Chapter Fifteen: A Place That Isn't Empty
The End of Ponies
by shortskirtsandexplosions
Chapter Fifteen – A Place That Isn't Empty
Special thanks to Vimbert for Editing
Extra Special Thanks to Valhalla-Studios for Cover Art
Harmony immediately regretted every sin she had ever committed the very moment the pitcher of ice cold water came cascading over her backside. She produced a shriek from deep within, her face contorting like she was giving birth to an iceberg. She clutched her shivering self in the sloshing waves of the ivory bathtub surrounding her. Applejack paced across the second story bathroom of her house and placed the empty pitcher besides a gently flickering lantern.
“Now, don't go makin' faces like a frog left out in a snowstorm!” Applejack chuckled under her breath. “You ain't gonna suffer none. Just relax and let the cold waters drag the heat of the day clear off ya! Nothin' finishes a long sore afternoon of apple buckin' like a traditional Apple Family dip in the tub! Cleans yer pores right out! Bet you were wonderin' how come I've worked in the Sun all these here years and yet I don't look like a raisin-coated mule!”
“A-a-actually I-I-I was wondering if bl-bl-blood freezes at the s-s-same temperature as w-w-water,” Harmony hissed through clattering teeth.
“Pfft—Go soak yer head—” Applejack blinked at her own words. “Uh... Eh, y'all know what I mean.” She winked and motioned with an orange hoof. “Soap's over yonder. And next to it we got some of the finest shampoo from Aloe and Lotus' Day Spa in downtown Ponyville. Normally I don't subscribe to none of them froo-froo mane conditioners, but it was donated by Rarity—now there's a mare who knows how to come out of a day's work lookin' as sparkly as Princess Celestia's own lookin' glass!”
“You have some f-f-f-f-f-fancy fr-fr-fr-friends.”
“Eh, some of them are, I reckon. You see the bright bottle with a lavender cap on top of the shelf? That there's a bubble bath mixture. Have at it if ya like. I can never get myself to use the stuff.”
“Then wh-wh-wh-why do you have it?”
“Pinkie Pie gave it to me, Epona love her.” Applejack smiled. “She's a nice pony, but for some reason she thinks all ponies like to get wet as much as she does.”
Harmony's shivering brow furrowed. “Uhm...”
“Anyways, once yer done soakin', come join us downstairs.”
“Th-th-thanks, Miss Applejack.” Harmony shivered to produce a smile. “S-sincerely... Y-y-you are t-t-too kind.”
“Call me 'AJ'.” The farm mare smirked and backtrotted out of the bathroom door. “Just be sure to dry yer hooves after yer done. And if you smell somethin' a wee bit spicy, that's just Granny Smith makin' her one-of-a-kind daffodil alfredo! She only fixes it up once in a blue moon—on account of havin' a special guest and all.” She smiled.
“That... uhm...” Harmony blushed to the core of her projected self's being. “That's r-really sweet.”
“No it ain't!” Applejack blinked. “It's spicy—” She caught herself. “Oh, heeheehee—Ahem. Right. Enjoy!” She closed the door behind her, the mare's hoofsteps creaking straight through the wooden foundations of the old farmhouse.
The copper-coated pegasus sloshed back in the tub, her shivers waning to a stillness under the gentle lull of the amber lanternlight. She brushed a few slick black strands from her forehead and gazed at her own hoof up close. Harmony knew that she was merely occupying the projection of her soul self. Those were not her limbs dripping with moisture and those were not her senses shivering under the frantic thrill of the cold liquid. And yet, she couldn't remember feeling more at ease, more royally pampered, more in tune with herself than she did at that moment—and it was nothing more than a humble bath.
Harmony knew that in her lonely days before her lonelier days, she would have reveled in experiencing something half as wholesome as this. In all the twilight years of navigating the Wastelands, she would never have foreseen a moment when she would feel this... clean. It only took her a twenty-five-year ride on the back of reverse-time to experience it. The surreality of the moment should have been suffocating, but with each centimeter that she allowed her soaking self to descend into the waters, she suddenly couldn't care.
The last pony closed her eyes, her body floating in a weightless pool of lucid cold. Like always when her eyelids were shut, she saw the gray ash and snow stretching on into the horizon of her bitter consciousness. But as her Entropan body settled warmly into the waters, the freezing mists faded away, and there bubbled to her mind's surface the wispy vistas of Cloudsdale, its blue beds and ivory buildings glistening under the gold bands of a lively Sun. Hundreds upon hundreds of pegasi floated gaily in the electric air, their eyes as bright as their souls, and they all parted ways as Harmony floated through them, gently hovering to a stop before a wide bed of fog. There was laughter, a deep chant of daily joy, and out from the blue-on-blue there soared a figure into crisp clarity, her mane and tail shimmering with every shade of the rainbow as she gazed down at the young foal and gave a devil-may-care grin. But just as Rainbow Dash turned to fly away—a spicy smell filled the air, like a great valley of trees burning far below. Thick iron bars obscured the flight of the prismatic pegasus, and then the great ashen explosion roared through the sky on burning moonrocks that slammed into Harmony's face with the force of millions of screaming ponies.
There was a loud splash. The mare was clasping hard to the side of the tub, hyperventilating. The flickering light around her wasn't Equestria in flames—but the gentle dance of a lantern in the corner. The spicy smell in the air wasn't ash, but a delicious meal waiting for her and the Apple Family downstairs. She was in the past, and the past was the here and now—but it all seemed so fake to her once again.
