YOH 1490 (Ten Years Before Luna's Return): Eight-year-old Rarity is in danger. Twelve-year-old Applejack is sure that her own parents can save her friend. They're the bravest and strongest mom and dad any filly could have!
But sometimes, even the brave and the strong can fall.
This story is directly based on part 3 of Core of the Apple by Neterrang. I urge you to read that whole comics sequence, starting with part 1. It's one of the best MLP fan comics ever written.
Addendum: This story is now AU (because AJ has different parents) as of "The Perfect Pear." Sic transit gloria mundi.
Chapters (5)
It seems Bushwoolies survived to the modern day, though in order to do so, they've become a shade more dangerous than cotton balls who agree with the last statement in earshot.
As for Applejack... Well, I know it will get better, but it's going to hurt to see the time before that. I'm still going to track the story, of course, but this one will be painful.
A bright spot before the fall. I like the world building with the Acres being a shield form the Everfree as well as a farm. Still I wonder what the condition of those defenses in the present, with only Big Mac and AJ to pony them, or worse when AJ went to Manehattan..
Yeah, ouch. Now I'm more impressed with Applejack, some would not bounce back nearly as well for a blow like this. I also can see why later she's not to keen on having thinks like Vampire Fruit Bats around cause she would think of them as vermin to be gotten rid of.
Ouch. So painful, and all the more so for the clinical, clear-sighted honest way you've written it. I'm not normally a fan of the omniscient narrator who slips in little comments on the future of the characters, but it's well done here.
7136922
Well you know, this actually happened both in the main worldline and in the ones Starlight Glimmer made. Starlight's POD is when she prevents Rainbow Dash from doing her first Sonic Rainboom. One of the differences between this story and Natarang's comic strip is that AJ hasn't yet gotten her Cutie Mark -- she's a 12 year old blank flank. (The same is true of Rarity but at 8 that's much more normal). This story takes place before the flashbacks in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles."
This follows the Show's continuity in S1E12 "Call of the Cutie" in which AJ tells Bloomie that she was a late bloomer as well. Because we know that all the Mane Six got their Cutie Marks on the exact same day, that's one of the reasons why I make Applejack the eldest member of the group (her general air of greater maturity being another).
But in either case, yes, Chapter 1 is literally about a happier time before the fall.
7136937
Ah, very good. You realized that the Bushbullies may very well have gnawed through the rope.
7136922 I'd assume that the defenses have at least deteriorated, or even been done away with. The Everfree monsters seem to have learned their lesson about messing with the Apples.
Poor Applejack. It wasn't nearly so sudden, but I remember how withdrawn I became when my parents both went within three months of each other. Her reactions here feel very true.
Granny Smith's hostile attitude toward the mental health profession might surprise you. But remember, this is a rustic mare raised in the medical technological equivalent of the mid 19th century, currently living in the medical technological equivalent of the early 20th century. Even though the Ponies are not inclined to the sorts of cruelty practiced toward the mad a century or more ago, their ability to help someone severely depressed is not as great as ours is today. And Granny knows it.
I also like how you handled Granny's reaction to Play Write's suggestions. My own parents were old enough to remember when people regarded being sent to a mental hospital as a death sentence. Mom especially told me about families that hid mentally or physically handicapped relations out of fear and shame --- this was the glory days of eugenics, too -- and the worry that your kids would be taken away and thrown in some dungeon. It wasn't far wrong either. I think I once told you about the time in the mid to late 40's when my father had to help deliver some supplies to the local 'snake pit'.
This is a very depressing chapter but also a very well written one.
Well, at least those around Applejack are looking out for her... though that peculiarity at the end of the chapter has me rather concerned.
Also, very interesting information on ponies minor and major in the course of history. And speaking as another son of a teacher, I'm putting Play Write in the latter category.
7279006
I am sorry -- I hiccup published. Darn phone keyboard. I will lewve most of Chapter 3 published and cut near the end for Chapter 4, as something strange is about to happen.
Wow she's almost totally broken form this, you can feel the pain for the whole apple family. In some ways it's kinda of a blessing that Apple Bloom is to young to remember this.
It's kinda scary that the Apple Family knows how to care for ponies suffering for tragedies. Then again the do explore a monster infested wilderness.
l'm a horrible person
7279303
More river analogies coming up next chapter. Incidentally, Dolly Parton is awesome. I remain convinced that her "Joshua" was the inspiration for Troubleshoes.
7279361 yeah, l think l remember you writing that in your blog that came out around the time of that episode
I admit, I didn't see this end coming. I do like the idea that AJ was becoming so withdrawn that she was becoming "attractive" to the restless dead.
"Aw," said Greenie, "it ain't no great trek to Manehattan, no more'n three hunnert twenty leagues or so. In good weather, t'aint no more'n month's walk for a healthy filly like her.
Wow. I know this is safe and nothing exceptional for Equestria, but even reckoning against old family stories of relations who as older kids would go walking for days to a week to get someplace for work, it sounds impressive. Not to mention scary when I consider what they told me about the troubles you could face. AJ was one determined and tough-minded little filly from the start.
Well. I certainly wasn't expecting an ectotherapist, but considering how Applejack had entered a half-dead fugue state, I suppose it does make sense. Ruby is proving herself to be a great friend to many of the Apples. I find myself wondering if she had a hoof in Granny's discovery of the zap apples. After all, it'd be hard for the Bearers to assemble in Ponyville if the town didn't exist.
