That They May Grow

The cool breeze of the deepening evening tugged gently at the leaves of the elm tree that stood silent sentry out front of the little country inn. From inside the common room of the Shady Rest Hotel the warm glow of the oil lamps could be seen shining out through the lace curtains, offering their promise of welcome hospitality to those passing by.

Alone in the kitchen though, one young pink mare was anything but soothed by the picturesque scenery so easily viewed through the window above the sink. Diamond Tiara was just finishing up the last of the dinner dishes. The glittering diamond dust of stars that twinkled to life in Princess Luna’s night sky, looking down on the shimmering silver moonlight that brushed the treetops of the nearby woods beyond the window glass gave an ethereal beauty to the scene.

Yet as Diamond looked uneasily out the window she focused her attention on how just beyond the treetops the soft moonlight gave way to the darkness in the forest below, between the trees. Diamond Tiara sighed as she placed the last dish back in the cupboard before taking another look out the window at the darkness. It was a foreboding darkness that lay across the thousands of furlongs between her and her future; a future that lay out there, somewhere, whatever direction that was, and she knew she couldn’t reach it alone.

As the young mare turned from the window, the darkness outside seemed also to have wormed its way inside of her too, slowly caressing her heart with the icy flicks of a windigoe’s tail. Yet, for all her fears, the young mare knew, it was also not going to stop her. Diamond drew in an affirming breath and cleared her mind of its cobwebs of doubt. She was going to be leaving soon enough, her debts here would be cleared in the morning and she would be able to leave this one pony town, and not need to come back.

See now, things aren’t so bad. Diamond looked up at her reflection in the darkened window, the ghostly pink image in the glass looking back at her with familiar sparkling blue eyes. The only difference from the image she knew were the long, bright crimson goat horns that grew from under the edge of the lavender and frost forelock. A little luck doesn’t hurt either now, does it?

Diamond mentally nodded to herself. The arrival in town of the traveling showpony,The Great and Powerful Trixie, had been a timely and fortuitous occurrence. It wasn’t that Diamond didn’t like Hooferville. She actually found the townsfolk quite likeable and very friendly, if only slightly peculiar, but no more so than say, somepony might find Pinkie Pie, peculiar. The townsfolk had also been exceptionally helpful and accommodating. It hadn’t taken more than a day after she had stepped off the train, Diamond recalled, to find both a roof to rent and some odd jobs to try to make ends meet. ‘Try’ unfortunately, was the operative word there. Diamond knew she was already fetlock deep in a growing financial bind, and tying herself tighter by the day, with no way out, no two bales about it.

Some how, Diamond knew she had to get out, and soon, otherwise she might never be able to. As much as she was beginning to feel oddly at home here, it also felt oddly more constraining than even Ponyville ever had. Hooferville had tiny population with no economic niches to be filled or exploited. It really meant there was no future for her here. Well, unless she opted to simply marry some local farmer and spend the remainder of her life locked into a marriage of convenience as some hayseed’s broodmare.

Of course you don’t want that, my precious. Diamond could feel the imp now riding at the base of her crest, slowly stroking the side of her neck as it hissed comfortingly in her ear while she folded the apron she had been wearing over the back of a chair and walked across the kitchen. That’s what your dear daddy, and that sterile sperm slot of a dam wanted for you. The imp changed its tone to a high-pitched taunting imitation of Diamond’s father as it continued. Now see here Diamond, you’ve been a great disappointment to your mother and I. So we’re going to disown you and ship you off to your mother’s cousin’s brothel in Canterlot unless you agree to let Big McIntosh knock you up so we can give your inheritance to the foal.

Diamond ground her teeth hard at the thought. All her aspirations had been torn from her that night in the breeding shed by McIntosh as he deftly ripped the blinders off her, lanced her ego, and cut the tapestry of her dreams to ribbons so she could see the truth of her situation. She hadn’t liked it in the least as Mac had adroitly pointed out to her that she’d been living solely within an egotistical fantasy of her own design. How she’d already lost her father’s favor, and the rights to inherit his business by her own hoof. She sniffled slightly at the memory as the imp gently stroked her crest. She remembered begging McIntosh to just get it over with, and rut her, ravish her, and be done with it.

