> Uncharted: Applejack's journey
>  by The-rogue-shadow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Come on AJ, get up. It was just a little ole train crash. You’ve been in worse. Now get up!’ thought Applejack as she writhed on the ground. Sharp shards of gravel were digging into her skin as she rolled onto her stomach, wincing as a bolt of agonising pain shot up her arm from her left wrist. Opening her eyes, she saw just how much devastation the train crash had actually caused; trees all around her were ablaze or completely torn out of the ground after the carriages of the train had crashed into them. Applejack got to her feet, instinctively placing her hand over the bloody wound in her side. With a groan she gripped the shard of metal that had embedded itself in her abdomen. She took a few deep breaths before tearing it out, crying out at the same time. She gritted her teeth against the pain, throwing the three inch long piece of shrapnel on the ground as she started to walk. 
‘Some of Twilight’s healing magic wouldn’t go amiss right about now,’ she thought, smiling as she remembered the lavender unicorn that seemed so far away now. She suddenly spotted a body lying on the ground not far from her, and her eyes went wide when she realised who it was. She quickened her pace, but her wound prevented her from running. 
“Nate! Nate!” she yelled, dropping to her knees when she reached the prone figure. Applejack put her ear to his chest, listening for the sounds of life. But it was silent. Starting to panic, Applejack put both of her hands on his chest and started to push down in regular intervals, ignoring the intense pain in her wrist. After thirty compressions, Applejack moved to his face, placing her mouth over his and exhaling. The same way Nate had shown her long ago. After two puffs, she went back to compressing his chest. Tears were starting to form in her eyes as she looked at the lifeless form of her friend. After the twentieth compression on the second set, however, Nate’s eyes snapped open and he sat up straight, taking a huge gasp of air. Applejack let out a cheer, hugging Nate tightly as he took long, deep breaths. After a moment, he returned the hug, still panting heavily.
“Thanks… AJ,” he said, giving her a quick pat on the back. She helped him to his feet and the two began to search the area for anything helpful. The first thing on Applejack’s list was medical supplies, for Nate, it was most likely a weapon. 

“We gotta be quick AJ, Mikhail’s men can’t be too far away,” he said as he searched through the pockets of a padded military vest. The dead man wearing it was part of an organisation of power hungry individuals lead by a vicious man by the name of Mikhail Kruschev, and they had been hunting her and Nate for a long time, and across multiple countries.
“Ah know Nate, and don’t worry, There is no way that ah’m going to let them get to the element of harmony,” Applejack promised, briefly touching the necklace that she was wearing. It was gold, and adorned with a red ruby in the shape of an apple. It also happened to be extremely powerful, and she had to protect it. 
The sound of a helicopter suddenly filled her ears, and she quickly finished bandaging her wound, storing the leftover first aid supplies in a pocket of her black, Kevlar-lined motorcycle cargo pants. Nate tossed a revolver to her, giving her a quick nod.
“Are you ready?” he said as she pulled the hammer back with her thumb.
“As I’ll ever be Sugarcube,”
***

Applejack rubbed her tired eyes as the lavender unicorn in front of her read from a large, leather bound old book. Around her neck sat the necklace that symbolised her element of harmony, namely honesty. Standing beside her and all crowded around the unicorn were the other bearers of the elements of harmony; the cyan Pegasus Rainbow Dash, the element of Loyalty. The Pinkie Earth pony Pinkie Pie, the element of Laughter. The white unicorn Rarity, the element of Generosity. The yellow Pegasus Fluttershy, the element of kindness. And last, but not least, the lavender unicorn Twilight Sparkle, the element of Magic and the one reading the book. Twilight had dragged them all into the Everfree forest on some secret mission that required the elements. But so far, all they had done was walk to the middle of the forest, to the ancient and run down castle of the pony sisters and listen to Twilight read aloud. 

Behind her sat the altar where they had first found the elements of harmony, when Nightmare Moon, the psychotic alter-ego of Princess Luna, had returned after a one thousand year imprisonment on the moon. The six ponies, using the elements and the power of friendship, had managed to change Luna back into her old self. Since then, she and her five friends had been almost inseparable, and she didn’t think it was going to change anytime soon.
“Oh hurry up Twilight! I have things to do.” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, flapping her wings to show her impatience. 
“Like what? Napping on a cloud?” asked Rarity sarcastically. Rainbow gave her a sharp look, and Applejack rolled her eyes. The two had been at each other’s throats more than usual lately. Pinkie told her it’s because they are in love, but Applejack just dismissed it as Pinkie’s usual amount of randomness. 

“Just calm down Rainbow, I’m almost done. If I can get this spell right, we could learn so much. Like how the elements came to be, how Luna and Celestia used them to defeat discord, or even how Celestia used them to banish Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said excitedly. Rainbow gave her a blank look, while Pinkie and Fluttershy smiled.
“Oh... my, that does sound exciting,” said Fluttershy, and Applejack was surprised to find out that Fluttershy was such a history enthusiast. Pinkie Pie however, was bouncing up and down on the spot.
“You bet it does Flutters, I can’t wait to see the parties that must have had. I mean, it’s not every day somepony gets to banish their sister to the moon using the most powerful magical force known to ponykind,” she said and Applejack just sighed.

‘Typical Pinkie,’ she thought. 
“Eureka!” Twilight yelled suddenly, making the others jump. “I think I found it. Everypony on the altar.” Applejack and the others followed Twilight to the altar, where she moved them until they were all standing on a silver six pointed star, except for Applejack, who noticed that her star was gold. When she asked Twilight about it, she was informed that it was gold because it pointed due North. Twilight then took up her position on the star next to Applejack and started to fill her horn with magic. A magenta aura formed around it as Twilight’s expression turned to one of concentration. Applejack could tell that Twilight was pouring everything she had into this one spell, and she hope it wouldn’t hurt her. The unicorn’s eyes began to glow, along with the crown she wore that represented her element. Applejack looked at her necklace to find that it was also glowing, as were all of the others. Twilight let out a cry of pain, as a large blast of magenta energy shot out from the tip of her horn and landed in the middle of the group, before detonating in a wave of energy that knocked them all off their hooves and away from the altar. Applejack flew the shortest distance, slamming into a wall behind her. When she opened her eyes, the entire room was filled with bright light and a tremendous wind had appeared, picking leaves, dirt and even rocks off the ground and sucking them toward the altar, where an enormous circle of energy was drawing everything into it. 

Applejack suddenly realised that she herself was being dragged toward the circle. In a panic, she started to try and get to her hooves and run away. Her hooves scrapped across the stone floor as she tried to stop herself getting closer. A magical aura formed around her, and through the bright light, she spotted Twilight, her horn once again glowing with magic energy as she struggled against the unearthly force that was drawing Applejack in. For a moment, nothing happened, Applejack stood perfectly still as Twilight’s magic tried to pull her away. Then the force pulling her toward the altar got noticeably stronger, dragging Applejack even faster, along with Twilight, who was still connected to her by the magical aura. Applejack’s back legs were suddenly lifted off the ground, as the purple aura failed, leaving her exposed. With a scream, she was flown toward the altar, barely managing to grab the edge of the stone before the magical circle engulfed her completely. Her back legs were all the way in, and she could no longer feel them. Tears were now streaming down her face as she cried out for her friends to save her. Just as she was about to lose her grip, she heard Twilight’s voice over the wind.

“Applejack, don’t be afraid. I will find a way to save you, no matter what,” she yelled. She said more, but by then Applejack was focussing on keeping her grip, hoping that the magic would burn out soon. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head just in time to see a large rock hurtling straight for her head. The rock hit her in the side of her head, causing her to lose her grip on the edge of the stone altar. With one last scream, Applejack was sucked in to the magical circle.
***

The first thing she noticed was the cold. Her entire body was shivering from the frigid breeze that was whistling through the building.
‘Oh good, at least I’m still in the ruins of the castle,’ she thought, opening her eyes to examine her surroundings. The entire area was covered in snow, except for a small circle that surrounded her. In the distance she could hear shouting, as well as another sound she didn’t recognise. It sounded like lots of tiny explosions all going off at once, or a very muffled version of the sound that Pinkie’s party cannon made whenever it went off. 

Her entire body felt strange, as though nothing was in the place it should be. She looked at her front hooves and screamed. Her orange hooves were no longer there; instead, she had these strange pink appendages that reminded her of Spike’s claws for some reason. Breathing heavily with fear, Applejack examined the rest of herself. Her face was almost completely changed. Her ears had moved to the side of her head, her snout had all but disappeared, leaving her with a very small one in the middle of her face and her mouth underneath that. What shocked her most was the fact that her tail was missing, meaning that her flank was exposed. She calmed down slightly when she saw that she still had her cutie mark, even though it had moved from her flank onto her leg and more toward the front. She was still shaking as she finished exploring her new form. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but she knew that this body was much too bouncy for her liking. 

‘What in the hay did Twilight do to me? What am ah? Where am ah?’ she wondered, as the cold got steadily worse. She started shivering again, as the wind started to pick up. Applejack started to look around for something she could use to light a fire, when a loud noise drew here attention to the other side of the room she was in. Three dark shapes had just come through the door, slamming it behind them. They were walking on two legs and for a moment she thought they were diamond dogs, judging by the fact that they looked shaggy from this distance. They started to make their way toward her, and she could hear them speaking. Applejack quickly hid behind a nearby collapsed pillar and listened to them, while all the while hoping that they were friendly. 

“Are you sure this was it Nate?’ asked a rough voice that obviously belonged to a stallion. 
“Of course I am Sully. The massive beam of purple light that was visible for miles definitely came from this chamber, hence why we have all of Mikhail’s men after us,” said another voice, once again belonging to a stallion. He sounded frustrated.
“Woah! Who are you?” exclaimed a mare’s voice from behind her. Applejack called out as she turned. She stood up and ran at the wall hoping that she could get away from whatever that thing was. She backed up against the wall, as the three creatures got closer. The one that had startled her was holding up a hand to stop the others, who were pointing something at Applejack. 
“St-stay back!” she yelled at the creature as it slowly walked toward her. It had a mare’s voice, but she was definitely not a pony. In fact, she looked more like the way Applejack did now. 
“It’s okay. I promise that I’m not going to hurt you, my name is Elena, what’s yours?” she asked and as scared as she was, Applejack could tell that this ‘Elena’ wanted to help her. 
“A-Applejack, mah name is Applejack,” she told her, still cowering against the wall. Elena took a step closer.
“That’s a nice name. How did you get here Applejack? And why are you naked?” Elena asked, and it was then that Applejack realised that they were the same thing that she was, just wearing clothes. 

