A unicorn stallion made his way to the barn. He had made this habit since he was a colt; to go to the barn after breakfast and go to the barn’s greenhouse. Behind him he levitated a large crate and a letter; the mail he had received later that morning. As he sets down the crate to open the barn door, the stallion hears a metallic clang issue forth from the crate. A smile creeps over his face as he hears the sound. The stallion unlocks the door and rushes into the barn and enters the barn’s greenhouse. Placing the crate next to his workbench, the stallion spoke to himself.
“Well Appleseed, this day just keeps getting more interesting by the minute.”
However, little did he know that on this particular day his life would be changed forever.
Life had its ups and downs for Appleseed. He was a unicorn, but he didn’t have any control over that though. He was born into one of the oldest Earth pony families in Equestria; the Apple family.He’s the older twin to Applejack, but just by a minute. Being the only unicorn in his household never seemed to cause be a problem. Moreover; Appleseed never had to deal with anypony putting him down or making fun of him for being who he was; everypony in both his family and the whole township was always kind to him. His world seemed perfect for a time; everypony he knew seemed to follow the simple rule that you are to treat others how you wish to be treated. Sadly; that changed after he went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
Thanks to Appleseed’s talent, the Apple family could afford to send him to the school. They thought that it would in turn be beneficial for him; letting him learn with other members of his kind. But the academy turned out to be the absolute worst place for him to have gone to.Granted he was very talented;he could grow a fully-grown apple tree from a seed in roughly one summer.
At the school, Appleseed found that most of his kind, at least the unicorns that he encountered there, were stuck-up; they only focused on themselves and their “wellbeing”. The young colt looked at life from a different perspective though. Those spoiled little colts and fillies that he had to call his peers had never really had to work a day of their lives. They complained about nearly everything just because they could. Thanks to his life on the Apple family farm, Appleseed knew the values of hard work.
To make matters worse for him, the other students found it fun to pick on ponies that weren’t from Canterlot. He found quickly that making friends with these spoiled rich brats was going to be challenging. Hard as it was though, Appleseed did manage to make one friend at the academy; Twilight Sparkle.
Their friendship came as a sudden surprise. At the beginning of the first semester, the pair would walk past one another, or more accurately, they didn’t know that the other existed. They both had every class together as well. Then, during second semester, when they were in a class directed by Celestia herself, the pair were teamed together and received the highest score in the class. Seeing the way the two worked together, Celestia allowed and encouraged teamwork in the school.
By the end of their schooling, the friendship had grown so close that many of the students admired the pair. But that didn’t last. On the final day, in which everypony had to show their special talent, Appleseed’s talent proved too dangerous for the group. The spell was only supposed to affect the target plant; a crystal sapling. The spell worked but actually affected all the plants in the city. The chaos unnerved the entire population of Canterlot, which refused to allow him to pass the exam for fear that he would join the Academy of Magic. But thanks to Twilight and Celestia, Appleseed graduated from the school. However, never saw Twilight for 5 long and grueling years.
Appleseed returned to Ponyville and reunited with the Apple family. He became the co-owner of the family business, partnered with his sister Applejack. Using his talents with plant-growth, Appleseed expanded the family farm’s variety of trees, allowing for harvests year round.
Appleseed sat on a bench in the barn’s greenhouse. There were various seeds from the many different apple trees from around the farm. Over the years, Appleseed found that this was his favorite place on the farm, mainly because it was where he created different hybrids of the many apple trees on the farm. He had tons of things to do later in the day. But, for the time being, he had a few letters to read, and a box to open. Most of the letters were junk mail, things like bills. But there was also a scroll in the mail today.
The scroll was extremely precious to him. It was from his old foalhoodfriend fromCelestia’s School for gifted Unicorns, Twilight Sparkle. Appleseed was overjoyed. This was the first letter he had received from Twilight in roughly five years. Her last letter she wrote was to explain that she was now studying as Celestia’s own student. Appleseed had sent her a letter back congratulating her and wishing her the best of luck; but received no letter back in those five years.
The scroll was also in the same material that Celestia and Luna used for scrolls, a parchment paper mad from a special plant grown only in the royal gardens. Beside the aroma that the parchment paper released, one could almost tell it just by looking at it that it was of great importance; scented letters were very rarely sent to anypony that wasn’t part of the royal family, a foreign dignitary or diplomat, or was a pony receiving a letter for a royal ceremony. This letter was one of those exceptions.
Appleseed opened the wax seal on the scroll and placed the seal in a small wooden box. Then he unrolled the scroll to read it. His eyes immediately noticed that Twilight’s penmanship had improved drastically over the years from the scribble he remembered. She now wrote in Blackletter script, its letters flowing across the paper in a river of gold and silver ink. The letter read;
Dear Appleseed,
Sorry that I have not written back to you in five years, I hope you will forgive me for that. I would like to tell you that I have had good luck with my studies on magic with Celestia. I have many more things to tell you, maybe through future letters. I would like you to know that I hope to speak to you face to face soon to make up for that. In hopes of continuing my studies, I will be moving to Ponyville soon. I hope to see you personally so that we can mend the rifts that have been caused by time.
