C5- Apple Against the Machine

"Seriously, where in the hay am ah?", Applejack says aloud as she walks through the devastated city; carefully studying her surroundings. "Big explosion, magic lightnin' goin' everywhere... Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all got blasted, and then they up n' disappeared.", she says to herself as she mentally retraces what happened. "Wonder if they're all around here somewhere? Guess it's worth a shot."

Applejack takes in a very deep breath. "RARITY! FLUTTERSHY! RAINBOW DASH! Y'ALL OUT HERE!? HELLO! SOMEPONY!? ANYPONY!?" She stands still, and doesn't make any noise; trying hard to listen for any kind of response. She waits for some time, and keeps her ears to the wind. But, much to her disappointment, she hears nothing. She lets out a heavy sigh, hangs her head low, and continues to aimlessly wander. "How could this day have turned out so bad? We were all happy about gettin' Twi back, and then...", Applejack thinks to herself.

She stops dead in her tracks as a single idea provides a glimmer of hope. "What if this is where Twilight was s'posed to be!? Maybe everypony else is somewhere out there too! That means Lunalia 'll eventually show up, and we can all go home!", as these thoughts run through her mind, Applejack begins to excitedly skip; not quite paying attention to where she's going. "Yeehaw! This may not turn out to be so bad! Just stick this out for a bit, and ah'll be right back at the farm; apple buckin' mah way through-", her thoughts are cut when she trips over something on the ground. She rolls forward several feet, and comes to a stop with her hind quarters sticking straight into the air.

"Aw, pony feathers. Ya figure ah'd know how to watch where ah'm goin'.", she says as she stands back up, and dusts herself off. "What'd ah trip over, anyway? Ah didn't step in a hole." She turns around to look for what she tripped over. Her eyes go wide with shock, and an icy chill runs down her spine as she locks onto the culprit: a skeleton. She can't identify what this creature originally was, but it definitely wasn't equine in origin. This creature would have been taller than her, and had feet and hands instead of hooves. She makes a loud gulp, and slowly walks backwards. "On second thought, ah really shouldn't be actin' so calm right now. Ah should find a safe place to hole up, n' stay put till Lunalia comes a callin'."

Applejack resumes walking, though she's being much more careful this time. She makes her way to the end of a street, and is preparing to round a turn when she hears a female voice scream, "IT'S THE ANDROIDS! RUN!"

Applejack stops as she hears the loud scream. "Androids? The hay... wait... Ah've heard that word before. But where?" Before she can prod her memory for the answer, the ground begins to violently shake, and she can hear loud explosions coming from the street she was about to  walk down! She hears more screams of terror, and she can see billows of smoke rising from where she was about to turn. She stands in place; confused, afraid, and unable to bring herself to move.  One by one, all the screams are silenced, and the explosions finally subside. "Ah... Ah think ah should be goin somewhere else...", Applejack nervously speaks to herself.

Applejack manages to force herself to slowly take several steps back. "Okay... j-just slowly creep away...", she stutters under her breath. She turns away from the street she was about to go down, and tries to walk away from whatever ill fate awaited her on the other side.

"Well, what do we have here?", a male voice says from behind her.

Applejack stops mid-step, and her eyes go wide with fear. "In the name of Celestia, please let this be somethin' jus' askin' what ah am...", she runs through her mind in a panic. She slowly turns her head to look at the source of the voice. Standing behind her were two creatures she had never seen before. Judging by their frames, the skeleton she found earlier would have belonged to something like them. Both of them stood almost two feet taller than her.

One was a man. He had white skin, shoulder length black hair, and blue eyes. He wore a black shirt, blue jeans, a brown belt, and had a large orange bandanna tied around his neck. He also had on blue and white tennis shoes, green socks, and gold hoop earrings. His shirt had a strange red symbol on it. It looked similar to a bow tie, and had a white R printed on each side. The other was a woman. She too had white skin, blue eyes, and shoulder length hair; although hers was blonde instead of black, and the left side was tucked behind her ear. She wore a blue jean jacket and skirt, a long sleeved black undershirt that has black and white striped sleeves, dark blue stockings, and brown boots.

