I limped through the forest. I was about as healed as I was going to get, and the monsters of the forest were slowly learning not to go anywhere near me lest they become charcoal. I had to admit, I was sort of in a rut. I didn’t have any real direction. Zecora was working to discover the mysteries of the Everfree’s unique flora and fauna, but that was her quest, not mine.
My purpose in life had been to study whatever Celestia put in front of me. That obviously wasn’t going to work now. Zecora said that Ponyville was just outside the forest, and I could get there in a few hours even with my limp. If I remembered correctly, that was where the train I’d hopped onto had been going. It’d certainly be one of the longest delays between starting a train ride and completing it.
I was still apprehensive about it, though. I was pretty sure that any search for me had been called off. It had been a few weeks, after all, and even the attempts to scry my location had stopped. It might have had something to do with the Everfree itself. Even my divination spells went haywire in there. It was ironically the perfect place to hide from Celestia, and I’d stumbled into it on accident. Maybe Harmony was working out for me after all.
Anyway, I was mostly wasting time and trying to decide what to do with myself when I heard something unusual. A voice, and not Zecora’s. I used a simple illusion to cloak myself in shadows and stalked towards it, moving as quietly as I could. Zecora was able to move silently and without disturbing even the leaves on the trees. She was like a ghost, and I had no idea how she did it. It wasn’t quite magic, I think. (Or it was secret Zebra magic and I’d never be able to learn it.)
Either way, the pony didn’t hear me coming. I decided to hang back and watch. Zecora had always encouraged it when we went out, though I was more the type to make a lot of noise and get my point across with force. It was way more fun.
A filly, no more than seven or eight, was stomping through the forest and making a lot of noise. Probably a good thing I didn’t immediately blow her up. I mean, I might be a powerful sorceress living in an enchanted forest in a twisted home with a cauldron, potions and… okay, look, I admit I was basically a witch, but I wasn’t the kind of witch who eats foals. I preferred carrots. (And bacon, but that was a guilty pleasure.)
“Come out here an’ fight me!” The foal screamed. Tears were running down her face. She was orange, with a long straw-colored mane in a loose braid. She had a hat on that was much too large for a filly, and either I was closer to the edge of the forest than I thought or else she’d managed to get really far into the Everfree without being eaten by anything.
She wasn’t going to stay uneaten unless I did something. I sighed and stepped out of the brush behind her. I wasn’t used to dealing with foals. The last time I did was in the orphanage, and I don’t think the methods I used there were really appropriate. The orphanage had been tough. You either stepped on somepony else, or you got stepped on. I didn’t feel like bullying the kid, so I was going to have to get her out of here by being nice to her.
I didn’t relish my chances. I was awful at nice.
“Hey,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. She almost jumped out of her skin, spinning around so quickly the hat came tumbling off her head. She went to grab for it, forgetting about me in her panic. I grabbed her and the hat with my magic, setting the hat on her head before letting her go.
“W-who are you?” She asked, rubbing her running nose. “I ain’t never seen you in town.”
“I don’t go into town,” I said. “You shouldn’t be here. The forest is dangerous.”
“I know it’s dangerous!” She yelled. “I can take care of myself!”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. For all I knew, she could. And I sure wouldn’t have wanted an older pony telling me I was too weak to do anything back when I was her age. I still didn't like ponies trying to tell me what to do. “But your parents are probably worried about…” I trailed off. At the mention of parents, she'd started to bawl, breaking down into pathetic little sobs.
I’d said the wrong thing, clearly. Did I mention I wasn’t good with foals?
“I don’t got parents no more!” She yelled. I was starting to get worried that we’d attract something looking for easy prey. Even if I was the strongest unicorn in Equestria I still didn’t want to get ambushed. There were beasts that could kill before you could react, if you were careless enough to let them.
“Okay, kid. Sorry.” I trotted over to her and picked her up with my magic. “I didn’t mean to upset you. If it makes you feel better, I didn’t have parents and I…” I trailed off. “You know what, never mind. I’m a bad example.” I sighed, putting her on my back to carry her more easily.