I wish to arrive shortly after Thursday evening; hopefully this letter has been delivered before then. I will be taking residence in the library upon my arrival. Feel free to stop by if you ever have the chance.
Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle.
P.s. Congratulations on becoming a guard in Ponyville, I hope your efforts will help make Ponyville safer during this increased time of hardship.
Appleseed finished reading the letter with a smile creeping onto his normally solemn face. His best friend was returning, he could finally see her again, and this time it’s at his hometown. He recalled the tour she gave him of Canterlot the back when they were at school, so he would return the favor. He thought about introducing Twilight to Applejack and the others first, but then thought better of it; she might get caught in a tsunami of apple family cuisine.
Appleseed turned his attention to the large wooden box in the left corner of the room. He was about to unlatch the crate when he shadow of another pony caught his eye. Looking up, Appleseed looked face to face with his twin sister; Applejack.
“Is everything alright sis?” Appleseed inquired, honestly hoping she wasn’t in a foul mood.
“Who’s the scroll from if ya don’t mind me asking?” Applejack asked, eyes glinting in the light of the morning sun.
“Hey, I asked you a question first! I expect an answer.”
“Well, if ya must know, Applebloom and I got in a fight this morning. I swear that that little filly is going to be the death of me! Did you know that the Crusaders were planning on taking a camping trip in the Everfree?”
“Yes, Applejack, I did in fact know about the group’s plans on taking a camping trip to the Everfree; I was intending on going with them.” Appleseed replied through a yawn.
A look of confusion that quickly turned to one of fury formed on Applejack’s face.
“What’s in the hay you’ve been chewin’? Haven’t ya heard about the increase in changeling attacks of late? What if you and the girls were attacked out there? What would you have done? You don’t know any combat spells, nor do ya have the physical strength to fight one off alone. What were you thinking?”
Appleseed sighed. Pulling open the latch he motioned for Applejack to walk over to the crate. Lifting the lid of the crate, Appleseed allowed his twin to peer into the box.
The box contained a set of royal guard armor designed for the unicorn guards. The gold of the armor glinted in the light of the room sending a cascade of golden light throughout the barn. Lying at the bottom of the crate was also a sword. Upon its hilt was an inscription along with a purple stone at the pommel. Aside from the inscription that adorned the hilt, there was also a vaguely familiar cutie mark. The mark was a purple star.
Appleseed sat in silence while his twin just stared. The minutes that passed by felt like an eternity of the pair. Clearing his throat, Appleseed spoke.
“I was going to tell you about this at supper tonight, but I guess you deserve to know. Three weeks ago the guard sent out letters to every town and city. They were recruiting stallions and mares alike to help in the protection of their hometown. I joined, as did most of the others who got the letter. We are to receive training next week from the captain of the guard himself. I hope you noticed that there are books in the house over combat magic. I had ordered them two weeks ago strait from Canterlot because I knew would need them if I was accepted into the guard. Between the work on the farm and my studies on combat magic I’ve been left with little time for rest at all. Stayed up til ‘bout three in the morning last night studying about magic that can only be used at night; Praise be to Luna for that full moon we had.”
Appleseed paused, seeing that Applejack sat on her hindquarters and was staring at the ground.
“Sis, I swear that I was going to tell you about this, I just didn’t know how to say it to you in a way that you would understand and accept. I hope you understand and will forgive me for the secrecy. We’re family and we should have no secrets this important kept from each other.”
Standing up, Appleseed walked over to his twin and lifted her muzzle to look her in the eyes. Applejack had tears welling at the sides of her eyes, which threatened to flow at any second.
“Sis, if you have tears that need to be shed, shed them.Holding the tears in it only make it harder; you’ll feel better and nopony will even know. Nopony but you and me, you got that? Just shedding a few tears won’t mean your weak Applejack. If that’s what you’re worried about then I’ll tell you here and now that that mentality is wrong; crying doesn’t show weakness; it is essentially emotion in a liquid state. It can be pain or it can be sorrow over the loss of someone dear to you. Most importantly; Tears can be that of joy; Joy over things that bring immense happiness that is unable to be expressed in any other way. Moreover holding back tears can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion. So Applejack, please don’t hold back your tears.”
Finished with what he had to say, Appleseed sat down beside his twin. Several minutes passed with no noticeable changes in Applejack’s state of sorrow. After about fifteen minutes Appleseed noticed a small puddle below the tip of Applejack’s muzzle.
She actually cried. Appleseed thought. This was not something that he had ever seen her do ever since their father and mother had passed away. He slowly placed his right foreleg around her back in an attempt to give her a hug. Almost immediately his sister leaned into his embrace. Leaning his head so that it was over hers, Appleseed remained with his sister for countless minutes after.
After what seemed like an eternity, Appleseed spoke to his sister.
“Sis, do you feel better now?”
The only reply he got was a nod of her head. While it lacked her voice, he was happy to receive any answer he got from Applejack.
“I have to prepare some things for tomorrow and I have to try the armor on. When you feel like coming out of the barn, I’ll try to help you with the Applebloom situation.” And with that said, Appleseed levitated the crate with the armor and left the room.