Guilt after the Apologies

Chapter 1: A Rotten Apples Guilt

Hey guys so it recently occurred to me to do another sequel to my first ever fanfic, Apologies After the Love Wave and I'm going through it. I don't expect this story to be more then 10 chapters at most. The other sequel took farther in the future after the MLP movie. I thought it could be interesting to imagine what sort of things might have happened between Canterlot Wedding and the Crystal Empire. Don't know long that was between those, a month maybe? It has occurred to me to have something like the Tantabus feed off the Mane 5's guilt for what they did to Twilight but we'll see. I'm open to ideas for a villain on this little saga to make things interesting. Maybe some changelings come for revenge? We'll see.

Applejack felt herself hit the ground hard. She was unable to hold back her tears and looked up at her attacker. Twilight Sparkle glared down at her, no friendliness in her eyes. Applejack gave her a pleading look.

"Please Twilight! I'm sorry!" Applejack begged.

"Sorry? You think sorry is enough for what you and the others did?" Twilight roared. "You abandoned me! For somepony you had just met!"

Applejack had no retort. She and her friends as well as Princess Celestia and Spike had all walked out on Twilight after the unicorn accused Princess Cadance of being evil. Twilight hadn't had proof though and her brother Shining Armor angrily told her off and banned from the wedding altogether. Instead of comforting her friend, Applejack had told everyone to leave. She'd been angry after all the hard work she'd done for the wedding of Twilight's brother, only for Twilight to make such a scene being possessive of Shining Armor.

"Twilight, ah got no excuse," she said. "I was mad at ya for making those accusations that made Princess Cadance cry, and after all the work we did for her and your brother's wedding! I thought you were in the wrong!"

"While I wasn't!" Twilight reminded her. "Cadance was a fake! You should have listened to me!"

"Yeah, ah should have," Applejack said.

Twilight then took Applejack in her magic again and threw her against the wall nearby as well. The Earth Pony grunted, she was already quite battered.

"You are no longer my friend!" Twilight said. "And neither are the others!"

She then turned and walked out of the wedding hall. Applejack weakly reached out, tears escaping her eyes.

"Twilight… I…"

"AJ wake up!" somepony said.

Applejack felt herself being shaken and opened. She was in her room in Canterlot Castle with Rainbow Dash, her roommate looking down at her with concerned eyes that were visible from the moon outside.

"You okay?" Rainbow asked. "You were talking in your sleep.

"Ah had a bad dream," Applejack said. "Twilight was throwing me around with her magic and saying ah was no longer her friend."

"That's the third bad dream you've had in four nights," Rainbow Dash said.

She couldn't bring herself to say 'Twilight forgave us jus let it go.' She too was feeling guilty over how she had walked out on their friend after her brother banned her from the wedding for her outburst against 'Cadance'.

Applejack recalled her first dream two nights ago.

Everypony walked into the wedding hall only to find Twilight Sparkle's lifeless body.

"Twilight!" Pinkie screamed. "No! What happened?"

Cadance suddenly entered the room, laughing evilly. She then turned into her true form.

"With the Element of Magic dead, I can freely conquer Equestria!" Chrysalis said. "Lower your shield Shining Armor!"

The groom did so, his eyes glowing green.

In another dream, Applejack saw her sister being held captive by the changelings.

"Applejack, help!" Applebloom screamed.

The insect like creatures drained her love. Then she saw Big Macintosh and Granny Smith as well as her parents.

"You turned your back on a friend that needed comfort!" Bright Mac said. "That's the most dishonest thing anypony can do!"

"I'm ashamed of you Applejack!" Buttercup said as she looked at her daughter.

"Darn tooting! You're a bane on this family!" Granny Smith said.

"Yep!" Big Mac agreed.

Applejack sighed. Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her.

"Why are you the one having nightmares, AJ?" the Pegasus asked.

"Probably cause I'm feeling the most guilty," Applejack said. "Ah mean I'm the one that told all of you to go and check on the princess rather then comfort our friend when she needed it."

Rainbow Dash looked down. "You may have told us to do it, but we choose it ourselves. We all thought she was just being possessive of her brother and mean to the bride! Of course, that probably doesn't excuse our behavior."

"It sure don't," Applejack said. "We were putting ourselves before our friendship with Twilight. Ah mean you had the chance to do a Sonic Rainboom and show off your flying to the Wonderbolts as well as all of Canterlot and Ah had the chance to make up for the loss at the Grand Galloping Gala when I wanted to sell a bunch of apple products."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah we were being pretty bad. We gave that imposter the benefit of the doubt but we didn't the same for Twilight. We're lucky she's so forgiving. I mean, this feels like we really crossed the line here."