“There was this purple light, and then ah woke up here. In this body,” she explained, as Elena held out her hand and helped her to her feet. For some reason, balancing on two legs was nowhere near as difficult as it used to be. Elena took off her coat and helped her put it on. The coat was long enough that it went all the way down to her thigh. Applejack was just pleased that it was warm more than anything. 

“There we go, at least you won’t embarrass the boys now,” she said, and started to lead her toward the other two creatures. One looked quite old; his hair was greyed, as was his moustache. In between his teeth he held half a lit cigar. Applejack had the sudden urge to punch him in the face so that he would get rid of the cigar. She hated smoking; it was such a disgusting habit. She had once caught her brother Big Macintosh and his friend Caramel smoking behind the barn on her farm. Not only had she broken both of their noses, she had also told Granny Smith, who had forced the stallions to do everyponies chores for a whole fortnight.  She restrained the urge though. She doubted it was a good idea to attack these things when they were only trying to help her. She looked at the other one. He was much younger, his hair was black and in his hand he held a black notebook. 

“Well who do we have here?” asked to older one, and Applejack recognised the voice as belonging to the one called ‘Sully.’ He walked over to her and grabbed her hoof-claw thing with his own; bringing it up to his face and kissing it. Applejack couldn’t help but be a little weirded out by him. 
“Victor Sullivan, at your service,” he said, taking a long drag on the cigar. The other one grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him away.

“Leave her alone you dirty old man. You’re scaring her,” he said, giving her a wink. Sully gave a huff and then walked back to where he had been standing before, which also happened to be the very same spot that Applejack had woken up in. The younger one grabbed her hand and shook it gently, looking her straight in the eyes.
“Nathan Drake, nice to meet you,” he said, letting go and turning to Elena. “Has she said anything of importance?”
“I’m not sure, she said that there was a flash of purple light and then she woke up here. Although I’m curious to know exactly how she got to Tibet and why she’s naked,” Elena told him and Nathan just sighed, looking back at Applejack. 
“Well we can’t just leave her here. Mikhail’s men will kill her in a heartbeat,” he said. Applejack paled, this place was much more dangerous then she thought. Elena nodded, leading her to the clear spot where she had woken up. Nathan had his notebook out again, and was flipping through the pages.

“Well whatever was here, it must have come from something,” said Sully, bending down to look at the stone. “Something valuable hopefully.”
“That’s where ah was lying when ah woke up. Like ah said, ah don’t really know how; or why I’m in this body now, but…” she trailed off as Nathan gave her a look. 
“What do you mean, ‘this body?’” he asked, and just as she was about to answer, Sully laughed, pulling something out of the snow. It was Applejack’s element of harmony! She started to make her way toward it as fast as she could, but Nathan stopped her.
“Hey, give that here, it’s mine,” she said, holding her hand out. Sully brought it closer to his chest, as though he was a protective mother.
“Sorry girly, but finders keepers,” he said, as he began to dangle it just out of reach. 

“Please give it here. It really is mine, ah can prove it,” Applejack begged, pulling the coat up just enough to show her cutie mark. “Look at the gem on it. It looks exactly like one of my apples doesn’t it?” but Sully raised an eyebrow, obviously not convinced. Applejack was starting to become upset at the thought of what might be her only ticket home in the hands of someone that only wanted it for greedy purposes. Elena stepped forward, putting her hand on Applejack’s shoulder.
“It really means a lot to you doesn’t it?” she asked and Applejack just nodded. “Hand it over Sully.” He grunted and tossed it Applejack, who immediately hugged it tightly when she caught it. When she placed the golden necklace around her neck, the ruby started to glow, letting out a cascading wave of light that brightened up the whole chamber. Elena and the others had backed away from her as it was happening, and stayed away after the glow died down. 

“Alright, I think you have some explaining to do,” said Nathan as he started to advance toward Applejack. All of a sudden, a large explosion ripped apart the door at the other end of the room, followed by a group of people all dressed in black.
“Aw crap, looks that that will have to wait. Elena, get her somewhere safe. Sully and I get rid of these clowns,” 

> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack held her head down as she cowered behind the stone altar, the wall in front of her being peppered with small explosions of dust that accompanied the loud bangs that were reminiscent of Pinkie’s party cannon. Elena was crouched next to her, a black piece of L-shaped metal in her hands. On the other side of the altar, Applejack could hear screaming and crying out, along with the occasional angry or happy remark from Nathan or Sully. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, a small, delicate hand. 
“It’s going to be okay Applejack, We do this all the time,” Said Elena quietly, but it did nothing to soothe Applejack’s nerves. She curled tighter into a ball, her body shaking with terror. Tears were rolling down her face as she shook her head ‘no’ over and over.

“Ah want to go home,” she whispered to herself. After some time, the noises stopped, all of them, even the voices of Nathan and Sully. Elena’s hand was rested on her shoulder again, and this time, Applejack found the courage to look up. Elena’s soft blue eyes met her bloodshot green ones, giving Applejack a feeling of calm that she hadn’t felt since she had arrived in the strange place.
“It’s alright Applejack. It’s all over,” said Elena, offering her a hand, which Applejack took. Hoisting her up, Elena led her back around the altar and Applejack let out a gasp. Throughout the chamber, bodies were strewn everywhere and copious amounts of blood were splattered all over the walls and pillars. In the centre of it all were Nathan and Sully; they were bent over a pair of bodies going through the pockets of their outfits, as though they were searching for something. When they noticed her, Nathan gestured to a pair of pants that were rested over a rock.
“Here, try these on. They look about your size,” he said, and Applejack walked over and picked up the pants. They were heavy, and made out of some course black material. Both legs were lined with pockets and lining the inside was a rough yellow material that scratched her skin as she put them on. 

“Thank you, where did you get these?” she asked, before glancing to her left and seeing a still form of one of Nathan’s enemies, but he was distinctive in that he wasn’t wearing any pants. The colour drained from her face at the thought of wearing a dead person’s clothes, but none of the others seemed to mind. A white shirt was tossed her way, once again from a dead body. While she was pleased to have the some of the cold chill taken off, the thought of the deaths made her uneasy. 
“Come on you guys, it’s time to leave,” said Nathan as he started to make his way back toward the entrance and the blown out door, Applejack took up the rear, behind Sully and Elena. 

***

The few soldiers that they came across were easy to avoid, Applejack too scared to do anything besides follow her new companions. Outside of the ruined castle, the snow was falling with almost blizzard intensity, but she had been through worse during the Cloudsdale’s weather factory training day, when teams of young pegasi would be tested in their ability to begin and maintain specific weather patterns and as a result, the weather for that particular day was erratic, switching from one extreme to the next. Four hours of silent sneaking and walking later, they arrived at a small village that consisted mainly of thatched roofed stone huts. Applejack followed the others into a hut that rested close to the centre of the small village and was by far the largest. Inside was a very simple living room that gave Applejack a sense of calm and even a depressing pang of homesickness. As soon as her eyes found a bed, Applejack headed straight for it, completely exhausted from the hike. She considered herself an athlete when she was a pony, but now, in this body, she felt very unfit. Her hair, devoid of its usual red hair-tie, was now drenched with sweat, clinging to her face like Fluttershy when she met somepony new. She flopped down on the bed, panting as the others sat down at a nearby table. 

“Hey Applejack, come here and sit down, I think we all have some questions for you,” said Nathan, which prompted both a groan and a nervous chuckle from the work horse. Reluctantly, she walked over to the wooden table and sat down on one of the rough looking chairs. Nathan, Elena and Sully stared at her, making her feel very uncomfortable. Nathan kept looking like he wanted to say something, opening his mouth to start, but quickly closing it. After a moment, he looked at Elena and shrugged. Elena just let out an exhausted sigh. 

“Okay Applejack, since the boys are a bit useless; I’ll start. So why don’t tell us a bit about yourself,” she said, smiling warmly. Applejack nodded once, running her hand through her hair and moving a few strands away from her face. 
“Wh-Where do you want me to start?” she asked nervously, unsure of how to tell them the truth. They seemed friendly, and they had probably saved her life, but she had no idea how they would react to the news of her true identity as a pony. Did they even know of Equestria? Of Princess Celestia and the Elements of Harmony?
“Just start at the beginning,” Elena told her.
“O-Okay, well as you know, my name is Applejack and-“ she started, before Sully put up a hand to stop her.
“Look kid, that’s a pretty name and all, but I think I would feel more comfortable if you told us your real name,” he said gruffly. Ever since the incident with the element of honesty, Sully had been quite short with her, and on occasion even openly hostile. 

“But that is my real name. Ah’m Applejack Apple,” she said proudly, only to receive a snort from Nathan. Elena gave him a dirty look that silenced him. 
“It’s okay, just keep going,” 
“Well, ah don’t really know what else to tell you; Ah work on my family’s apple orchard, ah live with my grandmother, older brother and younger sister. There isn’t much else,” Applejack lied, deciding it was best if they didn’t know the truth just yet.
“But where are you from? Judging by your accent it has to be from southern America, but that just raises the question of how you got to be in ancient Tibetan ruins without any clothes on,” Nathan asked, before getting to his feet and walking around the table to a kitchen where a small tin kettle had started to whistle. He poured the boiling water into four cups, one for each of them and set them down on the table in front of the others. Applejack took a sip of the sweet smelling tea, using the time to come up with some sort of explanation. She let out a sigh as she set the cup back down, the others looking at her expectantly.
“Look, all you need to know is that ah’m not from around here, far from it in fact. But I just really want to get home, I’m not meant to be here,” She said, Elena and Nathan seemed satisfied with the answer, but Sully moved forward, lighting up another one of his pungent cigars and blowing smoke straight into her face, before gesturing at the necklace that was draped around her.