A bead of sweat slowly crept down the side of Applejacks' face. She had no idea what these creatures were, but she felt in her heart that she had every reason to fear them.

Fear

"Well, Eighteen, what do you think it is?", the man asks the woman.

"It looks like a small horse. A pony, maybe? But why is it orange?", the woman, called Eighteen, responds. "Oh look, Seventeen, someone must have thought it would be cute to tattoo apples on its' flanks, and give it a little cowboy hat." Their words carry a cold, callous feel. With each syllable uttered, Applejack could feel her heart race faster and faster. Her mind screamed for her to try and run, but her body refused to respond to the pleas.

Where her legs refused to budge, her mouth instead began to move. "Um... A-actually... That's mah... mah cutie mark. I-It's not a t-tattoo. And th-the hat is mine...", she nervously stutters out.

Their eyes go wide for a moment at hearing Applejack speak. "Well, it looks like it can talk, and it sounds like it's afraid of us. Eighteen, why don't we show it that it has no reason to be afraid.", Seventeen says with an evil smirk.

"That sounds like a good idea, Seventeen.", replies Eighteen, and she begins walking toward Applejack.

The orange earth pony is still unable to force herself to run. She feels her blood run cold as Eighteen bends down to look her eye to eye. Eighteen extends her arm, and gently rubs Applejacks' right cheek with her hand. There is no warmth to be felt; only the cold, lifeless hand of a human turned machine. It's at this moment that the young farm pony remembers where she's heard the term 'android'.

"My own son, Trunks, came to us from twenty years in the future to tell us about powerful new enemies that were going to arrive in the near future. They were artificially created humans called 'androids'. Their power would be far beyond anything we had ever faced, and would wipe us all out if we weren't prepared. His world had been all but destroyed because of them, and he was the only fighter left."

"You won't have any reason to be afraid...", says the android; just before grabbing Applejack by the throat! "... for much longer." Applejack grabs her arm with her fore hooves; trying to break free from her grip.  She finds herself hopelessly over-powered as Eighteen hoists her from the ground with only one hand.

Not wanting to give up just yet, Applejack stutters out. "It-it can't be over yet. N-not till ah let y-y'all meet two of mah close f-friends."

Eighteen narrows her eyes at the farm pony. "Oh? And who would that be?", she nonchalantly questions.

Applejack wraps her forelegs tightly around Eighteen's arm, and swings her hind legs back. "Say hello to Bucky McGillicutty, and Kicks McGee!" She swings forward with every ounce of strength she has, and drives her rear hooves into Eighteens' face! "How'd y'all like that!?", she says as she brings her hind legs back down.

Eighteen doesn't so much as flinch, and her grip on Applejacks' throat slightly tightens. The farm pony feels her heart skip a beat as the android tells her, "Your 'friends' got dirt on my face."

As more and more oxygen is cut off from her body, Applejack begins to realize that this could very well be the end. Her life begins to flash before her eyes, and her hopes and dreams begin to fade. "This... This is really it. Ah'm gonna die in some strange place. Never gonna see Twi' again... Never get to see home again... Ah'll never get to see Applebloom grow up...", she runs through her mind. She's fighting a losing battle to stay conscious. Her strength begins to wane, and her forelegs drop to her side.

Eighteen pulls her free arm back, clenches her fist, and takes aim at Applejacks' head. "Goodbye, little pony.", she says as she lunges her fist forward.

Savior

Just before her lethal punch can connect, the ground around them violently explodes! Eighteen drops Applejack, and she and Seventeen cross their arms over their faces. Applejack catches a brief glimpse of a figure, shrouded in gold energy, collide with Eighteen, and sends her flying into a building! Seventeen rushes the mysterious figure, and attempts to strike him with a kick. Her unknown savior barely ducks the attack, and fires a powerful energy wave at Seventeen from point-blank range. The beam knocks Seventeen into the same building as his counterpart.

