Chapter 11

Applejack's past and present

Applejack let out a heartfelt laugh while hugging Twilight and Sunset, and petting Spike whenever he barked (that was his way to demand some attention).

"Well, Ah sure am glad we have found ya," she said. "This area is full of all those White Knives. And they're not like your usual raider group, they're quite well-equipped."

"Yeah," Sunset replied, "we've already met them; twice, in fact."

"When was the first time?"

"When they tried to kill a merchant called Cap Collector."

"Ah know him, he came to our town a couple of times. So you saved him? Big thanks."

"You're welcome, Applejack," Twilight said, "but wait - you mentioned a town?"

"Yeah, we all live in a town not far from here. Y'all coming with us?"

"Sure, but aren't you going to loot the bodies?"

"We are, sugarcube. Not something Ah enjoy, to be honest, but free ammo is better than the ammo ya have to pay for..."

"Welcome to Appletown," Applejack told the Equestrians, as they (plus the town folk that had participated in a battle against bandits) stood in front of a small settlement.

Like all other towns and villages Twilight and Sunset had seen before, it was not really big. Wooden houses (some of them actually looked freshly built or repaired) were intermingled with small one- and two-storey buildings made of stone.

The streets were busy, with the inhabitants taking care of brahmins, or riding on horses, or doing some other tasks of their own. Several men and women were carrying baskets (apparently, not of a very big size) full of apples.

"There are apples in here?" Twilight asked, surprised.

"Well, this place is located near one of the fields that belonged to Sweet Apple Acres. Ya do remember that Ah'm a country girl and used to work often in the field, don't ya?"

"We do, Applejack," Sunset replied, "but I don't recall any of your fields being here."

"Well, yeah, back when Ah was at CHS, we didn't have those. But once Ah graduated, the demand for apples rose. Ever heard of Nuka-Cider?"

"Of course."

"Well, that stuff was made from apples that came from Sweet Apple Acres!" Applejack declared, beaming. One could plainly see that she was proud of that.

"Whoa, really?" the fiery-haired girl was surprised.

"Well, yeah. Although the story is a bit less happy. Our farm hit a hard time when the war began. Mah parents were called up, and that left me, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to do most of the work. And Granny suffered from a hip problem with some weird sciency name; healing her hip set us back big time. We seriously thought we'd go bankrupt in short order. But then we got a call from Fizzy Fresh."

"Who was that?" Twilight asked.

"That was the owner of the company that made Nuka-Cider. He was looking for apple suppliers. And before he founded that company of his, he actually was a regular customer, bought either apples or fizzy cider, depending on mood. So he proposed a partnership. We had to stop producing our own cider, unfortunately, but he paid us really handsomely for apples that he used in his Nuka-Cider. That allowed to heal Granny's hip and even expand the farm and hire some hands. The field nearby was the last one we bought. It is still fertile, so we can still grow apples in there. That's what Appletown lives on."

"But isn't the land irradiated?"

"Well, yeah, but we had overcome that obstacle. Let's go into mah house and Ah'll tell ya everything during lunch, OK?"

"OK, Applejack," both girls agreed.

"Hey, Applejack!" everyone heard the young girl shout before someone slammed into the blonde girl before she actually entered the house that the Apple family kept for themselves.

"Hi, lil' sis," Applejack laughed, messing up Apple Bloom's red hair. "But Ah'm not alone. Ah've got guests!"

"Hi, Twilight!" now it was the Princess' turn to get a hug. "Are you this world's Twilight or pony Twilight?"

"Pony Twilight," the lavender-skinned girl replied.

"No hug for me?" Sunset made herself known with a mock-pout.

"Sunset Shimmer!"

"Oof! Apple Bloom, careful, please, I've been wounded."

"Omigosh, Ah'm sorry!"

"No harm done, just don't hit my leg, fine?"

"OK."

"Say, is Big Macintosh here?" Sunset looked around, trying to find Applejack's brother.

"Eeyup, Ah'm here," a deep voice came from the right, and they all saw Big Macintosh himself appear and smile at the sight of the new guests. "Apple Bloom, mind setting the table?" he addressed his younger sister.

"OK," Apple Bloom did not sound really enthusiastic, but went into the kitchen nonetheless.

