Chapter Seven: Aisthanomai
Chapter Seven: Aisthanomai
After her friends had recovered their hearing, Applejack asked, “So, Ah got tha apple, y’all can let me out now right?”
Twilight giggled a little oddly, “Nope!”
“What!? Ah bit tha apple! Y’all said Ah was stuck like this until Ah got it down!”
“Yep, now you aren’t stuck anymore.”
“Huh?” Applejack looked down at her straitjacket. It was still very much snug around her.
Rarity facehoofed. “She means to say that you should be able to get yourself out. Without assistance.”
Applejack perked up a bit. “Ah guess that’s so.” With a wavering orange aura and a few false starts, she managed to undo the simple buckles on the jacket and make her escape. At the exact moment she had extracted herself, there was a knock at the door.
Twilight looked over at AJ, concern in her eyes. “We can just pretend nopony’s home.”
AJ shook her head. “Nah, you should see who it is at least, Twi.”
As the persistent knocking continued, Twilight tip-hoofed to the window. As she peeked outside her face brightened considerably. She skipped over to the door and opened it to none other than Pinkie Pie. The baker was ushered in immediately, the door once more firmly locked behind her. “Hi Applejack!” Pinkie said. “I noticed that Rarity and Twilight were being all sneaky and stuff after you dive-bombed the library, so I figured they were giving you your super-secret unicorn lessons finally. I decided to come over after I got a twitch so now that you know how to be a pegasus and a unicorn I could teach you how to be a goat!”
“Uh, Ah’m pretty sure Ah ain’t part goat, Pinkie.” said Applejack. Pinkie leaned in uncomfortably close, peering deep into Applejack’s eyes. “Uh, Pinkie?”
Pinkie demurred a bit. “Wellllll… Okay. I guessss I could teach you how to be an earth pony, but that’s pretty advanced stuff. Are ya up to it?”
“Pinkie, Ah am an earth pony. About as earthy as they come. At least, that’s what Ah am under all a this.” Applejack said, gesturing to herself.
“Nope! You’re a dirt pony, and an apple pony, but are you a rock pony, or a gem pony, or a metal pony, or a peony pony, or a sand pony, or a clay pony, or a bramble pony, or a sea pony, or a…” Pinkie’s little rant was interrupted by a frantic hoof to the mouth from just about everypony present. Pinkie visibly inflated under the force of withheld speech. Only after she deflated again did everypony pull their hoof away. After a moment she continued on a different track. “You know, the way everypony constantly is shoving their hooves in my mouth, I should invent a kind of candy horseshoe for shushing ponies. Anyway, Jackie! Come on! Let’s go! I will train you in the ways of the horse!”
Applejack rolled her eyes, “A’right Pinkie, we can ‘train’ but not t’night. T’marrah, after Ah buck tha upper south orchard.”
“Deal, I have just one question.” Pinkie giggled.
“An’ what might that be?”
“Are you excited?”
“Uh, maybe?”
“You will be. You will be!”
***
The sun was setting by the time Applejack flopped tiredly into bed. Getting home had been difficult without being seen. Pinkie had offered her some disguise glasses, and AJ hadn’t refused. It was amazing what sunglasses, a mustache, a gag arrow and a noise maker could do for a pony. Still, they hadn’t been quite enough. Carmel, of course, had seen through his cousin’s ingenious disguise instantly. As soon as he started asking what life as a princess was like the jig had been up. Everypony in the area had instantly perked up and come rushing over. From there it came down to speed and a little bit of creativity. She had dodged down an alley beside Horte’s Café and feinted to the right before diving straight into the river. The double maneuver had even fooled the pegasi thanks to the awning behind the restaurant. Applejack had trotted underwater for quite some ways before realizing she hadn’t come up to breathe. It still wasn’t an issue, so she shrugged and continued on trotting underwater until the stream split off into the farm’s irrigation canal. It had all seemed pretty straightforward at the time, but now she was paying the price. It felt like the magic would flow forever when she was calling on whatever it was that let her breathe water and fly and plant and goddesses only knew what else, but as soon as she let go it all came crashing down on her.