“Ma and Pa got attacked by timberwolves and…” she sniffled. “I ain’t gonna just let them get away with it! I’m gonna make them pay for what they did!”
Oh great. Her bucking life story. I really didn’t care, nor did I want to hear it. I just wanted her out of the forest so I didn’t have to worry so much about her getting killed by something. I started down the way she’d come, but before I’d gotten far, she hopped off of my back and bolted.
I rolled my eyes and snagged her with magic. “What are you doing?” I sighed.
“My granny said this - Never go nowhere with strangers, on account of you don’t know if they’re good ponies.” She frowned at me. “An’ you’re definitely a stranger.”
“...Well, she’s not wrong.” I grimaced. “But this forest is more dangerous than your average stranger. Your parents wouldn’t want you getting eaten, and even a scary forest witch like me isn’t going to let you get hurt if I can help it.” I laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood. Or at least trying to get her to stop crying. Crying was a sure-fire way to get something like a basilisk coming around to see what was injured and in need of being eaten.
“I can’t,” the foal mumbled. “I gotta do somethin’. Them timberwolves keep hurtin’ my family. First Grandpa,then Ma and Pa…”
“What’s your name?” I kept my eyes open. Maybe the predators were smart enough to stay away from me. Maybe not. I'd be stupid not to keep looking out for them either way.
“Applejack,” she said. “An’ I’m not leavin’. Not until I get that timberwolf.” She gave me a determined look, the kind only a foal with no sense of self-preservation could have. I was pretty sure I’d given ponies that exact look a few times.
“There are dozens of timberwolves in the forest,” I said. “You going to try and kill all of them? They’re pretty tough.”
“I only gotta get th’ one that got Ma and Pa.” She sniffled. “Big Mac said it’s bigger ‘n the others and all colored white like a birch tree.”
I winced. I actually knew what she was talking about, and I’d only been in the forest for a few months. There was one main pack of timberwolves, and the Great White Wolf, as Zecora had called it, was the pack alpha. She was bigger, meaner, and smarter than the rest of the wolves. Even I didn’t want to go after her. We gave each other distance, what with the both of us being scary forest monsters.
“You know where it is!” Applejack gasped. “You gotta tell me!”
“Kid, it isn’t safe.” I tried a stern look on her. Celestia had given me plenty, so I was pretty sure I could give a good rendition. It didn’t work. Applejack dug her heels in more and just glared back at me.
“If you don’t tell me I’ll… I’ll…” She stomped a hoof.
“What? You’ll run into the forest full of monsters and witches?” I snorted.
“I just…” She shivered and started crying again. “I need t’... I need t’ do this. I can’t just let th’ monster go! Granny’s too old an’ Big Mac’s scared of th’ forest! I’m th’ only pony who can get revenge fer Ma and Pa!”
I sighed. “I can’t let you go alone. You need an adult. At least to keep you out of worse trouble.”
“Yer an adult!” Applejack said. “You even know where th’ monster is! You can take me!”
“Woah, woah.” I waved my hoof, backing up from the sudden enthusiasm. “I’m a stranger, remember? And I’m a scary witch of the woods!”
“I told you my name. What’s yours?”
“Sunset Shimmer. But don’t let that-” She ran over and grabbed my hoof, shaking it.
“There! Now we know each other and ain’t strangers! You can take me to th’ monster so I can buck it apart fer Ma and Pa!”
“No way,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t…” And she started giving me the saddest eyes I’d ever seen. I was pretty sure they’d melt a Windigo at thirty paces. “I don’t work for free,” I finished, lamely. “In fact…” I turned away, raising my nose into the air. “I’m the strongest unicorn in the world. It costs a lot to hire me.”
“I only got ten bits,” Applejack muttered. “It’s everything I got saved up.”
“I’ve been offered a lot before, but never everything.” I put a hoof on her head and stroked her mane. “Alright. I’ll help you.”
