"No, Rainbow, you gotta bend from the front when you kick from the back," Applejack said, sipping her apple juice in the shade of an apple tree. It was Applebuck Season again, and this year she hadn't hesitated to ask her friends for help, even though Big Macintosh was in fine health. More hooves just made the work easier; they were getting done in less than half the time. But this year, when she wasn't so desperate, she found herself becoming more discerning.

Rainbow Dash growled, her hindquarters facing another apple tree a ways yonder. "As long as the apples fall down from the tree, it works, right?" The sky-blue pegasus gave the tree a kick with her back legs, causing a thundering rumble of beautiful red apples to fall from the branches into waiting wooden buckets on the ground.

The orange earth pony shook her head. "It ain't the apples that concern me here, it's you," she said. Her weathered brown cowcolt's hat was tilted back on her head, offering her even more shade and respite from the heat of the sun. "Buckin' with a bad technique is a recipe for trouble. You'll just wind up hurtin' yourself in the long run."

"Bucking is easy! Everypony does it! It's instinct!"

"Everypony does it, but not everypony does it right," Applejack retorted. "And you gotta do it right if you're gonna do it a lot. You train, you work out, you know that." She rose to her hooves and trotted over to her friend, positioning her hindquarters to face the tree. "You can't straighten your front legs out - it locks 'em and makes all the force shudder down 'em. You'll get bone fractures if you keep it up. You gotta bend at the front - distribute the force."

"I don't do this all year," Dash said. "It's just for a few weeks every summer."

"A few weeks every summer, year after year," Applejack answered again. "It adds up." She bent her front legs, threw back her back legs, and bucked, striking the trunk of the tree with her back hooves. A massive shudder wound through the apple tree, and a few more apples at the highest branches tumbled down to join the others in the buckets. "Good technique makes good work, too. Better than bad technique, and less effort."

Dash rolled her eyes. "What are you, my coach? I don't... hey, it's Derpy."

Applejack followed her friend's eyes up into the sky. A light gray pegasus was descending toward them in wheeling circles. Her blond mane and tail were flying wildly in the breeze, and her golden eyes were canted in wildly separate directions, one going up, the other going down. When she got to the ground, she streaked along the grass before skidding face-first into the dirt in front of the two ponies. She rose to a sitting position, smiling the widest and most innocent smile you could imagine. "Pip pip, cheerio!" she exclaimed. She dug into the leather saddlebags around her flanks, her hooves rifling through letters and small parcels. "Spoiler alert! You are Revan!"

"That's... that's great, Derpy!" Rainbow Dash said with a slightly nervous smile. She never quite knew what to make of Derpy Hooves. The pegasus was crazy, and not even crazy like Pinkie Pie. However, like Pinkie Pie, she was mostly harmless. Mostly. "So whaddya got?"

Derpy's hoof came out of her saddlebag wrapped around a weathered yellow envelope. It was addressed to Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville, but there was no name to go with the address. Also, there was no return address. But the postmark... "It's from Appleloosa!" Applejack exclaimed, snatching the letter away with her mouth. She turned back to the mailpony. "Sorry, Derpy, I ain't got no muffins, but here," and she used her tail to flick an apple in Derpy's direction.

Derpy caught it in her mouth. "Porkpie!" she said through her teeth. With a rapid flutter of her wings, she was airborne again, climbing in the same looping circles that she had landed with.

Rainbow Dash turned to the letter. "Appleloosa? You think it's from Braeburn?"

"I suppose it could be," Applejack said. She had a strange, sinking feeling that this was not the case. Braeburn would not have forgotten a return address, not unless he had been particularly scatterbrained that day, and even in that case, he wouldn't have left off her or Big Macintosh's name. Setting the letter on the ground, she tore it open with her teeth and yanked out the folded letter. It too was weathered and yellow, and appeared to have a large brown stain dried across it. Unfolding the paper, Applejack read. It wasn't very long.

Dear HC,

Found you. I got your little Braeburn.

If you want him safe and sound, come

alone to the old place. Let's finish this.

LL



"Who's 'LL'?" Rainbow Dash said, reading the letter over. "And he's got Braeburn? As in kidnapped?! We gotta do something! Applejack, we... Applejack?"

