Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
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Mother of Invention

Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground

Standing just outside the tunnel, Applejack gave the contents of Pinkie's saddlebags one last check in the sparkling light of dawn. She had carefully folded and repacked the pink blanket into the bottom of one pouch. It had proved quite comfortable, providing her with her best sleep since waking on the island, and she wasn't about to risk anything happening to it.

She had eaten one of the coconuts for breakfast, leaving the other three safely nestled within the saddlebags. With the aid of the thick-bladed camping knife, removing the green outer husk had been far easier, making it a simple matter of smashing the hard, brown shell on a rock. The ease that the tool provided in opening the fruit had been something of a relief to Applejack, as she had been slightly worried about the difficulty of her previous attempt if she was going to be eating them fairly often.

In addition to the coconuts, Applejack had packed the flint rock she'd found, and enough firewood to make one good-sized fire. It was really a shame that she would have to leave behind all the wood she'd collected, but there was really no easy way for her to transport all of it. Besides, it wasn't like there was a shortage of wood on the island. At worst, having to collect more was a minor inconvenience.

The last thing Applejack managed to fit into the stuffed saddlebags was the rubber chicken that she'd found in them. She honestly wasn't sure why, but it felt like something she should hang on to. Maybe it was the manufactured nature of the chicken that compelled her to keep it. As much as she was a country mare, having one little piece of civilisation felt good. Perhaps it calmed her a bit to have even a small reminder of home in something that could only have been made by ponies. Something synthetic, unnatural, just to provide a contrast to the intense lack of anything else of the sort now present in her daily life. In addition, the chicken was a reminder of her friends; an item that almost always indicated the nearby presence of a certain party pony, which, in turn, usually indicated the presence of several more close friends and occasionally cake. The chicken was something more personal, more closely tied to her over-energetic friend, than something as simple as a pair of saddlebags. Happy memories, though not associated with the chicken directly, flowed forth simply at its presence, bringing to mind parties and laughter and singing, and in turn, inevitably causing Applejack to smile simply by looking at it.

Then again, maybe she kept it simply because it looked kind of cute.

Applejack shrugged off her meandering train of thought, returning to the task at hoof. The tattered remnants of the pillow had been used up for her torch the day before, so those didn't need to be packed. Lastly, she had the freshly filled canteen hanging from her neck, the knife strapped to her left foreleg, and of course, her familiar stetson placed securely atop her loose-hanging mane.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Applejack turned back to look at the tunnel that had sheltered her for the past four nights. In a way, she was almost sad to see it go. It had seen her through the first night, when that… thing had chased her through the jungle. It had sheltered her as she slept off her pain after falling out of a tree. She had only stayed there for a few days, but the little cave had been growing on her.

Then she thought of what she'd found within. Shuddering slightly, Applejack suddenly found the prospect of a new living situation much more appealing. She gave the tunnel one last look-over, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything, not that there was much to forget. After confirming that she had, in fact, packed everything, Applejack tipped her hat to the cave. For some strange reason, it seemed only right that she bade it farewell.

With that, she turned around and marched down the slope, into the jungle that lay at the bottom.

She didn't have much in the way of a plan when she set out. She was going inland, that much was certain. Applejack had decided, after finding signs of an equine presence in the tunnel, that more exploration of the island was needed. So far, she had only been to the beach, the mountain, which was fairly close to the beach anyway, and the immediate surrounding area. Her new shelter would be a little more inland, and would hopefully bring her one step closer to actually finding something useful.

Applejack kept very careful track of where she was going though, just in case she did need to return to the mountain after all. She always did have a good sense of direction, and was confident that as long as she paid attention she'd be able to remember the way back to her old shelter with ease.

She paused and uncapped her canteen, sitting down on her haunches and taking a long gulp of refreshing water. Applejack cast her eyes over her surroundings as she wiped the sweat from her brow with a forehoof. There were still plenty of palm trees about, but Applejack could now pick out leafier trees interspersed with them. Thick undergrowth was present everywhere, more so than it had been closer to the beach. Looking over her shoulder, Applejack could see a jagged path cut straight through the brush leading back to where she'd come from. That certainly would make finding her way back easier, should her quest for a new camp fail.

Her ears pricked as an ever-familiar rustling made itself known from somewhere out in the jungle. Whatever was out there apparently existed inland just as much as it had closer to the beach. Surprisingly, the thought was somehow comforting to Applejack. Eerie silence would have been a whole lot more concerning than a sound she heard regularly without anything bad happening.

Deciding that her break had lasted long enough, Applejack once more hung the canteen in place around her neck, stood up, and continued her trek through the jungle. The trees grew more and more thickly as she continued inland. The ever present palms were soon all but replaced by large rainforest trees, growing close enough to create an unbroken ceiling of green far above Applejack's head. The forest farther from the ocean felt fairly different from what Applejack had experienced. It was still teeming with green life, practically a living, breathing entity in and of itself, which was similar to the feeling she'd gotten in the forest nearer the beach. This area, however, felt more… close. The whole place felt like it was holding her tight, wrapped in its embrace like a warm, soft, suffocating blanket. It was a strange sensation, being nearly engulfed in forest, and Applejack was once again glad that she wasn't claustrophobic.

The journey was mostly uneventful. Light did manage to filter down through the canopy, but not a lot, creating a sort of dim twilight beneath the trees, and making it hard for Applejack to accurately judge the time of day. The undergrowth left small scratches every so often as she forced her way through the tangle of plant life, but Applejack was able to lessen this by relaxing her pace slightly. She felt like she'd been walking for a couple hours at least, leaving a jagged, but fairly straight path through the merciless press of brush that grew from the forest floor, when her surroundings finally began to change.

The trees spread out a little bit more, enough so that beams of sunlight poured unhindered through gaps in the forest canopy. The undergrowth thinned out until it was little more than scattered patches of low growing plant life, easily avoided. Applejack could even see various wildflowers growing in patches and clusters where the sunlight shone directly upon them. Applejack's stomach voiced its hunger at the sight. The low rumbling came as a surprise, nearly making her jump, and Applejack realized that it must've been past lunch time. Considering that she'd left so early, and accounting for her slow pace, she reasoned that she was quite far inland at that point.

She decided that a quick snack break wouldn't hurt. Setting down the saddlebags, Applejack sighed with relief briefly before making her way over to a patch of wildflowers that caught her eye. She sat on her haunches before the burst of colour and looked it over. The vibrant blues, reds, and yellows were a nice change from the ever-present press of green and brown that surrounded her on all sides. She even spotted bright orange and purple popping out from against the green backdrop of the undergrowth. The display was like a burst of living colour in the lonely jungle. For a moment, Applejack became lost in the beauty of the wondrous display of colour. She stared, unblinking, as the multitude of hues reflected in her bright green eyes like the most beautiful rainbow.

She swallowed a dry lump in her throat, and raised a hoof to wipe sudden moisture from her eyes. Closing her eyes tightly in an attempt to stem the flow before it started, Applejack took several deep, shuddering breaths.

Flowers. They were just a bunch of flowers.

Finally, Applejack's breathing evened out. She hesitantly opened her eyes, focusing on anything but the abundant display of colour before her. The earth beneath the plant was dry, layered with the dead plant matter that sacrificed itself so that others might grow in their stead. Tree roots snaked along the ground, long brown serpents extending far and wide in search of moisture and nutrients. When Applejack at last worked up the courage to look back at the flowers, the light seemed to dim slightly. They no longer popped out to her eyes. The bright blast of prismatic beauty had been replaced by a cheap facsimile of colour; painted petals that looked cold, dull, and lifeless. For some reason, this sight almost bothered her more.

Applejack glanced up through the gap in the canopy above, and noticed that a small wisp of cloud had drifted in front of the sun, blocking a small amount of its rays. She really had no idea how to predict weather patterns when they weren't controlled by pegasi, but the cloud looked small and thin enough not to worry about.

Applejack quickly leaned down and devoured several of the wildflowers, eager to be away from there. Her mind calmed, and her thoughts turned to happier things as she munched on the petals. They were delicious, nothing she hadn't had before, but pleasing nonetheless. Applejack had always preferred the slightly earthy taste of wildflowers over the more refined taste of mass-produced flowers. She closed her eyes, and chewed slowly, thoughtfully. For a moment, listening to the gentle rustling of the leaves in the wind, tasting the sweet wildflowers in her mouth, Applejack could almost pretend she was back on the farm, and that when she opened her eyes, she would be greeted not by an unfamiliar forest of unfamiliar trees, but by endless lines of perfectly maintained fruit bearing trees and the cool breeze running along her coat.

Then a rustling sounded from somewhere to her left, and the illusion shattered. The humid air rushed back to embrace her, and the smell of the rainforest once more filled her nostrils; dirt, and sweat, and decaying plant life. She swallowed the suddenly tasteless petals in her mouth, and stood back up. She briefly considered taking some of the wildflowers with her, but at a quick glance around decided that harvesting them as needed would not be a problem.

Applejack still wasn't exactly full, but she no longer felt like eating. She once more set off at a walk through the jungle. The slightly greater space between trees and the less prevalent presence of undergrowth made that leg of her journey much less arduous. Her trek through dense jungle with barely enough space to move between trees had transformed into a peaceful trot through a beautiful forest. The walk didn't last long however, as Applejack noticed that the trees ended shortly ahead. She gasped, and picked up her pace, bursting out of the treeline in a matter of seconds.

She found herself in a large, circular clearing, surrounded by leafy jungle trees and underbrush, with not a palm in sight. The sunlight shone brightly with the whole area open to the sky. Looking up, Applejack was finally able to gauge the time. It appeared to be early afternoon, meaning that she had been fairly accurate in her earlier guess as to how long she'd been walking.

A crystalline river flowed gently along one side of the clearing. It was about two pony lengths across, emerging from the treeline and running parallel to it all the way across one side of the large circular space before disappearing once more into the jungle. The other major feature to catch Applejack's eye was a large boulder that stood imposingly on the edge of the clearing opposite from the river. The mass of gray stone was partially buried in the ground, but even just the visible portion stood nearly as tall as the trees next to it. It was about as wide as it was tall; looking like some angry god had snapped off the top of a mountain and placed it at the edge of the clearing, allowing the erosion of time to grind it down to a rounded shape. The entire thing was free of the treeline, but only just, with the closest trees nearly touching the back of the rock. Scraggly green moss adorned the lowest visible part of the boulder like a beard, connecting nearly seamlessly to the grass around it. A few more patches of moss hung from several places higher up, indicating that the landmark had been there for some time.

The ground of the clearing itself was flat and even for the most part, other than the sloped riverbank. Being a meadow, the grass was pleasantly short. It didn't have the precise look of cut and maintained grass, it was simply naturally short. For some reason, this was both a relief and a disappointment to Applejack. In any case, the grass was soft, at least, and if worst came to worst, meadow grass was at least palatable, even if it still wasn't exactly tasty.

"Yeah," she muttered, smirking slightly, "that'll do."

Applejack slowly made her way into the clearing, glancing around carefully. The bright afternoon sun glinted off the surface of the peaceful river and illuminated the unmoving, green grass. The river provided quiet background noise, burbling soothingly at the edge of hearing. Wildflowers dotted the jungle around the clearing in scattered patches of varying size. Applejack nodded, deciding then and there that she'd found her new camp.

Applejack made her way over to the massive rock, setting down Pinkie's saddlebags in the short grass and looking up at the mostly smooth stone. The boulder would make a good site for some sort of shelter, providing a solid wall at her back.

Shelter could wait, however. Turning away from the boulder, Applejack began walking towards the river at the other side of the clearing. She stopped momentarily out of reflex when she realized that she'd left the saddlebags unattended. That thought only lasted a moment, quickly driven away by a humourless snort when she remembered that she was completely alone. That would take some getting used to.

Applejack blinked at the strange thought as she continued on her way towards the river. She wasn't sure that she wanted to get used to being alone. She wasn't used to it already because she didn't enjoy it. Small town life had the great benefit of being within walking distance from everypony. For as long as Applejack had been alive, there had always been ponies nearby. Even if she was busy, or otherwise not visiting anypony, they were always there. Now she was completely cut off, and it was really starting to sink in how different that was. Applejack didn't want to, but she was going to have to get used to it.

Only for a while though. She was sure of that, at least. It was only a matter of time, and when she got back home she'd be sure to visit everypony in Ponyville at least once. She certainly wouldn't take their presence for granted ever again.

Applejack's thoughts were cut off by the river appearing before her. The clearing wasn't overly large, and it only took a few seconds to walk over to the river. Lost in her thoughts, however, it had felt like longer. Applejack shook her head, focusing on what she was doing.

She was going to need drinking water. Finding a new spring was definitely an option, but having a source of water flowing right through her camp would be even better. Of course, that simply depended on if it was drinkable.

Applejack walked down the few feet of gently sloping riverbank, stopping just at the edge of the water. The ground was softer there, and she was careful not to slip in. That was an experience she'd rather not repeat.

Leaning out over the water, Applejack once more caught sight of her reflection. Dirty, sweaty, and with small cuts covering her, she certainly looked the worse for wear. Her mane hung loosely, framing her face and hanging down until the tips of her hair touched the water. It might have looked nice if it wasn't dirty and filled with small twigs and bits of plant life.

Applejack simply cracked a smile. At least there was nopony around to tell her to clean up. Still smirking slightly, she leaned a little closer and gave the water a tentative sniff. It smelled fine to her, which is to say it didn't have any scent at all. Looking past her reflection, she couldn't see anything out of place in the river. The bottom was made of smooth, roundish stones, sand visible in the gaps between them. The water was crystal clear, lacking any algae or mud to murk it up. There was not a single sign of any living thing, either. Not even the smallest fish was visible in the flowing waters before her. For some reason, that didn't even surprise Applejack.

Deciding that it probably wouldn't kill her, Applejack leaned down and took a large gulp of water. The liquid was pleasantly cool, and remarkably fresh, doing wonders to quench her thirst. Applejack smiled brightly, shaking her now mostly-wet mane as she raised her head from the surface of the river.

She uncapped the canteen around her neck and quickly filled it up with some of the river water. Applejack sat on the riverbank for a few moments, pondering the waters before her. She had to wonder where, exactly, the river flowed from. It was considerably wider and deeper than the previous one she'd encountered, but that one had been flowing from an underground spring. Applejack decided that investigating this new river's source would be a good idea, but it would have to wait for some other time. Afternoon was wearing on, and she had a camp to make.

Applejack trotted back over to the large rock and her saddlebags that she'd left there. She opened both pouches on the bags, and set to unpacking. First she withdrew the rubber chicken from the top of one pouch. She held it in her forehooves for several moments, looking it over with a thoughtful expression. She still wasn't quite sure why she had it, but she wasn't about to waste any more time musing about it. She set it down carefully in a sitting position in the grass, its back leaning against the rock, cracking a little smile at the action before going back to the bags without another thought on the matter.

Next, she pulled out her flint rock, and set it off to the side, followed by the firewood from both pouches, which she piled neatly a few feet away from the boulder. This effectively left her with a wall at her back, and a fire in front of her. It wasn't exactly shelter, but it would do for now. Looking at the pile of wood, Applejack realized that simply lighting it there in the grass would probably end badly. Unlike the gravel and dirt location in front of the cave, there was plenty of grass at her new camp for the fire to spread to. She would need something to contain the fire, but she could worry about that after unpacking.

Next came her remaining three coconuts. The sight of them made her stomach growl, reminding her that she'd only eaten a mouthful of flowers outside of breakfast that morning. She pushed aside her hunger for the moment, instead placing the coconuts off to one side.

Lastly, she pulled out the folded pink blanket. Applejack couldn't help but smile as she carefully placed it with the rest of her paltry possessions. It may not have been the most important for survival, but Applejack appreciated the comfortable blanket immensely. Her smile almost turned to a frown as the thought crossed her mind of Pinkie Pie being somewhere on the island, without a blanket, without a fire, possibly without food, but that frown never quite managed to manifest itself. She wasn't sure how, but Applejack was sure that wherever her energetic friend was, she was just fine. Like so many other things that Applejack couldn't explain about that mare, she just accepted the feeling and moved on. Giving it too much thought only ever brought trouble, or worse, doubt. She had enough to deal with at the moment.

So it was that Applejack smilingly discarded her worries about Pinkie, thinking instead about exactly how she could light a fire without lighting up the whole meadow, surrounding forest, and likely herself. She figured that would defeat the whole purpose of lighting a fire in the first place.

Applejack decided she could simply make a ring of stones, as she'd done back at the cave. The problem this time was that there were no fallen or broken rocks anywhere that she could see. After a minute of considering leaving to find rocks, Applejack suddenly remembered all the smooth stones she'd seen at the bottom of the river. Mentally slapping herself for not thinking of it earlier, she strapped on Pinkie's empty saddlebags and made her way over to the riverbank.

Once there, she set the saddlebags down next to the water and made sure to put her hat with them. She wasn't about to nearly lose it again, and she didn't exactly feel like a swim anyway. She went over to the edge of the water, and began removing the stones that she could reach with her forelegs. There were plenty of stones to choose from, and Applejack took the roundest ones she could find. In a short time, she'd managed to gather up plenty of vaguely spherical stones and place them in Pinkie's saddlebags.

She hummed a tune as she trotted across the clearing back over to the boulder, resetting her hat into its position atop her loose, golden mane. Applejack was glad to have things going her way, at least in some small way. She wasn't in any mortal danger of any kind as far as she could see. She had food, water, and all in all a pretty nice campsite. Her smile stayed firmly in place as she formed a ring of stones around her firewood. The bright sun shining directly into her little clearing quickly dried her forelegs as she worked.

She left her firewood unlit for the time being, opting to save her supply of wood for as long as possible. Quite frankly, she was tired after a long day of walking and setting up camp. Afternoon had by now worn into evening, and hauling a pair of saddlebags full of rocks had left her unwilling to go gather more firewood at the moment.

Placing the once again empty saddlebags off with her other organized goods, Applejack took a seat facing the fire ring, and leaned back against the boulder with a sigh. The solid wall at her back brought at least some sense of security. With the fire in front of her, though unlit at the moment, she felt like she was safe and contained from anyone or anything that might be out there. It wasn't even a false feeling for the most part. Sure, she was still fairly open to the elements, but sneaking up behind her would be all but impossible, and her fire would likely scare off any wild animals. Of course, it was the less wild ones that she was even more worried about.

Casting aside any thoughts of unknown ponies and shrieking horrors, Applejack reached to the side and picked up a coconut. Her lunch of a single mouthful of flowers had left her somewhat unsatisfied, and she opted for an early supper to compensate. She drew the knife from its holster on her left foreleg, and made short work of the green husk. She threw the husk onto the pile of firewood once she'd removed it all, not wanting anything to go to waste. That done, Applejack sheathed the knife once more, and took the smaller, brown coconut up in her hooves. One quick and hard strike against the boulder was all it took to break open the delicious, brown fruit.

Applejack smiled, and tilted her hat back from where it had fallen forward with her swing. Once again, she leaned back against the boulder, contentedly chewing on the delectable white insides of the coconut. She took her time in eating, casting her gaze across the clearing before her. It really was a beautiful spot. The river glinted in the evening sun, its crystal clear waters flowing calm and smooth. The grass waved ever so slightly in the lightest of breezes, greener than anything she'd ever seen in the wild. The trees enclosing the clearing were a living wall, and yet didn't feel confining or stifling. The wildflowers dotting the forest around the clearing added little bursts of brilliant colour, each one as terrifically eye-catching as the last.

Really, it was the perfect campsite. Had the situation been different, Applejack would have done anything to find a site like this to camp at with her friends. One friend in particular. Sure she'd call it 'boring nature stuff', maybe admitting that the flowers were 'a little awesome', but Applejack knew that the smile on her face would say what she'd never voice aloud. Words too 'girly' and 'sappy' to ever be considered 'cool' enough to admit to the world, but words that could be communicated just fine with nothing more than a smile and a sparkle in her wide, magenta eyes.

Finished with her supper, Applejack pulled her hat down over her eyes. Visions of sparkling eyes and a carefree smile filled her thoughts, leaving her completely helpless against the massive grin that formed on her face as she drifted into a semi-conscious nap of sorts.

Applejack wasn't quite sure how long she stayed like that. Sleep eluded her, but the rest was relaxing nonetheless. She opened her eyes and pushed back her hat to its normal angle, looking up to find darkness descending over the jungle around her. The sun was setting, and the woods were quiet. Not even the slightest rustling could be heard. It put Applejack on edge.

She stood warily, stretching out the stiffness that came with a few hours of sitting still. A few satisfying pops sounded from her joints, prompting a sigh of relief, and a reduction in the tension she was feeling.

Once again calm and smiling softly, Applejack set about making a fire. She took the flint over to the pile of wood, and ran the back of the knife along it, casting sparks or glowing hot metal onto the dry wood. In a matter of minutes, a crackling blaze was warming her cozy little campsite.

Applejack laid out Pinkie Pie's blanket between the fire and the rock, careful to keep the edge away from the open flames, and lay down on her side. The popping and crackling of the fire kept her mind off of the eerily silent night-time jungle. Applejack took off her hat, gently setting it next to her on the blanket.

She lay back down for a moment, before blinking as a thought came to her. Sitting back up, she scooped up her hat in a forehoof. She then set the hat on top of the rubber chicken, who was still sitting up against the boulder. The hat swallowed the entire upper half of the toy, leaving just its lower body and a pair of legs sticking out comically.

Applejack stared for a moment, her face expressionless as the fire flickered in her eyes, before bursting out laughing. She fell to the soft blanket, clutching her sides as her rambunctious laughter filled the air of the clearing.

When she was finally able to catch her breath, she sat back up, wiping merry tears from her eyes with a forehoof as she let out the last few chuckles. Heaving a heavy sigh of contentment, Applejack shook her head amusedly at the inexplicable toy.

"Heh heh… Thanks, Pinkie," she muttered quietly. "I really needed that."

With that, Applejack lay back down with a tired exhale. In the warmth of the fire, and the softness of the grass and blanket, she slowly felt consciousness drifting away.

The first inkling she got that something was off was a twitching of her ears. She strained her hearing, but was answered by only silence. Her ears twitched again. Applejack shifted uneasily, suddenly finding the blanket less than comfortable. She could feel her heart rate increase. Her ears twitched. Applejack's breathing sped up; she could feel that something was wrong. She tried in vain to steady her breathing and ease her beating heart. Her ears twitched. She could feel a cold sweat beginning to form all over her coat. Her stomach roiled, feeling as if something had seeped into her, corrupting her from her very core. She felt afraid, terrified even. Her ears twitched.

Applejack shot to her hooves in a flash. Her eyes were wide, and her pupils had dilated to the point that the green of her eyes was all but invisible. Her breathing became panicked gasps, her heart felt like it was beating out if her chest, and worst of all, her entire being simply felt inexplicably wrong. She had felt this before.

She had barely come to that realization when an ear-rending shriek split the still night air. The all-too-familiar cry continued for several seconds, working painfully into Applejack's head and nearly bringing her to her knees with a pained grunt. She managed to stay upright until the hideous screech finally tapered off. Applejack raised a forehoof to rub at her ringing ears, surprised to find they weren't bleeding.

Applejack looked around frantically, her wide eyes flicking rapidly over the treeline for any sign of movement. Her fire cast a ring of orange light in the pitch-black night, but everything outside of that was completely invisible. It was there, though. Applejack could feel it, twisting in her gut, trying to make her run.

She wasn't going to run this time. Applejack stood her ground, gulping and attempting to force her quivering legs to stillness. She reached down to her left foreleg and gripped the knife handle in her mouth, fumbling a few times before managing to draw the blade. The weapon felt small and useless, and Applejack briefly considered simply tossing it away, running, and hoping for the best. She quickly squashed that thought, glaring into the surrounding darkness. That wasn't her. She wasn't thinking right at the moment. The wrongness permeated her bones, driving them to shaking, filling her with the urge to flee from her waking nightmare.

She knew better than to leave the safety of the fire though, and so Applejack waited. For a second or two, nothing happened. The silence of the jungle seemed amplified tenfold by the absence of the obscene shrieking that had filled it moments ago.

Finally, after what felt like hours of clutching the knife shakily, but was in fact barely a couple seconds, it moved. The sickly feeling began to grow. The darkness around her campfire seemed to blacken even further, encroaching inwards and shrinking her circle of protective light. Sweat ran in rivulets down Applejack's body, and her heartbeat was an audible thumping in her ears. She grunted and clutched her stomach as the feeling of wrongness spiked, worsening to the point that she felt like something was living inside of her; twisting, writhing, worming its way into her heart.

With a cry, Applejack fell to her knees. The knife clattered to the ground uselessly, and she felt like she was about to throw up. Tears ran down from her eyes as she whimpered. This was it. She was going to die; she was sure of it. Applejack steeled herself, attempting to stop her shaking and face death with dignity.

Something rustled in the treeline to her right, and Applejack heard a low hiss. Something inside her flared up. Some spark of determination, one last bit of survival instinct. The rustling sounded again, and Applejack shakily pushed herself to her hooves, primal rage burning behind her fierce glare. She fought through the sickness, the pain, and the overpowering urge to simply give up or run away, and slowly raised her head in the direction the sound and ever-increasing wrong feeling were coming from.

Her eyes glinted in the firelight, and she let loose her fury. Applejack roared a challenge into the darkness, screaming her defiance until her throat burned. Finally her shout ceased. For a moment, all was total silence. Her skin still crawled and her stomach turned with the sickly wrong feeling, but every sound, even her breathing, had stopped altogether.

She blinked, and the world started moving again. Applejack heard something rustle through the jungle. The wrong feeling in her gut lessened a bit, but never truly went away. The light of her fire seemed to brighten, pushing out further than it had a moment ago. She had managed to drive it off, but not away completely.

She could feel it out there, watching her. That, combined with the constant twisting of her insides by wrongness, meant that it was going to be a long night.

Applejack collapsed back to the ground, openly sobbing as tears streamed down her face. She wasn't even sure if she was relieved, terrified, or simply seeking an outlet after her ordeal. She didn't particularly care, crying pitifully for several minutes.

It didn't return while she broke down, and for that she was grateful. She wouldn't have been able to scare it off again, if that was even what she'd done. She couldn't even summon the ability to stand at the moment.

When she was finally able to move again, Applejack picked up the knife from where it had fallen. She scooted back against the rock, pressing herself against its cold, hard surface. Her breathing and heartbeat relented a little, though still not at normal levels.

As a last attempt at some sort of security, Applejack wrapped the pink blanket tightly around herself. Her shaking stopped then, and the cold brought on by her copious sweating diminished a bit. Somehow, the simple blanket wrapped about her like a bright pink cocoon eased her mind more than the knife she was still holding in her mouth.

She laid there in silence. The wrong feeling never lessened any more for the whole night, but it never got any worse either. Applejack kept her eyes and ears trained on the jungle around her, but detected not another sign of it besides the ever-present feeling. Whatever that thing was, it stayed exactly where it was until the sun came up.

Applejack didn't sleep a wink that night.

Author's Note

Edited by Pilate. Slow and steady wins the race. :rainbowwild:

Melancholy Hill
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Mother of Invention

Melancholy Hill

Applejack sputtered as she woke, coughing up a mouthful of salt water and gasping to refill her lungs with air. She was lying on a hard floor, a thin layer of water soaking the side of her body and face. Her eyes fluttered open, the left one quickly closing as it came in contact with icy water. Her sight was immediately greeted with all-encompassing blackness. For a moment, she wondered if she had really opened her eyes, and blinked rapidly. She spat, expelling the rest of the salty brine that had gotten into her mouth, before attempting to rise to her hooves.

At first, she only rose a few inches before flopping back down with a small splash. She coughed again, wincing as her head bounced off the floor. Her breathing quickly devolved to panting. She couldn't get up. A bit more saltwater found its way into her mouth, and she coughed violently. The total darkness seemed to encroach on her very being as she lay there shivering.

Once her coughing fit had finally subsided, she tried again to push to her hooves. Her legs shook, and she gritted her teeth at the effort, but she was able to slowly rise. By the time she was standing up straight, her breath was coming in ragged pants.

She took a moment to steady herself and catch her breath. In that time, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. There was still nothing but endless black around her, but she could now at least see the shallow water at her hooves. Something brushed against her hind leg, and she nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around with a yelp. She snapped her gaze down, only to find her old stetson lying pitifully in the water.

Applejack gasped, quickly snatching up her hat and placing it on her head. As she attempted to adjust the soaked headgear into something resembling a comfortable position, movement at the bottom of Applejack's vision caught her eye. She looked down at the waters in front of her, and her reflection looked back. Applejack blinked.

Her reflection's eyes were sunken and hollow, a result of not nearly enough rest over the past several days. Her mane and tail, lacking the hairbands that normally kept them neat and in place, had become a rat's nest of clumps and tangles. Her ever-present stetson was dripping with water, and sat slightly askew atop her messy mane. Her coat was matted down with dirt and sweat, one side soaked through with salty water. Little cuts and bits of visible blood dotted her form all over, accumulated over days of bushwhacking through the thick jungle. Lastly, after nearly a week with little to no proper food, Applejack was beginning to show slight signs of malnutrition, looking overall weaker and frailer than she’d ever seen herself, if only by a little bit.

Applejack tore her gaze from her reflection at a sound. A scuffling echoed from somewhere in the darkness, accompanied by the sound of disturbed water. The scuffling stopped, and Applejack spun in place, trying to locate the source of the noise, but unable to see more than a foot or two in front of her eyes. The sound hadn't seemed to come from any specific direction, not that it would have helped if she couldn't see anything.

Another noise, a low, throaty gurgling sound, emitted from somewhere behind Applejack. She quickly spun about, but was greeted with nothing but more darkness. Her heart hammering, she reached for the knife strapped to her left foreleg. A cold weight settled in the pit of her stomach as she found nothing but an empty sheath there.

She was beginning to panic now. Her heart hammered in her chest, her breath came in rapid gasps, and her eyes darted frantically about the darkness, searching for any sign of movement. Silence reigned for a few minutes, but Applejack stayed on high alert the whole time. Her ears flicked, straining for any sound from out in the black. Her legs remained tensed, ready to fight or flee at the slightest provocation.

Finally, something reached her ears. A distant rumbling sound, interspersed with slightly louder booms. It wasn't much, barely detectable on the edge of hearing, but for some reason it unsettled Applejack more than anything else. Her ears twitched, she slowed her breathing to near silence and listened. The rumbling appeared to be getting closer, albeit extremely slowly.

Applejack's heart was no longer racing, and her breathing was calm and steady, but she was more afraid than ever. Something about the strange rumbling disconcerted her on a deep level. It tickled something in the back of her mind that outright terrified her, and the worst part was that she had no idea why. She wanted to leave, to be as far away from whatever was making that sound as possible. She wasn't outright panicking anymore, but she was disturbed at the core level of her being. She felt like she didn't want to find out whatever it was that was coming. Whatever it was, she knew deep down that it wasn't good.

She couldn't get away though. She couldn't see far enough to run. Applejack wasn't just afraid, she was terrified.

Suddenly, Applejack staggered backwards as she was hit head-on with a merciless blast of howling wind. She quickly reached up and clamped a forehoof down on top of her hat, narrowly preventing it from being blown away. The winds felt like they were tearing at her skin, battering her fiercely and constantly. She stumbled back a few steps, but managed to stay upright and eventually plant her hooves enough to stand her ground.

Her eyes were scrunched closed in the high-speed blasts of air, and her sense of hearing drowned out by constant howling and whooshing gales. In spite of it all, the rumbling remained. It continued growing inexorably closer, still moving infinitesimally slowly. Droplets of water picked up by the wind spattered against Applejack, soaking her thoroughly and chilling her to the bone. All the while, the rumbling sound remained just as audible at the edge of her hearing.

The rumbling was abruptly joined by another, far more jarring noise. An all too familiar, unearthly shriek sounded from everywhere around Applejack. It seemed to pierce her soul in a way that no other sound ever could. Her skin crawled merely at the sound of the inequine screeching. It was not the cold that made Applejack begin to shiver uncontrollably.

The shriek was all Applejack could take. Sheer terror coursing through her veins, she turned and ran as fast as she could. The wind seemed to shift with her, always blowing directly in her face, but Applejack paid it no heed. She sprinted as quickly as her legs could carry her, and it still wasn't enough. The screech sounded again, closer this time, and the deep rumbling became ever closer along with it.

Applejack would have screamed, if pure fear hadn't locked her jaw shut. Adrenaline coursed through her, pushing her to speeds she'd never managed before. One second she was galloping at incredible speed, kicking up splashes of shallow water, the next second there was simply nothing beneath her hooves. Applejack fell.

This time, she did scream.

After several seconds of desperate, screaming free-fall, Applejack impacted the water with a sizable splash. She disappeared beneath the surface, swallowed up by the fathomless waters. She was tossed and turned, violent currents throwing her in every direction. Her lungs burned for much needed oxygen. Finally, the relentless tossing about ceased and Applejack was left floating alone in the depths. She frantically looked around, searching desperately for some sight of the surface.

After too many seconds that felt like hours, Applejack spotted a light in the distance. She made for it, kicking all four legs as hard as she could. The light grew closer, but not fast enough. Her lungs felt like they were collapsing in on themselves, and her vision began to blacken at the edges. Even the ever-present rumbling was fading in her ears.

Her swimming slowed, and eventually stopped. She attempted to kick her legs, only to find that they wouldn't respond. Her vision shrunk further, practically down to nothing but a point focused on the distant light; the surface that she would never reach.

A sense of serene calmness overcame her. Her fear hadn't left. If anything, it was only increased, but it didn't bother her so much anymore. Nothing seemed to bother her anymore. The shriek sounded again, sounding even closer despite how muffled it had become, and Applejack couldn't bring herself to care about it. Her vision was nearly gone by this point. She could feel herself slipping away. For some reason, she held on. The urge to simply let go, to open her mouth and accept her fate, grew stronger by the second.

Then, another new sound reached her ears. It sounded like a voice, too distant and too muffled to make out. Again, it repeated itself, slightly more clear now. It was familiar to Applejack; she knew with absolute certainty that she had heard it somewhere before. Finally, the voice's words became audible. It was calling her name.

"Applejack…"

Her ears twitched. The voice held the surest sense of familiarity to Applejack. It brought with it a further sense of calmness. She just knew that if she could reach the owner of the voice, everything would be perfectly fine. It simply sounded… nice. There was really no better way to describe it. Unfortunately, Applejack was having an ever harder time fighting against the watery abyss as her vision faded to a mere pinprick.

"Applejack…"

There was no use fighting it anymore. The voice would never reach her in time, and Applejack had held on too long as it was. She could no longer feel her extremities at all, and her vision had faded to complete darkness. Her lungs didn't even burn anymore; she was simply numb. Applejack had tried her best, but everypony has their limits. She let go.

"Applejack."

The farmer blinked several times. Her vision swam, colours blurring before her eyes as she nearly staggered on her hooves before catching herself. Her head throbbed violently, the pounding sensation of pain thwarting all efforts at coherent thought. She wondered where she was. She felt grass beneath her hooves, and the bright sun shining on her coat. A light breeze ran over her, bringing with it the scent of springtime and grass clippings.

"Applejack, are you alright?"

Applejack turned her head, her vision clearing enough to make out the bright blue eyes of a light yellow pegasus, and all the concern within her friend's gaze. She was standing atop a grassy hill, the quiet village of Ponyville spread out beneath her. The morning sun shone out over the thatched roofs of the town, glinting off the water of the fountain in the main square. She turned away from the scenery, and stared blankly at the pegasus next to her. Applejack's mouth hung slightly open as she tried and failed to figure out something to say. Her head throbbed, and any words she had formed were instantly lost as she lowered her head in pain.

Fluttershy's look softened at the wince that crossed Applejack's features. "Applejack, it's okay to be afraid."

Applejack quickly glanced back up, shaking her head slightly.

Fluttershy smiled gently. "I can tell when a pony's afraid, Applejack. I, um, I go through it enough myself to easily recognize it in others." She shrunk back slightly. "Not that I was just watching you or anything…"

Applejack was about to attempt a response, but Fluttershy continued anyway. "I, uh, I just wanted to tell you about how it's not so bad to be afraid. You're still one of the bravest ponies I know."

Applejack tilted her head slightly, blinking at Fluttershy's seemingly contradictory statement.

Fluttershy picked up on her friend's confusion quickly. "Oh, um, well you see…" She cleared her throat, and her voice grew ever so slightly in volume and strength. "A pony doesn't have to be fearless to be brave. In fact, that's just the opposite of what bravery is. Being brave means doing something when you are afraid; overcoming that terror because you have a reason to, a reason that outshines any amount of fear."

Applejack smirked, holding back a chuckle at the uncharacteristically fierce and determined look that had dominated Fluttershy's features. Fluttershy held her stance for a moment, eyes burning and wings flared, before blushing brightly and shrinking back down to her usual self.

"Oh, um, I mean, that's what my father used to tell me, at least," Fluttershy practically whispered as she hid half her face behind her flowing, pink mane. "I, um, I used to be scared of everything. Well, I still am scared of most things, but I used to be even worse." She smiled and closed her eyes, wrapping her wings about herself as a look of nostalgia washed over her. "My daddy always supported me, though. He told me what I just told you, and explained that every time I went to flight school, or tried making a new friend that I was being so brave."

After a few moments, Fluttershy snapped out of her reverie. "Um, anyways, I actually just came to tell you that the girls are waiting. If you want, I think you'll feel even better with all of us around."

As Fluttershy finished, she looked straight at Applejack. Their gazes met, and Applejack caught a clear sight of her reflection in her friend's wide, blue eyes. The mare she saw there was strong. Her immaculate orange coat practically shone with the spring sun upon it. Her eyes sparkled with life, her cheeks bore a bright smile, and her hat was firmly set in its familiar place atop her head. Her blond mane and tail were both done up with hairbands, looking just as freshly groomed as her coat.

Applejack smiled, and the mare in Fluttershy's eyes smiled back. Fluttershy blinked, and the moment was lost. Applejack didn't mind though. Seeing her reflection had comforted her deeply for some reason.

Just as Fluttershy was turning to leave, she stopped and looked back at Applejack. "I'm, um, I'm really proud of you, well, for…" She sighed lightly. "I know how hard it can be to be brave, especially when you're… when you're really scared. So I just wanted to tell you that, um, if you don't mind."

Applejack grinned appreciatively, nodding her head in thanks.

Fluttershy beamed back. "Well, the girls are probably wondering why I took so long in getting you. Um, would you mind, uh, heading over now?"

Applejack smirked, stepping up beside Fluttershy, her headache nothing but a memory at that point. "Sounds good to me."

With that, the two mares turned as one, and trotted in companionable silence towards the bottom of the hill.

Author's Note

Many thanks to Pilate for the editing. Zebra is credit to team.

Tangled Up In Blue
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Mother of Invention

Tangled Up In Blue

A few more days passed without much incident. Applejack had made a quick hike on the first day to resupply her stock of coconuts. By heading back in the direction of the beach, she had been able to quickly find a palm tree without any trouble. Just as last time, however, her applebucking technique had failed her, doing little more than rattling the fruits. Her back still gave her trouble when she tried kicking the tree, but not enough that it could be the cause of her failure. Either her strength was failing her like she suspected the first time, or she was simply doing it wrong. There was a good chance that the technique for bucking coconuts was slightly different, after all. She didn't bother trying to figure it out, and instead just climbed the tree once again. She managed to get a decent supply of coconuts this way without falling flat on her back, so it went better than the first time, at least.

Outside of that quick trip to stock up her food supply, most of her time over the last couple days was spent working on her little shelter. Finding suitable wood was time consuming, but the lean-to was coming along nicely. First she had gathered more sticks of about the same length as the ones she'd already gotten, a little less than twice her height. She used these to increase the total area covered until there was enough room for two ponies to lie down comfortably, if a good deal closer than they might have been used to.

After that, she had cut a few shorter sticks, approximately the same height as herself, and used these to increase the headspace in her shelter. She had sharpened one end of each, and made a ‘V’ shaped cut in the other. She used these shorter sticks to prop up the ends of the longer sticks that rested on the ground. It was a simple matter of driving the sharp ends into the earth, and wedging the ends of the longer sticks into the angular cuts in the shorter ones. In doing this, her shelter now had two walls, of sorts: the solid rock on one side and the wall of short sticks on the other. The long sticks now formed a more comfortable ceiling, though Applejack would still have to duck her head a little at the lowest part.

This left the problem that the roof was, in essence, full of holes. As close as they were, none of the sticks were perfectly straight, and the minor imperfections between them were plenty to let in weather, sunlight, and pretty much anything else that a roof was designed to keep out.

Fortunately, Applejack had made similar shelters before while camping—though on a much smaller and quicker scale—and knew exactly what to do. She gathered up as much debris as she could, mostly dead plant matter and moss from the forest floor, and brought it back to camp. There, she applied it to the roof of her shelter in a thick, even layer. The strong branches she had used were at no risk of breaking, even if the weather took a turn and caused the covering of debris to get wet and heavy.

With her additions done, she was left with what almost amounted to a small shack. It was still open on two sides, but the thick jungle around the clearing prevented wind from being any real problem. The pink blanket that made up the floor of the lean-to gave it a cozy atmosphere, though it was already beginning to fade and stain just a little from being stepped on constantly. The rubber chicken remained in its place sitting against the stone wall, silently brightening up the little makeshift room in its own little way.

In the end, Applejack was proud of it. It had taken three days of work, but it beat the old, dank cave by a mile. Whatever it was that stalked the jungle at night, it hadn't returned since the incident right before Applejack had begun work on the lean-to. She was certainly glad to be left alone, even if she knew it wouldn't be forever. Besides, the chance to catch up on her sleep had been a huge benefit in giving her the energy she needed for long days of work.

Still, the work had been a bit tiring, and Applejack was looking forward to a couple less busy days ahead of her. There was still a lot to do, but she could afford a day or two of less strenuous activity at least.

As Applejack awoke, three days after starting the lean-to and the first morning since finishing it the day before, she smiled. Her loud yawn split the morning silence, punctuated by the popping of her joints as she stretched out languidly on the soft, pink blanket.

The inside of her shelter was dimmed a bit, but the early morning sunshine could not be foiled completely by such simple means, and still managed to illuminate Applejack in a light yellow glow. She scratched her ear with a forehoof, barely holding back another yawn as she did so.

She may not have had a lot of work to do, but that was no reason to laze about. Applejack slowly picked up her hat from where it lay next to her. The weathered brown stetson was never far; even when she slept it was always within hoof's reach. She idly turned it over in her forehooves as she lay there. The old hat had certainly fared better than her over the last week and a half. Not a scratch marred the surface of her classic headgear, the only visible damage being a bit of fading that was years in the making.

For a moment, the jungle and the morning sun faded away. Applejack's mind wandered, flipping the hat in her grip repeatedly, but not really looking at it. Her thoughts turned to older, happier times. She thought of her friends, her family, her life in Ponyville. The memories went back further, back to Twilight Sparkle's first trip down to the little farming village, and further still to a certain rainbow-maned pegasus moving in from Cloudsdale. Still her mind delved even deeper into the past. Applejack saw herself, a young, blank-flanked filly, playing between the apple trees in the southern fields.

Her head was bare back then. Her golden mane and tail were allowed to flow freely behind her as she ran, laughing and tumbling between the trees. Other foals were with her, nameless, faceless ponies that she couldn’t recall entirely. Her coat was stained with grass and dirt, clear indicators of a good day to the rambunctious filly. She stopped, ears perked, when a voice called out to her, strong and comforting. She turned with a wide smile and broke into a gallop, shouting farewell over her shoulder. As the trees thinned out ahead, the old farmhouse began to take shape in the haze of her memory, and there, standing on the porch, the source of the voice—

Applejack shook her head sharply, and with that the vision dissipated as if it had never been. She glanced down at her forehooves, only then noticing that she was nearly crushing her hat in a death grip, and even more concerning, the scattered marks of fresh tears dotting the crumpled brown stetson. She blinked rapidly, wiping at her face with a forehoof.

Mentally cursing herself for allowing her thoughts to run away like that, Applejack reverently straightened out her hat to perfection, and placed it gently atop her head. She pushed to her hooves and quickly strapped the knife to her left foreleg in what was becoming a morning routine. A lock of mane fell in front of her eyes briefly, but she quickly swept it aside with a forehoof. Applejack knew that she must've looked like a mess, with her coat, mane, and tail all becoming more disheveled by the day, and now the new addition of tear stains that likely marred her cheeks.

Her eyes fell on the rubber chicken resting against the rock wall. It stared back, a silent witness to her shame. Both stayed locked in an unblinking staring contest for several moments, before Applejack reached out and knocked it over with a swipe from her forehoof. It bounced against the floor with a tiny squeak, before slowly rolling to a stop face up, still looking straight at Applejack. She pointed a hoof at the rubber poultry threateningly.

"Shut up."

With one last stern look, Applejack broke her gaze with the chicken and trotted out into the morning air, ready to greet the day. She quickly made her way over to the still-smoking fire pit a few feet from her lean-to, snatching a piece of barely-warm charcoal up in a forehoof and shambling back over to the large boulder.

There, next to her cozy little shelter, she used the charcoal to add another pitch-black tally mark to a mostly smooth section of stone. She wasn't entirely sure how long she had been unconscious before waking up on the beach, but after a bit of thinking she was confident that her count of the days that had passed since then was accurate, and she made sure to update it each morning.

Ten tally marks for ten days. Ten days of living, eating, and sleeping on that Celestia-forsaken island, and ten days without a single sign of rescue. She tried to tell herself that it was just taking them awhile to find her, but doubt niggled at the back of her mind. Twilight Sparkle was the most magical pony in all of Equestria, and the fact that she hadn't been able to simply locate Applejack herself was concerning. Applejack heaved a heavy sigh, but quickly repressed any feelings of hopelessness that cropped up. Even if Twilight had failed for some reason, it was only a matter of time before they found her by more conventional means. The thought brought a small smile to her face. Only a matter of time.

Applejack trotted back over to the fire pit and tossed the bit of coal back in, wiping her sooty forehoof off on the grass immediately afterwards. She had plenty of coconuts to eat, but having the same thing for three meals a day would get tiring quickly, and Applejack liked to mix it up. Survival was most important, but she would have a pretty poor time of it if she overindulged on her primary food source and drove herself to dislike it.

In the end, Applejack decided on a simple breakfast of wildflowers. She moved at a leisurely pace as she gathered up her multi-coloured meal. The day was pleasantly warm, if a bit humid, but Applejack had found that to be the norm for the deep jungle. At least it wasn't stifling hot. She wasn't sure if it had to do with the season or just the weather, but the Daring Do books she'd read had described the humid heat of the jungle like something straight out of Tartarus.

Thinking back on the book's description of the jungle, Applejack ground to a blinking halt in sudden realization. There was a key point, something always emphasized, with no small amount of contempt, by the novel's dauntless explorer, that was strangely absent from Applejack's own experience. She hadn't noticed it before, but there wasn't a single insect to be found.

Applejack had, of course, noticed the jungle's eerie silence in the past, but only now was she realizing the extent of it. There was no distant cacophony of cicadas, no incessant buzzing of swarms of flies, nor even the night time chirping of crickets. If the books she'd read were any indication, Applejack should have been fighting off bloodsucking bugs like a plague, yet she didn't have so much as a single bite on her.

Her moment of pondering passed quickly, before she broke into a smile and barked a quick laugh. "Ain't like I'm gonna complain about a lack of horseflies," she muttered with a shake of her head.

Whether the books had simply been embellishing the truth, or Applejack had just been fortunate enough to be in the wrong climate for creepy crawlies didn't matter much. It was one less thing to worry about, and Applejack wasn't going to bother herself over it.

Once she had picked enough flowers to constitute a meal, Applejack walked back to the clearing. Her sense of direction was improving, and she was able to find her way straight back without retracing her steps. Not that her sense of direction had been bad before, but she was in a totally new environment, and the fact that she was able to navigate it with some degree of ease was a bit comforting.

Arriving back at the clearing with her breakfast, Applejack glanced over to her little shelter. From the tiny wisps of smoke floating up from the remnants of last night's fire and dissipating into the air, to the neatly stack firewood and supplies against the outside wall of the lean-to, it managed to look fairly inviting.

Despite all her hard work, it wasn't home. With a heavy sigh, Applejack trotted away into the middle of the clearing. She wasn't going to let such thoughts dampen her spirits too much. She had worked hard the past few days, and she needed to relax if she was going to keep her energy up.

Forgoing the usual morning routine of a quick meal, Applejack decided to take her time for once. She flopped down onto the soft grass at the center of the clearing. She rolled over onto her back and smiled as the wide blue sky opened up before her. She lazily munched on her breakfast as a cloud or two drifted by far overhead.

The sight was still a novelty to Applejack, a cloud drifting all by itself. Weather without any pegasi to control or create it wasn't unheard of, especially living as close to the Everfree as Applejack did, but it was still freaky to see firsthoof.

She lay there for a good while, idly taking a bite of flower petals every so often. Her eyes settled on one cloud in particular, not that there were many to choose from. Pinkie Pie had once told Applejack that every cloud was shaped like something, be it a bird, a tree, or simply some fantastical thing that nopony even knew the name of. Pinkie was strange sometimes.

Yet, as Applejack watched the solitary puff of white glide over her peaceful little clearing, she couldn't help but note its formation. With one small pip of cloud on the end of a much larger oval shape, it looked almost like a balloon. If she squinted a little, and tilted her head slightly, and didn't look at it too carefully.

"Well ain't that a sight…"

Her smile grew, and her eyes remained on the balloon cloud until it had drifted on past the slightly limited view of the sky her clearing offered. It must have been at least an hour, but Applejack had gotten up early, and judging from the sunlight streaming through the canopy, and the fact that the sun was still not visible over the clearing, it was still only a little ways over the horizon.

As hard as she tried, Applejack couldn't relax. It just didn't feel right. Objectively, she knew that the best course of action was to simply await rescue, but something inside her simply wouldn't allow that. Really, it just wasn't in her nature. She needed to do something. It was an attitude cultivated from a lifetime of farm work, and it wasn’t something she could just ignore. As nice as a short break could be, wasting an entire day was inconceivable to a pony like Applejack. The day was still young, and laying about in the grass just wasn't going to cut it.

She still didn't want to overwork herself after being so busy the past several days, but there was at least one thing she could occupy herself with. There was still plenty of unknown island to investigate. She hopped up to her hooves, and quickly trotted over to her shelter. It was time for a little exploration. Applejack strapped on the saddlebags tightly, and slung the canteen over her neck. She checked that the knife on her left foreleg was secure, and lastly, adjusted her hat with the utmost of care.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Applejack made her way over to the other end of the clearing. Arriving at the edge of the river, she paused to top off the canteen. A glance up and down the river didn't reveal much, bends in the river and the thick jungle preventing Applejack from seeing where it went or where it came from. Its destination was no mystery; in all likelihood the river ran out into the ocean, as all rivers do eventually. The source, however, was another matter enitrely, and it was something Applejack considered worth looking in to.

With an anticipatory grin on her face, Applejack turned and trotted off along the riverbank, and out of the clearing. The river flowed by on her right, and the jungle created a wall of green to her left. There was a bit of a gap between the treeline and the water, enough for Applejack to walk comfortably, at least. Smaller bushes and undergrowth still appeared sparsely right up to the river’s edge, and a soft, short grass similar to what grew in the clearing was present underhoof.

The river widened quickly upon leaving the clearing. While back at her camp it had been about two pony-lengths across, it soon increased to more than three. Wherever it was coming from, there was a lot of water moving through it. The clear blue water moved fast enough that Applejack wouldn't confidently attempt to swim against it, but it didn't seem terribly dangerous due to the lack of large rocks or fallen logs.

As expected, the river always continued in the same general direction. There were twists and turns occasionally, but it never strayed too far from its ultimate path. Every step brought Applejack further inland. The thought crossed her mind that if there was anything worth finding, it would likely be somewhere in the heart of the island, but she didn't bother with the idea too much. Her goal was to find the source of the river. Attempting to search the entire island would just be ridiculous.

As time wore on and Applejack continued along the river's edge, she kept a careful eye on her surroundings. The jungle only ever got thicker, deeper inland, and Applejack was beginning to see plants and trees that she couldn’t even remotely recognize. At one point, she came across a wide-leafed bush growing just on the edge of the treeline. On closer inspection, tiny clusters of bright yellow berries were revealed under each leaf. Applejack took a hoofful of the berries, but knew enough not to eat a strange plant without knowing what it was. After a few sniffs of the berries failed to reveal anything about their nature, Applejack shook her head.

"Thanks, but no thanks," she mumbled, and with that, tossed them out into the river. The little berries disappeared under the water with a series of tiny plops, and Applejack moved on without a second glance.

The walk was mostly uneventful for a while. The solid wall of green to Applejack's left was broken up by the occasional interesting bit of plant life, while the burbling river to her right remained constant and consistent. Applejack barely even noticed the odd rustling from somewhere in the trees, though was still as present as ever. This deep in the jungle, vines hung from the trees like haphazardly applied green streamers at a party that encompassed the whole island. They appeared thick and strong, but Applejack knew there was no substitute for good rope, and just let them be.

It was as Applejack rounded a bend in the river that she finally encountered a change in scenery. She slowed to a stop, sitting down on her haunches and tilting her head back with a low whistle. Just ahead of her, the river thinned a bit, shrinking until it was small enough to leap across, if only just barely, and with a good running start. The river itself, however, was not what captivated Applejack's attention.

The trees that grew a little ways back from the water on either side of the river, normally completely separate, found themselves much closer as the river's width decreased. The result was breathtaking. A giant arching canopy of green was created by the tops of the two treelines leaning out over the water, reminiscent of the high-ceilinged halls of Canterlot Castle. The sunlight filtered down through the arched ceiling in shades of green, illuminating motes of dust that were caught in the slanting beams of light, floating in the stillness of the moment. Even the river, once burbling and churning seemed almost completely still. The flat surface of the water reflected the streaming rays of sunlight across ceiling in undulating patterns of luminescence.

For a moment, Applejack merely sat there. She didn't dare make a sound for fear that it would somehow violate the peace of the place she'd stumbled upon. Even the rustling in the jungle seemed to quiet slightly and fade into the background.

The sight alone had already made her little hike worth it in Applejack's opinion, but she couldn't just stop there. The river, though less wide than before, continued on through the natural tunnel until disappearing around a slight bend a little further on, and Applejack was still curious about the source.

With a resolute nod, Applejack stood once more. After a brief pause to adjust her hat, she was on the move again.

Entering the arched covering was a bit of a strange experience. Passing out of the sun's direct light, and into the dimmed interior, Applejack noticed a few things. The distant rustling in the jungle ceased entirely, though that didn't bother Applejack much; it seemed to come and go at times. Though she was no longer under the hot sun, the temperature only increased. The thick ceiling served to trap and contain the heat, and the air was far more thick and humid than before. The stifling atmosphere made for an unpleasant walk, and Applejack's pace slowed as a result.

Soon enough, Applejack was sweating heavily. The air felt like walking through soup, and her breathing became effort-laden panting after only 20 minutes or so of walking. She took her hat in a forehoof, and used it to fan herself while hobbling along on three legs.

Still Applejack trudged onward. The going was tough, but nothing that could stop the determined mare. The light dimmed further in, until Applejack almost worried that it would become pitch-black eventually, though it never did. It felt like she spent hours in the natural hall, but in reality she knew it was next to nothing compared to the distance she had already walked that day. Even so, Applejack was overjoyed when an exit finally presented itself.

A little ways upriver, Applejack spotted the bright gleam of open sky and sunlight. With a quick bark of relieved laughter, she slapped her hat back on to her head and quickened her pace.

In no time at all, Applejack had reached the end of the oven-like tunnel, and trotted forth into the open. She stopped just outside, letting a cool breeze wash over her and squinting against the seemingly blinding sun. The breeze felt amazing, though her sweat-covered body amplified the cooling effect almost enough to make her shiver.

It was at that moment that Applejack had a startling realization: there was never a breeze in the jungle. Her eyes widened instantly, though she quickly shielded them with a hiss of pain as the light assaulted her still-adjusting pupils.

After taking a few moments to adjust to the brightness, Applejack tentatively lowered her hoof. The river widened in front of her, quickly growing to the size it was back at the clearing, and increasing in size exponentially from there. It took a moment for Applejack to realize what she was looking at. She had found the river's source.

Applejack took a few steps forward, a wide grin slowly emerging on her face. The river wasn't actually widening, she realized, it simply connected to a lake. The lake itself was fairly large, a good deal bigger than the pony-made lake near Ponyville. It was big enough that Applejack estimated a pony standing on the other side would need to strain in order to hear her shouting at the top of her lungs.

It was mostly circular in shape, though it protruded a bit to connect with the river that was now behind Applejack as she continued towards the edge of the lake. Fine grained, light brown sand lined the shores of the still water. The surface was so pristine it could have been mistaken for glass. It was a rich blue colour, and though Applejack couldn't see the lakebed except near the shore, she knew it must have been pretty deep.

The treeline stopped a bit of a ways back from the shore all around the whole lake, and the grass was the same short meadow grass that grew back in the clearing. Applejack could see one or two more small streams running off of the serene lake, but nothing near as big as the river she had followed to get there.

The warm sand felt good against her hooves after a long hike, and Applejack paused upon stepping onto the beach for a moment. With a smile, she trotted over to the water's edge and peered down at the motionless surface.

Her smile faded a bit as her reflection stared back. Her coat was matted with sweat, some even dripping off her muzzle and sending tiny ripples across the lake's surface, and her mane was a complete disaster. Applejack wasn't one to care about style very much, but her mane was almost getting to the point of being a safety hazard.

Her once beautiful golden locks, normally clean and secure in her ever-present hairband, had become an overgrown rat's nest of tangles, spilling out from under her contrastingly well-kept stetson. Without being held back in a ponytail, and after too long without a manecut, her mane had dragged along the ground, staining the ends with dirt and grime. Above that it was messy and tangled, making Applejack look like some sort of crazed mountain mare that would never be left alone with foals.

All in all, Applejack wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the sight.

She had been in need of a manecut already, since before she'd even found herself on the island to begin with. What with all the surviving and whatnot, the thought had slipped her mind, but now that she was getting a good look at herself, she was beginning to regret putting off a visit to the Ponyville spa.

Applejack bit her lip, flicking her eyes repeatedly between her reflection and the knife strapped to her left foreleg. After a few moments of silent deliberation, she finally let out an exasperated groan. There was really only one thing to do if she didn't want to end up with more mane than mare.

"I'd better not lose an ear over this…" she grumbled as she drew the knife from its sheath, gripping it carefully in the crook of her right forehoof. Sitting down on her haunches, she took off her hat in her other forehoof and set it down gently next to her.

Leaning forward ever so slightly and peering into the still surface of the lake, Applejack's need of a manecut was only made more apparent by the lack of her stetson. Fortunately, the lake provided a much better mirror surface than the flowing river had, and Applejack's reflection stayed still and clear. No sense wasting time, then.

She stretched out a bit of mane with her left forehoof, and tentatively brought the knife up to it. With a slight wince, she held her breath and slowly slashed across the extended lock of mane. Applejack exhaled with relief as the blade failed to inadvertently chop off her head, or anything else important.

A brief, victorious smile spread across Applejack's face, lasting for almost three seconds before she glanced down at her hooves and spotted the pathetically tiny bundle of hairs she had managed to detach.

Applejack blushed, chuckling sheepishly at her reflection, and looking all but the same as before. She very nearly glanced around her, before remembering that there was nopony around to be embarrassed in front of. Though that thought banished her blush, it certainly didn’t cheer her up any.

With a small sigh, Applejack pushed aside her silly trepidation and set to work actually cutting her mane. It was still slow going. Applejack had cut her own mane before, but never with a knife of all things. At least it was sharp, and that saved any unpleasant hair-pulling, even on the most tangled segments.

Locks and bunches of blond mane fell loose, sometimes landing in the lake and disturbing Applejacks reflection momentarily. It had been years, longer than she could even remember, since Applejack had cut her hair short. For essentially all of her adult life she had styled it in the same ponytail every day simply out of practicality. In the same vein, her decision to cut it now was one born simply of practicality, and what resulted would have made certain fashion-conscious ponies faint at 100 paces.

Finally done, Applejack sheathed her knifed and gazed once more into her reflection. Her once proud mane was all but gone. Her head was far from shaved, but her hair length had been reduced to a couple inches at its longest, and just under an inch in a few places. It wasn't exactly even. Even her bangs had been cut, as they had been getting in her eyes recently anyway. Short-cropped manes weren't entirely uncommon, and Applejack would never disparage anypony that chose to wear one.

As she looked over her own new manecut, however, turning her head to the sides and observing all angles, one thought entered her mind. Applejack thought she looked silly.

Grumbling a bit under her breath, Applejack had to admit that at least there was nothing to get in the way now. She was just happy that her tail grew so much slower, and wouldn't have to be cut for a while yet, hopefully not until after she was safely back home where there were proper hairdressers. Applejack wanted to preserve at least some of her dignity, after all.

Now that her mane was no longer an issue, Applejack was able to note the still-concerning state of the rest of her. Her coat was still matted with sweat from her trip out to the lake, dirt from a week and a half on the island, and little spots of blood here and there from the numerous tiny cuts sustained when bushwhacking through the undergrowth. Several long blond hairs, once free from their attachment to her scalp, had stuck to her neck and upper back, and were itching rather unpleasantly.

All in all, she was in a pretty poor state, but at least now she would finally be able to alleviate that somewhat. Applejack allowed herself a small smile. A quick swim would do her wonders. She removed the saddlebags, and unstrapped the knife, setting them both down on the sand with her hat.

She reached out with a forehoof, carefully lowering it until just the edge prodded the calm lake water. Ripples spread out at her touch, cascading out and across the lake. The water was cool, but not unpleasantly so. It was a little warmer than the frigid river, having been sitting still in direct sunlight rather that constantly moving and partially shaded by a canopy.

Applejack's little smile quickly became a full on grin. It was perfect. She wasted no more time, quickly backing up from the water a few paces. The thought of strange, pony-eating lake creatures crossed her mind momentarily, almost causing Applejack to hesitate.

In that moment, the sun glinted off the surface of the water. The breeze off the lake rustled Applejack's coat slightly, and brought to her the scent of fresh, clean water. She breathed deep, and the itchy loose hairs only seemed to become more annoying at the prospect of sweet relief. She became acutely aware of every bit of dirt, sweat, and blood on her coat, feeling their presence directly against her skin. More than the annoyances, though, Applejack could imagine the cool water washing all of them away.

In that moment, Applejack decided it was worth the risk. A smile as wide as a mile split her face as she galloped full tilt for the water's edge. She sped across the short grass seemingly in slow motion, barely noticing the jubilant laugh that escaped her throat in the short sprint. The grass turned to sand, and the lake sprung up before her suddenly. Applejack took an eternity between steps to assess the situation, and her smile only grew. Still moving at a speed that would have outpaced all but one or two ponies, but still seeing it all in agonizingly brilliant slowness, Applejack took one more galloping step, planted her rear hooves hard in the soft sand, and leapt with all of her considerable ability.

She was only in the air for a brief moment, but her powerful leap propelled her far enough over the surface to make a pegasus jealous. Her tail waved behind her in the wind rushing by her ears, and she reveled in the feeling of the air gliding over her coat. She tucked her forelegs into her chest and drew in a deep breath.

"Yeehaw!"

She impacted the lake with a tremendous splash, and was quickly swallowed up by the clear blue water. Instantly the itching around her neck and back was relieved, and she felt the uncleanness rinsing from her previously-neglected coat. She floated weightlessly beneath the surface, the sun's rays refracting beautiful beams of light all around her. Making no move to surface, Applejack could feel the deeper stains being washed away. The stress and emotional trauma of the past week and a half, as well as the heart-clenching fear that came with it were slowly dissipating. She relaxed her muscles, letting herself go completely limp as the water continued to support her.

Of course, within only a minute or two her lungs were beginning to protest. Just as she was about to swim towards the surface, however, a searing pain shot through her skull. Applejack expelled the last tiny bit of air in her lungs in a pained gasp, gripping the sides of her head with both hooves. The pain passed quickly, but it left behind a strange, cold sense of dread in Applejack's stomach.

She quickly kicked her legs and brought herself back up towards the surface of the lake. She burst through the water with a heaving gasp, taking in massive breaths of glorious air as the burning in her chest faded. The feeling of dread left Applejack then as well. As she treaded water calmly, she was once again consumed by her previous good mood.

Applejack laughed lightly, all traces of a pain gone. With all she'd been going through, getting a headache was certainly nothing to be concerned about. Her smile returned quickly, and she started to move about the surface of the lake. She floated on her back, kicking with her hind legs and cruising along at a gentle pace. The cool waters did wonders to refresh her, and even soothed the aches and pains she had gathered up recently. Within a few minutes even her back injury felt like it had never happened.

As she floated there, another cloud drifted into view overhead. She lazily watched its path through half-squinted eyes, only half-heartedly noting its interesting formation. With one small pip of cloud on the end of a much larger oval shape, it looked almost like a balloon. If she squinted a little, and tilted her head slightly, and didn't look at it too carefully.

Applejack blinked as that thought registered. She was struck by the familiarity of the cloud, and for a moment was completely confused. After scratching her ear and giving it only a moment of thought, Applejack dismissed the coincidence with a laugh. Weather without pegasi was weird. The matter settled, she closed her eyes and drifted along contentedly through the water.

She lost track of time in the bliss provided by the lake. The sun moved through the sky, the afternoon wore on, and Applejack kept swimming. She dove under a couple more times, though only for brief moments. Applejack even took a bit of time to properly scrub herself clean. While a bar of soap would have been immensely appreciated, water and elbow grease did a suitable job, and it didn't take long before Applejack was once more presentable.

She sat in the shallows, looking over her reflection with a soft smile as the sun continued ever onwards into late-afternoon. With a satisfied sigh, Applejack gauged the time of day. She judged that she had time for a couple more hours of swimming before heading back, and dove back into the deep water with a splash.

She swam just below the surface all the way out to the middle of the lake, before breaking back into the open air with a loud bark of laughter. She shook her head, closing her eyes as droplets of water flying haphazardly in all directions. When she reopened her eyes, she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Surprise overwhelmed her, and for a second she forgot to tread water, dropping beneath the surface suddenly. She quickly resurfaced, sputtering and flailing as she expelled lakewater from her mouth and nose.

Shaking her head, she looked back towards the shore, paddling in the very same direction as she did. The strange sight only became more defined as Applejack neared the shore. There seemed to be a rectangle of hard-packed dirt just next to the treeline. It was perfectly flat, but the edges were jagged where grass had intruded into the dark earth. Finally, as she got still closer to the shore, Applejack spotted something else sitting adjacent to the inexplicable rectangle. Touching the edge of the packed earth, itself fighting off encroaching grass and plant life, was an old cellar door set into a stone frame, closed but not locked.

Applejack jolted to a sudden halt, blinking as she finally realized what she was looking at.

"Wait… what?"

The Sound Of Silence
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Mother of Invention

The Sound Of Silence

Applejack had never been called crazy. Stubborn, sure. Extremely stubborn, even. It was practically a defining trait. She had even nearly run herself into the ground out of sheer stubbornness once during a particularly hard applebuck season, though she had learned a lesson out of it at least. Nopony would ever call her crazy though. There were a surprisingly large number of ponies in Ponyville that would fit to the description of that word, but Applejack could always be depended upon to remain off that list. After all, she was too stubborn to be crazy.

Now that she found herself staring at a set of cellar doors inexplicably present on a deserted island, she had revised her stance. She was definitely crazy.

Applejack stood, unmoving, gazing silently at the sight that had nearly shocked her out of her skin when she was swimming. The rectangular section of exposed dirt and pair of downward-facing doors looked out of place to the point that Applejack had to rub her eyes several times just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Pinkie's saddlebags were strapped to her back once more, her hat was in its rightful place atop her head, and the sheathed knife was a reassuring weight on her left foreleg.

Her mane, or what was left of it, along with her tail and coat were still coated in lakewater. She hadn't exactly taken the time to dry off after her frantic dash back to shore to gather up her effects, pausing only briefly to strap on her saddlebags and don her hat before sprinting along the shoreline back in the direction of the strangest sight she’d yet encountered on the island.

The afternoon sun helped a little, warming her coat and steadily drying her off, but a cool breeze was wafting across the surface of the quiet lake, causing Applejack to shiver uncomfortably. Maybe she should have taken the time to dry off.

Applejack shook her head, realizing that she was just stalling. Taking a tentative half-step forward, Applejack craned her neck to get a better look. She was closer than she had been when she first spotted the oddity while swimming, and was able to examine it a little better.

A smooth patch of dirt was laid out in a rectangular shape, about four or five pony lengths wide, and about nine or ten long. It was perpendicular to the beach, positioned about between the shoreline and the jungle. The trees were fairly far back from the beach in that area, so that left the rectangle with plenty of open grass on all sides.

From afar, it had seemed a perfect rectangle, but even from Applejack's distance she could tell that it wasn't quite. The edges were slightly jagged, with grass edging in a little further in a couple places, like it the jungle was attempting to reclaim the land and having a hard time of it. The ground itself inside the grassless space was hard-packed, dark brown earth.

Applejack took a few steps closer. She looked to her right and eyed the jungle warily, but it was distant enough that she wasn't very worried. Another breeze came across the waters to her left, and she suppressed an involuntary shiver.

A squat stone frame housing a pair of heavy, wooden doors sat against one of the shorter edges, jutting out into the grass and looking ten times more out of place than the patch of dirt. It was situated on the side nearest the jungle, and furthest from the water.

Applejack paused, glancing between the cellar doors and the jungle, almost expecting something, anything, to happen, but nothing did. She sighed, and trotted the last bit of distance between her and the site.

