“Consarn it, where’d that thing get to now?” Applejack muttered as she rifled through her dressers. You’d think it would be hard to lose a big, golden necklace, but she’d have sworn she left it on the vanity and it was nowhere to be found. “Land sakes, my mind must be going.” She shook her head and called out into the hall, “Rainbow, have ya seen mah Element?”
There was no answer.
“Rainbow?”
Applejack poked her head out of the bedroom she shared with Rainbow Dash and saw that the house was dark. Nopony else was around.
“What the hay?” She was sure Rainbow Dash didn’t have a coaching session this morning, and that was the only thing that ever got her out of the house before noon. “Rainbow?” A note of concern crept into her voice, but she fought down the rising fear. “Don’t be silly,” she chided herself. “She probably went into town to get some muffins. Thought she could zip ta Sugarcube Corner and back and surprise me with breakfast. Yeah, that’s gotta be it.”
Well, no sense in standing around wondering. Rainbow Dash didn’t fly quite as fast as she used to, but a trip into town and back still wouldn’t take her more than a few minutes, and in the meantime there were chores to do.
Applejack opened the door leading outside, and the breath left her body. Every tree in Sweet Apple Acres was bare, the bark gray and cracked, the leaves and apples rotting on the ground. Her entire orchard was dead.
“What in the—?” She stepped outside as everything faded to black.
“I didn’t know who else to go to,” Rainbow Dash said to Zecora. “She’s been like this for a week, and nopony at the hospital could figure out what was wrong. Not even Twilight’s magic could get through to her.”
Applejack lay on a bed of woven grass on the floor of Zecora’s hut, fast asleep. She’d lost some weight during her coma, but otherwise she looked perfectly healthy—she might have just been taking a nap. Nonetheless, Zecora regarded her with concern.
“A week she has been in this sad state?” Zecora exclaimed. “You should have come much sooner! I pray it’s not too late.” She bent over to examine Applejack’s sleeping form. “Hmm. This is no normal sleep, but the work of some curse. We must be careful or we could make things worse.”
The zebra’s mane and tail were nearly pure white these days, but she moved with the energy and purpose of a much younger mare as she retrieved potions and artifacts from the shelves lining her hut. Rainbow Dash yearned to ask what she was doing, but after the third time doctors had nearly chased her out of Applejack’s room at the hospital, she’d learned to stand back and let ponies—or zebras—do their jobs.
After perhaps twenty minutes, Zecora sighed and sat back on her haunches. “Nothing afflicts her physically,” she said. She rifled through the artifacts on the floor and came up with a talisman of carved stone. “You must look into her mind, and see what you can see.”
“Me?” Rainbow asked.
Zecora nodded. “This quest is yours to undertake; it’s not a journey that I can make.”
“Why me? I’m a coach, not a doctor!”
“Only to her loved ones will her dreams play host.” Zecora held Rainbow’s eyes with her own. “And you are the one whom she loves the most.”
Right, that makes sense… I guess… Rainbow took a breath, then nodded firmly and stood up. “Okay. Just tell me how. I’ll do whatever it takes to save her.”
Zecora gave her a warm smile. “I know you will, my pony friend. That’s why this curse won’t be her end.” She pressed the stone talisman into Rainbow’s hoof. “Just hold this amulet against her brow, and her heart into yours allow.”
The pegasus flashed a cocky smirk. “No problem. Her heart’s been in mine for years.” However, despite the confident words, her grin faltered as she looked down at her wife. With a trembling hoof, she placed the talisman on Applejack’s forehead and held it there.
“C’mon, AJ,” Rainbow Dash whispered. “Come back to me.”
The talisman flashed, and her eyes began to shine with orange light.
“Consarn it, where’d that thing get to now?” Applejack muttered as she rifled through her dressers. You’d think it would be hard to lose a big, golden necklace, but she’d have sworn she left it on the vanity and it was nowhere to be found. “Land sakes, my mind must be going.” She shook her head and called out into the hall, “Rainbow, have ya seen mah Element?”
There was no answer.
“Rainbow?”
Applejack poked her head out of the bedroom she shared with Rainbow Dash and found her wife sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her with wide eyes. “Oh, there ya are! What’s wrong? Ya look like ya saw a ghost.”
“A ghost?” Rainbow Dash squeaked. She shook her head. “No, just… just a bad dream, that’s all.”
“Aw, sugar.” She walked over and held Rainbow to her chest. Was the unflappable pegasus trembling? “That musta been a doozy of a dream.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow whispered, and nuzzled into Applejack’s warmth. “But it’s okay. It’ll be over soon.”
“Huh?” Applejack stepped back and tilted her head.
“I mean, uh, it’s over now!” Rainbow stammered. “Heh, sorry, guess I’m not quite awake yet.” She rubbed her short, spiky mane with a hoof. “So, uh, what did you ask me before?”
