Whaz up ladies, gents an' other! Having experienced all of the Mane 6 minus one, let's take a look at AJ and how she's doin', eh? Maybe I can work my magic on how her situation is. I'm not good at writing AJ or anyone in her family, so bare with me; this chapter is gonna be weird, jarring and probably crappy.
Pinkie: Fuck you, Wyverntooth! It's getting good, and you have to go and ruin it. *Sticks her tongue at me before finding a bottle of Chartreuse in her mouth which she begins drinking like she's a baby to a bottle of formula*
That'll shut her up for a couple minutes, so let's get started before someone tries to sew my mouth shut. *I tilt my head, dodging an empty wine bottle as Pinkie continues drinking her Chartreuse*
Thoughts or emphasis
'Paraphrasing'
"Normal speech"
"Abnormal speech"
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One swift kick to the trunk of an apple tree and, like that, the ripest, juiciest fruit fell only to be caught by a bucket. "Ah'm still lost as to what she can't learn 'ere that she'll learn there, Darlin'?" Hard Cider said, his hitchcollar seeming an odd accessory to wear alongside his Stetson hat but he pulled it off quite well. 'Tall' was the first word that came to the mind of most who encountered him for the first time, with the second being 'intimidating'. He stood at a whopping seven-foot-seven, his lineage obviously having come from the great draft horses in the eras when equines were primitive animals, with a butch red mane and tail as well as a dappled coat that made many question he was an Apple or not. His cutie mark, a tankard of what was assumed to be cider with a half-eaten apple on its side, told everypony that he was indeed an Apple and not a Lemon like many joked.
His large, strong legs had a white 'sock' beneath his knee that ended in his large, shoed hooves. Although he knew horseshoes weren't necessary as long as he took good care of himself, he had a tendency to forget that and just wore them anyway, forgetting they were on had his wife not reminded him to remove them at the dinner table. A length of straw was in his teeth, something for him to chew while he and his wife worked. Said mare sighed, her smaller size compared to her husband getting her to stand on her hind legs whilst using his larger legs for support after placing the bucket down. "Cider, you know that you can't teach our babies the reason the stars fall out of the sky every few years, or why the caterpillars turn into butterflies after the snow melts. And you know that I can't teach them the hows and whats behind our economy or our sciences. That's why we sent Big Mac to school in the first place, before he decided to drop out, that is. Shouldn't AJ get the chance you didn't when you're her age?"
Cider looked to his wife contemplatively, whenever she'd asked that question he'd said yes, but he also knew that he had pride to uphold. "Ah can too teach 'em why the stars fall or why the caterpillars turn into butterflahs! By hook or crook, Ah'll teach 'em everythin' Ah know in the book, just ya'll watch. Hey, Mac!" He called to his son, getting said red stallion to approach from afar while Peach groaned in exasperation at her husband's damned pride.
"Celestia make this painless..." She muttered, getting a curious hum from her husband. "I said, 'Celestia make this painless'." Her words got Cider to look at her funny before hopping in excitement until she raised a cleft hoof to halt his onslaught of praises and hollers. "No, Cider, I'm not going into labor just yet. We're only six months along, six more left." Cider's spirits seemed to fall at that, his head comically fell as he came down to his knees dramatically, getting his wife to look around anxiously in case somepony saw him acting so ridiculously. "Cider, get up and tell your son why you called him here."
Hearing that, the large stallion rose to smile with the proudest, most shit-eating grin anypony had ever seen on his face as he began his lesson. "Yer ma gave me an idea an' Ah think it's time Ah teach ya why the stars fall and why the caterpillars turn into butterflies after the snow."
Peach looked away, shaking her head in embarrassment for her foolish husband. Mac, confusedly looked to his apologetic-looking mother. "Uh...Alrigh'?"
"Now, the stars fall from the sky after the ursa minors wear out the threads holding the stars above the Earth. And the caterpillars, well-" He suddenly found an apple in his mouth, silencing his lesson, courtesy of a rubbing-her-temples Peach Velvet.
"That's enough outta you, Cider. Mac, dear, go on back to what you're doing before your father distracted you." She smiled weakly, apologetically to her eldest child.
"Okay, Ma." Big Mac, making his way back to work while his mother shot her husband a dirty look that he smirked at as he chewed up the apple, core and all.
"Told ya Ah could teach 'em somethin'!" His proud smirk wasn't mirrored by Peach, her head falling into her hooves in exasperation.