Closer up, she was able to spot a couple more details. Namely, Applejack noticed a few old, weathered bits of plank wood lying in the dirt. A few bits of wood near the edges had even been covered by encroaching grass, after lying there for Celestia knows how long.

Looking over it all, only one conclusion came to mind. It looked like the foundation and start of a simple cabin. Applejack had already acknowledged that ponies must have lived on the island at some point or another, but actually seeing signs of real civilization was another thing entirely.

It hadn't just been crazy ponies scrawling symbols on cave walls, there had been ponies living in and building houses. Relief warred with disappointment inside Applejack, and she grimaced at the ensuing headache. She wasn't sure whether to be excited or terrified. She supposed that whatever ponies had lived on the island had planned a lakeside house, but had somehow only gotten the land prepared before abandoning it.

One thing struck Applejack as odd though. Usually, when building a cabin, the general idea was to construct the actual building first, and then add on a cellar. After all, there wasn't much need to store food yet if you didn't have a house to live in. This had an added benefit when building in a secluded or remote area, in that it provided a place to sleep comfortably while working on ancillary things like a cellar.

Applejack noted the clear presence of a cellar, and the distinct lack of an actual house. This, disturbingly, worked against her original thought that the construction had simply been abandoned early on. It seemed ever more likely that the cabin had been completed entirely, and had a cellar added on. A cold ball of ice settled in Applejack’s stomach as the full implications of that dawned on her. She couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the cabin for it to be so utterly gone… and wonder the same for the ponies that had presumably lived there.

Her coat had dried completely in the sun, and the chilly breeze had not returned, but Applejack found herself shivering. Shaking off the sudden chills, she stepped forward and onto the dirt without hesitation. Applejack had seen some strange things in the past couple years, but she was still a pony to take most things at face value.

Still, she quickly realized how tensed her muscles were just as soon as all four hooves had left the cool grass behind for bare earth. Applejack willed herself to relax, breathing deeply. The place didn't give off the same sickly feeling of wrongness that she was already uncomfortably familiar with after two harrowing encounters. It was a more natural unease, borne from the much simpler fact that such a sight didn't belong. It wasn't a thing that Applejack would think to see on a deserted island, and it was perfectly understandable to feel a little off balance for it.

Her thoughts almost wandered back to whatever had been stalking her at night, but Applejack quickly shook her head and refocused on the task at hoof. Nothing had jumped out of the earth to attack her, no heart-rending and inexplicable fear had gripped her, and she hadn't run face first into the wall of an invisible house.

It was, apparently, just an old cabin that had decayed to nothingness. Not that she had expected anything else, of course. It just never hurt to be absolutely sure.

Applejack poked around in the dirt for a couple minutes, but was unable to find anything of use. None of the old bits of wood were large enough to even bother picking up, most of them strewn about like large splinters.

That still left the cellar. She trotted over to the stone frame and looked over the old, wood doors set into the stone frame, tilted slightly towards Applejack so that their bottoms came into contact with the ground. They were in surprisingly good condition, given that the house itself had apparently been abandoned long enough ago to disintegrate entirely. The doors were clearly constructed by a pony who knew a thing or two about carpentry. Thick and heavy looking, not a single crack or imperfection between the boards. The wood was weathered and aged, but still looked plenty strong, clearly well-chosen and cut to perfection. They were unpainted, and none of the surface was embellished with any sort of decoration or engraving, simply allowing the natural grain of the wood to show its own beauty.

Applejack reached out with a forehoof, almost not sure if she was seeing right. Sure enough, her hoof thunked against hard wood, the deep sound testifying to its thickness. Applejack shook her head with a low, impressed whistle.

The hinges hadn't fared quite as well, covered almost entirely in rust. Applejack became seriously concerned that they might not even move any more. If she couldn't open the door, she certainly wouldn't be able to break it open. In fact, she would probably have an easier time breaking the hinges off with a rock than smashing through the sturdy doors themselves.

Frowning in worry, Applejack gripped one of the door handles in a forehoof. She spread her other three legs, steadying herself, and breathed deeply, tensing her muscles in preparation. With one last breath, she brought all her considerable strength to bear, pushing up with her other foreleg and pulling with all her might on the door's handle.

In a blink she was teetering on her hind hooves, and then she was falling backwards. She hit the dirt on her back with a sharp exhale. Her hat tumbled from her head, but otherwise she was none the worse for wear. It took Applejack several dazedly blinking seconds to realize what had happened, and even then she didn't quite believe it.

Rolling up to her hooves, Applejack quickly scooped up her hat and deposited it on her head before looking back to the cellar doors. Sure enough, the one she had pulled on stood wide open. She carefully approached the still-closed door, and gripped the edge with a forehoof. Applejack gave it a tentative pull, and it moved without any resistance. With a weak chuckle, she pulled it open all the way.

The hinge moved as smooth as anything, and without a single squeak of noise. With both doors open Applejack peered inside. Dust-covered, wooden plank stairs descended for about 5 steps before being swallowed by endless blackness. Cool air wafted out of the opening, bringing with it a smell of staleness. Suddenly, the day itself began to grow less bright, as if the sun's rays were being sucked into the void that lay beyond the cellar doors. Applejack shivered.

Shaking her head, Applejack glanced up at the sky to see that a fairly large cloud had crossed paths with the sun again, resulting in the dimmed lighting. She snorted, muttering under her breath, "Well that ain't forebodin' at all…"

Applejack idly noted that clouds seemed to be doing that more and more often lately, but pushed that contemplation aside for the moment. Gulping dryly, she tilted her hat forward slightly, mostly out of the nervous need to do something, and stepped onto the first stair.

Her forehooves made an echoing clunk against the wooden step, but it did not creak. With ever-growing apprehension, Applejack took step after step, slowly easing herself into the blackness below. Small clouds of dust kicked up beneath her hooves as she went, the rhythmic clunking of her hooves against the hardwood the only sound besides her own beating heart.

Applejack kept her pace painstakingly slow, but not out of fear. Well, not only out of fear. She allowed herself time for her eyes to adjust as she went, the blackness constantly staying about three steps in front of her as she descended into the unknown.

Time seemed to stretch on, and Applejack began to wonder just how deep the staircase led, unsure if she had taken 10 steps or 100. She didn't dare look back though, keeping her eyes forward and opened wide. She didn't dare take her gaze off the darkness for even a second.

As her vision adjusted further, more details of her surroundings became apparent. The walls on either side of her were covered by wooden planks, holding back the immense earth behind them with the same indomitable strength as the cellar doors. Metal sconces lined the right wall at even intervals, but there were no torches within any of them.

Applejack continued undaunted. Step, pause, breathe, step. The process repeated, taking several moments on each individual step. Despite her agonizingly slow pace, Applejack did eventually reach the bottom.

A floor of flattened earth came into view a few steps ahead; Applejack resisted the urge to rush down to meet it. Instead, she allowed her eyes to adjust as always, and slowly, carefully arrived at her destination. Her eyes were open wide, darting every which way, but she was surrounded by nothing but darkness. Her ears pricked up, flicking in all directions, but only silence greeted her.

Applejack risked a glance behind her, being as quick as possible so as not to lose her low-light vision. Apparently the trip hadn't been nearly as long as she'd thought. It was certainly deeper than a normal cellar, but only by a bit. In her brief look, Applejack estimated that the staircase was about half-again as long as a normal cellar's. She huffed as she turned back around. It had felt a lot longer.

Standing on the floor of the cellar, Applejack allowed her eyesight to adjust. It took a couple minutes of idle waiting, but there was enough sunlight trickling down to eventually allow her to see well enough. Vague shapes resolved themselves into objects. Two sets of shelves ran directly away from the entryway, extending all the way to the back wall with a bit of a gap between them. Another two sets were affixed to the walls to Applejack's left and right. The whole room was vaguely rectangular in shape, and contained nothing else besides the two pairs of shelves. The walls and ceiling were covered with the same sturdy wood as the way down. More torch sconces were attached to the front and back walls between the shelves, but they were again empty.

Applejack moved forward into the room, her previous apprehension replaced with tentative eagerness. The dust was just as thick down there as it had been on the steps, and Applejack's first few rapid trots kicked up enough to make her pause in a brief coughing fit. Waving a hoof in front of her muzzle to clear the air, Applejack looked a little closer at the shelves.

They were constructed of wood, with thin struts holding up three layers of shelving. Contrary to the rest of the construction, the wood of the shelves appeared old and decrepit. They were coated in as thick a layer of dust as everything else, and the ancient wood of the shelves seemed barely capable of holding itself together. In fact, as Applejack looked closer in the dim light, it appeared that a large section of the rightmost wall of shelves had collapsed completely. Applejack was almost hesitant to investigate further, for fear that they might all fall down at a single breath.

She decided, then, to start from the left side of the room, stepping over to that side and moving between the two sets of shelves there. Items lined most every inch of them on all levels, but most of the items were decayed to almost nothing. She moved past petrified vegetables that had long become impossible to eat, if not outright hazardous. She passed over old jars and masonry, even the tiniest of cracks leaving them completely empty and dry after enough time. Still, she checked each one carefully. Applejack almost considered taking a few for her own use, before remembering that she had no way of repairing them anyway, and placing them back on the shelves with a sigh.

The first slightly useful item Applejack came upon were some old blankets. They were decayed and weak, and probably wouldn't last a couple nights if used as actual bedding, but Applejack took them anyway. If nothing else, the old, dry fabric would burn well.

After a few more minutes of the debris and detritus, Applejack concluded that there was nothing else to be found on that side of the room. Heaving a disappointed sigh, she moved over to the rightmost pair of shelving units.

Again, there wasn't much of use. There were a few stacked plates on one shelf. Applejack couldn't tell for sure in the darkness, but it appeared to be a set of fine china. Either way, she certainly had no need of them, and passed them by without a second thought. Her heart leapt as she came across a fairly long, coiled rope. Applejack picked it up with a smile and stuffed it into her saddlebags. If there was one thing she was missing, it was a length of rope. Already, the search had become worth the trouble.

When Applejack came upon the collapsed section of the shelves against the wall, she found that it encompassed nearly half of the total length of shelves, leaving nothing more than a pile of smashed wood and detritus, the remnants of planks indistinguishable from the dusty remains of whatever had actually been stored on the shelves. In all honesty, she didn't expect to find much within the mess. Her suspicions were mostly correct, the whole area consisting primarily of piles of indecipherable junk. There were a few cardboard boxes within the rubbish, however, that drew Applejack's attention. She picked one up that had broken open, and peered inside to find it filled with destroyed glassware. Whatever had been inside the box was thoroughly smashed up, but some of the others seemed in a little better condition.

Unfortunately, none of them were any more indicative of their use than the first one. A few simply contained more glass shards, and one or two even contained reams of blank paper, though it was decayed and brittle.

The last thing in the pile of collapsed shelving that held any interest was a small canvas bag containing a few cut gemstones. Applejack took one out, a perfectly cut ruby, from what she could see in the half-light, and turned it over in her hoof. Far as she could tell, it was just a plain gem, not exactly an uncommon sight in Equestria. She put the ruby back in the sack, and was about to toss it aside like so much other junk, when something on the outside of the bag itself caught her eye. She lifted it up to her face, but was unable to determine exactly what it was in the dim lighting of the cellar other than a jumble of black lines painted on the surface of the bag. Whether it was some sort of message, or perhaps an explanation as to the benign gems' significance, Applejack couldn't tell. She placed the sack back in her pack, resolving to examine it again topside.

Going over the last section of shelves, the second-rightmost ones, Applejack found some more decayed fruit, a couple unidentifiable bits of debris that might have been food at one point, and lastly, right up against the back wall of the room, at the very end of the shelf, two wooden crates.

Applejack approached the crates, finding them both nailed shut. After a moment of consideration, she drew her knife and wedged it underneath the lid, and hoping that the crates were old enough not to simply break her only knife. With a sharp twist, the lid of the first crate popped off easily, the nails not finding much purchase in the aged and rotted wood.

With an anticipatory grin, Applejack sheathed the knife and peered inside. The crate, to Applejack's slight disappointment, contained nothing but empty bottles. Clear glass, about a liter each, and none of them containing a drop of any sort of liquid. To say it was a boring find would be a gross understatement.

Still, Applejack knew exactly why they had been boxed up and stored. Good quality glassware was not exactly cheap, though the new mass-produced stuff got more inexpensive every year. There was a reason Applejack served her famous cider in wooden barrels and wooden pint glasses. She hadn't exactly filled up her saddlebags with anything else, so Applejack grabbed a couple of the empty bottles. She could find a use for them later.

Unable to think of a reason not to, Applejack also popped open the other crate. This one was a little more interesting, as the bottles were full. Applejack blinked as she stared at several filled bottles made of dark brown glass. She picked up a bottle in her hooves, the liquid within sloshing as she turned the bottle. Unable to find any sort of label, not that she could have read it in the dark, she realized, Applejack shrugged and took the cork in her mouth. With a quick yank and a loud pop, the bottle was open, and Applejack was immediately hit with the pungent smell of strong alcohol.

She swiftly set the bottle down and covered her muzzle with a hoof. From what she could tell, the bottles were full of rubbing alcohol of some sort. The stench of it was almost overpowering, stinging her sinuses harshly. Applejack quickly stuck the cork back in the top of the bottle and allowed herself to breathe again.

It was a good find. Even if she wasn’t familiar with tropical environments, Applejack knew well enough that infection was an extreme danger. Even a fairly minor cut, if left untreated, could become infected, most of the time ending in death if still left untreated.

Smiling at her good fortune, Applejack stuck one of the bottles in her bag. Even though she hoped she’d never actually need it, Applejack couldn’t deny that she felt a little safer knowing that tripping on a sharp branch and cutting her leg wouldn’t likely kill her. Leaving the rest of the bottles in the box, Applejack turned to leave.

As she reached the exit, Applejack took one more glance back over the room to see if she'd missed something. Apparently, she had. She blinked as she noticed a dark shape up against the back wall, directly across from the doorway and in between the two pairs of shelves.

Applejack approached the object, which became clearer as it grew nearer. By the time Applejack reached it, the dark shape had resolved into a hardwood writing desk. It was old and decayed, worse than the stairs or doors, but not nearly as bad as the shelves. She searched the drawers first, finding stacks of paper in much better condition than the crumbly stuff she had found on the shelves. Applejack stuffed one stack into her saddlebags, seeing as there was still some space left in them. In another drawer she found several quills, as well as a few inkwells. After a quick check, Applejack determined that the inkwells were still sealed. Shrugging, she grabbed an inkwell and a few quills and stuffed them in her bags. She wasn’t much one for writing a lot, but she had room to spare in the bags. Lastly, in the very last drawer, Applejack found a small, gold locket on a slender, gold chain. It was alone in the drawer, looking somehow out of place, gleaming in such a dreary basement. Applejack carefully lifted it out and put it in her bags. It was far too dark to see, seeming even slightly darker than when she had first entered the cellar, and Applejack would have to examine it more closely later.

Finally, Applejack examined the surface of the desk. It was chipped and scuffed, but clearly from heavy use rather than age. Whoever had lived there had apparently loved to write. In the center, sitting perfectly symmetrically with the edges of the desk, was a thick book. Applejack couldn't see any distinguishing markings in the dimness, but she stuck it in the bags anyway. Hopefully, it would contain some answers, or at least some useful information.

Satisfied that the cellar was well and truly explored, Applejack tipped her hat in a reflexive farewell to nopony, and turned to trot back up the stairs. The sun blinded her as Applejack reached the surface, and she scrunched her eyes shut with a hiss of pain.

Shielding her vision with a forehoof, Applejack squinted into the light of the fading day. She had apparently spent more time away from camp than she had thought, for the sun was already well on its way to the horizon when Applejack was finally able to open her eyes enough to check.

The darker orange light of late day gave the lake a whole new brilliance, almost taking Applejack's breath away. The new colours of evening danced across the waves in indecipherable patterns as the soft lapping of the barely-moving water on the beach provided quiet background noise. The temperature was still warm by most standards, but slightly chillier than it had been earlier that day, especially with the breeze coming over the lake. Applejack no longer felt the urge to swim, but only wanted to sit on the edge of the water, basking in the peace and calm until the sun set.

That thought was enough to shake Applejack out of her reverie with a cold dose of remembered fear. There was no way she wanted to be away from camp when night fell. Without wasting any more time, Applejack set off at a trot towards the river mouth.

She reached the river quickly, and set a slightly quicker pace than she had on the way up. It was a little harder going with a saddlebag full of things, but nothing near Applejack's limit. She broke a sweat by the time was nearing her clearing, but only barely.

Fortunately, the sun was still in the sky somewhat when Applejack finally emerged from the jungle and into her little camp. Her fire was barely alive, but there were still a few red hot coals, and Applejack quickly made that her first priority. Within a couple minutes, she had tossed on some more wood and nursed it back to a crackling blaze.

The flickering flames gave Applejack some form of comfort, and she finally relaxed, exhaling heavily and dropping to her haunches. She took a long pull from her canteen, and sat there panting for breath. Maybe she had pushed herself a little harder than she'd thought on the way back, but it was a good thing she had. As Applejack sat in front of the fire, the last weak gasp of the evening's dying light finally gave way.

Applejack unbuckled the saddlebags and swung them around, plopping them down on the grass in front of her. First she withdrew the quills and inkwell. She stared at them blankly for a moment, still struggling to come up with a valid use for them, before simply shrugging and placing them with her little pile of supplies. Returning to her stuffed saddlebags, she took out the stack of good paper she had grabbed from the writing desk. She looked it over carefully in the brighter light of her fire, but so far as she could tell it was just some regular paper. With a shrug, she stood and took the paper over to her lean-to. It would need to be stored in a dry place, at least.

As Applejack poked her head in and set the papers down in a corner, she spotted the rubber chicken lying where she had knocked it down that morning. A small smile crossed her lips at the sight, and she hesitated for only a split second before reaching in and picking the chicken up in her mouth. With that, she went back outside and walked around to the other side of the fire. She set the chicken down, propping its back up with a small rock so that it was in a sitting position facing the fire. She then walked back over to the saddlebags and sat down. For a few moments, Applejack simply sat in silence, watching the little rubber chicken from across the fire, a little nostalgic smile present on her face.

The fire crackled and popped, snapping Applejack out of it. Her smile faltered, she broke her gaze and looked down at the ground beneath her hooves. Shaking her head, Applejack went back to sorting through the items she had collected.

Next came the old blankets. Applejack was careful not to let a spark catch on them as she examined the aged fabric. As she had suspected, they were quite old and seemed fairly easy to tear, so they would be useless as bedding. Not that she needed any extra blankets in the tropical heat anyway. Applejack balled them up and tossed them inside the lean-to. If nothing else, they could be used to make torches.

The empty bottles she’d taken, along with the one bottle of rubbing alcohol, went into her pile of general supplies next to the coconuts and flint. Even with more light, there was apparently no discernable label on any of the bottles. If Applejack had even been considering drinking any of them, that would have only put her off, but she didn't take them to drink anyway.

Applejack withdrew the length of rope with almost reverent care. It was old, but it was also well-made, and definitely in usable condition. She couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as she tried the strength of the rope. Applejack carefully coiled it up and hung it from one corner of the lean-to. She didn't have any express purpose for it at the moment, but there was no end to the possible uses of a good rope.

The last items left in her saddlebags were the ones Applejack didn't quite know how to start with. On the chance of gaining some answers, Applejack started with the book. She examined the outside in the firelight for any sort of identifying marks. It was a dull brown colour, with no apparent title or design anywhere on it. The only defining characteristic was a gold clasp holding the cover of the book shut.

Applejack blinked, tilting her head in confusion. There was no keyhole that she could see, or any other way of opening the clasp. In fact, it appeared to just be a solid piece of metal fixed in place to prevent the book from opening.

Snorting in frustration, Applejack gripped the front and back covers of the book in her forehooves and pulled them apart as hard as she could. Her muscles strained, and her breath came quick and fast. Grunting with effort, she gave it her all, pulling with more than enough strength to tear the covers from the book entirely. Still, nothing happened. The book held resolutely shut, and Applejack finally gave up, slouching and panting for breath.

Applejack stood with a low, dangerous growl, and pitched back to cast the wretched book into the fire, hesitating at the last second. After one or two calming breaths, she gave the book one last harsh glare and tossed it against the large rock at the edge of the camp. It hit with a loud smack, and fell down onto the ground next to the rest of her supplies.

Groaning loudly, Applejack flopped on to her back, crushed by yet another shot at some answers eluding her. As she lay there, she gazed up at the star-filled night sky. A few scattered clouds, large and small, drifted across the starscape slowly but surely. It seemed odd to think that, wherever they were, her friends were staring at that same moon, those same stars. In a way, it was a little comforting.

Something struck her as odd, though, and it took a few minutes of careful scrutinization for her to figure it out. Normally, in a small town like Ponyville, lacking the constant lights of a big city, the stars were countless and endless points of vibrantly bright light. It was one of the things Applejack loved most about farm life, the sheer brilliance of the night sky. The stars tonight, though, didn't look quite how she would expect. The untamed wilderness of the island should have provided a perfect environment for a dazzling night sky to rival even Ponyville's, but instead the stars were sparser and more spread out. It reminded Applejack more of what she had seen as a filly staying in Manehatten, with its sleepless city lights, if anything. It simply wasn't right. Just like that, any comfort the night sky had given her was gone completely.

Applejack rolled back to her hooves, intent on looking at the last two items and just going to sleep. The day was starting to wear heavily on her, and already she was stifling a yawn as she reached into the saddlebag.

Her hoof found the chain of the golden locket, and she pulled it out for inspection. It was nicely made, and very well taken care of. The surface still shone beautifully, despite clearly being quite old. After turning it over a few times in her hooves, Applejack found the release to open the lid. The top flipped open with a click, and Applejack turned her back to the fire in order to let the light illuminate the inside of the locket.

It was an old, somewhat faded picture; a black and white shot of a pony's face. It was a mare, and she looked at the camera with a beaming grin. Her face was so full of life and joy that Applejack almost thought for a moment that the mare was looking at her. The mare's eyes, despite the old and faded nature of the picture, sparkled in such a way that Applejack was certain she had been laughing when the picture was taken.

Applejack wondered who it could have been. They could have been the owner of the house, or a close family member, daughter, mother, maybe even a special somepony. They could have been a good friend, a best friend, one close enough that the owner of the locket always wanted a reminder of them wherever they went.

Whoever they were, they clearly meant a lot to the owner of the locket… and yet had been left in a basement to collect dust. Not for the first time, Applejack wondered what happened to the ponies that had been before her, but for the first time she thought about them on a much more personal level.

Had the owner of that locket lived on the island by choice, or had they been another lost soul like Applejack herself? If they had also found themselves stranded on the strange island, how long had it taken them to resign to the idea of living there permanently? To build a cabin, a home, there on the island was the final acceptance of never returning to wherever they came from.

With a breathless shudder, Applejack wondered how long it would take her to reach the same resignation.

Her hooves shook as she placed the locket within the lean-to, and she sat down hard when she went back to the saddlebags. Applejack breathed heavily in and out, carefully bringing her emotions under control once more. The last item in the saddlebag would be simple enough.

Applejack withdrew the canvas bag of gems. She once again pulled out a gem for closer inspection, this time able to see it much better in the light of her fire. It was an emerald, cut into a square shape. Every facet was absolutely perfect, flawless. The gem reflected the light brilliantly, a truly beautiful sight. However, as she reminded herself again, not exactly an uncommon thing. As beautifully crafted as the gems were, a bag that size wouldn't even be worth all that much, all things considered.

As Applejack stuffed the emerald back in the sack with a disappointed sigh, she remembered that something on the outside of the bag had caught her eye, and lifted it up to look closer. What she saw nearly caused her to drop the bag in surprise. Applejack blinked once, before her eyes shot wide and she leaned back in shock.

There, painted with expert precision on the outside of the bag, was an all-too-familiar symbol. It was an outline of a unicorn pony's head over a large pair of pegasus wings that flared out to the sides, with a large, triangular outline surrounding the whole thing.

Applejack sputtered. It was exactly what she had seen in the cave, minus the strange words. That meant some connection between the cabin pony and whoever had been in those caves. She wondered if it had been the same pony, or if there had been several ponies working together. Perhaps there was a whole group of them living on the island, but if that was the case, it left the disturbing question of what had happened to them.

Shuddering slightly, Applejack set the bag of gems with the rest of her supplies. It was strange, and even disconcerting, but wondering about it wasn't going to help her get home. Applejack pushed the disturbing thoughts out of her head for the time being, and turned to enter the lean-to. Just before going in, she stopped suddenly in remembrance. Turning around quickly, Applejack went out and grabbed the rubber chicken, taking it inside and carefully setting it down against the wall.

Applejack yawned widely as she removed the knife and set it down within easy reach. The day had certainly been a fairly eventful one, but she still wasn't quite sure of how productive it had been. She placed her hat down carefully before lying down on the soft blanket herself with yet another yawn.

She lay there, alone in the semi-darkness created by the small bits of light that penetrated the wall of her lean-to. Applejack's hoof idly wandered to the little gold locket lying next to her. She flicked it open, staring at the happy, carefree smile of the pony within, so full of life and joy. It reminded her of her friends, or one in particular, at least. She flicked the lid shut again and fought back sudden moisture at the edges of her vision.

She wouldn’t give up. She would see her friends again. It was only a matter of time.

She popped the locket open and gazed at the brightly smiling pony within one last time before setting it aside. Applejack wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry, but couldn’t muster up the energy for either.

Curled up tighter on the relatively soft blanket, Applejack fought off shivers despite the humid heat of the jungle. She pulled remembered images to the forefront of her mind, desperately clinging to them, and all the feelings that they brought. Bright, smiling faces. Her family, her friends. Five mares looked into her mind’s eye with smiles frozen in the midst of a laugh, each mirroring the pony in the locket.

Applejack’s breathing slowed. Her eyes closed gently, and her shivering ceased. Slowly, Applejack drifted into unconsciousness.

It was only a matter of time.

Author's Note

Edited by Pilate. Pretty much the swellest dang zebra you've ever seen.

All In My Head
View Online

Mother of Invention

All In My Head

Applejack shivered, her teeth chattering in protest of the freezing tempuratures as she hazily inched her eyelids open. She blinked slowly, taking in the vision before her. Endless blue sky extended in all directions, as far as the eye could see. The sun shone brightly overhead, doing nothing to banish the icy chill that had settled over Applejack. She perked her ears, listening carefully, but was greeted with nothing but utter silence.

After shakily pushing to her hooves, Applejack reached up and adjusted her hat. Her hoof brushed over the long, flowing strands of her mane, done up in her usual ponytail. For some reason, the sensation elicited a slight sigh of relief.

Still, something didn't feel right. The ground beneath her hooves was damp and pliable, and the cool air and chilling wind seemed out of place for such a bright day. Applejack looked around her, trying to get her bearings, only to have her eyes snap wide open in shock. She was standing on a cloud.

Open sky surrounded her little cloud on all sides, nothing more than a fluffy, white speck floating lonesomely through a sea of endless blue.

Applejack's heartbeat increased, and her breathing quickened to rapid, shallow gasps. Her own reaction confused her, as she sat down on her haunches to steady herself. She couldn't explain why, but the revelation of her location shook Applejack badly. All she knew was that she didn't want to be there. She wanted down, now.

Something in the distance caught her eye, momentarily distracting her. A gigantic spire of rock stood out from the featureless blue void around her, jutting into the sky like some sort of natural monolith. Details were hard to make out from such a distance, but Applejack noted the sun glinting off what could only be some sort of waterfall running down the side. The flat top of the spire was covered mostly in grass, but for another glint that looked like a river, and a long, flat line of gray concrete, painted with a broken white line down the middle. The concrete strip resembled a straight segment of the asphalt streets one would find in a city like Manehatten, only it didn’t seem to go anywhere in particular. Lastly, there seemed to be a few buildings hovering around it. The constructs of hardened cloud looked so much like normal clouds from her distance that Applejack honestly wasn't even sure they were buildings, but for a strange feeling of déjà vu that insisted it was so.

One thing was for certain, however, she was getting closer. The wind picked up, making Applejack's ponytail flap behind her like a golden banner. That, combined with the strange spire growing ever-so-slowly closer, was the only indication to Applejack that she was even moving in the featureless blue void. It was slow going, however, and her heart rate hadn't slowed. She still felt the pressing urge to get down, to touch her hooves to the hard earth and never leave it.

It was taking too long. Applejack was never going to reach the spire. She decided to risk a glance over the side of her little cloud, and inched over to the edge. Instantly, she regretted it. The ground was so far beneath her that Applejack couldn't see her shadow. Rolling plains and vast forests stretched out under her, appearing as nothing more than patchwork shades of green. Winding ribbons of sparkling blue accented the contours of the landscape. Even hills and mountains were barely bumps in the magnificent tapestry of the world that was laid out before her.

She reared back from the edge, clutching at her chest as her heart began pounding relentlessly. She fought to control her breathing, which had nearly devolved into hyperventilating. Only one thought consumed all her mind.

Too high. She was too high up. She needed to get down. She didn't want to be there anymore. She was too high up.

Applejack didn't notice as the sky began to darken. Only when the wind picked up, gusting hard enough to cause her to sway slightly, did Applejack pull herself from the confines of her panic spiralling mind.

The spire of rock was lost to her sight, replaced by a void of unending blackness. The temperature had dropped even more, causing Applejack's teeth to chatter. She had to hold her hat down with a forehoof as a blast of wind threatened to rip it from her head.

Thunder rumbled, sounding all too close for Applejack's liking. Moments later, a sharp *KRAK-BOOM* accompanied a brilliant flash of light that blinded Applejack. She yelped in surprise and alarm, screwing her eyes shut against the searing brightness.

She finally managed to coax her eyes open, blinking away the spots in her vision as the blindness faded. The windows rattled in their frames, rain pelting against the glass mercilessly. Thunder boomed again, shaking Applejack to her core. The floor pitched and tilted suddenly, nearly throwing her from her hooves.

An ominous creaking sound pierced through the air over the noise of the ever-worsening storm as the floorboards beneath Applejack's hooves groaned and bent. The sound of the gale force wind was nearly deafening, causing Applejack's ears to fold back against her head. Another clap of thunder sounded, and the entire floor pitched to one side. Applejack was sent flying from her hooves, bouncing and rolling painfully across the floor.

She tried to grip the soft, damp surface of the cloud with her hooves, but was unable to find purchase. Her tumbling descent lasted only a few moments more, before the cloud beneath Applejack was suddenly gone. Like that, she was falling, plummeting gracelessly through the bright blue sky.

Before the sensation of falling even had a chance to take hold, it was replaced by a feeling of weightlessness. It took a few breathless moments for Applejack to realize the truth of the situation: she was underwater.

Applejack thrashed and kicked, struggling to push towards the surface. Her sense of direction had been completely turned around, however, and Applejack had no idea which direction held her salvation. Her lungs began to burn, crying out for sweet air, and still Applejack was no closer to breaking free of the water.

Birdsong floated by on a pleasant breeze.

She flailed hopelessly as the edges of her vision faded to blackness. Her struggling became weaker and weaker, devolving to nothing more than listless swishing back and forth with her forelegs.

The gravel path crunched beneath her hooves, her saddlebag bouncing along on her back.

Something appeared in the center of Applejack's ever-darkening vision. Her eyesight had faded to a pinprick, but it was suddenly consumed with a point of bright light dead ahead. Applejack attempted to renew her struggles, but it was no use. With the very last gasp of her fading strength, she reached out with a single foreleg, and…

Pushed open the intricately decorated wooden door before her. A small bell tinkled overhead as she stepped into the immaculate shop. Warm summer sunlight spilled through the windows, giving the place a cheery glow as the door shut behind Applejack with another ringing of the bell.

"Coming!" a refined voice sing-songed from the back room. It was almost immediately followed by an equally refined mare floating several bits of fabric behind her in a light blue aura. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magni—" Rarity cut off suddenly as she noticed just who was standing in her entryway. "Oh, Applejack, it's you."

As Rarity went and laid out the fabric she'd brought, setting up the very beginnings of a dress, Applejack shifted from hoof to hoof uncomfortably. "Yeah, uh, it's me."

Rarity levitated a pair of red-rimmed glasses and set them into place on the bridge of her muzzle before leaning forward and carefully weaving a thread through a small needle. After a few moments of silence, she asked without looking up from her work, "What brings you around here today, Applejack? Dare I even entertain the hope that you've finally come to commission a proper dress?" Rarity finished with a light chuckle that went unreciprocated from the oddly silent mare at her door.

"No…" Applejack muttered, her gaze locked on her front hooves. "N-No dress, or… or anythin' like that. Just, uh… just wanted to talk, y'know?"

"Hmm," Rarity hummed in agreement. "Well, as you can see, I'm a tad busy finishing up one last order before I pack my bags," Applejack winced at that, but Rarity didn't appear to notice, "but I can certainly spare some attention for a friend. What's on your mind, darling?"

Applejack sat on her haunches with a sigh, her eyes flicking about the room rapidly. "Well I… I just…" She trailed off, scuffing a forehoof across the floor.

Rarity sighed, pausing in her dressmaking momentarily. "You didn't just come here to talk about any old thing, did you?"

"What'dya mean?" Applejack asked defensively.

Rarity simply nodded pointedly towards the packed saddlebags on Applejack's back. Applejack chuckled mirthlessly. "Oh, yeah…"

When it became apparent that Applejack didn't plan on continuing, Rarity went back to sewing and said, "To be quite honest, I knew what you were here about before I even noticed the saddlebags. It is, after all, well… today." She smiled a bit as she went on, "Personally, I'm fairly excited. You don't seem to share the sentiment though."

Applejack winced at the truth in Rarity's words. "That's just it… I don't even know why I packed these… these darn bags this mornin'."

Rarity paused in her work once more, giving Applejack a critical look. "Yes, well, I can certainly see why it would be hard for you after… that is to say, with your…" She trailed off under Applejack's sudden intense glare.

"Please," Applejack muttered, her voice dangerously even. "Go on."

"Now, dearest Applejack." Rarity coughed into her hoof nervously. "I'm not calling into question your courage or your integrity. Why, I wouldn't dare. You're one of the bravest and most dependable ponies I know, bar none."

Applejack attempted a smile at the praise, but found the gesture beyond her at the moment. When she next spoke, the edge had vanished entirely from her voice, revealing the soft quaver that she'd been hiding behind it. "I-I just…" She sighed heavily. "I just d-don't know what to do…"

"I know you'll do what's right. I know that your friends can always depend on you. As I was trying to say earlier, I certainly know that it won't be… easy for you," She smiled sheepishly at Applejack's half-hearted glare, "but sometimes you just have to 'buck up', as it were."

The wind picked up, and was soon howling like the fury of the Windigos had been unleashed.

"Oh, really?" Applejack rolled her eyes. "And here I thought life was all cider and roses. Silly me!"

"Really, Applejack. Sarcasm is hardly—"

"I work on a farm, Rarity," Applejack cut her off. "I think I understand the concept of a little hard work."

Thunder rumbled ominously, closer than the last time. Every one was closer than the last time.

Rarity smiled softly, stepping away from her unfinished dress. "Ah, but that's just it. You've always worked on a farm. Yes, farm work is physically tiring—I'd be the last to deny that—but it's rarely hard for you to do it. You're in your element on the farm. The problem arises when you're thrown out of your element, especially when you're forced to confront things you are afrai—" She cut off with a strangled cough, blushing slightly as Applejack raised an eyebrow.

The rain was merciless. Pitter pattering quickly escalated to deafening downpour. Applejack held her forehooves over her ears, but couldn't drown out the incessant noises of the horrific storm.

"That is to say, when you are forced to deal with things that may be… hard for you. Nopony likes to leave their comfort zone, Applejack, I dare say it's just too comfortable." She chuckled airily, meeting only silence from Applejack, before continuing, "I, for one, would never think to find myself working in an apple orchard—no offense—or facing down a rude dragon," Her smile softened, "but sometimes we do these things because a true friend is worth any perceived hardship."

Applejack didn't know what to say. She glanced out the window, spotting a lonely, grassy hill on the outskirts of town, dappled in the rays of the afternoon sun. Eventually, she settled for, "I… I need to go think."

Rarity nodded. "Take your time. We'll send Fluttershy to fetch you."

An immense boom split the air as white-hot light forced Applejack's eyes closed. The raindrops against the glass in the windows created a cacophony of noise as Applejack's eyes reopened. The floor creaked and groaned as it shifted and tilted beneath her. Rarity sat across from Applejack, attempting to keep her balance on the constantly moving floorboards.

The motions stopped for a few moments, but the storm continued in its rage outside. Howling winds blared, punctuated by intermittent flashes and none too distant rumblings of thunder. Rarity shifted where she sat, more out of nervousness than actual discomfort.

*KRAK-BOOM*

A blast that sounded like it came from right next to her head made Applejack jump, as her coat stood on end. Rarity did the same, albeit with the addition of a rather unladylike yelp. She blushed as she resituated herself, tugging gem spangled saddlebags back into a comfortable position.

"I say," Rarity mumbled, tossing her mane with a forehoof for the umpteenth time. "It certainly is bracing, is it not?" She chuckled nervously, forcing a smile onto her face that was even more unconvincing than her laughter.

Applejack didn't respond. She sat perfectly still with her back straight as a rod. She sat on her haunches with both forelegs firmly planted for support, attempting to get her breathing under control. She could feel her mane fraying with static, and the tips of her hooves suddenly began to tingle.

Rarity looked over Applejack in silence for several moments before releasing a sigh. "Look, dear, I know it's not exactly… pleasant." She cringed as a nearby boom punctuated her statement. "Rest assured, everything will be just—"

*BOOM*

Applejack forced her eyes shut from the blinding light. Her ears popped and all sense of hearing was lost to a high-pitched ringing. Wooden splinters and fragments of glass stung as they pelted against her skin, riding on the force of a shockwave that knocked the air out of Applejack's lungs.

While her head had become a muddled and hazy mess, Applejack did eventually regain her hearing. The sounds of the storm were overpowered by six voices joined in panicked screaming.

Author's Note

Edited by Pilate, who is super swell and stuff.

Never Meant To Know
View Online

Mother of Invention

Never Meant To Know

Applejack woke up screaming. She shot to a sitting position, eyes wide and heart racing. The sensations of her dream persisted, if only briefly, into the waking world, and she simply sat there for a few moments catching her breath in the wake of phantom pain. She remembered a loud noise, the shockwave knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying, wood chips pelting her skin as Rarity screamed. Had she heard other voices as well? She didn't have long to think about it, as the shock of vivid images lasted only a moment before slowly dispersing in the haze of her groggy mind. Strangely, even as the sights and sounds of her dream faded away, the conversation she’d held with Rarity remained fresh and clear, almost as if she could still hear her friend’s voice.

Her breathing evened out, her heart slowed, and a small smile found its way on to Applejack's face. She wiped at her misty eyes and pushed to her hooves.

She couldn’t deny the underlying, ever-present fear that had haunted her since she’d awoken far from home on a strange beach, but its hold on her had slackened slightly. Applejack knew that she could push through it, persevere in the face of it all. The lingering voice of Rarity’s encouragement had brought with it a sort of serenity with its assurance that everything would be alright.

Applejack and Rarity had known each other for years. For the vast majority of that time they had never quite seen eye to eye. The two of them had butted heads over most everything, from basic table manners to matters of family. When it came right down to it, the two were about as different as two ponies could be. Yet, by a series of events set in motion when they were both fillies, Applejack now considered Rarity one of her closest and most trusted friends.

She couldn’t say for certain why she was putting so much stock in a mere dream of her friend, but Applejack could feel that same trust in Rarity’s words. She felt an almost palpable sense of reassurance that flowed through her from head to hooves as if her friends were standing right behind her.

The sensation, and the memories of the dream, brought with them a new determination, replacing that which had been nearly crushed after the day before. She would make it home to them, all of them. It wasn't the first time Applejack had been out of her element, and she wasn’t about to let a silly thing like fear stop her.

With a confident smile on her face, Applejack snatched her hat up and placed it atop her head. The locket that had been lying next to it caught her eye, and for a moment she hesitated, her smile faltering ever so slightly. She picked the golden trinket up in a forehoof and flicked the face open. The joyous pony within didn't bring about the same feelings it had the night before. Instead of a dark reminder of what she was missing, it was a hopeful reminder of what she was going back to. Applejack's smile grew to nearly match the beaming grin of the pony in the picture.

Applejack clicked the locket closed and set it down carefully off to one side, before quickly strapping her knife to her left foreleg. The little rubber chicken sitting with its back against the rock hadn't moved overnight, and she shot it a grin.

"Whole new day," she said happily. "Best get out and make somethin' of it." The silence of the jungle was the only response.

It was then that Applejack realized how dry her throat was. She smacked her lips irritably as she strode out of the lean-to and into the dim light of dawn. The clearing was bathed in a deep red glow as the sun broke the horizon somewhere behind the trees. Applejack paused, one hoof raised mid-step. She'd never seen anything like it. It was something she would occasionally expect of a sunset, but never a sunrise. Looking up to the sky above the clearing, Applejack could see multiple blood-red clouds drifting by across a pink backdrop overhead. Applejack glanced down, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hoof. The crimson lighting painted her coat several shades darker, almost making her look like a different pony altogether.

Applejack stood there until the sun had fully risen and the sky was a normal, pale blue. The strange, red lighting was washed away in a flash. The scenery had looked so different in the dawn’s red glow, it was almost hard to believe Applejack was looking at the same place.

Blinking several times, Applejack shook her head and trotted out into the clearing. As nice as the naturally beautiful sight was, there was no need to get distracted. First things first, she took a long drink from her canteen, and then went to fill it up from the river, humming to herself as she did. After hanging the canteen around her neck, Applejack trotted back over to her shelter and fished a small piece of charcoal out of the smouldering remains of last night's fire. Moving over to the massive rock that supported her lean-to, she scratched another mark on the flat section of the boulder she'd dedicated to timekeeping. This brought the total count up to eleven.

Nodding, she tossed the charred bit of wood back into the smoky fire pit. Just then, her stomach grumbled loudly. She chuckled, cutting off in a wheeze when a slight pang hit her midsection, and trotted over to her stash of supplies. Staring at the coconuts and wildflowers available to her, Applejack sighed. Her first fresh coconut had been amazing, and she would never complain about some nice wildflowers, but after a week and a half of the same food, it was beginning to grow tiring. She was willing to do whatever it took to survive, but there was sure to be something else to eat growing on a tropical island.

Applejack tried to think of what she had to do that day. Her shelter was sufficient for now, and she didn't need to gather any more firewood for another day or two. There was nothing immediately pressing that she could think of. That meant she had time to forage for something a little more interesting for breakfast. With a slight spring in her step, Applejack strapped on her saddlebags and set off into the jungle.

The air became hot and stifling under the canopy of the trees, but Applejack pressed on. As much time as she spent wandering through the dense jungle, she never found herself growing any fonder of the act. She’d give her left ear just for a nice, open dirt road or a wide field. The clearing was nice enough, but deep inside the jungle was just… sweaty. It wasn’t that Applejack never got sweaty, but the pressing rainforest didn’t even provide the space to break into a gallop and let the rushing wind cool her coat.

Still, she remained focused enough to keep careful track of where she was going. It wouldn't be impossible to find her way back to the clearing, as finding and following the river would be easy enough, but Applejack would rather not waste time wandering around lost if at all possible.

Even in the thick jungle air, the walk was relatively pleasant, as far as such things go. The usual rustling could still be heard every once in a while, but elicited nothing more than a flick of the ear from Applejack. She took solace in the crunch of wet leaves underhoof, and the damp, earthy smell in the air. Even if it was hot and suffocating, she was still in nature, and Applejack could certainly appreciate that.

Eventually, the monotonous brown and green was broken as Applejack spotted a flicker of blue up ahead. She sped up to a trot, angling towards the spot of colour standing out from the surrounding underbrush. As she moved closer, Applejack saw that it was a small patch of berries, growing in the sunlight provided by a gap in the canopy above.

Applejack laughed triumphantly, before quickly kneeling down and examining the berries. They looked like regular blueberries to her, but it never hurt to be careful. Blueberries didn’t actually grow near Ponyville, and had to be shipped in each harvest season. This, of course, placed them as just barely too expensive to be common. As such, Applejack couldn’t be sure that what she was looking at wasn’t some type of exotic jungle berry. She was considering leaving them alone, just in case, when another sharp pain flared briefly in her stomach. That settled it, she had to at least give them a shot.

She gave the berries a tentative sniff. They didn’t smell acrid or repulsive, as some poisonous plants did. As far as she could remember, they smelled like regular old blueberries. Applejack tried not to let herself get too excited, as one final test remained. She slowly leaned forward, and ever so carefully picked one of the blueberries with her teeth, ready to spit it out at a moments’ notice. She paused for a second, breathing slowly, before simply shrugging and biting down.

The taste shouldn't have come as a surprise. The blueberry did, in fact, taste like a blueberry. However, after spending so long eating the same stuff for every meal, it was the most delicious thing Applejack had ever eaten.

Applejack sat down on her haunches and shoved her face into the bush, snatching up mouthfuls of the delectable treats with reckless abandon. She ate quite a few leaves for her trouble, but couldn't care less as the flavour was overpowered by the wonderful wild berries.

It took a good few seconds of stuffing her face before sense and reason managed to fight off the hunger that had taken control of Applejack's brain. She sat back up, her muzzle stained purple, and held back the urge to dive in and consume every blueberry in the immediate area.

If she wanted them to last long at all, the blueberries would have to be a delicacy. There could very well be more growing around the jungle, but seeing as this was the first patch she'd ever seen, they couldn’t be very common on the island. She still wasn't quite full, but the edge had been taken off her hunger. It was a feeling she'd almost gotten used to over the past week and a half: the feeling of conserving supplies. Back in Ponyville, the weather patrol had made sure all the farms grew more than they could ever need, and Applejack couldn’t remember the last time she’d been left wanting for food. Of course, that was then. If she had to lose a few pounds to make her food last, then so be it.

Even that couldn't put a damper on Applejack's day though, and her smile held strong. The encouragement of Rarity's dreamt speech still provided her with hope, even as the words began to fade, and now she'd found a new source of food. No, it was still a good day.

Applejack considered packing all of the blueberries into her saddlebags, but decided against it. The patch was only a couple minutes' walk from camp, and any berries she brought back would only go bad if she didn't eat them quick enough.

She would have to commit the location of the blueberries to memory, though. Applejack looked around, taking careful note of her surroundings. In all honestly, it looked exactly the same as any other stretch of jungle she’d visited. She doubted there was much chance of her recognizing it later by sight alone. After a minute or two of turning in place and observing all the indistinguishable trees, Applejack set off back the way she'd come. This was a much better method of memorizing the location, one that she knew for sure would work. Applejack had always possessed a good sense of direction, and by the time she reached her clearing, she knew exactly how to find her way back to the blueberries just by tracing her steps. She went back and forth between her camp and the patch of berries a couple times, just to be sure. Better safe than sorry.

After the third round trip, Applejack was finally satisfied, and plopped down on her haunches back at her camp to rest her legs. It really wasn't a long walk, but she had been taking her time and paying close attention to her path, so it was already mid-morning when all was said and done.

She sat there, pondering what to do next. There was still most of a day left, and it wouldn't do to waste it. She drifted in idle thought for a moment, before shooting to her hooves in a flash. Eyes wide, Applejack realized that she had been so intent on waiting for rescue that she'd never actually considered making herself easier to find.

It hadn't even crossed her mind that she would have to make herself known. She had been completely confident that Twilight Sparkle, the most magically gifted unicorn in Equestria, would have no trouble at all locating Applejack with some sort of spell or enchantment or… some other magical whatsit. Besides, as much as she tried to stay humble about it, Applejack was an Element of Harmony, and that technically made her vital to Equestrian national security. Even the princesses themselves would likely employ their own magic in bringing back one of the Elements.

Only they hadn't. Applejack had paid it no mind until then, figuring they just needed some time to prepare the necessary magic. While that was still a possibility, Applejack only now realized that there were other possible answers. Perhaps things were worse than she'd initially thought. If something had happened to her friends, particularly Twilight, then the princesses' attention would surely be occupied.

Applejack pushed those thoughts out of her mind. Dwelling on such things would be of no use to anypony. Really, her friends could be fine, and it could be that there simply wasn't a spell for finding lost ponies. Though Twilight not having a spell for something did seem far fetched—

Applejack shook her head, refocusing her thoughts on the task at hoof. Twilight, Pinkie, all of her friends were perfectly fine. That didn't change the fact that magical rescue might not be coming, and that meant she would have to look to more conventional methods. The earth pony way. Wasting no time, Applejack strapped on and packed her saddlebags. Her spirits were still high, but now her jaw was set with a hard edge of determination. Conventional methods, she could do.

She set off at a brisk trot through the jungle, heading in the general direction of the cave if her memory served. Her destination was the beach, so any direction would technically do, but from what Applejack could tell the closest shore was the one she'd woken up on, and the easiest way to find it was to at start at the cave.

When Applejack had climbed up that mountain and gotten her first good view of the whole island, she’d estimated that it would take about one full day to cross the island lengthwise, east or west, and only a matter of hours to travel the whole island north or south. If she had been correct in her estimates, then getting to any beach at all would prove no trouble.

Unfortunately, Applejack had made her assumptions based on her usual trotting speed. She could set a good clip, normally, and could keep it going for hours upon hours if the situation called for it. What she had failed to account for was terrain. Applejack had never had to travel through thick jungle before. She was an open plains and dirt roads kind of pony. The closest she'd ever experienced was the Everfree Forest, and even that had hard-packed dirt paths. No, as proud as she was of her improved skills at navigating the deep jungle, she still traveled a great deal slower through the underbrush and trees. If she had to come up with new figures based on what she remembered about the island's size, and her new knowledge of its difficult terrain, Applejack realized that it would take at least twice as long as what she'd originally thought, and that was being generous.

So it was that Applejack was heading back towards the cave. She knew it was only a couple hours from her new shelter to her old one, even through the rough terrain, and the beach was another trip of about the same distance. Still, the damp and suffocating air of the jungle soon made Applejack wish the walk was even shorter. She paused, sitting down to take a long drink from the canteen around her neck. As she glanced skyward, she caught rays of sunlight shining down through the scant gaps in the canopy overhead. The light wasn't terribly bright, even for what Applejack had come to expect when deep within the interior of the jungle. She found herself longing to be under open sky again, and quickly pushed back to her hooves, setting off at a slightly increased pace.

As much as the jungle still impeded her forward motion, Applejack was certainly becoming ever better at traveling through it carefully. Where once she would have left a swath of destroyed underbrush in her wake, Applejack was now able to move with barely a distinguishable trail. At least, not that she could see. It was inevitable with days and days of virtually constant practice, really, but it was still a small point of pride.

Applejack only wished she could tell one mass of trees from another in this blasted forest. She still had no way of knowing for certain if she was actually taking the right path. Countless trees surrounded her on all sides, indistinguishable from one another. The stifling humidity was beginning to cloud her head, and Applejack soon lost track of just how long she’d been walking. She shook her head to clear away some of the fog, and pushed onwards defiantly.

Finally, Applejack spotted a few palm trees intermixed with the taller, more leafy trees that made up the rest of the rainforest. Gaps began appearing in the canopy overhead, and Applejack knew she was finally nearing the edge of the jungle. In no time at all, Applejack found herself surrounded by more palm trees than anything else. Applejack turned her gaze upwards. The canopy that had felt so oppressive when she'd first stepped off the beach and into the jungle now seemed like nothing at all. It was downright thin when compared against the dense inner jungle where Applejack now resided. The sunlight that shone through the leafy covering was bright as day compared to the constant dimness that surrounded Applejack whenever she ventured outside her clearing. Looking down, Applejack could see that even the undergrowth had thinned considerably. It seemed strange that she'd had trouble making her way through this just a week and a half ago.

While the scenery was nice, Applejack didn't want to waste any more time. She continued trotting along, and soon caught sight of her destination on her right. As it turned out, her path wasn’t quite as accurate as she’d thought, and Applejack had nearly passed right by without noticing. She took a hard right, and her corrected course circled almost completely around before finally approaching from the front.

The trees and bushes thinned out, the ground ramped upwards, and Applejack found herself staring up at a tall mountain with the open mouth of a dark cave sitting at the foot of the steep, stark cliff.

Applejack stood at the rainforest’s edge, at the bottom of the treeless hill that led up to the cave. She almost considered returning there briefly, thinking back on the three nights she'd spent safe inside. Then Applejack remembered what she'd found when she'd taken a deeper look inside. If the perfectly smooth walls and corners hadn’t been strange enough, there was the strange symbol she'd found on the wall. The so-called cave clearly wasn’t natural. Applejack shuddered. Maybe some other time. She turned quickly and strode back into the jungle.

Once back under the cover of trees, Applejack sat down, unstrapped her saddlebags, and set them on the dirt in front of her. She licked her lips and withdrew a hoofful of wildflowers that she’d packed. Lunch was a luxury she couldn't generally afford if she wanted to conserve food, but Applejack also knew the importance of eating on a long day of hiking. She munched idly on the tasty petals, and took an occasional sip from her canteen to wash it down. Her thoughts turned back to the cave as she sat there. There was a curiosity about the place that worked to draw Applejack in, ominous as it was. Of course, she’d stopped for lunch, not sightseeing. Forcing down her curiosity, Applejack quickly finished the rest of her meagre meal and put the saddlebags back on. Wasting no more time, she stood up and set out once more.

The trees continued to thin, and palms became ever more predominant. Still, Applejack walked and walked. She moved forward with determination, the air around her feeling a little lighter and easier to breathe as she neared the end of the jungle. Applejack clambered over a log that had fallen over her path before pausing to check the position of the sun. While she still couldn't see it through the canopy, its rays were shining from almost directly overhead. She could tell by the slight angle of the beams that the day was just entering afternoon. Applejack nearly sighed as she realized how late it would be when she arrived back at her camp, but quickly stopped herself. It wasn't as if she was wasting time. She was only wasting time when she wasn't moving.

With that thought, Applejack continued her trek. Fortunately, she was even nearer to the end than she thought. A bright light appeared up ahead, and Applejack's pace quickened slightly. She trotted forward with a wide smile. The light grew brighter, larger, nearer, and in a matter of seconds Applejack reached it, leapt forth, and burst out of the jungle completely.

Her hooves landed on soft, warm sand, and she closed her eyes against the sudden, blinding light. The effect of her recently meagre diet on Applejack’s strength was made apparent yet again as her legs were starting to ache from the scant few hours of walking. She knew that the return trip would be just as long, but still Applejack sighed happily. There was a certain familiar joy to be found in the feeling of burning muscles, and she relished in it just as much as she might after a long day of applebucking. Besides, the first leg of her journey was finally complete, and she would have plenty of time to recuperate before heading back.

After a few seconds, Applejack was able to tentatively open her eyes. She blinked several times against the brightness, allowing her vision to adjust. The bright sunlight reflected off the shining blue sea and the pure white sand of the beach. The sight of the ocean took Applejack's breath away just as much as it had the first time, if not for the same reason. The waters were a darker blue than before, swelling and shifting like nothing Applejack had ever seen. Countless whitecapped waves broke on the surface of the roiling sea, contrasting against the deep, dark blue like stars in a night sky. The turbulence stretched out to the horizon, as far as Applejack could see, and came as close as waves crashing upon the beach before her. The noise was intense, a constant swooshing roar that intensified whenever a particularly large wave smashed against the sand. A huge gust of wind blew across the waters, nearly knocking Applejack's hat off before she clamped a forehoof down on her head to hold it in place. The gust died down, but a strong wind remained, violently whipping Applejack’s tail and rustling what was left of her short-cut mane.

"Land sakes…" Applejack took an involuntary step back. She was unfamiliar with the ocean, and didn’t really know what to expect from it, but she had no idea that it could get this… terrifying. She could feel the sheer power within the thrashing waters, just waiting for her to step a little closer, close enough for the angry sea to lash out and pull her away with one of its massive waves.

Just as Applejack was considering returning another day, she remembered the dream she'd had the night before. Her eyes hardened, and a determined look crossed her features. She could do this.

She walked out on to the beach, holding her hat down against another gust of wind. First things first, Applejack took off her saddlebags and set them down. Then she took off her hat and used the saddlebags to hold it in place on the sand, taking extreme care not to badly crush or damage the weathered stetson.

With her effects safely out of the way, Applejack squinted her eyes and cast her gaze over the whole of the beach, running her eyes up and down the coastline. After a few seconds, she spotted what she was looking for and trotted off towards it. Applejack approached a large piece of driftwood, mostly straight, and about twice as long as a pony. It would do nicely. She wrapped her forelegs around it and awkwardly dragged it backwards along the beach, leaving a furrow in the sand.

The next hour or two passed by with much of the same. Applejack found large pieces of wood washed up around the shore, and dragged them one by one back to a central location, a wide stretch of clear beach not far from where she’d originally woken up.

As she worked, a pattern began to appear, and finally, Applejack dragged the last piece of wood over. She was grunting with effort for each step she took, and panting for breath, but she managed to get the final piece into place. Stepping back and wiping her the sweat from her forehead, Applejack admired her work.

Four huge, wooden letters were laid out on the beach, spelling out the simplest message possible: 'HELP'. Applejack had made them large enough to be visible even from an airship, though she knew those rarely ventured far from Equestrian shores. There was still the hope that she was close enough to her home for airships to fly out to her, but even if she wasn’t, the message would be easy enough to spot from the deck of any seafaring ship as well. There was no way anypony within sight of the beach could miss it.

Glancing upwards at the thought, Applejack blinked in surprise. The beach provided her with an open view of the whole sky, right to the horizon, and Applejack now saw countless white, puffy clouds drifting across the endless expanse of blue. It was a stark change from the literal cloudless sky that usually hung over the island. Applejack supposed it was no surprise, though. With no weather ponies to control the weather, it could hardly be expected to be ideal all the time. At least the sun was still shining brightly.

Shrugging and paying the cloud cover no more mind, Applejack walked back over to where her saddlebags lay. The afternoon was wearing on, and there was one last thing she had to do. She put on her hat, and then reached for the bags themselves. For a moment, the dark stain on one of the flaps caught her eye in the bright light of the beach. She shuddered briefly, but quickly refocused and fished deep within the bags, pulling out several pieces of paper that flapped and buffeted in the wind. Lastly, she withdrew a quill and inkwell.

Applejack had to hobble back over to the treeline to get out of the powerful gust of wind that threatened to rip the papers away at any second. She found a large, relatively smooth rock at the edge of the jungle and sat down next to it. Next, she spread one piece of paper flat on the rock and uncapped the inkwell. She picked up the quill in her mouth, leaned towards the inkwell, and hesitated. Only then did she realize she had no idea what to write. She wanted to ask for somepony to come get her, to tell them where she was and how to find her, but she couldn't. She hadn't the slightest idea where she was, or how to get there. The thought made her deflate a bit. Her ears folded back against her head as she pondered the futility of even sending a message.

She perked back up, her eyes hard. No, she did have something to say. Applejack dipped her quill in the ink and began to write. She could tell her family, her friends, that she was alive.

She told them not to worry, that she was fine. She told her family to stay strong and take care of each other and the farm. She told her friends that she'd see them again soon. As she wrote, she spoke each word aloud under her breath. It was an old habit that she’d never quite kicked.

“I’ll be back before you know it, so don’t get too worried. I just wanted to make sure you all knew I was fine,” she mumbled, the words flowing easily into letters on the paper. “Don’t let Big Macintosh hurt himself trying to harvest all by himself. We can handle a smaller harvest, and it ain’t worth risking your health over.”

Applejack paused, leaning back slightly to look over her letter. As she did, the harsh winds gusted against her back, and the sound of the raging ocean reached her ears. Applejack sighed. There was a certain solace to be found in such a simple and familiar task as talking about farmwork, and Applejack couldn’t deny that it had been nice to lose herself in it for a moment, but she was only distracting herself from what needed to be done.

Once more, she leaned towards the paper, quill in mouth. “I’m afraid I don’t rightly know where I am at the moment. I don’t even know how I got here. You all must be worried sick, and maybe even a bit scared, but trust me when I tell you not to worry. I’m fine, and I’m coming home, no matter what it takes.” Hearing the words out loud, even if they were spoken by herself, stirred something inside Applejack, and she found herself sitting up a little straighter.

“I may not know where this place is exactly, but maybe you can get somepony else to figure it out. To start, I’m on an island…”

Applejack wrote down everything she could about the island. She spared no detail, from the geography to the plant life she could name, to the lack of any other living thing that she could see. Of course, she also mentioned the fact that other ponies had apparently lived there once, though they seemed to have left long ago. It wasn’t much to go on, but maybe somepony with better knowledge of geography would catch something in the description that would lead them to Applejack. The only thing that she left out was the strange… something that had stalked after her twice now in the night. That likely wouldn’t help them find the island, and it would only worry her family needlessly.

Finally, she ended the letter, mumbling to herself as she wrote, "I love you all. I'll never give up, so don't give up on me," she muttered around the quill in her mouth, finally signing it with a simple, "Applejack."

A warm feeling settled over Applejack as she looked over the letter, content with her work. At the top she addressed it to Ponyville, Equestria, hoping that whoever found it would be able to get it where it was going. She carefully copied it down onto the other five pieces of paper she'd brought with her. Once she'd read through all six copies of the letter, double checking each of them, she reached back into her saddlebags. From within the bags she brought out six empty glass bottles, each of them with a cork in the top. Applejack rolled up one of the letters, uncorked a bottle, slid the letter inside, and popped the cork back in. She repeated the process for the rest of the letters as well, before sticking them all inside her saddlebags. Before getting up, a thought struck her, and she stowed her hat inside the saddlebags too. It wouldn't do to lose it to the high winds, after all.

Applejack walked back out onto the beach, bracing herself against the gusting wind as she approached the water. She wasn't sure how long she'd been writing for, but it almost seemed to have gotten darker, though she was pretty sure that was her imagination. At the very least, the ocean hadn't calmed down one bit in the few hours Applejack had spent at the beach. If anything, it had only gotten worse. The waves crashed harder than ever, and only added to the constant roar that assaulted Applejack's ears.

When she did finally manage to reach the water's edge, Applejack sat down and set her bags on the sand in front of her. She pulled the first of the bottles out, reared back, and tossed it with all her might out over the water. It flew high and far, before landing with a splash far from shore. The next bottle sailed even further, passing over the first bottle as it drifted slowly out to sea. The rest followed suit, Applejack's impressive strength sending them far enough out that they would be pulled out into the open ocean. Celestia willing, at least one of them would be picked up by a passing boat or wash up on some distant, civilized shore. Applejack knew that at least one of them would make it. One of them had to. Her friends and family would know she was okay.

With one last sigh, Applejack strapped the bags back on and stood up. If she moved quickly, she would have no trouble reaching her camp well before nightfall. She didn't want to be stuck in the jungle after dark. There was something far worse than darkness that came with night on the island, and she didn't want it… Applejack shook her head, blinking several times. She didn't want it to… to… she didn't…

Applejack staggered to one side. The beach felt like it was shifting beneath her. She lowered herself carefully to her haunches, put a forehoof to her head, and waited for the island to stop spinning. A slight, throbbing pain built up just behind her eyes. It wasn’t the worst headache she'd ever had, but it certainly wasn’t a pleasant sensation.

The pain worsened for a few seconds, and Applejack clenched her eyes shut at the sudden spike of pain, before it finally ebbed a bit. It was still present as a dull ache, but it receded enough for Applejack to inch her eyes open. She blinked. It definitely wasn't her imagination: the day had grown much darker. Her balance seemed a bit better, so Applejack tentatively pushed to her hooves, looking out over the treetops of the jungle to the sun hanging in the western sky. It wasn't there. The sky over the entire island, which was already cloudy before, had been completely and totally covered by dark, foreboding clouds. The sun was obscured behind the dark gray shroud, blanketing the entire island in shadow. A quick glance over her shoulder showed the clouds extending out over the ocean for miles, though there was a sliver of blue sky visible, it was far, far away from the island itself.

Applejack was struck speechless, her hooves rooted to the sand. Wild weather was well known for being incredibly dangerous, and wild storms were the worst by far. She had no idea how it had moved in so fast, but wondering about it wasn't about to help anything. Suddenly, Applejack felt very exposed, alone on the stark beach.

Rain began to fall, adding a steady pitter pattering to the already cacophonous sounds of the beach. There was a bright flash in the clouds, accompanied by an ominous rumble of thunder that tickled something in the back of Applejack's mind. She shook off the feeling. She needed to get back to the relative safety and shelter of her camp, and quickly. As she started walking back towards the jungle, the rain picked up, and more thunder rumbled in the distance. Applejack paused halfway back to the treeline, glancing up at the ever angering storm above her. There was something about it that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. It was a strange sensation, a niggling feeling in her head that just wouldn’t go away while she looked at the stormclouds.

*KRAK-BOOM*

A sudden burst of lightning nearly blinded her, but it didn't. Applejack could see perfectly clearly as the bolt of nature's fury flashed across the sky, arcing down towards the earth only to stop dead several hundred feet above the forest canopy. Before her mind could even begin to process the strangeness of the sight, a wave of deja-vu stronger than any Applejack had ever felt overcame her, the excruciating feeling of something just on the tip of her tongue almost more than she could bear. Her headache worsened, flaring up from a dull ache to a sharp pain.

Applejack blinked several times, trying to pull her scattered thoughts back together. She felt something wet dripping down her muzzle and rubbed irritably at her nose with a forehoof. Something more than rain soaked into her coat and she glanced down at her foreleg just as another bright flash of burned away the dark. Red glinted in the brightness, standing out starkly against her orange coat. Blood.

The metallic taste had just reached her tongue when a sudden spike of pain hit her. Applejack gasped loudly, clutching at her head with her bloodstained hoof. Her vision flashed white again, though from the lightning or the pain she couldn't tell.

"Cross my heart."

Her head felt like it was splitting open. Applejack's mouth opened, but no sound came out. She hurt too much to even scream. She lowered her head as her nose bled profusely. Blood dripped from the end of her muzzle, staining the white sand beneath her with splashes of scarlet like some sort of morbid Hearth's Warming decoration.

"I'm sorry."

Again, pain worse than anything she’d ever felt ripped through her head. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear the tears from them, and realized that she was lying on her side on the rough sand. The rain was steadily picking up, and lightning flashed again somewhere over the island, arcing downwards but never actually touching ground. Applejack coughed and tried to push up to her hooves, but another skull-rending flash of pain sent her back to the ground with a yelp. She lay there, panting, for several moments. The wind began to howl, punctuated by distant thunder, and she felt another surge of deja-vu at the sound. Immediately she began whimpering, knowing what came next.

"You're still one of the bravest ponies I know."

She finally screamed when the wave of pain hit. Her voice echoed out into the jungle. The wind roared through the trees. The rain was coming down hard in sheets. Lightning and thunder raged constantly. Again, Applejack tasted blood.

"Sometimes you just have to 'buck up', as it were."

Then everything went black.

Author's Note

Edited by Keratin! The swankiest of swankers.

Rambling Through The Avenues Of Time
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Mother of Invention

Rambling Through The Avenues Of Time

Applejack slowly regained consciousness to find herself snug and warm under the covers of her bed. She blinked blearily as the last vestiges of sleep fled from her hazy mind. Somewhere outside, a rooster crowed. Applejack smiled; her internal clock was right on time, as always.

As always, the first few rays of sunlight were just starting to shine in through Applejack's window as she rolled out of bed. She stretched her legs, her joints gave a satisfying pop, and Applejack sighed contentedly. A quick flick of her forehoof was all it took to flip her hat from its hook on the wall to its rightful place atop her head.

The old wooden door to Applejack's bedroom creaked loudly as she pushed it open. Most of the house creaked, nowadays. Applejack had given up oiling hinges and tightening boards long ago, and simply tacked it up as added character.

The stairs showed enough character to wake everypony in the house as Applejack descended to the first floor. She ignored that, knowing that everypony would be up soon enough anyway. Instead, Applejack focused on preparing breakfast for herself and Big Mac. The two of them would need a large breakfast if they were going to be working in the orchard all day.

Soon enough, she heard the creak of the steps as Mac came downstairs and joined her in the kitchen. A silent nod passed between them before Mac moved wordlessly to the fridge. He took out half a dozen eggs and cracked them into a bowl, then took a whisk in his mouth and set to beating them while he reached a forehoof out to slide a frying pan across the counter and onto the stovetop.

As the sound of Big Macintosh's work filled the air, Applejack set about her own part of the preparation. First, she deftly spooned some butter into a small metal cup, and set it on the stovetop to melt. Then, in a large bowl, she mixed together flour, baking powder, and sugar. Next, she added in milk, one egg from the fridge, and finally the melted butter. She then stirred the entire mixture with a wooden spoon for about a minute. On a special occasion, she might've added some apples and cinnamon to the mix, but today was a working day. There simply wasn't time for some things.

Nodding once she was satisfied the batter was ready, Applejack carried it over to the stovetop where Macintosh was now tending to a pan full of scrambled eggs. She laid a cast-iron griddle across two open elements on the stove. Carefully, Applejack poured the batter from the bowl into as many pancakes as she could fit on the griddle.

With nothing left to do but wait, the two eldest Apple siblings spent their scant moments of morning peace lost in their own thoughts, interrupted only by the occasional flip of a browning pancake.

Granny Smith and Apple Bloom arrived just as Applejack and Big Mac finished setting out four plates of food at the table. Applejack and Big Mac were served the largest portions, a necessity if they hoped to work the entire day in the fields, but as always they had prepared plenty for everypony. The family dug into their food in unison, eating quickly and in relative silence. When they had finished, Mac and Applejack headed out the front door while Granny Smith helped Apple Bloom prepare for school.