The orange earth pony was still staring down at the letter, her green eyes set in a stern expression. Her mouth was a grim line. She slowly folded the letter back up and stuffed it back in the envelope. Slipping the envelope under her hat, she turned toward the entrance to the north orchard, the great old barn and the farmhouse visible in the distance. "Rainbow, I gotta go."

"Go? Go where? To Appleloosa?" the sky-blue pegasus exclaimed. "Well, duh! I'll go get Twilight and the others -"

"No you won't," Applejack said in a flat voice. "I gotta go alone."

"You can't seriously believe that! It's obviously some kind of trap! And it's not even addressed to you - it's for 'HC,' whoever that is!"

"I knew 'em a long time ago," Applejack said. "Ain't seen 'em in a while. But the letter's pretty clear, ain't it? Come alone. So I will."

"No way!" Rainbow Dash said. "I'm telling Twilight!"

"Rainbow, wait -" But before Applejack could say any more, Rainbow Dash had shot into the sky in a rainbow streak. Applejack sighed. Now she'd have to do more talking. But at least she had a little time to get her effects together. She hoped they were still where she had left them.

• • •

Big Macintosh was rifling through the pantry in the farmhouse kitchen when he heard the screen door close. Setting down the jar of pickles, he poked his big red head out of the double doors and through the kitchen doorway. His younger sister had entered the house and was headed through the sitting room, headed for the hall. "AJ?" Big Mac called. "Y'all done in the north orchard?"

"Nope," Applejack said. "Say Mac, you or Granny Smith clean out the old guest room closet lately?"

"The guest room closet?" Big Mac said, putting a hoof to his chin. "I don't reckon we have. Not for a long while, anyway."

"Good," Applejack said, moving through the sitting room. Without another word, she disappeared from his line of sight.

She was being so... direct. No humor to her voice, none of her usual energy. Worried, Big Macintosh left the kitchen, turning down the hallway. Passing the old nursery and Granny Smith's room, he reached the guest bedroom at the end and walked inside; the curtains were drawn, making the space dim and gloomy. The room still had the decorations their mother had arranged in her determination to make the guest room the fanciest room in the house: the comforter on the bed was lacy at the fringes, the pillows were silk, there were Griffonese decorative plates on shelves along the wall. The large closet was open, and Applejack was standing on a chair deep inside it, reared up on her back legs and using her front hooves to push through piled boxes and wrapped brown paper bundles on the closet's upper shelf.

What could she be lookin' for in there? Big Macintosh wondered. "AJ?" he called.

"You sure no one cleaned this place out, Mac?" his sister said without turning around.

"I'm sure," he said. She was obviously looking for something that had been in there a while, piled up near the back of the top shelf - his eyes widened. "You ain't lookin' for what I think you're lookin' for, are you?"

There was no response for a moment. He was about to go into the closet when Applejack emerged from it, clutching a large brown paper bag in her mouth. "Not lookin' for - found."

"You said you never wanted to see that stuff again. I had to talk you outta burnin' it."

"And I'm mighty glad I didn't, now," Applejack said.

"But why?"

She nodded toward the bed. A letter was laid out on it. Big Macintosh read it very quickly. "So he's back."

"And he's got Braeburn," Applejack said.

"I'm comin' with you," Big Macintosh said.

"You do, and Braeburn's a goner," Applejack said.

"You don't reckon he'd actually kill 'im, do you?" the red earth pony said. "He could just be bluffin'."

"He ain't bluffin'," Applejack said.

"You can't tell that from writin'."

"I can tell," the orange earth pony said grimly. "He's already gone far enough to kidnap Braeburn - he wouldn't have done that before."

"Then I definitely gotta go with you," Big Macintosh said. "You're walkin' into a trap, AJ. You need some backup."

"If I need some, I can get it in Appleloosa," she said. "And you gotta stay and keep the applebuckin' goin'." She dropped the bag and gave him a slanted smile. "Besides, I've handled 'im before all by my lonesome."

"Like you said, though, it sounds like he's changed. He ain't the same pony you dragged to the marshals."

"Sure, he's changed," she said, picking up the bag again. She headed toward the door. "But so have I."

When Applejack opened the front door of the farmhouse, her five friends were standing in the yard. "Applejack!" Twilight Sparkle called, seeing her friend. She noticed the saddlebags around the orange earth pony's flanks. "Rainbow Dash told us about the letter! You can't go alone!"