"Yeah," She said simply. "You've taught your son that you're as uneducated as you are enormous...in and out of the bedroom." Finishing her statement with a seductive lick of her lips and a glance to his loins, she chuckled at his nervous grin. "But, still, AJ's a mare in a stallion's world and she needs to be smart enough to take care of herself outside of the harvesting of apples." Her words were serious, concerned and fitting of her mother status, getting Cider to nod sadly.
He sighed heavily, coming down to lay on his knees beside his standing, beloved wife. "Huuuuh...yer right Peach, an' I hate admittin' it, but yer right. I guess I just don' want 'er to make a life fer 'erself outside of this family like she did when she visited yer side'o the family in the big city." Peach's lip curled into a kind smirk as she grossed her legs and leaned against the large, stocky stallion she'd had two-going-on-three children with.
"She's not going to be your baby girl all her life, Cider, but if you help me give her the best chance possible, she won't feel like we're holding her hostage. If she has the resources, we should give her the opportunity to use them and forge her own path. And, if she decides to leave, well then it's her choice but she'll always have happy memories of us and will feel safe here if she ever has problems." Her words got Cider to blow air out of his nostrils, starting to feel the years weigh down on his shoulders, his hazel eyes scanning over the horizon of the farm with the wind blowing through his mane and his ears.
"Eeyup..." He said simply, getting his wife to snort nostalgically with a smile that he soon mirrored as they chuckled at their younger days.
"I'm still shorter than you but you could make me look tall compared to how short-winded your speech was back then." Peach said, her words making a loud rumble build in Cider's chest before coming out as a loud guffaw that reverberated through him and into the small mare beside him, getting her to start laughing too. Slowly, their laughing calmed down until the air felt as warm and crisp as the spring they'd consummated their marriage and allowed Big Macintosh to become a part of their world. Suddenly, the sound of approaching hooves brought their attention to their nearing daughter, her green eyes full of worry and fear, getting the two parents' faces to become serious. "What's wrong, AJ?"
"That bugbear's at it 'gain!" Applejack said angrily, getting Cider to rise as the three of them took off towards the barn. There they saw the hybridization of a bumblebee and a bear of some variety, its eyes as large as horseshoes and multifaceted like the insect it was. Fierce jaws full of sharpened fangs made up its muzzle before it roared and extended a pair of crab-leg like mandibles which it used to grab and devour a shrieking chicken. Head mostly white with a pair of large antennae sticking out from its forehead, its chest was black and attached to a pair of dangerous looking claws at the end of powerful arms it used to demolish the family's chicken coup. Between the beast's hind quarters and chest was its white stomach, a v pattern of black and yellow that split in the middle to climb up the two muscular, white-furred arms attached to its midsection. Finally, its hindquarters were black with a stinger sticking out of its tail bone with venom dripping from the extension.
"Hell's gonna be kinda compared to what Ah'll do to ya, ya pest!" Cider ground out, leaping over the fence and slamming his hooves down on its back, getting the beast to roar in pain as he'd crushed its large, bee-like wings. It turned to him, saliva falling out of its snarling mouth, and lunged for his throat, getting him to duck and headbutt it in the neck. Following up his headbutt with a swift punch to its face, he received a deep slash across the chest, leaving a wound which the monster used to hold onto him and spin before tossing him a story up. "NOPE!" Came Cider's cry of disapproval before he found the beast was waiting to impale him through the chest with its stinger directed skyward.
Before he could land on the venom-filled extension the bear was shoved aside by both of the Apple siblings at once, allowing their father to land and survive although with a deep grunt of pain from his poor landing. "Leave mah Pa 'lone, ya filthy beast!" Applejack said, twirling a lasso as her brother did the same from the other side of the bear. "We got a plan an' it's gonna send ya to where ya belong..." Grinning victoriously, the sounds of air being pushed aside in a small spaces was heard as multiple darts embedded themselves into the beast's hide, getting it to roar in pain. "HA!"
The bugbear fell to the ground, snarling weakly, as it fought the drug inside of the darts. "Where did those darts come from?" Peach asked, helping her husband up as she did so.
