Gold sat motionlessly at the dinning room table, a steaming cup of tea set before her and a blanket wrapped around her. Her orange eyes stared blankly into it, the steam dancing past her muzzle like wispy serpents. Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith sat across from her, Gold's outburst the sole reason the matriarch was present instead of asleep at such a late hour. Seeing little use in being there, Hazel left to resume her patrols of the orchard, offering Gold a rare look of worry as she let herself out over an hour ago. All of The Apples gave her concerned looks, none of them sure how to proceed. At the same time, a small battle was waging inside of Gold's mind.

She needed to give them an explanation for what happened, but even the thought of lying to them made her sick to her stomach. Even a partial truth didn't sit well with her, even if it would most likely mitigate the damage already done to their image of her.Not even a day after becoming an official member of their family and she destroyed the room they gave her. All because of a stupid hallucination. She knew that her past would come to ruin her new life eventually, but not so soon after bidding farewell to it.

A sad smile spread across her muzzle, a small nod to herself the only bit of encouragement she could give herself.

She took a small sip of her tea, took a deep breath, and still staring into her cup, started talking.

"I am sure that you all want an explanation for what happened," she somberly stated.

Each of them nodded slowly while giving her affirmative grunts.

She sighed.

"Before I came to Sweet Apple Acres, I lived as a Canterlot Noble. While I lived well beyond my means, I was also involved in some...unsavory enterprises. Some were a product of my family history while others were of my own doing. I was also raised under some especially outdated ideals. Ones that made me arrogant beyond even the reputation ponies of my former status earned. Because of that, I...."

Bile started to roll around in her gut as she tried to force herself to continue, her jaw clenched tight in rage over how stupid her past self had been. Forcing down her rage and disgust, she took another sip of her tea and forced herself to continue.

"I tried to kill somepony."

Her ears folded down tight against her head when she heard the gasps. Aside from that, all of the tension seemed to fall out of her. She sat limply in her chair, her hooves numb as they gripped her cup of tea. Now that the damage had been done, all she could do now was tell the rest of her story. Perhaps Gaia could give her shelter after the dust settled.

"It had all made sense to me at the time," Gold continued hollowly. "A lesser pony had crossed me and needed to be eliminated. As added insurance, I attempted to bribe Discord into providing legal protection in the off chance that the assassination was not carried out properly, but that was just the first step to my own undoing. To earn his favor, I arrogantly offered to give him anything he wanted from me to let me carry out the deed."

"D-Did he agree to it?" Applejack nervously asked.

"Of course not," Gold laughed mirthlessly, still staring into her cup. "He gave my servants and I a collection of cursed weapons, mine in particular being blessed with an especially potent version of the curse. As it turns out, the mare I wanted to kill was the lover of Princess Celestia's daughter. We had a Trial By Battle and thanks to my curse and Sunset Shimmer's immense power, I was defeated. Then, while I was in the hospital healing, Discord came and collected his payment for the weapons."

"W-What did he take?" Big Mac nervously asked.

A long pause followed that question, but in time, Gold was able to force two soft words past her lips.

"My horn."

Applejack and Big Mac stared at her in shock while Granny's face was one of quiet understanding.

"And that's why you're an Earth Pony now," Granny stated with a small nod.

Gold looked up at her with a feeble smile and nodded.

"Ya' knew?" Applejack asked, turning to face her grandmother with raised brows.

"'Course Ah did," Granny scoffed. "Manchineel was my own sister for Peet's sake. Do you think Ah would forget what tribe my grandniece is? Ah ain't that far gone yet, Jackie!"

A small row of chuckles filled the room from that, the bit of levity a welcome respite for Gold's soul. It also made it hurt more when she forced herself to continue.

Staring back into her cup, her smile fell as she said, "That was not the only thing he did. As a sort of cruel joke, he also made me, in a sense, immortal. I also suspect that he made me unable to kill; a fact that I only fully came to know when I was..."

Her breath hitched in her throat and her hooves started to shake. Shadows of memories she desperately wanted to forget slithered to the front of her mind like venomous serpents. She could almost feel the biting chill of the shackles on her wrists as they held her up against the wall of her prison. Bracing herself, she forced herself to take a large swig of her tea, the searing heat of the beverage snapping her out of the illusion her mind was about to drag her into.

A string of coughs came out of her, earning a few worried cries from her audience that she waved away.

