This fanfiction is intended to be a proof-of-concept for ideas that could be used for in the future for Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise; therefore, the author of this work hereby grants Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media, express, written permission to use, create derivative works of, sell, claim as their own intellectual property, and in general take any action they see fit with all and any content of this fanfiction, including, but not limited, to narration, dialog, story elements, story events, names of characters, names of fictional locations, names of fictional objects, fictional properties assigned to objects that exist in real life, character traits and backstories, worldbuilding elements, lyrics, and fictional magic spells. The author of this work relinquishes all and any intellectual property rights for all and any content of this fanfiction work to Hasbro Inc. and its affiliates and licensees, including but not limited to DHX Media.
The mountain air was clearer and breezier than Applejack had expected it to be, and while it was cooler, she was also doing more work, carrying saddlebags half-full of exploration gear, so she didn't feel cold at all. Nor did she feel too hot, which surprised her a little.
After a few minutes of hiking uphill, Shining Armor stopped the expedition for a moment and gestured for Applejack turn around and look at the town. Applejack's jaw dropped at the view. "It...it all looks so small from up here!"
"I remember the first time Twilight and I caught this view," Shining Armor smiled. For a moment, he frowned, as if remembering something awful, but soon his smile came back. "One of the perks of exploring this mountain is the view you get from it."
After a few minutes of resting and drinking in the sight, they moved on. For hours, nopony said anything, which was a fact for which all three of them were grateful-Twilight and Applejack because they expected the worst from each other, Shining Armor because he didn't want to have to shut his sister down again.
After a little while, Applejack broke the silence: "What are we going to do about lunch?"
Shining Armor answered "If you're hungry, you can just graze. There's plenty of well-watered greens on this mountain."
Applejack's stomach growled. "That doesn't sound much like a meal!"
"Maybe not to you," Twilight observed. "But some of us made some actual sacrifices to get what we have!"
Shining Armor hissed, "Twilight! Ground rule one!"
"She needs to know this-how many years did you and I eat only wild grass so that Mom and Dad didn't have to buy us food? How many years did she spend porking out at her cozy little dinner table at her nice, food-filled farm, while you and I were munching on wildflowers and wet grass up here in the pouring rain?"
"Twilight!" Shining Armor groaned. "You think I LIKE telling you to quit talking!? I'm trying to-"
Applejack interrupted him. "Well, maybe if you two had stuck close to home and helped your parents by doing REAL work, binding books for your parents' paying customers, you'd have been dryer and better-fed! It sure worked for me! Why, I even got an allowance when the seasons were kind to us, which was most of the time!"
Shining Armor howled, "Applejack! You're FIGHTING! This isn't what Big Mackintosh would want!"
They both ignored Shining Armor and closed in on each other to go face-to-face.
Twilight got defensive. "You want real work? How about the YEARS I spent doing research to prove out that there are caves under this mountain? Proving that only the ley-resonance of the rainbow diamonds could possibly conjure all the rain that this mountain gets when the air for hundreds of miles is normally dry?! Proving that it takes airflow that's out of the sunlight in order to form rainbow diamonds, proving there are caves full of diamonds that have an actual entrance in this mountain? And don't you dare forget: I DID help out in the book-binding shop so I could get money to buy the books for that all research in the first place!"
Applejack spat over the side of the mountain. "And for all those years with your nose stuck in a book instead of helping your family bind books, for all those years tramping around the mountain, tell me: how much of your so-called 'work' really helped your family?"
Shining Armor tried to get between the two feuding mares and push them apart with his hooves. "Listen-both of you! Everypony in Ponyville who isn't one of Filthy Rich's high-ranking lackeys is doing their best to make a living while Mr. Filthy turns their hard work into silver in his vaults!" he insisted. "We all have different strategies for dealing with it, and those strategies can succeed or fail by luck as easily as they can by skill or by smarts. I mean, the wind blowing the silo over and injuring Big Mack-that was just plain bad luck, and it could've just as easily been a cave-in or a rockslide that left ME with a broken leg! And us finding an entrance to the cave that's big enough for ponies to get inside-that's luck, too! It was good luck, but still-we could've ended up finding out that the only entrances to the cave are three inches across and impossible to dig into!"
