The Truth Hurts

by Lawrence Gander

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 6440

Twilight helps Applejack recover from her discorded self.

Sometimes truth can be cruel, what is real cannot be changed, and the world will seem at its worst. For one pony this truth has been exposed, and everything she held deer now seems mortal and dead to her. Yet within this there is a greater truth, something that cannot be undone by the ravages of time, it is this truth she must discover. Perhaps with the help of a friend.

Published 2012-06-06 16:04:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-06 16:04:01 UTC

The Truth Hurts

Author’s Note: Before you begin I simply wish to state that I am not unsatisfied with the season 2 opener in any significant way. This short story is not a form of me saying that the writers underperformed in their duties, if anything they surpassed them and did better than anything I could hope to give to a children’s show, it is in fact one of my favorite episodes. So I say that this is not me trying to make something better, it is simply a moment of inspiration that hit me at two in the morning on a Friday night, and I do not view it as better. I simply view it as something... stranger.

The Truth Hurts

Equestria had officially gone insane. As the sun and the moon argued over who should be sitting in the spotlight for how long, a lone unicorn galloped her way through the madness. She ran past trees that sang the blues to the dulcet tones of a piano chewing bubblegum. There was plenty else wrong with Equestria as well, but the little purple pony didn't allow herself to get distracted. Her destination was one familiar, but sadly lost in this twisted alien landscape. More than three times did she have to backtrack herself thanks to the soapy roads trickling off into nowhere because a patch of chocolate rain had decided to divert its path. Despite this and through all the madness wrought by the incarnation of chaos she managed to make it through and to the land beyond, Sweet Apple Acres.

“There you are.” Twilight observed her friend sitting against her house… un-eating one of her favorite foods. “Applejack.” She was so grey, not anything like she remembered.

“There we were Granny,” She said while ‘giving’ another bite back to her apple, “all of Equestria on pins ‘n’ needles as we took the fight to Discord. Heheh, boy howdy he didn’t see us coming, them elements of harmony sure know how to send them troublemakers packing.” Her granny merely continued her tap dancing routine, seemingly oblivious to the world around her.

“APPLEJACK!” Her friend visibly jumped at the sudden call of her name. “I’m here to fight for our friendship!”

Twilight let the words sink in a little, and it had definitely sounded better in her head on the way over. Then without warning the ground next to her popped open, for a minute Twilight thought it was that talking groundhog that had asked if she ordered ten thousand cheese pizzas, but instead she saw Big Mac panting like a dog. Then without warning, he licked her face, shortly before disappearing back underground.

“Uhhh,” What just happened? Twilight thought to herself.

“Oh now you wanna fight.” Applejack huffed. “I didn’t mention it Granny, but Twilight here got so scared that I had to save her. Like any good friend would!” Applejack added with a glare Twilight’s way.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she dared to close the distance between them.

“Oh you know what I mean, nothing but half hearted attempts outta you. Why, if it wasn’t for me we might’ve never defeated Discord.”

“But we didn’t defeat Discord, don’t you remember?”

“Yeah… of course I remember, because WE didn’t, I did,” Applejack stated as Twilight noted that she made that horrible poker face of hers once again. “Yeah I just stood him up and wham!”

Twilight watched as Applejack stood rather unsteadily in a bipedal stance as she recounted a tale coated in lies to try and cover up the truth that had been brought forth. That was when Twilight knew that enough was enough, if words weren’t going to cut it then she could try something else, the old memory spell. She doubted that somepony under the effects of a spell would just let her cast counter-spell upon them, so.

“-then I pulled out the old haymaker.” Applejack turned to Twilight to make sure she was there listening to her epic recounting of the battle, when all she saw was a big purple unicorn a few inches from colliding her in a full on body slam. As her body finally ground to a halt after hurdling through the air, she heard her old friend say.

“This isn’t you Applejack, you’re not a liar!” Twilight prepared the spell, and before her friend had a moment to consider what she was doing, cast the magic into her friend’s mind.

It was a rather simple spell, when Twilight studied it the spellbook it was contained within stated that it simply took a memory either you or your subject had, and brought it forth to be remembered vividly. Twilight was sure to make Applejack remember her lesson on stubbornness, and how she learned to be friends with Rarity at the sleepover. She didn’t lie her way through those lessons, and in facing the truth of her own weakness had actually made their friendship stronger. At the moment the spell began to finish its weave Twilight pulled back, letting the spell do the rest of the work, and sure enough she watched Applejack’s colors slowly fade back in, until she was once again that bright orange.