"I gotta," Applejack said.

"Dearest, at least tell us what's going on!" Rarity exclaimed. "Who is this 'LL' character? Do you know him?"

A grim look passed over Applejack's face. "He's somepony I gotta see to alone. If Rainbow told you about the letter, you'll know he don't want no other pony comin'."

"Absolutely not!" Twilight Sparkle said. "Applejack, you know better than this! You don't have to do this alone."

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Please don't, Applejack!" Fluttershy said.

"Yes, Applejack, let us help!" Rarity said.

"Good luck, Applejack!" Pinkie Pie said.

The four ponies turned to her. "Pinkie Pie, we don't want her to go off alone!" Dash said.

"But she has to, Dash!" the pink earth pony said. She bounced over to Applejack until she was right in front of her; walking closer, Pinkie went nose-to-nose with her friend. Her brilliant blue eyes stared deeply into Applejack's. The orange earth pony kept her gaze steady. Pinkie Pie nodded. "Yup, she has to do it alone. She's not being stubborn."

Twilight gave Pinkie an incredulous look. "She won't let us come! How is that not stubborn?"

"Because she's being nice to us," Pinkie Pie said. She turned back to her other friends. "Other ponies don't belong at a reckoning."

The final word carried an... icy quality, even from Pinkie Pie's cheerful delivery. Applejack gave her friends a pleading expression. "Please, y'all. I love when y'all offer to help me. I know I'm stubborn..." she looked away, "...and silly... and all manner o' foolish prideful things. And y'all have helped me get a lot better. But... I can't let y'all help with this. This isn't just somethin' I want to do alone - this is somethin' I gotta do alone."

Her friends looked hard into her eyes. Applejack looked hard right back. Sighing, Twilight's horn shimmered. The lavender unicorn willed a brilliant white spark into existence, then forged a clear crystal to enclose it. She floated the crystal over to Applejack. "That's an alert spell. If you're in real trouble - if you really need help - break the crystal, and I'll know."

Applejack smiled. "Thank you, sugarcube. I hope I won't need it." She flipped open her left saddlebag. As she placed the crystal inside, Rarity caught a glimpse of black. The saddlebag closed, and it was gone. "Now if y'all don't mind, I gotta get goin'. I gotta hurry if I'm gonna make the last train to Appleloosa today."

"Please be safe!" Fluttershy cried, rushing in to nuzzle her. The others massed for a group hug. Applejack sighed pleasantly, relishing the smell and the feel of friends. It might be the last I get for a while, she thought. "Thank you all. I reckon I'll see y'all later. Big Macintosh is in charge o' the farm while I'm gone, and he'll help y'all through the rest o' applebuckin' 'til I get back." As her friends parted around her, she broke into a trot. Reaching the gate of the yard, she turned around and gave them one last look. They were waving their hooves at her. She smiled warmly and set off, breaking into a gallop. She maintained it for about ten minutes, until she was well on the road into Ponyville. Up ahead, the road forked, the rightmost fork labeled with the sign indicating the train station. She stopped at the fork, looking carefully every which way. Making sure nopony was in sight, she slipped out of her saddlebags and opened them. I might as well change here.

• • •

Tappertrim sighed, pressing her snout against the window of the train. The country rushing by outside was flat and brown, baked by the sun and whipped by hot wind. Other than the occasional cactus, nothing grew. She had seen a buffalo herd earlier, and that had been terribly exciting, but now she was just bored. Her bright green coat was contrasted by the white bonnet she wore on her head. "Mama," she said, "when are we going to get to Appleloosa?"

"It won't be too much longer, honey," her mother said. She was curled up on the bench next to Tappertrim, working on her knitting. "Just think how excited your cousin Bouncy Bubbles will be to see you! And aunt Shine will just love to see how you've grown!"

"She'll probably smoosh my face," Tappertrim groused, "and talk to me like a baby."

"She hasn't seen you since you were a foal, honey," her mother said. "She won't have any idea what to do with you."

Tappertrim sighed again. "Can I have a sucker?"

"Not another one, honey, we have to save them for aunt Shine."

