Quantum Vault

by WishyWish

1.4 - Honesty's Cleanest Hit

September 29, 2008

Sweet Apple Acres

Monday

For the first time since arriving in Ponyville, Quantum enjoyed pretending to be sick.

Having never been a morning pony, the minty mare was quite pleased to ignore Applebloom’s offer of breakfast and eat at her own leisure when she finally woke up – long after the day’s work had begun and the house was empty. When she was quite ready, she marched boldly to the barn. Hal was waiting. She eyed him, and he threw up his forelegs.

“Oh no, I didn’t peek,” he claimed, “and I wouldn’t miss this for all the apples on this farm. What did you come up with, and is there any way I can talk you out of it at the last minute?”

“Depends. Any progress?”

Hal looked downtrodden. “…no.”

Quantum opened the barn doors and went straight for the tarp she’d laid out over her creation. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to have drawn any attention. Throwing it back, she exposed two hollowed-out stumps of small trees, with pistons attached to either side of them and pads constructed from the tips of various iron farm implements.

Hal raised a lip and an eyebrow on the same side of his head. “And you’re…planning to…whatnow?”

Quantum stepped into the two strange contraptions to and began fastening them to her hind legs with levitated tie-down straps. When they were on, the iron hammerheads, scythe blades, and fork points under them pushed her rear hooves at least eight inches off the ground. “Buck apples, naturally. What else?”

Hal ran his hoof down his face. “This is an apple harvest, not a free for all. How did you power them?”

Quantum grinned, flexing her rear legs. The pistons pumped once, extending the bottom half of each ‘boot’ and retracting it again slowly. “Pony power.”

“You’re gonna kill somepony,” Hal huffed. “Besides, apple bucking isn’t all about power! There’s a certain finesse, a certain…panache to the whole thing.”

“Panache?” Quantum chortled, “Really?”

Keeping himself aloft with his wings, Hal balanced his forelegs on the ground and kicked at the air with his rear legs in slow, artsy motions; pointing his hooves as he went. “Panache,” he repeated.

“That’s ballet,” Quantum observed. With a grunt, she lurched herself forward, taking one plodding step after another. “Besides, I don’t have any ‘panache’ for bucking apples, and I don’t have time to develop any. Better to just kick the tree hard enough that it’ll have to give up its prizes all at once, and then move on to the next one.”

“They’re not piñatas!”

Ignoring Hal’s nagging protests, Quantum huffed and puffed her way out of the barnyard. Half an hour later she covered the distance from the house to the edge of the back forty, where Applebloom and Big McIntosh were going about their business. Hal floated helplessly along, booping and beeping as he went.

“Seventy-nine point six…point seven…point eight percent chance Applejack’s symptoms will persist...”

“You’re not help-ing!” Quantum sang.

An ear swiveled. Then another. Soon, both the farm ponies were staring at their kin huffing and puffing towards them. Applebloom yelped and was by her big sister’s side in a flash, gazing at the spectacle with a look of abject shock.

“Sis! What in—!? Y-you just hold on raight there! Ah’ll help ye get those bear traps off! Where in Equestria’ve you been that you got stuck in those!? You poor thang!”

Quantum shook her head, panting her words out with every step. “…it’s…fine…don’t…worry…about…it…” On her way to the nearest tree, she suddenly found herself in the presence of a large red roadblock with a yoke around its neck. Quantum looked up.

“Move…I can handle this…”

Big McIntosh scowled. “Eeenope.”

Applebloom considered the standoff, her eyes going back and forth between her elder siblings. “C-c’mon now,” she encouraged, “let’s just all take a breath, all quiet like, and explain out our differences, kay?” When nopony so much as flinched, she laughed weakly and interposed herself between them. “Now sis, Big Mac don’t want you out here because ye’re sick and ye might get hurt, raight?”

“Eeeyup.”

Applebloom turned, “And sis, y’all are out here wearin’ bear traps on yer hooves ‘cause…umm…why are you doin’ that?”

“They’re not bear traps,” Quantum murmured, dropping the fake accent entirely. “They can help us get this job done. I can help us get this job done, but you have to let me, okay?”

Big McIntosh, a very healthy and very large draft pony, chewed ominously on a piece of grass and threw a glance at the noontime sun.

“I know,” Quantum nodded, “we’re running out of time. But I’m your sister, right? I’m asking you to please just trust me on this. I can’t explain how I got these or…or anything that happened yesterday, but I know how important this harvest is, and I know as well as the rest of you that it’s not going to get done without my help!”

Applejack’s siblings frowned, the elder wearing a threatening glare while the younger looked away.