“Applejack?” She asked as her friend opened her eyes, the spell apparently left you in a bit of a stupor afterwards, and Twilight just wanted to make sure she was fine. “You okay?”

Applejack blinked a few times in mild confusion.

“Applejack?”

“No,” she slammed her eyes shut.

“Applejack!” Twilight wasn’t sure what was happening, the book had said nothing about this.

“NO!!!” Before Twilight could think her friend quickly bucked her away, then all that the spell had accomplished simply evaporated. In another instant her friend got up and bolted away in a color drained flash to flee from her to the inside of her house, the barn doors slamming behind her.

As she got off the ground it took Twilight a moment to realize just how much color the world had lost, seeing Applejack in her normal tone made her realize just how grey her friends had become, and she had to wonder how she didn’t see it before. One part of her wondered if Discord had pulled some special kind of wool over her own eyes as well, the idea of that didn’t sit well at all.

She shook the thoughts from her mind, sitting around wondering about such things wasn’t going to help anypony. What Equestria needed was the Elements of Harmony, and they wouldn’t accept any substitutions, she learned that the hard way. So she had to figure out what went wrong. The spell wasn’t specifically made to counter Discord’s, it was an entertaining trick at best, but Twilight was sure that if Applejack remembered who she was that Discord’s spell would be broken. Then again maybe it wasn’t a case of Applejack not being herself. She shuddered at the thought of her friend truly being whatever Discord turned her into.

“Maybe this is something magic can’t solve…” Twilight took a moment to wonder if she had perhaps given up on word’s too quickly, she had a tendency to do that if magic seemed to present a solution to her. With a deep sigh she resigned herself to whatever was about to happen as she approached the doorway into Applejack’s barn homestead. “They’ll accept no substitute.” She reminded herself as she pulled the door open with her magic.

The first thing she saw was perhaps the last thing she expected. A pan was sent flying through the air directly towards her face, and try as she might her first instinct to duck wasn’t fast enough and it slammed directly into her face. However, much as she learned throughout the day, nothing happens as she expected it to. The pan that looked to be made of some metal had slapped against her face like it was nothing more than wet paper, her horn had even torn a hole through it.

“There’s more where that came from you witch, that is if you don’t start scampering along soon you hear!?”

Twilight quickly got the wet paper-pan thing off her face before anything else could be sent her way. “Applejack wait, I just want to talk!”

“Yeah, sure. Next thing you know I’m gonna get hog tied by those silly pigeons again and you’re gonna steal all my apples again!”

More random kitchen supplies started getting flung Twilights way, and she was quick to use her magic to telekinetically snag them out of the air. For all she knew the half gallon of chocolate milk she had just frozen in mid-flight could be explosive, nothing was certain with Discord running around.

“Would you just give me five seconds to explain myself!?”

“Why? So you can tell me some sorta mumbo jumbo magic chant thingie that makes me forget who I am or something?”

Twilight quickly stopped a barrage of cabbages that had been bucked her way from hitting their target, “How about so I can say I’m sorry?”

Applejack stopped herself as she was about to chuck something else Twilight’s way, “Well, that’d be nice I suppose… but you’re staying over there ya hear?”

She sighed in relief to the small break she was given and shut the door behind her, determined to keep out as much crazy as possible. “Fine by me.”

For a moment there was silence, neither side knew what to say. Time was not infinite it seemed, and one spoke up.

“Would you mind floating me that basket of corn, I need to butter it before it starts crying again.”

Twilight blinked in confusion before looking toward the requested object, it looked to be an ordinary basket full of corn, why it would cry Twilight didn’t know and she wasn’t about to argue over something so trivial. So she did as she was told, and soon enough just as Applejack had said the corn started to… cry.

“Yeah yeah, I already had the butter simmering, then somepony barged into my home unannounced and made me waste a perfectly good drying pan.”

Applejack sent ‘somepony’ a scowl and went about taking a pitcher out of her fridge, which for some reason was filled with melted butter. Upon being poured onto the crying baby corn Twilight heard something popping. Sure enough, well fed baby corn would spontaneously ‘pop’ into popcorn. Once the strange event had concluded Applejack tried some, and grimaced.

“Meh, too salty.”

