Author's Note
Author Note:
Updated on Dec 26, 2022. Thank you to all my readers from when this story first came out. I don't normally do author's notes, but I felt that I had to point out that this version has been rewritten as of this update. It's nothing major; the details of the fire scene are now a little different, but the plot remains unchanged. For new readers, this probably doesn't mean anything to you since you're getting the final product.
I wanted to do this small edit for two reasons. One, I really like this story and wanted to give it my full attention, even after its contest release. And two, I've been formulating a sequel for some time now, and I wanted to lock in this story before transitioning to the next. So enjoy this refined version of "Diamonds in the Dirt" while I write the next stages of the Rarijack family space adventure.
Diamonds in the Dirt
“Well’s run dry again,” Applejack said off-handedly, leaning over her workbench as she soldered a new circuit board into her left arm. She let it cool, and then initiated the software that translated her nerve impulses into mechanical motion. Her hand finally closed into a tight fist.
Rarity, walking carefully as she entered to not wake the swaddled infant on her shoulder, took a look at Applejack’s arm. “Sweetie Belle and Applebloom just drove the tanker back. We’ll have enough for the week. Oh, you missed a screw, dear.”
Applejack looked down at her feet, picking up a rice-sized screw stuck between the floorboards and tightening it back into her thumb joint. “Right, and next week? Next month? Rain saved our hides last year, but we ain’t so lucky as to get rain twice a year, now are we?”
“That’s defeatism talking,” Rarity said.
“I’m just being realistic is all. I still say you and the kids ought to take a shuttle off-system, maybe see if you can find Fluttershy or Twilight.”
“Right, and I suppose I’ll just grab a gravity shovel and go dig up those diamonds I’ve been hiding out in the bellfruit orchard. Or was the pumpkin patch?”
Applejack gave her a snarky grin and stood up to plant a firm kiss on her lips. “Now don’t get snippy with me, sugarcube. You know it just makes you cuter.” She took young Little Mac from Rarity and coddled the infant in her good arm while she swung her mechanical one around her partner’s waist.
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Rarity purred, leaning onto Applejack’s metal shoulder as they walked out of the barn. “Except my blessing for that absurd plan of yours.”
“It ain’t absurd. It’s a good plan.”
“You know as well as I do that you can’t trust him.”
“I know, but it ain’t gonna be like what happened with Big Mac. That was an accident.”
“An accident he was responsible for,” Rarity reminded her.
Between the barn and their house, they walked along a dirt path that cut through two fields, a patch of sweet potatoes on one side and a solar farm on the other. Enclosed in the solar panels were glowing blue cultures of biophotovoltaic bacteria that lit up the farm with their bioluminescence.
“You got another plan, then?”
Rarity nudged her chin out to the far west field on the purple horizon. “I still say we take a mortgage out on the pumpkin fields, the offers for it are more than enough to keep buying water until the next rain.”
“And pay it back how, exactly? We might as well hand over that land to the banks, and you know they’re gonna sell it off to the Flams. We’d have a factory on our doorstep before the next rain.”
“It buys us time,” Rarity added. “And the more time I have with you, the better.”
Applejack sighed, passing Little Mac back to her. “We’ll talk after supper. I ought to help Applebloom set the table.”
“The girls are fifteen, they can handle it,” Rarity said. “Let’s just keep walking. I’m not ready to turn in yet.”
After Little Mac was put to bed, provided they could keep to a whisper, Rarity and Applejack let their sisters stay up late and whisper whatever it was kids like to about. Who they liked, who they didn’t.
Most days it was just the four of them.
Rarity cracked the caps of two beers, handing one to Applejack as they leaned back on the porch steps.
Applejack shot her a mean look. “You said we ran out.”
“I figured we needed something to take the edge off,” Rarity said. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Surely you can let a small lie like that slide.”
“Not a chance in all the stars.” Applejack gently put her arm around Rarity’s head. “Now pay up.” They slowly shared one of their long kisses, moments that had become scarce since the accident and they become Little Mac’s only guardians.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Rarity asked when they finished. “About your shuttle plan?”
“Well, I wish you’d just let me get the money, but no, I ain’t mad. I can’t stay mad at you. ‘Cept when you hide the beer away.”
“I just put it behind the kale juice.”
“Shit. You know I never take that stuff.”
“And thus the brilliance of hiding in plain sight.”
Applejack stretched out on the porch, putting her good arm around Rarity this time, pulling her close by the waist until she could smell the perfume from her neck.
“You’re right about the pumpkins. We can at least swap over to more potatoes after the next harvest, cut back on water costs next year. That should buy us more time.”
Rarity rapped her fingers against the porch, a habit whenever she was deep in thought. “About two months,” she said. “If the Flams don’t heighten their prices again.”
Applejack grimaced at the mention of the private corporation. Two-thirds of the planet’s assets belonged to them, whether it was land, water, or resources. Being independent of them was nearly impossible.
“Ever miss home?”
Rarity turned and looked at her curiously. “You have asked me that in ages,” she giggled.
“I mean, I asked you to leave Earth with me, and now you gotta deal with all this stuff, so I feel like it’s my fault, you know?”
“You’ve been a farm girl for too long. Take all the power the Flams have and double it for any of the corporations running around on Earth. Trust me, money’s not the only issue I have with going off-world.” Rarity stole another kiss from Applejack. “If life is going to be hard, I’d rather tough it out with you than in some orbital station or supercity.”
Applejack opened her eyes, unsure of what had woken her. She lay in bed, tangled under the bedsheets with her partner. Heavy curtains with intricately sewn sequin patterns blocked out the orange light of dawn. Curled against her shoulder stump, Rarity laid under the covers with her head sprawled over Applejack’s chest, an unflattering dribble of dried drool across her face.
“You should have let me take a turn,” Applejack retorted, nudging her. Rarity groaned back. “Little Mac’s both our responsibility.”
She reached down beneath their bed and pulled her arm from its charging bay, placing it over her stump and strapping its harness across her body. “Sleep tight, I’ll get some milk warmed up for breakfast. Let’s see, how hungry would he be by now?”
Applejack turned her alarm clock around. It read “3:00 AM” on its blue digital screen. She blinked. “How in the stars? It’s light out—” A dawning realization shot a chill through her spine. She bolted to the window, throwing aside the curtains.
There was a fire.
And by all the stars above, it was a big one, as if the light of dawn itself had left its footprint on their fields.
“Applebloom!” She shot out of the bedroom, barely giving herself enough time to throw on a flannel shirt. A cry wailed through the house as Little Mac shuddered awake, but Applejack forced the sound out of her head. “Applebloom. Up. Now!”
“What in tarnation, Sis?” her sister stumbled out into the hall. “It’s three in the morning.”
Applejack grabbed her sister, firmly shaking her awake. “I need you to get the tanker and bring it ‘round to the front of the house. And hook up the longest hoses you can find.”
“Hoses?” Applebloom straightened up as her chest heaved, only just noticing the orange glow seeping through the windows. “Sweetie Belle!” She ran yelling back into her room. “Get up! We ain’t got time!”
“Applejack!” Rarity stumbled out of their bedroom carrying Little Mac over her shoulders. “What in blazes is happening?”
“Blazes is right, Rar,” Applejack said. “Take Mac out to the pumpkin fields where it’s wet. The fire shouldn’t spread there for a while.”
