Applejack of My Eye

~~Applejack~~

When Applejack arrived back downstairs, she found the rest of the Apples (save for Apple Bloom) lounging in the living room, still too shaken to get any work done. Granny Smith knitted away at her in-progress quilt, Apple Fritter was immersed in a book, and Braeburn and Big Mac were talking quietly, chewing absentmindedly on wheat sticks. The chattering of birds outside filtered through the open windows on either side of the front door. Warm lazy sunlight splashed into the room like a waterfall of gold. It would be as good a day as any to sit back and relax, except the Apple family had quite a lot on their hooves.

As the orange mare opened the broom closet and put the broom and dustpan back, Apple Fritter closed her book and looked up. "How is he?" She asked across the room.

Applejack shut the closet door and turned to face the rest of her family sitting in the room. "He's fine." She proceeded to walk over and collapse onto one of the deep cobalt-colored couches next to her sister. "Although..."

"Although what?" Braeburn sat up.

"He said his wing was hurtin'. I came down to see if you had any medicine for him, sis." She looked hopefully at the mare next to her.

"Let me check." The green-maned mare rose and trotted across the room toward the bathroom to retrieve her medical bag. Applejack got up a few moments later and followed her there. Upon entering the bathroom (Applejack right behind her), Apple Fritter opened the cabinet next to the mirror above the sink. There sat her medical bag. It was Fluttershy's old one, so it was yellow with a red cross symbol on it, slightly resembling Nurse Redheart's cutie mark. It was pretty worn down; the fabric it was made out of was beginning to peel and the carrying strap was nearly destroyed, but it was still usable, and more importantly, it was Apple Fritter's trusty bag. She had bandaged her first bunny with it's aid; she had learned everything she needed to know about medicine with it by her side. That was what really gave it it's value.

Anyway, the mare pulled it out, unlatched the buckle holding it shut, and began to rifle through it. Her hoof sifted through strips of gauze, band-aids, small wooden splints, and a number of other things that would boggle even Nurse Redheart's mind. But even as she dug through the other pockets along the outside of the bag, the medicine Gabriel needed was nowhere to be found. Applejack felt her heart sinking lower and lower as more time went by without them discovering it. Finally, after searching every possible pocket and opening, Apple Fritter set the bag down on top of the sink, defeated. "It's not here. I must have run out." Exasperated, she ran a hoof through her mane.

"Are you sure? Did you check everywhere?" Applejack tried to be hopeful.

"Every nook 'n cranny," the other mare sighed.

Applejack was crestfallen. If her sister didn't have the medicine, nopony in this house would. The two mares were lost in thought about what to do.

"I reckon I could make some more," Apple Fritter announced. "But it may take a while for me to get all the ingredients."

Applejack furrowed her brow. "How long's a 'while'?"

"Umm...two days max."

Two days? That wouldn't work at all. She could imagine Gabriel writhing in pain up in the bedroom, waiting desperately for Applejack to acquire the medicine. He couldn't wait two hours!

"That ain't gonna work," she confessed. "He needs it real soon." Apple Fritter sighed, defeated again. The orange mare went back to frantically thinking of other ideas. If only Twilight was here...she'd know what to do. Her purple unicorn friend was always a great help at solving other pony's problems.

Twilight.

"That's it!" Applejack cried suddenly, causing her sister to jump in surprise. "Twilight must have some medicine! Rainbow Dash crashes into her library at least once a week, after all!" It seemed like a significant ray of hope. "I'll head on over to her library right now!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Apple Fritter exclaimed. She grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen out of her bag. "Here's the medicine he needs." She scrawled it's name on the paper and handed it to her sister. "Good luck, we'll be here waitin' fer you to return."

After exiting the bathroom along with her sister, Applejack snatched a saddlebag off one of the hooks on the wall near the front door and positioned it over her midsection, placing the note in it as she did. "All right everypony," she called to the rest of the Apples, who were still sitting in their former positions. "I'm makin' a quick trip to Twilight's; I'll be back shortly."

"Have fun, dear!" Granny Smith called across the room, seemingly oblivious to much that was going on, as she hadn't brought her eyes up from her project since Applejack came downstairs.

"Thanks, Granny. See y'all." The other ponies waved goodbye and she returned their gestures as she stepped out the door. After pushing it closed with her hind leg, she trotted off the porch and started down the same dirt road Apple Bloom had been running on about an hour ago. The air was warm, but a breeze shifted through the farmland, lightly blowing Applejack's mane around. Several clouds had begun to clot in the sky; Rainbow was obviously lazing around somewhere again today and had skipped her daily cloud-busting duties. But who could blame her? It was as quiet a day as any other. Besides, nopony minded a little shade from the clouds above.

It took only about five minutes to reach Ponyville. The little town's streets were not as crowded as in other seasons, but still sported a fair amount of ponies milling around or walking to their various destinations. Applejack spotted several ponies she knew as she passed Sugarcube Corner, including Carrot Top (who often helped with the harvest during carrot season) and Blossomforth (who loved coming down to the farm every once in a while to attend to the Apple's flowers). They waved to her as she hurried past.

"Hi there, Applejack!" yelled a familiar awkward voice from above. The orange mare looked up just as Derpy, looking down at her and not where she was going, flew into a protruding sign. Applejack stifled a laugh and called back up to her. "Hey there Derpy! You okay?"

"Yeahhh..." choked an embarrassed Derpy. She rightened the sign she had knocked askew. "Hehe...um...seeya Applejack!"

