Everfree

by J3sterking

The Weight of Grief

Sunset stepped out of the portal, wobbling on her feet. She smiled to herself. She hadn't expected to reunite with Celestia, but it had gone extremely well.

She straightened her backpack, full of a few gifts from her former mentor-slash-adoptive mother, and a second journal, then turned around. Let's see, next stop, Sweet Apple Ac--

"LOOK OUT!"

Sunset never would have been able to move in time if Rainbow had been about to hit her anyway, but the familiar rainbow blur shot past her, colliding into the school and leaving a comical imprint of herself in the wall.

Not believing that she lived in a cartoon, Sunset charged over as Rainbow fell back into the grass. "Are you alright?" Sunset asked.

"Never better!" Rainbow cheered, jumping to her feet so fast she wobbled unsteadily. A fine pinkish dust scattered around her as she moved.

Sunset stared at her. "Dash...?"

"Look at that!" Rainbow said, gesturing to the crater. "Look! That deep, and not a bruise on me!" She held her arms to the side, grinning broadly.

"What did you make Applejack do?" Sunset groaned.

"She let it slip that she thought she could supercharge the gems," Rainbow chuckled. "Awesome, right? It's a little...too fast, actually, but I'll get the hang of it before it wears off!"

"Maybe you should...slow down?" Sunset looked back to the school.

"Nah! I've only got another hour with this! I wanna make the most of it!" Rainbow grinned back at her imprint.

Sunset sighed. "Just be careful. I was kind of wanting to talk to AJ, actually. You know where she--"

Sunset had ridden along with Rainbow's super-speed runs before. She'd only ever been comfortable with her doing that because she trusted Rainbow, but this was officially too fast.

Her ears popped a fraction of a second into the run, and then she realized they were at Sweet Apple Acres. She realized a second later that she'd stopped moving.

Then Sunset realized that she'd let go of Rainbow Dash before she stopped moving. She looked up, slowly rising from the grass, seeing a dizzy, spiral-eyed Rainbow Dash lying face first in the dirt almost twenty feet behind her.

Twenty feet behind Rainbow, a bewildered Applejack sat, leaning against a tree with a book in her arms.

"Hey, Ayy-Jaaaay," Sunset slurred breathlessly. "Niiiiice to seeeee you." She fell forward, lying face-down in the grass.

"That's the last time I do this for ya, Dash," Applejack groaned. She got up, tucking her book under one arm. "Are you two alright?"

"Yeah," Rainbow groaned. "I do feel a little bruised from this one."

"I feel fine," Sunset said, sitting up fully. "Just winded. Give me...a moment." She rubbed her jaw, wincing.

"So yer back from Equestria?" Applejack asked, helping Rainbow sit up. "How was it?"

"Great. It was, uh, productive, though a little different than I thought it'd be." She crossed her legs beneath her, not wanting to try standing up immediately.

Applejack met her gaze, then sighed. "If ya have any questions--"

"I do have a few," Sunset said. She gave a slight smile. "Though Princess Celestia said that you're welcome to come over for tea sometime."

Applejack blinked in surprise, then smiled. "We'll see."

"Hey, wasn't Fluttershy with you?" Rainbow interrupted. "She had something she wanted to ask."

Applejack gave a light smile. "Yeah, she's here."

Rainbow looked one way, then the other. "Where?"

Applejack marched to the tree she'd been leaning against, which felt...weird to Sunset, now that her attention was drawn to it. "Come on, girl," Applejack muttered, touching the tree. In a burst of gem dust, the tree was gone, and Fluttershy, covered in dirt, leaves, and with a tree branch in her hair, stood.

"Well? Was it all you'd hoped it would be?" Applejack asked with a chuckle.

Fluttershy grinned. "IT WAS AMAZING!" she screamed, throwing her arms around Applejack. "Thank you thank you thankyou--!"

"Whoa—settle down, girl!" Applejack laughed, hugging her friend back. "Glad you liked it!"

"Um," Rainbow said. "What?"

"I asked her if I could be a tree for a little while," Fluttershy explained. She grinned. "It felt so nice to just...forget everything for a little while. Relax." She shuddered, shoulders relaxing. "Thanks! It was just as good as a spa day!"

"Glad you liked it," Applejack laughed, her gaze passing over to Sunset. Her smile faltered, seeing Sunset's face, and she sighed. "So, you had questions?"

"Oh, uh, sorry...I just..." Sunset shook herself out of her shock, and then said, "The Princesses used magic to actually show me what happened, and, uh...the petrified ponies kinda stuck in my mind."

Fluttershy looked to Applejack, confused. "Petrified ponies?"

"Ah, shoot," Applejack muttered. "Sorry. I wasn't so nice back then."

"Relax, AJ, if anyone could understand--" Sunset gestured to herself. "It's me. As well as several other people, too. Besides, the Princess said that no one even died!"

