Sky High

The Apple family returned to their farm the day after Skye's latest nightmare. They walked into their house around noon to see Skye, reading an old book. Skye was never very into to reading, mostly because he could never afford books, yet he didn't want to leave the farm, fearing that Applebloom would call on him. He had read through a few short books since the start of his stay. The first labeled 'Flight of the Red', a short story about the journey of a pegasus through a desert wasteland. The second book was labeled 'The Curse of Bright Light Falls', where a detective pony attempts to solve the mystery behind strange lights behind a waterfall, it doesn't turn out well for him. The latest book Skye was reading and the one the Apple family walked in on him with was titled 'The Spiders and the Golden Apple.” He hadn't gotten past the introduction so he wasn't sure what the book was about. Suddenly Applejack ran at him, snatched the book away from him, and quickly returned the book back to it's respective shelf.

“Don't read that book!” Applejack shuddered frantically before she ran back to her, now scared, family. The frantically looked at all of the walls and ceilings, searching for something or possibly some things. Skye piped up after a few seconds of watching the family, which now included the scared little Applebloom, who came running in to see her family.

“So... why can't I read that book? It seemed alright.”

Suddenly Granny Smith practically appeared in front of Skye, giving him the strangest look he'd ever saw. “Becauuuuuuuse Skyyyyye, you don't know the horrors that lurk in that there book!”

Skye glanced over toward the bookshelf before looking back toward Granny Smith. “Like what?”

Granny Smith took one last quick glance around the room before she got extremely close to Skye's face. “Spiderrrrrs” she whispered.

Skye almost broke into laughter, “What's so scary about spiders?”

“What's so scary about spiders? Well hows about I tell you real story behind the Golden Apple! Take a seat there, all of ya.” All of the ponies took a seat, either on the furniture or the floor. Applejack and Big Mac were shaking in their seats while Skye and Applebloom were sitting comfortably, awaiting the story that was about to be told. “A looooong time ago, during the first zap apple harvest, a mysterious apple dropped down from the trees. The apple was made of solid gold and must have been worth a fortune! The Apple family decided it was a good idea to keep the apple hidden away and save it for a rainy day. Unfortunately word got out about the apple and dozens of thieves and hooligans came to swipe it away. For a while we managed to fend off the bandits, but one day a stallion managed to sneak past us and snatched up the apple from under our noses. Ol' Ginger Gold managed to spot the thief running off and you best believe we gave chase to him lickity split. We followed him all the way to the base of Smokey Mountain until he ran into a cave covered in nasty looking spider webs. We stood outside for a few minutes when suddenly all we could hear was screamin' comin' from inside the cave. We were all scared to follow the thief in, but we knew we needed to get our apple back. Uncle Cameo and Aunt Sundance volunteered to follow the thief in. After a few minutes we heard Cameo and Sundance screamin' like crazy. Suddenly Cameo went silent and we saw Sundance sprintin' outta the cave. She was being chased by a monstrous cave spider. The spider turned around and shot it's web at Sundance, dragging her back into the cave. We all ran as fast as we could away from that cave an' none of us ever returned. Since that day, everypony in the Apple family has been afraid of spiders...”

No pony could say anything, the story was full of emotion and Skye could tell that Granny Smith was traumatized by the experience. “S-Sorry about your aunt and uncle, Granny Smith. Do you want me to get the golden apple for you?”

“Awww don't worry about that Skye there's nothing you could hav...” She paused, realizing what Skye had said, “...WHATTTTTTT?!?! No no no no no no no, you can't go into that cave ever!”

Skye looked at her with a smile on his face. “Ok.” He said, obviously lying, something Applejack caught onto but couldn't speak out of fear. Skye then looked down at Applebloom, who was cowering in fear from listening to the story. “Hey, don't worry little Applebloom, those spiders aren't anywhere near you and I wouldn't let them hurt you even if they were, ok?” Applebloom nodded, although she wasn't extremely convinced. Skye then started toward the door, “I'll be back tonight, I promise.” He said, leaving the cowering Apple family to themselves.