"Bye now!" That poor mare. Derpy had been one of Applejack's biggest fans ever since that Canterlot rodeo competition. She must have been pretty embarrassed after showcasing her clumsiness in front of her idol. Applejack couldn't think of anypony who looked up to her more. In fact, the orange mare wouldn't be surprised if that pegasus started a fan club in her name. She smiled as she imagined a bunch of foals running around with hats like hers trying to talk with a farmer's accent. Take that, RD. Maybe one day, I'll have a fan club too. She wondered how that would go down with her cyan friend.

Five minutes later, Applejack was still so lost in her thoughts that she nearly passed right by Twilight's treehouse and completely forgot about her mission. Quickly rightening herself, she turned around, walked up to the building, and promptly gave three short (but loud) knocks on the door.

"I'll get it!" She heard Spike's muffled voice from the inside. Several seconds later, the purple dragon opened the wooden door, and Applejack could look into the library, multiple books scattered over the entire floor. It looked like Twilight was back to sorting her precious library again.

"Oh hey Applejack!" Spike exclaimed, his voice bringing the orange mare's gaze back to him. "Nice of you to stop by! Come on in!" He ushered her inside and shut the door behind her. She looked cautiously around the room, scanning for her friend behind one of these piles of literature.

"Twilight! It's Applejack!" Spike yelled into the room. He turned to his guest with an apologetic gaze. "Sorry about the mess, Ms. Organized over here thought it would be a good day to sort the entire library." He rolled his eyes. "You know her...TWILIGHT!"

The purple unicorn suddenly popped up from behind a book pile in the back left corner of the room. "Hey Applejack!" She hastily unburied herself from the texts draped over her body. "Sorry, I didn't hear you knock," she smiled sheepishly. "It's great to see you! How are things at Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Well...um...fine." Things were mostly fine, anyway. "I just came by to-"

"Would you like some cider? I believe I have some leftover from Pinkie's last party." The unicorn beamed.

"No thanks. Look, Twilight-"

"Oh, maybe I should clean up. Would you like to sit down? Spike, grab those pillows over there-"

"Twilight!" It was the third time somepony had yelled her name in the last minute. Applejack's friend immediately shut her mouth.

"Sorry," the orange mare apologized. "But look, I need somethin' really important."

"What's that?" asked Twilight, listening now.

Applejack handed her the note from Apple Fritter. "This medicine."

The purple mare scanned the message and raised an eyebrow. "Um...why?"

Great. Just the question Applejack hoped she wouldn't ask. It wasn't that she wanted to keep things from her friend, but Twilight was honestly terrible at keeping secrets. "Well...ya see..."

"Mmmhmm?" Twilight and Spike leaned closer to hear her story.

"It's just...because..." She sighed in defeat. "Dammit Twi, I can't lie to you! Look, today around noon a rogue pegasus crash landed on the farm. We took him in and we're caring for him. But we ran out of the medicine he needs. So if you could just kindly give me some...I'll be on my way..." She trailed off.

Unexpectedly, Twilight laughed. "And why were you so afraid to tell me this?"

"Well...no offense Twi, but...you're...not the best when it comes to keepin' secrets." Applejack bit her lip, hoping her friend wouldn't be offended.

Luckily, she didn't seem so. Instead, she pushed further. "Why do you want to keep that a secret anyway?"

"Well, if everypony knew, they'd swarm our lil' farm like a parasprite invasion!" Twilight looked quite surprised. "See, he's no normal pegasus," Applejack elaborated. "He survived a huge griffin attack, and he seems really..." - She forced herself not to say cute - "...Mysterious."

"Mysterious? In what sense?" asked the purple unicorn.

"Well, he doesn't seem to have any family around, he didn't really tell us anything much about his past, and his eyes are this stunning crystal blue! Like he's a crystal pony or somethin'!" She emphasized by waving her hooves around.

"Maybe he is a crystal pony...?" Twilight absentmindedly picked up a book lying at her hooves and began dusting it off.

"No, he's from Cloudsdale and it's only his eyes. Not his whole body."

Twilight gave the book to Spike to shelve and scratched her head. It seemed Applejack's description of this pegasus had baffled even her. "Odd," she murmured. She was lost in thought for several moments before looking back up at her friend. "Could I maybe see this pegasus?"

"Uh...I don't know...if he'd be up for that right now," Applejack explained. "You know...he's pretty badly injured...I reckon he's sleeping at the moment anyway."

"Maybe later?" Twilight looked hopeful. Anything out of the ordinary greatly interested her, and it was obvious she wanted to check out the Apple's new guest.

"Maybe later." Applejack nodded. "Now, could I have the medicine, please? I should be on my way...and it looks like you got work to do too." She glanced around at the mountain range of books dominating the treehouse.

"No problem," Twilight smiled. "Spike, could you grab the ointment we keep for Rainbow Dash from the cabinet upstairs?"

"Sure," the unicorn's assistant said, dashing up the stairs and disappearing into the hallway. Several seconds later he appeared again holding a small bottle. "Here you go!" He tossed it over the railing to Twilight, whose eyes immediately grew wider than ripe Zap Apple in surprise. She lunged forward, landing on the floor on her belly and just barely catching the flask of medicine before it shattered on the ground.

"Spike! What were you thinking?!" she cried in astonishment, getting to her hooves and brushing herself off, the flask clamped safely in one hoof. "Don't ever do that again!"

"C'mon Twilight," Spike laughed, hopping down the stairs to the ground floor. "I knew you would catch it!"

"I didn't! At least tell me when you're going to throw medicine down at me!" She sighed and handed the bottle to Applejack. "Sorry. I'll talk to him."

"No problem at all," Applejack smiled, tipping her hat politely at her friend. "Thanks again. See y'all later!" She waved goodbye to them and stepped out the door. Then she continued down the road, heading back to the farm, the medicine for Gabriel resting snugly in her saddlebag.