"I-I am fine," she forced out, lightly pounding her chest with a hoof. "I...needed a bit of shock to ground me."

"Ground you?" Applejack asked, worriedly.

Gold nodded, again giving her cup her full attention.

"While Canterlot paints a very pretty picture for itself, it has a very ugly face behind it. Many of the older Noble families are involved in unsavory practices and are more than capable of doing so under The Princesses' noses. Some of these families have histories both bloody and beneficial. My former family, The Vines, has had a brutal blood feud with The Stones since long before I was born. Much like how my former house presented itself as a hub for wine distribution, The Stones worked in gem trade on the surface. In the shadows, our assassins were at constant war with their interrogators. Apparently, the heiress of The Stones, Moonstone Dagger, found out about my circumstances and...wanted...answers."

Gold took a deep breath, the phantom memories of that night slowly creeping up on her before she forced them back to the shadows of her mind.

"That...doesn't sound too good," Big Mac frowned.

"It was not," Gold flatly stated with a nod. "She knocked me out and dragged me out of the alley I had taken shelter in to her manor."

"Wait, alley?" Applejack blinked. "Ah thought you said you were a Noble. Why were you in an alley and not some big family mansion?"

"Because it all now belongs to Sunset Shimmer," Gold sighed. "That is what happens when you lose a Trial by Battle. Everything the loser had, save for their birth name, is given to the winner. As of right now, the entirety of The Vine Family is under the control of Sunset Shimmer and all who share her blood."

"That's...insane," Applejack gawked.

"Perhaps," Gold grimaced. "But it is the most effective way for progress to be made in the shadows. Power and wealth, even if it costs life, is the law of The Underworld. Although, I believe true death would have been a blessing for me the night Moonstone Dagger found me."

"What did she do?" Granny asked, her tone and face difficult to read.

Shivers, subtle at first, but gradually growing in strength, ran through Gold. She didn't want to go back to those memories. All of the pain, the visions, the screaming were sitting just on the edge of her mind. Taking a shuddering breath, she forced herself to wander into that dark corner one last time.

"She brought me to a dungeon underneath her mansion and...tortured me."

Gasps echoed around the table.

Gold's body tensed, phantom pains from knives and the toxic "cocktails" she had been forced to experience eating at her like the beetles Moonstone fed her head to.

She took a sip of her tea and forced herself to continue.

"She tested my immortality in every way imaginable. I was skinned, stabbed, soaked in acid, forced to drink poison, and many other things I was not fully lucid enough to acknowledge at the time. She even took my bones out and stood them up as a trophy in her study."

"THAT BUCKN' DAUGHTER OF A HORSEAPPLE!" Granny roared, slamming her forehooves down on the table with surprising force. "SHE BUCKED WITH YOU'RE MAGIC?! "

Everypony stared at her in shock, both because of her language and the look of absolute murder on her normally kind face.

"She did what with my-?" Gold started, only to pause as a distant memory came to her.

While she was still trapped in her own head, she remembered feeling a kind of flow within her. She didn't know what it was at the time, just that it was extremely important to her in one form or another. When Moonstone took her bones from her, that flow had been damaged as well.

That was my magic? My magic flows through my bones?

From the looks of horror shared by the rest of The Apples, it was a fairly safe bet that that was the case.

"I-It would seem she did," Gold whimpered, then took a steadying breath to continue. "She had me for months, the steady stream of poison and starvation leading me to have incredibly vivid hallucinations."

"Is that what happened earlier?" BIg Mac asked.

Gold nodded.

"I also have a severe magic phobia. Thanks to her, just the thought of a Unicorn's magic is..."

Her breathing started to become ragged as memories of a red magic aura came to her, searing pain and burning fire not far behind. A hoof on each shoulder pulled her back to reality, one red and one orange. She gave them thankful smiles before she nodded towards the table. Relenting, but still worried for her, Applejack and Big Mac nodded and returned to their seats.

"A-As I was saying," she coughed. "After she decided to...incinerate me...something inside me...broke. I remembered being...no, not angry. Furious? No. I was far beyond that. I felt as if every fiber of my being had turned into hatred. I hated Moonstone Dagger more than anypony had the natural ability to. I saw red the second she entered my cell and the next thing I knew, I was smashing her head into a wall with a cluster of vines that grew from my back."