“The fire?” She turned and looked out their window, a bright orange inferno staring back at her. “Bloody fucking hell. Well, what are you going to do?” Rarity started to move, trying to stick by Applejack’s side, but she was already gone.
The tanks of water wobbled side to side as Sweetie Belle slammed on the breaks, bringing the hover truck to a stop in front of their house.
Applejack ran after them from her workshop, tossing over a bag of protective gear as Applebloom got out of the truck. “You hooked up?”
“Hose is on,” her sister said, slipping into the silvery nanotex suit. “But, I don’t think we have enough water. How’re we gonna put it all out?”
“We ain’t. There ought to be enough reserve water in the sprinkler systems, but just in case, I’m going to have to attach one of those tanks. All you’re gonna do is make sure those flames don’t get to the house in the meantime.”
She looked at the hover truck attached to four extension platforms, each carrying a small water silo. Already throwing on a protective suit, Sweetie Belle stepped out of the truck and snatched up the hose.
“Where do we start?”
“Uncouple one of that tank and drift it around to the back of the workshop. After that I’ll keep an eye on things here, but I need you girls to circle the farm and cover everywhere else.”
“We can’t leave you alone.”
“Applebloom! Not another word, we ain’t got time. Just do what I tell you.”
A clank rang from the back of the hover truck as Sweetie Belle pulled a lever, uncoupling the last platform and letting it float over to the workshop. “She can handle herself,” she told Applebloom. “Come on, I can already see the embers.”
“Stay safe,” Applebloom told her sister.
Applejack gave a thumbs up, taking a moment to watch them drive off before putting all her attention on the sprinkler system. The control switches were in the back of the workshop and were on a timer to water the crops, but she could easily switch the fields to manual control from the screen.
Outside, smoke blew up and out in a column, tossing embers into the sky. Its shape varied from minute to minute. The flames would dim and sputter, and for a moment look as if they had eaten all their fuel, before swelling again as unwatered patched breathed new life into the fiery beast. She could see dry grass snatching embers from the sky like children catching night flies.
Gritting her teeth, Applejack tried to keep her breathing steady as she ran back out and took the hose, spraying water from the tank and soaking the ground around the workshop. The bulk of the flames were still far out in the orchard, but the smoke was just as bad. As the adaptive filters constricted, trying to limit the volume of smoke, Applejack gasped, fighting the instinct to rip off the suit’s mask, knowing it would only do more damage to her lungs.
It took only a few minutes to douse the fires growing around the workshop, and a few minutes more to make sure everything around it was wet enough to smother the drifting embers. But those were precious minutes that only widened their scorched fields. Satisfied that the workshop would not burn down with her in it, Applejack rushed back to the console and switched on the sprinklers in the orchard.
“That should do it.” She went outside and scanned the farm, first checking that the house was still intact before looking to the orchard, hoping to see the fires dying down. The sound of sizzling steam was a welcomed sign, but the irrigation system clearly wasn’t designed to fight a raging wildfire. Plumes of black smoke still billowed out, showing no sign of slowing yet. And for a moment, she thought her suit filters had failed and she was becoming delirious from inhalation.
Or was that really Rarity running towards her?
“Rar?” Applejack blinked, shutting the window and yelling as she came through the door. “What in tarnation are you doing? Where’s Little Mac?”
Rarity pointed to her back, where the infant was swaddled in a baby carrier with a breathing mask over his face. “I wasn’t sure where else to go,” Rarity gasped, “the fires spread to the pumpkin patch already.”
“Watered those fields yesterday,” Applejack said. “How? They can’t be dry enough to catch fire.”
“Not sure,” Rarity said, “but I don’t think it was by chance. The flames, they just started bursting out of the ground.”
“Bursting out?” Applejack froze to think, but she couldn’t imagine what that meant. Whatever it was, they’d have to survive the fire first before they got answers. “Thanks for the heads up, honey. Looks like we’ll need that extra tank after all.”
“You’re going to need help connecting it to the sprinkler system,” Rarity said, already moving with Applejack to go around back.
“You ain’t staying out here,” Applejack turned around and stared at her. “I got this covered.” She flexed her robotic arm. “And you have Little Mac. Go inside, away from the smoke. The house should be safe with Sweetie and Applebloom spraying things down.
“There’s something wrong with this fire, I don’t see anything around our farm burning.” Rarity said. “I am not leaving you out here until we know what’s going on.”
Applejack clenched her jaw, but there was no time to argue. Rarity had dressed Little Mac in a protective suit and breathing mask. That would be enough, at least.
Behind the workshop was a large hatch to the sprinkler system’s primary system, an electric pump connected to the aquifers beneath the farm. But another set of pipes linked the main system to a secondary reservoir, an array of water tanks stored under the house. They were supposed to be filled automatically, taking rainwater and the excess pumped from the aquifers, but ever since the wells ran dry, refilling them with purchased water had become routine.
Applejack crawled down to the pipes and worked swiftly, using her mechanical arm to twist open the external port. “Toss the hose,” she called to Rarity, catching it in her real hand while using her prosthetic as a wrench. “Should be good,” she finally called. “You can turn on the release valve!” Gurgling water flowed through the hose and into the pipes a moment later.
“Applejack,” Rarity said, her voice deepening to a warning. “Are you seeing that?”
“Sure am,” she replied, “looks like we’ll make it through this.”
“No love, the beatles.”
Applejack looked out the hatch and immediately saw what she meant. Dozens of black beetles circled around the hatch, flying one by one into the sprinkler system.
“What in tarnation are these things?” Applejack wondered before Rarity’s arm came down grabbed her by her mechanical arm.
“I don’t like this,” Rarity said. It was all she could say before the drones burst in a bright magnesium flare. The world went dark for a moment, and the only thing Applejack felt was her back getting thrown back into the concrete walls. A moment later, when her vision returned, Applejack found herself on her back, looking up at Rarity clutching her head. Little Mac was crying, she was finally close enough to hear him through the mask, but there were no visible injuries on him that she could see. The scorch marks on her prosthetic seemed to be the only damage, and for that she was grateful.
Just then, while they were taking a moment to catch their breath, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle drove the truck around, water dripping from the hose as they sprayed down the dry grass around the solar panels.
“Holy shit!” Sweetie Belle sprinted out of the truck as soon as they parked. “What happened?”
“There was an explosion,” Rarity said, still panting for air. She gave Little Mac to her sister and immediately rushed to help Applejack to her feet. “There was… something in the irrigation system. It blew the pipes open.”
Applejack grunted, rolling her shoulder until she felt something pop back into where it should’ve been. Still leaning on Rarity, she looked down into the watch. It was exactly as she said. Both the input ports and the hose were blown to pieces. The tunnel was flooded. “Change of plans,” she said, groaning with pain. “Farm’s going to have to burn. We can’t cover the whole farm by ourselves, but what matters is the house. Keep circling, and keep everything near the house wet.”
“We’re letting the whole farm burn?” Applebloom objected.
“This is just the access hatch,” Applejack said, shutting off the tankard’s release valve. “Whatever water’s left in the reservoir is going to have to do. We might not lose everything, but saving the whole farm is out of the question.”
She could tell Applebloom didn’t like that answer. She didn’t either. But she couldn’t think of another option, and no one else voiced a different opinion.
