Cold, piercing cold that chills your body as if a spirit were reaching through it.
Cold was what the orange earth pony experienced as she woke, though she had no memory of falling asleep recently. In fact, her entire memory seemed hazy. Normally, the mare was groggy and hard to wake, which was something she could remember, though the penetrating cold made going back to sleep difficult. Slowly, she lifted herself from her prone position that so often accompanied sleep, hooves clopping noisily against the hard ground beneath her. Her legs were shaky and threatened to give way as Applejack rose herself to her full height, which was uncommon for a pony as physically fit as her. All in all, Applejack felt terrible, as if she had been in a fight and lost, which could possibly explain her clouded memory. The mare’s condition made it far more strenuous than it should have been to open her eyes and drink in her surroundings. “What in the…” Applejack half-yawned, half-gasped, her mind seeming to find it easier to give words to her thoughts rather than try to sort them out in her pounding head.
The room was dark, though not so dark that one could not see properly. However where Applejack was could hardly be called a room, as room implies an area that was built, which certainly was not the case. A more apt description would be ‘cave’. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling were all smooth stone. The walls and ceilings curved, giving the narrow cave the appearance of a cylinder, form the inside at least. (Perhaps ‘tunnel’ would be a better word to describe the area, Applejack wondered.) A quick glance back told Applejack that she whether she was in a room, cave, or tunnel, she was near the back end of it. Ahead of the orange mare was her white light at the end of the tunnel. Quite literally, as from her distance the only hint of the outside was the bright white that Applejack’s unadjusted eyes had a hard time taking in. Without so much as a second thought, whether that was due to her foggy head or hope that the outside would give her some clue to make sense of the situation, the mare walked towards the light.
The closer she got to the exit, the colder she got. The sound of howling wind the likes of which Applejack had only heard in strong storms or blizzards became apparent; the pure white light ahead of the mare limited the possible answers as to the source of the wind. Sure enough, a thin sheet of snow greeted Applejack at the mouth of the cave, and a great flurry of white whipped about wildly outside. She was chilled to the bone and was occasionally nipped by a stray gust of snow and ice that found its way in the cave. It didn’t take much encouragement for the orange mare to retreat back within stone walls. While it wasn’t comfortable, it was certainly warmer towards the back than the front. Luckily, it seemed that the snow was blowing around the cave rather than inside it. Applejack sighed as she realized that she would have to wait out the storm, having no idea how long that would take. She was a tough pony, no doubt, but you can’t buck hypothermia. The earth pony made her way back into the cave, trying to find the warmest spot where she could still hear the wind.
Applejack heard a soft grumble from somewhere nearby. She immediately halted and looked about for the source, more than a tad nervous. Ahead of her, Applejack caught a glimpse a shadowy figure, clearly stirring. Cautiously, the earth pony crept towards the alcove she had not noticed on her way to the exit. She poked her head around the wall. The figure was clearly that of a pony, which made Applejack hopeful, perhaps this one would know where they were and why they were there. As her eyes better adjusted to the darker recess she was peering into, she was able to note that the pony’s coat and mane color: White and purple. Suspicion grew and hope sank in Applejack. Yet, before she was able to give voice to either of those, the white pony’s head turned and pair of blue eyes was soon to catch Applejack’s head, whose hat would make her shadowed head appear far from pony-like. The waking pony literally jumped and gave a shriek that confirmed Applejack’s suspicion. “Horseapples.” Was the first thought to cross the mare’s mind.
“Whoa, Rarity, calm down. It’s me, Applejack.” The farmpony tried to sound as calm as her agitation would allow her. Of all the ponies in Equestria to be stuck in a cave with it had to be it had to be the prissy princess who always found a way to annoy her.
“It’s not like I hate her or nothin’.” Applejack thought, trying to wipe the nasty mental comment about Rarity from her mind. “But she doesn’t got to be so persnickety all the time. And bein’ lost in Celestia-knows-where with her? She can’t handle gettin’ a bit of dirt in her mane, how’s she gonna handle this?”
“Wha- Applejack? Oh thank goodness.” The white unicorn visibly relaxed, which was clear by the way she had stopped pushing her body against the wall of the cave as if she were trying to move it. She looked around, as if she had just realized that she was in a cave. “Um, Applejack,” Rarity whispered with what seemed to be a combination of shock and horror, “Where are we?”