“Please?” Quantum repeated, her eyes going back and forth between the Apple siblings.

Hal shrugged, “See? They’re not gonna let you do this. It was a bad idea anyway. Now let’s get back to the house and use the time we have left to come up with a—”

The minty mare ignored her toasty orange friend and held up a hoof. “One tree. One. If I can’t buck it clean in a single hit, I’ll go back to the house quietly and do everything you say until Applejac—until I get better. But if I can do it, I stay. Deal?”

Applebloom still wouldn’t make eye contact. “Sis, almost nopony can buck an entire tree clean in a single hit. And you ain’t even raight as the weather.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about.” Quantum shot back. Her expression softened. “Please. I can do it. Just give me one chance.”

The pale yellow filly looked up at her big brother, who still refused to flinch. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t far above a whisper. “Yer word’a honor?”

“So help me Celestia.” Quantum announced, tracing a line over her heart with one hoof. Hal started booping away furiously.

“Ohhh, now you’ve done it!” He interjected. “Did you forget that Applejack is the keeper of the element of honesty? You have to honor this agreement, Cutie. If you don’t, Tissy says it’s almost a guarantee that when the time comes, the element won’t accept her. And I’m sure you know the story of the keepers and their first encounter with Nightmare Moon!”

Applebloom raised a hoof and placed it gently on her brother’s chest. “Let’s let her try. It’s only one tree. Ain’t like she’ll die or nothin’ from it.”

Big McIntosh stood perfectly still for nearly a full minute. Finally, he stepped aside.

The minty mare stared at the single, sturdy-looking apple tree before her. It hadn’t yet been harvested – at least two dozen ripe, juicy apples were hanging from its branches, with who knew how many more out of sight. Hal floated up and flew around the tree twice to look it over.

“Cutie, I don’t think I need to tell you that if this doesn’t work and Applejack’s little sister orders you to stay in the house until you—until she gets better, it’s all over. This tree looks pretty solid, so can we at least find another one?”

Quantum resumed her belabored pace. Hal began to point in random directions, “H-how about that one over there? It has fewer apples on it. Or that one with the gash in the side? It might shake harder. Or…or anything other than this!?”

Quantum, now past the other ponies, shook her head just well enough for Hal to see. Hal sputtered, “Are you trying to screw this up!? Don’t you even care what these ponies are going through!? This isn’t a game, Cutie!” Quantum turned around and lined her rump up with the back of the tree, eyeing the trajectory the best she could while Hal went on. “There’s still a way out of this! Swoon! Pretend to pass out and there’s no deal, right? They’ll carry you back to the house and we’ll have another chance to figure this out, just please Cutie, don’t try this!”

Quantum swiveled her ears at the sound of birdsong. She looked at the earth ponies, appreciated the trees, and considered the blue sky. Then, she coughed, rolled her eyeballs up into her skull, bent her front knees…and kicked for all she was worth.

Pistons pumped. Inanimate iron clashed with still living wood. There was a sound like a shotgun crack that carried throughout the back forty and well into Ponyville.

Applebloom, Big McIntosh, and Hal the holographic pegasus stared agape. Quantum smirked.

“There, see? I told you—”

The minty-coated mare turned her head. Her words instantly caught in her throat. The apple tree, its trunk cleft completely in twain, was resting peacefully on the ground in the noonday sun. A squirrel, perched upon the once proud tree’s stump, was giving an experimental chew to splinters taller than its body.

“I…” Quantum sputtered, wide eyed, “I got the apples down, anyway.”

Applebloom approached carefully, never taking her wary, frightened gaze off of the infernal contraptions clamped to her big sister’s hind legs. She paused at the event horizon to survey the damage. Not a single apple had moved from its place on the felled tree.

“Sis,” the pale filly began, “Big Mac’s gonna go put ye back t’bed.”

“I…” Quantum began, “I’m sorry, I…I didn’t think it would—”

“GIT!” Applebloom shouted, refusing to look at the mare she thought was her sister. “Go on and git before y’all wreck the whole dern farm!”

Quantum hung her head and babbled through another apology. Stepping out of her latest (but not greatest) invention, she allowed herself to be accosted all the way back to Applejack’s bedroom. Big Mac was as silent as the guard that had escorted Quantum to her cell on that fateful day. When he finally marched out of the room, Quantum picked up the sound of a key turning in the lock from the outside.

For the rest of the day, Quantum Trots lay on Applejack’s bed, despondently blocking the sun from her eyes with a pillow. When the stars rose, a familiar voice mingled with the scent of an untouched dinner.

“I tried to warn you,” Hal said softly.