"They came from me." Came the voice of an unknown mare, getting the married couple to look and find a beige-colored mare whose mane and tail was blue with a primrose/rosy-pink streak going through it while her cerulean eyes were those of a proud S.M.I.L.E. Agent if the badge on her vest was anything to go by. "I've been tracking that beast for months but, thanks to your efforts, I can send it to Tartarus where it belongs. Here's the reward, and say goodbye to your memories of that beast or ever seeing me!" She tossed a pouch of golden bits to Big Mac who caught it before he and his family saw a flash of light.
A few days later
Pinkie bounced along the road, any worries nonexistent in her demeanor as she'd drunken away all of her depression days ago, with her hair curly and fluffy again. Eyes closed as she bounced, she ended up with her muzzle colliding with a bandaged wall of meat, getting her to open her eyes and look to find she'd run into her former student's father. "Hi there, Chief!" Pinkie said chipperly, using the nickname he'd told her to use. "What can I do for you? If you're looking for medical advice for your wounds then I'm the wrong pony to ask. Talk to Fluttershy or a nurse 'cause all I know are the recipes for a few salves and all they do is relieve aches. Or maybe Peach's due and you want me to prep a party for the foal?!" She was wagging her tail excitedly at the prospect of preparing a party. "I'll go get my party cannon!" Dashing off to get said equipment, she found herself being carried in Chief's mouth by the scruff. Pinkie looked to him confusedly, struggling to escape before shrugging and sipping a cup of imaginary tea. "Did you steal it from the Sugarcube Corner and try to use it at your house and now are giving me the silent treatment because you're too proud to accept the fact that you need a crossbreed to do something for you?!"
She continued babbling, gasping and laughing hysterically out of the blue as she did, garnering the attention of many passersby to the mild embarrassment of her carrier. "What's like? Being called a racist and an abomination sympathizer, I mean. Do some folks just call you a racist 'cause you standby as Fluttershy and me are bullied and then called a sympathizer when you step in or is it that you organize the bullying and then make yourself look good by stepping in. HUUUUUUHHHH!" She gasped as she began asking conspiratorial questions, until they reached Sweet Apple Acres where Hard Cider had the look of a weary traveler and a traumatized war hero.
He spit her out in front of the barn, sweating like a sinner in church as he prepared himself for what he was going to do. "Are you going to try to kill me?! If you are then you've got another thing coming, cowboy! I know how to make stallions like you cr-MMMMMmmmmMmhmhmehmdinhmsnfsjjnf!" Cider, sighing in exasperation at the small mare's babbling, placed a hoof over her face and specifically mouth before he felt her tongue touching the flesh of his hoof, getting him to flinch away with a blush as that was an erogenous zone for earth ponies.
"I know how to make you cr-"
"Shut up, Shank High!" He said finally, his face the definition of worn out.
"It's Pinkie Pie." She responded flatly, eyes bored and wandering before she saw something shiny. "OOH!" Wandering off, Pinkie found her scruff in Cider's mouth again. "Let me go, Chief...I wanna go do stuff!" Her whining made the stallion sigh with a chuckle before he held up a hoof to stop her from speaking.
"Listen," Cider said tiredly, itching his chest slightly with a wince. "Ah'd like ya to be mah kid's teacher again. And before ya remind me that ya quit, Ah need to tell ya'll that Ah'm askin' ya as a friend to do me a solid favor." His words made Pinkie's ears fold back in displeasure at where this originally one-sided conversation was going, her hair straightening.
"Chief, let's get something straight, okay? We're not friends," Hearing that, his ears folded back and he winced at the coldness in her words. "We're acquaintances, if that. Peach is nice to me, but she and I aren't exactly friends either. And you, well, you've always stood on the sidelines while I was being bullied over the years. If I were to owe you anything, it'd be a seriously-cold cold shoulder. So please, enlighten me, why would I teach your kids when they've made it clear they don't wanna learn or don't want me to teach them?" Her words stung like the bugbear's claws had stung his chest before he'd flattened it. Pinkie's eyes were cold like the Frozen Heavens towards the north, getting him to bow his head in shame at his mistake.
Pinkie turned away to leave before Chief asked, "What'll ya do for a livin', Ms. Pie, if yer not gonna teach?"
She scoffed bitterly, "I didn't make my living as a teacher, Chief. Even though I did it as an occupation, I wasn't paid by the folks in charge 'cause I'm a 'filthy' half-breed. All of my income came from working with Dazzle and Carrot Cake at the Sugarcube Corner, my parties bringing in the biggest crowds. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna help my friends take care of a hyperactive foal!" Her hair was once more curly and her face was once more a grin, although the look in her eyes wasn't as jolly as her face would suggest.
