XCOM 2, Applejack's Story

"What do you think it is?" A fillies voice cut through the fog that was her sleepiness. It didn't sound like Applebloom or any other filly she knew. Plus, why was there a filly in her room?

"I dunno. An animal, definitely," another voice, this time belonging to a colt. And what was this talk about an animal? Her senses started to return to her.

"I think I know what it is. My grandpa once showed me this book that showed a different bunch of animals before ADVENT showed up," another colt's voice. Applejack was more awake now. What was an ADVENT? The voice continued, "I think it's called a horse,"

That definitely started to wake Applejack up. No colt should know the word whorse. She wanted to say "Where did you learn that word?" though it came out jumbled and mumbled.

Hoof steps crunched on leaves as the three young ones moved, "D-did that thing just talk?" Wait, leaves? Applejack opened her eyes. She was not in bed. She was not in her room. She was not in her house. She wasn't even on her farm. Adrenaline pumped through her veins at this discovery, waking her up sharply. She scrambled to her hooves. There was the sound of something moving behind her. She turned around.

Before her were, for lack of a better word, aliens. They were taller than the average filly or colt. They were standing on two narrow limbs and wore clothing. They looked oddly familiar. With a start she realized why they were so familiar. She guessed these were the "humans" Twilight once told them about when she traveled through the magic mirror. That explained why she wasn't home. She was in human land.

She also noted that the two colts- was that the right word?- stood in front of the shaking filly protectively, though she could tell they were scared also.

Scared of her. That thought tripped up Applejack. If anyone was supposed to be scared, it should've been Applejack. She was on their world, after all.

"P-please don't hurt us Mr. horsey," whimpered the filly.

Applejack reflexively winced at that word, although she knew their definition of "whorse" was probably different than hers.

"Ah'm not gonna hurt ya," The three young ones flinched at her voice but the two colts recovered quickly. The smaller one of the two colts stared at her quizzically, almost like Twilight. The other bigger one glared at her, though she could see traces of fear in his small eyes, "And Ah'm not a whorse either. Ah'm a pony."

The filly, who had been crouched on the ground hugging herself, shakily stood up to her full height, "A pony?"

The taller colt was still glaring at her when he spoke, "Are you an alien?"

Applejack hesitated at the venom in the colt's voice, "Ah guess Ah am,"

The colt's glare seemed to intensify even further before the smaller colt tapped him on his shoulder. The taller one bent down a little, never taking his eyes off of her, as the smaller one whispered into his ear. Once the smaller one was done, he straightened back up. His glare seemed less harsh when he spoke, "Are you with ADVENT?"

Applejack tilted her head, "Whut's an ADVENT?"

"Yeah, what is an ADVENT?" interrupted Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy shrank in her seat, "It sounds scary,"

"Ah'll get to that in a minute," Applejack, slightly annoyed at the interruption, replied.

The smaller colt elbowed the larger one, "See, I told you!"

The taller one still seemed unconvinced, "She could be lying,"

The smaller one noticed the orange "pony" stood straighter and her- he guessed it was a her from the pony's voice- expression turned serious, "Ah don't lie," she said that with so much conviction that he couldn't help but believe her.

Even the taller one seemed to believe her as he said, "Okay, so maybe it's not lying. What's it doing here, then?"

Applejack leveled a light glare at the taller one, which he matched, "Now look here, youngun, Ah am a mare named Applejack an' would prefer not bein' referred as an 'it',"

Their little stare down was interrupted by the smaller colt. "Well I'm Paul. It's nice to meet you, miss Applejack,"

Applejack turned to Paul, "Ya don't have to call me miss. Just Applejack will do. It's nice to meet ya too,"

Seeing that they were at the point of exchanging names, the little filly piped up, "I'm Emily!"

The tall one stayed silent for a moment, "Jack. Name's Jack,"

Applejack looked at all of them, "It's nice to meet ya'll. If ya don't mind me asking, how old are ya'll?"

"Emily is 5, I'm 10, Jake's 14," said Paul.

"An' whut's ADVENT?"

At this the children grew quiet and shifted uneasily. Paul spoke again, "They're...bad people,"

"Mommy says they look like people but aren't," said Emily.

