The Ballad of Big

Chapters

Bartender!
A Fool's Errand
Into the Sunrise
Ruffians and Louts Alike
From Dust

Bartender!

The Ballad of Big

~By Sabre

Chapter One - Bartender!

It’s that brilliant time ah the evening that Ah love so much. The dust has finally settled, the blazing sun is just a whisper behind the buttes, and the scorched land is finally cooling off. Now all this darn cowpoke gear isn’t so hot and itchy.

It’s been a long day. Ah was feelin' a gnaw in my belly for some cider, so Ah decided to try my luck at the nearest watering hole here in Buck City.

That’s what this podunk little town is called, right?

My name’s Applejack, in case ya’ll weren’t sure, and I’m from Ponyville. What, you’ve never heard of it before? It’s just south of Canterlot. Anyhow, you’re probably askin’ yourself: what are you doin’ so far west from Ponyville, Applejack?

Well I’ll tell ya, just be patient. Lemme pay the barkeep for mah cider real quick.

Whaddaya’ mean seven bits for a lousy glass of cider!? What is it, gold cured? Ah whatever, just gimme a glass.

Dang swindlers around these parts, Ah swear…

Ahh. Much better.

Anyhow, where were we?

Ah, yes that’s right. Well, my family owns the largest apple acre settlement on the east side of Equestria. I just happen to be the head pony at Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville. Well anyhow, ya see, with the integration of Sweet Apple Acres and Honey Crisp Ranch in Neighsville, there wasn’t really much for me to do around the farm, since all mah cousins and the like were takin’ care of all the trees for me. So, I decided to take some time for mahself, and head west to try my hoof at cattle herdin’, even if I’m not that good at it yet...

What? No, I’m not blushing, okay? This cider’s just strong, ‘sall.

With a deafening crash, every cowpoke, wrangler, scoundrel and busybody that breathed, smoked and spat in the saloon looked towards the doorway. In the twilight glimmer, they caught sight of a tall, imposing form as he shuffled his way inside. Every eye shifted off the stallion suddenly, though, except for the emerald eyes of a certain orange pony who looked somewhat silly dressed in so much trail gear.

With the jangle of spurs, the form sauntered inside as if he had built it from the very foundation of the dirt. The lively conversation of the busy saloon picked up again, but seemed almost forced as the newly arrived stallion wandered around each pony on his way to the bar. Stopping at a table, he glanced over at a sharply-dressed pony’s cards, and hemmed and hawed at the hand the startled pegasus was currently playing with.

“No, no, no,” he mumbled through the haze of the saloon’s acrid atmosphere, “you needa seven to win this hand.” He broke into a deep laugh as his long blonde mane shook beneath his low-brimmed cowboy hat. “You dumb colt.” The rude stallion smacked the cards out of his hooves and stepped up to another table, leaving the aforementioned pony with a giant grimace on his face.

“Gents! How'sabout loaning your good pal Jim a cigar here!” Without waiting for any of the three gentlecolts' replies, the stallion whisked away a fat brown cigar from the table. Lighting it deftly, he puffed on it hard, and blew a giant breath of bitter smoke on the nearest pony’s face. “Say, how about three more?” he added, and once again, swiped the rest of the neatly wrapped smokes that were lying in the middle of the table. Tucking them in a coat pocket, he walked away with another chuckle to himself. The three ponies he had harassed merely sat in silence and sipped awkwardly on their drinks.

Moseying up to the bar, he parked his rump on a velvet barstool and demanded two pints of hard cider. A brilliant golden lasso whipped around on his flank, covered halfway by his long, dusty blazer.

“And they had better be on the house, if ya know what I mean, Doc,” he whispered viciously.

“Yessir, of course,” the mustachioed bartender said as almost literal bullets of sweat seemed to fly off his face. Turning back around, he hastily prepared the stallion’s drink order.

The self-assured pony smashed his halfway done cigar coarsely into the wood of the bar, being sure to grind it as deep as the smoldering tip would go. He shot a glance at Applejack, clucked his tongue, and whistled softly.

“Mm, whatsa fine-lookin’ gal like you doin’ out here in this ol’ town, eh, sweetheart?” the bully cooed to his new bar mate. Applejack merely groaned loudly, and set herself back to talking to the rancher she had met a few minutes earlier.

When the cocky stallion didn’t get quite the response he usually got from some pretty face wandering through town, he got angry. Really angry.

“Hey! Babycakes! I’m talkin’ to you— humph!” The stallion jerk was cut off as Applejack planted a nice, heavy hoof straight to his gut. Blinking back tears, he gasped out a few select swear words to her.

“Why don'tcha go bully somepony else, mister,” Applejack said coolly, and turned back round to talk shop with the rancher pony she had just met. The cream colored unicorn’s face, however, was caught in panicked shock at what Applejack had just done to Big Jim Cooley, of all ponies!

But Big wouldn’t have any of that. Staggering off his barstool, he shouted at Applejack with all the confidence his giant frame could muster.

“Hey! Do you even know who I am!?” Big shouted at his assailant. Much to his infuriated irritation, she looked him over with a casual glance.

“Not anypony Ah would want to meet, that’s fer darn sure,” she drawled lazily, and turned back once again to the stunned pony she was talking to. She gasped, though, as her frame was whipped around under a forceful hoof upon her shoulder. She whirled around to face the furious amber eyes of a very angry stallion.

“Now, you listen here, little lady, and you listen good. Mah name’s Big Jim Cooley, and I am. The. Best. Wrangler on these here plains. You got that?” he aggrieved upon Applejack with a hiss of furious, acrid breath. The mare's eyes shot wide in surprise as she realized this bully meant serious business. And with a heft almost twice the size of Big Mac, she wished with a pang of homesickness that her brother were actually here to help her out of this tight spot. Things were looking grim at the moment as the angry stallion held her down with an insanely powerful hoof.

The cream-colored unicorn that Applejack had been talking with not ten seconds ago spoke up, though, in a wavering voice.

“P-Prove it, Big!” he gasped out behind his thin moustache. The angered stallion merely broke his intense gaze of pure animosity from Applejack’s eyes and settled it right on the unicorn’s own lavender ones. Applejack sensed this pony would never turn down a challenge like that. Lifting the dead weight of his meaty hoof off of Applejack’s shoulder, he advanced upon the momentarily-brave unicorn rancher.

“Yeah? So tell me how, then, Horace,” the gruff stallion barked to the cowering livestock farmer. The unicorn coughed slightly at the stallion’s smoky breath and glanced around the room.

“I’ve got a herd of a hundred heads I need taken over the plains at Jacheo. But, I doubt you could handle it in the slightest.” The unicorn threw on a scornful little laugh at the end of his challenge to irk on Big more.

“I ain’t dumb, Horace. Those planes are ripe with madmen, thieves, savages and the driest damn dirt I’ve ever seen. Not happening in this lifetime.” He turned back on Applejack as his anger refueled and sparked into another frenzy.

“Oh really?” the unicorn scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “What are ya- yellow?”

The ruse worked, and the irritant stallion took the bait right off. He spun around, shouting at the cowering cream-colored unicorn.

"Nopony calls Big Jim Cooley yellow!" he screamed, eyes bugging out as they scanned their immediate surroundings for anypony that could have heard Horace say that. If anypony had heard, though, they certainly wouldn't have acknowledged this damnable tidbit of info, though there was little doubt it would be whispered in the gossip of the mares all around town.

"If I'm takin' this contract, I want two-hundred bits a head! No less!" he cried out, jabbing Horace with a gigantic hoof. A greedy light flashed away behind his smoldering eyes.

"Okay, okay!" the terrified rancher called out. "Two-hundred a head it is!" The beefy stallion took a step back, smirking in a self-assured victory.

“That’s what I like to hear! Me an’ my posse’ll get those cattle taken over those damned plains if it’s the last thing I do then, Horace!” he cried out gleefully, and looked around to make sure everypony had heard of the deal Ol' Big Jim Cooley had struck with the town's biggest name in cattle farming. Applejack could almost see the earth pony’s covetous mind counting out his bits in his head as he took a step back from her. Big noticed her curious stare though, and the greedy light was replaced with a dark flash.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, buttercup. We’ll be seeing each other again, real soon.” With a depreciative laugh, he flicked his tail in Applejack’s face and stormed out of the saloon, leaving with a heavy crash the same way he had entered.

With his exit, an almost physical sigh was emitted by all the patrons, and the bustle returned to normal. Turning back around, Applejack sat herself down at the bar rather shakily. What had just happened had unnerved her far more than she would have liked to admit.