They ended up dividing the water tanks, Applebloom and Applejack taking two sides of the house, each with a tank and a hose, while Sweetie Belle circled further out with the truck to slow the fires down.
Rarity returned to the house, keeping Little Mac inside away from the smoke, but prepared to run out at any given moment. Applejack’s mind was alway on them, keeping them in the corner of her vision as she patrolled her side of the house. Their trees and crops burned, as long as they kept the ground too wet, the flames would not jump across the grass and weeds littering the dirt paths.
By the time the fires finally began to recede, when the smoke columns thinned and they could see the black stumps left behind, the first light of dawn could be seen approaching. It would be some time before the sun came, but the sky above the horizon had already turned to a brighter shade of purple.
“Has it stopped?” Rarity asked.
“Mostly.” Applejack grimaced, rubbing her eyes clear of smoke. “Hoping we don’t see any exploding bugs.”
“If they do I’ll pull you away from them again.” Rarity drew a sharp breath, staring over a blanket of ash covering her farm, clutching Little Mac in her arms as she leaned against the emptied water tank. “And my family said nothing exciting ever happens on farm worlds.”
“Don’t joke,” Applejack chuckled, pulling off her mask. “That was dangerous and senseless, coming out here. You could’ve been caught in that blast.”
“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Rarity snapped back. She put Little Mac in her arms. “Admit it. You’d be a burnt apple right now if I hadn’t spotted those beatles.”
“Alright, but I still put out the fires, and Applebloom and Sweetie Belle covered the other side of the house,” Applejack said with a sigh. “But, I guess you were brave today. Only question is, do you get a reward for that bravery, or a punishment for not heeding me.”
Rarity tossed her head up and laughed. “I’m the hero, which means I get to call the shots. And you, farm girl, are totally making breakfast today.”
“Am I? We’ll see about that.” Applejack buried her face in Rarity’s neck, kissing and nibbling all the way around to her nape.
The trundling of an engine came over the scorched orchard as Sweetie Belle returned the hover truck carrying Applebloom on the water tank at the back, spraying down the final smoldering embers.
“Come on, really?” Applebloom looked away as Sweetie parked the truck over a mound of wood ash and charcoal. “In front of Little Mac? Get a room.”
Applejack snickered and lunged at her sister, grabbing her up in a hug with her other arm. “Sorry for snapping at you before. I am so proud of you.”
“Alright, jeez,” Applebloom wiggled from her mechanical grip. “Didn’t know wildfires made you so sentimental, Sis.”
“Didn’t feel that wild,” Sweetie Belle murmured, leaning out of the truck. “Why is it just us? Half the planet’s in a drought, but the fire just happens to hit us? And what was with that explosion in the pipes?”
“What are you getting at, Sweetie?” Applebloom asked. “You saying it was arson?” She turned to the adults. “It can’t be, right?”
Applejack and Rarity’s faces changed as they traded dreadful looks. They had never seen this happen before, but they both knew who had the means and motive to burn them out of their home. Yet neither woman wanted to answer their sisters, not until they were certain.
They meandered around the workshop, Applejack and Sweetie Belle, as they waited for Rarity to inspect the debris from the irrigation pipes. Applebloom was making breakfast for Little Mac and them, but despite their gurgling stomachs, they wanted answers first.
“What’s taking so long?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And why would the Flams burn down our orchard anyway? We didn’t do anything to them.”
Applejack scoffed. “We’ve got land. Ain’t much else to say about it. They’d own the whole planet if they could, and from the looks of things, they’re fixin’ to try.”
“AJ, what does this look like to you?” Rarity lightly tugged at Applejack’s ponytail, bringing her eye to the microscope.
It was miniscule, but the microscope made it clear as the sun. In the head of the fly drone was a processor chip barely larger than the tip of a pen. There were other parts, too: pieces of burnt transistors, micro-antennas, and lenses.
Applejack couldn’t take her eye off of what she saw, her face curling into a snarl. “We need to step out for a second. Sweetie, sit and eat breakfast.”
Applejack couldn’t take her eye off of what she saw, her face curling into a snarl. “Sweetie, time to eat breakfast.”
“Wait, why? Did you find something?”
“Please listen to us,” Rarity told her, “we just need some time to talk things out.”
“That just sounds like another way of saying you found something but you don’t want to tell me,” Sweetie Belle muttered and rolled her eyes. “ “But when I sneak out to a party without saying, it’s three weeks of chores. You two better not keep anything from us, okay?”
“Y’all know I won’t.”
Rarity nodded. “If we find anything important, we’ll let you girls know. Now, go have breakfast.”
Rarity nodded. “If we find anything important, we’ll let you girls know.” They waited until Sweetie Belle was gone from their sight before turning their attention back to the pieces of machinery. It was a grim thought, imagining a swarm of remote-controlled firebombs targeting their land.
The only comfort was that their house remained. Nothing burned that couldn’t be regrown or rebuilt. That’s what they kept telling each other.
“Microdrones,” Applejack said grimly. “That tech’s from the Flam Corporation.”
“But to load them with explosives,” Rarity choked up a little. “I thought they at least wanted the farm. I can’t believe they’d resort to that.”
“I can.” Applejack leaned her back against the workshop door, blowing away a loose strand of hair. “Think it’s enough to bring to the courts? I mean, we’ve got the evidence right here.”
“You know the answer to that.”
She clenched her jaw. The Flam Corporation didn’t take over half the planet by playing nice. No one could ever prove it, but there was no shortage of the tricks they could play.
“Besides, even if they did hear our case, could we afford the court fees? Half our harvest just turned to smoke.”
Applejack slammed her mechanical fist into the wall, leaving an imprint of her knuckles in the wood. “We don’t even have enough to keep the fields watered.” She sighed again. “Rar, I think we gotta consider the shuttle plan.”
“Applejack, now isn’t the time to panic.”
“Time? We ain’t got time for anything. Look what they did on day one. One!” Without meaning to, she grabbed Rarity by the arms. “What happens next? What about the girls? Little Mac? You? I don’t know how to protect y’all anymore!”
Rarity winced. “AJ. Your hand.”
As quickly as she did it, Applejack let go, looking at her arm in disbelief. “Shit. I’m sorry, Rar, I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s alright.” Rarity took her by the hand and pulled her in for an embrace. “I’m scared too. But if you take that deal, when am I going to see you again?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you even going to make it out alive?”
“I ain’t that easy to keep down.”
Rarity softly kissed Applejack on the nape of her neck. “Neither was Big Mac. Can you tell me right now that you’re sure the job is safe?”
Applejack took her hand, slowly tracing her finger along her wrist. “Afraid I can’t.”
“Then don’t take the job. I don’t know what’ll happen if we’re apart, but together, I know we can beat this.”
“Alright,” Applejack said, “but only if you can answer me this: are you certain the Flams won’t come for us again? Can you say we’ll be safe tomorrow?”
It was Rarity’s turn to hesitate. She leaned forward, letting her hair fall over her chest and her lips brush against her ear. It was necessary. She could barely bring herself to breathe the answer.
“No.”
“Then you know what I’m going to do.”
Rarity swallowed. “I do.”
“Ain’t gonna stop me?”
“I’m not sure I can.”
Applejack turned, resting her hands on Rarity’s chest, feeling her heavy heart beating beneath her real palm. “Don’t fret over what’ll happen.” She met her sad gaze with a smile. “You’ll always be my darling.” She kissed her.
