Apples: Immortal Tree

Chapters

Chapter 2. The Night of Apples
Chapter 3. Applebloom's Concern, Applejack's Denial
Chapter 4. The Lost Generations
Chapter 5. Dead Tree Line
ENDGAME I
ENDGAME II
ENDGAME III
ENDGAMES IV: TRUE END
Part I, Chapter 1: The Apple Falls Not Far From The Tree

Chapter 2. The Night of Apples

Megan was a nice girl. She and Twilight and Applejack spent the rest of their days after adventuring just sitting idly to talk and watch the newer generations grow old as they played under the stars. The nights were natural, and the days were always warm. Megan did not have the strength to live as long as Applejack or Twilight could, as she lacked the magical qualities they had, but she made sure her death left them not with tears, but with hope, that though life ended, friendships live on forever.

Applejack did not understand, because if she did, she would possibly be an alicorn, but after thousands of generations of being an earthpony, she came to appreciate the plainness that came with it. It was refreshing. But soon, she began to feel herself grow old, and she approached Twilight to tell her that they have to find a way to live forever. Applejack first was rejected, and she spent a year searching for a way until coming back to Twilight with a solution.

"Applejack! Don't you know what you're getting yourself into?" Twilight questioned her, looking as Applejack drunk the blue serum she had concocted for them to drink. "If you do this, then what Megan said will be taken in vain! The tampering with life and destiny can be dire, and the generations ahead will be forever bonded, we will repeat the same things over and over and over again! We know this!"

"I don't care what the Elders say," Applejack replied, wiping her mouth and coughing violently, losing her balance and falling down on her stomach. "The Elders don't know the pain... if Megan can't live on, then I will!" Shifting in and out of consciousness, Applejack smiled as her eyes began to close.

The other ponies circled around Applejack, and one checked for her pulse, finding nothing. Her body lost its color, turning her into an albino pony of some sorts. Twilight began crying, and she nudged Applejack with her nose. "Applejack? C'mon... don't play around like this... Please! Don't do this! Don't you know what you're doing to us? We're so worried about you, we were while you were traveling! And you come back, just to die a stupid death like this? You... you... you IDIOT!"

The other ponies watched in horror as Twilight bawled over her friend's dead body, slamming her hooves on her and crying out again and again her name. The pony Applejack had died for the first time, and Twilight knew she could not let her death be in vain.

They carried Applejack to the ocean, finding an empty clam shell and a multitude of beautiful pearls, which were seapony eggs and not clam eggs, and setting the dead Applejack on the shell with the pearls surrounding her. The eggs looked like they were about to hatch, and they had to do so in the ocean. Twilight pushed the deathbed out to sea, and watched it float off as the also mourning seaponies carried it along, avoiding the colliding waves of the harsh sea.

Soon, going on the same quest, Twilight and six thousand other ponies sought out for immortality. Many died on the quest, and only a small fraction managed to survive to find out the solution. A plant called Blue Star, grown north in the land of the Universalis Unicorns and Celestial Pegasi. A land only for the best of the best, the richest in all the world, pampered from birth and embroidered with flowers and gold upon their deaths, untouched by outside civilization. They were considered gods due to their power and immortality, and as said before, were considered too worthy of glory to be even seen by ponies of lower status. The Elders were from there, but lived in secrecy from the highnesses and lived to benefit the lower class of the world.

Their methods of immortality was not limited to Blue Star alone, but a mix of other plants as well, but the merchant who told the survivors of the secret told them only that Blue Star was the key. So the survivors who were on the outside of the walls mashed up the flowers and mixed it with the thick sweet nectar which flowed through the plant's veins.

They drank it in front of the merchant, who laughed in a sick satisfaction. Some of the ponies were induced with a mania which made them crave flesh, and a skirmish started between them. Twilight fought the urge, and survived the maniacal event, hiding in the forest behind the city as her friends killed one another one by one. The last one standing was killed by the merchant, who dragged the body on the inside of the hut in which he lived, closing the door and blowing out all of the lights.

Twilight turned away, too hardened to mourn over the loss of life anymore. Two years since Applejack died, and a year since the adventure of carnage to this land began. She solemnly dragged herself to the field of Blue Stars west to the walls of the city, and lay down on the sweet smelling flowers as the night fell. Looking on up to the belt of Venus, reminiscing about the times she had with her now dead friends, Applejack, and Megan.

Megan was truly a Venus, and Applejack died as Venus was born. But Twilight was going to die in a bed of flowers... she felt so out of place now. The trio could not die like one another, but surely Twilight knew from Megan's stories of the mythologies that Venus was closely associated with flowers, so maybe it was not so bad.

"Just wait for me, girls... my sun has already set on me..."

And soon the belt of Venus disappeared with the sun from the horizon, and the moon brought with it a smooth, cool wind to soothe the intense heat and burning that Twilight was put through torture to endure in her final moments. She smiled, despite the rest of her friends dying along the way and just earlier eating one another like a Thanksgiving dinner. She was contempt with that, and maybe she should give thanks for fate giving her a more soothing death than being ripped apart for food. She knew since she would die anyways, it shouldn't bother her, and it did not. She went out how she expected, and dragged everypony else down with her. Out of love? Probably, she felt so. But it was all over now. The end was inevitably close, and had struck her like a midnight bell. The Twilight had gone in to the night.

Chapter 3. Applebloom's Concern, Applejack's Denial

Applebloom walked up to her sister as she sat alone in the kitchen that night, and she was drinking more and more cider than ever. Applejack looked to her little sister and then back to her mug. "Applejack, you keep drinking that cider, every night you're back to that mug," Applebloom said to her. "Drink, sleep, swim, drink, sleep, swim... I'm gettin' worried sis'. Cain't we talk about this?"

Applejack took another swig and slammed the mug down. The cider had become alcoholic due to the amount of time that she let it sit as she drank her unfermented cider. This was her jewel, which she had waited for. Her sweet release from reality. "Look Applebloom," she began, "I'm finer than a perfectly executed buck on an apple tree... there's nothing to worry about, lil' sis'... now go ta sleep, we gotta long day before us tomorrow."

Applebloom sighed, "Okay...G'night, I guess..." She turned to go to her room, but she heard Applejack take yet another gulp or two from her mug and set it back down. Her eyes quickly became full of tears, and her heart was singed with unspeakable rage. She turned to face her sister and ran to her, kicking the mug of cider right out of her hooves. "Tell me, Applejack! Tell me! Why don't you spend no time with nopony no more?"

"Stay outta mah business, Applebloom!" Applejack shouted, as she lapped at the cider spilled upon the ground. "I'm just cravin' some alone time for now... but tomorrow will be different. We gonna spend all day workin' tomorrow, me and you. No cidar, no pills, no secrecy! 'Kay?"

"Pills?" Applebloom asked, tilting her head and closing her eyes as they teared up even more. "But... you never told us anythang 'bout no pills! What for?!"

Applejack realized what she had said, and she quickly ran to the door leading outside. She escaped and outran her little sister despite the fact she was drunk and tore up from the floor up. She felt about ready to vomit, and fell down onto the muddy ground of the orchard, under a dying tree which had been poisoned by old age and torn roots. This was the tree which Applebloom needed help with one day to take down, but Applejack declined helping her. How so this tree symbolized many things going on in Applejack's life. Lifetimes, you could say. She ran away from her problems once again, and knew she surely could not help herself from doing so.

"Applejack, I know you're here! Just come on out so we can talk!"

Applejack could not bring herself to face her sister, and she crawled her way to the trunk of the tree and climbed up the tree successfully to hide from Applebloom. The younger pony looked around for her sister, but soon gave up upon not finding anything. Sighing in relief, Applejack prepared to descend, but surely the drunkenness limited her judgment, as she was bucked out of the tree by Applebloom and fell flat of her back, with the younger pony holding her down with her four legs.

"Please Applejack," the younger said, sniffling back tears and wincing from the wind that blew in her eyes. Her mane was blowing back, as it was free in the flow of the wind, and it was draped over her body and face, almost covering her tear-stricken eyes. "I want to help you, and we cain't wait till tomorrow, we gotta do this today... if you spend one more night like this doing whatever you're doin', you may kill yourself!"

A bottle killed her the first time, and Applebloom's comment made her remember. The ocean, the crashing waves, and the monsoon of the wind which followed her death. The crying and the wind, the mourning, the black void she could not breathe in. Born into another world as a foal, and from birth her memory remained. The new life which she craved, but never again would she meet Megan. Twilight, yes, but Megan, no. But, she could not shake the feeling that if she could reincarnate as a pony, then maybe Megan did as Applebloom, which was why she felt so close to her. Or was it the cider speaking? She laughed, not knowing what to believe in anymore, and now, the painkillers were dying off, and she felt the pain again quadrupled by Applebloom standing on top of her. Unable to scream, Applejack laughed and managed to headbutt Applebloom, who rolled off of her sister and screamed in pain, with her hooves on her face in pain.

"What the hay?!" Applebloom cried out, standing up and looking at her sister, who stood there, motionless and still. She was illuminated by the moonlight and her eyes began to go red, with blood lightly pooled at the side of her eyes. Applebloom covered her mouth, staring at her sister's crazed smile and listening to her scarily rhythmic giggles, nearly about to vomit. "Sis? Are-are you okay?"

"You scared? Then fight me!" Applejack shouted in lunacy. She ran to Applebloom and punched her in the face once, then twice. She did not let up, even after she fell down. "You wanna talk?! Then tell me, Megan! Why did you leave me and the others like that? After all we've been through? Ya just gon' leave us like that?! How'd ya think I felt? How'd ya think anypony felt? Then I spent all them years lookin' for a way... just looking for a way!" She punched Applebloom again, but the younger did not cry out in pain through screaming, she steadily whimpered and yelped whenever she was struck, but did not fight back. "What do you know? What do you know, Megan?!"

Applebloom was crying softly, her face bruised and bloody, she covered her face with her hooves in fear from being hit again. Not as if Applejack lost her madness enough to stop, but she did see that she was not talking to Megan anymore. She looked up at the moon and sighed, then back down to her sister. "Please sis'... stop it..."

Applejack pryed her sister's hooves from in front of her face and punched her in the face again. "Sorry Applebloom, but you pissed me off... just stay out of my business from now on."

Applebloom coughed up blood and looked up to her sister. She truly did not know what to think anymore. She was questioning who Megan was, what the pills and excessive cider was for, and even who Applejack was anymore. "Sis... I-I don't...care anymore..." Applebloom rolled over on her stomach, covering her face and crying loudly. She tried to hold back her sobs in the hopes she would not provoke for her sister to wail on her again. She began to crawl away, and Applejack was nearly going to let her. "I don't know why you're doin' this, but... if I cain't get no answers from ya... what's the point of trying?"

Applejack put her hoof on her sister's tail to stop her. She looked up to the moon and felt rather out of place. The moon could not sustain the life of an apple tree alone. The night was far too cold and too dark. The night was for sleeping, and a tree should not depend upon it. The night was almost like her enemy. Luna was the night, and if a dream followed this experience, then Applejack could not escape the night with the day. Celestia would be alerted, and maybe Applejack would lose her place as part of the Mane Six.

Maybe Applejack would not be Applejack any longer. But she did not want to run away anymore, she had to, and she knew she had to, face her fears and mare up. Stand up to the pain and the ails of her immortal life. She could not escape by running, nor by death, nor by rebirth. Whether or not she could erase her memories, she knew they would stay, and her actions were painful to her being enough. But this life was now, and this problem with Applebloom was real. The memory would forever bother her, but she felt if she ended it with a good note, then it would make the situation less problematic to herself and to Applebloom, to the Apple Family, and to Equinopolis as a whole.

She was at a loss for words, just like Applebloom was. She knew what she had to say, but there was a huge difference between that and what she could say without sounding like a crazy jackass. She picked up Applebloom but fell with the young mare atop of her. Her eyes now crying blood, staring at the bruised mess which was her younger sister's face. Applebloom's tears fell onto Applejack's eyes, seemingly cleansing her bloodshot eyes from the blood and chaos.

The pain was still ungodly and unbelievably unbearable, now magnified by Applebloom's weight. Like lightning striking rods sticking out from every part of her body, burning her flesh and ripping it further apart all the more while shocking her and holding her down to endure every agonizing moment of it that seemed like an eternity.

Applejack too began crying softly, merely apologizing again and again ceaselessly and off like a machine gun, all the more while sobbing with her sister, who told her she would forgive her. As long as she got some help that was. Applejack shook violently as she wrapped her front legs around Applebloom in an embrace, now coughing up blood, which lightly sprayed onto Applebloom's face. The younger cared not, and nuzzled her sister's head with her own.

The stars twinkled as the wind blew softly, and the crescent moon shone brightly. The dead tree still stood, but not alone, as the other tree's branches seemingly connected with its branches, as if to share its pain. Its life was over, but that did not mean the others would forget. And they would continue to hold on until the Apples themselves took it down and gave it a proper burial.

