Applejack got up and shook herself. Right. First order of business, look around. All she’s been doing is skirting the edges, there has to be more inland, right? She nodded, confident that there must be more to this. Perhaps she’ll even find her friends, surely they must be around here somewhere.

With that, she made her first steps forward and entered the forest, leaving the beach behind.

Inland was cool, that was the first thing she noticed. The sudden temperature drop made her shiver slightly. Applejack sighed and kept her head on a swivel and continued trotting. Trees, rock formations, bushes, peat, stuffy air. It was all very different from the countryside she grew up in. She wasn't sure she would be able to survive all that long if she couldn't find anything remotely familiar in the next day or two.

***

Three days later and many steps later, Applejack found herself at the water's edge yet again. She plopped down on the sand and looked out across the stunning visage of a sunset seeping into the ocean. She pulled her stetson over her chest and watched. She was tired and hungry, thirsty and exhausted. These past few days, she's just been nibbling on berries and tree bark. She also found several streams where she drank until she felt like bursting, but it wasn't enough. None of that was enough to help prepare her for the disappointment of finding herself on an island.

As the sun's last rays flickered above the horizon, depression soon followed the disappointment. Applejack allowed herself to flop onto the sand and without ceremony started bawling. The life she knew was gone. The last remaining shred of hope that she was holding onto, vaporized. Her friends, family, all gone. She cried herself to sleep.

***

She awoke, blearily. Her eyes were puffy and stinging. Applejack groaned as she rolled over, trying to find some purchase on the sand with her hooves. It took a while, but eventually, she got back onto her hooves. Her body ached all over.

Maybe…no.

Applejack shook her head, trying to dispel any hopeful thoughts. There’s nothing for her anymore, time to rework her priorities. A sustainable source of food and fresh water. A permanent shelter. She would also need to get a lay of the land, see what she’s working with. Then, after all of that, maybe, just maybe, she might consider the possibility of building a raft and escaping the island.

Applejack shook her head for the last time, filled with new determination. She donned her stetson and marched back inland.

***

Follow animals. That was something she learned from Zecora and Fluttershy. Wild animals are smart, they live to survive. After following a group of birds, Applejack stumbled across a stream that ran across a rocky divide. It was shallow enough to stand in, so first things first, Applejack got to cleaning herself as well as drinking enough to quench her thirst.

After, feeling refreshed, Applejack marched upstream. She was careful though, fresh water attracts all sorts of flora and fauna. It wasn’t before long she found herself at the beginnings of a hill. Looking upwards, nothing looked anything of interest, so Applejack decided against going up for now. Instead, she went around the base of the hill, hoping she could find a grotto or something to camp in for the foreseeable future. No such luck.

She was about to give up when she noticed a space within the trees over yonder. She trotted over, cautious. It turned out to be a clearing, just wide enough to fit three ponies. It looked perfect, exactly what Applejack needed at that moment. A space that’s somewhat easily enough to defend if need be, enough space to store supplies as well as a space for herself, and best of all, the trees’ canopy around the clearing was enough to cover her.

Satisfied, Applejack made sure to make note of all the notable landmarks so she could find her way back, then took off, now determined to find a food source. Fruits would be best, as long as it’s not strawberries. Apples would be even better. But, seeing as she had no idea where she was, food could be something of a hassle.

Applejack scrounged through the brush, combed the beach, and even clambered up tropical trees to get a better lay of the land. In the end, she only found these weird reddish berries. She saw this rodent-looking animal munch on them earlier and Applejack couldn’t see any discernible factors that indicated that that animal was capable of consuming poisonous berries, so she took a bite. Bitter, but not bad.

She took half of what the bush provided and went back to her clearing. Applejack peeled off some bark and layered it with leaves, and then placed the berries on top of it. That would serve her plate for now. She then placed her stetson next to her makeshift plate and found a comfortable spot to curl up and faded from consciousness.

***

A week has passed and Applejack has gotten acclimated, more or less, to her new home. On top of the berries, she found this bulbous fruit that hung from these tall trees that were cumbersome to climb, so Applejack just bucked the fruits down.