In the fading trails of a reborn epiphany, Harmony reminded herself that the only real things in this world were those that left fossils behind.
It didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy the moment—like the fleeting phantom that she was—soaked from head to tail in an exiled Goddess' skin. A mute curse floated towards the ceiling, seeking the forehead of a three hundred year old Spike. Then there was the softest of smiles. With gentleness and grace that she only knew from reading books, Harmony reached for the soap and conditioner and bathed like a princess.
Harmony couldn't take her eyes off the portraits. There were dozens of them—black on white silhouettes of rural ponies, framed in dark ovals that swarmed gently past her one generation at a time as she sauntered slowly, pensively down the creaking stairs of the Apple Family residence.
She emerged upon a warm toasty world. A fireplace crackled lazily at the far end of a den furnished with plush love seats and afghans. As a blurred Apple Bloom scampered across the living room—giggling in a fit over one thing or another—Harmony glanced around the corner to see a brightly-lit dining room, flanked by a kitchen where Granny Smith was currently growling at Apple Bloom to settle down. The old mare navigated her lime, wrinkled self around an eating table before placing down a steamy plate full of straw and daffodils, sprinkled deliciously with peppery oats.
Harmony heard a barking nose. The last pony briefly jolted, reaching back for a nonexistent copper rifle. She relaxed when she saw Winona scampering up and running circles around her, a gleeful Apple Bloom hot on the collie's fluffy tail. The two went cantering off towards another section of the house as Harmony's attention was drawn towards a wide portrait lining a distant hearth.
Within the wooden frame the happy image of six ponies stood in a familial pose. Granny Smith was seated in the center, flanked by a red coated stallion with sharp green eyes and a mare of silken orange complexion. The mare was cradling an infant with a light bush of red hair, while two adorable foals—one crimson and the other orange—hugged the mother's legs and faced the invisible portraitist.
The time traveler stood there, numbly suspended in the facade of “Harmony.” Like the airship of the same name, she dangled loosely, a shameful puppet suspended into the deep well of the past via green-flaming marionette strings. This was a warm and toasty world that sang with a chorus that should have been forever lost after the Cataclysm, and yet there the last pony was, dragging her hooves a bare sneeze above the rock hard surface of it all, struggling to drag anchor but never quite touching down to do just that. She didn't deserve to be there, not with her invulnerable skin and her scavenger's wit and her nefarious lies. She couldn't possibly have been righteous enough to be as blessed as she was. She wasn't respectful enough, she wasn't... strong enough.
The cloud cleared just as thickly as it had coalesced. The pegasus barely registered a porch door opening and slamming shut. A hulking red form clopped on tired limbs as a sisterly shadow called in from the adjacent hallway:
“Macky, didja finish barricadin' the kitchen door? That's where they're likely to go bangin' them bony heads of theirs first!”
“Eeeyup.” Macintosh strolled past Harmony. He politely nodded his head—then jolted with a double-take at her mane. Blinking, he suppressed a snickering smirk and swaggered his way into the dining room.
Harmony blushed slightly, her face awash in copper confusion. Just in time, Applejack pattered up, tossing her hat onto a nearby rack.
“Whew-Wee! I swear, sometimes I feel like Epona invented 'work' first and 'ponies' second to make an excuse for the former—” She took one glance at Harmony. “Oh, you're done, Copper-Bottom—” She too jolted. “Whoah Nelly! Eheheh—Ya do know, sugarcube, that we've got a mirror in the bathroom, don'tcha?”
“I-I don't read you, Miss Appleja—er—AJ,” Harmony's eyes narrowed. “I almost passed out in the tub. Did the trolls beat me with an ugly stick before I came down here or something?”
“Nothin' of the sort.” Applejack pointed with an amused expression. “Didn't yer Momma ever teach ya how to brush yer mane proper?”
“H-huh?” Harmony stupidly blinked and ran a hoof over her neck, only to feel a certifiable mountain of fuzzy tangles spreading upwards towards the ceiling. “Holy cow! Eheh—Oh yeah, th-that's right. I've got a mane. Heh...”
“There's a brush over yonder on the table. Be my guest.”
“Hmmm?” Harmony only barely registered Applejack's offering. “Oh—Uhm—To be perfectly frank, I've never... uh... Eheh.... How do I put this...?” She bit her lip. The only time the last pony had ever toyed with her hair after the Cataclysm was when she weaved the shaved pink strands into various rags, bindings, and insulators for use on board the Harmony. There was a time, in her Ponyvillean childhood, when she once experimented with a rainbow assortment of dye... which ended with relatively hilarious results, not that she had anypony to share the embarrassment with.
“Pfft!” Applejack rolled her green eyes. “What's this world comin' to? I bet yer Canterlotlian citizens would just die without one of them servants waitin' on yer manes night and day! C'mere—” She gently tugged on the pegasus' shoulder and planted her on a plush stool in the center of the den. Seating herself on the edge of a couch, the earth pony snatched the brush from the table and proceeded to dive into Harmony's forest of amber-streaked black threads. “Now sit tight. With the way y'all left it, this might smart a bit.”
“This might what?—Gaaughh!” Harmony winced, one eye tightly shut as several tangles were yanked clear, tugging at their roots. She felt like a hundred thousand nooses were pulling at every inch of her neck. “Snkkt—Y-you mistaking my skull for a tree you forgot to buck, AJ?”