“Of course it is.” Twilight gave an innocent grin as her friend looked her way with an un-flattered scowl. “So Applejack, got any big plans for the day?”

“Not really, I like to simmer down for a spell after taking down a draconna-thing.”

“Well is there anything you want to talk about like, oh I don’t know. Maybe what’s got you feeling all grey?” Sure she was being direct, but Twilight didn’t know what else to say.

“Feeling grey? I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, I never felt better in all my life.”

Twilight waited for it, but the bad poker face Applejack always put on never came around. She wasn’t learning how to tell a lie already was she?

“That is, until somepony went and filled my head full of strange magic jumbo. Really Twilight, I thought you were better than that.”

“Oh, that, sorry about that you see, umm.” It was a long shot, but why not fight crazy with crazy. “In Canterlot, Unicorns just cast spells on each other all the time.”

“Really?” Applejack scoffed.

“Oh yeah, I remember this one time I was just minding my own business, when all of a sudden I was a frog. We had a good laugh about that one, heheh… heh… heh.” Twilight did her best to just smile and laugh, waiting for Applejack’s response. Her scowl however held up for a time, but then.

“Don’t take this the wrong way Twilight, but all ya’ll unicorns are weird.”

“Yeah, well…”

“And you’re bad liars too.”

Twilight blushed for a moment having been caught, even if she believed a moment before that she had been successful. “Oh…”

Applejack looked at Twilight with deep seeded suspicion, “Why are you still here Twilight?”

She found some measure of her confidence again, “Like I said Applejack, I’m here to fight for our friendship.”

“No, I think you’re here to fight for YOUR friendship.”

“What?”

“Well why else would you give me… those memories?”

“Applejack I’m just trying to save what we were, what we all were. Without us, Equestria is doomed to eternal chaos, you heard Celestia talk about what rule under him was like, and I know this isn’t you this is just... whatever he turned you into.”

“He didn’t TURN me into anything Twilight, he just showed me the truth.” At that point she couldn’t look at her old friend anymore, not with all the thoughts the truth stirred in her.

“The truth, that’s what this is all about? Applejack, truth is what you do, for crying out loud it’s your element. There’s no way the truth turned you into this liar!”

“Oh really?” Applejack nearly shouted, turning her watery eyes back to Twilight. “You want truth? Cause I can still do truth!”

Twilight began backing up as Applejack slowly pushed her way into her space.

“What did you do? When it mattered most what did you do!?”

“When I did what?” Twilight asked as she tried to see how much room she had left to give as she neared the far wall.

“Back when we was fighting Discord, or should I say when we lost.”

Twilight knew where she was going with this, “Applejack look I-”

“No!” Twilight finally ran out of room, and was forced to look Applejack dead in the eye as she continued, “You wanted the truth, then you’ll get it. After we all went our separate ways, guess what Twilight, I looked back.” Tears formed in her eyes, “And what did I see? My friend standing up to Discord? The best of us still fighting for us? No!” She shook her head, closing her eyes to the pain they had remembered. “Instead I saw some silly little filly with her head hung low… that was when I knew he told me the truth.”

Twilight did her best to stay strong, but Applejack was tearing at a painful memory, “Applejack, I I,” but she couldn’t help it, the memory of that moment where she stood all alone, when everything she believed about friendship had shattered. She whimpered back a slight sob.

That sound set Applejack off again, “I woulda rather had our friendship end with shouting than like that!” she glared at her old friend, “With a WHIMPER!” Without another word she stormed off, leaving Twilight alone in her home.

She sat there for a moment, collecting herself. Twilight had thought she had gotten over that hurdle, but that didn’t seem the case. It seemed that the truth of the matter still hurt her somewhat, and she hadn’t thought that anything she had done could hurt one of her friend’s in such a way.

“Applejack…”

She knew now that Applejack was still herself, it was simply that she believed in something different entirely. Whatever she did believe in however wasn’t friendship anymore, whatever sick lie Discord had tricked her into believing was what she held to as truth now. She just had to find out what that was, and then maybe she could set things straight. The problem now was if she really believed in what Discord had told her, then it wouldn’t matter what she did. If Applejack didn’t want to save their friendship then what could she say or do to change her mind? Twilight finally got her senses together and looked out the nearest window, to see if she could find Applejack.

