Chapter Text
Prolog
Princess Celestia does not want to raise the sun.
She does not want to be the first to shine a light on the battlefield.
To know who is lost.
She does not want to obey her birthright.
She longs for a day that is not this one.
Her light does not bring hope.
Her light brings pain.
For the first time, she thinks she understands why Luna resented her.
No one wants her day to return.
Not even her.
“We’re friends!”
Applejack knows that voice. She knows this person. She can’t place her. Can’t place a name. Did they meet before the war? Is she a distant relative? If the long black hair with purple and pink streaks is anything to go by, no. Nor the dark skin. Her family is as white as it gets. But she knows her.
“Where are Rarity? Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie?” The girl sounds desperate, clenching her fists as the green haired boy beside her grips the straps of his backpack.
“The only name I recognize in that jumble is Rarity.” Applejack stares at her before dropping the barrel of apple products into the wagon. “But she left years ago to sew uniforms for the war.”
The girl stares at her. “The war?”
“What rock have you been living under?” She doesn’t mean for it to come out rude, but it does anyway. Whatever. She hasn’t been nice to strangers since the war started. It doesn't get far now, anyway.
“It… We were friends.” Purple hair repeats again. She seems hung up on that.
“Look, I don’t know what in tarnation you’re talking about, but we aren’t friends here. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to work.”
“Applejack, please, let me show you something.”
Applejack is dragged against her will to a hill outside Ponyville, where a table and six thrones that look like they’re made out of straight crystal sit. She almost turns to ask Rarity what kind before remembering that Rarity isn’t here. She can’t do that anymore. And besides, Rarity would question why she was saying something so friendly, anyway.
“I'll admit, I haven't seen this before.”
“There's supposed to be a castle.” The twelve year old says. Cause yeah. There was just a. Magic castle. Kay.
Is this a hallucination? She would know if this was a hallucination, wouldn’t she? Big Mac would tell her. She's beginning to think sixteen hour work days are getting to her.
Purple hair and green hair stare at her like this should be some kind of revelatory moment that will make her believe everything they say without question.
Applejack blinks once.
Twice.
“I don’t know what kind of drugs the two of you are on but--”
Purple hair visibly folds, and her expression falls as she sinks down onto one of the thrones. She had no idea what to do in response to that. Should she say sorry? Was she hallucinating too?
“Look, I can prove it.” Purple hair says, holding her with her stare.
Apple Jack raises an eyebrow, as the kid hands the princess a scroll.
Purple hair’s hands light up and the scroll starts floating, as the ground starts shaking. Applejack grabs onto one of the thrones, and swears loudly. Wind picks up, white light circles around the table, and a sort of dome lights up around it. It’s white, and it looks like there are transparent clocks around it. Inside the dome she can see a brighter sky, clouds, and what she swears for a second is pegasi children on clouds, the only one she really has time to look at has rainbow hair before cracks spread up the dome and it shatters, dissolving like snow when it hits the table.
“What the HELL?!” Applejack demands, jerking away so quickly she falls back on her ass.
“Wait, no no no no! That was supposed to work! Shit!” Twilight cries out, trying it again. The same thing happens. The dome lights up, it almost does something, and then shatters. She does it three more times before slamming her fist on the table, and collapsing into the throne again, her face buried in her hands. “SHIT!”
She sounds like she’s about to have a breakdown of epic proportions.
And Applejack--
She just really doesn’t give a shit right now, and she feels terrible.
Spike makes a few garbled noises, going to the princess, and grabbing her arm. “What does this mean? Does this mean we’re stuck here? You’re going to figure this out, right? Twilight?”
Twilight, apparently, pulls her head from her hands, and holds him close. “I don’t know Spike. That was supposed to work. Starlight must have messed with it.”
Spike is freaking out.
So is Twilight.
Apple Jack should be nice.
But she doesn’t know this woman. She could be a spy for Sombra for all she knows. Most of the cities past Canterlot are safe for now because of the armies keeping them landlocked but she’s heard rumors they’re moving south.
But this table wasn’t here yesterday. Who would go to all the effort to build a crystal table and a set of six chairs with cutie marks carved into them, one of them like their own for it to be a lie? And she saw the spell. She doesn’t know much about magic, but the unicorns she knows can’t create a portal through time. Rarity used to struggle to carry anything heavier than a few large rocks.
Twilight’s wings look slightly singed in the sunlight. Applejack stares from the throne Twilight slumped into to the back of her wrist where a bright purple and black star cutimark is.
The longer she stares the more she becomes aware that this is not going to resolve itself on its own hallucination or not. They need help. In Celestia’s name why? WHY her?
Big Macintosh is not going to be happy with her. But to be fair, he’s never happy.
Apple Jack sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Do y'all need somewhere to stay until you get this figured out?”