Her hello to her family had been little more than a grunt. She ignored their questions and trotted to the pantry. Immediately she set about downing a whole bushel of apples, core and all. Once that was done she had oozed upstairs and into bed. The dawn came all too quickly.
***
The next morning she went on a brisk gallop to loosen her aching body. Fall was just starting to make itself known in the crispness of the air and the slowly shortening days. Her legs pounded rhythmically at the dirt path as she breathed deep. The forests that Sweet Apple Acres shared a border with were already starting to prepare themselves for the winter. Here and there a squirrel or badger scurried about, seeking to gather the food and put on the pounds they would need to make it through the long freeze ahead. Even the green scent of things growing, dying, and being remade was muted by the chill. Applejack’s long legs ate up the distance, easily moving her along faster than almost any racing pony. She felt the now-familiar strength returning to her and filling her almost to bursting with energy and contentment.
The morning’s work went by easily once she had finished her run and quickly enough that she found time to occasionally practice plucking apples by magic. It was a lot slower, but it was also quite amusing. The slippery little things often as not got away from her and she was forced to try and magically juggle them. From time to time, she swore she saw somepony flitting between the trees, but she dismissed it as a bird or some such. Pinkie had shown up around noon and offered to help with the last of it. AJ agreed to let her. Little Miss Pie could be quite efficient when she put her mind to it, which was more often than she let on. Between the two of them they finished a little after one o’clock in the afternoon. At last Applejack turned to her friend and asked the burning question that had been on her mind. “What, exactly, are ya gunna teach me?”
“All about being an earth pony of course!”
“Right. Well, Ah’m all yers. Let’s do this.”
“Sweet! Try to keep up!” And with that, they were off.
***
The rest of the day was an improbable blur of activity and running. In the space of eight hours they had gone mountain climbing, kelp harvesting, blacksmithing, jump-roping, free-running, herb gathering, train-pulling, painting, drinking, dancing, escaping, and all manner of other things. At the end of the day, the farmer and the jokester found themselves headed back to the farm. Applejack was carrying a wavy black sword, a dense woven saddle blanket, and a lumpy little clay bowl that she had apparently all made herself that afternoon. Turning to Pinkie, she asked, “What jest happened?”
“We were being earth ponies, silly.” said Pinkie, sticking her tongue out.
The two trotted amicably for a ways before Applejack broke the silence. “Ah think Ah get it. It’s like the whole a pony experience is open ta an earth pony. We ain’t as like ta be defined bah a single trait like pegasi an’ unicorns…”
“Oooh! I kinda like that! It’s life affirming and only a teensy bit racist. Not what I got out of tonight though.”
“An’ what did you get, Pinkie?”
“Free cider! Woo!”
“Wait, y’all mean ta say that we didn’t pay back at Dodge Junction?”
“We were about to be lynched. Lynch mobs mean the cider’s free. It’s the rule.”
Applejack thought about that for a moment. “That… Makes about as much sense as anythin’.”
By the time the ponies had turned up the walk to AJ’s home the stars were out in full glimmer. The path to the house was also glimmering with dozens of firefly lanterns. A gauntlet of ponies was standing vigil along each side of the way, glancing eagerly at Applejack. The alicorn stopped short. Nopony moved. Applejack sighed and raised her voice enough to be heard by the entire crowd. “Now, y’all know me an’ Ah know most a you. Ah thank ya kindly fer comin’ ta greet me home, but Ah don’t need this. Y’all’ve never done anythin’ like this fer me before, an’ it honestly feels a bit shallow that y’all ‘re suddenly so interested in me. Ah ain’t the kind ta do random favors ta ponies that don’t need it ‘r deserve it. Y’all should talk ta Rarity about generosity. Now get.”
Finally, one of the waiting ponies peeled out of the group and trotted out of the farm. She was soon followed by the rest of the group as they filed one by one past an impassive Applejack. One last pony, Goldengrape by name, stopped beside the majestic alicorn. Applejack refused to give him the pleasure of acknowledging his existence. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead darted towards her wing and tore free a loose feather. Applejack yelped in shock and reared up to buck him in the face, but he had already taken off shouting.