Chapter 4. The Lost Generations

There was no hiding what had happened, Applejack feared. But she had grown quite close to the thought she was deathly honest. Honest straight to the grave. She choked up the courage to face Big McIntosh, who merely asked her what was it that brung her to such a terrible break down. Was it Granny Smith's death, was it the changes which flooded over the years that would leave Equinopolis forever different, or was it just the angst of life. McIntosh really knew how to pull Applejack's heartstrings when it came to self-assessing and self-help, and he only got better now that he was married to a teacher. Applebloom, despite being all banged up by her older sister, still was too stubborn to allow her to refuse help from her. She too tried to get answers from her sister, and did not take any substitutes this time. Bringing up the fact that she was older and more than ready to take on certain truths as she did that beating, Applebloom eagerly awaited the answer. As did Big McIntosh. This whole situation and the thoughts and concerns circling fiercely like a storm in Applejack's head sent her into a flashback, and the pain of dying did also.

Applejack could remember that day as if it were yesterday. She awoke as a young filly in the company of both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who were styling one another's manes. She coughed and noticed she had quite a sniffle with her, she stood up and looked around scardily, noticing she was alive once again. She looked up to the ceiling and at the walls, windows showing outside to a bright, sunny day with rainbows arching over the sky. The sweet scent of flowers shot through her nostrils, and very soon she realized the pollen was tinkering with her allergies, well, at least of this generation.

"Twilight! Twilight! Where are you?! Megan! Twilight! Posey? Fire...fly?" she realized that she was within a different timeline, possibly even a different dimension. She could not bare the thought of never seeing her friends again, but now, all she could do was hide behind the skin she now was clothed in and play along until she got herself some answers.

"Applejack? You okay?" Pinkie asked as she strutted over to her and nuzzled her shoulder and neck. "You're shivering, like you've just seen a ghost!"

"Yeah Applejack! You seem quite spooked, as in that manner which Pinkie just addressed," Rainbow Dash said with a laugh, a laugh far to girlish to fit present Rainbow's at all. Applejack had met the Rarity of this world, and looking back in retrospect, she could now tell that the souls of Rarity and Rainbow had to have been either swapped or turned down completely for the next life, because there was no way that that could have been Rainbow Dash. From a pony who she had to style manes with to a pony who was just as rugged and daring as she was. Maybe not enough to drink a potion that would kill her, but daring enough.

Applejack chuckled, "Oh, it's nothing!" Applejack knew she was in for one heck of a ride.

It would be another three thousand years before she began to experience even the slightest bit of pain from traveling from time to time and being reborn as much as a Buddhist monk with a time machine, and even then it would take another ten thousand (so thirteen thousand years) before she actually had to find an effective way to cancel out the pains, and that same method stuck with her for the rest of the fifty thousand years to her current life in the future timeline.

Through this generation to the timelines leading up to the next, she figured she should learn more deeply on the choice she made pertaining to her dimensional jump, and came to the conclusion that the dimension and timeline which she jumped from was the Mother Dimension. Even she did not like the science fiction-esque name she labeled it, but it would have to do for all eternity. NOT implying she as in she liked science fiction, *not that that there was anything wrong with science fiction...*** Applejack was more of a western style pony, except for that Cowcolts and Aliens, she did not like that.

But Applejack surely knew that if it were possible to go back to the Mother Dimension, which her research actually supported, through flashbacks of a realm of memories and visions of future events that include her actually experiencing changes in body physique as well as even biases, she knew time travel was a given in her near future. But... time travel, how? Time machine? Hidden powers? Leaning towards finding a method of performing the latter, Applejack left her friends once again to find out the truth, well, not really truth, but more like a way. A way to travel back in time. Surely, as crazy as all of this sounded at first, especially to somepony like herself, she had to realize she had just traveled through space and time, literally AND TIME, to a different timeline or dimension with not only her past memories but also with a spiritual awareness of the fact she had only done this and was able to do it via soul exchange and astral projection.

As a soul was invisible but possibly detectable due to experience-able feelings, Applejack knew such a force would be able to perform pretty amazing feats, like traveling through space and time, for example. If she could harness the soul's full potential, especially after being exposed to what it could do as in bending the very physics which bound it, then she would be able to do anything, unrestrained and unrestricted. She ventured away from the girly rainbows and giggling, bubbly madness of what she was born into and searched intensely for any dark forces that could be of any help at all to her cause.

She found a dark forest in her voyage on the lush terrains of which she explored, and this would later be burned into her mind as a precursor to the present Everfree Forest. She found a large, strangely ornamented flower-shaped tree with many smaller flowers and vines of thorns embracing it tightly. This tree bore a crystal which was deathly pale and looked fairly dead, not up to the shine which its host shone with its bright, blooming scarlet flowers. They no longer tickled the pony's nose, as it had already been one hundred years and her body had perfected due to a future Applejack being born and not having the allergy that once was. She then wondered if she could make for herself a time-resistance, just in case there be an Applejack who gets herself killed or something terrible and it affects past Applejack, i.e. current Applejack.

The whole thing greatly confused her, and she actually thought that maybe it was a weird thing that future Applejack could effect past Applejack rather than past Applejack effecting future Applejack. She concluded that the timeline she was in was a branch of the Mother Dimension, obviously, but also that the time was moving in a constant vein of existence which traveled to a short-lived timeline, which Applejack labeled as leaflines. This meant they were no more than repitions that occured within Applejack's existence which made up for only 1% of her entire existence within the Tree of Life. They would sprout up on the end of branch timelines and then end abruptly with no definite births or deaths, they usually only lasted a day, and the longest one ever lasted was a week and five days. Applejack experienced leaflines during sleep or while day dreaming, and seemed to be accessible only when her body was under the influence of either DMT or a different hallucinogenic drug of some sort.

This proved that certain substances could directly effect her soul's ability to bend the fabric of existence itself, but did not allow her to directly influence existence in anyway either than being there. This is also supported by the fact that she also trained herself to become fully aware of what dimension or timeline she inhabited based on her familiarity with the experience.

Whenever she tried to leave her immediate location within leaflines, she would find herself waking up in the branch dimension again without concluding the events which transcribed within the leafline, no matter how much she tried to hold on to her existence there, much like a dream. The branch timelines were hard to distinguish from her Mother Dimension, as they were full existences in which she could roam freely and had full access to any abilities and memories which she had, as opposed to leaflines were she only had knowledge of the current situation and bits and pieces of certain things that happened in the branchlines or the Mother Dimension, much like dreams.

She then realized that she spent more time alive and roaming in branch dimensions and timelines than she did in the Mother Dimension. The Mother Dimension was obviously the Mother Dimension. Applejack, sparing no time, found the crystal to be nothing more than a fruit that was the host of a very hallucinogenic substance which allowed her the ability to return back to the white dimension which she found herself in after dying in her Mother Dimension's counterpart timeline.

She felt as her soul was unleashed and reached her full potential, as she actually managed to master arts of bodily and spiritual abilities that range from astral projection to even elemental control, and depending on the magic-dependability of the generation or timeline she was in, was how effective her abilities were. Depending on the fruit of the tree, which only sprouted in that branch dimension and it's branching timelines to leaflines, Applejack went in and out of this white realm, which she labeled "Skyline", to train and to watch over and manipulate the lives of everypony in the timelines within branch dimensions, but never the main dimension or the Mother Dimension.

Using these abilities, she erased any form of impurity within these realms and made the existence of the ponies now less than an Eden paradise. But... Applejack began to feel the power corrupting her, so she wished upon a star, one of the trillons which filled the already white sky in Skyline, that somepony, anypony would come to stop her. She was filled then with uncontrollable rage, and with this rage, she brought down the moon upon one of the timelines, cutting it off from the branch dimension. Still filled with the wrath, she proceeded to kill many ponies of multiple timelines and even managing to kill a couple of leaflines off with manipulating fate outside of its respective space-time. She tried to do more, but was stopped by Megan, who had become a Venus-like goddess, and Twilight (Velvet), who was an alicorn. Applejack became her present self, the one which lived in the newest generation (which was also conveniently put into the Mother Dimension).

"Applejack... are you scared?" Megan asked, caressing her mane and rubbing her cheeks gently. "You ought not to be, as surely your god-like existence gives you abilities which transcend even mine. You cannot escape from your hatred, your jealousy of all the other ponies... trapped within the White Dimension, and manipulating fate to cause chaos. How proud I am of your progress, but how disappointed I am with your choices."

Applejack began to cry, and Megan showed her her reflection within a mirror. She was colorless with black eyes and red irides. Her cutie mark was nonexistent, and a dark aura flowed from her body and mane and tail. "Wh...what have I become? Who...who am I?"

Twilight approached Applejack and caressed her head with her own. "You have become what the ponies of the past life would call the Demiurge. You have been granted abilities transcending all others by eons and eons! But you have used your powers for hatred and selfish purposes, causing pain to all who dare to anger you with their mere existences."

Applejack looked upon a coming darkness within the Skyline, turning its white purity into a jetblack darkness of red stars and watchful eyes, accompanied by open mouths, starving to devour the souls which Applejack had taken for herself.

"B-but, look at them! They prance around so openly, no pain, no suffering, just mere mortal perfection! They live and die and care not one bit about it! They disgust me!"

Megan brought Twilight away from Applejack, looking to her with weary eyes, nearly spilling tears. She merely shook her head and brought into existence the Sephirotic tree which held the Elements of Harmony within it. She used its energy to harmonize Applejack's, but the pony resisted fiercely. "Just let go of all of your hatred! Please! For us!"

Applejack watched as memories flooded her mind, they were Twilight's and Megan's, along with a lot of others from the Mother Dimension, the memories which were made after Applejack's death, Megan's quest in Skyline to gain power, Twilight's becoming an alicorn.

Applejack felt tears coming into her eyes, and soon she accepted her fate, but her heart grew darker, creating a storm of tendrils escaping from her chest, spraying blood in all directions. The tendrils became Applejack's coat and mane, giving her a black appearence, with red energy and blood spilling from where the spikes of the attire pierced her skin. Her eyes were bloodshot, and crazed, racing in all directions and trying to decipher what was going on.

Applejack rose her hooves to the sky and created a snake of pure darkness, using the forces of Tirek and dark magic, releasing again the disharmonies into all of the branches and even the Mother Dimension.

The darkness spoke for her, "An existence so pained, so lonely, an existence as such allures me! I am her poison! She is mine, and we will spread more to become our fruit of discord!"

The snake circled around Applejack's body and created a cadeuces from her throat out of her spine, at the tip of the rob was a sun. The snake became Applejack's tail, and she grew thirty times her original size. Letting out a huge roar, Applejack dashed towards Megan and Twilight. The Skyline turned black completely, and this memory was lost forever. All Applejack could remember was waking up as a blank flank within the current timeline, in the house of Twilight Velvet. One of so many timelines from this current generation of the Mother Dimension.

Chapter 5. Dead Tree Line

There was never again a feeling of sight, until she woke up with Nurse Redheart performing a blood extraction on her. Applejack sat up quickly,startling the nurse pony and making the syringe fall out of her leg, and she tried to get out of bed, but found she was bound to it. Trying to speak, she also discovered a muzzle on her face preventing her from speaking. Wondering what was going on, she saw Nurse Redheart take a different syringe and stab Applejack with it, injecting her with whatever substance was in it, and it soon put her to sleep.

Luna approached the earth pony within the Skyline, along with Celestia and Twilight Sparkle. Applejack backed away, and fell down onto her behind. She covered her face with her hooves and began screaming and sobbing. Twilight tried to comfort her, but Applejack pushed her wings away and pushed her back. Trying to restrain Applejack with magic was useless, as the earth pony used her mastery of the manipulation of space-time within the Skyline to counter it.

"I've seen it, Applejack," Twilight said with a painfully obvious tone of fear in her voice. "What you are... what you've done..."

"Everything? You've seen everything, haven't ya?" Applejack replied, turning away with her head down. "I really regret what I've done to them other ponies... but, I just couldn't take it no more. And with your mother and with Megan... I don't even know what came over me!"

Twilight came to Applejack's side and put a wing over her. "Applejack, I know you still harbour hatred within your heart... I know you still hold sadness over losing all of your friends over the years and I know for sure you've been running from the truth for so long. You're a lot older than anypony that ever existed, here or there... I've seen into your memories and all of that. But even if you are in despair, you have no need to be so dark and down, wallowing in the endless pain of yours! We can help you, Applejack. All you have to do is come with us, back to the real world. Back to our days. Back to our lives."

Applejack broke down, turning to Twilight and embracing her tightly, crying on her chest. "I'm sorry... I..."

Twilight put a hoof to her lips, getting her to silence herself. "There's nothing else you can say, Applejack. Everything is going to be okay. Hush..."

"But what will we tell our friends? About this? About what they used to be? About what they will become, because of me? What if they become aware of these existences and end up like me, or your mother?"

Twilight giggled, "We'll just come to the road naturally, be sure of that. But we surely still must tell them... You're not going to run away anymore."

