The Blooming, the Rotting, and the Lost
Sweaty Applejack galloped towards the farm with a cart behind her and a warm smile on her face. Above her, the sky was turning gold, filling the air with a caressing and refreshing breeze. But she paid it no mind, too preoccupied with a different matter. A thing she could still hardly believe.
Eighteen birthday... Just yesterday, her little sister was playing with toys and crusading for a cutie mark, and today, all of a sudden, she was turning into a grown-up mare. It seemed bizarre and surreal. But it was happening, and there was an Apple tradition to follow for that occasion.
After arriving, Applejack parked the cart near the house and carefully unpacked the treasure it was carrying. The view of the special birthday cake made her lips bent further, forming a sly little smirk.
“You’re in for a treat, sis...”
With a package safely secured on her back, she happily walked inside, assured that nothing could ruin that day. But as soon as she crossed into the kitchen, it all burst like a soap bubble.
“Oh, good afternoon, Applejack,” Sugar Belle said with a gentle smile. “How was your day?”
But Applejack didn’t hear the question. Her mind was focused on the sweet monstrosity occupying the nearby table.
“W-what... is this?”
“My birthday cake! Sugar Belle helped me make it!” Apple Bloom said, entering the kitchen. Some fresh dough was stuck to her coat. “We worked on it since morning. You like it?”
She didn’t. For Applejack, the thing on the table wasn’t a cake, but a vile creature with a blueberry mouth and tiny spider-like eyes. The smiley face on top was glaring at her with a mocking cackle.
“What’s the matter, Applejack?” Apple Bloom said, then noticing her sister’s shocked expression, smiled. “Ah, Sugar Belle told you, huh?!”
Her words made Sugar Belle blushed a little. “I d-did not! And it can wait!”
“W-what can wait?” Applejack stammered, slowly coming back around. But the question only reddened Sugar Belle’s cheeks. “What’s going on?”
“We’re gonna be aunts!”
Apple Bloom’s cheery shriek took Applejack by surprise, turning her hind legs into jelly and sending her rump down. The package rolled off her back and hit the floor with a thud as well. But she paid it no attention; the only thing on her mind was a tight knot around her heart, squeezing harder with every second.
Apple Bloom nudged her gently. “Can’t believe it, huh?! I couldn’t either, but it’s true!” She smiled devilishly. “Then again, with all those noises coming from their room at night...”
Sugar Belle’s mouth opened and closed. For a moment she remained silent–her burning cheeks and quivering lips doing all the talking. But then, it suddenly stopped, and her lips curled into a smirk.
“Well, somepony has to pick up the slack if Applejack won’t. The farm will need fresh blood soon, you know.”
Apple Bloom let out a chuckle. “You heard that, AJ? You better find a stallion, or Sugar Belle will end up running this place!”
Sugar Belle stealthily glanced left and right, then motioned at Apple Bloom to get closer. “That’s my evil plan, but don’t tell anyone,” she whispered and winked, and they both shared a laugh.
Applejack didn’t get the joke. She was staring at them both with a face of a person inhaling pins and needles with each intake, the knot around her heart getting tighter and tighter.
“Applejack?” Big Mac’s concerned voice from behind made her jerk nervously, abruptly bringing her back to reality. “You... OK?”
She wasn’t OK. Big Mac knew that and judging by the silence that filled the room, others finally noticed it too. Their concerned stares were suddenly onto her, hungry for an explanation, tightening the knot further. With her heart racing and air quickly becoming toxic, there was only one option left…
“I’m fine...” She lied, making the best poker face she could muster. “I just... need to go.”
“Go? Go where, sis?” Apple Bloom tried to ask, but her sister was already walking away. “Hey, Applejack!” The only answer was the thud of the door closing shut. “... what the hay just happened?”
The trio left behind glanced at each other, hoping that someone would provide some explanation, but their bewildered stares were a dead giveaway that no one knew the answer.