“Quit yer whinin', Harmony,” the farm mare murmured, squinting at her work as she straightened the curls out into long onyx threads. “I'm only doin' this cuz you got some really fine hair, if I do say so myself. It's an utter shame to see it all in shambles like this. The only other pegasus pony I've seen with a 'do this long is my good friend Fluttershy. It perplexes me why she never flies. She practically trips on her bangs everytime she so much as breaks into a canter—Tilt yer head down.”
Harmony obeyed, her bobbing vision scanning the plush rugs of the den under the flickering fireplace. “You seem to have a close knit group of friends,” the pegasus casually said. “So far I've heard about Twilight Sparkle, Lady Rarity, and now Fluttershy?”
“Oh, we're a tight bunch—Us gals.” Applejack smirked as she threaded the amber streaks together and then shifted her concentration on Harmony's ends. “Anypony who knows a thang or two about our run-in with Nightmare Moon will say it's all on account of the Elements of Harmony—heh. Now there's a smatterin' of irony for ya. But I like to think that it was a great deal more heartfelt than that. I was always well acquainted with Pinkie Pie and the Cake family over at Sugarcube Corner before fate flung the whole lot of us together. And everypony in Ponyville knew about Fluttershy—well, relatively speakin'. The pegasus has always lived in a lonely cottage outside of town. She never really showed her face much until she became part of our little circle of friends—the 'Mane Six' as some gabberin' townsfolk like to call our little pow-wow.”
“'Mane Six',” Harmony chuckled—wincing a bit as another tangle bit the dust. “That's original.”
“Nah. Not really,” Applejack droned. “But still, there's somethin' about my friends and I that is just so...” She paused for a moment and chuckled. “Oh shucks, I do sound like a braggin' fool, don't I?”
“No, it's alright.” Harmony gulped, suddenly feeling her heartbeat. “Do go on.”
“Well...” Applejack spoke as she resumed brushing from behind. “We all found out one day that we had a special connection. As a matter of fact, we were destined to all find each other at some point or another—On account that when we were all little foals, one single event echoed across the whole of Equestria. In some manner or another, it was responsible for all of us gettin' our cutie marks at precisely the same time. Now what are the odds of that happenin'?”
Harmony tried to steady her breath. A warm sensation blossomed deep inside her gut as she sat upon the precipice of a legendary story that the pegasus knew all too well. Over several lonesome years spent in an ashen sky, the last pony often did all she could to bury the bitterly ironic implications of the memory. But she wasn't sitting there in the past and having her hair brushed for her own benefit. She tilted her ears back towards Applejack as she dutifully asked: “What was it? What caused all of your cutie marks?”
“You ever heard of a Sonic Rainboom?”
“Educate me.”
“Yer a pegasus and you don't know about the—?”
“What's in a name?” Harmony retorted. She tried not to sound short; she was only slightly successful. “It's all in the experience, isn't it?”
“Darn tootin'. This Sonic Rainboom was what resulted in all of us gettin' our cutie marks. And on top of that, we learned that it was caused by none other than one of us gals in the first place!”
“Who?” Harmony secretly smiled. “Fluttershy?”
“Snkkkt—Hahaha—Heavens, no! But a certain blue pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash. You better memorize that name, cuz I swear it's gonna be a legend someday.”
“Yes,” Harmony murmured, her hooves kneading the rug beneath her. “I-I'm sure it will be...”
“Y'know, in a lot of ways—You kind of remind me of her.”
Harmony's eyes twitched. She hadn't expected to hear that. Ever. She bit her lip and nearly whimpered, “R-really...?”
“In less than two days, I've considered you both a pest and a blessing. No two words better describe Rainbow Dash in a heartbeat.” Applejack gave a drawlish chuckle, and she playfully nudged the pegasus' shoulder. “I'm joshin', of course. Yer sweet as chocolate rain in my book, Harmony, which is the least I can say about Rainbow Dash. That tomcolt can be a regular thorn in the hoof from time to time, but I love her all the same.”
“I...” Harmony exhaled, smiled warmly into the shadows, and said, “I'm sure she loves us too.” A blink, and she winced slightly at how that came out.
“Heh—If you say so, copper-bottom. Maybe once we get this Apple Harvest taken care of, I could introduce you to the gals. I like celebratin' with my friends after a long week of apple buckin'. Yer free to come with!”
“I-I'll think about it,” Harmony said. Gazing forward, she fidgeted slightly—fought to scale the opportunity of the moment—and eventually seized it. “Hey, AJ?”
“Yes, Harmony?”
“What...” She cleared her throat. “Wh-What would it take, d-do you think, for a pony to seek audience with Princess Celestia?”
“You mean the Princess Celestia?” Harmony could positively feel the weight of Applejack's dumb blink from behind. “Yer a servant of the Court of Canterlot and yer askin' me about meetin' up with the Princess?”
Harmony winced at that—all of that. She should have seen it coming from twenty-five years of reverse-time away. Still, she painted her tongue silver and persisted. “I know how much you dislike bureaucracy, Miss Applejack. It's only natural to hate the process of red tape. Even a pony of my stature and service has to go through several layers of offices before I can so much as submit a letter to Her Highness.”
“Like when you plan on reportin' on this Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Yes—No.” Harmony tugged briefly on the end of her hairs and sat up straight. “Ahem—This isn't about my inspection of the farm. Not this.”
“Then what is it about, Harmony?”