Celestia and Luna looked onto them and smiled, touching horns and covering everypony with their magic, teleporting out of the Skyline and back to the hospital grounds, within their original physical bodies.

Soon came the point where everpony in the Mane Six knew about Applejack's travels, and due to reasons which Applejack labeled as "Truth", soon the entirety of Equinopolis knew. Not as much, but still mostly everypony knew.

Discord himself even approached the Apple earth pony to have even deeper conversations on the subject, simply wanting to know more about Applejack's past. Applejack soon began to not mind, especially after Discord and Twilight found a way to halt Applejack's (and later Twilight Velvet's) pains using Chaos magick and Harmony magic to extract the negativity and turn it into a pure, soothing euphoric feeling which took all of the struggles from Applejack's soul.

Velvet soon revealed herself to be still an alicorn, and explained how she became as such.

"Well," she began as she sat in Twilight's throne room with the other alicorn Princesses and the Mane Six along with Discord, the Equinopolis Knights, and Spike, "surely I knew once I came here that I would have to reinforce my immortality through magic and everything like that..."

Velvet awoke in the current generation, which was being formed still as it was the newest and youngest. It was still connected to the Skyline, and had a crazy amount of suns shining in the sky. This made the environment hot as hell, and unbearable to withstand, but Velvet feared she would be stuck here forever, so she figured that she ought to harness the abilities she gained from having been blessed with her immortality.

She could not even get the magic out of her horn at first, and noticed that time was running out. If she could not save this dimension from destruction as it was connected with the Skyline, then the Skyline may be destroyed as well, along with the other dimensions. She had seen them, and she had been studying them closely, just like Applejack had done after her.

She knew that the horn was an instrument of magic, but nopony figured that out yet besides her and a group of Elders she had spoken to in a rogue dimension which disappeared after she left it. No doubt it was just a leafline. Not at all was she confused, just scared and trembling at the thought of being burned by the approaching stars which was frying this dimension like a fish on a grill.

She managed to grab the ends of the stars and push them back with a newfound power that had awakened within her soul. She sensed it coming from the Skyline, as if the realm were alive, giving her the power to defend it from destruction. At that moment she knew that she would become the protecter of the Skyline, and magic would be her most valuable asset. She was sucked into the Skyline along with the great host of stars, and the Skyline closed, turning the stars out from her presence and scattering them all throughout the eternal belt of the Skyline. She was engulfed by a field of her purple magic and was turned into an alicorn. She immediately was famished, almost at wish by the realm which she was in, and it called out to her to sleep. Closing her eyes, she looked down to the dimension which she had saved as Megan came up to her and picked her up to hold her close in an embrace. Velvet laughed, and so did Megan.

"Nice to see you again, huh?" Megan said as she sensed Velvet drifting off to sleep since her eyes were closed. "No worries, Twilight. Soon, we'll find a way to set everything straight. I'm sure of it..."

The story was confusing as it was entertaining, and nopony could wrap their minds around it, not even Applejack. She was the first to question Velvet.

"Twilight...um...I mean, Velvet? How can this dimension be fused with the Skyline directly? The Skyline is a spiritual realm, and it can't be bound by the physical realm we live in."

"That's what I began to think as well," Velvet said, creating in midair a hologram of the Tree of Life which they all lived in. She pointed to the lower trunk of the tree, which seemed to be cut in half near to the top, and became two trunks in one.

The bottom half had its own branches, while the upper trunk only had three with no extra branches or leaflines at all.

"That means that the white realm, or Skyline, as you call it I see, is the progenitor of all the other timelines which we know, and I was born into the newest timeline as it was still being born. The other branches could not handle another main dimension, like the one we used to live in with Megan, so they all became tangled with it and tried to self-destruct it before it even started. I saved it and therefore aided in its completion."

"So, what does that make of our timeline? And what does the white realm have in store for us in the future?" Cadance asked Velvet.

"Well, as it looks from my map of the Universe, the white realm is slowly but surely being halted in progress of creating branches, and it may even stop completely," Velvet explained with a sad tone in her voice.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Twilight asked her mother. "Is that bad?"

Velvet looked to her daughter with worry in her eyes. "Yes... especially with the existence of Tartarus and Disharmony."

"So, you're saying that the existence of Tartarus is because of the white realm?" Celestia questioned her.

Velvet nodded. "That is correct. In fact, during Applejack's first rebirth, I found that she was not reborn within the white realm like I was, she was transported to a black void due to the negativity within her heart. The white realm could not handle such negativity being formed within it, which was also why Applejack could enter it later on. She had concentrated that same badness and turned it into love, though it was short lived and became the merciless slaughtering of life it was, which was when Megan and I were alerted by the white realm to go see what was going on. Heck, I can admit Applejack had more of a close connection to the white realm than I did, as she actually managed to influence it with her negative magic."

"But, where does Tartarus fit in with all of this?" Luna asked.

Velvet continued, "Oh yes! I must say, that after Megan and I defeated Applejack when she became the Demiurge, all of her darkness went into that same void which she was born in, and it became the harbinger of all of Applejack's fears and evil thoughts along with many more disharmonies which were born due to her destruction of the other timelines. Currently, over a billion ponies suffer in its depths, and massive graves ruled by Tirek and many others all sing in a dark chorus waiting until the day they can be free again."

Applejack covered her mouth, trembling and stuttering in disbelief. "So... that land of pain and suffering is... mine?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Velvet replied, then trying to sound chipper again, "But don't worry! I'm sure now that you have been stabilized, Tartarus will stay in a completely different realm and stay out of ours. We should have nothing to worry about as long as we keep Harmony alive and Disharmony tamed."

The staff of the meeting all agreed, and so did Applejack, who tried her best to stay happy in this whole situation. Now that she knew more about her role in the entire existence of the Mother Dimension and anything else which happened within it, along with that strange fact of her creating Tartarus, Applejack could not shake the feeling that she was digging not only a grave for herself, but for everypony and everything to ever exist. She had stopped running and come to terms with everything in her way, telling the truth about everything, but still, there was this deep feeling of uncertainty and fear for the future. She, with the others, merely went home after the meeting was over. She enjoyed another night of no cider and no taking painkillers by the pound... but she found it was hard to break some habits, so she just took one.

It did nothing.

ENDGAME I

Applejack dreamt of the Skyline once again. She walked across the nonexistent floor of the dimension and came to Megan, who was sitting on the ground and eating an apple. Megan was her younger self, and she seemed happy to see Applejack, as she ran to her and hugged her. "Megan? What's goin' on?"

"Applejack! I have seen the things which are unexplainable! My eyes can't stop moving from back and forth, and I know that it is too good to be true, you have to come with!" Megan took Applejack by the hoof and ran with her, bringing her to an edge of the Skyline and showing her a land where ponies, humans, dragons, griffins, and many other creatures lived in harmony.

No one there ate anything meat-based, and all were stuck in pure happiness. The sky was bright and blue, the sun and moon and stars all in the same sky. Equal day and night fell upon the world and orbited to give each and every side an equal amount of light and darkness. The ground was fertile, and the rocks and dirt were gems upon gems.

Angelic creatured flew around in the sky, twirling around a being of intense flames and blinding lights. A golden snake head spun around it in zeal, and many golden wheels with round emeralds within them flew around it. The angelic beings were both humans and ponies, symbolizing that those two races were the master races of the universe as a whole.

The being in the middle picked up Applejack with a golden magic, bringing her closer until she was completely engulfed in the magical golden flames, and the angels and angel ponies sung in harmony with the beings below,

"Holy Virgin! Young and Sweet! Broken away from her chains of sin, now the black of the dirt is washed away by the golden light and blood of the Most Favored, Megan!"

Megan was taken by a dark light, and a being of pure darkness and red, violet, and blue stars grabbed her with its hands. The being cackled as it used its darkness to pull out a heart of golden light from Megan's chest. Megan screamed in pain, and Applejack cried out Megan's name. The creatures above and below kept singing the chant over and over,

"Holy Virgin! Young and Sweet! Broken away from her chains of sin, now the black of the dirt is washed away by the golden light and blood of the Most Favored, Megan!"

The being of darkness devoured the heart of gold and left Megan's body to be eaten by the snake. Applejack screamed, as she was taken into the being of light's body and became cloaked in a dress that was close to her Demiurge form. A glowing golden collar on a purely white as glass dress with a dress tail resembling a snake. A white horn was mounted on her head with large white wings to match, and with this, her mane proceeded to turn white as her cutie mark disappeared. Her eyes turned from green to pure white, like Twilight's eyes when she is overtaken by her magic's full potential.

She looked down at the angels circling her, and their fires engulfed her and detonated, sending a blast of magic in all directions, including one that pierced the throat of the being of darkness, striking Megan and sending a cloud of her blood in all directions, raining down on everyone in its way.

"Applejack!"

Applejack found herself in the Skyline again, as Megan, in her goddess form, was being entwined with the tendrils of the dark being. She tried to pull Megan away, but the darkness punched her away and began to laugh. "Megan! Please! Don't go... Why are you doing this?"

"Applejack, I know you feel quite in shambles from this... but it is for the best. I'm giving up my pure heart for you... You're slipping deeper into darkness, ever since you have cleared yourself, you couldn't really get rid of that darkness which lingered in you since my death. It is the darkness which created the disharmonies in the world today, and you were slowly giving birth to another."

"But Megan, Ah--That's impossible! Ah have felt better since I told the truth! The darkness should be gone now!"

"Applejack. You don't understand. The first victory was only a slight covering for the Rainbow of Darkness within you, it even seeped into many different dimensions within the Tree of Life. This will guarantee that we halt its progress and possibly you and your friends can use the Elements of Harmony to destroy it immediately before it causes any damage."

"Megan! What will happen to you? And what do you mean by the Rainbow of Darkness? I thought we destroyed that a long time ago!"

"My last words to you, Applejack... will be the ones you cling on to the most until this problem is solved... I know that you and I have not spent much time together after my death, and I know how that fairs on your feelings. I'm sorry we missed out on what could have been so much, and I take the blame for it completely. It's my fault that darkness was inside of you, it's my fault the Rainbow of Darkness was reborn inside of you... but look, if it gets out of control, I can't assure that what happened last time won't happen again. You, Twilight, and the others must use the Sephirot of my soul within you to unlock the full potential of your souls. The Elements of Harmony with harmonize your energies and with your soul, to make coming to the white realm to cure it that much easier! Now, you must hurry, Applejack! The beast in front of you is the true Demiurge! It plans to eat the entire Tree of Life and remake it within the depths of Tartarus, creating the fabled Hell of our time. You must bring your friends back to the Universalis Unicorns and Celestial Pegasi of the old realm to gain their knowledge of the secrets of our world. I am sure they knew, as they are the ones really who set us up... They are the real villains here... but with all that aside, I'm truly sorry, Applejack. For everything, I should have tried to spend more time with you, but--"

Applejack ran to Megan, hugging her tightly as her body began to be torn to shreds by the black tendrils which held on to her and had pierced her skin. Applejack was bawling, tears pouring, her legs wrapped around Megan tightly, her body trembling. "Stop! Don't say anything anymore about that! I know how sorry you feel, and every time you see me, I can feel it in you that you regret not spending more time with me! But don't you think I get tired of seeing you suffer about it just as much as you do? Huh?!"

Megan dropped to her knees, with her arms around Applejack, squeezing her. She nuzzled her and began to cry as well. "I...I know, Applejack. I just wanted you to know how sorry I am... Honest!"

"Honest? Well, I guess I ought to be honest too. Megan, I love you."

"Well, coming on to me?"

"Oh... Megan?! You don't think I--"

Megan laughed, looking Applejack in the eyes as she began to disappear into a bright light which sparkled in the direction of the gaping mouth of razor sharp teeth accompanied by the watching eyes of the Demiurge. "I love you too, Applejack. When you see Twilight, tell her I said the same to her. And to Posey, and to Firefly, to Sparkler, to Spike--"

"They have new names now, but I'll be sure they know how much of a good person you are... I... I'll miss you Megan. Even though we didn't have no times here... I'm glad we had our times in the other world. I appreciate them..."

Megan was about to say something else, but her voice faded to a whisper as she disappeared from sight and gave her spirit to Applejack, as her body was devoured by the Demiurge.

"Well, it seems you have become as well rounded pony since I've inhabited you, Applejack!" the beast laughed as it approached Applejack, but was halted by her glow of holy energy and magic. "In this realm, you have become the true god! And I applaud that, but even a god can't stop the chaos I am about to ensue! You cannot stop the Endgames! No matter how hard you try, you can't stop the end from happening, and I'm sure you saw that with your sappy last encounter with Megan. You can't use Elements to stop me, or Nightmare! Or Tartarus! We all will rise against your puny world and take it for our own... I tried to use you, but you couldn't be converted, as you truly are the Holy Virgin of the legends. I will let you live for now, as I have just been presented to freedom since the last time we met... until we meet again, this is goodbye."