"Applejack," the tall muscular man continued, "how did it go?"

"Aside from finding these two, we cleared out that village. Turned out, Twilight and Sunset had actually done that for us, the idiots from White Knives stumbled upon a minefield, and those we saw were most likely a scouting party."

"Casualties?"

"None."

"Good. You do know Ah'm always worried whenever you go on "patrols" and so on."

"Ah've got to do this, Big Mac! The folk here deserve some peace and quiet! And Ah can't fail them!"

"Ah know, sis, but that doesn't stop me from being worried. You might bite off more than you can chew one day."

"Hey, don't worry, big bro."

"I take it White Knives are being a trouble here?" Sunset spoke.

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh replied, "since the last year. Appeared outta nowhere and started raiding this whole area. And spread from outta here to Trottingham to Hoofington. Maybe even Baltimare, never checked."

Twilight and Sunset exchanged grim looks. They had a suspicion that they knew just where White Knives came from.

"Now this area is mighty dangerous," Applejack took over. "It doesn't help that the land around here is slightly less irradiated, since the wind carried the radioactive dust in another direction right after the Day of Burning. Anyone who wants to live in relative comfort will want to come here. Did you notice that there are virtually no radiation pockets around here?"

"Now that you mentioned it, yes," Twilight replied.

"Lunch's ready!" Apple Bloom called.

"OK, let's sit down," Big Macintosh said.

As everyone entered the kitchen, their nostrils were assaulted with the smell of freshly-cooked food. Sunset almost salivated.

"Tell me that my eyes do not deceive me and that I actually see real, cooked food," she said.

"What, ya didn't have good food?"

"You don't say," Twilight did her best not to salivate, too. "MRE's are nutrient, but honestly, their taste sucks."

Everyone stared at the equine Princess in shock.

"What?" the latter huffed. "Did not expect me to swear and cuss?"

"Well, that's kinda an un-Princess-y thing to do," Applejack scratched her head, somewhat embarrassed.

"My status of Princess means zilch here, so allow me to say something uncouth once in a while."

"Enough chit-chat!" Sunset exclaimed, fed up with the pause. "Let's eat!"

Everybody agreed.

"So, Applejack," Twilight began (or rather continued) the conversation, "Sweet Apple Acres stood behind the most popular pre-war soft drink?"

"Eeyup," the blonde girl replied, "although our farm was not the only one. And since we still kept our old-fashioned ways, well, there were not really that many apples to sell. Our apples mostly went into some special lines, like Nuka-Cider Quantum or Nuka-Cider Electron. Ah remember having a big row with Fizzy Fresh about Quantum when Ah heard he was adding radioactive isotopes into it..."

"What?!" the lavender-skinned girl barely avoided choking on her food once she heard that.

"Yeah, that's kinda a dumb thing to do. But, believe me or not, Quantum was quite popular. It glowed in dim places, actually - that's what those isotopes were for."

"Who would be stupid enough to consume radioactive materials?!"

"Ah don't know. Thousands of buyers who liked this very brand, maybe?" Applejack's displeased facial expression clearly showed what she thought of that. "Ah'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but even Ah have more common sense than that. Goldurn nuclear fashion convinced almost everyone that small doses of radiation helped to build resistance to it. Whoever believed that had to suffer RadAway injections later."

"That's why RadAway and Rad-X are actually easy enough to find," Sunset interjected. "Due to people being stupid like this, they had to distribute the stuff around clinics, hospitals and so on. I think that closer to the Day of Burning, even paramedics were equipped with anti-radiation drugs."

"That's crazy," Spike added his two bits.

"You said it," Applejack continued.

"And what happened... well... during the Day of Burning?" Twilight asked.

"Ya mean how did Ah survive? Well, Ah knew that Canterlot would be the first possible place for nuclear attacks, and who knew what those TODC varmints might have tried. Our whole family - well, what remained of it - tried to choose a place where we could survive the attack. Eventually, we settled here, believing that this place would be as safe as possible in such events. Partially, that's why this place is now known as Appletown - a good number of Apple family lives here. We also were somewhat lucky - the winds blew the radioactive dust in another direction. The levels are still higher than normal, but not so high that one can't grow crops. So we continued growing apples. Then some other folk came around, settled here, and then caravans started coming and going. And here we are," Applejack waved her hand in the air, as if showing something. "It was quite fine to live here, until White Knives started messing everything up."

