//------------------------------// // Going Home // Story: Applejack Through the Ages // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Going Home The red earth mare simply stood there, totally dumbfounded by the news she had just been told. "T-the Princess is dead?!" Applejack asked in disbelief. "But that's impossible, Celestia was immortal!" "Maybe she didn't age, but she sure could die really well." Pick-a-lilly snorted in contempt, an anger in her voice clearly indicating the betrayal she felt over the Princess's passing. "Guess alicorns aren't everything everpony makes them out to be!" By this point, AJ was almost shaking. "Tell me... please tell me how she died...." "Discord, she died in battle with the trickster demon Discord." The other mare growled, loading up the plate with the food Applejack had ordered. "That both her highness and that lunatic died fighting each other... and I say good riddance to them both!" Discord... Applejack had told hold back a howl of anguish, silently cursing that name of that deranged draconnequiss whom she had once known so well. He had been nothing but trouble after his dear friend Fluttershy had died of old age, so much so that Princess Celestia and Luna had ordered him re-sealed in stone because of his mischief. It seems he had found some way to escape his rock prison once again, and began to torment ponydom as he had in the past. At least Celestia had managed to take the villain down, even if it had been at the cost of her own life... I wish we had never tried to reform that bastard. AJ thought to herself. Then Princess Celestia might still be alive today! "Wait a minute... if Celestia's dead, how can the sun be shining up there?!" The red mare asked, the realization dawning on her as she looked up at the glowing orb high in the sky. "It must take a whole lot of unicorns to raise and lower that thing, unless Luna's taken over the day now!" "Boy, you really are out of the loop." Pick-a-lilly told her, putting the plate of food in front in front of the older mare. "Since Celestia died- the sun, the moon, the weather... they do their own thing now." She gave the silent AJ a harsh look, as the red mare gave the vendor her bits. "For the first time, we ponies have lost control of our own world." ...... Having finished her meal, Applejack left to wander around the woods of froggy bottom bog in silence. Everything she knew, everything she loved... it all really was gone, now. The Princess who had been a living symbol of everything good in ponydom was gone, and nature and the very land of Equestria had turned against it's equine inhabitants. As she passed a small roadside shine to Princess Celestia, the red earth mare had to avert her eyes as a bunch of ponies throwing ropes over the statue of the solar alicorn, pulling on the large sculpture and trying to tip it over. "All right, everypony land a hand now!" A stallion's loud yell could be heard over the shouts of the pony mob. "Let us bring this blasphemy to the horsemaster DOWN!" AJ closed her eyes, blocking out the loud crash of the toppling statue behind her. The world was changing... where was there left for a living relic like her to go to get in touch with the past? Luna was still around, though AJ was sure she was busy drowning in her own sorrows over the loss of her dearly departed sister. AJ never knew Princess Cadence all that well, so it wasn't worth heading north to the Crystal Empire to find them. No, AJ decided, if she was going anywhere, she was going home. It may not be the Ponyville she remembered, but by Celestia it was still the Ponyville she was born and raised in! Breaking into a sudden gallop, the old red mare followed the familiar path north that still wound it's way through the bog, and took Applejack back towards the place she had once called home! Even as she ran, the old mare's hopes were already starting to rise. Applejack had visions of Sugarcube corners, and town hall. She saw the Carousel Boutique, and the barns and houses of Sweet Apple acres. Oh, she knew all the ponies in her memories were long gone, but surely the ponies of Ponyville had kept all those buildings intact for their historical value! She just had to see the old town again, even if she didn't know anypony living there today! The only thing AJ found unsettling, was that she felt a strange sensation as she passed out of Froggy Bottom Bog. It was like some kind of magical... barrier that she had passed through, causing a tingling sensation to go through her body as she ran by. Still, this 'barrier' thing she had passed through had not stopped her, so she simply ignored it, and continued on her way. It was when she was passing though some woods a few miles outside Ponyville, that Applejack heard some voices coming from a nearby clearing. At first, she just assumed it was a couple of Ponyville villagers out for a walk on the roads outside of town. But when the red earth mare heard several eerily familiar voices, saying some eerily familiar that Applejack suddenly felt her blood run cold. "I dunno, Rainbow Dash... you sure this extra-special plan for Rarity's extra-special birthday party will work? I mean, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be hard for her to find out about our little surprise!" "Oh, don't worry so much, Pinkie Pie darling! I've asked Fluttershy not to tell anyone about our little surprise, and I'm quite sure she'll quite shocked to see what we have in store!" Suddenly, Applejack stopped dead in her tracks, and had to keep her self from hyperventilating. Finally working up the courage to look out into the clearing, and nearly died from what she saw! Walking down the road was a familiar pink earth pony with a balloons cutie mark, and right beside her was a blue mare with a rainbow mane and tail that AJ knew all too well. The sight of those two ponies, the mention of names she hadn't heard applied to living mares in four hundred years... it was all too much for the old red mare. " RAINBOW DASH! PINKIE PIE!" Applejack exploded out of the bush, and rushed up to hug the other two surprised mares, crying her pony eyes out. "I can't believe you're both here!" She didn't know how her old friends were alive, nor she didn't care how or why... all the mare named Applejack knew was that she was finally home!