“Here,” came a gentle voice from in front of her. Looking up, Applejack saw the bartender as he pushed two tall mugs of apple cider towards her on a napkin. “He never got his drinks, so I guess these are on the house.” He flashed a smile at her, and went to work away at the nasty mess Big had burned into the counter nearby.

Taking a mug into her hoof, she drank sloppily as her body shook uncontrollably. The unicorn rancher, Horace, merely set a hoof reassuringly on her shoulder, and smiled.

“Applejack, don’t worry about Big, okay? His bark is worse than his bite. Being Buck City’s premier wrangler has left him as, well…” He paused as he tried to think.

“An asshole?” Applejack cut in as she set down her glass, now empty.

“Erm, well, yes, I suppose so," he replied, slightly taken aback at Applejack's straightforwardness. "You saw the way he crashed in here and acted like everypony was below him. Now, he’s earned some considerable respect with all the things he’s done around here, but he’s definitely abused all the respect he’s been granted, and squeezed the life out of it to bleed the last drop of power he can.” The unicorn shook his head. “I still can’t believe he accepted that contract I offered.”

“Why? From what you offered, that's powerful good money. I might just take you up on that offer myself.” Applejack said. Two-hundred-thousand bits sounded good to anypony who was putting down twenty-some hours a day in as a wrangler. The thought dissipated, though, as she spotted her second drink voraciously. She grabbed the other pint of hard cider and gulped it down. A familiar warm tingling was spreading over her body now. Ahh… Much better.

“You are new here, aren’t you,” Horace stated plainly, his eyes narrowing as he looked onto his inexperienced friend. “Well, Jacheo plains are perhaps the most desolate waste of land you will ever come across out here in the west. It’s got a bad reputation for being the driest, most dangerous place in all of the West Stallione Desert. Only problem is,” he said with a sigh, “it’s the fastest way to get to Las Pegasus and get the cattle headed up to be shipped around the country. Otherwise, you have to take the gauntlet up the Pownee River, around the Carson Buttes, and then up through Chill Pass. It’s a heckuva trek and takes nearly a week and a half to do.” Horace sighed.

“But, it’s better than risking your neck across savage-infested lands where there isn’t a drop of water for miles at a time.”

Applejack placed her second completed glass of cider on the counter with a rough clatter, and ordered two more.

“Sounds like a fool’s errand to me,” she hiccupped slightly, and smiled as her two new drinks were placed with a clink in front of her.

The moon now hung high overhead in the clear night sky. Stars twinkled and shone down from the blanket of darkness, and watched as an orange earth pony stumbled, blissfully drunk, out of the Dodging Dog.

Hiccupping slightly to herself, Applejack tried to remember through a groggy mist where the hotel room she had been renting was at. An invisible hand pushed her north down the main street, and she ambled down parallel to the glowing lights of the wrought-iron lamps with a delightful grin on her face.

Coming up to the hotel, she stumbled slightly as she trotted up to the wide alley between the hotel and the tack shop next door. The obscure guide stopped her at the vestiges of the dark alley’s shadow, and she glanced down it, mind clearing and eyes sharpening, hawk-like, as she sensed imminent danger.

A gigantic form crept from out of the shadows, flanked by four other ponies of a similar malicious intent. The front-most figure grinned, his amber eyes pinpricks of light in the dark as they held a cold and intense spirit.

“Well, hello, there, miss fire n’ ice,” Big Jim commented darkly as he advanced forward on Applejack’s form. “Fancy seeing you again.” He chuckled to himself quietly as the other ponies followed his lead.

Terror grabbed Applejack’s now razor-sharp consciousness and shook it bodily.

A Fool's Errand

Chapter Two – A Fool’s Errand

A prickle of arousal tapped lightly on the door of Applejack’s consciousness. Groggily, and with eyes still shut, she became aware that she was splayed out on her bed, prostrate, and still in her darn itchy wrangling clothes.

She cracked a single eye open to behold the room before her: a sparse setup that had cost her a mere twenty bits, but was obviously worth half that. She was stuck here until she could find a contract and move into a ranch house with some nice family. Applejack smiled faintly at the thought as she pushed herself up, but was startled to find her legs and forearms were incredibly sore. Even more to her stunned surprise, the pillow where she had been laying was stained with a considerable amount of dried blood!

Jumping up, she tried to rush over to get a look, but found herself, in fact, hobbling gingerly over to the cracked mirror that stood propped against the wall on a simple but disgustingly-chipped oak dresser. As she came to look at her reflection, she let out a startled gasp- she looked got-awful!

A thick amount of crusted blood sat now on the edge of her left nostril, and a black eye was puffed up, big, ugly and purple along her left eye. The unnerving purple was ringed by a sickly yellow, which clashed violently with her hard emerald eyes. Checking her body quickly, she deduced that nothing else was amiss or out of place. Her shirt had a rip or two, but otherwise, she was perfectly fine. The only hair that was out of place was her tail, which had been pulled out of its usual ponytail. Applejack fixed this quickly with an extra crimson band.

Now, she had to figure out what in the hay had happened last night that led up to all this. As she walked down the inn’s hall to the bathroom, Applejack wracked her brain thoroughly for any cues as to what might have happened, but only fuzzy darkness could be recalled. When her memory finally came back with absolutely nothing, she admitted sore defeat with a long sigh, and splashed cold water on her face.

Having washed off the blood, she took tender care to her bruised eye, and then finally sauntered back to her room. As she shut the cheap door behind her, Applejack wrestled off her filthy, grimy clothes. Heaping them in a corner of her room, she ignored the internal voice of Granny Smith as she scolded the mare for leaving her dirty garments on the floor.

She shuffled through her plain dresser, picking out her outfit for the day: a blue collared shirt, an earth-brown vest, and finally, a bright red neckerchief, which she tied around her neck in the strange fashion that a nice stallion had shown her when she had first gotten into town. Checking her appearance in the mirror, she deemed herself presentable enough to be wandering around the backwards town. A nagging thought pulled at her though, and she felt something was missing.

Mah hat! she thought with a start. Whipping around, she looked around for her signature brown Stetson, and felt a panic as she couldn’t spot it. After tossing over everything in her room (of which there wasn't much, just a bed, a coatrack, and a dresser), she finally admitted defeat. With her head slunk down low, she ambled out of her room, slamming the door hard as she left.

Applejack clambered moodily down the gaily-carpeted stairs into the hotel’s lobby. At nearly a half past noon, the big, gaudily-adorned room wasn’t exactly a model in booming business. A single, beige pegasus colt stood behind the bar, polishing mugs with a dirtier rag than she had ever seen before. Making a private notion to never drink anything here, she walked past the green-velvet barstools and up to the billboard next to the door that had various posters pinned to it with little iron nails.

“Ey, dontchu look awful. What happened to you?” the pegasus asked as he placed the dank mug under the bar, and brought up another one that seemed a lot filthier than it ought to have been.

“Dunno, really,” Applejack replied, a bit rougher than she had probably intended to. Looking forward at the board, she skipped over the wanted posters and advertisements, as well as the odd request for a bounty or a fancy new do-dad. All of these were not quite what she had come here for. With a private murmur of triumph, she found a ledger entitled “Cattle Drivers Wanted.”

Her face fell, though, as she spotted the date: Octember twenty-second. Almost six months ago.

“Dontcha’ll change the sheets over here?” Applejack called irately at the pegasus bartender. The latter spat thickly into a glass, and turned to face his verbal assailant.

“If ya don’t like it, then go to the Prissy Mare down the street! I’m sure they have plenty of room for a belly-acher like you,” he remarked gruffly, laying a leering mauve eye upon Applejack’s form. His wings ruffled in irritation.

Applejack merely groaned to herself, and turned back to the ledger. She noticed that only a single name had been filled out on the entire twenty-five column-long list. With a final glance, she caught the name of a single pony, written in what looked to be big, swooping black pen. It read “Big Jim & Posse.”

Taking a little step backwards, Applejack felt her mind kick itself in place with a hard buck as the name brought back a flood of memories. She remembered the saloon, and that big bully pushing his way up to the bar. That was about the extent to which she remembered, though, as the rest was more than a bit hazy.

Deciding to take the barkeep’s advice and check at The Prissy Mare, she ambled out the door. An extreme sense of loss fell over her, though, as she reached habitually for her hat to block the sun from her eyes, and found it was still missing. Trudging up the well-worn street, she watched as various carts of apples, ponies lugging sacks of oats, and the occasional guest coach meandered up and down the long, dusty road.

Like a majority of wild-west cities out here in the Stallione Desert, this one was built in a long stretch of hard-packed road that had been considered less-than-desolate-enough for habitation, and ended abruptly on a giant ochre butte at the end of the meandering street.

