John Honeycrisp Apple

by Robo Bro

Chapter 11

“Yer sure 'bout this?” John asked as he warily eyed the large tub that had been filled with all manner of plants that he didn’t recognize.

“Jus’ get in the tub.” Applejack encouraged him. “Even if ah’m wrong an’ poison joke’s got nothin’ to do with ya, it ain’t gonna hurt ya none.”

John looked into her eyes, so filled with hope and anticipation. She had gone on and on about how she should have thought of this earlier, that it should have been obvious that he had to have gotten into some poison joke. She had been like a little child on her birthday, uncontrollably eager and impatient to get her presents.

He looked over to Big MacIntosh, standing silent vigil nearby. Though he had barely said a word, he could see a similar anticipation in his face. He may not have been as vocal about it, but he realized that he was just as excited as his sister.

“Alright, then, ah’ll do it. Ah jus’ hope ya ain’t disappointed.”

With one final deep breath, John stepped into the tub and submerged himself beneath the surface.

______________________________

John walked into the woods next to his farmhouse, pistol in his hand. He was so very tired. The act of walking alone was enough to drain him of most of his energy. It didn’t matter, though. He didn’t need much energy to pull a trigger.

Gasping for breath, he leaned against a broad tree trunk. He winced as his back was jabbed painfully by a knot in the wood and reached for his pill bottle once more. He popped off the lid and placed the opening to his mouth, swallowing what little was left in one go. He tossed aside the empty container and stood there catching his breath.

A curious squirrel bounded up onto a nearby fallen log and chattered at him noisily. It was almost like it was one of his doctors chastising him for what he was about to do.

“Shut up...” He forced out of his lethargic lips. The squirrel tilted its head for a moment and then continued with its chattering as if John had said nothing at all.

“I said shut up!” He screamed through his tears. What did a damn squirrel know about his pain? What right did it have to scold him like that? The squirrel ignored his order and kept right on with chastising him.

With a cry of rage and anguish, John pushed against the tree to launch himself at the animal. Though he went as quickly as he could manage in his drugged up state, he didn’t even come close to getting the critter. Instead, he landed on top of the log with his face hanging into the dirt.

He knew he should have been in serious pain from the impact, but the over dose of pain killers had him only feeling numb. Finally the pain had disappeared. He knew that his relief was only temporary, though. If the drugs didn’t kill him, it would all come crashing back within a few hours. For now, though, he was at peace lying there with the scent of earth filling his nostrils.

John lifted his head and saw his pistol in the dirt just in front of him. He had forgotten he had brought that with him during his rage filled confrontation with the squirrel. He didn’t know how long he stared at that weapon. It could have been hours or merely seconds. Either way, the cold feeling of loneliness began to seep back in and tears once again coursed down his face.

John reached for the weapon, put the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.

________________________________

Honeycrisp Apple woke up with a gasp. The first thing he noticed was the pain in his back, aligning very well with his jumbled memories. Glowing, purple bugs seemed to be flitting about madly all around him. One of them tried to sting him and he absently swatted it away.

He rubbed his eyes with a hoof, noticing too late that he was bleeding from that appendage to avoid smearing blood all over his face. He stared a moment in confusion at his limb. Right, a hoof, not a hand. He was a pony, not a human, despite what he had thought moments ago. That had been one heck of a dream. No mother, no Rosewood, no foals...it was one of the worst things he could have imagined.

He crawled from the cushy pile of leaves and grasses he had somehow ended up in and onto his hooves. The pain from his back nearly caused him to collapse, but he managed to hold firm. He remembered that he had followed Mac into the forest, that his son had screamed and then he himself fell over a cliff when a terrified Mac had mistakenly attacked him with that stick he was carrying. The kid probably felt terrible for what he had done, even if it was an accident. Honeycrisp had to find him. He had already suffered enough over his mother's death and the last thing he needed was to feel even more guilt.

Honeycrisp looked around him and realized that he didn’t know where he was, or how long he had been unconscious. Despite remembering that he had fallen from a cliff, there was nothing of the sort in sight. Everywhere he looked, all he could see were trees and more of those strange bugs. He had no idea where Macintosh could be, and the ache in his back told him that trying to search the entire forest right now would be a very bad idea. He’d have to go back to Ponyville and find somepony to help him find Macintosh. With luck, he had already gone home and was safe.

That he had no idea where he was returned to his mind. Getting home may have been a great plan, but he didn’t know how to get there. He glanced up only to see the thick canopy of leaves. He wasn’t going to be able to tell the direction back to town by the sun’s position, at least not here anyway. He wasn’t even sure what time of day it was. He hoped that the sun wasn’t going to set soon. As bad as the Everfree may be during the day, it would be much worse come nightfall.

With no better alternative, he chose a direction at random and began trekking through the trees. The pain in his back grew with every passing minute and he realized that his injury was far worse than he had at first thought. Considering his fall, he was probably lucky that he wasn’t permanently injured like in his dreams. He would need to see a doctor when he got back to make sure that he wasn’t.

After several minutes of wandering in what he hoped was a straight line, he happened upon what appeared to be an animal path. It wasn’t very well trodden, but next to what he had been travelling through, it was a marked improvement. He was faced with another direction dilemma, however.

He wrinkled his nose as he noticed a rather rancid odour. It smelled like rotting vegetation and he had a slight urge to vomit because of it. Whichever direction he took, he hoped that it took him away from that foul smell.

Just then, Honeycrisp heard the sound of a twig snapping nearby.

“Hello?” He shouted nervously. “Is anypony there?”

