The DESTINY Exploration

Chapter 3: Meteorite

The Apples continued to be outstanding hosts while I lived on the property. The work they had me do really lent itself well to a job I had done as a college student back at home.

While I was a Computer Science major, the only hard, physical labor I had to do was an odd farming job about 20 minutes from my suburban neighborhood. Shoveling cow manure, feeding the livestock and fowl, harvesting produce such as corn, names, and potatoes, all the expected work a farmhand would do. The tasks Granny Smith gave me were very similar, but they also taught me their particular way of doing things.

It had been about a week since our arrangement was made to work for the roof over my head, but I knew that this labor wasn’t counting for anything. They considered me family, though remained cautious about my ‘reason’ for being here. The one task I never participated in was something they called ‘apple bucking’. I didn’t know what that was, but Big Mac informed me that I needed hind leg coordination, something I’ve been improving daily.

I remember the day after we returned from the train station, Applejack began training me on how to properly walk and trot.

“Alright, Tom, here’s the deal! We ponies don’t even think about when we’re movin’, so you don’t neither! Just alternate yer legs, and do like I’m doin’! Watch.”

She demonstrated what she was talking about, but I had a hard time following along. I took my first few steps, and proceeded to verify my title as Master of the Face Plant, multiple times.

Applebloom began to encourage me. “C’mon, Tom! You can do it!”

This time, I walked an entire stretch of fence line without wobbling or falling. The natural feeling of walking caused me to leap into the air with excitement. It was the best day I’ve had since the crash, a feeling of ultimate achievement.

Each day was a different challenge. Day 2 was a farther walking distance. On day 3, we practiced turning around and side-stepping. Day 4 was a review of the first three days, and day 5 introduced basic trotting techniques. Days 6 and 7 were solely dedicated to speed and agility. It was incredible how quickly I caught on to everything, but no day was without mistakes; by the end of the week, I had bruises all over my face and legs from the workout.

Today, however, they were finally going to take me out into the orchard and do their most important job: apple bucking. Big Mac led the way to my section of the field.

“Now today, we’re gonna harvest ‘these’ apples.”

“So you are going to be assisting me today, Big Mac?”

“Eeyup.”

The technique for apple bucking was, in essence, one simple motion requiring precise and immense physical strength. Big Mac, in one stroke of his hind legs, harvested the entire tree in one loud crack. His flexibility and strength frightened me; never challenge this pony to a brawl. Ever.

My attempt, however, ended with no apples harvested, and a very sore pair of hooves. A pair of bright red tomatoes appeared beneath my hoof skin, making walking back to the orchard a drain on my energy. Stepping on the patio, I reached for both of my tomato-hooves, blowing on them constantly to cease the burning sensation.

Midway through the following week, the bucking granted me enough strength to knock off at least 10 apples in a first attempt, but very few trees got harvested without the help of someone in the family. Applejack and Big Macintosh were professionals, effortlessly knocking down piles of apples from the many acres of trees lining the pasture. It was like watching two ponies trying to break a world record time, but each smack of the wood was intentional. Their speed and timing were flawless.

The entire rest of the week was spent with me practicing my precision, and most of the time, I would apply too much force on one leg, and the other leg slid off the wood, flipping me forwards back-first onto the ground. Each attempt slowly ate away at my energy, and the task grew more difficult. But every time both my hooves applied the same force, many apples fell to the ground, a sign that I was improving.

By this week’s end, I had finally been able to knock down my first full tree of apples.

“Yeehaw! I mean, yes!” I got a little carried away with myself.

Applejack grinned proudly. “That’s the way! Ya finally did it!”

I can’t wait to tell Jonah about this. Maybe now I have the strength to find him.

My thought was interrupted by Granny Smith screeching into her megaphone. “Visitor! Visitor!”

All of us gathered our belongings and headed for the gate leading to the cottage. The others kept a slow pace for me, as I was still getting acquainted with my new walking motion. When we reached the gate, I saw with Granny Smith a tiny, purple critter with scales and a green…mohawk. Applejack sped past us and embraced the little guy.

“Aw, hey there, little feller, how ya doin’?”

“Hey Applejack, you don’t have to. Squeeze. So TIGHT. Ack!”

Applejack dropped the purple monster on the ground. “Sorry, Spike, I didn’t reckon dragons were sensitive tuh hugs! Ha ha ha!”

A dragon?! The little guy was a dragon? Not the size I was expecting a dragon to be, or perhaps this ‘Spike’ is a baby. Even still, a baby dragon that talks isn’t beyond imagining in this world.