Skye walked down toward the library to talk to Twilight, she probably knew where the Smokey Mountain was.  He knocked on the door to the library and waited a few seconds for Spike to answer. To his surprise it was Twilight who opened the door. “Good afternoon Skye.”

“Good afternoon Twilight, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course Skye.”

“Thanks! Where's Smokey Mountain?”

Twilight stood there, pondering why Skye wanted to know where Smokey Mountain was. She couldn't think of anything off the top of her head ad instead responded to his question. “It's right behind you, turn around.”

Skye turned around to see what looked like a normal mountain. Yet unlike all other mountains it was extremely tall and there didn't appear to be any other mountains near it. “Oh... why is it called Smokey mountain?”

“Well, I'm guessing it was given that name due to the dragon lair at the top of the mountain. Not to long ago we had to relocate a dragon that took up residence there, thankfully Fluttershy is really good with animals and dragons, or else we'd all be in a dragon's stomach right now!” She chuckled, which caused Skye to chuckle in response.

“One more question Twilight!”

“Go for it.”

“Do you know anything about spiders at Smokey Mountain?”

“Spiders? Hmm... the only thing I read about spiders that was interesting was that when they are still eggs and are introduced to heat or smoke caused by dragons they grow to substantial sizes. Not only that, but they acquire the same greed an adult dragon has. They're pretty dangerous, especially if they have a viscous venom. Thankfully there aren't any of those around here!” She chuckled again, once again cause Skye to chuckle in return.

“Well, thanks for the information Twilight! I really appreciate it.”

“No problem Skye, see ya around.”

“Good bye!”

Skye started for the closest exit of Ponyville, he wanted to get to the mountain as fast as possible. Little did he know, Applejack was trailing far behind him, she knew where he was heading... and she didn't like it.

Skye managed his way toward the base of the mountain and looked up to see just how massive the mountain really was. Actually, he couldn't see the top as a think layer of cloud blocked his vision. Yet when he looked at the base of the mountain, he didn't see a cavern. He continued around the base of the mountain until he was on the completely opposite side, it was then when he found the entrance to the cave. Much like the story the entrance was covered in giant spider webs, that now looked like cobwebs.

He was just about to enter the cavern when a voice from behind stopped him.

“Wait right there Skye, don't ya dare go into that cave, ya hear?!” She yelled, too afraid to get any closer than the tree line.

Skye turned around to face her, letting her know that he was afraid of anything right now, neither her nor her spiders. “Don't worry Applejack, I'll be fine, I promise. Nothing bad will happen to me while I'm in there.” He turned around and started into the dark cavern.

“Skye don't!” Applejack said, taking a step forward so that her front hoof was barely in the small clearing between the forest and the mountain. But it was too late as Skye was already on his way in.”Skye!!! SKYE!!!”

Skye began to trot further into the cavern, stepping through old cobwebs and rummaging through slightly newer spider webs. He heard the quietest of pitter-patter from spiders, but not from any huge spiders but rather from small, normal sized ones. He traversed even further into the mountain, losing his only source of light from the entrance. He walked in the dark for a few minutes before the cavern opened up into a huge room with a light shining from the ceiling roughly 200 feet high. The light was projected onto a pedestal, holding what appeared to be the golden apple. It was now that Skye started to worry, this seemed almost too easy. He slowly walked toward the pedestal, expecting the worst to come from anywhere. All of his muscles were ready to flee in case anything went awry. Before long Skye was standing right in front of the golden apple. It was strange, the apple was the only thing in the room that wasn't covered in spider webs. Yet, he took only a few glanced around before snatching up the apple in his teeth.

