Chapter 6

The orange mare sat behind her desk glaring at the door opposite her. Idly she pulled at the collar of the business dress she was wearing. She hated the dress. It was ugly and impractical. Her blonde mane was curled into little ringlets as it fell down her back. The small intercom on her massive desk squawked to life.

“E-excuse me, Ms. Apple. The head of the Pony Resources department is here.” The secretary outside always sounded nervous whenever she paged in. The tremor in her voice annoyed the mare at the desk. Soon she would probably fire her. Though it did feel good to hear that there were ponies who were scared of her. Without looking at the intercom she pressed the call button. She didn’t say anything, only held it down for a second then released it. That was all the signal that she would give them that they could come in.

The door to the office opened slowly as two ponies walked in. One was a brown earth pony with a scroll as a cutie mark and the other was his unicorn assistant who had several quills on his flank. The brown pony, who had been working for the orange mare for many years now had a very businesslike air about him. The unicorn was taken aback by the glare that greeted him as he entered the room. He still managed to keep several quills floating the air with his magic, as he was ready to take notes.

“What did we need to discuss Applejack?” The brown pony ignores her glare and gets right to business. His assistant floats a quill to a piece of parchment.

“Parts of my company are still struggling despite everything we try. Why is this?”

“Ponies just don’t have the money for certain goods anymore. Many luxury departments are barely staying afloat. Too many ponies are selling everything they own just keep the lights on.” He answered matter of factly.

“Then cut them. I am not going to waste any more money paying ponies to build things that no one will buy.”

“Of course.” The brown pony nodded and turned to leave, however before he made it out the door his assistant spoke up. “But what about the ponies who worked in these departments?”

“If they have useable skills they will be reassigned. If not… then it is the street for them.” The brown pony answered for Applejack.

“But that’s not fair!” The unicorn whined. “Without this job they may not be able to pay for their own lights and heating!”

“That is not my problem,” this time it was Applejack who answered, her voice cold with anger. “If they can’t be used then they have no place in this company. If they can’t pay for their bills then that is their own fault for being useless. Now get out of my office before you join them.”

The two stallions rushed out of her office. She returned to glaring at the door once it was closed. Dimly through the door she heard the young unicorn being reprimanded. A smile slipped up her lips, though it never reached her eyes. As one of the single largest employers outside of the royal guards her company could wield a considerable amount of power. Of course it could, she had worked her entire life to build it up to where it was today.

Several minutes after the two had left Applejack slid one of the drawers open on her desk and placed a hoof inside. She didn’t need to look at what she was touching. She had seen it so many times, she knew every detail. It as an old, worn-out, wooden picture frame. It was so old that the once pointed corners were now almost completely round. She idly traced the edges of the picture frame with a hoof while she waited for her next appointment. The whole time she waited she never took her eyes off the door to the room, and she never let her glare slip.

After she had run away from home as a child she had found herself at the door of her Aunt and Uncle’s apartment. At first they had welcomed her into their home, helped her to blend in with the elite of Manehattan, and helped her to discover her cutie mark. The bits on her flank showed proof of her skill as a savvy business pony. But she was still a little county girl in the big city. Eventually her relatives grew tired of having to excuse her behavior to their metropolitan friends. They kicked her out. Told her to go home.

She didn’t want to go home though. She was enjoying business, and Manehattan was the center of Equestria for business. So she lived on the streets for several years. There she helped the neighborhood colts with various little scams and cons. In timer her skills brought her to the attention of a local smuggling ring. With the help of the smuggling ring she was able to open a legitimate trade business, which was a front for her own growing smuggling empire.

There were all manner of products that she could ship to and from Equestria. Wines and other fermented drinks were forbidden by Equestrian law yet there was a large market for them. The griffin nations had many fine wineries and distilleries. What the griffins didn’t have was mages. Griffins were never very powerful magically, even the most powerful could barely manage to lift a pebble, something every unicorn could do. And after the last pony- griffin war the import of magical objects from Equestria was outlawed.

Shipping the various illegal commodities between the different nations as well as across Equestria turned into an extremely lucrative business. So it was at the height Applejack’s power and wealth that Nightmare Moon returned, bringing her eternal night to the world. She had thought briefly about backing one of the various resistance movements, but decided that the potential benefits of royal favor didn’t outweigh the guaranteed benefits of using her trade network to make money selling the things people needed.