“It's... It's...” Harmony bit her lip. A hundred million dying faces flicked in and out of a blink. She calmed herself and managed, “It's a personal matter. That's all. I-I know it's rather foolhardy for a pony—anypony—to think that she can easily make contact with the Princess, somehow circumnavigating the waiting list of so many other concerned citizens who write to her on a daily basis. But... B-but in my service to Her Highness—in all of my travels—I have... how can I say this... I've uncovered some findings about the lands of Equestria that I think need a close review, and there're no offices in my Court that can properly filter—uhm—what I have to report on.”
“I see. And you call that a 'personal matter?'”
“I... Er...” Harmony inhaled. Then, she gave a brief smile. “What's more personal than the safety and future of Equestria? You may hold a great deal of faith in this land, Miss Applejack. And that's all well and fine for you. You're an earth pony. You live here. But me? I don't live entirely in Canterlot—Not like you think.”
“Just where do you live, Harmony?”
Harmony lingered. She closed her eyes, returning briefly to the ashes. “I live in the skies, AJ. It's not just a part of my pegasus nature. It's all about what I do, what I believe in, and who I am.” She reopened her amber orbs, and the rich warm flicker of the den seemed muted suddenly. It brought a chill up her invulnerable spine. “Someday—maybe eons from now—the skies will be all that's left of Equestria. Those who have spent so many years traveling—those like me—can see things that other ponies can't, all ponies except Her Highness. Princess Celestia sees all.” She gulped, then murmured “Or at least I certainly hope she does...”
“I can't pretend to know the texture of yer words as much as yer tryin' to paint them to me. But you've been awfully polite to my words. With the way the days have unfolded, I see every reason to respect yers all the same.” There was a gentle clapping sound of the brush being placed onto a table top. Two hooves rested on Harmony's shoulders. “There ya go. It ain't no prima donna hogwash—but I reckon you look mighty elegant.”
Harmony shuffled, standing up from her stool. She trotted across the room and glanced into the reflective surface of a grandfather clock. The reflection sported a gorgeous black mane blossoming from her scalp, with the one amber streak swimming steadily down the centerpiece of the thickly forested threads.
“It looks... pretty.” The pegasus blushed slightly.
An orange reflection sauntered up next to her, smirking. “Yes, you do.” Applejack patted her shoulder as the two's complexion hovered numbly against the rotating hands of time. “Don't sell yerself short, girl. All them wisecracks I made yesterday about you bein' dainty and all: they're true in a way. But it's a darlin' truth. I'm sure you'd drive the stallions back at Canterlot into a faintin' spell if you ever took the moment to come down from them skies you love.”
Harmony exhaled, her breath incidentally fogging the clockface briefly as her eyes fell down the sloping length of the hour hand. “I'm not sure if I can ever afford to come down...”
“Good thang we stumbled into each other.” Applejack winked. “I reckon it gave you a chance to get better acquainted with the Earth. I'm sure the Earth was missin' you mighty fierce too.”
“Y-yeah. Maybe so...”
Applejack rubbed her own chin with a hoof. “Y'know, tain't that much of a stretch to get in contact with the Princess, now that I think about it.”
Harmony flashed a hyper glance Applejack's way. “T'ain't it?”
“Well, on account of my friend Twilight,” the orange mare mused. “She's always writin' letters on friendship and Ponyvillean life to Celestia. She's her magical apprentice, you see.”
Harmony shifted where she stood. “You don't say...?”
“At first I was a bit miffed that every little thang I did or said around Twilight could very well have made it onto the pages of a letter that her lil' dragon friend sent to Her Highness. But then I came to trust Twilight Sparkle for whom she really is: a gentle, endearing, and good-mannered pony. And—heck!—I'm all about tellin' the truth, most of the time at least. So I figured—'What the hay's the big deal?' And it's never bothered me since.” Applejack smiled proudly. “I have no doubt yer helpin' my family out could make it to the Princess' attention, thanks to Twilight—assumin' we leave out the whole issue with the trolls of Discord and all.” She finished with a nervous chuckle.
“And th-then the Princess would want to sp-speak with me?” Harmony stammered, her wings briefly fluttering.
“Pfft—One hoof before the other, sugarcube. But it's certainly a start, isn't it?”
“Where in tarnation is everyone?—AJ! Miss Harmony!” Granny Smith wobbled out from the brightly lit kitchen and gawked at the two ponies. “There you are. Elektra Alive, ladies! Food's-a-gettin' cold! Bring yer flanks in here and take a bite before them nasty critters stop hidin' in the forest!” She hobbled back under the gathering shadows of Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom at the table.
Harmony winced slightly. “Where are my m-manners? I'm not used to a regular eating schedule. I didn't mean to hold up supper, honest.”
“Don't worry yer sweet head about it.” Applejack winked and motioned with her snout as she trotted over to join her family. “How about you put that mouth of yers into munchin' instead of mopin'?” she said with a chuckle.
The last pony nervously trotted after her, dipping her head humbly into the warm aura wafting off of the dinner table. Granny Smith was already serving heaps of the steamy daffodil alfredo onto each of the five plates while Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Applejack were shuffling padded stools into place and taking their seats.
Harmony was so mesmerized by the scents of the well-cooked meal that she took little notice of the seat she was shuffling up towards. She heard someone's throat clearing. Glancing up, she saw Macintosh gazing deadpan at her, shaking his head, and waving a hoof disapprovingly. With a blink, Harmony took a second look at the spot that she was about to sit in. Its place at the table was dusty, plain, with the only thing adorning it being a vase full of well preserved orange blossoms. The spot directly next to the seat had a pair of antique stallion's horseshoes criss-crossing in memory.
