The Town of Friendship

Twilight looked curiously at the newcomer, who only a moment before had been seething with anger at Rose. Could ponies really exchange one feeling for another so quickly and so drastically? She had only known ponies to have one feeling: an angry lust. She had never known love or hate or sadness or happiness or any of the other myriads of feelings that make up such a spectrum. She had only known that same angry, dull lust that drove the remaining ponies of Canterlot to pay for sexual satisfaction. They were angry, but they were complacent, and they did as they were told. Nopony had the nerve to stand up to Lilly’s evil, so they went with the flow of affairs.

“Pardon me,” she said, “but you were angry with Rose just a minute ago…how could you be happy with her now?”

“Well, I don’t take too kindly to her swipin’ my apples,” Applejack said, “but when you referred to her as a ‘friend,’ my heart done up and leapt for joy! I can’t believe true friendship still exists in our land! It makes me so happy!”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Rose said, “and I’m sorry I took your crop without asking. I didn’t even know it was yours!”

“You’re sorry?” Applejack asked, “what exactly does that mean? I’ve heard it before, but I can’t say as I’ve been told that to my face.”

“It means she regrets the decision she made, and she wants you to forgive her,” Twilight said, “at least…I think that’s what it means.”

The purple pony came to a horrifying realization as soon as the words left her lips. Friendship had been illegal for so long, that nopony knew what it was to apologize and ask for forgiveness! It had become obsolete and obscure, and now, whenever somepony said “I’m sorry,” it just meant they felt bad for you, and even then it was mostly facetious. Forgiveness was a lost art, and the thought of this frightened Twilight. Have we really become so utterly complacent?

Everypony in Canterlot, and indeed, throughout Equestria, followed the same daily ritual. They would rise in the morning with a dull look on their face, go out and find a prostitute to have sex with, go to work for the government, and then head home and collapse into bed, exhausted and preparing themselves to repeat the cycle all over again the following day. Eat, sex, work, sleep. Eat, sex, work, sleep. It had become so routine, that nopony truly cared about it anymore. It was just the way things were.

“Well, then, I forgive you,” Applejack said, “does that make everything okay again?”

“I think so,” Rose said, “I sure feel a lot better.”

“Well feelin’ better doesn’t exactly replace the apples y’all stole,” Applejack went on, “I mean, I’m happy to forgive you, but what are we gonna do about that? I need all the apples in my orchard to feed my family, seein’ as how we’re on the run from Lilly and her stupid cronies.”

“You’re running from Lilly, too?” Twilight asked, “where do you hope to get to?”

“I’ve heard tell of a town that teaches true friendship,” the orange pony said, “we’re tryin’ to make it there.”

“Who are you traveling with?”

“My little sister, Apple Bloom. I used to have a brother, Big McIntosh, but he was sent to the war years ago. I also used to have a Granny Smith…but she died along the way. The journey was just too much for her old bones to take.”

Here, Applejack stopped and began shedding tears. Twilight resonated with her grief, as it was the same mournful attitude she had when Shining Armor was sent away. It felt exactly like death itself had ripped the two apart, and she couldn’t stand it. Here was another pony who had felt the pain of losing loved ones, and she couldn’t help but feel awfully for her. She stepped forward and gathered the surprised, yet grateful, farmer into a hug.

“Wait a minute,” Rose said, “if you guys have been traveling towards the town, but had time to grow these trees…you must’ve been here for a horribly long time!”

“Ever since Granny Smith died, we’ve been hunkerin’ down here,” Applejack said, “we just couldn’t leave her grave. It seemed…wrong.” She sniffed a bit and then asked Rose, “you’re from Canterlot, right?”

Rose nodded. “Yep, I certainly am.”

“Then why does yer voice sound right Manehattan like?”

“Because I was born there. My parents moved to Canterlot looking for a better life a couple of years before Lilly took over.”

“Ah, I see. So that answers that question.”

“Applejack,” Twilight said, “can you tell us where you came from?”

She nodded. “I came from the small town of Ponyville. It was a little slice o’ heaven amidst all this ragin’ hell. Lilly’s forces never came down on us, and we were able to get away with a lot. We grew our own apple trees, and never once had to put up with givin’ ‘em away to that witch. We had enough to feed ourselves, and little Apple Bloom came along right quick. But that’s when everything changed.”

She frowned and fought back tears before going on, “I tell ya, it ain’t right what Lilly did to our family. She took my Ma and Pa back to Canterlot. Last I heard, Ma had been turned into nothin’ more than a common street hooker, and Pa was workin’ his rump off minin’ gold for Lilly.”

“Please,” Twilight said, “what’s your mother’s name?”

“Buttercup.”

“Really?!” Twilight asked in shock, “I know Buttercup! She’s an older pony, but she was always desired a lot.”

“Desired?! Desired?!” Applejack shrieked as her face shook with anger, “how can you just set there and tell me how my Ma is ‘desired?! That's my Ma, for apple's sake!’”

Twilight’s lip quivered. “I…I’m sorry, I-“

The orange pony took a moment and breathed, trying desperately not to kill this newcomer into her life. “Oh, it’s nothin’,” she said as her anger died away, “you were just tellin’ me her situation. I’m mighty grateful to hear that she’s still alive. But, tell me…how many ponies are beatin’ the sheets with her every night?”

Twilight stifled a smile at Applejack’s southern Equestrian reference, and then composed herself and said, “I don’t know. The amount of ponies that each mare sleeps with is kept under strict classification. We’re not allowed to see it.”

“The last I saw of it, she had slept with 500 ponies overall, and she was averaging 9 per night,” Rose said.

Twilight gave her friend a bit of a shocked look. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” Rose said, “I was secretary, so I got to peek at the books every now and then.”

“Anyway,” Applejack said, “Big Mac was drug off to war by some soldiers, and that left Granny, Apple Bloom, and me. We tried to keep the farm up, but Lilly caught wind of it and sent inspectors to shut us down. They did their job right proper, and drove us off. They wanted to take us to prison, but we managed to elude ‘em long enough to make it here. Then Granny died…and that’s where we stand.”

Twilight and Rose looked at each other, but neither of them were shocked or horrified. This evil was par for the course for the queen, and they couldn’t say they were surprised. But now they felt a special bond with this new pony, and for some reason, they didn’t want to let her go. Is this what I think it is? Twilight asked herself, could we be…friends?