“Oh, right. Have you seen mah Element of Harmony? I cain’t find it anywhere.”
Rainbow stared at her. “AJ, we gave those back to the Tree ages ago. Remember?”
“What?” Applejack fought through the haze that suddenly seemed to fill her mind, and it was like the world shifted around her. “Oh yeah, I… I reckon we did.” She laughed. “Well, chores won’t wait on a confused old mare. Better get to work.”
Applejack opened the door leading outside, and the breath left her body. Every tree in Sweet Apple Acres was bare, the bark gray and cracked, the leaves and apples rotting on the ground. Her entire orchard was dead.
“What in the—?” She stepped outside as everything faded to black.
The orange glow faded from her eyes, and Rainbow Dash returned to herself with a gasp. Zecora was watching her intently.
“Well, Rainbow Dash, what did you find?” the zebra asked. “What is it that shackles poor Applejack’s mind?”
“Zecora?” It took Rainbow a moment to remember where she was, and why. “Oh. She… she was dreaming about… I dunno. Nothing, really. We were at home. It was a regular old morning.”
Zecora squinted thoughtfully. “Nothing unusual, nothing odd? There must be an answer beneath this facade.”
Rainbow Dash thought back. “Well, there was one thing. Two things,” she quickly corrected herself. “AJ was looking for her Element of Honesty, but we haven’t had those things in decades. And when she looked outside, all the trees were dead. Then the dream ended and I woke up back here.”
Zecora hummed thoughtfully. “Dead trees could mean many things, I fear. But Honesty missing, that part is quite clear.”
Rainbow nearly lunged toward the zebra. “What does it mean?” she asked desperately. “How do we save her?!”
Zecora’s calm wasn’t shaken in the least by the pegasus’s sudden energy. “You must go back in, and much deeper pry.” She took Rainbow’s hoof and placed it back on the talisman. “Your dear Applejack is bound by a lie.”
Rainbow stared back at her. “Applejack?” she squeaked. ”That pony’s never told a lie in her life! It’s gotta be something else.”
Zecora shrugged. “Either way, you must go back and try to learn more.” She moved to a bookshelf and picked out a tome. “I have an idea I wish to explore.” She sat and began hoofing quickly through the pages, searching for something.
“Okay.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, as she might before starting a difficult flying routine. She exhaled, relaxed, and her eyes filled once more with orange light.
“Consarn it, where’d that thing get to now?” Applejack muttered as she rifled through her dressers. You’d think it would be hard to lose a big, golden necklace, but she’d have sworn she left it on the vanity and it was nowhere to be found. “Land sakes, my mind must be going.” She shook her head and called out into the hall, “Rainbow, have ya seen mah Element?”
“No,” Rainbow called back from the kitchen. “What do you need it for?”
“Nothin’ really, just cain’t imagine where it could be.” Applejack shut the last drawer and moved on to the closet. “It’s not like it grew legs and walked away.”
“It’s magic,” Rainbow answered. The sound of hooves on wood crossed the house toward Applejack. “For all we know, it could have.”
Applejack scoffed. “But why would it? And where’d it go?”
“I don’t know. It’s your Element; I think you have to figure that out.”
“What the hay are you talkin’ about, Rainbow?”
“Uh.” She scuffed a hoof anxiously against the floor. “I mean, it’s the Element of Honesty. Is there… is there a reason why it might have left you?”
Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Ya mean, have I been fibbin’ or somethin’? Is that what you’re suggestin’?”
“I’m not suggesting anything!” Rainbow Dash protested, holding her hooves up to pacify her wife. “I’m just saying, there’s gotta be a reason why it went missing all of a sudden.”
Applejack snorted and roughly shouldered past the other pony. “It went missin’ because I put it someplace silly and forgot,” she called as she walked to the other side of the house. “I’m sure it’ll turn up tonight. After the chores are done.”
Applejack opened the door leading outside, and the breath left her body. Every tree in Sweet Apple Acres was bare, the bark gray and cracked, the leaves and apples rotting on the ground. Her entire orchard was dead.
“What in the—” she stepped outside as everything faded to black.
Rainbow Dash gasped as the orange light faded, then slammed a hoof into the floor of Zecora’s hut. A tear trickled from the corner of one eye, and she angrily brushed it away.
“I think you’re right,” she reluctantly said to Zecora. “AJ is lying about something. She got really defensive when I asked about it.”
“An excellent step toward breaking this spell,” Zecora replied from the other side of the hut. She pushed a book toward the pegasus. “I’m pleased to say I have found something as well.”
The book was open to a page depicting a black shrub with wicked-looking red thorns. Rainbow squinted at the page, trying to sound out the strange words.