"So...that wasn't the first time ya' did that?" Applejack gulped.

Big Mac and Granny gave the two of them questioning looks, both having been absent for that particular part of Gold's episode.

"No," Gold sighed. "It was thanks to them that I was able to escape Moonstone's manor. After I took my bones back, I left the mansion, fled Canterlot, and eventually found my way here."

With the conclusion of her tale met, a long silence settled over the group. Gold closed her eyes, waiting like a prisoner on her way towards the gallows for her crimes. She knew that their view of her had been damaged, that they now saw her as a monster as well as a damaged mare. When she opened her eyes, she knew that looks of shame and disgust awaited her. Just the thought of those looks coming from these ponies cut her deeper than any blade Moonstone could've ever used on her. She had never felt so small or vulnerable than she had as she forced herself to open her eyes.

Everypony at the table stared at her with heavy concern in their eyes, a fact that made Gold blink in confusion. A confusion that grew when Applejack got up from her seat, walked up to where Gold was seated, and pulled her into a tight embrace. She sat in stunned silence, her mind refusing to make sense of the situation she was in. It slowly started to sink in when Big Mac made the same journey as his sister and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. The damn finally broke when Granny gave her a warm motherly smile from her seat, a sight that became blurry with tears. While she sat, bawling her eyes out for all to hear, Gaia's words came to her with the resolution of a divine edict.

"The Apple Family is a very open sort, warm as the sun to all especially when it comes to their own. It may feel strange to you, but I believe you will not regret letting yourself become part of their family."

Eventually, Gold cried herself out, only shuddering breaths remaining as the two siblings took a step back from her at her sides. She was tired, drained in more ways than she could count, but she also felt...light. It was as if a heavy yoke that had been locked around her throat had finally been removed. For the first time in years, she felt like she could finally breathe.

"Better?" Applejack cautiously asked.

"Yes," Gold sniffled, smiling softly as she wiped some of her tears away.

"Good," she sighed, then sported a determined frown as she added, "I'm not gonna lie, it sounds like you were a giant heel in the past."

"Eeyup," Big Mac nodded.

"Quite an understatement," Gold bitterly muttered.

"But Ah ain't blind nether," Applejack continued, her determined frown turning into a smile. "Ah've seen how you are around Bloom and all of the work you've done around the farm. Ever sense Granny brought you to the house, you've been kind, mostly honest, and have done everythin' you can to keep everypony on the farm safe."

"Eeyup," Big Mac nodded, a quick glance from Gold showing her his soft smile.

"That don't sound like the mare you were talkin' about to me," she added.

"Sure as sugar don't," Granny cackled, then gave a small sigh as she added, "Ah'd say ya' more than paid up for all of the thin's you've done. Now Ah'd say it's high time we help ya' heal."

A moment of silence settled over the group, but one filled with patience instead of dread. The warmth she felt in their presence was an alien one, a fleeting memory from when her Grandmother was still in her life. She could almost swear she felt her standing behind her, gently nudging her forward with a hoof.

Her smile grew as she shakily said, "Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you."

"No problem Sugarcube," Applejack nodded. "We're family, right?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac smiled.

Gold chuckled at that, finally free from her past and all of the sins it carried.

An awkward cough from Granny Smith brought all attention to the Matriarch and she asked a question that passed the same feeling to her grandchildren.

"So, do you still have your....um....bones?"

Gold instantly lit up at that, a girlish giggle sliding past her muzzle.

"Oh! Yes! She's in the bag in my room. Her name is Skully."

"You....named it?" Applejack blinked.

"Of course not," Gold scoffed. "She told me her name."

"It...she talks to ya'?" Big Mac asked, just as flummoxed as his sister and grandmother.

"Not as much as she use to, but yes," Gold beamed. "Though most of our conversations involve pun comedy. I swear, I do not know where she picked up that habit. Would you all like to meet her?"

"Uh...sure?" Applejack nodded, casting nervous glances at the rest of her family.

Gold's smile could've lit up the whole house, the mare excitedly coming off of her chair and guiding her new family towards her wreckage of a room. The three Apple's traded worried looks, then resolute nods as they stepped away from the table and followed the mare further into the house. Between the madness that seemed to visit Ponyville every other month and their distant cousin, they knew they could find a way to help Gold get through her trauma. If the starting point involved them talking to a pile of bones for a night, then by Celestia and The Maker themselves they were going to do it.

