Victory Apple

The baker, her husband, and their son worked hard to make whatever breads and sweets they could with the food shortage in place. It was hard enough alone, and the promise of help had seemed like a tantalizing offer. But as soon as she got sight of the pink pony, the baker's gut told her that accepting help was a bad idea. Still, it was at Sheriff Apple's request, so how could she have said no?

The mistake was made immediately obvious when Pinkie Pie immediately decided it would be her job to taste test anything and everything that made it out of the oven. And apparently the only way she could do it was to eat up half of the meager portions that they managed to cook up.

“I'll take that one, and that one, and that one, and that one!”

“Pinkie Pie,” the baker's husband pleaded, “You're eating up our livelihood.”

“No I'm not, silly, the neighborhood if far to big for me to eat.”

Finally, it became too much. The baker took Pinkie Pie and threw her out the swinging doors, where she landed flat on her face in front of Deputy Fey.

“Hiya Deps,” Pinkie chimed. Fey just sighed and shook her head before stepping over the pony to go inside and check on the bakers. It was partially to make sure they were still holding up despite the food shortage, and partially to check to see if they would need any counseling after what they'd been through.

As Pinkie stood up, she caught sight of a familiar two ponies walking down the road. Victory had evidently decided to go on a stroll, and brought Rarity along with her! Rarity was, of course, chatting it up while V listened quietly.

Pinkie jumped at the opportunity to join in, leaping towards them and stopping just short of bowling them over. “Hey!” she said, “Whatcha guys talking about?”

“Well,” Rarity answered, “I'm trying to help Applejack here recover her memories of working on the farm.”

Victory explained, “Or, as she puts it: workin' in the mud with no sense of social graces.”

“I may have, uh, exaggerated some of the more unpleasant details,” Rarity admitted.

“Ooh, that sound like fun. I love talking! And especially the stuff my friends love! Did she tell you about the zapapples yet?”

“Weren't ya helpin' out the baker an' her family?” Victory pointed out.

“I was, but they kicked me out. Can you believe it? How rude!”

Victory groaned. She was going to have to go apologize for Pinkie's behavior later.

For now, she just had to survive it herself.

***

Another rock came crashing down in the lettuce patch, prompting a cry of protest from the farmer.

“You no-good pegasus!” he cried, “Watch where yer throwin' those things.”

Rainbow Dash was further upstream, trying to pry another rock from the riverbed. She was absolutely fed up with this guy's personality, and if Applejack wasn't worth suffering for she'd have given him a piece of her mind long ago.

The farmer began pushing the rock off of his struggling crops. True, he'd mentioned that he needed help deepening the irrigation ditches, but he'd expected the sheriff to maybe find him a strong young stallion to help, not this weak and impudent weather pony.

If they weren't willing to send rain this far out, they shouldn't even be there.

The farmer's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a familiar red mare with faded blue hair.

“Well hello there, Miss Lawless,” he said pleasantly, “Sheriff been keeping you busy?”

“Only as busy as herself,” Fey replied, “Vi- Miss Apple is a good boss.”

“Well glad to hear that- oh, what in tarnation is that pony doing!” Another rock had landed dangerously close to the two, hitting the ground with a soft thump. Fey could hear Rainbow Dash splashing around with enjoyment that she had managed to dislodge another rock from the mud.

The farmer looked ready to blow, but Fey calmed him down by saying, “Actually, sheriff, I came here hoping I could take your assistant away for a while to talk.”

“Keep her,” he replied.

The Deputy had a troubled feeling brewing in her gut as she walked away. She'd been to two of the places Victory had assigned the visitors to, and both of them looked much worse for the wear.

“Hey there Deputy,” Rainbow Dash chimed merrily, still overcome with joy at having gotten that last miniature boulder from the stream, “Here to help?”

“Actually Rainbow Dash, I was hoping we could go somewhere and talk.”

“Sure,” Dash replied, visibly happy at the thought of being done. She flapped her wings and hopped over, floating just above the ground as not to get her wet hooves in the dirt. “What about?”

“About V-, I mean, about Applejack.”

Far on the other side of the only farm, where it became an official ranch, Victory and her two followers were coming up to check on Fluttershy's progress. They found her standing in front of a thin-looking cow, talking to it without success.

“Oh, miss cow, if you would, um, go ahead and follow the others, I'd, um, really appreciate that.”

The cow simply turned away from her and continued munching on the stiff grasses.

“Oh, um... please, miss cow. I'd be ever so grateful.” The cow did nothing.

Fluttershy whimpered and scooched back. This was nothing like talking to her animal friends from the forest. There was a reason Applejack was the town's go-to herder and not her. And now the other ponies were going to be angry at her for not being able to help! And they still had so many other cows to go.

Winona's bark alerted her to the arrival of the others. Fluttershy looked over to see Applejack arriving with Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Her heart settled.

“Oh, I am so glad you're here,” she started, “I'm just not any good at... oh, right... memory loss.”

Victory sighed, “Ya said you were good with animals.”

