Chapter Four: Euchomai
An extremely angry Applejack toweled herself dry while a chagrined Princess Luna stuttered her apologies from the corner of the room. “We, I crave your pardon if I have committed a breach of privacy.” No answer. “If it makes a difference, most bath houses in my day were quite public.” Indistinct grumbling. “We merely desired to give thee our regards and ask how it felt to fly for the first time.”
“Yes, well, Princess, however things were back then ya still don’t go bargin’ inta ponies’ houses, or bathrooms, without so much as a how d’ya do!”
“We did knock.”
“And then ya jest teleport in when ya get no reply?!” Luna had no answer for this. An awkward silence reigned while Applejack finished grooming herself. “Well? Y’all are welcome ta leave any time ya like.”
“Please, Lady Applejack, don’t push me away. Our kind are so rare. I simply want to help… I’m sure thou must have many questions we could answer.”
Applejack sighed, “A’right, you are a Princess. Ah guess y’all can stay and chat for a spell. Come on, Gran probably has sumthin’ on fer supper.”
Luna perked up considerably at this. “Oh, lovely! We do enjoy thy family’s cooking. So much more like what we ate before our imprisonment than the strange dishes our sister’s chefs make now. Did we… I ever thank thee for catering our niece’s reception?”
“Heh, not a fan a them gourmet chefs huh? Ah gotta say though, Ah never figured ya one fer down-home fare.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, when y’all were like: The Night Shall Last Forever! An’ all tha thees ‘n’ thous thou puttest in thine speech. It all feels like y’all oughta be drinkin’ wine outa somepony’s skull an’ dinin’ on flowers that only bloom once in a hundred years or somethin’.”
“We… I don’t fantasize about that anymore…” The princess looked away with a blush.
***
Granny Smith, true to form, hadn’t batted an eye when told that one of the princesses was coming to dinner. She merely tossed another plate on the table and poured a bit of applesauce into her cobbler to stretch the portions. Seated across from each other, the two alicorns dwarfed the table. Big Mac hadn’t felt this small since he was a foal and poor Applebloom felt like she was a midget in a realm of giants. The last of the dishes were placed on the table and Granny Smith had taken her place at the head of the table. Turning to Luna she asked, “Since y’all are a guest, would ya like to offer grace?”
“Grace?”
“Yep, grace. Prayer to tha princesses? Y’all ain’t one a them godless heathens are ya?” she said with a suspicious glare.
“N-no. Of course not. Um. Ok. Here I go. Dear princesses, we offer our thanks to Celestia and… me… for the bounty given… May our grace be upon us and, um, may thy sun and my moon watch over us all. Amare.” A chorus of amares followed this, with varying degrees of amusement and piety.
“So, princess,” said AJ, “Y’all said ya wanted to know how it felt fer me ta fly?”
“Yes, it was so very different, flying after I had changed. I know it was even more of a revelation for our sister, but she is so much older than I, I never got the chance to get her first impression of flight.”
Something about the way that last sentence had been structured bothered AJ, but she chalked it down to Luna’s old-fashioned speech. “So, y’all weren’t born alicorns either?”
“Neigh, I was a pegasus, and Celestia an unicorn.”
Applebloom’s eyes went wide at this. “So, y’all’re sayin’ anypony can jest up an’ turn inta an alicorn?” Visions of the Cutie Mark Crusader Godhood Seekers danced in her head.
Luna chuckled at the ambitious filly. “Neigh, little one. There are only a select few at any one time. A pony does not simply claim such power for themselves. One is chosen by Harmony and thrust into it. A princess’s duty is to preserve the balance of the world and to shape it.” Luna finished her little discourse with a meaningful glance at Applejack.
Applejack returned her gaze neutrally. “Ah do plenty of shapin’ tha earth right here in mah orchard.”
“That’s not what we meant and thou knowest it.”
“Ah can’t rightly say Ah do.”
“Applejack, there is a duty expected of thee. Thou art more than a mere mare and art destined for more as well.”
Applejack simply shoveled a bit more of her dinner into her mouth, chewing noisily.
“Applejack, we-“
“Luna. Ah’m only gonna say this once. The hospitality of the Apples is open ta anypony. But that don’t mean Ah gotta sit at my own table and get told what ta do with myself or where to go. Eat’cher meal in silence an’ mind who y’all have to thank for it.”
Big Mac couldn’t hold himself silent any longer. “AJ! Princess. Ah’m mighty sorry fer mah sister’s manners, yer goddessship.”
The night goddess’s eyes were locked on AJ’s. “Fear not for thyself, Sir Mackintosh. Our ways are forgiving to those who know to whom they speak.”
The rest of dinner was concluded in a sort of nuclear armistice, neither side willing to back down or resort to something everypony now living might regret. Luna praised Granny Smith’s cooking profusely and offered Big Mac and Applebloom an open invitation to visit her in Canterlot at any time. Applejack was afforded only the slightest nod of the head in parting. The princess of darkness swept out her majestic wings, pausing for a moment to listen to the passage of the ethereal winds that blew her mane aloft. With a blast of pure night she rocketed deep into the sky, trailing a universe of stars behind her.