After wandering a couple dozen steps, she chanced a glance up into the blaring of the noontime sun, and beheld before her a grand establishment. A cheaply-adorned sign hung out in display, which had the silhouetted image of a bucking white unicorn swathed in a cherry-red scarf that hung down past her hooves. The gilded letters, spelled out in large, archaic print, read “The Prissy Mare.”

Applejack snorted as thoughts of her friend Rarity conjured up in her mind. Shaking her head gently with a slight smile, she pushed up onto the wooden porch and walked up to the big purple door. With a bang and a crash, she fell straight back on her flanks as the door whipped open, and out sauntered a gaggle of chortling ponies.

Glancing up with a grimace of pain, she recognized the one at the head of the pack: a large earth pony stallion who was laughing heavily, shaking his long blonde mane about under the wide brim of his black hat. The stallion stopped short as he spotted a very familiar orange earth pony that was shuffling quickly to her feet before him.

“Fire 'n’ Ice!” he cried, and broke into a giant lopsided grin, the likes of which had a front tooth chipped away. Applejack noticed that he had a large, sore-looking split lip, and both his eyes were ringed with the vestiges of a bruise. “Fancy meetin’ you here, huh?” he chided, clicking his tongue. The three ponies that had been following him closely broke into the same smile as they looked at the tawny mare before them.

Before her, Applejack saw a midnight blue mare whose shock of a bold-white mane spilled about her shoulders under a pale purple hat. Behind her was a giant sky-blue unicorn stallion, who had on the same leering grin that Big did, though it held within it an entirely different fire. Further still behind the three was a slinky-looking earth pony colt, the wide brim of his earth-brown Stetson pulled low over his darting amber eyes. Applejack noticed with another glance that they all looked like they had taken a serious lickin’ recently.

“Whaddaya want, Big?” Applejack said darkly. She wasn’t in the mood for this. Daylight was burning, and so far she hadn’t found a single job here- not to mention the fact that her flanks were starting to ache, thanks to this jerk. Big took another step forward, his gaze alighting on Applejack’s uncovered head.

“Ya’know, I’ve seen a hat jus’ like yours sittin’ around at my place. In fact,” the stallion said with a mocking grimace, “I believe it is your hat, seein’ as how it came off in our little tussle last night.”

Applejack’s emerald eyes went wide as she remembered up to the point where she had stumbled, drunk, across all five ponies. She quickly realized that one of the gang that she had run into wasn’t here with them- the stallion with the well-trimmed moustache.

“Uh…where’s that fifth pony that was with ya?” she asked carefully. Big snorted, dropping his gaze straight to the ground. The sound of his musing cascaded into a full blown laugh as Big continued to stare intently at the ground.

“Oh, you did old Ben Greene quite a well one last night. He’s holed up at our place with two broken legs.” A wild spark caught in the stallion’s amber eye as he looked up to Applejack now. “I think you should come meet him, and then you can get back your hat.”

“Ah don’t think so,” Applejack replied, shaking her head. She placed a hoof back to get respectfully out of their way, but Big merely stepped forward and laid a dense hoof on her shoulder, pinning her down. Applejack’s eyes went wide with fright as he shot his face right up to hers, their noses just inches away from each other.

“Wasn’t an offer,” he said through a tight smile, and picked Applejack up straight off the ground in his foreleg. “Posse, let’s get back to the clubhouse,” he called behind him as Applejack thrashed and flailed vainly in his iron grip. A chorus of ayes followed his hearty call, and the four cowpokes, along with their struggling guest, made their way down the long, dry street to a cabin that was holed up in the side of the giant butte at the end of town.

“Lemme go!” Applejack shouted as Big placed her deftly in a chair. Inside the cabin, it was mercifully cool, but rather gloomy, save for the cheery little fire that burned away in the corner near a pair of bunk beds. A stallion lay bundled up in the bottom corner bunk, with two splinted legs sticking out of his blanket and right off the edge.

“Aw, quit yer belly-achin’, we ain’t gonna do anything to you,” Big shouted back at Applejack’s defiant form. He walked briskly over to the coatrack by the door, grabbed in his teeth the only hat that hung there, and plopped it on Applejack’s squirming head. “There, see? There’s your hat. Now let’s talk, alright?” The stallion grabbed a chair and sat in it backwards, with his booted legs splayed around the back of the chair.

This had caught Applejack right off guard. She had expected the posse to be wrapping her up and placing her on a set of train tracks, like all the bad guys in the western books she read did. It seemed what she had to learn about the ponies here was going to be an interesting lesson, indeed.

“Talk about what?” she asked brazenly as her piercing emerald eye looked the stallion up and down now. The rest of the posse had disbanded now. The large stallion and the slinky-looking colt were off playing cards on the little round table by the grimy window, and the mare was tending to the moaning stallion in bed. Big took a deep breath and huffed it out loudly.

“Ya see Greene over there?” He indicated with a nudge of his head. Applejack looked back over at the bunk. “He’s in a double splint because of you.”

“Me! That’s impossible. Ain’t no way I could break both a stallion’s legs if’n I was, well, drunk,” Applejack retorted, holding her gaze hard on Big’s face. He continued to maintain the cool look of aloof indifference he had been wearing when he sat down, though.

“Oh, well if you’re sure,” Big replied with a mocking tone of blasé, “I’m certain that that’s also why you managed to kick the spit outta both Bo and Dodger over there, and wind Midnight to the point of her passin’ out. And I guess that Greene’s legs broke themselves, too, and not to mention…” He snorted now, and adjusted his hat to an ever-so-jaunty tilt, “I found myself passed out over a barrel at dawn for no particular reason, neither. Nopony’s ever done that before. And while I will be the first to admit that I am nopony to be taken as a lightweight (Applejack’s eyes rolled at this), a fightin’ spirit such as your own would be a mighty excellent addition to our posse here in Buck City.” At this, he tipped his hat ever-so-gently, and brought it back up with a big, winning grin on his face.

Applejack was stunned. She had full well expected the gang to drag her back here and beat the living hay out of her, or maybe even sell her to some traveling caravan for a measly hoof-full of bits. But now, here she was, in a long little cabin at the outskirts of Buck City, being asked for help by the premier cowpoke this side of Equestria.

“I, uh…” she stuttered, not sure what to say. Did she really want to be associated with these bandits? Her features hardening, she let out a single response, “No, Ah don’t think so.”

Big’s wide grin fell at this.

“Whaddaya sayin’? C’mon, miss, I don’t think you understand here,” he said darkly, an edge of desperation cracking his deep voice, “We’ve gotta be packin' up for a massive cattle drive this evenin’ to set out tomorrow mornin', and you’ve gone and broken one of my posse’s legs. I think you owe us, just a bit,” he growled, a guttural emphasis on his heavy words.

“Nope. Ah will not be associated with the likes of you,” Applejack said, shaking her head disdainfully. “And besides- ya'll are the ones that jumped me behind the hotel! What Ah did was purely in self-defense!” She glowered at the stallion, whose face was wide in angry shock.

“Now you listen here, miss,” Big started with a growl, and stood up, throwing his chair into the table next to him. Both ponies that had been playing cards shouted in outrage as their deck fell in a wild flutter to the ground. The dark mare at the other end of the cabin was walking over now with a determined pace. Big set himself forth on Applejack. Grabbing her bodily by her vest, he lifted her gasping form straight into the air.

“I will not be having my name tarnished because you’ve gone and bucked everything up!” he bellowed right in her face. Spittle smacked itself straight into Applejack's expression of fright.

“Big, sett’r down!” the dark mare named Midnight shouted at the hulking stallion. Big paid her no heed, though, as he continued to shake Applejack’s form like a rag doll. Finally, Midnight ran up and pushed the stallion bodily, shaking him from his crazed stupor.

“Stop it!” she cried in the beefy stallion’s face. Big merely grimaced, locking a death stare a hundred miles past his tortured guest. Finally, he set Applejack right back down in her chair with a plop. She curled up on the seat, shaking violently.

“Sorry, Midi…” the stallion mumbled, and grabbed another chair to sit back down in. This time, he sat properly in the wooden chair, and let out a hot huff of irritated breath as he looked off, brooding. The dark mare looked to Applejack now, a calm smile passing over her lips.

“Ah’m sorry about Big. His ego really does get the best of him. Oh, stop it, Jim, you know it does,” she added sharply when the stallion had spoken up with a loud retort. Confident she had him under control once more, she nodded to herself, and turned back to Applejack.

“Look, hon, Ah know we’ve gotten off to a, er, bad start, but after last night, the way you laid us all out… Well, Ah have to say, Ah— no, all of us, would be thrilled to have you on as part of our gang for this cattle run. ‘Specially since poor old Greene there isn’t in much shape to leave tonight.” She ended her sweet words with an even sweeter smile, the likes of which made Applejack think of the zap apple tarts she used to make back home with Apple Bloom; sweet and delightful, but they held in them quite a bite if you weren’t careful.