He turned to Twilight. "There may be hard facts in science," then he turned to Applejack, "And you may know a lot of hard facts about what working hard on your farm can and has done for you AND your family, but none of that changes the fact that science and hard work are both strategies at the end of the day! Either one can succeed or fail thanks to luck! You're both treating your strategies like they're hard facts...like...like they're as guaranteed to work as two and two making four, but they're not! So stop bickering with each other! Let's just stay quiet, keep going, and get those diamonds and help our families before anything else happens!"
At this point, both mares began verbally tearing into Shining Armor. They were screaming so loudly, and at the same time, that he could hardly pick out any words at all from either of their rants. Even though he was taller than them, this made him feel intimidated-and not least in his reasons was that he wasn't used to Twilight getting mad at him! He began to understand why she kept giving him looks of dumbfounded shock whenever he tried to stop her from fighting.
The poor stallion had no idea how to stop them, and while it occurred to him for a moment that, while they were yelling at him, they at least weren't yelling at each other, he couldn't quite bring himself to count this torrent of incomprehensible complaining as a victory.
After several seconds of shouting, Shining Armor howled at the top of his lungs, "Could this day get any worse!?" A thunderclap answered him, and the shouting immediately stopped as his sister and Applejack began rooting in their bags for their raingear.
"Well, that answers my question," Shining Armor mumbled. "That was downright cliché!" He reached into his bag and pulled out the one-piece rainsuit he'd upgraded to, sliding all four of his legs into their sleeves one-at-a-time, pulling the billed hood over his mane, snapping the face-protecting flap into place, and finally zipping the belly up just as the first few drops began to splatter down onto him.
His sister was much quicker to get her own waterproof cape on and up and over her saddlebags. It was all one piece, but was almost more like a large, shiny, red, waterproof blanket-with-a-hood than it was like clothing; it was very spacious and warm underneath, and it clasped together in the front and had drawstrings on the hood that Twilight tugged lightly to keep her head dry and warm.
Applejack wasn't used to wearing raingear or even clothing at all, so she had quite a bit of difficulty getting her father's duster on. She'd never had to deal with sleeves before, and the rain was already a steady patter by the time she'd gotten her hooves through both sleeves and her father's hat on her head-her fur was already a bit damp.
Shining Armor explained to Applejack, "Here-you stand next to me on one side, and Twilight will stand on the other side so that the three of us can share a little body heat. Try not to move your feet from the spot where you're standing-" Twilight shuddered audibly as Shining Armor said this, but he paused only for a moment before continuing: "The rocks under your feet will be the only dry rocks, and your hooves can only get a grip on dry rocks-you do NOT want to slip and fall when you're this high up! And turn your back toward the wind so that the rain ends up running down your back instead of running down into your collar."
"You've got your face to the wind," Applejack pointed out.
It was impossible to see anything except Shining Armor's eyes, but the sight of his eyes told Applejack he was smiling proudly. "That's because I splurged on a rainsuit that protects my face. While you two lovely ladies are sheltering with you backs to the storm, I'll face it head-on and keep an eye out for danger!"
Twilight giggled, seemingly having forgotten all about the argument she'd been having with her brother. "My hero! That's why he's called Shining Armor!"
He chuckled back. "That's right: one lone stallion, braving the elements, standing vigilant against the wrath of the storm-ACK!"
"What's wrong?" Twilight and Applejack asked at the same time.
"Nothing...a big raindrop just got me right in the eye, that's all."
Twilight and Applejack both giggled, but then they made eye contact with each other, and their smiles faded into scowls. Then they both looked away.
Meanwhile, the storm got worse and worse. The raindrops got bigger and colder, and the wind was calm one second, then lashing with a ferocity Applejack had never seen the next. Applejack felt a huge, cold drop splatter on her nose. She wiggled her nose-it almost felt like she'd been punched. She grit her teeth at the feel of the drop running down her chin and moistening her chest-fur. She looked up at the brim of her father's hat, and realized there was a large cutout in the front. While she thought that cutout made the hat handsome, it also made it terrible at protecting the wearer's nose.