“Yes, little forest critters and the like. But you were always the one who-”

“Now that's enough!” the sheriff cried, causing Fluttershy to jump, “I'm sick an' tired of everypony tryin' to tell me who I am. I
know who I am. I'm the sheriff of this here town, and I got a responsibility to these here ponies.”

The tired expressions on Rarity's and Pinkie Pie's face told Fluttershy that they had, indeed, tried approaching this from every angle to no avail. Fluttershy just hung her head in shame.

Victory knew that she had to do something about these cows. Spotting a rope lying up against the barn, she quickly trotted over and picked it up, figuring she could at least pull a few of them in by force if she had to.

But as she began walking over, a strange familiarity with the situation began to arise. She moved faster, and until she knew it was moving at a full gallop towards the other side of the field. She had dropped the rope- she wouldn't need it- and she could hear the patter of the little doggy's feet as it ran beside her. The others were cheering her on, but she couldn't hear them through the adrenaline.

“Get along, little doggies!” she cried, turning around and chasing after the cows. Sensing her intent, they began to move, slowly at first but quickly picking up speed.

Victory ran alongside them, pushing them closer together so they wouldn't stray. On the other side, Winona was helping as she was trained to do. The barn was approaching fast, and Victory began to slow down. She watched them file into the barn with satisfaction, and then confusion. How had she known to do that? Winona was nearby, barking in excitement, and the other three ponies rushed forward and grabbed her in a tight embrace.

“We knew you could do it, Applejack!”

“Glad you're back, AJ!”

“We missed you so much!”

“Gerroff me!” The other three mares stepped back, stunned. Victory pulled herself up and cast a glare at Winona, who stopped yelping and sat still. “I don' know what just happened, but it was just a fluke, ya hear? I'm not Applejack, and yer not gonna convince me otherwise!”

“Oh yeah?!” Pinkie shouted, “Then how did you get all of the cows back into the barn, huh? Huh huh huh huh huh?!”

“I was lucky and they were willin' to cooperate is all,” she replied, beginning to walk away.

***

Twilight didn't know how a mail mare could put up with this kind of workload. She had cleaned up much of the mayor's office only to discover a stack of papers as tall as herself that needed immediate delivery all across town. Cursing the mayor's ineptitude, she had stuffed her saddlebags to their fullest and begun.

She had just finished the final delivery of her third round, and was ready to collapse from exhaustion. There was no way she would survive until the end of the day, but she had no choice other than to continue. Victory needed to trust her, so Twilight had to prove herself to the sheriff.

Or at least she thought she did. It was only a moment later that she caught sight of Victory herself approaching, with Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Winona all in tow. They were all supposed to be working, weren't they?

Twilight waited until they had gotten closer to step out and ask. “Hey Victory,” she said, but stopped. The sheriff's eye had begun to twitch at the mere sight of her, and Twilight knew immediately that her plan of trying to jog Applejack's memories had just agitated her further.

“So,” she continued, afraid of the answer to her next question, “Things haven't been going as well as we'd hoped, have they?”

“You wouldn't believe it,” Victory replied.

Twilight mumbled, “Oh yes I would,” before saying directly, “Any chance we could sit down for lunch and discuss this?”

“Look, miss unicorn, I'm sick and tired of hearing y'all talk about me- I mean you're friend Applejack. As far as I'm concerned, she's not here.”

“But-”

“She's not here!”

The two were interrupted by the sound of Deputy Fey, who had arrived with Rainbow Dash. “Sheriff,” she said, meekly addressing her superior, “there are a couple things I was hoping we could all sit down and talk about.”

Victory looked ready to explode. The six of them actually believed for a moment that she would. But then she stopped, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply. When she began speaking again, it was in a calm, controlled voice. “Look, it doesn't matter if I'm your friend or not,” she told them all, “Right now, I'm too busy helping to protect these ponies from the bandit attacks. If you can find a way to stop them, I maybe can find the time to hear you all out. Until then, I want y'all out of my face. Fey, let's go home.”

As Victroy began her slow walk away, Fey turned to the others and said, “I'm sorry. If there's any way I can help...” she let the words trail away before turning and catching up to her boss.

Fluttershy had to hold Winona back, but couldn't keep the dog from barking after her master. The other four exchanged a glance, and Rainbow Dash asked, “Are you all thinking what I'm thinking.”

Twilight nodded, adding, “But we have to be methodical about it, Dashie.”

“Ooh! Maybe we can get the Deputy to help us.”

“Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight agreed, already beginning to scheme, “Maybe we can.”

***

“Yes, Mr. Clay. Thank you for being so cooperative.”

As the stallion left, Victory sighed and sat down at her table, where Fey had poured them a mug of warm root beer each. She rubbed her temples with her hooves for a moment before removing her hair band, letting her mane fall.

“Hear hear,” her deputy agreed, picking up her own and taking a swig. She seemed notably more relaxed now that it was just the two of them. She asked, “Are you alright? It seems like you've been upset lately.”

“Can't imagine why,” Victory replied, “with these strange ponies commin' in and causin' trouble. Now I gotta go apologize to the townsponies for letting them loose.”

“Have you tried talking to them?” Fey suggested, “That Rainbow pony seemed fairly nice. A little... hotheaded, but nice enough. She cares a great deal about you. I suspect they all do.”