“Well, Ah mean, Ah dunno,” Applejack said plainly, as fear trickled out of her and was slowly replaced with curiosity. She recalled the offer that Horace the rancher had placed on this trip last night: two-hundred bits on each head of cattle. And that was some mighty fine money, too. She figured it would be a grand sum to bring back to her family in Ponyville.

She eyed all five ponies now with a careful, methodical glance.

“Can Ah trust ya’ll?” she asked uneasily. Midnight nodded her head, causing her milk-white mane to spill over her dark shoulders in a grand way.

“Absolutely, darlin’! Ah’ll even see to it you get the right treatment from Mister Cooley over here.” With this, she shot a harsh glare at the large stallion. Applejack mused how he flinched slightly under the mare’s glance, and mumbled off-hoof as he glanced out the far window.

“And uh, what about the rest of them? They were there last night to take a lick at me,” she inquired, pointing a still-shaking hoof at the pair of ponies that were picking up their cards from off the ground.

“Oh, don’t worry much about Bo and Dodger. They’ll listen to what Big says, and like I said, Big’s not going to give you any more trouble.” She smiled again. “I’ll take it that’s a yes, then?”

Applejack merely nodded, though her head felt much heavier than it should have at the gesture.

“Ah, excellent. We were afraid we wouldn’t have a fifth pony out there on the planes. You’ve got everything, right? A rope, a pack, camping supplies?” Applejack nodded at each of these things, but silently cursed herself for doing so... She didn’t have any camping supplies. All she had was what she could pack in the duffel that she had lugged on the train: some clothes, her rope, a pair of boots, and her coin purse (which hadn’t started out very big in the first place, either).

More things Ah gotta spend mah bits on, she thought to herself with a private grimace.

“Oh, even more excellent! Okay, hon, we’ve gotta get situated here, then. You go off n’ run to where you’re staying, get packed up. It’s about a six day trek across Jacheo plains, by-th'-by.”

Midnight glanced up and down Applejack with a curious look, her intimidating yellow eyes seeming to pierce her guest’s very being. The dark pony smirked a bit.

“I hope ya got a Bowie knife, too, hon. And I hope to Celestia ya know how to use it.” She chuckled quietly, and broke her gaze from Applejack as she began to walk away. Applejack gulped hard as she caught the vague warning.

“W-what? Why?” she managed through gulps. Midnight merely shot a single golden eye behind her. It caught the glare of the nearby fire.

“The plains are a mighty savage land, hon.” She glanced her guest up and down with a keen eye, “I’m sure you’ll handle yourself well, though. No worries.” She let out a yipping little laugh and continued back to the form of the injured posse member. Applejack’s face was caught in utter confusion, and she rose up out of her chair to leave.

Big came up behind her, and she jumped as he placed a large hoof on her shoulder. That effect had occurred too many times to not react to.

“See you tomorrow mornin’, Fire 'n' Ice. Nice an' early!” Big said with a cruel smile. He called to the two ponies sitting at the card table, and proceeded to walk out the door.

As dazzling sunlight slashed across her face, Applejack couldn’t do a thing but stand dumbstruck as the three male wranglers shut the door behind them. Cool darkness washed over her once more.

What have I gotten mahself into this time? she thought morbidly.

Into the Sunrise

Chapter Three – Into the Sunrise

Ah really cannot believe what I’ve gotten mahself into. Confound it, Applejack, you crazy mare...

Applejack’s thoughts were punctuated by the crack of her cheap dresser opening and closing. Wrestling her meager belongings into her burlap sack, she cinched it tight with a tug of her teeth.

She stopped, however, when in the bottom-most drawer, she found the folded-up photograph that she had brought with her all the way from Ponyville.

It was her most cherished possession: the Apples of Sweet Apple Acres had gathered in the dog days of some sticky-hot summer too many years ago. There was a filly Applejack lying in the shade under a colt Big Macintosh’s hooves, while a little foal Apple Bloom sat blissfully on Mac’s back. Next to Big Macintosh was Granny Smith, either half asleep or blinking as the picture was taken. Applejack still wasn’t sure which, and it made her giggle every time she saw it.

Then of course, the moment that made her heart stick in her throat: both her parents were in the picture, as well. Her father, Calvados, and her mother, Apple Blossom, both stood quiet and reserved next to Big Macintosh with winning smiles upon their faces. With trembling hooves, Applejack re-enacted a ritual she had practiced devoutly every single time she opened the greying photograph.

“Hi Momma… Hi Poppa. It’s Applejack. Just, uh, checkin’ up on how ya’ll are doin’. Things here ain’t goin’ too smoothly, though I’m sure you’ve seen it all from…” Applejack choked on a tiny sob as a little tear dared to flow over the dam of her eyes, “…from wherever ya’ll are at right now.” She heaved a hot breath of a sigh and looked back at the picture.

From behind a curtain of a long blonde mane, her mother’s rust-colored eyes seemed to plead for her daughter to go on. Her father’s emerald eyes- oh, how Applejack always loved to have been gifted with her father’s eyes- looked up to her eager as ever, agreeing with his wife’s silent pleas, and waiting for his daughter to continue.

“You see, Ah’ve run in with some bad ponies— er, out of mah control, mind you,” she reassured with a glance, “and Ah think Ah’m in way over mah head. So, wherever ya’ll are, please, just make sure you watch over me and take care of me like you’ve been doin’ so well all these years.” A tiny streak ran down the corner of the glossy photograph. It wasn’t the first stain on the old photograph, and it certainly wouldn't be the last tear that fell on it, either.

“Ah jus' want you to know, Ah love you, and—”

With a start, Applejack jumped straight into the air as a knock rapped upon the door, quick and business-like.

“Applejack?” came a voice she didn’t quite recognize.

She didn’t dare move from her spot. With bated breath, she tried to figure out who in the hay would be rapping on her door. Another round of neat little taps rang out in the room.

“Applejack? It’s Horace. We talked last night? Remember? Are you in there?” More knocks.

At the mentioning of the mysterious guest’s name, Applejack sprang into action. With a deft movement, she folded the picture back up, slid it neatly in her vest pocket, and whipped the door open.

At the opening of the cheap wooden door, Applejack spotted the cream-colored unicorn. His face was a mix of surprise and nervous concern, and his hoof hung in midair, pulled back to knock upon the door once more.

“Oh, hullo miss.” His thin little moustache jumped around anxiously on his lip, and his mauve eyes darted around cautiously as he scanned the room behind Applejack.

“Just us in here, right?” he inquired hesitantly.

“Yes’m,” Applejack drawled back.

“Ah, okay, good. Almost ran into Big on the way here.” He pushed past Applejack quickly, and circled the room twice before deciding to sit down on the bed. He hesitated at first, acting as if laying something denser than a feather would cause its wooden frame to come crashing down. Finally, he scooted himself on the bed and turned back to Applejack.

“Uh, yeah. Right. ‘Bout that…” she replied, but trailed off as she shut the flimsy door. Horace’s face darkened dramatically, and he looked up and down Applejack discerningly. Applejack felt the oddest sensation of nakedness at the rancher pony’s piercing gaze.

“I know, I know. I heard ‘bout that run-in with him last night, too. It’s rather a miracle you got out of it with no more than a few scratches, but I think you ought to skip town, missy. It’s not safe out here for you, especially with the wrath of that bully cowpoke shufflin’ up and down the streets, looking for some hide ‘r’ hair of you to beat the spit outta.” A quick brush of his soft eyes across the room brought him a quick revelation. “Though, it looks like you’ve already gotten yourself packed up! Good thinkin’, my dear. I know there’s a train heading out east that’s leaving soon. If you hurry, you can probably make—”

“Ah’m teamin’ up with Big to take that herd of yours ‘cross the plains, Horace,” Applejack cut in, her voice plain. The unicorn’s eyes shot wide at this.

“Wh-what?” he cried out, disbelieving. “You’re not… serious?”

Applejack merely shook her head slowly.

“’Course Ah am, Horace.”

“…Why?” was all that the unicorn could come up with. Applejack merely sighed and retold the story of what had happened to her earlier today.

After a series of gasps and gulps from her captivated (if not thoroughly disheveled) listener, Applejack finally finished her tale up to where Horace had come knocking at her door. The unicorn’s face was contorted in an odd look as he glared over Applejack with a curious light in his eyes.

“I don’t believe it.” He shook his head slowly at the ground. “You’re really doing it. You realize what you’ve gotten yourself into--right?” He picked his eyes up off the floor and stared hard into Applejack’s own emerald facets.