Sugar Belle glanced at the cake, then at Apple Bloom. “Did… I do something wrong?”
***
Applejack sprinted towards the orchards, growling and cursing through her clenched teeth.
“Who the heck she thinks she is?! Not only she made the cake without asking, but instead of our Ripen Apple Special she made some blueberry… monstrosity!” She snorted like a locomotive, angrily jerking her head, clenching her teeth harder. “You come here and think you can interfere with our traditions?! We’ll see about that! I’ll set you straight, you darn… hag!”
She sped up, running faster and faster–as if an army of demons was chasing her. She ran for minutes until the searing pain of her burning lungs craving for some air finally forced her aching body to stop. Breathing feverishly, she sat down near one of the trees, trying to organize her thoughts, when a strange noise caught her ear.
An azure unicorn was lying under one of the apple trees hugging a bottle of cider and snoring loudly. Applejack immediately recognized who it was, but it only added to the confusion.
“Trixie?” She sniffed the air, but surprisingly it was not how it looked like. “Hmm, I don’t smell any booze. What is she doing on the farm?” With the sun setting in, there was only one course of action. “Hey, Trixie, wake up!”
“... one more hour...” Trixie mumbled, rolling onto her other side.
“In one hour, it will be dark.”
“Huh?” That got the unicorn’s attention. Her eyes opened. “... Applejack? What? Where? Why?”
“That’s my line, Missy. What are you doing on my farm?”
Trixie jumped back on her hooves. “I just came here to buy some...” Applejack’s eyes went towards the bottle rolling on the ground, then back at the unicorn. “Y-yeah, t-that. I must have dozed off... I’ll be going—”
But as soon as Trixie moved, the clatter of the glass bottles knocking against each other filled the air. It was coming from inside her saddlebag and turning her cheeks redder than a ripe apple. With a quick spin, she turned to leave, only to hear one thing she hoped not to.
“Everything OK, Trixie?”
Applejack’s words immediately put her into defensive mode. “Why? Just because I bought some cider?!”
“That, and... you don’t refer to yourself in the third person.” Trixie’s mouth opened and closed; her eyes quickly hit the floor and stayed there. Seeing this, Applejack continued. “Are you organizing a party?” Trixie shot her a confused glance. “If not, then... why all the cider?”
“Mind your own business!” Trixie fired back. “I don’t... I never... I...” She tried to come up with some excuse, but the lump in her throat was getting bigger with every word. “I mean… isn’t that what ponies do to feel better?”
“Yeah, but when you carry the entire bar with you, it’s usually not a good sign.”
Trixie wanted to say ‘it’s nothing,’ but the way she nibbled her lower lip was telling a different story. Finally, she admitted defeat with a loud exhale, and shaking her head said, “It’s just... With all the changes that happened lately after Twilight left for Canterlot, I’ve been feeling a bit... odd and on edge. And yes, I know how weird it sounds...”
But for Applejack it didn’t sound weird at all. Ever since Sugar Belle moved in with them, she became acquainted with the feeling all too well, and after Granny Smith died, it only turned from bad to worse. She kept it bottled up inside, never thinking to talk about them... until now.
“Actually, I think I know what you mean,” Applejack said, getting Trixie’s attention. “Say... Wanna empty that cider together and talk about it?”
Trixie cocked her head with a surprised expression. “... did you just ask me for a drink?”
“I guess I have. What do you say?” Applejack said, smiling, but the unicorn was hesitant. “I mean, I know we’re not exactly friends, so if you don’t want to that’s fine.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just...” Trixie sighed again, poking the ground with her hoof. “Nopony ever asked me to do that before. But...” She glanced up, and a sudden warm smile filled her face. “I... would like that.” With that, she opened the bottle with a pop, inhaling the sweet aroma coming from it. “Ah, smells good!”
“Yeah, but we don’t have any... glasses?” Before Applejack could finish, the unicorn already took one big gulp straight from the bottle, leaving her dumbstruck.