And Rarity kissed her back. “And you’ll always be my sugarcube.”
They drove to the city that evening after having gathered up their belongings. Sweetie Belle had her own backpack with her clothes and computers, but Applebloom had never even been off-world, and so the suitcase Rarity had brought with her when she first settled down with Applejack, after years of dusty retirement, had come back into use once again.
Rarity fidgeted in the front seat, readjusting to the feel of tight city clothes. She had gone years without so much as a frock or a gown, but unfortunately, her nicest dress couldn’t fit beside Applebloom’s clothes, so she wore it instead.
She reached back and pulled on Little Mac’s big toe, rocking him back and forth in his car seat. When was the last time he had ever ridden in the truck?
“Sweetie Belle, you know the way to the shipyard?”
“The one by the Leaf and Smoke?” She cast a guilty glance at Rarity. “I’ve been there a few times.”
“A few? Meaning more than once?” Rarity tossed her head back.
Sweetie Belle curled up and hugged her shoulders. “Yeah.”
“Focus,” Applejack said sternly, eyeing her from the rear-view mirror. “That’s where the shuttle will be. Soon as we get the keys, you take them there, alright?”
Sweetie Belle nodded and fixed her gaze on her knees. “Yes ma’am.”
Sliding out from the silhouette of a mountain ridge, Exocity-4 shined like a beacon. The only real city on the whole planet, it was the one place that could almost feel like living in the Sol system. Hover cars whirred past them on the other side of the road, the dim glow of their headlight overpowered by the neon pinks and yellows and bright blues of the shopping centres and business offices.
“Reminds me of home,” Rarity said the words like bitter medicine was on her tongue.
Applejack pulled into a parking complex, adjacent to a multi-story building that was both a shopping centre and casino as if one didn’t already bring in enough money, slowing to a crawl once she reached the bottom sub-level.
Two broad-shouldered men stood at the end of the level, waiting by a door to the casino’s basement.
“Wait here,” Applejack said, shutting off the truck and getting out. But Rarity grabbed her by the arm.
“He’s going to want to know who’s taking his shuttle,” Rarity said. “We go together.”
“Yeah,” Applebloom chimed in. “What if the deal goes south?”
Holding a steady grin, Applejack looked down the parking lot to the men guarding the door and then back to her family. Her eyes watered as she continued to smile. “The place stinks of cigarettes, I dunno if you wanna go in there.”
“I’ve had worse,” Sweetie Belle said softly. “And Applebloom can handle it. We want to be there with you.”
Any other day, Applejack would’ve scolded Sweetie Belle and asked how much she had actually smoked, but today she just pulled the door open for them, appreciating that she still had a family to outnumber her.
She turned and eyed the purple sequin dress Rarity was wearing. “Fair warning. If any of the guys in there lay a finger on you, I'll knock their lights out.”
Ka-chunk. The thud of the paper stack was just for show. Applejack knew she only needed to sign one contract to seal the deal. But if she had to watch him stroke his chin one more time, she swore her left arm was going to blow a fuse.
“Three years, hired muscle. Glad we could put the whole incident with Big Mac behind us. Shame what happened to him. He was a good man. And his wife? Boy, he really knew how to pick ‘em.”
He looked up from his notepad and ripped a sheet out, placing it on the table for Applejack to sign. “I guess fine taste runs in the family, doesn’t it?”
“Ain’t playing around, Flim,” Applejack tapped her metal fingertips against his desk. “The keys to the shuttle, let me see ‘em.”
“My dear Applejack, don’t you have an ounce of trust in me?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Good!” He barked a rough laugh and tossed the key fob over. “I’m not hiring an idiot.”
On one side, its keychain read “EXOBAY: 92.” Its opposite face read “PERSISTENCE.” Applejack inspected it closer, making sure the fob was genuine. She couldn’t be sure if he had just given her a dud key, or the keys to some half-repaired trash barge, but she knew Flim understood who he was dealing with, and the man was as cowardly as he was ambitious.
“I sign this once my family gets the key,” Applejack said.
Flim smiled. “Fine by me. I know you’ll keep your word. Please, allow me to get the door for you.”
Rarity and the kids waited for them outside Flim’s office, sitting together on a beaten-up couch with three guards keeping a close eye on them.
“That’s it?” Applebloom sat up, the battered springs underneath squealed from the motion. Applejack grinned and held up the key fob.
“Take good care of it, it’s a next-generation star hopper,” Flim crossed his arms. “Rewrote the serial numbers in the shuttle’s computer systems and everything. You’ll cruise by every Flam tariff scanner.”
Keeping her voice low for Little Mac’s sake, Rarity rose to meet Flim eye to eye. “I can’t find it in my heart to forgive you, even if it was an accident. But thank you, for this.”
He flashed a con artist’s smile and bowed his head, then gestured for his guards to give the family the room. It seemed almost comical, so many muscle-bound men crowded into one office with someone and thin as Flim, but somehow they made it work.
Without warning, Applejack’s eyes started to water again. Home. Even with half their crops razed to the ground, she didn’t feel like she was losing everything. But now, looking in all their eyes with only the hum of the air conditioning above them, she recognized that distinct longing that ached in her chest so badly, and she would have rather lost her other arm than go through with her plan.
“What about the farm?” her little sister asked, clinging to her real, flesh and blood wrist. “I could stay. If you’re working with Flim, who’s going to look after the house?”
“I have it covered.” Applejack’s voice crept down to a dry whisper. “You need to be with Rarity. You got too much of your life ahead of you.” Behind Applebloom, Sweetie Belle kept her eyes glued to her shoes, fidgeting around with the curls in her hair.
Applejack let herself have a bittersweet chuckle. Even if they weren’t sisters by blood, she couldn’t imagine a life without Sweetie Belle in it. She put her prosthetic limb out, took her by the hand, and pulled both girls in for a tight hug.
“I ain’t gonna be there when you two argue, so look out for each other like sisters, alright? I love you both more than I can ever say. And I am so proud of everything you’ve done.” She leaned back at arm’s length and looked directly at Sweetie Belle. “I love getting into fights with you, and grounding you for running off at night. You know that, right?”
Sweetie Belle hid her reddish eyes behind her bangs but answered with a quick nod.
Applejack rubbed both their heads. “Little Mac’s lucky to have you two for older sisters.”
She reached out to take the infant from Rarity and look her nephew in the eyes. For a brief moment, her composure finally broke, and Applejack choked back a sob as she realized for the first time how much he looked like his father.
“Shit,” she laughed as she cried. “You’re lucky you won’t pick up my potty mouth. Grow up strong, now, okay?” As she nuzzled him, Little Mac cooed, pulled on her ear, and smothered her cheek with a baby’s open-mouthed kiss.
Unable to stomach it anymore she passed Mac to Applebloom before she fell back onto the couch, clutching her face in her hands. It took no more than a second for Rarity to rush to her side.
“Fuck,” she whispered and shook her head. “This was a terrible idea. I can’t. Rar, I can’t do it. They’re like my kids. Oh stars, it’s like I’m losing my kids.”
“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Rarity caressed her head, combing through her hair. “I want to go back home too. But sugarcube, I know what it’s going to do to you if you turn back now. We’ll be back where we started, and you’ll be beating yourself over the head wondering if you made the right choice.”