“’Course,” was all she could come up with. The word was terse, and she doubted she believed it the second it came out of her mouth. Horace let out a deep sigh, and looked around the room once more.

“And when’re ya’ll taking off?” he drawled. His normally-proper parlance seemed to have dropped away as his voice grew husky. Applejack was more than a bit taken aback, and awkwardly shuffled a hoof. She felt like a little filly again, when her dad had yelled at her for bucking the wrong kind of apple tree; though, she wasn't quite sure why the feeling had taken over her then.

“Uh, t’morrah mornin’... around sunrise,” she replied in her usual bucolic manner, though it caught on her now-thick throat halfway up. Horace nodded curtly.

“Alright. There anythin’ you need, seein’ as how you’ll be taking my cattle across Jacheo?” Applejack shook her head, but then stopped to think.

“Er, well come to think of it… do ya have any camping supplies Ah could loan from you?” The mare blushed; she wasn’t one to borrow things from others if she really didn’t have to, and she figured all the gear she needed was pretty expensive. Horace stopped, a tiny bit phased at Applejack’s weighty request.

“Ah… yeah. Yeah, I do, actually. You can come pick it all up from my ranch later this evenin’. Howzat sound?”

“Oh that’s excellent. Thank you, that’s mighty kind of you Horace!” Applejack beamed down at the now-blushing unicorn who sat anxiously upon the bed.

“Ah, well, it’s no problem miss…” Checking his black leather-strap watch, he tsked quietly to himself. “Well, I’m needed back on the farm to prep those cattle.” Before jumping up, he paused mid-leap, and looked up at Applejack. “You sure there isn’t a single other thing you might need?”

Applejack laughed awkwardly, and squirmed a bit in place as she blushed once more. She had almost forgotten Midnight’s most important note.

“Well, uh, *ahem* Ah almost forgot somethin’ Ah'll need…”

As the pre-dawn sky grew steadily brighter in Celestia’s premeditated ideal of a sunrise, a gaggle of variously dressed and adorned ponies stood around the street’s mouth of the western township of Buck City.

The group of some thirty or so ponies – almost the entire and immediate population of the whole little community – all stood around in the not-quite-darkness, whispering amongst themselves- though for what reason hushed voices were the norm, not quite anypony really knew. The fireflies that normally lit the town’s lamps had been displaced long ago as the soft rays of sunlight had begun to peek over the tops of the dusty wooden buildings, but there was not quite enough light granted by the sun to see clearly now, either.

Applejack, who shuffled about silently near the head of the sizeable group, shifted the heavy saddle pack that was stretched across her back. Feeling a little something slip with her minute correction, she rolled her eyes once more in the lifting darkness and stuck a hoof up to fix the displacement for at least the third time this morning.

Her hoof glided over a smooth, cool, leather sheath, and she shivered slightly as she nudged the hard metal handle of her long knife right back in place under her multitude of tins, pots, pans, slopping-full canteens, kindling, food, and other survival odds and ends. She remembered Midnight’s warning quite clearly.

Though, not a single one of the posse had even shown up yet. With a hot breath of annoyance, Applejack scanned the crowd once again, to the point that it had almost become the morning’s ritual.

Her scan of the murky light produced the same results: Horace stood some couple of feet away, bundled up in the pre-dawn chill, and with the same anxious and worried face that he had been wearing since he had given Applejack her camping gear last evening.

The rest of the town, it seemed, had gathered here too. Whether it was because exciting things were seriously lacking in the tiny little town, or that each citizen felt they had better be here to see Big and his posse off (or else), Applejack could not really be sure. She figured it was a close bet that both her hunches were probably right.

Just as she waved the thought away with another irritated adjustment of her pack, a whip’s crack and a shout could be heard from far ahead. The crowd’s mumblings died away as expectant eyes all shifted towards the sudden sound. From across the gently sloping hill that held the town, four figures- one of which was pulling a wagon- could be seen galloping hastily towards the crowd.

From behind her, Applejack heard Horace mutter darkly under his breath.

“Must be mad… He must be mad…”

When she looked back, all she caught was the unicorn shaking his head disdainfully. A chill shot through Applejack’s spine, though the cold was not suspect here. Hesitant thoughts- from the range of irksome to almost suicidal- shot through Applejack’s mind like a bullet, and took off like a runaway train.

The locomotive of anxiety slowed to a stop, however, as she looked up to see Big, who seemed even more mountainous with his supplies piled upon his broad back. Midnight and Dodger followed closely behind in the same fashion, while Bo grunted and heaved the big covered wagon up the hill behind the lot.

Big squinted in the murky darkness, pacing about, and finally called out in frustration:

“Where’s Applejack!?” A tinge of fire rode on his voice.

“Ah’m right here, Big,” Applejack replied as calmly as she could muster, and took a small step forward. She silently thanked Celestia for the dark as her back knees almost buckled under her as she took another shaking step forward.

“Aha, there y’are.” The stallion broke into a huge grin as he stepped forward. “You all ready, Miss Fire ‘n’ Ice?” Applejack grimaced darkly at the pony’s nickname for her.

“Just Applejack, okay, Big?” she said, her voice growing steadily more direct. She had been up before dawn and hadn’t slept well at all, to top it off. She wasn’t going to deal with this right now.

Big Jim, it seemed, wasn’t going to take her sass either. His smile twisted into a snarl, and he whispered harshly to his temporary posse-mate.

“Now ya listen here, mare, I—” He was cut short as Midnight smacked him hard on the flanks with a hoof and shot him a strict glare. Mouthing the words “Leave it,” she stepped back, but left her golden eagle-eye upon Big. The stallion turned back around.

“Sorry. Applejack. Are you ready to go?”

Applejack nodded to Big.

“Ah certainly am. Where’re the, uh, cattle?” she asked as she tried to glance around the beefy mountain before her. Her face fell in outraged annoyance as Big laughed arrogantly in her face.

“They’re over at Horace’s! Only reason we came back was tah get you—not to mention,” he said, laying a greedy eye over the crowd behind Applejack, “to give these folks a bit of a show. Big Jim Cooley always delivers, and with ample style, no less!” Giving her a wink, he put on his wide, winning smile and walked over past Applejack. Her face was burning-hot red as she stifled herself from shouting back at the stallion jerk for his idiotic egotism.

Ah’m doin’ it for the farm. Ah’m doin’ it for the farm. Ah’m doin’ it for the farm, she thought, over and over again, trying to calm herself with her peaceful mantra. For good measure, she threw in a similarly-comforting thought of coming home to her family with a bursting coin purse.

“Horace!” Big cried behind Applejack as he advanced upon the unicorn. “Thanks again for offering our posse the chance to handle your cattle for you!” He smacked a fat hoof with a muffled crack upon the nervous unicorn’s shoulder. Horace gasped out a reply through teared-up eyes.

“Y-you’re quite welcome, Big.” Blinking back tears, he tried to match the broad smile that Big Jim was holding not a foot away from his own face. He failed terribly, though, and Big merely chuckled to himself as he looked up over the bundled-up unicorn and addressed the crowd before him.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” he boomed, and began walking backwards towards his posse, “It’s been a mighty fine time here in Buck City, but it seems duty’s gone and called me off to other places. Don’t ya’ll worry a single hair though,” he added. Joining back up with the rest of his posse, he tipped his hat to the addressed crowd, and did a modest little bow.

“I’ll be back, lickety-split.” Almost as if he had planned it, a creeping beam of sunlight arose behind him, illuminating his massive form, and causing the crowd to shield their eyes. Laughing to himself, he tipped his hat back up and moseyed back over to his cohorts that were waiting impatiently for him.

Applejack was furious at his exultation. How dare he act modest and address these townsponies like that! Her fuming was cut off, though, as the crowd called back towards them.

“Be safe out there, Big!” shouted a rose-colored pegasus mare, who had a little ochre filly at her hooves.

“Go get ‘em, Jim Cooley!” came a cry from a well-dressed pony with a gold-chain watch.

“Good luck to you, sirrah!” called a mauve stallion, all dressed up in cowpoke gear but lacking the usual ten-gallon hat.

Applejack was in shock at the crowd’s reactions. Big merely laughed at them, though; a deep, guttural and self-assured sound.

“Luck? I don’t need it!” he shouted back, and took off at a gallop down the dusty road, yipping and hollering all the way as his posse followed closely behind.

Forcing spiteful thoughts out of her head, Applejack merely kicked up her hooves as she followed along after the posse, off down the highway and straight into the blaring cool-blue light of the sunrise.

Ah’m just doin’ this for the farm. That’s it.