“So, why don’t you tell us exactly what that is, because it seems mighty familiar,” said Sully in a low voice, before he reached into Nathan’s jacket that was hanging on the back of his chair and pulled out another golden necklace that was identical to her own in every way, except for the jewel. This necklace featured a red ruby in the shape of a single lightning bolt.
‘That’s the element of Loyalty, does that mean that Rainbow is here? In this place? No, it can’t be, I was the only one sucked into Twilight’s stupid portal, what is going on?’ she wondered, reaching for the other element, only to have it snatched away from her.

“Oh no, I don’t think so, you aren’t getting this one. We worked much too hard to get it,” Sully told her. Applejack scowled at him, before sighing once again and looking down at the table.
“That is the element of Loyalty, one of six pieces of jewellery that make up the collective Elements of Harmony. I carry the Element of Honesty and the one you have is meant to be worn by my friend Rainbow Dash, but I have no idea where she is. Last place ah saw her was back where ah come from,” Applejack told them, before reaching for the element of Loyalty again. Sully just shook his head and smirked. 
“So what are the other Elements, and more importantly, why are they significant?” Nathan asked, snatching the necklace off Sully and studying it. 
“Well, like ah said, there are six Elements of Harmony; Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter and Magic. They are the most powerful force in the entire world, and Princess Celestia used them in the past to turn Discord, the god of Chaos, into stone and banish her sister, Princess Luna, to the moon when she went nuts and tried to put the world into eternal darkness as Nightmare Moon,” Applejack Blurted, hoping to convey as much information as possible in the smallest amount of time. The others looked at her with blank expressions and she gave them an awkward smile in return. Nathan raised his hand, much like a young colt in school. 

“Firstly, thank you for clearing that up, very helpful to know that I’m currently holding one of the most powerful things in the world. Secondly, you realise that I can’t believe a single word of what you’re saying,” he said, chuckling. 
“I know that here; it must sound ridiculous, but I swear, it’s all true,” Applejack told them, putting her hand over hear heart. 
“I believe you Applejack; it’s just that everything you are saying is just a bit too fantastic. Gods of Chaos don’t really exist, a person can’t banish their sister to the moon and how could something as simple as set of necklaces be the most powerful objects on Earth?” Elena enquired, leaning closer to Applejack as she started to shake her head. They needed to understand, needed to help her.

“Y’all don’t get it. These things are magical, they work on the powers of harmony and friendship and as for Discord and the Princesses; they are very real where I am from, all too real and all too powerful. I need to get back there. The elements will only work if all of them are together and if something happens while I’m away, I will never forgive myself,” she said, getting to her feet and looking each of them in the eye. Nathan hesitated, looking down at his cup of tea and staring into the piping hot beverage. Elena reached across the table, and gripped his hand lightly, telling Applejack all she needed to know about them. Nathan’s lips curled into a small smile, and he looked back at Applejack, who was shaking slightly with nervous anticipation and worry.

***

“Okay Applejack, we’ll help you. But I think that I’ll need to get you up to speed on these ‘Elements of Harmony’ as you call them,” said Nathan, getting to his feet and making his way over to the bed that Applejack had been resting on earlier. Picking up a leather knapsack, he retrieved a large, leather bound book from inside. The cover was gilded with gold, featuring an ornate pattern in each corner that pointed toward the centre, where a golden unicorn’s head with a blue sapphire as an eye was prominent. Applejack knew exactly what this book was, even if the others didn’t. It had been the source of their salvation at least twice now. It was the book on the elements of harmony. Inside was all of the information on said elements that had been accumulated over the millennia of Celestia’s rule, stretching all the way back to the time of Discord. 
“We found this in a temple at the centre of Ayres rock in Australia, along with that necklace,” explained Nathan, placing the book on the table in front of her. “We can’t decipher what it says though; it’s in some strange language that seems to have no parallels anywhere else in the world. Man, what I wouldn’t give for a Rosetta stone right now,” 
Applejack sat back on the chair and opened the book. Pages and pages of Equestrian writing met her eyes and she smiled, her homesickness sated for the moment. Nathan had apparently tried multiple times to translate what was written, judging by the pen scrawls in the margins of each page.

“This book, ‘The Elements of Harmony: A reference guide’ has everything somepony has to know when dealing with the elements. Like here; this page tells of how Princess Celestia banished Luna to the moon, beginning the ‘mare in the moon’ fairy tale,” Applejack revealed, pointing to the surprisingly detailed drawing of the mare in the moon. 
“Wait, you can read this?” asked Elena, looking at her in surprise. 
“Of course, it’s the language from my home; Equestria,” she explained.
“What does it sound like?” Nathan enquired.

“Apparently the same as yours. I’m fairly certain that I am speaking Equestrian right now,”
“Nate, come on!” groaned Sully, lighting another cigar and discarding the burnt stump of his previous one. “Are we honestly going to believe this… this whako? I mean; magic, Elements of Harmony and how convenient that she can read that book,” 
Applejack glared at him, starting to get tired of his constant questioning and bad attitude. Sully walked around the table and bent down close to her face. 

“Get that cigar out of my face,” Applejack threatened.
“It’s not in your face it’s in my mouth,” He replied smugly.
“Hehe, Sherlock reference,” chuckled Nathan and both Applejack and Sully gave him a quizzical look. He smiled awkwardly and took a step back. Elena however, took a step forward, pushing the two away from each other. 
“Sully, enough. Applejack knows more about what we are hunting than us, or even Krushchev. We can help each other out here; Applejack gets to go home, and we get the necklaces, simple,” she said, trying her best to defuse the already tense situation. 

“Oh, I’ll be getting the necklaces,” growled Sully, before grabbing Applejack’s necklace and tearing it away. Applejack started toward him, her knuckles white as she clenched her hands into fists. 

“Y’all better give that back!” yelled Applejack, stamping her foot on the ground. Sully shook his head and smirked.
“I don’t think so girly, like Elena said, WE get the necklaces, and you get to go home, I’m just getting paid up front,” he replied, tucking the element into his jacket. Applejack growled, before dashing forward and kicking him in the belly. Her heavy, black leather boot impacted his abdomen with a solid thud, causing him to double over. His cigar flew out of his mouth, rocketing across the room and colliding with the far wall. Sully’s eyes crossed and he dropped onto his knees as soon as Applejack pulled her leg away. Neither Nathan nor Elena reacted; instead they both just stared at her with their eyes wide in shock. Applejack leant down and reached into Sully’s jacket and retrieving the element. Placing it around her neck, a glow was emitted from the jewel, as though it recognised its owner. 

“Never try that again. This is my element, and I won’t let anypony take it off me. Not you, not Nathan, not that Kruschev guy, nopony. It’s my only way home, and I will fight for that,”

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cold and desolate airfield seemed endless in the low fog as Applejack, Nathan and Elena waited for Sully to arrive with his plane. The incident with the element of honesty the day before had only served to strengthen the wall that had been erected between the former pony and the old treasure hunter. Nathan and Elena had taken Applejack’s side in the whole affair, a fact that she disliked. She did not wish to be the cause of their grief, especially when she could tell that they were the best of friends. The chopping sound of the propeller filled her ears and when she turned, the large red and white sea plane was taxing along the runway toward them. While this was the first plane Applejack had ever seen, she tried her best not to panic at the idea of flying in a small, enclosed metal capsule. She had flown before, even walked on clouds, but being an Earth pony, the sky was not her domain. Once Sully opened the door, giving them all a grunt as a greeting. Nathan climbed the ladder first, catching Elena and Applejack’s bags when they were thrown at him. Applejack’s bags only contained a few simple clothes that she had been given by the women in the village. She was still wearing the same black motorcycle pants that Nathan had gotten for her, as well as a blue long sleeve shirt and a warm, woollen jacket. 

Once they had all gotten settled and strapped into their seats, Sully took the pilots seat and started to get the plane ready for take-off. Applejack was breathing heavily and gripping the armrests so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. 
“Hey, are you okay?” Nathan asked from behind her. Sully had kicked him out of the cockpit, consigning him to the back of the plane with the others. Applejack shook her head, letting out a little squeak as the g-force of the plane taking off pushed her back into her seat. 

“Now just relax, flying is very safe, and Sully is one of the best fliers I know,” he told her and she could only think of Rainbow Dash and how she never seemed to have this much trouble taking to the air. Despite Nathan’s best efforts, Applejack could not calm down, staying panicked as they continued to climb to cruising altitude. As soon as they levelled out and Sully turned off the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign, Applejack grabbed a plastic bag and started to throw up into it. She could hear Sully laughing from the cockpit, but as soon as she took the bag away from her face so she could throw the bag at him, she heaved and had to use the bag again. When she felt confident that the vomiting had stopped, Applejack tied the top of the bag, still astonished at the dexterity of her new appendages and the way that she was using them with the expertise of somepony that had been using them for their entire life. 

“So where exactly did you say we were going?” she asked with a raspy voice, before clearing her throat and feeling a little bit of bile rise into her throat. 
“America, specifically the city of New Orleans. We found a map in the temple where we found you that detailed the location of the next one,” explained Elena, as Nathan pulled Rainbow Dash’s element of harmony out of his bag and passed it to Applejack. It was warm to her touch and it seemed to let off some kind of energy that Applejack could only describe as Rainbow Dash. It made her feel energetic, almost invincible and ready to try anything.  

“Were you and Rainbow Dash close?” Nathan asked, his head poking over the back of Applejack’s seat. 
“Uh… Yeah, we were pretty close. Athletic rivals, best friends, whatever other titles there are, you can call us that,” she said, her eyes beginning to well up with tears. 
“So… lovers?” 
“What! Okay, so not EVERY single title,” she laughed, wiping the tears away. She looked up at Nathan, and his cheeky smile made her shake her head. 
“Don’t mind him AJ; just leave him to his stupid fantasies,” said Elena, pushing him back down into his seat. “So who were the other bearers of the elements of harmony, you never really told us about them,”
“Okay, so there is Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy,” Applejack explained and she could see Elena and Nathan struggling to hold back their laughter. “What? What is it?”
“Twi-Twilight Sparkle? That sounds like something out of one of those stupid teen vampire movies,” said Nathan as he started to laugh hysterically. Applejack raised an eyebrow at him, not only because she didn’t understand the reference, but also as a warning not to insult her friends. 

