//------------------------------//
// The End 
// Story: Jonah Hex in A Fistful of Apples 
// by Octavia_Melody 
//------------------------------//


“It’s too late!!” Applejack screamed as she fell into the dust, expecting to be consumed in the explosion.
Hex embraced the pony as everyone hunkered down, prepared for the worst. For the briefest of moments, Applejack felt an extreme heat that felt like it was melting the flesh from her bones. She then felt some type of strange twitch and then a cold wind on her back. Applejack looked around and saw the same group of men outside the same hole, except it was nightfall, the dark sky filled with stars.
“How in Celestia’s name?” Applejack wondered, seeing that no one had been hurt by the bomb.
“We’re alive!!” Hex shouted, hugging Applejack again and kissing her with the half of his lips still attached to his face.
Applejack blushed and drew back. The human and pony looked at each other in embarrassment and then looked away.
“What are you doin’, sis?” asked the familiar voice of a filly.
“Apple Bloom!!” Applejack shouted, hugging her sister, now free from the facehugger’s grasp.
“Sure is a starry night, tonight.” Hex noted.
“Sure is.” Applejack agreed.
Apple Bloom then felt a sharp pain in her chest and fell over. Applejack’s face sunk in horror as her little sister clutched her ribs with her hooves and shrieked in anguish. Apple Bloom’s ribcage exploded in a rain of bones, blood, and fur as a snake-like chestburster popped out from between her organs and hissed.
Applejack barely had time to think before the entire world seemed to fade around her and she found herself in a cold metal room with walls made of some kind of strange glowing grid.
“APPLE BLOOM!!” she called out, hearing nothing but the shout of her own voice.
Applejack’s tears bounced against the metal floor and a clean-shaven man with brown hair clad a red shirt and black pants appeared in front of her. The shirt had some kind of odd triangular symbol that the pony didn’t recognize.
“Did you enjoy your little cowboy adventure?” the man spoke up in an all too familiar voice.
“Discord!!” Applejack shouted, “Ah’d know that voice anywhere! What have you done with mah sister?! Where’s Apple Bloom?! Answer me!!”
“First of all, I’m not Discord.” the man said, “At least, not exactly. The closest approximation of my name that you can understand is simply Q. It would be easy to think of me as the Discord of another world.”
“Where am I?! Where’s everypony else?! How did ah even get here?!” Applejack continued.
“Your sister was never really there. She was merely a physical manifestation of your own memories.” Q explained.
“That dudn’t make tha least lick a’ sense!” Applejack said, “I oughta buck you inta next year!”
“Now, now no need to resort to violence.” Q chided, “Didn’t you learn anything about the magic of friendship?”
“What in tarnation was I supposed ta learn?!” Applejack screamed through tears of rage, “I watched mah sister die right in fronta me! She exploded into lil’ bits!!”
“Your sister is perfectly fine.” Q assured her, “She has no memory of what you saw because she was never really there. This was all merely a hologram. Some sort of time-place displacement dumped you into an error-ridden scenario where Jonah Hex had to fight a group of xenomorphs.”
“So yer sure Apple Bloom is alright?”  Applejack asked, wiping her eyes with her hoof.
“I can send you back and make it so none of this ever happened.” Q explained, “I’ll play with the timey-wimey ball, erase your memories, and you’ll be back on the farm none the wiser.”
“I don’t want you messin’ with mah head no more.” Applejack, “An ah don’t wanna end up back here, neither.”
“Once the continuum error is corrected, there’s a good 95% chance you’ll never be shifted across dimensions again.” Q assured her.
“Jus’ send me back!” Applejack demanded, “But don’t be playin’ with mah memories or nuthin’, got it?!”
“Perfectly.” Q said as he snapped his fingers.
Applejack saw a brief flash of light and then found herself back at Sweet Apple Acres.
“Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom!!” she called out, “Where are yah?!!”
“Ah’m right here, sis.” Apple Bloom said, trotting up to her.
“You’re alive! Thank Celestia, you’re alive!!” Applejack said, starting to weep again, “I’ll never lose you again!!”
“Applejack, what are yah talkin’ about?” Apple Bloom wondered, “Ah’ve been here tha whole time.”
“Ya mean, you don’t remember bein’ in tha desert, gettin’ attacked by humans, and then you...” Applejack began.
“Yer actin’ kinda weird, sis. Is somethin’ wrong?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Nothin’s wrong, Apple Bloom.” Applejack said, still weeping, “Ever’pony’s jus’ fine.”