Ruffians and Louts Alike

Chapter Four – Ruffians and Louts Alike

Applejack had seen two hundred of a lot of things in the same place countless times in her life. Two hundred apples stacked in huge bushels, two hundred ponies amassed at a Canterlot event, and even on rare occasions, two hundred gleaming bits piled high on a wooden desk. But never before had she seen two hundred heads of cattle shuffling down a gigantic plain of dead, dry clumps of grass and hard-packed earth under the sparkling mist of a desert morning.

It was a magnificent sight to behold: two hundred Equestrian Bold-Blue steer, milling about across the expanse of the desert valley, minding their own business and more than content to just chew on cud and hay. The dense sea of dark brown and roan-red seemed to both blend magnificently with the dusty ground and clash spectacularly with it.

As Applejack peaked the small hill that oversaw the shallow valley below, she felt her jaw drop in splendid amazement. The sight was certainly one that an individual was privileged with experiencing, and it took her breath away.

As Big Jim and Dodger sauntered past Applejack, a grunting Bo spotted the mare’s look of awed shock as he dragged the covered wagon behind him.

“What?” he chided in a gruff voice, “Ya never seen cattle ‘afore?” Bo laughed heartily as Applejack shot him a sullen glance.

“Of course Ah have. Just, not this many before.” She gestured with a slight wave of her hoof at the sea of rusty red steers. Bo merely chuckled once more, and Applejack was reminded instantly of Big’s idiotic vanity. She silently cursed her luck: two of these jackasses on the trip, no less. If he hadn’t been a unicorn, Applejack would have sworn right then and there that Bo and Big Jim were blood brothers.

“Welp, you’ll be having fun, then,” the sky-blue stallion said behind a wide smile. “Ah hope you can take care of at least fifty cattle at a time. Thas’ how we all’re splittin’ it up.”

Applejack just smirked at the big unicorn’s idle intimidation.

“Easy. Ah used to take sixty at a time to mah farm, back in Ponyville.” Beaming broadly, she decided to revel in some self-assured glory.

Her grin shattered as Bo howled with laughter at Applejack’s blasé boast.

“Oohwhee! An’ jus’ look at you, all high ‘n’ mighty there!” He stopped laughing to catch his breath, hacking painfully. Applejack grimaced at the sound; a cat with a half-pound hairball in its throat sounded better than this pony right now. Dropping her anger, she switched her attitude from right irritated to genuinely concerned for the stallion’s well-being.

“Ya’ll right, sugarcube? That cough sounds mighty bad…” Her emerald eyes scanned over the poor unicorn as he hacked up a lung in front of her.

“Oh yeh, Ah’m *hack* fine. Jus’ *hack* fine,” he grunted. Digging in his satchel, he sighed and whipped out a small, red carton. “Jus’ need a cigarette tah calm mah nerves, ‘sall. Nothin’ doin’.” Laughing heartily once more, he stuck a long, white smoke between his lips and caught the tip alight with a greyish-blue sparkle of magic.

“See ya’ll down there, miss,” Bo laughed, and sauntered off, dragging the wagon with a cloud of acrid-smelling purple smoke floating around his head.

Applejack just stood stock-still, a single eyebrow raised high on her face in a display of stunned and speechless shock at what she had just seen in front of her. She only became aware that her mouth was agape when Midnight gently placed a hoof underneath her chin and clacked her mouth back closed.

“And wassamatter now, darlin’?” she teased, her joke riding out with a graceful little laugh.

“Uh, nothin’, Midnight. Jus’… dumbstruck at the stallions you put up with on a daily basis.” Her puzzled expression crumbled away to a soured grimace.

Midnight gave Applejack a curious glance. As the dark mare’s golden eyes danced from Applejack, to Bo, and back to Applejack, she smiled.

“Now you’re givin’ Bo a hard time there? Tsk, tsk, Applejack,” she scolded, in a mock tone of an upset mother. Midnight broke into a smile again, a long white grin that cracked across her face and stood out brilliantly against her smoky-black coat.

Applejack wasn’t sure what to say to that. Deciding that she had endured enough teasing- lighthearted or otherwise- in the last few days, she let out a deep sigh, and began walking forward to catch up with the rest of the group.

Midnight jumped up in slight surprise, and tried to catch up with the dour pony.

“Hey! Ah’m sorry, darlin’, Ah didn’t mean to poke and prod yah feelings like that. Jus’ having a little fun, Ah promise, Applejack.” As she rounded on the pony, Midnight’s smile turned genuinely concerned. “Ah’m here to help ya. Us ladies’ve got to stick together, ahmirite?”

She dropped her voice low, and it caught that deliciously dark and syrupy sensation once more, “’Specially with all these boys ‘round. Ya’ll can never be too careful, hun. ‘Sides,” she added with another bright smile, her sweet-and-sour-as-molasses tone melting away fast, “Ah’ve never worked with another mare on the posse! It’s always stallions gawkin here, colts askin’ ‘bout nonsense here, 'Hoowhee, just lookit’ that mare there!' It’s really enough to drive a mare crazy, Ah swear!” She chuckled to herself.

Now it was Applejack’s turn to look her posse-mate up and down with a curious eye. As the two mares shuffled down the hill of the valley, Applejack finally decided to ask the question that was burning on her mind.

“Midnight, Ah was just a bit curious ‘bout somethin’, if’n you don’t mind me askin’?”

“Hm? Yes, darlin’?”

“Well, Ah dunno. You seem a might out of place here in this posse. How did ya’ll get started here? What exactly do ya do?”

Midnight smirked. It seemed she had expected Applejack to ask this, had even prepared a speech for exactly this line of questioning.

“Well, if you must know… I am an old lover of Big’s.” Applejack stopped dead in her tracks when she heard this.

“What? A mare like you, with a stallion like him…?” She simply couldn’t believe it. What mare in her right mind would even put up with that thickheaded joke of an egotistical snake of a pony?

Midnight just laughed, deep and hearty. Only a minute amount of honey stuck in the air around where the sound had traveled.

“Believe it or not, he’s quite a stallion. Was,” she corrected. “Was, to me,” she corrected one last time with a quick thought. “Of course we had our good times, and we had our bad times, as any lovers do,” she added, and she stuck her tongue out just a tiny bit as her eyes rolled about in her head at some private memory.

She seemed to snap out of it, though, as she shook her head a tiny bit and laid a smile back on Applejack.

“We’re long done and gone, of course, but Ah stuck around for the money here in the posse. A gal’s gotta have the best, am Ah right, hun?” She winked to Applejack, who just rolled her eyes some.

“Alright, Ah see that. And what do you do in the posse?”

“I’m the tracker, dear. See this cutie mark?” she added, and wiggled her rump towards Applejack. Realizing that her mark was covered halfway by a long, leather satchel, Midnight scooted it aside with a bump of her flank, and smiled as the adjustment revealed a brilliant white four-point star.

“Mah guess is it’s the North Star, since you could blindfold me anytime at night, give me three pints ah cider, spin me about, and Ah could still point the Star out, no matter what season it is!” She beamed at Applejack as the pony’s emerald eyes went wide.

“That is mighty impressive, Midnight. Ah have to say, Ah am fascinated!” Applejack said, a smile growing slowly across her face. Midnight, on the other hoof, just wore a sly smirk as a crimson flush lit up her dark complexion.

“Ah, well thank ya darlin’. Come to think of it, I don’ think anypony’s ever complimented me ‘bout it before.” Her face fell in a grimace, “Then again, Ah don’ think anypony’s ever cared to ask anywho. Life’s tough when you’re in the shadow of somepony like Big.” With that, she glanced over at the stallion in question. Applejack followed her sullen gaze down the slope of the plain.

At that moment, as if he had staged the entire sequence as some sort of insane farce, Big hooped and hollered, tackling a particularly rough and beefy-looking steer to the ground in a fit of hooves and scattering dust.

Eyes wide, Applejack was sure Big Jim would get trampled straight into the dirt, or skewered on the bull’s giant horns. After a few intense seconds of searching through the thick cloud of rust-red dust, it cleared away to reveal the snorting steer squirming madly with a fat knot around his hooves that even Cerberus itself wouldn't be able to escape from. And with that, Big just laughed right in the steer’s face, as if he had bested him in some little game.

“Ya’ll gonna try and get ornery again, now? Huh?” Big shouted at the bull. The animal just grunted and groaned in the knot, eliciting more deep laughter from Big.

“Alright, ya dumb animal. Get out of here.” And with that, he whipped the knot off the bull’s ankles, flipped him up, and smacked him on the rump. With a snort, the beefy animal just trotted back up to join the rest of the lumbering cows that shuffled along the plain.

It only hit Applejack that she had been staring, wide-eyed, when she heard Midnight chuckling beside her.