"I don't care what you think, or what you plan to do! I'll stop you... Me and my friends! We won't fall to somepony like you, and as long as I rule Skyline, the world will go on forever!" Applejack shouted, shooting forth a blast of golden flaming magic at the Demiurge, who dodged and made a swift escape. Soon, Luna joined her in the Skyline again, and she pat Applejack's back.

"So, are you truly an Alicorn?" Luna asked her, with a look of concern. "If you do come back in this form, I don't think the world will be able to handle it."

"This is only my Glory," Applejack said with a chuckle. "This form is only visible while within the Skyline. When I go back, I'll still have all of my powers and whatnot."

"You say it as if I'm completely familiar with it, but I must see these so called powers of your's! They sound awesome and amazing!"

"Sorry, Princess Luna, but didn't ya hear? If we don't prepare like Megan told us too, then it'll mean trouble!"

Luna blushed quite heavily. "Oh, my deepest apologies, I was merely entrapped in what wonders you hold in store with your experience and abilities."

"Trust me, it's amazing, but it ain't the point right now! We gotta get back and prepare ourselves for trouble, the Demiurge could be back soon at any minute!"

Luna nodded. "Right!" she exclaimed excitedly as she watched Applejack use her magic to open a portal back to the real world. Applejack returned to normal after she walked through, and they ended up in Applejack's bedroom.

ENDGAME II

Twilight awoke prematurely from her slumber, finding Luna and Applejack by her side. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Applejack? Princess Luna? Why are you here?... is...is there something wrong?"

"Twilight! I just had a vision... er... an out-of-body experience, in Skyline," Applejack replied, as Luna nodded to give approval.

Twilight rose quickly, and she teleported next to the two, with wonder in her eyes. "Applejack! You're like a book! A novel of such wonders and surprises, you never cease to amaze me!"

"I'm flattered, Twi, but... my experience was far from good," Applejack said solemnly. "I'm afraid that Megan, my friend from all my memories, has given up eternal life for my sake..."

"Your sake? Sake of what? I thought that everything wa fine between you too... My mom made sure of that."

Applejack needed to explain herself, so she began, "Well, there I was, in Skyline..."

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. "There's so much to wrap my head around... but surely we have to get the others and the Elements of Harmony so we can go into Skyline and stop our enemies! We can do it, I know we can! Our friendship hasn't failed us even once. As long as we stay calm and stay together, we will pull through!~"

"Shall I go alert my sister? Surely she is up, for the time to begin the rising of the sun is nigh," Luna suggested.

"Yes, Princess Luna, you must go immediately, Applejack and I will get our friends," Twilight replied, as she left with Applejack and Luna made her way off to Canterlot. "Applejack, can you use your powers to our advantage, or can you not?"

"I prefer to not use my powers in the Mother Dimension, but now, I guess I must..." Applejack said, as she looked on to the breaking dawn and the shining moon and stars. She began to emit a light, golden orange aura-like magic from her body, and her cutie mark gave it a red outlining. She managed to grow large wings, as big as Twilight's, and a long Alicorn horn. Her aura sent her into her Rainbowfied form, and it leaked on over to Twilight, who went into her Rainbowfied form as well. "An alicorn form... I don't know what to say... it feels so, unnatural and unnecessary. Do I really need this?"

"I know how you feel Applejack, and I can kind of understand the feelings going through your head right now," Twilight said with a smile. "The responsibility that comes with being an alicorn can only be granted to those who can truly bend magic and understand friendship as well as a different feeling that has the same affect that magic and friendship do. Applejack, can you think of a feeling that has stuck with you since your birth?"

Applejack began to think, and she reviewed her life moment after moment. Adventurous, daring, honest, devoted, all of them spun through her head. But she could not pinpoint which one it was. "I don't know, Twi... but we don't have no time to sit around like this! Alicorn or not, I can't sit here and do nothing! Come on!" Applejack spread her wings, and nervously took flight, dashing with great speed towards Rainbow Dash's house. Twilight followed happily, glad to see Applejack so set to find a solution to this conflict.

Fluttershy woke from her sleep, rubbing her belly as it rumbled. "Are you hungry too, my little dear?"

Discord awoke as well, hearing Fluttershy's latest remark. "If you want, I could whip you up a couple of hayburgers. It'll only take a second.~"

"Yes please, honey," Fluttershy sighed gladly. She took a plate of nicely stacked hayburgers from Discord, who smiled at her as she giggled. "Your chaos powers surely have a harmonious charm to them. You can create anything from nothing, it's such a scary power when you think about it."

"Oh Fluttershy," Discord began with a slight blush. "These powers don't have to be scary anymore... You ponies taught me I could use these abilities for a greater cause. And I guess the occasional making of food is good enough for me. And of course, who needs powers when I can have a sweet force of nature in my company like you?"

Fluttershy blushed, kissing Discord for such a kind remark. "Oh, I could just eat you up, you sweet little cupcake!~"

They shared a laugh, until being interrupted by a knock on the door. Fluttershy quickly scarfed down the burgers and went with Discord to check on who was knocking at the door. Surely enough, it was every member of the Mane Six, all equip with their Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy and Discord's jaws dropped when they found Applejack to now be an alicorn. "Applejack? Is that...is that you?" Fluttershy whimpered scardily, slowly walking up to her previously an earth pony best friend.

"Yeah Fluttershy, some things have happened, and I've been forever changed," Applejack said with sorrow in her voice, "I will need the help of both you and Discord, Fluttershy. I'm afraid that our threats have only managed to get worse... We need you and your Element to help us."

"But Applejack, you're an alicorn! How did this happen?" Fluttershy gasped.

Applejack used her horn to transmit the memory of her experience in the Skyline to Fluttershy and Discord, who solemnly accepted their role now as the heroes of all of existence. "Now you know," Applejack said to them all. "As a matter of fact...--"

Pinkie screamed, pointing to a large black cloud that covered up the coming light of the sun. The cloud descended down in the middle of Equinopolis, and all of the ponies were drawn into it by some hypnotic spell which it gave off in its dark aura. "What's happening over there?!" she cried.

Twilight and Applejack stepped up, looking defiant and ready to face anything and everything. "No time to waste, we have to go save everypony from messing with it!" Twilight ordered them, teleporting them all to the dark cloud pillar. The Mane Six all activated their Elements, and Discord used his magic to drag the hypnotized ponies away from it while providing them with shield. They all soon were Rainbowfied, and they used the collective forces of the Elements of Harmony to try and neutralize the dark pillar, but the Rainbow of Darkness counter-attacked them. The Mane Six and Discord all went flying back, landing in a large pond and sinking down quickly, but Twilight saved them using a barrier and levitation.

"That thing, is the first thing that has countered the power of the Elements!" Twilight cried, setting everypony down and spectating the movements of the now released Rainbow of Darkness, which came back into the cloud and made a fog like cloud upon the surface of the ground.

"The Elements of Harmony are non-lethal, the only way we can defeat this thing is if we kill it!" Applejack told them all, as the wind began to pick up and thunder sounded all around them.

"How do you know?" Twilight asked Applejack.

"I know because that Rainbow of Darkness is the same one from my old life... it was what gave Tirek his power, and we used the Rainbow of Friendship to destroy both him and the Darkness, surely it killed him," Applejack replied. "The only force we can use is lethal force, we have to destroy our enemies!"

"But, we've never destroyed anything before, how can we do it now?" Fluttershy whimpered as she was trembling uncontrollably.

Applejack looked to them with concern. She thought back to how she used to destroy the ponies who were underneath her, and how easy it became. She shed a tear for how unprepared her friends truly were for this situation. "You guys go on and get the citizens away from here... I can't bring y'all into somethin' that y'all can't handle. Maybe I should do this..."

Fluttershy insisted, "But--" Twilight held her back, looking to her and shaking her head. Fluttershy began to sob. "You're... not serious Applejack... if the Elements Harmony can't beat that thing, what makes you think you can? You'll get yourself killed!"

"Fluttershy! No!" Twilight shouted at the pegasus pony. "Applejack wouldn't take on something she know she can't handle! And if she can't, then she'll pull through... she always has. Haven't you, Applejack?"

Applejack looked up, then smiled upon seeing her friends looking to her. She thought of all the times they had together, and how the times were going now. How much they have grown and matured, how much they had changed, and the things about them that never would. Fluttershy was still being herself, and so was Twilight, but Applejack knew it was because of this. It was that same adventure they strived for the past ten years. It had been so long, and yet, it was truly different. Completely different than anything they had dealt with before. Applejack shed more tears, and brung them all in for a hug. "I'll be fine...I'm sure of it...I promise!"

"Pinkie Promise?!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Applejack chuckled. "Yep! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

The Mane Six, with Discord taking Applejack's spot, all left, telling Applejack to be careful, good luck, and that they knew she could take this thing down. How hard could it be? Applejack looked on as the cloud opened to reveal a tall, black unicorn within, with a long, flowing midnight violet mane. Her eyes opened to a baby blue glow with slits for pupils. Applejack had seen this within a leafline, it was Nightmare Rarity.

"Well, surely I knew from the start you were my foil, but this? Hey, hey, now!" Applejack shouted triumphantly. "When I heard the Demiurge say Nightmare, I had no idea he meant YOU."

The Demiurge spoke through Nightmare Rarity, using her voice. "I can't rest assured knowing that a beautiful villain like this fell so easily! I had to resurrect her, and now, I'll use her to destroy you!"

"Ha! Her? Take down me? You're kiddin'!" Applejack dashed towards Nightmare Rarity, who used her dark blackish blue magic to press back the pony, who teleported up and out of the way. Applejack dropped down and kicked her in the head, but the mare quickly rose back up, using the Demiurge's black tendrils to hold her in place.

Applejack laughed, as her light magic began to combat the Demiurge's. She managed to break free and kicked a hole in Nightmare Rarity's body, but the grievous wound merely regenerated. Applejack grimaced at this, and she flew in a circle around the mare, creating a tornado and bucking it into a building. She charged a light of golden magic at the tip of her horn and discharged it as a laser, sending it right through Nightmare Rarity's right eye. Nightmare Rarity still healed herself, and used her magic to pick up carriages to throw at Applejack, who merely kicked and shattered them. This attempt of attack was not even an attack however, as Nightmare Rarity used this as a distraction to hide in the shadows until she would attack once again.

"C'mon out, ya coward! Fight me! Or do ya know y'all gonna lose?"

Nightmare Rarity lunged out at her and managed to kick her back, then cut her body with one of the dark tendrils before Applejack could jump back fast enough. "You have no grace, Apples!" the mare shouted, as the black tendrils had given up some of its magical DNA to run through Applejack's veins. "Remember the hatred, the pain you felt for all those years! And it's all because of those damn ponies! You should fucking skewer them and send them all to Hell with us! Hell is rising, and has already risen! *The end is now! Give in to your hatred, and follow me*!" Nightmare Rarity ran towards Applejack once again, preparing herself to stab Applejack with a lance of the black flesh of the Demiurge, but Applejack grabbed the lance with her bare hooves and scoffed.

"You villains will never learn," she began, looking up to Nightmare Rarity as the Sephirotic tree of life appeared glowing behind her as a magical gate to and from Skyline. "If you think I'll fall to the forces of Hell, then you haven't witnessed Heaven yet!" The angels of Skyline who followed the orders of Applejack flew forward out from the gates, clad in golden armor with weapons to aid them in battle. Nightmare Rarity tried to escape, but found that Applejack had jammed her hoof into her chest, taking hold of her heart. "You know, this Sephirot has ten spheres to them... There's the Kingdom, the Foundation, the Perpetuity, the Splendor, the Adornment, the Majesty, the Strength, the Understanding, the Wisdom, and finally, the Crown... but, surely all things do have a dark side...There is also the Daat sphere...it cancels and makes negative what once was and ultimately destroys it. Such a scary power, right?" A grey energy emerged from the Tree of Life and began to smother Nightmare Rarity. She screamed in agony and great fear as her body began to deteriorate and become light. Applejack used a blade of light magic to shatter her and destroy her completely. The Rainbow of Darkness made its escape and scurried away from Applejack, who concluded she now had to find her friends.

ENDGAME III

The sky was dark, and the clouds blackened the landscape, as the Rainbow of Darkness roamed freely, devouring ponies and other organisms alike as they tried to scurry for escape. Discord, with the five of the Mane Six saved as many lives as they could as the alarms sounded. Equestria, the world, everypony was warned all around.

The pain and sorrow chased by the black, faithless to any other fate than that of death, the ponies running from the black clouds curled together, trembling in fear and begging to keep their lives in its presence. It granted them only death, and they screamed, seemingly accepting it sadly.

A shield of pink magic covered them as Twilight came to the rescue, she teleported them to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who led any survivors to the magic proof shelter constructed by a construction group of pony guards. Twilight turned to the Rainbow of Darkness, blasting it with her magic and driving it back by just a little.