And he didn’t, did he, the stupid fuck. The imp hissed in her ear, its voice sizzling like butter in a breakfast skillet, hot and ready to burn the unwary foolish hoof. No, he made you give in, debase and deny yourself, crawl your sorry plot over to him and tell him that he was right, and then, only then, did he bother to violate you, take his pleasure from you, make you scream in pain for the pleasure of his sisters and all of those ponies listening outside.

The memories of that night seemed distant, jumbled, and faded as she made her way from the kitchen, through the dining room. Each step felt like she’d gotten tangled in a thorn bush. Prickles of sensation scratched at her coat, and the carpet under her hooves felt like she was walking on burning cinders. She could feel a hot wellspring of anger and hate was bubbling up inside her gut as she slowly walked toward the heavy green curtain that separated the dining room from the hotel lobby where her salvation was patiently waiting. The imp was right, she had to take this chance, she had to give it her all, it was time to do or do not, there was no more try.

It’s not like your going to have to do anything you haven’t done before Diamond. The horned pink homunculus purred with friendly assurance to her as it stretched out leisurely on her back. Sure, her wagon is probably heavier than Bucker’s delivery wagon, but so what, you can handle it. And that other stuff, well that’s the easy part, isn’t it, and you know you like it. You always told Silver how much you liked it.

Diamond stopped in front of the fabric wall and thought back, her negotiations with the unicorn mare had begun on the walk back to the hotel after Trixie’s performance had concluded. She had brought her best negotiation and persuasion skills to bear on the blue unicorn, skillfully and succinctly explaining the benefits of her proposed arrangement to the older mare. Yet somehow Diamond had found herself unprepared for the response she’d gotten. “The Great and Powerful Trixie, does not negotiate on an empty stomach.”

It had actually been after dinner at the Shady Rest, while Mrs. Bridley was putting the girls to bed that Diamond had had a chance to again try her negotiations with the traveling showpony. In the end, though brief, the negotiations had been productive, with an understanding ultimately being reached. If everything went well, The Great and Powerful Trixie would see that Diamond’s debts were cleared before the pair left town in the morning.

In exchange for the showmare’s help, Diamond would assume the role of Trixie’s personal valet and attendant, hauling her wagon from town to town in repayment of the debt. There were conditions the unicorn mare had made though, in the form of some very suggestive insinuations regarding other very ‘personal’ services that would be expected of Diamond, services of a rather intimate nature. Fortunately, Diamond had become rather familiar with most of them from her many slumber parties with Silver. The indiscretions during her apprenticeships, and several cloppy romance novels, had provided the veiled vocabulary to understand the implications the unicorn mare was making.

Come on now, the Imp cooed contentedly from its resting place at the base of Diamond’s mane between her shoulders, you can’t let this chance slip through your hooves. Screw this up and your going to be lifting your tail for some poor sap of a sharecropper for the rest of your life. It’s a small price to pay, don’t deny yourself.

Taking a deep breath of assurance, and with her ego securely behind her, Diamond willed herself to step through the curtain.

* * * * *

The unicorn sat quietly on a dark green settee near the door, alternating occasionally between looking out the window beside the door or perusing the quiet vacancy of the small hotel’s common room-come-lobby. The aqua-blue mare seemed relaxed and at ease. Within her own mind, however, Starlight Charm was writhing harshly under the withering ego lashing of her own self-creation, The Great and Powerful Trixie.