“...and remember, if I tell you to run, you run.” I kept walking. I thought I’d need to keep the pace slow, but Applejack was following easily. I was starting to feel like I was the only pony who had problems getting through the thick brush.
“Right, Miss Witch,” she nodded, her hat almost falling off as it snagged a twig. I almost corrected her, but it was probably safer for her to just think of me as a witch. The less she used my name, the less she’d spread it around town.
“I’ll take care of the wolf. Even if you are strong, I’m not going to let you get maimed by a monster.” I used my magic to raise my cloak up. “It really sucks, trust me.” Her eyes went wide as she saw the scars across my body.
“How’d you get all that?” She looked surprised. I couldn’t blame her. I’d never seen a pony as badly wrecked as I was, though maybe that had more to do with living in Canterlot.
“Manticore. Trust me when I say this forest is dangerous.”
“You said you were strong!” She frowned. “If you couldn’t even-”
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence,” I growled. “That was after I fell down a ravine, nearly drowned, broke my leg, and got lost in the forest. And in case you were curious, the manticore ended up as dinner after I blew it up.” That part was a lie. I’d definitely cooked it with that fireball, but I hadn’t actually eaten it. Couldn’t hurt to remind the kid that I was supposed to be a scary witch, though.
“Oh.” She paused and dug at the ground with a hoof. “Sorry about implyin’ you were…” She trailed off.
“It’s fine. I’ll just prove it the old fashioned way.” I smirked, feeling confident. I mean, they were only timberwolves and I was a pyromancer. If there was one thing I knew, it was that monsters made out of wood were pretty much doomed if they decided to mess with me. I’d sent a few running with their tails burning into cinders, but they’d be dangerous to a pony with less talent at setting things on fire.
“Is it true that y’all witches eat foals and cast dark magic?” She asked, still on my heels. At least her constant talking meant that I wouldn’t have to keep checking to make sure she wasn’t left behind.
“No. Foals give me an upset stomach and there’s no point in using dark magic when you’ve got fire.” I kept my eyes open, looking for marks on the trees. Zecora had showed me that timberwolves would strip bark from trees to repair patches on their hides, and it left very distinct marks on the tree trunks. I stopped and examined one tree closely. the bark was just gone from a wide strip, with no sign of rot or damage to the tree itself. We were going the right way, as long as a pony was willing to call ‘right into a den of timberwolves’ the right way, which it usually wasn’t.
“Granny said that you shouldn’t fight fire with fire because you just end up with more fire an’ you didn’t want it in the first place,” Applejack said.
“Granny is wrong,” I snorted. “Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.”
I walked into a clearing, and felt my hair start to stand on end. Something was wrong. It was almost completely silent. The birds had stopped singing, and even the omnipresent insects and frogs were quieted. I held out a hoof and stopped Applejack, looking around.
I didn’t see anything moving right away. No twitching brush, not even leaves moving in the wind. There were just the trees, the fallen limbs at their base, and-
And I realized where we were. The ‘fallen limbs’ started moving on their own, because they weren’t just dead wood. They were living, angry, hungry wood, in the shape of large canines, and we were surrounded like idiots.
Well, Applejack was surrounded like an idiot. I wasn’t an idiot. I was a pyromancer, and to me, this was a target-rich environment, not an ambush.
They started circling us, cutting off retreat, intent on making us into dinner. I wasn’t sure exactly why they needed to eat, since they were just hollow beasts made out of wood. Maybe they were just doing what a normal wolf would do, going through the motions even though it didn't matter. I guess we had that in common.
Applejack grabbed my back leg, hanging on and whimpering.
“They’re all around us!” She wailed.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re the one who wanted to go right into their den. What was your plan, again? To buck them apart?”
“That was my plan ‘fore I hired you!” She said, looking up at me. “Do th' magic thing!”