She placed her hands on Applejack’s cheeks. “I want to be with you more than anything, but I can’t stand to see you hurt over your choices. We’ll be apart for three years, but just imagine the rest of our lives after that. Maybe we could try living on Mars. I could get a designing job, and you can make me pancakes every morning before I go to work.”
Now both their faces were streaked with tears as they laughed.
“The job’s dangerous,” Applejack said softly.
“Yeah? Well, so are you. Just promise me you’ll find time to write letters.”
“Data packets take months to send.”
Rarity sucked back her tears long enough for her signature scoff. “You know how long I waited for you to ask me out? I’m a patient lady, farm girl.”
“You sayin’ you’re okay with this?”
Rarity pressed her lips together tight and swallowed, trying to keep her voice from becoming raspy. “I am.”
Applejack chuffed and wiped her tears away. “Was that a lie just then? You know I can’t let it slide.”
“I know, I know.” Rarity licked her lips. “I gotta pay up.”
It was the longest embrace that Applejack could remember. She wished time would stop and let them stay coupled forever.
“You gotta go,” Applejack finally whispered into Rarity’s lips. “Any longer and I ain’t gonna be able to pull through this.” The simple touch of Rarity’s finger on her neck as they pulled away cascaded chills and excitement through her.
But it only made it doubly painful when they finally left.
She sat quietly with her thoughts as she handed the signed contract back to Flim. Three months as hired muscle for his operations, whatever they may be. No overtime. If she ever needed pocket change, Flim told her, she’d have to put her metal arm to use in a few rounds of the fighting pits.
“He got to you, didn’t he?” Flim lit a cigar and propped his feet up on his desk. “Couldn’t help but overhear some of that farewell. You wouldn’t be here if my brother hadn’t made a move.”
Applejack shot him a dirty look, cracking the edge of his desk with her grip.
“Easy with the killer arm,” Flim said, waving his cigar around. “My brother still owes me a fortune in corporate shares. The bastard deserves every hateful thought that must be going through your head right now. But what I need to know is you won’t go ballistic before I get my chance to claim what’s mine. You feel me?”
“You still fixing to rob your brother?” Applejack asked.
Flim grinned. “Every last credit, if I can help it.”
Applejack leaned in hard, locking her red, exhausted eyes on the skinny man. “Then I don’t care how you do it,” she said. “But before I get my family back, the Flam Corporation goes down.”
Diamonds in the Dirt (old version, for posterity)
Author's Note
Note: This is the original version submitted to Bicyclette's Sci-Fi contest. I have placed this version here for posterity.
Diamonds in the Dirt (old version, for posterity)
“Well’s run dry again,” Applejack said off-handedly, leaning over her workbench as she soldered a new circuit board into her left arm. She let it cool, and then initiated the software that translated her nerve impulses into mechanical motion. Her hand finally closed into a tight fist.
Rarity, walking carefully as she entered to not wake the swaddled infant on her shoulder, took a look at Applejack’s arm. “Sweetie Belle and Applebloom just drove the tanker back. We’ll have enough for the week. Oh, you missed a screw, dear.”
Applejack looked down at her feet, picking up a rice-sized screw and tightening it back into her thumb joint. “Right, and next week? Next month? Rain saved our hides last year, but we ain’t so lucky as to get rain twice a year, now are we?”
“That’s defeatism talking,” Rarity said.
“I’m just being realistic is all. I still say you and the kids ought to take a shuttle off-system, maybe see if you can find Fluttershy or Twilight.”
“Right, and I suppose I’ll just grab a gravity shovel and go dig up those diamonds I’ve been hiding out in the bellfruit orchard. Or was the pumpkin patch?”
Applejack gave her a snarky grin and stood up to plant a firm kiss on her lips. “Now don’t get snippy with me, sugarcube. You know it just makes you cuter.” She took young Little Mac from Rarity and coddled the infant in her good arm while she swung her mechanical one around her partner’s waist.
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Rarity purred, leaning onto Applejack’s metal shoulder as they walked out of the barn. “Except my blessing for that absurd plan of yours.”
“It ain’t absurd. It’s a good plan.”
“You know as well as I do that you can’t trust him.”
“I know, but it ain’t gonna be like what happened with Big Mac. That was an accident.”
“An accident he was responsible for,” Rarity reminded her.
Between the barn and their house, they walked along a dirt path that cut through two fields, a patch of sweet potatoes on one side and a solar farm on the other. Enclosed in the solar panels were glowing blue cultures of biophotovoltaic bacteria that lit up the farm with their bioluminescence.
“You got another plan, then?”
Rarity nudged her chin out to the far west field on the purple horizon. “I still say we take a mortgage out on the pumpkin fields, the offers for it are more than enough to keep buying water until the next rain.”
“And pay it back how, exactly? We might as well hand over that land to the banks, and you know they’re gonna sell it off to the Flams. We’d have a factory on our doorstep before the next rain.”
“It buys us time,” Rarity added. “And the more time I have with you, the better.”
Applejack sighed, passing Little Mac back to her. “We’ll talk after supper. I ought to help Applebloom set the table.”
“The girls are fifteen, they can handle it,” Rarity said. “Let’s just keep walking. I’m not ready to turn in yet.”
After Little Mac was put to bed, provided they could keep to a whisper, Rarity and Applejack let their sisters stay up late and whisper whatever it was kids like to about. Who they liked, who they didn’t.
Most days it was just the four of them.
Rarity cracked the caps of two beers, handing one to Applejack as they leaned back on the porch steps.
Applejack shot her a mean look. “You said we ran out.”
“I figured we needed something to take the edge off,” Rarity said. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Surely you can let a small lie like that slide.”
“Not a chance in all the stars.” Applejack gently put her arm around Rarity’s head. “Now pay up.” They slowly shared one of their long kisses, moments that had become scarce since the accident and they become Little Mac’s only guardians.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Rarity asked when they finished. “About your shuttle plan?”
“Well, I wish you’d just let me get the money, but no, I ain’t mad. I can’t stay mad at you. ‘Cept when you hide the beer away.”
“I just put it behind the kale juice.”
“Shit. You know I never take that stuff.”
“And thus the brilliance of hiding in plain sight.”
Applejack stretched out on the porch, putting her good arm around Rarity this time, pulling her close by the waist until she could smell the perfume from her neck.
“You’re right about the pumpkins. We can at least swap over to more potatoes after the next harvest, cut back on water costs next year. That should buy us more time.”
Rarity rapped her fingers against the porch, a habit whenever she was deep in thought. “About two months,” she said. “If the Flams don’t heighten their prices again.”
Applejack grimaced at the mention of the private corporation. Two-thirds of the planet’s assets belonged to them, whether it was land, water, or resources. Being independent of them was nearly impossible.
“Ever miss home?”
Rarity turned and looked at her curiously. “You have asked me that in ages,” she giggled.
“I mean, I asked you to leave Earth with me, and now you gotta deal with all this stuff, so I feel like it’s my fault, you know?”
“You’ve been a farm girl for too long. Take all the power the Flams have and double it for any of the corporations running around on Earth. Trust me, money’s not the only issue I have with going off-world.” Rarity stole another kiss from Applejack. “If life is going to be hard, I’d rather tough it out with you than in some orbital station or supercity.”