She flew high into the air and scaled the length of the black fog, finding it was spanning already nearly inch of Equinopolis already. She knew if this problem was not solved, this blob of mysteries would corrupt all who fell into it and rise an army strong enough to push back against the Mane Six. She began to worry, and found her negativity soothing her.

"Seems like you have used the magic of darkness already... Have you been hiding it?"

Twilight felt her mind being assaulted by the Demiurge, finally hearing its voice. She closed her eyes as the wings of the angels brushed past her.

"I have, but my magic is now pure! The Elements of Harmony make sure of that!" she barked back as the Demiurge's cackle of bewitchment flooded the skies and knocked both the angels and Twilight down.

The Demiurge showed itself to be a black coated mare with skeletal armor and a flowing mane of black, white, and iridescent flames. Looking on at her opponent in confusion, Twilight was not prepared to be tackled by her at such a speed. The Demiurge bucked Twilight in her face and then used her mane to bind Twilight's limbs and reach for her Element of Magic. Panicking, Twilight used her teleportation spell to escape the binds of her assailant. The angels swirled around the Demiurge, attacking fiercely and relentlessly.

"Go! Your battle is not here! You must go and save the innocent souls from decay!" a voice called out to her.

Twilight was instantly drawn in by this voice, as it flowed so smoothly it was like silk to her ears. She had heard the expression, "the voice of angel" countless times, but today she finally got to hear it. She was marveled at the angels' authoritatively beautiful sound, and flew away from the scene as the angels battled the Demiurge, silently cheering them on.

The dark smoke and deterioration of the land became so insignificant compared to the bright radiance and harmony which emanated from the angels' being. They were truly marvelous, awesome, unrivaled in their majestic being. She thought of how powerful Applejack had to truly be to have such wonderful, beautiful, blessed creatures at her aid.

It put her own authority to shame... the power which Applejack possessed was truly power to be envied. Twilight caught herself before she lost herself, and teleported quickly out of the vicinity of the ambush, but the Demiurge plowed through the winged ponies and humans, aiming her horn at Twilight, who had half the mind to dodge, but the Demiurge appeared before her and kicked her down.

Calling out for help, Twilight turned over and tried to teleport again, but the Demiurge bent space and time to halt her. Twilight tried now to fly away, but again, found she could not move. The Demiurge shot a laser of rainbow at Twilight, hitting her on the back and triggering an explosion. Twilight screamed, falling forward on her face and cringing in intense pain.

"Oh, stop trying to escape," the Demiurge said to her, "you understand not that once I defeat you all and take Applejack's Glory for my own, I will become the god of this universe. The Ones, being you of the troubled prophetic dreams of the Sage, will not fulfill that dry old man's visions of bullshit. I will go down in history as Applejack! I will take the credit all for myself!"

"Monologue, right?" Twilight chuckled, standing up and turning to the Demiurge. "For the most powerful villain I've ever faced, you sure do talk more than all of them... put together actually!" She teleported above the Demiurge and placed a multi-layered barrier around her. "My magic may not come close to god level... but it's enough to halt a being as full of vainglory as you are."

She teleported again, farther away and began to fly where she sensed the magic signatures of her friends. She looked around, the dying corruption of what was Equinopolis, now vacant of life thanks to the efforts of the ones protecting it. Twilight sighed, as she knew the casualties were at a minimal thanks to her friends.

Sooner or later, she would hear from Celestia and Luna telling her that Canterlot was okay. Then from Cadance that the Crystal Empire was fine. She then sensed a great upset within the air, behind all the darkness which was already plaguing the air and poisoning her senses.

"Twilight!"

The alicorn princess turned in all directions, searching for her friend who shouted her name. She found nothing, and began to grow ever so more worried.

"Who's there?! Are you okay?!" she cried, when suddenly a tentacle of the black fog pulled her down and clouded over her. She cried out for help, sticking her hoof out for anypony to grab. "Help me! Somepony! Anypony!" She began crying as the fog entered her mouth, it tasted like smoke, and it burned her throat and eyes. Close to vomiting as she was now gagging, Twilight began to fall unconscious.

"Hold on, Twilight! I gotcha!" Rainbow pulled the alicorn out of the fog and escaped the other tendrils of an eternal embrace, flying high into the air. "Twi! Twi! Wake up!" She shook Twilight, who began to cough as she regained her senses. "Thank heavens, you're okay..." Rainbow hugged Twilight, who hugged her back. "Now, we got everypony out and to safety... Should we go with them, or try to blast these fuckers to Tartarus from where they came?"

"Where's Applejack?" Twilight questioned, breaking out of the hold and scanning the ground below, until Rainbow pat her back.

"Oh, Twi! You should've seen her! She was the most awesome thing I've ever seen! I can't believe you missed that bad-ass flank-kickin' battle!" Rainbow exclaimed, twirling in the air as the wind blew fiercely, knocking Twilight off balance a bit. "She was all like. 'Boom!' and the bad guy was like 'we will win and send you to hell!', and Applejack was like, 'y'all don't mess with mah friends like they're y'all slaves', well, I forgot what she said... but it was awesome, Twi!"

Rainbow grabbed her and flew off to where the rest of the Mane Six and others, without Applejack, where waiting for Twilight to return.

"Our duties of saving the entirety of what we could from Equinopolis was a success," Discord told Twilight, who stumbled once she got onto the ground. "We received word from Celestia also, she said the ponies are in good hooves with the guards she sent to aid us."

"Princess Celestia? Where is she?" Twilight asked.

"She told me that she and Luna were preparing a magical weapon that your mother had been building and testing for this day," Discord replied with a chuckle. "Everything's gone so smoothly, I'd say it was quite a miracle, right girls?"

They all nodded, even Spike, who was not even a girl but had gotten used to being the only guy besides Discord. Then Twilight spoke, "But... Applejack... Where is she?"

Nopony knew, as they all shrugged. Twilight began to worry, and she lay down, beginning to feel strangely overcome by tiredness and fatigue of nothing she had ever experienced before. She tried to stand once more, but found herself too weak to do so. The Demiurge's blast to her back was fairly concentrated and still stung her like a knife in her side, and the fog drained a large amount of her magic. She felt weaker than a dead tree branch.

Fluttershy nudged Twilight, looking to her with concern in her eyes. "I'm sure Applejack is okay... She is great, isn't she? She's pretty much the strongest one on our team, with a lot more experience than us for generations!"

Twilight sighed, then smiled. "I guess you're right... I just... I just have this terrible feeling that something terrible will happen. I bet it's nothing, though. We've pulled through a lot of things, and this is something we can handle, right?"

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed.

"That pony is our strongest leg," Spike said to himself, looking off into the distance, taking witness to a storm of angels swirling around one target. He squinted to get a better look, and saw giant black tentacles ripping through the heavenly creatures like they were melting butter, blood sprayed out like rain and the beast inside burst through with an ear-piercing shriek of rage in its purest form. It was pure darkness and leaked shadows, it had a long neck and a mouth that extended like a lizard's, with rows of razor sharp teeth and a tongue of rainbows. No doubt this was the Rainbow of Darkness' true form. "Uh... guys...?"

Catching the attention of all the ponies there, Spike pointed them all to the sight which was to be seen, though they already had noticed it from the roar just recently.

"We cannot falter!" Twilight urged them. "I know we've never took on something like this, but we've been here long enough to know exactly what to do... And with the strongest souls in Equestria on our side, we have this victory in the bag! This battle will be a fierce one, but I assure you, our friendship has taught us that we can overcome anything! We have Discord to vouch for that! Now, are you with me?" Twilight levitated herself in the air, holding out her hoof.

Rainbow grabbed on, then Spike, then Discord, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity. Twilight levitated them all up and teleported them all to downtown where the beast of darkness raging was throwing its tantrum of the eternity.

"That thing is huge! How're we gonna get that thing down?!" Pinkie shouted, as Twilight used her magic to blast the beast. Pinkie noticed her Element of Laughter shining brightly, and so was everypony else's Element.

"Applejack said that the Rainbow of Darkness was defeated by the Rainbow of Friendship... so if we recreate that same effect, we can take this thing down!" Twilight answered, as the magic shot out and pushed back the beast. The angels used their own attack formation to help, bringing down storms to weaken it as the Mane Six attacked. "Spike! Discord! Can you two do something about its footing? Try that new trick you two have been working on! It's bound to work!"

Spike nodded, as Discord teleported them to the foot of the beast, where it was firmly rooted in the ground. Discord used his chaos magic to warp Spike into his full grown dragon form, equipped with long spikes going down his back, arms, legs, and stomach. Spike was even bigger than the beast itself, and he gave it a strong kick to the gut, then breathing his teleportation fire onto it. The fire split it into five parts, which all became smaller beasts which tried to grow into the larger beast individually to multiply to problem massively. Spike proceeded to split them again and again as Discord took their respective magic of darkness within to neutralize it to his own.

"This is a bit new to our strategy!" Spike exclaimed, as Discord became a giant sword for Spike to wield.

"Whoa!" Rainbow shouted with a gasp of heavenly surprise. "When did they learn to do that?!"

Spike swung the sword into the half reformed beast, cutting it in half, then he and Discord returned to normal as Twilight and friends blasted their Harmony magic into the wound to weaken and kill the beast from the inside out.

"Keep pushing girls! We almost got it! Then we can help Applejack!" Twilight cried, until noticing Applejack by her side helping them. "Applejack? It's you!"

"Sure, Sugarcube!" Applejack replied. "But Ah came to help y'all! Ya can't have the Rainbow of Friendship without all ya friends, now can ya? On top of that, Megan's friendship is essential to the equation, and Megan gave her friendship to me! Now, all together now!"

The ponies all cheered as they recreated the new Neo Rainbow of Friendship, the Rainbow of Harmony, to blast into the beast of the Rainbow of Darkness. Discord and Spike used their giant sword combo to slash down into the beast and force it to the ground so the Rainbow of Harmony could skewer it and allow the angels to seal it completely.

It gave a roar, a blast of energy to try to push them back, but the friends pushed back even harder. The Rainbow of Darkness' beast faltered in the struggle, and found itself vaporized almost instantly by its opponent rivaling its strength. The force of their power blasting the ground and shooting to return blew them all back, including the angels. With the fog retreating to its source, the Mane Six thought not to allow it to escape, but they followed it relentlessly, with the mindset to not let it escape.

"What is that thing?" Rarity groaned. "It makes me feel so... empty..."

"Ah don't know for sure mahself, Rarity," Applejack said, "but if the Demiurge spawned it, Ah can be sure saying it's all one in the same, right?"

The sky lit up with a bright light, and the sky presented itself to be black, and the stars all began to go out. Pale white water shot up from the ground, and massive pillars of dark red flames threatened to incinerate them.

"Get down!" Twilight cried, as she and Applejack erected barriers to protect them from the waters raining and the fires falling. The water itself began to eat away at the fire, and this made Fluttershy duck for cover.

Discord looked closely at the elements which attacked them, and he absorbed them using his magic, but found them to be highly poisonous to him. He teleported out of the barrier and created a small warp hole to transport the falling rains of hell to a different place.

As Twilight and Applejack let up their barriers to see what was happening with clearer vision, they could not believe their eyes. Equestria was somehow folding in on itself, and presented Cloudsdale over Equinopolis with Canterlot and the Crystal Empire with the other lands arching over in front of it as walls. The fire made itself as a river and the source was a portal that was entwined with the river of poisonous waters. The dark sky was lit up by a black sun, and the shadows and colors of the world were inverted to their opposite colors. A massive earthquake shook the ground, making everypony fall to their knees, now forced to hear the Demiurge speak.

"The river of Styx and Phlegethon have leaked over onto Equestria, and Tartarus has awakened from his slumber!" the Demiurge boomed, teleporting in front of them in her current form. She eyed Applejack and then Twilight. "So much raw power flows through you, and it's almost like you don't even want to use it. I speak to the both of you, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle. Why do you fight for such weak life forms, when you both clearly can join my forces?"

"Don't pull that 'join me cuz I'm evil' crap on us!" Applejack cried, stomping her left forehoof down. "Ya don't get us at all! Our friendship is more than some false promise of joy on your side! Do you think we would actually leave our beautiful home for all your hellish realms?"

The Demiurge laughed, and began to walk forward towards them. Rainbow, Spike, and Discord jumped in front of Applejack and Twilight to protect them. The Demiurge, with a swipe of her hoof, manipulated the gravity to push them out of the way and towards a pillar of flames. Applejack was quick enough to save them, but distracted, she found the Demiurge had shoved her horn into Applejack's chest.

The sun turned red at that moment, and the quakes stopped as the flames died down. There was silence for a while, until Applejack looked at the wound in her chest and kicked the Demiurge away from her. She fell on her stomach and noticed black veins spreading throughout her body.

"This world belongs to Tartarus now, and you cannot use your god powers here. This realm is out of your jurisdiction, but me... I can basically do everything you can... Afterall, we were once one in the same Applejack." The Demiurge prepared to finish of Applejack, who was paralyzed, until Twilight intervened and tackled the Demiurge to the ground.