After several moments pass, the inside of the building flashes brightly, and then it comes crumbling to the ground. Seventeen and Eighteen come walking out of the cloud of dust created from the crumbling building, and find that their quarry and the one whom attacked them are no where in sight. "Tch. Darn that Trunks! He's starting to piss me off!", Eighteen shouts in anger.

"He couldn't have gotten far. Let's flush him out.", suggests Seventeen. He holds out his hands, and begins to wildly fire energy blasts at his surroundings. Eighteen soon follows suit.

Applejack and the man who saved her life are hunkered down in a sewer, while the city streets above them are being ravaged by the angry androids. The young man is tall, muscular, has a light tan, and blue eyes. His hair is short, part in  the middle, and is light purple in color. He is wearing dark grey pants, a black tank top, gold boots, and an indigo jacket with a strange looking symbol on the sleeves.

"An animal!? I saw the hair and hat, and thought this was a person. I could have been killed saving a horse!", the young man says with an irritated tone.

"Ah ain't no horse, and ah sure as hay ain't no animal!", Applejack shouts in return. "And... thank you. Ah'd a been a goner if ya hadn't a shown up when ya did.", she thanks.

He stares in shock for a moment; not having expected the orange pony to speak. "N-No problem..."

The explosions get louder, and the ceiling above them begins to crack. Applejack looks up. "Uh, Ya got somewhere safe we could get to? Ah'm not from 'round here, and Ah'd like to kinda not die before ah can get home."

"Um... Yeah. It will be much safer back at my home." he responds; still unsure of just what to think of a talking pony. He bends down and motions for her to get on his back. "Here. Hop on. We need to move faster than we'll be able to run."

"With what he was doin' earlier, guess this guy can fly too.", she ponders. She carefully climbs onto his back, and tightly wraps her forelegs around his neck.

"Hold on tight." A white ki aura surrounds them, and they take flight through the sewers at high speed.

Applejacks' hat flies off her head. By the time she turns her head to look back, they've already made several turns, and she's lost sight of where it fell. "Pony feathers..."

After more than an hour of flying through the sewers, the two finally make their way back to the streets. He motions for her to follow him into a building. Once inside, they're greeted by an older looking woman with long blue hair that was pulled into a pony tail. "Trunks! Where have you been!?", she shouts with concern.

"Trunks... did she just say Trunks!?", Applejack questions in her mind. "The androids... the way everythin' is all destroyed... Did I end up in that bad future where everyone was dead!?"

"I'm sorry, mother. I went out scavenging for machine parts, and ran into the androids.  One of them was about to kill what I thought was woman, so I intervened.", Trunks responds.

"You jumped in!? You know you're no match for them! You could have been... Wait, what? What you thought was a woman?", the woman questions. She finally notices Applejack standing behind him. "Is that what they were about to kill?", she asks with a puzzled look on her face.

"Yes, mother. All I could see at first was the hair and cowboy hat she was wearing at the time. I got the drop on them, and got us away before they could react.", Trunks replies.

Applejack walks up to the woman that Trunks was calling mother, sits down, and extends her hoof. "Hi there. Ah'm Applejack.", she greets.

The woman slowly extends her hand, and cautiously shakes Applejacks' hoof. "I'm... Bulma."

"Bulma and Trunks. It's a pleasure to meetcha both. Hearin' those names... There's one thing ah gotta ask." She turns to look at Trunks. "Are you Vegeta's son?"

Bulma and Trunks' eyes go wide, and their jaws drop in shock. "H-How do you know about my father!?", Trunks frantically asks.

Applejack clears her throat. "Well, ya see, a year ago..." Applejack tells them the story of who she is, where she came from, her interactions with Vegeta, and how she came to this world. Trunks and Bulma listen intently to her story.

