Hello Again, Equestria

Nathan was taking a break from his digging, and was resting on a large rock when he heard the sound of hoofsteps coming up the hillside. The hot summer sun was beating mercilessly down on Equestria’s only human, and for a moment he hoped that the heat was playing tricks on his mind. But the sound kept growing louder and louder, and Nathan knew he had at last been found. His heart sank again a moment later, when he saw a familiar orange Stetson appear above the rise, followed shortly after by the familiar orange mare who wore it. She did not see him at first, as her eyes were still carefully stepping her way up the hill’s rocky ground. Nathan would have expected her to be out of breath from her climb, but her breathing was more labored than it should be for a pony in her shape. When she finally crested the rise, she at last lifted her head to look around, and that’s when she spotted him. She froze, one hoof still hovering in mid-step. They stared at each other for a long moment, then Applejack slowly began walking towards him.

Every emotion passed across Applejack’s face as she approached: joy, relief, sadness, unbridled rage. By the time she reached him, tears were streaming down her dirty face, and her lip was trembling. She stood on her hind legs, put her front hooves on his chest, and searched his face. He had grown a beard and a head of hair since she had seen him last, but he trusted he was still recognizable.

“Hey Applejack,” Nathan said.

Applejack’s face soured, and she brought her hoof sharply across his face. Nathan had seen it coming, but had made no move to defend himself. She did it a second time, then a third. Then she began raining blows on his chest and head, muttering curses at him all the while.

“You stupid…no good…lyin’…cheatin’…good-fer-nothin’, no-account bum! Is that all you have to say to me after all you put me through?! Put all of us through?!” She was screaming, gasping for air as she pounded his chest with her hooves. “We thought you were dead! And now here I find you livin’ out in the middle of nowhere, and all you can say ta’ me is…” She trailed off as her words devolved into sobs. She stopped pounding his chest and collapsed into his arms, wrapping her hooves around his middle. “You’re alive. Oh thank Celestia, you’re alive. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, Applejack.” He was crying too, now. The two of them sank to the ground, holding each other and crying. They stayed like that for a long moment, until Nathan felt her body go limp, and he realized that she had feinted. Laying the little pony across his lap, he quickly checked her pulse and listened to her breath. Then he scooped the little pony up in his arms, pack and all, and carried her towards his log cabin.

***

Nathan carried the unconscious Applejack past several rows of young apple trees and garden plot to the small log cabin he called home. When he reached the door, he gently pushed it open with his toe and carried her inside. He laid her down on his crude bed of pine needles, then went quickly to a bucket of water in one corner and poured water from it into a carved wooden bowl. He brought the bowl back to Applejack and rolled her onto her back, so that her pack was propping her up. He gently shook her shoulder.

“Applejack? Applejack.”

“Nathan?” she answered, her eyes fluttering open.

“Here, drink some water.”

He tilted her head forward so that her lips met the bowl. Though she was not yet fully awake, she gulped greedily at the cool liquid, letting some of it spill down her chin. Before long, the bowl was empty.

“Hang on, I’ll get you more.” Nathan took the bowl from her and went to refill it. As he did so, Applejack became more alert, and started to look around her strange surroundings. He returned with the bowl and held it up to her lips again. She sipped from the bowl, only slightlyl slower than before, all the while staring at Nathan over the rim. When the bowl was empty, Nathan turned to fill it a third time.

“Is this real?” she asked. “Is it really you?”

“It’s me,” he said, his back still turned. “For better or for worse.” He sat next to her on the bed again. “Now, drink this one slower, okay? You’re dehydrated—” he was interrupted as the orange mare fairly tackled him backwards, spilling both water and bowl onto the floor. She pinned him against his makeshift headboard, her arms wrapped around his chest.

“It is you, it really is you.” She was crying again, her face buried in his shoulder. Nathan gave her a moment, then carefully pried her arms away from him, one at a time, so that he could free her pack from her shoulders, then scooped up the mare in his arms and held her like a baby.

“Th-they all told me I was crazy, th-they said I had to let you go, but I…I knew you were still alive, I just knew it…” she said no more after that, and simply bawled into his chest, great sobs shaking her tiny body to the core. This went on for a long time, Nathan could not say how long, while Nathan silently shed tears of her own. Eventually Applejacks sob grew quieter and quieter, until eventually they stopped altogether. Still they lay like that, with Applejack’s head resting against his chest as she caressed his face with one hoof.

Nathan cleared his throat. “Applejack, how did you find me?”

Applejack sniffled. “Gargoyle.”

“What?”

Applejack sighed. “A gargoyle said they saw a two-legged monster wanderin’ around these parts as they were flyin’ by. The gargoyle told some griffins, and those griffins told Gilda, and Gilda told Rainbow Dash…” She wiped her nose with her hoof. “But nobody else wanted to believe it was you. Nobody else wanted to come with me. They…Rarity told me not to go out on some dang-fool rescue mission, said you was gone and I needed to let you go, made me promise…” She looked back up at him. “But I had to come find you Nathan, I just had to. I knew it was you out here, somehow.”