The two siblings trotted over to the barn, and each began hitching up a cart full of empty apple buckets. "I'll take the east fields today," Applejack said, before tilting her hat back and glancing at Mac. "You think you can take the whole south corner on your own?"

"Eeyup."

Applejack nodded. "Right then, let's get to work."

The next couple hours were spent in repetitive hard work. She would set up empty buckets underneath the tree, buck the apples down, load the buckets into the cart, and move on to the next tree to start the process over again. The process was almost second nature, and she allowed her mind to go blank as she worked her way from tree to tree by muscle memory. Birds chirped cheerfully as they awoke, the grass felt soft and pleasant underneath her hooves. It was calm, even relaxing.

The sun continued its inexorable rise, painting the farm with the deep orange rays of dawn for several minutes before transitioning to the brighter light of true day. It was still early morning when she heard the sound of approaching wing beats. She gave the tree behind her a good kick, the satisfying 'thwack' knocking every apple from its perch, before turning to greet her unexpected visitor.

Rainbow Dash touched down gently in the grass just as Applejack turned around to face her. She'd learned to tone down her landing speed after Applejack had yelled at her for the impact craters mysteriously appearing around the Acres.

"Hey Applejack, what'cha doing?" Rainbow said with a smile.

Applejack blinked. She slowly turned her head to look at the cart full of apples, the rows of cleared trees, and the recently filled buckets sitting next to her. Wiping the sweat from her brow, Applejack shot a level stare Rainbow Dash's way.

"I'm remodelling the basement. What's it look like I'm doin'?"

"Heh, yeah, you're a… funny one," Rainbow Dash muttered, breaking her gaze from Applejack and staring at the ground. "So…" she started, hesitantly. "Some weather we've been having lately, huh?"

"What, you come here to brag now?" Applejack asked. She smirked as Rainbow struggled for a response. While the pegasus floundered, Applejack set to loading the filled buckets into the back of the apple cart. "You mind givin' me a hoof with this, Rainbow Dash?" Applejack said as she hefted one of the heavy buckets.

Rainbow wordlessly complied, still not meeting Applejack's eyes as she lifted a few of the buckets into the cart. Applejack exhaled in relief as the last bucket was loaded, and she began dragging the cart along with Rainbow in tow.

"So you gonna spit it out, or do ya just wanna keep helping me with farmwork? 'Cause I've got plenty of work to go around, you know," Applejack teased, hoping it would cause her old friend to open up a bit.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I just wanted to talk to you… about what happened at the Wonderbolt camp."

Applejack froze, the hair on her neck standing on end for a brief second. "There ain't nothing to talk about," she said, her voice completely level.

Rainbow Dash leaped into the air and hovered in front of Applejack, finally looking her in the eyes. "Don't try and pull that with me!" She was forced to fly backwards as Applejack continued towards the next row of trees. "Look, I know you've always had a problem with flying."

Applejack huffed, stopping to unhitch the cart and set the buckets underneath the first tree. As she worked, she said, "I don't ‘have a problem'." She paused for a moment. This time it was her turn to stare at the ground. "Just don't see why you'd wanna go and leave the ground, where it's perfectly safe, and there ain't no risk of… of fallin'…" She trailed off weakly.

Dash glared at her. "Uh huh, right."

Applejack sighed, turning around to buck the tree a little harder than usual. "Look, we all got stuff we ain't exactly comfortable with. You come here to lecture me 'bout it, or just to make fun of me?" She hadn't raised her voice, but her tone had shifted to such a dangerous level that Applejack may as well have been shouting.

"No! It's not like that…" Rainbow Dash landed roughly on the ground, sinking to her haunches despondently. "It's just…" She sighed, rubbing at her face with a forehoof and groaning. "Ugh, I'm no good at this stuff," she muttered low enough that Applejack wasn't sure she was supposed to hear it.

Applejack turned away from the now cleared tree and looked at Dash, who was staring at the ground and sheepishly rubbing her forehooves together. The pegasus's ears were folded back against her head, but before Applejack could tell her to spit it out already, Rainbow Dash spoke.

"Listen, I just thought I'd pop by to… to maybe see how you were holding up. You know?"

Instantly, Applejack's anger faded. "Oh…" she mumbled in realization.

Memories flashed through Applejack's mind. They were in Twilight's balloon, all five of Rainbow's best friends, on their way to the Wonderbolt Academy to pay their favourite trainee a surprise visit. Suddenly, a commotion from the training grounds caught the mares' attention. Before any of them could react, a huge tornado was barrelling down on their position. Applejack barely had time to shout a panicked warning before the balloon was tossed wildly through the air on high-speed cyclonic winds. The balloon broke apart, and then Applejack was falling. Falling, falling, falling—

"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

Applejack blinked as she was brought back to the present. Rainbow was pointing an accusatory hoof at her, and she only then realized that she was shaking slightly. Applejack forced her shivers to stillness before meeting Rainbow's gaze with an even look.

"I'm fine, Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash didn't seem convinced, but her hoof lowered to the ground and she deflated slightly, once more looking sheepish. "I just… I worry about my friends, okay? If you ever need to, like, talk or something, you know I'm totally there."

Applejack chuckled. "I know, sugarcube. Don't worry about it, I'm a tough pony."

The two stood there in awkward silence for several moments. Even the birds seemed to have stopped chirping, and the wind could be heard whistling through the trees. Rainbow looked on the edge of leaning in to hug Applejack, shifting her weight back and forth slightly. In the end, she settled for a hesitant pat on the shoulder. Applejack accepted the gesture silently, but a small smile formed on her lips.

"Good talk!" Rainbow suddenly exclaimed all too brightly, leaping into the air in a flash.

"Yep," Applejack agreed forcefully, quickly turning and starting to load the cart with more buckets of apples.

"Catch you later," Rainbow said as she turned to leave. At the last moment, she hesitated. "Oh, almost forgot! Twilight wanted to talk to you today. Said to head over to the library as soon as you could."

"What for?" Applejack asked as the last of the buckets was placed in the cart.

Rainbow shrugged. "Wouldn't say. Apparently she'll 'tell us later.'” Rainbow Dash made air-quotes with her forehooves, “but she wanted to talk to you about it first."

"Well alright, I'll head on over there just as soon as I'm done," Applejack said, nodding. "And, sugarcube?" She paused, scratching her head for a moment. "Just… thanks, really."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Yeah yeah, I think I've had enough sap for today. See ya!"

With that, Rainbow blasted off, and before Applejack could even respond, her friend was a tiny blue dot in the distance. Applejack shook her head and started pulling her fully-loaded cart towards the barn, the first of what was quickly looking to be a long day. The entire time, she wondered just what crazy thing Twilight wanted her for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack hummed a tune as the trotted down the dirt road through town. It had taken her most of the day to finish up her work, but after a quick shower to wash away the sweat of a hard day's labour, she felt fully refreshed. Her limbs had the satisfying ache of a job well worth doing, and the air was just cool enough to be pleasant as the sun neared the horizon.

There were still a couple hours of daylight left, enough for Applejack to talk to Twilight Sparkle about… something. In truth, the thought had been niggling away in the back of her mind all day. Twilight was an introvert, but not so bad that she never talked to ponies. Still, the majority of Twilight's social life took place with their whole group of friends, or at least a few of them. It wasn't often that she spoke to Applejack one-on-one. If she had to talk to her personally, it had to be about something important.

Applejack only hoped they could get it done as quickly as possible. She had never been a fan of beating around the bush, and would much rather just get everything said that needed to be said without wasting any time about it. Besides, the ‘pleasant ache’ of work was becoming less and less pleasant by the minute, and Applejack could hear her comfortable bed calling to her.

The familiar scenery of town blended into a monotonous blur in Applejack’s tired eyes as she plodded down the street. Most ponies were at home by this time, or just closing up their shops and preparing to head for home, so Applejack didn't have anypony to share a friendly word with as she ambled along. She relished the peace and quiet for a change. It wasn't that Applejack was unappreciative of the immensely friendly villagers of Ponyville, but a little time to herself was nice every now and again.

In no time at all, the wooden door of the library was looming before her. Applejack shook her head, clearing the haze of fatigue, and raised a hoof to knock firmly on the door. The hollow 'thump' of her knocking was quickly answered by the scrabbling of tiny, clawed feet against the hardwood floor. A moment later, and the door opened silently to reveal Spike the dragon.

"Oh, hey, Applejack!" He grinned widely.

"Howdy, Spike." Applejack reciprocated as best she could with a slightly tired smile. "Twilight in?"

Spike nodded. "Oh, yeah! You want me to go get her?"

Applejack waved a forehoof. "Nah, s'fine. Just point me in the right direction."

Spike jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the main room behind him, rolling his eyes as he did so. "She's in the main room with her nose stuck in some book. Where else?"

The two of them shared a short laugh. Spike quirked an eyebrow as they finished. "Actually, I think she was saying earlier that she needed to talk to you."

"Reckon that's why I'm here," Applejack said with a chuckle.

"Heh, yeah," Spike replied embarrassedly, before stepping back from the door and turning to leave. "Uh, if you need anything, just yell."

"Will do." Applejack tipped her hat towards the little dragon as she trotted across the threshold of the enchanted tree. The novelty of being inside a gigantic, still-living tree never failed to impress Applejack. She was all for tradition and the earth pony way, but unicorns were capable of some amazing feats, and the Ponyville Library was certainly amazing.

The main floor of the library interior was circular in shape, with bookshelves lining every wall from floor to ceiling. The place smelled of old paper and knowledge, but with a light smell of food drifting in from a half-closed door on one side of the room, reminding Applejack that somepony lived here. Not just a library, but a home.

Twilight sat at a desk in the center of the room, her muzzle practically touching the pages of a thick tome. Applejack chuckled quietly at the all too familiar sight. Before Applejack could get the librarian's attention, she was struck a moment too late by a realization of her own. She'd left the door open.

A gust of wind from outside caught the library's front door and swung it shut with a clattering slam. Twilight looked up suddenly, startled by the sudden noise. Her surprised expression quickly melted into a warmer one as she caught sight of Applejack sheepishly rubbing her forelegs together.

"Oh, Applejack, you're here!"

"Sure am, sugarcube," Applejack replied, walking across the room to stand next to Twilight. "What'cha readin' there?"

Applejack leaned forward to get a better look at the passage Twilight had been reading, but the book flipped shut in a purple aura of magic, leaving only a view of the cover.

"Beginner's Guide to Wilderness Survival, by Bush Whack," Applejack recited, blinking. "You plannin' a camping trip or something?"

"Yes! No… Not quite," Twilight sputtered, before pausing and taking a deep breath. She took a second, appearing to compose herself, before turning to Applejack with a warm smile. "First things first, I just wanted to ask, uh, that is to say, I was wondering—"

Applejack sat down, rubbing her face with her forehooves. "Out with it, now. Y'all asked me to come around here, didn't ya?"

"Well, it's just," Twilight cleared her throat, "How, uh, how are you… doing?"

Applejack blinked. "That all? Well, I can't complain. Bit of a long day's work, but that's par for the course this time of year, I suppose. Applebuck season's fixin' to be not much of a problem this year, but that doesn't mean it ain't a lot of work. But I've got Big Mac helpin' out again, so—"

"That's… not what I meant," Twilight cut her off. She sighed heavily, before continuing, "I meant, how are you holding up after, you know, the… incident at the Wonderbolt Academy? You seemed pretty shaken up for a while."

Applejack groaned, kicking the floor with a forehoof and drawing a startled yelp from Twilight. "Land sakes, is that all anypony wants to talk about? I told Dash, and I'll tell you, I'm fine! Now please tell me you didn't call me all the way over here for that."

Twilight held up her hooves in a placating gesture. "No, no, that's not why I called you here. It is relevant to the topic, though." A change overtook her at the last statement, and Twilight's sympathetic smile was replaced by an excited grin. Her eyes twinkled, and she appeared to be fighting the urge to hop wildly around the room. "So you're fine, then? Totally fine?"

"Right as rain." Applejack nodded.

Twilight released a high-pitched noise somewhere between a stream of giggles and a squee. It was more than a little disconcerting.

"Yes yes yes yes yes," the excited librarian began chanting happily.

"Uh…" Applejack struggled for words, eventually settling on, "Did I miss something?"

Twilight zeroed her cheshire grin on Applejack, her wide eyes causing the farmer to lean back involuntarily. "No! Well, yes! Er, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself."

"Okay." Twilight took a deep breath, calming herself down a bit, though the grin remained firmly in place. "For the past few weeks, I've been researching airships, from history to usage to design. The work was tangentially related to friendship at best, but I was pursuing it more as a personal interest than a serious project. Then I made some startling discoveries."

Twilight paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, but continued at a gesture from Applejack, "Inefficiencies!" Twilight shouted with genuine horror, as if it was the worst thing in the world. "Wild inefficiencies across the entire design of most airships! It was almost as if the ponies responsible were more concerned with looks than proper aerodynamics, and that was only on the outside. The engines themselves were shedding heat more wastefully than a book burning at a conference on thermodynamics!"

Applejack raised a forehoof. "Not to interrupt, and I'm sure all this is terribly interestin' stuff, but what's it got to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that," Twilight dismissed with a wave of her hoof. "Now, where was I?"

Applejack sighed. "Thermodymicality."

"Thermodynamics, yes." Twilight nodded. "So it wasn't just the profile of the ships that was inefficient, it was the inner workings themselves, right down to the engines. As I read more and more about airships, I couldn't help but think of all the possible improvements that could be made. At that point, it was my duty to throw my hat into the ring!" She blinked. "Uh, metaphorically speaking of course."

Twilight struck a confident pose, one hoof raised, gaze determined. Applejack merely raised an eyebrow, causing the librarian to shrink down with a blush.

"Okay, I was bored and it seemed like fun." She cleared her throat and shook her head, her grin returning as she got back on track. "The point is, I've spent the last few days perfecting my own airship design. It's exponentially more efficient than conventional ships, and I've already had the design approved by the ponies in Canterlot. We could see ponies flying around in these new and improved ships within the year!"

Applejack took a moment, making sure that the still-grinning Twilight was done, before saying, "That's mighty swell and all, Twilight, but I still got a question." Twilight nodded, and Applejack went on. "Well firstly, why tell me specifically? No offense meant or anything, this just seems like the kinda thing you'd rather announce to all the girls, y'know?"

Twilight's grin dimmed ever so slightly. "Well, I do plan on telling the rest of the girls, but…”

“But...?” Applejack prodded.

“But there's a bit more to it. The ponies in Canterlot need the design to be tested before they can begin mass production, obviously. They've tested all the components, and everything passed, but they need one maiden voyage before they'll sign off on it." She paused, tapping her forehooves together nervously, staring at the floor. "I was thinking… since I designed the thing, I really should be the one to test it. It's only right."

Applejack nodded in agreement, and Twilight continued, "...And it would mean a whole lot to me if I could have you girls by my side." She looked up, meeting Applejack's wide-eyed gaze. "This is big, Applejack. This could be the defining moment of my career, even if it's… not exactly in a field I would have anticipated."

Twilight blushed slightly. "I wanted to ask you first because… well, because of the Wonderbolt Academy accident. I wasn't sure if you'd be okay with flying again so soon. You said you were fine though!" Twilight was quickly reverting to her high level of excitement. "You don't have to worry, I've gone over the designs in their entirety dozens of times. I've scanned and scanned and scanned for even the tiniest flaw or error, and there's nothing even slightly unsafe. I would never, ever ask any of my friends to come along if there was any danger.

“The trip is just for proof of concept, and because they legally need one maiden voyage. It's a formality, nothing more, but it's an important formality, to them and to me. If you wanted, you could just sit inside the whole time. You wouldn't even know you were in the air! The stability fins keep it so smooth that—"

Applejack held up a hoof, silencing Twilight's rant. In truth, she wasn't sure herself if she would be okay with flying, but she could see how much this meant to the other mare. Twilight's enthusiasm and excitement was almost palpable, and there was no way that Applejack could find the spirit to crush that. She may not have been the Element of Loyalty, but Applejack wasn't about to leave a friend hanging.

"Of course I'd come with, sugarcube, but what about applebuck season?"

Twilight nodded rapidly, her mane bouncing up and down in time. "I accounted for that. The trip would take two full days, and you already take weekends off, so we leave Saturday morning and get back Sunday night."

"That's the other thing," Applejack said, slightly warily. "You ain't said just where this trip is even supposed to be."

Applejack hadn't thought it possible, but Twilight's grin grew even wider.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little over a week later, Applejack found herself packing for a trip that she had foolishly agreed to. A trip that she would've called hogwash if not for the fact that Twilight Sparkle had been the one to propose it. Twilight Sparkle was never wrong. Applejack gulped, her throat suddenly feeling slightly dry. Twilight had better not be wrong.

It was an impossible idea. Or… it had been, until Twilight had decided to make it possible. Twilight was expecting them to fly across the ocean in her fancy new airship. Even so long after hearing it, the idea still befuddled her. Ponies didn't fly across the ocean. It simply wasn't done. There were sea-faring ships designed specifically for that inter-continental travel because no airship could ever make it that far.

Until now, apparently. Twilight claimed that her new and improved designs would be able to make it across the ocean with fuel to spare. Apparently the ponies in Canterlot responded well to grand gestures, and this was the only way to get them off their flanks without wading through a year's worth of monotonous paperwork. Twilight assured Applejack and the rest of the girls that it was perfectly safe. The ship had already been built and tested in every possible capacity. The 'maiden voyage' was nothing but a formality at this point, seeing as the airship was already proven to be fully functional and safe.

At least, that's what Twilight had said. Applejack was a pony who liked to keep her hooves planted firmly on the ground, but Twilight knew her stuff. Twilight Sparkle was never wrong. Applejack looked around, finding a glass of water on a nearby end table and taking a long gulp. They'd all be pretty sorry if Twilight was wrong.

Applejack finished filling one side of her saddlebags, and closed the flap with a flick of her hoof. The bright red apple on the clasp stood out proudly against the light green fabric of the bags. These bags had served Applejack through numerous adventures, from a simple camping trip in the woods to a hike up a dragon-occupied mountain. Rarity had made a pair for each of the girls shortly after Twilight's arrival in Ponyville, each one personalized beautifully to suit their owner.

Shaking her head, Applejack willed her thoughts back on track. The trip.

Twilight's plan was fairly simple for such a ground-breaking undertaking. The airship was to pick them up on the outskirts of town, and from there it would be a straight, non-stop flight. They were to fly to a fishing village on the far coast to resupply and refuel. The village -Twilight had told them the name, but it managed to slip Applejack's mind over the past week spent worrying- had already been informed of the situation, and a sea-faring ship had sailed over in advance with all the necessary supplies on board.

The flight there would take the entire day, so after the restocking, the plan was to spend the night at the village and fly back the next day. The only catch was that the village was fairly remote. It was chosen simply for being the closest one to Equestria, not for luxury. So it was that Applejack was packing her saddlebags with everything necessary for a one-night camping trip. Truth be told, Applejack had packed far more than what was strictly needed. She had a fire-starting kit and a sleeping bag, of course, but she also brought a week's worth of dried fruit rations, a sturdy hatchet, a multitool, an enchanted torch she'd gotten from Twilight, and of course a coil of strong rope. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Only one last thing remained: water. Most of the next two days would be spent in the air over salt water, and while the ship had a tank of drinking water, Twilight had advised everypony to bring a canteen as well. Applejack shuddered slightly as she remembered that particular conversation, during which Twilight had felt the need to relate all the effects of dehydration in… almost disturbing detail.

Swiftly moving on from that train of thought, Applejack snatched her trusty canteen from a nearby shelf. Almost everything Applejack owned was trusty, which was really just a nice way of saying that it was old. Items got used, reused, and passed down in the Apple family. Waste not, want not. They had come a long way from the old days of barely scrounging up the food to live, but some habits and traditions remained. Applejack was particularly fond of that particular tradition, though. It gave everyday objects special meaning that they would otherwise lack entirely. Even something as simple as a canteen had a story to it, this one in particular being dented in one corner from when Big Mac had brought it on a Colt Scout camping trip years and years ago.

Applejack smiled, one hoof idly running along the weathered stetson atop her head. There was a lot to be said for some traditions.

Applejack wasn't sure how long she spaced out, but she eventually returned to the present to find herself sitting on her haunches, holding her hat between her forehooves and staring down at it. She stood up, a slight shudder rolling through her, and quickly put her hat back on. Tossing the canteen into her saddlebags, she turned and headed out of her room.

As she walked down the hall and towards the staircase, Applejack was again struck by the sheer incredibleness of what they were about to do. Two days across the ocean and back. Even after having Twilight explain it to her, in great detail, and multiple times, Applejack could barely believe it. A normal, water-based ship would take days, at least, or even more than a week with larger vessels. Coupled with the long travel times was an innate danger to sea travel. The sea was one of the most unpredictable things on the planet, and tended to lean towards wanton cruelty on many occasions. There was a reason most ponies hadn't traveled the open ocean. It wasn't an uncommon thing for ships to be damaged, or even lost to the rogue waves of an angry sea.

Of course, that only made what Twilight was attempting all the more important. If an airship could make it across the ocean, it would not only be faster, but safer. They could be on the cusp of a worldwide paradigm shift, and as uncomfortable as Applejack was with the whole flight aspect of it, she couldn't deny that the prospect was exciting.

As Applejack reached the ground floor, Granny Smith looked up from a nearby rocking chair at the creaking of the stairs.

"You headin' out now, Applejack?" the eldest Apple asked.

"Sure am, Granny," Applejack responded. "Won't be but a couple days. I'll be back in time to get back to work, don't you worry none."

Granny Smith nodded, her rheumy eyes glaring into Applejack's own. "You keep safe now, ya hear? I still think us earth ponies oughta be keepin' our hooves on the ground. All this flyin' nonsense is best kept to them winged ones, if you ask me. T'ain't natural," she grumbled.

Applejack rolled her eyes. As much as she hated flying, at least her own trepidation was based on the very real and rational fear of falling to her death, not silly old superstition.

"I'll be fine, Granny," she dismissed with a wave of her forehoof.

Granny Smith scoffed incredulously, before tittering with a smile. "I suppose you will. You always were a tough'n. Love ya, Applejack. See you soon."

Applejack smiled back in response, a small but completely genuine thing. "Love ya, too, Granny. Be seein' ya."

With that, Applejack turned and trotted out the door, leaving with one last call of "Tell Mac and 'Bloom goodbye for me! Wouldn't do to tell 'em myself when I get back."

Smiling and laughing, her nervousness at the approaching task momentarily forgotten, Applejack walked out the gate marking the edge of the Acres, and down the road towards Ponyville.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time she reached town, Applejack's nerve had once again shattered. Try as she might to forget it, the incident at the Wonderbolt Academy was playing on repeat in her mind's eye. She could feel her legs shaking, and sweat was beginning to form on her forehead.

She could still back out. Twilight would understand. They didn't all need to go, the other five could do well enough on their own, anyway. Twilight wanted them there as moral support, but Applejack wouldn't be very supportive sitting in a corner quivering the whole time. It was settled, then. She would go straight to Twilight's and cancel. No more flying, no more airships, no more—

Applejack shook her head, skidding to a stop when she realized that her hooves were carrying her in the direction of the town library. She couldn't be thinking like that. More importantly, she couldn't abandon her friend like that. Applejack needed to talk to somepony, anypony. Just to calm down, if nothing else. Casting her gaze around the immediate area, Applejack realized that she wasn't far from the Carousel Boutique.

The thought caused her to brighten instantly. She could go talk to Rarity. That would hopefully take her mind off things. Plan in mind, Applejack trotted down the street towards the Boutique. Birdsong floated by on a pleasant breeze, and the gravel path crunched beneath her hooves as her saddlebag bounced along on her back.

Before she knew it, Applejack had reached her destination. Her hoof was half raised to knock before she remember that it was, technically, an open business. Applejack lowered her hoof, then reached out and pushed open the intricately decorated wooden door before her, causing a tiny bell to tinkle overhead as she stepped into the small shop.

“Coming!” Rarity's voice floated down the stairs, followed shortly by the mare herself. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magni—" Rarity cut off, blinking. "Oh, Applejack, it's you."

The conversation started out stilted and awkward from there, but it didn't take long for Rarity to figure out Applejack's real reason for coming. The fashionista handled it well, and they talked for a while, though Rarity did most of the talking. That pony could be surprisingly insightful at times, apparently, and her words worked wonders on Applejack. Applejack found herself feeling a little better about the whole situation, and fairly confident in herself after all. In the end, Applejack informed Rarity that she needed to go think, and left the Boutique without another word.

As Applejack turned to leave, Rarity said, “Take your time. We'll send Fluttershy to fetch you.”

She wandered aimlessly for a few minutes, before a grassy hill just outside town caught her attention. Applejack angled herself that way, and arrived at the bottom of the hill in a couple minutes. Climbing to the top, Applejack sat on the grass and looked down at the whole village spread out before her. The morning sun shone out over the thatched roofs of the town, glinting off the water of the fountain in the main square. It was beautiful.

Applejack sat there a while, her mind mostly blank. Idle thoughts ran through her head, but she never became too lost in them. She simply sat, waiting for an epiphany that wasn't coming to tell her what to do. The whole thing was making her head hurt.

After a while, the sound of faint wingbeats reached her ears. Applejack barely registered it, and didn't bother to turn at the sound. Even when four hooves touched down delicately in the grass behind her, she didn't acknowledge their presence. It wasn't until a soft, caring voice drifted to her on the cool morning air that Applejack finally snapped out of it.

"Applejack, are you alright?"

Applejack turned her head, quickly making out the bright blue eyes of a light yellow pegasus, and all the concern within her friend's gaze. It was there on that lonely hilltop that Applejack was finally able to confess the root of the problem, both to Fluttershy and to herself. She was afraid. Not just her fear of flying, but she was afraid of not being a brave pony.

Fluttershy understood completely, and was very nice about telling Applejack just how wrong she was. She explained what it truly meant to be brave, and Applejack found herself enraptured for every minute of it. While Rarity's words had planted a burning ember within Applejack's chest, Fluttershy's fanned it into a roaring fire that consumed the last vestiges of Applejack's uncertainty. She was still afraid, but that didn't matter anymore. She knew that she could be brave.

When Fluttershy finally finished her speech, Applejack grinned appreciatively, nodding her head in thanks.

Fluttershy beamed back. "Well, the girls are probably wondering why I took so long in getting you. Um, would you mind, uh, heading over now?"

Applejack smirked, stepping up beside Fluttershy, her headache nothing but a memory at that point. "Sounds good to me."

With that, the two mares turned as one, and trotted in companionable silence towards the bottom of the hill. From there, Fluttershy took the lead, and they headed off to where the airship was moored.

The pair walked without speaking, and Applejack was left alone with her thoughts as they made their way around the edge of Ponyville. Between Rarity's and Fluttershy's encouragement, Applejack knew she could make it through the task before them. She wouldn't like it, but she could do it.

After a few minutes of walking, a large, grey shape appeared in the distance. Twilight's airship. It was parked just outside the town border, floating about a metre off the ground. Applejack couldn't tell from so far away, but she assumed there was something tethering it in place there.

The closer they got, the more of Applejack's attention was stolen by the large airship hovering in the field alongside the rest of the girls. More and more details were becoming apparent, and Applejack's curiosity won over her trepidation at the intimidating machine as she found herself examining it in awe.

Applejack didn’t know a lot about airships, but she’d seen a few before. One of her cousins owned a simple dirigible, little more than an old rowboat suspended beneath a large balloon and propelled by a single propellor. Of course, Applejack expected something different from Twilight Sparkle. She expected something similar to what they had seen on their trips to Canterlot, but to her surprise, what she saw in the field outside Ponyville bore no resemblance to the Canterlot airships at all.

Right off the bat, Twilight’s design lacked the overly-flashy aesthetic Applejack had come to expect from the one or two she'd seen in Canterlot. The ponies of Canterlot valued appearance over most anything else, and the fanciest airships reflected this. Bright colours were the norm, gold inlays wherever possible, and every inch of the ships had to be designed to please the eye. The current style dictated that most Canterlot airships were designed to resemble gigantic fish, with the area that ponies would ride in hanging just below the fish's belly.

That flashiness must have been a part of the inefficiency Twilight had talked about, because her ship had done away with all of that. It wasn't painted with the usual swirling designs and bright colours. In fact, Applejack wasn't sure they'd painted it at all, unless they'd actually chosen to paint it grey. In the same vein, it wasn't shaped like anything in particular. From the side Applejack and Fluttershy were approaching, the entire craft looked like a long oval with slightly pointed ends. The compartment on the bottom for ponies to ride in was painted the same grey, and fused directly to the bottom of the blimp rather than hanging from ropes. There were plenty of windows around the seemingly spacious interior, but Applejack couldn't quite see inside.

Applejack eventually managed to tear her focus from the impressive vehicle, and she turned away to locate her friends. Each of them were wearing saddlebags similar to Applejack's and Fluttershy's, emblazoned with their own cutie marks. The saddlebags were all packed to the brim with the essentials. The group of friends was standing together a little ways from the parked airship, talking amongst themselves. Their conversation was inaudible to Applejack from her distance, and she picked up her pace slightly to reach the group.

Fluttershy fell a few paces behind before she took to the air in order to keep up with Applejack. Within a few moments, the two of them joined the rest of the girls.

Rainbow Dash was the first to notice their arrival. "'Bout time you guys got here! We've been waiting for hours!"

"Um, I only left to get Applejack fifteen minutes ago, but I'm sorry I wasn't faster…" Fluttershy mumbled, wilting slightly.

Applejack hadn't missed the grin on Rainbow's face. "Relax, Fluttershy, she's only joking."

"Oh? I'm sorry I didn't get it…"

Before Rainbow Dash or Applejack could respond, Pinkie Pie hopped over. "Hey, Applejack! Are you excited? Oh, I bet you must be nervous though! Excited too? Nervous and excited? There's gotta be a word for that… I'll come up with something later."

Applejack leaned back as Pinkie Pie breathed in for another tirade, but was rescued by Rarity.

"Darling, so glad you could make it. We were almost beginning to get worried when we didn't find you here, but it looks like sending Fluttershy out to find you worked things out nicely." She paused, looking Applejack over with a critical eye. When she caught Applejack's gaze, Rarity offered an encouraging smile. "We truly are happy you could make it."

Applejack had been worried that Rarity would have mentioned their little… conversation in her shop that morning. The fashionista had tactfully neglected to bring up Applejack's moment of weakness, while still offering the same encouragement as before. Not for the first time, Applejack was reminded of just how lucky she was to have friends like these.

"Thanks, Rarity. Really, I—"

"What, you think Applejack would've backed out and left her friends hanging?" Rainbow Dash suddenly interjected. She dropped from where she'd been hovering above the group and flashed a confident grin.

"No way, no how!" Rainbow settled a foreleg across Applejack's shoulders. "Only one pony's half as awesome as me, and I'm twice as awesome as I'd need to be for this little trip!"

Applejack shrugged off Rainbow's hoof and settled her ponytail back into place. "Uh, thanks… I think."

"What took ya so long, anyways?" Rainbow raised one eyebrow.

"Uh…" Applejack was a terrible liar. She knew this, and her friends knew this. Fortunately for her, Fluttershy knew this.

"Oh, she and I just got to talking a bit." Fluttershy quickly stepped up and joined the conversation. "I was telling her how I was afraid of the trip we have ahead of us. A whole two days of flying with no critters anywhere. You know how much I love the ground. Why, sometimes I wonder if I'm half earth pony myself…"

Fluttershy trailed off with a warm smile, until she realized Rainbow Dash was still looking at her. "Ahem, anyway, she told me I should come anyway, because facing your fears is the only way to be really brave."

She met Applejack's eyes as she finished, and Applejack could see the kindness there. "Uh, yep. That's about it," Applejack murmured in agreement.

"Pfft, that's silly. You're silly. I'm the bravest pony in Equestria 'cause I'm not afraid of anything at all! I've never faced any fears 'cause I don't have any!" Rainbow Dash boasted, one hoof to her chest in a dramatic pose.

Rarity chose that moment to chime back in. "Well I for one think it's a lovely sentiment." She smiled warmly at Fluttershy, letting her gaze linger on Applejack as well for just a moment before turning back to Rainbow. "Anyway, Twilight has been waiting ever so patiently for us to get underway, so why don't we rouse her and let her know we can depart anytime."

At the mention of Twilight, Applejack looked over to see the mare in question hunched over a thick book in the grass a few paces away. She had somehow managed to completely miss the conversation going on next to her, so engrossed was she in her reading. Applejack couldn't help but crack an amused smile.

While Rarity attempted to coax Twilight away from her textbook, Pinkie Pie sidled up next to Applejack with a wide grin on her face.

"Soooooo?"

Applejack blinked. "So… what?"

"Aren't you excited?!" Pinkie bounced up and down in place.

Applejack thought for a moment in an attempt to pin down what she was feeling. Was she excited? Maybe that wasn't quite the right word, but it did work on some level. It was the sort of excitement she felt before facing down some villain or other. The sort of excitement she felt before charging down a changeling army or fighting a god of chaos. It wasn't a happy sort of excitement, but it was excitement of a sort; the sort that would be followed by a huge amount of relief if she managed to not die.

In the end, Applejack said, "Yeah, I suppose I am a bit excited."

Just then, Twilight Sparkle walked up to join the group. She was floating the large tome next to her in an aura of magic and smiling as she arrived. Twilight had grown a couple inches since gaining her wings, but she didn't carry herself like the tallest pony there. Somehow, looking up to meet her eyes wasn't the least bit intimidating.

Applejack tilted her hat with a forehoof. "Princess Twilight," she greeted.

Twilight sighed. "Applejack, how many times will I have to tell you to stop calling me that?"

Applejack snickered. "'Least once more, Princess."

"I swear, I'll hit you with a book…" Twilight said, though the threat lost some of its effect when she devolved to giggles immediately after, joined by Applejack's own chuckling and Pinkie's barked laughter.

Twilight Sparkle looked around at the gathered ponies. "So, is everypony ready to go?"

There was a chorus of acknowledgement from all around, but Applejack couldn't help the frown that appeared on her face as she voiced her own. Pinkie Pie noticed it too.

"Oh, don't be such a frowning-face!" Pinkie moved to stand in front of Applejack. She gestured wildly with her hooves as she said, "We're gonna get to see the ocean! The ocean!"

Twilight perked up. "Actually, Pinkie Pie has a point—"

"You mean besides the one on the top of her head?" Rainbow Dash cut in.

"Snnkt, heeheehee, I don't even know what that means." Pinkie Pie rolled around on her back in the grass, giggling all the while.

Twilight ruffled her wings a little at the interruption, but otherwise managed to ignore the both of them, focusing on Applejack instead. "Think about it, Applejack, the ocean! Haven't you ever wanted to see it for yourself? The books describe it so beautifully, but nothing can compare to firsthoof observation."

Rarity nodded. "I must say, I've heard it can be absolutely marvellous to look at. Why, if I don't get at least a few new design ideas from this little trip, then I may as well turn in my dressmaking license."

Pinkie Pie blinked. "There's a license for that?"

"Figure of speech, darling."

Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and hovered above the group. "Yeah, the ocean's gonna be cool and all, but I'm more excited to see what's on the other side. A whole new bunch of ponies that have yet to experience my awesomeness! I'll be able to show off my awesome stunts to a brand new crowd for the first time in, like, forever! It's gonna be awesome."

"You said that already," Rarity pointed out.

"What?"

"Awesome. You overused that word."

"Eh, it applies." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

"You could still stand to expand your vocabulary a tad."

While the two of them continued to go back and forth, Fluttershy meekly stepped forward. "I'm, um, I'm really looking forward to meeting all sorts of new critters on the other side of the ocean. I bet there are whole species that I haven't even seen yet, just waiting to make friends and be snuggly and lovable." By the time she finished, she was smiling warmly with her eyes closed, humming softly to herself.

Applejack glanced between Rarity and Dash, who were still going at it, and the happily daydreaming Fluttershy. Finally, she simply turned back to Twilight Sparkle.

"Right, well, all that sounds mighty fine, but I'm more concerned about safety." Applejack noted Twilight's incredulous expression and hastily amended, "Uh, no offense meant, of course."

Before Twilight could speak up to defend her work, Pinkie Pie literally jumped into the conversation, landing on all four hooves between the two ponies. "Don't be silly, Applejack! Twilight designed this thing, and that mare knows all sorts of stuff about things. Her things are the best things around, and her stuff is at least in the top three. If we can't trust our stuff to her things then I don't even know what to believe!"

Twilight opened her mouth as if to say something, but only succeeded in working her jaw silently for several long moments before simply shrugging and trotting up the gangplank to the interior of the airship. Her departure managed to get the attention of the others. Rarity and Rainbow Dash broke away from their argument to follow her up, and Fluttershy wasn't far behind. In moments, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were the only two left on the ground.

Pinkie Pie turned to Applejack with a wide grin. "We'll be safer than celery." Her eyes crossed momentarily. "… or something. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Applejack was an honest pony, but she put on her best fake smile for Pinkie's benefit. "I'm sure we will, sugarcube. I was just being a silly pony is all. Don't mind me, I'll be just fine," she lied.

Pinkie Pie seemed to buy it, but gave one more piece of encouragement as she hopped aboard the vessel. "Don't worry, AJ. Everything's going to be peachy keen. You'll see."

Applejack only glowered the second Pinkie was out of view. "Ah hate peaches…"

If there was one thing Applejack was good at, it was spotting a lie. Even before the whole Element of Honesty business, Applejack had the intuition to smell falsehood a mile away. With her friends, having known them for so long, it was even easier. Not that they often had reason to lie. Applejack had known Pinkie Pie for years, and she could say with complete certainty that her friend was telling the whole truth. There was not a single hint of a lie in what Pinkie was saying.

Applejack only wished she could believe it.

Despite her ever-mounting reservations, Applejack gritted her teeth and trotted up the ramp to join her friends.

The rest of the girls were dispersing throughout the interior of the ship, ooh-ing and ah-ing at all the clean, crisp design. Applejack turned to look about the ship herself. There wasn't much in the way of decoration, but Applejack supposed that was only because this was a test. There were benches for sitting next to windows on either side of the ship. A set of stairs near the front was marked with a 'crew only' sign. Applejack guessed that it would lead to the bridge area.

Towards the back, the room thinned out into a hallway with doors running along either side. These would be sleeping quarters, most likely, as well as storage closets and other such things. The hallway continued all the way to the back of the ship, where there was another open passenger area with more benches and windows.

Twilight Sparkle saw Applejack enter, then nodded once and headed up the stairs at the front, presumably to tell the captain they were ready to leave. Rarity was already unpacking several scarves and trying to decide which one went best with the upholstery. While Fluttershy nodded at whatever Rarity said, Rainbow Dash was chatting the ear off of a sailor pony who looked less than interested in the conversation. Applejack couldn't quite make out what Rainbow was saying from all the way on the other side of the room, but it seemed to have something to do with flying. Unsurprising, really.

Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen, but her balloon-emblazoned saddlebags were sitting snug in an overhead compartment above one of the benches. She was on board somewhere, and that was all anypony could really say for certain. Pinkie was probably exploring the various nooks and crannies that the ship had to offer, if Applejack knew her at all. She only hoped Pinkie would stay out of trouble.

For her part, Applejack turned and made her way to the back of the ship, where a red-upholstered bench sat against the outside wall. A rectangular window provided a view of everything behind the ship. Applejack stared quietly out the window at her hometown, just a short jog across the grass on the other side of the window. So close, and yet so far.

The lift-off was so smooth and gentle that Applejack would've missed it had she not been looking out the window. One moment, she was gazing across a pristine field of grass at the squat buildings of Ponyville, and the next moment the earth was receding away from her at a rapid pace.

Applejack sat up a bit to keep the town in sight as the airship soared as high as the clouds. She watched silently as the little hamlet became smaller and smaller in the distance. Houses and buildings shrank to mere points, smaller than ants, and then blended together until the entire town was nothing but a small mark on a featureless green backdrop.

Only when Ponyville had completely and utterly disappeared from view did Applejack heave a heavy sigh she'd been holding in for minutes. She turned away from the window and trotted towards the interior of the ship. Her hoofsteps clacked loudly against the hard floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight had insisted that Applejack get some shut-eye, but Applejack’s attempt at sleeping through the trip had gone nowhere. She'd been lying on her back for some time, simply staring up at the ceiling from her uncomfortable bunk. At least she understood why they'd brought camping gear, now. Whoever had been in charge of the mattresses on the crew bunks had clearly only ever heard of beds in passing, and had instead based them off the next closest thing that came to mind. Of course, they must've been a strange pony for the next thing in their mind to apparently be uneven rocks and gravel.

But then, maybe Applejack was only making it worse in her head. She certainly wasn't in the best of moods. Twilight had told her that she wouldn't even be able to tell they were flying, and that was technically true. There was no sense of motion, and the room had no windows. If she hadn't known any better, Applejack could've guessed that she was still on the ground.

Unfortunately, she did know better. No matter how long she laid there staring at the ceiling she just couldn't forget where she was. Closing her eyes was no better, as that only emphasised every imagined bump and rumble, and allowed her mind's eye to run wild with sights far worse than what was actually happening.

Applejack shifted on the mattress once more in a futile attempt to get comfortable before deciding that she was not making it worse in her mind. It was just a really terrible bed. She'd have to talk to Twilight about that for the crewponies' sake.

A deep sigh resounded through the small cabin as Applejack finally decided there was no sleep to be had. She rolled off the bed and on to her hooves, telling herself again that the ship was not shifting with every move she made. Despite her mental reassurances, Applejack moved gingerly as she plucked her hat from a hook on the wall and flipped it onto her head. The familiar headgear brought with it some comfort, and Applejack allowed herself to relax slightly.

It was eerily silent in the room as Applejack stood next to the bed. She'd expected the vessel to creak and groan constantly. They always seemed to do that in books. Maybe that was simply another design flaw Twilight had corrected. The engines, too, were surprisingly quiet. Applejack had to strain to hear them, and even then they were nothing but a dull hum on the edge of perception. To most, the silence would be a comfort, but Applejack found it grating.

She teetered over to the door and slid it open, then stepped into the hall outside the room. Her ears instantly picked up new sounds, voices, coming from towards the front of the ship. A tiny smile found its way onto Applejack's face at the thought of her friends, and she trotted down the hall on wobbly legs to meet them. As she neared the main passenger area of the ship, the voices became clearer, finally coalescing into words.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" Pinkie Pie shouted, quickly followed by, "Drat! Tied again."

It was Rarity who answered, "Honestly, Pinkie Pie, I'm not quite sure I understand the point of this game."

Applejack entered the room just as Rarity finished speaking, and quickly took in the area before her. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were sitting on the floor in the center of the room, facing each other and each holding out a forehoof in some sort of game. Rarity was still wearing her saddlebags; they were apparently an essential part of her ensemble, while Pinkie Pie’s bags were still untouched in an overhead compartment. Twilight had her own saddlebags next to her, and was sitting in a window seat. The newly crowned princess stared intently out the window. A small quill floated next to her, occasionally scratching down a note in an accompanying binder without Twilight ever taking her gaze off the window. Rainbow Dash was sprawled out across one of the benches with a Daring Do book, and her saddlebags were stuffed under the bench uncaringly. Fluttershy was curled up on another bench, breathing evenly as she somehow slept soundly despite the room full of ponies.

Rarity looked over at Applejack as she entered. "Oh dear, I do hope we didn't wake you, darling. We were trying to keep it down as much as possible."

Applejack shook her head. "Not a problem, sugarcube. Couldn't get a wink of sleep anyways," she said as she hobbled into the room slowly.

Applejack's voice had gotten Rainbow Dash's attention, and she snickered when she saw how Applejack was stumbling about. "Uh, Applejack, what are you doing?"

"What—" Applejack cut off as she grabbed a bench to steady herself. "What're you talkin' about?"

Rainbow Dash gestured vaguely with a forehoof. "That. Is it some sort of new dance or something? Because let me tell you now, as a friend, that it could use a lot of work."

"Oh har har," Applejack replied dryly. "If any of y'all could tell me how to walk around this dang ship all normal like then I'd sure appreciate it."

"Sea legs," Twilight piped up from across the room, her pensive gaze never leaving the world outside.

Applejack blinked. "Beg pardon?"

Pinkie Pie turned away from her game with Rarity, which was going nowhere, and rolled onto her back on the floor. She stuck all four legs into the air with a silly grin, and proclaimed, "See? Legs!"

Rainbow Dash broke into a laughing fit while Pinkie Pie giggled uncontrollably.

Rarity simply turned to Twilight and said, "Care to elaborate, darling?"

"Hm?" Twilight seemed to be startled out of deep thought. She shook her head before turning to face the room. "Sea legs. It's the expression used to describe ponies who have an easy time walking around on board a ship. I suppose you could call it 'sky legs', but the term originated with the seafaring ships of old, and it's stuck ever since."

Whatever had occupied her attention outside the window was completely forgotten as Twilight latched onto the opportunity for a brief lecture. "The phenomenon comes from the fact that the ship is actually in constant motion. It may not feel like it, but it is, and not just forward motion either. The airship is constantly shifting up and down, and side to side with air currents, if only by a small margin. Even so, it's enough to muddle a pony's sense of balance, and this results in difficulty walking and staying upright. When the sense of balance eventually adjusts to the motion of the ship, a pony will be able to walk normally, and they are said to have their 'sea legs'."

"Yeah?" Applejack looked around at the assembled ponies. "Well then how come everypony else is just fine and I'm the only one without these sea legs?"

"Well, the balance adjustment takes a different amount of time for everypony. You'll get used to it eventually."

Pinkie Pie leapt to her hooves and chimed in, "Besides, Rarity can't walk around either! She's been stuck there on the floor since we took off."

"I am not stuck," Rarity huffed. "It is simply unladylike to stumble around from place to place, and much prefer to maintain my composure here, in comfort."

"…in the middle of the floor?" Rainbow Dash smirked.

Rarity cleared her throat, blushing slightly. "Yes, well, relative comfort."

By now, Applejack had managed to clamber her way onto one of the benches and had taken a seat next to Fluttershy's gently sleeping form, pointedly not sitting anywhere near a window. "So how 'bout you, Rainbow? Stuck on that there bench, too?"

"Pshh, nah." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively. "I'm a pegasus. Takes a lot more to mess with my balance."

There was a sudden clattering sound from where Twilight was sitting, and Applejack snapped her gaze over to see what was the matter. Twilight's quill and notebook had fallen from where they were hovering, landing on the floor of the cabin where they lay still, forgotten. Twilight herself was staring out the window with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open slightly.

Everypony was silent for several moments, until Applejack ventured, "Everything alright, princess?"

If Applejack had already been worried before, what Twilight said next made her heart skip a beat.

"Uh, yeah, everything's fine." Twilight paused for a moment, then pushed to her hooves. "I just need to talk to the captain for a moment, nothing to worry about at all." With that, Twilight trotted to the front of the room and up the stairs marked 'Crew Only'.

Applejack sat in stunned silence. Everypony else went back to their business, but Applejack couldn't believe what she'd heard. She'd been trying to lighten the mood a bit by pointedly using Twilight's title, but Twilight had completely ignored it. She'd never ignored it before. Nopony else seemed to have noticed the tell, but whatever Twilight saw out the window had distracted her enough that Applejack was genuinely worried. She felt her breathing quicken as worst case scenarios swiftly filled her mind. All the fear that she'd been pushing down since they took off was bubbling up with a vengeance. She wanted off. She wanted to be back on the ground. She didn't want to be there any—

"How are you doing, Applejack?"

The soft voice brought Applejack's spiraling train of thought to a halt, and she looked to her side to see Fluttershy sleepily gazing back at her. Her heart rate slowed and her breathing steadied as everything Fluttershy had told Applejack before they left came back to her. She had to be brave.

"I'm… I'm doin' well enough," Applejack said, almost surprised at how true it was. She gave Fluttershy a smile. "Bein' brave."

Fluttershy beamed back. "I knew you would be." She ended her statement with a wide yawn, then blinked several times as she looked around the cabin. "Um, how far along are we? If you don't mind me asking."

Before Applejack could attempt an answer, Pinkie Pie popped up between the two of them. "We're already over the ocean! I looked out the window, it's great! It's all huge and blue and… ocean-y! You should totally take a peek."

"I'll… take your word for it," Fluttershy replied.

Pinkie Pie shrugged, then disappeared as suddenly as she had arrived. A quick glance by Applejack revealed Pinkie once more engaged in a time-passing game with Rarity. Applejack shook her head and chuckled.

"So," She turned to Fluttershy, her momentary worry forgotten, "Why're you sleepin' up here instead of in one of the actual bunks?"

Fluttershy coughed sheepishly. "Oh, um, I don't want to be rude or unappreciative, but I tried to sleep on one of the bunks. The bench is much more comfortable."

Applejack laughed, and it felt good. Fluttershy looked surprised at first, but joined in anyway, looking somewhat confused. When their laughter subsided, Applejack gave Fluttershy a friendly slap on the back.

"Thank you, Fluttershy," she said genuinely.

"Um, you're welcome?"

"Anyway, you've just reminded me that I needed to talk to Twilight about something. Be right back," Applejack said as she stood from her seat.

She wobbled slightly, but less so than before. Her balance was adjusting, if a bit slowly. On less shaky legs than before, Applejack walked over to the staircase at the front of the room. She paused to leverage one forehoof on the guardrail for support, then headed up to the bridge.

Applejack was surprised to hear Twilight's voice sounding none too happy as she reached the top of the stairs. The words were hard to make out at first, but became clearer as Applejack approached a door marked 'Bridge'.

"—see what I'm talking about? Who authorized this!?"

Applejack pushed through the door to see Twilight standing in front of a pony that looked to be the captain of the airship. He was leaning away from the princess's angry glare, holding his hat in a deathgrip against his chest. Applejack stood near the door, choosing not to interrupt.

"N-Nopony, ma'am," the captain stammered. "It wasn't on any of the schedules. It just kinda… showed up."

Twilight rubbed her forehead. "There will be some serious managerial adjustments in the outer Equestrian weather council when I get back, mark my words…" she muttered through gritted teeth.

Applejack wondered what they were talking about for a moment, until she glanced through the large, curved window at the front of the room. She gasped as she spotted a humongous bank of dark, angry clouds in the distance. The front loomed like the walls of some colossal fortress, roiling darkness covering the whole horizon from sea to sky.

The captain, looking slightly shaken, hesitantly asked, "So, should we turn her around then? Try again another day?"

That shook Twilight out of her grumbling, and she snapped her head up with wide eyes. "What? No, take us through. My magic can keep the storm off us easily enough."

In an instant, the captain's features relaxed, and a smile spread across his face. "Oh, phew. You really had me worried for a second there, ma'am. There's no problem, then?"

Twilight did not look amused. "If you think that a storm of this size being left out of the schedule isn't a problem, then sure."

"Well… we're not in danger of dying, though."

"That doesn't excuse improper scheduling and shoddy organization!" Twilight exclaimed, before stomping off in a huff.

"Yeah," the captain mumbled under his breath, though Applejack still caught it. "That mare has strange priorities."

Twilight nearly ran into Applejack at the door before skidding to a halt and looking up from her brooding. Her scowl was replaced by a nervous grin.

"Oh… hi, Applejack," she said sheepishly.

"Twilight," Applejack managed to keep her voice level. "Is that what I think it is." She gestured to the massive bank of black clouds slowly growing closer as they approached it.

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, that depends. Do you think it's a massive, unscheduled, and uncontrolled storm?"

"…Yes."

"Then yeah, it's exactly what you think it is." Twilight seemed to notice that Applejack stopped breathing, and quickly moved to reassure her. "It's nothing to worry about, though! I've got more than enough magic to see us through the storm." She smiled proudly. "Not to brag or anything, but I probably won't even break a sweat. I'll keep us high and dry, and we'll be out the other side before you know it."

Applejack nodded shakily. "A-alright. Okay."

Twilight's expression softened. "Hey, Applejack, listen. If you really want…" She trailed off, wincing. Twilight seemed to physically brace herself before saying, "We can turn around now if you need us to."

There was no way Applejack could miss the pain in Twilight's voice as she made her offer. Applejack's fears suddenly seemed less important in light of just how much this meant to Twilight. She thought of what Fluttershy had told her about being brave, and she thought of the advice of Rarity.

It was time to 'buck up'.

"No, I'm fine, really." Applejack's fake smile became genuine when Twilight burst into an elated grin.

"Oh, thank you, Applejack! Thank you!" Twilight leapt forward and enveloped Applejack in a crushing hug.

Applejack chuckled. "Think nothin' of it, princess."

Twilight growled at the title, only prompting yet another chuckle from Applejack. Maybe the trip wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Now come on," Twilight said as she broke the hug. "We should go and warn the others."

Applejack blinked. "Warn 'em?"

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, my spells can keep us safe and secure, but there still might be a little… turbulence once we get into the storm."

"…Is it too late to change my mind 'bout turning around?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight had explained the situation to the rest of the girls, and was met with slightly better reactions than Applejack's. Rainbow Dash had offered to go and bust the storm up herself, though Twilight insisted it was unnecessary and needlessly dangerous. Rainbow Dash had reluctantly agreed to try Twilight's plan when she saw the size of the ever-approaching storm.

The other girls had agreed that they should push through, and Pinkie Pie had even offered to sing them a sea shanty to lift their spirits on the way. The sea shanty idea had been voted down 5 to 1.

Now the storm was nearly upon them, and Applejack was doing her best not to let her nerves show. It was even bigger up close, bigger than any storm Applejack had ever seen. The rumbling crashes of thunder and lightning could be heard from deep within the cloud bank, growing louder and louder as they approached. They were close enough that Applejack was about to voice concern when Twilight's horn finally lit up with a light purple glow. A similarly coloured bubble encased the ship and its passengers, tinting everything outside a pinkish hue.

Applejack felt a weight lift as the forcefield went into place. The sound of the storm became dampened, slightly, and even the tension in the air seemed to lessen a bit at Twilight’s spell.

The clouds loomed ever closer, taking up the entire view outside the forward windows. The room went silent as everyone held their breath in vague anticipation. Finally, inexorably, the airship delved directly into the oppressive cloudbank.

Nothing happened.

The light dimmed as the sunlight was blocked almost completely by the soupy clouds, but lanterns along the cabin's walls allowed for visibility inside the ship. Still, their progress remained smooth and steady. If it wasn't for the rolling grey mass outside the windows, and the constant rumbling sound of the storm, Applejack wouldn't have even been able to tell it was there. Even the sound was dampened a bit by Twilight’s magic, enough for them to talk without raising their voices.

Applejack felt her shoulders loosen a little. Again, it seemed, she'd gotten all worked up for nothing. Twilight had it all under con—

The worst sound Applejack could have ever imagined brought her train of thought to a grinding halt. Twilight Sparkled gasped in sudden pain.

Everyone shot to their hooves and turned to Twilight, but Fluttershy, of all ponies, was the first to speak. "Twilight? Are you okay?"

Twilight was silent for several agonizing moments, punctuated by booming thunder in the distance, before finally responding, "It's okay. I'm okay."

The tension in the room didn't go down. Applejack could see strain in Twilight's face as the alicorn's horn pulsed brightly. Applejack gulped dryly.

Twilight shook her head, then faced the group. "The storm is just… a little stronger than I anticipated. Nothing to worry about at all." She grit her teeth, and the glow of her horn intensified. "Just need to adjust the strength of my spell… and… there."

Twilight sighed in relief, all traces of strain leaving her face entirely. She settled back onto her haunches with a pleased smile on her face.

"See?" Twilight said. "What'd I tell you? Nothing to worry about."

Rarity fiddled with her mane and offered an encouraging smile. "Whatever you say, darling. I certainly won't question you on anything magical." She wobbled over and took a seat next to Fluttershy, who had already laid back down on one of the cushioned benches.

"You sure you don't want me to show this storm who's boss, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Even if it is unscheduled, a storm this size had to have been put together by somepony. We can't just ruin such a massive amount of weatherpony work because it's in our way. Getting rid of a weather system this big could cause a drought somewhere, for pony's sake!"

"I, uh… I knew that." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a forehoof. "I was just… testing you. 'Cause I'm a weatherpony and all, and I totally know all that… stuff about weather." Rainbow chuckled nervously, only to cut off with a loud yelp when thunder boomed somewhere close by.

Rarity stifled a giggle, and Applejack turned to see the fashionista hiding an amused smile behind a hoof. "Really now, Rainbow Dash. Is the weatherpony afraid of thunder?"

Rainbow rounded on Rarity, her winds ruffled at her sides. "I'm not afraid! I'm just… I dunno, antsy. Don't like being cooped up like this when there's big weather going on outside with nopony to wrangle it."

Another blast of thunder sounded somewhere outside, and Rainbow flinched slightly. Her wings fidgeted as she paced around the cabin. Every few steps would be punctuated by another boom of thunder, another flinch, another fidget. Rarity didn't comment on any of them.

Pinkie Pie seemed unconcerned with the situation, twiddling her hooves from where she sat on one of the benches and quietly whistling a tune. Seeing her friend so at ease calmed Applejack's nerves a bit, and she found herself able to sit down. Rarity had taken her seat next to Fluttershy, so Applejack took an unoccupied bench apart from the rest of the group.

Despite her misgivings, Applejack found her gaze drawn out the window. She stared into the concealing darkness of the storm, safely held at bay behind a translucent wall of magenta energy. Every boom of thunder was accompanied by a bright flash outside, some far away, some fairly close. Applejack grew more tense with each one.

Everyone else was silent. Rarity comforted Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie stopped whistling and curled up for a short nap, and Rainbow Dash continued her restless pacing.

Applejack wasn't sure how long she'd spent gazing out the window, though it must have been quite some time somepony finally spoke again.

"R-Rainbow Dash?" Twilight Sparkle gasped out.

Applejack turned, wide-eyed. She hadn't missed the clear effort in Twilight's voice. Something was wrong. Twilight was breathing heavier, and her mane was matted down with sweat. Her horn was glowing brighter than ever, but it seemed to dim in spurts and coughs.

Rainbow Dash was standing next to Twilight in a flash. Her hooves tapped on the floor anxiously as she too noticed the alicorn's decreasing state.

"What is it?" Rainbow Dash asked quickly. Her voice was all business.

Twilight seemed to take a moment to compose herself. Rarity was holding a hoof to her mouth, and even Pinkie Pie's smile was nothing but a broken reflection of its usual self. When Fluttershy stepped up to support Twilight with a shoulder to lean on, the newly-crowned princess finally found her voice.

"There's… there's something wrong with this storm. No storm is this strong." She clutched her head between her hooves, nearly falling before Fluttershy caught her and held her upright. "I… I can't… I don't think I c-can hold it… long enough."

Twilight turned to Rainbow with a pleading gaze, and the message was clear. Rainbow Dash nodded grimly, a confident smirk forming on her face.

"Got it," Rainbow Dash replied. She snapped a quick salute, and before anypony could so much as blink the pegasus had vanished out a door in a blur, closing the exit behind her with a strong beat of her wings.

Only Pinkie Pie was still seated. Rarity and Applejack were standing in the center of the room, fidgeting back and forth on their hooves. Fluttershy didn't leave Twilight's side, and murmured constant words of support in Twilight's ear.

Despite the combined efforts of Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the storm didn't seem to lessen at all. If anything, it was only getting worse.

"Twilight, darling," Rarity interjected sheepishly, tossing her mane with a forehoof. "Not to bother you, but is there a reason we can't just turn around and go home? We've made a valiant effort so far, but there's no shame in throwing in the towel now."

Twilight gasped for breath before responding, "B-Because, Rarity…" She grit her teeth. "The amount of t-time we've traveled into the s-storm… I don't think I c-could hold the spell… for the whole way back."

Applejack's heart dropped into her stomach, but Twilight wasn't quite done.

"All… all we c-can do… is trust Rainbow Dash… and hope we're m-more than halfway through." She paused, catching her breath. "I'm sorry."

Anything else she could've said was cut off as Twilight grunted in pain and nearly collapsed. Her horn flickered, and for the briefest of moments looked like it was about to go out. Fortunately, the spell held strong, and Twilight once more lapsed into silent, intense concentration.

The sound of raindrops pelting the glass windows nearly made Applejack jump out of her skin as she thought the protection spell had dropped. She quickly looked out the nearest porthole, but saw the shimmering field still in place outside. It wasn't gone… only weakened.

Applejack didn't feel much better.

The wind picked up, and was soon howling like the fury of the Windigos had been unleashed, and then the ship started moving and shifting as the protection from the storm's winds lessened. Applejack had to sit down to avoid falling over. The floor creaked and groaned as it shifted and tilted beneath her. Rarity sat across from Applejack, attempting to keep her balance on the constantly moving floorboards.

The motions stopped for a few moments, but the storm continued in its rage outside. Thunder rumbled ominously, closer than the last time. Every one was closer than the last. Rarity fidgeted and shifted where she was sitting, more out of nervousness than actual discomfort.

*KRAK-BOOM*

A sudden blast that sounded like it was right next to Applejack made her jump, as her coat stood on end. Rarity startled as well, letting out a shocked yelp. She blushed slightly and settled back down, adjusting her mane again needlessly. A nervous habit, apparently.

"I say. It certainly is bracing, is it not?" Rarity mumbled. She forced a nervous chuckle, and followed it up with an even more fake smile.

Applejack didn't respond. She focused on her breathing. Breath in, breath out. Sit up straight, forelegs locked. She feared that any attempt to reply would come out as nothing but a wordless squeak. Her mane frayed with static, strands sticking out wildly. Before she could begin to question it, her hooves developed an odd tingling sensation.

Rarity sighed. "Look, dear, I know it's not exactly… pleasant." She cringed as a nearby boom punctuated her statement. "Rest assured, everything will be just—"

Time paused. In a fraction of a second, Applejack could see the light of Twilight's horn flicker out at last, followed by the shield outside the ship dropping completely as Twilight collapsed to the floor. The tingling in her hooves grew more intense for that split second, and Applejack could feel a strange, fluttery sensation in her chest.

She blinked.

*BOOM*

She landed with a heavy thud on the hardwood floor. Applejack hadn't even realized she'd been airborne. The loud ringing noise was getting on her nerves. The room was sideways, and colourful shapes were standing on the walls. Wait, no, it wasn't sideways. She'd been knocked down. When had that happened? How?

Applejack regained her faculties at about the same time as her hearing. The sound of the storm was overpowered by panicked screaming. Applejack sat up slowly, trying to work out what was going on. Twilight was lying on the floor, her horn blackened and burnt. Fluttershy wasn't next to her for some reason, though it took only a moment to see what that reason was.

Pinkie Pie was sprawled across a bench. Her saddlebags were no longer in the above-head compartment, and were instead lying next to her spattered in blood that matched the large wound on Pinkie's forehead. Fluttershy was crouched over Pinkie's motionless form, keeping the mare steady as the ship rocked and shook wildly. Rarity and Fluttershy were both screaming, though they seemed to be the only two unhurt.

As Applejack watched, Pinkie Pie's bloodied saddlebags started sliding across the floor. She followed their tumbling journey with her eyes, only to stop, suddenly as the bags left the room and disappeared into the void of the storm.

Applejack blinked. Part of the ship was gone. A huge section of one wall was simply no more. The gaping wound was surrounded by jagged, broken, and burnt pieces of wood. Most of the wall had been blasted inwards, and the whole cabin was covered in splinters of wood and bits of glass. A bolt of lightning thicker than her leg flashed by just outside, and Applejack had no doubt as to what had caused the damage.

Applejack sat, staring numbly. She felt like she should be screaming, or maybe crying. Try as she might, Applejack just couldn't… feel. She idly wondered if she was in shock, but dismissed that thought as unimportant at the moment. It was time to act.

She took a step towards Twilight, and two things happened in rapid succession. First, Applejack was struck by the realization that the huge hole in the ship was directly next to where she had been sitting. That was what had sent her flying, had knocked her down. The second thing was Applejack's legs buckling and sending her tumbling in a heap to the floor.

Applejack gasped as she collapsed forward in a tangle of limbs. Her legs weren't obeying her commands, and attempts to stand were met with only more pratfalls. The room lurched suddenly, and Applejack rolled several paces towards the jagged hole. Finally, she felt something. She felt her heart leap into her throat.

The last bits of fog over Applejack's mind disappeared as she scrabbled desperately at the slippery floor. Rain pelted her as she slid inexorably closer to the opening. Her hooves scratched at the floor, trying to stop her deadly descent. It was no use. The rain-slick floorboards nearer to the hole only increased her speed. She tried to scream, but only a choked whimper came out as Applejack slid the last few feet and plunged over the edge of the precipice, and into the darkness below.

A blink passed, and the sensation of falling failed to appear.

When she tentatively inched her eyes open, lavender light filled Applejack's vision, lightly humming in an aura that surrounded her whole body.

Applejack gasped, chancing a look upwards. There she saw Twilight, barely peering over the edge of the hole. Her horn was glowing fitfully, still blackened, and starting to smoke as Twilight's breathing became laboured. Sparks shot off from Twilight's burnt horn randomly, each accompanied by a wince of pain from the alicorn. Twilight appeared to be straining, her legs were wobbling and her eyes were clenched shut.

"Applejack…" Twilight paused, the pained look on her face deepening. "I... I can't… I can't pull you up."

Applejack could only nod slowly. There was nothing she was capable of saying.

Twilight opened her eyes, and tears were falling freely from them. Applejack supposed she was crying too, but she couldn't tell in the heavy rain. Applejack's eyes widened as she spotted a tiny hairline fracture appear at the point of Twilight's horn, and slowly work its way down toward the base. Purple energy pulsed violently within the tiny crack, making it stand out harshly against the black of Twilight's horn.

Twilight spoke in barely a whisper, but the words reached Applejack clearly over the cacophony of the storm.

"I'm so sorry."

Applejack screamed when she fell, but the sound of it was drowned out by the rushing wind in her ears. She tumbled head over hooves, the grey clouds spinning and whirling as Applejack plummeted through the air. Suddenly, the uniform grey was replaced by alternating dark blue and grey. The blue would flash by Applejack's vision quickly, only to be replaced by the grey for a moment, then back to blue again.

It took several rotations before Applejack realized she was seeing the ocean with each flip. She couldn’t tell if it was growing any closer, though. A flash of something green in the distance sped across her vision, and the next moment found Applejack nearly blacking out from crushing pain. The wind was knocked out of her, and the rushing air finally stopped. Water was everywhere. Direction was meaningless as Applejack flailed helplessly.

She kicked her legs desperately, more out of instinct than any conscious thought. Her mind was a muddled mess. Her lungs burned. There was some sort of light ahead, but it was dim. It brightened with occasional flashes of luminescence, but even those were growing more and more dim. Darkness crept in at the edges of Applejack's vision. She was cold. It felt like Applejack was in a bathtub full of ice, and she was starting to forget why. Her struggles slowed, then stopped completely.

The feeling of a surface beneath her hooves came as a surprise. It wasn't solid, not quite. Grainy and gritty particles shifted underneath Applejack's hooves as she dragged herself forward. The surface scratched at her belly, but she couldn't do anything about it other than keep dragging herself forward. The ice cold embrace of the ocean was left behind. Applejack dragged herself another inch.

Her breathing felt wet, and a low gurgling noise was coming from her throat when she tried to inhale. Her lungs still burned. Applejack convulsed, her body wracked with violent coughing. She expelled a lungful of water that trickled down and pooled beneath her prostrate form. She managed to drag herself a bit farther.

Her breath was coming slightly easier, now. Applejack wasn't sure if her eyes were open or closed. Everything was blackness. The rain pattered against her back incessantly. She dragged herself a little more. A forehoof brushed against something, and Applejack clutched at it as she recognized the object by touch alone.

Her hat. Her father's hat.

She clutched it like a lifeline, and attempted to place it on her head, but her foreleg responded sluggishly. It took several tries before she felt it settle atop her mane. Applejack tried to drag herself along the ground a bit more, but couldn't summon the strength to move her legs. She simply lay there, breathing slowly. The presence of her old hat calmed her down some, provided security.

Everything was still dark. Was it night time, or had she closed her eyes? It didn't matter. She was okay. She was alive. She was okay.

She was alive.

Finally, Applejack passed out.

Author's Note

Edited by Aatxe360, Edmar Fecler, and Pyromitsu.
Three of the swellest folk around. This chapter wouldn't be here without their help!
Well... it would. It would just be full of grammar errors. :rainbowwild:

The Worst Day Since Yesterday
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Mother of Invention

The Worst Day Since Yesterday

Applejack did not wake gently. She coughed and sputtered, desperately sucking air into her lungs as she was thrust forcefully into the waking world once more. The first few deep breaths were somehow filled with water, only exacerbating Applejack's coughing fit.

She pushed shakily up to her hooves as her mind slowly unclouded itself. The rain was pouring down in sheets, exactly as it had been when she'd passed out on the beach. The left side of her face had become caked in wet sand as she had laid there for who knows how long.

Applejack shook her head to clear it, spitting out one last mouthful of rainwater. She tasted metal on her tongue as she did, and carefully brought a forehoof up to her muzzle. It came away red, and Applejack could only stare at her stained hoof until a loud blast of thunder snapped her out of it.

No time to worry about things like that. She needed to get to shelter.

She paused only to wipe some of the blood from her muzzle and check that her hat was secure upon her head. Fortunately, her nose was no longer bleeding profusely, and her signature headgear was safe and sound. Applejack let out a sigh as she felt the old, familiar stetson atop her mane.

She was getting distracted. Her head was still scattered. Applejack forcefully returned her hoof to the ground and focused on the here and now.

She trotted into the treeline, hoping for a little cover from the relentless downpour. Unfortunately, the thin canopy this near to the island's edge did little to protect from the torrential storm.