Harmony blushed and winced apologetically Macintosh's way, watching as the crimson stallion gladly motioned her towards a guest stool on the other side of the table, which she quickly took—shuffling up until she was suddenly at chest level within the conjoined breath of the family and with no means of escape.
She had felt this cramped and caged before. The Harmony's cabin left little room for anypony to shuffle around. Inside her airship, Harmony was either piloting, runecrafting, reading journals, or lying in the hammock. There was nothing necessarily uncomfortable about the claustrophobic lifestyle; she was the only living thing who would ever need to use the cabin. But this—this dinner table full of breaths and smells—this was like being cornered by vicious harpies from all sides, only they wanted to bless her rather than eviscerate her. The last pony was not accustomed to being the recipient of anything besides what her own cold shoulder could carry for her throughout the years. It was positively suffocating.
She also wasn't accustomed to traditional eating habits. With forlorn eyes, Harmony watched as the family exchanged smiles and polite phrases of gratitude before offensively dipping the entire weight of their snouts directly into the spiced plates of straw and flowers. Scrumptious oats and delicious white petals dribbled off their delighted maws as they treated their table like one large horse trough.
If Harmony had lost all of her faint memories from foalhood, she might even have been disgusted. She realized that she was the source of her own confusion. For decades, her diet consisted entirely of mushroom stew and meat broth, and very early into her zeppelin lifestyle the pegasus had crafted for herself metal braces attached with eating utensils so that she could fish her meals out of a collapsible container that could be discarded in a heartbeat for when she needed to jump into her cockpit and steer clear of a sudden obstacle or air pirate attack. Harmony had been alone for so long, she had forgotten what it meant to eat like a pony. Strangely enough, it was the first incongruity that didn't make her feel shameful.
She cleared her throat, wrenched her eyes off of the ungainly eating habits of her hosts, and gazed at the food on the plate before her. She knew the daffodil alfredo had to be delicious; her senses told her that it smelled delicious, but there was no convincing the supposed “gut” of her projected soul self that she needed to be hungry for it. Her need to eat was the same as her need to sleep, and it was all related to the unnatural stamina that aided her Entropan body so well in her endless apple bucking that day. In fact, the only reason she took a bath was because Applejack insisted.
She didn't want to wait until the four blessed ponies in front of her insisted that she join in the meal. So, leaning her snout down awkwardly, she opened her lips like a giant copper crane and snapped a rattling bite of the heap of flowers and straw.
The soonest that the daffodil petals entered her mouth—they melted around the crunching contours of the flower stalks until a grand cornucopia of home-brewed tastes gathered into a frothing ball against her tongue and exploded endorphins directly into her brain. Her eyes almost rolled back in her head. This wasn't quite like the apple she had bitten into the day before; there were no bitter sweet emotions attached to this.
This was quite simply an onslaught of pleasure, something she hadn't gotten from food in a while. She remembered suddenly what it meant to consume something simply for the sake of the experience and not for the sake of survival. It was a joyously awkward shimmer that danced up and down her spine, like having waltzed in on a muffin buffet at Sugarcube Corner. She pondered a little too heavily on this, so that she was blind to her avid devouring until she blinked her eyes up with a mouthful to see four amused faces staring at her.
“My my, they certainly starve you in the Royal Court of Canterlot, don't they?” Granny Smith snickered, bearing a knowing wink that only Harmony could see.
“Don't go pickin' on her, Granny.” Applejack smiled between munches. “She done deserved a good scarfin'. Besides—Who can resist yer wonderful alfredo?”
“Yeah! Can Miss Harmony visit us some more?” Apple Bloom stifled a belch and beamed. “I wouldn't mind chowin' down on this every week!”
“Oh Sugarcube. What would make this a special occasion if we did that, then?”
“We should let ponies visit us more often, AJ! When's all yer apple buckin' gonna be finished, huh? I feel like we've been a bunch of lonely rock farmers, what with all this work and no play!”
“The soonest we get this here harvest done, I reckon we're in for a heapin' load of celebration. I mean it; this year's been a real doozy.”
“You can say that again, child.”
“Eeeyup.”
“Why—If I had a bit for every basket of apples I've filled this year alone, I'd fancy myself being nearly as rich as Rarity.”
“That reminds me, AJ. Where has that most resplendent pony been lately? It seems like Rarity is a no-show everytime I go to visit the Ponyvillean Market.”
“Oh, she's just bein' her normal fabric fussin' self, Granny,” Applejack remarked. “Last thang I heard, she had hired a chauffer named 'Anastasia' or some nonsense to drag her back and forth between here and Trottingham. Beats me what's made Rarity so distant lately. No doubt she's workin' on the latest task for that fabulous fashion critic from Canterlot, Hoity Toity.”
“Now AJ—if yer don't know a pony's name, it ain't polite to go on fillin' the blank, now is it?”
“No, Granny. I mean that is his name. He's 'Hoity Toity.'”
“A name like that in the Canterlotlian elite? Preposterous! Next thing y'know, Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Ponies will be passin' out doctorates to colts named 'Mister Whooves!'”
“Er... Ahem... So, Harmony.” Applejack took another bite of alfredo and smiled down the family table. “Tell us a little bit about the sorts of things that a Royal Servant of Canterlot gets to see in her travels, why don't ya?”
“Oh, uhm...” Harmony fidgeted, swallowing down another scrumptious lump of oats and smiling nervously. “It's not necessarily good dinner conversation.” She glanced briefly at a wrinkled, lime-coated face across the table. A quiet grayness hovered above the otherwise warm hovel.