Suddenly Skye heard a terrible screeching coming from all around him. He looked up to see dozen humongous spiders descending on him. The light in the room was blocked by the spiders and Skye made his quickest reaction to turn around and run. Although Skye couldn't see a thing he manged to run through the cavern based on memory, only a few times would he run into walls or trip on the ground. He heard a pitter-patter and screeching behind him and it was close. Whatever it was it stayed on his tail practically the entire run. The last time Skye tripped up he felt a sharp pain in his back leg, followed by a warm sensation that eventually started to burn. He very quickly stood back up and continued running, he could finally see the outside light and Applejack who had inched her way halfway through the clearing. Seeing his friend only gave him a stronger drive to run.

Skye appeared outside the cave with dozens of spider behind him. Applejack was paralyzed in fear, she couldn't move as Skye ran right past her. Skye, noticing her paralysis, quickly turned around and swooped her onto his back, turning around yet again as he began to fly away, dodging numerous webs shot out by the giant spiders. Skye had managed to gain distance between the spiders when suddenly his body seized up as he quickly started to descend downward into the forest. He crash landed through the trees, knocking Applejack off his back, away from the spiders.

Applejack turned around, something bad had happened to Skye, he couldn't move. She took a few steps toward Skye before she saw a few spiders racing toward her. Suddenly she was frozen in fear as she felt a hard object hit her legs. She looked down to see nothing other than the golden apple, no doubt the result of Skye's last bit of energy. Was she really about to let her friend die because she was afraid? Was she really about to trade her friend of some stupid apple? No, she was going to take both of them. She picked up the apple as she ran toward Skye, laughing. The spiders were actually a good distance away from Skye and Applejack had more than enough time to pick us Skye and run away, crying and laughing at the same time. Why was she laughing? That's what Pinkie Pie always told her friends to do when they were scared. She dashed all the way back to Ponyville, not stopping for anything. Once in town, Applejack immediately ran toward the hospital, she hoped Skye would be alright.

Skye had been admitted to the hospital for a few hours before the rest of the mane six all congregated together. Skye had been paralyzed by the spider venom and the ponies at the hospital for trying to find the antidote that would cure him. The real problem was that the venom administered to Skye would kill any normal pony, so either Skye is extremely lucky or he isn't a pony. Nevertheless the ponies were extremely sad about what happened to Skye aside from Rainbow Dash, who was furious.

“So what the HAY happened Applejack? HUH?”

“Granny Smith told us a story about a golden apple... I-I told him not to go in, but he wouldn't listen to me.”

“Go in where?! You better tell me, because I am NOT a happy pony right now.”

“Darling, perhaps you should ease up on poor Applejack, surely she did everything she could.” Rarity tried to bring her friends together, but Applejack only looked down after hearing that statement and Rainbow Dash only seemed more flustered.

“Fine, whatever. Just leave me alone.” Rainbow Dash walked off towards Skye's hospital room.

Over the next few days Rainbow Dash and Applejack only left the hospital to do their jobs, then they immediate came back. The ate, slept, and practically lived in the hospital just waiting for Skye to get better. Eventually Rainbow Dash forgave Applejack and they had conversations to pass the time. The conversations were always so solemn and depressing, aside from one.

Applejack started first. “I hate him...”

“What?”

“Just... why does he have to act like a darn idiot so much?”

“That's just who he is.”

“So...”

“So what?”

“Do ya like him Dash?”

“Everyone likes him.”

“You know darn right what I mean Dash, do you like him?”

Dash sat in quiet, ignoring Applejack's comment before walking off towards Skye's room. "That's none of your business."

Eventually the antidote was administered and Skye was able to leave the hospital on his own free will. He walked out to be greeted by his six best friends. They were all so happy he was ok, especially Rainbow Dash and Applejack. After the cheers Applejack was the first to talk.

“I'm mighty sorry Skye, can ya ever forgive me?”

“Forgive you for what? It was my fault I didn't listen to you in the first place. I'm sorry for making all of you worry about me for so long, can you ever forgive me?” All of the ponies agreed and walked toward Skye to give him a friendly nuzzle before they all left for their respective homes. This week, Skye was following Twilight home.