“She gave me a feather! Haha! Losers, she likes me best!”
Applejack shuddered with rage and lit up her horn while flaring her violated wings, but Pinkie placed a hoof on her side, giving her pause. “Stop. He isn’t worth it.” she said. AJ snorted angrily and looked back at her friend. Pinkie’s expression was pleading, and her normally bouncy hair was drooping sadly. “I know it hurts when ponies don’t understand you.”
This was a side of Pinkie that Applejack had rarely, if ever seen. Slowly, hesitatingly, she diffused the brilliant orange corona around her horn and lowered her wings. Unsure what to do, she wrapped an arm around Pinkie and pulled her into a hug. “Hay now, sugarcube, Ah know it wuz just them bein’ dumb. Ah jest let mah temper get away from me. It’s been hard.”
Pinkie smiled timidly at Applejack. “So you aren’t gonna go all Nightmare Apple on ‘em and bring about eternal dinnertime?”
“How in tarnation could you think tha- Oh, Ah get it. Haha.” Applejack stuck her tongue out at Pinkie. The bubblegum colored mare giggled a bit. “Nah, I’ll jest have Mac charge extra when they ask fer apples that’ve been ‘blessed’ bah the ‘princess’.”
“Hehe. Hay, Applejack, I could show you something…”
“What’s that?”
“Well, how to feel things. Like the twitches I get. Twilight wanted me to tell her, but I knew she’d think about it too much and it wouldn’t work and she’d get all grumpy for days and that would make Spike miserable too and wouldn’t do anypony any good.”
“Ah… That sounds mighty useful.”
“Awesome! Watch me!” Pinkie sat down hard on her haunches and screwed her face up in the fiercest grimace of concentration ever seen. She took a deep breath and relaxed completely. For a few moments she was completely still. Then her hoof started twitching slightly. The twitch moved up her leg and into her barrel. Soon her entire body was jittering slightly and a goofy grin lit up her face. Abrubtly, she opened her eyes and jumped back on all fours like nothing had happened. “Got it?”
“Ah have no idea whut Ah jest saw.”
“Oh! Well, I’ll try to explain it. It’s like everypony has a constant party in their head that other ponies, but not real ones, thoughts that are like ponies, keep crashing so the party is all crazy and lame. You have to stop the music and maybe turn off the lights to let them know they should leave and maybe escort one or two to the door when they don’t get the hint. The point is the cake. You can have a birthday party, but it’s no good unless there’s a cake, it’s the whole point, right? So the cake is like you, like the actual you deep down that is who you are when you are sleeping, but you have to wake her up when you’re awake so you can talk to her-you. So you wake up the cake and then you can see. But it isn’t the awake you that’s looking, it’s the you that you are when you’re asleep that is awake and looking out for you and telling you that something’s up! You don’t have to wiggle like I did. Unless the asleep you wants to.”
“… Ah ken see why ya didn’t tell Twilight.”
“I know, right?”
“Lemme see if Ah can figure that out.” Pinkie’s explanation had sounded mostly like gibberish to Applejack, but one point stuck in her mind. Who you are when you’re asleep. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. Even concentrating on emptying her head, random thoughts kept butting in and interrupting her focus. Clear out the party. Her breath slowed and then stopped. It wasn’t strictly necessary to her anymore, was it? Now to wake up. She looked deep within herself for her center, who she really was. When she found herself, however, She wasn’t asleep. There was her in the daytime, little earth pony Applejack, fighting against a world that had suddenly become strange and hostile. And then there was Her at her core, an alicorn, beautiful as the Spring, as terrible as Winter’s deepest chill. This part of her was indeed awake already, filling the world with her power like an ancient and unconquerable tree spreading its roots to fill the ground and raising its leaves to capture the sky. The alicorn and the earth pony turned and looked at one another for the first time. A smile filled their faces.
Applejack slowly opened her eyes. The smile on her face was deep and pure. She turned to look at Pinkie, but was prevented by something on her neck. She tried to raise a hoof, but her whole body was trapped. “Uh, Pinkie, why can’t Ah move?”