Also, I do have to appreciate the subtle nod to Greek mythology. After all, many ancient heroes were memorialized in the constellations. It's only natural that a pair of shooting stars pass over the Acres in future years.
Great work with this one, in both fleshing out a key moment in Applejack's life and connecting it to other aspects of the SWSV in unexpected ways.
I think you called Play Write "Fair Play" in two places.
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Fixed -- thank you for pointing that out. In an earlier draft of the story, the character now called "Play Write" was called "Fair Play," before I discovered that there was another more approprite fan name for her.
7279152
Yes. One reason Apple Bloom is so carefree is that she does not remember the deaths of her parents. She only very vaguely remembers them at all. Emotionally, she sees Big Mac and Applejack as her parental figures.
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Nobody expects Ruby Gift! Her chief weapon is surprise. And the ability to induce ghostly fear. Two of her principal weapons are surprise, fear and determination. Her three main weapons ...
It did occur to me that Ruby later both winds up indirectly endangering, and then helping, Apple Bloom. And in the SWSV, Apple Bloom is to play a major role in the redemption of Sunney Towne.
You know, that's not a bad idea!
On the Greek mythology thing ... yes, and there's a lot of material from Greek mythology in Equestria already. Including Tartarus, mythologically part of the Realm of Hades, so why not one of the Rivers? Though it's obvious here that by a "river" I'm talking more about a sort of energy field between the existences of the living and the dead, than an actual river with water in it.
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Well, the Apples are canonically a Badass Family. Also, Applejack making the journey on foot is very much implied in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles." This has to have been stubborness on her part, and the sort of stubborness that would be respected by Granny Smith. If it wasn't shown that she was walking to Manehattan, I would have just assumed she took the train.
Granny Smith is their grandmother, but she was actually born 80-90 years before her grandchildren, because she married in her mid-30's and her child Melanie Rose married in her 40's, so she's actually from more like three generations ago. So the cultural gap is greater than one might imagine, and she was born in the analogue of the early 19th century and the story takes place in the analogue of the early 20th century, so she's like someone who grew up remembering James Monroe and John Quincy Adams living into the era of the Spanish-American War and World War One.
This is true even in canon: her attitudes are more Late Regency / Early Republican frontierswoman than they are Victorian lady. If she were Human, she'd be the sort of woman who dealt with an attacking bear by shooting it with a musket at point-blank range, and when this didn't work, taking a woods axe to it. For any era, she's a major Badass. Never Mess With Granny, indeed!
Really, Harry the Bear in Barely Rescued may have been lucky he was dealing with Big Mac, instead of Granny Smith ...
I'm glad you liked it. I was worried Ruby was going to come off as a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere sort of story element.
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And when Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Big Mac learn of Ruby Gift (and remember her):
GS What, you didn't know about her? I told you there were critters living in the Everfree.
GS Don't sass back at yer elders, Bloomie.
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That makes sense, because Ruby's the only one of them who ranges far beyond Sunney Towne. Which is good for both the other Ponies, given the hostile nature of most of the other Sunney Towners -- and the Sunney Towners -- given the existence of the Night Watch, and that the Apples, the first Ponies they would encounter, are disproportionately represented in their ranks.
The Night Watch may well be aware of Ruby -- and the fact that she's not the problem.
And so fate's wheel is once again turning. I was thinking she would turnabout with the strength of family, or the trip itself would do it. But a ghost is fine too.
7299058
The family helped her a lot. Ruby helped some too.
7299070 Now that I think of it,when Tierk seen the princess to Tartarus, did they cross the divide of the living and dead? Is it not possible for anyone who isn't immortal to fully make the trip back...
7299196
You're probably right. On the other hand, AJ wasn't in the world of the dead yet. She was in the half-world between life and death.
In regards to Granny Smith's attitude towards getting AJ professional help, I refer you to a book The Good Old Days -They Were Terrible. Basically, hospitals were where poor people went to die. The idea that doctors can do much for you is a post WWII idea.
Plus, there is a stigma to needing help. You are supposed to be self sufficient & not need charity. This shows in Apple Buck Season
Life's ironies. The Apples are a VERY prominent family in Ponyville. Granny is probably the Oldest Inhabitant & the last living Founder. These things carry weight. Plus, AJ is the local rodeo champ & head of a very successful orchard. Her friendship with Twilight eased Twilight's path considerably in her early days & Twilight never had a clue.
Humans? What are those? Some kind of mythical creature?
Seriously, though, that felt completely out of the blue.
7480474
You're quite right!
Ironically, the Bushbullies are primates.
7443439
Yes. Equestrian medicine c. YOH 1490 is equivlalent to American medicine ~ 1960 or so (with some anamolies, mostly in Equestria's favor), but Greenie Smith Apple was born in YOH 1490, when it was closer to 1910 levels of technology. And she trusts her kin better than she does strangers. Even professional strangers.
This was an interesting story, though i feel i would understand more if i were to read through the entire continuity from the beginning. I shall have to find out the first story, and then the proper chronological order for reading.
I think you meant, "Sic transit gloria mundi", or "Thus passes the glory of the world" (alternatively, "Worldly things are fleeting").
8378999
Changed it. Thank you for pointing this out.