In spite of the serenity of the room Starlight found it disagreeable. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ to be displeased with her lot. Starlight regarded practically the whole of the population of Equestria as something that was beneath her, and tonight was no exception. The mental construct and outward identity had been a product of her early days alone. Born of necessity and ego in a tavern in the old miners town of Golden Hoof, which nestled at the foot of the mountain known variously as the Maretterhorn, Marebor, Marenas Tirith, The Queen’s Spire, or most often simply by the name of the wondrous city that grew high up on its slopes, Canterlot.

Starlight gave a small sigh, and veiled it to the outside world in a shroud of impatience. She had been born in Canterlot, a foal of privilege in the unicorn nobility. Her talent for magic had gained her acceptance to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, where her raw potential had been honed under the skill and tutelage of the finest mystical talents anywhere. Perhaps, at one time, there had even been a chance to become the personal protégé of the Grand Dam of the school, Princess Celestia herself.

In the end, an apprenticeship under Celestia was never to be. She had initially lost that honor when she had first arrived at the school to a young filly by the name of Sunset Shimmer, and by the time Sunset had vanished a few years later; it had already been too late for Starlight. By that time she had realized she had fallen into a different, insidious trap of her own parents’ machinations, her sworn betrothal to Gallant Stride.

The sad truth of the matter was, as Starlight saw it, that the old desires for power and control ran every bit as deep and dark in the blood of Equestria’s unicorn nobility as the school foal’s tales said the old crystal caverns did beneath Canterlot itself, and Starlight was certain that they were every bit as twisted.

It had been in her sophomore year at Celestia’s school that she had learned the implications of what had transpired in innocence those years earlier. It had been at an early spring garden party, one held in her honor, in an ivy covered gazebo hung with white lace and streamers, she had been mystically and psychically bonded to Gallant Stride, the son of her parents friends, Gallant Fox and Melodic Step. In her own defense, she had been naïve, and utterly infatuated with Gallant Stride, whom she considered the handsomest colt in Canterlot. Offered by her parents a chance to take her feelings a step further she had consented to a ‘special ceremony’ for the two of them.

What she hadn’t realized, through the blindness of her then rose tinted world, was that she would later on be expected to abandon her studies and become the mare-in-waiting to Melodic Step. All of which, of course, was in preparation for her one day becoming the Dam-of-the-Manor once Gallant stride had earned his commission in the Canterlot Royal Guard. It was a destiny that she had never wanted.

It was through her schooling Starlight had learned to harness and hone her considerable magical talents, and it was here that she had also discovered new ambitions and desires. She thrived on the adoration of others, the chance to show off her capabilities, and demonstrate her superior talents. These were things she had no intentions of setting aside in order to merely oversee the needs of a household, while, in time, providing it with heirs and playing petty social games of posturing at garden parties such events while waiting for her in-laws to expire. Her power was her own, and through it she meant to deny herself nothing that she could attain. So on the last night she spent at the school, she had escaped the senior filly’s dormitory by transmogrifying her bed sheets and a closet rod into a hang glider, while keeping the castle guards chasing their tails, and shadows, with several cunning illusions of her own design.

Starlight let herself settle back a little on the floral print cushion of the small sofa as she took a break from her reminiscences to cast a glance out the window. Outside, the silvery glow of the moonlight fell gently on the leafy crowns of the trees over the hills beyond the railway line. Between the rail line and the hotel’s porch the only things that stirred were the small eddies made by evening breeze in the grass of the yard, the soft rustle of the leaves of the elm out front, and the occasional chirp of a cricket or the flicker of a firefly.

Drawing her eyes from the window view Starlight took a slow look around the front room of the little hotel. The partition curtain had been drawn, closing off the dining room from the lobby, and the hotel’s matron was quietly doing paperwork at the reception counter as an old yellow cat dozed in its basket, out of the way, by the foot of the stair.

The pure saccharine wholesomeness of the setting was enough to make her gag, and the pitiful collection of bits that had decorated the bottom of her tips bucket was enough to fan the ire of ‘Trixie’s’ ego. Still, the reason for her choice to come here had been plainly written on the signpost earlier in that day. Hooferville was 60 furlongs closer to sating her hunger than Bugtussle had been.