“I don’t understand what the problem is; they are perfectly normal names,” 
“Oh AJ, no they aren’t. Even Applejack isn’t a name that is very common,” said Elena. While she didn’t understand why they were laughing, Applejack found herself giggling as well. 
Eventually the laughter died down and they settled in for the hours long trip to the nearest international airport, where they would catch an even larger plane to America. Nathan and Elena had even managed to secure Applejack something called a passport, which was a document required to travel between countries. Since they didn't think that ‘Applejack’ would be considered a real name, Elena opted for calling her by the name ‘Jacquelyn Apple’ on the passport. It also stated that she was from a place called ‘Kansas’ which Applejack was informed was a state in the southern half of America, meaning that she was just going home. 

As always, Sully tried to convince the others to leave her behind and continue on their own, only to be immediately shot down. She knew that she would have to confront him at some point, but didn't know when. 

***

The larger plane was much more comfortable than Sully’s beat up old sea plane, having proper seats, toilets, and even people to serve food. Applejack had trouble choosing at first, as everything seemed to have some form of meat in it, but upon seeing apple pie, perked up almost instantly. 
The pie didn’t taste nearly as good as the ones her Granny Smith made, but the familiar taste of apples helped to reduce her anxiety about flying. She had managed to get a seat next to Elena, while Nathan and Sully were a few rows ahead of them. 

“Wow, you can really put away the food,” said Elena, as Applejack stuffed multiple pies into her mouth, barely chewing. Her hair was back in her usual style; the long pony tail with the hair tie near the bottom, and even though Nathan had found her a brown Stetson hat, she still missed her old one.  

***

Waking up with a strained neck and a small puddle of drool on her shoulder, Applejack climbed off the plane to find an air strip that was much flashier than the other ones she had visited. It was super modern, like the famous art gallery in Manehatten. She followed them through it, marvelling at the sheer amount of people hurrying around and yelling. The wall of noise was almost too much for the work horse to bear, and she put the hood of her jacket up over her head in an attempt to block out the sound, but to no avail. 

The rest of the airport was a blur, as Nathan found a place to rent a vehicle and led them out to the building. Applejack made a point to stick close to Elena and Nathan, while Sully wandered in front of them, and insisted that he be the driver of the car. They had landed in the city of New Orleans, and as they started to head toward the centre of the city, Applejack was horrified to see the place in ruins, and even though it reminded her of Ponyville after Discord’s return, it was still a major shock.

“Wh-What happened here?” she asked and Nathan gave her a quizzical look.
“Seriously? Well, a few years ago, an enormous hurricane tore through here, destroying about eighty per cent of the city. I remember seeing the photos when I was in Canada and I was so… sad,” he explained, suddenly going quiet. 
The centre of the city was a stark contrast to the outer areas. It was the biggest party that Applejack had ever seen. The streets were filled with people, but it wasn’t the same as the airport. The people there were cold, distant and seemed to be devoid of any emotion. But here, at the party, people were happy, laughing and just hugging anyone within arm’s reach.
“God damn it Nate, Mardi Gras!” Sully exclaimed happily, his demeanour instantly changing as the crowd parted to let them through.

“Calm yourself, you dirty old man,” laughed Nathan.
“Wow, Pinkie Pie would just love this here shindig,” said Applejack, smiling at the thought of her bouncy pink friend. They arrived at the hotel where they were going to be staying, only to discover that it was completely full. Some heated words and a few bribes eventually saw them getting a room in the basement, much to both Elena’s and Sully’s displeasure. 
“Okay, so I know that this isn’t ideal, but hey, after a good night’s rest, I’m sure it won’t seem so bad,” he said, trying to calm the others down. Sully simply shook his head and walked out of the small concrete room, mumbling something about beads. Applejack looked over at Elena, who was starting to unpack Nathan’s leather bag that contained all of their information on the elements and the temples that they resided in. Rainbow’s element of harmony rested on top of the book.

“So ah’ve been meaning to ask; how did you guys start hunting the elements,” she asked, sitting down at the table across from Elena. Nathan, walked over and sat down, opening a bottle of a drink he called ‘beer.’ Applejack had tried it, but had found it to be disgusting. 

“It’s kind of a long story, but… We were in South America, looking through an old Mayan temple that had recently been discovered. It seemed like any other, but with a much higher emphasis on the sun and moon. After dodging a few traps and doing far too much climbing, we found a stone tablet that talked about some kind of ‘ultimate power.’ Underneath all that was a single line, written in Spanish. I assume that it was left there by the conquistadores when they invaded,” he explained, pausing for a moment to take a long swig of the beer. “All that the single line said was; ‘You will find loyalty in the land of the rainbow serpent.’”

“Rainbow Serpent? What in the hay does that mean?” 
“In the indigenous Australian culture, the Rainbow Serpent slithered across the desert, gouging out waterways for the people to use,” said Elena, showing Applejack a picture of a rock painting. “Some stories even have the Rainbow Serpent being the barer of all weather, both good and bad,” 
“That sounds familiar,” replied Applejack.

“And then when we got there and found the necklace, there was another cryptic line in a language that didn’t make sense, which in this case was Dutch. This time, the sentence said; ‘Honesty can be found in the icy land of the enlightened god,” continued Nathan and Applejack just turned to Elena for the explanation.

“It’s talking about Buddha, and the ‘icy land’ was another clue, telling us it was Tibet,” said Elena knowingly. 
“So was there an inscription where y’all found me?” Applejack asked and Elena pulled a camera out of a smaller bag and showed her the photo of a wall with some strange language scratched into it. “What does it say?”
“Laughter can be found in the swamp of the dead, where parties shake the Earth itself,” 
“Wow, that’s pretty morbid,”

“Very true, but the only place it fits is New Orleans, home of the biggest party in all of America and famous for its above ground cemeteries,” smiled Nathan. “I can’t wait to see what we find in this temple.” 
“Well, the clue is in the clue,” said Applejack, and smiled at the confused looks of Elena and Nathan. “Laughter can be found. Pinkie Pie is laughter, so ah have to assume we find her necklace,” 

> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack’s night went mostly uninterrupted, aside from when Sully stumbled into the basement at two in the morning in a drunken stupor, knocking over the table and two chairs as he made his way toward his bunk. When she awoke, Applejack almost immediately noticed a horrid smell coming from the direction of Sully’s bunk, and when she looked over, her face contorted into a grimace at the sight of the large puddle of vomit that was on the floor next to his bed. 

She woke up Nathan and Elena next, as they all wanted to get a good head start on finding the entrance to the next temple. Nathan had a good idea where it might be, but it was still going to take a long time. 

When they got out onto the street, it was nothing like it had been the night before; the road was covered in broken glass, litter and hundreds of plastic bead necklaces. The occasional drunk that had passed out on the ground or slumped against the side of a building groaned as they walked past. With the roads closed and the streets a mess, the only way for them to get around was too walk. Luckily, Elena had picked to hotel well, and it was a short walk to their destination; Saint Louis cemeteries, the largest above ground cemetery in the city. A chill crawled its way up Applejack’s spine as she looked at the rows and rows of stone caskets and mausoleums. So many of them had been ornately decorated, which only served to unsettle Applejack even more. In the centre of the cemetery stood a massive stone pillar that towered above everything else. 
“Kind of obvious isn’t it?” remarked Applejack, as Nathan and Elena began to search every square inch of the pillar’s base. Nathan took out a small black notebook and started flipping through the pages, before stopping on one and studying it closely. After a moment, he handed it to Applejack, and although she had no idea how to read their language, one thing was clear; that pillar was important. The page in Nathan’s note book featured a piece of yellowed parchment with a highly detailed drawing of the pillar with a bunch of what appeared to be messy scrawling’s.

“Y’all realise that ah can’t read this right?” she asked and Nathan just sighed irritably. 
“It’s from the journal of an old Dutch explorer who was carrying the pillar on his ship when it was stolen by the French, who then went on to found New Orleans years later,” Nathan explained as he walked to the back of the pillar. “I know that it is this exact pillar because the captain of the ship that stole it is buried in that tomb beside you.” Applejack took a step in the opposite direction, making Elena smile. 

“Come on and help us look, you might notice something we don’t,” she said and Applejack nodded, starting to look at the immediate area around the pillar, at the tombs that surrounded it. She knew that to anypony that happened to be visiting the cemetery, as she had been told that it was a major tourist attraction, that the three treasure hunters must have looked like they were unnaturally interested in just one area of the cemetery. 

***

Applejack was lazily looking at the engravings on a tomb, trying hard not to think of the decaying corpse that lay behind the thin stone cover, when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention; some kind of giant round insignia that had been carved into the side of a mausoleum. It featured intricate vines around the edges, and then a ring of oval orbs with small tails coming off them, making them look like balloons. Different nonsensical designs made up the next few rings but it was the centre of the carving that Applejack was focussing on. A set of three balloon shaped carvings in a very specific pattern, with the middle balloon slightly raised.

“Hey come over here, I think I found something,” Applejack called to the others, who quickly rushed over to here. 
“What have you got?” asked Nathan as he ran his hands over the carving. 
“See that symbol in the centre? That’s Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark,”
“Cutie Mark?”
“Right. Sorry. You know those apples I have on my legs? Well they are my cutie mark. Where I come from, we get a unique cutie mark when we get old enough to discover our special talent, our purpose in life,” 
“That’s actually kind of cool. I wonder what mine would be,” said Nathan, flipping through his notebook for any mention of the symbol. Applejack meanwhile, walked up and placed her hand on the cutie mark carving.

‘Pinkie,’ she thought, blinking rapidly to fight back the tears. Applejack leant against the stone, and to her surprise, felt the centre of the carving slide deeper into the mausoleum. It was only an inch or so, but it was enough for her to get excited. She tried pushing more, only to find it stuck. She narrowed her eyes, moving her hand so that her entire palm covered the balloons. She then turned it to the right, and it slid inside even more, then another right rotation and the centrepiece slid all the way through, locking in place with a solid clunk. The sound of turning gears filled the air and Applejack and Nathan backed away as the sound got louder and louder. Applejack looked at Elena excitedly, hoping that they were a little bit closer to finding a way home. With another loud clunk, the centrepiece slid back in place, shaking the entire mausoleum. The stone door swung open, revealing a long staircase that descended into darkness. She looked over at Nathan, whose mouth was hanging open in shock.