"We sure did," Applejack said. "And we still have a bit more of Canterlot to clean up from the attack. I feel like such a rotten apple. This whole mess was my-"

Rainbow Dash put a hoof over her mouth. "OUR fault," she corrected her.

Applejack sighed and looked outside. It had been five days since the attack happened and they quickly got the wedding back on track. Princess Cadance had assigned them to community service when she learned the truth of what happened. Applejack's family had returned to Ponyville without her. Twilight hadn't been required to stay in Canterlot since only her friends had community service since this whole mess was their fault for not listening to her. But Twilight had stayed to help repair her home regardless. The only difference was she was being paid by Princess Celestia for her efforts.

At least most of the damage was repaired, just a few more buildings needed patching up.

Applejack remembered when they'd had dinner with Celestia the night after the wedding.

They'd just finished their first day of community service and been invited to the castle to dine with the Princess. The ruler of Equestria sat at the head of the table with Spike at the other end and Twilight on the princesses right. Celestia looked at her student with remorse.

"Once again Twilight I'm very sorry for not listening to you," the alicorn said bowing her head.

"You don't need to keep saying that, Princess," Twilight said with a small smile though her eyes still showed sadness.

"But I feel I must. Those words I said to you were so cold," Celestia said. "And you had already gotten quite a verbal beating from your brother."

She sighed, and levitated a chest up onto the table before Twilight.

"What's this?" the unicorn asked.

"Your reward," Celestia said. "For saving my city. A thousand bits."

That was four times as much as all of them had gotten for defeating Discord!

"Oh Celestia you don't need to..."

"Please accept it," the Princess said with pleading eyes. "It will make me feel better. And you did save a member of the royal family as well."

She then sniffled, tears escaping her eyes.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight gasped in concern and got up from her chair and wrapping her hooves around her mentor.

"Oh Twilight I just can't be strong right now!" Celestia sobbed. "I could have lost you! The queen could have killed you when she had you alone! I could have lost Cadance as well if she was left in the caverns! I love both of you so much! You are like a daughter to me, yet I chose to comfort my adoptive niece instead! Then I just told you you had a lot to think about and then a real wedding to put together instead of apologizing first thing!"

"Princess Celestia, that wasn't your fault," Twilight said. "You were under the effects of Cadance's love spell when it spread over Canterlot!"

"Actually it was bad script writing!" Pinkie said breaking the fourth wall. "Those above wouldn't let us get a good apology in! Damn you writers!"

The others didn't hear her speak out into the world beyond the humble screen. They did however look down sadly.

Celestia hugged her student as her tears still flowed. "I'm just glad you're alright now Twilight! I've lived a thousand years but this is the second greatest mistake I feel I've ever made right after banishing my sister and not being there for her."

Twilight said nothing, unable to think of any words that might comfort her mentor.

"Twilight, darling, I feel I simply must do something to make up for how badly I treated you!" Rarity said.

"Me too," Applejack said.

"Me three" Rainbow Dash said.

"Um, me four?" Fluttershy said.

"Me five!" Pinkie said happily before her smile vanished.

Spike didn't say anything but nodded.

Twilight sighed as she pulled away from her mentor. She wanted to tell them it wasn't necessary but seeing their sad faces knew she needed to let them try.

"Alright, just don't go overboard," she said. "Just one gift or something will be enough."

She hesitated for a moment and then hugged Applejack.

"I don't blame you for what you did Applejack," Twilight said. "Like I said yesterday I would have walked out on all of you too if you'd accused Cadance of being evil without proof."

"You knew her though, you would have been comforting a longtime friend. We were just looking out for our own interests," Applejack said then sighed. "We can't change the past, but we can better the future. I swear as an Apple I won't rest until this mistake is rectified! Honest Honor!"

Applejack sighed. Today was her last day of community service where the repairs around Canterlot would be completed. When she got back to Ponyville she'd make things right with Twilight. Get some of her best apples and make Apple Pie, maybe even cider as well. It might be the best this time of year but it would probably still be good. She could even make sure Twilight gets the very first flask of cider. Whatever it took to get over this awful feeling of guilt. The hug from Twilight had helped but didn't absolve her of it.

She knew her friends were all feeling the same as well, and Celestia, Shining Armor and Spike too.