The lack of grumbling from her no longer empty belly though spoke volumes of the meal she had partaken of. It had been quality, if rustic, fare: Hayloaf with collard greens, fresh oat bread with apple butter, sweet potato pie, and rice and raisin pudding for dessert. Quite good actually, especially compared to her own limited culinary skills, which she had often supplemented by having to browse and forage along the road, a reality that she loathed.

Of course the best part of the meal was she had not had to pay a solitary bit for it either. The hotel manager had, as Starlight had become accustom to over the course of her travels, extended an invitation for ‘Trixie’ to have dinner at the hotel in gratitude for the show. It was an invitation that Starlight had readily accepted as the hotel manager’s three fillies bounced about asking all manner of questions about the astounding magical feats they had just witnessed.

What Starlight had not expected was the young mare that had introduced herself on the way back to the hotel. Diamond Tiara, the pink pony had called herself and the young mare had gone on to state that she had a business proposition that The Great and Powerful Trixie might find to be of interest. The only thing, however, that Starlight knew that ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ wanted at that moment, beyond the adoring praise being heaped on her by the Hotel Manager’s three young fillies, was a full belly.

Still the young mare had been persistent, and had again approached Starlight after dinner had finished, while the hotel manager had gone upstairs to put her daughters to bed. With her hunger pleasantly sated Starlight found herself more willing to hear the young mare’s proposition out. Albeit it was more out of boredom than anything, as the only other conversational opportunities lay with the hotel’s only other guests, a pair of traveling commission-sales ponies who were distinctly not nonpareil.

Starlight turned her gaze back out the window to hide her demeanor as she felt the tug of a smile in the corner of her lip. The thought of how surprisingly easy it had been to lead the conversation with the obviously desperate young mare, tickled the showpony immensely. The pink mare had readily divulged all the details Starlight could want with hardly any prompting. Alone and destitute, the young mare was looking for a means to escape her predicament, not that Starlight cared one copper bit.

What did intrigue her were the answers she had gotten when, for her own amusement, she had started making veiled suggestions of sexual services, and the pink mare had acknowledged in kind, to up-the-ante, as the term went. Starlight had found the negotiations becoming an erotic duel of innuendos and subtle suggestive hints. With her own estrous fueled arousal becoming unmanageable she had finally gotten Diamond to name terms.

Now, Starlight was no stranger to filly fooling. Her time in the dorms at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns had provided for a select, if illicit, education as some of the young mares ‘helped’ each other deal with the urges of their early estrous experiences. Starlight had also, since abandoning Canterlot those many years ago, dallied with stallions, mares, fillies, and colts, some were better than others, many worse. Not that she cared for any of them; they were all a means to an end one way or another.

She had even once, drunkenly, bedded a griffon a few years ago, on a dare from her companion at the time who was a griffoness herself. It was the last time Starlight had ever bragged ‘whatever you can do I can do better’. The experience had been more painful than having paid for the shelter offered by the barkeeper who had found her hiding in the back room of his establishment with her virginity, and while not in season either, following her flight from Canterlot. Griffons, though far less endowed than ponies, had two sexual secrets of note Starlight had discovered. The first was though they spent themselves quickly they recovered just as fast, and were capable of a dozen or more climaxes in an evening. The second, and easily the most insidious, were the backwards-facing barbs lining the males shaft behind the head of his anatomy. The memory made Starlight cringe, the sensation of being rutted with a bottlebrush while getting a talon massage from withers to flank was one that Starlight knew she’d never forget, along with Gilda’s squawking laughter the next day.

In the end though her sexual follies mattered not one bit. Every casual encounter, every twisted debauchery, had it’s purpose for Starlight, and that was to spit in the metaphorical eye of her parents, her would be in-laws, and Gallant Stride. Her life and her body were hers, and hers alone, and nopony would keep her from her rightful destiny, not even the creepy old voice in that thrice Tartarus damned Alicorn Amulet.