“See, told you that the pillar was too obvious,” she remarked, crossing one ankle over the other and giving her Stetson a tilt. Taking the lead, she turned on the torch that she had attached to her belt, which illuminated the narrow tunnel. Being slightly larger than either of the others, Applejack’s shoulders touched both sides of the passageway, making her feel slightly claustrophobic. A pleasant and familiar smell arose from the depths as they got deeper and deeper. 
“What is that?” asked Elena, who was just behind her. “And where is it coming from?”
“Ah think it might be vanilla,” replied Applejack, as her mind clicked. The smell was one she knew all too well; Sugarcube corner, Pinkie’s workplace and home. 

The passage started to widen, which helped Applejack to relax. When it got wide enough that all three of them were able to stand side by side, they came across a massive stone door that was almost identical to the one that had gotten them into the passage, except for one key difference; the centrepiece did not have a carving of Pinkie’s cutie mark. Instead, it featured two crescent moon shaped indents. 

“We found one of these in the temple under Uluru, but the indentation in the door there was a rectangle. Turns out the book was the key,” Nathan explained as he prodded the indentations. “But these ones I don’t recognise.” 
“Uh, Nate,” Elena said, tapping him on the shoulder. In her hand she held the element of loyalty. Applejack and Nathan gave each other an embarrassed look, before she unclipped the element of honesty from around her neck and placed it in lower indentation. Elena shook her head as she locked the other into the remaining hole, then pushed it in and unlocked it the same way as the other door. Once again, the clanking sound of rotating gears filled the air, but much louder than before and Applejack got the feeling that something other than a simple door was opening. With the grinding sound of stone against stone, the door started to slide upwards, ejecting the elements into Applejack’s hands just before it disappeared into nowhere. She placed her element around her neck, squinting her eyes against the orange glow that the gem emitted. Then she saw what was beyond the door and her eyes went wide in awe; an enormous cavernous expanse that had a domed ceiling and rounded walls. In the exact centre of the cavern was a huge square building made out of stone like everything else. 

“Woah,”

***

The path down to the building had disintegrated due to the progression of time, leaving big gaps that they were barely able to jump across, and after an hour of jumping, slipping and occasional panic, they arrived at the temple. The door to this one was the same as the first, and was easy to get through. To the surprise of all three treasure hunters, the inside of the temple was coloured completely pink and on the far wall were five glass tanks that were filled with powders and liquids of various colours. On the ceiling was a mural of what Applejack could only describe as a balloon garden. 

“What the hell?” whispered Nathan.
“Well this is certainly… Pink,” said Elena as she looked around. 
“Yeah, so is Pinkie Pie,” said Applejack, smiling widely as she started to study the glass tanks. At the bottom of each tank was a metal funnel that led into a basin and in the bottom of the basin was a tiny carving that just made her laugh. Nathan and Elena ran over and looked around the area to see what had her in such an uproar.

“What is it?” asked Elena and Applejack just pointed at the carving in the basin. “Is that a… cupcake?”
“What!” Nathan exclaimed, looking into the basin with a puzzled expression. “What does that mean?” Applejack walked around to the side of the first tank and gripped a metal wheel that she reasoned controlled the release for the funnel.
“Applejack, what are you doing?” Elena asked nervously. 

“All you gotta do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix,” Applejack sung, turning the wheel and letting some of the white powder run out and into the basin. She closed off the release and moved to the tank on the other side of the room. 
“Now just take a little something sweet, not sour,” she continued, ignoring the strange looks from the other two. Moving on the rest of the tanks and systematically turning the wheels to release their contents, Applejack kept singing.

“A little bit of salt, just a pinch,
Baking these treat is such a cinch,
Add a teaspoon of Vanilla!
Add a little more, and you count to four, 
And you never get your fill of…
Cupcakes! So sweet and tasty!
Cupcakes! Don’t be too tasty!
Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES!” 
With one last spin, Applejack threw out her arms and smiled, as the pedestal and the basin slid downwards until it went underneath the floor, before quickly becoming covered by an aperture-like lid.

“I have no idea what just happened,” said Nathan flatly. Applejack walked back to them and took up a place beside Elena, watching as the glass tanks were drawn into the ceiling. As they vanished from view Applejack spotted a rectangular gap in the wall that the tanks had been hiding. Making their way over, Nathan poked his head into the gap, before quickly retracting it, calling out at the same time.

“That is a god damn alligator in there,” he said in a panicked tone. Elena took a step back as well, as the deep sound of an alligator’s growl reached her ears. Applejack took off her hat and passed it to Nathan, who still looked a little shaken. 
“The element must be through there, so you guys wait here while ah sort out our big friend here,” she said as took a few step back, then started running toward the wall, ignoring the protests from the others. 
She dived through the gap, her shoulders scraping the stone. Landing on the other side with a roll, she got to her feet and looked around for any sign of the alligator. Turning her torch back on, Applejack noticed two things that were entirely unexpected. Firstly, the twenty four foot alligator was tethered to a wall by a thick chain, and secondly, that the room that they were in and the alligator’s bed was filled with large silken pillows and in front of the alligator was dog food bowl with a big ‘G’ printed on the side in green. 

“OH, Y’all gotta be kidding me,” she exclaimed, realising what was going on and chalking it up to Pinkie’s randomness breaking down the barriers between worlds. She poked her head back through the gap and told the others to come on through, informing them that it was safe. Nathan still seemed reluctant, but some gentle coaxing by Elena soon changed his tone. 

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Elena asked, holding onto Nathan’s arm tightly. Applejack was giving the alligator’s head a scratch and slowly making her way to the element that was around his neck.
“You mean ole gummy here? Oh course! He’s as gentle as a lamb, not to mention that he’s toothless,” Applejack explained, and as if on cue, Gummy opened his mouth and displayed his pink gums to them all. The fearful couple visibly relaxed and together took a cautious step forward. With a little sleight of hand, Applejack slipped the element of laughter off Gummy’s neck. 

She dropped a few apples and a chocolate bar into the food bowl, and Gummy growled happily and started to nibble at one of the apples. 

“Okay, so shall we go?” she asked, walking over to the gap, until Nathan pushed past her and scrambled through it, still in a slight panic. Both girls began to laugh hysterically as Nathan looked at them with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance spread across his face. Elena crawled out next, with Applejack about to follow her until something above her caught her eye. Shining her torch over it, she realised that it was some kind of writing. She called Elena back and got her to read it.

“Of course! I forgot all about the next clue. Now it says; ‘you will find magic in the middle of the impossible stones.’ Huh, that’s strange. It’s written in English,” she explained and as soon as she mentioned magic, Applejack’s eyes brightened. 
‘Magic! That means Twilight. I know we didn’t find Pinkie here, but Twilight promised to come and find me, she has to have found a way to get here,’ she thought, giving Gummy a quick wave and climbing out of the hole. 

Nathan was standing at the exit, ready to lead them back up the path, but the strange thing was that he wasn’t facing them. When they got next to him, Elena froze, looking at the other side of the path where a group of about fifty men all dressed in black. At the forefront was a shorter person. He wore small round glasses and had a very long brown beard; Khrushchev. But it was the person standing next to him that shocked Applejack. It was a girl wearing blue denim jeans and a light blue hooded jumper. The remarkable thing about her however, was her multi-hued hair, which barely covered the black eye and cuts that criss-crossed her face. Her hands were tied in front of her and she looked utterly defeated.
“Rainbow Dash,” she whispered. 


> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone was silent as the two factions stared at each other. For Nathan and Elena, their eyes were fixed solely on Mikhail Khrushchev; the man that had been hunting them across multiple continents. Applejack however, couldn’t take her eyes off the bloody and bruised form of Rainbow Dash. Her eyes were beginning to well up as she stared sadly at her best friend. 

“Mister Drake,” said Khrushchev in a thick Russian accent. “How nice to see you again.” 
“Can’t say I feel the same, but still,” said Nathan coyly. Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack could see his hand slowly making its way down to the weapon at his side. Khrushchev let out an extremely loud laugh, which was only made worse by the echo in the vast chamber. 

“Fair enough Mister Drake, but if you would be so kind as to hand over the necklace you just stole from me so I can be on my way,” he said, holding one of his hands out. “And don’t even think about using that gun, I’ll simply kill my hostage.”
“And just who is she?” he asked, puzzled as to why he would have bothered capturing a random citizen.

“Oh, you don’t know… how sad. But I think you pretty female companion knows,” he told them, before pointing a bony finger at Applejack. Nathan and Elena looked at her expectantly. Applejack hesitated, knowing that she needed to tell them the truth but not wanting to put Rainbow in danger.

“It’s uh… It’s Rainbow Dash,” she said quietly, prompting surprised expressions on the faces of her two friends.
“But how, I thought you said you were the only one to come here?” asked Elena, moving closer to Applejack in the hopes Kruschev wouldn’t hear.

“Ah thought ah was,” Applejack told her truthfully, never taking her eyes off Rainbow Dash’s face. Not once had Rainbow bothered to look up and see what was around her, nor make a snide remark, which gave Applejack a good indication on the way she had been treated.

“What do you want with the necklaces?” Asked Nathan, his hand moving away from the gun at his hip.
“I would have thought you would be aware of their power by now Drake.”
“I am, but that still doesn’t answer my question.” 
“These simple necklaces have the power to reshape the world in any way I see fit, who wouldn’t want that kind of control?” he laughed. Applejack’s hands curled into fists as a scowl crossed her lips.
“How dare you! These are the elements of harmony, they’re meant to be used to bring peace, not assert control over people,” she shouted angrily, so utterly appalled by what she was hearing. Kruschev laughed again, this time joined by his men, making Applejack even angrier. 

“You are a very funny girl. I like you. Please hand over all of your necklaces and we will let you go,” he told them, and the three just stood defiant against him, not making even the slightest move to get the elements. The short bearded Russian just sighed and waved his hand, silently telling his soldiers to kill them. Applejack suddenly had five guns levelled at her, but she was determined not to back down.

“AJ, get down!” Yelled Elena as she and Nathan dived to the right. The guns went off and the floor around Applejack’s feet was peppered with small bursts of powdered stone. Applejack dived to the left, scrambling behind the wall that made up the entrance to the temple. Elena waved her arm to get Applejack’s attention before she grabbed her spare pistol and slid it along the floor over to her.

