Applejack Through the Ages

by Paradise Oasis

A change of heart, and the Coming of Humans

So you forgave Chocolate, and moved on with your life?"

That's right, Apple Blossom... I did forgive him. Pinwheel and I had several talks over the next several days, and she helped me working through all of my anger, and all of my pain. What we talked about there, little one... that's something I may tell you when you're older, an' can understand. But her words inspired my to make the boldest decision I have ever made in my long life...

All of the ponies in the encampment had gathered at the river the river that ran just outside Ponyville, the entire group solemnly looking on at the ritual that was occurring before their very eyes. They had watched The rainbow monk lead the mare named Green Apple out to the center of the rushing waters, and gently place a tender hoof on her head.

"Applejack of Ponyville, do you now willingly give up all earthly attachments to the pain and suffering of your past, and accept the love and salvation offered to you by your creator, the almighty B'zekre?"

"I do, Sister Pinwheel." The mare agreed, closing her eyes. "I accept your teachings, and the mercy of our loving creator."

Pinwheel then levitated a bucket full of water from the river over Green Apple's head, washing her in it's clean of all her suffering and strife. "Then, in the name of the holy messenger Zoropontha, be reborn!"

The other ponies cheered her own, as the two mares emerged from the waters. After many congratulations and welcomes to her new path. One stallion held back, looking on sadly as the mare trotted up towards him. The two had not spoken since their altercation a week earlier, and he was eager to have words with her.

"Apple, are you still... angry with me?" Chocolate stuttered out, trying to hide the pain he felt in his still-bandaged muscles every time he moved. "I-I'm so sorry, I was an idiot to sell you like that! The money was the only thing that mattered to me, I didn't realize-"

"it's all right, Chocolate.... I've forgiven you for all that you have done." The mare replied quietly, shaking her head. "I've learned to let all anger and rage flow away from me, just like your sister taught."

"Is that why you came around to Pinwheel's message about the path?" He asked, closing his eyes sadly. "To forget everyone and everything that has caused you rage?"

"I-I had to, Chocolate! I was so angry when I saw you again, I almost killed you!" Green Apple looked away. "That's when I realized Pinwheel was right, and I needed something to help me put aside the pain and suffering that's been building up for so long, and help me to move on with my life."

"That's not to far from what happened to me, when I saw the light." The stallion replied, his ears drooping. "After I sold you to the gnome, Grogar's goons captured me and put me in a slave camp. When I offered them some of the wealth I got from betraying you, they simply laughed and took all of it." He looked back towards his flank, which was covered with several dozen painful-looking lash marks. "I learned how little value money really had. And also how foolish I was to betray a mare like you."

"I'm glad you too have come around to the path, brother Chocolate." Applejack said serenely, a calmness in her voice Chocolate had never heard there before. "I hope it will serve you well, where ever you may go in life."

And so, Green Apple left that stallion, and her latest lifetime with all of it's experiences, behind far behind her. As the Ponyland confederacy began to take shape over the next several decades, rumors of a strange guardian angel began to spread across the lands. Ponies reported seeing a mare, resembling the great harmony bearer Applejack, who would appear out of nowhere to help those in need. Then, just as soon as the problem had been solved, she would disappear back into the shadows, just as mysteriously as she had appeared.

These visitations were seen as miraculous, and many ponies began to see the visiting mare as a saint, a protector of all of the confederacy. Only one mare, seeking to do only good deeds to make up for her stubbornness and selfish past, knew the truth. She lived alone, in a quiet and modest cabin she had constructed, amidst the ruins of Ponyville. But through the ponies she talked to here and there as she 'miraculously' appeared and saved them, she kept abreast of events in the outside world. She learned of the barbarian ponies migrating into the land, slowly breeding with the few ponies remaining from Equestria, to create a new breed. She heard about the formation of New Equestria to the south, and how the kingdom of the past was born anew, in a new land. She heard of many of the curious changes, and amazing wonders.

But the thing that amazed her the most were the coming of the new races. Elves, gnomes, fairies... the bipedal species had visited Equestria before, but now they came from across the sea in great numbers, moving into the empty land, and making habitable places ponies had once abandoned. The fair folk took command of nature, in a way that would have made the Pegasus of old envious. But the one thing that saddened her the most was that ponies were just another species living in this land, with only a token amount of authority over the lands they once ruled.

But then they began to arrive in Ponyland, streaming across a rainbow bridge deep in the everfree forest, and building small towns and settlements in the open areas and spaces on the landscape. Applejack watched them from afar, swearing that she recognized these newcomers from somewhere before- something about Twilight Sparkle, and a mirror?- but these ones looked... different, with more natural colors. But what shocked her the most about this elf-like race, was that they seemed to have... horses who carried them around, and served them. Did these equines do this willingly? Or were they some kind of slave?

If these creatures were to make their homes in Ponyland, she had to find out. And being an equine herself, Applejack of Ponyville knew exactly how to do just that. But if her plan was going to take flight, this was going to be her hardest disguise to pull off yet...

Comments

[keam]

Ooh...it's getting REALLY good

[FleetlordAvatar]

The mare of many faces is Applejack.

[TheFanficFanPony]

Applejack, why did you forgive that guy? That was a bad move!