"That time, sugarcube," Applejack said, taking her hat and holding it over her chest. "Times b'fore then, I would--" She hesitated, then looked to the flower in Sunset's hair. "Hm."

"Oh, yeah, thanks for this," Sunset said, pulling it out. "It's pretty."

"Yeah, I, uh—I didn't do it on purpose," Applejack muttered.

"That's not like any flower I've seen before," Fluttershy asked, moving closer.

"Well, yeah," Applejack replied. "It's a little piece of the wild. I can reach through it. Back in the old days, I'd give 'em to ponies who braved my forest. I'd use 'em to give those ponies good luck." She smiled. "I guess I must have thought you needed luck."

"Or a friend," Sunset chuckled to herself. She tucked it back in her hair, saying, "Thanks, AJ." She reached over, grabbing the branch in Fluttershy's hair, and tugged. The branch stayed. Sunset frowned, tugging again, and only succeeded in pulling Fluttershy closer.

"Ummm," Fluttershy drawled. "Applejack?"

"Ah, shoot," Applejack muttered. She took the branch, then let it crumble away into gem dust. "Le'me know if it starts growing back," she said.

"Uh...okay," Fluttershy said slowly. She rubbed her forehead. "I should probably, uh, go wash off." She left, walking past Rainbow on her way.

"So," Sunset asked. "Why were you so angry, back then?"

"Hmm? Oh." Applejack looked away, dusting off her hat. She didn't reply.

"Applejack?"

Applejack didn't put her hat back on, and spent another moment dusting it off before answering. "I'd lost my dear little brother."

Sunset blinked. "You...had a brother?"

Applejack nodded. "There were three of us, once upon a time." A vine sprouted nearby, beginning to slowly grow upwards. "Three spirits. I was first, and he, second, and then...her third." Her face clouded with anger as the vines spread into a twisting, curving form, with short, stubby limbs, and a long, horse-like face. Two tiny, ineffectual wings grew from the vine-statue's back, and two horns of wildly different shapes...

"Discord?" Sunset gasped. "Your 'little brother' was Discord?"

Applejack nodded. "Chaos and the Wild. Siblings, true and true. Until--"

"He's still alive, AJ! He's one of Princess Twilight's friends!" Sunset put a hand to her head.

The statue exploded into a burst of gem dust and a multitude of flowers as Applejack spun to look at her. "What?"

"He's still alive!" Sunset repeated.
"B-but--he was turned to stone! I thought—there's--" Applejack took a step back, then put her hat on her head. "Have you met him?"

Sunset grimaced. "No. I think he knows I want to meet him, so he avoids me when I'm over there."

"He...he..." Applejack stepped back, hat falling to the grass. "How?"

"They reformed him," Sunset said. "Did...you think the Elements of Harmony killed him?"

"Yes!" Applejack cried. "He's...really still alive? And nice, to boot?"

"Yes!" Sunset said. "Is...this why you haven't been wearing your Geode?"

Applejack's hand snatched up, closing around the empty space in front of her throat. "Um, no," she said quickly. After a moment's hesitation, she relented. "Yes."

"Yikes," Sunset said slowly. "I...kinda get it, y'know? I did get rain-blasted myself."

Applejack's mouth drew to a fine line, and she looked away.

"Applejack," Sunset said, looking to Rainbow Dash. The dizzy athlete didn't seem to be paying them much attention, yet even so, Sunset leaned very closely in to Applejack. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Fit as a fiddle!" She gave an awkward chuckle.

Sunset stared at her, then reached out. "Look, AJ--"

Applejack twisted, letting Sunset's hand fall just short of her shoulder. Sunset stepped back, blinking in surprise, as she met Applejack's gaze.

"S-sorry," Applejack said, eyes looking away.

"Applejack," Sunset said firmly. "I get that I've never had the strictest rules about using it, but I do have some." She folded her arms over her chest. "I wouldn't just hack into your brain just to see if you're okay."

"I'm sorry, sugarcube, it's...I don't like those things."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "They're instruments of harmony."

"What is Harmony?" Applejack asked.

Sunset blinked. "Come again?"

"You don't know where they came from," Applejack said. "You don't know who defined 'harmony'. You don't even know what I know. How can you possibly trust those things?"

"They've saved our lives! Several times!" Sunset argued.

Applejack snorted. "Harmony is a traitor, Sunset. She's a rotten apple. She petrified Discord, and hurtled me to this world, settin' me in that...cycle...for a thousand years."
"It really sounds like you're just choosing to be angry," Sunset replied. "Look, maybe just take a deep breath--"

"Do you know how many of those lives were good?" Applejack shouted.

Sunset stepped back as the earth rumbled. "Some of 'em were, and it's those ones that hurt the most." Applejack reached down, picking up her hat and dusting it off. "I learned to care for them, and ev'ry time...they...they..."