Pinkie bounced around in front of Applejack so she could see her. “Because you’re a tree!”
“Ah don’t think.. Oh! Wait, Ah can feel it now. Like, Ah mean, it’s touchin’ me, but Ah know what it is. Come off fellers, momma’s gotta go.” Slowly, the moss and saplings and shrubs that had sprung up to cover her retreated and sprung back. Applejack gingerly stepped free of the tangle and trotted around to stand by Pinkie. Where she had been sitting was a riot of weeds and plants that were roughly pony shaped and vibrantly alive. Applejack looked at it, and then back to Pinkie. “Pinkie?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell Fluttershy ‘bout this.”
“Yepperoonie.”
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First, yes I know you can see the Star Wars reference, you aren't impressing anyone. What will win you the internets here is if you can see the literary reference.
[Edit:] Lord of the Rings doesn't count either. That was an accident.
Also, there is, in fact, a part of horse anatomy called an arm. Look it up.
Alternate chapter title: The Grape of the Flock.
Finally, meditation, Pinkie-Pie-style:
lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ahFwLFrGTsw/UJMMuet6boI/AAAAAAAAAHM/ypCLzawugqM/s400/ljotg.gif
You all rock! Your comments and interest keep me motivated to write my best.
I've always had a theory. All earth ponies can bend spacetime like Pinkie, Applejack just doesn't because she's too honest to break the laws of physics.
I really like this story! Applejack is best pony, and seeing her taking a down-home look at becoming a goddess is really entertaining. Please keep up the great work! Any idea where this is heading? Like,have an endstate in mind?
"And only a teensy bit racist!"
As are all the best things XD
"Don't tell Fluttershy" lol
Fun times!
i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg571/bronyman/Reaction%20Faces/Gifs/Beatles%20and%20Classic%20Rock/tumblr_m8k7pvy6QF1r9ymwb.gif?t=1351717539
I would bow down to Applejack even if this didn't happen.
1500781 Let it flow through you!
If we told Fluttershy, she would be green with envy!
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell Fluttershy ‘bout this.”
“Yepperoonie.”
My response static4.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/3772496+_89ed1129a62f8dc7b963aa25c4bbbabd.gif
Rainbow Dash will always be my favorite pony, because she's the most awesome, but out of all the ponies the one that is objectively the best is Applejack. Therefore, as the author demonstrates, AJ makes the best Alicorn... and tree.
yeppers peppers
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRHWxL0yg3HX522NwfqIQN63tS7WclVpSKHHQ26uD6jBHujmpG8-kFxNQ
Lord of the Rings. It's not very subtle.
1546886 Nope. Completely wrong.
Keep looking. It's blatant, but you'd have to have read the book. And it's an old book.
Actually, what LotR reference? I didn't make one deliberately.
1546902
Yeah, it's paraphrased a bit, but still.
1546925 Ah, right. That wasn't intentional, just me writing florid prose. The other reference I made was even more blatant. It was a fairly popular series of books once, but it has somewhat been lost to the mists of time and terrible movie adaptations.
Was that a reference to Galadriel when Frodo temps her with the ring I saw?
So much win!
Edit: Seems like that was a wonderful accident. Still so much win!
1546948 A hint maybe
1546948
Can't find it. It's something I've probably read, but it's lost to the shadows of my memories. Did it have to do with the sword?
1547048 A pig features prominently in the series.
1547050 Oooh, closer, but that isn't the whole reference.
But I WANTED TO BE A TREE!
1547056 The book of three
1547101 Huzzah! Correct series, wrong book. It was Taran Wanderer. Still, one internet for you!
1547130
“We were about to be lynched. Lynch mobs mean the cider’s free. It’s the rule.”
This may be my favorite line of anything ever.
1547293 Really? I thought everybody knew that rule!
moar damnit
Continue.
1546689 AHRI!!!!!!!!!!!!! nice LOL pic
1479877
I guess people just like reading about Twilight stressing out and overreacting. I'm just surprised few ever bring the white coat and fiery mane into it.
1517541
Felt. Felt is cool. You can wad it up and stick it in your pocket, and it'll still pop back to normal when you pull it out.