“As you wish,” I snorted. My horn lit up with cyan magic as I focused. This was going to be more difficult than usual, because I had to avoid accidentally turning the foal clinging to my leg into ash. I was a little spoiled by being fireproof, and had been for so long that my reflexes had changed. I hadn’t thought much of dropping a fireball at my own feet, or reaching into hot coals, or setting everything around me on fire.
I traced a pattern through the air, and sparks flew in spiral patterns as they searched for their targets, the red-hot motes biting into the circling wolves and burrowing into their wooden bodies, setting them alight and refusing to go out on their own. It wasn’t a spell I used much, because a rain of burning phosphorus was typically overkill when dealing with just about any foe you could name.
The timberwolves howled in pain, rolling in the dirt to try and extinguish the flames. It put them out for a few moments before the phosphorus started burning again.
“That’s awful…” Applejack whispered.
“They’re not even really properly alive,” I noted. “They’re just spirits that act like wolves. I don’t think they can really feel fear or pain. They just pretend, because it’s what wolves would do.”
“It still ain’t right,” Applejack said. “I just wanted t’ get revenge fer Ma and Pa, not t’ make all of them suffer. Some of them prolly ain’t never hurt nopony…”
“Fine,” I sighed. I lit up my horn and ended the spell, the burning motes vanishing back into the nothingness I’d pulled them from. It was technically a conjuration spell, instead of the more common evocation effects that- the details aren’t important. If Applejack was a unicorn, she might have appreciated my genius and skill.
The timberwolves bounded away, howling in fear, their hides blackened and burned. A few were still dimly burning.
All of them except one. A great white wolf stood across from us, glaring at me with undisguised hatred. Apparently the target of Applejack’s little hunt wasn’t happy with the way we’d kicked its pack in the flank. I had to admit, though, that even I was a little intimidated. It stood so tall that it could reach the top of a tree if it reared up on its hind legs, and the white branches and logs of its body formed a framework around a glowing core of green magic.
Maybe it was just the nightmares I’d been having about a huge, glaring white princess that made me feel a twinge of fear inside. Or maybe I was finally getting some common sense.
I didn’t have time to ponder it before the huge beast pounced. My first instinct was to teleport, but the foal squeezing my leg was a reminder that I didn't have that option. I couldn’t teleport and leave her to get eaten by a timberwolf. Well, I could. I’d just have to be a real witch to consider it.
I slapped a shield together, a wall of heat and fire that made the huge wolf balk and come up short. It bought me a few seconds to put together a more complex spell.
“Take this, you birch!” I yelled, a series of orange spheres launching in a high arc from my horn, bounding across the field of trampled grass and bouncing as they closed in on the wolf. Fireball was my favorite spell, and I’d learned every variety ponies had ever invented. This was the best of them all, in my humble and absolutely correct opinion.
I watched with a smile on my face as the Bouncing-Betty Fireballs homed in on the wolf. The first time I’d cast this spell I’d made a slight mistake in the target acquisition part of the spell and ended up running away from my own fireballs while I tried to remember the counterspell. Not my finest moment. The long hours of practice (and the time I’d had to reflect on my mistakes and learn basic masonry while helping repair the entrance to the ballroom that I’d blown up while trying to evade the spell) had paid off.
The wolf didn’t know what to make of them until the first blew up in its face, blasting fang-like thorns from its maw and knocking it back on its heels.
I’m not going to pretend it was even fair. it might have been a big, tough alpha, but it was just a forest monster, and I was one of the most powerful beings in all of Equestria, coming right after the Princess and a few of the larger dragons. I watched with glee as wooden flesh was blasted from the beast, the wolf growing smaller and smaller as it reformed with what remained.
“S-stop it!” Applejack yelled, tugging on my fetlocks. I really needed to trim them at some point. It wasn’t like I could do much grooming in the woods.
“I thought you wanted revenge,” I said, firing a ray of heat that slashed across the timberwolf’s legs, knocking it over as it tried to escape.