“Are you kiddin'?” Apple Bloom nearly bounced out of her stool, her hairbow twitching atop a grinning head. “I've never met a pegasus working for the Princess before! I bet you see all kinds of cool and amazin' things in yer line of work!”
“Where I go isn't nearly as important as what I do,” Harmony said. After clearing her throat, she half-murmured aside: “Or whom I do it for.”
“Do you ever see any sea serpents?”
“Uhh...” Harmony blinked. “I beg your pardon, kid?”
“Sweetie Belle says that there are tons of sea serpents out beyond the mountains bordering the Equestrian Valley! She says they're called 'leviathans,' on account that they're so big that they can't fit their big ol' selves into normal lakes and rivers!”
Harmony didn't bother stifling a knowing smirk. “This 'Sweetie Belle' sounds like a walking dictionary.”
“Nah, she just tries really hard to impress other ponies. I think it's because she's tryin' to look as classy as her sister, Rarity. She's not nearly as confident about thangs as my other friend—”
Harmony's heart briefly dropped when Applejack interrupted her little sister: “That's quite enough jabberin' about yer Crusaders, Apple Bloom. Y'all can talk about that another day.”
“Awww—But Sis! The whole point of being a Cutie Mark Crusader is wantin' to go out into the world and do everythang to get a cutie mark! I bet Miss Harmony here has done just that!”
Before Applejack could interject again, the copper pegasus spoke. “It's true,” Harmony said. “I've been to many places. And it sounds like you've got a noble thing going with these 'crusader' friends of your, Apple Bloom. But I don't think you should be so obsessed with the outside world, kid. Especially when you've got so much that's awesome right here.”
“Whatcha mean, Miss Harmony?” Apple Bloom blinked widely at her. Applejack raised an eyebrow. Granny Smith and a mute Macitonsh gazed over half-munched alfredo.
Under the spotlight of so many warm pairs of eyes, Harmony crossed her hooves atop the table and breathed soundly.
“I've seen many things in my flight,” she said, plucking the words from the gray fields of her mind with caution. “I've seen deep granite chasms etched into the earth from millennia ago, when things that were done to this world were performed by the whim of a Goddess with absolute permanence in mind. I've flown under the shadows of mountains too high for any Canterlotlian chronicler to measure. They are natural monstrosities so large that to simply comprehend them reminds a pony of just how tiny a speck she is in the mere twinkle of Epona's eyes. I have seen... I have seen wastelands, Apple Bloom—wastelands that stretch on for hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers, where the only sign of life that could possibly exist is the indestructible spirit of ponydom. The world is a huge place, and when it's stripped bare of all of the pretty things that make it recognizable, it becomes clear really quick that the only hoofprint you can ever hope to make is the sort of mark you can etch upon the souls of each other, of the ones that you love, and the ones that you would forever... forever miss if they were to fly off along the wild winds of what lies beyond the mountains and never ever return. The world is huge, and it is amazing—But, personally, I have found so much of it to be...to be empty.”
Harmony's lips lingered. She gazed up with a brief fear. The warmth in the eyes of the living ponies had faded slightly. As they regarded her, their faces seemed a little... paler, as if cornered by trolls. She knew exactly how to change that.
With a painful smile, the pegasus finished, “But here—No, there is no emptiness here. You can dream and wonder about the outside world all you want, Apple Bloom. But let me save you the trouble when I say that there's nothing better than a home. You can go on a thousand exoduses and cover a million miles—by land or by air—but having a home is all that matters. And this home, Apple Bloom, this gorgeous and beautiful home where your family lives: it is a good home. And I am willing to bet that if you too were to see the many sights of Equestria and beyond, only here would you feel complete. Anywhere else would just be empty.” She glanced up at a sisterly orange mare. “Where else would the Earth so generously give back for you simply being you?”
Applejack smiled sweetly. From across the table, an old mare bore a grin that was half as enthusiastic, but twice as understanding.
“Well, I hope I get to see some leviathans someday!”
“Apple Bloom! Heavens to Betsy!” Granny Smith rolled her eyes and then smiled at the guest. “Would you like seconds, dear?”
Harmony blushed under the gaze of the elder. “I would love some, Ms. Smith.”
“I rightly share Apple Bloom's melancholy over the vittles,” Applejack mused while the lime-colored pony scooped Harmony another heap of straw and daffodils. “Tomorrow night, we're likely back to me cookin' the same old boring meals like I do every week. It's nothin' for you to fancy, Harmony. I don't quite have Granny's gift of spicin' here. But I reckon my meals are decently healthy!”
“And borin'!” Apple Bloom made a wretching face.
“Oh hush!” Applejack briefly frowned, folding her hooves in a pout. “So what's wrong with a little bit of spinach and celery here and there?”
“'A pony does not live on apples alone,'” Harmony mused while shifting through the contents of her plate. “I'm sure I stole that from somewhere, but I'm too tired to quote it,” she lied again.
“It's only fittin' that we each get a wink of shuteye before the night calls on our bodies twice as hard as this day has.”
“Maybe I could play us some Stallionivarius,” Granny Smith said in a gentle breath; only Harmony could detect the mournful tone to it. “That should ease us gentle-like into the dark.”
“Nah, Granny. That's sweet of you, but we don't want to get too much sleep. You-know-what could come prancin' about the orchards at any second.”
“We expectin' visitors, AJ?” Apple Bloom spoke up above a thinning stack of alfredo.
Harmony spoke suddenly above the warm flicker of the room before any of the older ponies could betray their honest qualities. “That reminds me, Miss Applejack, what exactly is your taste in music?”