"Shoot!" Tappertrim cried. Sliding down from her seat, she walked to the door of the compartment and out into the aisle. The compartment across from hers also had its door open. A lone pony was sitting on the right bench seat, leaned against the corner near the window. Cautiously Tappertrim crept inside.

The pony on the seat appeared to be asleep. It was a filly, with an orange coat and a straw-blond mane and tail. Her cutie mark was obscured by a black poncho swaddling her body. A black, wide-brimmed cowcolt's hat was tipped low over her eyes. Tappertrim, fascinated, crept closer. She looked so mysterious. She was right in front of the pony now. Upon closer inspection, she could make out glimpses of a black belt through the poncho, wrapped around her hindquarters.

"H'llo there."

"Eep!" Tappertrim squeaked, jumping all the way back into the other seat.

"Tappertrim!" her mother's voice came from the entrance to the compartment. The blue earth pony had a very cross expression on her face. "You get back here this instant!" She turned to the pony in black. "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am."

"T'ain't no trouble, ma'am," the pony in black said, tipping back her hat and raising her head. Her eyes were brilliant light green. "It was about time I woke up, anyway. Can I trouble you for the time?"

Tappertrim's mother glanced at a clock on the wall of the cabin. "It's almost two o'clock."

"And we're due in Appleloosa by two thirty," the pony in black remarked. She sighed a very weary sigh.

"Are you all right?" Tappertrim asked, in the blunt way children do.

The pony in black half-lidded her eyes. "I hope to be."

• • •

Hardshackle pawed the earth with a hoof across the street from the train station. Ponies from the Equestria Special were disembarking, streaming out, blinking in the blinding afternoon sun. Colts, stallions, fillies, mares, foals, meeting family at the entrance, or proceeding alone into town. But none of them were who he sought.

Long Lasso said she would be coming today or tomorrow, he thought, chewing on his cigarillo. He balanced it out on his front hoof, blowing a cloud of smoke. His brown felt cowcolt's hat was making him hot, but at least it kept the sun out of his eyes. His dark purple coat wasn't good for dealing with the sun. He didn't even like this dusty, hellish place; he was originally from Stalliongrad, accustomed to his old job as an enforcer for the Marefia. It was entirely too bright here, and entirely too warm. But the pay was good; not great, but good. He tapped the earth with his other hoof, upon which was fixed an iron horseshoe. Long Lasso had said that she would probably come quietly, but that he should be prepared to use force. Besides, he hadn't made anything hurt in a while. The itch was coming back.

Suddenly, an iron noose tightened around his neck. He was snapped off his feet, flying backward through the air, into the alley between saloon and general store. He finally stopped flying, tumbling into a rolling, dusty heap. He landed on his belly, legs splayed every which way. The noose loosened from his neck. A whipple through the air drew itself away from him, and he glanced up. Standing before him was an orange earth pony with a black poncho around her body and a black cowcolt's hat on her head. The poncho briefly blew open, revealing a black belt around her flanks. A black lasso was strapped to each side. Her green eyes were hard and cold.

All he could think to say was, "You're Hard Cider?"

"Reckon I am," she said. Her tail snaked around and plucked the cigarillo from his mouth; she transferred it to her hoof, and stuck it between her own teeth. "Now you wouldn't happen to know where your boss is holed up, would you?"

"He said you'd already know -"

A rap on the forehead from her front hoof made him see stars. "Pretend I don't. And pretend I don't trust 'im."

Hardshackle saw no point in holding out. He'd already been paid plenty. "He's in the old box canyon west of town! In the hideout in the rock!"

She lowered her head and gave him a hard stare. She blew a cloud of smoke into his face. "Reckon I'll pay 'im a visit," she said. "If you're in town when I get back, I'll break your legs." She turned and walked past him, out of the alley. Hardshackle waited until her hoofbeats were gone from his hearing. Rising to his hooves, he looked across the street to the train station. The last train for Fillydelphia was just starting to board. He decided to be on it.

• • •

The pony in black trotted across the desert, moving quickly but not galloping, keeping an easy pace. It was hot and dry, especially in her black, but she paid it no mind. She had no fear of sweat. Buzzards wheeled overhead, seeing her alone and hoping for the worst. A lizard crossed her path at one point; its empty eye tilted up to meet her gaze, caring nothing for her. She let it go. In the distance, red sandstone rose in towers, casting long, long shadows across the barren earth. I reckoned I'd see more mooks, she thought. Guess he don't have that much money.