Her encounter with the Alicorn Amulet had nearly been her total undoing Starlight knew now. She had originally sought out the arcane necklace to facilitate an act of revenge for her humiliation in Ponyville. Finally she succeeding in tracing it to the back alleys of Canterlot’s merchant’s district. What a jape, that had been, one of the most powerful artifacts in all Equestria and beyond and it had been resting under Celestia’s muzzle for years. Even Sunset Shimmer had not sought after the piece, in spite of her ambitions. Starlight remembered asking Sunset about it during an Artifacts and Archeology class at CSGU.

“It’s not real power.” Sunset had told her. “Besides, I’m already an alicorn inside, I just have to find a way to make it happen.”

To Starlight, Sunset’s answer was simply self indulgently arrogant; power was power after all, who cared about its providence. More was always preferable to less as Starlight saw it.

Oh how Starlight had discovered just how wrong she was on that. Whatever lay dormant in that amulet, it was not meant for pony kind, nor did it bode well for it. From the moment she had closed the latch she could feel her power magnifying, along with her resentment of Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, and others. But as time passed she could feel the shadowy presence in the necklace slowly smothering her, replacing her with its nameless self. All that the thing wanted was power, utter domination of the known world and beyond, and ... its horn. *

Starlight gave a small impatient snort of derision. She had been so grateful when Twilight had tricked her free of the foul thing, she had sworn to her rival-come-benefactor in gratitude to reform her ways. ‘The Humble and Apologetic Trixie’ had died one lonely night not long thereafter, strangled by Starlight’s realization of how Twilight and her friends had tricked her. Not through the ‘magic of friendship’, but though a vile deceptive con. Twilight and her friends had manipulated her just as Starlight remembered her own parents had manipulated her into that sworn betrothal. Through lies and deception.

Starlight turned her gaze to the top of the stairs where she could see the ghostly mental projection of Gallant Stride beckoning to her, encouraging her to give into the rising throb of her heat, bend her will to the desires of their parents, discard her dreams and desires into his embrace. Starlight ground her teeth and closed her eyes, drawing in a stabilizing breath.

She would never give into those urges, those lies, and the damned will of her parents to control her. Machneighavelli taught that there were those who had knowledge of power, and those that did not, and those that thought they did; players and pieces. Starlight Charm was a player, not a piece to be played with, like those unicorn fan-colt twits, Spits and Drools, or whatever their names were from Ponyville that had followed her around like lost puppies.

As Starlight looked back to the upper landing of the stairs as the image of Gallant Stride faded from her vision before a rustle from the curtain at the bottom of the stairs drew her attention as Diamond Tiara entered the room.

Starlight smiled at the sight of the young pink mare as she entered the room. Diamond Tiara was a piece like so many others to Starlight, and a pitiful one at that, alone, destitute, and desperate. Fifteen bits was a woefully small price to sell one’s self for, and it made the pink mare all the more pitiful and foolish in Starlight’s view. Starlight would get her satisfaction from this piece, sate the urges of her flesh, and in time discard the pink pony when she either became too problematic or dreary a presence. In the end, Starlight was only interested in looking out for one pony, herself.

“Ah, good. You’re finally done here?” Starlight beamed charmingly at the tired looking young mare. “I hope you aren’t too tired, there’s a few contractual ‘details’ I believe need to be attended to before we leave in the morning, and 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' does not like to be kept waiting.”

The pink mare said nothing. Her head hung low and her muzzle pointed dejectedly at the ground in exhaustion, her unresponsiveness scraping Starlight’s horn the wrong way.

“Did you not hear me?” Starlight bolstered her voice to a more firm and assertive tone. “Are you ready to attend to your responsibilities toward The Great and Powerful Trixie? The Great and Powerful Trixie requires an answer.”

