• Published 29th Dec 2012
  • 12,587 Views, 1,189 Comments

Mother of Invention - zaponator



Awake and alone, Applejack will find a way to survive.

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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.