Visions of the Past

She gave a start as she came out of her revelries again. Why did I come here? she thought as her ears laid back and memories once again assaulted her mind. Apple trees were all around her as she continued on the road up to a farmhouse in the distance. A loud thump to her left and several small thuds caused her to look up to the top of the hill, Applejack moved to the next tree and prepared for a good strong buck.

"Applejack!"The unicorn shouted out in surprise at the sight of her friend. Standing atop a hill, the orange mare was all set up in front of an apple tree. Her blonde mane looked a bit frazzled as testament to how long she'd been working and her tail swayed slightly as she lifted her haunches in preparation.

The orange pony stopped in mid buck and looked up, but not towards the lavender pony. Confused in many ways. Twilight watched in surprise, a wave of nostalgia washed over her, as from where the other pony was looking, five friends made their way up the hill. Twilight, in the lead, had yelled out the greeting, behind her, Rarity followed and Pinkie Pie bounced along happily, a basket in her mouth. Fluttershy also carried a basket and flew carefully with Rainbow Dash above the other three.

Unable to look away, the unicorn watched as, after a warm greeting of hellos and hugs with the farm pony, they all set up a picnic on the hill top. She looked in stunned disbelief at the scene playing out before her.

"Oh Dash, please be a dear and help me spread out the blanket" Rarity called in a pleasing voice. Pulling out a pleasant looking red and white checkered bundle from one of the baskets.

While they set up the blanket, the others all started unpacking the rest of the baskets contents, laying out disposable plates and utensils. Sandwiches and other treats followed,"Y'all didn't need to do this for mah" AJ said in a voice that told how much she appreciated it.

"Don't be silly, we wanted to do this, now where did my balloons go?" Pinkie said, hopping around excitedly. "Oh silly me, this isn't the balloon basket, it’s the rock basket. No wonder it was so heavy."

"Pinkie's right, AJ, we're happy to come out and have a picnic with our hard working friend," Twilight said with a smile as she shook her head in amusement at her pink friend's antics.

"Aw shucks, you all are the best!" AJ smiled, slightly blushing, then went and joined her friends on the blanket where they were laughing and joking with each other as they ate and shared the latest gossip and going ons in town, enjoying the peaceful afternoon and each others company.

Her eyes misted over as she fought the tears that threatened to spill. The young unicorn watched and wished with all her might that this moment would never end. She reached out a hoof longingly at the hill as the scene slowly faded away, till she was alone once more in the empty orchard.

She turned and galloped back the other way, unable to be there for another minute. It had hurt too much, seeing her again, smiling, laughing and well. Why does this keep happening? she thought in torment as the images followed her in her flight. In an attempt to regain some control, she began to sift through the various emotions she had and deal with them that way.

Sifting through them, a chill ran through her as she came upon a baffling feeling, it seemed like an expectation, a hope of something to be shared and understood, but it wasn't hers. How could she have an emotion that wasn't hers? It was as if she picked it up from somepony else, but that was impossible. Although quite talented, empathy wasn't among her array of spells. To further complicate the matter, a sense of disappointment and sadness had also appeared when she ran away.

Starting to get scared that she was losing her mind, she gave up her attempts at getting it all under control and lost herself in concentrating on where she put her hooves as the world went by in a blur of colors. She galloped on, back towards town.