“Hmmmph... I reckon I haven't thought too much of it. Twilight and Rarity are always gabbin' on and on about some record or another. I suppose it's just the unicorn way to appreciate a fine symphony, what with them tunin' forks they got stickin' out of their heads. What about yerself, Miss Harmony? What flavor caters to y'all?”
“Strings. Sometimes violins—But mostly the cello.” Harmony smirked. She briefly glanced at Ms. Smith as she spoke. “It's so beautiful. It's a little mournful, and yet jubilant in its own rights.”
“Ya don't say? Come to think of it, I like me some expert twangin' of the dulcimer myself.”
“Imagine that!”
“And Big Macintosh here fancies himself a lyre when he pays the village a visit from time to time, ain't that right, Macky?”
“Heh heh heh...” The stallion blushed deeply in between munches. “Eeeyup.”
The Apple sisters giggled gaily, their young and old chuckles forming a cohesive hum in the center of the kitchen. Macintosh munched silently into the warm breath of the moment. Granny Smith hovered upon the precipice of the scene.
Harmony—the last pony, with her stab wounds stifled in the past and her loneliness stored in the future—sat and drank it all in, expecting at any breath and at any jolt for the chaotic legions of horror to bring the entire house crashing down on its innocent hearts. She let the length of the occasion linger as long as the trolls cared to, as long as the Cataclysm dared to, as long as Princess Entropa herself willed to, until she rediscovered the courage to admit that she still wasn't strong enough to be seated, and she hovered above the dinner table just as helplessly as she had first stumbled upon it, a nomadic foal looking for a home.
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Dude, your chapters are intense
but totally worth reading.
Anyway, I really love this story and I'm looking forward to future chapters.
So...touching.
I will never think of Fluttershy's song the same way again.
Thank you for your hard work.
63355 When i first read this chapter on google docx, it was 4am. I was wide awake,
and when it ended? I wanted more.
You motherfucker, i checked ff on my phone last night before I went to bed and saw your updates. Its 5:00am rightnow and i cried manly tears before school. GAH WHY ARE THESE SO GOOD?!?!
64830 lol omg excellent comment, i cant wait until I catchup on chapters.
This is a bittersweet and beautiful story. Thank you for writing it.
Yep, I cried again, several times in fact. But I made it through, and so did Scootaloo. I can't possibly thank you enough for writing this. Just...thank you.
Are you a professional?
Fanfics aren't normally supposed to have this much work put into them, especially not work of this caliber. You're not making just a fanfic, you're making a novel.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It's great to read something good once in a while.
That ending managed to connect everything perfectly. All of the complicated lines and dots that form this story have been connected into a masterpiece of literature. As Flittershy said, it has become a complete circle, and there are no loose ends to tie up. This story is a solid chunk of genius that fills me with wonder every chapter that I read. Please, continue to write this wonderful piece of art into words of beauty.
That ending managed to connect everything perfectly. All of the complicated lines and dots that form this story have been connected into a masterpiece of literature. As Flittershy said, it has become a complete circle, and there are no loose ends to tie up. This story is a solid chunk of genius that fills me with wonder every chapter that I read. Please, continue to write this wonderful piece of art into words of beauty.
You my friend have created one of the most captivating fanfictions I've had the pleasure of reading. Everything in here is so run through with emotion and mystery... and you leave little threads that are tied off so wonderfully! Every episode through Scootaloo's journey is a little story in itself. Maybe the language is a tad... archaic at times? But it never seems to detract from the mood. It's like you've gotten the essences of the main characters and made them explode beyond their own boundaries. I love this story and I hope you continue with it to the very end. It deserves every bit of attention and praise it's gotten so far.
79345 Just wait until you get further in, it gets even better. One of my favs which your coming up is the journal entries ch2, and then it still gets better from there.
I really like this story, but the chapters are ridiculously long and you update about 5-10 chapters at a time.
Only complaint? After "Harmony" winks away, instead of Fluttershy freaking out or trying to figure out what just happened, she pretty much just says, "eh, whatever".
Other than that, it definitely pulled on some heartstrings
89361
I take that back, she was looking away when it happened
OK, I admit it didn't take notes this time, so this entire comment is from mostly from memory, also it was a good chapter. As such I retract my previous chapter comment regarding Dinky's father.
I applaud your Scootaloo confession scene and how it ties Fluttershy's -“The world is a strange and confusing place. It's okay to cry about it.”-, comment and brings it full circle at the end, nice.
I stare at your Scootaloo “I l-love you, Mommy...” scene re-reading it over and over and loving it.
... now I admit that I found a great deal of difficulty in picturing scene accurately where Dinky's mana suddenly becomes so strong that it prevented Ditzy from moving her to the cave. For that I just played it safe and envisioned a DBZ OK-Ken style energy surrounding Dinky which was encompassed by a large white/purple glow energy ball pressuring everything near by away from it, and Harmony painfully carrying her the rest of the way with high pressure winds blowing her mane about...
Surprisingly though I think I got down all the hallucinations down right, the interaction with the skeleton was puzzling though.
The parts regarding rainbow dash had a stunning affect, stunning being the word lol :
Overall it was a long long long.... long arc, to long imo. The AJ arc I thought was long but once this started the word count about doubled. I suggest that you make the future chapters shorter and allow the reader to not feel overwhelmed to complete the chapters. It will also give them a better sense of progression imo, like the AJ arc.
the last two sections of this chapter have just completely and utterly blew my mind.