"I hope that doesn't happen again," Applejack quietly muttered to herself. Cue another drop splattering her on the nose. And another. And more in rapid succession as the wind seemed to take a rest and allowed the rain to pour straight down. Applejack gagged; no amount of nose-wiggling or nose-wrinkling could do anything about the continuous tapping against her poor, unprotected snout. It was as if some inconsiderate, otherworldly creature with cold fingers had an irresistible urge to tap her nose, and wouldn't stop no matter how annoying it was for her.
She tilted her head down to try to give her nose better protection, only to find that tilting her head down lifted the brim of her hat off of her neck and exposed her neck to the downpour. It felt especially cold against her skin after her neck had been used to being sheltered and warm for so long; she let out a gagging yelp and tilted her head back to where it was before...once again allowing the rain to splatter on her nose. She let out a cry of exasperation.
"Ground rule one, Applejack!" Shining Armor reminded her.
"I can't HELP it!" she screamed, "And it's got nothing to DO with Twilight, either! It's this awful RAIN! If I keep my head level, it rains down on my nose. If I tilt my head forward to stop it raining down on my nose, my neck gets soaked!"
Twilight, who'd been enjoying this spectacle without Applejack even knowing about it, chimed in "It's too bad you don't have a nice warm waterproof cloak, isn't it?"
Applejack scowled at Twilight, but the second after she did, her expression changed again as another deluge of drops relentlessly splattered against her nose. Twilight was absolutely delighted, and it was fortunate that Applejack was far too distracted to notice.
Shining Armor began apologizing, "Sorry about this, Applejack...I wish we'd thought to buy you a better rain poncho, or even a rainsuit like this one I'm wearing. Heck, we could even have let you use the poncho I was wearing until I upgraded to this suit-it's hanging on a peg at home..."
Applejack screamed in frustration. "I swear, if this ends with me getting even a LITTLE share of money after all our bills are paid, I am going STRAIGHT to the outfitters and buying a HUGE rainhat with a brim that DOESN'T have a huge hole in it! AND a rainsuit that covers my NOSE!" She shuddered and whined as more and more drops kept splattering against her snoot, and there was nothing she could DO about it!
Twilight finally started to feel a little sorry for Applejack, and suggested, "Maybe that duster would work better if you turned the collars up?"
Applejack again scowled at Twilight, but did what she suggested. It made things worse for the first minute or so, as the side of the collar that was now pressed against Applejack's fur had been exposed to the storm before, and was drenched and cold. But at least the turned-up collar protected her neck from any other drops that would fall onto it, and that allowed her to tilt her head down and protect her poor nose from the awful weather.
Instead of trickling down her chin and adding to the wetness of her already-drenched chest-fur, the wetness on her nose collected into an icy drop. Applejack spat, trying to get the drop to fall off her poor frozen nose, already.
Twilight apparently took that spit as either an insult against her or an invitation to insult Applejack, as the next time AJ glanced in her direction, Twilight's face was twisted into a look that reminded Applejack of caricatures of hillbillies.
She scowled for a moment, then decided to return fire with a face of her own: she stuck her teeth out to look like dorky buck teeth and made her eyes as huge as she could.
Twilight crossed her eyes and flared her nostrils and blew out through them, as if to say "This is how you blow your nose!"
AJ shot back with a look that screamed "lazy!"
Twilight's expression returned, "Bumpkin!"
"Weasel!"
"Dimwit!"
"Beaver!"
"Drooler!"
"Are you two MAKING FACES at each other?!" Shining Armor asked.
There was a brief pause for a moment. Then, all at once, "No!" "Not me!" "Not us!" "No way!" It was almost the first time they'd ever agreed on anything.
Twilight hastily added, "Well, maybe Applejack is making faces at me," to which Applejack scowled and stuck out her tongue, only for a cold raindrop to land on it and make her quickly withdraw it. Twilight suppressed the urge to giggle, turned her head the other way, and continued as innocently as she could, "I wouldn't know what Applejack's doing with HER face; my hood completely blocks my sight of it!"
Applejack made a strike of opportunity and grabbed the drawstrings of Twilight's hood with her teeth and yanked as hard as she could, completely closing Twilight's hood around her snout-which was now exposed to the rain and getting tapped as relentlessly as Applejack's nose had been. Twilight groaned and shuddered.
"That's it, I'm keeping you two separated," Shining Armor growled.
