Princesses of Equestria

Chapter 18: Honesty, Laughter and Loyalty

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

Howdy. Applejack here. Yeah, I know y'all can't get this letter where you are, same as I know Spike can't send it. The ... what did Twilight call it? The 'Silent Realm beyond time and space' is also beyond the reach of any postal service. But here I am, writing this anyway. Princess's orders.

Twilight's got us all writing letters. She calls it a 'morale enhancement exercise'. I sure won't deny we need some enhanced morale after Armonia sucker-bucked us yesterday.

Twilight and Discord put their heads together, and figured our so-called 'Queen' must've breached the ward round Equinox Greens and sicced her phobo-man-see on us. They also figured that was all Armonia did before she got the door slammed in her face by whatever's keeping the ward running. Twilight and Discord mentioned a 'guardian', but then they started using words like 'mutual thaumaturgic repulsion' and 'phobomantic sentience relative to casting distances' and the conversation went where nopony else could follow.

I learned this much, though: we got lucky. Armonia weren't able to send more than a puff of poisoned air in, and that puff nearly had our number.

I won't ever forget what she showed me. Sweet Apple Acres in flames. My family, begging for my help. Granny Smith ... Big Mac ... Apple Bloom ...

Pull yourself together, Applejack. Shadows and lies, that's all it is. Armonia's magic trying to play my worries like a banjo from Tartarus. Truth is though, my worries got played real good. If it weren't for Discord and his evaporation hex, I'd be an Applejack-shaped statue right about now.

And if Armonia had been in that cave with us ... that would've been the end of it. A right hard truth to swallow, but there it is. We can't beat her. Yet.

I'll let y'all in on a little secret. I've been practicing magic. Yeah, I know how strange that sounds; I could hardly believe it myself when it first happened. We'd just reached the cave's exit, only to find a bunch of fallen rocks in the way. Bunged up our tunnel worse than a stomach-full of rotten crab apples.

Discord could've cleared it in a fingersnap of course ... if he hadn't been mighty pooped by saving our hides a minute ago. Twilight and Rarity didn't feel so swell either, and reckoned it'd take at least two hours to move all those durned rocks without bringing down the ceiling too.

I'm ashamed to say I lost my head then. Equestria's last hope for salvation nearly outfoxed by some magic smoke, then stopped cold by oversized pebbles?

I bucked the gosh-darned things before anypony could bat an eye. Knew it wouldn't make a difference. Rainbow had already tried hitting them, but they were packed too tight. I'd just hurt my hooves some. Only I didn't.

Instead, I used magic.

It just ... happened. My chest felt warm. My Element spoke the truth. We were hanging by a thread, same as we had when Spike had been petrified. If we faced too many little defeats like this, we'd come apart a thread at a time.

And by gumption, I weren't gonna let that happen if it was the last thing I ever did.

Next thing I knew, the earth around me was humming in my bones. I knew what to do. I hummed along, bucked again, held onto that heat in my chest, and thought one simple thing:

"Go on, git!"

When the dust cleared, so had the cave's exit. That got everypony staring, and Twilight yammering on about "latent elemental affinities unlocked by proximity to their source point!" and somesuch. I didn't quite follow. What I did know was I'd made five whole tons of stone move by bucking 'em. That and the hooves I'd bucked 'em with were armored in amethyst.