“I-” Applejack bit her lip. I looked down at her. “This ain’t right. Just because it’s a monster don’t mean I have to act like one too.” She looked through the wall of fire to the prey we’d been hunting. “It’s just an animal, an’ even if it weren’t, Ma and Pa wouldn’t want me hurtin’ it for no reason.”
I followed her gaze to where the timberwolf was lying on its side, whimpering in obvious pain. Now I was starting to feel bad about it, too.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “You’re right.” I lowered the wall of fire so I could walk closer. Fire spells weren’t great for mercy killing. Fire was powerful and dangerous, but it was also extremely painful.
“A bad animal gets put down,” Applejack said. “Like when my dog Roxanne got rabies. Granny put her down, and she made it quick an’ painless.”
“Quick and painless…” I muttered. Not something I was good at. “Stay back. I don’t want you to get burned.” Applejack backed away from me, finally letting go of my leg. I circled closer to the wounded monster. If it had been a real wolf instead of a spirit animating a bunch of wood, I’d know what to do.
I reached into the timberwolf with my magic, trying to figure out what to do. The timberwolf wasn’t that different from a normal magical construct. It was a spirit, sure, but it was tied to a physical body, and the way it constructed itself, healed, and grew wasn’t all that different from a come-to-life spell that had spiraled out of control.
The thing about spells is, even if you didn’t know the counterspell, you still had a few options on how to deal with them. If I kept hitting it with fireballs, eventually there wouldn’t be enough left of it to animate, but it would be cruel. Or at least as cruel as you could be to something that was just a self-propagating spell.
I traced along the lines of the spell, and found a knot of magic too complicated to unravel, as overgrown as the forest itself. Maybe it was closer to being alive than I thought. I could feel it pulsing, drawing magic from the ambient chaotic energy of the Everfree itself.
I couldn’t unknot it, so I did the next best thing. I ripped it apart, sundering the magic's pattern. The wolf was too weak from how badly I’d burned it to really resist. The magic exploded out of it in a green flash, the wood bursting into shrapnel. I shielded my face with a hoof and said some very unkind things as I was pelted with splinters.
“Ugh. I just can’t catch a break,” I sighed, pulling slivers out of my skin. Applejack trotted up next to me. She’d managed to avoid any kind of injury, luckily for her. I was going to be picking splinters from my hooves for weeks.
“It’s over,” Applejack sighed. “I didn’t think it’d be that easy…”
“I told you, I’m the strongest unicorn in Equestria. Of course it was that easy. For me. It would have eaten you alive.” I snorted. When she didn’t rise to my teasing, I looked down at her. Oh, right. it had killed her parents. That was probably the wrong thing to say. “Are you okay?”
“I thought it’d make me feel better,” Applejack whispered. She rubbed at her eyes and sniffled. “But it ain’t gonna bring my parents back, is it?”
“Sorry, kid,” I said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. She leaned into me. That put a little too much weight on my bad leg, and I almost tipped over.
“I just wanna go home,” she whispered.
I decided to just carry her out of the forest. She was only a filly, and after the timberwolf had been dealt with, the drive that’d been pushing her to go on had faded. By the time I got her to the edge of the Everfree, where the trees started to thin out, she was sleeping on my back, holding onto that hat of hers.
I’ve never been good with foals, like I’ve mentioned before. But there was something about Applejack that made me, I don’t know, care a little more. Maybe it was just because she and I had something in common. I’d never known my parents at all, and she’d lost them about a year ago, apparently only a few months before my daring escape from Canterlot.
I could just see the lights of the town from here. It was almost night, which made me feel a little better about the whole thing. When the sun went down, the forest was a lot more dangerous, but at the same time I didn’t feel like Celestia was watching me from above. I knew it was a silly superstition, and she’d told me herself that it didn’t work that way, but it just felt like when the sun had dipped below the horizon and the moon rose that I was safe from discovery.
“Hey,” I said, poking the filly on my back. “We’re out of the woods. If you want a ride home you’re gonna have to tell me where you live.”