Cider sighed heavily, once again grabbing Pinkie by her scruff and taking her inside of the barn where he uncovered several barrels of his name sake. He smirked at the stars in Pinkie's eyes, Gobsmacker having complained about how much she drank and how many customers she scared off. "Does this interest ya?" Pinkie only nodded dumbly, her face agape and her eyes wide, saliva dribbling out of her mouth. "Would ya teach mah kids in exchange fer alcohol?" Once again, Pinkie nodded mutely before Chief covered his namesake, getting her to whimper sadly at the lack of seeing her favorite thing in Equestria. "When can ya start?"
He waved his hoof in front of her face for a few minutes before Pinkie shook her head, tapping her chin with a contemplative hum. "I'll start in a week. That should give me enough time to prepare for your kids' lessons and work out a schedule that'll suit them." Cider nodded with a relieved smile, extending his hoof for a shake.
"Promise not to say anythin' to mah family?" He asked hopefully, getting Pinkie to groan as she reluctantly made a Pinkie Promise.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye; I won't spill a bean that will make you cry!" Her promise made Cider chuckle at the little dance she did with her words. "Anyway, I'd better help my friends with their foal otherwise they'll throw a fit." She trotted out of the barn, practically glowing, when Applejack came by in front of her.
"Hey, could ya-" Applejack began.
"Not now!" Pinkie interrupted, getting the orange mare to bow her head at how quickly she'd been shot down. "I've gotta prepare shit to teach you and your brother after I help some friends with a child problem!" Her words got AJ to look at her in surprise and excitement as she chased after the party pone.
"'Child problem'? Anythin' I can do to help?" AJ asked, the desire to earn brownie points with her old/new teacher. Pinkie skidded to a halt, a paw to her chin and her eyes cast skyward.
"I s'pose, but it's not up to me..." Pinkie said, trotting along with a jolly smile on her face as she and AJ made their way to Fluttershy's cottage where the sounds of chaos could be heard. "It's up to them." She pulled out an enormous megaphone, knocked on the door and and yelled into it the moment Rainbow opened the door. "IS IT OKAY IF APPLEJACK'S IN ON THE SECRET?!"
Rainbow, dizzy and somehow not deaf, was blown back into the shuddering house before Scootaloo ran out of the cottage like a racing horse. "Damn it, Pinkie, she's loose! Get back here." Saying that, the Thestral flew and dove for the foal, catching her with ease before getting nipped several times by the little thing. "Ouch! Fluttershy's right, you are a biter-OW!" Scootaloo, desperate to be free, flapped her downy wings and bit her aunt, gliding in a wonky circle due to inexperience.
"Rainbow," Pinkie called up, running up the side of a tree and leaping towards the foal's general direction. "I need a cloud-poline!" The pegasus flapped her wings heavily, her sweat mixing with her magic to form clouds that Pinkie grabbed and used as a trampoline before leaping upward, catching Fluttershy's little scamp. "GOTCHA!"
Scootaloo, obviously displeased with her situation, began to squeal and scream in Pinkie's ear which got her eyes to go in opposite directions as her brain was scrambled. "Scootaloo..." Fluttershy said, her daughter hearing her and meeting her gaze to find the eyes of an unhappy mother waiting for her. The pegasus tapped her paw against the floorboards expectantly, her stare causing her foal to freeze in fear which allowed Rainbow to take her from a dizzy Pinkie and return her to her mother.
Fluttershy accepted the offering of her daughter gratefully, nodding her thanks to her sister-figure before carrying her inside with could only be described as 'mama horse noises' being the only sound she made. "Ah'm so lost."
"No you're not, you're Applejack. If you're Lost, you'd be failing to read simple stories on a radio station here in Ponyville!" Pinkie said in a snarky tone, nudging her student in the ribs lightly. "Get it?"
"No." Applejack responded flatly.
Pinkie's face fell at that before smiling again and trotting in after her fellow crossbreed. "So, where's Gilda?"
"She left." Fluttershy responded simply, getting Pinkie to blink in confusion. "'We can't have the whole town figure out Scootaloo's heritage or your involvement', so she left and handed off ownership of the cottage over to me. This is, legally, my cottage and Gilda's moving back to Griffonstone."