“I... I don’t know.” Applejack said with a sigh.
“You don’t know?” Rarity asked, though with how softly she was speaking Applejack would’ve thought she was talking with an accented Fluttershy had she not been looking right at the unicorn when she spoke.
“I- no. No I don’t know.” Was the only response Applejack could come up with. “I take it you don’t either?”
“Well, no.” Rarity responded, looking steadily at the ground. “But Applejack,” the unicorn began, looking back to the other mare, “how did we get here? I can’t seem to remember anything from the past few days.”
“I don’t know, Rare. I don’t remember much either.” Applejack said, her voice laced with sincere concern. Rarity sounded as if she was on the verge of breaking down into tears, and was worrying the earth pony.
Rarity did indeed break down, though not quite in the manner Applejack had expected. “Then we’re lost!” She cried aloud, her voice echoed by the cave. “We’re in some cave and have no idea where we are or how we got here!” Tears brimmed along the unicorn’s eyes as she spoke.
“I noticed.” Applejack said flatly, all traces of her initial worry dashed with Rarity’s first overly-dramatic word. Rarity seemed not to notice.
“We don’t know where Ponyville is, we don’t even know where Canterlot is from here!” Rarity wailed.
“Hence bein’ ‘lost’.” The orange mare commented, still unheard by the unicorn.
“We could be on the other side of Equestria and we wouldn’t know a thing about it!” The white mare continued.
“Or we could be right outside Ponyville.” Applejack wasn’t sure why she continued to talk, Rarity clearly wasn’t listening.
“We must find out where we are, we must!” The hysteric mare cried before dashing towards the cave’s exit. Or at least she would’ve had a strong orange foreleg barred her path.
“Rare, there’s a snowstorm outside. We ain’t goin’ anywhere ‘till it blows over.” Applejack noticed that the unicorn didn’t put up much resistance, the sudden contact and raising of Applejack’s voice seeming to snap her out of her episode.
“A snowstorm? But Applejack, it’s late summer.”
“Yeah, I know. I think we’re on a mountain or somethin’.”
“Or maybe,” Rarity’s eyes began to widen as she spoke, “maybe we were unconscious and now it’s winter. Now we can’t remember what happened to us because-“ Applejack’s hoof cut off the unicorn before she could begin on another tirade.
“Rarity, you gotta calm down, you’re startin’ to sound like Pinkie. It don’t matter where we are or how we got here, fact is we’re stuck here for now, and no amount of whinin’ is gonna make that change. We just need to wait out the storm and go from there.” Applejack tried to control her nerve as she spoke, which should’ve been easy because the farmpony considered herself down to her last.
Rarity scoffed. “You think I’m whining? I’m not whining, I’m worried for my-our lives here.” The unicorn stressed. “We could be in very serious danger here and you’re telling me to calm down? There are plenty of times to be calm but let me tell you this is not one. In fact, this is the perfect time to not be calm!”
“You don’t think I’m worried too? Yeah, I know we’re lost. Yeah, I know we could be in danger. But you know what? There ain’t nothin’ we can do ‘bout it right now. The only thing we can do is keep cool ‘till we can go outside and assess the situation.” Applejack let her words hang in the air for a few moments, before flatly adding “No pun intended.”
Rarity lightly smiled, acknowledging the unintentional and horrid joke. “Oh, you’re right, Applejack. I’ve been overacting. It’s was unladylike of me and I am truly sorry.”
“Nah, you were just scared, so am I. And I may have snapped at you, so I’m sorry too.” Applejack told her friend, relieved that the ordeal seemed to be coming to a close. Really, it wasn’t that much different from most of their other arguments as of late. Sure, the two got into disputes now and again about one thing or another, but at the end of the day they were still friends who made up quickly. Applejack couldn’t rightly say what it was the kept the two as friends, they were so different that it seemed like they would never even talk to each other. And for the longest time, they didn’t. The two mares had lived in the same town for years but never bothered saying more than two words to one another until Twilight Sparkle showed up and united them along with the rest of the Elements of Harmony as friends. Maybe that was it. Maybe the mutual friends between the two was what kept them together.
“Applejack, how long do you think it will be until the storm passes?” Rarity asked.
The orange mare sighed. “I don’t know, Rare.”
Rarity echoed the earth pony’s sigh and sat down against the stone wall of the cave, falling silent.