Applejack considered forging deeper inland, but there was no guarantee that even the thicker canopy would do much against such an intense rain, and with her visibility so limited she ran the risk of getting completely lost. Not to mention that every second she spent being soaked to her bones was increasing the chance of catching cold. That was not something Applejack wanted to deal with on a deserted island.

A new solution came to mind, and without wasting any time Applejack set off at a trot through the jungle. She glanced skyward as she walked, hoping to catch some clue as to how long she'd been out. The tumultuous, overcast sky failed to tell her anything, which only caused Applejack to frown. For all she knew, nightfall could be fast approaching.

She pushed those thoughts aside for now. It could just as easily still be afternoon. There was no sense getting worried for what might amount to nothing. Instead, she focused on the path before her. The jungle was only visible for about ten feet in all directions before fading into the surrounding curtain of water. The going was slow, but Applejack was making progress. She thought she recognized the immediate area, and could only trust that she was heading in the right direction.

Before her mind had a chance to wander, Applejack's ear twitched. There was something, just on the edge of hearing. Something was out of place underneath the incessant roar of the storm. For a moment, her ears folded down from a particularly loud blast of thunder. She didn't even need to look up to know that the accompanying lightning never came close to reaching the ground.

In the very instant her ears raised back up, Applejack caught it. An unholy shriek that caused her stomach to drop to her hooves.

"No, no, no, no, no," Applejack whispered, her voice lost in another blast of thunder.

Then came the one thing she was dreading. Applejack felt her guts twist uncomfortably, more than just the fear she'd already been feeling, more than any fear she'd ever felt in her life. Like something horrible had crawled inside her and was working its way into her very being, tainting her to her core. Quite simply, Applejack felt wrong.

Then, the fear settled in. It was irrational, insane, but Applejack wanted nothing more in that moment than to curl into a ball on the ground and await her fate. With tremendous effort, Applejack managed to push down the sudden surge of ice-cold fear enough that she could move her shaking legs.

She wasted no more time. Applejack set off at a sprint while the effect was still weak enough to allow it. Another shriek echoed across the jungle, this one somehow clearly audible over the sound of the storm, as if this time it wanted to be heard, and nothing would ever stop it.

The inequine shriek sounded again, at the exact same volume, but somehow closer. Applejack panted desperately as she sprinted full-bore through the jungle. She was no longer sure if she was on the right track, but there was no going back now. Whatever that thing was, the storm had only encouraged it. The queasy wrongness in her belly was steadily worsening no matter how hard she ran. It was catching up.

The treeline appeared suddenly, and never was there a more welcome surprise. Applejack would've whooped for joy if she'd had the breath. Her destination was at hoof. She burst out of the jungle without slowing, and sped up the slope that greeted her. The muddy jungle floor gave way to gravel beneath her hooves as Applejack ascended towards salvation.

The shriek came once more, this time sounding like it was being screamed directly into her ear. She stumbled as the sickening, twisting feeling redoubled. The cave entrance loomed before her, and Applejack summoned the last of her strength to throw herself inside.

She couldn't be sure that she was safe, but staying in the cave had seemed to work for the first couple nights. Besides, even if she had wanted to keep running, Applejack couldn't summon the strength to get up from where she'd landed on the cold stone floor. She was drained, mentally and physically.

Still, drained as she was, Applejack managed to squirm until she was turned to face out of the cave entrance. The feeling of wrongness remained, but it wasn't getting any worse. It wasn't getting any better, either.

Applejack squinted her eyes, staring out at the treeline past the thick curtain of rain. Even without the constant rainfall, there was little light to see by. Applejack wasn't able to make out anything in the darkness, but the rapid beating of her heart and the twisting of her guts told her well and clear that it was still out there.

A booming blast of thunder echoed out across the jungle, and for a moment the world was lit up with brilliant blue light as lightning arced across the sky above. There, in that split-second of illumination, something caught Applejack's eye.

The lightning lit up most of the island, but the canopy allowed only a small bit of light through. Still, just past the treeline, in the darkness of the jungle beyond, something stood out as darker than the space around it. Some indistinguishable shape, unaffected by the brief flash that lit up the rest of the island. It was impossible to make out in the dimness, but time seemed to freeze as Applejack's gaze snapped to the patch of blackness.

It was different from the surrounding darkness, different from real darkness. More than a simple absence of light. It was the infinite and all-consuming darkness that only exists in dreams… and nightmares. It made the nearly pitch-black jungle look bright by comparison.

It was painful to look at, like something inside Applejack was being lost simply by allowing her eyes to point in the blackness' direction. Attempting to focus, to discern a shape from the inky blotch, only resulted in a dull pain behind her eyes. The sickly, wrong feeling redoubled. Applejack's ears folded flat against her skull, and she couldn't help the pitiful whimper that escaped her throat. She wanted to get out, wanted to shoot to her hooves and sprint out of the cave, out into the jungle or anywhere but here.

And then Applejack blinked.

Once more the island was plunged into darkness as the lightning's illumination ended. Had it really only been a split-second? Applejack had felt like she was staring for minutes, at least. Was it some sort of trick, or had adrenaline simply slowed her perception of time?

She shook her head quickly, and then peered out into the jungle once more. The patch of blackness was no longer visible, and the horrible feeling worming its way into her core had vanished instantly. Upon realizing that she no longer felt 'wrong', Applejack would've stumbled if she were standing. The sudden change was staggering. The few times she'd encountered that… thing in the past, it had never disappeared so suddenly.

Applejack's heart still thundered in her ears, but it was slowly returning to a reasonable rate. The only other sound was the constant background roar of the storm, punctuated every so often by peals of thunder.

She sighed, but didn't let herself relax too much. In the relative peace, a powerful headache was finding the time to make itself known. On the plus side, it didn't feel like her head was splitting open. The headache was merely a faint echo of the pain that had incapacitated her on the beach. Still, it was far from pleasant.

Applejack decided to scoot a ways deeper into the cave. She still didn't trust her legs to carry her very far, but she managed to shuffle into a relatively comfortable position on the dry floor farther from the entrance.

It took a few moments to gather up her scattered thoughts. She knew exactly how she'd ended up on the island, now, but recovering her memories had left too many questions unanswered, and the answers it had provided were of no use to her at the moment. If nothing else, she knew that her friends probably thought she was dead.

The thought tore at her. Her friends, and worse still, her family could be hurting something fierce at this very moment. However, as much as it pained Applejack, she couldn't focus on that. She had to focus on how her supposed death would affect her. The fact of the matter was, it made any rescue arriving all the more unlikely.

While the idea of waiting around for an airship to pick her up had been appealing, it was looking more and more likely that Applejack would have to save herself. She had already thrown out those messages in bottles, but she would have to take some bigger steps towards getting home if she ever wanted to see her family again.

Applejack winced as a blast of thunder shot a jolt of pain through her aching head.

Planning her escape could wait. She laid her head down on crossed forehooves. There would be much to do, and she was just too tired to think about it all right now. If nothing else, she could allow her mind to go blank and get a few hours' rest while waiting for the storm to blow over or morning to arrive.

Tired as she was, there was no chance at all of Applejack getting any sleep that night. Whatever was following her seemed to have left, but Applejack was taking no chances. Her eyes never left the cave entrance as she sat motionless, waiting, watching for any movement from the stormy world outside.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, but in the end, it was long enough. First to go was the thunder and lightning. The intermittent blasts became less and less frequent, until one last bright bolt arced across the sky in the distance. Next, the rain slowed down until it was nothing but a lazy pitter-patter.

Still, Applejack stayed sequestered in the safety of her cave. She couldn't risk the storm kicking back up just when she went outside.

Finally, the last few drops of rain trailed off, and the island fell into complete silence. Applejack's ears perked up, and she lifted her head from her hooves. It took a few bleary blinks to clear the haze from her vision, but once Applejack could focus clearly she saw sunlight streaming through the open mouth of the cave.

She pushed up to her hooves with a bit of effort and stumbled out into the light of day. The entire landscape before her glistened with a million lingering drops of rain, clinging to each leaf or blade of grass and reflecting the sunlight like diamonds.

Sunlight. Right. Applejack was getting distracted.

She glanced skyward to gauge the time of day, shielding her eyes with a forehoof. From what she could tell, the sun was only a few lengths above the horizon. Still morning, then. In addition, the entire sky was blue and clear as far as the eye could see. Not a single trace of the previous day's harsh monsoon remained. Applejack wasn't sure if such big weather was supposed to clear up that fast without pegasus intervention, but at least it fit with the storm's near-instantaneous appearance. In any case, Applejack decided it was probably best not to question it.

Pausing momentarily to stretch her stiff limbs, Applejack mentally assessed the day ahead of her. She would need to light a new fire. Actually, she would probably need to gather an entirely new stock of firewood. The stuff under the thick jungle canopy surrounding her camp would be dry enough, but the supply she'd stocked in the clearing would be absolutely waterlogged. She would have a lot of work ahead of her, and the day was already partially wasted. If nothing else, Applejack hoped that her shelter had withstood the downpour.

Reminding herself that the day was already getting on, Applejack set off down the hill and into the jungle. She hadn't removed her saddlebags when she laid down the night before, and the straps were beginning to dig into her back uncomfortably. It certainly didn't help that the bags, and Applejack herself, were still soaking wet.

Applejack tried to push those things out of her mind and simply focus on putting one hoof in front of the others. A bush rustled in the distance to her left, but the sound barely registered in Applejack's exhausted mind. She plodded along, and soon enough the discomfort of her saddlebags and the dampness clinging to her coat were all but forgotten in her monotonous march through the undergrowth.

The plants beneath her hooves were covered in raindrops at first, but they became more and more dry as Applejack went deeper into the jungle. Eventually, where the canopy was thick enough to block out even most sunlight, she was walking on dry ground again. The air, on the other hoof, was humid and stifling. The sun wasted no time in warming the island until Applejack felt like she was in a sauna.

It came as a relief, and no small surprise, when Applejack stumbled out of the treeline and into a very familiar clearing. She hadn't realized how long she'd been walking. A quick glance at the sun's position indicated that several hours had indeed passed since she departed the cave. Applejack shook her head in a vain attempt to focus, but only succeeded in making herself dizzy. Maybe she needed sleep more than she thought.

"Ain't no point complainin' about that now, is there?" she muttered to nopony as she trotted over to her little encampment by the not-so-little boulder.

She quickly shed her saddlebags and set them down in the grass to dry, before unstrapping the knife sheath from her left foreleg and placing it next to them. Fortunately, the grass of the clearing was entirely clear of any moisture. Direct sunlight did wonders, it seemed, and Applejack decided she could spare a few moments to experience it herself.

Her satisfied sigh echoed across the clearing as Applejack spread herself out comfortably in the soft grass. She allowed her eyes to close, but willed off the siren call of sleep as she rested in the warming sunlight. It was a different sort of warmth from the choking heat of the jungle, and it was far more welcome. It chased away a lingering chill that Applejack hadn't even known was there, and dried the last drops of water clinging to her coat and short mane.

After far too few minutes, Applejack grunted and forced herself back to a standing position. There was still work to be done, after all. She only spared one last quick glance at the brightly burning sun where it hung in the deep blue sky.

"Thanks. I needed that," she said, tipping her hat to the Celestial orb.

First things first, she checked up on her fire. As expected, it was completely and utterly extinguished. All that remained was a soggy mess of ash and coals. Applejack sighed and ineffectually poked at the fire pit with a forehoof, before turning to inspect the rest of her camp.

Most of her firewood supply had been destroyed, as she'd thought, but there were enough salvageable sticks at the very bottom of the stack that she could make one more fire. That was the best news she'd had all day. At least she could wait until she was fully rested before heading out to gather a new stock of wood.

Next, Applejack trotted on over to the river at the edge of the clearing. Sure enough, when she peered in at her reflection she found bits of sand still clinging to the side of her face, and dried blood running down from her nose and staining her face and neck something fierce. She dipped her head in the cool water and rubbed at the mess with her hooves. It took a bit of doing, but she managed to get her coat back to relative cleanliness. Either that, or the orange shade of it simply hid the lingering stains of blood, but that wasn't a thought Applejack wanted to entertain.

She walked back over to her campsite, and dreading what she might find underneath, finally turned to her lean-to. She inched towards it carefully, tentatively poked her head inside, only to find… everything was perfectly intact and dry. The roof of sticks and plant-matter had, surprisingly, managed to insulate her living space from the effects of the storm.

Applejack let loose a long sigh of relief as she gazed at her pink blanket and thought of a warm, dry sleep that night. Her gaze fell upon the rubber chicken sitting with its back against the rock, and she couldn't help the little giggle that escaped her throat, nor the little smile that accompanied it.

"'Least you stayed dry last night, little guy."

She glanced over to the various things she'd gathered from the cottage ruins, and her smile faltered slightly. The knick-knacks had stayed dry, at least, but they still carried a few troubling thoughts. Applejack trotted inside the shelter and examined them more closely.

She checked the strange book first, as a tiny drop of water could cause severe damage. It was, as she'd initially assessed, completely dry. Not that it mattered, since she still couldn't read the stupid thing. With a snort, Applejack tossed it back down and turned to the rest.

The locket, and the picture inside, were similarly undamaged, much to Applejack's relief. She spent a few moments to observe the smiling face of the pony within before gently setting it down.

Her eyes fell on the canvas bag containing several seemingly generic gemstones, unremarkable if not for the mysterious symbol labeling it, and its twin painted on the wall deep underground. Applejack felt her frustration boiling over. So many unanswered questions, and this damned island just kept throwing them at her.

She stomped a hoof in frustration, rattling the wall of her little lean-to. Applejack took a few deep, calming breaths. There was no sense getting worked up about it. Turning around briskly, Applejack stepped back out into the clearing.

The sun hadn't slowed down at all while she had idly inspected her camp, and it was already reaching midday. Wait, noon already? Applejack really was tired. Time was passing faster than she could keep up with.

Her rambling train of thought was interrupted by a low growl from her stomach, and the realization that she hadn't eaten since yesterday. Applejack cracked open a coconut with her knife and devoured the entire thing. It wasn't quite enough that she was full, but it was enough for now.

Next, she focused on getting a fire started. The little task helped her forget the endless mystery of the island, if only for a moment. By the time she had a little blaze crackling away, her frustrations were all but gone. They would never be completely gone, not until she figured out exactly what secrets the strange island held, what was contained in the pages of that book, who was the pony in the locket, what significance did the gems hold, what did the symbol—

Applejack took a deep breath. She held it in for a moment, then released it.

No, she wouldn't waste her focus on those things. Not just then. She had to remember what was important: getting home to her family. Whether it was the island itself, or her lack of sleep, or if Applejack really was going a bit crazy, she was starting to forget what really mattered. Starting to get mired down in questions and answers and mysteries when her only worry should be seeing family again.

Yes, that was what mattered. Her family, her friends, Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres. She would get back there. She'd do it herself. Her friends probably thought she was dead, so she'd find her own way home. Somehow.

Applejack blinked as a loud pop from the fire snapped her out of a daze. She glanced upwards. The sun had jumped ahead a few hours again. She'd been staring into the fire for a good part of the afternoon, apparently.

Tomorrow, then. She would get started on getting home tomorrow, the island's mysteries be damned.

Applejack tossed another bit of wood onto the fire. She would certainly be going to bed early that night. She could only hope that she didn't dream.

Author's Note

Edited by Aatxe360, and Pyromitsu.
They're both pretty dang swell, if you ask me!

Waiting For My Real Life To Begin
View Online

Mother of Invention

Waiting For My Real Life To Begin

The thick undergrowth was crushed or brushed aside by Applejack's strong hooves without effort. Well… She paused as a plant snagged her hindleg, grunting in frustration for a few moments before finally breaking free of the wretched thing.

Okay, so maybe a bit of effort. Her time on the island certainly hadn't been kind to her muscular physique, but such was the consequence of too little food and farmwork. She muttered under her breath as she stomped through the jungle with a little more force than strictly necessary. It was going to be a pain to work herself back into shape once she got home.

As she walked, her saddlebags bounced against her back, reminding her of their presence with every step. The knife strapped to her left foreleg was such a familiar weight that she hardly even noticed it anymore. Finally, the golden locket around her neck swayed back and forth in time with her march next to the her ever-useful canteen.

She'd taken to wearing the locket most every day now. It had a sort of comfort to it, to know that she wasn't the only pony to have lived through what this island was throwing at her. Someone else had survived, even thrived, on this island, and they'd left a memento behind. In addition, it served as a sort of reminder as to what she was fighting for. Much in same the way it probably had for the locket's original owner, the smiling face within encouraged her to keep going, so that she might see the same expression in the faces of her very own friends once again.

Assuming her friends were still okay. Applejack knew exactly how she'd ended up on the island now, but the state of the other Elements remained a mystery. All she really could do was assume that they were okay. They made it through the storm, they all got home safe and sound, a little banged up, but otherwise fine. That was a fact she chose to accept because the alternative didn't bear consideration.

Still, they probably thought Applejack had perished, and she aimed to prove them wrong. Ever since her memory came back, Applejack had been working towards that aim.

It had been a week since the big storm, meaning that Applejack had spent a total of 19 days on the island so far. She almost couldn't believe it herself, if not for the fact that she'd kept careful count. The charcoal tallies she made every morning had survived the rainfall mostly intact, and she hadn't stopped adding to them. 19 tallies. 19 days. Nearly a month.

Yet now, at long last, her best chance to get home was finally in reach.

No, she couldn't get too ahead of herself. Applejack had spent the last week working on a project that might get her home, but there was no guarantee it would even work, and there was no sense letting her hopes rise too high. Besides, it wasn't even ready yet. Tomorrow was the big day, and for now she needed to focus on today.

Of course, Applejack had found other things besides her 'project' to occupy her time for the last week. She'd taken to exploring the island a bit more widely than she had in the past, scouring areas a little further from her camp. Her justification for this was finding food, and she did find plenty of food to bolster her supply, but she had another motive. She wanted one last chance to really figure out what this island was hiding before she put it behind her forever—

And there she went, getting ahead of herself again. Applejack shook her head. Best to just not think for a while, probably. She plodded through the untamed jungle in silence, then, casting her eyes around her and keeping her head on a swivel, focusing intently on her surroundings. Her saddlebags were already half full with a few blueberries, carefully wrapped in large leaves, and two coconuts. She could do with a bit more before heading back to camp.

In all her exploration, she still hadn't really found… well, anything. She'd almost started to wonder if her mind had simply invented that old ruined cellar, before a trip back to the lake a few days ago for some building supplies had revealed the old cabin site exactly where she'd left it. Perhaps that was simply all the island had to offer. Maybe it really was as completely barren as it seemed at first glance. Applejack sighed. She hadn't even managed to puzzle out the source of that incessant, though intermittent, rustling in the bush—

Applejack's hooves ground to a halt at much the same instant as her train of thought.

She stood stock still for several moments before managing to rub at her eyes with a forehoof. Even upon doing so, the sight before her stayed exactly the same. Still unsure if she was seeing correctly, Applejack took a few tentative steps forward and reached out. Sure enough, her hoof came into solid contact with the brickwork before her.

It was a structure. Another structure. It had been… days? Weeks? It had been a long time since she'd discovered the old ruined cabin site for the first time, and finally she'd come across something else.

That something was a wall, about chest-height, made of old-fashioned red bricks. The wall was topped with a layer of decorative grey stone, and interspersed with long jagged things sticking out at even intervals. Upon closer inspection, the jagged things turned out to be broken off metal bars, like some giant framework or cage had been smashed to bits, leaving only the brick-and-mortar base standing with the broken bits of the cage jutting out like snapped bones.

The wall extended into the foliage to either side, but Applejack could still make out its general path through the undergrowth. It only went a short distance in each direction before turning 90 degrees and forming a rectangle that ended somewhere vaguely in front of her.

Applejack turned her attention from the wall, and to the very reason she didn't know where the rectangle ended. The entire inside of the structure was completely overgrown with plant life. Vines as thick as her leg sprawled across the floor and ran out over the walls, though none of them ever went more than a short distance from their un-enclosed enclosure. Bushes larger and greener than anything she'd encountered so far made up the space in between, and Applejack could see the tops of trees sticking up out of the fray as well. Strange trees that she didn't recognize, and that was saying something. The bit of trunk she could see was twisty and smooth, almost as if it didn't have any bark at all. Here and there, the tree had patches of a thin and peeling light brown bark that looked more like paper than anything that could protect a tree. Its leaves were long, curved, and thick, coloured a rich and deep green on the top, and a slightly lighter green on the bottom.

Whatever this place was, the soil in there must have been fantastic for all that close-packed growth.

Applejack hopped up over the wall, carefully avoiding the sharp metal sticking out here and there. Her hooves crunched down on something as she landed on the other side, and Applejack nearly jumped in surprise.

She looked down quickly, only to discover tiny shards of glass underhoof. She cringed as she looked around, spotting plenty of huge and sharp pieces that could've seriously injured her. She had managed to land on a patch of relatively small bits, and she released a breathy chuckle as she realized how close she'd come to an injury that could've easily turned fatal. If she ever got too injured to walk…

Best not to think about that.

Turning her focus back to the floor, Applejack carefully navigated around the larger shards as she moved away from the brick wall and deeper into the plant-infested structure. While none of the smaller pieces could hope to do any damage, it was still going to be a pain getting them all out of her hooves later. Where had so much glass even come from, anyway? It was like the entire building had been nothing but windows—

Applejack stopped moving and blinked several times. Of course. Tons of plants, metal framework, nothing but windows!

It was a greenhouse. Applejack had discovered an old, ruined greenhouse. Whatever fate had befallen the old cabin had apparently hit this building as well, and though the brick wall had remained standing the rest of the greenhouse had been smashed. Whoever used to take care of it had clearly been gone for some time, and the plants had managed to completely overthrow the building, tearing up flooring and breaking out of their growing areas to encompass the entire interior.

With this new perspective in mind, Applejack looked back at the seemingly random tangle of overgrowth before her. Sure enough, a pattern emerged. She could see the remnants of neat rows and organization, and she could also see where there used to be wide paths for walking.

She stepped over a particularly huge vine and towards one such path. Like the rest of the building, it had been mostly grown over, but there still remained a thin strip of ruinous floor for Applejack to use. The cold, cracking tile felt strange on her hooves, unnatural. She'd spent so long getting used to being away from civilisation that even such a small exposure to a pony-made thing felt strange. That was slightly concerning.

Her hooves clack-clack'd on the hard tiles as she trotted down the walkway. Now that she knew what this place was, Applejack knew what she should be looking for. Her eyes roved across the myriad plant life in search of any sort of foodstuffs, but unfortunately there didn't seem to be much there. It must have been a botanist's greenhouse, rather than a farmer's. At least that explained the exotic trees.

Finally, just when she was about to give up hope on finding any food, Applejack's eyes caught a flash of red. Her heart skipped a beat. Applejack stopped moving, and slowly swivelled her head in the direction she thought she'd seen something. Sure enough, through the countless leaves, she could make out something red growing in the next row over. Something red and round.

Applejack nearly broke into a full sprint then and there. Her hooves slipped on the smooth tile at first, and she was forced to proceed at a careful trot as she made her way down the row in search of an opening to the next row over. Finding one, she immediately leapt through and turned back the way she came. Up the row she went, her mouth watering, her heart racing, she could see the delicious fruit coming in to view now. Smiling wider than she had in weeks, Applejack skidded to a stop in front a beautiful bushel of fresh—

Tomatoes. They were tomatoes. Applejack collapsed to her knees, staring up in disbelief at the pretender before her through tear-filled eyes. She glared hatefully at the accursed plant-monster that had deceived her so horribly, tantalized her with her deepest desires and then tore them away at the last moment to leave her gasping like a fish without water, a flower without sunlight… an Apple without apples.

Or maybe she was just being overdramatic about it.

Applejack pushed to her hooves and heaved a disappointed sigh, before opening the flaps on her saddlebags and beginning to pick the ripe tomatoes. After all, it was still food, and a change of pace from constant flowers and coconuts was a great thing no matter what that change was.

The rest of the greenhouse proved even more disappointing, though certainly still interesting. Applejack could only name maybe half the plants in there, and she was pretty sure half of those were twice as big as they should've been. Other than that, there really wasn't much there. There was no basement for her to loot this time, only plants and broken glass.

As she walked around the abandoned place, Applejack idly wondered if it was owned by the same pony who'd lived in the old cabin. Or perhaps it had been a group of ponies. That seemed more likely. Then again, it was also possible that the two buildings had existed and been destroyed years apart from one another, and neither of the owners had ever known that the other existed.

When she was finished exploring every row, she'd ended up on the opposite side of the building from where she'd entered. It was nearly identical, except that this was apparently the front of the greenhouse, given the door hanging crookedly from a dilapidated frame set into the brick wall.

While she could just as easily jump over the wall again, Applejack shrugged and decided to be polite. She pushed open the door, which was actually harder than it had looked. The thing was made of solid metal for some reason, and the bent and crooked hinges were in desperate need of an oiling.

On the other side of the door, faced with the suddenly less-impressive undergrowth of the jungle, Applejack paused. On some deeply-ingrained impulse, and completely without any conscious decision, she turned around and closed the door behind her.

And there it was. There was the connection to the old cabin.

The day was only just beginning, and already Applejack was getting emotionally exhausted. She could only stare, silently, again, at what she was seeing. It should probably have been a happy discovery, it answered at least one of her questions. Of course, it raised even more, and reminded her of about a million other unanswered questions she'd already had.

For there, painted on the cold grey metal in white stencilled paint. Was a symbol she was becoming all too familiar with: An outline of a pony's head, complete with a unicorn horn, framed by a large pair of pegasus wings that flared out to the sides, and surrounded with a large, triangular outline. It even had the words along the bottom: "NEC DI NEC DOMINI", a phrase Applejack already knew by heart despite having no idea what it meant.

She sighed, longer and heavier than any sigh she'd sighed that day. It seemed there would be no further answers here. Especially given that she never planned on seeing that island again after tomorrow.

Briefly, she entertained the thought of postponing her plan for a little longer. Perhaps if she took an extra day or two to investigate a little more, she'd finally gain the answers she craved.

Applejack shook her head. No, there would be no distractions. If everything went to plan, this would be her last day on the island.

The tomatoes had filled the rest of the space in her saddlebags, so Applejack began the hike back to camp. She was able to retrace her steps with relative ease, and it wasn't long before she found herself back in her clearing. The little rubber chicken sat propped against the boulder, as if the thing was staring into the smouldering fire. Applejack paused to tip her hat at it, then went and unloaded the contents of her saddlebags into her stock of food. It was higher than it had ever been, but there was good cause for that. Her plan depended on it.

Applejack glanced up to the sky, and found the sun only a few hours away from its midpoint in the sky. Still morning, then. She had plenty of time to prepare for tomorrow. Her stomach loudly reminded her that she had yet to eat breakfast, so Applejack took a few moments to chow down some wildflowers.

With her meal done, Applejack went over the remainder of her food. She had plenty of coconuts, a decent amount of blueberries, and now several fresh tomatoes. There weren't many flowers left, but they weren't really needed now that she had so much of everything else. Smiling, she loaded as much as she could into her saddlebags, carefully placing the coconuts on the bottom so as not to crush the softer foodstuffs.

"Be back in a while," she muttered aside to the chicken, earning no reply. "You just, uh, hold the fort…" Applejack trailed off as she realized what she was doing.

She shook her head forcefully. "Whoo whee, talkin' to a toy. What's next, talkin' to myself?"

Her eyes crossed. "Wait…"

The walk to the beach was uneventful. Tedious, even. She'd made it so many times over the past week that she could probably do it in her sleep, but it was necessary. At long last, she reached her destination: The very beach where she'd woken up some 19 days ago. The weather was in sharp contrast to the harsh storm that had wracked it a week ago. The midday sun glinted off gently undulating waves, which cascaded across the beach in a chorus of soothing sound uninterrupted by any interference but the gentle ocean breeze across the warm sand.

Of course, Applejack wasn't there for sight-seeing. She immediately ignored nature's beauty in favour of walking along the beach to her left. Again, it was a familiar walk. She'd been stocking a second supply of food there for the past few days, and this load would be the last she needed. She didn't have far to go, and before long her destination was in view. The culmination of a week's constant work. A sign of her ability to get things done, her skill as a craftspony, and her determination to get home. There, on the sand a short distance from the rolling waters, was the single most intensive thing she'd accomplished since waking up on that island.

It was the thing that would finally get her home. It was a raft.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack slept like a baby that night. She wasn't plagued by nightmares, she didn't even dream. When she woke up the next morning, she felt like a filly on Hearth's Warming. It took all her willpower to suppress those emotions and look at things evenly. After all, there was no telling that her makeshift raft would even float, much less make it out past the pull of the tides and into the open ocean. For that very reason, she was leaving a decent supply of food at her base camp. After all, if her plan did fail, a possibility she couldn't ignore, then she wouldn't want to come back to a campsite completely emptied of food.

She yawned as she rose to her hooves, stretching out her limbs to a cacophony of pops and cracks. It was earlier than she usually arose, and the sun wasn't even up yet. Fortunately, Applejack had never had a problem with getting up early. It was a simple matter of telling herself that she needed to be up on time, and her internal clock did the rest.

Applejack strapped the knife to her foreleg, more out of routine than because she thought it'd be useful at sea. She hesitated only a moment before hanging the gold locket around her neck. As she did every morning, Applejack clicked open the lid and spent a brief moment simply looking at the pony within. The pony smiled back at her, same as always, and Applejack immediately felt a bit more ready to face the day.

That done, she put on her canteen and saddlebags and double-checked to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. The mysterious book sat on the floor of her shelter, and she very nearly left it behind. Alas, her curiosity got the better of her, and she stored it in the saddlebags for future investigation. If nothing else, she could get Twilight Sparkle to give the book a once-over. The little bag of gems, she did leave. They didn't seem to really do anything, and she could find countless identical gems just outside Ponyville easily enough. No, they definitely weren't worth wasting any saddlebag space over.

The rest of her supplies, the remaining food, things she'd pilfered from the cellar: rubbing alcohol, old blankets, quills and papers. It had all seemed so useful at the time, but none of it would be of any help at this point. At last, her eyes fell upon the little rubber chicken, and she smiled a little apologetically.

"Sorry, li'l fella. Looks like this is where we part ways."

And with that, Applejack turned tail and trotted out of the lean-to and into the dim light of pre-dawn. The little shelter was plunged into total silence. Not even the odd rustling noise presented itself. Applejack's departure left nothing but a void occupied by a single, staring, silent chicken. It leaned against the rock wall in a slouched posture, completely and utterly still—

Applejack stomped back inside with a resigned groan that echoed across the clearing. "Alright, alright, sheesh." She picked up the little guy and stuffed him into her bags. "But only 'cause I know Pinkie's gonna want you back."

She paused outside in the clearing, and despite the fact that there was no reason to, she picked up a piece of charcoal and made one last tally mark on the wall of the boulder. It was silly, sure, but at least if anypony else ever found her camp, they'd get an accurate count. Her last task done, Applejack trotted out of the into the jungle, turning her back on the clearing for the last time.

The walk to the beach should've been routine, tedious even, but Applejack was too excited for such words. She practically pranced through the trees, all the while humming a tuneless tune to herself. The sun's edge was just tipping over the horizon, and the island was bathed in a low orange glow. Shafts of sunlight pierced the vegetation around her at a near horizontal angle as the sun peeked tentatively into the world of the waking.

Applejack made quick time, and the sun was still rising as she trotted out of the jungle and onto the cool sand. She was reminded of her first morning there. The rising sun cast its light upon the waves nearer to shore and painted fanciful patterns that danced across the ocean's sandy floor. Applejack breathed deeply, savouring the salty air and the cool ocean breeze. Her eyes closed, she listened to the gentle whooshing of the ocean. It had sounded so foreign, that first morning, to hear waves that were so great compared to the lakes she had seen in the past. So much had been foreign to her, it was a wonder she'd adapted as well as she had.

Somepony once said, 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Applejack had always thought that was dumb. It seemed to her that you could get plenty strong without going anywhere near things that could kill you. For years, she'd simply shrugged it off as silly pseudo-philosophy and forgotten it. Only now it came back to mind, and only now was she beginning to see the wisdom in that statement.

Her eyes snapped back open, and Applejack was ready. She was ready to go home.

She trotted over to her hoof-made raft and ran a quick inspection for any damages. The vessel was still in perfect condition, fortunately. It seemed that whatever monster stalked her in the night didn't quite have the wherewithal or the smarts to sabotage her work.

The raft was about four pony-lengths long, and three lengths wide. Applejack had managed to find two large pieces of driftwood, entire trees in their own right that had been washed of bark and branches by their time at sea. They made up the two sides of the raft, with the two logs running in parallel from front to back and providing the main floatation. Across the tops of those, Applejack had laid out thick branches or small trees as densely as possible to serve as a floor. The length of rope that she'd found in the cellar basement had been quite long, but Applejack had used the entire thing to secure her craft together. With her knowledge of ropes and knots, however, there was no way it was coming apart any time soon.

It was fortunate that Applejack didn't have much in the way of luggage. She wasn't exactly familiar with boat-making, and she wasn't quite sure what the load capacity was on her little ship. She could only hope it would be enough.

Next, Applejack went over to the treeline and retrieved her store of food. She wasn't exactly sure if coconuts could expire, but she didn't want to risk leaving her food supply in the hot sun for days. To that end, she'd dug a hole in the cool jungle earth and covered it with a lattice of twigs and leaves. It wasn't exactly a refrigerator, but it worked well enough that her food hadn't spoiled.

It took a few trips, but she managed to transfer all of her food onto the raft. There was no way she could keep it cool, but she could at least keep it from rolling around. Applejack piled all the food carefully, then laid one of the old blankets from the cellar over the pile. That done, she took a large rock in hoof and used it to hammer several smaller, relatively pointed rocks into the corners of the blanket, effectively pinning it into place on the wooden raft. Finding four decently pointy rocks had been something of a hassle, but Applejack hoped it would be worth it. It wouldn't exactly hold up to a storm, but it would survive most waves well enough.

She knew that she might run out of food, but Applejack had planned for that as well. It was a different sort of work than building the raft, more careful and delicate than physically exhausting, but she'd managed to weave together a fairly long and fairly strong length of string from plant fibres. She'd read about the process in a book once, and was almost certain she got it right.

…even if it had taken four completely failed attempts before she made anything even remotely useful.

In any case, it would serve as an improvised line if the need arose. She had fashioned an improvised hook with sharp twigs and bits of more string, and while her search for worms had proven strangely fruitless, she had managed to make a lure out of a lock of brightly coloured tail-hairs.

If worse came to worst, and Applejack was truly starving… she could, ugh, eat fish.

Just the thought made her shudder, but the thought of dying was even less appealing. If only slightly.

Finally, Applejack had filled the rest of the empty glass bottles she'd found with water, and stocked them with the rest of the food. In addition, she'd filled her canteen to the brim that morning, and brought a few of the largest leaves she could find to catch rainwater if she ever got the chance.

That was it. Everything was ready. Applejack breathed slowly, in then out. She needed to calm down. Her raft might not even float, she might not even be able to make it past the tide. There were countless ways that she could fail, but all the possible failures were more than worth it for that one chance at success. That one chance at getting home.

It was a chance she had to take.

Applejack braced her forehooves against the raft and pushed off with strong hind legs. It inched across the sand, slowly but surely nearing the ocean's waters one step at a time. Applejack wheezed, she struggled for each inch of progress, but she was a farmpony. She wasn't going to let a little hard work get in her way. The water was lapping at the front of the craft, the load was becoming lighter, and with one last heave Applejack shoved it out into the water.

It was floating. Applejack nearly jumped for joy, but settled for jumping up onto the deck of her raft. Her eyes roved across the deck until she found what she needed. Applejack reached down and picked up her improvised paddle. That had actually been one of the harder items to obtain for her trip. Applejack had wondered for days just how she would construct a paddle, even considering just pushing the raft herself, before finally remembering the old cabin site. In the basement of ruined shelving and old stairs, it hadn't taken long to find a decent piece of wide and flat wood. She'd attached it to a relatively straight stick with a bit of rope, and was nearly confident that it would hold up to the strain of use. Only one way to find out, of course.

Applejack took the paddle in both hooves, leaned down, and pushed against the sandy bottom. Sure enough, it held up just fine. The raft was floating, the paddle hadn't snapped, all that remained was to beat the pull of the tides.

With a smirk on her face Applejack put her full effort into propelling her craft. The water resisted her, making every attempt to pull her back to land. At first she was able to push against the seafloor, but soon enough that fell out of reach and she was down to paddling. She strained and grunted with effort, but still the island made its attempts to pull her back. It was working, though. She was getting farther and farther from shore. The sound of the ocean surrounded her, the salty sea air blew into her face and ruffled her short mane. Still she pushed on, through the burning of her muscles and the sweat running down her face she pushed on.

A gust of wind blew across her from the side, and Applejack stopped her paddling for a moment to hold her hat down. That's when she noticed it. She didn't stop moving. She didn't reverse direction and head back towards the island.

Tentatively, Applejack turned around. She could see the whole island, green and glorious on the surface of the sparkling blue sea. And only getting farther away. She had done it. She'd reached the pull of the open ocean.

Applejack sat there, slack-jawed and staring. The paddle rattled against the deck as it dropped from her limp hooves, and that was enough to snap her out of her daze. She laughed. Applejack laughed fuller and harder than she could ever remember. She laughed until she couldn't breathe. She collapsed on the makeshift floor of branches and laughed some more until it hurt.

When she was finally able to stand again, she couldn't find any words. She felt like something needed to be said, but there was nothing that came to mind. Her vision was clouded with tears and she wasn't quite sure why. Applejack touched the locket around her neck, and the next laugh that came out sounded half like a sob through her massive grin.

She was on her way home.

Applejack took off her hat, she stared across the gentle waves to her home of the last 20 days, and at long last, she waved goodbye.

Author's Note

Edited by the ever swell Aatxe360, and Pyromitsu.

Sail
View Online

Mother of Invention

Sail

The sky burned a brilliant red with the rising sun, the beauty only accentuated out on the open water with nothing in the way. Applejack stood still, eyes east, simply marvelling at such an amazing shade of crimson appearing in nature. Celestia really did treat the sky as her canvas, and millennia of experience had made her amazing at it. Eventually, though, the sun fully escaped the horizon, and the sky faded back to a uniform blue.

Applejack's grin never faded as she watched the island grow smaller and smaller. It was big, she realized now, looking at it in its entirety. It was still only an island, but it was big enough to still take up most of the horizon after more than an hour of floating. Then again, maybe she was just moving slowly. In any case, Applejack did eventually tire of staring down her former prison, and turned her back on it to focus on other things.

"Right then." She stood up straight, ready to tackle whatever presented itself.

Her hooves idly tap-tap-tapped on the wooden raft as she stood there, waiting, thinking. There really wasn't a lot she needed to do, Applejack realized. She was set on her course now, and all she could do was hope to drift into a shipping lane or towards some form of civilization. Not that she was worried, of course. The shipping lanes were massive, and would suck her into their currents if she got even remotely close. And even if she didn't, she was bound to reach somewhere eventually. The entire surface of the world was covered in folk of some sort or another, and it only stood to reason she'd run across someone's shore sooner or later.

None of that helped her in the now of course. Applejack was bored. She sighed, sunk to a sitting position, and ran a hoof through her shortened mane. She swept her hat from her head and held it in front of her, wringing it between her forehooves. She'd been given the old stetson... years ago. She couldn't even remember how many. It was, quite literally, her very most prized possession. Truth be told, it was remarkable that she'd managed to hold onto it for so long, but then, she really didn't know what she would've done without its constant, comforting presence.

She could still remember seeing it on somepony else's head, though it had been no less comforting even then. His strong, bass voice resonated in her mind as if she were still hearing it. She could see a little orange filly playing in the orchard, she heard the voice call out to her from across the farm. She broke into a wide smile and sprinted towards the source, the large stallion on the front porch wearing an old, weathered stetson. Filly-Applejack froze as the memory stuttered. Applejack couldn't place a face there. For the life of her, the stallion remained nothing but a voice, a vague shape, and an old hat. Then the voice came again, and it had lost all of its comfort. It was saying the one thing she never wanted to hear, it was telling her goodbye—

Applejack shook her head so hard that she stumbled a few steps to the side. She very nearly teetered into the water before catching herself. When she finally regained her balance, Applejack staggered to the center of the raft and sat down roughly. Her breaths came in haggard gasps, rapid chokes of air that danced the razor's edge of becoming sobs. She was still clutching the hat, she realized, and quickly set it back atop her head. Her vision was blurred and out of focus, and when Applejack reached up and rubbed her eyes her forehooves came away wet.

Her shoulders shook as she tried to control her breathing. In, out, in, out. Careful breaths, easy, calm. Applejack finally managed to get her breathing right, though she couldn't stop the shaking that wracked her body.

Okay, boredom was dangerous. Boredom allowed her mind to go places that she never, ever wanted to take it. Boredom was to be avoided at all costs. It was the second time her thoughts had wandered in that direction since waking up on the island. The second time in more years than Applejack could possibly remember. It was inevitable, she supposed. The whole ordeal had, if only in the back of her mind, gotten her thinking about life, her own mortality… death.

The little filly beamed as the far-too-big hat was gently set upon her head—

No, there it was again. Applejack needed a distraction. If she was going to survive hours, maybe even days, of this monotony, then she needed to keep her mind far, far away from such thoughts. She unslung her saddlebags from her back and set them down on the deck, then flipped open the flaps in a desperate attempt to find something, anything to distract her.

It was right there on the top. Stuffed in at the last moment, waiting at the top of the stack and staring upwards in anticipation, was Pinkie Pie's rubber chicken.

Applejack barked a laugh. She snapped it up in a hoof and turned it over. It was the strangest thing, but that chicken seemed to have amazing timing when it came to providing Applejack with comfort in a time of need.

"You really take after your owner, don'tcha?" Applejack muttered to the inanimate thing.

It was silly. She had never been a filly to play with dolls; that was more Big Mac's thing, much as he'd like to deny it. Yet now, she was starting to see the appeal.

Applejack set the chicken down on the deck, and propped its back against her cloth-covered stack of supplies. She walked over to the other side of the raft, sat down, and stared across at the unblinking rubber poultry.

"This is dumb…" she muttered after only a moment. "Look, I just ain't the type to… need this kinda thing. I ain't gonna go crazy for havin' nopony to talk to. I can handle myself, been handling myself for longer than I can remember. Little lonesomeness never hurt nopony, if you ask me."

She tapped her chin. "Twilight, now there's a girl that'd go crazy without any of 'er friends around. Wouldn'ta thought it when she first came to town, neither. That gal was about as un-sociable as they come. 'Course, that was then. Nowadays I don't think she could go two minutes without any of us gals or Spike to talk to."

Applejack chucked. "Pinkie Pie, you've met her, now we found out exactly what happens when she gets left alone too long. It…" She shuddered slightly. "It ain't pretty, I'll tell you that much. Girl's got a heart the size of a cart, though. And a dang amazing memory, too; I forget my own birthday more often than she does."

"Now Rainbow Dash…" Applejack shook her head. "There's a pony who wouldn't survive two seconds without anypony else around. Not that she'd ever tell you that, of course. Proud as a peacock, that one, and with the chops to have earned it, too. Though between you and me she doesn't quite have the plumage to match."

She went on, describing her friends aloud somehow helped more than simply thinking about them had. She realized, in some distant corner of her mind, that she was talking to a fake chicken to pass the time, but she didn't stop.

By the time Applejack noticed the beaming smile creeping on to her face, she was already engrossed in a very one-sided conversation about her best friends in the world. Sure, maybe she was a little bit insane, but it beat being crazy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours passed. Applejack wasn't sure how many, anymore. It was hot. Too hot. Hot hot hot. The sun was absolutely relentless in its blinding glare. Applejack was sprawled out on her back in the center of the raft, her half-open eyes staring up at the perfectly clear blue sky while her half-listening ears hardly registered the continuous swooshing of the surrounding ocean.

"You know the first thing I'm gonna do when we're back home? Eat an entire apple pie, prob'ly with ice cream on top. Granny's always sayin' to be careful, 'it'll all go straight to your hips'." Applejack sat up and glanced down at herself. She could faintly see the outline of her ribcage, and even more bones sticking out in places they hadn't before.

"Yeah, I think that'd be a good thing at this point." She collapsed onto her back once more with wheezing laughter, only to devolve into a short coughing fit.

As soon as the coughing subsided, Applejack sat back up and reached for her canteen. It rattled dryly as she picked it up, and she couldn't help but sigh. She took another one of the glass bottles of water and emptied it into the canteen, leaving far fewer full than she liked to think about. It wasn't strictly necessary, of course. She could just as easily drink straight from the bottle, but the few moments she spent transferring the water were a few moments spent doing something.

All too soon, those moments passed. Applejack took a short gulp from the canteen, barely sating her dry throat, then lay back down on her back. The sun was worse that she'd ever thought it would be. It was an oversight, she realized. She was so used to the cover of the jungle, the protection of the canopy. She'd managed to forget what the tropical heat could be like. It was as bad as any desert. Sand dunes were replaced with constantly shifting waters, but that water provided no more relief than sand.

"Hey, hey…" Applejack propped herself up on her elbows and stared blearily at her silent companion. "You ever think the ocean is like sand? That's deep, right? 'Cause water and sand ain't nothin' alike, but at the same time the two of 'em are like peas in a pod when you get right down to it."

She blinked slowly. "They're both… wavey."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. Here they are a-standin' in a row." Applejack lay on her stomach, rolling a pair of coconuts back and forth in her forehooves with bleary eyes. "Big ones, small ones, ones… uh… bigger ones."

She blinked slowly. She couldn't be sure, but the constant sun might have been getting to her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wheeeee!" Applejack barrel-rolled across the deck of the raft from one end to the other, stopping just before plunging into the ocean and reversing direction with yet another, "Wheeeee!"

She only stopped when her head started spinning faster than she was. Applejack groaned and screwed her eyes shut as dizziness overwhelmed her momentarily. Her stomach was doing backflips, but she fought down the nausea with all her might. Her food supply was extremely limited, and she couldn't afford to lose the coconut and blueberries she'd eaten for lunch a little while ago.

Finally, the world stopped spinning and Applejack was able to blink her eyes open. She glanced around her at the same undulating waves, the same hot sun –though it was definitely further into afternoon than it had been– and the same perfectly clear, cloudless blue sky. She sighed as her stomach settled down, simply basking in relief for several moments.

Applejack glanced left, then right.

"Wheeeee!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How long had it been again? Hours? Applejack stared out across the glinting blue waves towards the horizon. It was still there, that damned island. Was it following her, now? The landmass was small enough now that she could cover it up with both hooves. She knew because she tried.

Applejack giggled tipsily, swaying side to side from her sitting position as she held both forehooves extended in front of her. It was gone! Finally, that blasted island was out of her life forever, and she could be free of its monsters and mysteries and… mountains.

Then Applejack lowered her hooves, and there it was, staring back at her. She released a long sigh.

"You seein' this?" she queried the still-silent chicken. "How slow are we goin' anyways?"

Applejack flopped down onto her stomach. The locket pressed into her chest as she lay there moping. If she hadn't gone so far, she would've turned back then to construct some sort of shelter from the evil, evil sun. At that point, however, Applejack was honestly unsure if she had the strength. Some current was clearly moving her farther and farther from the island, and she didn't want to waste her energy fighting it when she knew she'd tucker out hours before even coming close to the island.

She could hold on, though. She could last. It was only a matter of time.

The ocean waves beckoned to her, mocked her with their promises of cool relaxation. It would only be a waste of energy. She was in a long-game, now, and every scrap of energy counted. Time wasted frolicking in the water would mean collapsing earlier, perhaps too early to be rescued. No, she couldn't give in. As hot as she was, Applejack couldn't give in.

…Except that she was so hot. Her mind was a clouded mess, her vision was blurred at the edges, and she could barely stand upright.

She was standing upright, Applejack realized suddenly. She had been sitting down a moment ago, but now she found herself standing on the edge of the raft and staring down into the cool blue ocean just inches from her hooves.

"Buck it!" Applejack shouted abruptly. She swept her hat from her head, and in the same smooth motion flung the locket from around her neck and onto the pile of supplies. Naked except for the knife on her left foreleg, Applejack flung herself with all her might into the waiting waters.

Instant relief. Despite the fact that her jump had been more of a flailing collapse, it did the job of plunging her into the refreshing ocean well enough. The cool waters washed over every part of her in purest bliss. Her sweat-drenched coat was soothed and washed clean as Applejack floated limply under the surface. Only when her lungs began to burn did Applejack finally kick into motion and burst through the top of the water with a mighty gasp of air.

She swam a lazy circle around her makeshift craft, her eyes closed and body completely relaxed. Her mind was washed as thoroughly as her body, cleared and cleaned of the fogginess that had plagued it. The process only increased her enjoyment as it no longer felt like she was wading through a day-dream.

Still, as much as she would've loved to stay in the water forever, she simply couldn't afford to. Applejack climbed reluctantly back onto the wooden deck of her raft and stood in the now pleasantly-warm sun. She sat down and closed her eyes, remaining motionless and allowing the sun to dry her off for several minutes.

Applejack sighed happily. So very worth it.

The waiting came no easier after that. No longer stumbling around in a half-delirious state, Applejack was forced to sit in full boredom and lucidity as her transport drifted ever so slowly along lazy ocean currents.

She tried initiating further conversation with the chicken, but found that activity waning in its novelty. Each conversation could last only a few minutes before her now-clear mind realized that she was being silly and made her stop.

The island grew ever smaller, though it never quite disappeared. It was barely visible, now, but Applejack could definitely still see it on the horizon. The sun was nearing the horizon, evening descending slowly towards night. This of course came with a wonderful decrease in temperature, though Celestia's charge seemed determined to keep the day somewhere around 'unpleasantly warm' as long as it was visible in the sky.

Finally, when the sun was just touching the western edge of the world, something happened to break the incessant monotony.

Applejack stared straight ahead off the front of the raft, squinting. There was… something in the water up ahead. A couple tiny objects, bobbing with each wave that passed them, floated otherwise perfectly still in one spot. Far more concerning, though, was something extending to either side of them.

She rubbed at her eyes, still it remained. She shook her head, maybe the ocean hadn't cleared it as much as she'd thought. When she focused again, however, the sight she was greeted with hadn't changed.

Applejack wasn't quite sure how to describe it. It was a… line. It extended left and right as far as her eyes could see. It wasn't really visible, though. What made it so hard to describe was that it wasn't really there. The waves just seemed to behave oddly along one continuous path, it was almost like… a border. That was the word. It was some sort of ethereal border, and it was getting closer by the second.

Her speed that had been so slow before seemed distressingly fast as Applejack approached the strange phenomenon. As she neared, she could see slightly clearer exactly where the waves changed their pattern. It appeared as if two ocean currents were meeting all along that border, and the waves on one side were being pushed and pulled differently from the waves on the other side. Hopefully nothing to worry about… unless the crosswise forces managed to tear her raft apart.

She was approaching the line almost exactly where the tiny objects floated, though she still couldn't quite tell what they were.

At last, the small things came into clear view, and Applejack felt her heart skip a beat. They were bottles. Six glass bottles, each of them with a cork in the top, floated in a cluster just at the edge of the phenomenon, bottles that Applejack recognized.

"No… no, no, no," she muttered to herself, raising one hoof over her mouth.

The raft reached the line and slowed to a complete stop, but Applejack barely noticed. The bottles were bobbing along just next to her, now. She reached down and snatched one out of the water. It had a rolled up paper inside.

Her hooves shook as she popped the cork out and dumped the message out onto the deck. Her heart raced, her breathing increased in pace. Applejack unfurled the letter and stared wide-eyed at the words flowing across the page, words she had written herself only just over a week prior. She only read until the tears consumed her vision and she was forced to stop.

Her one best hope in assuring that her friends and family knew she was okay had failed utterly. It was silly, she knew, to assume that the messages would have reached them, but at least there had been a chance. Now she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that not a single one of her letters had gotten out, and the revelation was all but crushing.

Applejack wiped her eyes and gazed at the waters to either side of the unmoving raft. "What in tarnation is this?!"

Only then did she notice it. There was something there. She could feel… something, right there where the line ran across the ocean's surface. It made her coat tingle and stand on end. It was like the feeling just before a lightning strike, something she'd learned only recently, only less intense and more of a continual, steady sensation. She extended her hoof towards the invisible perimeter and the tingling intensified. Applejack pulled her hoof back, suddenly worried at what might happen if it made contact with the unseen force.

Whatever it was, it had stopped her raft. That was why the waves looked different, it seemed. Applejack could see it now, up close. The waves on the other side moved out of sync with the waves on her side, like there was some sort of invisible wall, and nothing on the two sides could ever meet.

A thought struck Applejack, a deeply worrying thought, and she turned around slowly. There it was. The island, just barely a dot on the horizon. Applejack knew, she was positive, that if she managed to move just a few more yards the island would've finally been completely out of sight. This was it, the very edge of her escape, and she'd been stopped.

She scrambled to the edge of the craft and snatched up the paddle, quickly putting it to work with all of her strength. Despite her best efforts, the raft didn't move a single inch farther from the island. She very nearly considered leaping out and swimming, but if the strange static charge wasn't enough, there was also the knowledge that she'd be dead within a few hours out on the open ocean with no craft.

Dropping the paddle to the deck with a clatter, Applejack did the only sensible thing she could do in such a situation. She screamed until her lungs ran out of air.

Just when she was breathing in for round two, Applejack spotted something in the sky above the island.

"Oh Celestia, no…" she muttered as her heart dropped into her hooves.

Applejack collapsed back onto her haunches, mouth hanging open silently, as she stared at the distant horizon: Roiling black clouds, illuminated intermittently by flashes of white-blue. There was a storm brewing, and it was growing closer at an alarming rate.

It was smaller, but the shifting wall of dark clouds was all too familiar. Twilight had said the storm wasn't natural. Apparently she was right.

A distant boom of thunder reached Applejack's ears dimly, but it was enough to snap her out of her trance. She jumped to her hooves and leapt over to her saddlebags. She quickly threw them on, doing up the straps as tight as possible. Into the bags she stuffed her hat, the golden locket and mysterious book, her canteen, the knife and its sheath, and lastly, after only a moment's hesitation, the rubber chicken. She secured the flaps as well as she could, then set into motion.

The storm was closer, the sound of thunder was a near-constant rolling. The wind was picking up, tossing Applejack's tail like a tattered flag. The ocean, previously gentle and smooth, was now rough and choppy. Slowly undulating waves had been replaced with crashing white-caps. The water seemed darker somehow, and the noise was no longer a 'swoosh' in the background, but was rather a constant, violent roar.

Applejack stuffed any and all supplies underneath the blanket she'd used to cover them initially. Any food she'd laid out, the fishing rod she'd brought out to practice with earlier, everything went back into the pile. She secured it as best she could, stomping the rocks at the corners into the wooden deck with her powerful hind hooves.

She grabbed the paddle and started paddling, but not away from the island. There was no point, anyway. She only really had one option. Applejack paddled harder than she'd ever done straight back towards the island. It meant she was rushing towards the oncoming storm, but it was her only choice. At least it meant she would spend as little time in the storm as possible, since she knew no matter what happened she'd either end up back on the island or sleeping at the bottom of the sea.

The cloud wall loomed ever nearer, the sea was thrashing and frothing beneath her, but still she paddled. Thunder crashed and boomed, she could see the lightning now. Even out here, it would only streak about half-way to the surface of the water before halting. The storm was bearing down on her at last. It would be on her in seconds.

Applejack gulped. She felt like she should say some sort of witty quip, one last line of confidence and good-humour in the face of fear. Nothing came to mind, and in the next moment she was swallowed by the storm. Anything she could say was drowned out by the ear-shattering roar of it.

It was worse than she'd even expected. The sea surged up beneath her and Applejack immediately lost her footing. She collapsed with a yelp and the paddle went spinning out of her hooves and into the dark abyss surrounding her. The sun was completely blotted out, she was pretty sure the raft was spinning but she couldn't be certain as visibility was limited to a few feet in every direction.

The ocean tossed her craft again, and Applejack was sent sprawling across the deck. Just as she was attempting to stand back up, a massive wave crested alongside the raft and smashed directly across it. The water picked Applejack up and swept her towards the deadly waters, but she blindly flung out all of her limbs and managed to catch a grip on something with a forehoof. After what felt like far too long, the wave finished washing over the craft and Applejack fell back down to the deck coughing and sputtering.

As she gasped for breath, Applejack tried to identify what she'd clutched to. It was a mangled piece of wood, part of the floor of her raft, jutting up into the air like a limbless, dead sapling. She looked around. The rest of her craft didn't look much better. There were cracks and holes across the entire thing, and bits of it had snapped off and disappeared entirely. Her pile of supplies was completely gone, not even a trace of it remained.

At that very moment her examination was forcibly brought to an end. The raft was once more flung across the sea on a raging surge of water. Applejack clung desperately to the broken bit of wood and silently prayed that it would remain attached to the raft.

Suddenly, she was pressed into the floor as the craft rose up, up, up on the top of a huge cresting wave. Applejack gritted her teeth against the g-forces as her stomach travelled all the way to the ends of her hooves. When it finally ended, she was weightless. For the briefest of moments, the deafening sound of the storm was forgotten as Applejack felt like she was floating. Then she noticed the deck of the raft receding away from her, and at that same instant realized she was actually falling.

In the split second between the instant when the raft touched back down on the water and the instant where Applejack touched back down on the raft, she had time for only one clear snippet of thought.

This was a really stupid way to die.

And then everything went black.

Author's Note

Edited by Aatxe360, and Pyromitsu, both of whom, as it turns out, are super duper swell.

A Sign Of Hope
View Online

Mother of Invention

A Sign Of Hope

Applejack regained consciousness slowly. First came her hearing. It was surprisingly quiet. The sound of the ocean's gentle waves calmly rolling across the sand was all she could hear, other than a single rustling in the bushes that was soon silenced. She wasn't sure why such quiet was surprising, but something about the situation felt off.

She felt coarse sand under her belly, and a dim light managed to pierce her closed eyelids. She could tell that she was wearing saddlebags, but the presence of her hat was unknown. Was she even wearing it? Applejack attempted to lift a hoof to check for her signature stetson, but the limb refused to budge from the warm sand as if it was made of lead. Her mind was feeling similarly shackled as her thoughts failed to resolve into anything coherent.

All of this observation had taken place over the course of two seconds, and it was at this point that Applejack came to a crucial realization. She couldn't breathe.

Her eyes shot open instantly as Applejack jolted into full wakefulness. Tears blurred her vision as she convulsed on the sand, then managed to violently cough up a concerning amount of salty seawater. Applejack rolled onto her side to avoid the pooling brine, still too tired to stand. She let out a long, low moan. Her head was throbbing and the sunlight only made it worse, forcing her to clench her eyes shut once more against the light. She clutched at her aching skull with both forehooves, only for her hooves to hit bare mane. Her heart nearly stopped. Her hat was gone!

With a feeble groan, Applejack managed to brace one foreleg against the ground and push up to her knees. She was too worn out to panic, she could barely move her body at all, but she'd be damned before she let her hat get lost. Even the simple act of crawling onto her knees made Applejack dizzy, and she paused to catch her breath. When she finally managed to crack open her eyes, she was greeted with a scene of destruction.

Applejack blinked, her pounding headache momentarily taking a back seat. The beach before her was ruined. Logs and bits of smashed wood were scattered all about, some sticking up out of the sand like a small forest of tiny trees all dead and broken. A couple huge logs had been sundered and tossed across the landscape, some of the chunks carving deep furrows in the sand where they'd landed. Torn bits of cloth hung from a few of the pieces of wood like the tattered flags of a defeated army gently flapping in the ocean breeze.

Supplies and equipment were likewise scattered, all of it utterly destroyed. Shattered glass bottles spread their shards across the entire beach in random patches. Food she'd spent days gathering was crushed and squashed into paste, smeared across the ruinous site like bloodstains on anything and everything.

The ocean waves, seemingly so peaceful and soothing before, smashed against the shore with more violence than Applejack had usually seen in them. Each white-capped breaker would bring with it more bits of detritus and destruction to add to the battlefield of Applejack's failure.

Applejack surveyed it all. She looked out across the utter destruction of her greatest work and suddenly couldn't summon the will to hold herself up. She collapsed back to her belly as her vision blurred, mercifully obscuring the pitiful sight before her.

The sound of the ocean was joined by the sound of Applejack's own laboured breaths. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. She eventually settled on crying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Applejack was finally able to move again, she wasn't sure how much time had passed. The sun was still shining in the sky, so it couldn't have been too long. For it to be so bright, it had to be morning. The sun had just been setting when the storm had befallen her. This meant that Applejack had been unconscious all night. She silently thanked Celestia that whatever strange thing roamed the island hadn't found her during that time.

Applejack slowly, shakily pushed up to all four hooves and attempted to get her bearings. Her head was still killing her. She groaned as the sunlight shot a lance of pain straight through her eye sockets and into her brain. Shielding her eyes with a forehoof, Applejack stumbled towards the bulk of the wreckage in search of her hat.

First priority was to find her hat. Everything else could wait.

Fortunately, everything else wouldn't have to wait long. It took only a minute or two of wandering around the rubble before Applejack spotted her stetson. It was perched on the end of a length of wood that was itself stuck straight-down into the sand like an accidental hat rack. Or like a head impaled on a pike. That'd work too.

The hat was held too high up for her to reach, so Applejack turned around and kicked out at the piece of wood with a single hind leg. The branch barely rattled. Applejack let out a pitiful whine and lashed out several more times in rapid succession. After the fourth or fifth pathetic kick she finally managed to snap the waterlogged wood at the base. It tumbled over into the sand and her hat was thrown free. Puffing her chest out triumphantly, Applejack stumbled over and snatched it up.

She put it on immediately, ignoring the sogginess of it and the rivulets of saltwater that ran down her face and neck as it settled atop her mane. Placing her treasured hat upon her head shielded her eyes from the sun, freeing up both forehooves as Applejack unslung the saddlebags from her back and set them down in front of her.

Priority two: assess just how much she'd lost. One of the flaps had burst open, which explained just how her hat had gotten loose. The book and her canteen were missing too, having both been stored in the same half of the bags as her hat. Fortunately, the other flap had stayed tightly closed, and had contained some very valuable items. The golden locket, Applejack took out and hung around her neck. The knife and sheath, as well, she pulled out and strapped to her left foreleg. The rubber chicken, for once, failed to elicit even the slightest chuckle from Applejack. She left it in the bag.

Once more strapping the saddlebags to her back, Applejack turned and set about the burdensome task of sifting through the wreckage. Her head still throbbed, and her limbs still felt limp as noodles as she shuffled about and poked at mangled bits of wood and frayed rope. None of the building materials would be salvageable, it seemed. Not even the rope had survived in any usable length. Applejack sighed.

Grunting and straining, she barely managed to shift a tangled heap of rubble that would've been child's play to her at any other time. Her work was rewarded, though, as underneath she found her old canteen. It was beaten up, definitely showing a good few more dents and scratches than it used to, but when she unscrewed the lid she found water within. It was still usable.

For the first time that day, Applejack allowed herself a tiny smile as she paused to take a long drink. She hadn't realized just how parched her throat was, and she managed to polish off the contents of the entire canteen.

The rest of her search was far less heartening. Rubble, destruction, ruin. Applejack shuffled along on wobbly legs from heap to pile to mound of junk. None of it had survived. Nothing. The entire beach was a massive testament to her failure, a graveyard to her last best effort. Her one chance of finally saving herself, smashed and strewn across the sand like garbage. Applejack was beginning to lose hope again—

Something caught her eye. A glint of gold sparked just on the edge of her vision. Applejack trotted a little faster over towards the anomaly. It was… the book. The inexplicable book that Applejack had been unable to open. It had a golden latch, but no keyhole. She'd only brought it to give to Twilight. Since it had flown out of her saddlebags, Applejack had assumed it destroyed. After all, paper and water never seem to get along very well. Yet here it was.

Applejack carefully prodded it with a forehoof, half expecting it to dissolve into mush at the slightest touch. Nothing happened. Curious, Applejack sat down and picked the book up in both hooves. Instantly, she tossed it back to the sand as if burned. It was dry. The book felt completely and utterly dry to the touch. Everything else was soaked. Her hat was sopping, her saddlebags were dripping, even her coat was damp. Yet the book had somehow stayed completely dry.

She took a deep, careful breath. Clearly, this was just another one of those things. Applejack grumbled as she picked the book back up. She tried once more to open it, but found it just as stubborn as the first time. Frowning, Applejack tossed it into her saddlebags and cinched them shut.

Her search of the wreckage all but completed, that led Applejack to priority three: figure out just where she was.

Even in its ravaged state, Applejack could clearly tell she was on a different beach than the first one she'd woken up on. In truth, that other beach was the only one she'd ever bothered to visit. Even when she'd done a bit of exploring of the island's interior, she'd never checked out any of the other beaches. Of course, this meant she had no idea how to locate her camp from anywhere but that one beach.

Applejack sighed. The quickest route would be straight through the jungle, but that would also be the most high-risk. Going around the beach until she came across somewhere she recognized could potentially take a huge amount of time –it was a big island– but at least it was a guaranteed method. Besides, her head still throbbed mercilessly and her limbs still felt all but useless. She simply wasn't up to bushwhacking.

So that settled it. Applejack took one last glance up to the sky, determining it to still be morning-time, though the sun was steadily edging towards noon. With that, she turned so that the jungle was on her right, the ocean on her left, and she set off down the beach. She didn't even once glance back at the destruction she left behind her.

The going was slow. Between her aching head and her wobbly hooves, Applejack made little progress as the sun continued its inexorable journey across the sky. After some unknown amount of time trudging along, Applejack came across a little stream that ran out of the jungle, down the beach, and emptied into the ocean.

A weary laugh escaped her lips as she shambled over towards the glorious source of fresh water. She followed it a little ways into the jungle, just to be sure she was clear of the salty influence of the sea. Just as soon as she was satisfied that there was nothing but clear fresh water before her, Applejack plopped down on her belly, set her hat down in the grass, and shoved her whole head into the stream.

The sweat and tears covering her face were washed away by the cool current, and her dry throat was quickly quenched as she gulped down as much of the refreshing liquid as she could. Her lungs started to burn, but Applejack hesitated. She thought of how everything she'd ever tried to escape the island had failed. Even the bottles, she'd thought somepony would've found by then, had never even gone anywhere. Nothing she'd done had mattered at all. How easy it would be to simply let go. She could let herself remain underwater until she just… faded away. No more pain, no more being trapped away from home. She could forgo all of her problems so very easily. It wouldn't even take long.

Applejack shot upright with a loud gasp. She coughed and gagged for several moments as her lungs painfully re-inflated. Her deep, heavy breaths echoed through the trees as she pounded at her chest with a forehoof, releasing yet another cough. When she was finally able to get her breathing under control, Applejack merely sat there shuddering. She'd been so close to giving up.

She stared at her reflection in the water, and the pony that looked back at her seemed so tired. Her eyes were bloodshot, staring out from deep sockets. Her short-cut mane hung in ragged, sopping tatters that partially obscured the sides of her haggard face. She shuddered one last time then turned away.

It was just her recent, crushing failure getting to her. That, and a pretty severe blow to the head. Either way, she couldn't afford to give into feelings like that. She couldn't afford to be so impulsive. There were still things she could do. Something was clearly keeping her on the island, so the only path left before her was to find out why and how. To do that, she needed to figure out exactly what was so special about this Celestia-damned island in the first place. Whatever it was hiding, Applejack would have to find it.

The thought of a clear goal was somewhat heartening, and Applejack nodded confidently before filling up her canteen from the stream. That done, she slapped her hat back on her head and trotted towards the beach. She didn't even spare a glimpse at her reflection as she left.

Whether because of her new determined attitude or because of her short but refreshing rest, Applejack found her pace a little quicker as she trotted along down the beach. The sun was just reaching its zenith above her, but still she hadn't seen anything familiar in her trek. Strictly speaking, she was bound to end up at a familiar beach eventually. That was just how it worked. Of course, she could've landed anywhere, so there was also the possibility that she would end up circumnavigating the entire island before reaching her destination. That would certainly be bad.

She was pretty sure that she'd awoken her first morning on the east side of the island. She couldn't remember exactly, and thinking too hard made her headache spike in intensity. She could only hope that was the case, as she clearly remembered the sun rising over the ocean when she woke up among the wreckage of her raft. That meant she was on the east side of the island now. If her suspicions were correct, then she would find familiar ground without too much trouble.

Of course, the sun was directly overhead at that point. So Applejack couldn't say for sure if she was still on the east side of the island. She had to be. She hadn't been walking that long, had she? It was hard to tell just how far she'd gone. Applejack stumbled to a stop and turned to look behind her. Hoofprints marred the sand in a relatively straight line, going back for as far as she could see, only disappearing into the jungle once where she'd found the stream.

She glanced skyward again. The sun was already hanging over the jungle in its afternoon phase. Applejack shook her head, but quickly regretted it. She growled through clenched teeth. As if the pain wasn't bad enough, now her head injury was making her lose track of the time. Grumbling under her breath, Applejack set off once more down the beach.

She walked and walked, hooves dragging through the fine sand. Every so often she would pause to take a sip from the canteen, making sure to conserve it as much as possible. There was no telling when another source of freshwater would be available. Applejack pulled her hat down a bit, shielding her face from the hot afternoon sun. She considered stepping off the beach and into the shelter of the jungle canopy, but decided that the undergrowth would slow her already lacking progress too much to be worth it.

After some unknown amount of time staggering down the beach, Applejack spotted something in the distance. As she rounded a bend in the beach, she spotted a vaguely straight shape that seemed to be jutting out of the shore and into the ocean. She squinted, trying to identify the structure, for it was certainly big enough to be a building of some sort.