Twilight looks up at her. “Yes, but we couldn’t possibly--”
“Great. Get up. We’re goin’ back to the farm, I have a shift to finish, and Big Mac will be upset if I don’t turn up before supper.” She says, and turns around, leaving no room for argument, and starting to walk away. After a few seconds she hears Twilight and Spike follow.
#
“Just stay here until my work day is over.”
“When will that be? We can help-”
“No.” Apple Jack says it sharper than she means to and Twilight folds like a kicked dog. “Just stay here, no funny business, ya hear?”
The princess and the dragon stare at her kitchen like they’ve never seen one before. Twilight asks for paper for some reason, and Applejack points to some scraps, then wordlessly leaves to go back to the barn.
She finishes rolling the last barrels into the wagon and then trudges into the barn turned factory, pulling up her mask.
Big Mac isn’t in the barn from her glance around, and she’s about to go outside to find him because she needs to explain before someone finds Twilight in the kitchen when she sees Apple Bloom near one of the machines. Alarm bells go off in her head about the last time Apple Bloom was left unsupervised near one of the machines even though it was off. She nearly lost her hand and Applejack nearly lost her head in panic. She goes over to her, spotting a grease covered rag in her hands. The machine is off, and a door to the inside of one of the conveyor belt machines is open.
“You avoiding the knives this time? Giving yourself plenty of space?” Applejack shouts over the din of the remaining machines. The one that’s slamming lids onto cans of apple products is going to give her a migraine.
Apple Bloom jumps, jerking to look at her. There are shadows under her eyes. Her little sister looks tired, and she’s half tempted to tell her her shift is over two hours early. They only let her work for four hours the days she isn’t in school.
“Yup! Learned my lesson from last time, don’t worry!”
Applejack continues to worry.
She sometimes forgets that Apple Bloom isn’t a five anymore. She’s thirteen, and way too young to be around this many machines.
Apple Bloom’s gloves are covered in oil grease and there are streaks of it on her forehead. There are other members of the apple family here, the ones who don’t have their own farms and liese themselves out to the larger farms in Equestria. She can’t remember their names. She feels guilty about that, but she can barely remember her own most days. She just knows that she’s going to chew out whoever let her baby sister near the machines again.
“I think I fixed it!” Apple Bloom says cheerfully, turning on the machine again and gesturing to a slightly better working set of gears. They’re still scratching, but the sound isn’t as grating. The conveyor belt is less jerky. “Think I’ll get my cutie mark in engineering?”
Applejack manages a smile through the haze of exhaustion and panic. There’s a princess in their kitchen. There’s a crystal table in the fields. Princess in her kitche- “Ya just might if you keep yer hands out of the sharp bits.”
Her sister grins, setting down the soaked rag. “That oughta speed things up a bit.”
“Go on now, help Evercrisp pick apples.”
Apple Bloom groans, wiping her arm across her forehead streaking it with oil again. Her hair net is starting to fall off, revealing just how much of her red hair is frizzing underneath it. “Do I have to?”
“At the very least wash up at the pump. You look like an oil slick.” She makes a face and Applejack lightly slaps her shoulder before turning away. “I need to talk to Big Mac, any chance you know where he is?”
“I think he went to check on Golden Delicious in the west fields.”
“If you find him before I do tell him I’m lookin for him.”
She gives her a thumbs up, and then leaves the barn. AppleJack goes to check with another apple cousin who says he saw him carting apples to the washing part of the assembly line. She resolves to check both and leaves the barn, glancing at the house. She can’t see anyone in there, but she hopes the princess is still there. She has a lot of questions, thinking about what Twilight said to her.
Friends.
She’s never met her before, but she knows her. She knows this princess. Feels like she should know much much more about her than she does. Seeing her here makes Apple Jack feel out of place somehow. Makes the war feel fake, even though Rarity has been gone for a year.
She shakes herself out of her daze and goes to find her brother. She’ll have to show him or he’s not going to believe her.
This princess could turn the tide in this war if she helped them. It could be the end of this mess.
She can’t find Big Mac, so she goes back to the farmhouse instead. She should have dragged Twilight with her so she could keep an eye on her. What if she is a spy for King Sombra? The records for how much food they’re making is in the house, any spy would love to have that. Was she trying to steal food? Her heart is pounding in her ears by the time she stumbles into the farmhouse kitchen.
The princess is not there. Shit.
The papers are.
She looks over them, and stares. The princess’s handwriting is clean, albeit slanted. Starlight Glimmer is mentioned a lot, whoever that is. There’s a note.
Apple Jack,
We left to see if we could make the spell work
If it doesn’t we’ll return back here.
If it does, consider this our farewell.
We hope to see you again after we’ve set things right.
We’re going to fix this.
Twilight Sparkle and Spike
Her heart is in her throat.
