She didn't have time for this. Applebloom could be getting into Celestia knows what kind of trouble back on the farm, what with her history of foul-ups and hair-brained schemes. There were multitudes of chores left for her to start on, and there was no way she wanted to let the orchard, or her family down like this. Yet Applejack's hooves kept moving towards the unusual device against her will, her fascination with it blocking out the sweltering heat of the fire swamps.
“This doohicky looks like somethin' right outta one of Twilight's sci-fi books. Ain't no way ponies were responsible fer makin' somethin' so complicated,” Applejack said to herself. “What's a gizmo like this doin' here sunk halfway in a flame pit?”
It was a dark, brown, oval pod of some sort, composed of what looked like a shimmering, stainless steel. The top hatch had broken off, presumably years ago, showing off a single seat large enough for a pony to sit inside. A console was in front of the chair, rusted and melted from age, but intact enough to show that it had numerous dials, gauges, and buttons adorned across it. Though the thing that initially drew her attention to the device was the blue electrical flashes that sparked intermittently all around its surface. Applejack took a step backward, remembering the weight of her pie cart behind her.
“Uhh...on second thought, ah'd rather not find out what this thing is after all...this is more up Twi's alley than mine.”
*FWOOOSH*
“Uwaaahh!”
In her moment of disbelief, Applejack failed to notice the flame pit between the pie cart and herself, incinerating the wooden beams attaching herself to it. The shock of nearly having her hindquarters seared off tripped her up enough to send her stumbling towards the pod, banging her face against it. Screwing her eyes shut and rubbing her forehead, she said out loud, “Ah, corn crispies...how am ah gonna get this thing back now?!”
*beep...beep...*
Opening her eyes, Applejack immediately spied a number of lights blinking on the console. She took a few steps back towards her cart, staring at it with wide eyes and a raised eyebrow.
[Subject loca-ca-caaaaated. Initi-a-TING t-t-t-trans-ferferfer sequence in 10, 9...]
The voice coming from the thing was garbled and electronic. Deciding that she could just as easily bang up a new cart later, Applejack spun around and started galloping away from the thing as fast as her legs could take her. Though it only took a second for her to realize that no matter how much her legs moved, she wasn't making any progress through the swamp. Rather, she was actually moving backwards. Looking down, she found that she was somehow floating in mid air, galloping in place.
“What in tarnation?! Lemme go ya rust bucket!” Applejack cried.
[...4, 3, 2-2-2, 1...]
She continued moving backwards until she was floating just above the device, her legs flailing around in a futile attempt to escape. A blazing, white light began emanating from the device, growing in intensity until Applejack was forced to put a foreleg over her eyes so as not to be blinded. And yet, even as her vision was obscured, it was as if she could somehow feel the light engulfing her, forcing its way through her skull and making her head hot. It was the last thing she could remember feeling before her consciousness faded.
A drop of dew fell onto Applejack's closed eye, rousing her from sleep. Gritting her teeth and rubbing her eyes with her right foreleg, she found that she was lying on her left side on a bed of soft grass. She grunted softly and stood up, looking downward as her eyes adjusted to a very green area.
“Boy howdy...that was a real humdinger of a light show. What was that all about, anyway?”
As her vision cleared, Applejack was met with a sight she could only imagine in her wildest dreams. She was standing in the midst of a rainforest, and an ancient one at that. Moss and vines gathered in enormous masses around trees the size of mountains, obscuring the sky and darkening the landscape. Innumerable birds and animals squawked and cried, their echoes ringing in her head. A hot wind blew in her face, the smell of salt water invading her nostrils. She unconsciously put a hoof behind her head as she gawked at it all, her breath short and her eyes unblinking.
“Alrighty...where in tarnation did that weird contraption send meh off to? Cuz ah don't remember seein' any tree trunks bigger than Canterlot Castle round' these parts...” Applejack said to no one. Noticing that her voice was shaky, she quickly shook her head back and forth before looking around her hooves, finding her hat next to her. Scooping it up and putting it back on her head, she announced, “W-what am ah sayin'?! Ah don't got time ta be enjoyin' the scenery! Ah gotta get back to Applebloom, and fast!”
Applejack spun around to get a move on, only to be met with another pony standing inches away from her face. Shocked, her eyes went wide again as she doubled back. “Wah! Where'd you come from?! By golly, don't scare meh like that!”
Her coat was a brilliant shock of bright green, and her mane was a deep turquoise tied into a bun. She wore round, thin-framed glasses on her face, and was carrying a red saddle bag over her back. The pony stared back at her quizzically, tilting her head to one side with her mouth slightly open in awe.