“Oh, but that's the problem,” the Sheriff groaned, “I can't be their friend, I just can't. I'm responsible for taking care of this town. If they're right, then we don't have a sheriff anymore.”

“We can't ever replace you,” Fey agreed, more out of admiration than belief in the fact, “But I hate to see you unhappy about this. You told me you wish you had your memory back.”

“When I said that, I didn't think any of this was going to happen.”

Fey got up from her seat and walked behind Victory, sitting down and placing her hooves on the boss' shoulders. Victory relaxed at the touch of her improvised massage, as she had every time, and Fey ventured to ask, “If they are right, would you leave us?”

Victory took a long time before answering. “I dunno,” she finally murmured, “This is my life, but they're telling me I had another life before, with other friends and a family. I thought I knew who I was, where I belong. Who am I?”

“You're a strong mare whose going to do the right thing no matter what it takes,” Fey reminded her, “And when the time comes, you'll know what the right thing to do is. Worrying about it only makes you stressed.”

“Well I know that last part's true,” the Sheriff admitted, “Just one more question: if I were to leave, would you be sad?”

Fey stopped her massage. She almost didn't answer. Victory was about to prompt her again when she continued massaging and answered, almost with pride, “More than anypony else here.”

She sent Victory to bed shortly after that, and the mare went without protest. If there was one thing Fey appreciated most, it was that Victory trusted her enough to let her make that kind of call. Besides, there probably wouldn't be any more clients today. The sun was almost set.

So imagine her surprise when there came a knock at the door. Fey had already let her mane out of its braid she was ready for bed, but she slid over and opened the door anyway. Twilight Sparkle stood there. It took her a moment to recognize Fey without the braid, but she said quite simply, “I need your help.”

Making sure her boss was sleeping soundly, Fey followed Twilight Sparkle out the door and over to the wagon they had confiscated from the bandits. She allowed Twilight to hook her up and slowly pulled it out of its resting place. In the night, every creak and groan was magnified. But despite the sound, nopony came to check on them, to find out what they were up to.

Twilight walked beside Fey as they traveled down the main street. She carried in her saddlebags a stack of fliers, stopping at every other building to post one up. In the darkness, Fey couldn't read them, but Twilight had made her plan clear enough for her to guess what they said.

As they walked, Twilight decided it was time to learn a little more about Applejack's new friend.

“So, why do I keep hearing the other ponies calling you Ms. Lawless?”

“Fey Lawless,” she replied, “It wasn't always my name. My parents were- still are- jewelers living up in a small mountain town, where I was born and raised. Being what they were, they named me “Flawless Gem”, no doubt hoping I would continue in their hoofsteps.

“I didn't like that name. So I started telling the other foals to call me “Fey”. They quickly came up with the nickname Fey Lawless. Get it? After a while, much to my parent's irritation, it just stuck, and even the adults would refer to me as Ms. Lawless.

“Fortunately, it seemed to suit me. I spent as much time as possible outside of the town in the untamed wilderness. I was always reading adventure books about pirates and bandits and the like, and when me and my friends weren't recreating those stories were were making up our own. As we got older, my friends realized how dangerous that forest truly was and stopped coming. I would find myself often alone out there, in lawless territory.”

Twilight asked, “So, if your cutie mark is a campfire, what are you doing out here as a Deputy?”

Fey chuckled, recalling how she found her special talent, “I was young, still a schoolyard filly, and me and my friends were out in the forest. I slipped and fell into the river. Several days went by before a family, from another town entirely, saw smoke during their yearly camping trip, and followed it to discover my makeshift campsite.

“I had not only erected a fire, but a small tent out of leaves and branches that I was sleeping in. Despite a badly injured leg, which I managed to make a splint for by myself in the second day, I had collected enough edible plants to see me through another week.

“They rushed me to the hospital, where they fed me and fixed my leg proper. Turns out I had washed up miles outside of the search radius. The fact I was alive was so amazing I got headline coverage in newspapers for miles.

“My special talent, Ms. Unicorn, is survival,” she smiled, “And I think one of the reasons I came out here was to test that firsthand, all these years later.”

“Call me Twilight,” Twilight insisted, “That's an amazing story. But why here? Why not stay in the woods?”

She sighed, “Partially to get away from my home. I'd outgrown that place. I'd heard about the plans to build a new settlement out here to allow for further travel into the badlands, and it seemed like such a radical change that I just had to join in.”

“Has it worked?”

“I was voted to become deputy almost unanimously by these townsponies,” she said with a hint of pride, “While we were on the trip here, I did everything I could to help those who got sick or injured, and I tried to keep spirits high. I even made the brightest campfires at night. I had to go around to the different groups and light each one of their fires for them, because they thought that they couldn't do it without me.

“And I had brought no means to earn any money otherwise. Everpony else came bringing their livelihood, but I would have been nothing but a burden. That's why they made me the Deputy. Because they liked me, and I offered nothing else.”

“That seems a little harsh,” Twilight said.

“Actually, I'm glad,” Fey told her, “This is exactly where I want to be right now.”