The number one thing she transported was the Mage lights. Not being magically inclined she hadn’t designed them, but once she saw what they could do she made sure to corner the market. Apple factories sprung up all over Equestria. She quickly muscled out any competition. Apple industries could sell the lights for a portion of what other manufacturers could, mostly because she was the only one with trade connections with the griffin nation, where she could charge whatever she wanted and they would have to pay.

After her cousin Braeburn came to her looking for work she quickly moved into food production and distribution as well. The town he had lived in, Appaloosa, had been burned to the ground by a local buffalo tribe shortly after the sun fell. Applejack sent him to the griffin kingdom to set up massive plantations that could produce a lot of food very cheaply. Griffins were hard workers and with the magic lamps that mimicked daylight they could produce enough food to ship here to Manehattan. The griffins didn’t see very much of the food but she wasn’t too worried about them.

“Ms. Ap-Apple? Your next appointment is here.” The intercom beeped to life, startling Applejack out of her reverie. Yes she should definitely look into finding a new secretary. The sound of fear in a pony’s voice made her feel powerful, but she needed a secretary who could get a full sentence out without stuttering. As she paged in her visitor she closed the drawer she had, had her hoof in.

“Ah AJ! What can we do for you?” Her master of shipping was one of the few ponies who was really friendly with her. He had been the captain of one of first ships she sent out. While he still often sailed, now he much preferred to stay in Equestria and manage the shipping fleet. As well as managing the fleet of ships that carried all the legitimate cargo he also oversaw the smuggler ships that transported the illegal materials. Though now there was much less need for smuggling. Nightmare Moon hardly cared if ponies drank themselves to death, but there was still a large market for the goods. Sometimes ponies just needed something to take their minds off their troubles and to make them feel warm.

“We need to increase the number of shipments. Fillydelphia and Baltimare are asking for more. Try and see if you can take some of the useless workers from the factories with you. They could serve much more use on the plantations in the griffin lands.”

“Of course Applejack. Also I’ll try and get some ponies from the slums of Fillydelphia and Baltimare to sail with us as well. Many are desperate for any kind of work, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince them.” He smiled a wicked smile then left the room.

Most meetings with those who had been with her since before Nightfall were just as brief. There was actually very little need for her to give the orders directly. But it was important to make sure that ponies knew who exactly was in charge of things here.

After her master of shipping had left she opened the drawer again. This time she removed the picture. She had taken it from the farm the last time she had been there. If her brother Big Mac had known it was in her bag when she left he probably would have broken one of her legs. It was the only remaining picture of the whole family together. Her parents and Granny Smith in the back ground. Big Macintosh carrying the new born Apple Bloom in front. Applejack smiling next to him. This was taken right before she had ran away. Big Mac had sent her letter after letter when she had left, but she never replied, it just didn’t seem too important. The last letter she still had. It was in a vault in her penthouse suite. She had been striking a deal in the griffin kingdom when it had arrived so she didn’t see it till several weeks later. In that last letter Mac said that their parents had been injured and were dying. He begged her to come and visit them one last time before they passed.

Applejack was able to arrive just in time for the funeral. Applebloom was still too young to understand what was happening, but Mac was furious that she hadn’t come back to see them. When she couldn’t make him see reason she left. She had taken the picture on the way out the door. There was a burn mark where Mac’s face had been. AJ had done that shortly after getting back to Manehattan, she had been so mad at him.

Poorly carved into the wooden frame of the picture was her father’s favorite saying. “Family is everything.” He always used to say that. She had carved that herself. Just to show how much of lie everything was. The only family members that she ever had contact with were those who worked for her. And she made sure to send them as far away from Manehattan as she could. Vanhoover, Canterlot, the griffin kingdoms. She kept the picture now as a constant reminder of what she had done to create this position of power. She had sacrificed and ignored her family. She had lied, cheated, and broken the law. Now she was one of the wealthiest mares in Equestria. And all she wanted to do was cry.