"So, he actually mentioned us both?", Bulma asks.

"Sure did. This whole time travel thing y'all gone do 'll work out just fine. Wait... have y'all done that yet?", Applejack asks.

Trunks shakes his head. "No. The time machine won't be ready to depart until tomorrow morning. I'll make the first trip then, and get in contact with Goku. The machine takes a long time to charge, so I won't be able to make the second trip back to help fight the androids for some time."

"I'm against you going back to help Goku fight, but... hearing that everything will work out in the end is giving me reassurance of the matter.", says Bulma. "Applejack, what will you do? Do you have any idea how to get back to your home?"

The orange pony shakes her head. "Nah, no clue. Only thing ah know to do is wait for Lunalia to show up, but there's no way to know fer sure if that'll happen."

Bulma places her hand on her chin, and tilts her head in thought. "Hmmm..." After a few moments, she smiles and snaps her fingers. "I got it! After Trunks gets back, I'll rebuild the inside of the time machine to be able to hold two people, and you can go back with him the second time!"

"That's brilliant, mother! The dragon balls still exist in that time period! She could use them to send herself home!", Trunks excitedly states.

"Y-Y'all'd do that fer me?", Applejack asks; on the verge of crying.

Bulma bends down and places her hand on Applejacks' head. "This is my way of saying 'thank you'. Because of you, we have more than just the hope that everything will be fine; we know that it will." She says with a warm smile.

Applejack almost bursts into tears at hearing that she has a guaranteed way home. "Th-Thank you! Y'all got no idea how much this means to me!"

Bulma stands back up, and looks at Trunks. "Son, go put together a place for her to sleep tonight. I'm going to run through the check list on the time machine again to make sure everything is in order."

"Alright, mother.", Trunks agrees, and he leads Applejack to another room in the building.

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Applejack is skipping happily through the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. "Yeehaw! It feels so good to be home!", she happily shouts. She jumps over to a nearby apple tree, and hugs it tightly. "It ain't been long 't all since ah been gone, but it feels like it's been years!" She breaks from the tree, and continues to skip through apple orchard; taking in all the sights and sounds of the home she loves so much. And then she spots something that she doesn't remember: a giant apple tree. It's easily three times the size of any other tree in the orchard.

"Ah don't remember this big boy bein' here.", she says with a whistle. She narrows her eyes at the enormous tree, and grins. "Let's do this!" She turns away from the tree, lines herself up, and drives her rear hooves into the tree as hard as she can. She turns back around to see how many apples had fallen from the tree, and her eyes go wide with fear and confusion. The tree was no longer there. In its place was a pony that nearly ended her life with absolutely no effort: Star Binder.

"Excellent form and placement on that kick. Had you any kind of real strength, I would have been in trouble.", he says with an evil grin. Before Applejack can utter a word, she feels a hoof impact her chest! She's sent flying through the orchard, and even crashes through several trees. Her entire body is wracked by pain. The majority of her bones are broken, and she is unable to even make a sound; let alone move.

She feels a hand slink around her throat, and she is lifted from the ground. When she feels herself stop, she slowly opens her eyes. She watches android Eighteen pull her arm back, and clench her fist. "Pathetic creatures like you should just die.", she says as she takes aim at Applejacks' head, and lunges her fist forward!

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Applejack snaps awake from her nightmare. She clutches across her chest with her forelegs. She's breathing heavily, and nervously scanning her surroundings. It's night out, and she's still  in her makeshift room that Trunks set up for her. "A nightmare? That was way too real feelin'.", she thinks as she tries to calm herself. "Trunks leaves in the mornin'. In a few more months ah get to go with him. Then ah gotta find the dragon balls, and ah can go home."