Luckily she spotted her, not far from the house. Sitting alone near a fencepost she was resting, it seemed she needed time to collect herself as well. Twilight wasn’t sure if some part of her was playing a trick on her, but she could swear she heard some rather familiar laughter, as though someone was taking joy in her friend’s pain. Whatever the case, after the laughter had ceased she noticed something significant.

Applejack had looked back to the barn, and for a fleeting moment some of her color returned. Twilight held her breath as her friend got up, with a brave look in her eye she took a few steps toward the barn where she had but scant moment ago left in a huff, but then she stopped and cast her head down. Slowly shaking it about as the grayness returned, and she left mumbling something as she disappeared into the apple orchards.

After seeing that Twilight knew that some part of her friend was still fighting in there, and as long as that was true she wouldn’t stop either. So she picked herself up, dusted off all of her doubts, and prepared herself for one last showdown with Applejack.

[/][/][/][/][/]

Twilight was slightly freaked out by what Applejack’s orchard had become, it seemed like Discord’s taste for Apples so large that they bent the trees over was not lost, but at the same time the neat rows that they had once been were all but gone as it began to feel more like a maze. This was exactly what she didn’t need, one part of her believed it was just dumb luck, but another wondered if Discord was onto her and had orchestrated this little trap himself somehow.

“Great, off to save Equestria and I wind up trapped in an apple orchard for all eternity.” She sighed, “Well at least I won’t go hungry.” She looked at the apple that was almost twice the size of her head that hung low enough that she wouldn’t even need to crane her neck to reach it. For a moment she thought she shouldn’t, who knew what a magically altered fruit could do to her, then again she was getting really hungry. She leaned forward, about to take a bite when.

“Don’t do that, it ain’t ripe yet.”

Twilight was taken aback at the familiar voice, “Applebloom?”

“Well that was my pony name, and I can’t think of a way to pronounce my real name so that’ll work.”

“What… wait a minute where are you?” She began scanning her surroundings as the little filly responded with some nonsensical notion that she wasn’t sure because she hadn’t taken root yet. Luckily the little filly was talkative and following her voice Twilight found her under a low hanging branch, most of her.

“What’s with the face?” The little filly asked.

“Whuh… Why are you buried up to your head?”

“My head? Oh you silly pony this isn’t my head, its my trunk.” She continued past Twilight’s dumbfounded look, with a wiggle of her ears she gestured towards her unkempt mane. “And this is my foliage. I would show you my roots and all, but tree’s are supposed to stay planted, gotta get all them nutrients and whatnot to grow up big and strong.”

Twilight confusion eventually gave way to her perceptive nature, and she began to have an inkling as to who did this to Applebloom based upon her slightly diluted color. “Let me guess, someone with a really unusual look told you something right?”

“No, not someone, sometree!” She ignored Twilight placing a hoof over her face, “I was just standing around, like usual, and suddenly I got talking to this really funny tree, I guess what they say about a bark worse than his bite is right because his bark had a tooth in it, and he told me the wildest idea. I don’t have a cutie mark and you know what else doesn’t have cutie marks? Trees!”

“Trees?”

“Yeah, Trees, I mean obviously I’m not a pony, what kinda pony doesn’t have a cutie mark. Nope I’m definitely a tree, just gotta wait for them spring showers and I’ll sprout like a daisy come summer. ”

Twilight could only handle helping one pony at a time right now, “Well have you seen a pony around here, really grey, might’ve looked really mad?”

“You mean Applejack?”

Oh thank Celestia she still knows who her sister is! “Yeah, have you seen her!?”

“She went off to that hill over yonder,” She ‘pointed’ in the general direction with a tilt of her head. Twilight looked and she could see a path in the trees that seemed to have been recently trodden, thankfully it seemed to lead to a break in the orchard as well. “Although I wouldn’t call her mad.”

“Huh?” Twilight said returning her attention to the crazy pony.

“She looked really… I don’t know, like she was thinking really really hard. Glad I ain’t a pony, I don’t need to think no more.”

“Alright well.” Twilight entertained the idea of placing the branch back over Applebloom, it might’ve been what kept her safe for so long, then again what if when they returned they couldn’t find her because she hid her too well and forgot about her.

“Hey lady, you gonna stand there all day? You’re in the way of my sun.” As if on cue, Equestria decided it was time for night. “Aw dag nabbit, now look at what ya gone and done, I ain’t gonna get any sunlight for a whole five minutes now.”

“I think I’ll go now.” Twilight then left believing firmly that if Applebloom was safe for this long that whatever force was guarding her could keep doing so until they fixed this whole mess.