Something about what Emily said made Applejack uneasy.

"They're monsters," spat Jack.

"Ah'll...Ah'll take yer word for it," said Applejack.

Jack nodded, "It's time we left. Don't try to follow us,"

"But Jacky," whined Emily," Miss pony will get lonely!"

"Emily is right. Applejack won't last long without our help," said Paul.

Jack threw his arms up, "Fine, you try to convince them to take her in. I don't wan't anything to do with her,"

"Wow, Jack's kind of a jerk," said Rainbow Dash.

To Rainbow Dash's surprise, Applejack glared at her, "Ya'll see why Jack was so bitter,"

"Please, Jacky?"

"No!"

"Pleeease?"

"I said no!"

Emily took in a large breath, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassssssssssseeee?"

"Guh, fine! I'll tell the guards we found a non hostile alien when we get home,"

Paul, who had been silent during this exchange, spoke up, "I'll stay with Applejack,"

They soon reached the tree line and Applejack could see huts in the distance made out of various materials. There were more humans moving about, who were bigger than the ones she had met. Jack and Emily went off to the haven about what they had found. A few minutes later Applejack spied two humans running towards them. Both seemed to be carrying something.

Paul spied this too, "Uh oh,"

Applejack turned her head to Paul, "What's wrong?"

"They have weapons,"

"Oh," she turned back to see them much closer than before. Close enough she could that they both had angry expressions.

One of them crouched, "Don't move! Kid get away from it!"

"But she's friendly!" protested Paul.

"And you would believe it?" said the other.

Paul reluctantly obeyed his elders and stepped away. "What should we do with it?" said the first one.

"Kill it,"

Applejack's eye's widened as they readied their weapons, "W-wait!"

"And did they?" asked Pinkie.

"Uh, Ah wouldn't be here if Ah was..."

Pinkie narrowed her eyes, "You could be a ghost..."

"Ghosts don't exist, Pinkie," said Twilight.

"Ah think we're getting off topic here,"

"Lower your weapons,"

One of the humans turned to see another human, this one a girl. His eyes widened, "Denmother! What are you doing here?"

"I said lower your weapons,"

The other one spoke, "But ma'am, it's an alien. We kill aliens,"

"But she's not bad! She doesn't even know what ADVENT is!"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Is this true?"

Applejack nervously pawed the ground, "Ah know they're bad..."

"...what country are we in?"

Applejack started to sweat, "Ah don't know,"

"Planet?"

"...Equis?"

The woman stayed silent for a moment, "And what is your purpose here?"

Applejack looked down, "Ah jus' want to get back home,"

"How'd you get here then?"

"Ah...Ah don't rightly know,"

"You don't even know how you got here?"

"Ah went ta sleep and woke up in this here forest,"

The woman pursed her lips before speaking, "I don't believe she has any affiliation with ADVENT. She can stay here until the next report with Central. We can decide what to do with her in the mean time,"

The two male humans were clearly unhappy with this decision but knew better to question superiors, especially one as seasoned as Sarah "Denmother" Whitmore.

The group made their way back to the haven. On the way there Applejack asked a question, "Do ya know why Jack is so...angry?"

Paul looked down at his feet as he walked, "Jack's parents were arrested by ADVENT,"

"Okay, Ah guess that explains his...dislike with ADVENT, but won't his parents eventually be released?"

Paul shook his head, "Once you get arrested by ADVENT, you're never heard from again,"

"Oh. But why where they arrested?" The thought of never seeing your parent was horrible.

"ADVENT rules the Earth. They don't need a reason,"

"But--that's-- That's jus' not fair!"

"Of course it isn't," Denmother spoke up, "but we're fighting to change that."

The rest of the trip was in silence. As they neared, the guards looked at Applejack with barely disguised hatred. She received more glares in the haven than she had received in her entire life in Equestria. She realized they truly hated aliens. She couldn't even begin to imagine what had happened to them to warrant this much hatred.

By this time the Sun was beginning to set. Applejack was shown a room where she could sleep. Applejack didn't realized how tired she was when she hit her head on the dirty pillow. She fell asleep quickly.

Tomorrow, however, would forever change her life...