"So you didn't hide in the Vaults?"

"Ya mean those shelters by Vault-Tec? No, we didn't. At least, our branch didn't. Ah never really trusted that corp. And that one man kept coming and blabbering on "preparing for the future" and stuff like that, Ah was tempted to deck him."

"But Ah disagreed with Aplpejack," Apple Bloom piped in, "Ah thought he offered a viable choice. Yeah, the place was expensive, but still..."

"We could afford it," Big Macintosh joined, "but we chose not to. Applejack did not want to abandon the farm. Apple to the core, she is, but also stubborn."

"Ah know Ah sounded stubborn, but something just... told me Ah would regret it," Applejack turned to her brother.

"You might not have been wrong about it," Sunset spoke. "In that village where we met, me and Twilight had found a Vault. And it was... really contradictive to the stated purpose."

"Say what now?" Apple Bloom spoke, confused.

"Take a look at this," Twilight showed them the letter to Overseer of Vault 49 which had prompted Sunset's memorable outburst of rage the last night.

Everyone from the Apple family read the letter, and the further they read, the more they frowned. Eventually, Applejack slammed it down onto the letter onto the table with such a force that all the plates clanked loudly and shouted:

"What in tarnation?!"

"Yeah, that's almost the same as Sunset's reaction, only she swore a lot more," the equine Princess said.

"Experiments? On Vault inhabitants? That's a new low there, even for the megacorps," Big Macintosh said quietly.

"Maybe that's where White Knives came from?" Apple Bloom guessed.

"We suspect so, too," Sunset said. "And the reason I swore a lot is because I survived the war while hiding in another Vault. So the notion of possibly being the victim of some freaky experiment shook me more than a little bit."

"Don't ya worry, Sunset," Applejack said. "You're alive and you're here. That's what matters."

"But that stuff still sounds nasty," Apple Bloom said.

"Hold on a sec," the blonde girl scratched her forehead, as if digging for something in her brain, "Ah remember that one of former Vault-Tec employees lives here in Appletown. Maybe we should confront him?"

"Good idea," Sunset's voice took on a darker tone, "I'm very curious about this whole thing."

As she spoke, her hand twitched for a moment towards the 10mm pistol she carried. No one seemed to notice that.

"Then we'll do that once we eat," Applejack declared. "In the meanwhile; Sunset, how's life been treating you before all this mess?"

"Well..."

"...so when the nuclear attack sirens started wailing, I quickly hopped onto a vertibird standing nearby, and we all rushed to Vault 75. Made it in the nick of time - the Overseer was seconds from closing the blast door, as nuclear warheads were apparently close to Baltimare," Sunset Shimmer finished retelling the story of her life before the apocalypse. By that time, everyone has finished eating and simply listened to her.

"Well that's a more or less good life. Ah can't say being bothered by police all the time is good, and those Trottingham folks were varmints, but still..." Applejack replied. Both Twilight and Sunset could see that their friend was deeply saddened by something.

"What's wrong, Applejack?" Twilight asked.

"Ah think we'd better show you," Big Macintosh replied, and everyone rose from the table. He led them all to what passed for a living room, and showed two photos standing on a fireplace shelf. Twilight and Sunset immediately recognized Granny Smith on the photo to the right.

Another photo, however, showed two humans Twilight had never seen before. On the left, there was an athletically built man with dark hair, the same skin colour that Big Macintosh had and blue eyes. To the right of him stood a woman with blonde hair (similar to Applejack's), reddish eyes and somewhat yellowish skin (like Apple Bloom's, but paler), also built quite well. Both of them were wearing what Twilight guessed to be military uniforms, and had smiles on their faces, although the Princess of Friendship harboured a suspicion that the smiles were forced.

Then she noticed that two photos had something in common: both of them were black-and-white, and both had black stripes going diagonally near the lower right corner.