She has also built up the clearing using driftwood and dead trees to create walls and fences. It made the place feel secure. Applejack also transplanted some moss and laid it all around the clearing, making it much more cozier.

After that, she went ahead and dug a separate route for the stream to take, which allowed the fresh water to flow closer to the clearing. It would also allow for the transplanted moss to be irrigated. After that, she started making plans to start planting berry bushes all around the clearing as well, maybe even a couple of fruit trees.

Before she could start investigating whether or not that could work, it started to rain. And rain it did. Being out in a tropical region meant when it rained, it rained hard. Soon enough, the stream was flooding over. The tree canopy gave way to the unrelenting torrent, drenching the clearing even more. Applejack clambered over to one of her half-built projects that had a roof and just watched in agonized silence as all of her work went to waste.

That was the second time she cried herself to sleep.

***

Another week passed. Applejack gloomily fixed everything. Rebuilt the fences and walls. Replanted the uprooted moss. Strengthened and deepened the stream so overflow wouldn’t happen as easily. Even made a shack. It was after this moment she sat down and took a break.

She was tired. Beyond tired even. She had drowned herself in her work, in her survival, in order to do anything but think. Thinking would mean remembering. Remembering meant pain. Pain meant giving up, and Applejack wasn’t about to give up. That was her, wasn’t it? Applejack, Element of Honesty, stubborn as a mule, and a hard worker.

She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head, whimpering every so often. She couldn’t, she mustn’t. So she didn’t. She made her mind go blank and focused on the present. Right now, she was sitting in her clearing, her home. She had just finished with her starter shack, what would eventually be her house. Now what? Her stomach grumbled and Applejack let out a mirthless chuckle. Why, it’s time to get food.

She heaved herself upwards and took a well trodden path to a fruit grove she found a while back. She squinted and picked out the tree with the most fruit and bucked it a couple of times. Four of them came tumbling down and with practiced ease, Applejack plucked all four before they splatted on the ground.

Placing three on her back, she took a bite of one and savored the bite, placing herself even more in the moment. A few more bites later and the last bite was now in the process of being chewed and swallowed when Applejack noticed a glint in the shadows.

Without thinking, Applejack threw herself to the ground, letting the fruit tumble off her back, and felt something whoosh past her ear. Panic set in and she scrambled onto her hooves and galloped out of the orchard. She needed to get out, somewhere she could see whatever was attacking her. The beach. It was open. She veered to the side and sprinted with all of her might.

The orchard wasn’t too far from the beach so it only took an hour before Applejack burst out of the shrubbery and into the open. Out of breath, she collapsed onto the sand. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was telling herself she needed to keep moving, but her legs didn’t seem to work. A diet consisting of three things probably wasn’t nutritional, leaving her well-toned body into something unfit and undesirable. Applejack was ashamed and felt tears welling up again.

A heavy thud sounded behind her. It was quickly followed by four more thuds. Applejack strained her head to look through blurry eyes and noticed five pony-like shapes. One of them raised a stick to its lips. Applejack sighed, so this is how she goes out. Not with a partner that she loved dearly, where they raised a family and grew old together. No. It was out here, on this Celestia-forsaken island in the middle of nowhere. She closed her eyes and the world faded to black.

***

“Ah, you’re awake.” Applejack blinked, feeling more rested than she'd ever been. She blinked and looked to her right and noticed a purple shape. A familiar looking purple shape.

“…Twi?” She rasped out, speaking for the first time in days.

“It’s nice to see you again, Applejack.” Twilight choked out, held still for a minute, then embraced her friend and held tight. Applejack held still in shock, then fiercely returned the gesture. It didn’t take long before the two started sobbing.

***

“So…uhhh…what happened?” Applejack asked after they composed themselves. She was sitting on a proper and comfy bed and the two seemed to be in a well crafted wooden lodge as well. Everything about this felt very surreal. Twilight opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Applejack’s stomach growled fiercely. She smiled sheepishly. “Do ya have a bite to eat, perhaps?”

Twilight laughed and dragged her hoof over her face, then sighed. She smiled and got up and extended a hoof. “Come on, let’s get you a bite to eat.”