She stopped on the path she had been pointed towards realizing she couldn’t see thanks to the darkness, once again on cue, the sun decided it was its turn to shine and promptly thumped the moon out of the way. Twilight didn’t waste a single second, already tearing down the path she was shown, following it all the way to its eventual end.

It was there she stood, at the end of the orchard maze, gazing out to hills of green. It was strange to see a stretch of land seemingly untouched by Discord’s hand, it made her realize just how goofy the world had gotten to see something so normal, yet be amazed by it. No matter the sights, all that mattered is that she found her, upon the highest hill in the small untouched field she sat gazing out at something far away. Twilight wasn’t sure when, but by the time she had made it to Applejack she had already noticed her and as such spoke first.

“What do you want?”

“I follow you this far and you really have to ask that?”

“So you want the element of honesty to give you some more truth huh? Well no thanks, I’m all burned out today. Came out here to uproot some trees and my mind won’t stop buzzing.”

“About what?”

“You follow me this far and you have to ask that?”

“Point taken,” Twilight said with a little laugh.

“Friendship.”

“Huh?”

“I keep thinking, why do I want it? Even if I know how it’ll end, why do I want it?”

“What do you mean how it’ll end?”

Applejack turned to Twilight, a weak look of annoyance drenched in melancholy greeted her, “That was the truth he showed me Twilight, that all our friendships will be over. Maybe with a bang as we all holler at each other… or maybe with a whimper and we just drift apart. I didn’t want to believe it, Twilight please believe me I didn’t want him to be telling the truth, but… but here we are.” She looked about at the sky, like she was a dreamer locked in a nightmare. “And all it took was some silly words.”

“I know that’s not true Applejack, our friendship isn’t gone, I saw you turn back at the barn I know you still believe in it.”

She ceased her gaze into the sky, and looked at Twilight with slightly shimmering emerald eyes. “I do Twilight, I want to, but I can’t.”

“Why Not!?” Twilight demanded

“Because it hurts!” There was an obvious choke in her voice, “Because no matter what happens, it’s going to end one day… and I don’t want it to.” She looked back at Twilight, a smile on her orange face. “Ya’ll are some of the best friends I ever had, and it just hurts too much to know I’ll have to say goodbye to each of you one day, not once, but five times. There’s a lot of things I can do, but I can’t do that Twilight, I just can’t.” Her color faded, as did any emotion in her voice. “I’ve been facing the truth all my life, and it nearly always hurts, and I’m done hurting.”

“Applejack… I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize Discord did… what Discord caused you to believe.”

“I didn’t want to, I fought it every step of the way. Even when Rarity kicked me in the face after I tried suggesting something generous for her to do, I even told ya’ll that I saw Dash when I just could’ve let you think she was still out there trying to help us, I let you know the truth no matter how bad it hurt.” She groaned and pulled her hat down over her eyes, “I was so desperate to keep all of us together I thought joining in on that keep away with your book was a good idea.”

“That wasn’t your fault Applejack, you can’t believe that, Discord must’ve had some sway over you. You have to realize that.”

“Even if he did Twilight it doesn’t change a thing! Even without Discord being around, you can’t change the truth.” Her glare didn’t retain its heat long, “No matter how badly you want to.”

There was silence, for a moment, then Applejack spoke up again.

“Like I said before Twilight, you’re here to fight for YOUR friendship. Mine is… well I don’t know what mine is, but its different… a lot greyer than it used to be.” She looked back to her old friend, a stare cold and uncaring of what might happen. “I think it’s best for both of us if we just went our separate ways. So if all we’re gonna do is get teary eyed and yell at each other over a broken mirror that we can’t put back together, then I might as well just stop us now, and say good day… or night. Whatever time of day it is anymore.”

Twilight had to think of something, anything to rebuke that argument before Applejack could leave, before that spark of friendship in her died for good.

Come on Twilight, all that time wandering around in that orchard maze and you can’t think of one reason to at least give her pause!? Come on, THINK-THINK-THINK! What would she do in this situation!?

Then it hit her, suddenly clear as day, an answer. It wasn’t the element of honesty, it wasn’t their friendship, not exactly but close to it, the answer was Applejack herself.

“What if I had an answer!?” She called out quickly. “To the mirror, and the broken, and how we can fix it!”

