A/N: Just for future reference throughout this whole story, Canterlot Castle is built into the base of the mountain instead of high up as depicted in the MLP: Friendship is Magic t.v. series.
-Sweetie Apple-
Being the daughter of just an Apple Farmer always bothered me. I didn't think twice about how forcefully I'd be thrusted into adulthood or motherhood. I wanted to leave the farm behind and at the age of eighteen, I did. I packed my things and I woke up the next morning to the smell of Apple Cakes cooking. I sat up and swung my legs over the bed and pressed my feet against the floor. I then looked into the body mirror and into the eyes of my reflection. Piercing green eyes; blinding yellow hair; muscles defined as hell; oh, and breasts that were too big for my own good I think.
"Sweetie!" my mom, Apple Smith called to me, "Breakfast time!"
"Coming mom!" I called back. I gave myself one last look in the mirror before heading downstairs. I followed the scent of cinnamon apples all the way into the kitchen. There was my mom, my loving mom, setting the table. She held a false smile as she looked at me. She didn't want me to go, but she understood why and I thank her for that. Her hair was all white and she looked exactly like me. For those who didn't know us would confuse us as twins. Her and I stood at five foot eleven inches and had breasts that any woman would envy just because they were all natural. Her green eyes made emeralds jealous when her eyes were open.
"Mom, you didn't have to do this ya know?" I told her.
"Yes I did. You are not going on an eighteen hour train ride and be hungry," she stifled her sadness and anger. Her and I always had a temper and I hope that if I ever had kids, they wouldn't be so angry.
"Sorry mom," I shrank back a little, "Didn't mean to get you so upset."
"It's just that my little girl is leaving. You're all grown up now," she began tearing up as she moved toward the counters. She opened the door in front of her legs and pulled out her cowgirl hat. It was all black and I knew that it was very rare. She had it given to her by an elf because of something secretive she had done in her past. So it had a lot of meaning to her, "I want you to have this Sweetie."
"No mom," I stood up, "I can't."
"Yes you can!" she stomped a foot, "And you will! It will bring you luck."
Who knew that she was right for a change. She walked around the table and handed me the hat. Before I could say thank you there was a knock on the kitchen door that led to the outside world, "It's me, Blaze!" as always, he comes in anyway. His gold eyes sparkled brightly along with beads of sweat dripping from his rainbow hair, "The train will be here in thirty Sweets. We gotta hurry!"
"Uh, okay," I set the hat on the table and ran upstairs. I quickly changed into shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I didn't bother with shoes because I hated wearing them. So I grabbed my duffle bag full of clothes and ran back downstairs, "I'll call you first thing when I get there mom," I grabbed the hat and kissed her on the cheek.
"You do that hun," she smiled sadly before walking me out.
I ran with Blaze until we ran to the train station. When we got there, the train was pulling up. At the station were all the other candidates awaiting their future. I pulled out my ticket from my duffle bag and showed the Engineer before getting on. Blaze sat next to his girlfriend so I just went to an empty seat next to a kid with blue hair. He was busy tinkering with a mechanism, "Is anyone sitting here?" I asked him.
He looked up at me through his huge glasses, "No," his voice was nasally and squeaky, "You can sit here," he set down his mechanism as he kept a happy eye on me, "My name is Thunder Blu," he gave me his hand, "But you can call me just Blu."
He was sweet and was the first guy to greet me as a person and not a piece of meat. So I shook his hand and responded by saying, "I'm Sweetie Apple. But you can call me Apple."
"Hey Apple," he blushed along with me, "I'm going for Advanced Robotics, BioChem, Weapons Engineering, and Combat, what about you?"
"Combat and BioChem too and also International Affairs along with robotics."
"Ah, so we'll have most of our classes together," he sat back into his seat, "Maybe we can study together. I feel as though we will be the best in our class. Especially with you probably being second after me of course."
I laughed at him as I shoved my bag under the seat, "We shall see Blu. We shall see."
The train ride there was much more fun than I thought. Blu and I talked mostly about the biology of all the animals in the world. What I liked most about him is that he never flirted with me or made a pass at me for those almost eighteen hours. He kept the conversations only on an intellectual basis.
The train pulled up into the station behind Canterlot Castle and through the window I saw Princess Celeatia and no one else. All of us grabbed our things and filed out onto the platform. Blu, Blaze, and I stood in the back since we were all so tall.
"Welcome all candidates!" Princess Celestia spoke loudly for everyone to hear, "For those of you that don't know, I am Princess Celestia. You were all hand picked by me because you are the best of the best from all around Equestria. There are exactly four hundred and eighty-five of you, but I'm only looking for ten of you to move on and be inducted into the Canterlot Government. The next seven year program will test everything about you; your emotionaly stability will be tested; your mental endurance will be tested, along with your intellectual capacity; lastly and more importantly, you body will be tested," she looked directly at me, "Sweetie Apple," everyone looked at me and I just froze, "I expect great things from you," I just dipped my chin in response.
An old man walked up next to Celestia and looked out at the crowd, "Listen here all you wanna bes, let me tell something to ya. You are nobodies and I don't care who your parents are or how rich you are. In my eyes, you're all just untrained pups that need to be broken. I will oversee your training for the next seven years and I am not as lenient as Celestia. Of which by the way, she isn't at all," he chuckled evilly, "Now dont stand there lookin' pretty, get your asses in the castle. Come On, Move It!" we all rushed the double doors.