"How?" they asked in unison.
In response, Shining Armor raised his waterproofed tail to act as a barrier between them. "Problem. Solved," he flatly declared.
Without the fight to occupy their attention, both mares quickly became bored. Twilight brushed the rainwater off her nose and withdrew her head into the main part of her cape, and slid her journal, bracelet, and pen out of her saddlebags, and began to write.
Applejack hadn't brought anything to keep her entertained, and could only think, Why are we up here in this awful weather? Why would anypony come up here, just for a bunch of shiny rocks?!
She finally asked, "Listen...this isn't for starting a fight, it's just a question...what is it that makes these rainbow diamonds so valuable in the first place?"
Twilight answered. "They're useful for jewelry, and since they're rare (or at least they were until Shining Armor and I made this discovery), jewelry made from them costs a lot. But they've also got magic inside them that can be used to power up some important devices in factories in big cities.
"But there's a secret use for them, too," Twilight added, her tone taking on a note of pride. "Shining Armor found an old, old book buried in a chest on this mountain, and after I translated a few pages (and even that took months!), I found it had a magic spell in it!"
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Magic? Seriously? What do you think you are, a unicorn?"
Twilight rolled her eyes back. "All you do is hold the diamond in your hooves while saying the spell, and it breaks the diamond to pieces, but it also takes you to another world. The spell is:
Magic gem with magic might,
Unleash your magic, lovely light!
Through airless space be safely hurled
My party to another world!
"And it doesn't just work with rainbow diamonds, either. Which gem you're holding determines which world you go to. A rainbow diamond will get you to Unicornia. A star emerald would get you to Cumuland, where the pegasus ponies live. A mountain ruby would get you back here."
Applejack snickered. "I might not be as into books as you are, but even I know mountain rubies are the rarest gems ever. We all know that only royalty ever get their hooves on mountain rubies! And it takes one of those just to get back here?!" She shook her head. "No wonder you never tried using any diamond you found to go to Unicornia!"
Twilight smiled. "Someday, we will. I know we've found the biggest find of our lives, but...well, I don't want to stop exploring! And exploring new worlds that earth ponies almost never get to set foot on-that'd be an awesome next step!"
"That does sound awesome," Applejack agreed. "The thought of having millions of miles between you and me-"
Shining Armor cut them off. "Ladies, you two are perfectly capable of having civil conversions with each other-you really are! I wasn't enforcing ground rule one all this time because I believed you were actually starting to be civil to each other. But if you can't be, don't even open your mouths. Either of you."
The storm slowly began to lighten. Twilight put her journal back in her bag and stood up again.
"Don't try to move until the sun dries the rocks off," Shining Armor advised Applejack. "It usually only takes a few minutes-whenever it's not raining, the air gets really dry. That also gives your raingear time to dry off before you pack it back in your saddlebags; you don't want it to stay damp, or else it gets mildew on it."
They waited in silence as the sun shone straight down on them; it was close to noon, so the sun was extra-warm at that time of day. They didn't have to wait long before the rocks were dry, and they began packing their saddlebags and getting ready to continue on to the cave.
Applejack paused before she put her saddlebag back on. "Uh...what exactly do you two do when it's time to use the little filly's room?"
"Just aim your plot over the side of the mountain, move your tail out of the way, and let it all out," Twilight answered.
Applejack scowled at her. Twilight raised an eyebrow-what had she said that upset her this time?! It was as if it didn't matter what came out of her mouth, Applejack would get mad! ...Yep, definitely a jerkface!
"She wasn't joking," Shining Armor told her.
"Sorry, princess, no outhouses out here! No toilet paper, either. If you have to wipe," Twilight smoothly added, breaking a leaf off of a vine with the tip of her hoof, "You'll just have to use this!"
Shining Armor was exasperated. "Twilight, that's poison ivy! That was NOT funny!"
Twilight was snickering. "Isn't it?"
"No," Shining Armor insisted. He turned to Applejack. "Go ahead and do your business."
"The only business you know!" Twilight laughed.
Shining Armor firmly put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, still looking at Applejack. "Take your time. I need to have a little talk with my little sister."