"Now! Let's use our Rainbow of Friendship to put an end to this, girls!" Twilight ordered them, as everypony's Elements began to shine, even Applejack's. The Rainbow sprouted upwards and shot down onto Twilight and the Demiurge, greatly harming the both of them. Screaming in pain, the Demiurge hooved Twilight in her face, expecting the Rainbow to stop, but it attacked fiercer. She ran around in circles trying to get it off of her, but it was no use. She fell on her face motionless, her body fading away from the power of Friendship.

Friendship's Fire took its place over Applejack, healing her wounds and the spreading veins around her body. She stood up and gazed at the twinkling beauty of the fire, and noticed that all of her friends were enshrouded with it as well, even Discord and Spike.

"The Fire of Friendship has taken favor with us..." she said to herself, bowing down and beginning to cry in joy. "Ah knew there was hope... as long as all the other legs work, they can push on for the broken one and make it work better."

"Dammit!" the Demiurge cried as its skin was burned off to reveal a skeleton of silver and gold. The Rainbow of Friendship was absorbed by the Friendship's Flame, and the Elements of Harmony came together, using Applejack's god powers to enhance themselves and their overall control on Harmony. "Nooo! What's happening? This isn't... the end..."

Twilight Velvet, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all descended with a pod large enough to hold everypony there.

"Quick!" Celestia urged them. "Get in! The weapon is about to go off after the set amount of time has reached its end."

"Princess! Are you okay? Are Canterlot and the other places okay?" Twilight questioned her as she got into the pod with her friends.

"Yes... the winged creatures of the heavens made sure of that... Right now, we're the only ones left in the world," Celestia replied with a solemn look on her face. "But still, though everypony else was saved, the casualties were still great, and the loss of life still pains me... But as long as you all are okay, I can live on with a smile that you were a great help to not only Equestria, but the world as well."

Boarding the pod as it flew to the side of the bowl which was now Equestria to Canterlot, they all could rest as the Demiurge was seemingly dead or at least still dying. Upon making it to Canterlot, thanks to the gravity shifting to allow them to walk on the ground as it was steeper than a cliff drop, they found the castle destroyed, but a large cannon with many ports to allow extra power sources into it still stood.

"Now go, I'm sure the Elements can still save Equestria, and the world," Velvet began. "My research shows that the Elements needed your great level of friendship to work against the Demiurge, since it's on a completely different level than anything you've fought so far."

"But something felt... off..." Applejack said. "Ah know the Elements are very powerful magical items, but surely the Demiurge didn't put up much of a fight either... It just... took the beating."

"Maybe it gave up because of how awesome we are! Party with the angels, WHOO!" Pinkie shouted, bumping hooves with Rainbow Dash, who laughed in assent. "We are the best team Equestria has to offer, so no wonder it gave up! The poor little guy saw what it was up against and knew it bit off more than it could chew."

"As much as I would like to believe you, I don't think it was fighting to survive through the battle..." Twilight said, walking up to her mother. "The Demiurge's main objective was to raise Tartarus onto our world, and though it seemed as if it wanted to rule over the land, he made it pretty clear that there may be another force working with it from Tartarus. Princess Celestia? Mom? Do you know anypony strong enough in Tartarus to take over for somepony like the Demiurge?"

"Tirek is out of the question, but he has been our main problem since the very beginning," Velvet replied. "I don't know much about Tartarus to even name many face from there. And I speak on the behalf of all of us... We know nothing of what we're up against, but we do know a way to stop it."

"But if we don't know how strong Tartarus is, how can we be sure the Elements power can stand against it?" Spike asked, watching the Mane Six place their Elements into the ports made for them into the cannon.

"My dear little boy Spike," Velvet said gently. "The Elements right now are stronger than they have ever been... especially with Applejack's Heavenly Sephirot of the Tree of Life and the Fire of Friendship empowering them. These are everything one could ever ask for, all jumbled up into one. These powers are so strong, even the Demiurge, a godlike figure who can stand up even against a pony like Applejack, could not handle on his own. This goes to show how powerful friendship is! Our bonds are the strongest that this universe has ever seen and I bet that's enough in of itself to stop the forces of Tartarus."

"That's what you think, but we grow tired of watching you..." a masculine voice said, as a feminine voice followed it up,

"We did enjoy your channel! Honest! But we got tired of the same message being shoved down our throats again and again! We know how strong Friendship is, but would it kill ya to jump over a shark or something? We're getting bored here!"

A group of sixteen anthro ponies cloaked in black hoods walked through a portal from the First Generation of the Mother Dimension. Eight of them had unicorn horns poking out of the black hoods, while the others had multi colored wings sprouting from their backs. They had tails as well, and they stood upright, equipped with hands for forehooves, but still had hooves for back hooves. Ten of them were females, and of course one of those ten was the leader.

She was a unicorn, and stepped forward and announced, "I am Sunshiner... The Queen of the World in what Applejack here calls the 'Mother Dimension'... I have been watching your quests since they began, Applejack, and I'll have you know that 'Skyline' and the 'heavens' were created by us to entertain you. You did create Tartarus to oppose that, and we don't mind you becoming god of some sorts, but you really have overstayed your welcome as you... We fear you may come back with this great power and try to overthrow us due to your beliefs that we somehow caused your existence of pain and suffering, but you got what you wanted right? We just think it would be best if we cancelled your little show."

Sunshiner poked out one finger towards Applejack and reverted her back to her earth pony form, taking away all the powers she had accumulated over the years and throwing them all into the fires of Phlegethon, then did the same to Velvet. She then stopped everypony around them and destroyed the cannon and the Elements of Harmony, and lastly, looking to Discord and Spike, she made them disappear.

"Nooo!! What are you doing?!" the heroes all cried, powerless to do anything.

"Come on, Sunshiner, that was harsh, at least show them what happens," one of the girls in the hooded cloaks said.

Sunshiner sighed and brought the two back, throwing their bodies down off the side of Canterlot and watching their bodies burn in the flowing rivers of fire below. Their screams of agony sounded through the air, and nopony could bear to hear it. "There Pinkie, are you happy?"

Pinkie looked up through her tears, at the pink pegasus anthro now standing before her. "Wh...what are you... gonna do to me?"

"You're my favorite pony, Pinkie Pie! We gots the same name! We both are pink! And you're just the cutest thing I've ever seen!" the anthro Pinkie exclaimed, picking up the pink earth pony as she struggled to escape. "I'm taking you home with me, silly! That's what I'm gonna do to you!" She covered Pinkie's mouth and laughed as she and her crew all walked through the portal back to the first dimension. The portal closed and everypony still alive were suddenly able to move once again.

Velvet beat the ground, crying loudly, "You bastards! Can't you see we've suffered enough?! Using us for entertainment, is that all we are to you?!"

A hologram of the Pegasi and Unicorns shown above them for a short period of time.

"Yes," Sunshiner announced, as Pinkie's screams and anthro Pinkie's laughter could be heard very clearly. It sounded as if Pinkie were being tortured, and she begged her anthro counterpart to stop, but she did not. "Now, why don't you all do something... I don't know.... entertaining?"

The hologram disappeared, and so did the sound.

Twilight fell to her knees, as black magic began to leak from her eyes and horn. "Guys... Run! I don't think I can hold this back any longer without the Elements helping me!" she cried, as Celestia and Luna instead ran to her to help.

"Twilight! What is all this?" Celestia asked her, as she looked to her with pain stricken eyes.

"The Rainbow of Darkness and the fog got into me, and I hoped I wouldn't fall prey to it until we won in the end, but..." Twilight choked as she was cloaked in a black dress with a black crown. Her eyes glowed white, and black electricity shocked everypony around her.

The Demiurge's voice could be heard once again, "Talk about plot twist, huh? I did not expect those bastards to show up! Maybe I can put my hope into false beliefs for them to come true! A million stars to choose from... one second to waste. What do you survivors wish for?"

ENDGAMES IV: TRUE END

Velvet gazed into the space which her daughter took up and began to cry. She slowly approached her, looking her directly in the eyes. "Twilight? It's... me. Your mother... Please Twilight, whatever you may do... just don't do it. The darkness may be inside of you, but you're still my daughter, protector of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. I know you can hear me, so please, just settle yourself down and all of this can just calm down... okay?"

Twilight rose a massive black crystal to cut the space between herself and her mother. Velvet reeled back and began to step backwards. "You... You aren't my mother... You are me..."

Celestia, Luna, and Cadence used their magic to shield Velvet from the branches of crystals that threatened to skewer her, but the crystals began to break through easily, and Velvet was forced to run away to the others. Celestia flew towards Twilight and brandished a scepter of light with a blade shaped like the sun, she swung at Twilight, who manifested a black shield with her cutie mark on it, a bow and arrow as big as she was, and two large blades waving like a flammenschwert. Celestia was struck by both the blades, but they could not cut her skin. She fell on her face, and her crown was removed by Twilight and placed upon her own head. The crown became like her weapons, black and crystalline. Cadence gasped, and she and Luna then attacked Twilight with their magic, but were easily overpowered by her. Twilight sighed and rose into the air, shooting down a crystal into the Phlegethon, and then one into Styx. Large beasts of fire and water with black crystal skeletons began to rise and roam around the land, tearing apart the landmarks and such. Twilight then made the land flat again, and the change in air pressure along with gravity caused an even larger earthquake than before, and the Mane Six along with the Alicorns found themselves stuck to the ground, surrounded by the beasts which Twilight had created.

"Dammit! Is this how we die?! By our own friend?" Rainbow cried, managing to get herself up by pushing down on her front hooves as hard as she could. "Not... if I can help it!" She spread her wings and took off, flying directly towards Twilight, who teleported beside Rainbow and facehooved her down into a pool of mud, blood, and dead bodies.

"You all are my friends... and a good friend would not allow her friends to suffer in the fires of Phlegethon. You either die by me, or by the flames," Twilight announced. Pointing down to all of them, even to Rainbow who was emerging from the mud, virtually unharmed. "My heart is still full of harmony, and controlling this darkness is very much close to impossible... Just accept the deaths I give to you, because they'll be a lot less painful than the ones they will offer you!"

The sky went completely black, and the angels, though gone after the visit from the Pegasi and Unicorns, came back to pile upon the beasts which surrounded the Mane Six, Velvet, and the Princesses. They took them up and vowed to bring them to safety, but Twilight trapped them all in a barrier of magic. Not even the angels could escape. Applejack saw no end to this, but she still clung on to a minute sliver of hope that there was a way out of this. She began to command her angels to do something in a voice nopony there could understand, not even Velvet. Soon, the angels began to tear holes in the fabric of space and time to place them all inside of Skyline, including Twilight and herself.

"Them elders can take away our powers in Equestria, but in Skyline, I still rule!" Applejack shouted, as the Sephirot of the Tree of Life appeared between herself and Twilight. "I don't care what they say, what they do, what they even are... Nopony can corrupt my friends... I know they use us for entertainment, but we'll show them that our lives are precious to us! Not to be observed by some spectators... but to live free and learn about things like friendship, harmony, all that stuff! That's what brings us together! If by some random occurrence shall we succeed in our adventure which is life, then let us come and share our experiences... Not have them be watched like a movie! And as for you, Demiurge... your reign of terror is over! This world shall not be Tartarus, and this so called Hell you speak of is not that... Hell is you. You are hell, you exist only to spread pain and suffering, and you tried to overthrow the one who created you. I will not allow you to live a pained existence, but instead, your existence will cease!" Magic leaked out in all directions, rainbow colored and flashing lights, everypony there found themselves Rainbowfied, and granted a white coat along with wings and a horn. They all became alicorns, and their powers and abilities were multiplied by the millions. Applejack too became an alicorn again, and she stepped onto the Keter, Crown, sphere. Celestia took the Tipharet, Beauty, sphere. Luna took the Yesod, Foundation, sphere. Velvet took the Malkuth, Kingdom, sphere. Fluttershy took the Chesed, Mercy, sphere. Rarity took the Hod, Glory, sphere. Rainbow took the Geburah, Strength, sphere. Cadence took the Neztach, Eternity, sphere. Rarity was on the Binah, Understanding, sphere. Twilight found herself on the Chokmah, Wisdom, sphere. She fell as her black magic was being stripped from her and placed into the Daat sphere. The Demiurge showed itself in its true form, a lion's head on a man's body clothed by a snake and wielding a caduceus and two stone tablets with an ancient language scribbled onto them. It possessed wings, which were ripped off by the chains extending from the Daat. They all watched in horror as the beast was ripped apart mercilessly and ultimately dragged down into the sphere and erased from existence. Only the memory remained.

Skyline began to shatter apart, and the real world began to show itself, still torn apart by the emergence of Tartarus. Applejack coughed up blood, which faded into nothingness, as her body began to do as well. They all noticed this and ran to her to see what was wrong. They then noticed that Velvet too was doing the same thing, but her sparkling ashes were being absorbed by her now reverted to normal daughter.