“Yeah. He is that good. I really don’t know how he does it, but Big Jim knows what he’s doing when it comes to cattle.” Leaving it at that, Midnight sauntered down the stretch of dry earth, flicking her tail every few steps or so in a strange, dancing walk.

Shaking her head, Applejack just smashed down every question that came bubbling up in her mind as she followed the posse on the path down the trailway.

After dividing up the cattle evenly (more or less), the posse split up, left to their own devices, and oversaw their own groups of fifty or so cattle. These Bold-Blues were a bit tricky at first, but after a time, Applejack rolled into the little niche and routine of push, prod, shout, and shuffle.

Easy stuff.

So confident was she that Applejack had decided to get a little one-on-one time with the last pony she hadn’t talked to in the posse: that thin little colt. What was his name?

“Dodger?” Applejack asked politely as she moseyed over to the pony. Dodger gave a little start at his name, and lowering his hat with a hoof, answered.

“Aye?” he muttered. Applejack ambled over closer to hear better while giving a particularly ornery cow a glare of death.

“I haven’t heard much of anythin’ from you. Mind telling me a bit about yourself, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, hanging a picture-perfect smile on her face for added emphasis.

Dodger just shrugged a little, and continued on, nose pointed forward as he continued ahead. AJ felt her smile waiver as a glimmer of upset poked at the back of her mind. Not another one in this gall darn posse…

“Whassat, hon? Ah didn’t hear whatcha said there.” Applejack tried again, rechecking the smile on her face. Dodger just stopped in place, ignoring the various cattle that bumped into him lazily as they wandered past him.

“Ah’m nopony special. Don’ worry ‘bout it much, missus,” he said, and tipped his hat curtly to a stunned Applejack. Slipping into some unseen part in the sea of cattle, he disappeared from sight amongst the tall, swaying horns of the Equestrian steer. Once again, and certainly not for the last time, Applejack just stood there with her open mouth catching flies in the dry stillness of the morning plain.

From somewhere to her left, an angry voice called out, and the sea of steers shifted as a massive form pushed and shoved its way through the bovine current.

“Hey! Applejack, les’ get a movon, alright!?” Big yelled. His face was red and he was panting up a storm as he shoved cows from out of his way. “What in Equestria are ya doin’ jus’ standin’ there?” AJ merely glanced over at him, feeling rather foolish to have just stopped in the middle of the crowd. Shutting her mouth fast with a clack of teeth, she shuffled around and picked up the pace with the berating shouts of Big roaring hot breath down her neck.

Things were not going well. Not at all.

If Applejack thought that the hot wind that Big whipped up every time he shouted at her for some inane thing was bad, the desert heat soon grew to the point where that darn stallion’s shouting would have been a blessed ocean breeze on her face.

Amongst the big red cattle and the choking dust, the temperature soon rose to the point that, if she had seen it, she would have sworn that the mercury in the thermometer would have rocketed all the way to the moon in this hellish abomination of a plain.

Spotting a lavender hat bobbing up through the hot, churning sea of cattle, Applejack dipped and shoved her way over to her target.

“Midnight!” AJ called through a panting yawn. Coughing slightly on a cloud of dust, she batted her eyelashes as the thick haze passed across her sight. Stumbling over a cow’s heavy hoof, she jumped into the little clearing and barely missed slamming straight into Midnight.

“Oh. Well, hallo, darlin’,” the pony remarked with a grin as she fixed her hat from the collision. “Fancy seein’ you around here!” Another light smile touched her lips as she guffawed at her little joke. Applejack noticed where a stippling of sweat had invaded the front headband of Midnight’s hat.

“This heat is unbearable. Ah can’t rightly stand it, but it looks like ya’ll’re handling it, no sweat.” Midnight’s eyebrow raised curiously. “Er, pardon the pun,” AJ laughed nervously.

"Well, I guess ya just deal with it fer now," Midnight replied, bumping a cow aside. "Ya drinkin' enough water there, dear?"

"Yes'm," Applejack replied, and Midnight nodded.

"Well then, hun, guess you're gonna just have tah..." The mare trailed off, her nose sticking straight up in the air. Midnight plodded forward, lilting off to the left in the crowd of cattle.

"Midnight?" Applejack called, jumping up in surprise as a cow bumped into her rump. After giving the steer a light buck, she scanned the tall creatures for any sign of Midnight. Nothing gave any hint to where she was. Cocking an ear up in the ear, she thought she heard what sounded like...

"Sandstorm!" came Big's bellowing voice. "Get these doggies rounded up! I don' wanna lose a single head, ya hear!" Big came crashing through the steer, right behind his loud shouting. "Applejack! Get your forty rounded up, and meet us at the head of the pack. And don't," Big Jim hissed shoving his snout right in Applejack's face, "buck it up."

Applejack snorted angrily.

"What in the hay are you talkin' about, Big? Go do yer work, alright? I can pull my own weight here." Big just laughed in her face, and once again, Applejack smashed down her boiling anger before she could smash that stallion straight in the face.

"Whatever, sister," Big Jim guffawed as he slipped in between two trotting cows.

Applejack just stood there, seething in anger and just about boiling in all her gear. Off on the horizon, a whirling, heavy cloud of rust-red malevolence was bearing down on them, and coming in fast.

She really didn't know how much more of this she could take.

From Dust

Chapter Five - From Dust

The slog forward was a hot, dry and dusty ordeal. Soon, after what seemed an hour of marching amongst mindless steer, Applejack was finally relieved to hear Big’s call of “Whoah, woah!” The collective halting of hooves on the flat-packed earth only added more to the billowing rust cloud that was blowing in behind.

Jumping up in the air in an attempt to see where the group had stopped, she had no luck of any view over the mountains of steer before her. Finally, she just decided to plant her hooves and wait, and was banefully rewarded with Big Jim’s shout of “Applejack! Get’chr damn flanks up here!”

Filing between the sea of roan with a hot, indignant breath, she finally popped up and out the last row of steers to find the rest of the posse circled about around Big. As AJ looked up further, she spotted, some hundred yards away, the rotting fortress of an abandoned mining town.

As she trotted up to meet the rest of the posse, they all looked up at her wide-eyed, with jaws hanging slightly agape.

“What?” Applejack asked, stopping in place herself in surprise. Big just shook his head and broke the haze. He pointed back at the assortment of cattle as he addressed his posse.

“We’ve got a sandstorm flyin’ in here some hundred feet a second. Now, thankfully for us, Halterville is just sitting here, and if we can shove them cattle into the streets behind the buildings, they should be good to go, safe from the brunt of that storm. We’ll all just have to find a building to hole up in. Ya'll got that?" A chorus of Ayes gave him a wide, satisfied grin, and on command, each member sprang into action to gather up the gang of steer that they were responsible for.

As AJ wrangled up her crowd of cows, she was taken aback at the town that was quickly coming into view before her. From far away, it had looked like any other shantytown pulled up out of the hot desert sand. But once she had come closer, she had noticed the broad spans of rusty brown rooftop that lay collapsed in on themselves, wooden carcasses of an age of reckless abandon. She noted a few splashes of color that lay peeling and cracked in the harsh sunlight: candy oranges, apple reds, verdant greens and ocean blues.

Putting the thought away to worry about later, Applejack focused on her task at hand. Cursing and shoving, she wrangled up all the cattle she could into the long streets that were littered about with errant bushes, shrubs and the occasional tumbleweed.

Once the vast majority of cattle had been amassed behind the buildings for safety against the brunt of the storm, Big's hollering shouts and whip cracks (along with plenty of shoving and curses on hot breath) had every head of cattle jam-packed into the weed-strewn streets, and not merely a moment too soon.

As Applejack slammed the last cow into the streets, a sting of hot sand on her rump made her leap forwards a pace from out of cover of the dilapidated buildings, and she was instantly swallowed up in a blood red cloud. Sand whipped around her face, stinging the uncovered portions of her body: head, neck, and legs were rubbed raw by the caustic winds. Gritting her teeth, she spat out a mouthful of scalding sand and squinted her teary eyes against the onslaught of earth and wind.

She couldn’t see ten feet ahead of her, and her heart sank in a dread that only a pony close to death knew. Grabbing frantically at her neckerchief, she jammed it up her neck to cover her face and nose. With a violent gust, her hat was ripped right off her head and blew out of her flailing grasp as she screamed aloud.

Blinded, burned and bleeding, Applejack stumbled and cried out helplessly. Her legs, battered by the unending sand, began to shake violently, and she hardly realized she was falling to the earth. Tears mixed with the sand and blood on the ground, and things began to grow dark.

This was it. The end of her journey was here.