Also, the photo depicting the couple had a small piece of paper lying earby. Glancing upon it, Twilight read:

MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF UNITED FEDERATION OF EQUESTRIA
OFFICE OF CIVILIAN-MILITARY INTERACTIONS

DEATH NOTIFICATION

Mr. Big Macintosh, Miss Applejack, Miss Apple Bloom, Mrs. Granny Smith
2795 Earth Pony Street,
Canterlot

Dear Mr. Big Macintosh, Miss Applejack, Miss Apple Bloom, Mrs. Granny Smith,

It is with deep and profound regret that I am writing to inform you of the death of your family members, Sergeant Apple Red and Sergeant Apple Yellow, who were killed in action on August 27, 2093 in the battle near Griffonstone.

In the course of battle, Sergeants Apple Red and Apple Yellow along with their fellow soldiers from 121st Heavy Infantry Battalion were tasked with the capture and destruction of a TODC artillery outpost that prevented the approach of our tanks. Upon performing a flanking maneuver, the battalion striked at the outpost, but not before the enemy called for reinforcements (as we believe), and additional TODC troops were deployed into the area.

According to the survivors from 121st Heavy Infantry Battalion, the enemy outnumbered our soldiers at least twice, but Sergeants Apple Red and Apple Yellow were in the thick of fighting, standing strong against enemy waves. Despite multiple wounds, they refused to retreat from their positions, and held off the enemy for a long enough time that hostile heavy artillery was completely destroyed. When the reinforcements from 17th Power Infantry Company arrived at the scene, their medics did their best to save Sergeants Apple Red and Apple Yellow, but, unfortunately, they were unable to - your family members passed away on the way to the closest military hospital.

It would not be an overestimation to say that without the brave and courageous actions of Sergeants Apple Red and Apple Yellow the battle for Griffonstone would not have been won. Their fellow soldiers, as well as myself, share your grief over their deaths.

The bodies of your family members will be returned as soon as possible, and we will notify you immediately when that happens. Rest assured, they will be given full military honours, and I have sent a request for Sergeants Apple Red and Apple Yellow to be rewarded posthumously with Cross of Honour and Glory, the highest military reward in UFE, and my request was approved. I hope that this piece of news can bring a semblance of consolation.

I sincerely and unreservedly regret that I was not able to do better so as to preserve the lives of your family members and that I had to bring this devastating piece of news to your family. I assure you, they will not be forgotten, and our victory over TODC will be dedicated to them.

Sincerely yours,
General Deep Strike,
3rd Army Group

"Oh no..." Twilight gasped, turning to Applejack with moistened eyes. "Applejack..."

"Yep," the blonde girl replied, "exactly what that goldurn letter said. They were brought in caskets with flags draped on it. We even have their rewards in boxes around here somewhere. Not that it mattered to us. Ah'd rather have them here, without the darned medals or anything else, but alive. That general approached us, looking sorrowful and stuff, his own medals shining, talking to us how brave they were, how their sacrifice meant a lot and shit like that," Applejack didn't notice the slip of her tongue, and even if she did, she paid no attention to it, "but Ah could tell it was more important that he had conquered the darn Griffonstone and that UFE army had taken control of some large oil rigs that TODC had been unable to destroy in time. Prick and a rear-echelon motherfucker, that's who he was."

"Was he that bad?" Sunset asked.

"His casualties numbers were certainly not the lowest ones. That, and he had little strategic talent. Rumours had it he was promoted thanks to someone pulling the strings and putting him in a comfortable position. He never went into the field, preferring real-time satellite communications from his HQ. Coward," Applejack's face now carried a very angry expression. "Ah talked with folks from 121st, they said they had little to no support and were basically sent in blind. How they did what ordered to, Ah can't fathom, but mah parents paid the price for it."

"And Granny Smith?"

"She took the news real bad, and had a heart attack. She survived that one, but her health deteriorated, and one month after the Day of Burning, her heart just gave out," Big Macintosh took over. "We have a cemetery nearby; that's where she's buried."

"Can we... see her grave?" Twilight asked meekly. Both she and Sunset liked the kind elderly woman, and while the latter of the girls was not really the most favourite person, Granny Smith eventually accepted the fiery-haired girl as her grand-daughter's friend. As such, both of them wanted to pay their respects to the late matriarch of the Apple family.

"Why not?"

"I'm embarrassed. We didn't even bring any flowers," Twilight said, as she, Sunset, Applejack, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom were leaving the cemetery.