* * *

The train to Manehattan was no less uncomfortable then the one from Canterlot to Ponyville. It had taken a bit of thought to find a way to pay for this trip. The trip to Manehattan would not be as expensive since many ponies traveled to the big cities, but the trip to Ponyville had taken the last of my savings. Silver Hammer didn’t have any money set aside. As a rebel to the crown his accounts had been seized and the work in the factory barely paid enough to live on. After giving some thought to the problem I came up with the idea to create a mage light. Before I had put on the Element of Magic I would never have had the skill to manage something like that, but with my memories returned it was simple to be able to perform the spell. I decided to sell it to the Cakes. I went to them and apologized to Mr. Cake for the trouble I caused. After they had grudgingly accepted my apology I asked if they would be willing to buy a mage light off of me.

They were very suspicious at first, they seemed to think that I would try to sell them something that would burn out after only a few days. I couldn’t figure this out until they showed me the collection of crystals that were glowing dimly, barely putting out enough heat to act as a hoof warmer. I was able to enchant several of the crystals again without any real problem. Each glowed like a small sun and put out enough heat to melt snow. I made one larger one that was hot enough to cook on. This would help make the open area around the soup kitchen a little more livable. Hopefully some of the ponies of Ponyville would be able to benefit from that as well. Even if I wasn’t able to make the world right again, at least I could make it hurt a little less for some of the ponies who had to live there.

Leaving Ponyville had been both harder and in a way easier to leave then Canterlot. It was a little harder because I had wanted to leave Canterlot so badly, and was looking forward to finding Ponyville and my friends. Now that I had seen what my home was really like, and seeing what the ponies I had known had become, I was afraid of what I would find when I saw my friends again. In Equestria Proper I would be less worried about these things. My dedication to my teacher always over powered my fear and I could always rely on my friends to stand by me and help me. Here I would never be able to tell how my friends would react, or even if they were still alive until I found them.

Ponyville was a little easier to leave then Canterlot because the capital didn’t hurt me to be there. Seeing the town burned, the ponies fighting in the streets over a piece of bread, all these things tore at my very being. This was not how things should be. Leaving the library gave me the motivation I needed though. Yes the path would be hard and long, but it would be worth every ounce of suffering if we could only correct the world.

Besides me on the train Silver Hammer was again asleep. Maybe that was something soldiers learned to do, take their sleep whenever they could get it, because they didn’t know when they would get another quiet moment. We had decided to leave the chest with the Element of Magic in the Library tree. It would be much safer there then constantly dragging it around Equestria. The Element of Honesty was hidden in Silver’s saddle bags however. We both decided that it would be better to bring it, so we could return Applejack’s memories immediately, rather than having to drag her, maybe forcibly back to Ponyville.

There was a brief tense moment as we passed Canterlot on the way to Manehattan. As we passed the mountain that Canterlot sat on the night suddenly switched to day, the sun springing into the center of the sky. Most train drivers have a habit of stopping the train when this happens, lest Discord target it or the rails. If we were trapped this close to the capital in the middle of a battle with one of the most powerful magical objects in the world poorly hidden in an old saddle bag, the risk of discovery would have been much greater. However our engineer opted to race past Canterlot to try and get away from the fighting.

Silver Hammer had come awake while we were passing Canterlot and had almost summoned his mage hammer when the sun leapt into the sky. I was able to talk him down before he gave us away. Though it took everything I had not to summon my own shield, and maybe teleport away. Once we were safely past however we could both relax. Night fell again shortly thereafter. Silver was asleep again with minutes of nightfall. After my eyes adjusted to the dark again I realized that I could see the distant glow of Manehattan. I thought we were almost there, but when I asked one of the other ponies on the train, they said that you could always see the city from here.

It turned out that pony was right. We were still another couple of hours before we reached the island itself. Long before we reached Manehattan there were many small towns that clustered close to the city. Each one was shining with light. Here, unlike in Ponyville, nothing was on fire. Every town had massive clusters of mage lights. We passed a train leaving the island, on it were several cars of more lights. Each car had a guard on the roof. No doubt the one remaining source of light and heat that didn’t require the burning of library books was something that was well worth stealing. On the side of each of the cars was three bits. Now that I thought about it, the sign for the factory back in Canterlot also had three bits on it.