***

It wasn't often that Applejack called on her more magically talented friends to help her solve a problem. Be it stubbornness or tradition, she strongly believed in doing things with her own two hooves and what tools she had at her disposal. It was with a thick mouthful of humble pie that she had to admit that the damage done to Gold's room was well past her ability to fix. Well past any Earth pony's ability to fix for that matter. Except for the wardrobe housing Skully, all of the furniture had been reduced to firewood. Gold's vines had carved such deep gashes into the walls and ceiling, it was a small miracle they hadn't ripped right through them. The floor hadn't faired much better, but the debris had managed to keep most of the boards from needing to be replaced.

After taking full stock of the damage, she forced herself to swallow her pride and made her way towards Twilight's castle the second Gold was out of the house. A few quick words with Spike, and she was back with the help she needed, even if it wasn't from the pony she was expecting.

Instead of a lavender Alicorn standing in the middle of the room, there was a light purple Unicorn doing the inspection. Her mane and tail was dark purple with two light blue streaks cutting through both of them, the former tied back into a loose ponytail and a single bang curling just over her left eye. Her cutie mark was a four-pointed purple star with light blue shimmering waves coming off of it from above. When she turned to face the farmer, her purple eyes held a heavy layer of confusion.

"What the hay happened in here?" she asked, flailing a hoof around them for emphasis. "It looks like a herd of drunk Yaks ran through!"

Applejack nervously scratched the back of her head, then said, "It's...not really my place to say."

"What do you-"

"Not important," Applejack sighed, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle. "All Ah can say is that my cousin is real jumpy around magic and Ah need this room put back together before she gets back. Can you do it Starlight?"

"Sure," she frowned, raising a brow. "Give me a couple of minutes and I should be able to get this place back to the way it was."

"Thank ya' kindly," Applejack sighed with a smile. "Ah really appreciate ya' comin' out here to do this for me."

"Eh, I didn't have anything else to do," Starlight shrugged, already reassembling Gold's bed-frame with her magic. "Especially now that Twilight's out of the castle."

"Yeah, where is Twilight anyway?" the farmer frowned, scratching her chin. "Ain't like her to up and vanish without lettin' us know first."

"No clue," Starlight frowned, repairing Gold's vanity. "Somepony sent a message to her through Spike and she suddenly teleported away."

"Huh, must've been somethin' pretty important," she mused.

"Yeah," Starlight mumbled, worry settling into her gut. "She looked really scared before she left, though."

***

Like many old castles, Canterlot Castle had its own personal dungeon. Admittedly, said dungeon was seldom used, the many high level wards and containment spells fused into the very stones that made up that part of the castle far more powerful than what was necessary to keep modern day prisoners. Only the absolute worst of the worst, just shy of worthy of Tartarus were doomed to rot in those cells. It was in one such cell that The Princess of Friendship found herself in with a Royal Guard at her side, the enchanted steel-bar door ripped almost off of its hinges.

The cell was a near exact replica of its neighbors, a perfect cube of solid gray stone with only the now destroyed door as the only way in or out and a bed of straw with a ratty gray blanket serving as the only form of furnishing. What separated this room from the hundreds of other cells sitting below Celestia and Luna's castle is what filled Twilight with dread. On the floor where the bed of straw should've been was an intricately drawn magic circle, the runes inscribing it and the faint traces of magic she felt from it more rancid than a corpse and seemingly written in blood. The body of a guard lay motionless in the corner, his throat slit far enough back his blood had become nothing but rust colored stains that trailed to the floor. All across the walls, written like a maddened mantra was a single name, one Twilight was very familiar with for the worst kind of reasons.
GoLd ViNe

"Your orders ma'am?" the guard asked, his training the only thing keeping his dread out of his voice.

Eyes still locked onto the scene before her, Twilight solemnly gave her response.

"Send a request to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to deploy Captain Crow's and Owl's Elite combat Guard.Tell them, as a Princess of Equestria, I decree that Moonstone Dagger is a Capital Level threat and must be captured or..."

"Or?" the guard cautiously asked.

Twilight's voice shuddered, a part of her heart breaking as she forced four words past her lips.

".....Or killed....if necessary."

Author's Note

and now the Starlight Glimmer tag makes sense! Hope you all got your fire extinguishers ready folks, cuz it's about to heat up!