She groaned and opened her eyes, blinking at me in confusion for a few seconds before remembering where she was. She rubbed her sleepy eyes with a hoof and pointed. “Th’ farm is that way. It ain’t too far from here. If we just go a little more we should walk right into th’ west orchard.”
Not in town, then. That was good news. I might have felt a little safer, but I still didn’t relish the thought of going into town. I’d stand out no matter where I went, and in a tiny place like this the news would spread quickly and I’d have the guards searching the forest in no time.
I started trotting the way she’d pointed and used my horn to give us a little light. It was less than a minute before we found a broken fence, and beyond it were orderly rows of trees, though with how overgrown they were it was clear this orchard hadn’t been used in a while.
It reminded me of Canterlot. Celestia had made sure I went outside every day, and I took to studying in the gardens. They were pleasant, quiet, everything in its place. This was a lot like them, though with dirt paths instead of carefully laid stone.
“Hold it right there,” said a pony in the darkness. “You’re one silly apple thief, bringin’ a light like that what I can see all the way from the house!” I turned to face the scratchy, elderly voice, and found a green pony who was so old it was impossible to tell just how old she actually was. You know the type, where they hit a certain level of wrinkliness and just stop visibly aging. Her eyes still looked strong, and I had a feeling she could buck me right back to the woods if she wanted to.
“I’m no thief,” I said, picking Applejack up from my back and holding her in front of me. “Actually, I came to return an Apple, not take any.”
“Applejack!” the mare gasped. “We thought you’d run off again! Where’ve you been all day?! Yer brother and I’ve been worried sick!”
“Sorry, Granny…” Applejack muttered, looking down. “But there was somethin’ I had to do. I made sure that timberwolf ain’t never gonna hurt nopony again.”
I guess this was the Granny she’d mentioned before, then. She looked shocked, then a flash of vindication showed on her face for a moment before it was swept away by a tide of disapproval.
“That’s a darn fool thing you did, Applejack,” She said. “You could’ve been killed! After losin’ Johnathan and yer Ma, I just couldn’t…” she took a shuddering breath. “I couldn’t handle losin’ you. My heart’s seen too much ache for that.”
“I’m sorry, Granny,” Applejack said. I put her down, and she walked over to her grandmother, hugging her. I took that as my cue to leave, and turned to limp away. I didn’t get very far.
“And where do you think you’re goin’?” Granny asked. I sighed and turned to face her. “I don’t recognize you from around these parts.”
“I live in the woods,” I said, shrugging. “Unless you make a habit of running into the dangerous parts of the wilds like this one-” I nodded to Applejack. “There’s not much reason for you to have seen me.”
“The Everfree is all dangerous,” Granny said. “There ain’t no safe places.”
“True,” I agreed. “Anyway, now that she’s safe-”
“You gotta come to the farm house!” Applejack put in. “I ain’t paid you yet for helpin’ me with the timberwolves!”
“You encouraged her?” Granny frowned.
“It was that or let her do it alone,” I snorted. “She’s a stubborn pony. I can respect stubborn. A pony has to be willing to dig their heels in and fight for what they want.” I didn’t mention that it often didn’t work out. Like when I’d tried being assertive with Celestia.
“She is that,” Granny agreed. “Well, come on, then. I can’t say I agree none with her spending her allowance to hire mercenaries, but she made a promise and she has to keep to it.”
“I’m not a mercenary,” I said. “I mean, technically I did take money in exchange for my services in fighting a bunch of wolves. But that doesn’t mean anything!”
“Them’s splittin’ hairs, I figure,” Granny said, as we walked towards the farmhouse. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it was a lot bigger than I had pictured it. I’d been prepared for some one-room log cabin, but instead it was the size of some of the larger homes in Canterlot. I followed them to the door and stopped as they went in.
The only home I’d been inside in close to a year was Zecora’s, and even if she was my friend I was feeling bad about always being in her hair. I knew what it was like to try and get research done with some annoying pony constantly asking questions or just being there when you wanted quiet and solitude. I hated being that annoying pony.