Starlight was practically glowing with giddiness inside as he trembling pink mare slowly lifted her head to address her new mistress, give her affirmation and complete her subjugation. The soft voiced answer felt like the roar of an ursa major in Starlight’s ears.

“No.”

* * * * *

To Diamond Tiara, it seemed as if the voice that spoke belonged to somepony else, and had sent the little ego imp in her mind into a howling unholy fury at the unseen source of it. It was in that moment, as she saw the expression on The Great and Powerful Trixie’s face, that Diamond realized who had spoken, and she knew why.

You’re a strong pony Diamond, and you need to start doing what’s right, not what’s easy. I never wanted you to deny yourself, only to be true to what you were inside, and know I believe in you.

Like some abstract puzzle the words of the stallion who had let her bite his leg bloody to stifle her scream as he had first covered her suddenly fit together and Diamond saw the true image. She had nearly done what she had done before, try to take the easy way out, to scheme and counter scheme, lie and maneuver, and let her lazy, greedy, imp-atient ego lead her blindly into folly because she thought she was better than others.

“What did you say?” the shocked unicorn cut back verbally as she recovered from her initial shock.

“I said ‘no’.” Diamond repeated with a genteel calm and politeness as she lifted her head up with a swelling feeling of pride in herself. She now knew what she was speaking to as she fixed the blue unicorn mare firmly in her gaze. Diamond could feel the growing sensation inside herself, a building, strengthening feeling crystallizing into her very core, as she stared down the older unicorn there at the threshold with the darkness looming beyond the doorway. She was speaking to an embodiment of her own possible fate, a self righteous, arrogant, manipulative, outcast that looked down on others like the scrapings off the bottom of her hoof. A fate that was inviting her down a path of darkness that she’d never find her way back from.

“No?” The azure enchantress lofted whimsically, though now Diamond could now see the burning distain that lay deep in the other mare’s eyes.

“Eeyup. No.”

The Great and Powerful Trixie's expression soured. “I thought you told me you wanted to leave this pitiful excuse for a village because you made a mistake by coming here, that there was no future for you here, only destitution.”

The cold hard words sank deep into Diamond’s heart, for sadly they were the very words she had used earlier in pleading her case to the traveling showpony, and she was ashamed of them.

“It’s true, I made a mistake in order to come here.” Diamond sniffed sadly, turning her head ashamedly aside a moment, before turning back as she felt her heart surge and spit the coldness from itself. “But, I haven’t made a mistake by being here.”

The unicorn’s face took on an expression of total confusion, her jaw working but no sound for a moment before answering.

“Fine,” The Great and Powerful Trixie bit back as recovered herself and thrust her snout in the air as she turned her flank on Diamond, haughtily adding, “suit yourself. Stay here and starve, or sell your sorry hide to whoever might deign to throw a few bits at you, it’s no hair off my tail.”

“Nnope.” Diamond exhaled softly under her breath as she watched the hotel’s door open and close itself on the mental command of the departing unicorn as she strode off into the darkness. Only when Diamond was certain the other pony was gone did she take a moment to bask in the warm light of the room that surrounded her, drawing in an assuring breath that she had done the right thing.

“Are you all right Diamond?” Mrs. Bridley asked, prompting Diamond to turn to where the hotel’s owner was still seated behind the reception desk. “I thought you said you’d be leaving with Trixie in the morning.”

“I’ll be fine, Mrs. Bridley.” Diamond smiled at the older earth pony mare. “I just won’t be leaving as soon as I expected.”

“I see, but didn’t you once tell me that things weren’t going so well for you here and you needed to find a better way to earn a living? I mean it’s rightly obvious your special talent isn’t exactly hauling carts or doing dishes, not that Mr. Bucker and I haven’t minded the help.”

Diamond smiled warmly at her landlady as she walked over to the reception desk, “I know, my daddy is Filthy Rich, the owner of Barnyard Bargains, and I used to think my cutie mark meant I had the ability to get my own way all the time and lord it over other ponies. I know I was wrong now.”

