hips.  “You feeling up to playing with me?” Big Mac smiled.  “I am now.” The next morning, Applejack took a shower.  Just long enough to clean up.  She wanted to smell of Big Macintosh, to prove that his name wasn’t a lie. Momma, you’re right, she thought, I did find my angel.  And, I have an angel of my own to care for, as well. As she came out of the bathroom, she heard a soft pop and a scroll appeared at her feet.  Applejack opened it up and read it. “What’s it say?”  Big Mac asked, coming down the hallway. “It’s from Princess Celestia,” Applejack replied, reading it.  “They’re...going to make a decision about Apple Bloom tomorrow.  I’ll be going over there tonight, for when it happens.”