Big Mac watched her contrail for a moment before pressing a hoof to the bridge of his muzzle. “Sis.”
“Eeyup?”
“She didn’t deserve that.”
“Nope.”
“Y’all were downright un-neighborly.”
Her rage and pride spent, Applejack deflated a bit. “Yeah, Ah know. Ah jest can’t help it. Ah know they want what they think’s best fer me. Fer Equestria. Heck, the whole world. All Ah can think of though, is how they’re gonna drag me away from y’all. If Ah am gonna live fer millennia… Ah’d rather spend as long as Ah can with y’all. Ah want ta be happy when y’all go, knowin’ that y’all lived full an’ happy lives an’ that Ah was there fer y’all in good times ‘n’ bad.”
Big Mac softened at that. He walked over to the mare who, no matter her size, would always be his little sister and threw a hoof over her withers in a gentle hug. She sighed and leaned into him, gazing with little comfort at the night sky.
With this chapter I'd like to issue a formal apology to my fellow authors on fimfiction. I used up the apostrophes. All of them. I even stole a few of the commas and flipped them upside-down, hoping no one would notice. I am ashamed and I promise not to do it again while somebody's looking.
encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQA-ZaG7EcuANSwxKDmlmyBwTnR0x2lGJuX-FhdBvnB0lqrEN2S and so help me if you ever break it....
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I will make you eat a bullet. This seems to be a good read
Hehe, I can see where AJ is coming from. No-one says she HAS to go to Canterlot, she could stay on the farm and work her magic (whatever it has to do with) from there. Though they be crazy ponies, so who knows! Love it and look forward to much more!
1480032
I disagree, I think everyone will bow in awe before my upcoming Alicorn Derpy Story
1.bp.blogspot.com/-0OMkummH0wc/TyCOdWbreqI/AAAAAAAAcgQ/YvwDHAoxik4/s1600/118459+-+Alicorn+artist+equestria-prevails+celestia+derpy_hooves+filly.png
(comming up never )
I think it would do Luna and Celestia some good to remember just how disoriented and upset they were after their ascension. With this in mind, maybe they should cut AJ some slack. She's going to outlive everyone she knows, except the Princesses, by millennia. For someone who loves her family, that's a little hell all of its own. They may benefit from remembering their own birth families and how much they still miss them, thousands of years later.
In the meantime, have Twilight teach her magic and the pegasi the secrets of flight. Once she has the basic skills, only then, would the time come for anyone to find out just what is Applejack's special power and responsibility. When that happens, I've got a feeling that AJ is going to have to teach herself how to use them because Celestia and Luna won't have the relevant experience.
That 'prayer' was hilarious. I'm pretty sure that Granny didn't know who her guest was and I think Luna was slightly uncomfortable with the reminder that, to many ponies, she's a goddess.
Cutie Mark Crusader Godhood Seekers
I would read this.
1498780
I'd rather eat a bullet from police girl
1480001
I read one before.
I wonder what happened to it...
1498805
Alucard takes it easy cause he is bored, but if you want Seras....
encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTXp537gr1xzhFsaoaV8FNh008UvYTumoZyNG7h7sKU57pHwCKK
prepare thyself for the misty paste you will become!
-commenting before reading-
You jerk! You stole half of my idea! And you got featured! Raaaaaaaaaaaagggggeee!!!
Seriously, looks like fun! Must read later.
1498787 Erm... can I say I've beaten you to the punch? I suspect it'll be a very different idea though.
1498875
omg someone actually had already done it, I will defidently put that on my to read list.
But seriously that picture have inspired a story that may one day, actually become reality. In any case it will be silly and include a frustrated Twilight, and a happy Luna.
1498787 D: .... WRITE IT. Oh PLEASE write it. D: You can't introduce a skull-shattering concept like that and then pull it away! That's ...that's inhumane! It's inpony! D: It's just plain WRONG to tease us like that!
1498682
YOU! Why would you do that!?
1499037
Already read a story like that. It was Derpy remembering Dinky after she'd died of old age or something.
1499144 @_@ I request and require a link to this work.
1499151
BAM! http://www.fimfiction.net/story/48085/Guiding-Light---The-DeRaptura-Chronicles
And upon reflection... I realized its the same story as archonix was talking about earlier.
1499037
Suddenly Twilight wakes up to find out that she is no longer the Ponyville Liberian, instead she is the headmaster in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns except now it isn't called Celestia's school for gifted unicorns anymore but Derpy's School for gifted unicorns. She is woken by the obnoxious knocking of a chubby pink maned unicorn filly with a sun cutiemark that claims to be her teacher.
Then it goes on for about 8000 words, I don't know how it ends for I havn't written it yet, but as the picture says its title is "Derpy what have you done?"
1499168 Derpy's School for Gifted Unicorns. ...Specializing in spells that create muffin rain.
1479877 Oh thank god this is a comedy. If this was attempting to be serious I'd have to find you and beat you with Big Mac's yoke.