“Ah don’t know how to use this,” she said as she picked it up with her thumb and index finger.
“It’s just like using a camera, just point and shoot,” she said hurriedly. Applejack sighed as she gripped the handle and stuck her arm around the edge of the wall, blind firing wildly and hoping that she hit something.

“Be careful AJ!” Nathan warned as he moved ran out from behind the wall and slid into cover behind a collapsed pillar. 
Applejack took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down and clear her head. She kept breathing deeply, pushing all of the distractions from her mind until all she could hear was the sound of her breathing and her own heartbeat. 

Applejack got to her feet with her back pressed firmly against the wall behind her. She inhaled deeply, holding it as she popped out from behind the wall. She gripped the gun tightly with both hands as she brought it up to eye level, training her line of sight on the closest one of Khrushchev’s men. Her index finger twitched as she pulled the trigger. With a huge boom, the gun went off and the recoil threatened to break her wrist, but she kept it steady, moving it to the next closest as the first one dropped to the ground, clutching his chest.

Sound rushed back into her world as she continued to fire and after about half a minute she her gun started clicking every time she pulled the trigger, indicating that she was out of ammunition. She moved back to her original position and waited, listening for any signs of enemies. When no sounds came, she peeked around the wall to see Nathan cautiously making his way along the path.

“Are they gone?” Elena asked as she walked over to Applejack and took the gun off her so she could reload it. Nathan shrugged, putting his own weapon back into its holster.

“Afraid not, Mister Drake,” said the cold voice of Khrushchev from the top of the path. They all whipped around to see that he was back with another fifteen of his black clad men. “You can’t win Drake, so just hand over the necklace and surrender.” Nathan let out a disgruntled sigh as Khrushchev waved his hand again and his new force levelled their weapons at them. He reached into a small leather pouch that he had attached to his belt and retrieved the element of laughter. The blue balloon shaped gem glinted in the light as he flipped it over in his hand. One of Khrushchev’s men was sent down the path to collect the prize.

Suddenly, a bolt of searing blue lightning shot out of the blue gem, arcing into the interior of the chamber. The necklace then began to float away from Nathans hand and into the middle of both parties, still crackling with blue electricity. The member of Khrushchev’s team was apparently too close, as was made apparent when a thick snake-like arc of electricity hit him straight in the chest, making him convulse for a few seconds before he collapsed to the ground, his clothes smoking where he was hit. 

The element stopped floating about two metres off the ground, then seemingly detonated into a sphere of white-blue energy. Every single person was staring at it intently in a mixture of fear and awe. Applejack’s eyes narrowed when she saw a shadow from within the sphere and she took a nervous step forward to try and get a better look. 

All of a sudden, the shadow dropped through the bottom of the sphere, revealing a bright pink shape that was screaming in a very high pitched tone. It landed on the stone path below and slowly uncurled to reveal a tall woman with bright pink hair and a pink frilly dress that went down to her knees. The woman opened her eyes and Applejack immediately recognised the light blue orbs that met her green ones. 

“Pinkie Pie.”

***

“Oh my god! Hi AJ! I can’t believe I found you so fast because now we can have a ‘We found Applejack’ party earlier than any of us could have expected. Have you found the others yet? Because Twilight told me that we would be arriving at different points in time and that it would be up to whoever arrived first to go and get the others and-“said the new arrival in a tsunami of words. Applejack was having trouble keeping up with her, but she didn’t care, she was just so happy to see her. Forgetting about her current situation, Applejack started running toward Pinkie Pie and leapt at her, drawing her into a tight embrace with tears of happiness streaming down her face.

“Ah’m so happy to see you Pinkie,” she whispered as Pinkie returned the hug.
“I’m so so happy to see you too AJ,” replied Pinkie. The sound of an exaggerated cough filled the air, and Applejack released her hyperactive friend and glared at the source of the noise; Khrushchev. 

“Aw, that’s so touching, but please, I have things to do, so just hand over the necklaces,” he said sarcastically and Applejack saw Pinkie’s hand drift to the element around her neck.

“Ah don’t think so, we will fight you if we have to,” she told him and Pinkie growled at him. 
“If you even try it, I will kill your friend,” Kruschev snapped, dragging Rainbow forward by her hair. Applejack heard Pinkie gasp beside her and knew that things were about to get tense. No one hurts Pinkie’s friends.
“Dashie! Are you okay?” Pinkie asked, her voice getting deep. Rainbow’s head snapped up when she heard Pinkie’s voice, and she gave a wry smile.

“I’m fine Pinkie, I’ll be down in a moment,” she said in her usual cocky attitude. Pinkie and Applejack both smiled and took a few steps back, meeting up with Nathan and Elena. 
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Nathan whispered as he stared at Pinkie with wide eyes. 
“Just watch. I think you’ll like this,” Applejack told him. At the other end of the path Rainbow had a wide smile on her face and her head was cocked to the side slightly. Khrushchev was holding her by the hood of her jumper and just watching Applejack and the others in a confused stupor. 

With the briefest tensing of her arms, she broke the rope that bound her wrist and grabbed Khrushchev’s arm, twisting it and kneeing him in the abdomen. One of his men tried to attack her from behind, but she kicked out with the same leg she used to knee Khrushchev and hit her assailant square in the chest. Releasing Khrushchev’s arm, Rainbow proceeded to attack the rest of his men, all of which were so unprepared for her that they were just being beaten with almost no effort from Rainbow at all. As the fight went on and the soldiers began to regain their senses, however, they started to get the upper hand on her, which was something Applejack was not expecting. Rainbow was the best fighter of any of them and if she was getting overwhelmed, then it was reason enough for Applejack to worry. 

Pinkie’s hand collided with her chest and when she looked down; she saw that Pinkie was giving her the element of Laughter.

“Take this, use it to find the others, especially Twilight. I have to help Dash,” Pinkie told her in the most serious tone she had ever heard from her pink friend. Applejack gingerly took it and placed it in one of the pocket of her pants, giving Pinkie a single nod to show that she understood. She wanted to tell her not to go, but knew that nothing she could say would help.
With a tremendous war cry, Pinkie charged forward and leapt into the fray, bouncing around in the most chaotic fighting style that any of them had ever seen. Applejack turned to Nathan and Elena, who were simply standing in one place with a dumbfounded expression on their faces.

“Come on, we have to get out of here. Pinkie and Rainbow will keep them distracted,” Applejack said giving both of them a quick tug on their shirts. When they snapped back to reality, all three of them started running toward the exit, ignoring the fight going on around them. At one point, Applejack had to roll to the floor to avoid getting hit by a soldier that Pinkie had lifted over her head and thrown as though he were nothing but a tennis ball. There seemed to be no more soldiers guarding the tight passageway that led back into the daylight, something Applejack was grateful for. When they finally got outside into the fresh air of the cemetery, Nathan ran past her, heading for a jeep that had presumably been left by Khrushchev’s men. Starting the engine and tearing off down the road with a screech of rubber on bitumen, Nathan headed for the hotel, repeating the word ‘crap’ over and over in a whisper. 

“Are you sure they are going to be okay?” Elena asked from the passenger seat as Applejack watched their rear to make certain no one was giving chase.
“Ah’m pretty sure that Khrushchev guy knows that he needs us girls to make the elements work, otherwise he probably would have just killed Rainbow when he found her,” she explained, silently hoping that her theory was correct.

“I hope you’re right,” Elena said quietly.

> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nathan kicked the basement door in, screaming at the still sleeping Sully to wake up, as Applejack and Elena set about packing up all of their gear. He dragged Sully off the cot, the old man’s chin slamming into the concrete floor.
“What in the hell is going on Nate,” he yelled, wiping the drool off his cheek. Applejack was shoving all of her clothes in her bag, including the elements of Loyalty and Laughter.

“Khrushchev’s men found us, has Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie appeared in a flash of magic. Got shot at. Alligator,” Nathan said breathlessly, surprising Applejack with his ability to sum up their situation in such a compact manner. Sully simply shrugged and proceeded to pack up his gear, curiosity sated for the moment. 
“So where are we going now?” Applejack asked Elena as she made a mental checklist of her possessions. Elena slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way over to Sully and helped him pack. 

“The United Kingdom, the ‘impossible stones’ couldn’t be anything other than Stonehenge. The stones in question aren’t from the UK, and no one knows how they got there, since it was before any kind of modern technology, hence ‘impossible,’” she explained, shuddering as she accidentally picked up a pair of boxers before throwing them in Sully’s face. 

After ten minutes of frenzied packing they sprinted out the front door of the hotel and all but dived into their rental car, opting to leave the stolen jeep behind. Nathan slammed the accelerator to the floor, tearing away from the curb and racing down the street, ignoring the disgruntled looks of the hung-over people gradually awakening on the streets. Barriers had been erected at both ends of the street in an effort to contain the partying. The blue sedan smashed through the wooden barriers, cracking the windscreen as a piece impacted the glass. 

“God dammit Nate! How do you expect us to get our deposit back,” Sully yelled and the other three all gave him a very puzzled and irritated look.
“Seriously, that’s what y’all are worried about?” Applejack shouted in disbelief. “We are getting chased by people who are trying to KILL us!”
“Since you’re new here, I’ll give you a break. But this happens to us all the time,” he said sarcastically, pulling a cigar out of his jacket pocket.
“Is that true?” Applejack asked, whispering into Elena’s ear. Elena nodded once, smiling sheepishly. Applejack simply replied with a sigh, leaning back against the seat and proceeded to rub the bridge of her nose. “Granny warned me about falling in with the wrong crowd.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” laughed Nathan, trying to lighten the mood, something Applejack did not appreciate. She was used to danger, to risking her life for the sake of the greater good, but this was something else. But there was something else that was nagging at her, and above all else, it was the fact that she had killed more than one person less than an hour ago. It was the first time she had killed anything, and for whatever reason, she didn’t feel as bad about it as she thought she should.  

‘I shouldn’t feel too bad, they were trying to kill me, and they hurt Dash. They deserve it,’ said a dark voice in the back of her mind, a voice that scared her.
“I hope they don’t hurt Pinkie, I can’t imagine what they did to Rainbow,” she said to Elena, who gave her a reassuring pat on the arm.