This must be the best fan-fic I have read.
I just got back from the my little Dashy cry fest, and rather than throw a critical stone down that well I wanted to come here and say why this is a better fanfic to make your cry. You don't go "now it's time to make the reader cry". There are just so many emotional moments that I end up tearing up a few times a chapter.
Also, holy shit I'm never going to catch up.
i got crazy chills every time dinky quoted rainbow dash or tapped into the future.. it was scary almost how it affected me
[not even half done witht he chapter]
DEATH BOOGERS!?
I'm sorry, this story has brought me to tears repeatedly....
And seeing some solid gold humor out of NOWHERE made me bust a gut.....
I had a tear in my eyes several times, but the one that hit me the most was when Scoot Sr. fixed the table and put it in the kitchen. Just the whole thing of how Fluttershy hides and protects that table so much touched my heart and made me cry, such a small gesture and even if it wasn't intended to be a heart touching moment it certainly hit mine full force.
“Eyes in the darkness. One moon circles...”
Silly Dinky. You've got plenty of hydrogen already.
Reading this story so long after it was posted almost makes me wonder if I am alone in doing so. That kinda ties in so beautifully well with the feel of this whole story.(but opon checking the comments it is nice to find out I am not alone in doing so)
This story is so good that I have not posted a comment on it yet... becuase I keep being drawn in too much to set time aside to do so. But for whatever reason I wanted to leave at least one commen here. This story is quite something... it depresses me to read but at the same time is impossible for me to set down. I guess I should question if it is a gift or a curse... I have no regrets for reading it though, even if it hits me on an emotionally level.(enough so to effect my day to day lifestyle to some extent)
As a side note, I noticed that this story is set to hiatus... I dread reaching the "final" chapter and never knowing how this story ends.. but at the same time I do no have the willpower to stop reading, anyone ells running this dilima?
673898 eeyup... It's a scary thought...
But this Fluttershy section.... Absolutely epic. Chapter 14 yeah was slowish up until the end of it, but wow. This definitely hit the nail on the head. You ended it like it began, with fluttershy meeting scootaloo at the memorial. And it was awesome how you intertwined the flashbacks of scootaloo to "harmony"'s journey. Though i feel bad about once again, Scootaloo is unable to explain herself to what happened with dinky's possessed state, and her obviously hinting so heavily at the future... Oh well.
But one thing i find intriguing, is how much the "full circle" cycle concept reminds me of Dream Theater's masterpiece Octavarium album, where such a cycle is a huge theme across the 8 tracks, mainly the title track of the same name. Fluttershy's words remind me so much of the last section of that song, Razor's Edge, it's spooky:
We move in circles
Balanced all the while
On a gleaming razor's edge
A perfect sphere
Colliding with our fate
This story ends where it began
I wonder... Did you... Use that concept inspired by this song in here with the whole kindness thing? Or is that just a strange coincidence... I'm guessing the latter because this is vague and could easily be redone as such. Interesting nonetheless.
I couldn't sleep tonight. I started singing "Hush now quiet now," but couldn't remember the words. This made me sad, now I am here looking them up.
This isn't just a story, dear writer... What you have created is something far beyond that level. This is... Perfect.
Either way, I still want to smash Captain Redgale's face in
Another excellent chapters... some of the possessed voices quotes were interesting "eyes in the dark, one moon circles." Was particularly interesting. One of the few Startreck TNG eps that scared me. :P
i cried whith the ursa,, i gues i have a weakness for big fat bince i am bears, since i am one
I've been reading this story for a while now, but haven't commented yet. Now that the Fluttershy arc is over I'd just like to say that my mind has been blown by the sheer quality and quantity of this work- this is no mere fanfiction, this is an epic- and yet you manage to put so much emotion into every chapter, it's simply amazing. I nearly cried when Scootaloo said "The world is a strange, confusing place- it's okay to cry about it" to Fluttershy, and when she talked to the Ursa. Those were the most emotional moments for me. I have never read a fanfiction that has made me cry- not even My Little Dashie- strange because grown men are crying at that and I'm a 13 year old girl
I haven't quite cried at this yet, but I hope I will in later chapters as I know the moment I cry at a fanfiction is the moment I find something of true worth. And this, my friend, is truly great. Thank you.
772032
god tier taste in music....
Octavarium truly is a masterpiece, its cool that someone else was thinking the same thing i was!
Okay... Just finished reading chapter 15.
SO. DEPRESSINGLY! BEAUTIFUL!!!~~~
This story has made me cry multiple times and I have to say, the idea that Scootaloo's
future self's actions lead to the events that ultimately made young Scootaloo consider
Fluttershy to be her second mom is both really sweet and really sad. As predictable as
this might sound, I personally consider that to be the most depressing implication made in this story
thus far considering both Scootaloo's past and future.
This line... It just seems so... deep?... that it really stuck out to me. Kind of in a funny way.
This was a great ending to a really great arc. Love your philosophies, Skirts, pseudo or not.
Sweet Celestia, I hate this fic.
"C-Can I call you 'Mommy'?" And the water faucets un my eyes start pouring.. and don't stop. The tears, they won't stop. ;_;
I have no words for the sheer quality of this chapter, arc, and story.
Circles within circles got me right in the HNNNGG
so well done this chapter is.
Buck you I can eat all this celery!
cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/avengers-captainamerica-feels.gif
The calm before the storm
I see what you did there...
It's nice to see AJ and Harmony referring to each other more casually. It's just another sign they're growing closer.