“What?” Seeing Applejack’s expression Trixie chuckled. “Don’t tell me you never drank straight from the bottle before?”
“Sure have, but not with a unicorn. It just seems too... uncouth for most of them.”
Trixie frowned, piercing Applejack with a cold gaze, but it soon melted into a sly smirk. “I’ve spent half my life as a traveling mare living in my wagon. Trust me, I can be uncouth with the best of them.”
The retort put a smile on Applejack’s face. Immediately, she took a sip from the bottle, savoring the sweet taste. “Ah... I needed that,” she said, turning to Trixie as the purifying warmth of the golden liquid spread all over her body. “So... how about we start with you. What’s bugging you?”
The question flattened Trixie’s smile, pushing her eyes to the ground.
“Where to begin... I guess it started when Twilight hired me as the guidance counselor. I was finally able to settle down with a steady job and even a friend by my side. For the first time, I thought I found my purpose, that I belong somewhere. But... settling here also gave me something I never really had before... time. Time to reminisce about my old days, and... I didn’t like the image one bit...”
Trixie took a long sip from the bottle, slowly gulping it down. Her empty eyes hit the grass once more and, for a moment, stayed there, turning her entire body into a statue of misery. When she finally broke the ominous silence that filled the air, what came out of her mouth was a trembling whisper.
“What I saw... was a lonely arrogant, jealous quack that spent her life running away from problems, boasting how great and powerful she was, and... hurting others.” Trixie sighed weakly. “After all that, settling here feels... wrong, you know?”
Applejack’s lips curling questioningly. She didn’t know what she had expected, but depressed Trixie making a serious conversation about her life wasn’t high on the list.
“I... didn’t know you feel this way.”
Trixie smiled bitterly. “Until I settled here, I didn’t know either. But now...” She stopped, nibbling on her lip. The lump in her throat was back and began pushing some water out of her eyes. “I think I... w-wasted my life...”
“Come on now, that’s not true!” Applejack placed her hoof on Trixie’s shoulder and smiled reassuringly. “Sure, you were pretty rotten in the past, but you’ve changed!”
But Trixie shook her head. “Not really... Yes, I apologized to the ponies I hurt, but other than that? We both know I’m neither great nor powerful but brash and arrogant. And yet I got a job in one of the most important institutions in Equestria.”
“I thought you liked it.”
“I do, but...” Trixie took another sip of cider and let out a melancholic sigh. “School of Friendship could have gotten someone more qualified for the job. Sometimes, I feel that Starlight only keeps me around because we’re friends; that I don’t really belong there, you know?”
For a moment, the only sound in the air was the refreshing breeze of the afternoon wind. Despite her initial statement, Trixie didn’t expect Applejack to understand–somebody else, maybe, but not the hard-working conservative pony like her. But when Applejack’s hoof disappeared from Trixie’s shoulder, it all changed.
“Huh... And I thought I was the only one feeling this way...” Seeing the inquiring expression on Trixie’s face, Applejack took a shot from the bottle to loosen her tongue further and inhaled deeply. It was confession time. “You see… I always thought I knew what I want to do with my life, but ever since Sugar Belle moved in... I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Really? Why?”
Applejack sighed, shaking her head. “Ever since my folks died, I knew what I stood on. I knew that I have to help Mac with the harvest, help Granny with paperwork, fix this, build that and be there for my little sis to help her with homework and stuff. It was all so clear and easy–a routine I could practically do in my sleep.”
“… but?”
“But... when Sugar Belle moved in, the routine went to Tartarus in a hoofbasket. Suddenly, she was the one helping Mac and Granny, feeding animals or fixing stuff. It gave me more time to myself, but instead of being happy about it, I felt... empty.” Applejack winced. “Crazy talk, huh?”
“No, not really, you’re Mrs. Handymare after all.”
“What the hay does that…” Applejack raised her eyebrow. “Rarity’s been talking about our trip to the spa, hasn’t she?”