“Well the worst they can do is beat them,” she offered unhelpfully.
“Yeah, they aren’t ‘equipped’ for anything worse,” Sully piped up, chuckling as he chewed on the unlit cigar. 
“What do you mean?” Applejack asked, confused.
“They’re eunuchs Aj,” Elena explained, smiling as they boys in the front winced. Applejack just shrugged, having no idea what the word meant. Elena blushed as she made a scissoring motion with her fingers and pointed to her lap. A few moments passed before her mind finally clicked over to what she was talking about.
“Oh, OH! Really? Why would they do that?”
“Because they are insane,” Nathan exclaimed, dodging a particularly slow car in front of them. A wave of calm washed over her, knowing that her friends were a little safer.

***

As soon as she was in the air, Applejack fell asleep, every muscle in her body aching from tension. Elena woke her four hours later, a tray of food in front of her. 
“Are you alright?” she asked, as Applejack started to eat. 
“I’m just so tired.”
“Well I’m not surprised; this sort of job is fairly intensive.”
“You call this a job? Why do you do this?”
“Well each of us is different. For Nate, it’s about the discovery, about finding something no one else can. Sully is just interested in the money he can make off whatever we find, and me? Well at first I went along with it because I was going to get a television show out of it, but now… It’s just more fun than real life, do you know what I mean?” she told her and Applejack nodded, she knew that she must have had the same spark in her eyes whenever Twilight was galloping toward the farm in a panic. 

“We are strange people aren’t we?” she laughed and was soon joined by Elena, eliciting strange looks from those around her. “Hey, I’m sorry for dragging all of you into my business.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” said Elena, waving it off. “We were after the elements anyway, and if we can help you get home, then it’s all the better.” 

***

With the rest of the flight being uneventful, Applejack had once again fallen asleep, much to her embarrassment when she started to snore, although she didn’t find that out until they had landed. 
The first thing she noticed when they got off the plane was the temperature difference. New Orleans had been humid and uncomfortable, even inside the temple, but in London, the city they had arrived in, it was cold and misty. The only thing they had in common was the time it took for Applejack’s hair to become completely soaked. 
The car they had rented was a larger one, an ‘SUV’ as Nathan called it. It was bright red, with green strips along the side, which strangely reminded Applejack of her brother Big Macintosh.

Elena had called ahead to a score them a hotel in the town of Amesbury, where the national landmark of Stonehenge was located. From what she could tell, the English countryside was much like the areas surrounding Trottingham and Hoofington, with the deep green rolling hills and the fences made entirely out of stone. Applejack had borrowed a small device off Nathan called an ‘iPhone’ and was using it to learn more about her temporary home. It was hard not to react to the fact that the entire planet apparently shared the characteristics of the Everfree forest. The weather shifted of its own volition, the animals took care of themselves and war had occurred many times in its history. When she came to a section about ponies, Applejack started to get angry at the pictures of humans riding them or having them pull carts. It was like they were slaves to the humans, forced to do their bidding with very little in return. 

On a whim, she typed the question ‘are ponies sentient?’ into the search engine, and was only met with advertisements for children’s books that featured sentient ponies. With a defeated sigh, she returned the device to Nathan and rested her head against the side window, allowing her mind to wander back to Equestria, and more importantly, why her friends where here and looking for her.

‘Ah know Twi promised to come find me, but how could she have possibly done it without my element of harmony? She seemed sure that we were doing magic only possible with the help of the elements,’ she pondered as her eyes traced the rise and fall of the horizon. 

The town of Amesbury was one of the must rustic and oddly comforting places Applejack had ever been. Many of the houses had tiled rooves, much like some of the larger ones in Ponyville, or the hospital. The streets were cobblestoned like Canterlots, and there was a farmers market going on in the town’s square. 

“This place is so much like Ponyville,” she said to the others, all of who gave her a puzzled look. “The town where I live is called Ponyville. I mean, sure, there are a few differences, like the fact that Ponyville is almost completely surrounded on one side by my family’s orchard, of that the library is a massive hollowed out tree.” She could feel their eyes boring into her, but ignored them for the sake of reminiscing.

The hotel they found themselves in was more like a bed and breakfast, but with a few strange rules that Applejack didn’t mind at all, even if the others hated them. The main rule was that men and women weren’t allowed to sleep in the same room, regardless of whether they were married or not, meaning that they had to pay for a second room so that Nathan and Sully had a place to sleep. 

Frustrated and a little disappointed, Nathan told them all to get some sleep, and get ready to head out to Stonehenge the following morning. 

> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because of the large hills surrounding the small town the sunset came considerably earlier than normal. That, combined with the jet lag from jumping from country to country in such a rapid manner meant that Applejack was extremely exhausted before it was even time for dinner.

The others didn’t even seem to be affected by the jet lag, as they were already beginning their study of the ancient lore surrounding Stonehenge, specifically looking for anything pertaining to a temple of some sort. To her credit, Applejack managed to stay awake for two hours before her body simply couldn’t remain conscious and she slumped down into the book she was reading. 

When she awoke it was dark, but with the barest hint of the unfamiliar sun beginning to peer over the hilltops. Someone, most likely Nathan, had moved her to her bed, and when she looked over at the other, where Elena was sleeping peacefully, Applejack couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that she had let them down the night before.

Wiping the sleep from her eyes she made her way to the bathroom, looking to take her first shower since when they were in Tibet over five days earlier. After turning the taps and waiting for the water to get up to temperature, Applejack took a moment to study herself in a mirror. If she squinted, it was almost as though she had never become a human. She still had the same freckles in her face, the same emerald green eyes and the same golden hair that she had always had, except now they lived upon a face of pink skin rather than one of orange fur. In fact, the only remarkable thing about her face now was the small cut on her cheek that she hadn’t even noticed before. A small bit of cried blood was caked around the edges, and when she touched it, the whole area felt very tender and painful.

‘I must have gotten this in the temple,’ she reasoned, looking away from the glass and pulling her clothes off. The first thing she put under the water was her head, letting the hot water soak her hair and roll down her back onto the floor. Applejack let out a sigh of content relief as she felt every muscle in her body begin to relax under the caress of the water. She arched her back slightly, enjoying the pop of her vertebrae. 

Back in Equestria, she was often the last one in the house to have a shower, meaning that it was nearly always cold and whenever she had the opportunity to have a hot shower, she never felt like leaving.

Her thoughts turned to Pinkie and Rainbow and how they had arrived in this place. The main thing on her mind was the fact that they had appeared with clothes. The second thing was the fact that she had absolutely no idea where they were or how they were being treated by Krushchev’s men. For all of Nathan and Elena’s assurances that the girls were going to be fine, Applejack still had her doubts. 

A knock on the door pulled her out of her daydream, and she realised she had been standing in the water for so long that her hands had gone entirely pruney.
“Hey Aj, are you about done in there? I’m not sure how much longer I can…” said Elena with a strained voice. Applejack apologised and hurriedly got out of the shower, almost being bowled over by Elena rushing through the door in the process.
“I’m already starting off the day fantastically,” Applejack groaned.

***

As Applejack struggled with boots that were a size too small, Nathan and Sully entered the room, arguing about Sully’s horrible snoring. Applejack was only half listening, until a plastic bag was thrown at her chest. Inside was a pair of heavy black hiking boots, as well as a new pair of black motorcycle cargo pants and an orange button up shirt. 

“What’s this?” she asked, holding up the shirt.
“We thought you would look good in orange. Don’t know why,” he explained, immediately going back to moaning at Sully. Applejack stared wide-eyed at the shirt, unnerved by the fact that it was the exact shade of orange that her coat used to be. Trying not to react, she slipped it over her white singlet, feeling a strange sense of calm when she looked down at the orange covering her arms. She then ushered the boys out of the room so she could change her pants.

Elena walked out a second later, a towel wrapped around her head.
“Hey, that shirt really suits you,” she commented and Applejack smiled.
“Thanks, so what did you guys find out about Stonehenge last night?” she asked, walking over to a pile of paper and books on the nearby table. 

“Well yes and no,” Elena replied, walking up beside her. “A few rumours and urban legends, but nothing concrete. But then we went through the reference book and surprisingly enough found things that linked Stonehenge’s many, many myths to the element of magic.”
“Like what?”

“Well it has long been thought to be one of the most magical sites on the planet, with literally hundreds of reported sightings of supernatural things like fairies, strange lights and the such. And to quote the book, ‘The element of magic is the most volatile, and will often cause the random manifestation of magical entities.’” Elena explained, showing her the entry in the book. Applejack blushed with embarrassment and thanked Celestia that Nathan had transcribed the book as she read it to them, otherwise they would never have been able to study without her.

“Let’s get a move on then, I just hope that Twilight doesn’t get captured like the others did,” she said and Elena moved to put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry; we don’t even know if Krushchev’s men saw the inscription. They may not have a single clue about Stonehenge being the next location,” Elena offered, but it did little to console Applejack. 

***

The road to the landmark was packed with hundreds of cars, making Applejack feel a little claustrophobic as their SUV was boxed in by other vehicles. To occupy herself, she had gone back to researching her new world on Nathan’s phone. Every time the car moved even an inch, Applejack’s head always snapped up excitedly. She wasn’t used to sitting still for such a long time, even when she took the train to Canterlot with her friends, a three hour trip either way. 

After some time, the lure for information shifted from the world at large to Applejack’s companions, especially when she thought about what she knew about them and came up with nothing. 

“So Nathan, how did you get into this whole thing?” she asked, tossing the phone into his lap. Nathan, who was driving at the time and whose knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel in frustration, seemed to snap out of a trace when the phone landed on his legs.

“What? Oh, I’ve kind of always been into it. I remember stealing the ring I wear around my neck as probably my first real adventure,” he told her, showing off a gold ring he had tied around his neck with black string. 
“Wait, you stole that? Where from?” Elena chimed in.

“A museum in Columbia, it’s actually where I met Sully for the first time,” he explained, giving a nod to his elderly friend. 
“And so what, you just decided to become a fortune hunter? Why?” Applejack asked and Nathan seemed to hesitate for a while, shooting quick glances at both Sully and Elena.

“I-I suppose it’s the only thing I’ve ever really known,” he replied, shrugging. 

***

They arrived at Stonehenge to find it crawling with tourists, and when she they looked across the field where the stone were located from the top of a nearby hill, it closely resembled an anthill or even Canterlot during hearts warming eve. 

They decided to wait until it was dark, mainly to avoid the inevitable questions they would get if they started searching for an ancient temple in the middle of the day. 