"Applejack! Mom! What's happening to you?!" Twilight cried, falling to her hooves and beginning to sob. "Aren't you gonna stay with us? How can we go on without you?"

Velvet and Applejack both smiled as they began to rapidly grow old. "Maybe so you will have to endure..." Velvet said to her daughter. "I wish that we really could have spent more time together, but I'm your mother Twilight, and I had to let you go at some point... My parting will not be in vain however, this death is merely caused by the death of Skyline... We were made immortal by its power, so when it dies, we die... This does not apply to you or Cadence, as you both came here to become alicorns... You will lose your Immortality, but you will not die... You two will also lose your alicorn status... as it was granted by Skyline, and so it shall die with Skyline..."

"But mom... how can we go on? You and Applejack were the ones who led us!"

The others had their heads hung low, as they all began to cry as well.

Twilight beat the ground as her wings turned to nothingness, leaving her once again a unicorn, and the same happened to Cadence, except she remained a pegasus. She looked to her mother with tears in her eyes, and her mother took her hoof and wiped her tears away. "Your friend Pinkie is waiting for you to rescue her... And I know that with your newfound experiences... you can do it, dear."

"Yeah Twi," Applejack said with a smile, "Velvet and I may be the Crown and the Kingdom, but you hold more promise to take on both of those roles... Twilight Sparkle, with this we give you our blessing, and we crown you the Goddess of..."

They waited for a response, but it seemed that Velvet and Applejack had frozen in time, their bodies continuing to fade away, and their memories played on the screen which was Skyline like a movie. Then their voices were merged as one as they announced,

"Your adventure is far from over... We give you our blessing, and control over the heavens... but of course you cannot do this alone... Your friends are here for you, and shall you all succeed in what we first failed to do. Even though the Demiurge is dead, Tartarus still must be stopped, as its merging process is far from over."

"Are you sure I can do this? Can we do this?" Twilight asked, as the bodies of Velvet and Applejack had completely turned to dust.

"We did enjoy our time together, did we not? All these years of havin' our heads up high should still be tickin' in ya, Twi," Applejack's voice said. "Y'all know I mean best, because Honesty is my Element. Well, though the Elements are destroyed, you all are still the Elements of Harmony, as long as you live! Even without me, you all hold the power within you, and Twilight has my blessing, so she has my Element as well. Twi, you lead them and make sure they stay safe, Heaven still holds the ones who survived, so make sure you give occasional visits to Heaven as well to either rest or gather info from the angels. Tartarus must be stopped from the inside out, so when you go to Tartarus, know you cannot open the portals from heaven or take any angels with you, they cannot enter Tartarus. Rarity, Fluttershy, you two should sit these missions out for a while... I'm sure the angels will help you with childbirth and getting fit again, and all that jazz... Oh yes, and please, make sure you get Pinkie back... It pains me to think of what Cheese and Pizza would do without her, what anypony would do without her. We need our laughter, don't we?"

They all looked up, trapped by the memories and the sound of Applejack's and Velvet's voice. History flashed before them, and taking it all in at once left there heads spinning. Twilight chuckled and told Applejack and her mother, "Thank you! I'll never forget you guys! I... I love you!"

Applejack and Velvet's voices sounded once again, "No...thank you all... Our lives would not be the same had we not met you... Speaking as one leaves us unable to speak individually in the sense we can project our separate feelings, but we can both say for sure as Velvet and Applejack, Applejack and Velvet, we appreciate and cherish the memories and experiences as you do... we both feel the same, and so do you all down there... We will miss you as much as you will miss us, but remember we are always with you in your hearts, in your memories. Good luck, stay safe, bring Pinkie back! And...We love you too!"

The voices disappeared as Skyline did the same, leaving the ponies back in the destroyed Equestria with the angels opening a portal for them to heaven. The loss of Spike, Discord, Applejack, and Velvet would downplay them by a long shot, but surely as the memories continued to flow through them, they found themselves able to survive. Their hope and memories would keep them strong. Afterall, they kept Applejack strong.

"You guys can go on to Heaven," Twilight said, accessing Applejack's power and opening a portal to Tartarus. She began to walk forward, but had to turn back around so she could hug her friends as they all cried as one, remembering the times, the experiences, the friendship they shared, the friends which they made, the friends which were Applejack and Velvet. In between the heavens above and hell below, they stayed on the world to remember everything it had to offer. The adventure was far from over, and as a matter of fact, one would be wise to ssy it had just begun. Twilight broke from the hug and waved goodbye to her friends for now, and they waved back. Though saying goodbye to each other, they were in truth merely saying hello to their new lives. The heavens roared in joy, the earth was silent in rest, and Tartarus wallowed in pain and suffering. The sun, moon, and stars were gone, and the only light that shined was the light of the flames from Tartarus and the blinding white lights emanating from Heaven's gates. Soon, the gates were closed, and earth found herself barren.

The only life that remained was a lone apple tree in the Apple Family Orchard, and it was being watched by the final star in the sky. The wind blew and like a candle the star went out, while the apple tree fell and died.

The End.

Part I, Chapter 1: The Apple Falls Not Far From The Tree

APPLES: Immortal Tree

By Eris H Discordia

Given enough time to dip her head in the water, Applejack contemplated suicide.

She just could not handle anymore changes at all. In this world, however, she really cherished her new friendships and her place as the current Equestrian blessed with being the representative of the Element of Honesty. She jumped into the lake and fought the water as she sunk down to the bottom, but she could not drown, as her time was not up yet. She told herself over and over to die, for good. She wanted for nothing more than to disappear.

After nearly over sixty thousand years of jumping from different generations in her multiversed lives, she came to realize that it was starting to rip her apart from thousands of inter-tangled dimensional threads. If she had not kept her consciousness during the transfer to another realm, much like her friends had done, except for Twilight, who was closer to death than she was due to the agonizing pain, she would not be experiencing this great strain. And by Twilight, one would not think of Sparkle, but of Twilight Velvet, the mother of Twilight Sparkle.

Being from the first generation to perform the generation jump, she was going through a massive amount of pain, and Applejack was in a very similar pain. Most of the others who tried to do the same had died along the way, including hundreds that were being born in the space between the third and fourth generation planes, but Applejack did not like to speak of those horrific times. She thought of her lives, and did not regret anything besides living. The pain was too much, and Faust-knew how much longer she would have to endure before she finally died. Again. This would go on again and again and again.

All of the pain, whether it be mental or physical, all of it piled up with each life, and surely they did not jump generations in the hope of pain, but as a means to gain immortality. They never knew what they were getting themselves into. Under the impression that their friendship would last forever, Applejack vowed to Velvet she would protect her daughter. As Twilight would now be alive for quite some time after her friends died, Applejack too would remain, as if she willed it, she could live in a generation for as long as she wanted, though keeping her pain to a minimum for millennia on end with nothing but home remedy painkillers would backfire sooner or later. Surely, Twilight would also be the only one to find out, and possibly Discord and the other alicorn princesses.

Applejack rose to the surface and floated upon the water on her back. She coughed up the water which she had swallowed during her time under, and looked up at the sky. She immediately spotted Rainbow Dash gathering clouds alongside Scootaloo, who was 15 now, and able to fly. She even got her cutie mark, which was a sun framed by two clouds with a rainbow crowning the star. So much time had passed already, and she could see the bags gathering under the eyes of her friends.

Rainbow had given up her dream to become a Wonderbolt, as she had a terrible accident during the Equestria Games one year. She wounded her wings, dealing permanent damage that left her unable to fly for three years. During that time, she grew closer and closer to Scootaloo, who finally managed to get herself off of the ground and fly for herself. Rainbow herself also worked her way back up to flying like she used to, and initially with the hopes of becoming a member of the Wonderbolts. Of course, after realizing how much she really made an impact of Scootaloo's life, she found that all she really wanted to do was fly. Fly with her, that is. During this time she managed to become way more than a sisterly figure and stepped up to be a motherly figure to the now 15 year old filly. The two now both share time flying together, a home, and a life.

Twilight issued that Ponyville should become more industrialized, bringing in tall buildings, but not skyscrapers. She felt the ponies were not ready for that yet. The buildings became more suburban and with more life joining in with the ponies, not just earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, but zebras, and other species of creatures with the ability to speak as well. This brought in business, and with new businesses sprouting like weeds, the offered a massive opportunity for Rarity, who put alot of work into making uniforms and clothing for small businesses and clothing stores. Making enough money, the unicorn started her own fashion mall, which was castle-like but was still dwarfed by Twilight's modified castle. The unicorn began a monopoly that spread like wildfire, and after learning the secret of silk from the far east land of bears, she managed to topple over all of her competition effortlessly. Now a milliomare, Rarity enjoyed her fame but still kept true to her generous self, giving money and clothing and food and shelter to the less fortunate around the world in Equestria and outside of Equestria.

Typically and usually declining offers of industrialization, the Apple Family had to make a hard decision after Granny Smith passed. With Big McIntosh the new head of the family, he wanted the family to step up their game and get with the times. Now bringing in machines and contraptions, Big McIntosh brung in tons of bits and business opportunities, soon owning a monopoly of smaller businesses like Rarity. The family still bucked the trees and gathered apples, but the machines did most of the other work. Applejack took a lot of time off now that Applebloom was older and not in serious pain like Applejack was, taking over for her sister and even gaining her cutie mark, which was surprisingly a heart shaped fruit that was an apple. It came in a trio, much like Applejack's. However, Applebloom felt something off about her sister ever since Granny Smith's death, and noticed her cringing during work sessions, and initially thinking it was merely grief of losing a loved one, Applebloom volunteered to take over for her sister. Her cutie mark symbolized more of a love for her family than a love for the work of her family.

At this same time, Sweetie Belle was in the shadow of her older sister, who she noticed was putting on weight as well as becoming quite pregnant. With who? Sweetie Belle did not know. Perhaps Rarity had too much cider at a party one day and ended up having a one night stand with a stallion who was likely too drunk to remember who he slept with as well. It bothered Rarity if her little Clarity (either a colt or a filly, its name would be Clarity), would grow up without a father, but Rarity at least already had a foalsitter, and that was Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle realized she had quite a talent with watching foals. She knew what they liked, and knew how to get them to listen. Her magic only made this easier, so as Rarity would be fitting a foal in a costume for a certain event, Sweetie Belle would be right next to her, making sure the foal listened and stayed calm and entertained. This talent manifested in a cutie mark which was a large white circle surrounded by three lavender circles which were smaller in size. When she was not foalsitting, however, she learned magic under Twilight's tutelage.

She worked with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who both had become no less than extra support for Spike at first, as if the staff of Twilight's castle became a hierarchy. Twilight was the ruler, Mayor Mare was more of a treasurer, Spike was still Twilight's right hoof dragon, and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were maids who looked after Spike and Twilight.

No longer bitter to the Crusaders, Diamond Tiara settled down and made it her number one priority to make sure the Princess of Ponyville stayed safe, and Silver Spoon followed her up on that. The two effectively became the first true knights of Ponyville, which was now Equinopolis, and were granted full access to any meeting of the Princess which she allowed them to. They truly became devoted to protecting her, and redeemed themselves as ponies of Equinopolis. They were no longer the "bitch fillies" of Ponyville, but now the Knights of Equinopolis, protectors of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Spike himself had grown quite a bit, and was as tall as Twilight, taking the form of a serpentine dragon rather than his original western dragon form. He took up a lot from Discord, who became like a father figure to him, and was a school teacher (since Cheerilee was pregnant with the next member of the Apple Family), and supposed his snake-like shape was due to spending so much time around him.

Pinkie Pie was still a party pony, and was currently raising a daughter with Cheese Sandwich. They threw parties while simultaneously taking part in a fastfood and party having business called Pink E. Cheeses. Multiple Pink E. Cheeses opened around Equinopolis, and the one that started it all was the one which Pinkie and Cheese and Pizza A. Pie, their six year old daughter, lived in and racked up the most business. No doubt in anypony's mind that this would happen.

In fact, one of the last things Granny Smith said was to Cheese Sandwich that he made her possible Pie cousin a happy mare. Surely the late Granny Smith threw a going away party, she wanted not a solemn departure, and made sure she went away with a smile after blowing out her heart of candles on a cake she never got to taste. The smile was divine, and Cheese Sandwich admired that, proposing to Pinkie then and there. Well, not then and there, but an immediate proposal it was. Maud and the other Pies came to visit more and were warmly welcomed by the citizens of Equinopolis, even having a party at the Pink E. Cheeses occasionally during their stay.

Fluttershy had not changed too much, and was still caring for animals like always. Taking pleasure however in visits from Applejack, who had a lot more leisure time than the others in the Mane Six. Twilight with her Kingdom, Pinkie with her family, Rainbow and Scootaloo spending so much time together, and Rarity running multimillion bit business monopoly. Fluttershy and Applejack were enjoying their time alone as well, sitting and talking about stories they had and sharing their experiences since the last time they all acted as one as the Mane Six. Fluttershy had the most bags under her eyes of Applejack's friends, and began to sound windier than usual. Her physique, like Rarity was getting quite sexily plump, she was now wearing glasses, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail. She took notice of the approaching Applejack, waving as she sat in her rocking bench and supervised the old Angel Bunny as he ate a carrot. He grew fairly fat as well, and was still as spoiled as ever.