“Smilax malebolgia, also called Liar’s Briar, is an extremely rare plant found only in the Everfree Forest and its environs. Recognizable by its black, rhomboid leaves and… blah blah blah… Its thorns carry a magical poison that punishes lies and falsehoods. Effects range from minor allergic reactions to unconsciousness and… and death.” She paused to swallow. “The more lies a creature has told, or the more powerful those lies are, the worse their reaction to liar’s briar becomes.”
Rainbow Dash snorted and shook her head angrily. “That makes no sense. AJ is a terrible liar! She can’t even pretend to like my cooking without making that face.” She scrunched up her nose to demonstrate. “If she lied about something important, everycreature in Ponyville would know it.”
“Her truth is the ointment, and that is the fly,” Zecora agreed. “Perhaps…” she put a thoughtful hoof to her chin, “Applejack herself does not know it’s a lie?”
“Huh?” She stared blankly at the zebra. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A potent untruth must have led to this fall,” Zecora replied, gesturing toward the comatose Applejack. “Lies we tell ourselves can be the strongest of all.”
Rainbow groaned. “If she doesn’t even know what she’s lying about, how am I supposed to figure it out?”
“The cure for a lie is honesty. Find the lost necklace: That is the key.”
Right, find the necklace. But how? Rainbow Dash thought frantically. There was nothing outside except dead trees, and the dream always ended as soon as Applejack stepped out the door. That meant the Element of Honesty had to be in the house somewhere. I hope.
So, something about their home that Applejack was lying about, even to herself? What, does she not like the new curtains? She picked them! Did she secretly wish that Rainbow would do more work around the house? Or was it the opposite? Does she… does she not want me there?
“Rainbow Dash,” Zecora’s voice broke into her thoughts, “I can see that your heart is quite sore. But to have any hope, you must try once more.”
“Right.” Rainbow slowly climbed to her hooves and gazed down at Applejack. It didn’t seem real that such a strong and steadfast pony could be reduced to such a state—from just the prick of a thorn, if Zecora was right. Of course Rainbow wouldn’t give up on her, but how would she ever find the Element of Honesty?
Honesty!
Rainbow slammed a hoof into her own face. “Zecora, I am the dumbest pony in Equestria,” she mumbled around it. “I’ve been trying to fit in with the dream and trick AJ into telling me what’s wrong. I guess I just didn’t want her to be scared, but come on, she’s tougher than that! If we’re ever going to find the Element of Honesty, I need to look Applejack in the eye and tell her exactly what’s going on.”
Zecora nodded her approval. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get her next couplet out, Rainbow put the amulet to Applejack’s head and dove back into her dreams.
“Consarn it, where’d that thing get to now?” Applejack muttered as she rifled through her dressers. You’d think it would be hard to lose a big, golden necklace, but she’d have sworn she left it on the vanity and it was nowhere to be found. “Land sakes, my mind must—”
“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash shouted from the kitchen.
Applejack jumped in surprise, then galloped out of their bedroom.
“Ah’m here!” she called as she ran to her wife’s side. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but Rainbow Dash looked poised for a fight. “What’s the matter?”
“AJ, listen to me,” Rainbow said. “You’re dreaming right now. All of this—” she gestured broadly around the kitchen, “—it’s not real.”
“What the hay are you talkin’ about?”
“You’re looking for the Element of Honesty right now, right?” Rainbow asked. “It’s gone missing?”
“Well… yeah,” she answered slowly. “How’d ya know?”
Rainbow Dash gave a very brief version of what had been happening over the past week.
“...and Zecora thinks the only way to beat this thing is to find your necklace, because that’ll show us what you’re lying about,” she finished. Finally being able to talk to Applejack and tell her all of that was a relief, as if a small thorn had been removed from her own spirit.
“Now wait a cotton-pickin’ second.” Applejack shook her head. “If this is all some crazy dream—if I’ve really been conked out for a week straight—how come Princess Luna hasn’t showed up to help?”
Rainbow shrugged helplessly. “Maybe she can’t get in because this is a magical dream. Or maybe, I dunno, she’s on vacation. But, AJ, think about it! We gave the Elements of Harmony back to the Tree a long time ago, so why would you be looking for it here? Or… or just look out the window!” She gestured to the endless rows of bare trees and rotting apples.
Applejack looked out the window and her jaw dropped. “What the—” She wheeled for the door, only to find her path blocked by Rainbow Dash. “Get outta the way!” she roared. “I gotta save the orchard!”
“Please don’t go out there,” Rainbow begged. “As soon as you step out that door the dream ends, and we have to start all over.”
“Well, ah still ain’t convinced it is a dream,” Applejack snapped back. “So move, or I’ll move ya!”
“If this isn’t a dream,” Rainbow Dash answered sadly, “then Sweet Apple Acres is dead, and I’m lying to you about it. Is that really what you think?”