Her home, though, at least felt like a lab. (Or a witch’s hut, but I was basically a witch at this point anyway. All I needed was a broom to ride around on and a pointy hat.) I felt comfortable there. This was a kind of home I’d never been in before. The orphanage had been like a prison, with the same pecking order of predators and prey as the forest, even if the food chain was social and filled entirely with ponies. The castle was a place where people worked, with no real expectation of privacy, not a real home to anypony. I don’t even think the Princess felt entirely at home there.
This, though. This was different. It was a real family home. And I was an outcast. I didn’t belong here. I strongly considered just teleporting away before a little orange hoof grabbed mine and pulled me inside.
“Come on, Miss Witch! Stop all the lolly-gaggin!” I laughed a little to myself as I allowed her to drag me through the threshold. It was warm inside, the wooden floors polished to a sheen with decades of hooves wearing down the rough spots and loving applications of wax and oil to keep them from rotting.
Everything smelled like apples. I hadn’t had any in months now, since I’d found odd-colored ones in the Everfree and had some bad experiences. Apples weren’t supposed to be spicy, and they definitely weren’t supposed to change the color of your mane and tail. At least Zecora seemed to like the samples I’d brought back, even if we hadn’t had any luck with growing them ourselves.
Applejack let me go after she’d escorted me into a dining room, instead running up to a colt not much older than she was and hugging the worried-looking pony. I guess it was the brother she’d mentioned.
“Granny, can Miss Witch stay for dinner?” Applejack yelled towards the kitchen.
“Wait, wait,” I said, waving my hooves. “I don’t want to impose. I should get back to forest… stuff.” I mentally facehooved. Great work, Sunset. Forest stuff. That definitely sounded like a real thing and not like an excuse at all.
“I ain’t never gonna send somepony home hungry,” Granny said. “Y’all just sit down at the table and I’ll get you somethin’ warm to put in your bellies. I know little Applejack must be starved after bein’ a durn fool from sunup to sundown.”
I snorted at that and sat down. I was in too deep now. I’d have to suffer through a hot meal. Terrible fate, really.
“Does your whole family live in th’ forest?” Applejack asked, as she sat next to me.
“I don’t have a family,” I shrugged. “You’re lucky, you know. Even if your mother and father are gone, you’ve got ponies here who care about you.” I'd never had that much. I used to pretend I did, but that stopped when I learned Celestia was perfectly willing to adopt ponies. They just had to be alicorns.
“I know,” Applejack said softly, looking down at the table. “After Ma and Pa died I ran away from everything and went to th’ city for a while. Didn’t sit right with me, though, like I wasn’t bein’ who I was supposed to be. Then I saw this big light in the sky, and it reminded me that my family here was most important, like it was where I belonged. It was how I got my cutie mark!”
“Big light in the sky?” I raised an eyebrow. “Like, a huge rainbow flash?”
“You saw it too?” Applejack blinked up at me in surprise.
“Yeah,” I snorted. “It was right before I threw myself off a bridge and ended up doing this to my leg.” I raised my twisted hoof. “It worked out, though. I’m free now. No more manipulation or rules. I do things my way, just how I want it.”
Applejack watched me for a while, then suddenly hugged me. “I’m sorry you ain’t got no family, Miss Witch.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” I patted her on the head and she took it as a signal to let go. Thankfully. I was afraid I was going to have to use a crowbar. For such a little filly she had an incredibly strong grip.
Granny walked into the room, Applejack’s brother helping her carry in plates of food. “Supper’s ready! We got apple-cinnamon bread, baked apples, grilled apple sandwiches, and carrot loaf.” She paused. “With applesauce.”
“I sense a theme,” I joked.
“When you live on an apple farm y’ better learn to love apples,” Granny said.