“I have a letter from Twilight for you; she wanted you to come visit. Says something big happened recently that nopony knows about yet.”

A look of intrigue conquered Applejack’s expression. “Say, what kind uh thing happened, Spike?”

“I don’t really know for sure, but she mentioned seeing something rare a couple weeks ago while she was star gazing. Normally, she’s really on top of scheduling meteor falls, but they rarely happen in our part of the world.”

“Well, golly, then what’s the fuss about?”

“She told me something actually fell and impacted in Equestria somewhere. And she wants to study it!”

My mind was racing with thoughts of Jonah, the ship, and the events that occurred exactly when this ‘Twilight’ pony had surmised. I was anticipating the possibility of going with Applejack to take a look at the supposed meteorite. Could the ship still be functioning, or was it shattered into thousands of pieces? If it is in need of repair, would it even be possible? The Twilight pony was my key to finding out.

Applejack read over the letter, and smiled joyfully at Spike.

“I can always use a lil’ adventure here and there tuh broaden my horizons. I’d love tuh travel with Twilight!”

I quickly got on my knees and begged Applejack to take me with her. “Applejack, that may very well be Jonah that’s at the crash site of that meteor! I must go!”

“Well of course yer goin’! Think I wouldn’t let ya investigate this, either?”

“Great! I’ll let Twilight know right away that you both are coming! By the way, who’s this guy?” Spike points directly at me.

“My name is Tom, Spike.”

“Good to meet you, Tom! Now let’s see…”

Spike rummages through his backpack, and pulls out a quill, a scroll, and an ink stamp. He begins to write a letter, and afterwards, stamps a notary at the bottom, and breathes a sparkling green fire, disintegrating the letter.

“There we go! Now Twilight knows the both of you are on your way to town.”

Preparing for an expedition like this one appeared to be something Applejack was already well acquainted with; she already had a pack ready to go in her closet. Meanwhile, she gathered tools and supplies for my pack, making absolutely certain I wasn’t without a single necessity. A shovel, two butane lighters, a flashlight, a two-way radio, a compass with an apple image in the center; the essentials to survive, communicate, and navigate any unmarked terrain.

Hopping on the taxi carriage we took a couple weeks prior, we headed into Ponyville again, where I saw the same shops I had seen during my prior visit. But this time, it would be my first official walk into town. I struck up a conversation with Spike about his ‘dragon’ness.

“So, Spike…you’re a dragon. Why are you so tiny, did you just hatch?”

“Me? No way, dude! That was a long time ago. Twilight hatched me when she was a filly. She’s taken care of me since her childhood, and we’ve been pals since!”

“But shouldn’t you be this huge, fire-breathing machine by now?”

“Heh, us dragons? We live to be hundreds of years old! It takes a long time for us to grow that massive. No, it’ll be many decades before I grow that big.”

The carriage ponies pulled up to the library oak tree we passed before, and stopped in front of the door.

“Thank you, gentlemen.” Applejack gave each of the ponies a couple gold coins for the ride. They rode off to pick up another set of passengers waiting at the street corner.

We then approached the door to the library, and knocked a few times. Opening the door was someone I thought couldn’t have existed, and I had to wipe my eyelids a couple times before I accepted reality. A purple unicorn wearing bifocals for reading stepped outside the library and embraced Applejack and Spike. Then she turned to me, giving me a decisive scan.

“You must be Tom! It’s always great to meet new friends.” She shut her eyes and gave me a friendly smile. She didn’t even know me, and called me a friend. Wait until she learned about who I was…

Instinct immediately informed me to whom I was talking. “Twilight, thanks for welcoming me so warmly to your library.”

“You can also call this my home. I live here.” Twilight, gazed at the old oak, longingly. It must have been her home for many years. “Come on inside, everypony. I have a lot to tell you.”

Walking inside the library, I panned my head around the lobby. Stacked about 14 feet high was an incredible bookshelf with maybe a couple thousand different books. One book caught my attention right away: a thick hardcover entitled “A History of Equestrian Magicians – Volume I”.

“Do you perform magic?! That’s not possible! That’s-“

Twilight chuckled at my comment. “Oh? I’m a unicorn; of course I can perform magic.” A lavender aura surrounded her horn, and then her gaze was directed at the book I had just seen. The aura around the book matched her horn, and it levitated to her, resting on a stand made for reading.