“It was going to work,” Quantum’s voice was muffled and uneven. “I was sure it was going to work.” She sat up in bed, raising her swollen eyelids to her friend’s somber form. “Hal, what have I done?”

Hal booped a few controls, “You don’t want to know.”

“Is there anything I can do to fix any of it?”

Hal sighed, shaking his head. “No. Tissy says the likelihood that the apple harvest will fail is over 93.1 percent. They won’t stop working after tomorrow of course, but these were the peak days – after this, they lose too many of the apples, and the great apple famine of 2009 breaks the economic back of most of Equestria’s major cities. And the chance that ponies will start blaming each other for it jumped almost sixty percent.” Rubbing his muzzle with one roof, Hal ventured a weak smile. “On the plus side, Tissy says that if you do nothing at all but lay here in bed tomorrow, Applejack will make a full recovery. Tissy’s been monitoring your molecular structure. Judging by the stability of your molecules, she thinks you’ll probably end up vaulting again sometime late tomorrow.”

Quantum lifted Applejack’s cowfilly hat off of the bedpost. She stared at the simple accessory for a time. It belonged to a pony that was better than she was, who had friends who were more loyal, generous, kinder, and knew a laughter that Quantum lost weeks ago. Now, the minty mare had taken that away from all of them. Scowling venomously, she cast the hat to the floor and collapsed back onto the bed.

“Cutie, this time you need to stay he—”

“I heard you the first time!” Quantum snapped. And then, more softly, “…don’t worry. I won’t make any more trouble for anypony. I’m…I’m sorry, Hal. Sorry for what I did back home, and sorry that I couldn’t atone for it here. I guess I’m awful for saying this, but now I just hope this isn’t our reality I just ruined.”

Hal took to staring out the window, watching the moonlight dance between the trees. “Then call me a jerk too, because I hope the same thing.” He glanced back, “Hey…for what it’s worth, I believe you. We’re friends, so…apology accepted, at least from me. I know you meant well.”

Quantum lay sprawled flat on her back, staring at the ceiling. She failed to sniff back a tear. “You’re a good friend. Better than I deserve. Thank you.”

“Get some rest,” Hal replied. “I’ll check on you in the morning, and again when it’s time for you to leave.”

Quantum lay in another pony’s bed; staring at the night sky and thinking about the ominous white space, where shadows laid an inescapable verdict upon her equine brow.

Comments

[Xaxu-Slyph]

Well it HAS been awhile since I was held in suspense of something. There is a reason I usually don't read anything until it's finished...because, like this...I wanna read more!

[WishyWish]

5432870

I see what you're saying. My mean reason for going with 'Hell' was just a question of usage. It sounded more powerful to me to have characters use phrases like 'Go to Hell!' or 'Snowball's chance in Hell' as opposed to Tartarus, the Underworld, Gre'thor, et cetera

[WishyWish]

5432940

Oh yes, there is a significance in Cutie being prisoner #8472. A million points for the reference!

[WishyWish]

5432954

No, what you read is quite correct. Applebloom is indeed older than Quantum, even though in the chapter, AB is depicted as a filly and QT is depicted as an adult mare. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, and pretty much everypony you know from the canon are all older than Cutie. Remember the timestream! In the year 2039, Cutie is a college student in her mid-20s. In the chapter 1 arc, she has vaulted into the past (specifically the year 2008 - 31 years into the past). She was actually born in 2014, so in 2008, before Trixie Lulamoon has even visited Ponyville with her traveling magic show for the first time, Cutie hasn't been born yet.

There are some allusions to this in the second chapter of the prologue, where Trixie (Cutie's mother) talks about Cutie's father 'probably' being one of the stallions that gave poor Trixie enough money to survive after she was run out of Ponyville - which is basically an alternate, darker ending to the canon episode 'Magic Duel'. Trixie also says 'They took everything from me - even my purity.' If two and two go together there, well...one might note that poor Trixie had to do some things she's not proud of to survive around the time her daughter was born

[Xaxu-Slyph]

5433157

I see! The only reason I brought up the AB thing is because I assumed she was speaking of the filly in front of her. NOT the one from her own time. AB in this time would, of course, be younger as the mare of QT's time would be older.

[Phazon]

Big McIntosh scowled. “Eeenope.”

Okay, one part correction, one part pet peeve. I think it makes more sense to write it out as '"Nnope" or something to that effect whenever Big Mac says 'nope.' I know he has a pretty distinctive way of saying 'yup' and 'nope,' but I swear, every time I see "Eeenope" I imagine a banshee shriek right before the 'nope.'

Also, Apple Bloom's name is two words.