Applejack opened her eyes, unsure of what had woken her. She lay in bed, tangled under the bedsheets with her partner. Heavy curtains with intricately sewn sequin patterns blocked out the orange light of dawn. Curled against her shoulder stump, Rarity laid under the covers with her head sprawled over Applejack’s chest, an unflattering dribble of dried drool across her face.
“You should have let me take a turn,” Applejack retorted, nudging her. Rarity groaned back. “Little Mac’s both our responsibility.”
She reached down beneath their bed and pulled her arm from its charging bay, placing it over her stump and strapping its harness across her body. “Sleep tight, I’ll get some milk warmed up for breakfast. Let’s see, how hungry would he be by now.”
Applejack turned her alarm clock around. It read “3:00 AM” on its blue digital screen. She blinked. “How in the stars? It’s light out—” A dawning realization shot a chill through her spine. She bolted to the window, throwing aside the curtains.
There was a fire.
And by all the stars above, it was a big one, as if the light of dawn itself had left its footprint on their fields.
“Applebloom!” She shot out of the bedroom, barely giving herself enough time to throw on a flannel shirt. A cry wailed through the house as Little Mac shuddered awake, but Applejack forced the sound out of her head. “Applebloom. Up. Now!”
“What in tarnation, Sis?” her sister stumbled out into the hall. “It’s three in the morning.”
Applejack grabbed her sister, firmly shaking her awake. “I need you to get the tanker over to the orchards. And bring the longest hoses you can find.”
“A hose?” Applebloom straightened up as her chest heaved, only just noticing the orange glow seeping through the windows. “Sweetie Belle!” She ran yelling back into her room. “Ain’t no time to lose, get up!”
“Applejack!” Rarity stumbled out of their bedroom carrying Little Mac over her shoulders. “What in blazes is happening?”
“Blazes is right, Rar,” Applejack said. “Take Mac out to the pumpkin fields where it’s wet. The fire shouldn’t spread there for a while.”
“The fire?” She turned and looked out their window, a bright orange inferno staring back at her. “Bloody fucking hell. Well, what are you going to do?” Rarity started to move, trying to stick by Applejack’s side, but she was already gone.
The tanks of water wobbled side to side as Sweetie Belle slammed on the breaks, bringing the hover truck to a stop at the edge of the blaze.
Applejack ran after them from her workshop, tossing over a bag of protective gear as Applebloom got out of the truck. “You hooked up?”
“Hose is on,” her sister said, slipping into the silvery nanotex suit. “But, I don’t think we have enough water. How’re we gonna put it all out.”
“We ain’t. We’re gonna stay at the edge, stop it from spreading, and let it burn itself out.”
She looked at the hover truck attached to four extension platforms, each carrying a small water silo. Already throwing on a suit, Sweetie Belle stepped out of the truck and snatched up the hose.
“Where do we start?”
Applejack pulled the hose from her hand and squeezed its handle, sending a shower of water over the bellfruit trees that had yet to catch fire.
“Uncouple one of that tank, I’ll take this side, I need you girls need to keep the truck moving and cover everywhere else.”
“We can’t leave you here.”
“Applebloom! Not another word, we ain’t got time. Just do what I tell you.”
A clank rang from the back of the hover truck as Sweetie Belle pulled a lever, uncoupling the last platform. “She can handle herself,” she told Applebloom. “Come on, we have to hurry before it gets to the potatoes.”
“Stay safe,” Applebloom told her sister.
Applejack gave a thumbs up, taking a moment to watch them drive off before putting all her attention on the orchard. She clamped her prosthetic arm around the hose, locking her grip around the handle.
Off to her right, the dry leaves that matted the undergrowth of the orchard began to char and sputter with embers. The pump inside the tank wasn’t made for fighting fires. Applejack held her breath as she stepped closer to the flames, picking out the dry spots that needed her attention the most.
Smoke blew up and out in a column, tossing embers into the sky. But she couldn’t do anything about those, other than hope that they wouldn’t reach the house. Its shape varied from minute to minute. The flames would dim and sputter, and for a moment look as if they had eaten all their fuel, before swelling again as unwatered patched breathed new life into the fiery beast.
She hoped Applebloom and Sweetie were finding more luck than she was. Gritting her teeth, Applejack tried to keep her breathing steady as she worked her way closer to the fire. She gasped, fighting the instinct to rip off the suit’s mask, knowing it would only do more damage to her lungs.
Had it been an hour, or just ten minutes? She stood as close as she could until her body forced her to retreat behind the water tank and catch her breath. She thought for a moment she had gone delirious.
Or was that really Rarity running towards her with a hover-barrow?
“Rar?” Applejack blinked, her vision slowly clearing. “What in tarnation are you doing? Where’s Little Mac?”
Rarity pointed to her back, where the infant was swaddled in a baby carrier with a breathing mask over his face. “We need to slow it down more.” She gestured to the hover-barrow, loaded up with cold, wet mud. “Think it’s enough to make a barrier?”
“And to smother out some hot spots,” Applejack straightened up to her feet.
“I’ll handle the hose,” Rarity said, tossing Applejack the gravity shovel. “I trust you know what to do with that?”
Applejack gave her a smile through her mask and got to work lifting mounds of mud from the hover-barrow. On its highest setting, the gravity-shovel solidly lifted a hundred pounds of mud, trapping it all within its energy field. One mound at a time, she jettisoned the mud onto the worst trees, suffocating the brightest flames and building a wall around their side of the orchard. From time to time she shuttled back and forth between the orchard and pumpkin patches, leaving Rarity alone only as long as she needed to bring a new load of mud.
By the time the fires finally began to recede, when the smoke columns thinned and they could see the black stumps left behind, the first light of dawn could be seen approaching. It would be some time before the sun came, but the sky above the horizon had already turned to a brighter shade of purple.
“What do you think caused it?”
“The drought hit us hard.” Applejack grimaced, rubbing her eyes clear of smoke. “Frankly, I’m not that surprised.”
“It doesn’t make sense, we kept the fields wet.” Rarity drew a sharp breath, clutching Little Mac in her arms as she leaned against the water tank. “And my family said nothing exciting ever happens on farm worlds.”
“Don’t joke,” Applejack chuckled, pulling off her mask. “That was dangerous and senseless, coming out here. You’re skin’s peachy-red from the heat.”
“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Rarity snapped back. She put Little Mac in her arms. “Admit it. We saved you.”
“I still did the heavy lifting, and Applebloom and Sweetie Belle covered the other side of the orchard,” Applejack said. “But, I guess you were brave today. Only question is, do you get a reward that bravery, or a punishment for not heeding me.”
Rarity tossed her head up and laughed. “I’m the hero, which means I get to call the shots. And you, farm girl, are totally making breakfast today.”
“Am I? We’ll see about that.” Applejack buried her face in Rarity’s neck, kissing and nibbling all the way around to her nape.
The clanking of metal couplings crossed over the burned orchard as Sweetie Belle returned the hover truck, Applebloom sitting on the back tank and spraying water over the last embers.
“Come on, really?” Applebloom looked away as Sweetie parked the truck over a mound of wood ash and charcoal. “In front of Little Mac? Get a room.”
Applejack snickered and lunged at her sister, grabbing her up in a hug with her other arm. “Sorry for snapping before. I’m am so proud of you.”
“Alright, jeez,” Applebloom wiggled from her mechanical grip. “Didn’t know wildfires made you so sentimental, Sis.”