Eventually we actually made it onto the island itself. I stood and gawked for a second at the massive towers all around me. Canterlot was a tall city with many tall towers, in fact most were several stories taller than even the tallest here. But because it was built on a mountain it wasn’t exactly the largest city. It certainly wasn’t as full of ponies as Manehattan was.

If Silver Hammer hadn’t dragged me to the side of the platform I might have been knocked down and trampled. I wasn’t used to being around this many ponies. In Equestria Proper I had sequestered myself from others, with just my books for companionship till Celestia sent me to Ponyville. And that was a really small town, where you rarely saw someone you didn’t know at the very least on sight. Pinkie Pie could name every pony in Ponyville as well as their birthday and probably their favorite cake topping. Here in Nightmare Equestria I had lived completely by myself, only leaving my house to work and go shopping.

Silver grabbed me with his magic and began to push his way through the crowd, dragging me behind him as he used his wide shoulders to clear a path through the ponies. After a second I broke his magical hold on me and could walk by myself. I followed close behind him so that I wasn’t getting shoved in every direction.

As we made our way through the crowd a small unicorn snuck up besides Silver and tried to magically open his saddle bags. Without even glancing to see who it was Silver lifted her up with his magic and casually tossed her across the street. The rest of the street urchins and thieves knew to leave us alone after that. I was a little worried about the young unicorn, but I was much more worried about what would have happened if she stole the Element of Honesty.

Eventually we made it to Central Park. The wide open park was the perfect place to stop and have a private conversation. Manehattan was so much better lit then the other towns we had seen. Even Central Park was well lit during the day hours.

“Was it really necessary to throw that filly? She was probably poor.” I asked Silver once we got into the park.

“Of course it was. Send a clear message from the offset and ponies will know exactly what your intentions are. My message and intentions are that I will not be messed with. And I think I found who we’re looking for.”

“Well that doesn’t … wait what? How?” My surprise at this statement completely shut down the argument I had for him.

He simply nodded to something over my shoulder then walked past me. I turned and staring down at me from a billboard just outside of the park was a pony who could only be this world’s Applejack. She had the same orange fur and blonde mane. This world’s AJ had her hair curled into fancy ringlets that fell down her back. She also had makeup covering her freckles. Her body was also a little smaller. She was clearly still muscular, but rather than the body of a weight lifter that came from farm work, she had a more lean body, like that of a sprinter. The most telling thing however was her green eyes. There was no mistaking those eyes.

It was a little surprising to see that Applejack wearing a dress and with mane styled in anything but a ponytail. But if I remembered her story of how she got her cutie mark correctly she had wanted to be a suave and sophisticated pony, so I guess she got that wish. She certainly looked successful, but there was something subtly different about her. Something that was off, other than the obvious physical differences. Silver Hammer was glaring up at the billboard.

“If she is your friend you had better get a lot more money before she’ll help us.” He said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“When Nightmare Moon first took over, some of the Loyalists and I, tried to enlist her help in bringing Celestia back. With her influence and money we could’ve stood a chance. She said that working for the Night Queen was much more profitable then assisting a bunch of rebel misfits. So we were cut down like wheat.” He grimaced and looked at his hoof, where one of the worst scars had been.

I gasped. It couldn’t true. That wasn’t the Applejack I knew. Then again the me I knew never cried herself to sleep. Maybe the change in the world had changed how she was as a pony. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, I knew I had to. I just hoped that when she was reunited with the Element of Honesty that she would remember who she was supposed to be.

When I voiced this to Silver he just grunted. “I can get us into the building.” He said. “Her appointment list is made weeks in advanced, so we won’t be able to get close to her by legal means. Last time when we tried to talk to her we were able to sneak into her office. She was impressed by our audacity so let us talk. Perhaps she will still be give us another audience if we do it again.”

I nodded. Together we set off towards one of the largest buildings in the city. On the side was printed the same bits as on the train cars. In fact they were all over the city. I saw them on food bins, mage lights, even on cars and quite a few on the ships in the harbor.

“Why is everything covered in those bits?” I asked Silver.

“That is her cutie mark.” He said, giving me a look.

“What? In Equestria Proper she had three apples as a cutie mark.”

He shrugged then we continued to the skyscraper. Once we got close I started to make my way to the entrance, but Silver Hammer quickly tugged me into a nearby alley.