Applejack picked up her pace a bit as she made for the odd sight. As she grew ever closer, Applejack slowly recognized the structure. It was made of wooden planks supported by thick wooden legs that ran along both sides of it. It extended out over the ocean like a bridge to nowhere. From what she could see, it was a dock.

She allowed herself a small smile as her pace increased to a jog. It seemed there really was a silver lining to any storm cloud. In this case, the silver lining came in the form of the third pony-made structure she'd managed to find so far, and more importantly, a third chance to find some answers.

They did always say that the third time's the charm.

It turned out to be in worse condition than it had appeared from afar. When Applejack was within spitting distance, she could see that most of the boards had rotted off or collapsed. A few of the supporting legs were cracked and sitting at an angle, and one or two had snapped clean in two and fallen over. The wood was old and splintered, all of it clearly rotten and weathered beyond any usefulness as a building material.

Applejack finally arrived at the dock, panting from the short run. It extended far enough over the water that she could see plenty of room to moor boats, but unfortunately there wasn't so much as a single sign of any such vehicles. There were no strange symbols painted on the wood, just simple, natural brown. There didn't appear to be any crates or supplies stored on it. For all intents and purposes, it was the least informational thing she'd discovered so far. The gentle ocean waters lapped at the dilapidated structure, continuing in their glacially slow quest to wear it away to nothing, and Applejack felt like the island was doing the same to her resolve and sanity.

Sighing, Applejack turned the other way and ran her eyes along the dock as it went inland. It didn't simply end at the first touch of the sandy beach. The structure extended across the sand, suspended only a foot or two over the beach, all the way to the grassy land at the treeline, where it met up with—

Applejack blinked. She stared at where the dock ended for several moments. She rubbed at her eyes with a forehoof, as if that would make any difference. It never did. There, at the base of the dock where it met land just in front of the jungle treeline, was a building. Finding a building, any building, was noteworthy enough, but this one was different from all the rest. It… looked perfectly fine. While the supposed cabin had left only an imprint on the ground and a cellar below, and the greenhouse had been reduced to a chest-high wall and an overgrown mess of plants, this third building was almost perfectly intact.

Applejack started towards it too fast, stumbling a bit and very nearly face-planting into the sand. She caught herself, steadied her hooves, and trotted a bit less briskly towards the small building. It was cube-shaped, far too tiny to be a house. There was a single large window on the front looking out over the dock and the ocean beyond. The corrugated siding was painted a greyish blue, and the building was topped by a flat roof.

The closer she grew, the less excited she became. Up close, the building's condition no longer seemed so pristine. The paint, she realized, looked like it was originally a much brighter shade of blue. As she neared, she realized that it had simply faded over time until the grey metal was almost visible underneath. In some places, it was visible where the paint had flaked and chipped, leaving bare patches of corrugated steel every so often. The window was actually broken; the only glass that remained was in small shards around the edges of the frame like transparent shark teeth.

While her excitement was less than it had been, Applejack was still nearly prancing as she finally reached the building. Even if it was more damaged than she'd thought, it was still the most intact structure she'd come across by a wide margin. She first approached the window and peered inside. Of course, even the inside was in a bad state. The roof had collapsed in the center, leaving a gaping hole that bent inwards at the edges and allowed sunlight to stream through. The floor, where it wasn't covered by fallen roof, was made of cheap tiles that had grass pushing up between the cracks. A couple of tiles had even been shattered to make way for small plants. Dust covered everything in a thick layer, even saturating the air, visible in the shafts of sunlight pouring through the roof.

There wasn't much in the way of furniture, but it was plenty compared to the other two buildings she'd explored. To start, the window she was currently looking through actually had a counter directly in front of it on the inside of the building. Behind that was an old wooden chair that had fallen over backwards and had a leg broken off. On the counter was a small magical lamp, but Applejack didn't believe for a second that it still had any juice in it. Along the wall to Applejack's left were a series of filing cabinets, and along the wall to her right was a short wooden table that was currently empty of all but a thick helping of dust. There was a small trash can in the corner, but it too was empty. Lastly, in the center of the back wall, was a plain white door. Applejack only hoped that it was unlocked, since she didn't want to chance the sharp glass edges of the window.

She trotted around to the other side of the building to check the door. As expected, there was a very familiar symbol stencilled on the outside in black paint. It was a bit faded, and the top of the triangle had chipped off, but the words 'NEC DI NEC DOMINI' were visible clearly enough.

Applejack reached out a hoof and pushed on the door. It opened, but she had to fold her ears back against the hideous screech of the hinges. A lack of oil for however many years tended to do that. Nevertheless, Applejack stepped through the door with a smile. This time, there would be answers.

She immediately went for the most important fixture: the filing cabinets. There were three of them along the wall, all that could fit in such a small building. Now that she was inside, Applejack could really appreciate just how little room there actually was. She had to step over the fallen chair just to move around. Clearly, this was not a house or even much of an office. It seemed to be something of… a checkpoint. Somewhere that ponies arriving or leaving at the dock would stop and submit papers or register or some such. Or something like that. Applejack couldn't be sure, as she'd never been one for bureaucracy.

Shaking her head, Applejack focused back on the task at hoof. She trotted to the nearest filing cabinet and carefully opened the topmost drawer. Empty. There wasn't a single shred of paper inside. Applejack felt a cold feeling building up in the pit of her stomach. Each of the three filing cabinets had three drawers, and Applejack quickly opened the next one down. It too was empty. She tore open the third and final drawer with wide eyes, only to be greeted with the exact same amount of nothing. She swiftly turned to the next cabinet. One of them would have something. One of them had to. Alas, each and every drawer was dry as a bone.

"Come on, come on, come on…" Applejack muttered under her breath as she searched the third and final filing cabinet. The cold feeling in her gut only grew as it proved as empty as could be. She sat there, staring at the litany of open and empty drawers, for several seconds. Her breathing grew heavy, and suddenly that cold feeling ignited into something hot: rage.

"Come on!" she roared in frustration as she slammed the drawers shut with a savage kick. The metal was left with hoof-shaped dents across the front wherever she'd closed a drawer. Applejack snarled, she gripped one of the filing cabinets in both forehooves, and with a wordless scream she tossed it across the floor. Even with her slowly failing strength, she was able to send it sliding across the tile and under the table where it impacted the far wall with a loud crunch.

Applejack's nostrils flared, but the crash had sent a cloud of dust into the air. Within seconds, she could feel herself teetering on the edge. She could feel it coming. Her eyes widened, she tried to lift a hoof to her muzzle, but it was too late.

"Ah-chooo!" Applejack sneezed hard enough that her hat slid forward to cover her eyes.

She stood in silence in the aftermath. Her frustrated rampage had been brought to a rather anticlimactic and early end, but it was probably for the best. There was no sense risking hurting herself, even if she had been expecting to find a little more this time.

Her sigh wafted across the settling room as Applejack pushed her hat back into place. She hadn't gotten any answers so far, and it was silly of her to expect any now. She was only wasting time—

Applejack froze with her hoof still on top of her head. She blinked slowly. Her sneeze had managed to blow the impressively thick layer of dust off the rectangular wooden table… and it had revealed something underneath.

In the blink of an eye, Applejack zipped over to the table. She stared, wide-eyed, at the large piece of white paper that had been hidden under years of dust and decay. It was purely black and white. In the bottom right corner was the triangular symbol Applejack had seen so much of, and covering the rest of the paper was simply a bunch of lines and shapes and symbols. One large shape took up the center, and contained all the other shapes and symbols within. Applejack tapped at her aching head, cursing her recent injury as she tried to make sense of it all.

Then it clicked. Like a flash, Applejack realized what she was looking at. Her hind legs gave way under her, and she collapsed to her haunches. Her eyes were wide as saucers, totally unblinking. She may or may not have been breathing, but she couldn't be bothered to check.

It made so much sense. It wasn't simply random shapes, it was topography. Most of the symbols were still undecipherable, but Applejack could see, now, that the 'large shape' taking up the majority of the page was so much more than that. It was an outline. She could see how its edges were lined with beaches. She could now recognize the shape of two large mountains, one in the south and one in the north.

It was a map. She'd found a map of the entire island.

The third time, as it turned out, really was the charm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, the map didn't prove any help at all in finding her way back to camp. She stared at it for a while, but it turned out the island had many rivers criss-crossing it, and her little clearing could be on the bank of any of them. Trying to locate the lake didn't help much either, as there were a few different lakes and none of them had any real defining features on such a basic map.

So it was that Applejack found herself once more trotting down the beach to the tune of gentle ocean ambience. The map had been tucked carefully, almost reverently, in her saddlebags. She'd wasted nearly half an hour trying to plot a way back to camp with the thing, but she still couldn't make heads or tails of most of it. It'd take some studying, but Applejack was confident she could puzzle out the map with enough time.

She was practically bouncing just at the thought of it. Finally, she had a solid shot at some real answers. It wasn't a gamble like the bottled messages, the 'help' sign, or the raft. What she had in her saddlebags was a sure thing. It was a trump card, an ace in the hole. It was only a matter of time.

The dark thoughts that had plagued her that morning after her failure, the idea of simply giving up, all of that seemed so foreign now. Applejack could barely even believe she entertained such a silly idea. She'd practically given up hope after one little set-back, but she'd been fortunate enough to find that hope again shortly thereafter.

Hope. That's what it was. More than anything, the map gave her something to work towards, something long-term, something to hope for. It was a sign of hope when she needed it most. Applejack wasn't one to believe in coincidence. Everything happened for a reason, and she wasn't about to let her sign of hope go to waste.

By the time she reached familiar beach, the sun was already descending behind the jungle trees. Her legs ached from nearly an entire day of walking, but a smile was present on her sweat-stained face. She slowly hobbled across the all-too-familiar stretch of sand, carefully observing the whole area to be sure she was in the right place. Once she was confident enough that she'd found her destination, Applejack gave a curt nod and headed straight into the trees.

There was no way she was making it back to her camp before nightfall. It was already late evening, and the clearing was several hours away on a good day. She was tired, she was hurting all over, and she'd already been walking for longer than she cared to remember. It was certainly not a good day. At least, not for her body. In other respects –Applejack gave her saddlebags a little shake– it had certainly been a good day.

Still, she was practically dead on her hooves, and she needed a place to rest her head safely. Applejack made her way through the jungle on a path she knew by heart. She trekked through the undergrowth, swatting aside bushes with a bit more effort than they'd usually take. Finally, the trees thinned out, the canopy broke up overhead, and she emerged into the clear area surrounding one of two mountains.

Applejack sighed in relief, then began the longer-than-usual climb up the taller-than-usual sloped base of the mountain. After the arduous ascent, she arrived at the perfectly symmetrical entrance to the perfectly symmetrical cave that'd been her home for the first couple nights.

It was a strange thing to feel nostalgia for such a place.

Trotting inside, Applejack collapsed to the floor and unslung her saddlebags. She laid them out in front of her, then took off her knife and placed that beside her. Lastly, she placed the locket and her canteen alongside the knife for safekeeping and turned to open the bags.

She withdrew the map with the care one displays while handling an ancient relic that might fall apart at any time. Contrary to her extreme caution, the map was actually in shockingly good condition. Considering the decayed state of the buildings she'd found, Applejack would've expected the map to crumble into dust if she so much as looked at it funny. Instead, it felt as sturdy as any brand new piece of paper, if not more so.

Probably some freaky unicorn magic. Or plastic, maybe it had plastic in it. That'd probably make more sense.

Shaking her head to clear it, and immediately wincing in pain at the action, Applejack unrolled the map on the cave floor. Her eyes scanned over it meticulously, trying to pick out any interesting landmarks. A lot of the symbols were just shapes and lines thrown together: a circle with an 'x' in it, a black triangle, a square with two perpendicular lines inside. Some of them were easy to identify, but seemed meaningless without any context: a tree, an exclamation point, what appeared to be a pegasus wing, but could be some species of bird – though she'd never tell Rainbow Dash this, Applejack honestly couldn't distinguish between a pegasus wing and a turkey wing.

Finally, Applejack's gaze settled on one spot in particular. It was easy enough to identify. After all, the island only had two mountains, and only one of them was on the southern edge of the island. On that mountain, there was only one cave entrance, and its position was easy enough to make an educated guess at.

Applejack stared, eyes locked on what could only be her current location. There on the map, plastered over the very cave she was sitting in, was a circle that was slightly larger than most others. Contained in that circle was a bold, capital letter 'A'.

Applejack finally allowed herself to grin. She had no idea what it meant, but damn if she wasn't going to find out.

Author's Note

Many thanks to the ever-beautiful Aatxe360, and Pyromitsu. Besides their intense sexitude, they also make for pretty swell editors.

Two Weeks
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Mother of Invention

Two Weeks

Applejack awoke with a start. Her head shot up from the solid stone floor and she glanced around rapidly, blinking her eyes to clear the sleep from them. As her vision unblurred, her surroundings came into focus, and Applejack realized where she was.

The cave, of course. Memories of the previous two days rose to the top of her sleep-addled mind. Finally leaving the island behind her as she set out for open seas, being stopped and overtaken by a storm, waking up among wreckage and destruction—

Applejack shook her head. There were some memories she could do without. After all, there was always a silver lining. Her personal silver lining came in the form of the single best discovery she'd made during her time on the island: the map.

As she continued to slowly wake up, Applejack released a yawn and rubbed at her temples. Just when had she fallen asleep, anyway? She glanced downwards and spotted the map of the island spread out on the cave floor before her.

Oh, right. The very last memory she had of the day before was of opening the map and practically drooling at all the possibilities for discovery it opened up. After that, she must've promptly passed out. As much as Applejack would've loved to have stayed up investigating until the sun rose, her battered and exhausted body and mind simply hadn't been up for an all-nighter.

Her sigh echoed through the empty cave as Applejack rolled the map and placed it back in her saddlebags. Now that it was morning, she really had to get a move on back towards her camp. The map would have to wait a little while longer. As much as that irked her, Applejack figured that she'd gone without it thusfar. She could handle just a bit more waiting.

With that thought in mind, Applejack pushed up to her hooves, ready to start the day. Her joints were stiff, and her head ached with the motion, but Applejack was smiling. She hefted on her saddlebags and fastened them tight, then strapped her knife in place. Finally, she hung the locket and canteen around her neck.

With one quick pat to make sure her hat hadn't fallen off in her sleep, she was ready to go. Her stomach grumbled slightly as Applejack trotted outside and down the hill in the golden light of morning. It wasn't quite a hunger pang, but it wasn't a pleasant sensation. Applejack's mouth formed a straight line as she thought of all the food she'd meticulously collected for her ill-fated voyage. All of it splattered across the beach or sunk at the bottom of the sea. All of it wasted.

Sure, she could collect more. In fact, she had more back at her campsite for just this reason. Still, seeing such an amount of food go to waste made Applejack cringe. Her family was far from poverty-stricken, in fact they were practically well-off compared to a lot of ponies in the world, but Applejack had always been raised with an extremely frugal attitude. Wasting food simply wasn't done. They would eat every last bite because farmwork required the energy, and if there were any leftovers, they would eat those for lunch the next day. Sweet Apple Acres had always existed on something of a fixed budget. The concept of actually throwing food out without eating it was practically foreign to Applejack, and seeing a supply she'd worked hard to gather be destroyed like that…

Trees passed by on either side of her as Applejack marched along a path she knew by heart. She sighed. There was no sense dwelling on it, of course. The food was gone, and she'd need to gather more. That was the simple fact of the matter, and accepting it was the only way towards progress. At her core, Applejack was a practical pony. Worrying and whining about things she'd lost would only detract from her efforts.

Of course, it was never really that simple. Applejack could push the bad memories to the back of her head and focus on her forward momentum, but they'd linger there, festering. It was only ever a matter of time before she was reminded of her loss, and it was worse every time. Even before she'd woken up on the island and added greatly to her list of bad memories, she'd been haunted by things she'd give anything to forget. Applejack noticed that one forehoof had unconsciously risen to clutch at the hat atop her mane.

Crack!

"Whoa nelly!" Applejack shouted in alarm as her one walking forehoof caught on a root. She stumbled forward for barely half a step before face-planting into the forest floor.

For a moment, she just lay there. Her head hurt, her limbs hurt, her stomach hurt. Applejack hurt. She wished that she could just go to sleep, or better yet, that she could wake up. When it became apparent that neither were forthcoming, she let out a low groan and slowly raised her face from the dirt.

She spat a few leaves out of the corner of her muzzle, then rubbed the dirt out of her eyes. Her hat had tumbled off and landed in front of her, and Applejack quickly snatched it up and returned it to its rightful place. She then stood up, slowly and stiffly, and gained her bearings.

Despite being lost in thought, she had at least managed to follow the correct path. She set to trotting along once more, continuing in the direction of her camp.

That was exactly what happened when she let herself get lost in the past. She ended up face-first in the dirt. Once more, Applejack threw all her bad experiences into the recesses of her mind and focused purely on the present.

She silently resolved to hire a therapist when she got back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't long before Applejack found herself emerging into a familiar riverside clearing. She sighed in relief upon seeing her tiny little lean-to still standing strong. The storm that had destroyed her raft hadn't managed to level her sleeping quarters. Small victories.

Even with all the stress, pain, and emotional strain she'd been under recently, Applejack couldn't deny a sort of satisfaction in returning to her de facto home away from home.

It wasn't quite the same feeling she felt returning to the farm after a day at the market. It lacked a certain… warmth. No matter how many nights she spent sitting beside the fire pit or sleeping in the lean-to, the place would never truly feel like home. What she felt as her campsite came into view was barely a shadow of the fullness that her farm brought her. It was a single, dim spark floating in the middle of her chest; nothing at all compared to the warm blaze of her true home… but still something to cling to.

Applejack stood there at the edge of the clearing, clinging desperately to that spark of feeling. She closed her eyes and soaked up every last bit of strength she could from it. It wasn't much, but when Applejack opened her eyes again, she felt herself relaxing a bit. If nothing else, she could feel safe there.

Wasting no more time, Applejack trotted over to her lean-to and removed her saddlebags. She set them on the ground and unpacked their contents. The old, mysterious book went back into her stack of supplies, and the rubber chicken she set down against the large boulder.

That was it. Of everything she'd brought with her, those two objects, along with what she was wearing, were all that remained. Applejack sighed.

Next, she checked just how much food she had stocked. It wasn't a whole lot, some coconuts and wildflowers. Of course she'd brought all of her tomatoes and blueberries with her. Still, there was enough in her supply for a couple of days.

A surprisingly loud rumbling noise echoed across the clearing, accompanied by a sharp pain in Applejack's midsection. She still had things to do, but damnit she was hungry. Applejack immediately grabbed a fresh coconut from the pile and set to peeling it with her knife. Once the green rind was removed, she smacked the thing hard against a jagged bit of the boulder that made up one wall of her shelter. She made short work of the delicious meat inside the coconut, and within a minute Applejack was leaning back and exhaling contentedly.

With her quick meal consumed, Applejack got back to inspecting her camp. Her stock of firewood was alright, but she'd have to replenish it within a couple days. Preferably not on the same day she set aside for restocking her food supply. The fire had, obviously, long been extinguished, whether by simple neglect, or by the storm that had brought her back. Whatever the case, not a single warm coal remained. Applejack would need to start a new one from scratch, but there was no sense in doing so before nightfall at least.

Last of all, Applejack grabbed a piece of charcoal from the fire pit and turned to the large flat space on the boulder. There, she scratched two more tally marks on its surface to account for the time she'd been away. 22 total marks. Applejack let out a low whistle. If nothing else, this was certainly the longest camping trip she'd ever been on. The non-sequitur thought elicited the tiniest of chuckles from the bedraggled mare.

With everything accounted for and in decent shape, Applejack was finally able to sit down and roll out the map. She laid on her belly in the soft grass and every so carefully flattened it out on the ground before her. There still wasn't much of it that she could make sense of, but Applejack had all the time in the world to figure it out.

First things first, she had to determine a starting point. The south mountain, marked with its large 'A' was an identifiable landmark, but it was also several hours' trot away. She'd never make any progress if she had to trek all the way over there before setting out for anywhere else. There was always the option of living in the cave again, but…

Applejack shivered. No, she'd much rather avoid that option if at all possible.

Still, using the mountain as a reference, she was able to find something. She knew that her camp was somewhere to the north of the mountain, and there was a lake still further north. She also knew that the river running through her campsite eventually led back to the ocean in one direction, and ran into the lake in the other. Even with all these details, it was hard to find anything definitive at first. The paper of the map was almost entirely covered in black ink, there were just so many symbols and lines. Applejack was almost certain there was more ink than there was blank space.

Just when she was starting to consider searching for something else, her eyes finally fell upon the perfect spot. Applejack froze, unblinking, for fear that even a single blink would once more render her lost among the myriad designs covering the page before her. The spot she'd found seemed to fit the bill exactly. While the clearing itself didn't appear on the map, she'd found a river that ran from a smallish lake all the way into the ocean. Peering closely at the lake, Applejack was able to make out a tiny square shape printed on one of its shores.

Applejack finally allowed herself to blink, but the image remained unchanged. Slowly, her muzzle spread into a grin. The little square was far too perfect to represent anything natural. There were only so many things that it could mean. Pony-made structure, small, built alongside a lake. Applejack wasn't usually one for gambling, but she'd bet the farm that she knew exactly what building she was looking at, even if it was no longer standing. It was the cabin.

She had her starting point. Applejack let out a joyful 'whoop' and shot to her hooves, only to stumble a bit and grimace at the stiffness in her limbs.

Okay, so perhaps her celebration was a bit pre-mature. She wasn't quite ready to go out adventuring just yet. Nevertheless, Applejack took a small bit of charcoal out of the fire pit and drew a circle around that particular lake. She'd take a few days to recover, and then she'd head out.

After all, she'd waited this long, she could wait a little longer. The grin on her face was reaching giddy levels as Applejack pored over the map for any interesting symbols she might want to investigate. After all, she may have only seen its cellar, but she knew exactly where to find what was left of that lakeside cabin. She had a starting point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It ended up being a while before Applejack felt ready for any intensive exploration. She spent that time mostly around her camp, but didn't really accomplish a whole lot. She was able to gather up some food and firewood, at least. Applejack wasn't sure just how hard she'd hit her head when the raft had been swept up in that storm, but it was enough to leave her lethargic and sensitive to bright light for a few days.

Applejack supposed she had at least a minor concussion, but she didn't really have any idea how to treat such a thing, so she'd just spent a lot of time napping. She'd also taken the down-time to give her hair another trim. The first time she'd had to cut it on the shore of the beach seemed so far away. Applejack tried not to dwell on that fact as she made short work of her tangled mane in front of the crystal clear river.

By the time she was feeling ready to go, it had been three days of lazing about by her count. Her legs itched to be used; she craved the burning that came with exerting her muscles.

Suffice to say, Applejack was restless. She trotted out of her lean-to with a grin on her face. Her food supply was high, her stockpile of firewood was sufficient, and at long last she felt fully recovered. Applejack tightened the straps of the saddlebags she wore. She'd donned them as soon as she woke up, almost bouncing with eagerness to go explore.

She scratched another tally mark on the face of the boulder and scarfed down a quick breakfast of wildflowers, before trotting over to the river and filling her dented canteen up to the brim. She hung the full canteen around her neck next to the golden locket, then double-checked the bindings of the knife she wore on her left foreleg.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Applejack turned briskly and set on her way. She trotted alongside the river, following it upstream to where she knew the lake would be. Her saddlebags were empty save for the rolled-up map. She fully expected to be bringing them back at least partially full.

It felt good to be out and about again, trotting through the jungle, thin as it was on the riverbank. Applejack closed her eyes and soaked in the feeling. She breathed in the scent of moss and dirt, listened to the gentle burbling of running water, and involuntarily flicked her ears to the occasional rustling from somewhere in the distant undergrowth.

The serenity of the trip made it pass quickly, and it seemed only moments later that Applejack was emerging from the treeline and onto the shore of the lake. The sun, still rising ever higher in its morning ascent, reflected its light off the surface of the still lake in glittering brilliance. A cool breeze wafted across the water and caused the grass around Applejack to stir.

She let out a contented sigh as she looked out across the mirror-like surface of the lake, but didn't waste any more time than that. As much as she would've loved to bask in nature's beauty a bit more, there was work to be done.

For her first trip out with the map, Applejack had a very specific plan. There was no way she could even know if the symbols on the map meant anything, so she had to run some sort of test to prove they weren't utter nonsense. With that in mind, Applejack had remembered the old, ruined greenhouse she'd run across some time ago.

The greenhouse had the same symbol on it as the map, and most other things she'd found on the island. Of course, that meant the map was sure to include some sort of marker for the greenhouse on it. If she could remember how to get there again, and compare its position to the map, she could then reasonably trust the map to lead her to other such buildings. And if she wasn't able to find a symbol on the map that corresponded to the greenhouse location… well, that could very well mean the thing was useless. Applejack wasn't hoping for that outcome.

Applejack sat down and rolled the map out in front of her. She pored over it as she thought back carefully to just where she'd found that building. There was certainly some margin for error, but she wanted to be as sure as possible before running off into the woods.

It took a few minutes of pondering, but Applejack eventually became reasonably certain of the greenhouse's location on the map. At the very least, she had a direction and an educated guess at a distance. The symbol in that location was a black circle outline, filled in with black on the bottom, and filled with white on the top. Next to the circle was a small number '3'.

After carefully plotting out her route from the lake to the circular symbol, completely independent of her remembered location for the greenhouse, Applejack put the map back in her saddlebags. She set her jaw and stood up straight. All that remained now was verification. The moment of truth was before her.

She turned and trotted into the trees without a sound. The undergrowth parted before her and closed up behind, leaving not a trace of her passing.

The path she cut through the jungle wasn't immediately familiar to her. While she'd been able to make an educated guess as to the greenhouse's location based on the multiple trips she'd made there in the past, Applejack had never actually travelled there in a straight line. Her discovery of the old building had been completely accidental, and as a result the path she usually followed was mildly convoluted, winding and curving through the jungle before eventually reaching its destination. Still, Applejack was pretty sure she'd been able to visualize it well enough to get the spot on the map right, so she was simply hiking in a straight line from the lake to the supposed location of the building.

Every few minutes, Applejack would pull out the map and glance over it briefly, just in case. Nothing ever changed, of course. The symbol she was –hopefully– headed towards had nothing between it and the lake but empty jungle. There weren't even any discernable landmarks along the way for her to double check. Applejack's only choice was to trust in her sense of direction and memory of the last time she'd visited to greenhouse to harvest a couple tomatoes.

As it turned out, Applejack's sense of direction and memory were actually awesome. She couldn't help but let out a joyful whoop as a chest-high brick wall emerged from the dense jungle just a few feet ahead of her. She almost hadn't seen it, the jungle was so thick, but now that she stood so close it was undeniable.

The map had led her true. There was no doubt about it. The location of the symbol and the ruin in front of her just matched up too perfectly. The map wasn't another dead end. It was real!

The reality of that last thought truly sunk in then, and Applejack very nearly jumped for joy. In the end, she settled for dancing back and forth on her hooves excitedly. There were so many possibilities. Without hesitation, Applejack turned around and sprinted back the way she'd come. She needed to get back to camp and prepare.

There was exploration to be done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day found Applejack on her first long expedition. She'd waited overnight in order to leave in the early morning. Her destination was fairly far away, and she didn't want to risk getting caught out overnight. Still, Applejack had brought with her some flint and tinder and plenty of food. She was prepared to camp out if she needed to, but that didn't mean she wanted to.

The first thing on the map she'd chosen to investigate seemed fairly promising. It was a bold letter 'B' similar to the 'A' that marked the location of the cave. Unlike the cave one, though, this symbol seemed to be located in the middle of the jungle towards the north side of the island. It was certainly curious, and Applejack was making good time in her trek towards it.

Her excitement propelled her onwards through thick bushes and over fallen logs. The rainforest became harder to navigate the further she went, but still Applejack pushed on. She paused every so often to take a swig from her canteen and wipe the sweat from her brow before it ran into her eyes. The canopy overhead was nigh impenetrable this deep in the jungle, and what little sunlight managed to get through made it look like late evening, even though Applejack could tell from the light's angle that it was only midday.

She couldn't quite say how long she'd been walking when Applejack finally stumbled upon something. While the trees didn't thin out at all, Applejack could see bright light just a short distance ahead where the jungle gave way to open air. A tired but relieved chuckle escaped her lips as Applejack picked up her pace slightly.

In mere moments, she burst free of the treeline and into an open clearing. Though the sudden influx of bright sunlight blinded her for a split-second, Applejack nonetheless held a wide grin as she anticipated what great discovery awaited her. She rubbed at her eyes with her forehooves to regain her vision faster, and when she finally looked up with clear eyes, she was greeted with the glorious sight of… absolutely nothing.

Applejack blinked. She quickly whipped out the map and stared intently at it. Had she read it wrong? Had she made a wrong turn somewhere? There didn't seem to be any indication that she was in the wrong place. Unless she'd gone completely off course, which was unlikely. As much as Applejack didn't want to brag, she'd known very well how to read a map since she was a filly, and her sense of direction had never betrayed her before.

Rolling the map back up and placing it back in her saddlebags, Applejack took a few steps out into the clearing. As she looked around at the place, she started to think maybe she was in the right place after all. There were things about the area that just weren't quite right. For starters, the surrounding jungle cut off extremely quickly. There was no thinning of trees or smooth transition. One minute the trees were packed in dense as can be, and the very next step they cut off entirely. The treeline also formed a nearly perfect circle around the clearing, not even a single bush or branch protruded inside the clear area. Then there was the grass itself. It was short, but not like the grass of Applejack's camp. Where her camp was a naturally short meadow, this clearing was… unnatural. It was too perfect. Every blade of grass was exactly the same height, as if they'd been mowed by a perfectionist mere minutes ago.

That thought made Applejack snap her head up from inspecting the ground. Wide-eyed, she rotated in place and squinted into the surrounding jungle. She couldn't say whether the perfectly manicured grass was another oddity of the island… or if there was actually somepony maintaining it.

"Hey!" she shouted out aimlessly. Her voice was scratchier than she would've imagined it. "Any—" she hacked a cough, "Anypony out there?!"

Applejack tilted her ears, listening, but there was no reply. Not even the unknown rustling was present. She shuddered in the silence.

"Right then," she muttered, mostly to herself. "Guess you won't mind me takin' a look around then."

She moved into the very center of the clearing and continued to inspect it carefully. Despite the clear strangeness of the place, Applejack was unable to find anything of note. As far as she could tell, it was completely and utterly empty.

The clearing was momentarily filled with the sound of her disappointed sigh. All that time, wasted. By the time she got back to camp, it'd be too late to head out for another expedition. The day may as well have been spent doing nothing. Disappointment turned to frustration, and frustration turned to anger. Anger at the stupid island for never giving her any answers, anger at the stupid map for teasing her with false opportunity, and most of all anger at the stupid clearing with its stupid perfectly-cut grass! Applejack reared up on her hind hooves and stomped down hard with her forelegs, tearing and smashing—

"Ow!" Applejack exclaimed as her hooves bounced off painfully. She blinked and snapped her gaze downward. Where her forehooves had struck the ground, a thin layer of dirt and grass had been disturbed, revealing smooth stone underneath.

The clearing fell into silence again for several heartbeats. Then Applejack mumbled, "Oh…"

A split-second later and she was on her knees in the dirt. Her forelegs worked rapidly, tearing and pushing aside dirt and grass to reveal more and more perfectly flat stone. It wasn't easy work, but Applejack made it quick. She shoved upturned topsoil into piles and then heaved those piles out of the way. Her small patch of stone grew and grew from the center outwards. As she worked, Applejack noticed something on the stone. Black paint running in wide lines and strokes became apparent beneath the grass. A smile broke out on her sweating face as more and more was revealed. It was large, too large to see clearly from her position in the dirt. When Applejack had seemingly cleared enough to show a coherent image, she immediately ran to the edge of the clearing to get a good look at it.

Her heart froze over at the same moment it sunk into her hooves. Applejack stared, her face completely blank. She couldn't even muster any real anger. She simply exhaled through her nose as her eyebrows formed a straight line. There, on the perfectly flat stone floor before her, was painted the very largest rendition she'd ever seen of a symbol she'd seen far too often.

An outline of a pony's head, a horn and wings, a large triangle. The words 'NEC DI NEC DOMINI' ran along the bottom in letters each the size of a small pony.

"Yeah," Applejack said in a resigned tone as her ears folded against her head. "I suppose that figures."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning found Applejack working at the campsite. Her first exploratory trip hadn't gone over as well as she'd hoped, so Applejack was taking a bit of time to upgrade her living space. Or, rather, she was getting started on what would be a very large and time consuming upgrade. It would be a suitable project to serve as a distraction for the foreseeable future, if nothing else.

Applejack had gone out first thing in the morning and gathered a few mostly-straight sticks from the jungle. They weren't what she'd normally grab for firewood though. These were too long to be used in a fire without breaking into pieces, and she had no intention of doing that.

She sat next to her lean-to with her back propped against the boulder and held one of the sticks in front of her. A brief inspection confirmed that it wasn't rotten or dry or otherwise structurally unsound. Nodding once with a hum of satisfaction, Applejack shifted the stick to the crook of one forehoof and drew her knife from its sheath with her other.

Then she started whittling. Whittling is an old craft, with a couple different purposes. Some ponies could take a knife and a piece of wood, and create art out of them. They'd work for hours, slaving over every detail with expert precision, and carve some of the most beautiful sculptures Applejack had ever seen. The works were never perfect, of course; even the most expert whittler wasn't capable of glass-smooth surfaces. But that was what gave them their beauty, in Applejack's eyes. No two works would be exactly alike, even if they were made by the same artist and depicted the same thing. The tiny imperfections gave each sculpture a personal touch, made it truly unique. There was an old wooden whale sitting above the fireplace at Sweet Apple Acres, and it never ceased to please Applejack that it was the only one of its kind in the world. It was their own little work of art, and there would never be another one exactly like it.

Applejack shook her head clear of the distracting tangent that had occupied it. She couldn't space out too much while working with a blade, after all.

She managed to get back to her original line of thought: There are a few different purposes to whittling. Applejack had never been a very artistic pony. She could paint the side of a barn red, and that was about it. No, when she'd learned to whittle, she'd done it solely as a way to pass the time. As busy as they usually were, there was downtime at the farm. A nice simple hobby was the best way to get through that downtime without falling prey to boredom. So Applejack had taken up whittling. Rather than carving any particular shape, she'd just work on a piece of wood until it was reduced to a pile of shavings. The process was… relaxing, in its own way. She could sit there on the porch and shave off bits of wood for hours on end while her thoughts wandered aimlessly. As she sat there with her back against the boulder, Applejack could almost close her eyes and imagine herself back home again, whittling just to pass the time.

The illusion didn't last long, however, as Applejack wasn't actually whittling for either of those two reasons. No, as it turned out, there was one more reason for the craft. It was the oldest use of it, by far. Ponies as far back as the dawn of civilization had utilized the craft for the very reason Applejack was doing it now. They didn't want to create art, and they didn't want to pass the time.

In short, sometimes you just want a pointy stick.

Applejack smirked in satisfaction as she inspected the deadly sharp end she'd created. Yes, it would do very nicely. She then blinked, and turned to gaze at the pile of sticks she'd gathered next to her. It must have been a couple dozen at least, and she'd finished one. Even then, the pile she'd gathered was only a fraction of what the project would require in the end. A sigh escaped her lips. It was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Progress on her little project was slow going, but Applejack wasn't willing to devote her entire being to it. It did wonders to break the monotony and give her a breather now and again, but there was still her primary task of exploring the island to consider. So it was that Applejack found herself splitting her time between the two. Some days she'd spend entirely at the camp, replenishing her food, stocking firewood, and working on her project. Other days she'd spend out exploring, sometimes taking until nightfall to get back to the camp.

Nothing much of interest had come up so far in any of her expeditions. As it turned out, most of the structures on the island had been flattened nearly beyond a trace. Most exploration days ended up with finding a relatively square patch of relatively square dirt, with maybe a brick or two nearby. All in all it was turning out less exciting than Applejack had anticipated. Honestly, she was beginning to relish the days spent at her campsite even more than the days spent searching for answers. Sitting around in the sun, whittling a bit, talking to the chicken; it was nice. She could happily spend her days–

Applejack shook her head, her eyes wide. No, that was a dangerous line of thought. She couldn't let herself adapt that far. She couldn't forget that she had a real home waiting for her. The island was not nice. The island was awful, and she needed to leave it as soon as she could. If she wasn't careful, she might just stop wanting to.

The thought made her shudder, so Applejack decided to focus back on her immediate surroundings instead. She was trudging through the deep jungle. It was an exploration day. She'd set out in the early morning, and already the sun was at its zenith above her. Time really seemed to fly when she got lost in her thoughts. Still, if her estimate was correct, and she was getting very good at estimating travel time, she would be arriving at her destination in a couple minutes tops.

Of course, it was impossible to tell given that the jungle obscured everything more than a dozen feet away in each direction. Rarely did she bushwhack through such harshly overgrown areas, but it needed to be done sooner or later. Still, the necessity of it didn't make it any more pleasant.

Applejack paused to take a swig from her canteen. It was already more than half empty. Forging her way through such thick jungle was far more tiring than usual, and it was certainly thirsty work. Applejack begrudgingly took only the smallest sip of water before screwing the cap back on. She'd need to start conserving now if she didn't want to collapse halfway back to camp.

With her miniscule break over, Applejack once more pressed onwards. Fortunately, she didn't have to press onwards very far. Unfortunately…

"Whoa nelly!" Applejack exclaimed as she suddenly found her forehoof stepping into open air. She would've said more, but the next moment found her mouth filled with dirt as she toppled forward and rolled head over hooves down a steep incline.

Blue, brown, blue, brown. Her vision consisted of alternating views of the clear sky and the hard earth for what felt like an excruciatingly long time, but was probably barely a second. In the very next blink, Applejack landed hard on her back. The wind rushed out of her lungs in a pained wheeze, and she lay there for several panting moments trying to refill them with moderate success.

One harsh coughing fit later, and Applejack was mostly able to breathe again. She rolled over onto her stomach with a groan, and then lifted her head to get a look at where she'd fallen. As she'd surmised from her extremely close contact with it, there was a steep dirt ramp leading back up to the treeline. The undergrowth came right up to the edge, and had blocked her view until it was under her hooves. There was no plant growth on the ramp, it was just smooth, uninterrupted dirt. Other than the jagged trench leading from top to bottom that Applejack had dug with her face, of course.

After taking another second or two to clear her scrambled brain, Applejack looked around and discovered that it wasn't really a ramp. Rather, she was in a sort of bowl. The incline led all the way around in a wide circle, with the treeline coming up to the very edge of it on all sides, but no plant life growing within. The inside of the bowl was perfectly flat, and was also composed of dirt with no visible plant life. There were a few pony-made fixtures within, though Applejack hadn't managed to land next to any of them so she was observing from a distance. Either they were too far away, or her head was still too scattered from its brief but intense relationship with the ground, but Applejack was having a hard time identifying the structures. The largest looked like a small, square house, and the rest seemed to be… cages of some sort. That was deeply concerning on a number of levels.

It took a bit of effort to push to her hooves, but by the time she was upright Applejack's legs had stopped shaking. She didn't seem to have suffered any real injuries in her fall, but it had knocked the wind and a good deal of sense out of her, and it'd be a few more minutes before she was fully recovered. That didn't mean she had to sit around though. Applejack snatched her hat from where it had tumbled to a stop next to her and placed it back upon her head. After adjusting it slightly, she flicked her tail and set off at a trot towards the cluster of interesting objects in the center of the flat area.

The place wasn't terribly large, but it was definitely too big and too perfectly flat to be natural. The dirt underneath Applejack's hooves felt like any hard-packed dirt road she'd ever been on, and nothing like natural earth. Somepony, or something had clearly dug out this pit for some purpose, but that purpose wasn't immediately evident just by looking around.

Applejack didn't just have to look though, as she quickly found herself arriving in the center next to the small building and many cages. Upon closer inspection, the building appeared to be nothing more than a basic shed; uninteresting, at first glance, though whatever was inside could be better.

Some of the cages weren't empty, but a quick glance by them revealed what looked like bones within, so Applejack quickly decided not to investigate them. Being a farmer, Applejack took care of many less-than-sentient animals, kept them in pens and such. Still, even keeping them confined, Applejack could never imagine being cruel to them. She didn't want to think about the poor creatures that had been abandoned in their cages to starve when the island's inhabitants had disappeared.

Moving on, another thing that she noted up close was that there were a few scattered tools lying on the ground. Some of them looked like they were once pickaxes or shovels, but they had rusted and rotted away to the point of utter uselessness. As much as the idea of having a proper working tool excited Applejack, she'd have more luck with a rock than with anything on the ground there.

There were others, though, that Applejack couldn't immediately identify. She approached one and sat down in front of it, peering at it through squinted eyes. It was long, about one and a half pony lengths at least, and it was made of plastic. On one end were two metal-tipped prongs, and on the other end a small box made of the same black plastic as the rest of the thing. There was a button where a pony would hold onto the thing if they were holding it like a spear. Applejack shrugged and reached out to the button with a forehoof.

Nothing happened. Whatever the two-pronged plastic spear thing once did, it didn't do it after Celestia knows how long sitting out on the ground. With her first test failed, Applejack attempted to pick the tool up. Apparently it had been sitting there for quite some time, though, as her grip managed to break it without any effort whatsoever. The old plastic shattered and fell back to the ground in front of Applejack, but her disappointment was soon replaced with renewed curiosity. There was something inside the spear thing. The plastic was hollow, and a rubber-insulated wire ran through it.

Applejack shrugged once more, then reared up onto her hind hooves and smashed her forehooves over the spear thing repeatedly. She shattered all the plastic from the two-pronged tip all the way back to the black box at the end. The wire ran all the way between the two. That's when it clicked. Applejack didn't have a lot of experience with technology, but she knew Twilight Sparkle. That was all it took to become somewhat familiar with the stuff.

From what she could guess, the black box at the end contained batteries, which could store electric power… somehow. The power would run through the wire and all the way to the tip. There was one lesson Applejack had earned very early on when poking around at Twilight's electric gadgets: Electricity hurts! It's like bottled lightning, and touching it in its raw form is painful as all get out.

So it seemed Applejack was looking at some sort of electric powered spear.

"Huh…" Applejack poked it once more, but it still didn't do anything. "Neat."

As interesting as the electric spear was, it didn't really give her any useful information, so Applejack went back to investigating the rest of the site. None of the other tools were in any state to be used, and the rest of the electric spears were just as broken as the first one.

Applejack soon found herself before the small shed. It was mostly covered in light grey paint, though plenty of it had chipped off to reveal half-rotten wood underneath. Still, it was pretty much entirely intact. There were no massive holes in the wall, the roof hadn't collapsed as far as she could see. Pretty good condition, overall, but Applejack didn't want to get her hopes up.

She took a deep breath, prepared herself for the worst, and pushed open the door.

It… wasn't empty. Applejack let out a sigh of relief. So far, so good. She stepped inside and looked around. It wasn't very big, about four ponies could fit inside before things became awkward. Part of the lack of space was due to furniture. The already-small room was dominated by a full office setup. There was a desk with a chair and a magical lamp, a pair of filing cabinets, and even a coat rack in the corner.

Applejack quickly walked over and opened one of the filing cabinets. As expected, it was empty. She couldn't even be bothered to sigh, but as she turned around something on the desk caught her attention. Applejack was standing before it in a flash, the old chair tossed aside in her haste. There was a large sheet of paper lying there, big enough to take up most of the desk's surface.

She wiped the dust off and examined the paper carefully. Of course, it had the 'NEC DI NEC DOMINI' symbol in the bottom right, but that hardly came as a surprise, and Applejack noted it with barely a thought before looking at the rest of the paper. At first glance, she nearly thought it was another map, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't… technically. Rather than depicting the island, it seemed to depict a single, very large building. The drawings were extremely detailed, made up all of hard lines with measurements next to them. It showed the building from every angle with the utmost attention to the tiniest structural detail. Why, it almost looked like instructions–

That was when it struck her. It was a blueprint.

"Oh…"

For some reason, Applejack had always expected them to be blue.

In any case, it answered one important question. She knew exactly what this place was, now. It was a construction site. The tools had belonged to construction workers, and the electric spears to guards. The perfectly smooth and hard-packed dirt, dug down several feet into the ground; they had been preparing to lay a foundation.

Applejack couldn't tell from the blueprints exactly what kind of structure they were building, but she could tell it was very large and modern. It was all straight lines and hard angles, almost like a hospital or an office building she'd see in Manehatten. Though obviously not on such a scale, this one being only two stories tall plus a basement.

Still, one thing niggled at the back of her mind. Why'd they bring a bunch of animals to a construction site? Were the cages used to store guard dogs? If so, they had an absolutely excessive amount of guard dogs. There were dozens of cages out there, and only a few electric spears. They would've had more guard dogs than actual guards. No, that didn't make any sense.

As much as she didn't want to, Applejack really only had one choice. She crept back out of the office tentatively, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. She had to see what kind of animals they'd kept there, but she really didn't want to. She hated the idea of some poor critter suffering in a cage alone until it starved… but it had to be done. She came to a stop in front of one cage, still staring straight down at her hooves.

Slowly, painfully, Applejack raised her eyes.

Her mouth fell open, but no sound emerged. Not a gasp, not a scream, not even a breath of air. Her forelegs shook as her body suddenly felt twice as heavy. She felt her haunches hit the dirt before she realized that she was sitting down. Her entire form slumped, her eyes locked as wide open as her mouth, unblinking. The sounds of the wind and the rustling jungle faded away entirely. A ringing sound dug into her ears. She tried, desperately, to close her eyes, to look away, but her body refused her instructions.

Her vision remained stubbornly focused on the bones before her. The bones locked in the cage. What she'd assumed was a guard dog or beast of burden. The skeleton with a unicorn horn portruding from its bleached white skull. Tattered bits of fabric, little more than rags, stuck to the remains here and there. The head seemed to grin at her, despite the fact that it was covered in spiderweb cracks and the horn was snapped off halfway up.

She still hadn't taken a breath, and her lungs were beginning to burn.

Applejack coughed and heaved, her eyes teared up and finally obscured her vision. She sucked in desperate gulps of air, only to feel bile rising in the back of her throat. She fought down the urge to vomit, clenching her eyes shut. The darkness was much more pleasant. In the darkness she could forget about what she'd seen. She could forget that every last cage had been occupied, many of them by multiple pony corpses. She could forget about the atrocity that she'd wandered into.

Seconds or minutes later, Applejack managed to steady her breathing, calm her gag reflex, and slowly inch her eyes open. The scene hadn't changed. She choked briefly once more as she glanced around the site. One forehoof instinctively flew up to cover her muzzle, and the remaining one wobbled precariously trying to support her.

She wished that she could stop staring. She wished that she could turn tail and run, and never look back. Unfortunately, she had to look, she had to see the full extent of this place. She quickly regretted it.

That's when she saw it.

One cage in particular happened across her vision. It was no different from any of the others, technically speaking. Inside were yet more pony remains, an earth pony it seemed, and the sight already made Applejack's stomach churn and her chest ache. But there was something different. Against every rational part of her mind, she focused for a better look at the cage's occupant.

Applejack's legs gave way beneath her. She collapsed hard onto her belly, but she didn't even notice. Tears rose to her eyes and poured down her face, but she could still see it. The sight would likely be burned into her mind for the rest of her life.

The pony in the cage had something wrapped in its skeletal arms. Something tiny. It had looked like nothing but a bundle of rags at first, until Applejack had noticed the tiny, tiny skull.

Applejack rolled onto her side, curled her limbs close to her body, and sobbed until she lost track of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack wasn't a complete stranger to death. She worked on a farm; animals came and animals went. It was the natural cycle of things. In the end, they all go the same, whether they fell ill, grew old, or were taken by timberwolves—not that the last was a very common occurrence.

Even as accustomed as she'd become to such things, there was always a certain disconnect. It wasn't that she didn't care for her animals. In truth, she loved each and every one. Still, she had a farm to run, and she couldn't stop to mourn each lost livestock. Each and every lost farm animal hurt, but it was a brief pain that didn't have much effect on her life.

Nothing she'd ever seen had prepared her for… that place. She'd even experienced the death of a close pony before. There was no disconnect, she was left broken for weeks, but it had been purely sadness. When her mother—

Applejack shook that thought out before it could take root.

But no, this had been something more than sadness. What she'd found at that construction site had been… horrifying, terrifying, traumatizing. None could do it justice. It wasn't the same as losing a loved one, but it was nowhere near the same as simple lost farm animals.

It was a pain, a sickening clench in her gut, that stuck with her for days. She hadn't eaten at all that first day. Even after throwing up her lunch, she just wasn't hungry at all. It wasn't until sharp pains had lanced through her midsection the next day that Applejack had finally forced some food down. Still, she couldn't get the images out of her mind.

So many skeletons, locked up and left to rot. The cages were so small, that was why Applejack had assumed they were for guard dogs. A pony would've barely been able to move in most of them, but those weren't the worst ones. No, despite everything in her being telling Applejack to run back to camp and cry herself to sleep, she'd investigated further. She'd found the worst ones.

The worst ones were the big cages. There weren't a lot of them, maybe four or five rather than the dozens of tiny cages, but what was inside them… piles of bodies. The captives had huddled into corners, clinging to each other in their last moments as their strength faded. Their skeletons were intertwined and squeezed together such that Applejack couldn't even get an accurate count of how many ponies had been in the cage. They'd just been… so desperate for some sort of comfort. Then some of the big cages had piled bodies at the door. Stacked atop each other in their frenzied last attempts at escape. The ones at the bottom were crushed and broken, but in the end they'd all become bones.

Ponies, all of them. They had families, friends, homes somewhere far far away from this damned island. None of them ever got to see their homes again. The island had claimed them as it was attempting to claim Applejack.

She'd wanted to do… something. Maybe a memorial of some sort, or at the very least a proper burial. Those poor souls deserved to have their bones laid to rest. Unfortunately, such plans were impossible. The ponies hadn't been able to get out of their cages when they were abandoned there, and Applejack hadn't had any better chance of getting them out herself. As much as it pained her, Applejack had been left with no other option but to abandon them there once more, just as they'd already been once.

The next few days had been… uneventful, to say the least. In all honesty, it was all something of a blur. She hadn't done any more exploring since then, that much was certain. For the most part, she'd worked on her little project, though she'd lost count of how many times she found herself staring off into space with a half-whittled stick sitting in front of her.

The thoughts and images wouldn't leave her, chances are they'd never leave her. The memory of that place was something that would haunt her to her grave. Still, while the ache in her chest and the bile constantly at the back of her throat never really got any easier to deal with, Applejack had gotten… better at it. She could work with a clear head, though she still wasn't up to another exploration trip, she'd gone out and refilled her food and firewood supplies over the past couple days. That was progress.

She still cried herself to sleep every night only to face an unending onslaught of nightmares.

So maybe not a lot of progress. Still, she was able to at least rationally consider the implications of what she'd found. Her best explanation was that the caged ponies were being used as manual labour to construct the large building, but then why had they been abandoned. Applejack had long known that something had happened to the island's inhabitants, but apparently whatever it was had been sudden enough for them to drop their weapons and disappear without even evacuating the workers.

As much as the thought utterly terrified her now, Applejack needed more answers, and that meant she would someday need to go out there and explore some more. Her thought process had changed though. Her old trips were exciting, filled with the thought of finding something. Now, there was nothing more scary than the thought of finding something.

All that could wait, though. At the moment, Applejack was back to work on her little project. It was near completion, now. A ring of sharpened stakes surrounded the camp on nearly all sides. She'd had to sharpen both ends in order to drive one end into the ground, and leave the other end pointing outwards. It wasn't a perfect defense, but it was something. There were of course gaps left for Applejack to walk through, but anything bigger than her, or anything moving too fast, would find a bad end in Applejack's perimeter defense.

She sat atop the camp's huge boulder in the bright afternoon sun, whittling away at yet another stick as she hummed softly to herself. Moments like these, she could allow herself to forget everything else. She could live in the moment and just lose herself in her work. No more death, no more looming duty to uncover more of the island's horrors, just Applejack and her knif—

"Son of a mule!" Applejack exclaimed as the knife bit into her forehoof. The knife fell from her grip into the grass below. Apparently, 'losing herself in the moment' required that she actually pay attention to where she was cutting.

It wasn't a bad cut by most standards, but it was bleeding, and by Celestia did it hurt. Applejack tossed the stick she'd been working on down to the ground —it was done anyway— then leapt down from the boulder herself, only to collapse into an ungraceful heap when the she tried to take some of the landing on her injured hoof.

"Horseapples, horseapples, horseapples…" she chanted under her breath as she pushed up to three hooves and limped over to the lean-to. It really wasn't a very bad cut, but Applejack read stories. She knew what a 'not very bad' cut could turn into in the jungle.

"I know it's here somewhere…" Applejack rummaged around her supplies in search of her rubbing alcohol. She finally located it with a loud "Aha!", and wasted no time in yanking the cork out. The burning scent made her recoil momentarily, but Applejack scrunched up her nose and powered through. It probably wasn't a good idea to just pour it on, so Applejack took out one of the old blankets she'd taken from the cellar, though not the pink quilt she'd gotten from the saddlebag. She still used that for bedding.

The old blankets were frail and easily torn, but that didn't matter for Applejack's purposes. She tore a piece from one of them and crumpled it up, then she held it against the open top of the alcohol bottle and turned it upside-down for a couple seconds. When she righted the bottle, the cloth had soaked up plenty of the smelly liquid.

Applejack quickly recorked the bottle, not that the stench was leaving any time soon, then set the alcohol-soaked cloth aside for a moment. She took another torn piece of cloth and used it to gently dab the blood away from her small wound. After cleaning it, the cut seemed even less threatening, but Applejack still didn't want to take any chances. It was small, but it was deep enough that an infection was a serious risk. Probably. Applejack really wasn't an expert on the subject.

She picked up the alcohol swab in her unhurt hoof, then hesitated. This was going to hurt, a lot. Applejack grit her teeth hard, she sucked in a long breath and tensed her muscles, and ever so slowly she pressed the damp cloth against the cut.

It hurt. A lot.

By the time Applejack had finished, she was pretty sure she hadn't even known some of the obscenities she'd shouted in her pain. The deed was done, though, at least for now. She knew she would probably have to repeat the process over the next couple days to be safe. She already wasn't looking forward to that.

Applejack hobbled out of the lean-to on three hooves. She'd only finished half the pile of sticks she was supposed to whittle that day, but she figured it was time for a break. She teetered over to the fire pit and plopped down into a sitting position near it. It wasn't really a fire during the day, more just a pile of glowing coals, but Applejack needed to make sure it stayed hot enough to light a real fire when night fell. Just to be sure, she tossed on another chunk of firewood.

The rubber chicken stared blankly at her from where it leaned against the boulder next to her firewood stockpile.

Applejack's eyes narrowed. "Oh, so there you are," she ground out. "Where were you when I dang near impaled myself a minute ago, huh?! I could'a died of blood loss or somethin', and you're having a nap by the fire. Typical."

She finished with a derisive scoff, but the chicken remained silent. It sat perfectly still, as it always did. It provided no response, as it never did.

Applejack sighed and turned back to the slowly crackling coals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack winced slightly as her left forehoof kicked a stray stone hidden in the underbrush. It had been several days since she'd cut it while working on her spike fence, and the injury had mostly healed by now, not that it was very serious to begin with. At the very least, it was healed enough that she didn't need to wash it out anymore, much to her relief. Still, it was healing slowly; a consequence of walking around on it all day, to be sure. It was little more than a nuisance, though. At worst, it gave a small twinge of pain if she bumped it against anything; nothing worth staying home over.

So it was that Applejack was finally out exploring again. Her spike barrier was complete, and her hoof wasn't really hurt in any seriousness. She'd completely run out of excuses to put off more expeditions.

Her heart fluttered in an odd mixture of fear and excitement as Applejack pressed onwards through the jungle. As much as she hated to admit it, the excitement was winning over. She hadn't gotten over what she'd found back at that construction site, her sleep was plagued with nightmares of it more often than not, but in the clear light of day away from the fear and the death… it made her yearn for more answers. She felt dreadful for thinking of dead ponies as nothing more than a piece of a puzzle, but that's what they were. Now she wanted, no, needed to find out how that piece fit with the rest of them. The island had a story, and Applejack felt certain that she hadn't even scratched the surface of it. She was terribly afraid of what the rest of the story might entail… but she was determined to find it out regardless.

For her trip that day, Applejack had chosen a rather interesting symbol. It was interesting because it came up multiple times around the map. It was relatively simple, just a circle with an solid black, upside-down triangle within. Applejack had counted six of them across the map, though, so it stood a good chance of being something important.

She'd chosen the one closest to her campsite, but 'closest' still wasn't very close. It was a few hours of hiking, with a brief break for food, before she finally saw a structure through the trees ahead. It was grey, and it was at least intact enough to still be considered a building. Anything else was impossible to make out through the plant life in her way.

Applejack picked up to a trot and made quick time to the structure. There wasn't much clear space around it, at least not compared to the rest of the buildings she'd found. In the past, even when she hadn't found anything but an old foundation, the building sites had always been surrounded by wide, grassy clearings. This place was different. The treeline encroached up to within a couple feet of the building before stopping, and it didn't stop for grass. The base of the building was surrounded by flat concrete.

In fact, the entire thing was made of dark grey concrete. It wasn't very wide, four or five pony-lengths at best from wall to wall, not including the base that extended to the trees, but it was fairly tall. There were three, maybe four stories from the bottom to the top that poked just barely above the trees.

It was a tower, Applejack realized. A circular, concrete, windowless tower that was clearly built to withstand whatever destroyed the rest of the structures on the island. That wasn't foreboding at all.

Applejack very briefly entertained the thought of simply packing up and going back to camp for a nap. Were it so easy.

Unfortunately, she couldn't allow herself to be sensible in times like these. Applejack stepped out of the treeline and onto the concrete base. Nothing happened. So far, so good. There was no visible door on the tower from where she was looking, so Applejack circled around until she found something.

It was made of bluish grey metal, and it looked about as strong and secure as the tower it was set into. Of course, in the least surprising revelation of all time, it had the ever-present symbol stenciled on in black paint. By that point Applejack would've been more surprised if the symbol and text hadn't been there.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any mechanism for opening the door. It was a flat and solid expanse of cold metal without so much as a latch to grip on.

"Oh come on…" Applejack muttered under her breath.

She trotted up and stared up and down the door with an angry glare. It refused to budge under her scrutiny. She really shouldn't have been surprised at yet another dead end, but that didn't make it any less discouraging. Applejack sighed in resignation and finally let her glare slip from her face as her eyes fell to the ground. Yet another day of exploration for nothing. She growled a wordless exclamation of her anger and kicked out at the door with her forehoof. Her hoof clanged off the metal loudly, but it provided little comfort. Applejack turned and trotted back—

Creak…

Her head snapped up in an instant. She whipped around and stared. Sure enough, the door was hanging slightly ajar on old creaky hinges. Applejack's jaw hung agape for several moments before she finally remembered to move. She quickly hopped back over and pressed one hoof against the door. Carefully, slowly, she pushed. The door let out another loud creak as it swung open an inch at a time. It was heavy, clearly made of solid metal, but the hinges were surprisingly good. In a matter of seconds Applejack had managed to push it all the way open.

The early afternoon light spilled through the open doorway and into the darkness beyond. Applejack peered in, trying to catch sight of anything at all, but all she could see was cold concrete floor in the small pool of light. The silence inside the tower was almost palpable, the air when she stuck her head in was… stale, old. It dried her throat and nearly made her cough. Still, no matter how hard she looked, nothing could be seen from the doorway. Applejack shrugged, then stepped inside.

She was plunged into such intense darkness that she had to look over her shoulder to make sure light still existed. To her relief, she hadn't gone blind. The bright sun still shone in a rectangle behind her, and in a small pool just inside the doorway. Applejack had stepped past the pool of light, and was standing completely free of the sun's rays for the moment. She turned back to the darkness, and waited.

Applejack stood there, breathing slowly. She didn't move, she didn't turn around for a second. No matter how oppressive the darkness engulfing her seemed, she stared straight ahead. No matter how much she wanted to turn tail and run, to bask in the warm sunshine once more, she stayed her hooves. She felt cold, but she wasn't sure if that was her imagination. Even when she started to shiver, she wasn't sure if it was caused by temperature or adrenaline.

Finally, after some unknown span of time, her waiting began to pay off. Shapes began to emerge before her. Her eyes adjusted to the near-total darkness, for no matter how black it had seemed, Applejack had let the light in. No matter how all-consuming the darkness had been before, there was no total escape from the sunlight when it shone onto the floor not two hoofsteps backwards. Some infinitesimally small amount of light was managing to leak its way into the room, and all it took was for Applejack's vision to adjust.

As her eyes adjusted, the room appeared. Everything was in greyscale, but then Applejack suspected the whole place was grey anyway. The room was circular, of course, reflecting the exterior shape. It wasn't large at all, with room for maybe four ponies to work comfortably, though at least twice that number could fit inside in a pinch. There were a couple desks along the walls with chairs pushed against them, but Applejack's attention was taken by the centerpiece of the room. It was a pedestal. It stood about chest-height, and appeared black as night even compared to the dark greyness surrounding it.

Applejack squinted and approached the strange thing. She could feel… something, from it. It seemed to 'buzz' in a way that she could feel in her very being. There was no sound, not even a whisper, but Applejack could feel it humming in a low bass tone. It was faint, barely detectable over her own breathing and heartbeat, but it was there.

The sound of her hooves clopping on the cold floor echoed through the room, but it never managed to drown out the humming. It remained just as hard to detect, no matter how much noise Applejack made. In complete silence, it never became any easier, and even with her echoing hoofsteps, it never became any harder.

She finally reached the pedestal. The feeling never intensified. It was simply there, constant, unchanging. Close up, Applejack could make out a few details on the pedestal. It was still considerably darker than its surroundings, but upon inspection it turned out to just be painted black. There was no magic absorbing the light that touched it, it just really was darker than its surroundings.

Applejack tentatively reached out a hoof and poked it. It was cold, made of metal, but otherwise unremarkable to the touch. Other than the strange vibrating sensation she felt in her chest, there was nothing strange at all about the pedestal. It seemed to be nothing but a completely normal…

Then something occurred to Applejack. Pedestals held things. Just to be sure, she brushed a hoof across the top surface. Empty. Whatever was supposed to be held on that pedestal… wasn't there anymore.

Applejack knew that it wasn't the temperature that made her shiver then. She turned away and walked over to one of the desks. Relative to the door, there was one desk on the right side of the room, and one desk on the left. She arbitrarily chose the right one and began checking it over.

There were a few drawers, but they were all empty. The top was the same. Nothing. Applejack checked the desk on the other side of the room, only to be met with more of the same nothing. It was always the same nothing.

She sighed once more, the sound echoing through the tall tower. It was all one room. There was nowhere else to check. The ceiling was lost in the darkness above, but there were no stairs or ladders anywhere. Applejack was about to leave when something caught her eye.

On the side of the room directly opposite the door, something stood out as brighter than its surroundings. Applejack quickly trotted over to check. There was a large white rectangle on the wall. It was sign of some sort, though any meaning was lost in the near-blackness, no matter how well her eyes had adjusted.

Fortunately, the sign came down easily. It was hung from a couple small brackets, and Applejack was able to knock it down with just a bit of fiddling. It clattered to the ground noisily, the reverberating sound causing Applejack's ears to fold against her head. It was made of thin wood, and not heavy at all. Applejack balanced the sign on her back and trotted back out the door.

The sun burned her eyes as Applejack exited, and she made sure to quickly cover them with a forehoof. She may or may not have let out a decidedly foolish yelp of pain when the brightness first stabbed into her eyes. The fluttery buzzing sensation left just as soon as Applejack stepped outside, fortunately. It probably would've gotten irritating after a while.

When the light finally abated in its painful assault, Applejack set the sign down on the ground and took a seat. She stared intently at it, white background, black text, block letters. Two words and a number.

SECURITY STATION 3

"Huh…" Applejack blinked. "Well that's something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack awoke gently. She'd gotten a good sleep last night. No nightmares, no cold sweat, no dreams at all that she could remember. Just pure, blissful sleep. That made… two nights in a row; a new record.

She groaned and rolled onto her hooves before scooping her hat up and placing it on her head. The chicken leaning against the stone wall of her lean-to watched in silence as Applejack prepared for the day ahead. She put on her knife, her canteen, and the golden locket, followed finally by her dirtied saddlebags. Applejack froze and blinked as she looked at the saddlebags. They had been white, originally. They couldn't really be called such anymore. Maybe "tan", but it was an ever darkening tan that was only growing closer to "brown" with every expedition.

But that wasn't what had made her stop. No, her eyes had fallen onto the straps holding the bags closed, and onto the three-balloon cutie mark emblazoned there, still maintaining its blue and yellow colour despite the tattered and stained nature of the saddlebags. Not her saddlebags. They were Pinkie's. Applejack was just using them. The thought was strangely sobering, but more-so because she had apparently forgotten that fact somewhere along the way.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since she'd made it back to camp after her failed escape attempt. Two weeks of exploration, fortifying her camp, and general progress, even with the… break she'd taken somewhere in the middle.

Still, while she could certainly say she'd made progress in uncovering more of the island, she still knew so little. She'd amassed such a collection of puzzle pieces, but she hadn't managed to fit a single one into place. Her last discovery of any note had been the security station, but even that had amounted to little of any actual value.

There was just… something missing. There was a key, somewhere. Something out there that would make everything make sense. It was only a matter of finding it.

As Applejack stood in the dawn's sunlight and took a deep breath of the cool morning air, she could feel that today would be different. It wasn't a definable feeling, it was just… intuition. Big things were in store for the day ahead of her. It was the sort of feeling that made her all giddy in spite of everything. She was very nearly bouncing on her hooves. It wasn't a supernatural sense, she wasn't Pinkie Pie, but Applejack just knew that the day would be exciting.

Best to get right down to it, then.

After scarfing down a quick breakfast, Applejack trotted off towards the jungle. Her hoof twinged in a brief spark of pain and she nearly stumbled, but it passed quickly. Applejack ignored it and plunged confidently into the dim jungle.

Author's Note

Edited by the uber-sexy Pyromitsu and Aatxe360.

Hurt
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Mother of Invention

Hurt

The empty saddlebags bounced against her sides as Applejack trotted through the underbrush. She wasn't going anywhere in particular, not today. Her primary goal was to gather some more firewood, though as she became more familiar with traversing the jungle Applejack strayed further and further from camp even for such simple resource gathering trips. After all, there was no telling when she might run into something of note.

So it was that Applejack kept her eyes open and her head on a swivel. Her hooves dodged around roots and tangling vines almost on instinct, now. The past two weeks of intense exploration had helped in that regard, even if more questions had been raised than answered.

A loose stone caught under her forehoof and sent her stumbling forward with a yelp. Okay, so maybe not quite an expert just yet. Applejack winced as the small cut on her forehoof flared momentarily in pain. It wasn't bad enough to be worrisome, it was just annoying.

She didn't let the momentary lapse break her stride though, and soon enough Applejack was once more trotting smilingly along. Though she was keeping a bit better eye on her footing as she did so.

Finally, Applejack spotted some viable firewood ahead. It wouldn't do to just chop branches off still-green trees. She needed wood that was dead and dry. Fortunately, she never had too much trouble finding suitable firewood. Applejack inspected a long fallen branch where it lay on the jungle floor. Probably knocked down in some storm, it had long since dried out completely. Nodding in satisfaction, Applejack snapped it into several smaller pieces and stuffed them into her saddlebags.

It certainly wasn't exciting work, gathering up supplies, but it was rewarding in its own way. Applejack was no stranger to repetitive manual labour, and on some level she relished the days that were consumed with simple work. No mysteries, no unanswered questions, just a task that needed doing.

The sun was still coming through the canopy at a low angle, indicating that it had yet to pass early morning, and already Applejack could feel a bit of sweat building as she lugged an ever-growing load of wood through the jungle. Oh yes, it was going to be a good day.

Her hoof twinged, and Applejack cursed under her breath.

A couple hours later, and she'd already dropped off two full loads of firewood back at camp. As she worked, she ventured further from camp with each run, and each load took slightly longer than the last. She was barely started on her third load, and already she was hitting a snag.

Applejack had managed to find an entire dead tree, covered in enough branches to fill her saddlebags just by itself. The only problem was that they were proving stubborn to remove. The first few small branches had snapped off with hardly any effort, but the larger ones refused to break. In the end, Applejack had been forced to draw her knife and hack away at the base of each branch to weaken it before breaking it off. To only exacerbate the problem, the ground sloped gently into a sort of bowl shape, with the dead tree near the rim of the bowl, and the tilted ground made it difficult to get any sort of leverage.

Still, while the tree may have been stubborn, Applejack was more-so. It had taken a while, and she was sweating by the end of it, but she'd managed to clear almost every branch from the damned thing. Only a couple more remained, and then she could finally head back to camp.

Applejack grunted with effort as she put all her weight into snapping one of the last few branches, but it held firm. She grumbled under her breath and drew her knife once more. It wasn't a very good tool for chopping wood, but it was better than nothing. It worked well enough to weaken them, at least.

"Come on, ya dumb waste of sap…" Applejack muttered angrily as she worked.

She stood on her hind legs, holding the branch in one forehoof to balance and gripping the knife in the crook of her other forehoof. Hack! Chop!

Each strike of the knife sent a few more woodchips into the air, dug a bit deeper, and brought her one step closer to her goal.

"Just… a few… more…"

Her injured hoof —the one anchoring her to the tree— suddenly sparked in pain.