“I'v& n$@er }een y~u +?fo#e. >&at's a pon! wi);out a=y ru$!s [oi*g her%?”
Applejack looked nervous and began to sweat. She was speaking a language she'd never heard of before. Gulping, she responded, “Uhh...ahm sorry sugarcube, but ah can't, uh...”
Her voice trailed off, knowing full well that there was no way she could understand her either. The cowpony sat herself down with the intent to try sign language, but instead the green pony's face lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree just before she galloped off. Jumping back to her hooves, Applejack called out, “Hey! Don't you go runnin' off like that! Ah gotta, uh...ask ya somethin'!”
She was quick. Even at top galloping speed, she was only capable of matching that green pony's pace. Bounding over massive tree roots and slippery foliage, her chase inevitably brought her to a narrow, beaten path. Skidding a little on the dry dirt, she slowed to a canter to catch her breath, the humid air filling her lungs.
“Fer somepony...lookin' like a green Twilight...she sure can run,” Applejack gasped out.
It wasn't long before the path led her to an open field, greeting her with a cool breeze. She breathed in deeply, thankful that she was finally out of such a muggy environment.
“HOO boy! Never thought ah'd be thankful to just be breathin' the sweet, country air again! Almost smells just like...home?”
Applejack slowed until she came to a stop, her mouth curling into a grimace. “Huh...ah'm no expert on meteorology, but ah'm pretty sure that climates ain't s'posed to change that quick...”
Putting a hoof on her hat, she turned around to look at the rainforest she just exited, raising an eyebrow in the process. For whatever reason, the forest simply stopped encroaching at a certain point beyond the exit, as if there were an invisible wall in place to prevent its expansion. The grass at her hooves was just like in Ponyville, but the moment it reached the point where the exit was, it became an impenetrable wall of trees and plants.
“Boy howdy...it's like somepony spilled miracle grow all over the Everfree.”
Applejack decided she'd ask about it later, when she had a better grasp on what was going on. Continuing down the dirt path laid out in front of her, she climbed a hill to find a quaint, rural village laid out before her. Their homes looked to be made of stone and mortar, while a row of white windmills turned in the distance. Breathing a sigh of relief, she said, “Finally! Maybe ah can get some answers now!”
Applejack slumped against the town's central sundial, groaning in frustration. Like she should have suspected, none of the ponies here spoke her language. She dropped to her haunches and leaned her back against the cold stone, staring at the blue sky. Thinking about it, whatever language they were speaking truly didn't sound like anything she had ever heard. It wasn't french, it wasn't portuguese, it wasn't german, it wasn't russian, it wasn't anything. A bead of sweat dripped down her brow at the thought of what that may have implied. Was this some lost civilization in a far off land? Could that strange machine have sent her to the other side of the world? What if it sent her through time? Was this the past? The future? She started rubbing her hooves against the sides of her head with her eyes clenched shut, her own daydreaming starting to wear her down.
“Goodness gracious...! Where IS this place?! Where am ah?! What if ah never see mah family ever again?!”
“Fo$%d yo(!”
Looking up, Applejack was met with the smiling face of the green pony she chased here, still wearing a saddle bag on her back. Putting her hooves back down at her sides, she deadpanned, “Oh great, the green pony ah followed down the rabbit hole. Look, ah'd love fer y'all to tell meh, well...anythin'. Cept' ah've already found out I can't speak whatever's comin' outta yer mouth.”
That innocent smile on her face didn't leave, while Applejack simply huffed and frowned. Before she could say anything more, the pony raised the ankle of her foreleg up, levitating a silver, metal bracelet out of her bag. The cowpony did a double take between her face and the bracelet, slowly standing up to process what she was seeing – this was an earth pony standing in front of her.
“Wh...what the hay...?”
The bracelet clicked and opened on a hinge she hadn't noticed before, and with a quick motion, sped over and clasped itself around the upper part of Applejack's foreleg, the feeling of cold steel making her jump. She glared and clawed at it with her other hoof, yelling, “Hey! What's the big idea puttin' jewelry round' mah leg! Get it off!”
“Hee hee! There! Now you can understand me!”
Her head snapped up back to the pony's smiling face, looking at her like she had grown a second head. Her shoulders slumped as she screamed, “Ah fer the love of pete! What's goin' ON here?! How come yer speakin' mah language now?!”