She can’t let Twilight leave. She has to help them. She has to. Applejack bursts out of the farm house and runs to the outskirts of the farm, body already aching as she tries to remember where the table was.
She finds it close to twenty minutes later, breathing hard. Twilight and Spike are here again. The princess is crying, body curled tightly in one of the thrones. She’s hit with a sudden sense of deja vu. She’s seen this before. She was here before.
“...I don’t know what to do! What if this is irreparable? What if this is Equestria forever? What if I never get to see my friends again? They don’t even know who I am!”
Spike is rubbing her back. He’s pale, his green hair messy. Twilight’s warm brown skin looks washed out, her dress is covered in dirt. “We could go to Canterlot? See if Celestia lets us look at the time scrolls?”
Twilight's shoulders unslump for a second as she considers it and then her face falls. “Celestia doesn’t know who I am, Spike. Rainbow Dash is the reason I have my cutie mark. We got them together. Without the rainboom I was never her student.” She sniffs, wiping her eyes, then blinking hard when she finally notices Applejack. “AJ! What are you doing here?”
Applejack nearly steps away at the nickname. So fimilar but so foren.
She’s seen a breakdown like this before. She knew how to deal with it. She wants to console the princess, but all that comes out of her mouth is, “What did you do to me?”
The alicorn stares at her. “I don’t understand-- what are you talking about?”
“I know you. But I’ve never met you. What did you do to me? Did you make me forget? Are you a spy for King Sombra? Are you trying to ruin my farm by getting in my head? What did you DO?”
“I didn’t do anything. AJ I swear I would never hurt you like that. I’m not a spy. King Sombra hates me because we killed him and stopped him from taking over the Crystal Empire years ago. He’s dead. He’s supposed to be! We got the crystal heart from the tower we killed him Cadence and Shining Armor--”
“Slow down.” Applejack interrupts. “Who do you mean by we? And you stopped him?”
“You, Me, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. It was a test for me. We solved this when Spike put the Crystal Heart back. I don’t-- I’m sorry!”
She starts sobbing, head falling into her hands, body wracked with the force of them.
Applejack stares at her. She doesn’t know what to do. Does she hold her until she calms down like she does with Apple Bloom? Poke her leg until she stops crying like she does with Big Mac? She settles with sitting on the bare table in front of the alicorn.
She has no idea if this is proper protocol for how you treat a princess. She’s never met one before. She’s not sure she cares enough to correct her behavior if it’s not correct.
“You could do it again. Stop King Sombra.”
Twilight lifts her head, looking at her like she just suggested they go kill Princess Celestia.
“You did it before, you could do it again, right?”
“If Sombra has already taken over the castle there’s no way I could sneak into the palace to get the Crystal Heart. Especially if Cadence isn’t there.” Twilight sighs, hugging her knees, purple wings curled around her legs. “If we were never friends that means the Elements of Harmony were never found either but Luna must have been stopped because the day night cycle still exists here.”
The Elements of Harmony.
The kid’s story?
Applejack decides she doesn’t want to ask.
“The world isn’t supposed to be like this. I have to fix this.” Twilight hiccups, grabbing Spikes hand.
Applejack can’t decide if the boy is her son, brother or something else. It doesn’t seem like they know either, but they’re very comfortable with whatever it is they are.
“If time travel doesn’t work, AJ has a point, we could do what we can to help while figuring out the spell.” Spike says carefully, and Twilight stares into the woods miserably.
“What if this is irreversible?”
“Then you’ll figure it out. You always do.”
The princess is quiet for a long time, before she looks at Applejack. “Would you help me? Stop King Sombra?”
She tenses, fists clenching, fingernails pressing into calluses on the insides of her hands. “I can’t leave my farm.” She says immediately. “Or my siblings. They need me.”
“I can’t do this without you, Applejack.” Twilight says, voice quiet. “I need you. It’s the only way the elements will work if we have to resort to that option.”
Applejack pulls away, breath catching in her throat. She can’t leave her farm, but if the war was over they wouldn’t have to work so hard, and Celestia knows she’s tired.
Her shoulders slump. “Sugarcube, I can’t do magic. I would be of no help to you. You need magic to fight King Sombra.”
“Maybe, but you know this world better than I do. I don’t belong here, Applejack. but I want to fix this. I can help end the war.”
Big Mac could man the farm. He could manage it. They’ve co run it since Granny died. He’d take care of Apple Bloom.
Applejack sighs. “Fine, but the second this starts going horribly south I’m done, deal?”
“Deal.” Twilight lifts her head, and sets her shoulders determined, even though her hands are shaking, and they shake hands. “Then we are going to find our friends and we’re going to stop King Sombra.”
Applejack does not add, or pass out from overworking and realize this was all a hallucination.