Because frankly, most of the pony-becomes-alicorn-suddenly fics are ridiculous to begin with.
1498787 Alicorn Derpy... yyyeessssssssssss...
Trollfic powers... ACTIVATE!!!
Derpicorn shall save Equestria from the evil financial powers of the Bank of Smooze!
1499180
No you are thinking to narrow, think bigger, grander like the Cosmic muffin and... wait no you are thinking about evil goddess of chaos Pandaderpyum.
Princess Derpy is a goddess of order, the goddess of the day and all things bubbly. The fact that she likes muffins dossn't mean that she forces it upon everypony, that would be like if alicorn Pinkie tried to force ponies into partying regardless of whether they wanted it or not.
And is not crazy right?
1499308
*cough* Cranky Doodle *cough*
1499360
No no no no no no, I mean this
Loving it so far, keep it up!!!
Came for the pun in the title. Stayed for the exploration of the concept. Faved for moments like,
> Dear princesses, we offer our thanks to Celestia and… me… for the bounty given…
I'm also amused that you're taking the "Luna and Celestia became alicorns" route, since I'm writing a history-of-Equestria adventure story where that's also the case -- although I made Luna a unicorn and Celestia a pegasus.
1499308 Uhhh.... You haven't been paying much attention to , have ya? :D
1499501
It is really hard to indicate sarcasm on the internet
1499535 Not really - I was able to tell you were being sarcastic, after all. I merely answered in kind.
F-f-featured?!?!?
So, I'm trying really really hard to be good about replying to comments, I tend to be quite bad at this sort of thing. Keep in mind, writing them does take away from story writing time. As such, know that I have in fact read all of them, and I love the support and interest you guys give me, however I will only reply specifically to some more pressing ones. As always, you guys are the pinnacle of fabulousity!
1486167 You'll see! I don't give spoilers.
1498805 Maybe I'll do a one-shot about it.
1498826 1498867 Really? I did a search for this sort of thing when I first got the idea. The only thing I saw was an unformatted, unpunctuated and utterly bizarre fic about the entire Apple family being secret alicorns since forever. It had been written and presumably abandoned almost a year ago. I didn't know this was a thing. I guess it's just an idea whose time had come.
1499081
i.imgur.com/KowlC.gif
Just kidding, you rock. Seriously.
1499289 I can't claim credit for thinking it up, but it's much more immediately recognizable than Snowflake.
1499706 I that movie sooooo much.
Welcome to the featured box! Your story is popular enough that it might get featured every time you upload a new chapter! You've got it made, kid!
I have a bit of experience with this. The best advice I can give you is to wait at least a day betweeen chapters. FIMFiction rules only allow you to be featured once every 24 hours.
1500218
I can't find these supposed "Applejack is important" fics, either. But yours is good! Mine's actually a twist on the "Celestia has a daughter" thing, where Applejack is the daughter. Pwease show some love?
1500273 I'm actually looking at it now.
a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/102/63678d3d751f4a05ab863a839baf557c/l.jpg
I FEEL THE HARMONY OVERTAKING ME.
1500218
Anymore? When did she start?
...
1498787
Been there. Done that.
1502561 She did used to be a cackling mad-goddess intent on endless night, demanding the love and adoration of her subjects as they cowered in terror before her, no matter how it might harm the entire world.
1502477 Also, we technically have an arbitrarily large, if not infinite, number of Pinkie Princesses. They all just happen to come from the same fic. (Actually, I do recommend An Infinite Number of Pinkies. It's quite a good read.)
Anyway, thanks for reading!
1502561
But it has the human tag on it
1502983
So?
1500218
dat gif
1502983>>1502994
Agreeing with Tundra Stanza on this one, you're being extremely prejudice and ignorant in assuming that all 'human' fics are bad, many are bad, many are worse, but there are also many that are excellent. It depends entirely upon the writer.
If you just dislike humanity to the point where you try to avoid hearing about them as much as possible, then that's an entirely different matter, although still prejudice.
1499037
I guess you could say that hes...
...A horse teaser
Can't wait to see more. AJ is best princess.
Hm. I'm tempted to read this, because I'm a sucker for puns, but I don't particularly care for the concept...
1512625 I just don't understand why would you take the time out of your day to comment on a story that not only haven't you read, but you don't intend to read???? It confuses me. People do this on so many stories...
Anywho, please give me a chance to earn your love. If you don't like the first short little chapter or two, then no harm done. I don't mind.
No doubt what was bothering Applejack was that Luna should have said "older than me".
Well...... I had certain vibe coming off from that dinner. It goes like this...
419.bittenus.com/11/8/defusing%20bomb.jpg
Cutie mark Crusader godhood seekers... FANART! I WANT FANART!
Please?
Cutie Mark Crusader godhood seekers ha ha ha
Faust help us
1500781 "... The Force is strong with this one..."
1500218i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2011/12/15/57e8f366-339a-48eb-86a0-6f722579d0ec.gif