"Gah!" Applejack lost her grip and teetered backwards. For the tiniest blink of time she balanced there, her hoof scrambled to re-attain its hold on the dead tree, but it was no use. In the next blink, she was falling backwards. Head over hooves she rolled down the hill, grunts of pain escaped her lips as she flipped and rolled towards the bottom of the bowl. Her knife, her most useful tool, was flung from her grip and launched who-knows-where. The only sound to reach her ears was the crashing of leaves as she smashed through bush after bush in her descent. She got a mouthful of dirt and the sense knocked out of her when her face bounced painfully off the forest floor. Then, finally, she slid just a little more on her back, and stopped.

Applejack tried to groan, but the wind had been knocked out of her. She stared up at the canopy and watched it spin around for a few seconds as the world came back into focus. She hadn't hit a rock or broken anything, as far as she could tell. Her head was still muddy and hazy, but there wasn't any pain.

Wait, no, there was pain. Pain, pain, pain. Applejack hissed in a sharp breath and clenched her eyes shut. Her left foreleg felt like it was on fire! That woke her mind up pretty fast. Her heart began to race as adrenaline kicked in. Her breathing became rapid and shallow as she fought off panic. She couldn't even dare to look, but dear Celestia the pain was intense. She'd had bad sprains before, and the pain she felt now outweighed them a hundred to one. If it was a broken leg…

Applejack could barely control her panic now, and the pain was only rising. It was becoming hard to think. She had to look. She wrenched her eyes open and turned to her left foreleg.

Then her brain shut down. Her eyes widened, and her heart might have stopped. Two thoughts managed to cross her inactive mind. One: It wasn't a broken leg. Two: She'd found her knife.

Applejack screamed.

The pain only got worse. She tried to tear her eyes away, but they couldn't help but stare at the knife protruding from her leg. As her thoughts gave way to panic, some part of Applejack's mind felt the need to analyse her wound. The knife had gone in fairly cleanly, stabbing straight into her leg between the knee and the shoulder. It seemed to have been stopped only when it hit the bone, and Applejack wasn't sure if that was lucky or unlucky. Blood was seeping out around the cold steel blade at a rather alarming rate, standing out starkly from the orange of her coat.

Applejack wished she could pass out. She wished for the blackness at the edge of her vision to expand and swallow her up, to render her blissfully unaware. She was not so lucky. Whether from adrenaline, or simply from the sheer pain erupting in her leg, Applejack remained horribly awake. So she screamed. She screamed every last breath out of herself until she had no more to give.

As she heaved, trying to get much-needed air back into her lungs, Applejack tried to calm herself slightly. She couldn't give up. She needed to get back to camp. She had rudimentary medical supplies. She could fix this.

When she finally got her breath back, Applejack didn't scream this time. Instead, she took one more look at her wound. It was still bleeding badly, but the pool of blood she'd imagined wasn't as bad as all that. The plants were stained with splashes of red, but they weren't drinking it up or growing wildly. She shook her head once, ensuring that she was in the real world, then took a deep breath and rolled onto her stomach.

She managed to keep her leg fairly stable during the roll, and the pain was manageable. Of course, that was the easy part. Applejack whimpered slightly as she mentally prepared herself, then counted off in her head. One, two, three.

With that, she pushed up to a standing position. Her leg burned as it was jostled by the movement. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the pain had already stolen her voice. Her chest expanding in heavy, panting breaths for several moments, as Applejack stood still to catch her bearings. Then she started moving. This was the hardest part. She had to get up to the top of the bowl. Uphill all the way, but then it was flat ground from there to her camp. She could do it.

Tears rolled down her cheeks unabated with each and every step. Her left leg dragged along the ground, only hurting more with each agonizing, searing step. Blood ran down her leg and left a path of red droplets behind her as Applejack slowly, slowly made her way up the hill. She could barely see, for tears were blurring her vision, and she could barely walk, for the pain had sapped her strength, but still Applejack pressed on. She knew that she had to be close. She lost all sense of time, her entire world became focused on the pain of her left foreleg, and the struggle of keeping her other three legs from buckling.

After what felt like years or hours or minutes, Applejack's right forehoof hit air. She came up over the rim of the bowl unexpectedly and stumbled forward with a shriek. She couldn't maintain her balance, and flopped down onto the jungle floor. Her left leg exploded in pain as she hit the ground, and Applejack barely stifled yet another scream. Her vision went black around the edges and she fought the urge to throw up for several moments.

She tried, failed, and tried again to push up to her hooves. Her legs shook from the effort, but she only ended up back on her stomach. Applejack sobbed and laid down her head, but just as quickly shot it up again. She wouldn't give up so easily. She used her good leg to wipe the tears from her eyes, and revealed the harsh and determined glare they held.

Then Applejack crawled. She dragged herself, an inch at a time. Using three legs, she shuffled along the jungle floor on her belly. She grunted with each movement, as each inch brought new levels of pain, but still she pushed on.

Finally, after years or months or days of crawling, Applejack felt she could stand again. She held her breath and pushed with all her might. Slowly, she rose from the jungle floor. Her legs wobbled, but she remained upright. Her lower left foreleg was more red than orange now. She needed to hurry.

Her gaze remained locked on the ground in front of her as Applejack stumbled through the forest. She couldn't fall again. Even if the pain didn't knock her out cold, Applejack knew that she wouldn't be able to stand up again, and there was no way she could crawl back to her camp before bleeding out.

So she pressed on. Her vision grew darker, or the sun grew dimmer. There was no way for her to tell. She hobbled as fast as possible, hoping against hope that she was still headed towards her camp. Her leg still hurt, unbearably so. Applejack thought that she was supposed to get used to it or something, but it never became any easier to bear. Tears ran down her cheeks and the only sound she made was the occasional grunt or sob.

Then light. Brightness, suddenly all around her. Applejack stumbled to a standstill, blinking rapidly to clear her vision. With some effort, she managed to lift her head and look around. She was in a clearing. No, she was in her clearing. For just a blink, Applejack forgot her pain for the joy that filled her heart at the sight.

But there was no time. Applejack took several steps towards her lean-to, and towards all the supplies she kept there. She made it about half way before collapsing. She blinked in confusion. There were no roots or vines in her campsite. What had tripped her?

Applejack looked behind her, and saw a line of red leading all the way back to the treeline. Lots of red. A deeply concerning amount of red. Her thoughts were slow and unresponsive, but Applejack was coherent enough. She dragged herself the rest of the way to the lean-to.

Upon reaching her pile of supplies, Applejack allowed herself only the smallest break to catch her breath. Then she set to rummaging through them. Fortunately for her, she'd used both the alcohol and the old blankets recently to treat the small cut on her hoof. Applejack grabbed them both, then turned to her injured leg.

Right, the knife. It was still stuck in there, blood welling up all around it. Applejack tentatively leaned her head forward and gripped the handle in her teeth. It slipped a couple times, but she eventually got ahold of it. Then she pulled.

She would have screamed yet again, but the knife in her mouth muffled it. Her vision faded to mere pinpricks for several moments, and the knife fell from her limp jaw as she only just fought the urge to pass out. Blood welled up even faster, spilling rapidly out of the wound and onto the grass.

When the pain finally faded to its usual —still excruciating— level, Applejack hazily set to work on bandaging it. She unrolled some of the blanket, tearing it with her teeth until she had a suitable piece. Setting that aside for a moment, Applejack took the bottle of alcohol and quickly uncorked it. This was no time to be squeamish. She only hesitated a second before dumping some onto the wound. She'd thought that the pain couldn't get worse, but that was quickly proven wrong. She couldn't even scream. She couldn't even breathe for almost a minute. When she finally regained the ability to see clearly, she noted that most of the blood, as well as all the dirt, had been washed away. While the blood was quick in returning, the dirt was the important part anyway.

Finally she took the makeshift bandage she'd torn and wrapped it around her leg as tight as she could. Applejack knew the importance of pressure on a bleeding wound. With that in mind, she tightened it as much as possible. A pained whimper escaped her mouth as her bandage applied pressure to her injury. Once it was tight enough, she tied it off as well as she could.

Panting heavily, Applejack let her head fall to the ground. Her vision was dimming, slowly, blackness continued to creep in from all sides. The pain wasn't getting any better, but she'd done all she could.

Only then did she allow herself to pass out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack woke up. Or maybe she was dreaming. It was impossible to tell. Time was a blur of colours and lights and pain. Her surroundings were unfocused, as if glimpsed through a stained-glass window. There were moments of hot clarity, but they were washed away into the blind haze of her memory before Applejack could ever truly claim to have experienced them.

Days passed. Or weeks. Applejack's food supply was still plentiful. Or maybe it was dwindling. She didn't move much. She slept odd hours, and was awake for even odder ones. Sometimes she dreamed, sometimes she remembered.

She was just a little filly at the time. She never even fully grasped the gravity of the day until years later.

She was playing out in the fields, rolling and jumping in the soft grass. Ma hadn't been feeling well lately, and that made her moody. Applejack didn't mind though, 'cause Pa said that it only meant a new brother or sister would be arriving soon. Applejack couldn't wait. Big Macintosh was fun, but having yet another brother or sister would be even better.

She heard her Pa calling out to her. He was at the farmhouse, but his voice carried far. He didn't sound happy. For a moment, Applejack thought about pretending she hadn't heard him. She could stay out and play, and avoid his scolding for whatever chore she'd forgotten. Except he didn't sound mad. He sounded… sad, a bit. Maybe even panicked. Applejack didn't like the way he sounded, so she decided to run all the way back to the house.

The face escaped her. Applejack sighed weakly as the unwanted memory played out in her mind, powerless to stop it. For all the clarity and detail, she couldn't remember his face. The voice, she could hear as clear as if he was right there speaking to her, but Applejack couldn't recall more than a vaguely stallion-shaped blur to go along with it.

There he was, on the deck, his features indistinct, his colour either red or brown or some shade of gray. The only defining feature was a weathered brown Stetson perched atop his mane. He didn't get mad or yell or scold Applejack. He just looked down at her with sad, sad eyes. Applejack decided that she'd rather be scolded. Before she could even ask what was wrong, he'd wrapped her in a fierce hug. She could hear him sniffling, could feel his whole body shaking, but she didn't say anything about it.

He took a deep, slow breath, and then spoke softly into her ear. She couldn't remember what he'd said. She remembered one thing: A brand new baby sister had been born, but her mother hadn't made it. Death wasn't something that any pony would be familiar with at that age. Applejack knew she felt sad, but she remembered far more confusion. After that, her father told her something else. He held her by the shoulders at hoof's length. His eyes still welled with tears, but there was a sternness in them now as he met Applejack's gaze. She couldn't look away from the burning intensity held there. With one forehoof, her father slowly, deliberately reached up and plucked the hat from his head. He then placed it gently atop Applejack's own. She tried to smile as best she could. She'd always loved his hat, and she didn't want to seem ungrateful.

Then, never once breaking eye contact, her father said—

And Applejack found she couldn't recall. She blinked slowly, her eyes unfocused. She could hear the voice, but she couldn't make out the words. He told her something, maybe a motivational speech, maybe some deeply important life advice. Whatever it was, she wasn't old enough for it. The words flew in one ear and out the other as Applejack was far too busy thinking about her brand new hat.

Maybe she'd have paid better attention if she knew they were the last words he would ever speak to her.

The next few days were busy. Ponies were coming and going at a rapid pace, family and friends shuffling through the house with sad smiles and misty eyes. Then Applejack had to wear a black dress and stand in a crowd of crying ponies. It hit her around that point. That was when the realization finally, truly sunk in. She would never see her mother again. Her mother was… dead. It took several days for her little filly mind to accept that, and it even more days of tears for her to handle it.

She couldn't even remember the day her father left in any detail. That was enough to shake her from the memory, if only momentarily. She glanced around lethargically. It was nighttime. Had she been sleeping? Her leg throbbed, but her mind soon clouded over enough for the sensation to fade into the background.

As she drifted back into darkness, her mind was drawn once more into the past. She recalled as much as she could about the day he'd left. It wasn't much. There was no fanfare about it. There was no long goodbye or tearful hugs in a train station. One day, not long after the funeral, Applejack got home from school and he simply wasn't there. That was it.

With Granny Smith busy taking care of Apple Bloom most days. Applejack learned quickly to take care of herself. Even her brother, despite being older, had a much harder time adjusting. So Applejack took care of him too. She shouldered as much responsibility as she needed to, and within a few years would end up taking charge of the entire farm.

Applejack never did find out what became of her father. Whether he'd been taken before his time, same as Ma, or maybe he'd found a life somewhere else. Maybe he'd even found a way to be happy. She honestly hoped that he did.

The sun shone down against her coat, and the grass rubbed against her belly. Applejack blinked. She didn't remember the day arriving. The river flowed gently in front of her, and Applejack leaned forward to quench her dry throat. When she was done, she rolled onto her side in the soft grass. Her eyes drifted closed, and one last memory displayed itself behind them.

She sat on the hardwood floor, facing the front door to the farmhouse with wide eyes, just as she had every evening for the past several weeks. Despite everything, Applejack just couldn't hate her father. Every day she hoped that he'd come back through that door. He'd see how well she'd done in keeping up the farm, he'd tell her that he was proud, that she'd done a better job than he ever could. She'd even give him back his hat, if he asked.

It was a vain hope held by a silly filly. Applejack realized that now. He never did come back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack awoke drenched in sweat. The dreams hadn't gotten any better. The whole 'life flashing before her eyes' thing that came with near-death experiences turned out to be less than pleasant when there were certain parts of her life she never wanted to be reminded of. On the plus side, she hadn't quite died.

Not yet at least.

With a groan of effort she managed to stand up to three hooves. For the first time she could remember since the accident, she was entirely coherent. As nice as it was to have her faculties back, she could've done without the sharp ache in her leg. She had to sit down to free up her good leg before she could put on her hat.

As she hobbled out into the clearing, Applejack tried to recall just how long it had been. Everything was a hazy blur. It wasn't that she remembered nothing, but most of it was a jumbled mess of reality mixed with dreams that she couldn't really make heads or tails of. There were other ways to figure out just what had transpired while she'd been recovering.

But first, breakfast. The morning sun shone brightly into her little clearing, warming her coat as she stood outside her lean-to. It was higher in the sky than she usually liked to wake up to, but considering the circumstances she could allow herself to sleep in.

The whole thing felt surreal, like she'd been away somewhere and only just returned. Just looking around the clearing filled her with an odd sense of… almost nostalgia. It was the same she'd felt when returning to Sweet Apple Acres after her stint in Manehatten.

That was when her eyes fell upon a dark patch in the grass just a few steps from her lean-to. Applejack blinked, then sniffed the air. Oddly enough, she smelled nothing. Not even a single trace of blood was present in the air that she could detect.

Tentatively, Applejack approached the stained ground. Her front left leg dragged uselessly on the ground as she walked. The stain was large. Concerningly large. Applejack felt her stomach twist in knots as she got a good look at it. It looked like somepony had spilled an entire barrel full of grape juice onto the grass. She could barely believe that all of that had come from her. Or, rather, she could hardly believe she was alive when all that had come from her. If nothing else, it certainly explained how her mind had become so clouded.

But the size of the bloodstain wasn't what concerned her most. It was the apparent age that caught her attention. It had long lost any resemblance to the colour red, turning to a shade of brown that could easily be called black. Most of the blood had soaked into the earth, with the large mark seeming dim and faded. Even the grass was green on top where it had grown fresh and new above the blood.

Applejack exhaled heavily and slumped to a sitting position. Just how much time had she lost? Clearly she hadn't been totally gone, or she would've died of thirst. She'd been awake for her recovery, but only for a slightly stretched definition of 'awake', and virtually none of it had been committed to memory.

She tapped her good forehoof against the side of her head, trying with all her might to remember how much time had passed. Then it struck her. Applejack stood up once more, and quickly trotted back in the direction of her lean-to.

During her recovery, she'd been almost sleep-walking. She'd been running on auto-pilot, going through the motions and habits she'd built since arriving on the island. Her bandages were clean and smelled slightly of alcohol, she'd been eating and drinking, and if her hunch was correct…

Applejack came to a stop in front of the large rock that dominated one side of her camp. Every morning since setting up there, she'd been marking down tally marks for the days. It only made sense that she'd continue to do so by reflex, even when her mind was fogged by blood loss.

So she counted them. She could remember what the tally count had been at on the day she'd been injured, and accounting for the fact that she probably didn't make a mark for the very next day after the accident, that added up to…

"T-twelve days?!" Her voice came out pathetically small and scratchy. It sounded like she was whispering after gargling whiskey. She'd meant to shout. That right there was about all the evidence she needed to realize that her count was correct.

A loud coughing fit followed. Applejack sat down quickly to avoid falling over as she hacked up a lung. The act made her throat burn, so she hobbled over to the river and immediately stuck her head in. She gulped down as much of the cold, clear water as she could before she had to come back up for air, and then she simply sat there on the riverbank breathing heavily.

Twelve days. Twelve days had passed in a blink while Applejack dreamed. She didn't want to believe it, but the more she thought about it the more believable it became. It just sort of… clicked. Like it was a missing puzzle piece in her faded memories. They didn't exactly become crystal clear in that instant, but when looking back with that timeframe in mind, everything seemed slightly easier to recall. The whole hazy recovery seemed to make just a little more sense.

Still, the shock of waking up after what felt like one night's sleep to find twelve night's gone by was taking some time to wear off. Applejack stared into the water at her own reflection. It always seemed just a little bit worse. Every time she managed to catch a look at herself, she liked what she saw less and less.

This time, of course, followed that pattern. She looked more gaunt than ever. Her cheekbones were prominent, and she could very nearly count each of her ribs. Even though she'd been eating over the course of her recovery, it had still managed to take a lot out of her. Even her coat looked paler, just a little less orange than it once had. Dirt and blood stained her entire front in dark and faded brown splotches.

Applejack sighed. She decided that she couldn't stand to look at herself anymore.

A quick bite of breakfast, then a cold bath in the river. The late morning sun edged up towards noon as Applejack went about her day. The whole time she could feel herself slowly waking, her mind became clearer and her memories less faded. They certainly weren't pleasant ones. The 12 days she'd spent recovering had been… hard. Both mentally and physically.

Most of what she remembered was pain. Writhing on the floor of her lean-to in agony, covered in blood and sweat. She idly realized that she'd forgotten to check her pink quilt for bloodstains, but filed that thought away for later.

It was all coming back, as Applejack scrubbed her coat back to its original colour in the flowing waters of the stream. The lines between dream and memory and hallucination were resolving themselves once more, and Applejack's mind was working away, carefully filing everything as either fantasy or reality.

She remembered spending the first day or two without getting up from the ground. Even when her lips had begun to dry and split, she'd simply dragged herself on her belly across the grass to the river to fill her canteen. The agony of her wound sliding across the ground was intense, but far less so than when she'd tried to stand.

It hadn't been until day four when she'd finally worked up the courage to stand again. It still hurt. It hurt a lot, in fact, but she had managed to hobble the short distance between her food supply and her shelter. The celebration had been short lived when Applejack had stumbled and the wound had opened wide again. The next day or two remained hazy even as Applejacks' mind cleared. She'd lost a lot of blood, that much was certain.

It was fortunate that she'd managed to keep applying alcohol to her bandages before wrapping new ones around her leg each day or two. The horrible burning that resulted… well, Applejack had nearly passed out the first time. She had passed out the second time, or at least that was the only explanation she could come up with for one particular hole in her memory.

Throughout it all, due in part to sheer stubbornness and will to live, and in part to being dazed and confused by blood loss and pain, Applejack had persevered. She'd pushed on, even when she should've given up. Any day she could have thrown herself, three-legged and weak, into the river. A few minutes of struggle and then she'd have been free from the pain, free from everything. But she hadn't done that. She'd kept going, and she'd made it. Against all odds she'd made it.

Applejack shook her head and snorted. She really was silly sometimes.

By all rights, she should've been dead. Applejack had never seen so much blood in her life. But she wasn't dead, and she had no plans of changing that any time soon. She'd gone through everything the damned island had thrown at her, and she'd come out on top. Her leg still wasn't fully healed, but it was close enough. Applejack resolved in that moment to get right back to exploring. Come the next morning, she would head out for another landmark on the map. She would get herself home, one way or another.

Applejack blinked and looked down, realizing that she'd been scrubbing her coat in the same spot for the past three minutes. Shaking her head, she climbed back onto shore and picked up her hat from where she'd left it on the riverbank while she washed.

As she sat there on the shore of the river, allowing the bright afternoon sun to soak into her coat and dry her off, Applejack's eyes wandered downwards towards her left foreleg. Just like that, she could feel her confidence wavering. For all her self-assurance and bravado, she still wasn't walking on it. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to walk properly on it again. The knife had gone into the bone, and for all she knew there could be serious, permanent damage.

Applejack's eyes ran over the improvised bandage around her leg. The old, threadbare blankets she'd recovered from the cellar had worked well enough, at least. She felt an urge to see underneath. Her wound wasn't open anymore, and it didn't even seem to be at risk of reopening. There was really no reason she needed the bandage at this point anyway.

Hesitantly, Applejack leaned down and took one end of the bandage in her teeth. She unraveled it carefully, trying to move her leg as little as possible. It came off relatively painlessly, and Applejack surveyed the damage underneath. A large, angry red scar was plainly visible against her coat. The hair all around it was stained far darker than the rest of her, running in long dark paths all the way down her leg as a grim reminder of the extent of her injury.

Applejack very, very tentatively tried flexing her left leg a bit. While it was certainly sore, and felt extremely stiff and weak from disuse, she was surprised to find it moved with little actual pain. Comparatively to what it had been, at least. There was still a sharp pain from the wound when she flexed her leg, but it didn't even hold a candle to what had been the worst pain of her entire life.

Her hope was coming back already. She set her hoof back on the ground and slowly stood up. Her left foreleg wobbled, and she had to put most of her weight on her other legs, but it didn't fold. Applejack grinned. All traces of despair left her in that instant.

Things would turn out okay after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun finally dipped below the horizon and Applejack tossed another log on the fire to hopefully last the rest of the night. She stifled a yawn as she turned and ducked into the lean-to. Even though she'd gotten up late that morning, she was still recovering her full strength, and Applejack felt plenty ready for sleep.

She carefully set her hat down next to the still-sheathed knife and paused to stretch. Her back popped audibly, and Applejack released a contented sigh. She laid down on her belly and glanced over to the little rubber chicken leaning against the wall in exactly the same position it had been 12 days ago.

"Heh, g'night, little guy," Applejack muttered. Her voice was still a bit weak, but drinking plenty of water had helped a bit. Exercising her voice by talking to an inanimate object helped, too.

At least that's what she told herself. It certainly wasn't for the company.

Applejack lay there, surrounded by silence other than the fire popping and crackling just outside. She stared across the tiny room at the tiny rubber chicken until her eyes began to drift closed of their own accord.

Only when the last few thoughts were flitting across Applejack's tired mind did one of them note the strange absence of rustling in the bushes all day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack dreamed of darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the shriek that woke her. That Celestia-forsaken, awful shriek. It wormed into her head, it tore at her brain like numerous tiny razors being shoved into her ears. It made her blood turn to ice and her heart drop all the way down to her hooves.

Applejack's head shot up in a flash. Instantly, she felt a horrible twisting wrongness in the core of her being that twisted and writhed and wrapped slimy black tentacles around her guts. It had never started out so bad before. In the past it had been a slow build, but this time it was nearly enough to make her vomit right off the bat.

And it was only getting worse. The nightmarish shriek sounded again, and Applejack's ears folded back against her head. The action, somehow, did absolutely nothing to block the sound. The sick feeling was growing worse at an alarming rate, now. Whatever it was, it was coming fast. Applejack knew that it wouldn't be content to stop at a distance this time.

It had waited. Applejack just knew it. It had waited until she was injured. She'd managed to run away on her first night, to escape it by sprinting through the jungle and taking refuge in that cave. This time, there would be no running. She could barely even walk at a normal pace.

It hadn't attacked her earlier, for some reason. It had left her alone long enough to recover, long enough for her to be fully awake and coherent, and then…

Applejack stood up to violently shaking hooves. There was no time to think about it. It was advancing. Somewhere, out in the jungle, she could feel it stronger than ever. It was making a beeline for her camp and it wasn't slowing down.

Panic was setting in. She tried to step forward, to get out of there as fast as she could. She couldn't run, but she knew the jungle like the bottom of her hoof now. Maybe she could—

Applejack's leg gave out and she fell flat on her face with a yelp. She wasted no time, quickly standing again, favouring her left leg a little more. It was no use. She couldn't get away, and it wasn't going to leave. She was dead. That was it. Tears streamed down her cheeks and a choked sob worked its way out of her throat despite her best efforts. She was going to die.

The eardrum-rending cry sounded once more, and Applejack's own cry of pain joined it. The sound shook her bones, and made the wound on her foreleg burn with a fresh fire.

She very nearly collapsed again, but managed to hold herself up. As her head bowed, her eyes fell upon something in the grass just outside. A half-full bottle of alcohol sat next to several long strips of blanket, her improvised disinfectant and bandages.

Applejack blinked, and the firelight reflected a spark in her eyes. She had an idea.

The twisting sensation in her gut intensified suddenly, and Applejack gagged, but she forced the sensation down with newfound determination and took a step forward. One step at a time, hoof after hoof, she inched towards the objects. Each movement was a battle, both physically and mentally. Her mind was telling her to stop, telling her that it was hopeless, and that she should simply give up and lay down. Lay down and accept the inevitable. There was no escape. Lay down and die—

Applejack shook her head forcefully. She bit her lip as hard as she could, and the thoughts were forced from her mind in a rush of clarity. Her legs no longer fought her every movement, so Applejack hobbled as fast as she could for the last few steps.

She stumbled at the end, fighting continued waves of nausea, and ended up tumbling onto the ground outside her shelter. It didn't matter, she'd made it where she needed to be. Applejack swiftly snatched up the bottle of rubbing alcohol and a dry bandage. She popped the cork off the bottle and stuffed the wadded-up bandage in its place.

Not trusting her injured leg to carry her, Applejack picked up the bottle in her mouth and stumbled on three legs towards her campfire. It was burning low, but there were flames left yet.

The feeling of wrongness was nigh unbearable now. Applejack could barely walk by the time she plopped down on her haunches in front of the fire. She could feel exactly where it was. No vague direction or sense of 'over there'. She knew exactly where the thing was now, and it was terrifyingly close.

At the last second, a thought struck Applejack, and she quickly turned the bottle upside down, allowing the alcohol inside to soak the cloth in the top. Whatever it was, it had nearly arrived. There was no time now. Applejack felt like her stomach had been torn out by timberwolves, only it wasn't even pain. It was just… wrong, but it was so unbearable that Applejack would've traded it for pain any day.

It was so close now that Applejack could feel it's exact position. Then it stopped. Applejack blinked, the action clearing her tear-blurred vision somewhat. It had stopped just barely outside the clearing, just past the treeline—

Applejack gasped as she remembered the dense wall of spikes she'd set up facing the jungle. Could the creature be daunted by her defence? It seemed too good to be true. It wasn't something she could stop. It was an unstoppable force, and her crude barrier stood no real chance of holding it back. She was but a small candle attempting to fight back the deepest darkness, and it was inevitable that she flicker out… or be extinguished.

She shook her head, dislodging the sudden surge of defeatist thoughts. She had to stay focused. It wasn't leaving, and was remaining perfectly still at the edge of her camp. Applejack peered across the clearing. Her eyes reflected the orange light of the fire, but she couldn't see anything more than a few feet away. Somewhere on the other side of that wall of blackness, it was waiting, watching her.

Then it moved.

The sickening feeling doubled, even as the creature moved only a single pony length into the clearing. It skulked at the edge of the clearing, not moving any closer, but not retreating either. It had passed her spike defence with apparent ease, and was now pacing back and forth somewhere in the darkness. Applejack followed it with her eyes, even though she couldn't see anything.

Her heart felt like it was attempting to break free of her ribcage. Her breaths came in short, rapid gasps. Applejack fought to hold back tears and forcibly pushed down every whimper that rose in the back of her throat.

It came closer. Slowly, inevitably, it once again began moving in a straight line towards Applejack's position. She couldn't help the pitiful whine emanating from her throat as her breathing spiraled further out of control and her vision began to blur. While one hoof still clung tightly to the bottle, her now pathetic-seeming improvised weapon, Applejack's other hoof instinctually snatched her hat from her head and clutched it to her chest.

It didn't shriek, but Applejack's ears suddenly hurt. A high-pitched ringing sound hovered just on the edge of hearing, not enough to drown out the crackle of the fire or her own panting breaths, but enough to instantly start a headache forming deep in her head.

Still she waited. As the wrongness intensified to the point that she cried freely, she waited. As her head began to throb despite her ears being folded tight against her head, she waited. Only when Applejack could feel it a mere dozen feet away, when she felt its presence brushing against her soul, Applejack finally acted.

She thrust the neck of the bottle into the embers of her campfire, and it took only a split second for the alcohol-infused cloth to light up in flame.

She tried to scream, tried to let out a vicious battle cry that would echo her fury across the entire jungle. What came out was barely more than a strangled sob. The pathetic sound was all she had in her, though, and in the very same breath that uttered it she lobbed the lit cocktail with all her might.

Her throw was weak. Applejack knew it would be. She'd been recovering for so long, there was no way she could muster much strength at all. But her aim was true, and she'd waited until there was no way she could miss. The tiny flame on the end of the bottle cut a path across the black sky as the cocktail arced through the air. It impacted exactly where she could feel the creature. The spot exploded into a burst of flames, and Applejack had to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness.

The twisting in her gut stopped growing worse, but it didn't vanish entirely. Applejack scrabbled back a few paces from the heat and squinted into the inferno. There was a spot near the center that the flames didn't quite touch. Or rather, they simply failed to illuminate it. It was an indistinct, fuzzy patch of dark in the middle of blinding light.

She didn't even blink. It simply wasn't there anymore. She had seen it for less than a second, and then it was replaced by roiling flames as if it had never been at all. She could almost believe that it had been some trick of her addled mind, that she'd imagined it.

Except that the twisting feeling in her gut had vanished along with it.

Applejack collapsed onto her side with a heavy exhale. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and her breath came in short, rapid gasps. The flames seemed to be dying out, unable to find any hold on the moist, green plant life of the jungle, probably.

As they dimmed and burned lower, Applejack laid there. Her heart raced in her chest, thundering against her ribcage as if she'd just finished an entire rodeo. She laid there shuddering and shivering uncontrollably as the adrenaline slowly worked its way out of her system.

Applejack stayed on the verge of a sob, unspent tears welling behind her eyes as her hooves shook. Every breath came out as a tiny whimper that seemed infinitely loud in the quiet aftermath.

Eventually, her shivering slowed to a stop, and finally, blissfully, mental and physical exhaustion managed to pull her into their dark embrace.

Only when she slept did the rest of her tears flow freely.

Author's Note

Edited by Pyromitsu and Aatxe360, who are both splenderific.

Guilty Filthy Soul
View Online

Mother of Invention

Guilty Filthy Soul

Applejack woke with the sunrise. She didn't get up immediately. For a few minutes, she just lay there. Utter silence surrounded her. The jungle didn't come to life; it never did. Her surroundings were just as dead as they always were.

The dawn's light shone across her clearing and forced its way between her still-closed eyelids. She'd collapsed in the grass outside her shelter last night, and had no cover from the bright rays of the sun.

A low groan worked its way from her throat as Applejack begrudgingly cracked her eyes open and pushed to her hooves. Her vision was filled with blurred shapes and colours, and Applejack rubbed at her eyes to clear the fuzziness away. That always happened when she cried in her sleep. It was something she hadn't experienced for many years.

With her vision cleared, Applejack turned around and ducked into her lean-to. She snatched up her hat with her good foreleg and placed it atop her head. The chicken still sat against the wall, presumably, but Applejack didn't spare a glance at it.

She limped back out into the clearing and stood in the yellow light of morning. A loud yawn echoed across the clearing, followed by Applejack smacking her lips as she felt dryness in her mouth. With a slight frown, she hobbled over to the river and bent down to take a drink. She made sure to be quick, and didn't even catch a glimpse of her reflection.

Her breakfast was less hurried, and Applejack spent a few minutes leaning back against the boulder, chewing a mouthful of wildflowers slowly. Her half-lidded eyes finally observed her clearing, moving slowly across the ground.

The damage of her improvised firebomb was readily apparent, if little more than cosmetic. In the epicenter, grass had been cleared entirely to reveal charred dirt. Surrounding that was blackened and shriveled grass, but only for a few feet in every direction. Applejack would have expected more. She wasn't exactly thinking clearly the night before, but what she did could have— should have burned down half the forest, at least. A wildfire could be started from something as small as an unattended campfire, much less the inferno she'd created.

Then again, she didn't know much about tropical climates. It was fully possible that the soil and plant life on the island had absorbed enough water to resist fires for the most part. That explanation was better than nothing, so Applejack filed it away with a satisfied nod.

She realized that she'd finished her breakfast some time ago, and was staring blankly at the blackened mark her firebomb had created. Applejack shook her head, then stood back up.

Tentatively, she trotted a bit closer to the impact site. The burn marks and bits of melted glass went ignored; Applejack was looking for something else. She needed a sign. Any sort of real, physical sign. She needed to know that she wasn't losing her mind.

Her brows furrowed, and her frown only grew deeper as Applejack pored over the ground. There was nothing. Not even a single hoofprint, clawprint, anything. Not a single identifying mark to indicate that the… creature had even been there.

She wouldn't give up that easily. Applejack concentrated, and tried to remember where the thing had come from. After a few moments, she had a reasonable idea at a direction, and set off once more at a limping trot.

She kept her nose to the ground as she went. Applejack wasn't an expert tracker by any means, but she could see when an animal had passed over ground, and she wasn't detecting anything of the sort.

Her heart was sinking lower and lower as she went, but Applejack could barely feel it. She felt numb, emotionally drained. Her hooves moved slowly, dragging across the grass. She had made it almost to the edge of the clearing, and considered just turning back there, but decided to press on at least to the treeline.

Still, nothing. She even ventured out into the jungle past her spike defence, and couldn't see any indication that something had passed through. Not even a single blade of grass out of place. For the first time that day, Applejack felt strong emotion taking hold, and she didn't like it. Maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe she'd just been seeing things. Maybe she really was going insane…

The emotion bubbled unpleasantly in her chest, and Applejack found herself wishing for the numbness back. Tears pricked at the edge of her vision as she turned to head back to camp. She hung her head low and walked through the wide gap in her spikes—

Wait. That wasn't right.

Applejacks head shot up instantly. She whipped around to stare wide-eyed at the wooden stakes she'd set up around the clearing. Sure enough, there was her sign at last. The spikes were specifically set up to keep things out, which meant as small a gap as possible except in a few places where she'd left tiny spaces for herself to walk through. This was not one of those places.

The spikes had been forced apart, shoved to the sides with enough intensity to crack and splinter some of them. The gap created was large enough for several ponies to walk through easily, and Applejack was standing in the center of it.

For the second time that day, Applejack felt strong emotion taking hold, and this time she liked it a lot. She felt lightheaded, and slumped down heavily to a sitting position. A bright grin spread across her face, and Applejack had no idea why.

Never mind that the thing was smart, and strong enough to shrug off her defences with apparent ease. It was real. The creature that had been ostensibly trying to kill her since day one was real, and Applejack couldn't have been happier about it.

A wild, giddy laugh erupted from her lips as Applejack couldn't hold back her relief. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she fully realized that a real, physical entity was out to get her. Through it all she smiled. She smiled because it wasn't just her imagination. She hadn't just been seeing things.

Yet she was probably still going insane.

Never in her life had Applejack felt so happy to know that something was trying to kill her. Her laughter echoed through the trees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack limped out of the treeline and back into her camp. Her saddlebags were bulging with firewood, which she dumped on the pile for the third time that day. She paused to wipe the sweat from her forehead and idly flex her bad foreleg. It ached, certainly, but it was holding her up even after a few hours of gathering wood and food. Rest was all well and good, but Applejack figured she'd have to put it to some use if she didn't want the muscle to atrophy.

That, and she couldn't stand to sit around the camp doing nothing any longer.

She stood back up and marched over to the river. There, Applejack took a long drink and refilled her canteen. It still irked her just how tired she would get after so little work, but there was nothing to really be done about it. She couldn't expect to put forth the same amount of work she had back on the farm, when she was healthy and had access to plenty of good food.

A sigh escaped her lips. She would always miss the food. Shaking her head, Applejack slowly hobbled back towards her camp, idly pondering the last couple days as she walked.

It had been two days since her harrowing midnight encounter, and everything had been entirely peaceful since then. She'd spent most of the time resting up, but her supplies could only last so long. Applejack hadn't bothered to fix the gap in her spike defences after how useless they'd turned out. Not to mention the extra effort it would take with only one good foreleg.

As if triggered by the thought, Applejack's left foreleg twinged in pain and nearly folded underneath her. She gasped and stumbled, but managed to catch herself without tumbling to the ground. Her hat had been knocked slightly askew, and Applejack nudged it back into place before trotting onwards once more.

The urge to get out and explore the island still hovered at the back of her mind. She hadn't forgotten the map, and there was plenty of it left to investigate. Unfortunately, said exploration wasn't exactly feasible until her leg was a bit more reliable. It really wasn't all that bad, by that point. It was getting better every day, and Applejack figured it would be one or two more nights at most before she could head out there and continue her investigations.

She reached her smoldering campfire and sat down in the soft grass. The sun was just beginning its descent into evening, but Applejack was already feeling a bit hungry. An early supper wouldn't hurt. She snatched a few wildflowers and a hoofful of blueberries from her recently restocked supply, and ate slowly. Applejack leaned back and sighed. She wasn't sure if it was out of contentment or resignation.

Hours passed, and Applejack whiled away the time in idle thought. Most of that thought was centered on the events of the past couple weeks. She'd nearly died, twice. Even in all her adventures, even when Applejack had feared for her life, she'd always been confident that things would turn out okay. Even since arriving on the island, Applejack had never felt so very close to death's cold grip.

She felt different, somehow. It wasn't an easily definable difference, but it was there. Something deep inside, something in the very core of her being, had changed irrevocably between her nearly bleeding out on the jungle floor and her nearly giving in to an unknown horror of the night.

Not that her entire outlook had been flipped upside down, only changed a little. Her own mortality wasn't something that Applejack used to consciously think about. The few times she'd entertained that line of thought had been when trying to fall asleep during bouts of insomnia, or maybe indigestion. It was never something she seriously, genuinely thought much about.

It was different from thinking about the deaths of others. When she'd found that construction site, filled with the cages and corpses, Applejack had been faced with an entirely different set of emotions. When faced with her own death, bearing down upon her with seemingly no escape…

Applejack sighed again, and poked idly at the fire with a long stick held in the crook of her good forehoof.

Her eyes had been opened, for better or worse. She couldn't escape a new, constant nagging in the back of her mind. She couldn't shake the knowledge that her death, the end of her very existence, waited around any corner. Her flame could be snuffed out in an instant, without any warning, and what would she have to show for it?

That's what it all boiled down to, in the end. Every action she took, Applejack couldn't help but contextualize it against her inevitable end. Things became so frivolous when she would be dead soon anyway. Very little seemed to matter much, anymore. What good was money if you couldn't spend it from beyond the grave? Such things were so deeply ingrained as 'important', but none of them really were. All she had to do was let them go. Fame, fortune, even her own comfort and safety: would any of that make her less dead when her time came? Of course not.

Even in the face of all that, Applejack couldn't help but crack a small smile, barely a twitch of her lips in the dim orange light of her fire.

It wasn't all bad. A lot of things seemed pointless and silly, sure, but some things only seemed all the more important. Applejack saw five friends in her mind's eye, smiling faces, laughter evident even in the silence of the image. She saw her family, content happiness glowing in their eyes as they gazed back at her. Would any of them matter when she was dead? No, Applejack supposed they wouldn't. But they sure as sugar mattered while she lived.

Applejack decided then that her new perspective was a good thing. She'd always been so focused on money and the success of her farm in the past. Not that she would completely ignore those things, but Applejack decided that when she did get home, she would stop caring so much about things that only wasted away with her death. She would put all her heart towards living, instead.

The fire popped and crackled, startling Applejack out of her introspection. She blinked and looked around. Apparently, cataloguing her thoughts had taken long enough for the sun to already move to its setting position, showering the island with a dull red glow.

She felt a little better, but also felt very alone all of a sudden. Her gaze drifted of its own accord towards the lean-to, and a tiny smirk turned her lips up. Applejack stood up, groaning as she stretched out her limbs to a satisfying array of pops and cracks. She then ducked into her shelter and made a beeline for the tiny rubber chicken seated against the rock wall.

Before she could pick the chicken up and take it out to sit by the fire with her, something caught Applejack's eye. She froze, and her smirk was instantly replaced with a frown. The chicken was forgotten as Applejack turned her full attention to the old tome laying on the floor. For all the times she'd tried to open it, the thing remained unopened and unscathed. Even after laying into it with the largest rock she could carry —before her injury, even— the unadorned and keyhole-less lock didn't look any closer to breaking.

Applejack picked it up slowly, and limped back outside, glaring at the book the entire way. Here, she'd spent all that time pondering about focusing her life on what was truly important, and she was hypocritical enough to cling to a useless old book in spite of it all.

That book was exactly the kind of thing that didn't matter in her new outlook. It was useless! She had a map now. She was only holding onto that book so she could bring it back to Twilight, and for what? So that Twilight could allow the damned island to suck up her time too? Applejack snorted. No, she wouldn't allow that. She couldn't allow any of her friends to be tortured by this Celestia-damned island as she herself had been.

Better to just never get them involved at all. When she got home, it would be best for everypony if they never found out any details. That, of course, included the contents of that book.

Applejack took two confident steps over to the firepit, thrust the book out over the flames… and hesitated. Was it really for the best? Her own curiosity bubbled up like fear and doubt, working to overpower rational thought. Applejack quivered, her right foreleg beginning to ache from the effort of holding the heavy book above the fire.

Would the secrets in that book, interesting as they may be, matter one bit when she was dead?

Applejack let go.

The book fell into the flames with a quiet 'fwoosh', but Applejack wasn't sure she felt any better. She would never know what secrets the tome contained. She would likely never find out any concrete information about the island, since that book had been her only lead in that regard. She wanted to believe it was for the best, that she was throwing away things that were ultimately useless, but for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that the book had been anything but useless.

Yet another sigh, this one she knew came from regret. Perhaps she'd been a bit hasty and excitable about her new worldview. Yes, cutting out frivolous things from her life was definitely important, but maybe tossing away old books filled with even older secrets regarding mysterious islands filled with unexplained buildings, inordinate amounts of death, and shadowy monsters wasn't the best idea.

Oh well, nothing could be done about it now. Besides, she didn't even really know that the book contained any of that. All she had was a vague gut feeling. For all she knew, it was the cabin owner's super-secret recipe boo—

CLICK

The sound was loud enough to echo through the entire clearing, and bring Applejack's train of thought to a screeching halt. It came from the fire. Her head whipped to stare into the flames in a blink, and Applejack leaned forward to squint in concentration.

Sure enough, the book sat in the middle of the blaze, mostly unharmed. The only difference was that the bright golden lock had popped outwards, and the cover of the book hovered slightly open.

For a few split seconds, Applejack didn't move. She didn't blink, she didn't even breathe. Finally, she inhaled a deep breath, leaned back, and calmly said:

"OH, COME ON!"

It came out slightly less calmly than she'd intended. A crackling sound drew her attention back to the fire, and Applejack quickly noted that the corners of the book were beginning to blacken. Wasting no time, she hastily snatched up a long stick and jabbed fiercely at the smoldering book. She managed to fling it free of the flames, where it skidded to a stop in the short grass of the clearing.

Applejack practically sprinted forward, nearly falling as she'd forgotten about her injured leg. She slid to a halt on her knees in front of the book, desperately grasping it between both forelegs. It was warm, but not hot. Her hooves tingled slightly at the touch, a feeling she wouldn't have recognized easily before meeting Twilight Sparkle: The feeling of magic.

She couldn't even smile. Her face was entirely blank as she struggled with how to process this latest development. One thing was for certain, she was going to read it. Now.

The sun had well and truly set by that point, so Applejack crawled back over to the firelight with the book in tow. She laid it out on the ground reverently, staring down at the hoofwriting-covered first page with wide eyes. She reached forward and tried to skip to the middle, to get an idea of what the book contained, but found the pages wouldn't move. Blinking, she yanked with all her might, but was unable to open the book to the middle. An odd thought struck Applejack, and she tried turning just to the next page. Sure enough, the page turned easily, revealing more hoof-written text.

Applejack didn't read it. Not yet. She went back to the first page instead. Magic was at play here, and if somepony had gone to all that trouble to make sure she read the pages in order then it was probably important.

Then, Applejack read.

If you are reading this, then I am likely dead. I am adding this preface on what is going to be the last night of my life. I only hope that it proves worth it. This tome contains my own personal journal, dating all the way back to... well, back to when this began. No doubt you have noticed that the pages prove impossible to turn unless turned one at a time. I have placed an enchantment upon this book, preventing you, the reader, from skipping what I think must be read. My story, the story of this island, must be known. All those that know it now will be dead by tomorrow, so the knowledge falls to you now. When you have learned what this book will teach you, my only hope is that you will find it in your heart to forgive me. And my only regret is that I will not live to see justice for what has been done here. Death, I think, is far too kind a fate for me.

Author's Note

Edited by the impeccable Pyromitsu, and the lovely Aatxe360.

The Scientist
View Online

Mother of Invention

The Scientist

Entry 1

I was approached by a pair of very interesting stallions as I left work earlier tonight. They made me the strangest, and yet most intriguing offer.

Ah, excuse me, I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

I was locking up the lab, being the last one to exit as usual, when two smartly dressed stallions approached me from the shadows. It was past midnight by that point, and it was clear that these two weren't out for a pitch-black stroll through Canterlot. No, they were clearly looking for me.

One of them even knew my name, though I suppose it does get around in academic circles. Not to blow my own horn, by any means.

Despite the strange situation in which they approached me, the pair seemed unthreatening enough, so I decided to engage them. One merely sat back and watched —I don't think he said a single word the whole time, actually— while the other introduced himself as Mr. Clever Worker. His voice was low, and almost gravelly. It matched his dull grey coat, one that he shared with his silent partner.

"I have an offer to make you, sir."

Which brings us to where I started.

"An offer?" I shot him a skeptical glance.

I've been given a great many offers in my time. From research positions, to teaching positions, I've even been offered oversight of my own lab on numerous occasions. Of course, I turned them all down. None of them had anything that had really caught my eye, at least not enough to tear me away from my work in Canterlot. I don't care about the money, or getting my name in publications, or having a shiney new lab. All I've ever cared about is the science, and none of the offers I'd received had been very scientifically stimulating. That was what made this one different, as I would soon find out.

"Yes, it's a very prestigious position within a very prestigious organization."

I scoffed and shook my head, already preparing to dismiss them. "I'm sorry, Mr. Worker, but I've never cared much about prestige."

He smiled at that. It was a bit of an unsettling smile, his teeth glittering in the dim light of a nearby streetlamp.

"We know, sir. We know that you've turned down offers ranging from Celestia's School for gifted Unicorns to leading positions at laboratories around Equestria.

I blinked, but otherwise hid my surprise behind a dismissive wave of a hoof. "So you've done your research? Well, good on you. I suppose you have something to offer me that none of those places did."

He chuckled under his breath. "You could say that, yes."

Without any further elaboration, Clever Worker nodded to his associate. The unnamed pony reached into his suit jacket and withdrew a manila folder. Still silent, he hoofed over the folder. I levitated it in the glow of my magic, and carefully inspected the contents. I swear, Mr. Worker was grinning when he thought my attention was all on the folder.

I don't want to write down what that folder contained. I'm not even sure I believe it, even when they presented all the data, and it all seemed to check out. It was… heresy. I'm a scientist, through and through; it's my job— my life to question things, but there are some universal truths that simply aren't questioned. There are some things we take on faith, and until tonight, I'd never even realized it. My eyes are opened, and I am not yet sure whether this is wonderful or terrible.

I stammered, "This… I… this is…"

"Impossible?" Clever Worker was leaning forward, a smug smile painted across his muzzle. "I assure you, sir, it is anything but."

I didn't know how to respond to that. I wanted to toss the papers back in his face, and leave him far behind me without wasting any more of my time with lies… except he wasn't lying. I could see it, plain as day in his eyes. He believed every word he was telling me, and there was nothing in that folder to indicate he was wrong.

Like I said, I'm a scientist. I cannot deny the evidence when it is laid out in front of me. For the time being… I have to assume what they showed me was entirely real. The thought terrifies me.

"Why haven't I heard of this?!" I struggled to maintain an even voice.

Clever Worker took it in stride. "As you can probably imagine, this sort of information would be… problematic, for the dear princess, if it ever became widely circulated. Our organization operates in the dark, far from the view of the Sun. The princess has no knowledge of, nor jurisdiction over our facility."

"Oh? And what facility is that?"

"I'm afraid I can't disclose that information as of yet. Trust me when I say that it is a place where science is completely unbound by any politics or regulations, a place where a genius like yourself could thrive."

At that point, I could think of no reasonable rebuttal. My gut screamed at me to refuse, but my mind pointed out that there was no reason not to accept. After all, the bureaucrats and needless rules have certainly slowed my work down in the past. Fortunately, I wasn't forced to any immediate decision.

"You'll have a week to make your choice, sir."

"A week?" I said lamely.

"Yes, the next ship leaves in precisely seven days. We think it would be beneficial for all parties if you were on board that ship. You'll need this."

With that last statement, he handed me a business card. I still have it here with me. It is a curious thing. On one side, merely an image: the profile of a unicorn's head, flared by a pair of outstretched wings, surrounded by a large triangle. Fitting, I suppose. On the other side of the card, written in large black text, are the words 'NEC DI NEC DOMINI'.

My Old Equestrian is a bit rusty, but I think it would translate to 'no gods, no masters'. Ominous, possibly, but hardly the most pretentious motto I've seen for a scientific organization.

Before parting ways with the mysterious stallions, I did manage to get one more thing from them: a name. Specifically, the name of their shadowy employer.

'Daedalus' A curious name for a curious group.

They left after that, and I was left alone in the chilly dark to contemplate everything that had just happened. I didn't make it home for another hour or so, and in that time I did a lot of thinking.

In truth, I am afraid. I am afraid of what should happen if I refuse their offer. His wording was ambiguous, but Clever Worker seemed to be implying that things could go poorly for me if I missed that ship. I imagine they wouldn't have shown me such secrets if they'd expected 'no' as an answer.

More than that, though, I am afraid of what might happen should I accept. I am afraid of the deep and forbidden knowledge they tantalized me with. Before leaving, Clever Worker hinted that the folder I'd seen was merely the tip of the iceberg. There is so much out there to discover, and for the first time in my career I almost wish I could leave it be. Never before has my undying love of discovery been so sharply juxtaposed with a simultaneous feeling of dread.

Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and I'm afraid my days of bliss are over. There never really was any doubt. Those two stallions knew exactly what the outcome of tonight's conversation would be, and they weren't wrong.

As much as it terrifies me, I am entirely incapable of refusing their offer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack yawned widely in the morning sun as she stepped out of her shelter. She'd only read the first entry last night, the night that she'd managed to open the book, and already she'd been given some new information.

Daedalus. The word meant nothing to Applejack, but at least she had a name for the island's previous inhabitants now. At least, she assumed they were the previous inhabitants of the island. The author hadn't actually specified that yet, but the book had ended up in that cabin somehow. There were still plenty of unanswered questions, and some of the implications were less than pleasant. Not to mention the disturbing preface at the start of the journal. It had been vague, and the meaning behind it was still mostly a mystery.

Of course, there was one way to find out for certain. Applejack quickly scarfed down a hoofful of wildflowers, then took out the book and laid it down in the grass. With an anticipatory grin on her face, Applejack continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 2

Well, the week is over, and here I am aboard a ship to the unknown.

I spent as much time as possible trying to find any information on this 'Daedalus' group, but my efforts proved entirely fruitless. If I didn't still have their business card, I'd swear they didn't exist. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am certainly impressed. My connections within the scientific community are by no means unremarkable, and yet not a single pony in Equestria seems to have heard the name before..

The rest of my time was spent getting my affairs in order for an extended leave, which is why I haven't been able to make a journal entry until now. I received a letter with a few more details on the job I'll be accepting. Well, by 'received' I mean that I found it on my coffee table after work one evening. Honestly, I can't even say that I'm angry. I live on the 40th floor of a very secure building in upper Canterlot. If anything, I'm simply impressed.

The letter also contained instructions on where and when to board a ship that would take me to… wherever it is I'm going. I haven't seen Clever Worker or his nameless associate since that night last week. They weren't even at the dock to see me off. The vessel I find myself on appears to be a cargo ship. I have not seen any other ponies than the crew, all of whom have left me alone entirely. Fortunately, the ship does have passenger cabins, and I've claimed one for myself. I was not told how long this voyage will take, and besides, it gives me a quiet place to write in my journal.

But I'm getting off topic. About the contract.

In addition to an obscene amount of money, I'll also be set up in company housing, and fed company food. When they said the place was remote, I am struck with the distinct feeling that they were understating things. The fact that I'm currently sailing in a ship out of sight of any land lends some credence to my hypothesis.

My contract stipulates a minimum of one and a half years of living and working at their mysterious facility, with the option of staying on longer should I desire. I will not be allowed to return home during that time, but I suppose that explains the absolutely absurd number of zeroes in my paycheck. Though, as I've said before, I care very little for the bits I'll be receiving at the end of this. If even half of what Clever Worker showed me is true, then my time will be more than well spent.

Still, my excitement is somewhat tempered with nervousness. I can't exactly pinpoint the source, but I can't help a certain feeling of trepidation towards what I've gotten myself into. I can only push those fears down and keep moving forward. I know that I am flinging myself into possible danger, but the prospective rewards outweigh the risks.

Or so I keep telling myself. Besides, it's too late to back out now even if I wanted to. I doubt the crewponies would respond well if I were to kindly ask them to turn the ship around.

Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring much in the way of personal belongings. Apparently all my needs will be provided for. I was able to bring one thing though… my most precious possession. I would never have come along if they hadn't let me keep it. Even now, I have it out on the desk in front of me. Despite all my fear, despite all my unease, I can't help but grin when I look at the smiling face contained in that bright golden case.

Yes, I think everything will turn out just fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack's hoof unconsciously reached up to touch the golden locket around her neck. She'd always suspected a connection between the book and the locket. After all, she'd found them in the same room. To have it confirmed was still… poignant, in a way. Even if she still had no concrete information on who was pictured inside, the deep attachment that the scientist had felt to the locket was clear.

If that was the case, though… then why did Applejack find it dusty and tucked away in an old basement?

Her anticipatory grin was gone. Her brows furrowed above a tight-lipped mouth, and Applejack continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 3

Finally, I have a chance to write another entry. It's been… almost a week since I arrived here by boat. And what a week it has been!

Firstly, a bit about the facility itself: Unsurprisingly, it is located on a remote island in the middle of the sea. Though with the amount and intensity of the magic performed here in the name of science, it's a wonder that this place hasn't drawn more attention… I'll have to ask somepony about that.

Regardless, my arrival here was a pleasant enough affair. I was greeted by none other than Clever Worker himself. I suppose they sent a familiar face to help ease me into things. He gave me a brief tour of the island's main facilities —amazing, unlike anything I've ever seen, but I'll get to that— after which he showed me to my living quarters. To my surprise, I am not made to live in a dormitory or small apartment. I am actually given a quaint cabin all to myself. Clever Worker explained that the island has plenty of space, and resources, to set their top minds up with adequate accommodations.

I'd call it more than adequate. I am surrounded by lush, living jungle. The sounds of countless tropical animals provide an exotic backdrop to the stunning scenery. A pristine lake —safe for swimming and drinking; I asked— sits a mere stone's throw from my front door. Such a property would cost an unthinkable sum if some businesspony ever wanted to build a summer home there, and I'm allowed to occupy it totally free of charge.

The Daedalus Foundation —their full name, as I've come to learn— certainly doesn't spare any effort in keeping their minds comfortable and happy.

Now, I believe I mentioned the labs briefly. They are a much more interesting matter. I was shown around many different laboratories, most of which fell outside my own department, but all of which were state-of-the-art. From chemistry and botany to more esoteric or specialized fields such as theoretical physics and xenobiology, this island is set up to pursue and further every science imaginable.

Of course, when you get into my department, that's where things get especially interesting. Most of the labs I described above are located above ground. Obviously, it would be hard to study plant life hundreds of meters beneath the jungle. That is where I work now.

I will not deny the childlike glee I felt when I realized that I would be working in a top-secret underground laboratory. Any of the stuffy scientists in Canterlot who would say otherwise are only saving face.

My own lab —admittedly, shared with several other ponies in my field— is located on level 1. That being the closest level to the surface. I do not, at this time, know how many levels there are in total. It seems that number is quite the close-guarded secret. All anypony knows is the deepest they've ever been. I regularly socialize with ponies from levels 1 or 2, and one stallion I talked to said he'd just come up from level 6, the deepest I've been able to confirm so far.

Curiously, that particular stallion wasn't very talkative, and lacked the jovial attitude I've seen in most other ponies around here. After all, most of the ones I talk to haven't been here much longer than I have, and we're all essentially foals in the world's largest candy shop. Yet the stallion from level 6 managed to stand out as a perpetual frown in a sea of toothy grins.

Seeing as he has such deep access, I would wager that he's a much more senior member of staff. Perhaps the wonder of it all has simply worn off on him. Or maybe he's just a cranky old stallion. Whatever the case, it doesn't bear dwelling on.

In summary, I am truly pleased to say that all my fears and worries have been quite put to rest. It almost seems silly now, just how worked up I was before my arrival here. I know that it has only been a week, but I can almost certainly say I'll be spending more than the requisite year and a half here.

Look at me, prattling on and on like a little colt who's just opened his Hearth's Warming gift. I suppose I should end this now.

Oh, one last thing. I didn't want to write it down before, for fear that putting it to paper would violate the secrecy Daedalus was striving for, but now that my journal is here on the island, I suppose it's about as secure as anything. I'll have to make sure to remove this passage and store it in my cabin if and when I return to Equestria for time off.

I can finally write down my thoughts on ultimate goal of the Daedalus Foundation, the very thing that Clever Worker alluded to when he convinced me to join them.

They call it The Icarus Project. Put simply, they want to create alicorns. Yes, I just wrote that down. Yes, I am aware that it is completely insane. This should explain my reaction when I wrote about my midnight meeting with the two Daedalus representatives.

Of course, I wouldn't be here if it was really insane, would I? They're close. Everything they do, every advancement they make in every field, it's all in pursuit of The Icarus Project. True, Daedalus cares very much about advancing science in every way possible, but they still put the majority of their focus towards their final goal.

If what Clever Worker showed me that night is any indication, then they are truly on the cusp of changing the entire world. I won't bother going into the data, but they've come incredibly close to replicating an alicorn's magical signature.

I haven't personally had the privilege to work directly with what was shown to me that night. Not yet. Currently, I am tasked with analyzing the output of the facility's main magical generator, with the hopes of making improvements wherever possible. Not exactly glamourous work, but I am positive they wouldn't have asked me to join for maintenance work. In fact, I've even been told that a place is being prepared for me on the Icarus Project team.

Perhaps when I join them, I will find out just how deep the facility goes.

I am a part of something now, something bigger than myself. This is something that will change the world, and I will be at the forefront of it. The princess may not be happy with this change, but I am not afraid. We are doing what's right, and nopony will stop us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack sat atop the large boulder in her camp, basking in the midday sun. She was taking a short break, as the last entry had been… thought-provoking, to say the least. Some questions answered, some questions gained. The Icarus Project, and the intense secrecy surrounding it, stuck in the forefront of her mind.

Surely it wasn't so simple. Nopony could just make alicorns. Princess Celestia had ascended Twilight, but Twilight had always been special. It wasn't something one could just do… even if the scientist seemed to believe otherwise.

Even if it was true, and alicorns were nothing special after all, then Applejack couldn't imagine Celestia keeping that information from the public. Sure, it would bring her rule into question, but it would be for the good of all. The benefit of everypony, at the cost of Celestia and Luna's power.

Was it possible that the Daedalus Foundation was right? Were the princesses actually tyrants, hiding the power of ascension from their subjects and forcing ponies to pursue it in secret?

Applejack shook her head. There simply wasn't enough info yet. She needed to read more, and find out some more specifics about what happened on the island. Only when she read everything could she decide who was in the wrong.

With that, she hopped back down to the grass, carefully favouring her injured leg. She trotted back over to where the book sat in the grass next to her lean-to. Applejack lay down in the grass, and continued reading.

There were several similar entries, detailing the scientist's daily life in his new job on the island. They were filled with scientific terms and descriptions that went mostly over Applejack's head, but very little notable information.

Finally, she came upon something interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 10

I was finally offered a position in The Icarus Project today. It seems that one of the scientists working down there retired —or got sick? They were rather vague— and I would be perfect to fill his role. It's all rather sudden, but after several months of working here it's hardly unwelcome. I'd begun to fear that I might never go any deeper than level 1.

The other ponies in my department threw me something of a congratulatory party in one of the level 1 mess halls. There were plenty of jokes about how they'd never see me again once I got downstairs with the 'real' scientists. All in good fun, of course. I still have to come back up to my cabin, and I've made plenty of friends up here that I'll be sure to keep visiting.

The party was delightful, but I noticed a couple of unfamiliar faces in the crowd. One stallion and one mare stood near the walls, mostly, and didn't seem to socialize with anypony for the entire night. I might not have even noticed them, if not for the fact that neither of them ever once smiled. Needless to say, I was slightly concerned, so I approached them as the party was winding down. Things quickly became… interesting.

It went something like this:

"Hey there," I smiled as best I could. "Can't say I've seen you two before. Did you get shipped in recently?"

The stallion remained silent, and I only then realized that he was a good head taller than me. His jet black coat and mane made for an imposing figure, complete with bright yellow eyes that I swear were glowing. Maybe it was the lighting.

It was the mare who spoke. "We are not new. We just came up from level 10 to talk to you."

Compared to the stallion, she was far less physically impressive, but no less intimidating. Her coat was a dull blue, and her mane a dim shade of lavender tied back in a tight bun. She had deep wrinkles around her eyes that spoke more of experience and stress than actual age. Her eyes were blood red, and looked like they could cut through steel at a glance. She was shorter than me, by a hair, yet still somehow managed to make me feel like I was looking up at her.

Though at that moment, I was far more focused on her words than her appearance.

"Level 10?" I kept my voice hushed, though most ponies had already filed out by then. "There are 10 levels?"

She squinted at me. "There are twelve. You have been granted Alpha access, now. We trust that you won't be going around spreading secrets like the one I am telling you now."

She never explicitly threatened me, but somehow her tone made it clear enough that there would be consequences if I revealed information where it wasn't appropriate. I only then noticed that she had some sort of accent. It was faint, and I'm still not entirely sure where from. Stalliongrad would be my closest guess, or one of those eastern provinces.

I held up a placating hoof, and chuckled nervously. "Right, right, of course not." I scratched the back of my neck. "Uh, Alpha access?"

The strange mare nodded sharply. "Yes, that is actually what we are here to brief you on. You are part of The Icarus Project now, and that means a great many things."

I was about to question the wisdom of discussing said secrets in an open mess hall, but when I glanced towards the entrance I spotted a shadow shifting just out of vision. Somepony was watching the entrance… and the exit.

I turned my full attention back to the mare.

"All of the levels below level 5 are of the highest secrecy and importance. All of them directly relate to, and house, The Icarus Project. You're being moved to level 6, and you will be restricted to levels 6 and 7 until you are granted higher clearance. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, I understand. I have Alpha access, which only grants me clearance for levels 6 and 7."

Her face remained entirely impassive, and she continued without actually acknowledging whether I was correct or not. "Levels 8 and 9 are Gamma access, and levels 10, 11, and 12 are Omega access. This means that any experiments performed or contained on levels 6 or 7 are known as Alpha class experiments, those on 8 or 9 are known as Gamma class experiments, and those on 10 through 12 are known as Omega class experiments. Do you understand?"

I simply nodded and said, "I understand."

"Many things stored below level 5 are extremely sensitive, and dangerous. Obviously, they become more dangerous with each successive classification. You will attend a safety briefing that will go into great detail about what to do in the case of an Alpha, Gamma, or Omega class breach. The briefing will take place tomorrow morning, and you will be escorted there from the level 6 main entrance. Do you understand?"

I responded instantly, though my mind was still going over everything she'd said. "I understand."

The mare nodded to her silent companion, who offered me a small blue gemstone. I accepted it, and examined the gem carefully, but couldn't determine anything out of the ordinary on it.

The mare quickly resolved my confusion. "That is an access gem enchanted to grant you access to levels 6 and 7. Unlike levels 1 through 5, you cannot simply walk there. You will need to take an elevator located in the far west wing of level 5. There are signs that will direct you. Do you understand everything I've told you?"

"Yes, I do." I nodded slowly. In truth, I'm still not entirely clear on how the gemstone works, but I imagine it'll be fairly self-explanatory.

After that, the mare bid farewell and left with her mute associate. I was left alone in the mess hall, feeling worried again for the first time since arriving at the facility.

The mare, and the stallion who accompanied her, were strange. They contrasted with the rest of the ponies I worked with. They reminded me of my first meeting with Clever Worker, or of the stallion I'd met from level 6.

Whatever is going on down there, past level 5, it's something big. But… that is what I wanted, isn't it? Already, I have access to the best facilities and equipment I've ever seen. Whatever is down there is sure to be even more incredible.

I can't allow my nervousness to control me. I've come this far, and I won't let this opportunity slip through my grasp. No matter what I face when I take that elevator down, I won't let it scare me off.

I am a part of something bigger than myself now. I can't forget that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 11

I've just returned from my first day of work in level 6. The security briefing I attended this morning was… informative. Though, truth be told, it left several unanswered questions about what happens even further underground.

See, they had to brief us on what to do in the event of any emergency. That included emergencies that could happen in levels that I'm not allowed to access. It should go without saying that there was some confusion to go around.

In truth, most of the briefing was fairly standard procedures that I won't bother to write out here. Things like what to do when there is a fire in a closed off underground lab were certainly new to me, but hardly interesting.

There were one or two that stuck out to me, though they were all above my clearance and were therefore frustratingly vague. They were protocols relating to 'containment breach'. Just what sorts of things we have contained down here was never explained, but the protocols surrounding them were… concerning.

Again, I have no plans on removing this diary from the island, so I feel no need to spare what could be considered secret information. Not that I'll be telling anypony what I've written down… just in case.

I'll be paraphrasing, as they didn't allow us to take the security booklets back up beyond level 5.

Possibly the most concerning is what they called Titanomachy Protocol. In the event of an Omega class breach, if and when the breach is considered a danger to the safety of civilizations off-island, or to the planet as a whole, any three Omega class personnel are to report to the control room located on level 12. With all three of their access gems, they are to unlock the case containing folder labelled 'Titanomachy Protocol ', and follow the instructions contained within. Unlocking the case will alert all personnel on the island, and if anypony were to attempt an unauthorized activation of the Titanomachy Protocol, security teams would be dispatched immediately, and all three ponies involved would be terminated.

…yes, that one is deeply troubling on a few levels. They were vague on what, exactly, the protocol would do, but it was heavily implied to be a last resort. The sort of last resort that doesn't leave anything behind, if my hunch is right.

Of course, not all of the safety procedures are quite so extreme. Most just involve lockdowns of various scales, whether from locking down a single room or lab, to completely sealing off an entire level of the facility. The most extreme of these was, again, eye-catching.

Faraday Protocol. With this one, I can at least see where the name came from. A Faraday Cage is something anypony interested in science would be familiar with on some level. The protocol is as follows:

In the event of any dangerous breach on any level, if the danger is isolated to the island and poses little to no threat to the world at large, any personnel may report to the security control station located on level 1. With authorization of the chief of security, they are to press the large button labeled 'Island-wide lock'.

As I said, that one is much less disturbing. In fact, it seems almost strangely simple by comparison, but I suppose it happens often enough that Daedalus didn't want to make it a hassle. In addition, no special security clearance is actually required to activate the Faraday Protocol, quite simply because it doesn't do anything destructive. I was warned, however, that frivolous lockdowns were a fast track to losing my job. I suspect they've had to deal with that sort of thing in the past.

Unlike the previous one, they did actually tell me exactly what the Faraday Protocol would do. Needless to say, it is mostly in the name. The protocol is designed to prevent anything from leaving or entering the island. I don't mean physically, but rather things like radio waves, and all forms of magical energy. In addition, blocking all magic makes the island effectively invisible to all magical scans or scrying. It essentially locks the whole island down and wipes it off the map. Temporarily, of course.

There are also some measures in place for a physical lockdown, of course. A forcefield with any sort of strength around the whole island would be a logistics nightmare, but Daedalus has come up with some fairly good alternate solutions to the weakness of the field. Should the Faraday Protocol be activated, storm generators will come online immediately. They will detect anything attempting to leave or enter the island, and discourage it. Lightning and hurricane-force winds should scare any unwanted visitors off. Lastly, a spell generator is activated that creates a pulling current around the island, so anything that might drift out to open sea is instead held back, and eventually washes up on the shore again somewhere.

All these things, combined with the slight physical strength that the field does possess, combine to form a tight and secure lockdown. I am still not sure what, exactly, necessitates it, but I suppose I will find out eventually.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack stared at the page before her. She had answers, but she still lacked a solution. She still wasn't sure how to get inside the facility, and even then she had no idea how to deactivate the lockdown. The scientist had only written down how to activate it.