I thought super Sarian Twilight was incandescent, not white.
If only she could call on that power in season 3.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Fluttershy.png "How come SHE gets to be a tree?"
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_RageFace.png
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Applejack.png "Cause Ah'm an Alicorn, that's why."
Well, I must say that this is a welcome change from the over-used Twicorn and Everyponycorn fics.
Either all the elements always seem to go together into goddessship, or it's Twilight, and that's not fair to the others.
I'd like to see a Pinkie Pie Alicorn fic.
1547834 Thanks. I did do my research. Gotta respect the Flutterknowledge.
1547853 I lol'd
1547864 Then by all that is pony, read this. It's awesome.
That was quite the deep introspection you came up with for Pinkie. I like it. I even came up with one myself.
I call this epiphany 'Pinkie Pie Explained'. Hubris much? Perhaps, but it made me smile.
Pinkie Pie is the holder of the Element of Laughter.
In the show she is portraited as being the embodiment of laughter.
Laughter knows no bounderies.
Therfore Pinkie Pie ignores all bounderies, of all kinds, everywhere.
*sound effect of minds being blown, everywhere*
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcqgzboTAw1rgoaqho1_400.jpg
1547892
hmm, seems interesting.
The one type of Alicorn'd fic I haven't seen is a Fluttercorn. Unless it's a group thing, Fluttershy never seems to turn into an Alicorn. I think her Alicorn powers would be similar to the ones being exhibited by AJ in the fic, here.
1547694 ...What?
1542665
Tin-Tin pony could be Snails' brother.
I'd like to see this!
Now that would be interesting to see.
1546651 This.
1547864 I don't think it'd be that big a change for her, she's already the single most powerful being on the show XD
Once again great, on to the next chapter!
...There is no next chapter yet.
Hm. So being an Earth Pony IS the purest form of Pony Existence.
1548156
Well... not quite. She has a lot of strength to her, but she has no way to defeat anything without eye or without a heart/soul. If it has no emotions (such as with a golem or mechanoid) it cannot become afraid, nor can it be intimidated. Similarly, her Stare would have no effect on something without the ability to see her, such as something that "sees" via echolocation or uses vibrations in the ground to pinpoint foes/prey.
She's also cripplingly shy around everything that isn't directly bullying her friends, and as such is almost powerless when alone. Her onle defense at that point only works on humans, and that's her innate HNG Factor of 7 (Heart Nullification Grouping), Placing her in the same group as overwhelming psychic feedback of kitten and puppy images.
Another note is that while she's certainly possessing of an inner strength, she definitely lacks much physical strength much of the time, exhausting herself from things that other ponies do on a regular basis.
Y...Yoda? The Pink one is stealing your schtick! D:
1546684
Silly Krass
I...love this story so much. This is just so refreshingly different and your writing style makes it easy to read while never boring me at any point.
It's not too descriptive but also not too simple, JUUUUSSST RIGHT.
I'll be stalking this for updates oh yes.
1547965
Really, What fics turn just Rarity into an alicorn. The only one I can think of that is even close is done by an illusion to make her look like Princess Celestia(it's a "The Prince and the Pauper" plot).
1546651
That's a dumb theory, (sorry didn't mean to troll) but seriously, Pinkie is way to extraordinary to be ordinary. I have another theory, that I will express in an upcoming story that I have called "Ataxia" But ask yourself, is Pinkie really a pony, and what other creature have exhibited similar powers to hers?
I always like thinking of rational explanations for Pinkie since she can't do it herself too well. I thought about doing scientific experiments about her Pinkie Sense as well. Experiments like "does the frequency of her tail's twitches determine how large the falling object is?"
I don't think Pinkie Pie is "random" or anything like that. (I dislike the "Pinkie is Pinkie" excuse. "Just because" excuses are pretty lazy.) I think she just has a good amount of willpower and has a load of experience with gut instincts.
In any case, I think AJ may have gained Godhood because something may be threatening the fertility of Equestria's land. Equestria needs a pony to keep up the balance of natural growth. That's just a prediction though. There could be no threat at all for all I know.