Applejack Through the Ages

by Paradise Oasis

Fallout

"Cherries Jubilee! What were you thinking?!" Buttons snapped glaring at the other mare angrily. "Putting all those ideas into Baby Applejack head, why in the world would you do a thing like that?"

"We've got a sullen and depressed AJ who won't come out of her room, and an overly angry daughter who who's staying over in Surprise's apartment, and won't even go home to speak to her mother!" Bow Tie added, glaring at the earth mare with the orange coat and mane. "Didn't you think about how your hurtful words would affect them?"

"Since when is it hurtful to tell other ponies the truth, Bow?" Cherries asked, sneering back at the blue earth pony before her. "Especially a pony from a family famed for it's honesty?"

"And how do you know AJ's story's aren't the truth, Cherries?" Buttons added, raising an eyebrow. "Aren't you just letting your own anger at Applejack cloud your judgement a bit?"

"Oh come off of it, you two!" Cherries snorted, her face flushed with anger. "You can't tell me that either one of you actually believe that that grouchy old mare actually lived over a thousand years, and did all the things she said she did! There's no way anyone could live that long, unless they were an alicorn!"

"Anything is possible in Ponyland, Cherries Jubilee. With all of the magic we have flowing freely all over this land." Buttons reminded the stubborn fruit mare. "Or do I have to remind you of the time the wizard Beezan brought your own gym equipment to life to attack you?"

"Maybe so, but I think you're all being far too easy on that stubborn old klutzy mare." Cherries saw the angry looks her two friends were giving her, and winced. "Okay, look... maybe I was a bit too harsh on the old nag, but am I supposed to let her daughter get a better grade than mine because of a report that may or may not be true? Bow Tie, would you let your own little filly play second fiddle if another mare's mother cheated to get her a better grade?"

Bow Tie said nothing, looking away as Buttons trotted forward. "Cherries, I think you'd better start from the top, Why do you hate Applejack so much?"

Cherries sighed. "It'd take to long to tell you, Buttons. Let's just say that what I've done to that mare, is no worse than what she's done to me..."

...

At the same time Buttons and Bow Tie were trying to talk some reason into Cherries Jubilee, Cheerilee was meeting with the frazzled AJ at the satin slipper, trying to talk to the distraught mother about everything that had happened, as well. But things were not going as well as the teaching mare had hoped.

"Let me guess, Miss Cheerilee." Applejack snapped, scowling at the skeptical-looking teacher before her. "You don't think I'm the original Applejack ether, do you?"

"AJ, I know it's you, despite how different you look and the memory problems." Cheerilee shook her head, downing the mug of cider she held in her hoof in one gulp. "You, Spike and myself were all there in Ponyville in the old days, why in the world do you think I'd doubt you?"

"Then why did you want to talk ta me about my little apple blossom's report?" Applejack asked, a confused look on fer face. "Do ya think something will be wrong with it?"

"Applejack, I have no problem believing you survived a thousand years due to magic- I was frozen in a book until you and Bow Tie freed me, remember. But I question all the fantastic and wild tales Cherries mentioned you telling other ponies, about all the lives you lived .I've done some research on the events you described in your stories you've told us about your past during our gossip sessions here at the slipper. And they really don't match up with what known history says about those places and ponies. Isn't it possible you've embellished your tale just a bit, or your memory is a tiny bit faulty?"

Applejack looked up, her face turning a slight shade of red from embarrassment. "Okay, maybe -just maybe- I did stretch the truth a teeeeny bit, like with all the lovers and stuff I had. But the basic gist of what I told my little Apple Blossom is true, I've learned my lesson about lying to a daughter about things to make her feel better." The orange mare's ears drooped, as her mind drifted back to Honeyberry. "It's a mistake I promised I'd never repeat."

"Your adopted child from Coltonville." Cheerilee sighed knowingly. "Applejack... did you ever see her again?"

"Only once, Miss Cheerilee... and it was almost seventy years later." Applejack replied sadly, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. "I found out my little girl was dying, and I just had to say goodbye...

The room in the hospital had emptied out completely, leaving the old mare lying on the bed to her own thoughts, and the soft beeping of the heart monitor. The tired old eyes, covered with wrinkles from the experiences of an entire lifetime, weakly opened up to the sight of Apple Pie trotting up to her, gently placing a tender hoof on the elderly mare's head.

"M-mama, is that you?" The old mare's voice creaked, tears streaming down her face. "Mama, have you come to take me to the frioendship gardens?"

"Hush, little one, hush, it's going to be all right." Apple Pie told her, gently caressing those old gray hairs that she had once she had once run her hoof through when she sang a little filly to sleep so long ago. "I'm here, and everything's going to be all right now."

"Mama, I'm sorry about all those mean things I said, about never wanting to see you again!" The elderly mare sobbed, too weak to even sit up and hug the pony before her. "I just so happy you're here, mama."

" I was just as wrong for what I did to you, and I should have told you what I was doing and been more honest with you." Apple Pie told her, tears slowly leaking down her own eyes. "You just rest now, little one.I'll always be with you, no matter what happens. I'll always love you."

"I love you two, mama...." Honeyberry slowly drifted off to sleep, as Apple Pie quietly sang a lullaby as she caressed the elderly mares mane. They stayed they're like that for what seemed like an eternity, the young and beautiful mother gently singing to a daughter who appeared three times her age, until the last soft beeps of the heart monitor indicated the elderly mare had entered a final sleep, one from which she would never awaken.

"Good bye, my little Honeyberry." Apple Pie squeezed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face. As the sound of the floor nurse's hooves came running, the blue mare quietly stepped back into the shadows, leaving behind only a open window with a a set of curtains gently flapping in the cool night wind...

"Oh, Applejack..." Cherrilee stated, her eyes wide in shock. "I-I'm sorry, I never knew..."

"I lost one daughter because of my stubbornness, Cherilee!" The orange earth mare snorted, wiping a single tear out of her eye. "And I'll be damned to Tartarus if I'm going to lose another!"

Comments

[FleetlordAvatar]

Wow...the feels.

[Aatxe360]

...I was frozen in a book until you and Bow Tie freed me...

Wait...what?
I might have missed this story in one of your other works. I can't remember.

Also, History isn't objective so details appear and disappear with frequent regularity.

[Paradise Oasis]

6455493

See my Cherilee story "Classroom of the future"