As she went on, the feeling of dread had only become worse. She knew that something was not right. There was another horseshoe that had yet to drop, and Applejack wished that she could just stop reading and never find out what it was.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. She needed more information, and there was only one way to get it. Applejack continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 12

After nearly a week working in level 6, I had my first direct encounter with Class D personnel today.

Ah, but I don't think I've explained the different employee classes yet. Allow me to elaborate. I arrived on the island as Class C, which signifies all ponies restricted to working at level 5 or above. Now that I have security clearance, I am officially a Class B employee. Class A is, apparently, reserved for members of Daedalus that are deemed essential above all else. From what I've heard, they don't make personal appearances very often.

All of the above are scientists, but not Class D. Class D personnel work as sort of assistants to the scientists in level 6 or below. They work directly on The Icarus Project, but not in any grand capacity. They seem to mostly be relegated to manual labour, or tasks that are too inherently risky for 'valuable' researchers like myself to perform.

Naturally, I was conflicted about this at first. I do not subscribe to the idea of assigning ponies a 'value', but every one of my new colleagues seemed to accept the system wholeheartedly. In fact, they treated the Class D personnel as practically sub-equine. I could not stand seeing such mistreatment for long, and I immediately confronted the scientist who I'd seen screaming at a Class D employee for some small error.

What she said surprised me. Apparently, Class D personnel are hired from prisons all around the world. They are employed here as a way to make better use of them than if they simply occupied a cell.

At least now I can see how the others justify their disposition towards Class D personnel, but I will not be making the same excuses they do. I want to give these poor workers a chance, regardless of what they did in the past.

I'll see if I can strike up a conversation with the next Class D employee I come across. Hopefully they won't all be as silent as the one I met today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next several entries were, once again, mostly uneventful. The scientist acclimated well to his new position, and most of the pages were filled with highly technical experiment notes. Applejack glanced up and noticed that the sun was already descending in the western sky, and would be setting before too long. Other than the breaks that she'd taken now and then, Applejack had spent almost the entire day reading. It had paid off, in many respects. The puzzle was very nearly complete. All that really remained now was to find out what happened at the end of it all.

That last answer, as it turned out, would have to wait until tomorrow. Applejack sighed and stood up from the book, stretching out her sore neck. She didn't want to close it, of course, for fear that she wouldn't be able to return to where she left off without flipping through every previous entry. So Applejack carefully brought the book back to the safety of her lean-to without losing her place.

There were a few other things to take care of. She put some more wood on the fire, refilled her canteen, and had a quick bit of supper. With all that done, Applejack trotted back to her shelter and lay down on the soft blanket. She removed the knife and sheath, the locket around her neck, and the hat on her head. She then set them all in a pile off to the side. As she was putting away her effects, Applejack caught sight of the little rubber chicken leaning blank-faced against the rock wall.

She chuckled. "G'night, little fella."

Silence fell, and Applejack let her eyes drift closed… only for them to snap open moments later as a realization washed over her like ice-water. She remembered reading the nameless scientist's account of when he first arrived on the island. One line in particular hadn't seemed like much at the time, but now, hours later, it sprang to the front of her mind with sudden disturbing relevance.

Applejack remembered the scientist very specifically mentioning 'the sound of countless tropical animals' when describing the island.

The jungle remained dead-silent.

Applejack didn't sleep well that night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 20

Progress is frustratingly slow. Months. I've been here for more than ten months and we aren't any closer to a true alicorn than when I arrived. It might help if I was ever allowed to see what goes on in the Gamma and Omega levels, because all my team is ever allowed to work on is tangentially related at best.

I had thought that being promoted to work on The Icarus Project would mean that I got to see the fruits of my work, but no. I get tasked with creating synthesised pegasus feathers, send those down to level 8, and then get told the next day that it wasn't good enough and they want me to clone chickens now.

I don't even know by what criteria they're judging my work! All I ever get told is whether something I do creates an alicorn, which it never does of course. Maybe if I could be more hooves-on with the whole process, I could find exactly where the error lies, but no. I don't have the clearance for that. Instead I get saddled with some inane task that bears not even the slightest visible connection to The Icarus Project.

I wasn't being facetious when I mentioned cloning chickens. That was genuinely what I spent the last month working on. I'm not even a biologist, but I hold something of an overseer position, so a lot of the time I get stuck with projects that I can't even directly help with. I've spent so long ordering around other scientists and worthless Class D personnel…

On that note, I've finally given up on my quest to befriend a Class D. I know, I started that months ago, but I haven't been able to get more than two words out of one in all that time. I'm not sure if they're all sociopaths, or if they're really just mistreated so much that they're scared into silence. Whatever the case, I can't be bothered to deal with it anymore. I wash my hooves of the situation.

Of course, it certainly doesn't help that they get switched out seemingly every damn week. I can't remember ever seeing the same Class D employee more than twice! Whoever thought it was a good idea to hire them on such arbitrarily short contracts, I'll never know. I swear we get a new shipment of them in at least once a month, yet the total number of Class D personnel remains constant.

Just one of many little problems, though. There is an old saying, 'if you want it done right, do it yourself'. I think that all of my problems can be solved with the same thing: I need to get access to the lower levels. If I ever want to make any real progress on The Icarus Project, I need to see it first-hoof.

For now, that means doing my job as best as I can. The ponies down on level 8 are going to get the best damned cloned chickens they've ever seen. I know that it's only a matter of time before I'm promoted to working even further down, but in the meantime I'll do everything in my power to expedite the process.

There's no way in Tartarus I'm leaving when my year and a half is up. I'm here for the long haul now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 21

It's been a very long time. I've been busy. I only write now because something very, very big has finally happened. I'm being moved to level 8. (Which, by extension, also grants me access to level 9.)

I knew it was only a matter of time.

Ah, but what has happened in the meantime? Well, the last entry I made was about cloning chickens. That went over superbly, as it turned out. I'm still not sure why they made me do it, but they were extremely happy with the results. Over the next couple months, they really ramped up the research that was thrown my way. My team and I were staying in the lab late most every night for almost two months straight, but it all paid off in the end.

Today was officially my last day in the Alpha class labs. Starting tomorrow, I'll be working in Gamma class. I'll be up close and personal with The Icarus Project, or at least more so than before. Maybe I'll finally be able to see what Daedalus is containing down there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 22

Oh, what a glorious few days this has been. Gamma class is absolutely amazing. Never had I even imagined what I would find down there.

We created a winged unicorn!

Well, to be fair, my new colleagues did most of the work. When I first arrived on level 8, they were already nearly finished. The pony in question is— was a Class D employee, a unicorn mare, average height and weight. A lot of our material is passed up from the Omega class labs, so I am not entirely clear how the mare had been prepared, but by the time we received her she possessed two tiny wings, similar to those of a pegasus foal. Our lab was tasked with keeping her comfortable, and nurturing the growth of her wings.

The process was a lot more involved than it sounds. The wings didn't immediately take to their new host, and it was a challenge just to keep them from falling off. As I said, they were well into the experiment when I arrived though. By the time I entered the picture, her wings were nearly fully grown. I was tasked with creating an enchantment to keep the wings alive without constant application by a unicorn. They had, up until now, simply been doing the spell themselves. It was simple enough to convert their spell into an enchantment and imbue it to a large gemstone. I then fastened the gem to a belt, which the subject can wear to keep her new wings alive and healthy indefinitely.

…Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, all signs point to this being a dead end. Whatever the scientists down below did to give her the wings, they failed to make them actually usable. There is a reason I described her as 'a winged unicorn'.

The wings are nothing more than decorative, and the subject's magical signature is still that of a standard unicorn. We have even subjected her to several magical strength tests, just to be sure our readings weren't wrong, and she exhibited no extraordinary ability of any description.

But it's still something! It's an actual, physical example of research in action. This is exactly what I'd hoped for when I got promoted. No longer am I stuck performing experiments with seemingly no rhyme or reason behind them. Now, even if my efforts fail, at least I can see them fail.

On that note, I was wondering the other day, if we here in the Gamma labs are seeing our actual attempts at alicorns, then what could possibly necessitate the even deeper, more secretive Omega labs? I asked around a bit, and apparently the ponies down below are rumoured to perform strange and esoteric experiments. They are on the cutting edge, trying anything and everything that their minds can imagine.

I… am intrigued by the idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy where I am. I wanted a position working directly on The Icarus Project, and I've gotten it, but… from the sounds of things, the ponies on the Omega levels are completely unbound. They have total intellectual freedom, and nearly unlimited resources at their disposal. Obviously, they are still expected to contribute to the Project, but they do so on their own terms.

Of course, these are only rumours. I have no way of knowing if these fantastical claims are true, but if they are then I'd love to work down there one day.

Heh, not to sound discontented in my first week.

I should just sleep. Goodness knows I'll need it. After the failure of this most recent subject, we'll be starting a new project tomorrow. I'm excited to see what it is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack idly chewed on her lunch without ever tearing her eyes from the book. What followed that last entry were more experiment notes. These ones were certainly more interesting than the other ones she'd seen, but many of them still went over her head.

She skimmed over them, for the most part, only stopping to read them thoroughly when something particularly interesting came up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 27

Today was eventful, to say the least. I'll not bother mincing words about it, I'll just get right on to the notes.

Daedalus Foundation experiment log 562a: Our team was presented with a Class D subject (D-1269), species: changeling, gender: unknown, age: unknown. The intent of the experiment was to determine whether D-1269 could accurately shift into alicorn form, and whether it would be possible to replicate it.

Changelings are still a relatively unknown species, and they have never technically been seen in Equestria. At least not on record. We know very little of them, but we do know that they possess the ability to shapeshift into the form of virtually any pony. Why they do this is currently unknown. How they do this is also currently unknown.

Subject D-1269 was stored in a 10m3 standard equine containment cell, and was limited to an absolute minimum of equine contact. D-1269, in its natural form, is shaped like a pony, but has hard black chitin in the place of skin. Its eyes are solid blue and multifaceted, and its wings resemble dragonfly wings. All in all, its appearance is very similar to that of a bug, though that could merely be superficial.

Whenever D-1269 was presented with another pony, it would immediately shapeshift. In a flash of green fire, its entire appearance would change to that of another pony. Often, it would choose the pony in the room with it, though sometimes it would choose another pony that had visited in the past.

This ability represents a clear danger, especially if it were able to impersonate a high-level member of staff. For that reason, D-1269, and any other changeling subjects, are only ever to be presented with Class D personnel. Anypony above Class D who directly interacts with a changeling subject risks a compromise that we cannot afford.

Once we learned that the changeling's shapeshifting ability was based on seeing who it wanted to impersonate, D-1269 was presented with several photographs of Princess Celestia. The photographs ranged from headshots to full-body from virtually every angle, but D-1269 failed to react to any of them.

Unfortunately, before the experiment could continue, D-1269 displayed another heretofore unseen ability. When another Class D subject (earth pony, stallion, 28 years old, D-1451) entered the room to remove the photographs of Celestia and replace them with a life-sized statue, D-1269 pounced at him. Before he could react, D-1269's horn flashed a bright green, and D-1451 was placed into a sort of trance. His eyes glowed the same green shade, and he immediately stood up and opened the door for subject D-1269 to escape.

The changeling fled out of the room, and was terminated by security personnel shortly after. Subject D-1451 was sent to level 10 for analysis, and reclassified as an Omega class threat until the extent of what the changeling did can be determined.

Recommendation: when interacting with changeling subjects in future, the door is to be opened and closed only by a pony on the outside who makes no direct contact with the changeling.

End log.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maybe interesting was the wrong word. Applejack mused on that for a moment. 'Disturbing' was probably more apt to describe the turn the experiment notes seemed to have taken. Sure it was a changeling, and it had tried to escape, but for the guards to just… terminate it like that.

Applejack didn't like it. No creature deserved to be treated so callously.

The next few experiment notes were far less interesting, but Applejack soon noticed a concerning theme popping up in the more personal journals. The scientist's tone seemed to have changed, somewhat drastically, though it was hard to tell when just skimming through. Applejack stopped on the next entry, and read carefully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 35

Closer and closer to ascension, but always just out of reach. I know now, with certainty, that The Icarus Project is my divine purpose in life. We've made strides, great strides, since I was moved down to levels 8 and 9. We may not have succeeded yet, but I am confident that my presence has put us on the track to success. Soon, I will be granted access to the very lowest levels. Within the week, in fact. I received word of my promotion just recently.

With my promotion, came a warning. They told me that what I see down there will not be pleasant. That the pursuit of science, and by extension our ultimate goal, takes precedence over everything else in the Omega class labs. Everything else. There will not be room for any hesitation, no matter what happens. No matter what the price.

They told me that, if I wanted, I could stay up here. I could remain in the Gamma class labs indefinitely, and still provide my services in full. In the past, I probably would have accepted their offer. Before I came to this island, before the three years I've spent working here, I would have chosen to stay in ignorance just to preserve my 'morals'. I was a different pony, then.

I have already accepted their offer. The Project takes precedence. I can handle whatever they have down there, whatever they strive to contain in the deepest levels of the facility. I've already seen Class D personnel lost in experiments gone awry. I am not the stranger to death that I once was.

The price is heavy, but the reward is more than worth it. The Daedalus Foundation will advance the world into a new age of wonder, even if we must pay the toll in blood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack blinked. She shook her head, then read the entry again just to be sure. The change was more than evident. In a mere three years, the kind and intellectual scientist had become… something else entirely.

She didn't want to keep reading anymore. She didn't want to know what happened next. Unfortunately, it wasn't about what she wanted. It was about what she needed. Now, more than ever, she needed to get off the island for good. If there was even the smallest chance that the journal would tell her how, then Applejack needed to take it.

She was nearing the end of the book now. It was only a little more. Reluctantly, Applejack continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 36

It has been some time since my last entry. I have been busy with my new role in the lowest levels. I… I tried to be prepared for this. I steeled my nerves, I bolstered my will, I assured myself that The Icarus Project surpassed all other things in importance.

That didn't make it very much easier to acclimate to. My new colleagues have been understanding, fortunately, but I am my own worst critic. I want to help. I want to overcome the sickness in my stomach whenever they vivisect the latest failed experiment. My weakness is an injustice to what we are trying to accomplish.

We will change the world for the better, but only if I can overcome a bit of squeamishness.

I can do it. I will do it. No matter what it takes, I will prove that I am committed to the Project.

No matter what it takes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 37

Daedalus Foundation experiment log 599b: My team and I were presented with the remnants of experiment 599a, performed by another team on level 11. Their latest failed attempt at magic-induced mutation had resulted in a curious case. A Class D subject (pegasus, mare, 32 years old, D-1558) had failed to ascend, but had been granted unique magical properties.

Most notably, they had become ostensibly invulnerable. D-1558 was reclassified as an Omega class threat, and placed into storage. They were stored in a 10m3 secure cell at the bottom of a 5m concrete-lined shaft, with standard anti-pegasus spikes placed along the walls of the shaft. Once my team became available, D-1558 was moved from storage to our secure lab.

We were not told how the first team came to believe D-1558 was indestructible, but my team was tasked with verifying the claim.

Upon first examination, subject D-1558 appeared as any normal pegasus, apart from her eyes. Her eyes were a solid, glowing white with no pupils. AS far as we could tell, the effect was purely superficial.

Our first test consisted of introducing another Class D subject (earth pony, stallion, 25 years old, D-2081) into the room with instructions to kill D-1558. D-2081 had been convicted for several murders before being acquired by Daedalus, and did not hesitate in the slightest. He was equipped with one large, sharp knife, and immediately attempted to stab D-1558 in the neck with it.

The knife bounced off harmlessly, with no damage apparent on the blade or on D-1558. D-2081 was not deterred, and continued his assault for some time. He eventually grew tired, at which point D-1558 wrested the knife from his hooves and terminated him with a single thrust to the heart.

The test was not entirely fruitless, as we did determine that D-1558 possessed no extraordinary strength, and required D-2081 to wear himself out before she was able to get the knife from him.

We then tested D-1558's reaction to bathing the room in fire, setting off an explosive charge next to her, and firing 30 crossbow bolts into her at once. None had even the slightest effect.

Our final attempt was electrocution. We connected subject D-1558 to cables feeding directly from the main generator, and steadily increased the power output fed through them. At first, there was no reaction, as usual. She was able to withstand six times what would have killed an average pony, but at that point D-1558 finally expired.

Conclusion: Experiment 599a did not create an immortal pony, merely a very strong one.

End log.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 38

We lost four more Class D personnel while constructing a new outpost in the southern jungle. I keep telling the captain to take better care of them, but half the time she forgets to even feed them when she locks them in the cages for the night. This behaviour is simply unacceptable. Class D subjects are not an infinite resource, and every one costs the Daedalus Foundation to obtain. IF this severe misuse of resources continues, I will be filing a complaint about the captain.

Class D personnel are not cheap!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack couldn't read any more. She felt sick to her stomach. Memories of that horrible, awful site she'd found in the jungle flashed through her mind. A construction site. That was all it was. So many ponies dead, and all so that some science foundation could have a new lab.

These ponies were evil. There were no two ways about it. The Daedalus Foundation had seemed morally questionable at first, but they had long since crossed that line and kept right on going. Applejack couldn't even imagine ponies doing such things. If she'd only read it, she would never have believed it, but she'd seen it first-hoof. She'd seen the cages, the electrified spears no doubt used to keep the workers in line.

Her breathing was starting to come in rapid gasps, and Applejack had to work to calm herself down. It was in the past, she couldn't dwell on it. It was horrible, but there was more to go. She had to press on, through the ever nauseating page. She couldn't give up now.

With some great effort, Applejack managed to force her eyes back down to the book before her. Every inch of her protested, but Applejack continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 40

Daedalus Foundation experiment log 800a: A study on the strength and/or power increase provided by a griffon diet. This is a personal study, but one that was conducted with the hope of benefiting The Icarus Project in the long run.

10 Class D personnel (four earth ponies, three pegasi, and three unicorns) were each placed in standard 10m3 containment cells. They were each provided water to drink, and various exercise equipment ranging from easy difficulty to near impossible strength requirements.

When the time came for their first meal, a live chicken was released into each pony's cell. This persisted for the remainder of the experiment. At every mealtime, a small, live animal was released into each cell. The subjects were given instructions to consume the animal, and to utilize the exercise equipment to the best of their ability.

Two unicorns, one pegasus, and one earth pony all starved to death after refusing to consume another living creature. This left three earth ponies, two pegasi, and one unicorn.

Two earth ponies, one pegasus, and the remaining unicorn lost all connection with reality after a period of a few days consuming the griffon diet. Once they were all confirmed to be completely insane, all four subjects were terminated. In the few days that they remained lucid, none of them showed any increase in strength. This left only one pegasus and one earth pony.

The remaining two subjects ('earth pony, stallion, 30 years old, D-1901' and 'pegasus, mare, 22 years old, D-2340') showed no increase in strength after several months of this diet. In fact, both became sickly and weak compared to their former selves. The experiment was declared a failure after 8 months with no positive change.

Both subjects were deemed as unfit to return to duty, both mentally and physically. Subject D-1901 was terminated, and subject D-2340 was sent to level 11 containment, where she will be stored until harvested for The Icarus Project.

Note: D-2340 has become sociopathic and violent, and should be treated with the proper level of security.

End log.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entry 48

Daedalus Foundation experiment log 960a: My team and I were tasked with assessing the unique magical properties of parasprites, as well as the danger they might pose to the world.

Parasprites are voracious little creatures, known to consume food at an alarming rate. They reproduce asexually after consuming upwards of one and a half times their own body weight. This phenomenon has been known to have catastrophic results to crops and good supplies, and has given the tiny creatures a reputation as the worst of vermin.

Our first test deigned to find out if parasprites could become even more dangerous than anypony had ever imagined. The possibility of parasprites consuming meat, or even living prey, would easily result in reclassifying them as a threat to all life as we know it.

The first phase involved starving a parasprite for several days. It was stored in a 5m3 spellwork glass case, and observed until it appeared weak and desperate from starvation. This turned out to take approximately 8 days without food.

Once the parasprite was sufficiently starved, a piece of cooked chicken was introduce into the case. The parasprite showed no hesitation in consuming the meat, and reproduced as normal. Both parasprites were destroyed, and the experiment reset.

A new parasprite was placed in the box, and starved for the same amount of time. However, this one was fed a piece of raw chicken after 8 days. Again, there was no hesitation, and the parasprite reproduced as normal. Both parasprites were destroyed, and the experiment reset once more.

Finally, an entire swarm was stored in a 10m3 standard equine containment cell, and starved for the same amount of time as the previous ones. After that time, a live Class D subject (earth pony, mare, 36 years old, D-1701) was introduced into the cell. There was no hesitation, and the parasprites reproduced as normal.

All parasprites involved in the test were destroyed, save for a small sample that will continue to be stored on level 12 and fed meat indefinitely in case of any long-term effects. Their offspring will be destroyed after each feeding, of course.

As a result of this first test, I recommend that parasprites be reclassified as an Omega class threat, and suggest extreme care when working with them in future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More and more pages. Applejack wanted to vomit. She felt glad when tears started to blur her vision, as it meant she could flip through the pages without having to see them. Even her morbid curiosity had been crushed to a bloody pulp. She just wanted it to end. Please. Please, let it end.

Finally, mercifully, Applejack reached the last couple pages. She wiped at her eyes until she could see again, and then she continued reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Final Entry

Who am I? What am I? I… I don't remember being the way I am today. I've been reading my own journal. It feels like I'm reading a book written by somepony else, somepony terrible.

I found the locket, today. It was in the basement, locked away in a dusty old drawer. I don't remember putting it there. I must have done it as my last act before my sanity faded completely. I knew, even as I sank further and further into darkness, that I couldn't bear to subject you to what I had become. So I locked you away, and I forgot about you.

But now I've found you again, and I remember. I remember the pony I used to be. I remember everything that I once stood for, that I've now forsaken entirely. It feels like I've been dreaming, only I wake to find myself in a nightmare. It is a nightmare of my own creation. I am responsible for so, so much. So much of the pain, and the blood, that this island has hidden falls directly at my hooves.

I need… I need to do something. I need to put an end to this place before I lapse back into insanity. Though I can't quite blame insanity, can I? No, I only wish that I was crazy. Perhaps then I could say that it wasn't my fault…

But I can do something! I can end it all. I can put a stop to Daedalus for good, right now. Tonight. I, unfortunately, cannot activate the Titanomachy Protocol. As much as I would love to send this entire island to the abyss, I would require the help of two other scientists, and I doubt I would be able to find it.

There is a solution, though. I am trusted here. I have access to everywhere and everything. I can go wherever I please… and I can open all the locks. One breach would be containable, even a breach from level 12, but all of them?

Yes, it will be perfect. I can unlock every door on the island simultaneously. Nothing will survive. It will be my final atrocity, but for the first time I will actually be doing it with the good of the world in mind. That may not justify it, but I think I'm past justification at this point.

There are things stored on level 12 that could threaten the world. There are monsters that even nightmares could never fully comprehend. I cannot allow them free access to escape and wreak havoc.

I will have to activate the Faraday Protocol. It should contain most of the experiments, and the ones that it can't stop will at least be rendered blind to the rest of the world. The shield will block any senses, from psychic to magical, so the experiments should remain on the island until they either die out or kill each other.

Yes, open the cages and lock the door. The House of Daedalus will fall into chaos, and tear itself apart.

One last thing. If anypony is reading this, then somehow you have found yourself on this accursed island. I am truly, truly sorry.

In order to escape, you will need to first unlock the underground facility, and then disable the Faraday Protocol. To unlock the facility, take the six access gems I store in my basement —where you likely found this book— to the six security stations located around the island. You will have to find a map. I do not know their locations by heart.

Once the six gems have been placed on the six pedestals, the doors leading underground will become accessible. Find the main entrance, located at the base of the large mountain in the south. Down the tunnel will lead you to the entrance to level 1. Simply approach the entrance, and it will open.

The security control room is located at the far north end of level 1. There are signs that lead the way. Simply find your way to that room, and press the large button labeled 'Island-wide lock'.

With any luck, you, and any friends with you, will be the only living things on the island by the time you read this. If anything survives to stalk you, know that it can be hurt. We never did perfect immortality.

I wish you good luck, dear reader. I will preface this book with an explanation, and hopefully you aren't entirely in the dark.

Now, my fate awaits. I will unleash every horror that Daedalus has created upon them. I will show them exactly what they have sown, and I will stand alongside them to reap it. May Celestia have mercy on our souls.

Goodbye.

Author's Note

Edited by my homeboys, Pyromitsu and Aatxe360. Yo.

Going it Alone
View Online

Mother of Invention

Going it Alone

The sun was setting over the lake as Applejack stood silently on the site of the old cabin. A chill wind blew across the water and caused her mane to buffet against her neck. She hadn't realized, but it had grown out almost down to her shoulder now. She would've needed to cut it again soon, if it wasn't for the fact that her time on the island was finally coming to a close.

Applejack took a deep breath, the cool evening air smelled of earth and plant-life. It was a scent she'd been accustomed to years before ever arriving on the island, but that didn't impact her enjoyment of it. She held the air in her lungs for several moments before releasing it in a long, slow exhale. She gazed out over the perfectly still surface of the lake, towards the lush and living jungle beyond, and tried to imagine countless exotic animal sounds and bird calls echoing all around her.

It really was a beautiful place.

With one last breath, Applejack turned around and faced a stack of wood she'd built up behind her. It sat in the center of the bare earth left behind by the cabin, neatly stacked pieces of dry kindling that formed a pony-sized square. Next to the square was a small, glowing fire that Applejack had carefully kept burning all the way from her campsite.

Sitting atop the waiting wood was an ancient-looking book, clasped shut with a plain gold lock. Applejack took a moment to be sure of what she was doing.

He'd done some horrible things, but deep down he wasn't a bad pony. She couldn't bring herself to hate him, despite all that he'd done. If anything, Applejack only pitied him. His one last physical presence on this world, a testament to everything he'd done wrong. He'd left it as, probably thinking it was what he deserved; a penance of sorts. He deserved better. Ponies could be forgiven, but that meant letting go of the past.

Applejack nodded resolutely, and carefully lifted a flaming stick in her forehooves from the small fire. With a grim expression on her face, she tossed the small flame into the stack of wood. She'd placed plenty of bone-dry grass in the bottom, and the stack went up quickly. Within a minute, it was a crackling blaze.

The fire burned bright and hot, and the book seemed to resist at first. Eventually, though, the edges began to blacken and curl, and before long the book itself only added to the conflagration.

The silence was broken occasionally by a crack or a pop from the fire, but that didn't feel like enough. Without really knowing what would come out, Applejack opened her mouth.

"I never really knew you, myself, but you didn't seem like a bad sort." Her disused voice started hoarse and raspy, but became stronger as she went on. "You were just confused, and scared, and probably hurtin' something awful inside."

Applejack blinked. She wasn't quite sure where that last one came from. Nevertheless, she kept going, letting her heart talk instead of her brain.

"You hurt a lot of ponies, but you never meant for it to happen. I know that you loved your family, and I wish you could know that they loved you back."

Applejack didn't consciously realize, but she'd taken her hat off and was wringing it between her hooves. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she clutched the hat tightly.

"You felt like you didn't have a choice, and you were wrong. You always had a choice, but you just chose wrong. I… I can't rightly blame you for it. I wanted to. I wanted to blame you so bad. I wanted to hate you, but I just can't."

She was clutching her hat to her chest now, and silent tears ran down her cheeks.

"You were a good pony. I know you were. I just wish you coulda known that yourself." Applejack sniffed loudly, and glanced down at the hat in her forehooves. It was wrinkled and crumpled, and —she noticed for the first time— old. The ancient headwear was faded and covered in small scuffs and nicks. One corner of her mouth tugged upwards slightly, and Applejack looked back up at the fire.

When she spoke, it was directed at two ponies. "So I just wanted you to know, and I'm sorry I never said this before. No matter what you did, or who all you hurt… I…" Her voice came out in a raspy whisper.

"I forgive you."

Then Applejack tossed her hat into the flames. It burned instantly, and brightly. The fire reflected off her grinning smile and her flowing tears in equal measure.

For the first time in her life, Applejack felt ghosts lift from her shoulders.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Applejack awoke the next day, she woke with a mission. She knew what she had to do now, and she knew exactly how to do it. She wasn't about to waste any more time.

Firstly, she had to gain access to the underground facility. Once she disabled the lockdown, she could make a new raft and be on her way, but she wouldn't be taking any chances this time. She would make absolutely positive that her new raft could get the job done, and that meant devoting a lot of time to creating it. Of course, if Applejack was going to spend weeks constructing a seaworthy vessel, then she wanted to get started as soon as possible.

She had considered building the raft first, and venturing into the facility once it was good and ready, but one small hope held her back from that plan. While she was well past sitting around and waiting to be 'rescued', there was still the chance that disabling the lockdown would increase her chances of being found. If a passing ship could make it close to the island without being chased off by storms, then that would certainly be preferable to braving the open seas on a tiny raft. Not that Applejack expected it, but it was a nice thought.

So first things first, she had to deactivate the Faraday Protocol. Today.

After spending the last two days reading, Applejack was itching to be on the move again. Her leg was feeling mostly better by that point. She wouldn't be able to run a marathon, but Applejack was confident enough to brave the jungle again. Not that she had any choice, anyway.

Applejack stepped out of her lean-to with a purposeful stride. She ate a good breakfast in preparation for a long day, and packed a coconut in her saddlebags for lunch. Next she filled her canteen to the brim, and made sure her knife was securely strapped to her left foreleg. Lastly, Applejack unfurled the map and double-checked the location of the closest security station, marked with a solid black circle containing an upside-down triangle.

Her hoof reached up instinctively to adjust a hat that wasn't there, and Applejack chuckled. That chuckle filled the clearing with more mirth than it deserved after what she'd spent the past two days uncovering. Applejack didn't care. She couldn't bring herself to feel down. This was it. Everything was falling into place at last. This wasn't a blind attempt borne on faith, it was a confirmed method with a step-by-step instructions. She was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, going home.

She was going home! Applejack could scarcely believe it herself. She laughed once more for good measure, then trotted off into the jungle. No sense it putting it off any longer. She was on the path to home now.

Applejack entered the jungle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She'd been walking for some time, her pace hindered only slightly by her still-weak leg, and the jungle was thick on all sides. It felt surprisingly good to be among the trees again. Applejack didn't expect to feel almost… nostalgic to be bushwhacking her way through the deep jungle. Then again, that probably had something to do with being cooped up for the past couple weeks in recovery.

The first tower appeared rather suddenly. One moment, she was trotting through the dense underbrush, and in the next Applejack found herself standing out in the open at the base of a concrete tower.

Applejack skidded to a stop and stared at the structure standing before her. It looked pretty much how she remembered, even if she hadn't visited this one in particular before. It was a three or four storey tall cylinder of dark grey concrete. The treeline, same as at the last one Applejack had visited, extended nearly to the base of the tower, only stopping when it gave way to concrete that surrounded the tower.

The sound of Applejack's hooves on the hard surface broke the silence as she trotted towards the building. It didn't take her long to locate the single spot of difference in the otherwise smooth walls. The door was heavy, metal, and adorned with the Daedalus Foundation logo that Applejack was so familiar with.

"Alrighty then." Applejack squared her shoulders and nodded determinedly. "Step one, here we go."

She put her shoulder into the door, and managed to creak it open with some effort. The interior of the station was pitch-black, but Applejack stepped heedlessly into the inky darkness. The moment her hooves crossed the threshold, Applejack detected a faint tingling sensation, a sort of 'buzz' that wasn't heard so much as felt.

She ignored it. The darkness was too much for her to take more than a couple steps inside, so Applejack waited. She hummed idly and tapped her hooves against the cold floor as her eyes slowly adjusted.

As soon as she was able to make out faint, dim shapes, Applejack moved forward. She stepped up to the pedestal in the center of the room, and felt the buzzing sensation grow more palpable as she got closer. It never intensified, but simply became easier to detect.

Applejack sat down on the floor, then reached back into her saddle bags and rummaged around until she located a small canvas bag. She withdrew the bag with great care, and held it delicately in both forehooves. She couldn't see it very clearly, but she knew very well that the bag had the Daedalus symbol, painted on the front, and she knew exactly what the bag contained.

Reaching inside the bag, Applejack was forced to go more by feel than by sight. She grabbed a relatively square-cut gem, and slowly extracted it from the bag. She was so close now, she couldn't bear to risk losing even a single gemstone.

With tentative, inching motions, Applejack eased the small gem onto the pedestal and sat it down.

Nothing happened.

Applejack blinked. Maybe nothing was supposed to happen. Maybe it would only become apparent once all the gems were placed down. Or… maybe she had used the wrong gem. It certainly wouldn't hurt to check.

Snatching the first gem from the pedestal, Applejack carefully set it to her side. She withdrew one more, and squinted at it in the dim light. She could see a little more clearly now; at least clearly enough to identify the new gem as a sapphire.

Applejack carefully set the sapphire down on the pedestal, holding her breath all the while.

That time, something happened. A sound echoed through the small room, a high chime that seemed to come from every direction at once. In the same instant, the constant buzzing sensation that Applejack had felt seemed to fade slightly. It was still there, but it felt dampened and weak compared to when she'd first walked in.

That was much better. Applejack grinned and scooped the failed gem back into the sack with the rest. The sack went into her saddlebags, and Applejack trotted back out into the jungle. She pulled out the map and unfurled it on the ground in front of her. The next security station wasn't terribly far away. If Applejack hurried, she could make it there in three quarters of an hour.

"One down, five to go."

The day was off to a great start.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She made good time to the next tower. Applejack's high spirits kept her energized and raring to go, even as she trudged her way through thick undergrowth. She couldn't help but feel excited, even though she knew there was danger to overcome yet. The mysterious monster hadn't come around since its attack during her recovery, and Applejack wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Perhaps she'd managed to hurt, or even kill it. Maybe she'd put the fear of fire into it, and it wouldn't dare cross her again. All of those were nice thoughts, but they were overshadowed by far less pleasant ones. Maybe it was out there, waiting for the opportune moment. Maybe it was lulling her into a false sense of security so that she'd be totally unprepared when it struck.

Applejack shuddered, but quickly pushed those thoughts to one side. They didn't matter at the moment. Even if it was still out there somewhere, it wasn't after her at the moment, so she had to take advantage of the peace. Her best bet was to get off the island as quickly as possible, and hope that whatever the monster was planning didn't come to fruition in the meantime. If it was even planning anything at all.

Fortunately, Applejack was spared any more thought on the matter as the next tower came into view through a gap in the foliage. She picked up her pace and quickly found herself standing before the plain concrete structure.

"Second verse, same as the first…" Applejack muttered as she located the thick metal door.

It really was almost exactly the same. It took her a few tries to figure out the correct gem, but as soon as Applejack placed a finely-cut emerald onto the pedestal, she heard the same chime as last time. The buzzing feeling died down again, and Applejack nodded in satisfaction before heading back outside.

She paused outside for a moment, sitting down and taking a drink from her canteen. The sun was still edging its way towards noon, and cast slanted lines of light down through the canopy. It was high enough to shine right down into the small clear area surrounding the tower, and Applejack sat and absorbed the warm light for a few moments.

Her break couldn't last long though. There were still four more security stations to go. Applejack unfurled the map and checked for the next closest one. It was a bit farther than she would've liked, but she was still confident that they could all be done before the end of the day.

That would mean getting a move on, though. Applejack placed the map back into her saddlebags and set out at a quick trot. She plunged through undergrowth and moved between trees with a fluidity born from weeks of mandatory practice.

The sun inched across the sky, and Applejack made progress. By the time she arrived at the third tower, it was just passing midday. She was breathing slightly heavily, and a light sheen of sweat covered her coat, but she'd made very good time.

The security station itself took only a moment. Applejack didn't even wait for her eyes to adjust. She knew very well where the pedestal was already. She trotted through the utter darkness without fear, though she did slow down and feel ahead of her with a forehoof when she knew the pedestal was near. Once she reached it, she pulled a gem out from the bag. Despite the darkness, a miniscule amount of light did filter in from the wide-open door. It was enough for Applejack to catch the glint of a ruby. She set it down on the pedestal, and instantly heard a high chime fill the room.

Satisfied, Applejack left the station and closed the door behind her. She was halfway done, but before she moved on the rest, Applejack figured she could use a short rest. Besides, her stomach was starting to hurt —more than usual, at least— which meant it was as good a time as any for lunch.

The concrete surrounding the tower's base was hardly a good place to sit and relax, but it did provide a decent place to open her coconut. Applejack carved off the outer husk with her knife, then cracked the coconut in two with a sharp smack against the concrete.

She took her lunch into the shade of the jungle and sat down on the much softer grass. Applejack didn't rush her meal, and idly examined the remaining 'access gems' as she ate. They looked entirely normal to her. She wasn't sure if they'd appear different to a unicorn, or if it was one of those things they could just feel. Or maybe they would look like average, mundane gems to everypony, even unicorns. Magic was weird.

Three gems remained: An amethyst, a yellow topaz that Applejack particularly liked the look of, and some other purple gem. It wasn't quite as purple as the amethyst; it was a lighter shade with a bit more pink. Applejack wondered if there was a name for it, or if it was just another type of amethyst. She was hardly an expert on precious stones.

Applejack decided her break had gone on long enough. She'd already finished her lunch, so she tossed the coconut shell into the bush and packed the sack of gems back into her saddlebags. Next, she took out the map once more. The next tower wasn't too far, fortunately. As much as she could tell, Applejack was still on track to finish by the end of the day.

She made to do just that, and set off into the jungle. The next security station passed without incident. She left the unknown purple gem there and moved right along. The sun was crawling downwards now, moving through afternoon and towards evening. The next tower was equally uneventful. Applejack placed the yellow topaz on the pedestal, listened to the rather pleasant chime, and set off for the final tower.

By the time Applejack reached the final tower, it was already evening. She should have brought more food. Her legs, especially the recently injured one, were sore, and her coat was dirty and sweaty. It had been a good day of work, but it wasn't quite over yet.

Applejack entered the final tower, and immediately pulled out the amethyst. She trotted over to the pedestal, as she'd done so many times that day, and wasted no time in placing the access gem where it belonged.

Then something unexpected happened.

Rather than the same old chime she'd heard five times already, the air was split by the sound of a harsh klaxon. Applejack's ears folded against her skull as the harsh siren blared once, then fell silent. It took Applejack a moment to realize what had changed. The buzzing had stopped completely. It hadn't simply dimmed, as it had all the previous times, but it was now entirely gone. The security station was utterly silent and motionless.

"Huh…" Applejack blinked. "Well that's something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time she dragged herself back into her camp, night was already falling. The sun was casting its last few orange rays across the still island, and on its lone pony inhabitant as she plopped gracelessly onto the grass next to a smoldering fire. Applejack tossed a couple more pieces of wood on just to be sure it wouldn't go out, then laid her head down on folded forehooves with a groan.

She was tired, sweaty, and ached all over. Applejack felt better than she had since arriving on the island. It was the feeling of a good days work, combined with the knowledge that the work had well and truly accomplished something great. Tomorrow, she would venture down into level 1 of the facility. Applejack was endlessly glad that she didn't have to go any deeper than that.

But that was tomorrow. Tonight, she was tired and sore. Applejack crawled into her lean-to and —after a couple failed attempts— managed to remove her saddlebags without getting up from the floor.

She curled up on the gloriously soft pink quilt, and glanced over at the tiny rubber chicken. A tired smile spread across her face as the little toy brought forth the memories of home it always did. Such a small thing had been such a great comfort during her time on the island. Applejack would have to remember to thank Pinkie Pie when she next saw her.

Wouldn't be long now. Applejack had always known, it was only a matter of time.

She drifted off into a deep and pleasant sleep. Applejack dreamed of home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack woke feeling fully energized. She was smiling before she even stood up, and her grin persisted as she put on her saddlebags, equipped her knife, and stepped out into the morning light. The sun was barely over the horizon, and the clearing was still dim and pleasantly cool. That was perfect; it would take a couple hours to get back to the cave entrance, so Applejack wanted to leave as early as possible.

That meant wasting no time. She scarfed down a speedy breakfast of blueberries and wildflowers. She was completely out of tomatoes. She would have to remember to gather some to bring on the raft. Lots of blueberries, too—

She was getting distracted, though. Applejack shook her head to refocus, and set about the tasks that mattered for the day ahead. First, she dove into the jungle for a moment and retrieved three relatively straight sticks. Each one was only a couple feet long, but that was all she needed. Applejack then got one of the old, threadbare quilts from her supply pile, and drew her knife. She cut the ruined blanket into as many strips as possible and set them in a pile.

Applejack briefly considered pouring some of the alcohol over the sliced-up cloth, but decided against it. They would certainly burn more intensely, but there was also the chance she might explode if she didn't know what she was doing. Better to simply not risk it.

So it was that she brought over her three sticks and sat down in front of the dry cloth strips. She took the strips, one at a time, and wrapped them around the end of a stick. After enough strips had been applied to one stick to form a tight ball at the end, she moved on to the next. Within a few minutes, she'd created three serviceable torches.

She then packed a couple hooffuls of dry tinder, and a flint-rock. She would need to be able to actually light the torches, after all.

With all of her supplies, and a freshly-filled canteen, Applejack was ready to go. The sun had barely even broken over the horizon when she plunged into the damp jungle along the well-known patch back towards the beach.

It took a couple hours, as usual, but Applejack eventually found herself standing at the base of the gravel hill leading up to the mouth of a dark cave. She marched up the hill and stopped at the entrance to the cave. There, she reached into her saddlebags and brought out the flint and tinder, as well as a single torch. She knelt down and set the tinder on the stone floor, then drew her knife and struck it against the flint. After several attempts, the sparks managed to catch and a small flame came to life.

Applejack held the torch sideways in her mouth, and lowered the end of it into the tiny fire. Fortunately, it was enough, and the torch quickly went up in glowing orange light. She stamped the tinder out, then moved deeper into the tunnel. For the first time, she truly understood the perfectly smooth walls and precise corners. Her mood had been bright all day, but the realization of exactly where she was did sober her a bit.

She wasn't smiling anymore by the time she reached the bottom of the long, switch-backing corridor. Her first torch was still burning brightly, and would hopefully continue to do so for some time before she had to switch to a new one.

The darkness receded ahead of her as Applejack slowly moved, step by step, down the final corridor. Finally, the back wall came into view at the edge of the flickering torchlight. It looked exactly the same as she remembered it: smooth and covered with a large painting of the Daedalus logo with their signature phrase underneath.

Applejack blinked. Was the wall supposed to still be there? Maybe she just had to get closer…

She took another step. Then another. Her hooves echoed loudly against the stone in the deep tunnel. Finally, when she was only a couple paces away from the wall, Applejack heard a low buzzing noise. She froze up, not even breathing, as the noise persisted for several seconds. Suddenly, the buzzing cut off with a loud, metallic clang that made her ears fold back against her head.

The wall shifted, and a layer of dust fell free to float slowly down to the ground. Before the dust had even touched the floor, the wall slid backwards several inches to the sound of an unpleasant metal grinding. Finally, the wall-turned-door slid noisily to the left and disappeared from view.

Applejack took a deep, deep breath. She exhaled through her nose, and squared her shoulders. This was it.

Applejack stepped through the doorway.

Author's Note

Edited by Pyromitsu and Aatxe360, who are the two greatest people. These updates wouldn't be happening if not for them!

Wake Up
View Online

Mother of Invention

Wake Up

Applejack slowly regained consciousness to the tune of her entire body aching. Every inch of her hurt… but that wasn't right; dead ponies weren't supposed to feel pain. Then again, Applejack was fairly new to the whole 'being dead' thing, so she wasn't entirely sure how it all worked.

After a few minutes of nothing but pain, her hazy mind began to process other things. She could tell that she was lying on her back, and something amazingly soft was underneath her. Another soft thing covered her front all the way up to her shoulders.

A sound reached her ears, foggy and indistinct. It was a repetitive tone, high pitched and grating. The sound went beep, beep, beep in an incessant rhythm that made Applejack want to fold her ears back against her head… or rather, her ear. That would take some getting used to.

As much as she wished the annoying noise would stop, it sounded familiar somehow. It took her a few minute of pondering before Applejack realized what it was. The realization was enough to clear the fog of her mind somewhat, and Applejack felt herself falling into reality.

A heart monitor beeped a steady pulse next to the surprisingly comfortable hospital bed. Applejack's head rested on a fluffy pillow, and a thin but comforting blanket was laid across her.

She was alive, apparently. That was certainly news to her. As exciting as that news was, Applejack had several questions about it. First and foremost: Where was she?

It took a great deal of effort on her part, but Applejack did eventually manage to crack her eyelids open a bit. Fluorescent light flooded in, and she immediately closed them again at the blinding brightness. Applejack tried again, tentatively this time. She slowly worked her eyes open a bit at a time as they adjusted to the light.

As soon as her eyes were open wide enough to see out of, Applejack began to glance about the room without moving her head. Most of what she could see was plain white ceiling. Two long, fluorescent light bulbs were mounted above her to the left and right, which explained the brightness. When Applejack glanced upwards, she could see a blueish-green wall, upon which was mounted a grey metal lamp that pointed down into her bed.

She was in a hospital, that much was certain simply due to the still-beeping heart monitor. It was starting to get on her nerves with its repeated noise, actually…

Before Applejack could work up the courage to move anything besides her eyes, a scratchy voice erupted from somewhere to her right.

"Oh my gosh! Applejack!" A rush of movement accompanied the exclamation, and Applejack soon found herself staring up into a pair of wide, magenta eyes and a bright, multi-colored mane.

Applejack tried to say something, but all that came out was a dry croaking sound. Even that made her throat hurt, and Applejack winced slightly.

"Oh, oh, oh, you're probably super thirsty!" Rainbow Dash said as she leapt back from the bed and out of sight. "Hang on, I'll, uh… I'll just…" She turned and shouted through the door, "Nurse! Nurse!"

Rainbow appeared in Applejack's vision once more. Her face was split by a wide smile, but Applejack could swear she saw tears in the edges of Rainbow's eyes.

"Just wait one second. I'll go get somepony." She was already flying away as she finished her sentence. The door opened, shut, and Applejack was left alone in the room.

She lay there in a daze. What… what was happening? That was Rainbow Dash. That was her friend, Rainbow Dash. How? Applejack's memory of her last moments was somewhat hazy, but she very clearly remembered lying on the cold tile of the security room and bleeding more than any living pony was capable of.

Even if she had somehow survived —which she apparently had— when had she gotten home?

Her scattered and confusing thoughts were put on hold as the door burst open once again. Two voices were in the second half of a conversation as Rainbow Dash returned with a new pony.

"—would have been perfectly fine if we had walked. Really, you had me terrified for a moment when you were rushing me over here. I'd feared the worst."

"Not the worst." Rainbow Dash's voice squeaked joyously. "The best!"

The new visitor poked her head into Applejack's vision, and Applejack was finally able to get a look at who the second speaker was. Unsurprisingly, it was a nurse pony with the standard hospital uniform and hat. She had a white coat, and a pink mane tied back in a tight bun. When her eyes met Applejack's, her face lit up in a smile.

"Oh, dearie me, it looks like you really are awake. Wonderful!" She disappeared from view, only to reappear moments later with an encouraging look as a paper cup was pressed against Applejack's lips.

"Here," the nurse said, "drink this. It's just water, but I think you'll find it helps quite a lot."

Applejack obliged. She was careful not to sip too greedily, but even her small gulps did wonders to soothe her parched throat. She drank in silence for a couple minutes, the only sound being one or two excited squeaks from the nearby Rainbow Dash.

Once the cup had been emptied, and Applejack satisfied, the nurse carefully propped a few pillows underneath Applejack's back. The new position allowed her to see a bit more of the room, while still not sitting upright just yet. She pulled the blanket down to Applejack's waist, which gave her the freedom to move her forehooves, not that she felt the strength to do so just yet.

Much to Applejack's delight, the nurse switched off the beeping noise on the heart monitor before quietly excusing herself and leaving Applejack and Rainbow Dash alone in the room.

Applejack paused, carefully pondering exactly what she would say. After a minute, she decided on, "How—"

Which was as far as she got before a pair of fuzzy blue forelimbs wrapped themselves around her in a shockingly delicate hug. Rainbow Dash, apparently, knew that Applejack was still too injured for a bear-hug, but nuzzled her blue face into Applejack's chest anyway.

Applejack blinked. She sat there in silence, but gratefully accepted the long hug. A soft sniffling emanated from the pegasus clinging to her, and Applejack cocked an eyebrow.

"Rainbow?" Her voice was still a bit hoarse, and it came out as barely more than a whisper. "Are… are you cryin'?"

Rainbow Dash leaned back and looked Applejack in the eyes. Sure enough, trails of tears ran down both her cheeks, framing a massive grin.

Rainbow attempted a stern frown, but only ended up looking a bit silly as she said, "If you tell anypony, I'll kick your dog."

The room fell silent.

Then they laughed. They laughed, and it hurt, but it felt good. Applejack's chest felt like it was exploding with each hearty chuckle, but she couldn't care less at that moment. The pain, all of her pain, faded to the back of her mind as she was consumed with a fit of giggles and guffaws.

When the laughter finally died down, Rainbow Dash paused to wipe her face clear of tears before once more looking back at Applejack with wide, sparkling eyes.

"Are… are you, like, feeling okay?"

Applejack grunted. "Not particularly. Chest hurts, along with most everythin' else."

Rainbow Dash winced. "When they found you, Twilight said… she s-said that it was… it was r-real bad, AJ." Tears began to build up again in the corners of her eyes. "We, all of us, we were afraid that we were gonna lose you… again."

"Shush now, y'hear?" Applejack said quietly, not that she was capable of any other volume at that point. "Y'all ain't gonna get rid of me that easily. Honest."

"Pfft." Rainbow Dash couldn't help the snorting laugh that escaped.

Applejack smiled, but her expression quickly morphed into a thoughtful frown. "To be honest, though, I'm mighty curious as to how, exactly, Twilight did find me."

"Some magical mumbo-jumbo. I told the nurse to go and get the rest of the girls. We were taking turns watching you, but they'll all want to be here when they find out you're awake."

Applejack was about to ask exactly how long they'd been watching her, but she noticed Rainbow Dash fidgeting. The pegasus' ears were folded against her head, and she wasn't quite meeting Applejack's gaze. She would glance up for a split second, then quickly return her gaze to the floor and shake her head slightly.

It didn't take long for Applejack to figure out what was up, and she smiled warmly.

"Rainbow Dash?"

"Hm?" Rainbow looked up with hope-filled eyes.

"You wanna get sappy one more time before the girls get here?"

Whomp!

Rainbow Dash threw herself into a fierce and fluffy hug. Tears matted against Applejack's chest as Rainbow clung to her as if to keep her from disappearing at any moment.

"We thought you were gone, and we all kept searching, but we never ever found anything and I just missed you so mu-huh-huuuutch," she sobbed loudly, her wails broken up by occasional hiccups.

Applejack grunted with effort, but eventually managed to lift one forehoof and lay it across Rainbow Dash's shoulders.

"I know, sugarcube. I know." She weakly patted Rainbow's shoulder with her noodle-like limb. "I'm here now, and I ain't never leavin'. I'm back for good."

The smile that spread across Applejack's face felt entirely too forced.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of her friends arrived a few minutes later. Rainbow Dash had taken the time to clean herself up and adopt an air of nonchalance, though nopony could miss the way her eyes sparkled, or the fact that she couldn't stop smiling.

Rarity entered first. "Oh, darling, it is simply marvelous to see you awake. You caused us all quite the fright, you know."

"Oh, um, I was very scared. More so than usual, I mean, but… I was excited, too. I'm excited that you're back, Applejack." Fluttershy filed in and took a seat with Rarity on Applejack's left.

"Yay!" Pinkie Pie cartwheeled into the room followed by a blast of confetti and the glares of several passing nurses. "You're back, and you're awake, and we can finally have an 'Applejack-is-back-home-and-totally-not-dead' party, and it's going to be amazing!"

"I think we'll have to hold off on the party until we can have it outside of the hospital," Twilight Sparkle said. She was the last one to enter the room. As soon as her eyes met Applejack's, her mouth closed with an audible snap. The two ponies stared across the room at each other, and the tension in the air was palpable.

Twilight's eyes were filled with deep sorrow, and tears were already brimming at the edges. What drew Applejack's gaze, though, were the clearly-visible crack running down almost the entire length of Twilight's horn.

A choking gasp released from Twilight's throat, and that was enough for the first few tears to start rolling down her cheeks. The rest of their friends watched in wide-eyed silence as Twilight finally tore her gaze from Applejack and stared at the ground.

"Applejack, I…" Twilight stammered, the words hitching on the cusp of a sob. "I-I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. It was all my fault, a-and you got hurt, and y-you… you almost died, and—"

"Twilight." Applejack's voice was stern, and the alicorn it was addressed at flinched visibly. "Come 'ere."

Twilight looked like she was considering fleeing, but after a moment's hesitation she hung her head and trotted despondently to Applejack's bedside. She came to a stop on Applejack's right, all the while not looking up from her forehooves or the steady stream of tears that were dripping onto the white tile.

"Lean in closer; I can't reach ya." Again, Applejack's voice left no room for argument.

Twilight flinched, then slowly took a step closer to Applejack's bed. Once she was within reach, she squeezed her eyes shut and lifted her head. Twilight leaned forward slowly, tensing as if expecting to be struck.

Much to Twilight's surprise, Applejack didn't hit her. Instead, a pair of frail forelimbs came to rest around her shoulders. Twilight froze up, and Applejack could nearly see the gears turning in her friend's head. Finally, Twilight realized she was being hugged, and tentatively raised her own forelimbs to reciprocate.

Applejack leaned into the embrace, nuzzling against the side of Twilight's head.

"Sugarcube, you ain't got nothing to be sorry for."

One purple hoof disappeared from Applejack's back, and while she couldn't actually see it, she could clearly picture Twilight raising her foreleg like a foal in a classroom.

"A-Applejack," Twilight choked out. "I'm confused."

Applejack leaned back from the hug, slumping back into her pillows, and held both of her weak forehooves on Twilight's shoulders as she looked her in the eyes.

"Listen, Twilight, it wasn't your fault."

"Well, technically—"

"Ah, I said listen." Applejack put on a stern face. "You did nothing but your best. You never intended for anypony to get hurt, but you made an honest mistake. It ain't your fault any more than it's mine. I agreed to go on that trip, and you agreed to take us there. What happened in the middle ain't nopony's fault but… but…" Applejack trailed off with a shudder. She hoped her friends didn't notice, but she knew they did. There would be questions later.

"Just don't blame yourself, alright?" Applejack said, returning to her stern tone.

Twilight smiled shakily. "Alright."

The moment was broken when a small cluster of confetti flew across the room and landed all over Twilight, tangling bits and pieces in her mane.

"What?" Pinkie Pie shrugged in the face of five confused glares. "Wasn't that something worth celebrating?"

None of them could hold their glares long, and the room soon devolved into giggles. Even Twilight was chuckling as she fished bits of confetti out of her mane and deposited them in a nearby wastebasket.

When the sudden fit of giggles trailed off, Applejack addressed the room.

"Now, I'm sure y'all have plenty of questions, but I got a couple of my own first. To start, how long have I been lying here?"

Fluttershy stepped forward. "Oh, two whole days. We all took turns watching you and hoping you would wake up."

Applejack nodded thoughtfully. "But why Ponyville's hospital? Not that I'm complainin', mind you."

Twilight's head perked up at that. "Oh, yes, that has to do with exactly how you were, erm, retrieved."

Applejack nodded for her to go on.

"Well, I guess I'll have to explain a bit of backstory first. See, after the… incident with the airship's maiden voyage, I tabled that whole idea and began searching for alternative, safer methods of travel." She fidgeted a bit. "I… will admit, I was very much driven by, uh… well, your d-death. We really thought you were gone when we couldn't find a trace of you. Even Luna couldn't see your dreams, and that was what managed to convince us once and for all…"

The room lapsed into melancholy silence. Everypony looked down at their hooves as deep and unpleasant emotions were brought back to the surface.

Twilight cleared her throat and got back on track. "A-Anyway, I became a bit obsessed with creating a newer and safer way to travel, but my efforts did bear some fruit. I managed to design a long-range teleportation spell that operates with hundreds of times more power than a normal teleport. Of course, this also means it consumes hundreds of times more power. Until I can work that out, the idea is wildly impractical

"I couldn't execute the spell myself," Twilight gestured to her cracked horn, "but I was able to work with Princess Celestia to practice and test it. She would provide the power, while I formed the spell matrix and activated it."

"So…" Applejack tilted her head. "You teleported to the island? That don't explain how you found it though. Also don't explain why I'm in Ponyville…"

"Yes, I'm getting to that," Twilight replied. "As for how we found you… I'm not entirely sure how it happened. I… felt something. It's hard to explain. It was like a void suddenly appeared in the magic of the world, and was quickly filled back up. I can only assume that it had something to do with me being the Element of Magic, because none of the other princesses felt the disturbance.

"I immediately scanned the affected area, and saw a land mass that wasn't on any charts. More worrying still was the presence of a single, solitary living thing. Celestia and I teleported into the sky above the island — the spell is inaccurate if one is unfamiliar with a location, and I didn't want to risk warping into the side of a mountain. We flew down to investigate, but it took Celestia only a second to locate you with her magic."

Twilight paused, shuddering. "Celestia didn't just know where you were, she also sensed the… extent of your injuries. I've never seen her look so worried before. By the time we got to you…" Her voice faltered, and Twilight had to clear her throat to continue. "B-By the time we got to you, you were… you were already… you weren't breathing at all. I thought I was too late. To see you there, like that, after so long…"

When it became apparent that Twilight couldn't go on, Rarity stepped up. "You are fortunate that Princess Celestia was there. She was able to, erm, to restart your heart, if I understand correctly. Even then, you were in poor condition, and the princesses needed to get you to a hospital as quickly as possible. Now, I'm not as intimately familiar with the spell as Twilight, but I understand that she needs to clearly visualize the target area before she can teleport there."

Twilight nodded numbly, and Rarity continued, "As it happens, in all her time living in Canterlot Twilight had managed to entirely avoid the Canterlot General Hospital. She was, however, able to visualize Ponyville General, and here you are."

Twilight Sparkle was still shivering, and her eyes were staring vacantly ahead. "There was… a lot of blood."

"Oh, goodness." Fluttershy rushed over and draped a wing across Twilight's back. She rubbed up and down in soothing motions while offering whispered reassurances. It took a minute or so of this to calm Twilight down, and by then the room was in a somber mood.

"Awww, let's not be all sad-face," Pinkie Pie said to everypony present. "Come on, Applejack is back! Let's be happy and smiles about it."

The corner of Rarity's mouth twitched upward, and she looked up to meet Applejack's gaze with warm eyes. "We really are glad to have you back, darling. Really and truly."

"Aw, shucks." Applejack couldn't help the small grin on her own face. "I'm mighty happy to see you girls too. Don't ever think otherwise. Things were… things were pretty rough, I ain't gonna lie, but that's the past now." She offered Twilight an encouraging smile, which seemed to help somewhat.

Rainbow Dash leaned forward from where she sat on Applejack's right. "Hey, that reminds me. You say things were rough, but, like… what actually happened, AJ? You were off the face of the earth for almost two months, and then you turn up like, like—" she gestured vaguely towards Applejack, "—like this. What happened?"

Applejack shuddered heavily. She felt her breathing go shallow as her mind trailed back to that accursed island. All of the pain, all of the death she'd seen, all of the fear and the misery and the running. Had it really only been two months? It felt like years.

"Whoa! Hey! You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to!" Rainbow Dash's voice snapped Applejack back to reality.

She glanced around the room to see all five mares giving her looks that ranged from confusion to sadness. Applejack felt something wet trailing down her face, and reached one hoof up —with great difficulty— to wipe away tears she hadn't known she was shedding.

Rainbow Dash's wings twitched as she shifted back and forth on her hooves. "You, uh, you kinda zoned out for a second there. Sorry, that was my bad for bringin' that stuff up like that. You really don't have to talk about it. It's cool."

Applejack shook her head. "No, it'll do me good to get it all out, just… just not now, okay? I promise, I'll tell y'all exactly what happened, but n-not just yet." Before the mood could fall right back down again, Applejack quickly said, "Hey, could we maybe talk about something else instead?"

Rarity perked up. "Oh, I say, I do believe I have an idea."

"Is it a clothes idea?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

"Well, I suppose, yes—"

Rainbow Dash flung her hooves in the air. "Does anypony else have an idea?"

"Aha, hah hah, hahhh." Rarity didn't even attempt to hide her sarcasm. "You are ever so funny, Rainbow Dash."

"I try."

"Anyway," Rarity turned back to Applejack. "If you don't mind, I think I could design an absolutely smashing headpiece that could hide, well, you know…" Rarity's left ear flicked idly.

Applejack took the hint, but she only chuckled. "Thanks for the offer, Rarity, but I think I'm fine. Not that it's great, but I ain't gonna wear some fancy getup just to hide it. It's no big deal, really."

Rainbow Dash chimed in, "Yeah, go AJ! I think it looks cool!"

Rarity twitched, but managed to force out a nervous chuckle. "Oh, yes. It's certainly, ah, 'cool'."

Applejack was facing to her left, towards Rarity, but she suddenly felt a presence mere inches from her left shoulder. She reacted instinctively, and leapt away from the perceived danger. At least, she attempted to. Her body refused most of her commands, and all she ended up doing was flinching and twisting painfully to the side.

"Gah!" a pained yelp tore from her throat as the sudden movement irritated countless healing injuries. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy moved instantly, appearing at Applejack's side in a flash and holding her still.

Rainbow Dash eased Applejack back into a comfortable position while Fluttershy attempted to calm her down.

"Shh, shh, it's fine. You're okay. You're okay." Fluttershy's reassurances were helped by the fact that it was her speaking them. She could, and had, calmed down an angry manticore when the situation called for it.

Applejack felt her heart rate returning to normal, and her breathing evening out. Her chest felt like it was on fire, not to mention the rest of her, but she was able to calm down and relax into the comfortable bed. After a few moments of silence, a surprisingly quiet voice spoke up.

"I'm sorry."

Twilight turned to face Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, what were you doing? You can't just sneak up on Applejack right now! She's been through a lot, and there has to be a recovery period!"

Pinkie Pie wilted slightly, her ears folding back against her head. "I was just waiting my turn to say something nice to Applejack, and I thought she'd appreciate it even more if I got reeaaly close before I said it, and I didn't want to interrupt Rarity so I stayed super quiet at first, and—"

"Pinkie," Applejack interrupted. She paused to wince, but managed a shaky smile of encouragement. "S'alright, really. I just gotta get used to things being normal again, that's all. Just gimme some time to adjust, and things'll be right as rain."

Pinkie Pie nodded seriously. "Okie dokie."

"Just what was it you were wantin' to say, anyhow?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was wondering what kind of cake you wanted for your 'Applejack-is-back-home-and-totally-not-dead' party, and also what kind of streamers, and also what kind of punch, and also—"

"I'll let you handle those preparations, Pinkie," Applejack interrupted. "I trust your party pony…ness." Her eyes crossed momentarily. "I do have one suggestion, though. Might wanna give some thought to shortenin' the name a smidge. Maybe just an 'Applejack is back' party, hm?"

"Hee, alright."

A thought crossed Applejack's mind, and she turned to Fluttershy. "Say, Fluttershy, you happen to know how Winona's been doin'? I hope the poor gal got on alright without me."

"Oh…" Fluttershy winced slightly. "She's been… Well, she's seen better days, I think. Sorry. She's just been very lonely and sad ever since you, uh, left. Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh tried to cheer her up, but all she ever wanted to do was wait by the gate for you to come back. They even brought Winona to see me, but I couldn't get her to cheer up either. I'm sorry."

"Aw shoot. I suppose I expected as much." Applejack shook her head. "'Least the varmint'll be happier than a pig in mud when I get back to the farm, though. Heh, now that'll be a sight to see."

All six of them shared a giggle at the thought of Applejack's overly excitable pet collie.

The conversation turned to idle and unimportant things after that. Applejack did her best to pay attention, but found more often than not that she would miss entire threads of conversation by zoning out. Even worse, she would sometimes participate in a conversation for several minutes, and then immediately forget that it had even happened. It was frustrating, but Applejack tried not to let that show. Her friends had enough to worry about her already.

As they talked, Applejack felt her smiles being forced. She could tell that she was faking her laughter, and she wasn't sure why. She didn't want to burden her friends with it, so she simply went along with the conversation as if things were normal. All the while her eyes were twitching around the room unconsciously. Every shadow was scrutinized for movement, every opening or closing door in the same hallway sounded as loud as a cannon. There was just so much noise and movement and ponies everywhere. It was so much to take in.

"—Applejack?"

"Huh? What?" Applejack blinked. She had zoned out. Again. Inside she was cursing, but outside she simply chuckled and waved it off.

Twilight was understanding about it, and repeated herself calmly. "We were just saying goodnight. Visiting hours are over for today, but we'll all be back as soon as we can."

"Oh," Applejack replied. "Sure, yeah, thanks for comin' by and all."

They all gathered in for a loose semblance of a group hug, though nopony wanted to risk hurting Applejack so it didn't really work out. Nonetheless, various goodbyes were exchanged, and everypony filed back out into the hallway.

Applejack was left alone in the room.

She sank back down into the bed, grateful that she was still able to appreciate the comfort of a good bed. She lay there in the silence. The lack of a crackling and popping fire was distracting. A nurse popped in and flicked the lights off, plunging Applejack into darkness.

She shivered on her bed, but it wasn't cold. Her breath hitched on half a sob, but she had no idea why. When the tears began to fall, she wasn't really surprised, but she couldn't say why she was crying.

Applejack's sleep was plagued with nightmares.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Applejack was faced with a light brown unicorn doctor with an auburn mane. "Good morning, Miss Applejack. Or should I say good afternoon? You're certainly getting a good amount of sleep, I'll give you that."

His chipper attitude was already grating on Applejack. "Still hurt all over, but I got a question."

"Shoot," the doctor replied enthusiastically.

"Well, I was only out for two days, and I know full well just how badly I got hurt. So how am I sittin' here talkin' with nothing more than a bit of pain to complain about."

The doctor blinked. "Uh… well, firstly, what you're experiencing should be more than 'a bit of pain'." He glanced down at his chart. "You were admitted with multiple lacerations, a missing ear, four broken ribs, a shattered muzzle, a skull fracture, and severe blood loss." He paused, wincing. "And those are just the major ones."

Applejack's mouth hung open for several seconds before she could formulate a reply. When she finally did, all that came out was, "…How?!"

"How did we fix you?" The doctor smiled. "We happen to have a highly talented staff of unicorn doctors who specialize in emergency medical spells and advanced healing…" He trailed off as a small blush covered his cheeks. "It, uh, it might also have had something to do with the direct intervention by the Element of Magic and Princess Celestia."

Applejack blanched as she realized just how bad a state she'd been in. She'd never even heard of a pony hurt that badly.

"So…" Applejack started hesitantly. "The magic fixed me all up?"

The doctor fidgeted. "Not exactly, no. The princesses' magic stabilized you, and did kick-start the healing process a bit —you're able to eat solid food, for example— but your body is still in pretty rough shape. See, mostly what the magic did is… seal things up. All of your broken bones, all of your wounds, they're all being held together by a latticework of magic. Think of it like a magical cast, or magical bandages." He chuckled a bit. "Only they're better than any cast or bandages I've ever seen."

The doctor cast a scrutinizing eye over Applejack's reclining form. "That does beg the question, though: Why aren't you in more pain? Are you feeling any numbness, perhaps?"

"Uh…" Applejack blinked. She hadn't really thought about the pain she was feeling. After weeks of hunger pangs and a few… more painful injuries, she'd become quite good at pushing the pain to the back of her mind. She knew on some level that her entire body was exploding with agony, but she was mostly able to focus on other things.

"I suppose I just have a high tolerance, doc."

The doctor squinted at her. "Yes, well, I'm going to prescribe you some painkillers nonetheless. I'll send an orderly with your first bottle of pills, and you can take them home with you. Just remember to always follow the instruc—"

"What? H-Home!?" Appleajck sputtered, staring at the doctor with wide eyes.

"Hm?" He acted nonchalant, but Applejack could see an amused smile that he failed to hide. "Oh yes, that's one bit of news I forgot to mention. It seems we'll be checking you out later today."

Applejack gaped. "But how? I just got here!"

The doctor's smile slipped slightly, but he recovered his encouraging look quickly. "I'll be honest with you, Miss Applejack, it wasn't my idea. Personally, I would love to keep you here under observation, but, well, the word of two princesses overrides that of a lowly small-town doctor, I'm afraid.

"You see, both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight have assured me multiple times that their spellwork will hold up just fine back at your farm." His gaze became stern as he said, "That doesn't mean you're allowed to go running around or doing any work. Like I said, you're still very injured, and you need plenty of rest to recover properly."

He sighed. "But, the princesses seemed adamant that your recovery would only be hastened by the presence of family and a familiar environment." He cleared his throat and looked back down at his paperwork. "Like I said, though, I'll be sending some painkillers with you, along with a prescription to get refilled if the need arises. Also, you'll be scheduled for a checkup once a week until you're recovered. If I see any sign that you aren't taking care of yourself back at the farm, I'll drag you back into a hospital bed myself."

Applejack chuckled, then weakly flopped one foreleg in a loose semblance of a salute. "Roger that, doc. I'll get plenty of rest. Not like I'm even capable of moving about much anyway." Applejack glared at her uncooperative limbs.

"Ah, yes," the doctor said. "About that…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Applejack was not pouting. Her forelegs were crossed, and her face displayed a small frown beneath furrowed brows, but she was not pouting. She was legitimately angry.

