• Published 3rd Jul 2012
  • 14,433 Views, 609 Comments

The Truth - Jet Cannon



Apple Bloom learns a shocking secret about her family, and herself, hidden years ago by tragedy...

  • ...
41
 609
 14,433

6

Nopony knew quite what to say at first. As the seconds dragged out, Applejack continued to stare at the ground, hunched over, the confession seemingly draining her of energy.

Disgusting.

Disgraceful.

The shame of it all!

How could she even dare to call herself the Element of Honesty, when she had been hiding a lie so huge from everypony, even her own daughter for Celestia’s sake, for the entirety of the young filly’s life?

These and more swirled around Applejack’s tortured mind, threatening to make her keel over with shame. A shame which hadn’t even been present until mere moments ago. The enormity of it all, what this revelation would mean to her friends… she had never even considered it. Now she wished, wished with all her heart, that the ground would just swallow her up and make it all go away.

Her friends’ silence was the truly terrifying part. If they at least yelled at her, called her “Whore!” or “Slut!”, or deserted her there and then, at least she would know how they felt. But nopony spoke a word, neither to chide nor to cheer. Until eventually, merely seconds later although it had felt like hours, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Applejack, does that mean that, eight years ago, that time when you were really sick and couldn’t see anypony for months and months, that you were…?” She didn’t finish, but even Ditzy could have guessed the next word. Pregnant. Without lifting her gaze from the ground, Applejack nodded. Her friend’s voice hadn’t sounded angry, but that was probably only because she was still too shocked for any emotion to form yet.

There was a flurry of movement as the five surged towards her. She flinched, half expecting blows, but was surprised at the sudden, gentle contact of her friends all hugging her at once.

“We don’t know the circumstances…” Twilight Sparkle spoke thickly, fighting the urge to cry as Applejack looked up, and saw that the others were similarly distressed.

“And we don’t know why you kept it a secret…” added Rainbow Dash, her usual cool demeanour gone, replaced with a quivering lip and teary eyes.

“But I’m sure you had good reasons, Applejack,” Fluttershy said, as soothingly as she could manage.

“For just now, darling, we still have to find her.” Rarity did her best to wipe tears from her eyes with a magically levitated handkerchief, despite the rain.

“So come on, AJ, let’s go get your daughter back!” Pinkie Pie finished, with the special enthusiasm that only she could bring to bear no matter the circumstances, and even when she looked on the verge of crying herself a new river through Ponyville. Applejack cried for the third time that night, this time with happy tears in her eyes, to know that her best friends in the whole world were ready to do everything they could to help her. As they always had been, and always would be.

“Thank you, everypony. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

They all gave her a final squeeze, before they all stood up, and made for the Everfree Forest as fast as their legs could carry them.

Several minutes ahead of the mares, a young father galloped along the path into the Everfree Forest. Big Macintosh’s hooves pounded into the wet ground, sending muddy water splashing in all directions and crushing small plants beneath him. Unseen small creatures scurried out of his way, shadowy birds flew out of nearby trees, and even some trees themselves seemed none too keen to get in the large Earth pony’s path. He had no idea how far ahead Apple Bloom could have gone, or even precisely where this Zecora’s hut was, but he had a rough idea from his sisters’ descriptions. From AJ and Apple Bloom’s descriptions, he reminded himself. That lie could no longer continue, whatever the outcome of tonight.

Whatever the outcome? No, there would be only one outcome tonight: he would bring Apple Bloom home, safe and sound, and he didn’t care what sort of beasts he might have to fight off for that to happen, because by Celestia he was going to make it happen!

“Hold on baby, daddy’s comin’!” he said to himself as he continued to crash through the undergrowth.

Apple Bloom was at that time unsure of what to do. Zecora’s calming words and ethereal wisdom on all matters, plus the possibility of some brew or other to soothe her nerves, had seemed like the one distant light to Apple Bloom in the metaphorical darkness she had felt surrounded by. But she had set off into the Everfree someway off from the path that she would normally take to visit the forest’s resident kindly zebra, and although she thought she knew roughly where she was, she also knew that one step in the wrong direction could send her straight into the forest’s unexplored depths. How she would manage to find her way back then…she didn’t know. Did she even want to go back?

