Bright morning sunlight poured in through the open window of Applejack’s hut. The orange mare opened her green eyes, and yawned. For a split second, her first thought was to go downstairs, have some breakfast and go out to tend to the orchard.
But then the reality came back to her, and she shook her head. She got to her hooves and stretched. She trotted over to the cupboards, and pulled out an apple. Sadly, the apples she had weren’t the sweet, delicious red apples of Sweet Apple Acres, but they were apples and they tasted good.
She brushed a hoof through her shoulder-length blonde mane. It had been cut short, recently. She trotted over to her mirror, and looked at herself. She didn’t really care much for appearance, but…
She didn’t know. She just wanted to look at herself. She closed her eyes, thinking back on that fateful day…
Applejack sat in the back of a Pegasus-drawn carriage, looking at the fields flying by below her. She was quite worried, one moment she’s having a good night’s sleep and the next these two royal guards were at her door, demanding she come with them – but not before slapping shackles on her hooves.
Applejack was sure that whatever it had been was a misunderstanding, but she was still quite scared, though she refused to jump to conclusions or worst-case scenarios. She could see the City of Canterlot drawing closer, its magnificent towers stretching up into the sky, seeming to touch the clouds. Applejack was going to be fine, she was sure of it.
“No,” she told herself, shoving the memory into the back of her mind. “That was a long time ago; I don’t need to think about it anymore. S’all over.”
She swallowed. “Boy… I sure do miss my friend’s n’ family…” It had been… quite some time.
She looked at the wastebasket of unsent letters. Some of them were ‘friendship reports’ to Celestia, but others were letters for her family. She’d stopped sending them long ago; she never got any replies – not a one.
She even wrote some to her friends, but she had no idea where any of them were. She didn’t even know where to start to look.
She looked out the window, she could see even this early the zebra were doing their daily activities and chores. The village was pretty small, smaller than Ponyville. She often helped to harvest the crops; honest pay for honest work, right?
Applejack headed outside, normally as she had done for the past nine years.
Nine years… It’s really been that long, hasn’t it? Nine years today.
She called a few ‘hello’s’ (in Zebrican of course,) to passing townsfolk. Not very many of them knew much Equestrian, so she had learned their language. There was no Zebrican equivalent to ‘howdy,’ but she supposed it didn’t matter.
She looked up at Celestia’s sun. It felt so surreal, nine years and Celestia still raised the sun every morning – a silly thought, Princess Celestia had been raising the sun for thousands of years. Still, for Applejack it felt strange.
Applejack stood before Princess Luna the Lunar Alicorn stood before the throne, her expression looked somewhere between stern and downright angry. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, Twilight Fluttershy and even Spike were there, although it seemed he was the only one not wearing shackles. He was huddled close to Twilight, looking mighty scared.
Applejack looked up at the princess, swallowing hard. “Princess-“
“Silence.” Luna’s voice boomed, not the Royal Canterlot Voice, just ominous. It echoed off the nighttime hallways, ringing in Applejack’s ears. Her ears flattened, and she realized Fluttershy had collapsed and was huddling close to her. She wanted to wrap a foreleg around the Pegasus’s back, but the hoof-cuffs prevented it.
Applejack swallowed – and her teeth gritted. Don’t think about it.
“Applejack!” a voice called and she turned to a small zebra filly had walked up beside her. “Are you okay?”
Applejack forced a smile. “I’m fine, y’all. Did’ja need somethin’?”
“No, you just looked mad.”
“Naw, I’m alright, hun.”
“Hey, Applejack?”
“Hm?”
“Tonight we’re going to have a campfire party! There’s going to be games and laughing and food and campfire stories and fun! Can you join us?”
“I was plannin’ on it,” Applejack patted the little zebra’s head, and the filly smiled. “Yay! I can’t wait to hear your stories from Equestria!” and with that the filly was galloping off. “Hey, guys! Applejack is going to tell stories from Equestria!”
“But I never said…” Applejack trailed off. “…She an’ her friends remind me so much of Apple Bloom and her friends,” she said aloud.
She could really remember why she came outside, it was quite early and she didn’t really have anything to do.
A walk would be nice, she decided. She often took walks, it helped clear her mind. By this point she knew the surrounding area like the back of her hoof. She headed out.
This place was a lot hotter than Equestria – almost ridiculously so, but Applejack had gotten used to it by now. The entire area was hot plains wet woodlands, swamps and marshes scattered for good measure. The scenery was nice, Applejack smiled. She was walking down a familiar dirt path, long yellow grass on either side, yet not so much that it prevented her from seeing far out.
Her thoughts wandered….
“Princess,” Twilight started, “I don’t understand.”
“I said silence, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight opened her mouth again, then closed it, a grim expression on her face. “Now wait a minute!” Rainbow Dash cried, “Where’s Celestia?!”
“She is not here at the moment.” Luna’s firm, accusing expression hadn’t changed. “Now, you six…” her voice took on a cold tone. “Don’t play stupid.”
Applejack spoke up; “Play stupid?! Now what’re y’all talkin’ about, Princess?”
“You may be the Element of Honesty, Applejack, but you’ve been played by these… traitors.”
“Traitors?!” Fluttershy shrieked, “P-princess, please! What did we do?!”
“You all know very well what you did.” The lunar princess gritted her teeth. “Admit it, and maybe you’ll get a lenient punishment…”
The six exchanged glances. What was going on?
“I wonder how Twilight’s getting’ by. Rarity. RD. Hay, I hope they’re all alright.” Applejack sighed. “Nine years… I sure miss ‘em.”
A single tear dripped off her muzzle and splashed onto the ground.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Halfway through writing this I couldn't help but be reminded of that one story, I think it's called 'Seven' here on Fimfiction.net and I'm like 'I'm going to get accused of copying his/her idea'
Holy manure, I hate it when that happens.
Well, as always, proofread by Crimsongraph