Nathan sighed. By the time he had seen that gargoyle overhead, six months ago it must have been, it was too late for him to try to hide. He had hoped at the time that it hadn’t spotted him, but clearly he had not been so lucky.

Applejack pushed away from his chest and sat on her haunches.

“Did…did you mean what you said, Nathan? In your letter? Is is true that you…have feelings for me?”

Nathan nodded.

“All that time we spent together, and you never told me the truth? And you were planning to…leave us all along?” Fresh tears streaked down her face. “Was there ever anything honest between us? Is everything I know about you a lie?” Nathan reached for her, but she pushed him away. “Why’d you run away, Nathan? Why’d you say were gonna…kill yourself?” she stumbled over the word.

He could not bear to meet her eye. “You know why, Applejack. I told you in the letter.”

“I want to hear you say it. I want you to say it, right here to my face.” Her expression shifted from hurt to anger.

Despite her demand, Nathan could not bear to face her. He rose from the bed and stood in the corner. “I wanted to die, Applejack. Equestria is better off without any of my kind. Mankind…” Nathan made a disgusted noise. “We only bring pain and suffering wherever we go. I don’t deserve your affection, Applejack, and I don’t deserve to live. It would have been better if I had died on my world with all the rest of them.”

Applejack walked up behind him, stood on her hind legs, and turned him around to face her. She lifted his chin so that his eyes met hers. “I am perfectly capable of decidin’ for myself who is and is not worthy of my affections, Nathan. And as for all this ‘deservin’ to die nonsense…” She hugged him again. “I admit that I don’t know nothin’ bout no mankind. All I know is you. And you are one of the most nicest and thoughtful stallions I’ve ever met.”

With her face still on his chest, Applejack could not have seen the little scowl that crossed his face, but it soon passed. Human and pony held each other for a few long minutes, not saying anything.

“So…why didn’t you, then? Why didn’t you…” Applejack asked. Her tone implied that she was afraid to broach the subject.

Nathan sighed. “Well, I was going to, but on my way I met an angel.”

“Uncle?” a tiny voice said. Both of them turned to face the sound. From an unseen, blocked-off section of the cabin came a tiny female voice. A few seconds later, a tiny, white-scaled dragon emerged, rubbing her eyes. Applejack gasped.

“Aww, hi honey,” Nathan cooed. “I’m sorry, did we wake you up?” Nathan scooped the little dragon up in his arms and hugged it.

Applejack could only watch, her jaw agape. “Uncle?”

The dragon barely came up to Nathan’s knees, had striking, blood-red eyes, and a pair of leathery wings that protruded from the center of her back. Spike was the only other juvenile dragon Applejack had ever met, but this dragon’s body was much more lithe and catlike than his.

Looking over Nathan’s shoulder, the little dragon was staring at Applejack with equal curiousity. “Pony,” said the toddler.

Nathan turned around, so that the two of them were both facing Applejack. “Pony, that’s right. Ambriel, this is Uncle’s friend Applejack.”

“Orange pony,” the child observed.

“Ambriel, what do we say when we meet someone?” Nathan prodded.

“Nice meet you,” the child said, squirming until Nathan set her down. Applejack sat on her haunches and smiled incredulously in spite of herself. “Well hey there, little partner.”

The little dragon was biting one talon pensively as she regarded Applejack, taking special notice of her cutie mark. “Apple,” she said, pointing.

“Apples, very good!” Nathan said, forcing praise into his voice.

Ambriel turned back to Nathan and crawled into his lap, then looked at his face. “Owwie,” she said, touching the purple spots on Nathan’s face that Applejack’s blows had left. The little dragon then touched the wetness under his cheeks. “Uncle cry. Uncle sad. Pony hurt Uncle?”

Nathan dried the last of his tears, then shook his head. “No, Ambriel, Applejack didn’t hurt Uncle.” He looked up at Applejack, still sitting at the other side of the room. “Uncle hurt Applejack.”

Ambriel considered this a long moment, then ran over to Applejack and wrapped her tiny arms around one of Applejack’s forelegs. “Uncle sorry. Uncle accident. Uncle good uncle, okay?” Applejack could only laugh as she dried her own tears.

“Er, Ambriel, are you hungry? I have some gems for you in my bag.”

“Gem-gem!” Ambriel said excitedly, running over to Nathan’s bag where it rested by the door. Then, with difficulty, the little dragon dragged the bag back over to where Nathan sat on the bed, hopped up next to him, and began to munch on handfuls of the precious stones with her head resting in Nathan’s lap.

Applejack laughed as she dried the last of her tears. “Nathan darlin’, I’d say you’ve got some explainin’ to do.”

Nathan absentmindedly stroked the dragon’s scales and nodded. He pondered for a moment where to begin. “Well, it all started two years ago.”