“Good thing we caught it in time,” Sweetie Belle added, leaning out of the truck. “We’re practically sitting in one big tinderbox.”
Sweetie was right. Applejack and Rarity’s faces changed as they traded dreadful looks. The biggest threat was a wildfire spreading into the farm from outside. How odd, they quickly realized, for a fire to start in the middle of an irrigated orchard while the dried valleys remained untouched.
“Maybe it wasn’t so wild,” Rarity said, her tone suddenly sinking as she stuck her hand under the topsoil. Insulated from the fire, it was still cold and moist. “We’ve had a dry spell all year, but even the orchard wasn’t dry enough for a spark to cause all this.” She knelt down and picked up a fistful of wood ash.
“You think it’s arson?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Neither woman wanted to answer. They had never seen this happen before, but they both knew who had the means and motive to burn them out of their home.
They meandered around the workshop, Applejack and Sweetie Belle, as they waited for Rarity to sift through the ashes under a microscope. Their samples were from the source of the wildfire, the places where the trees had been completely reduced to ash. Applebloom was making breakfast for Little Mac and them, but despite their gurgling stomachs, they wanted answers first.
“What’s taking so long?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And why would the Flams burn down our orchard anyway? We didn’t do anything to them.”
Applejack scoffed. “We’ve got land. Ain’t much else to say about it. They’d own the whole planet if they could, and from the looks of things, they’re fixin’ to try.”
“AJ, what does this look like to you?” Rarity lightly tugged at Applejack’s ponytail, bringing her eye to the microscope.
Buried under a layer of wood ash, she saw a thin strip of silvery metal. More and more sifted through the ash when Rarity shook the sample. Some looked like filaments, while other pieces were cracked segments of propellers and circuits.
Applejack couldn’t take her eye off of what she saw, her face curling into a snarl. “Sweetie, time to eat breakfast.”
“Wait, why? Did you find something?”
“Please listen to us,” Rarity told her, “we just need some time to talk things out.”
“That just sounds like another way of saying you found something but you don’t want to tell me,” Sweetie Belle muttered and rolled her eyes. “But when I sneak out to a party without saying, it’s three weeks of chores. You two better not keep anything from us, okay?”
“Y’all know I won’t.”
Rarity nodded. “If we find anything important, we’ll let you girls know. Now, go have breakfast.”
They waited until Sweetie Belle was gone from their sight before turning their attention back to the pieces of machinery inside the ash.
“Microdrones,” Applejack said grimly. “That tech’s from the Flam Corporation.”
“My thoughts exactly. Could have been loaded with anything, magnesium, white phosphorous, thermite, whatever they’d need to create a fire.”
“How many do you think?”
“A whole swarm, probably. Could be hundreds, or thousands. But enough to start a massive fire in seconds.” Rarity swapped the slides around and sifted through the ash again, finding more microdrone remains almost immediately.
Applejack leaned her back against the door, blowing air up into her hair. “Think it’s enough to bring to the courts? I mean, we’ve got the evidence right here.”
“You know the answer to that.”
She clenched her jaw. The Flam Corporation didn’t take over half the planet by playing nice. No one could ever prove it, but there was no shortage of the tricks they could play.
“Besides, even if they did hear our case, could we afford the court fees? Half our harvest just turned to smoke.”
Applejack slammed her mechanical fist into the wall, leaving an imprint of her knuckles in the wood. “We don’t even have enough to keep the fields watered.” She sighed again. “Rar, I think we gotta consider the shuttle plan.”
“Applejack, now isn’t the time to panic.”
“Time? We ain’t got time for anything. Look what they did on day one. One!” Without meaning to, she grabbed Rarity by the arms. “What happens next? What about the girls? Little Mac? You? I don’t know how to protect y’all anymore!”
Rarity winced. “AJ. Your hand.”
As quickly as she did it, Applejack let go, looking at her arm in disbelief. “Shit. I’m sorry, Rar, I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s alright.” Rarity took her by the hand and pulled her in for an embrace. “I’m scared too. But if you take that deal, when am I going to see you again?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you even going to make it out alive?”
“I ain’t that easy to keep down.”
Rarity softly kissed Applejack on the nape of her neck. “Neither was Big Mac. Can you tell me right now that you’re sure the job is safe?”
Applejack took her hand, slowly tracing her finger along her wrist. “Afraid I can’t.”
“Then don’t take the job. I don’t know what’ll happen if we’re apart, but together, I know we can beat this.”
“Alright,” Applejack said, “but only if you can answer me this: are you certain the Flams won’t come for us again? Can you say we’ll be safe tomorrow?”
It was Rarity’s turn to hesitate. She leaned forward, letting her hair fall over her chest and her lips brush against her ear. It was necessary. She could barely bring herself to breathe the answer.
“No.”
“Then you know what I’m going to do.”
Rarity swallowed. “I do.”
“Ain’t gonna stop me?”
“I’m not sure I can.”
Applejack turned, resting her hands on Rarity’s chest, feeling her heavy heart beating beneath her real palm. “Don’t fret over what’ll happen.” She met her sad gaze with a smile. “You’ll always be my darling.” She kissed her.
And Rarity kissed her back. “And you’ll always be my sugarcube.”
They drove to the city that evening after having gathered up their belongings. Sweetie Belle had her own backpack with her clothes and computers, but Applebloom had never even been off-world, and so the suitcase Rarity had brought with her when she first settled down with Applejack, after years of dusty retirement, had come back into use once again.
Rarity fidgeted in the front seat, readjusting to the feel of tight city clothes. She had gone years without so much as a frock or a gown, but unfortunately, her nicest dress couldn’t fit beside Applebloom’s clothes, so she wore it instead.
She reached back and pulled on Little Mac’s big toe, rocking him back and forth in his car seat. When was the last time he had ever ridden in the truck?
“Sweetie Belle, you know the way to the shipyard?”
“The one by the Leaf and Smoke?” She cast a guilty glance at Rarity. “I’ve been there a few times.”
“A few? Meaning more than once?” Rarity tossed her head back.
Sweetie Belle curled up and hugged her shoulders. “Yeah.”
“Focus,” Applejack said sternly, eyeing her from the rear-view mirror. “That’s where the shuttle will be. Soon as we get the keys, you take them there, alright?”
Sweetie Belle nodded and fixed her gaze on her knees. “Yes ma’am.”
Sliding out from the silhouette of a mountain ridge, Exocity-4 shined like a beacon. The only real city on the whole planet, it was the one place that could almost feel like living in the Sol system. Hover cars whirred past them on the other side of the road, the dim glow of their headlight overpowered by the neon pinks and yellows and bright blues of the shopping centres and business offices.
“Reminds me of home,” Rarity said the words like bitter medicine was on her tongue.
Applejack pulled into a parking complex, adjacent to a multi-story building that was both a shopping centre and casino as if one didn’t already bring in enough money, slowing to a crawl once she reached the bottom sub-level.
Two broad-shouldered men stood at the end of the level, waiting by a door to the casino’s basement.
“Wait here,” Applejack said, shutting off the truck and getting out. But Rarity grabbed her by the arm.
“He’s going to want to know who’s taking his shuttle,” Rarity said. “We go together.”
“Yeah,” Applebloom chimed in. “What if the deal goes south?”