“Heh heh! Sorry about just leaving you in the Yostepp Preserve like that, but I just HAD to make this universal translator for you! I mean, how COULDN'T I?!” The pony bounded over and wrapped her forelegs around Applejack's neck while making squealing noises. “Ohhh, I just LOVE the way you talk! That accent is so earthy and natural, it's so adorable! And that smell, are you a farmer?! Do you cultivate apples?! (GASP), I've never, ever even SEEN an apple! That smell, your smell, is it apples?! Do you smell like apples?! Is that what those runes on your flank are for?!”
The grip around her neck was getting tighter, but the questions she was being bombarded with were upsetting her even more. Applejack pried herself away from her and gave herself some distance before saying, “Ah, look...ah'm mighty appreciative of ya givin' meh a way to understand ya an' all, but...would you puh-LEEZE tell me where ah am?! Ah can't be wastin' any more time fumblin' round these parts, ah gotta find a way back home before supper!”
The green pony had levitated something else out of her bag while she was speaking, a small, plastic card. Jumping all around her while poking and prodding her with it, she replied, “This is the Yostepp prefecture off the coast of Zeidos, and you're currently in the town of Hachi Pochi. Don't be fooled by the rural looks, though! We're just as up to speed as Zeidos or Tymil in terms of technology! Advance the world and remember your culture, that's our motto!”
Applejack felt her heart sink. One her front hooves came slightly off the ground and she began staring blankly downward at nothing. “Oh no...ah'm not in Equestria, am I...?”
“That's where you're from, huh?” The green pony stopped, her voice becoming more somber. “I'm sorry, I don't know anything about this 'Equestria'. I hope it's not too far away. Then again, these tachyon particles I'm picking up all over your immediate vicinity don't bode well...do you remember how you got inside the preserve?”
She shook her head slightly to calm herself, despite only understanding half of what this strange pony was saying. “Uh, lesse...ah ran into this weird pod thing in the fire swamps on mah way back to mah farm, and...ah remember this bright flash of light, and then...ah think ah passed out after - ”
'WAAHHH!!!”
Applejack jumped again at the scream. “Would y'all stop that?!”
“According to these readings, you traveled at LEAST 17.3378 parsecs in the span of only a few moments! I don't even know how that's physically possible! I mean, this could be a technological breakthrough, a MIRACLE even! Do you know what this could mean for subspace travel, I-I mean I'm just dreaming up some rough schematics in my head right now, but - ”
“Enough a' the techno-babble! What're ya talkin' about?!”
“Uhh...wait a second, don't tell me you...” The green pony's eyes widened ever so slightly, like she found the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle. “...an underdeveloped planet. I got so caught up in this, I didn't even think about that...”
The more she talked, the more questions she seemed to raise. Applejack was close to pulling her hair out with her teeth at this point, falling to her haunches again with her hooves on the sides of her head. Finally understanding her situation, the green pony said, “O-oh no! I'm so sorry, I had no idea! W-wait just a second, it's best if I show you!”
She levitated the card she had in front of her again, tapping something on its face with her hoof. “This is chief science officer Midori Haze! Requesting immediate transfer to flagship Karnas!”
[“Midori? What's the emergency, honey buns? Forget a doomsday weapon under your bed?”]
Applejack raised her head at the other voice coming from her card.
“Just shaddup and do it! I'll explain later!”
A blue light engulfed the cowpony's field of vision as the green landscape before her fizzled away like running paint. Her eyes reflexively screwed shut as her body felt like it was being raised off the ground without even moving an inch. Before she knew it, she was feeling cold metal on her rear end. Opening her eyes, she found herself inside of a circular chamber composed of glass.
“Wha...ah fiddlesticks, where am ah now?!”
The pony apparently called Midori was next to her, stepping out of the chamber and into a small, windowed hallway. She motioned for her to come near with a wry smile on her face.
“Here, this might shed some light on your situation. Or make things worse, I dunno...”
Applejack wasn't sure what she was seeing. She was certain the sun was out a few seconds ago, but the window next to Midori was full of stars. She forced herself to put one hoof in front of the other, gulping as she looked out the window. What she saw, however, left her breathless.
“Oh...mah...stars...”
Stars. Countless stars, even more than what she could see on cool, summer nights back at Sweet Apple Acres. Massive constructs resembling airships and boats hung in the air, either idling by lethargically or speeding past faster than the eye could see. And behind it all, a massive blue sphere dotted with wisps of white clouds and green lands. Applejack found herself pressing her hooves against the window with her breath fogging up the glass, unable to look away.
“This is the planet Ao Albis in the heart of the Pangalactic Federation. Judging from the way you're talking, and the fact that you don't really know anything about what's going on, you must be really far from home...”