She had barely realized that a hoof was jabbing into her side. Giving into actions out of her control, she could only follow the tug of some unseen force as she felt lifted up and taken away from where she had lain, powerless and close to death. Hearing the seams of her shirt ripping, she felt a dragging sensation overtake her as needles stabbed into her sides and her legs. Agony drove her to wherever she was being taken.

And so suddenly, the noise was gone. The pain was gone. The suffering was gone.

Coughing violently, Applejack could only tell one thing about where she was now: away from the devils that prowled in the hellstorm outside. How long she had been trapped there, though, she had no idea.

As she hacked up phlegm, blood and sand, the world about her became more lucid. Blurs gave way to shapes, shapes became surfaces, and surfaces became rotted wooden planks. She was indoors.

Regaining her equilibrium, AJ took to her feet shakily, and took in more of her surroundings. Torn up satin seats sat virtually unused; moth-chewed curtains hung limply in moldy air; gaudy, dust-dressed gold lamps and a dilapidated stage revealed where she had been rescued to: a long-abandoned saloon. Looking about, her savior was nowhere to be seen. Adjusting her eyes to the dim, reddish light, she shuddered as she heard the rancorous moaning of the sandstorm outside.

Her eyes fell across relics of a long-gone goldrush: a bar stood empty, collecting dust, and cobwebs clung desperately to chairs stacked in the furthest corner of the room. Applejack's gaze finally rested on dancing fingers of light that crept down a flight of stairs. Deciding that was probably her best option, she took to her feet gingerly, and sauntered on unsure hooves towards the light.

With a handful of violent creaks and moans from the decaying wood underhoof, she reached the top of the stairs, and squinted as the light of an oil lamp seared against her sensitive eyes. Close by to the light was a colt in a black hat:

“Dodger?” Applejack stuttered and coughed heavily at the effort. The colt’s ears flicked up in surprise, and folded down just as quick. Turning about, he put down the cards he was holding and straightened up.

“Hullo, missus. How are you feeling.” The sentence sounded like a flat statement to Applejack.

“Uh, fine. Jus’ a bit sore... plenty of sand to last me a lifetime, too.” Her quiet chuckle was lost within the empty timbers of the building. With a moaning creak, the boarded-up windows at the other end of the room shook as a powerful gust of wind blew past them. Dodger turned back to his game silently.

“So… you saved me then?”

“Aye,” the pony replied quietly. Applejack was a bit taken back at the colt’s mannerisms.

“Well, Ah really have to say...” she started, taking a step forward. With a prick of the colt’s ear, Dodger turned about to face Applejack. “Thank you, so very much, from saving me from the—”

“Stop,” Dodger gruffed. Putting his cards down flat on the rickety table before him, he turned his body about to face AJ.

“Huh?” Applejack grunted, taken aback at Dodger’s sudden bodily shift.

“Ah said, don’t move, missus.” Applejack just raised an eyebrow at the colt.

“Why?”

“Because,” Dodger said, tilting the brim of his hat up, “this floor ain’t strong enough to hold all yer weight. Stay over there.” And with that, the pony turned back to his cards without another word.

Red hot anger hissed and sparked as the cold waters of understanding collided in Applejack’s head. Deciding it'd be best to listen to the advice she was given, she went about setting up a makeshift bunk to wait out the storm.

As she lay back against her bulging saddlebag, she felt for her hat and frowned as her search came up empty.

"Ya'll seen mah hat?" she asked over to Dodger.

"Wind prolly took it," the colt added stiffly without moving from his game. Applejack just sighed and made herself comfortable in her nest.

Reaching into her vest pocket, she carefully slid her picture out from the hidden pocket and stared longingly at it. Amid the flickering lights of the oil lamp, she smiled quietly as the timbers of the building moaned and heaved slightly from the blaring sand outside.

Feeling her eyelids grow heavy, she abandoned herself to the sweet allure of sleep’s embrace.

Jolting awake, nightmares tore at the corners of AJ’s consciousness as she shook sleep from her mind. Groaning heavily, the pains of her travels made themselves very apparent in her sore joints. Snuffling a hoof under her nose, she wiped away crusted blood and sand. A dim recollection told her she had nearly died in a sandstorm earlier.

Sitting up further, she let her eyes adjust to the dim, reddish light: only one lamp helped to stave off the darkness, and the bloody red that melted into the room from the half-boarded window was exceedingly morbid.

The colt was still sitting at the table, playing cards. Applejack began sitting up, shuffling the sand off of her gear. She looked back up at Dodger, who was staring intently at a card. As Applejack squinted, though, she noticed the card was exceptionally bigger than was the norm, and seemed much glossier in the greasy light of the lamp. A sting of panic bit her hard as she shuffled a hoof through her belongings.

“Hey! Gimme back my picture!” Applejack barked, surprised at the little fire in her voice. Her blood boiled on, however, as she saw the colt jump up and tuck the picture away into his vest.

“I wasn’t doin’ anythin’. That’s my playin’ card, missus. I—”

“Horseshit that’s your card! That’s mah picture and it’s… it’s the only one I have of mah family! Giv’r here, now!” Applejack felt her face prick hot with blood as she stomped straight up to the colt.

'C'mon! I know ya'll got it. Give it up right this minute!"

Dodger's eyes went wide as he watched Applejack march towards him. Knocking over the table in fright, the lamp flickered and died with a crunch of broken glass and a flutter of cards. He tucked himself into the wall and watched with moistened eyes.

“I-I just wanted a bit of your life. I never had I family, I j-jus’ wanted tah know how it felt—”

“Shuddup! Shuddup!” She was taken aback by the colt's words, but the stress of the last few days was boiling her blood. The mare wouldn’t have any of his excuses. She was tired of this stupid posse, this stupid job. “Yah stupid welp, I’ll whip yer hide for takin’ what’s mine!”

“Missus, the floor, you’ll—!” the colt squeaked as Applejack stomped towards him.

“Why I’ll—!” Her voice cut off as the pony cried out and charged back at her.

Taken wholly aback, AJ stopped in place and didn’t even give notice as the floorboards below her moaned and cried out with a shattering shower of splinters. Applejack was flung out of the way by the colt's little body as a gigantic cross-beam smashed from out the floor and the entire world was pulled out from below her.

The last thing she saw as the very ground beneath her feet disappeared was the teared-up, bloodshot wide eyes of Dodger and her photograph flutter past her face. As the floor came suddenly up to greet her, the rest went black again.

Somepony was crying and hollering and making a nasty noise.

Applejack yielded as a volley of heavy hoofbeats smacked her stomach; she felt as the blows to her face brought pinpricks of numbness.

"...killed him, ya killed him, ya scrawny little bitch! I'll kill ya!" a heavy, piercing voice guttered into Applejack's ears. She winced, expecting more punishment to come, but as she waited on, nothing more came to fall on her. Only the sound of heavy sobbing could be heard.

Yet again, the tang of blood sat heavy on Applejack's tongue and it mixed awfully with the taste of silent tears. Vision came back to her, and light mixed with shadow into a sickening display. The forms of three ponies came into view: one tan giant, another sky-blue stallion, and a dainty little mare with perfectly round, white curls.

Straining to get up, she saw the mare break way from the other two and a hoof was extended to her. Taking it gingerly, Applejack was set up on four rickety knees as sand dumped off her body. The rest of the world came rushing into her senses as she took her first steps up.

"You okay?" Midnight asked Applejack. She was whispering.

"Yeh... I'm— I'll be okay I 'spose."

Midnight smiled weakly in reply.

"I, uh, think you should go wait outside darling. The sandstorm's gone, someone needs t'be with the steer. Go on," she added with a terse whisper. Applejack raised an eyebrow as the mare's voice was stuck in her throat.

"Midnight... What's wrong?" Applejack asked carefully. The mare looked at the ground, her lip trembling lightly. Confused, Applejack looked around the room, and followed the trail of movement.

Big Jim sat bawling, his face buried in monstrous hooves that had probably never been wet with pity. Bo sat next to the giant, whispering mild words as he put his arm around Big’s shoulder. Large, heavy sobs resounded in the bleak half-darkness of the room, in stark contrast to the warm light that flooded inside from a wide open door.

Straining to see past the thick darkness of the saloon's corners, Applejack searched through the mess of tattered debris and jutting wooden beams.

Her scream caught in her throat as she spotted the source of such horrendous misery: the body of a colt lay crucified on a shattered support beam. The far end of the thick, wooden spike impaled itself through his back and pierced itself violently out of his neck.

Applejack looked away at as she spotted the colt's eyes, wide with the fright of an eminent death, lit up by warm fingers of dancing sunlight.

She could only stare at the blood that pooled near a tattered black hat on the floor.