Applejack sighs as her memories return to the incident that happened not long after her arrival into this bleak time period. "Ta think... ah've always been called strong. Not many ponies were stronger 'n ah was. Hay, most stallions weren't even as strong as me. Then all that mess happened a year ago. One punch almost ended everything... Now these androids... Ah'm so weak to these guys it's laughable! They could kill me by just lookin' at me funny!"

The gravity of her situation finally begins to weigh on her. "And ah gotta drop right smack dab in the middle of this whole thing, just for a chance to get home. Ah'm gonna hafta rely on everyone else to help me, while they'll already be fightin' fer their lives. Ain't the first time ah've had to have help, but no pony was gonna die if everythin' didn't go right on those other times. Ah wish... ah wish ah wasn't so darn weak and helpless! Ah cain't do nothin' to help out Trunks or the others, and ah'll be all in the way! Ah hate this feelin'... It ain't right! Does it... Does it really hafta  be this way..." After all this time thinking, Applejack finally drifts back to sleep.

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THE NEXT MORNING

Trunks is inside the time machine, and running through the checklist with Bulma to make sure everything is in working order. Bulma calls out something on the list, and he calls out whether it's ready or not.

"Energy levels?"

"Maximum. Check."

"Date input?"

"Correct time frame. Check."

"Goku's medicine?"

"Check."

"Good. That takes care of everything.", states Bulma. She looks around, and notices Applejack isn't with them. "I guess Applejack is still sleeping. She must have been exhausted."

"That would be my guess as well, mother.", Trunks agrees. "She was ripped from her home, and almost killed as soon as she got here. She's probably mentally drained after her ordeal. Well... I'm off."

"Be careful, and don't do anything unnecessary! You don't need to change any more than is-", Bulma's words are interrupted by the sound of Applejack bursting outside, and almost skidding into a wall. Her eyes are bloodshot, and her mane is unkempt. "A-Applejack!? Are you okay!?"

Applejack struggles to catch her breath before she begins speaking. "It... It don't... It don't hafta be this way!", she shouts.

Trunks stands up in the machine, and looks down at her. "What's wrong? What doesn't have to be this way?", he questions.

She gathers her composure, and looks at Trunks with raw determination in her eyes. "Trunks, ah gotta favor to ask ya. When you get back...", she stops, and mentally prepares herself for what she plans to say next.

"Yes, what is it?", he asks with concern in his voice.

"... AH WANT YOU TO TRAIN ME!"

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EQUESTRIA

2100 YEARS AGO

Lunalia stands in the midst of a pitch black room. Nothing but utter darkness surrounds her. "Hello? Is anyone out there?", she calls out.

"You betrayed me..."

"What? Who's there?", she asks the disembodied voice.

"You betrayed me...", it repeats.

"I betrayed you? Who are you!? I don't recognize your voice!"

"You betrayed me..."

Before she can give another response, she feels a powerful, evil presence fill the room she's in. She turns to see four glowing, red eyes staring at her. "What... what are you!?"

"I granted you my power... AND YOU BETRAYED ME!", the dark voice screams at her.

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Lunalia wakes up after the dark voice screams at her. She nervously scans her surroundings to find that she's in a vaguely familiar room; though nothing like the one from her dream. "What was that!? Where am I!? When I lost consciousness, I was outside!", she runs through her mind in a panic.

"Welcome back, Dark Queen.", she hears a very familiar voice say.

She turns herself around on the floor to look behind her. Her eyes go wide; partly in shock, and partly in fear. Standing over her was an alicorn stallion; the very stallion that was responsible for sealing her in stone.

He stood even taller than her. His coat was a snowy white. His eyes were lavender. His mane and tail flowed in a non-existent wind. They were a shimmering silver, gold, and dark red in color, and the pattern was just like Celestia's. His cutie mark was a silver shield with a sun emblazoned on it. He was looking down on her as though he were ready to remove her from the face of the Earth.

She looks into his judgmental eyes, and speaks to him for the first time in more than two thousand years. "Dawn Breaker..."