Applejack stopped, and turned to her friend with a very befuddled look on her face.

Slow down Twilight, just let your thoughts line up, “I know what you mean by the mirror, how its broken and no matter what we do we can’t put it back together to be that same mirror again, but I have an answer to that.”

“You do?” Twilight couldn’t tell if Applejack wore hope or worry on her face as she began making her way over to her.

“I think the answer is the truth.”

“Truth got us into this mess Twilight, and you can’t change it either.”

“Don’t you see Applejack, it’s so simple, the truth will set you free. It doesn’t have to be bad!”

“Twilight I think you’ve gone insane, one truth isn’t going to overwrite this one, its absolute.”

“No, not a truth Applejack, THE truth.”

“Would you talk normal for one cotton picking second.”

“Please, just listen for a minute.” Twilight took a moment to collect her thoughts.

“I’ve been thinking about the elements for a long time now, I like to think that we can find more answers in them besides where they came from. Yours was particularly vexing to me. I mean, heh, honesty an important value of friendship? Of course it is, but shouldn’t it be a little more specific than that? I was pretty much stumped on the matter, I just took it at face value, then today when you challenged me with the truth… it made me think. You know me, I start thinking and I don’t stop until I hit a dead end or a conclusion.”

“What did you figure out then?”

“You are the answer Applejack.”

That seemed to throw her more for a loop than the fact that Twilight had an answer.

“Just think about it. Why are you the way you are? Because the truth hurts, but the truth also sets you free right? How can it do both and yet be the same thing.”

“The truth isn’t always sunshine and lollipops, you should know that by now, and how the hay do I figure into this.”

“Because you’re always so hard working, and considerate, you never shirk in anything you do because you make sure it’s done right and done right the first time. So that when somepony beset with worry and rumors asks you for the truth you can set them free with it, to let them stop worrying and go along with their lives. When somepony’s truth hurts, it’s because they have failed it, they didn’t give it everything they could to make it right.”

“But… but you tried your best to save our friendship before, I saw you, he broke you. What changed Twilight? What changed!?”

“Nothing about that changed, I failed because I didn’t give it my all, I let my anger win, and I wanted it all to be over with so then my impatience got the best of me. I mean for crying out loud Applejack I made Spike play the part of Rainbow Dash! So when you saw the truth for real, it wasn’t the best truth, it was a failed truth, a hurtful truth because I didn’t give it my all and gave up to my not so better nature.”

“I-I don’t get it Twilight, what has that got to do with being beyond the truth that we’ll all grow apart one day, that one day our friendship will be over.”

“No Applejack, you don’t get it, that isn’t the truth. It’s been twisted, our friendship doesn’t need to die.”

“But-”

“No.” Twilight said sternly, “That will only be the truth if we let it be the truth, if we fail and let it become hurtful then our friendship will be over, but it isn’t absolute. We can fight it.”

“That doesn’t… that doesn’t change anything Twilight, it’ll still be over, it’ll still be goodbye.”

“It changes everything Applejack, ” She said with a warm smile. “Then it won’t end in a fight or a whimper as we drift apart, we’ll end it ourselves with a smile and a hug with warm goodbyes. It won’t be sad then, it’ll be happy and we won’t have any regrets because we’ll know that we were all the best friends any of us has ever had. Because friendship is forever, that’s the truth, the real truth, and as long as you don’t fail that truth, as long as you give it your all for your friends you never have to say goodbye. Because you will know that they are still your friend wherever they are.”

Applejack seemed paused in thought, her eyes darting about as she absorbed what she had just been told.

“I know it’s not foolproof, maybe even a little convoluted, but doesn’t it make our old friendship worth it?”

Applejack looked apprehensive, ready to bolt, she was still afraid of something.

“It won’t be easy, but I won’t give up, and as long as I don’t give up you won’t either because you know it now Applejack. You know it’s worth fighting for I can see it in your eyes, you just have to believe.”

She kept looking around, for a way out, her body wanted to bolt but her mind was making her stay.

“You have to choose Applejack! A life of lovely stingless lies that don’t mean a thing, or a life filled with happiness and joy that can never be undone if you can face the truth! So are you going to lie down in the mud, or are you going to fight for it with me!?”

Applejack just sat there, shaking, trying to think of something good enough to hold onto, but every idea she threw at just fell silent. She returned her look to Twilight, her old friend, eyes feeling wet and heavy. For the first time, in a long time she answered something with all her heart. “Yes!”

