Continuity Disrupted

by Doug Graves

92 The Wretched, Part One

September 9th, 1000 Domina Solaria

It has been a week since Applebaum left Sweet Apple Acres for what is hopefully more golden pastures in Canterlot. Applejack never really recovered. She still does her chores, bucks apples, and plays around with the other fillies of the herd. But there is a slowness to her step, a bit more lingering to her hugs and nuzzles, a certain dread of any of the other fillies being ripped away from her without enough of a chance to say goodbye.

It is most noticeable when it is her turn to sell their delicious products in Ponyville. Applejack can’t help but remember how Applebaum was so happy when she had finally decided that her filly was old enough to take on the responsibility. The memory makes Applejack mopey for the rest of the day, even with Pinkie Pie’s attempts to lift her spirits. Apple Bloom tries, bless her heart, but the filly is either too aggressive in her attempts to make the sale or gets distracted by other goings-on in the market. Much as the filly might want to get a cutie mark in selling apples, or whatever else the filly has going on in her mind at the moment.

Applejack stares at her pancakes, the moon barely illuminating the kitchen in the pre-dawn hours. Even Doug dragging his chair next to hers, the wood loudly scraping against the floor, fails to draw a reaction out of her. She doesn’t notice him cutting up the pancakes in front of her. It isn’t until she feels a wet lump pressing against her muzzle, little rumbling airplane noises coming from her stallion, that Applejack barely breaks out of her funk. She barely opens her jaw, not caring what Doug decides to put in her mouth, but baring her teeth to let him know that she would be chewing it regardless.

The sugary sweetness of apple laced pancakes coated in syrup splashes against her tongue, but Applejack barely reacts to the saccharine scent. She mechanically chews, and swallows, her mouth remaining closed. She blankly stares at the far wall, a heavy sigh as she tries to avoid looking at the spot next to her. Not that Applebaum would ever be up this early in the morning, but it’s her spot nonetheless. And Doug didn’t put out a plate for her. Not like she had yesterday. And the day before that.

Another bump against her muzzle. Her mouth opens, another bite of pancakes maneuvering their way inside. Again she chews, then swallows, her lips now tightly pressing against each other. She growls as she sees, out of the corner of her eye, a bit of movement as Doug raises his arm again.

Next to her Doug loudly sighs, his fork clattering against his plate. “Applejack…” Doug groans out, a bit of exasperation in his voice. He leans forward, trying to worm his way into her line of sight. “It’s been a week, love. She’s not dead. She’s just-”

Applejack snorts, shaking her head and swatting Doug with her mane. “You think Ah don’t know that?” She turns away, her eyes continuing to stare into the table. “She ain’t any less gone. And Ah never said goodbye.” She sniffles, though no tears come from her eyes. “She never said goodbye, either.” She glances back at the letter, unmoved from where she had found it a week ago. “She could have, but she didn’t.”

“Well, maybe that’s because it isn’t goodbye.” Doug shrugs as he eats a bite from his own pancakes, also studded with chunks of apples. “She’ll be back. Holidays, vacation. Maybe she’ll have a mission to come here to Ponyville.” His fork shovels food into his mouth, not even waiting to finish a bite and swallow before the next forkful comes.

Applejack raises an eye to Doug, one eyebrow raising. “A mission?”

Doug nods, twirling his fork in his hand as he chews. “Sure. Whatever they call it. There’s lot of ruins scattered in the Everfree Forest, for whatever reason. And Ponyville is the closest staging area if you’re making some sort of expedition west through the Unicorn Range or Whitetail Woods.”

“Why would Applebaum be going on a mission?” Applejack grunts as she leans over, taking a bite from her own plate. “She’s a little young, ain’t she?” Her muzzle remains in a scowl, the thought of her poor filly suckered into traipsing through the Everfree Forest.

“Probably.” Doug finishes off his pancakes, standing up to cook another batch. “But you know as well as I do that she wouldn’t be content sitting around studying. She’s going to put her cutie mark into use one way or another, and ‘practicing’ didn’t cut it for long around here.” A knife comes out, chopping a few apples into chunks, though only the seeds find their way into the trash.

Applejack snorts. “No. It did not.” Fond memories come back of demolishing one of their old barns with Rainbow, Applebaum watching with a fascination far greater than any filly should have. Hopefully Canterlot is prepared for whatever mischief she decides to get into. Her gaze turns back to Doug, “But she’s still too young! Why’d she have to leave so early?”

Doug sighs to the sizzle of the pan. “It’s sad to see her go, no matter how old she is. But it’s been a week, Applejack. We should be getting a letter any day now, right?” He walks over, rubbing her mane. “Maybe it would help to write a letter back to her.”

“But we don’t have her address.” Applejack frowns, her hoof tracing lines in the wooden table, then banging down a little harder than she intended. “She could be anywhere. There’s no telling what happened to her!”

“We have the address of the company,” Doug says, motioning to the business card left on the table next to the letter. “I’m sure they can get a letter to Withers, or somepony else.”

Applejack huffs, “Mmhmm.”

Doug sets another plate of pancakes down in front of Applejack, even though she still has half of her plate remaining, before setting one at his own spot. “Sounds to me like you need something else to do with the time you used to spend with Applebaum.” Doug taps his fork against his chin a few times before he spears another bite of pancakes. “Something else to take your mind off of this.”

Applejack merely stares at Doug. “Ah ain’t forgetting about my filly, you can scrap that notion right now.”