“There is too much security on the main entrance. We have to go in another way.”

Then he pointed at the grate of an air vent, several feet up the wall of the building. Using his magic he unlatched the grate. Then he started looking around.

“This was a lot easier last time we had a strong Pegasus with us and she was able to fly up the shaft and lower a rope down.”

I tried my best not to roll my eyes at him as he continued to look around for some way to climb up into the vent. Instead I picked him up with my magic and levitated the two of us up into the vent. Once we both inside, I resealed the vent behind us. Just in time too, for several of the pony guards had walked around the corner at that instant. We could see them looking around the alleyway for several minutes before shrugging and returning to their posts. When they turned the corner Silver waited another couple of seconds for them to get further away before turning his attention to the vent we were in.

“So which way do we have to go?” I asked, looking down the various paths that branched off the one were currently sitting in. The metal vents were so tight we could barely fit. I was crouched down with my knees almost up to my chin. Silver was crammed into a really terrible position with his back hooves almost on a level with his face.

“Up,” he said, then nodded in that direction. I looked up the vent and blanched. We would have to climb quite a ways. Of course if Applejack owned the company then she would probably have an office on the top floor. Silver Hammer was trying to cram himself into the shaft that went to the up.

“Maybe if we can create enough friction with the sides we could climb.” This time I did roll my eyes. Concentrating I channeled my magic into both of our bodies. A sense of wrongness made the world seem to spin, then suddenly we both fell against the walls of the vent. Silver landed in a tangled heap, while I landed neatly on my hooves.

“For someone who is as magically powerful as you are, you sure do love doing things the hard way. I would have thought that now that you could do magic easily again you would be taking every chance to whip out some new spell.”

“Ooof, what is this? Some kind of stick to walls spell?”

“No. It is simply a more focused gravity reversal spell. The simpler version would just have us falling up rather than down, which seeing how far we have to go wouldn’t really be helpful. So I just adjusted the spell so now we fall towards the wall. Now we just have to crawl along the vent.”

Silver Hammer gave me a weird look over his shoulder as he struggled to right himself, then began to crawl forward. “Oh is it as simple as all that. Well excuse me for not thinking to tamper with one of the fundamental forces of the universe. You could have at least given me some warning.”

I ignored him and continued crawling. Despite being a much better method of getting to the top of the tower then climbing and hoping not to slide all the way down the vent, the going still wasn’t easy. Because of the wall I had chosen to focus my magic on it made the vent very short. The tip of my horn kept catching on various parts of the vent, and it was even worse for Silver. There was only so short he could make himself. While moving my head to avoid catching my horn was annoying, the experience was much more painful for Silver. Even when he didn’t catch his horn, he would also scrape his back on what was now the ceiling.

After a while of climbing we came to an off shoot that lead away from the vent we were currently in. With the gravity switched the new branch was above our heads.

“This is the one we need. See we put a little scratch here just in case. Let me get settled in there before you change the gravity back.”

“Alright. Once you are ready hold on to me with your magic. Then when the gravity drops lift me into the vent.”

He nodded then after a minute of shuffling around he ended up several feet above my head braced inside the new vent. After he was ready I felt his magic wrap around my body. I double checked that he had me, then concentrated on undoing the magic I had cast earlier. If I had cast a stick to walls spell like Silver Hammer thought I had then the magic would have drained from me constantly, but to undo it all I had to was cut the flow of power. Changing our personal gravity was a different type of spell entirely. I completely changed the way we felt gravity, so to undo it I had to cast the spell again and change gravity back to its proper direction. It was for this reason that I hadn’t changed direction again once I realized how short the vent was. Every time I recast the spell it would drain more of my energy, and I don’t know how much magic I will have to use here.

With gravity suddenly returning to its proper direction I felt a moment of vertigo before I could tell which way I wanted to be going. It was clear that Silver felt the same thing I had, because I momentarily slipped from the grasp of his magic. However he grabbed me again before I had moved more than an inch. Quickly we resettled inside the new vent. Silver Hammer was still in the lead, but now could actually crawl through the vent without scraping all the fur off his back.