Twilight was taken aback as one of her first true friends rushed towards her and embraced her in one of the most caring hugs she had ever felt. She simply returned the feelings in kind with her own and as she listened to her friend let loose all her sorrow that she had felt over the past day she noticed the grey coloring leave her coat, slowly oozing out onto the hillside and evaporating away into nothingness, she paid it as much heed as the meaningless lies that had once been believed.

“I said some awful things Twilight,” Applejack began as she loosened her hug a bit. “Can you ever forgive me?”

Her answer was as it should be, plain as day, “Of course.”

Applejack then cleared her throat a bit, sniffling away some of the unsightly dribble from her nose. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

“I could say the same for you.” They just smiled for a time, letting the moment settle. “Good to have you back AJ.”

“So we still gotta go help the others?” This wasn’t sappy AJ talking, this was good old down to business AJ speaking.

“Yeah, but I really hope I don’t have to do that four more times, I can only handle so much stuff in a day.”

“Don’t you worry none, I’m here now.” She smiled and winked as she said, “And I ain’t gonna let some silly words stop me this time. Now let’s move‘em out, we got some friendship to fight for!”

“Oh boy, I’m never going to hear the end of that am I?”

“Nope,” She said aloud with a hoot and a holler.

Twilight’s grin couldn’t be contained as she followed her friend away from the hillside, off to undo the damage chaos had wrought in order to save not only Equestria and her friends, but friendship itself.

END

Epilogue

“Stupid chicken, get away.” Applebloom shooed away the stubborn little orange bird, it had been the third or fourth time she had to do so in the last hour alone. “And stop trying to peck up all my worms, they’re good for my soil! Besides I think your beak is broken, you haven’t caught a single one all day.” Then she heard another series of poorly sounding clicks and beeps from the tree above her, she wasn’t sure if it was sick or something, but it had started the second the chicken came along and she didn’t want any of its germs or whatever it had.

Then she saw something amazing, a light crested over the horizon, it almost looked like a rainbow but… more dome-like. It rapidly began expanding outward; engulfing everything it touched in its bloomy whiteness, and it was headed right for her.

“Oh no, this is it, THIS IS THE END!” The chicken began panicking as well, flailing about in front of her, “I ALWAYS HATED YOU STUPID CHICKEN.”

The light engulfed everything, and then… then…

Applebloom felt dizzy, and really itchy. The first thing she noticed besides her inability to move was an orange object a few feet from her. It began to squirm and made a familiar groan, “Hey Scoots is that you?”

“Ugh, yeah.” Applebloom noticed that Scoots was rubbing her face carefully. “What did we try to do this time, my face feels like it went through a taffy tenderizer.” Her face froze when she say Applebloom, she could only snicker.

“What?” Applebloom stated as she herself began trying to squirm about.

“Why are you buried up to your head in the dirt, and what’s with your mane?”

“What’s wrong with my mane?”

“Uh, Girls!”

Both recognized the voice immediately, “Sweetie belle!?”

“Where is she Scoots, is she behind me? I can’t see her.”

“Up here.”

Applebloom craned her neck back as far as it would allow, “What’re you doing up in that tree, better question, how did you get up there?”

“I don’t know… Something about scanning organic life for weaknesses and reporting back to the motherboard, I’m not sure.”

“What!?”

“Just get me down!”

“Okay Scootalo, go find somepony, quick.”

“Um, what about you?”

“I’m buried in dirt, I ain’t going nowhere, now just hurry up before something else weird happens.”

As if on cue the top half of a pony burst forth from the ground not far from them, as he gasped for breath he coughed up a squeaking tennis ball toy that looked to have been well used, amongst other items. To one of the observing trio he looked rather familiar.

“Big Mac! Good timing, can you help us… wait, why were you buried in the dirt, and what’s with the tennis ball? Is that… is that a chariot’s license plate?”

His cool eyed expression slowly went from one filly to the next, from the one buried to her head in dirt, to the one covered with chicken feathers, and the third stuck up a tree scarred out of her wits.

“You don’t tell, I don’t tell. Deal?”

“Deal!” the trio said back in unison.

Without a further word, Applebloom was dug up, Scootaloo was de-feathered, and Sweetie Belle was rescued. With each going to their own respective home having agreed to never speak of this strange series of events ever again, order and sanity seemed to have returned to Equestria for now.

End End