The young filly still didn’t know what to think about Applejack and Big Macintosh. About what they had told her. It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t! It went against everything she had ever known or believed. They were her brother and sister, not her parents! Her parents, their parents, had died in “The Accident” years ago. Those ponies she had never even known were dead and gone and were right now up in Heaven, and were probably wondering why their other children would play such a cruel trick on their youngest daughter.

But no, Apple Bloom knew that Applejack and Big Macintosh would never really do such a thing. But then that would mean that they were telling the truth. But that couldn’t be, because… because…

Apple Bloom dropped to the ground, splashing into a large puddle without even caring, and began crying the tears she couldn’t manage earlier. She covered her dirty face with dirtier hooves as her salty tears mixed with the rainwater. All of her anger from earlier had finally been washed away, only to be replaced by an even worse feeling of confusion and fear. What would this mean for the future? What would her friends think? But more importantly than that, what did she herself truly think about it? She had flown into a rage earlier, yes, but that had been at the shock of it all, the pain of her world crashing down around her just for it to be forcibly replaced by something unknown and alien. Unknown, alien, but at the same time… what? She didn’t know, she couldn’t decide what it was, and her mental state was lending no assistance in deciding where her feelings lay.

She felt so tired from it all, and lying there, despite the rain and the cold, felt so peaceful compared to what she experienced over the last few hours that she actually found herself drifting off to sleep, and she embraced it wholeheartedly. Until she managed to swallow some of the puddle water, that is. She quickly jumped up, coughing and retching, trying to get the taste off her tongue by brushing it with her hoof, whilst only managing to worsen her plight by accident.

After she had no more saliva to spit out, Apple Bloom looked around and tried to get her bearings. She failed. Her hooves had apparently ignored the “one step in the wrong direction” warning her brain had given earlier, and she was completely lost. Trying to stem her swiftly rising panic, and desperately looking for something recognisable, she scanned the area around her. She had somehow walked to the centre of a fairly large clearing, roughly oblong in shape, with an oddly shaped rock set in the ground a short distance from where Apple Bloom was standing. It could have been some ancient remnant of a ruined building, or whatever strange forces present in the Everfree Forest may have hollowed out a piece of stone over time, but whatever it was had a hole in it which looked just large enough for her to squeeze into. Wanting out of the rain, and having nowhere better to go, she headed for it.

Quite why she chose to look to her right at that very moment escaped her, but it was fortunate that she did, if rather terrifying. For standing just at the edge of the clearing, eyeing her with easily recognisable hunger, was a Timberwolf. She had never seen one of the creatures herself, but Granny Smith’s descriptions were startlingly accurate. Some parts of its body looked almost as if they had been roughly carved into shape, whilst others appeared to be made of jaggedly-shaped branches, and indeed some of these seemed to rise from its hackles like spines. Claws like huge thorns sprouted from its paws, sharp teeth jutted unevenly from its muzzle, and those gleaming eyes in its head were evil beyond anything the poor filly had yet witnessed. What Granny Smith’s stories had not prepared her for was the size of the beast: fully five times Apple Bloom’s height at the shoulder, and as wide as Big Macintosh was long.

She stood frozen to the spot, unable to bat an eyelid even as it looked to the shadows behind it, sending strange growling noises back into the trees. Soon it was joined by another, then another, and more appeared until seven Timberwolves stood faced against Apple Bloom, still frozen in mid-stride and a good twenty feet from the opening in the rock and whatever safety it may provide. The first Timberwolf considered her for a moment, and then it reared back its mighty head and let loose a chilling howl towards the moon, all but concealed behind the thick storm clouds still swirling overhead.

This finally broke Apple Bloom’s petrification, and she screamed.

She screamed for help from the one pony she knew that could save her.

The one pony she knew that could knock down fully-grown trees with the buck from a single leg.

The one pony who happened to be much closer to her than either had dared to hope.

DADDY!"

Big Macintosh heard, and raced towards the clearing faster than he had thought possible of himself, vowing doom upon whatever threatened his foal.

Ah'm comin', Apple Bloom. Hold on.