The ground rumbled faintly, but it slowed down quickly.

"Why would she do that?" Applejack asked. "Why would she hurt me like that?"

Sunset hugged her. "She wasn't trying to hurt you," Sunset said. "She must have been just trying to help, Applejack. Were you truly happy back then?"

"That wasn't the problem," Applejack muttered. "We both know it, Sunset." She turned, breaking free of the hug and walking away.

"Where are you going?" Sunset demanded.

"I need to clear my head," Applejack said.

"We're talking about--" Applejack stepped down, disappearing into a blackberry bush that rapidly grew in place. "—Something important," Sunset muttered.

"Yikes," Rainbow said, stepping very slowly by Sunset's side. "That went poorly."

"Yeah," Sunset said. "Here I was thinking I understood enough...darn it."

"I think she just needs a little time," Rainbow said.

"It's been a thousand years, Rainbow," Sunset said.

"Well, I mean, if she's just now remembering it, then it's been what? A couple days?" Rainbow shrugged. "Think about how awkward it was right after the Fall Formal."

Sunset winced.

"See? Look at it now! You're doing great!" Rainbow punched Sunset's shoulder. "We're all doing great. I think she'll be right and ready to apologize tomorrow."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Sunset murmured. "Though I don't normally expect you to be the one giving friendship advice."

"Hey, spend enough time around eggheads, and you're bound to pick something up." Rainbow grinned. "Relax. AJ's gonna be fine."

"You're probably right," Sunset said, leaning into the hug. "You need help getting home, or is your speed normal now?"

"It's not normal yet," Rainbow admitted, "so, uh, think you can...um..."

"I'll drive you both home," Fluttershy said as she came out of the farmhouse behind them. She gestured to her minivan, parked in the driveway.

Sunset and Rainbow both breathed out in relief. "You're the best," Sunset said, helping Rainbow into the backseat. She sat in the passenger side, buckling in while Fluttershy strapped herself to the driver's seat.

"Hey, Sunset?" she asked.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"You were talking to Applejack about...a vision you had in Equestria?" Fluttershy tapped her hands on the steering wheel, confused. "What was that about?"

"It's, uh, complicated." Sunset grimaced, then smiled at the memories she'd made with Celestia. "Well, my search for Applejack's past was, uh, fruitless, until the Princesses got involved." Gotta remember to thank Starlight for her head-first approach. "In any case, Princess Luna decided the best thing would be to show me her memories of...Gaea Everfree's attack."

"And she...petrified ponies?" Rainbow asked. "Which means what?"

"She turned them to wood," Sunset said slowly. "The Elements of Harmony returned them to normal, though, so none of them died."

"Goodness," Fluttershy said. "Why?"

"I suppose because of a misunderstanding," Sunset mused. She held up her Geode, staring at it. She tapped into her magic, trying to feel the Geode out, but...

There was a brief pulse of emotion from it, but 'Harmony', whomever that was, did nothing further.

Sunset sighed, putting the Geode back down as Fluttershy pulled to a stop.

"Sounds like she's going through a lot," Fluttershy said.

"I'd say," Sunset agreed. "She's...a little agitated right now."

"She'll chill out in a day or so," Rainbow said, opening her door. "Thanks for the ride, Shy!"

"Don't run--!" Sunset called, but it was already too late.

The rainbow blur shot down the sidewalk and burst through her door, and Sunset heard a loud crashing coming from inside. After a slight delay, there came a startled shriek from Rainbow's parents.

"We should go in and help her explain," Sunset said with a sigh.

"Yeah," Fluttershy agreed.

Comments

[Pete100]

"She let it slip that she thought she could supercharge the gems," Rainbow chuckled. "Awesome, right? It's a little... too fast, actually, but I'll get the hang of it before it wears off!"

That could actually come in handy.

Applejack marched to the tree she'd been leaning against, which felt...weird to Sunset, now that her attention was drawn to it. "Come on, girl," Applejack muttered, touching the tree. In a burst of gem dust, the tree was gone, and Fluttershy, covered in dirt, leaves, and with a tree branch in her hair, stood.

Love the reference.

"You don't know where they came from," Applejack said. "You don't know who defined 'harmony'. You don't even know what I know. How can you possibly trust those things?"

Interesting question

Applejack snorted. "Harmony is a traitor, Sunset. She's a rotten apple. She petrified Discord, and hurtled me to this world, settin' me in that...cycle...for a thousand years." "It really sounds like you're just choosing to be angry," Sunset replied. "Look, maybe just take a deep breath--"

Is harmony the third?

[J3sterking]

11835217
I thought it was clear enough, but yes. Harmony is the third, and youngest, sibling.

Also, with a nature spirit on hand, I just had to turn Fluttershy into a tree 🌲