He could feel Twilight's muscles tense up under his hoof as Applejack disappeared out of sight. She looked up at him, mouth open, in utter disbelief.
Seconds after Applejack was out of sight, Twilight hissed, "Shining Armor, what is with you today?! Why do you keep taking her side?!" she asked with a few tears in her eyes.
"I'm not trying to take her side; I'm trying to take no side at all and just...stop this crazy fighting!"
"Do you have any idea what it's like?!" Twilight sobbed. "These adventures, this exploration...it was always you and me. If we're not on the same side...then...it's like I'm all alone out here!"
Shining Armor sighed. "This is hard for me, too, Twilight."
"Then stop! Stop taking her side! You know she's a jerkface!"
"No, I don't know that, Twilight. I know that she's not-!"
Twilight gasped and her ears pinned backwards.
Shining Armor hastily amended, "She's not all the time-it's pretty much just when she's with you that she acts up, and...it's hurting me more than it hurts you to say this, but...you're the exact same way... Any time you're not around her, you're the sweetest mare I know, you really are. But with her...you're defensive, you're snippy, and you always have to get one up on her. That's not the Twilight I know."
Twilight didn't answer. She stared at Shining Armor with an expression halfway between rage and mourning, and after a moment, tears dripped down her face. "WHY, Shining Armor?! Why are you not on my side?!"
Shining Armor looked at the ground. "Applejack...has just been through the worst two days of her life: she almost died when the wind knocked Sweet Apple Acres' silo down, her brother almost died and got badly injured protecting her from that, she just had her whole life-philosophy trampled on when we got rich from exploring while her family worked their tails off on their farm and still stayed poor, you..." Shining Armor couldn't bring himself to accuse his sister, even though he knew she'd done something very, very cruel to Applejack, he just couldn't tell it to her face-he could tell from her scowl that he didn't need to; she knew what he was going to say. He skipped that one, and instead said, "When she ran away from the apple stand, it meant her family lost all the profits from the whole week, and if it weren't for us, they'd be facing bankruptcy right now."
"You think I haven't had it rough?! The moment we're supposed to be celebrating, Filthy Rich slaps us with Section 63! We could lose everything, and not just the house and our freedom, but all the research, all the exploring you and I did...it'll all come to nothing!"
"We won't let that happen, Twilight," Shining Armor insisted, and tried to close in for a hug.
Twilight backed away, not letting him hug her. "You're not answering my question!" she sobbed. "Why aren't we on the same side, Shining Armor?"
Shining Armor swallowed. "Big Mackintosh knew how much his sister was hurting...he was afraid that, if things got any worse for her...she'd get so upset, she'd...she'd...she'd jump off one of these cliffs and...and end it all."
Twilight snorted. "Good riddance!"
Shining Armor was absolutely horrified. "Don't. Say. THAT!" Shining Armor sobbed back. "Twilight, you are a much better mare than that. Don't say that!"
For a brief moment, Twilight had a look of horrified guilt on her face, then she began to look defensive, then very, very sad. Twilight curled up on the ground and began to cry. Shining Armor couldn't help himself; he wrapped his hooves around his sister and cried with her. He kept whispering to her, "You are a better mare than that, Twilight." Again and again he whispered it, his eyes clamped shut in a vain effort to stop the tears.
Applejack had heard the whole conversation, and the main thing that stuck out in her mind was the moment when Twilight had said that her, throwing herself off a cliff, would be "good riddance". Applejack had wished out loud that Twilight's family would end up on the auction block, but now Twilight was wishing the worst possible death on her? If a bear got her, then at least that way-to-go wouldn't have the agony of self-loathing grief attached to it. But suicide?! Twilight was wishing thaton her?
She looked at Shining Armor as he cradled his sister, and thought to herself, No, she's not a better mare than that, Shining Armor! You just don't want to see it because you're her brother!
She also spotted Twilight's shiny journal, sitting on the ground near the sobbing pair. They were so absorbed by their crying that they didn't realize she was there. Applejack thought to herself, When Twilight got one up on me by splurging a gold coin for an apple, it was huge. I'm going to need something really good to get back at her for that! And if she's got all her private thoughts in that journal, then maybe I can find a way to get one up on her if I take it...