"Hey Applejack," Fluttershy said lightly to her incoming friend, who sat upon the bench with her with a long sigh.

The earth pony removed her hat and wiped her forming sweat with it, setting the hat down on the ground and looking up to the partially cloudy sky and to the sun which was in the four o' clock position. She came to visit Fluttershy after her dip in the pool and enjoyed her walk through the trees leading her down the road to Fluttershy's home, now about to enjoy the company of the pegasus herself. Really, the Mane Six were barely in one another's presence, and the only two to see one another were Applejack and Fluttershy. The others were so busy and occupied with their lives and dealing with their own situations to even visit, but they did write one another. The city of Equinopolis had expanded to the point where the Mane Six were barely within walking distance of each other, all except Fluttershy and Applejack. This was why at least those two shared so much time with one another. At least they were fully caught up.

"Hey Sugarcube," Applejack said solemnly, now with her eyes gazing upon the countless birds and butterflies gathered around them. "How's it been goin' with ya since last time we met?"

Fluttershy squeed and giggled. "I suppose a lot can happen in a month... Discord and I decided to have a baby."

Applejack looked to her pegasus friend with a fairly suprised look in her eyes. She smiled and hugged her tightly, causing Fluttershy to blush. "I'm so proud of ya! Have y'all started tryin' yet, er...?" Applejack retracted from the hug and blushed rather heavily as well. She scratched at the back of her head and rubbed her hoof down her mane, bringing it to the front of her shoulder in front of her pony chest. "I mean...--"

"Oh, it's not like it bothers me you'd ask, Applejack," Fluttershy replied with a warm smile. "It flatters me that you did, we are best friends forever, aren't we?"

Forever made Applejack cringe lightly, and she began to feel the pain building up again. She shook her head and ignored it. "Yep," she replied, with a fake smile. "But... do you know?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said, "I am pregnant, Applejack! Isn't it wonderful?"

Something happened that she had not experienced since Applebloom got her cutie mark; Applejack began crying tears of joy. And for that entire duration, it's like the pain never existed to begin with. For once today, and if she were being honest with herself, in an entire eon, Applejack felt mortal.

She proceeded to wipe her tears with her hoof as Fluttershy placed her's upon Applejack's. "That is wonderful, Sugarcube," she told her, hugging her again. "Well, I wonder how exactly this will work, with Discord being a draconequus and all..."

Fluttershy laughed rather enthusiastically. "Discord told me he rearranged his DNA to match my pegasus DNA, so we will have a child who'll be a pegasus and take up after the both of us ability-wise. A kind, chaos controlling pegasus who's good with animals... I'll name her Discordia."

"How do you know it'll be a girl?"

"Discord told me that my imagination would determine the basic look and gender of our Discordia, so I made her a girl." Fluttershy smiled. "Confusing, isn't it? That's kinda my honey's specialty."

Applejack looked to Fluttershy, then again to the sky. "We've come such a long way, haven't we?"

Fluttershy nodded, and finally managed to notice Applejack's returning demeanor of solemnity. "Applejack? Are you okay?"

Applejack also noticed her solemnity, and forced herself to smile brightly for the sake of her friend. "Why yes, Sugarcube!" she replied. "It's nothing... I was just thinking that everypony is occupied with work and family and so many things.... and I'm just layin' 'round watchin' the clouds stroll on pass... bucking the apples outta trees and makin' use of our new machines and what not..."

"Well, I always thought that you enjoyed your extra time alone..." Fluttershy replied. "You've been working so hard since you were little, and you worked yourself so hard after Granny Smith passed away and even with the following couple years as Big McIntosh grew into his role as the head of the Apple Family Farm! You seemed so eager to take a rest, I thought you'd enjoy your time alone and off."

"Y-yeah," Applejack replied rather nervously. "But Flutters... I was thinkin'... Can't we all meet up again, just like the old days?"

Fluttershy looked quite surprised. She felt the sudden wind blow, and the birds and butterflies flew off to their wind-proof homes in the backyard. "Well, you know I'm up for that as much as the next pony.... but everypony's so busy you know?"

"Listen Flutters, we can assume all we want, and we've been doing that for years now... but I have to be sure this time. If you won't do it, then I'll send letters to all of 'em for ya. I'm sure they'll trust and understand my reasons... We all are friends after all. Ain't we?"

Fluttershy gasped, and smiled as she began to tear up as well. She remembered the times over a decade ago, and she laughed. "I'll send too, to everypony," she and Applejack hugged again, and sat looking around at the nature around them and talking, reminiscing about the days before. The days before Twilight's battle with Tirek. Laughing and enjoying the build up to reliving yet another six way hoofbump and a meeting of the Mane Six.

After going back home and easing her way into bed early, of course after emailing her friends, Applejack took another half a pound of painkillers and downed it with a mug of fresh cider she had made earlier and had been saving for the night. She got monstrously exhausted after taking just a single painkiller, and the cider only complemented that. After all, she did take a half of a pound of painkillers and would be in for a seventeen hour sleep, if she was not disturbed by any outside forces.

She lay in her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. She heard Applebloom laughing in the next room, and her sister's happiness of whatever was soothing to her. Looking into a mirror, she found that it was truly her with the most bags under her eyes, and soon Applejack found herself in a deep sleep. This sleep was different, no longer the usual paranoid schizophrenic hallucinating madness she usually dealt with, but now a clear conscience. Thank Faust for painkillers.

In Twilight's castle, the entirety of the Mane Six had met up with one another after so long of being apart. A week had passed since the letters were sent, and the ponies were more than happy to come back together and see some old faces. Applejack took a good look at all of her friends and wiped her eyes to make sure she was not still dreaming, and she also began crying softly.

"Whoa, Applejack!" Rainbow exclaimed with a laugh, giving the earth pony a slight noggie. The earth pony was still high as Everest from the painkillers, as she took so many in the day and so many at night every single day, so she did not even as much as feel Rainbow's hoof on her head. "So, in the time we were separated, did you go all soft?"

"Oh you," Applejack replied rather nervously, with an even weary giggle. "It's just that it feels so nostalgic... y'know? We're all in the throne room, just like back in the day."

"It's only been a decade! It feels like it was just yesterday really," Twilight replied with a reassuring smile and giggle. "You're acting like it was a million years ago!"

Rarity scoffed playfully. "Easy for you to say. You're an Alicorn, darling! You'll be in the same league as Celestia and Luna soon!"

"Whoa! Rarity! You got pregnant? Or just got fat?!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. "You too, Fluttershy?"

"Yes, Discord and I are having a baby," Fluttershy replied gently, "but I guess with all of the watching nature I've done, I have gained a bit of weight."

The Mane Six clopped their hooves and congratulated Fluttershy on the news.

"What about you, Rarity?" Pinkie began, jumping to Rarity and smiling as wide as the sky. "Who's your baby-daddy?"

And Rarity, "I'll only tell you this because you all are such close friends of mine... I can't really say who the father is... I don't know."

The others gasped in surprise and deep disappointment. This seemed quite out of character for Rarity, and her sudden telling of them of what she did know scared them nearly out of their coats. Twilight was the first to speak, "Rarity, you weren't... sleeping around,...uhm... were you?"

And Rarity, "Oh Celestia, no! I would think my very best friends have much more faith in me! I have only made a mistake, once, and only once. I'm keeping it and naming it Clarity. I'll make sure that my little Clarity has the best life a mother can give! I may have made a mistake, but by no means will it get rid of my generosity."

Then Rainbow spoke up as well, "Well, I guess everypony has a kid, well... I got Scootaloo, and that young mare is showing some serious promise. She's nearly as good as I was when I was her age! I'm really impressed with her!"

"She learned from the best!" Pinkie shouted, laughing loudly. "Just like my little girl, Pizza A. Pie! Just a couple months ago she planned and prepared her own sixth birthday, and it knocked me and Cheesie off of our hooves! I'm so proud of our lil' Pizza Pie!"

"That's right, you and Cheese Sandwich do have a little filly together..." Twilight said, looking down, then at all of her friends once again. She instantly saw what once was and what they were now. She too began to tear up. "I can't believe that I have missed so much because of how busy I've been. It's that empty feeling that time leaves when you realized how much it's passed... I guess I have spent so much time being a Princess when I forgot what made me a Princess in the first place. My knowledge of friendship, my friendship with you five is what got me here... and I've completely forgotten about you guys... I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Twilight, really," Fluttershy said, "we understand how busy you are and how much being a princess can take out of you. But we all are in the same position too: with my Discordia on the way, Rarity's business, your kingdom, Rainbow Dash taking care of Scootaloo, Pinkie's family business, and Applejack taking joy in her well-deserved leisure time, we barely have time to meet with one another anymore. I mean, Applejack and I do have alot of times together now since we live so close, but that's pretty much it. You do have your kingdom, and as long as we're part of it, we're still together, looking out for one another, right?"

"Fluttershy is right, but really, I just wanted to catch up with everypony," Applejack added. "I've been doin' some deep thinkin', and I wanted to make sure y'all know I love ya. Really... all the times we had together, I cherish 'em, and they are times I'll hold dear to me for as long as I live."

Everypony d'awwed, and soon, they all had come in for a hug. After that, the ponies began to talk about the details of their lives and everyday adventures of independent mares from the Mane Six: Rarity finding a jewel mine and an underground cave of glistening silk worms on stalagmites; Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich throwing a party that actually managed to surprise Maud and nearly get her to smile; Scootaloo nearly achieving the Sonic Rainboom, just nearly; Angel trying to be as quick, nimble, and sassy as he used to, much to Fluttershy's amusement; Spike running a fair with Discord for the foals of Equinopolis, though quite small, still managing to benefit from some business; Twilight's new chocolate craving.

All of these stories, and all Applejack could do was listen.

...Then, it suddenly hit her.

"What about you, Applejack?" Twilight asked her earth pony friend. "Surely, you've done some exciting things as well?"

The question hit her like a bullet, and hurt like a thorn in her side. Applejack knew she could not lie about her recent attempts of suicide for long, as the guilt ate away at her ferociously. "Well, I've been swimming a lot lately, deep in thought."

"She's right!" Fluttershy exclaimed clopping her hooves together and giggling. "I came across her doing some of the most beautiful swimming I have ever seen! You must have been practicing a bunch over the years."

Applejack nervously agreed. "Yeah... I guess I have been swimming a lot lately."

"You know what they say, you can only make a plant grow with water, sun, and soot," Twilight said, "Applejack has stayed true to herself, don't you guys think?"

"Yeah, you're so lucky to have so much free time," Rainbow began, "I guess you really did make a great use of talents early so you can have more time in the future, right?"

Applejack sighed deeply, and a spike of pain throbbed into her body and forced her to wince and groan. "Th-that's enough about me, really! You guys just keep talkin', and I'll listen..."

"But Applejack, you brought us together, so you must have wanted to share stories too..." Fluttershy said with a smile.

"Aww shucks no... I have nothing interesting to tell," Applejack replied. "Big McIntosh is running the family now, and we've modernized quite a bit, and I don't have nothing else like a upcoming baby or anything... I'm just here to catch up what's been happening with you all."

There was a moment of silence for a time, until Rainbow broke the silence. "So, this is what your life is like without us?"

A roomwide gasp filled the air, and all attention turned to Rainbow, who reeled back quite scardily. "I was just saying, it seems that only when we're around we can spice up Applejack's life... But, she's done so much daring stuff in the past, I'd assume she had... I don't know,... flown a dragon and fought off a black knight bat pony or something!"

Applejack blushed, as she had in fact done that before.

"But you're implying her life is boring without us," Twilight said, looking at Rainbow intensely, and could tell the hawk eyes were making the cyan pegasus quite uncomfortable.

"She's kinda right," Applejack said solemnly, "and y'all know I don't lie... Ever since I met you guys, I've been a fairly adventurous mare, and when you guys aren't around, I'm just workin'.... Farm, friends, family.... it don't change, and it won't. I'm only feelin' alive when my friends are too."

"But that's how we all are, Applejack," Fluttershy said in a cheerful tone, "I spend my time around animals all the time, and my quick excitement comes from the time I spend with you guys."

And Rarity, "Me too."

And Pinkie, "You betcha! What's a party without my real friends with me?"

And Twilight, "I bet you don't think I actually do get bored of reading and crave some wild adventure every now and then, do you?"

Rainbow sighed, and smiled quite triumphantly. "Well, I guess I do my best flying when my friends are watching... heh..."

"Oh, grow up, Rainbow," Twilight sighed with a smile.

"I was just kidding!" Rainbow shouted while she blushed.

Applejack began crying again, and she brung all of her friends together for a hug. They all soon shed tears of joy and sweet nostalgia as well.

to be continued...