The inside of the castle was mostly white marble and it was just amazing to look at. I was in such a trance that I didn't take notice to the crowd moving away from me. The chandeliers are what were really keeping my eyes locked on. I snapped out of it when someone grabbed my hand. I snapped my eyes to the right expecting to see Blu or Blaze, but I didn't. I looked down and about three feet down was a dark skinned girl with big blue eyes, "Hi!" she smiled at me, "I'm Lunar Rota, the class is moving now," she pulled me along and I followed. Something about her seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn't get my finger on it.
Eventually, we made it to the Candidate Hall doors. There were two doors facing each other and the old man pushed his way in front, "We shall split y'all up in two rooms. One is for you men and the other will be for the ladies. There will be Board Leaders for each of ye. Men are on the left and ladies on the right. Get in there," he hobbled off and I just went straight in with Lunar Rota. I looked back and saw Blu looking at me as he was being forced in by the other male Candidates. I went inside and all I saw were cots aligned against the right side of the wall and extending forward. There were about a hundred lining the wall and three cots extending toward the middle of the room.
On the other side of the room were rectangular windows with a long silver metal tray extending from one side of the wall to the other. In front of that wall were small tables that could sit four people. Coming from a door opposite of us was a woman dressed in all black armour. Her face remained grim and dark and her presence intimidated me a little. Her hair wasn't present and she walked up to us and spoke softly, like a mother, "Candidates," she started, "You all have been chosen because Celestia has deemed you worthy off taking on the Candidate Program. My plan is to make sure that you are all stronger when you are done here. I will be overseeing your classes and training. When you are here at the dorms, there is a curfew and that is at nine p.m. every night. Later on in the program, at year five, the ones left will have the ability to choose a job to work and then you will be able to move out of the dorms. I will not give you my name because I feel as though you have to earn it," she looked at me and walked up to me. The top of her head hit my shoulders, "Your grandmother was Hiri Apple am I right?"
"Yes she was," I responded.
"She was a good woman. She's saved my ass countless times in the field and all she asked was that I said thank you. Your mother was a good soldier in her time."
"She was not a soldier," I stated firmly.
"Yeah, she was," her face hardened even more, "The fact that she didn't tell you speaks to the fact that she truly is done with that life. But you're here, which means that you will probably follow in her footsteps. Which wouldn't surprise me since Apples are a strong bunch of people to begin with. I expect the very best from you."
"That's what I've heard," I dropped my bag to cross my arms.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"I came here to be able to build up my own reputation instead of riding the coat tails of my ancestors."
"Then you had better impress me young one," she scanned me up and down, "And you might wanna watch that temper of yours. It could be-!"
"Yes! It Could Be Genetic!" I yelled, "Don't Tell Me Something I Already Fucking Know!" when I said that, the earth seemed to shake and I knew that I was the cause of it. So I calmed myself down and the rumbling stopped.
She scanned me again and said, "I now see what Celestia sees in you," she said before slowly turning around, "Choose your cot!" she spoke as she head toward the door, "Place your bags on them and go explore the castle. Be back by nine and I'll fill you in on other things."
All the other students looked at me funny as they passed and as I picked my bag back up. Lunar Rota tugged on my sleeve, "You wanna bunk next to me?" she asked.
"Uh, sure," I shrugged. I followed her to the corner and set my bag down. I looked at the cot and right when I did, a voice called to me. I turned around and saw the woman from before along with two other women holding a larger cot, "Yeah boss?" I walked up to her.
"Celestia requested that I switched out whatever cot you chose with this one," she pointed to the larger one before looking behind me, "Ladies. Switch out the cot with the black duffle bag in it."
"Why?" I asked her.
"You are taller than an average Equestrian Sweetie Apple and judging by the medical I have right here, you're still gonna gain another foot of height before your training is up."
"I don't think that I'll get any taller."
She scoffed, "Yeah, okay," she began to chuckle, "Apples are a tall race of people that actually date back almost a millennia. I don't know what it is with Apples, but I surely think that in the next century something will happen. It's gonna be bad, but it will get better eventually. That's what I think anyway," she shrugged.
"I still fail to see how I'm so fucking important," I crossed my arms again.
She just smirked, "Go and explore the castle a little bit," she then took her badge off her breast plate and handed it to me, "Take this with you and ask around for directions to the training grounds. Take Lunar Rota with you."
"Who is she?" I asked then I turned around and saw Lunar Rota rifling through her dark purple duffle bag.
"She is the descendant of the former Princess Luna," I gasped, "But don't take your rage out on her though. She and her parents are trying to live down what Luna has done. Her and her parents need a friend now more than ever. If you out of all people can show the world how to forgive the Luna clan for their heinous crimes, then the people will follow. Lunars and Apples I know have been the bitterest of enemies for centuries, but you two could change all of that. An Apple and a Lunar being seen as friends could radically change the course of the future. Don't allow your hatred for Luna affect your future."
"But I don't know about being friends with her kind. They've done my family wrong for so long."
"Don't blame her and her immediate family for ancestral disputes Apple. Allow your hatred to just wash away. But you must first be able to forgive what Luna has done all those years ago to the first Apples and again to your grandmother."
"Okay, I will," I dipped my chin before she walked away.