Applejack accepted the offered hoof gratefully and pulled herself to her hooves. It was then did she noticed the drastic height difference. “Twi…”

The mare in question blinked, confused, looked down, then gasped in realization. “Oooooh, uhh, yeah, about that. Ehe. I’ll explain that all later. How about for now, we just grab a bite to eat, the two of us, just like old times.”

“Yeah. Just like old times.” Applejack frowned slightly but went along.

The two of them exited the room and found themselves in a long winding corridor, also made out of wood. Applejack followed Twilight as she navigated through the maze, leaving Applejack speechless. It also didn’t help that Twilight was twice the height of Applejack now.

“What is all of this? Who made all of this?”

“The locals.” Twilight answered simply, not looking back.

“The locals.”

“The locals.”

“Right…” Applejack shook her head, wondering if this was just some fever dream. Maybe she ate a bad fruit and was now lying on the ground, dreaming up this whole scenario. The only problem with that, this felt all too real. The heartache, the relief, the confusion, the awe. All of it. “Twi, do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Tell me where we are. Are we still on that island?”

“…It’ll be better if I explain it later. Trust me. It’ll all make sense after.”

“Ya promise though? Ya promise to tell me the truth and nothin’ but the truth?” Applejack asked, more dead serious than she’d ever been.

“I pinkie promise.” Twilight stopped and looked back. She lowered herself down and looked Applejack in the eye and then placed her hoof over her heart and made the motions. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Ah’ll hold ya to that.”

“I didn’t expect anything else.” Twilight replied with a smile. She lingered there for a moment before turning around and continuing forwards. Applejack frowned still, she swore she saw a tear slip.

Then, they entered another room.

This wasn’t like the other room, this room was massive. Almost as big as Ponyville’s town square, and it was all built out of wood. It was a whole canteen. Tables and chairs in neat rows and in the front of the room was what looked like a kitchen.

“This is…amazin’!”

“I know.” Twilight replied with a smug face.

“Ya did this, didn’t ya?” Applejack asked, teasingly.

“I…ehe,” Twilight rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “I might’ve been partly responsible.”

“It looks great, Twi. Really.” Applejack smiled warmly. The two shared that moment for a beat, then another.

“Food?” Twilight suddenly broke the moment.

“Yeah…yeah, food.”

The two, ladened with delicious looking food. sat down at a table, it didn’t matter which one, because the entire canteen was empty.

“What’s with all them locals, ya talked about?”

“Oh, I asked them to hide, just so you could get used to the present.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means…uhhh…” Twilight scratched her head, looking a bit lost. “I don’t know how to explain. The locals are a bit of a hooffull, you’ll understand when you meet them. Let’s finish up this meal and then you can meet them, how’s that?”

“Sounds good.”

***

“The food was delicious, mah compliments to the chef.”

“Why don’t you tell her yourself?”

“She’s ‘ere?”

“Of course.”

“Ah would like to meet her then.”

Twilight got up and Applejack followed. She gestured for her friend to follow then took a smaller door, in which Twilight had to duck to fit through. Applejack trotted behind, filled with trepidation.

“Ah, a small tip. Don’t be scared.”

“Ah’ll try.” Applejack replied, still feeling a mite confused.

The two turned a corner and then through another door. As Applejack fitted herself through the last door, she came face to face with something entirely different.

“Uwah!” She leapt backwards and mentally prepared herself for a fight. It took her a moment to get her bearings and noticed that the creature was cowering. “Oh! Oh…uhhh, mah apologies…ma’am?” Applejack looked at Twilight, who nodded encouragingly. “Mah sincere apologies, it’s just, it’s been a while since ah’ve seen any creature.”

“Oh…no, it’s okay.” The creature tittered. That was the word for it. The creature tittered. “I…I understand. You’re the next Chosen One, sent from the Past to give Gifts to us, the Ascended Ones. You have no knowledge of us yet, as the Prophecy foretold!” The creature then started making a bizarre movement, almost akin to bowing. But that wasn’t what caught Applejack’s attention. She kept her face as neutral as possible as she turned to look at Twilight.

“Twi. What’s she talkin’ about?” She was only met with stony silence. “Twi. How long as it been?”

“1,000 years.”

Author's Note

didn't expect to go that far in depth into the survival bit, but yeah, now we have it.