By the time evening arrived, she had reached the box canyon, its tall walls rising around her. She was trotting through a narrow pass when two ponies sprang out from amid the rock. One was gray and one was yellow. The gray one was a unicorn, and his horn shimmered, while the yellow earth pony aimed a bow-and-arrow at her with his front hooves. "Hooves in the air, filly!" the yellow one barked. "No funny business."

The pony in black chuckled. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"

"You're comin' with us," the gray one said.

The pony in black sat back on her haunches, raising her front hooves in the air. The two ponies began to inch toward her, the yellow one balancing carefully on his back hooves. She smiled. "Just so y'all know," she said, "this ain't my first rodeo."

She snapped her head to her left side, while her tail whipped to her right. Faster than either of her attackers could blink, she had a lasso in her mouth and a lasso in her tail. The black ropes whipped out like snakes, wrapping around the front hooves of the pony with the bow and choking the unicorn around the neck. With an immensely strong tug, she yanked both of them toward her; rolling back, she was clear of them when they collided with each other.

Trotting up to the piled heap, the pony in black pressed her front hoof into the unicorn's head. "Now, tell me if there's any more o' y'all."

The unicorn spat at her.

She slashed the edge of her hoof across his brow, cutting it open; blood spilled down his face. She gave the yellow earth pony a stony glare. "Please!" he screamed. "It's just us! He ain't got no money for more!"

She smiled grimly. "Thank ya kindly," she said. She slammed her front hooves down on their heads, knocking them unconscious. She wiped her left hoof in the dirt, trying to get off some of the blood. She picked up her lassos with her mouth and her tail and whipped them around her, coiling them both at her sides simultaneously. Her poncho fluttered at the sudden breeze in the otherwise dead air. The pony in black set her sights on the end of the canyon, now just visible. She trotted on.

Reaching the wall of rock, she picked her way through the crags she still remembered, finding the hidden crevice that led into the sandstone. Looking up, she saw the winding stone path, switchbacking up into the darkness. She sniffed the air. No smell of any other ponies. She began to climb. The higher she got, the darker it grew. But when she reached about the midway point, there was a faint light shining down from above. It grew brighter the higher she got, until it easily illuminated her path.

"Sandy Shores! Breakpoint! Y'all were supposed to stay put 'til sundown!"

She knew that voice.

She galloped the rest of the way up the path. "'Fraid they were indisposed," she growled.

"Hard Cider!" The cave was lit by torches mounted on sconces in the sandstone walls. Bags of apples were stacked against one wall, and at the other some blankets and pillows were jumbled. In the middle there was a great stone slab, roughly rectangular in shape. On it, a sandy yellow earth pony with a lanky frame was hog-tied.

He turned his head toward the pony in black. "Cousin Applejack!" he cried. "You are sure as shootin' a sight for sore eyes!"

Hard Cider nodded. "Braeburn, you all right?"

"I -"

Before he could say more, a knife came out of the shadows and was at his throat. It was grasped in the tail of a dark blue earth pony. He wore a black cowcolt's hat on his head and a brown bandana around his neck. A long scar ran down the right side of his face. The images of twin nooses adorned his flanks. His dark red eyes had a wildness in them. "He ain't goin' nowhere."

Hard Cider chewed the cigarillo in her mouth. "Let 'im go, Long Lasso. You got me - I'm here."

"And I gotta keep 'im to make sure you stay here, Hard Cider - or is it Applejack?" he growled. "What do you call yourself these days? Was that name just one more lie?"

"I was never the liar in our partnership," Hard Cider said.

"You knew what I wanted," Long Lasso growled. "We were gonna split up this country! It was all gonna be ours! I never made any bones about that!"

"You made out like we were gonna do honest business!" Hard Cider said. "I went in for that. I didn't go in for thuggin' and lawlessness."

Long Lasso laughed. "Not for lawlessness? You? You broke as much law as I did!"

Hard Cider smiled. She spat out her cigarillo. "Yes... I reckon I did. But that was when the law was wrong, Long Lasso. Lawbreakin' was the only way to be honest back then. I took it as makin' lawless behavior necessary. I never took it as an excuse to be just as bad as the law." She growled. "Not like you. I shoulda seen you goin' bad sooner. I coulda stopped you before you went so far."