There was no answer, only a slight rustling of some bushes near where he had heard the previous sound. Honeycrisp began to tremble in fear. He was in no condition to fight if it was a predator. He had already feared that he might collapse only moments earlier, but a sudden boost of adrenaline inspired by fear coursed through his body. Without any more hesitation, he trotted as quickly as his battered form would allow in the opposite direction of the sounds.

Whatever it was seemed to find no difficulty in keeping up with its injured quarry. The scent still followed him, but whatever its source was hadn’t yet shown itself to him, so he kept on running and tried to ignore the flares of pain in his back. In no time at all, he was breathing in ragged gasps.

As he charged forward, he noticed that the trees were beginning to thin. He hoped that meant he was approaching the edge of the forest because he knew he couldn’t run for much longer. He was tearing through a patch of blue flowers when one of his legs, burning from exhaustion, gave out beneath him and he went tumbling to the ground. It was at this moment as he groaned in a pained heap that his pursuer decided to finally show itself.

It was a timberwolf. It looked to be rather small, possibly even malnourished. It was probably some sort of outcast from its pack that had a hard time feeding itself without its companions. It didn’t need to be particularly big or strong to hunt down an injured and exhausted pony, though.

Despite Honeycrisp’s condition, the animal approached cautiously, slowly prowling its way towards him. Honeycrisp dragged himself forward desperately. He was so close to Ponyville now, he could see a few buildings in the distance and only a few trees remained ahead, but it was still too far. He wasn’t going to make it. He stopped crawling forward and stayed still on the ground, waiting for the predator to attack.

Believing that its prey had given up, the lone timberwolf pounced. Using the last bit of strength he had, Honeycrisp bucked at the predator, using its own momentum against itself to strike far harder than his own movements alone would allow. His large hooves landed solidly on the timberwolf’s face with a resounding crack and it was sent soaring backwards through the air.

Honeycrisp’s world exploded into hot, white agony. Everything except the pain in his back faded from his perceptions for a few seconds. When his senses returned, he could make out the shape of the timberwolf picking itself up from the ground. It snarled at him angrily and began its approach again, this time more carefully. It didn’t matter if it was careful or not anymore, Honeycrisp didn’t have the ability to move. That last ditch effort to defend himself had crippled his already badly injured back and no amount of adrenaline could let him ignore it now. He was finished.

Honeycrisp’s ears flickered involuntarily towards a new sound, and the timberwolf noticed it too. It was the humming of a mare coming from the same direction he had in the forest. The timberwolf looked back and forth between its prey and the approaching noise. With one final growl, it fled, unwilling to contend with the potential threat of the incoming pony.

With a weak sigh of relief, Honeycrisp succumbed to his exhaustion and fell asleep.

_____________________________________

Applejack watched nervously as the pony that may be her father submerged himself in the tub of poison joke remedy. She counted the seconds that passed until she began to worry that he was at risk of drowning. None of her friends had taken this long to be cured, right?

Just as she was beginning to think she needed to intervene, he burst through the surface of the water with a gasp. He stood there, facing away from her, his faded green mane and red coat plastered to his body and water flowing off him back into the tub. Seconds passed in relative quiet, the sounds of dripping water and his gradually calming breathing dominated the room.

AJ looked to Big Macintosh then back to the stallion in the water and took a step towards him.

“Dad?”

The soaked stallion slowly turned, careful not to hurt his back, to face her. His glistening orange eyes stared, as if they were seeing her for the very first time. A few tears trailed down his face, indistinguishable from the rest of the water.

Honeycrisp Apple nodded, one of the broadest smiles he had ever had spreading across his face.

Applejack’s lip trembled and some tears of her own escaped her eyes as she took another shaky step towards her father. Before she could even come close to him, a huge, red blur flew past her and landed in the spa’s large tub with a tremendous splash. When she looked back after shielding her eyes from the water that had flown everywhere, she saw her father had wrapped Big Macintosh in a comforting hug as he laughed merrily. With a simple hoof motion, Honeycrsip beckoned his daughter over to join them.

Applejack leapt into the tub, sending yet more water flying everywhere, and the three embraced each other as family.

Comments

[Amethyst Blade]

Despite what others say...I prefer this ending...It was all a dream is cheap for me.

[Sipioc]

A littl abrupt, but I gotta say this was a good way to end it. Sad to see it go but thanks for finishing it!

[mastermenthe]

A strange ending. I can't pickle the causality.

[Christopher Whatley]

This is a really good story. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not sure I understand the ending though. Was he thinking he had a human life caused by the things giving him nightmares, or by the poison joke?

[Flutters Is Shy]

Wait, so was he never a human? What? I thought this was going a 'five score' route for a moment...

[Sir Appleslice]

Did not understand anything granted it is 3.30 in the morning but still.

[link4]

7332518 lol true. anyways! the joke made the nightmare the wisps concocted replace his memory.

[Sipioc]

Wait.... Is it not finished?

[Advent Link]

This was a very wonderful ending to a good story. Thank you for writing this.

(I still wonder what Applejack had under her bed, probably magazines of filly foolers monthly.)

[josue]

7330460 I say both

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Daww

[Animatorsnake]

So he did survive the fall, but after escaping the nest of those nightmare-bug-things, he ran from a timberwolf and ended up passing through a patch of poison joke. So Honeycrisp was taken by the nightmare bugs, went into a stasis or deep sleep, but after he died in his own nightmare... we woke up from his nightmare-induced cage. In that process, the poison joke made him thought the nightmare was reality... Where Twilight found her, and all of the story's recent events have led to the present... What a way to end things... Awesome story, but I wonder what shall happen next?

[Crystonian]

Now i want to study how the preservation magic that those wisp did affect him in any way. Wether it was permanent or temporally. Ah...that would be interesting for my Herbologist Character would do.