“So if your daddy is so all fired rich, why are you scraping by doing odd jobs in a two pony town like this?” The country mare mused to Diamond.

“I made some mistakes with my life and tried to run from the consequences of them. Only I couldn’t run from them because I took my problems with me and left the ponies that could help me behind.” Diamond leaned over the counter as she finished and gave Mrs. Bridley an affectionate rub of the cheek with her own.

The older mare smiled as she returned the friendly gesture of the younger mare. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Well,” Diamond said as she settled a smile sparkling with confidence on her face, “If you could spare me a piece of paper and a pen, I‘d like to get started on making things right.”

“So will you be looking to move out of that old shed and let me put you into a proper room then?”

“Thank you, but no.” Diamond answered her landlady’s offer a genuine smile of appreciation gracing her lips as she did. “I actually would feel better staying where I am for now, it just feels … right some how. But if my plan works out, I’d like to reserve a room for a weekend, about three weeks from now.”

“Of course you can, Diamond,” Mrs. Bridley smiled as she passed the paper and pen to Diamond, “which one?”

* * * * *

Dawn had not yet broken across Equestria, though Luna’s moon had surrendered its place in the sky that Celestia’s sun would soon rise to take its place. It was that neither day nor night time known as twilight. For Applejack though, it only meant the ending of another sleepless night.

Wearily, she raised her left hoof to her muzzle, touching it lightly, though she did not yawn. In the two weeks since Diamond had fled town AJ had not had a good night’s sleep. It wasn’t the talking down her brother had given her when he’d found her drunkenly celebrating Diamond’s departure in the farm yard, or the hoof in the nose that Apple Bloom had punctuated things with after Mac had stormed off.

No, it was what she’d seen as Apple Bloom had run off to the family grove afterward. Standing by the gate of the small gallery grove where the past members of the Apple family living here in Ponyville were laid to their final rest she had seen the specters of her parents, tears of shame and sadness in their eyes. It was in that moment that she had realized what she had done.

A lone tear made its way from AJ’s emerald green eye down to the end of her nose where it fell off into the grass between her parents’ graves. It had taken her days to build up the courage at first to sit before her parents’ graves and plead for forgiveness.

It hadn’t worked so far. It was as if not just her parents, but all her ancestors were shunning her, and that had only made the hurt grow worse. Every night she could see the shame and scorn on her late parents’ faces in her dreams, and each morning dawn had found her sitting before the stone markers in the family grove with no answer to her pleas.

This morning though, Applejack hoped different. A spark of inspiration had come to her last evening and she had gone to Granny Smith for advice.

“Ma, Pa,” the orange mare began, she had rarely gotten past adding ‘I’m sorry’, but this time the words flowed freely, “I’m really sorry for how I acted. I was selfish, stubborn, and stone headed. I let my pride drive a young mare from the hospitality of our home that you so offered in life. I had no right to do so. I know that you forgive me, and I realize that it’s not your forgiveness I’m seeking, but my own. My fool's pride drove me from the family that I sought to protect, and now I must prove to myself that I‘m worthy of the family I nearly lost. So I ask for your blessing on this undertaking. Please.”

As the first gleam of sunlight crept through the orchards and into the sacred stillness of the graveyard grove Applejack could feel the warmth of two ponies beside her, one on each side, hugging her from beyond.

As the tired mare got to her hooves she placed her favorite Stetson back on her head, and reached for the dull envelope she had placed atop her mother’s marker, tucking it carefully back under her hat. The path to forgiveness was a hard road to walk, especially alone, and Applejack knew she was alone no longer.

Author's Note

* Last known location somewhere in the arctic north, in the vicinity of the Crystal Empire.

One horn to rule them all, one amulet to find them, one spell to bring them all, and with the shadow's power, bind them. - Tome of Tirek, a.k.a. The Book of Shadow.