"No problem, sugarcube, it's not as if there's a lot of them lying around," her blonde friend replied. "Ah'm just glad that you decided to pay your respects."

"It's the least we could do," Sunset replied.

"Thank y'all. Big Mac, Apple Bloom, mind giving us privacy?"

"Nope," Big Mac said, and left along with Apple Bloom.

"Now, Ah assume that the two of you are trying to find a way back into Twilight's world?" Applejack addressed both Equestrians. "Can Ah help?"

"Applejack, from what I had gathered, you are already running yourself dry helping around the town. You sure you're up for it?" Sunset scratched her head, unsure.

"Hey, Ah'm your friend, and Ah'm not about to leave you hanging. Ah may not be the local Element of Loyalty, but darned if Ah abandon you two."

"It's a long shot anyway. I lost my magic book in Trottingham, and whatever happened to the portal messed it up bad, as Twilight and Spike found themselves somewhere near Baltimare. We only hope that we can contact Equestria and have someone back there figure out a way to fix the portal. If not, we will have to think of something else."

"Trottingham? Shoot, that's gonna be problematic, since White Knives and super mutants crawl there, but maybe three of us - four, if we count Spike - can..."

"Applejack," Twilight interrupted, "we are very grateful for the offer, but you need help as well!"

"Do not!"

"Do too! There are bags under your eyes, and you are showing the signs of fatigue! Your pony counterpart behaved the same way, and that created lots of problems before she agreed at last!" the equine Princess raised her voice.

"Way Ah see it, y'all need more help than Ah do, so..."

"OK, enough!" Sunset interrupted. "Applejack, as of now, me and Twilight kinda need a small rest, for several days. Any chance of a free house being here?"

"Why house? Y'all can use one of the rooms in a house mah family occupies. Don't know why the folks insist on it being ours..."

"Well, that's the help we actually need right now, and nothing else. Well, that and the address of someone who would trade things for caps around here."

"Fine, let me show ya where the local mercahnt lives, and then Ah'll show you to your room..."

The remaining hours of the day were not really eventful. Applejack showed Twilight and Sunset where the local merchant lived. As expected, he majorly was selling fresh apples, but he also could offer some weapons and ammo and was also fixing stuff. The girls sold him the meat of mole rats they had killed earlier and some other useless loot, raking in 297 caps. In return, they bought another laser pistol in relatively good condition and three batteries for it for 420 caps, plus Sunset gave 100 caps to have her R91 assault rifle fixed. Neither of the girls felt that they needed extra ammo, so they parted ways with the merchant after that.

The room that was given to Twilight and Sunset was sparsely furnished - two beds and small tables nearby, nothing more, but compared to their previous sleeping conditions, this was a small heaven. The girls spent the rest of the day making small talk with Applejack's extended family or maintaining their weapons. In the evening, both of them enjoyed seeing Apple Bloom pet Spike (and Spike enjoyed his petting, even if he grumbled a bit when the red-haired girl was trying to scratch his stomach).

In the end, everyone bid each other good night and went to sleep. As Twilight was closing her eyes, she remembered how Princess Luna guarded the dreams of ponies at night.

So sad that humans have nothing of the sorts. It would have helped them a lot against such traumatic experiences.

The tunnel looked strangely familiar.

Where did I see it before? Lamps that barely lit, train cars... wait... that's Hoofington underground!

But what am I doing here?

As Twilight walked forward, something else occurred to her:

And why am I not in control of my body?

Her legs walked ahead without any commands given by Twilight's brain; in fact, none of her limbs obeyed the impulses sent through the nervous system.

It's as if I am stuck in someone else's body...

Oh my gosh, what are those?!

"Twilight's" eyes rested upon some macabre figures resembling human bodies that were unlucky enough to be subject to a vivisector's mercy. Blood was seeping through open wounds, limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, and the faces screamed from the unnatural pain.

Suddenly, they all turned to "Twilight" and screamed at once:

"MONSTER!"

Why are these voices familiar? And the faces... they look like...

Oh no no no no no! Not them! Anyone but them!

Twilight realized that the faces she was seeing were the people that she and Lyra had massacred on their way to the hideout where they found the AMFAK-10 bag for Sunset. Together, they formed an unnatural, creepy and downright disgusting picture, being intertwined with each other.

