Forged Anew

by Vermillion Prose

Malus Domestica

Author's Note:

Apologies for the uncharacteristic delay! The holidays had me rather occupied, but I'm back into the swing of things now. Get ready for things to become interesting some time soon...

The sun had barely risen as Hesperos arrived at Sweet Apple Acres at the appointed time. The distant sound of Applejack directing her sister’s morning routine reached him as the sizeable red stallion he knew to be the eldest Apple plodded out to meet him in her stead. Big Macintosh stopped in front of him and they locked eyes to visors for a moment, matching shades of green, before Mac gestured with a hoof for the astartes to follow.

They marched in silence to the barn, where Mac hooked himself up to a plow and pointed to a second in the corner. Hesperos moved and lifted the whole thing in his arms. Mac’s eyes widened before he nodded his approval and took lead out to the field they were preparing. After demonstrating the procedure, he indicated Hesperos should attempt it. Pulling the chains hooked to the farm equipment over his massive shoulders, he hauled it across the field in nearly half the time it took Mac.

Mac stood nearly agape before rejoining the effort, offering in passing a decisive and approving, “Eeyup!”

---

Applejack found the two standing next to the freshly prepared field, observing the orchard in relative silence. Occasionally, Mac would offer an apple or other produce for Hesperos to examine, receiving simple nods of approval. In exchange, Hesperos had laid out a blueprint for structural improvements to the barn or new arrangements for the fields that could increase yields. Mac would reply with a thankful and enthusiastic, “Eeyup!”

Applejack smiled faintly before interrupting, not accustomed to seeing her brother so at ease and cooperative with an unfamiliar guest. However, they would have time to collaborate more later. For now, it was time to hit the west orchard.

They wandered out, Applejack rambling about the farm and her family as she was wont to do. He marched along next to her silently, occasionally offering a tilt of his helm or wave of a gauntlet to indicate she continue. He was at this point passively listening to what she was saying. Though he remembered what she said in detail, his mind was primarily focused on observing the orchard itself and contemplating his current circumstances.

The trees around him appeared very differently to him than any he had seen before. Where warp presences he would describe as roiling balls of immaterial fire, small candles or roaring hearthfires depending upon the entity in question, the magic he had encountered in Equestria was inherently more stable. Unicorns appeared as brilliant lumen stips, a measured and consistent spot of power. Yet even pegasi and earth ponies shone as glow globes or chemical illuminators. He had concluded, and had confirmed with Twilight, that all the equine tribes or races had magic in one form or another.

As such, standing in the center of the orchard, it appeared to him in his spectral vision as a strange nightscape filled with bioluminescent flora and, rarely, fauna. His optical indicators provided readouts indicative of nearly any verdant agri-world, but his witch sight revealed the much more intriguing and fundamental nature of the realm he now occupied.

He put aside his ruminations as Applejack indicated it was time to get to work and to observe her demonstration.

She approached one of the many apple trees of the orchard, spun in place and lashed out with her hind legs, bucking the tree and sending apples falling from the branches. Most curious, when her hooves had connected, it had appeared to his unearthly senses much the way connecting an active circuit might, a spark and brief brightening of the tree in his aetheric perception as the apples fell.

He was interrupted before he could analyze further as she indicated he try. He stepped towards the next ripe tree and looked it up and down before spreading his stance. He pulled back his arm before pistoning it forward, landing an open-palm strike with a resounding thump of metal on wood. The limbs shivered from the impact, and some fruit fell, but not more than half. Where his hollow hand struck, the bark was scuffed and nearly cracked.

Applejack grimaced as she admonished him. “It’s not about brute force! Hurtin’ the trees ain’t gonna make the fruit come to ya. Ya gotta just give ‘em a love tap.” She demonstrated more as she began to work in earnest, leaving him to try again.

He utterly detached himself from the senses provided by his armor and focused on his psychic perception. He concentrated his will into the center of his being, and focused on the immaterial imprint of the next magic-infused apple tree in line. Millennia ago, when he had still been flesh and blood, he had not possessed significant psychic potential, but like most scions of the XV Legion, he had acquired at least a small level of proficiency. The cult of his aptitude had been that of the Athanaeans, the legion telepaths. He tapped into his rudimentary skills, long unused, and connected his senses to the tree.

When next his palm thrust struck the tree, a moment of psychic impulse passed through the shell of his armor and into the healthy bark of the tree, which subtly flexed from his carefully measured strike of armored palm. The bark was no more bruised than that of those the Apple down the line had already seen to, and all but the most stubborn fruit fell to the bushels positioned below.

Applejack trotted back over with a somewhat impressed expression and a low whistle.

“Well tarnation, we might make an apple farmer of you yet!” she offered with a wink and comradely punch to his thigh plate he correctly identified as praise.

Comments

[verypeeved]

i like that you gave an actual reasonable explanation to the whole apple bucking thing rather than it just being cartoon physics

[Vermillion Prose]

6782127 That's the fun of having such a unique perspective to explore through a rubric marine

[Mix-up]

It's an interesting story so far, I like the way you keep things ambiguous making things feel like it's a hazy dream of sorts.

[Vermillion Prose]

6824966 The story has definitely grown into a way larger project than I originally intended, but the reception of From Dust was so positive, and I enjoyed writing it so much, it exploded into a much more drawn out sequel.

The whole idea was to express more with less, and I'd like to say I've been hitting that mark, even if this one keeps expanding!

[LostArchivist]

A magical pulse was actually my suspicion too. The earth ponies are said to have magic, after all, so in-universe it is probably explained that way rather than the cartoon physics it seems. I always look for mechanisms.