Trixie smiled. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will never say! ... but yes.”
Applejack’s eyebrow remained in place–like some ax ready to chop someone. But soon, she let out a bitter chuckle, followed by an equally bitter exhale.
“Maybe she has a point... Any normal pony would be happy that someone offered them help. But for me, it felt as if Sugar Belle was stealing a part of me every time she helped with a chore...” Applejack paused long enough to take another gulp of the cider. “I know it’s stupid, but... for the last month or so, I was feeling like a guest in my own house. And then... today happened–two bombs at once...”
Seeing that this time it was Applejack’s turn to apathetically stare at the grass, Trixie’s guidance counselor instincts kicked in, convincing her to strike while the iron was hot. “Trixie is afraid to ask, but… care to share what happened?”
“Today is Apple Bloom’s eighteen birthday. We have a tradition to celebrate it with some aged cider and birthday cake made from the ripest apples you can find.”
“To… symbolize that you’re aged and ripe?”
Applejack nodded. “Exactly. That little tradition has been in our family ever since we settled here. The cider was no problem–we have many bottles kept for special occasions, but I wanted to make the cake special too. So... with permission, I used Twilight’s old kitchen and was secretly working on it for the past two days. And today, I dragged it home... only to see her and Apple Bloom in the kitchen, working together on some blueberry monstrosity…”
Once again, Applejack stopped, her eyes locked on the bottle, but this time cider wasn’t the reason. Instead, Trixie quickly noticed as the golden glow of the fading sun lightened up the lake of sparkles glistening in Applejack’s eyes. The loud wet sniffle only made it more obvious.
“You felt betrayed, didn’t you?”
“It was like a stab to the b-back... My heart was pounding so h-hard I thought it’s gonna burst off my darn chest...”
Applejack stammered, trying and failing to hold back tears. With the sudden reversal, it was Trixie’s time to place a helping hoof on her shoulder. The feeling of gentle touch pushed Applejack further.
“First, she took my brother, then my home and work, and now... my little sister too?! This is not fair! N-not fair at all...”
Trixie remained silent as a tomb. Even with those few months working as a counselor, she had no idea what to say. She gently tightened her hoof around Applejack’s neck, hoping it would be enough, only to feel her companion resting her wet cheeks against her chest.
“I stood there, gaping at the darn cake in shock, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Apple Bloom starts yelling that Sugar Belle is pregnant, that we’re gonna be aunts!”
“What... what did you do?”
“I panicked! I put on the best fake smile I could and excused myself. Then I ran away, and ran into you, and... here we are.” Applejack sniffled, smiling bitterly. “Trying to drown my fears in a sea of cider. How pathetic is that?”
“Very, but... at least we can be pathetic together!”
“Y-yeah... Maybe we should form a band–The Great and Pathetic Duo!”
The unicorn smiled. “Trixie agrees, as long as you’re paying for the cider!” That one put a slight smile on Applejack’s face. “On a more serious note... Do you really think Sugar Belle is trying to take your place?”
Applejack slowly shook her head. “That’s the worst part about it. I know she’s a hard-working, honest mare that just wants to help. I know it’s all in here.” She angrily struck her head with her hooves. “I know that I shouldn’t feel this way, but I do. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Hmm...” Trixie gulped what was left in the bottle, thinking. She stayed that way until the burning sensation left her system, then turned to her companion with a very unusual serious expression. “Trixie’s advice to you is to talk with Sugar Belle about your doubts.”
Applejack flinched at the suggestion. “Trixie... I can’t just burden her with that. It’s my problem!”
“Eh, if Trixie had a bit for every time she hears that as a guidance counselor...” The unicorn rolled her eyes. “Look, it may be your problem, but it’s one you won’t fix alone. You need to talk with Sugar Belle, Big Mac, and your sister and let them help you through it. Otherwise... you’ll end up as this stubborn, resentful mare hating herself for what she became...” She let out a deep sigh, once again smiling bitterly. “Trust Trixie, she knows.”