This abomination was screaming at her in a cacophony of voices:

"MONSTER!"

"MURDERER!"

"FREAK!"

"KILLER!"

"No!" Twilight tried to scream, but the mouth did not obey her. "No, I am not!"

Meanwhile, "her" hands moved. Horrified, the equine Princess saw that "she" had her AP-79 assault rifle in her hands, and "she" was aiming at the macabre twisted pile of flesh.

"NO! Stop it!" she screamed, but to no avail - the finger was tightening on the trigger.

"YES! KILL US!" the high-pitched, unnatural voices screamed.

"MURDER US AGAIN!"

"IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT!"

"SHOOT! KILL! DESTROY!"

BA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!

The sound of the assault rifle was deafening. Bullets tore into the disfigured bodies, tearing through them, spilling more blood, and even blowing away the limbs.

"No!" Twilight screamed. "NO! Please, no! Stop!"

"DO IT! FINISH IT!" the voices urged on.

"NO! Please! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry..."

The shooting did not stop untill all the bodies were not turned into a gory mess of blood, bone splinters, internal organs, patches of skin and scattered limbs. If Twilight could, she would have puked, but "her" body did not feel even the slightest hint of gag reflex.

And it moved on.

An undetermined amount of time later, it encountered a mirror. As the body turned into it, the Princess of Friendship gasped.

The whites of "her" eyes have become green, while the irises were now red, and the pupils resembled cat's slits.

It was as if she had become something like King Sombra.

And then she saw two more reflections besides "her".

Sunset Shimmer and Applejack.

"Twilight..." the southern accent was even more pronounced in country girl's voice than usual. "What have you done?"

"What have you become, Twilight?" Sunset's eyes were moist with tears. "What have you done with my friend? Because you are not her..."

"This can't be forgiven, Twilight," Applejack's voice became more stern.

"You are not my friend anymore," Sunset declared, and with these words, "Twilight" turned around, raising her gun to shoot at the two offenders-

Bra-ta-ta-ta-tat! Ba-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!

-only to be met with a stream of bullets coming from the assault rifles of her friends.

"Gasp!"

Twilight woke up, trying to reign in her breathing. Several seconds later, she gave up and rose, sitting on her bed. She looked around.

Sunset was asleep; apparently, she didn't hear that Twilight had just had a nightmare.

It's probably for the best, the lavender-skinned girl thought.

She dressed up and exited the house, being careful not to make any noise. Once she felt the cool air of the night brush against her, she sat on the porch and started shaking - but not from the cold.

She almost forgot about the poor men that she had slaughtered in her fit of rage when they tried to prevent her and Lyra from saving Sunset's life. Even then she was shaken, but the events of the following day, most prominent of which was the dark secret of Vault 49, forced that encounter to the back of her mind for a while, and meeting with Applejack laid those events to rest... temporarily.

In the moonlight, Twilight could see the dried blood staining her armoured jumpsuit where the bullets had hit her previously. But while this blood was hers, she also saw the blood of all those she had killed, metaphorically speaking.

It was almost unbearable.

Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes with her hands and started crying, quietly, but bitterly. Salty tears ran on her palms, or her nose if they did not make contact with the hands, but they could not wash away the blood that the pony-turned-human believed to stain her both on the outside and on the inside.

How can I ever hope for forgiveness? I don't deserve it! Those people were not even raiders, but once they refused to let us through, I massacred them in a rage, just for standing in my way! Sunset was unconscious, so she doesn't know, but... oh Celestia have mercy, if she finds out, she'll hate me, and Applejack will, too, and they will abandon me, because their friend has become a murderer...

A hand laid upon her shoulder.

"What's wrong, sugarcube?" an accented voice sounded.

"Leave me be, Applejack," Twilight spoke through her tears.

"No can do, Twi. Something's wrong with ya. But what? Tell me; that's what are friends for."

"Friends..." I don't deserve friends anymore. "If I tell you, you won't want to call me a friend anymore..."

"Now that's stinking thinking! Unless you were the one to drop all atomic bombs on the UFE lands, Ah hardly think Ah would abandon you. But if you decide to lie, well... Ah'll have words with ya."