"Or is it just that you liked it for a while?" Long Lasso said. "You stopped me because you got tired o' me, Cider. Up to that point you had no problem."

"I didn't know!" Hard Cider said. "I was always aimin' to do right, Long Lasso. That's why I wanted to make Appleloosa rich with you. That's why I went along with your lawbreakin' at first. And that's why I went in with the law when I realized what you were. You weren't right, Long - you never were."

A flicker of pain came over his face. "Never?" he repeated with a voice like ash. "Never?"

Hard Cider was unflinching. "Never."

Long Lasso shook himself. "Do you know how long I spent trackin' you down?" he said. "Two years! You never did tell us where you came from, so I had no idea how to find you. It was just luck I saw your picture in the Apple Branch, with all your friends. Includin' your little cousin, here." He pressed the knife closer to Braeburn's throat.

Hard Cider's eyes wavered. She sighed. "That just proves my point," she said. "I don't know how you got out o' jail so fast, but you spent the whole past two years lookin' for me? You got free, Long. Why didn't you go somewhere new, start fresh? Revenge ain't good for nopony. You could have built a whole new life in two years' time."

"I didn't want a new life!" he spat. "I wanted my old life back! The life you took from me!"

"You can never get it back!" Hard Cider said. "Give it up!"

"No!" Long Lasso yelled in a strangled voice. "You took everythin' from me, Cider. I trusted you - I made you my compadre - you took everything!" His wild red eyes flicked down to Braeburn. "The least I can do is take somethin' from you."

"I thought it was me you wanted," Hard Cider said.

"I wanted you here to see it," he said.

"Don't even try," she said.

Their eyes were locked for an eternity. Long Lasso's breath was ragged; Hard Cider's was soft and smooth. Both of them were tensed like coiled springs.

Long Lasso's tail tightened -

Like lightning Hard Cider's lasso shot out, closing around the blue pony's tail and jerking it to the side; the knife flew away. The pony in black charged, leaping over Braeburn into Long Lasso. The two ponies wrestled, rolling in the dirt. Long Lasso bit her on the withers, but she responded by headbutting him, then clocking him in the groin with her back leg. Whimpering, he bent at the waist, so she freed her front hooves and began to strike him, again and again across the face. He rolled off her, but she got to her haunches and still she hit him, releasing four years' worth of betrayed feelings and backstabbing and trying to hurt her.

"Applejack!" Braeburn's voice called, bringing her back to her senses. She was panting, and there was a ringing in her ears. Long Lasso's face was a bruised mess. Rising to her four hooves, she looked about until she spotted some rope against the wall. She tied the dark blue earth pony up hog-style, cinching the rope as tight as she could. She trotted over to Braeburn, picking up the discarded knife with her tail and using it to cut the rope around his legs.

"You all right, Braeburn?" Hard Cider asked.

Braeburn raised a hoof to his neck. A small trickle of blood ran down it; he gasped.

"Just a surface cut," said Hard Cider. "You're fine."

"I reckon I'm mighty lucky," he said softly.

She gave him a grim smile. "You're not lucky. I'm just that good."

"Which makes me lucky that you were here," he said. "Applejack..." He looked past her to the bound Long Lasso. "What was that all about?"

Hard Cider averted her eyes. "That time I visited you... bringin' Bloomberg... it weren't my first time in Appleloosa."

Braeburn's eyes widened. "That's not a story I ever heard before."

"And maybe you won't hear it ever," she said.

"Cousin," he said. "Please tell me."

Hard Cider sighed. "It's a real long story, too..."

"Well we got an awful long walk back into town."

Her green eyes stopped being grim and cold for a moment; they lit up. "I reckon I oughta tell somepony," Applejack said. "I mean, Big Macintosh knows some of it. But I ain't never told anypony all of it."

Braeburn smiled. "You gotta start somewhere, cuz."

"You bleedin' foals are gonna make me sick!" Long Lasso spat.

Hard Cider whirled back toward him. "Hold your tongue and act polite, Long. Or maybe I won't tell the sheriff you're up here."

Long Lasso's red eyes widened. "My colts'll come for me."

