The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

ch23 A Return

Rarity sipped on her glass of tea with Applejack in front of her as they waited for Twilight's return. The entire boutique was filled with a dull silence that had been there for the past four hours and it just never stopped. Luna was busy reading some stallion’s wear magazine to just admire the stallions in the pictures, which she liked the nimble innocent ones the most. Fluttershy was casually staring out the window with anticipation, meanwhile, Thorax had his chin lumped down on a pillow as he lamented about the spicy memories of Zecora.

Applejack looked around her awkwardly before looking back at Rarity. “Sooo…umm…Do you actually care for Twilight?” she asked nonchalantly as she lifted the teacup up with her hoof and took a sip.

Rarity, in response, just raised a brow. She lightly put her teacup down and sighed. “To be honest with you, Applejack, um I do care for her a bit. But let’s just say she is a bit of a nuisance."

“Well, what do you mean by that?” Applejack’s eyes seemed to focus onto Rarity’s body language, noting the unicorn’s uneasy eyes and the light tapping of her hoof.

“By that I mean, she just seems to pry into my business, even if I have good faith in our friendship. I get that she doesn’t like me thinking Spike’s a cutie and all but, darling, I just can’t understand why she is so speculative of me. She goes on and on about all the things she hyperfixates on and always seems so obsessed and to be fair I am solely obsessed with the art of fashion. But then, her curiosity does seem to get down to the personal level of inquiry that is disheartening for me and almost annoying.” Rarity’s distress and annoyance at her friend seemed to all pummel out of her mouth like a tsunami, showing Applejack just how much she had begun to detest Twilight.

Applejack scrunched her muzzle. Rarity usually whined but this was just getting insulting almost to full on inconsideration, which was ironic considering Rarity was supposed to represent generosity itself. But Applejack unscrunched her muzzle and came back to normal. She did something that the Element of Honesty would not do: dishonesty. She didn’t want to start a fight with her friend. Her mind had already calculated how chaotic it would be. So now there she was, a sinner looking at a fellow sinner. All just silent. Funnily enough, Rarity could see through this. She always recognized Applejack’s annoyed expression. The pent up ears, narrowed eyes, and stern emotionless mouth gave it all away.

“Well, I want you to know that even if I consider Twilight an annoying little shit I still give her my generosity of taking care of her and Spike. Perhaps she is more important, because she is a freaking customer of mind always admiring my techniques of the craft of the cloth.” That’s when Applejack lost her shit. With a lunge and a strong hoof to the face, she pinned down the posh Element of Generosity and slammed her chair against her throat. “Don’t you ever fucking talk about my friend that way! You’ve got such a big mouth for such an ungenerous mare such as yourself. You’ve got to shut the fuck up before I whoop your flank in front of all your friends as well as my own to teach you a lesson! Don’t think of Twilight as a nuisance!”

Suddenly a strong force grabbed both of the arguing mares and pushed them against the wall. Luna lightly trotted over to them with her wings out, knocking over a mannequin with a cherry pink dress on. Her eyes examined them, feeling deep shame for their behavior. “Calm down. You two need to calm down. Your life does not need this argument. Be the elements you’re supposed to be, even if this creature and other creatures seek to drive us mad.”

Then a knock on the door alerted the entire boutiques attention. Fluttershy lightly opened the door to see a dirt covered Twilight with a prideful smirk on her face as she walked in trailing behind a bleeding leg as she sat down on a chair and took a sip of the tea Fluttershy had left out on the table. The princess of the night looked over at Twilight wide eyed before dropping the two mares. “Twilight, what in my sister’s asshole happened to you?”

“Well, I escaped the cave. That’s the simple answer, Luna. Next question’s for you, how do you know what your sister’s asshole looks like?” Twilight retorted with the same smirk on her face as dirt dripped from her hair onto the table with fall leaves coming down.

Fluttershy walked over to her and grabbed a small bandage out of Rarity’s medical box and wrapped it around Twilight’s puncture wound. “So Twilight, did you find what you were looking for in there?” Fluttershy asked with concerned eyes as she looked into Twilight’s own.

In response, the Element of Magic let out a light laugh as she brushed dirt and twigs out of her mane. “Well, certainly more than I expected. First of all I have to say, I found a NEW section of the cave that is unexplored. Honestly it really changed my perspective on Equestrian history, you know. Some ancient creation myth about four worlds then three previous ones being destroyed but ours prospering. Then these unknown figures apparently became Princess Platinum and King Cosmos, isn’t that funny? Those two horrifying drawings revealed a possible truth. A possible history of your parents Luna.” Twilight stated with some sarcasm, not really noticing the current mood in the building.

Luna looked shocked. The lips on her muzzle trembled as she thought of words. She struggled to think of what to say to such an accusation. “Wait, wait, wait this can’t be true. I remember them. I don’t remember them anything like that. They were normal alicorns, they were there right after our parents died, they were like me and my sister’s new parents. Please Twilight, please say these are lies, please tell me you’re making this up.” Luna’s stutters were cold as snow and seemed to almost be offended. The shock type of offended that a foal would experience when they realized that the stallion in the North, who brings presents, wasn’t real.

Twilight nodded and took a big chug of Fluttershy’s drink before slamming it down on the table with her magic. “Well, I’m not lying. Tales of stories of horrid creatures from the innermost layer of Equestria came to live their life as other creatures do. Also, have I mentioned that Mar was one of those creatures? Yeah, Mar the Gryphonian deity of death and the primeval.”

“Alright, slow down Twilight. Slow down. Tell me, what else did you see down there? What else did you see?”

Then Twilight felt her stomach sink, remembering the death of the filly she had seen down there. The filly she was supposed to bring back. “Well, shiiiit. Sorry about that Applejack.”

“Sorry about what. What are you sorry about, Twilight?” Applejack asked nudging Twilight’s shoulder with her hooves as Twilight’s eyes blankly stared off into space with a grimace forming on her face.”

“Well, I saw Vinyl down there. Dead. Then her sister…she was tied up… tightly… I tried to help her and tried to get her out… kept murmuring about something from behind the rope in her mouth and sadly I couldn’t understand a single thing. That’s when Vinyl woke up from death, monologued to me… killed sister… drank her blood. Then I just—”

“Vinyl did what now!? You let my sister die?!?! You let her die to some vampony?! Some abomination that has been living amongst us?! You couldn’t even bother to just, oh who am I kidding? You wouldn’t die a martyr down in those fucking tunnels, you are just too important. Of course you couldn’t just let the DJ dry you up down there while my sister rightfully returned to me! But no, you just had to let her be consumed.” Applejack blurted out in disgust, feeling extreme mixture of grief, betrayal and rage strom around her.

Twilight only stared at her with guilt, she had nothing to say, nothing to undo the loses and the promises she broke. So she continued to watch her friend huff and glare at her with grittied teeth.

A few minutes latter Applejack flenched herself away, and trotted good distance from twilight as tears rolled down her eyes. “Im sorry twilight..i shouldn’t blame you.. I-I should blame..IM GOING TO KILL THAT FUCKING DJ! IM GOING TO RIP HER FANGS OUT AND HANG HER HEAD ON MY WALL!! HEAAAAARR!!” she then went over to a potted plant above rairtys fire place before knocking it down and sincelessly stomping on its shards and leaves. The rest of the ponies and the one changeling in the boutique watched as the cowfilly screamed and pounded on anything she could take her frustration on. Now they knew, that the toll that they were taking was who they were.