"Uh, what?" Applejack asked, getting Fluttershy to turn and see her.
"I'm sorry, I don't think we've met?" She extended a paw, only receiving a hesitant, unsure look from the mare as she made to shake before Fluttershy retracted her paw understandingly. "Right, my mistake..." Without another word, she returned to laying down for the foal to drink from her mammaries with a blanket over her haunch to have some form of decency.
Applejack looked to her side, seeing Pinkie was staring blankly off into space. "Did Ah do somethin' wrong?" She asked, clueless as to the mare's behavior to her.
"Right, nopony really knows about her." Pinkie said with understanding in her eyes. As the party pony began explaining everything, Fluttershy was deep in those while her foal was deep in the consumption of her milk.
What makes you think that your being here will raise suspicion, Gilda? Scootaloo looks more like me than anyone and we could paint her talons to look like paws. Why'd you leave? There are other ways to keep our love a secret... Her thoughts continued, trying to understand why Gilda had left. Every time she came up with a reason to justify an action, she found herself with an alternative that would suffice. Whenever she found herself about ready to admit that Gilda had left because she hadn't thought it over, a new problem arose from the idea of her staying before she found an alternative. Did I scare you off? Did you decide to leave me? Is that what this is?! No, Gilda wouldn't do that! I've been with her long enough to know she's not that type of girl. But why would she leave if there are so many reasons she can stay without raising suspicion? Again, her thoughts kept spiraling down that rabbit hole until she just gave up and focused on her foal, suckling from her teat.
I guess I'll never know, and maybe...maybe it's better that way. Maybe it's better that I never know the answer. Maybe it's best if I just focused on Scootaloo and her needs. As she thought that, said foal bit into her teat, getting her yelp and flinch in pain. "Ow! Careful, Scootaloo. Mama can only give so much milk before she hurts." The foal, although ignorant to her mother's message, did ease up on how hard she went at her food source. Fluttershy, pleased with how her foal was going at her mammaries, hummed in half-contentment with the moment. If only you were here, with me, Gilda...
"So that's the whole story?" Applejack asked Pinkie, getting said mare to nod succinctly. A hoof to her head as she processed everything, released a heavy breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Well, Ah'll be an ass's aunt, Ah didn't know things were this bad. How long's this been goin' on?"
"Single-parenting or Fluttershy's struggle with the masses?" Pinkie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The second one." Applejack answered, getting Pinkie to sigh and turn to Rainbow who had just finished throwing up into Tank's mouth, gargling on some water to ease the pain. Pinkie, after rubbing her fur excitedly, carefully and cautiously touched Rainbow, resulting in a static shock that caused the Thestral to puff up in surprise with her wings opened all the way to make herself look bigger.
Confused at why Pinkie did that, Rainbow asked, "Why'd you shock me?"
"Applejack wants to know how long Fluttershy's been struggling with the public as a crossbreed." Pinkie said, getting Rainbow to take a deep breath as she smoothed out her feathers and fur.
Finished smoothing herself out, Rainbow simply said, "Her whole life."
"How in tar nations has she made it this far?!" AJ demanded, getting the mother to clear her throat and glare softly at the three talking about her like she wasn't in the room.
"I've made it this far with the help of amazing friends and incredible family, like my little Scootaloo." Saying the last part, she brought out her foal and nuzzled her compassionately, much to the foals chagrin as she struggled to return to eating before Fluttershy allowed her to do as such. "But as for the single parenting...Well, Gilda left a couple days ago and I've managed as best as I can with both my ball of energy and Rainbow Dash's little hunter causing mayhem."
"Hold on a minute, ya mean to tell me that ya'll've been strugglin' 'tween that little thin' an' the Batpony's bird-dragon?!" Applejack asked in shock, getting Fluttershy to simply nod. "That don't make no sense, see! Yer a crossbred-MMPH!" The spoken to crossbreed stuck her paw in Applejack's mouth, shutting her up long enough to talk.
"Please forgive me, but be quiet. I've heard it all, and now that you're in my home, in front of my baby, I'm not going to stand for being insulted for being alive." Her eyes stern, the eyes of a mother and a mare who had put up with too much to let it slide. "As first impressions go, you're not exactly batting a thousand." Fluttershy's words stung at AJ's heart, reminding her that even though her former teacher and guidance councilor were 'filthy' crossbreeds like Filthy Rich had said, they were still ponies.