"I reckon they won't," said the pony in black. "I reckon they'll take off. Not even the buzzards'll find you up here, Long." Her grim mouth loosened a bit. "But I'm not feelin' in a killin' mood. I don't much these days." She let her gaze wander to a crudely constructed wooden desk at the back of the cave. A box on top of it caught her eye; wandering over, she noticed it was full of cigarillos.

"Applejack?" Braeburn asked. "Can... can we get goin' now?"

The pony in black turned back to him. "Yeah, Braeburn. Let's get home."

• • •

Twilight Sparkle used her magic to lift the last of the apples from the last of the trees in the west orchard. They floated through the air, shimmering in the aura of her telekinesis, and deposited themselves neatly in the buckets on the grass. The lavender unicorn wiped her brow with a hoof. Even if it wasn't physical exertion, sustained magic usage took its toll on the body.

"Who wants lemonade?" Spike called, walking down the hill with a tray of cups.

"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash cried, darting over to the small purple dragon; she grabbed a cup between her hooves and began to chug the cool, sweet beverage. Rarity levitated a cup to her with her magic and began to daintily sip. Pinkie Pie poured it down her throat, while Fluttershy lapped it gently.

Twilight made a straw out of magic and began to suck. "This is great, Spike!" she said.

"I agree," Rarity said. "You've risen to the occasion marvelously, Spike."

Spike's green eyes lit up. "You really think so, Rarity?!"

She smiled. "I do indeed."

"I don't suppose there's any o' that left for me?"

The five ponies and one dragon turned sharply at the voice. Applejack walked slowly down the hill, the sun shining on her bare orange body, her triple apple cutie mark ruby red in the sun; her brown cowcolt's hat was tilted back on her head. Her green eyes were bright.

"APPLEJACK!" the six of them yelled, putting aside the lemonade to rush at her. They enveloped her in a hug, each of them struggling to touch her and make sure she was real. She had been gone a week, and they had heard nothing of her in that time.

"Are you all right, darling?" Rarity asked.

"I'm fine, Rarity, don't you worry," the orange earth pony said.

"What happened to Braeburn?" Twilight asked. "Is he okay?"

"He's safe and sound," Applejack said. "A little shook up, but safe and sound."

"And 'LL'?" Fluttershy asked. "What happened to him?"

Applejack looked at the ground for a moment. She spoke slowly. "He's... put away. He can't hurt nopony no more."

"So you reckoned," Pinkie Pie said.

Applejack shot a sharp glance at the pink earth pony. Pinkie Pie winked at her. Applejack nodded. "Yeah. I did."

"You gotta tell us what happened!" Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack hesitated. Do they deserve to know? she thought. She answered herself instantly: They're my friends. Of course they do. But not all at once. "I'll tell y'all... some day. Not today. But soon. Don't let me forget."

"Well I'd like to hear the story," Spike said. His eyebrows rose. "Oh, gosh, Applejack, I don't have any lemonade for you!"

"That's all right, Spike," said Applejack.

"No, hold on! I'll be right back!" he cried, and the purple dragon turned and ran up the hill toward the farmhouse.

"Welp," Applejack said, "it looks like y'all got the applebuckin' done while I was gone. So if y'all don't mind, I'm just gonna relax for a bit..." She walked through the crowd of her friends, headed for the biggest apple tree nearby. Settling down in the shade, she used her tail to reach up into her hat and pull out a small, light brown cylinder. "Don't suppose you'd light me up, Twilight?" she asked, putting the cigarillo in her mouth.

Her five friends absolutely gaped at her. "Er... s-sure," Twilight stammered. Her horn shimmered. A spark crackled at the tip of the cigarillo, and soon it was burning dull orange. Twilight turned her head, peering at Applejack sidelong. "You know smoking is bad for you, don't you Applejack?"

"I do," Applejack said with a nod. She blew out a cloud of smoke. "And in a week or so, I'll get tired of it. But for now I feel like it." She reached up with her hoof and tilted her hat down over her eyes. She leaned back against the tree, took a long drag of the cigarillo. "I got a lot o' faults, Twilight. I spent a long time gettin' rid o' most of 'em, and I got a long ways to go gettin' rid o' the rest." She blew smoke from her nostrils. "Let me have one or two to keep."