Big Macintosh pushed her wheelchair along the road leading to the farm, and Applejack could do nothing but sit. It was embarrassing, it was humiliating, and it felt weird. Applejack was somewhat glad that there were few ponies around to see. The sun had already set by the time she was released, and most ponies were inside socializing or having dinner.

Of course, the few ponies that did see her gave Applejack the most sickening looks of extreme pity. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, and she was glad for their concern, but the level of pity on display just made it feel like they were looking down at her. She would smile and offer a weak wave, but as soon as they turned away, Applejack went back to pouting.

"I'm not an invalid, Big Macintosh!" Applejack suddenly exclaimed, breaking the silence between them.

"Eeyup," his low agreement rumbled from behind her.

"I just want you to know that I'll be back on my hooves in a jiffy. The princess cast some fancy magic on me and everything. You ain't gonna be carting me around like this for long."

"Eeyup."

"So don't get too smug about it, y'hear? I don't wanna hear so much as a peep about all this outta you, ya got that?"

"Eeyup."

They fell back into silence. The only sound was the steady rumble of the wheelchair's wheels against the hard-packed dirt road. Birds chirped distantly as they settled down for the night, and the voices of ponies engaged in pleasant conversation drifted by as wordless noise. It felt surreal, and Applejack couldn't help a small shiver.

"H-Hey, Big Mac?" Applejack winced at the hitch in her voice.

"…Eeyup?"

"I… I really missed you. All of y'all. It's good to be… to be back. I-I love ya, big brother."

Applejack couldn't see him, but she could hear the smile in his voice as Big Mac replied, "Love you too, little sis."

Applejack felt a little better, but another shiver still worked its way through her despite the warm summer night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they arrived back at the farmhouse, two tiny critters waited outside to greet them. Apple Bloom and Winona raced forth and crowded around Applejack. Winona leapt up into her lap, causing Applejack to wince for a moment, while Apple Bloom fretfully tried to get as close as possible to her big sister without climbing on top of the wheelchair.

Tears were shed on both sides, but there were plenty of smiles to go around too. Winona barked happily and licked at Applejack's face as Big Mac wheeled her into the house. Granny Smith waited inside with a tear-rimmed, matronly smile. The expression was filled with enough warmth to momentarily banish Applejack's unpleasant shivering, and she simply basked in the presence of her family for several minutes.

Somepony might have spoken, but Applejack was only half listening. Whatever words were exchanged, they were far less important than the company they came with. There were no questions, not yet at least. Four ponies merely relished in the presence of one another.

After a while, though, Applejack found herself growing tired. She would have loved to stay up all night with her family, but she had promised to get plenty of rest. Big Mac had to carry her up the stairs, which Applejack declined to comment on, but she was able to stand on her own four hooves once they reached the second floor hallway.

"I'm tellin' you, Big Mac, I'll be fine. I can walk ten steps to my own bedroom, thank you very much." She stood up to her full height and held herself with confidence, looking almost like her old, strong self for a moment.

Her brother shot her a careful look, but eventually sighed and nodded his head.

Applejack smirked. "Darn tootin'. Now get downstairs and help Apple Bloom get ready for bed. She ain't old enough to complain about it yet."

Big Mac chuckled, then trotted his way back down the staircase and around the corner. The second he was out of sight, Applejack slumped like a deflated balloon. Just holding herself upright was a struggle, not that she would ever tell him that. Still, the sooner she could collapse in bed, the better.

She limped slowly down the hallway. Each step took a grand effort, and after just a few she was forced to lean against the wall for support. Her remaining ear flicked in irritation, but she pressed on. She'd been through worse after all.

That thought only made things worse, as her eyes began to glance about for signs of danger. Her left foreleg felt naked without the knife strapped to it, and Applejack wished she had a nice, bright fire she could huddle close to.

Fortunately, she reached her room soon enough. Applejack leaned into the door and pushed it open, then stumbled inside and made for her bed. When she reached her bed, however, Applejack froze in surprise. She blinked furiously, attempting to discern if she was only seeing things, but nothing changed. Sure enough, sitting on the bed before her, was a small, familiar, gold locket.

Applejack's hoof shook something fierce as she tentatively reached towards the locket. She picked it up reverently, and flipped the latch open, not sure what to expect. Sure enough, a smiling stranger beamed out at her with almost infectious cheeriness. It was a face Applejack had no name for, but one she'd come to recognize in her time on the island.

She glanced around desperately for some explanation, and found it in the form of a note lying on her bed. Applejack snatched the note up and read it quickly.

Applejack,

You were wearing this when we found you. We were unsure of its significance, so I decided to put it with the rest of your effects in your bedroom for when you make your recovery. I hope you don't mind.

-Twilight Sparkle

That explained that, but… the rest of her effects? Applejack looked around the room and spotted what the note was talking about. Pinkie's old saddlebags —dirtied to the point of being unrecognizable— hung from a hat rack in the corner of her room, along with the knife sheath.

Applejack carefully walked over towards them. The sheath was empty, of course. Applejack ran a hoof along it slowly, her mind filled with memories both good and bad. The saddlebags hadn't been touched, and were still filled with the supplies that Applejack had brought with her down into the facility. All of that was pretty much useless now, she supposed. Still, it was nice of Twilight not to throw it away.

The saddlebags had been stained with blood when Applejack had found them, and it had stood out sharply from their original white coloration. Now, after months of constant use in the jungle, the bags were more of a dull brown, and it took her a moment longer to spot the blood.

New blood. Her blood. The saddlebags were marred all over with huge splotches of red. Applejack could see it, now that she was standing close to them. The sight of so much blood brought a spike of pain to the long knife wounds on Applejack's side and flank. She winced and stumbled back, away from the ruined saddlebags.

As she backtrotted, her gaze happened across a full length mirror sitting against the wall. Applejack blinked, then slowly stepped in front of the mirror to examine herself.

She barely recognized the pony staring back at her. She was skinny and gaunt, something that her friends had kindly neglected to mention. Her eyes looked out dully from sunken sockets, and a single ear stuck out asymmetrically from her head. She twisted a bit, and caught sight of the two massive, angry slashes that marred her coat. The long red lines would be scars someday, she was sure of that. Even the rest of her was covered in bumps and bruises that her coat didn't quite manage to conceal.

In short, she looked terrible. Yet, at the same time, the mirror reflected the room around her. It was warm, cozy, and inviting. A large, plush bed was set neatly in the corner, and the room was paneled in wood that gave it a down-to-earth, homey feeling. The door was painted with a single, red apple in the center, and a painting hung above the bed featuring a happy pony prancing among flowers.

It was… too nice. Applejack felt out of place. There was no way she could fit into this place. She was gross, and damaged, and weak. She couldn't be there, it just wasn't possible.

Applejack felt her breathing quicken, and her heart rate increase. It wasn't right. It wasn't real. She began to shiver uncontrollably, and tears were blurring her vision. Any second now, she would wake up. She would wake up and be back on the island, or be bleeding out on the floor of the control room. She wasn't home, there was no way she was home. She didn't get to go home!

Applejack collapsed to her haunches. It was becoming difficult to breathe. She desperately struggled to gasp in air, but choked and coughed and sputtered. Her heartbeat thudded loudly in her ears, and she hugged herself as she rocked back and forth.

Applejack's single ear twitched as something tapped against her bedroom window. She froze, falling silent as she stared in horror at the pitch-blackness beyond the glass. Without warning, the window slid open to admit a dark shape that flopped onto the floor with a high-pitched yelp.

Applejack tried to get up, to fight, but her hooves only tangled and she barely managed to stumble to a standing position. Then the dark shape stood up quickly, and resolved itself into—

"Pinkie Pie!?" Applejack's mouth hung wide open. Her brain took a moment to restart, and then she said, "What in the hay, Pinkie? You nearly gave me a h-heart attack."

As Applejack's heart rate and breathing returned to normal, she realized that her cheeks were covered in tears. She quickly wiped them away, but knew that Pinkie had already seen everything.

When Pinkie Pie didn't respond, Applejack made to ask again. "Why did you—"

She was cut off by something very pink, and very soft. Pinkie's forelegs wrapped around Applejack in a warm embrace, and her vision was filled completely by a poofy pink mane. Applejack's mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a few moments, before she shuddered heavily and relaxed into the embrace.

"Pinkie?" Applejack asked, her voice muffled slightly by pink mane. "What are you doing?"

Despite the question, she hoped desperately that her friend wouldn't stop.

"You seemed like you needed a hug," Pinkie stated simply.

Applejack blinked. "In my house, in the middle of the night?"

"Yes."

"…Okay."

Applejack buried her face in Pinkie's shoulder, sniffling. It didn't take long for the sniffling to devolve into full-on sobs. Pinkie merely held her in silence as Applejack cried more honestly than she ever had in her life. She let everything out, and it was several minutes before she was able to speak again.

"H-Hey, Pinkie?" Applejack sniffled one last time.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Pinkie smiled. Applejack had no idea how she knew this, since neither of them could see the other's face, but Pinkie Pie grinned widely.

"You're welcome. Do you want a cupcake? I also brought cupcakes."

Applejack chuckled, and the smile that followed it was more genuine than any she'd had since waking up in the hospital.

"No, I think this is fine."

Gone was the cold fear that had persisted deep in her core. Gone was the urge to break down into sobs at any moment. She no longer felt that she would have to fake smiles and pretend to laugh for the rest of her life. She didn't quite feel back to normal, not yet, but she felt like she'd taken a great leap in that direction. A soft warmth was spreading out inside her, and it was slowly but surely banishing every bit of damage that the island had done to her.

"You're home, AJ." Pinkie's voice was surprisingly quiet, though no less chipper.

"Yeah," Applejack said, slowly.

In that moment, she finally saw the truth behind that statement. She smiled widely, even though she knew Pinkie couldn't see it.

She was home. Applejack slept soundly that night.

The End

Author's Note

Once more, I get to thank Pyromitsu and Aatxe360 for editing this chapter.

But also for old times' sake, thank you to Pilate, Keratin, and Edmar Fecler.
All of you guys helped at some point or another, and it's 'cause of you guys that I didn't fail or release something really crappy.
So thanks, one last time. You guys are awesome and stuff.

Awoken
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Mother of Invention

Awoken

Applejack slowly regained consciousness to find herself laying flat on her belly with a dull ache permeating her head. The farmpony groaned as she rubbed at her temples, noting with great relief that her hat was still safely located in its rightful position atop her mane. As she massaged the pain to a more manageable level, she began to take stock of her surroundings. She was laying in something coarse and fine—sand, from what she could tell—and she could hear the sound of waves nearby. She was obviously on a beach then, but the waves sounded off somehow. Applejack visited the Ponyville lake weekly with her good friend Rainbow Dash, but it had never sounded like so... much, before.

Deciding that her head was feeling good enough to get up, Applejack groggily stood, tentatively inching her eyes open as she did. The bright sun nearly blinded her at first, but eventually she was able to get a squinting view of her location. The scene she was presented with jolted her awake instantly. Her posture went rigid, and her eyes snapped open as wide as they could.

It was an ocean. Applejack had never seen an ocean in person before, but she couldn't think of any other way to describe what she saw before her. Crystal blue water extended all the way to the horizon, the late-morning sun played across the waves nearer to the shore, creating fanciful designs of light on the sandy floor beneath the waves. Looking out even further, the water seemed to continue without end. It transitioned to a darker blue further from shore, and eventually went so far out that Applejack was able to see the curvature of the planet. She reeled, struck with a wave of dizziness by the scale of it all. Eventually she forced herself to turn away from the awe-inspiring sight. Upon turning around, she was finally able to take note of her immediate location.

She was standing on a long beach of immaculate white sand. Whatever else existed in this place was hidden behind a thick, foreboding treeline. Trees that Applejack had only ever heard of stretched in both directions until disappearing with the bend of the coast. She recognized the distinctive palm trees, and their well-known fruits, but most of the other flora was a mystery to her. Everything was undoubtedly tropical though, and this was by far the most troublesome thing Applejack had seen since waking up.

"Where in the hay am I?" She was startled by the mangled sound of her own voice. It was rough, gravelly, and far quieter than she had expected. At that very moment, Applejack realized that she was incredibly thirsty. Her throat felt completely dry, and her lips were cracked and parched. She decided that she needed to find water quickly. Besides the obvious need to drink, she desperately needed something to distract her mind from its ever increasing state of panic. As long as she was focused on getting water, any other troubling thoughts on her current predicament could be pushed deep into the recesses of her mind.

Now with a firm goal to work towards, she took one last look at the beautiful blue sea before turning to begin her quest into the jungle. She managed one step before stumbling forward and faceplanting into the sand. She was taken off guard by the sudden fall, resulting in a mouthful of sand and a marked increase in her headache. Shaking her head and spitting out sand, she made a quick check that her hat hadn't fallen off. Finding her trademark stetson still secure on her head, she pushed herself shakily back up to her hooves.

Armed with the awareness of the difficulties walking seemed to present to her at the moment, Applejack took a careful step towards the line of plant life that designated the way inland. Her legs wobbled slightly but she remained standing. She took another step, almost stumbling again. It was the strangest thing, all four of her legs felt like they were asleep. The feeling was akin to her body simply not obeying the orders of her brain, or at least doing so in an incredibly slow manner. The sensation of pins and needles running all over her legs certainly didn't help things either.

After she had taken about a dozen steps, blood flow started to return to her extremities. She trotted the last several feet to the treeline at a quicker pace, finally without the fear of falling over. Once she reached the solid wall of plant life, she paused to consider what she was doing.

Maybe entering the strange dark jungle wasn’t the best idea. She could always follow the beach, but there was no guarantee that it would lead to anything other than more of the sand and trees she saw here, which would essentially equal zero progress. At least in the jungle she would surely find something. Whether that something was good or bad was up in the air at this point. First and foremost she needed water, and she knew enough never to drink from the ocean. That left her with one option.

She steeled her nerves, deciding to act quickly before the panic she had buried managed to claw its way back into the front of her mind. Stepping carefully, and keeping an eye out for any dangers, Applejack penetrated the thick foliage. She was forced to push undergrowth aside as she made her way deeper inland. As the trees and plants closed behind her, they created a wall of impenetrable green. In a matter of moments, the pristine beach and the beautiful ocean were left completely out of sight.

Author's Note

Edited by Pilate, because he's awesome and stuff.

Just Got To Be
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Mother of Invention

Just Got To Be

Applejack allowed herself to break down for a short time. All the emotions that she had been burying since waking up finally found their release as she bawled like a foal atop the lonely mountain. After only a few minutes though, she forced herself back to her hooves. The emotional release had felt good, and was nowhere near over, but Applejack hadn't forgotten what was out there in the jungle, waiting for night to fall.

Besides that, she needed to set up a more permanent living space. She started to sniffle at the thought of living on the accursed island indefinitely, but she stopped herself before the tears welling in her eyes could truly begin to flow. There was no time for that now. Before leaving, Applejack decided to get a good look at the island itself, learning the lay of the land could prove infinitely useful in the future. She wiped the tears from her eyes with a forehoof, before gazing out over the island to get a better idea of the landscape.

The sight of the ocean on all sides only compounded her feelings of hopelessness, so she turned her eyes inland. The island wasn't large, though it was longer than it was wide, extending east to west in a shape slightly resembling a stretched oval. Applejack estimated that it would take an entire day of walking to get from one end to the other length-wise, but width-wise would only take a few hours if she set a good pace. In terms of the actual land, there were very few notable hills, though the land was hardly flat, sloping up and down gently here and there. Of course, she was only making these judgments based on the solid green jungle canopy that blocked any actual land from view. Said canopy covered the entire island, except on the beaches that encircled it completely. From what Applejack could tell, she had awoken somewhere on the south beach.

A startling realization struck her then; she hadn’t searched the area around her when she had woken up on the beach. In her disoriented state, she had merely taken brief note of the environment before beginning her trek into the jungle. Hoof met face in a gesture of utter disbelief. For all she knew, there was something on that beach that would reveal how she had ended up there. It was too late that day, and tomorrow would certainly be busy with gathering the essentials for survival, but Applejack resolved then and there to investigate the south beach as soon as possible.

Nodding her head at her plan, she returned to her nearly finished examination of the island. The mountain she was standing on was situated on the east side of the island. Another mountain was visible all the way on the west edge of the island, a bit shorter than the one she had climbed, but less steep. It was covered in trees nearly to the top, leaving just the peak bare and rocky.

Applejack sighed, sounding almost like a whimper. This was her entire world now. One island, two mountains, some beaches, and a jungle. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the fatalistic thoughts. Instead, she focused on what she would need to do now to survive long enough for a chance at somepony finding her.

First, find water. That didn't seem to be much of a problem, though she still needed to find a source closer to the cave. Which brought her to the next step, find shelter. The cave might not actually be the best option for a living space, seeing as it went back incredibly far, and she had no idea what lay in its depths. A better plan would be to use the cave only as a temporary shelter, while she found something more suitable, or simply constructed something in the event no better solution presented itself. Applejack knew a bit about building, it came with growing up on a farm, but without any tools it would be quite the task. Not an impossible one, however.

Of course, she would need a source of food. She wasn't entirely sure which plants in the jungle were edible, but if she could find some sort of fruit she could eat those at least. There were coconuts everywhere, so that was a start, but hopefully she would be able to find a few other kinds of fruit, too. Living off nothing but coconuts would be neither healthy nor enjoyable. If worst came to worst, there was plenty of grass on the island. Applejack had never liked eating grass, but she liked being alive, so it balanced out.

Applejack glanced up at the sky. The sun was getting on into the afternoon now, and she would need to head back down this instant if she wanted to get back to the cave before dark. She made her way over to the edge carefully, before lowering herself slowly, and beginning the journey down. As she made the descent, she remembered something else. She would need a fire. She felt like slapping herself for forgetting such a vital thing, but her hooves were occupied with keeping her from falling to her death, so she settled for a mental slap. Making fire from scratch was definitely something she could do, having done it many times while camping. Not tonight though, she would need to gather a few things first. Which meant just one more task to do tomorrow then. The trip down the mountain gave her no trouble, but the whole thing, including the gravel hill, did take a couple hours. Finally, she arrived back at the jungle, exhausted, sweating, and panting for breath.

Evening had fallen, meaning she couldn't waste any time. She stopped for a quick drink, before starting off along the side of the mountain, keeping the mass of stone on her left. The sun was still up, shining its rays at a sharp slant through the canopy overhead. The ever present, occasional rustling sounds of the jungle barely registered anymore, partly because Applejack was simply far too tired to care about them. The rigorous climb and and descent had been draining, to be sure, but what had really sapped her strength was the revelation of just how lost she truly was. As long as she had hope, she could push through any amount of physical exhaustion. Now that her hope was fading, so was her will to fight the exhaustion. The reality of her recent intense physical activity, combined with not eating for a couple days, was catching up with the poor mare.

She made it all the way back to the cave in a sort of daze. On her arrival, she shuffled inside, dragging her hooves along the stone. The sun was casting its final breath on the world outside. She had made it back just in time, and by now she was about ready to collapse. A pang hit her unexpectedly in the stomach, bringing her to her knees, and reminding her again that she hadn’t eaten since the day before yesterday at least, depending on how long she had been unconscious. The pain subsided quickly, leaving behind a hollow feeling she had been ignoring until now. She attempted to stand back up, but found herself too weak for even that simple act. Instead, she simply lay down right where she was kneeling. She was far enough from the cave entrance to be safe, so she figured it was as good a place as any to sleep. Her hat was placed carefully on the ground next to her, in itself a small comforting presence.

As she lay there, her breathing returned to normal, and her heart rate became more relaxed. After a few minutes of calming down, she began to think things over more carefully. Of course, there was nothing she could do now to get herself home, but that didn't necessarily mean she was stuck there forever. Her friends would never give up looking for her. In fact Rainbow Dash, with all her loyalty, was probably somewhere out there right now, flying all over the land in a search for her farmer friend. Sure, it might take them a little while to realize she wasn't even in Equestria, but they would realize it eventually. A soft, small smile worked its way onto her lips. She no longer felt like crying. All she had to do was hold out until she was found by her friends. It was only a matter of time, and time was the one thing she had plenty of.

Author's Note

Edited by Pilate, because he's awesome and stuff.

Down Today
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Mother of Invention

Down Today

Applejack slowly opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from her head. She immediately froze, staring with genuine surprise at the thick jungle around her. Confusion gripped her freshly woken mind for several seconds as she wondered how exactly she had ended up in a clearing surrounded by tall trees. Expected images of a peaceful hilltop and a quiet town flashed through her mind, not matching at all with what she saw before her. Eventually, memories of where she was and of the previous night began to return. She blearily remembered staying vigilant in her watch through the whole night. The monster had never returned, though it had never quite left until the sun finally came up. Applejack recalled feeling immense relief at sunrise as the feeling of the creature was banished with the dawn's rays. She had collapsed shortly after that out of sheer exhaustion, though most of it had little to do with any actual physical exertion.

It was strange. The last part of her dream had seemed so real. Applejack could still feel the short-cut grass beneath her hooves, still smell the scent of lawn work on the wind, and still hear Fluttershy's kind words of encouragement. Within moments, however, the details of the dream were already fading from her mind. Only Fluttershy's voice remained loud and clear in her head, still bringing a smile to Applejack's face.

Unlike her previous dreams, this one had left her feeling better than when she'd gone to sleep. Fluttershy's words sparked confidence inside her. She stood up, and carefully adjusted her hat on her head, having slept with it on, before glancing up to the open sky of the clearing.

A cloud obscured the sun for a moment, casting her in shadow, but moved on quickly, allowing sunlight to saturate the meadow. From what Applejack could tell, it was already mid-morning. She had only gotten a couple hours of sleep, but it would have to do.

There was work to be done that day, and it had to be done before nightfall. Applejack had no intention of running away again like she had that first night. She had found a good campsite, and she wasn't about to let some monster scare her away from it.

A glint from the grass at her hooves caught Applejack's eye, and she looked down to see the unsheathed knife lying where it had fallen when she passed out. She picked it up with a determined expression, and slid it back into the sheath on her left foreleg.

She was still scared of the unknown creature that haunted her nights—terrified by the thought that it might return—but she was through with running. It was time to be brave.

A loud rumbling echoed through the clearing, and her fiery expression evaporated instantly. Applejack chuckled quietly, rubbing her belly with a forehoof. She lowered her head sheepishly, and her determined stance slacked slightly. Fighting the righteous fight for survival could wait; she needed breakfast first.

Applejack stumbled over to the edge of the clearing, pausing for a moment at the treeline. She stood there, the sun at her back, and closed her eyes. The smell of earth and green growth met her in the ensuing darkness. Her breathing slowed, fading away until the sound of a light wind moving through the leaves above became clear, punctuated occasionally by a familiar rustling somewhere off in the jungle. Calm; that was the only word that came to mind. Everything felt… fine.

Applejack's eyes snapped open, twin green irises flashing as they took in the empty jungle. Time started up once again, and a wide smile split Applejack's features. It was a new day, and she fully intended to make the most of it.

A scant few minutes later found Applejack returning to camp with a couple hooffulls of wildflowers in the crook of one foreleg. She hobbled on three legs back to her fire pit next to the large rock, the smoldering embers within reminding her to gather more firewood, and sat down in the soft grass.

She idly munched on the crude bouquet of multi-coloured petals, washing them down with an occasional swig from her canteen. As she ate, her mind began to wander. Inevitably, her thoughts turned to darker places. A small cloud drifted across the sun overhead, momentarily casting the clearing into shade as the smile on her face faltered.

As much as she wanted to deny it, as much as she had been able to deny it for the past several days, Applejack was out of her element. Sure, she had gone camping more than most of her friends, but only now was she beginning to realize just how poorly that had really prepared her.

For a moment, panic crept up and threatened to overwhelm Applejack as she realized the scope of just how very out of her element she was. She could die at any time, and nopony would ever find her body.

It only lasted a moment, however. The sun came out once more, casting its light across the meadow. Memories of her dream came back to her in hazy half-thoughts and snippets like remnants of a song would return days after hearing it; a melody that you just couldn't get out of your head, nor would you want to.

Applejack's smile began to return, and just how hard she was breathing became apparent to her. After a few more calming breaths, she scooped up the rest of the flowers from where they had fallen in her brief panic attack. She stared blankly at the flowers, the memories of soothing words and encouragement threatening to absorb her thoughts completely. Finally, she shook her head, clearing it of the dream for now.

As much as she was out of her element, she really had no choice but to go on. Giving up just wasn't something Applejack did, and she sure wasn't about to start. No matter what happened, she would pull through. No matter how difficult things would become, she would find some way to get past them. As long as she lived, she could see her family and friends again, and that was all that mattered.

With that thought in mind, Applejack made short work of the remaining wildflowers, ready to start the day in earnest.

Once finished, Applejack paused to consider her meagre breakfast. It was considerably smaller than what she was used to—hard farm work required big meals—but she would have to get used to smaller portions. The more she ate, the further she would have to travel to find new food, and it was all limited. Applejack had to make the closest sources last as long as possible; rescue was coming, she was sure of that, but it could take a while.

There was no sense in waiting around though. She smirked as she pushed back up to her hooves. The day was still young, and Applejack had work to do.

She strapped on the empty saddlebags and, after a quick stop at the river to refill her canteen, left the clearing once again, plunging into the thick undergrowth of the surrounding jungle with the first inklings of a plan in mind. First and foremost, Applejack knew she would need more firewood. The last night's fire had consumed all that she'd brought from the supply at the cave. Fortunately, if there was one thing she had plenty of on the island, it was wood. Of course, a lot of it was too green to use unless she had no other option. Ideally, she hoped to find plenty of fallen and dead branches, though she would need to gather some of the greener wood later. That could wait though, fire had to come first.

It didn't take long for Applejack to fill both sides of the saddlebags with some of the drier timber available. The full bags weren't light, but weighed a lot less than a whole cart full of apples, and were nothing Applejack couldn't handle. Usually, finding firewood could be difficult when camping, as the dead branches were quickly snatched up by any other campers that saw them. Applejack chuckled mirthlessly at the thought that her complete and utter solitude actually did have some benefits.

She made her way back to the camp, noting with some satisfaction that her path out to where she'd gathered the wood was mostly unnoticeable unless one was already looking for it. She may have been out of her element, but earth ponies were known for being adaptable, and she was already getting better at moving through the jungle carefully.

She entered the clearing and quickly marched over to her little camp by the rock, placing the first load of wood directly in the fire pit. It was a much greater amount than she'd been able to gather before she had the saddlebags. At this rate, it would only be a few trips before she had enough wood for several nights' worth of fires. Of course, it was also a good deal harder to find dead wood in the thicker undergrowth of the dense jungle this far inland. Either way, Applejack knew she had a couple hours' work ahead of her. Sighing in resignation, she turned around and dove back into the jungle. No sense in wasting time, after all.

After several more trips, Applejack was feeling the familiar burn that came with hard work. This actually brought a small frown to her face. She picked up the last piece of dead wood she needed and, after placing it in the saddlebags, began the trip back towards her camp. All in all, it had taken her just over two hours to gather up a sufficient stockpile of wood.

Applejack always prided herself on her strength, but that was hard to maintain with little sleep or food. As much as she wanted to keep working, Applejack had long since learned the dangers of overworking herself.

Her canteen had nearly been emptied over the course of gathering firewood, so Applejack left Pinkie's saddlebags by the fire pit and made her way over to the river at the opposite edge of the clearing. She filled the canteen to the brim from the clear, flowing waters and drank a large gulp of the cool liquid.

Not for the first time, Applejack felt a desire to find out exactly where the stream came from. Unfortunately, even though she had gathered a decent amount of firewood, Applejack still had a lot of work ahead of her. There would be no time for idle exploring that day.

She spent a few minutes on the riverbank, simply resting up. The soft grass after a few hours’ work felt better than any bed. Once or twice she idly dipped her hooves in the water, feeling it flow around her leg. The sensation was relaxing, at least. The rest and cool waters did wonders for her aching hooves, and her mind relaxed along with her body. For a moment, all thoughts of monsters and mysteries fled her mind. For a moment, she was able to truly relax.

Of course it was as she was lying there on the riverbank, her features set in a small smile, that Applejack caught the sun's reflection in the flowing river. She glanced up, past the one or two small clouds that floated lazily above the island, and took in the position of Celestia's charge. The sun had passed its zenith, apparently, and had begun the slow descent into afternoon. She still had enough daylight left to accomplish what she needed to, but getting up late had eaten up too much of her time to allow for lazing about by the river.

With a groan to show her annoyance to nopony in particular, Applejack pushed back up to her hooves. "Well fine then," she muttered under her breath as she reluctantly departed her comfortable resting place. She made her way back to her little campsite, stopping briefly to consider bringing the saddlebags before shaking her head and moving on.

Equipped with nothing but her knife, canteen, and hat, Applejack trotted out of the clearing and back into the thick jungle. She cast her gaze over her surroundings, tilting her hat back a little with a forehoof and glancing upwards. Massive trees formed a green ceiling high overhead, the bright afternoon sun gleaming through the holes and cracks in the enormous canopy. It really was beautiful.

Turning her gaze downward once more, and focusing on the task at hoof, Applejack continued walking through the jungle. She spotted more dead wood on the forest floor, but passed over it without a second glance.

Finally, she caught sight of what she was looking for. A younger tree, still taller than a pyramid of ponies, but not even half way as tall as the canopy, was growing in a patch of sunlight just ahead of Applejack. The bark of the tree was thinner, smoother, and its leaves were a bright green. It seemed to be stretching its branches upwards in an attempt to glean as much nourishing sunlight as possible from the gap in the cover above it, the very same gap that it would be filling in a few years.

Most importantly to Applejack, however, were the lower branches of the tree. Unlike its fully grown brethren, this tree had several branches growing within easy reach of the ground. Applejack grinned and quickly trotted over to inspect her find.

Applejack slowly circled the tree, scrutinizing the branches at her level. Each one was about half as thick as one of Applejack's legs, and a couple pony lengths long, tapering to a thin point at the end. Small twigs sprouted from the branches at random intervals, green leaves on the ends seeming to almost glow in the rays of the afternoon sun.

The wood was green, though not in colour. That is, it was still infused with the strength and life of the living tree. This made it flexible and fairly easy to bend a bit, but hard to actually break. Unfortunately, green wood makes terrible firewood, doing little more than producing large quantities of white smoke. Of course, Applejack had plenty of firewood already.

With a smile and a nod of approval, Applejack drew her knife and got to work. She began cutting at the base of the branch, right where it connected to the tree, intent not to let any go to waste. It was hard going, making it through the wood with a tool that was clearly never designed for such a task. She would've given her left ear for a hatchet right about then, but a knife was better than her bare hooves at least.

Eventually, she managed to detach the branch from the tree, stepping back and allowing it to fall to the ground. Next, she cut off all the twigs along the branch, making it as smooth as possible. Finally, Applejack removed the smaller, tapered end of the branch, leaving her with a mostly straight stick of basically uniform width that was a little under twice Applejack's height when it was stood upright.

Happy with her efforts, Applejack placed the stick off to one side carefully. Glancing back at the tree, and after a quick mental estimate of how many she would need, Applejack sighed. It was going to be a long day.

Hours passed. Applejack continued undaunted in her quest. Her search brought her all over the surrounding area with no particular pattern or plan. Fortunately, this wasn't much of a problem, since finding suitable trees to harvest branches from was going well so far. As well as could be expected, at least. She still spent upwards of an hour between finding each tree with low enough branches.

It was endlessly infuriating when she would come across a tree with branches just barely out of her reach, but she wasn't about to try climbing again anytime soon. Her back still gave a twinge of pain occasionally ever since her ill-fated ascent up a coconut tree, and that had been three days ago.

So far, she had managed to collect 15 sticks of about the same length as the first one she'd cut. It wasn't quite enough, if her educated guess was right, but it was a good start.

Carrying the sticks had become a problem after only a couple. They were all far too long for the saddlebag to be of any use, which was exactly why she’d left it behind, and she could only really carry one at a time in her mouth. Collecting the amount she needed would be nigh impossible one at a time. In the end, Applejack was actually glad that a certain pegasus had forced her to read a couple Daring Do books. Taking a cue from book three, she had cut a length of vine from a nearby tree for use as an improvised rope. The first attempt, much to Applejack's chagrin, had snapped uselessly within a couple minutes. Fortunately, she had found a slightly stronger vine shortly after. Her new rope had held, and while it certainly wasn't high quality compared to what she used on the farm, did a fine job of keeping her gathered sticks bundled together on her back.

Even so, the day's tedious work was taking its toll. Applejack was beginning to drag her hooves, and hang her head low as she trudged through the undergrowth. She glanced upwards, gauging the time. The sun's light had transitioned from the bright yellow rays of midday to the subdued orange of evening, the shafts of light coming at a steeper angle than before. She would have to head back to camp soon.

Unfortunately, Applejack was unable to find another tree, and the evening was wearing on. With a huff of frustration, she stomped off back towards the camp with what she had managed to collect so far.

The slowly lengthening shadows around her served as a reminder that she needed to hurry and make a fire. Memories of the last night's ordeal brought a shiver down her spine and quickened her hoofsteps.

Finally, the sound of running water reached her twitching ears. Her frustrated frown morphed into a small smile as she saw the trees thinning out ahead of her. She broke into the clearing at last, the open sky above her and short grass below feeling absolutely amazing after spending the past few hours in the stifling jungle.

As much as she wanted to stand there and let the cool air wash over her, the tied up sticks on her back were getting heavier by the minute. She trotted over to the fire pit and dropped her prize to the ground with a clatter.

For the moment, she ignored the newly harvested wood and instead focused on creating a fire. She quickly gathered some old, dry leaves from the jungle floor, and set it in the fire pit with some of the dead, dry firewood she'd gotten that morning. Drawing her knife and grabbing the flint rock she'd brought from the cave, Applejack wasted no time in getting a fire burning.

Nodding in satisfaction and adjusting her hat slightly with a forehoof, Applejack sat down in front of the fire, allowing herself a moment's rest after a harrowing night and a long day. The moment was shattered when a slight twinge in her midsection reminded Applejack that she hadn't eaten since her paltry breakfast. As late as she had awoken, she had still technically skipped lunch.

Applejack glanced around her tiny camp, quickly locating her remaining stash of coconuts. She noted with a slight frown that there were only two left. She would need to harvest more soon, unless she was willing to simply live off wildflowers alone for a while.

She gave the idea some thought as she set about removing the green outer husk of the coconut with the knife. Her back was feeling mostly better by that point, aside from the occasional twinge, so she figured she could give another attempt at bucking some coconuts down. Failing that, she would have to climb again. Very carefully this time.

With one last tear, the husk of the coconut came free and Applejack tossed it unceremoniously onto the fire. The crackling flames quickly began to consume the dead shell, but Applejack paid them no mind as she continued in preparing her dinner. With a single, swift smack against the boulder forming the back wall of her camp, Applejack cracked open the coconut and revealed her meal within.

Smiling briefly in anticipation, Applejack dug in hungrily. As always, the fruit was delicious, and it didn't take long before she had finished the entire thing. With a sigh of contentment, Applejack leaned back against the boulder. The heat of the fire was just distant enough to be pleasantly warm without being overbearing. Applejack could have fallen asleep then and there, but the day would be ending before long, and she intended to take advantage of what little sunlight she had.

With one last forlorn glance at the solitary coconut left in her possession, Applejack resolved to harvest more as soon as possible. Then, quickly tilting her hat back on her head, she set to work. Gripping the knife once more, Applejack walked over to the bundle of long, straight branches she had collected, having left them a safe distance from the fire pit. She cut the vine holding them all together, and looked over the spoils of her afternoon as they collapsed into a loose pile.

She picked up one of the mostly uniform sticks at random, propped it against the boulder, and pressed on it with a foreleg. The green wood bent and creaked, but held strong. Applejack nodded in satisfaction, the first bits of a plan firmly in mind.

She had been using the cave for cover, but couldn't bring herself to stay there any more after her… disconcerting discovery deep within. Of course, Applejack was no stranger to sleeping under the stars, but that wouldn't always be an option. First off, there were things on the island. Applejack had decided without a doubt that she was not alone, and covering herself from easy view and attack seemed like a good idea. Secondly, she wasn't entirely sure how weather worked out in the wild with no pegasi to manage it, but it had to rain sometime for all the plant life she'd seen around the island. Having something to keep the rain off of her would be absolutely necessary if rescue didn't come before rain.

All of that culminated in one simple fact: Applejack needed to build a shelter. Fifteen sticks wouldn’t be enough for much, but it was a start. Applejack considered herself a do it yourself mare, it was kind of a necessity when living on a farm. She wouldn't exactly be building herself a house with a couple chopped up branches, but she was confident she could cobble together something with a few days of hard work.

For now, however, Applejack was tired, and she really just wanted to get to sleep. The sun was still barely peeking above the horizon, but she had plenty of missed rest to catch up on. With that in mind, she set about completing her task as quickly as possible. One by one, Applejack picked up the sticks and dragged them over to the boulder. She leaned them up against the large stone at about a 45 degree angle from the ground, placing them as close to each other as possible and creating a slanted cover of sorts.

By the time she finished, the sun had well and truly set. The light of Applejack's fire cast her pitiful lean-to in a flickering orange glow. It really wasn't very big. She would have to watch her head underneath it, and she would be exposed if she sprawled out even a little, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt.

The fire hissed and popped as Applejack plodded over to where she'd slept the night before. She gathered up the pink blanket and brought it under the lean-to, flattening it out carefully on the grass.

"It ain't exactly a bed…" Applejack muttered under her breath.

She blinked, one ear flicked. Applejack looked around the clearing quickly. She wasn't sure, but something was bothering her. She couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something. The light of her fire extended around her little camp in a warm, orange bubble across the grass. The stars overhead twinkled with the kind of brightness only seen if one gets far enough away from civilization.

Applejack stood there, unmoving, unbreathing, for nearly a full minute. Finally, a tiny rustling reached her ears from somewhere off in the jungle. That was when it struck her. Everything felt fine. Normally, such a realisation would be far from a revelation, but after the events of the last night it meant everything.

Applejack's face split in a wide grin as she sat back on her haunches in disbelief. She sat still for a few more minutes, but another distant rustling confirmed it. She barked a laugh that echoed through the trees and out into the wild, untamed rainforest around her.

The sun had set, night had fallen, and she had yet to feel the tell-tale signs of the unknown thing's approach. Whatever it was, it had left her alone. Another loud pop from the fire snapped Applejack out of her relief-fuelled daze, and she shook her head to clear it.

Now was not the time to let her guard down. Still, without the oppressive terror and feeling of wrongness that seemed to tear apart her insides and eat away at her soul, her night was looking pretty good so far.

Raising a hoof to cover her mouth on reflex, Applejack yawned widely. With the relief of finding herself alone for the night came the remembrance that she had only managed to catch a couple hours of sleep in the wee hours of that morning. That, combined with spending the whole day wandering the jungle while carrying a load of wood on her back, meant that Applejack was pretty much ready to collapse. She just hadn’t realized it until just then.

Releasing another massive yawn, Applejack turned away from the open clearing once more and moved to crawl under her little lean-to. At the last second, she hesitated. She stood still for a second or two, before turning around and heading over to her tiny pile of neatly organized supplies a couple steps away.

Nestled between her last coconut and her flint rock, Applejack spotted the rubber chicken she'd found in Pinkie's saddlebags. With a quiet chuckle at just how out of place the object was, she quickly picked it up and headed back to the lean-to.

Applejack crawled under the roof of sticks and carefully set the rubber chicken down against the rock in a sitting position with its back to the cold stone. Another chuckle escaped her lips as she left the chicken there, unstrapping the knife from her left foreleg. She placed the knife and sheath off to the side. After a moment of deliberation, Applejack pulled the knife out of the sheath, baring its razor sharp edge to the night's air. She looked over the dangerous tool for a moment, before setting it carefully within reach next to the sheath. She could never be too careful, after all.

Careful to watch the low clearance of the lean-to, Applejack stretched out the day's hard work. Her back gave a satisfying pop, and her limbs all relaxed greatly. Smiling one last tired smile, Applejack turned around in a circle several times, before curling up with a sigh on the soft blanket. She removed her hat, placing it with extreme care next to the knife and its sheath.

A bit of loose mane fell down in front of Applejack's forehead, and her eyes crossed momentarily trying to look at it. She blinked several times, and blew the offending lock of mane out of her vision.

The light of the crackling fire shone in through the cracks between the sticks making up her little shelter. Applejack idly added fixing that to her mental to-do list. Allowing gaps everywhere for rain to get through kind of defeated the whole purpose of the thing in the first place.

Of course, it didn't take long for fatigue to crowd out any thoughts and plans on the future. Within a few minutes, Applejack was already straddling the hazy line between wakefulness and sleep. The fire was burning down lower, and while the jungle nights were still warm, the lack of heat coming from the fire made the night seem slightly chilly by comparison.

Applejack curled up a little tighter, subconsciously pulling her tail tight against her chest in her forehooves. The new position, or perhaps just acclimating to the jungle air, once again brought her a comfortable warmth.

Her mind blanked, her breathing slowed, and any and all worries ceased to matter. Applejack's fire slowly burned away, leaving behind nothing but softly glowing coals that would, by morning, have lost even the memory of the heat they once held.

Farther from home that she'd ever been, lost with no certainty of ever seeing her friends and family again, and almost entirely out of her element, Applejack drifted off into blissful, uninterrupted slumber. She'd never slept so peacefully in her life.

Author's Note

Many thanks to Pilate for editing! He's one swell zebra.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark
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Mother of Invention

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

The entire facility that Applejack could see was illuminated in a dull orange light. Harsh shadows were cast by the sickly light emanating from cage-covered fixtures placed at regular intervals along the wall. It was bright enough to see, but not very well.

The flooring was cold, hard tile. Applejack figured that it was white, though of course everything was a dim shade of amber to her eyes. The walls, similarly, appeared to be light grey, but were also painted by the unpleasant lighting. A closer examination of the ceiling revealed large, long light fixtures that were currently dark. That only confirmed Applejack's suspicion that the orange lights were a backup measure for if the main lighting failed.

At least there was a backup measure, so she wouldn't need to worry about running out of torchlight. Applejack extinguished her torch with a few smacks against the tile floor. She had some extra tinder if she needed to relight it, and there was no sense wasting it when she could already see.

She stepped forth into the hallway and examined it as she went. There were occasional benches along the walls, usually next to potted plants that were far too green and bright to be real after so long without care. Everything, the plastic foliage, the furniture, and even the floor, was covered in a thick layer of dust. It wasn't thick enough to muffle the clip-clop of her hooves against the floor though, and Applejack winced every time the sound echoed back to her down the long hall.

Her next few steps were considerably lighter. There was no telling if anything lived in the facility, and Applejack decided she would rather not find out. She could only hope that the scientist had been right, and that the freed experiments had all died out by now. Her pace was slow, but Applejack felt no need to rush. She took tentative, careful, quiet steps forward. Just a couple steps, then pause and perk her ears for any sounds, then just a couple more steps.

Applejack couldn't help but notice the utter lack of bodies. Not that she wanted to see more dead ponies, but there had to have been hundreds of scientists working in the facility, at least. They had clearly all perished, but not a single sign remained that they had ever even been there. With all of the nameless horrors that had been unleashed upon them, Applejack supposed it wasn't terribly surprising if there was… nothing left.

She decided not to dwell on that train of thought any longer, and continued in her intensely slow advancement down the hall.

It took a few minutes at that pace to reach the first intersection. Three hallways trailed off into darkness, and one went back the way she came. The three new hallways were all lined with doors at irregular intervals, and each door had a number. From what Applejack could see, a few of the doors had windows set in them, but the majority were solid.

The scientist in the journal said that the control room was on the north end of the level. Applejack paused to think.

The entrance of the tunnel was on the east side of the mountain —she definitely remembered the rising sun shining directly into the cave— and the switchback slopes had turned around… three times. Three 180 degree turns, meaning that Applejack ended up facing in the opposite direction she'd entered. So Applejack was facing east, and that meant…

Applejack nodded in satisfaction, then turned and headed down the hallway on her left. She moved at a more normal pace now. The place wasn't any less creepy, but Applejack was becoming reasonably sure that she was along—

She skidded to a halt at the same time as a choking gasp exploded from her throat.

"No… no, no no," Applejack muttered desperately. She turned around to look the way she'd come, but saw nothing but the hallway extending out of sight in dim lighting.

She couldn't see it, but she could feel it; a cold, writhing darkness that gripped her insides in a vice. It was a feeling unlike anything that could be expressed physically. There was really only one way to describe it: it felt wrong.

Applejack didn't waste a second. She spun about and took off at a gallop towards the control room. The sickly feeling of wrongness was weaker than usual, but it was unmistakable nonetheless. Applejack wondered if the creature had actually been injured by her attack the other night, or if it was struggling due to the dim light that filled the facility. She knew that it had always seemed tentative around her bright campfire, and she had never once seen it in the light of day, so it stood to reason the thing didn't like brightness of any sort. Though it seemed the backup lights were dim enough not to deter it entirely.

All these thoughts flew through Applejack's head, but she didn't focus on any of them. She focused on putting one hoof in front of the other, and not slipping on the dust-covered tile as she flew past doorway after doorway.

She passed another intersection, this one only had three hallways: right, straight ahead, or back the way she'd come. She didn't even slow down as she barreled straight through. Fortunately, for now, the feeling of the creature wasn't increasing at all. It seemed that she could outrun it, but for how long Applejack wasn't sure. She certainly didn't want to test the limits of its endurance against her own. She had to deactivate the lockdown and get back out into the daylight.

Applejack did consider simply fleeing back to the surface, but that thought was smashed almost immediately. She could outrun it. She was outrunning it. Even if she left and came back later, there was no reason to assume it wouldn't follow her down again. No, she'd come down there for a reason, and she would see it through.

The dim lighting prevented Applejack from seeing too far ahead, so it came as some surprise when the hallway took a sharp right straight in front of her. She tried to turn, but skidded across the floor and slammed her side into the hard wall. Applejack bounced off the wall and sprawled across the dusty floor, but she was back on her hooves in a blink. Her side aching only served to distract her from the pain in her recently-injured leg, so Applejack pushed on.

The mandatory corner meant that she was running along the north-most edge of the level now, so Applejack continually glanced to her right for any sign of a control room. She finally saw the signs that the scientist's journal had mentioned, and they all had arrows pointing in the direction she was running, so Applejack kept going.

The sickly feeling in her gut had faded to a mere whisper of its former self by that point. She had well and truly left the monster in the dust. Applejack felt a new surge of pride and confidence at that. Of course, she couldn't let her guard down yet. It may have been weaker, but Applejack could feel something else beyond the usual sickening wrongness. The creature was mad. It was angry enough that it hadn't even shrieked when it came after her. Applejack blinked at that realization. It wasn't playing around, it was coming, and it was coming to kill her.

Fortunately, she had just reached her destination. Applejack did see the control room coming, and she managed to slow herself to a mostly-controlled stop. She skidded just a little as she halted in front of a large metal blast door.

There was no handle on the door, and Applejack frantically looked everywhere for a moment before she spotted what she needed. A large button was set into the wall next to the door. The journal hadn't mentioned anything about needing an access gem, and it was just on level 1, so Applejack could only hope it would open for her. She held her breath, leaned forward, and pressed the button.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a scratchy static emanated from the switch. The sound morphed and changed into a loose approximation of a pony's voice. It was rough and distorted, the words were difficult to make out, but Applejack strained her ears and listened.

"Schhht —main power offline. Please reset the main circuit breaker located in the generator room on level 2. Repeat: Electronic locking mechanism malfunction. Main po— sssnkkkcht"

The voice devolved into static, then fell silent. For a second, Applejack merely stood in the hallway with her mouth agape. She stared at the unmoving door. The only sound was her own heavy breathing and the thumping of her rushing heart, but even those seemed to fade out as her hope came crashing down.

She was snapped out of it as she felt the monster coming closer. Her insides twisted almost painfully with the rage she felt projected towards her.

Applejack steeled her will. She would not give up at the first setback. She was going to finish this once and for all. She looked around quickly for any sort of sign that would point her towards the stairs to level two. What she found was even better. A map of the entire level was stuck to the wall on the other side of the door to the control room. She trotted over and examined it as quickly as she could, ever conscious of the slowly growing presence of the creature hunting her.

The staircase was located in the center of the level, and the control room was in the middle of the northern edge. That meant she only had to run directly south, and she would eventually reach the stairs.

From what she could tell, the creature was directly following the path she had taken, so it was safely out of the way somewhere to the west. Applejack smirked confidently. She could do this. Get down there, flip a breaker, and come back up all while avoiding a mysterious creature out for her blood. She could totally do this.

No time to waste, then. Applejack took off down the southern corridor.

The power being out would explain the dim backup lights. Applejack gasped as an encouraging realization struck her. If turning on the power managed to reactivate the main lighting, then the entire facility would almost certainly be bathed in bright light. With the creature already down here, there was a good chance it would be hit with the full force of it all. That stood a good chance of scaring it off or hurting it, maybe even outright destroying it.

The scientist had said that anything they had made could be hurt. Applejack was pretty sure she had just stumbled into a way to hurt this one very, very badly. Even if it meant taking a longer, more risky route than she originally intended, the thought was enough to give Applejack new hope.

She flew past closed doors on both sides without glancing at them. She ran only slightly slower than she had been earlier, as she knew that there was a good way to go yet and she couldn't risk exhausting herself.

The creature was somewhere to her right, coming from the west side of the facility. It was steadily growing closer now, as it was no longer directly behind her trying to catch up. Applejack could only hope that she reached the staircase before the failed experiment managed to cut her off. Each time Applejack passed an intersection, she would glance down the right path with her heart in her throat. Fortunately, there was never anything there.

Just as the feeling of wrongness was growing worryingly bad, Applejack spotted a square of guardrails in an intersection up ahead. She slid to a stop next to the guardrail, and quickly looked down the square shaft it surrounded. Sure enough, a metalwork staircase descended in a square-spiral down to the next level.

Applejack glanced up towards the right hallway, and instantly felt her guts twist in a knot. Something was moving towards her down the corridor. There was a patch of darkness that the lights failed to illuminate a good distance down the hallway, but it was growing steadily closer.

An involuntary whimper rose in the back of Applejack's throat, but she rose above her dread and sprung back into motion. She quickly located the opening in the guardrail that led to the staircase and took the stairs down two at a time. Her hooves clanged against the metal steps as she went. The stairs wound all the way around a couple times before she reached level 2. It was a similar setup to the floor above, with a square of guardrails surrounding the shaft that contained the stairs, only here the stairs went both up and down.

Applejack took neither. She hopped over the guardrail and onto the white tile of level 2. The monster was nearly above her now; it would be descending the stairs any second. Applejack frantically realized that she didn't actually know where the power room was. She desperately flung her gaze across the walls in the hope that there would be another map.

She almost missed it in the dim light, but Applejack sighed heavily in relief as she spotted a floorplan similar to the one she'd found above. She leapt over to examine the map as quickly as she could. With just a second or two of observation, she noted that the power room was on the north wall. That was all the information she needed. Applejack set off at a sprint down the northern hallway just as she felt her pursuer descending to her floor.

The rage layered over the wrongness spiked in intensity, and Applejack nearly stumbled as it felt like a hot coal had been shoved into her abdomen. She regained her footing and struggled onwards. The feeling faded a bit as she gained some distance on its originator.

Applejack decided that she needed more time. She wouldn't be able to fix the power if her pursuer was right on her tail. She needed to give it the runaround first.

While she didn't want to underestimate it, the creature had never displayed any exemplary level of intelligence. Or, at the very least, it seemed to be very single-minded when it came after her. Seeing as it had followed her exact path to the control room above, it was probably following her hoofprints in the dust. Applejack could use that.

The next time she came to an intersection, Applejack took a hard left. She ran down the hall for some distance before slowing to a stop and turning to a nearby door. She trotted up to the door and attempted to open it. Fortunately, it wasn't locked. Applejack didn't know how much time she had, so she had to move quickly. She stepped into the room. It looked like some sort of science lab, unsurprisingly. Counters and desks and tables were all covered in various scientific paraphernalia and equipment. None of it meant much of anything to Applejack, but that wasn't why she was there. She stomped her hooves and kicked up dust, taking only a second to make quite a mess of the dust-covered floor. With that done, she stepped back into the hallway and closed the door behind her.

Finally, Applejack continued the way she'd been heading, only she wasn't sprinting. She stepped on the tips of her hooves, and swished her tail lightly across the ground behind her. It wasn't perfect, but in the dim lighting it was probably enough to obscure her tracks. Only once she was a good distance from the room she'd entered did Applejack begin sprinting once more. If her plan worked, the creature would think she had hidden somewhere in that room. Even if it figured out her ruse fairly quickly, it would still buy her a few precious seconds.

Applejack performed her little trick twice more, and turned at each intersection she reached. She was careful to keep her sense of direction, and once she was done she turned and headed north once more. Mere seconds later, the entire facility was filled with a hideous shriek of rage. Applejack smiled, even as her ears folded back against her head and her skull felt like it was splitting. She'd really made it mad.

There was no telling how long her distraction would last, so Applejack sprinted as hard as she could towards the north. When she reached the northern edge, she simply had to follow the signs that pointed her to the power room.

The feeling of her pursuer had faded almost entirely by the time she reached her destination. Only the barest inkling remained, so faint that Applejack could barely even detect it over her throbbing limbs, racing heart, and heaving lungs.

She stood in the hallway outside the power room for a moment, coughing and sputtering as she tried to regain her breath. Fortunately, it didn't take too long for Applejack to be able to breathe again. She knew that her limited diet and weeks spent in recovery hadn't been great for her, but she almost felt like dying after sprinting for a few minutes. She would need to work out hard when she got back home.

Applejack blinked. When she got back home. There was no 'if' anymore. She chuckled happily. Of course, there was still one last thing to do before she was home free.

The monster wasn't even getting closer at that point. It was probably stuck in some room, flipping over tables in a fruitless search for her. The thought only made Applejack chuckle again as she trotted into the power room. There was no door, merely an open arch leading into the small, rectangular room.

The room was fairly sparse. Dormant machinery lined both sides, but the center was mostly open floorspace. Unlike the rest of the facility, the power room wasn't white. The walls were unpainted, grey concrete, and the floor was dark grey metal plating. A table sat at the very back wall covered in various tools, pieces of pipe, and small bits of electronics. Thick metal pipes ran along the ceiling, and equally thick wires ran alongside them. The lighting in the power room was even worse than out in the halls, and Applejack had to squint just to look inside. Fortunately, it didn't take her long to find what she needed, even in the dim light.

In the back left corner of the room, bolted to the left wall, was a large lever. The lever was flipped to a downwards position, and had a small red light glowing next to it. Of course, what tipped Applejack off was the white sign labeled 'Main Circuit Breaker' that was bolted right next to the lever.

Applejack trotted into the room and straight towards the circuit breaker. She'd made it about halfway across the open floor when something went horribly, horribly wrong. She felt it, right behind her.

Even as her stomach twisted to the point of severe pain, Applejack spun around with wide eyes. She choked out a pained whimper as she looked at the doorway. Where before it had opened into the orange-lit hallway, now the doorway contained nothing but pure, deep blackness.

Applejack stumbled backwards. Her hooves felt clumsy and weak, and they clanged against the metal flooring far too loudly. She nearly slipped and fell, but managed to barely stay standing as she backed slowly, slowly away from the accursed darkness.

"No… please," Applejack didn't even know who she was pleading with. The monster, the gods, it made no difference.

She could feel the ice-cold grip of fear paralyzing her lungs. Her heartbeat seemed to echo loudly in her ears. Through it all, her stomach twisted with the wrongness and the rage of the failed experiment before her. She felt like she would throw up, but her insides were too tied up to even manage it.

For the first time, she felt something different from the monster. In addition to the ever-present feeling that it was wrong, in addition to the more recent feeling of utter rage, Applejack felt the bare traces of a new emotion. It felt satisfied.

Then it stepped into the room. The darkness flowed around it, writhing and sliding across the walls, floor, and ceiling. It moved inexorably slowly, one inch at a time, perfectly matching Applejack's desperate backwards scrambling.

The thing stopped as Applejack yelped and fell back to her haunches. For a split second, there was stillness in the tiny room. Neither party moved; they stared back at each other, one with hunger and the other with wide-eyed frothing terror.

Applejack broke first. She spun and made a desperate leap for the switch. It was way too far, but if she could make one or two more good leaps she could make it. Her hooves hadn't even touched down from her first jump when something slammed into her left side. Hard.

It felt like a hoof, albeit a hoof made of solid cast-iron. All the air burst from Applejack's lungs in a pained wheeze as she sailed through the air. She smashed into the concrete wall with a loud crack that echoed in the empty room. She would have screamed in pain if she'd had the air to do so. Applejack flopped down onto the cold floor and bravely attempted to get to her hooves.

The world was swaying, and her chest felt like a knife had been driven into it, but Applejack managed to stand up just barely. She stumbled forward blindly. Her vision was too hazy to really choose where she was going.

A brown shape loomed in front of her, and Applejack gripped it with her forehooves. Wood. The table. The workbench against the far wall of the room. She could still feel the creature, watching her with what she assumed was sick satisfaction. Applejack propped herself up on the table and worked the air back into her lungs. The creature didn't move. Apparently, it wanted sport. Well, if it wanted a fight —one of Applejack's hooves inched towards a heavy piece of pipe— she could oblige.

Applejack shouted a war cry as she spun about and flung the length of metal piping towards the center of the darkness. She heard a meaty thud as the pipe connected with something, and the creature seemed to stumble back half a step in more surprise than pain.

She wasn't going to waste the opportunity. Applejack swiftly drew the knife from its sheath and gripped it tightly in the crook of her right forehoof. In a blink, ignoring her pain, she lunged forward and closed the distance between them. Applejack couldn't exactly see the creature; it didn't work that way. Rather, she could very specifically not see anything, and Applejack aimed for the center mass of that nothingness.

The knife sank in to the hilt, and the creature released a loud hiss as it stumbled to the side in pain. Applejack pressed her advantage. She tried to get a grip with her other forehoof so that she could leverage it into more stabbing attacks. She plunged herself into the aura of darkness that surrounded the thing, and attempted to grapple with it. It was taller than she'd expected, and reaching for where a pony's neck would be only hit the side of its chest. It was still pony shaped though, so Applejack latched on to a long, slender forelimb.

All of this had taken the span of a single second, and with her grip secure Applejack prepared to stab the thing again. The second she pulled the knife out of it, the monster struck. It moved even faster than she'd anticipated, and swung the leg that Applejack had gripped. The speed and strength of the swing were enough to break her hold, and Applejack rolled painfully across the metal floor before skidding to a stop against the wall.

It wasn't waiting this time. The creature moved forward so fast that Applejack didn't even see it move. She blinked, and it was simply in front of her. Applejack instinctively raised her forelegs to shield herself, and only just in time as a heavy limb smashed into her from the right.

Her block managed to save her head, but Applejack was still sent cartwheeling across the room. She flew through the air and landed hard on the floor. Her chest felt like it was exploding when she hit the unforgiving metal.

She couldn't lay down, though, and valiantly attempted to push up to her hooves. Before she could even stand, a vicious hoof collided with her side and sent her sliding across the floor to impact the wall painfully.

Applejack coughed and sputtered, and when she opened her eyes there was blood splattered on the floor in front of her. She wiped at her mouth with a foreleg, and it came away stained with red. Her gaze hardened. Every part of her throbbed in intense pain, and something was definitely broken in her chest, but Applejack wasn't done yet. Each hoof clanged as she planted it against the floor, and then she pushed. Slowly, Applejack rose up until she was standing proudly at her full height.

Her opponent stood across the room where it had kicked her. The knife lay on the floor between them, knocked free from her grasp by the savage blow.

Applejack glared defiantly into the impassive blackness. She spat a glob of blood onto the floor, and then dragged one forehoof across the metal threateningly.

For a moment, the monster seemed to hesitate. Applejack knew it wasn't actually intimidated, but perhaps it was just the least bit surprised by her tenacity. Good. It thought it had her trapped. It thought it had already won.

Something resembling a grin spread out below Applejack's fiery glaring eyes.

"Turns out I'm just full of surprises."

Applejack leapt forward and snatched the knife from the ground. The monster seemed to brace itself, no doubt perfectly ready to smack down her attack. Only Applejack didn't attack just yet. She kept her momentum from the leap and rolled to the left. Her roll carried her across the floor until she was alongside the monster. It had been expecting her to lunge straight at it again, and wasn't ready to defend from the side.

Before the monster could turn to face her, Applejack capitalized on its momentary surprise. She flew forward and thrusted with the knife, making sure to aim a bit higher than a pony. As disturbing as the thought was, the creature seemed to be built similarly to Princess Celestia, and Applejack aimed her attack accordingly.

The blade once more sunk in deep, and the monster staggered a bit from the attack. Applejack had learned from her last mistake, and quickly withdrew the knife. She backed up several paces and watched as the thing turned to face her.

The burning, twisting in her gut was more intense than ever, but Applejack hardly noticed it at that point. Between the fiery pain she felt everywhere else, and the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Applejack didn't have time to feel sick.

The creature paused for a split second, but Applejack already knew what was coming. In the next blink, it had appeared in front of her with a rush of air. A foreleg heavier than a lamppost swung with enough force to shatter her skull, but Applejack was already moving.

She rolled once more, this time to the right. The heavy limb sailed harmlessly above her, and Applejack sprang back up to her hooves next to the creature. Again, she lunged, and again she struck deeply. The monster let out another hiss of pain, and the aura of darkness fluctuated just slightly.

Applejack smiled grimly as she backed up. She spat again, and more blood spattered against the floor. She couldn't keep going for much longer. If the monster didn't fall soon, it could very well win without touching her again.

Applejack feigned another roll to the creature's side, saw it move to intercept, and instead lunged head-on for its chest. It was almost too easy to fool. Her knife sunk deeply into the thing's chest—

Only it didn't. Applejack blinked as her forehoof bounced ineffectually against the creature's rock-hard chest. She stared down at her right forehoof, and saw much to her surprise that it was empty. Applejack quickly dodged back to a safe distance, then glanced around the room to locate the apparently dropped knife.

It didn't take long to find it. She hadn't dropped it. The knife floated in the air a few feet from the monster. The handle was surrounded in a deep black aura, and for the first time Applejack noticed that the blade was stained with black ichor.

"Oh…" Applejack felt her heart drop into her hooves.

The creature didn't move, but the knife sailed towards her blade-first as if it had been shot from a bow. Applejack yelped, and only barely managed to dodge the deadly projectile. The workbench was only a couple steps away, and Applejack made a beeline for it and all the metal tools it held.

She snatched up a large metal wrench, and only just managed to turn around in time to see the knife flying through the air towards her chest. Applejack gasped and raised the wrench to deflect, just barely knocking the knife wide of hitting her.

The assault didn't slow, however. Applejack was forced to deflect attack after attack, and she soon found herself backed into a corner, fending off each thrust of the knife by the skin of her teeth. She knew that she couldn't keep it up forever, but she only had to buy enough time to launch a counterattack.

Before she could even think about attacking, a white-hot pain exploded in her left ear. Applejack screamed, and the wrench fell from her hooves to clatter against the floor. She put one hoof up to her ear, and it came away washed in crimson. Applejack glanced downwards and spotted a tiny orange thing laying in a small splash of blood. It took her a blink to realize it was actually her ear.

Yet another scream prepared to fly from her throat, but before she could voice it, she felt her limbs pulled forcibly to the sides. Inky darkness surrounded each hoof as Applejack was lifted spread-eagle into the air. She floated over to the center of the room, where the creature watched silently next to a blood-stained knife.

Applejack struggled and heaved, pulling against her magical binds with all her might. She could feel them flicker and weaken slightly. If she could just get free and surprise the monster with—

Applejack's scream once more filled the small room as the knife lanced across her side. Blood flowed from the open wound and dripped onto the metal floor beneath her. Before Applejack could catch her breath, she was flung forward and impacted the wall face-first. She both heard and felt a crack as her muzzle smashed against the unyielding concrete.

She was floated back to the center of the room, sagging in her restraints. Blood dripped down from her muzzle to add to the growing stain on the floor. The knife flew across her right flank next, obscuring the crimson apples of her cutie mark behind a veil of deeper red.

Blackness crept in at the edges of her vision. Applejack's eyelids fluttered as she struggled to remain conscious through the pain. She screamed again as she felt herself fly backwards suddenly. This time, the creature released its hold on her just before she hit the wall. Applejack slammed against the wall with a wet slap, bounced off, and tumbled across the floor to land in a crumpled heap in the corner.

She shuddered and whimpered, but even crying hurt. Her vision was blurred and stained with red. For some reason, she rolled herself onto her back. The action caused another pained yell to burn through her aching throat.

Applejack lay there, staring up at the ceiling as her executioner approached. It took its time, savouring her suffering and pain. The blood from her numerous wounds pooled beneath her back as Applejack took breath after slow, shuddering breath.

She waited for death… until, something caught her eye. Applejack blinked, and tried to clear her vision enough to focus. It was blurred, and she might have been seeing things, and she probably didn't even have the strength to move a forehoof, but…

Applejack noticed that she had landed in the back left corner of the room. Right in front of her face, bolted to the wall above her, was a large lever with a sign that read 'Main Circuit Breaker'.

The creature was close now. Darkness was spreading in her peripheral vision that was different from the darkness already there. It was only two or three steps from her, reveling in her suffering.

Applejack didn't like that. She didn't like that at all. Something sparked inside her, and that spark spread to a fire. That thing wouldn't even finish her off. It wanted to see her suffer. It was evil, it was sadistic, it was everything wrong with this damned island! Applejack hated it! She hated it, and she would not let it win so smugly.

Her forehoof twitched, then rose an inch from the floor. The creature hesitated, no doubt curious as to what its defeated prey was doing. Applejack's face displayed a bloody smile. Turns out, she really was full of surprises. With one last lunge, she flipped the switch.

A rumbling filled the room in more than just sound. The floor shook and shuddered as old and long dormant machinery slowly came back to life. The creature hesitated above Applejack, apparently confused. The confusion didn't last more than an instant, as the room —and the entire facility— was suddenly bathed in blinding light.

The harsh shrieking that filled her head was different from any that she'd heard. It wasn't angry, or threatening. It wasn't even frightening. It wasn't even really a shriek; it was only a scream. It sounded almost pathetic. It was music to Applejack's ears.

The scream lasted only a second before cutting off suddenly. When Applejack opened her eyes, some time might have passed. The room was bathed in a bright white light that practically hurt if she stared straight up into it. She stared anyway, and it was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.

Applejack wanted to just lay there. She was tired, and the floor was comfortable, and she felt warm and fuzzy. But… there was something she had to do. It was important, really important.

She got to her hooves, though she had no idea how that happened. Applejack found herself stumbling down a long hallway. The floors were a pristine, white tile, and the walls were painted a blue so light that it would look grey in poor lighting.

It was nice, comforting. The environment was sterile, but didn't have the same unpleasant sense of discomfort that was present in a hospital. Something to do with the lights, probably.

Applejack stumbled up the metal stairs. At some point her hooves stopped going up, and she had to climb on her knees. She didn't mind. The stairs wound around and around and around until she was walking down a hallway again. Applejack stumbled to the side and slid against the wall for a few paces. It was nice, and it helped support her upright, but when she stepped away the wall was smeared with red.

A large door loomed before Applejack. Like the rest of the place, it was in perfectly pristine condition. In a sudden moment of lucidity, Applejack remembered exactly what she was doing. She staggered over to the button, and desperately slapped a red-stained hoof against it. There was no distorted, electronic voice this time. There was merely a buzzer sound, and then the grinding and clanking of the metal door sliding open.

She stumbled into the control room and made for the massive array of buttons located on a control along the far wall. Numerous screens hung above the control panel, but all of them displayed some error message. A few spinning chairs were strewn about as if their occupants had left in quite a hurry. A large sign was taped to the front of the control panel, which read, 'Please receive authorization by security personnel before touching anything! This means you, Shale.'

Applejack ignored all of it. She limped up to the array of buttons and switches, and propped herself up with her forehooves. There were countless different switches for countless different operations, but Applejack only had eyes for one. She spotted a large, red button that stuck out prominently from those surrounding it. A label was printed underneath it: 'Island-wide lock'.

When Applejack pushed the button, a loud, harsh klaxon filled the entire facility. Red lights flashed as the siren sounded for almost a full minute. The computer voice said something about the lockdown being lifted, but the sound was muffled in Applejack's hearing.

Applejack smiled. She'd done it. Finally, she had broken the one thing that was holding her on the island. At long last, she was free.

She turned around and trotted away from the console, but after only a few steps her legs gave out. Applejack collapsed to her side with a wheezing breath. The cold tile felt surprisingly pleasant against her skin. Her vision was blurred, and Applejack blinked rapidly to clear it. When she was able to see, her gaze fell on a dark path of blood, left in puddles and splotches that smeared across the white floor all the way back through the open doorway.

She blinked. "Oh…" Her voice wasn't even a whisper.

Glancing down, Applejack saw an ever-expanding puddle of red staining the perfectly white tile floor. She finally noticed the blackness at the edges of her vision, and the fact that it was encroaching ever further until she seemed to be looking through a tunnel.

Funnily enough, it didn't hurt at all. She'd been in so much pain, not just from the fight, but ever since arriving on the island. Her stomach had hurt, and her back had hurt, and her head had hurt, and her leg had hurt. Nothing hurt now; she just felt tired.

Applejack laid her head down on the cold tile. She was done. She was finished. It was all over, and, surprisingly, she didn't mind so much. She would've liked to say goodbye to her friends, to her family, but she never did get the chance. At least the pain would be over.

Applejack exhaled one last breath. At long last, far from home and utterly alone, she died.

Author's Note

Edited by Pyromitsu and Aatxe360. The real guys, the best guys.