Silently, Applejack crept up to the journal, picked it up, slipped it into her saddlebags, then walked back around the same corner she'd pretended to disappear behind, so that they'd never know she'd been there. She saw a few loose rocks and kicked them loudly with her hoof, so they'd hear her and think that she was just coming back. "Sorry I took so long; that was a big breakfast I had to squeeze out! Big in one end, big out the other, know what I mean?" she innocently said.
The two siblings separated themselves and wiped their faces off, Twilight more embarrassed than Shining Armor was. Shining Armor broke the silence: "Let's get those diamonds already before another storm surprises us-the cave's not far, and none of us are enjoying this day. Once we're back in Ponyville, this'll all be nothing but a bad memory. Come on."
Twilight let out a trembling sigh, put her saddlebags on her back, and took point. Shining Armor went behind her, and Applejack took up the rear.
Once again, they trudged ahead silently-Twilight and Shining Armor because they were exhausted after crying, and Applejack because she didn't want to arouse their suspicions.
In less than half an hour, they were at the cave, and Applejack was absolutely stunned. There were diamonds covering the walls, the floors, even the ceiling. The diamonds were mostly a whitish blue, but every time she moved her head, she thought she saw hints of a rainbow sparkling inside-she'd never seen a rainbow diamond up close before. Her jaw dropped as she drank in the sight, and tears started to well up in her eyes: her family had been suffering through years of poverty, sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears just to try to keep up with the mortgage and keep everypony fed; there hadn't really been plenty since she'd gotten out of school. All that hard work, and in the end, it was Twilight's cavorting outdoors that won the financial game and made her rich! The realization had hit her again.
Loud clink-clink-clinks broke Applejack out of her reverie; Shining Armor and Twilight were using picks to chop away at the walls to loosen diamonds for their packs. Shining Armor wordlessly slid a pick across the ground in Applejack's direction, and she picked it up and began chipping away at the rocks around some diamonds that looked loose.
The work didn't take much brainpower, leaving Applejack's mind to wander...once she came back with her cut of the diamonds, her family would have their mortgage paid a few months ahead. Or maybe they'd just pay the one month, and upgrade some of their farming equipment, instead, so they'd be able to get better income.
Then her mind wandered to how she'd feel once it was done...her crime of leaving the apple stand unattended would be more than paid for at that point, but how would her family feel about the awful things she'd said to them before she left?
No matter how much you screw up, I love you unconditionally. Mom and Dad do, too, even if they have to ask you to do unpleasant things or put up with unpleasant ponies. They still love you.
Those words flashed through her mind from her talk with her brother the night before...and how had she answered their love? She'd said she hoped a grizzly would eat her. They kept saying she didn't mean it, but didn't she? ...Did she mean it? If Twilight would just keep quiet until they got back to Ponyville, then maybe this trip wouldn't be so unpleasant, but that didn't seem likely to Applejack.
After another hour or so of mining gems, all the empty space that had been in their saddlebags coming toward the cave was filled with diamonds for the return trip. But just as they were getting ready to leave the cave, they shrunk back from the last thing Applejack had been expecting that afternoon: an enormous grizzly bear was blocking the cave's entrance!
Applejack was trembling, her eyes wide as saucers, her heart sinking into the pit of her stomach. "I...I didn't mean it!" she whimpered as the bear got closer and closer to her, slavering.
Shining Armor swallowed hard. "Twilight, Applejack, I'm going to distract it. While I do, you two run. Drop your saddlebags if you have to; you can come back for them and for my bags later!"
"But you'll die!" Twilight howled.
"And you won't!" he shouted back, slipping his saddlebags off and pawing the ground, ready to charge the grizzly. "Promise me you two won't fight!" he shouted, expecting those to be his last words.
"NO! There has to be a better way!" Twilight cried. She pulled a diamond out of her bags, and began chanting:
Magic gem with magic might,
Unleash your magic, lovely light!
"You don't know where that'll take us!" Shining Armor shouted.
Through airless space be safely hurled
"You don't even know if that'll do anything!" Applejack cried.
My party to another world!
A dazzling light shone out of the gem Twilight was holding, and a second later, the cave was empty of everything but diamonds and rocks, and the only sound came from small pieces of the diamond Twilight had been holding that went clattering across the cave's floor.