"Really?" Twilight looked at Applejack through her tears. The vision was too blurry, so she wiped her eyes.

"Really. Now tell me honestly, Twilight, just what do you blame yourself for?" the blonde girl sat near her.

The Princess of Friendship recounted her tale of woe in the tunnels of Hoofington underground, also sharing her feelings of rage at that time, and mentioning her nightmare.

"Well, shucks," Applejack said, once Twilight finished, "that's one bad event. But really, Ah don't really blame ya. Had that been mah brother or Apple Bloom in Sunset's place, Ah'm not sure Ah would have tried to negotiate. You didn't start shooting until that stupid varmint pulled his gun. You reacted instinctively."

"And Sunset? How do I tell her that?"

"Tell the truth, the same things you just told me. If she's truly your friend, she may not be pleased, because, to be honest, Ah wasn't, but she won't abandon you. And if she does, Ah'll knock some sense into her bacon head, even without magic."

"Thank you, Applejack," Twilight wiped her nose, "it's somewhat better. But... well... I'm really out of my comfort zone here."

"Shoot, me too."

Several minutes passed in silence.

"Goldurn it," Applejack muttered.

"What is it?" the alicorn-in-disguise inquired.

"Ah have to admit something, Twi. Ah... could really use your help," the blonde farm girl said.

"With what?"

"Well... these bandits, the White Knives, they're becoming a big problem around here. They're threatening our orchard now, and without that, we're doomed. Ah don't know if we can destroy them to the last, but could you please help us in makin' sure they won't be a bother? 'Cause that would be one trouble off of my shoulders..."

"But there are others?"

"Yep, damn it," with these words, Applejack took out a flask, and took a small swig out of it.

"What are those?"

"This thing? It's a hip flask. Ah keep whiskey in there. Wanna try?"

"I actually meant other problems of yours," Twilight replied, taking the hip flask into her hand and studying it visually.

"Well, there are some hoity-toity people who like our apples but don't like us common folks, some mutated animals, super mutants wandering around here, and a pack of nasty ghouls, and not feral ones, mind you."

"That's... a lot."

"Yeah, but those are smaller than White Knives."

"Well, here's to solving the problems, I guess," the lavender-skinned girl spoke, and took a swig. Immediately, her eyes widened, and she almost spit the liquid out, but managed to swallow it. Her throat felt as if it were on fire.

"Holy guacamole, Applejack! That's strong!"

"It's an alcoholic drink, Twilight, what did ya expect? Nuka-Cider?" Applejack cackled at her own joke, taking the hip flask back, "and I'll drink to that," she continued, taking another swig.

"You do know that stuff is not healthy for your liver, right?"

"You are right, sugarcube, but the odds of dying from bullets are higher in the Wastelands than dying from the worn-down liver," the blonde girl replied, standing up and turning to go back into the house.

Curses. That actually sounds logical, Twilight thought, following Applejack back into the house.

Level Up!

New Perk (Twilight Sparkle):

Intense Training (Rank 2): Allows to add one point to one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes.

Chosen attribute: Strength (5)

New Perk (Sunset Shimmer):

Intense Training (Rank 1): Allows to add one point to one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes.

Chosen attribute: Charisma (6)

Author's Note

I do not have the strength to write another adventure-filled 10k monster chapter yet, unfortunately. So I've decided to give you some things regarding Applejack's backstory and what her situation is now.

About the thing regarding Applejack's parents dying in combat: in EG universe, their fates (and maybe existence) are even muddier than in original Friendship is Magic. My own headcanon is that Applejack's parents were alive when she went to CHS, and worked on the farm most of the time to support the family, or even pay for her schooling (it hasn't been stated in any of Equestria Girls movies, but I've always thought that CHS was not a state-sponsored school and thus charged fees, although lower than Crystal Prep Academy), and that's why no one has seen them. Based on this, I made my own take on "Applejack's dead parents" fanon.

After this point, Twilight and Sunset won't level up after each chapter. More XP needed

Hopefully, I'll cook another chapter in 10-20 days. Why so long? Real life, that's why. That and I exhausted my last reserves of inspiration now, so I need a small rest (maybe Fallout: New Vegas will help) before we move on to other events.

I hope you enjoy this chapter Stay tuned!