Bowing her head with closed eyes, she sincerely apologized, "Ah'm sorry, Ms. Shy. Please forgive mah misdemeanor..." She suddenly found a paw stroking her mane and a foal trying to remove her hair tie while simultaneously attempting flight, getting her to chuckle humbly.
"I'd forgiven you the moment you stepped in my home, Applejack. Besides, it appears my daughter's taken quite a liking to you, and I was going to say that although you're not batting a thousand...you're not exactly batting a zero, either." Fluttershy's words were maternal, kind and pleasant as she continued to stroke the younger mare's mane.
Applejack, accepting the kind strokes, asked, "How can ya'll be so nice if ya'll've suffered such cruelty?"
"You know," Fluttershy chuckled. "I ask myself the same question everyday, and the only answer I can come up with is that I was raised well enough to know that the Golden Rule is a virtue beyond any other." Scootaloo, finally managing to remove the hair tie in Applejack's tail, ended up somersaulting into the wall where she began chirping like a chick in search for its mother before said mare came and shushed her worries with comforting hug.
"M-May..." Applejack began, getting Fluttershy to look to her with a single raised eyebrow. "M-M-May Ah hold yer-uh..."
The mother held Scootaloo up like a presentation, offering, "'Foal'?"
"Yeah. May Ah hold yer foal, Ms. Shy?" She received a quiet nod and a kind smirk from the mother as she passed her daughter into Applejack's embrace, getting the foal to blow curiously which made the Apple gal blow back which made the foal giggle excitedly. She giggled in response, watching as Scootaloo played with the hair tie she'd won in her struggle against the tyranny of Applejack's tail. "..." Cider and Peach's daughter was silently staring at the foal in her 'arms'. (A/N: From now on, just for simplicity's sake, let's just call their front legs arms when referring to hugs or embraces of the like. 'Kay?) "She's so precious..." Applejack muttered, getting Fluttershy to chuckle at how awestruck her daughter had left the farm gal.
Nodding, Fluttershy asked, "Isn't she? And just think, your mother's going to have a foal too. You'll be an amazing big sister and, if it's okay with your family, set up play dates between your mother's upcoming foal and my little Scootaloo." Applejack, excitement in her eyes, turned to the cottage's owner with a look of hope on her face.
"Do ya really think so?!" She asked ecstatically, merely getting a nervous nod from the mother who soon after took her foal out of Applejack's arms.
Fluttershy, rocking her foal back and forth in a rocking motion, lulled Scootaloo to sleep as a storm started outside from what sounded like Pinkie and Rainbow having a little brawl. "Yes, I do. I really think you'd make an amazing big sister if we're going to use Scootaloo as a judge, and I think your little sibling would love to have a playmate like her. Tank," She called to the cockatrice, getting him to approach before he found himself scooped up underneath Fluttershy's wing, making him squawk in surprise before he found himself in the same crib as Scootaloo in Fluttershy's bedroom. He soon after ended up curling up beside his playmate, cuddling her and her cuddling he in turn.
A sigh at the cuteness of the two infants as well as relief from Fluttershy was the only sound to be heard besides their breathing and the rocking of their crib. "What's it like, bein' a ma Ah mean?" Applejack asked suddenly, getting her host to turn to her with a questioning grin.
"That depends on what you're looking for." Fluttershy answered vaguely. "If you're looking for hair-pulling stress and large amounts of sleep deprivation, then there's nothing better than parenthood...unless you count what I've heard about military boot camps." Applejack's ears folded back at the negativity in Fluttershy's tone before said mare continued, "However, if you're looking for these tender moments that make it all worth it, where nothing can go wrong and the only thing that matters in the world is seeing your little one smile...than you needn't look anywhere but take care of others. Whenever Scootaloo smiles, laughs or plays, I feel like I'm free of the struggles that life has thrown me and it's as if I'm a little again. If she cries, hurts herself or feels scared, I know that she looks to me for guidance and I know that no matter what, I'll make her world better..."
Such sagely words struck a cord in Applejack's heart. Tears streamed down the sides of Applejack's face as she held a hoof up with a look of determination, getting Fluttershy's ears to fold back in guilt as a large drop of sweat came down from her head. "It's official, yer the best mare I've met 'sides mah Granny an' mah Ma!" Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock, sucking in her lips out of nervousness as Applejack clasped her hooves over the cottage owner's paws. "If e'er ya need help, don' hesitate to ask me 'cause Ah'll come runnin'! Yer amazin', Ms. Shy!"
