Waking Night
by Crowmagnon
More value for the family business, because family values are our business.
-- Slogan of Apple Orchard Farm & Loan
Despite the best efforts of Carrot Top and herself, Rarity didn't feel much better about her situation. After spending some time walking and talking around Ponyville, they made their way to the outskirts where shops and heavily-traveled streets gave way to wagon tracks trailing their way outward to the surrounding farmsteads.
They chatted and gossiped as Rarity led the way, making the smallest of small talk. Every topic, though, from potential future husbands to the exorbitant price of cherries at the farmer's market, was merely to maintain conversational momentum. They passed by the vast expanse of Sweet Apple Acres, and Rarity gushed enviously over her friend's ability to maintain such a beautiful mane while working her carrot fields. Carrot Top countered that she adored her unicorn friend's hoof- (or rather horn-)made overalls, and her request for Rarity to make a similar ensemble for her carried them beyond the orchards.
"I suppose I could always get a second job at the Best Pony Boutique," Rarity replied with a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. "And if I start rummaging around in other ponies' garbage for food, I'd only need to go without sleep for the next ten years or so before I can afford my own farm." When the dirt beneath her hooves became harder and dustier, Rarity lifted her head. "Ah, speaking of which..."
Carrot Top joined Rarity in looking out across the stretch of bare earth. To most ponies, it would have seemed nothing more than a useless patch of dry dirt, but Rarity's eyes glistened with emotion as she approached a large boulder near the center. Placing her hoof against it, she struggled to keep her voice from quavering as she spoke to the rock.
"Hello, Tom. I came by, just like I promised! I... I wish I had better news. It's going to take a while longer before I can afford to build a house here and be here all the time to take care of you. But I... I'll still come by to visit as much as I can... make sure to take you for walks and let you soak up enough magic that you grow up big and strong. Before you know it, you'll be cracking out of your shell and everypony will be able to see how beautiful you really are!"
Rarity embraced the large boulder, and when her cooing and fussing over the rock started to cross the line from endearing into creepy, Carrot Top loudly cleared her throat a few times.
Looking embarrassed, Rarity coughed and took a step back, though not without giving "Tom" a reassuring pat of her hoof before her horn lit up. "Of course. Just let me help you move over there..."
Rarity's magic wasn't strong enough to lift the heavy rock outright. Not by a long shot. Nevertheless, her years of apprenticeship and rock farming for the Quarry family had helped her develop her telekinesis to the point that she could compensate for her relative lack of physical strength. By creating a thin magical buffer between Tom and the ground, she was able to slide it along until she found a spot to set the boulder down again.
Carrot Top watched Rarity pick up some smaller stones and arrange them around Tom in a pattern that was far beyond her ability figure, even when she pitched in to help her unicorn friend move the rocks into place when Rarity's magic started to run low.
"You know, I've watched you do this for years, and rock farming still doesn't make any sense to me," she mused when they were done and looked upon their work. "Does it really help, talking to them like that?"
"Well... it helps me," Rarity replied as she took a moment to catch her breath. When she felt ready to move again, she stood up and stroked Tom fondly before turning back the way they came. "Besides, you sing to your carrots."
"Hey, it's a proven fact that plants respond well to music," Carrot Top replied with a huff of faux indignance. "And carrots know how to behave. They grow in nice, neat little rows. How do you even know how to set the rocks up like that, anyway?"
Rarity looked downcast at the road directly in front of her as she walked. "I... don't. I don't have the 'right hooves' for it, remember? It's all based on what I've done on the Quarry farm." She then looked back over her shoulder and mused, "But all the signs are there. The magic is there, in the land, feeding the rocks. I just know that if I could settle here and tend to it properly... care for it... nurture it... I could make a home here. A place of my own. Maybe then I could find a good stallion..."
Seeing Rarity slump again, Carrot Top nudged her in the ribs while they walked. "Are you sure you just don't need a pet?"
"Hmph! I already have Opal, you know!"
"I said a pet, not whatever that fuzzy death machine is," Carrot Top retorted as they walked back toward greener pastures.
-----
"Apple Blooom! Apple Blooooom! Please come out! It's starting to get dark!"
Sweetie Belle knocked a few more times on the door of their "headquarters," as Scootaloo liked to call it. In actuality, it was a small clubhouse that had been built over the ruins of a decrepit, long-neglected little shack that the trio of friends had stumbled across while exploring the far reaches of Sweet Apple Acres.
It had been a proud moment when they had looked upon the renovated hideaway, but as she banged her little hooves against it, Sweetie Belle rued the fact that Apple Bloom had built it with such sturdy construction.
"Apple Bloom, please! I'm worried about you, and it's getting cold, and... and I don't know if I can find my way back through the dark by myself!"
"Sweetie Belle? What's going on?"
The little filly's ears flicked to the side when she heard somepony else approaching. Two someponies, in fact, and one with a very familiar voice. "Rarity!" She ran over to her big sister and Carrot Top as the mares approached, and gave Rarity a worried hug. "What're you doing out here?"
Rarity wrapped a foreleg around Sweetie Belle and replied, "We were just walking by, and we heard you shouting. Is everything alright?"
Sweetie Belle looked up into Rarity's eyes, her lower lip trembling. "No, it's not! We were trying to find Scootaloo, and then the mailmare flew down and said she had a telegram from Apple Bloom's sister. She started reading it, and the next thing I knew, she was running here. She locked herself up in the clubhouse and won't talk to me!"