“Let’s see here…there! I’ll read a passage from this book. ‘Eons ago, before the three races of ponies existed, there was a powerful energy stored within the primal ponies of old. A near-cataclysmic event released the potential of the primal ponies, and immediately birthed special abilities from inside each of them. Some maintained their form, becoming the resilient earth ponies. Others grew wings, and flew in the sky as pegasi, and the last grew horns, and wielded powerful magic, becoming unicorns. Together, the catastrophe was avoided, and each of the races endured through the violent chaos of their genesis.’ “

I was completely dumbfounded once again. “You mean there are pegasuses-“

Twilight rebuked me. “Pegasi.”

“Pegasi? Holy crap! This is just uncanny, Twilight!”

“That’s how I would react in your position, Tom. But it’s the truth. By the way you are reacting; I don’t suppose you are from around here.”

Applejack entered into our talk. “That’s right. He claims to be from somewhere beyond the clouds.”

Twilight gave Applejack a confused look. “You mean like Cloudsdale? That would be silly, only pegasi actually live there.”

“No, sugarcube, I mean from way beyond, as in…” She began to whisper to Twilight. “…outer space?”

Twilight burst into fits of laughter, much like the apples had done previously. I was used to that by now; my claim was pretty extravagant at best. Even so, I had to pursue this opportunity to finally find Jonah and take my leave of this place.

“That’s…hahaha, not, haha, possible! Wait, hold on. Is that the reason you came? Applejack, you don’t think he has something to do with that meteor, do you?”

Applejack shrugged her shoulders, and began to plead my case to Twilight. “Listen, I know it sounds real funny-like, but Tom’s been working hard fer us the past couple uh weeks, and I trust his word more than I had before.”

Hearing Applejack say that word ‘trust’ in reference to me made me feel like an incredible person…pony, whatever I was. It felt awesome to be trusted by someone in a place that was completely outside of my comprehension. Twilight stared at me pensively for a long minute before replying to her friend.

“Okay, Applejack. You are the most honest, trustworthy friend I have, and I will trust your word. But I want to hear his story first, so Tom, what are you suspecting this meteorite as being? I need more information before I go through with this search.”

I began to give Twilight a condensed version of the tale I told the Apples at the train station, how I got here, where I came from, and why the timing of my crash and her meteor sighting can’t be a coincidence. One detail apparently escaped her, and she interjected during my tale.

“Before the meteor crashed, I saw a bright beam of light streak to the meteor from the northwest. It flashed when it impacted it. Do you remember anything like that happening?”

“Yes! We had been moving in orbit around the planet, and before long, a bright object pierced the hull of our ship, causing us to rapidly fall onto the surface. But I can’t remember much else; the force of the descent knocked me out cold.”

Twilight considered what I had to say for a few minutes, perusing her collection of books, under section ‘S’. I assumed she was looking through books about ‘space’ or ‘science’, but she came back empty-handed. We resolved to pack up and head for Ponyville’s Central Station, and we lined up in front of the Crystal Mountains ticketing booth. That didn’t sit well with me.

“Twilight, are you saying you saw the crash really happen near those mountains?”

She pulled out a scroll containing a jumbled mess of calculations. “Exactly, there is a 5 square kilometer plot of land where I believe the crash landing occurred. If we investigate enough, we can find the landing site.” Twilight pulled out a map of the entire landscape of Equestria, and pointed to the railroad we would take to reach the crash site.

“We’ll have to dress for cold weather; this railroad takes us just outside of the Frozen North near the Crystal Empire. If we search the coast across the tracks near Galloping Gorge, we’ll find our meteorite.”

Applejack looked satisfied with the plan. “Well, gosh, let’s git to it!”

I didn’t even have to express how important it was that I find Jonah. Yet, they were thrilled to be a part of this small expedition to the north. Without even realizing, I had labored Twilight’s heart to assist me in discovering what was there. Same with Applejack, and I was solely reliant on these two to guide me in my search. I may be physically strong, but in my mind, they’ve become my accessories for escaping this world. I am to be pitied.

Jonah, please be safe. I'll find you soon enough. Just hold on for a little longer.

[…]

[…]

[SYSTEMS ONLINE, SATELLITES IN POSITION, TRACKING]

[CAPTAIN’S COMMUNICATION SIGNAL OFFLINE]

[SWITCHING TO E.M. SCAN, BEGIN PLANETARY SWEEP]

[-SLEEP MODE ACTIVATED]

[…]

[…]