Fluttershy was suddenly trapped in a bone crushing hug, the feeling of her lungs being crushed defining her existence before she was freed from the earth pony's clutches. Gasping for air, her lungs greedily accepting the wonderful air around her, she spoke. "Although I thank you for the offer, Applejack, I don't plan on burdening anypony with my daily struggles. I'm the councilor, maybe not the high school student councilor anymore now that Pinkie's no longer teaching, but I'm still the student councilor. It's my job to come running to the aid of ponies in emotional need, not yours. Don't burden yourself with my job when you've your own to worry about." A serene smile from Fluttershy made Applejack's eyes widen in awe, amazed that such an oppressed mare could be this kind and knowledgeable.
Knocking from the front door broke the moment, getting Fluttershy to close her bedroom door and make her way down the stairs with AJ close behind. The cottage's guest opened the door, finding a small group of the town's more vocal purists glaring passed the Apple gal and at the cottage's owner. "Why are ya'll 'ere?" AJ asked obliviously, getting Fluttershy to sigh, before she noticed the unconscious Pinkie and Rainbow being tied to upright logs. "What'd ya'll do to 'em?!"
"We're cleaning the town of vermin!" Said the mare in the lead, a popular runner-up for mayor named Spoiled Milk. Strong opal eyes, a mane and tail made up of two shades of magenta as well as a moderate heliotrope, and a grayish pink coat; she wasn't an unattractive mare. A sparkling, diamond ring was her cutie mark and dark, purple eye shadow revealed how much of a pony of quality she was. A leonine tail flicked behind her as her three-toed paws dug into the mud beneath her feet, a look of disgust marring her attractive features. "Move aside, mud horse, or risk getting trampled." To emphasize her insult, she threw mud into Applejack's face, causing laughter to spur from within the crowd.
A grimace came across Applejack's face, removing the mud from where it was over her eyes. Finished removing the mud, she glared at the mob fiercely. "Ya'll ain't hurtin' 'em while I breath," Saying that, she strode out of the house and closed the door behind herself, coming face to face with Spoiled Milk. "Ya pricks an' bitches!" Like a single spark starting a forest fire, a fire was ignited in the mob as they charged the Apple gal.
"So be it..." Spoiled said, a sinister sneer gracing her lips, standing back as her followers came after the 'mud horse' before her. AJ, for her part, was pissed. Some older ponies came before her, random mares that worked at the hospital, receiving swift punches that left horseshoe impressions on their faces as they were left unconscious. A pair of stallions came next, one of them being a former classmate of hers before he found himself with AJ's crotch over his neck as she stood and spun on her forelegs, tossing him into a tree. The other stallion was trickier, his smaller size allowing him to get past her long enough for a larger pony to try restraining her, only for her to charge magic into her legs and slam them into the ground. What resulted from this maneuver, many would wonder, was a cracking of the ground as boulders violently surfaced from the dirt underneath more than a few members of the mob.
Turning her attention to the boulders, she embedded her front hooves into one of them and stood on her hind legs, tossing the one she'd grabbed into the mob which resulted in several ponies being sent flying away. "My Celestia," AJ said ecstatically, hopping from one hind leg to the other as she punched one of her fore-hooves into the other. "That was amazin'! Let's see if Ah can do that 'gain..." Repeating the process, she found it harder this time as a mare rammed her stomach, causing her to crumple in on herself and flatten the poor sod who'd thought it smart to ram her. Applejack released a mighty scream of warning to the rest of the mob, getting many to back down before the few stupid enough to continue made their move.
One of them, a veteran mare from the retirement home for seniors, dodged around the next boulder AJ threw and kicked her in the stomach, causing the contents of her stomach to spill out violently all over while the mare continued towards the cottage and kicked into it only for Fluttershy to send out a blast of air with her wings mixed with her magic. An angry Fluttershy stomped out of the house after the veteran had been sent flying into and through a tree, glaring Hell at all of the ponies in the mob around her home. "You come onto my property, attack my friends, threaten my life, endanger my child's life and you've the gall to call me vermin!" Her eyes were full of hatred, an emotion a reawakening Rainbow Dash had only seen on her face once before. Wind and dust kicked up around the enraged mother, getting Rainbow to break her bonds and get Pinkie, Applejack and herself the Hell out of there. "The only 'vermin' in this forest that I see...IS YOU!"