As we continued through the vent we passed one of the grates that allows air to flow into the building. Silver passed the grate without more than glance, but I had to stop to look into the office below me. Down there was a young unicorn stallion with quills as his cutie mark. He was restlessly pacing, all the while talking quietly to himself.

“I can’t believe she would fire all those ponies! All Applejack cares about is money! If ponies don’t have jobs then they can’t pay for their heating bills, or their rent. It is the middle of winter! They could freeze to death out there. With Nightmare Moon on the throne and war being waged on the borders, now is not the time to be solely focused on making a profit. But I can’t speak up about it. If I do I will get fired too, and I need to take of my younger brother and sister.”

Somewhere in another room somepony called for the unicorn and he quickly ran from the room. Silver Hammer had stopped when he realized that I wasn’t following him. I looked up at him with a stricken look on my face. It was so hard to hear such hard things about one of my best friends. Silver just looked at me for a second then continued on. There wasn’t really anything that could be said at that point. Either what they were saying was lies and Applejack was like I remember her, or she wasn’t but hopefully the Element would bring her back. I didn’t even want to think of any other possibilities.

Ahead of me Silver Hammer had come to a stop. He was looking down another grate. When I leaned past him I could see a secretary pony working diligently at her desk. He leaned back as best he could and whispered into my ear.

“We have to wait till she leaves, then move fast. The big door is the main office. If anyone sees us they might call security. If we get caught they will hand us over to the Royal Guards.”

I nodded, then he returned to watching the secretary. After several minutes of waiting, just when I thought my legs were going to start to cramp she got up and walked down the hall. Silver waited for another second before opening the grate and jumping down to the floor. I levitated myself out of the vent right after him. Looking around we quickly made our way into Applejack’s office.

She looked up with a scowl as we burst into her office. The scowl only deepened when she saw Silver’s face. Quickly she moved an old picture frame off her desk into a drawer. I couldn’t have been happier to see her, no matter how angry she looked.

“Last time you broke into my office I awarded your audacity with an audience. Audacity is rarely rewarded twice. What is stopping me from calling for my personal security this second?”

I was surprised by the cold tone in her voice. Silver Hammer had to nudge me forward before I remembered what I was here for.

“Applejack do you remember me?”

She walked around her desk till she was standing only feet away. Her cold eyes traveled up and down my body, as she took in every detail. Suddenly I was aware of how dirty and sweaty I was from our adventure with the ventilation shaft. Also my eyes were red rimmed and my mane was a mess from the lack of sleep and ability to maintain my basic hygiene. I was also acutely aware of how well Applejack was dressed. She was wearing an impeccable business dress and not a hair was out of place in her perfectly curled mane.

Looking at her this close made me realize what was different about her earlier. She wasn’t smiling. In Equestria Proper she was always such a happy pony with such a warming smile. She even had small smile lines around her eyes, despite her age. Here she looked like she hadn’t smiled in years. Seeing her like this broke my heart. Slowly she stepped away from me.

“No I don’t recognize you. I do however recognize your friend here. Both from the last time he was here to beg for my help and from the videos of his public punishment for rebellion.” Silver Hammer stiffened, but Applejack continued. “It must have been a powerful bit of magic to be able to regrow your horn after that. I am sure the Nightmare Queen would be fascinated to find how that happened. I think I will call for security after all.”

“But AJ, I-”

“Don’t speak to me like you know me! Nopony calls me AJ without my permission!”

“Please…you have to listen to me.”

The sudden desperation in my voice stopped her in her tracks. She had been moving around her desk to call for security, but now she stopped and looked at me.

“Why? Why do I have to listen to you?”

“Because…” suddenly a plan jumped into place in my mind. Since she was not the Applejack that I knew then I would have to convince the Applejack that was here, in the only means she understood. “Because we would like to make a business deal with you.”

Silver Hammer gave me a look as AJ slowly returned to her seat. She didn’t call security, now she was all business. “What could you possibly have to offer me?”

“We understand now that you can’t risk backing us directly in case we were to fail again, but perhaps you could provide financial backing indirectly, through the purchase of certain products.”

Silver Hammer gave me another questioning look before wiping all emotion from his face. He would have to pick up what I was doing on the fly. Applejack just raised an eyebrow at me. I took that as a sign to continue. Working quickly I pull the Element of Honesty out of Silver’s saddle bags.