Dinner was quiet, but Granny Smith was probably the best cook I’d ever met. I had no idea how she did it, but she managed to keep the dishes from blurring into each other. There were tart apples, sweet apples, mealy apples, and she used all of them with a firm hoof exactly where they’d go best. I was very impressed - I'd eaten food from the finest chefs in Canterlot, and this was miles better.
“You’re goin’ back to th’ forest?” Applejack asked. I was helping clean up after eating. I wasn’t going to make Granny do all the work.
Between that and saving the filly, I was going to have to blot out the sun or curse a few wells to get my witch reputation going again. I was dangerously close to becoming a nice, humble pony. With incredible cosmic power. Okay, maybe not humble, then.
“It’s where I live,” I shrugged. “Besides, I’m safer there. There are ponies after me, and they’ll never find me in there.”
“Why are you runnin’ from them?” Applejack asked. “You blew up them timberwolves real good. You don’t seem scared of nothin’.”
“Some things are scarier than monsters,” I muttered.
“It’s harder facin’ your mistakes than somethin’ you can wave your horn at, you mean,” Granny said, as she scrubbed down a pot. “You got the look of somepony on the wrong side of the law. I don’t pretend to like that, but you saved my grandfoal’s life and did somethin’ fer her that I couldn’t do myself.”
“I didn’t commit any real crimes,” I said, stopping what I was doing. “I just…” I considered what to say. “I made mistakes. You’re right about that. I don’t even know what would happen if I got caught. Maybe nothing. Maybe ponies aren’t even looking for me. I know things can’t ever go back to the way they were, and with how things were at the end… I don’t deserve it, and I wouldn’t want it even if it was offered to me again.”
“I don’t get it,” Applejack frowned.
“You know how you said you weren’t being true to yourself when you were in the city?” I asked. Applejack nodded. “I know what that's like. I tried for years to be a good, happy little pony for somepony that mattered more to me than anything else in the world.” I wiped at my eyes. Something was bothering them. Probably just the onions. “I thought I was happy, or that I was special, or that I mattered to somepony. I was wrong, though. I was just a mistake.”
Even Granny had stopped working. Great. Now I had an audience.
“That’s the difference between family and… what I had,” I said. “Your Granny knows you made a mistake, but she was worried because she loves you and didn’t want you to get hurt. She’d never throw you out on the street, and she wouldn’t dangle some prize in front of you and then refuse to ever give it to you.” I started washing dishes again. I hadn’t broken anything. I was definitely making progress. Last time I’d ranted about Celestia (to myself) I’d ended up throwing a tree far enough with my magic that I didn’t see it land. I was halfway sure I’d managed to launch it right into the sun.
“Well… even if you are a witch, and you live in the woods, y’all can come here any time you want,” Applejack said, firmly.
I raised an eyebrow at that.
“But if you want any of Granny’s cooking, you gotta work for it,” she continued. “We got plenty of chores that need doin’.”
“You expect the Witch of the Everfree to do chores?!” I reared up, using a little illusion magic to make lighting flash around me and mystical smoke to pour from my cloak.
“If you want Granny’s apple pie, yeah,” Applejack nodded, completely unimpressed.
“You make a solid argument,” I admitted, settling down and letting the smoke and lightning vanish. Both of us managed to keep a straight face for a few moments before we broke out into giggles.
In retrospect, part of me felt more fulfilled than I ever had as Celestia’s student. Back then, I’d had everything important taken care of for me. I’d been given food, shelter, books, anything I really wanted had been at my beck and call, and it had left me with nothing but a terrible hunger for power, power that I’d thought would be enough to impress the Princess. I’d wanted her to be the family I was missing, but she never was. She was always distant, even to me.
Here with the Apples, though, I saw what a family should be like. No need to impress each other. No need to constantly fight to earn love that Celestia would never give.
If I’d still been her student, where would I be now? Locked up in a tower full of books, having to outdo myself in a series of endless, pointless tests? I’d been happy to be at the Princess’ side, but I’d never been content, and I’d never been part of a family. I just hoped nopony had made the same mistake I did in becoming her student.