As if a tornado were unbottled, Fluttershy flapped her wings and released a set of twisters that began tearing up the area the mob was in, throwing them every which way as the flora reached out to harm those who'd dared attacked the one who'd made the tornadoes. Eventually, after the twisters had faded into nothingness and all that remained of the mob was a shocked stupid Spoiled Milk, Fluttershy fell to the ground and wept at having harmed another being again.
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That's a wrap ladies, gents an' other! I know, I said this chapter's s'posed to be 'bout AJ, but...I just couldn't seem to keep it on her without it feeling forced and too unnatural. All of the other Mane 6 I can write alright, but Applejack's...well, in canon she's a stubborn bitch with honesty held close, but that's kinda it. She's a farmer, a shoulder to cry on but she doesn't feel very fleshed out like the rest of the Mane 6. She doesn't have much for dreams like the others, she's not usually the focus of any episodes, an' they don't give her enough to really deepen her character 'sides "I'm a cowgirl, I'm honest an' ya can trust me!"
Now, I love AJ as a character, she's one of my favorite ponies, but out of the Mane 6...She's not one I can write very well. I'm not sure if it's 'cause I don't have many memories of her that really help me define her as a character or if I'm just not good at writing characters that are honest enough to explain why you and your life suck. If ya watch the Mentally Advanced Series by FiMFlamFilosophy, ya might notice that, outta the Mane 6, AJ feels the closest to canon compared to the others who're realistic portrayals of how the characters act. AJ feels...Natural amongst the MAS 6 (As I'll call 'em for simplicity's sake an' the coolness of how it sounds) with how she's portrayed an' how believable that that's the canon AJ bein' portrayed in a realistic world.
My inability to write AJ aside, let's focus on the other issue with this chapter: how weirdly it's written. I mentioned that I'm not good at writing AJ or her family, and that's a big portion of why this chapter seems more outta place than the others. Because of that, I had to use other characters as an in between to focus on AJ like they do in the show, as she hasn't had an episode that helps us identify parts of her personality in a vacuum without help from other characters. Without other characters to bounce off of, we've seen what the rest of the Mane 6 are like: Pinkie's emotionally fragile, Twilight's neurotic and always trying to be organized, Rarity's struggling with work, Fluttershy's stressed out an' Rainbow's working to achieve her dream while branching out her interests. But AJ doesn't have that kinda episode, where we see what makes her tick.
I've toiled over why this is and the only answer I'd come up with's that AJ doesn't have a driving force 'sides others. Without other characters, she's nothing. She's the character that can fit with all of the others given time, where we see who she is when they're around but when she's alone...there's nothing to her. When Pinkie's alone, we got to see that she's dependent on other ponies to keep her in the now 'cause otherwise she feels abandoned and thus must create facsimiles of her thoughts onto objects to keep her company. We saw that when Rarity's alone, she realizes that work has had a negative impact on her personal life as she treats them as one entity and thus must separate them. Rainbow's aspirations to become a Wonderbolt are obvious an' aren't the only things that define her as she discovers she enjoys reading. Fluttershy's had solo episodes that show how stressed out she gets when she's out of her element and how often that is, as well as how hard that hits those around her. Twilight's...well, Twilight. But, once again, AJ doesn't have that.
She's been trapped in a vacuum her entire existence, where she doesn't struggle with other characters for very long or make a decision that involves what only she wants. I'm just going to say it: One of my favorite ponies is probably the blandest pony among the Mane 6. I'm gonna get flak for that, but think about it. When does she have solo time, time to think, time to contemplate what she wants and not what benefits others? She doesn't. That's my issue with AJ: she hasn't had a solo episode where she doesn't bounce off of other characters to form this picture. Yes, we need others to help define ourselves, it's what social creatures do, but with her she just never makes a decision that seems to be her own or original.
AJ rant aside, the other thing is Fluttershy in this chapter. I made Fluttershy attack others, which is apparently a big no-no in the fanbase, but the truth is that a mother's gonna kill anything that she deems a threat to her baby. If your friends, basically your family, are in danger...nothing will stop you from saving them. Not much else to say so (As Always: thanks for bein' here, R&R, please review, no flamin' my ass, constructive criticism an' SEE YA-G'NIGHT!)