Doug takes a deep breath; he knows that Applejack knows that isn’t what he suggested, but he says anyway, “That’s not what I meant. She’ll still have a place in your heart and all that.” Doug shrugs. “You know, Pinkie Pie loves parties.”

Applejack groans, “Doug, Ah don’t know how many times Ah need to tell you, but Pinkie Pie’s ‘Don’t Worry Applejack Everything Is Going to Work Out Just Fine Because My Tail Ain’t Twitching’ party didn’t do it, and her ‘Sorry Applejack That My ‘Don’t Worry Applejack Everything Is Going to Work Out Just Fine Because My Tail Ain’t Twitching‘ Party Didn’t Work Out But Ah’m Really Really Sure About This One’ party didn’t work either. Ah’m not sure what else there is to do!”

Doug shakes his head, “No, I’m not talking about the parties Pinkie Pie has thrown.” His voice drops to a whisper as he leans in close to Applejack, “I’m talking about you planning a party.”

“Me?” Applejack asks incredulously, her mouth full of pancake. She snorts, nearly losing the half-chewed glob. “Come on, Doug. You know Ah don’t plan parties.”

“Sure ya do,” Doug says, leaning back. He counts out on his fingers, “You’ll plan out family gatherings. Rodeos. Outings as a herd.”

“That’s different.” Applejack glowers for a moment before continuing, “Ah just don’t want to steal Pinkie Pie’s thunder. Or make her think that Ah’m trying to outdo her or something. You know she takes being the number one party pony in Ponyville very seriously. Almost as seriously as Ah take farming. You just know there’d be this huge production, complete with cakes and cake cannons and then Princess Celestia will get involved again. Hay, with Princess Luna in the mix, you can bet we could make double the number of cakes, and it still won’t be enough. You saw what happened with Lyra.”

“Hey, we all liked that party,” Doug says with a grin. “What I’m hearing is that you don’t want an hours long party the whole town ends up invited to.”

“Of course Ah don’t. Well, okay, Ah do, but not enough to go out and make one happen. Ah’ve got a busy life here, with lots of responsibilities. Ah don’t have time to drop everything and party at the drop of a hat.” Applejack flips her Stetson up with her mane, twirling it around. Both of them glance outside as the sun quickly rises. “Well, that’s my cue to get started.”

“How about this,” Doug says, a hand firmly pressing on Applejack’s withers and keeping her from rising. “You plan a nice, quiet, just-the-herd party for Pinkie Pie. Something here, on the farm. Do it, like, two weeks from now, to give everypony some time to prepare.”

“Everypony?” Applejack asks, raising an eyebrow. “Why would Ah be giving everypony time to prepare if Ah’m the one planning the party?”

“Because they’re all helping?” Doug shrugs as his hand comes away from Applejack, gathering up the dishes. “Twilight told me about her plan, asked me to pass it on, tell everypony about it. I had told her about how Pinkie Pie really likes my presents, and was surprised that none of the rest of us ever throw her a party. She was going to plan the whole thing, but I told her that maybe you should do it. That it might help with what you're going through. And, here we are.”

Applejack sighs, one hoof coming up to massage the headache she knows is coming. “Okay, but we can’t just, like, have a party with cake and presents for no reason at all.”

Doug snorts. “Have you heard her ‘reasons’ for parties before? I'm sure you can come up with something better than a random number of days to a random time in your life.”

Applejack chuckles, “Yeah, well, Ah ain’t Pinkie Pie. Ah'm gonna have at least a halfway good reason. Maybe it's close to her birthday, Ah'll need to ask her about that without tipping my hat. And Ah hate doing themed parties, unless that theme is a hoedown and you just know that Rarity will have a conniption if Ah do that.”

“Yeah, she would.” Doug shakes his head, getting up and stretching.

Applejack considers for a few seconds. “Maybe Ah’ll make it a surprise party. She loves surprises, that mare.” She glances outside, sighing. “But Ah can’t do anything just yet. She’s got her hoof on every vendor in the area. Ah’ll need to special order something.”

“Hey,” Doug says, motioning to the business card. “Maybe you could write Applebaum, get her to find a vendor in Canterlot. Or, I’m sure that company she’s working for can dig something up.”

“Yeah,” Applejack says, a smile finally forming on her muzzle. “Ah might do that.” She sits down, contemplating just what kind of decorations and party she would be throwing for Pinkie Pie. And what kind of message she can possibly fit onto one page that would do justice for how she feels about her filly leaving her. And then she’ll rip that page up, because saying all those things would just hurt both of their feelings. And then eat those pieces, because otherwise it will come out. Might as well give it a try.

Dear Applebaum,

Nope.

Dearest Applebaum,

Nah. Maybe she can crib something off that letter Twilight got from Princess Celestia.

My dearest, most precious filly,

Well, it’s a start.

Comments

[badninja]

Applejack is suffering from empty nest syndrome. I think next spring she will be asking Doug to give her another foal. I hope it will be another colt.

[DarkPhoenixx]

9484877
Empty nest syndrome?? *yells at Applejack* Hey AJ you know your 'nest' is far from empty.

[Jack-Pony]

Doug Graves, that first paragraph was everything I feared and more. The way you described AJ mechanically going about eating struck a little too close to home. Bravo.

Now please excuse me while I go stitch my heart back together.

[f0st3r21]

9484877
I wonder how many of the mares will ask for one this coming season.

[f0st3r21]

I’m a little worried that Doug took Whither’s word about this school. I’d think he’d be the type to support Applebaum but want to verify the school’s legitimacy as well. What if it’s a supervillain training center? He doesn’t know.