Holding a steady grin, Applejack looked down the parking lot to the men guarding the door and then back to her family. Her eyes watered as she continued to smile. “The place stinks of cigarettes, I dunno if you wanna go in there.”
“I’ve had worse,” Sweetie Belle said softly. “And Applebloom can handle it. We want to be there with you.”
Applejack pulled the door open for them, knowing she had been outnumbered. She turned and eyed the purple sequin dress Rarity was wearing. “Fair warning. If any of the guys in there lay a finger on you, I'll knock their lights out.”
Ka-chunk. The thud of the paper stack was just for show. Applejack knew she only needed to sign one contract to seal the deal. But if she had to watch him stroke his chin one more time, she swore her left arm was going to blow a fuse.
“Three years, hired muscle. Glad we could put the whole incident with Big Mac behind us. Shame what happened to him. He was a good man. And his wife? Boy, he really knew how to pick ‘em.”
He looked up from his notepad and ripped a sheet out, placing it on the table for Applejack to sign. “I guess fine taste runs in the family, doesn’t it?”
“Ain’t playing around, Flim,” Applejack tapped her metal fingertips against his desk. “The keys to the shuttle, let me see ‘em.”
“My dear Applejack, don’t you have once ounce of trust in me?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Good!” He barked a rough laugh and tossed the key fob over. “I’m not hiring an idiot.”
On one side, its keychain read “EXOBAY: 92.” Its opposite face read “PERSISTENCE.” Applejack inspected it closer, making sure the fob was genuine. She couldn’t be sure if he had just given her a dud key, or the keys to some half-repaired trash barge, but she knew Flim understood who he was dealing with, and the man was as cowardly as he was ambitious.
“I sign this once my family gets the key,” Applejack said.
Flim smiled. “Fine by me. I know you’ll keep your word. Please, allow me to get the door for you.”
Rarity and the kids waited for them outside Flim’s office, sitting together on a beaten-up couch with three guards keeping a close eye on them.
“That’s it?” Applebloom sat up, the battered springs underneath squealed from the motion. Applejack grinned and held up the key fob.
“Take good care of it, it’s a next-generation star hopper,” Flim crossed his arms. “Rewrote the serial numbers in the shuttle’s computer systems and everything. You’ll cruise by every Flam tariff scanner.”
Keeping her voice low for Little Mac’s sake, Rarity rose to meet Flim eye to eye. “I can’t find it in my heart to forgive you, even if it was an accident. But thank you, for this.”
He flashed a con artist’s smile and bowed his head, then gestured for his guards to give the family the room. It seemed almost comical, so many muscle-bound men crowded into one office with someone and thin as Flim, but somehow they made it work.
Without warning, Applejack’s eyes started to water again. Home. Even when the farm caught fire, she didn’t feel like she was losing everything. But now, looking in all their eyes with nothing but the hum of the air conditioning above them, she recognized that distinct longing that ached in her chest so badly, she would have rathered lose her other arm than go through with her plan.
“What about the farm?” her little sister asked, clinging to her good wrist. “I could stay. If you’re working with Flim, who’s going to look after the house?”
“I have it covered.” Applejack’s voice crept down to a dry whisper. “You need to be with Rarity. You got too much of your life ahead of you.” Behind Applebloom, Sweetie Belle kept her eyes glued to her shoes, fidgeting around with the curls in her hair.
Applejack let herself have a bittersweet chuckle. Even if they weren’t sisters by blood, she couldn’t imagine a life without Sweetie Belle in it. She put her prosthetic limb out, took her by the hand, and pulled both girls in for a tight hug.
“I ain’t gonna be there when you two argue, so look out for each other like sisters, alright? I love you both more than I can ever say. And I am so proud of everything you’ve done.” She leaned back at arm’s length and looked directly at Sweetie Belle. “I love getting into fights with you, and grounding you for running off at night. You know that, right?”
Sweetie Belle hid her reddish eyes behind her bangs but answered with a quick nod.
Applejack rubbed both their heads. “Little Mac’s lucky to have you two for older sisters.”
She reached out to take the infant from Rarity and look her nephew in the eyes. For a brief moment, her composure finally broke, and Applejack choked back a sob as she realized for the first time how much he looked like his father.
“Shit,” she laughed as she cried. “You’re lucky you won’t pick up my potty mouth. Grow up strong, now, okay?” As she nuzzled him, Little Mac cooed, pulled on her ear, and smother her cheek with a baby’s open-mouthed kiss.
Unable to stomach it anymore she passed Mac to Applebloom before she fell back onto the couch, clutching her face in her hands. It took no more than a second for Rarity to rush to her side.
“Fuck,” she whispered and shook her head. “This was a terrible idea. I can’t. Rar, I can’t do it. They’re like my kids. Oh stars, it’s like I’m losing my kids.”
“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Rarity caressed her head, combing through her hair. “I want to go back home too. But sugarcube, I know what it’s going to do to you if you turn back now. We’ll be back where we started, and you’ll be beating yourself over the head wondering if you made the right choice.”
She placed her hands on Applejack’s cheeks. “I want to be with you more than anything, but I can’t stand to see you hurt over your choices. We’ll be apart for three years, but just imagine the rest of our lives after that. Maybe we could try living on Mars. I could get a designing job, and you can make me pancakes every morning before I go to work.”
Now both their faces were streaked with tears as they laughed.
“The job’s dangerous,” Applejack said softly.
“Yeah? Well, so are you. Just promise me you’ll find time to write letters.”
“Data packets take months to send.”
Rarity sucked back her tears long enough for her signature scoff. “You know how long I waited for you to ask me out? I’m a patient lady, farm girl.”
“You sayin’ you’re okay with this?”
Rarity pressed her lips together tight and swallowed, trying to keep her voice from becoming raspy. “I am.”
Applejack chuffed and wiped her tears away. “Was that a lie just then? You know I can’t let it slide.”
“I know, I know.” Rarity licked her lips. “I gotta pay up.”
It was the longest embrace that Applejack could remember. She wished time would stop and let them stay coupled forever.
“You gotta go,” Applejack finally whispered into Rarity’s lips. “Any longer and I ain’t gonna be able to pull through this.” The simple touch of Rarity’s finger on her neck as they pulled away cascaded chills and excitement through her.
But it only made it doubly painful when they finally left.
She sat quietly with her thoughts as she handed the signed contract back to Flim. Three months as hired muscle for his operations, whatever they may be. No overtime. If she ever needed pocket change, Flim told her, she’d have to put her metal arm to use in a few rounds of the fighting pits.
“He got to you, didn’t he?” Flim lit a cigar and propped his feet up on his desk. “Couldn’t help but overhear some of that farewell. You wouldn’t be here if my brother hadn’t made a move.”
Applejack shot him a dirty look, cracking the edge of his desk with her grip.
“Easy with the killer arm,” Flim said, waving his cigar around. “My brother still owes me half a billion in corporate shares. The bastard deserves every hateful thought that must be going through your head right now. But what I need to know is you won’t go ballistic before I get my chance to claim what’s mine. You feel me?”
“You still fixing to rob your brother?” Applejack asked.
Flim grinned. “Every last credit, if I can help it.”
Applejack leaned in hard, locking her red, exhausted eyes on the skinny man. “Then I don’t care how you do it,” she said. “But before I get my family back, the Flam Corporation goes down.”