“I believe that you have somewhat cornered the market on the mage lights that warm and light our cities, so allow me to offer you another market for you to corner.” I quickly brandish the Element. “This simple necklace when worn by a pony makes them feel as if they were out on a warm summer day. Not only that but it also has a built in light to bring back that feeling of the days of Princess Celestia!” I felt bad for lying to get Applejack on my side, but there was no other choice. I felt even worse because I was practically chocking on the irony of lying to get the bearer of the Element of Honesty to accept her Element. What’s next beating up Fluttershy to make her take the Element of Kindness?

“I have a hard time believe such an item exists. Or that you rebels were capable of creating it. If you had that kind of magical talent at your disposal then you would have used it against Nightmare Moon.”

“Not every ponies special talent involves casting fireballs,” Silver chimed in. I was relieved that he had caught on to what I was trying to do, I just hoped that he wouldn’t spoil it. “Some of our strongest mages had abilities completely unrelated to fighting, so we left them out of the first wave of attacks. But they still wanted to be able to help the effort so they set about designing these!”

“Interesting.” I could tell Applejack was more than interested. She was very interested. An item such as this would be worth its weight in diamonds in this world. There was a rabid hunger in her eyes as she imagined the possibilities. “I don’t quite like the design to much though.”

“Well the apples are only to make country ponies feel better, the crystal can be made with any design.” On a sudden inspiration I hold up my hoof with the Omnicanicron on it. “See I have one designed to blend in with my coat when I want it to.”

At this point Applejack was up on her hooves again. She quickly walked around the table to stand next to me. She grabbed a hold of the Omnicanicron and turned it this way and that.

“Why isn’t it lit up?”

“Well of course it wouldn’t be very good to have it constantly lit up, even when inside! I shut the light off once we got indoors.”

“Let me see it light up, and we will talk.”

I glanced for a second at Silver Hammer. I hadn’t gotten a chance to finish reading the guide that came with the Omnicanicron. We had left it in Ponyville and the train there had been too difficult to read on. In Ponyville itself we had done too much running around, then had left as soon as we had the Element. But it had to light up. Celestia had packed so much magic into it. Everything we had was riding on this lighting up.

Gingerly, as if it might explode at any minute I lifted my hoof again and focused on the OC. I didn’t know if there was anything specific I had to do to make it do what I wanted. While I focused on it I couldn’t help but think of Celestia. How caring she was, and how much she had taught me during my life. Thinking about her made me think of her beautiful days, with the warm sun and cool breeze.

Suddenly, as much to my surprise as anyone else the OC came to life and narrow beam of light shone out of it. I was completely shocked and it was clear the Silver Hammer was as well. Applejack didn’t notice however, because she was more focused on the light itself. She delicately placed a hoof into the beam of light. I could tell even from where I was standing that it was actually as warm the sunny day I had claimed it was.

With relief I lowered my hoof and the light faded away. Applejack spent another couple of minutes looking at her hoof. Silver was the first to break the silence.

“Would you like to try on one of your own?” He said offering her the Element. Delicately she took the Element in her hooves and the placed it around her neck. Immediately she collapsed and the lights in the room flickered and dimmed.

While the Element pulsed with a bright light I could see that Applejack’s eyes were flicking back and forth as if she was watching a film play at high speed. Her whole body was surrounded by an orange glow. Suddenly her cutie mark changed in a brilliant flash of light. Where it had been several bits before now it was once again three apples. Slowly the glow of the Element faded as did the aura that had surrounded her. Cautiously I walked up to her. Despite the change in her cutie mark I still wasn’t sure that it had actually worked.

“Uh, Applejack?”

She turned slowly, “Twilight what happened? What…”

I quickly hugged her. If she was going through anything like what I had gone through then she needed a hug. As she returned my hug I could feel her tears rolling down as she quietly sobbed into my shoulder.

“It will be alright Applejack. We are together again. It will be alright.”

Author's Note

I had hoped to be able to post a new chapter every two weeks. Clearly that has not been the case. That kind of tight schedule is just not possible with school and everything else I have to deal with. I will try my best to post as often as possible, but I will make no promises.