Rarity and Carrot Top shared a concerned glance before turning their attention to the little clubhouse. Using a minor light spell to brighten the increasingly dim orchard around them, she approached the door. "Apple Bloom? Honey? Can you please come out? Sweetie Belle is really worried about you, and I'm sure the rest of your family will be, too, soon."
"Rarity...?" Apple Bloom's voice was quiet and muffled, but those outside heard her shuffle toward the door. "Go 'way... it ain't any o' yer business..."
Ordinarily, Rarity would have been more than a little miffed to be told that by a filly, but the hurt in Apple Bloom's voice gave her pause. "Sorry, Apple Bloom, but you're one of my little sister's best friends, so it's my job to be concerned. I could go get your big brother if you'd rather talk to him, though."
The filly inside the clubhouse sniffled and asked, "What's th' point? He'd jus' make excuses for her..."
"For who? Your sister? What happened, Apple Bloom?"
Apple Bloom didn't say anything after that, but while Rarity watched the door, she noticed a slip of parchment as it got pushed out beneath it. Rarity carefully picked it up in her magic and used the light from her horn to read it.
DEAR APPLE FAMILY STOP
MISS APPLEJACK MUST ATTEND BALL IN CANTERLOT STOP
WILL BE UNABLE TO VISIT FOR WAKING NIGHT STOP
SINCEREST APOLOGIES STOP
After reading it once, Rarity's eyes widened in disbelief and scanned each line a second, then a third time. After the third read, her eyes flashed with anger as she crumpled the telegram in her magic. "What, did she have her assistant write this for her? That's just...! Carrot Top? Please watch after the girls until Apple Bloom is ready to go home. I need to go."
"Go? Where?" Carrot Top asked.
"To go give that 'Miss Applejack' a much-needed refresher on Ponyville values," Rarity snapped before she turned and ran off through the orchard.
Moments later, she came walking back with a sheepish expression. "Ah... I don't suppose I could borrow a few bits for a train ticket?"
-----
"Well, I have to say, it's been a pleasure, Ms. Applejack. I'll be sure that the members of the MSBA know what Apple Orchard has to offer them," said Entrée Paneur, a rather large unicorn restauranteur who bore a mustache that would have driven a walrus to envy, and also acted as head of the Manehattan Small Business Association. "I'm looking forward to seeing how well you can golf, too!"
"Be careful what you wish for, Entrée," Applejack replied with a confident smirk. "I'm very competitive. And please give my regards to your lovely wife," she added as she saw him out the door.
"I certainly will, and the same to your Fleur. Speaking of which, is there any chance she might join us next week?"
Like a schoolfilly with a crush, Applejack felt her cheeks warm at the mention of her marefriend. "Unfortunately, she's visiting family in Prance, and won't be back for a while. Just so you know, I get even more competitive when she's there to cheer me on."
Entrée let out a jolly laugh at that. "Don't we all! Well, I'm looking forward to it." He waved as he trundled down the hall toward the elevator.
As soon as he was gone, Applejack groaned and rubbed her sore cheeks. Under normal situations, she was very comfortable with schmoozing, but the tension caused by the unexpected changes to her Waking Night plans had made it very difficult to maintain a genuine smile throughout her meetings.
She made her way back to her desk and sat down, taking a moment to look at the framed photograph of her siblings and grandmother. The three of them were huddling close and smiling into the camera. Slowly, she reached out to touch the glass of the frame until she heard a knock on her door.
"Ms. Applejack? About your schedule for tomorrow night..."
Applejack sat up straight in her chair and let out a sigh. "Please tell me you have good news, Check List."
The unicorn swallowed and stepped inside. "Yes. Well. I just got back from the telegraph office, and according to the message the prince's office sent..."
Check List hesitated, and in that moment of pause, Applejack could feel her stomach plummet straight down to the building's basement. "What. Did. He. Say?"
"Prince Blueblood is... under the impression that you will be escorting him to the Waking Night Ball. A very insistent impression..."
Silence filled the office. A very tense, unsettling silence that swallowed all sound. Even when Check List spoke up again, his voice sounded muted and distant to Applejack. "I swear, I tried to fix it, but they were about to close the office for the holiday, so all I could do was have them send a message to Ponyville to let your family know you'll be rather late..."
"... You can go now, Check List."
The unicorn gulped nervously. "Go?"
Applejack waved toward the door before letting her hoof fall heavily to the desk. When she spoke, her voice was dull and thicker with a rural twang than what he was accustomed to from his employer. "Go home. Go drinkin'. Go on a date. Go visit family. I don't care, just go, and stop helpin' me."
"Ms. Applejack, I--"
"Ah said GET OUT!" Applejack slammed her hoof down on her desk hard enough that the bang could be heard three floors down. "Get out right now, or Ah'll make ya stay here just long enough ta clean out yer desk!"
Check List bolted out of her sight so quickly that she almost fired the after-image that he left behind. When she realized that she had indeed been left alone, though, she glanced around and saw that her outburst had caused her photograph of Apple Bloom to fall to the floor. The glass frame protecting the image of her smiling sister was cracked and broken.
Applejack got out of her chair to pick the photograph up and brush some of the loose bits of glass into her wastebin. Her body began convulsing and trembling before she could finish, but nopony was around to hear her sob as tears streamed down her face.