Applejack’s eyes went wide as she realized what she was suggesting. “You…” She took a step back as the fight slowly went out of her. “Shoot, yer right. If all this is real, then… well, ah hope it’s not real. That’s all.”
“It’s not,” Rainbow Dash reassured her. “But it is dangerous. We need to find whatever lie is keeping you here and clear it up, pronto.”
“A lie.” Applejack shook her head slowly. “Shoot, ah don’t know. How am I supposed to know I’m lyin’ to myself when… well, when I’m lyin’ to myself? Did Zecora have any ideas?”
As Applejack said Zecora’s name, a faint image of the zebra appeared behind her and faded again.
Wait, that’s it! “No, Zecora didn’t have any ideas,” Rainbow answered, “but I do.”
“Ah’m all ears.”
Rainbow Dash was glad that one didn’t manifest.
“Well, this is a dream, right? Your dream. Which means you can control it. So, what if you just… dream up the Element of Honesty? Maybe then it can show us how to stop all of this.”
“Huh.” Applejack shrugged. “Well, ah ain’t got any better ideas. Here goes nothin’.” She closed her eyes and concentrated so hard that deep furrows appeared in her forehead and around her mouth. Rainbow Dash could practically hear her teeth grinding. Nothing happened.
“Uh, I think you gotta take it easier than that,” she said. “Don’t force it, just let it happen.”
“Right, right.” Her face visibly relaxed, but no necklace appeared.
“Dangit,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “Guess we’ll have to find it the hard—” she broke off at the sound of hoofsteps approaching from the living room. “AJ? Did you just imagine somepony else here?”
“No.” Applejack’s eyes snapped open and she spun to face the newcomer: A filly, a stout young earth pony with Applejack’s orange coat and Rainbow Dash’s prismatic mane. Her cutie mark was a large apple in every color of the rainbow. Around her neck hung the Element of Honesty.
Applejack gasped. She realized, with the inexplicable certainty of dreams, that she knew the filly’s name. “Zap Apple!”
“Hi, Mom,” Zap replied. She grinned at Rainbow Dash. “Hi, Mom.”
Rainbow Dash turned to stare at Applejack with eyes as wide and round as saucers. “AJ? Who is this?”
Applejack’s own eyes weren’t any smaller. Her heart soared with the desire she’d long since forgotten it had, even as her stomach sank into her hooves. This filly was the lie that the liar’s briar was using against her—or rather, the lie was Applejack pretending that she didn’t dream of this filly.
“Rainbow Dash,” she said through the lump in her throat, “this is Zap Apple. She’s… our filly. The filly I always wanted us ta have. That’s my truth.”
The glow faded from Rainbow Dash’s eyes, and for the third time she awoke with a gasp.
“Rainbow Dash, what—” The rest of Zecora’s rhyme was lost as the pegasus darted to Applejack’s side.
“Applejack?” Rainbow was on the verge of hyperventilating. “Applejack!”
To Rainbow’s combined relief and terror, Applejack groaned and shifted on her bed of woven grass.
“Huh?” Applejack murmured, and stretched muscles that were stiff and weak from long disuse. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. “Wha… what’s goin’ on? Where are we? Oof!” She grunted as Rainbow Dash hurled herself down and pulled her into a crushing embrace.
“Oh gosh, I thought I was gonna lose you,” Rainbow sobbed—sobbed!—into Applejack’s shoulder.
“Hey now, what's all that about?” Applejack struggled to free a hoof and rubbed Rainbow’s back. “C’mon, I’m alright. Ah ain’t goin’ anywhere.” She looked around again. “Although, speakin’ of goin’ places, why are we in Zecora’s hut?”
Rainbow Dash pulled back to look her in the eyes. She licked her lips. “Do you… do you remember anything that happened while you were asleep? Any dreams?”
“Dreams?” Applejack frowned. “No, ah—!” Her eyes shot open wide as the memories came crashing down on her. “Oh, Rainbow Dash…”
Rainbow looked around the room, faintly surprised to realize that Zecora wasn’t there. She must have stepped out to give them some privacy. “AJ, why didn’t you ever tell me?”
The sweet, steadfast farmpony pulled in a shaky breath. “Ah… ah knew you didn’t want a foal,” she answered. “Ya told me way before we got married, and ah accepted that. Least, ah thought ah did. Besides, bein’ a parent at the same time as bein’ a Wonderbolt…” She shook her head. “It was never gonna work for ya, and that meant it’d never work for me. Didn’t seem to be much point in talkin’ about it. But ah guess that wasn’t very honest of me. I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Rainbow held her close again. “We can talk about it as much as you need to. Besides, I’m not a full time ‘Bolt anymore, so…” She broke off that line of thought with a slight shake of her head. “You’re alright. That’s what’s important.” She gave a warm, gentle smile as Applejack nuzzled into her chest. “We’ll figure out the rest together. And that’s the honest truth.”