But Applejack shook her head. “I... I wouldn’t know how.”
“Oh, for Celestia’s sake... You’re Applejack! Just be yourself! Besides, Mrs. Honesty, you are the worst liar Trixie knows. You won’t be able to hide it for long.”
Applejack frowned at her. “Are you telling me this as an official guidance counselor?”
“Yes!” Trixie smiled. “That will be a hundred bits!”
“A hundred?! It’s a daytime robbery!”
Trixie arched her eyebrow. “Well, since we’re almost friends, I guess Trixie can let you off the hook... this time.” She smiled again. “But come on now, Applejack, it’s time to stand up and go home. You got some talking to do.”
“H-hey!” Applejack protested, but it was no use. Trixie lifted her up with magic and placed her on her hooves. “Huh, is pushing ponies against their will one of guidance counselor’s official policies too?”
“Of course! You would be surprised about the stuff guidance counselor can get away with. But... we also emptied the cider and it’s getting late, so I wanted to speed it up a bit.”
Applejack frowned again, but only for a moment. Then her lips curled into a small smile, only to flatten again. She began nervously nibbling her lower lip as if unsure whether to ask something or not.
“Trixie... doing anything tonight?” Trixie shot her a confused look, only to see Applejack smiling warmly. “Ever been to an Apple birthday before?”
“Are you... inviting Trixie?” Applejack nodded, but it only filled Trixie’s face with a wince. “Applejack, Trixie’s not sure that’s a good idea—”
But before the unicorn could finish, her body betrayed her, letting out a loud gurgle. The sound filled Applejack’s still wet face with a devilish smile.
“What if I tell you there will be supper?” Applejack’s words made Trixie’s lips curl into a pout. “And then cake!” Trixie added a hateful frown to the mix, but it only widened Applejack’s smile. “... and, of course, some good cider!”
Trixie snorted loudly. “Now, that’s just cheating!”
“Well, is it working?”
“Maybe... But why?” Trixie cocked her head. “Need a guidance counselor to help you talk with your folks?”
“Maybe...” Applejack let out a resigned sigh. “Or maybe I need an... almost friend to back me up. If she’s willing.”
The response caught Trixie off guard, and for a second, she stood there gaping at the mare before her. This wasn’t the brave and fearless Applejack she used to know, but a filly asking for help telling her mom she messed up. The view reminded her of another mare–a certain boasting magician she once knew–desperately looking for the courage to get back home and do the same thing. She never did. Instead, she allowed the fake confidence fueled by hidden resentment and anger to become her companions for years to come. She couldn’t let the same happen here.
Trixie smiled warmly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie... will be honored to help you. But... the cider is free, right?”
“You betcha!”
“It’s settled then!” Trixie tapped on her chin. “You know... if Sugar Belle won’t be as forgiving as we think, there is this brainwashing spell Starlight once showed Trixie.”
“Trixie...”
“Whaat?” It worked the last time Trixie tried it! Well, almost...” The sheepish smile on Trixie’s face met with a glare of disapproval coming from Applejack. “No? OK, fine! No brainwashing spells! Come on... almost friend, Trixie’s starving here!”
“All right, and... Trixie? Thank you, for everything. And just so you know, I meant what I said back then. You really changed a lot. If you ever need someone to talk to, my door is always open.” Seeing some glistening in Trixie’s eyes, she quickly added with a wink. “And the cider is on me, of course.”
Trixie glanced to the floor one more time but quickly shook her head before her emotions could get to her again. “Aw... all right, enough of this! Let’s get out of here before Trixie gets all sappy!”
With gentle smiles back on their faces, both mares trotted into the sunset and towards the farm. Applejack still wasn’t sure what she’ll say to her family, but somehow it didn’t matter. With the Great and Powerful Trixie by her side, she wasn’t afraid to face her fears, not anymore.
Author's Note
Just a little something to get me back into writing. I hope you enjoyed it 