Applejack was really surprised that even after the sun had gone down, people were still hanging around in the field, taking photos by torchlight and much to Applejack’s confusion; praying to it. 

When the last person finally left, they rushed down the hill and quickly set up a few battery powered lanterns as light sources. Nathan took out his black notebook and started flipping through the pages of notes, looking for any sort of clue as to the entrance of the temple. Meanwhile, Applejack started looking around for something that would vaguely resemble Twilight’s cutie mark because she felt certain that it would denote the entrance, just as it did in New Orleans. 

There were a few times where the moss covered stones were pitted in such a way that it might have looked like a star, but ultimately they were just too small or didn’t have enough points to be Twilight’s cutie mark. 

“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way, what if there is no symbol of the element of magic because the strange sightings ARE the symbols,” said Sully, going quiet as the rest of the troupe stared at him with dumbfounded expressions. “Think about it; the element of magic is meant to be the most volatile right? Then it would have no need for fancy iconography because the only people who could interpret the magical outbursts are those LOOKING for the element.
“Hey, that’s actually a really good idea Sully,” laughed Nathan, giving his friend a slap on the shoulder.

“Yeah, but… How do we get into the temple if there is no real entrance?” Applejack asked. She liked the idea, but there were too many holes for it to be plausible.

“I thought of that as well girly. It’s like I said, people who could interpret the magic are those looking for the element, so they would have to have gotten the others first. So all we have to do is figure out how we use the other elements to open the gate,” he explained, obviously very pleased with himself. Applejack hesitated for a moment before unclipping the element of honesty from around her neck as Elena fished the other two necklaces out of her bag. 

When Elena handed them to Applejack however, all three gems started to grow incredibly bright and the gold metal grew red hot. The latches of each necklace snapped to each other, forming a triangle. By now Nathan, Elena and Sully had backed away, leaving Applejack standing in the centre of Stonehenge with a triangle of glowing magic. If not for the fact that she was holding onto the gems, Applejack would have burnt herself on the gold. The triangle started to pull away from her grasp, hovering in mid-air in front of her. 

Miniature arcs of purple lighting were soon visible around the necklaces and Applejack hurried backwards to avoid being fried by a stray bolt. A low hum filled the air as the triangle started to spin, the sound increasing in volume as the rotations got faster and faster and the electricity got more violent. 

Applejack had to cover her ears when the booming sound of expanding air hit her ears. The Triangle had apparently exploded in the same manner as the one Pinkie had arrived in, but considerable smaller. She jumped in fright when something glowing bright purple shot out of the sphere and rocketed into the sky, before gravity halted its upward escape and flung it back toward the ground. 

It fell back through the centre of the triangle, which had now resumed spinning at a phenomenal rate, and became embedded in the soft muddy ground underneath. 

None of the treasure hunters moved for a while, all of them scared that whatever it was might be dangerous. The spinning triangle started to slow down and suddenly broke apart, each necklace also planting itself in the ground.

Applejack was the first to approach at the encouraging hand gestured from a cowering Sully. She cautiously eased her way, step by step, toward the necklaces, and whatever they had released. When she got close enough, she let out a loud sigh of relief and bent down, grunting slightly when the ground resisted her. She tore the piece of gold from the ground, holding it aloft like a hero from a tapestry.

“What is it?” Nathan asked, stepping out from behind one of the stones.
“This, my friends, is the element of magic, and ah have a feeling it’s going to lead us to Twi.”

> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under the cover of night the red SUV roared down the small two-lane road, the excited occupants eagerly listening to Applejack as she told them all about Twilight and the element of magic. The element itself was glowing bright magenta, projecting an arrow that was pointing North-west from their current position. 

“So that is why we have to get to Twilight before Khrushchev. If he gets her, then her unlimited magical abilities will be at risk,” she explained as the golden tiara hummed and vibrated in her hands. 
“I’m still sceptical about all this Nate. Magic?” said Sully, retrieving a cigar from his jacket pocket.
“Seriously, after the last two weeks and everything we’ve seen. You’re still going to argue about the non-existence of magic,” said Elena, looking at Sully with a look of frustration and disbelief. Sully simply shrugged and smiled awkwardly. Meanwhile, Nathan was focussing on the road ahead, his brow furrowed in deep thought. 

“What do you think Nate?” Applejack asked, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. Nathan hesitated, running a hand through his hair and Applejack could tell that he was feeling very uncomfortable with what was going on.
“I-I’m just staring to think that we might be over our heads with this,” he said, shooting a quick look at Elena.
“Why?” Elena asked.
“I don’t know… magic, other dimensional beings and people with unmeasurable power. This isn’t what we do. I’m used to raiding some ancient tomb, solving some stupid puzzle or death trap and casually strolling out with no issues,” he exclaimed, becoming suddenly animated and slamming his fist on the dashboard. 

“How can you say that with all that happened in Shangri-la?” argued Elena.
“Sure, but that’s different.”
“Not really, not in the long run. Besides, this is more about helping Applejack get back to her home than just raiding a dungeon,” Elena retorted and Nathan hesitated once more before replying.
“You’re right. I’m sorry Aj. This is just a little above my pay grade.”

***

After collecting their belongings from the bed and breakfast they continued to follow the element of magic’s arrow. It led them to a country known as ‘Ireland’ where Applejack was assured was also a place bristling with magical lore. It seemed like a very similar place to England, with the same rolling green hills and farmland that seemed to go on forever. As they got closer to what appeared to be the middle of nowhere in the center of a field, the element of magic began to hum softly and vibrate in Applejack’s hands. 

When the humming changed and became a high pitched squeal, and the arrow projected above the tiara pointed straight down, there was no doubt in Applejack’s mind that they were close to finding her a way home. 
With an intense vigour usually reserved for only the greatest of celebrations, they set out meticulously scanning the area for any hint to an underground temple or an above ground idol. After a while, Elena walked back to the SUV, retrieving her laptop and beginning a background check on the area. 

An hour passed with nothing found, even after they had broken out the shovels and started digging at the exact spot the tiara was leading them too. Defeated and exhausted, Applejack, Nathan and Sully headed back to the SUV for a break.
“Well the digging was a waste of time,” grumbled Sully as he sat on the tailgate next to Elena, with Nathan taking up the spot next to her, while Applejack just held the element of magic in her hands, staring at it as though it would reveal its secrets under her angry gaze.

“I think I might know why. We’ve been going about this all the wrong way,” said Elena, her fingers a blur on the keyboard. “Applejack said that this ‘Twilight’ was a very studious person right, well I got to thinking that maybe the way to bring her into this world was a bit cleverer than just finding some old temple. So I decided to do some digital digging, and discovered that this part of Ireland is covered in Ley Lines.”
“Go on…” said Nathan, his voice gaining an excited tone.
“And it just so happens that this exact spot is at an intersection of multiple Ley Lines.”
“You might need to explain what Ley Lines are, for those in the group who don’t know. Like Applejack,” Sully said, prompting a hard look from the blonde woman. 
“Well there’s not much about them. However, one of the legends I found said that they are the ‘veins’ for all the magic in the world, which would mean that an intersection-“
“Would be like a heart or artery,” finished Nathan, the smile on his face growing in anticipation. 
“Exactly, and what’s better, these Ley Lines are supposed to be activated by the light of the full moon.”
“Which is tonight, isn’t it,” smiled Applejack, laughing when Elena started nodding. “Oh Twi, sometimes you’re almost too clever. So what now?”

“Well moon rise is in about three hours, so we’re just going to have to wait,” Elena explained, closing her laptop with an extremely smug smile plastered on her face.

***

That night, as the moon was reaching its zenith, Applejack placed the element of magic right in the centre of the intersection of Ley Line. Behind her, the others were standing by the SUV, shivering from the frigid Irish night, as well as the lack of warm clothes. 

“Huh, if you think this is cold, none of you have ever been to Russia,” said a familiar voice from the darkness. Applejack’s hand instantly went to her hip, only to find herself without a weapon.
“Khrushchev! How did you find us?” Nathan shouted to the black.
“Oh Mister Drake, do you not know how a GPS works? Satellites man. Tracking,” Khrushchev explained mockingly and Applejack heard Nathan curse under his breath. “Now, I’d like you to listen closely. I want the tiara. No funny business, no magical girls popping out of nowhere, just the jewellery.”
At Applejack’s feet however, the element of magic started to hum and crackle with the sound of burning air. She started backing away, smiling all the while. 

“I’m afraid that it might be too late for that Khrushchev,”   she goaded, as the tiara detonated in a similar manner to the necklace at Pinkie’s temple, only this time, the lightning was a deep purple. The light from the ball of energy lit up the field, revealing dozens of black-clad soldiers surrounding them and Applejack got a quick glimpse of Khrushchev standing directly across from her. 

In the centre of the sphere, a dark shape started to form, slowly making its way out of the bottom like a butterfly hatching from a cocoon, landing on the ground underneath with a thud. 

Cautiously, Applejack made her way forward, but suddenly jumped back at an explosion of light emanating from the person in the centre; Twilight Sparkle. Like Pinkie, she had arrived clothed; wearing blue denim jeans, a lavender button up shirt, a darker purple sweater-vest and resting on her face was a pair or black-framed, rectangular glasses. Magenta energy sparked from her fingertips, giving her an awe-inspiring look.
“T-Twilight?” Applejack asked as her friend looked around at the many soldiers staring at her silently, before turning to face Applejack.

“Yes, it’s me. Before our reunion, mind giving me the run down about what’s going on here?” Twilight asked, her cold, monotone voice making Applejack uncomfortable.
“Uh, right. Well all those guys dressed in black are bad, and the three by the car are good. Make sense?”
“It works,” Twilight replied, taking another look around her. 

“Ah great, another silly girl. Men, kill them all,” Khrushchev shouted, which was then followed by the sound of dozens of automatic rifles firing. Applejack closed her eyes tightly, expecting the pain of being torn apart by bullets, only to never receive that sensation. Chancing a look, she opened one eye to find both Twilight and herself, as well as the others and their car encased in some kind of magenta dome of energy. Applejack could still hear and see the guns firing, but the bullets were being stopped dead by Twilight’s magic bubble. 

“Hmm, ultra high damage projectile. Black powder would have to be the catalyst. The weapon’s magazines would only hold about thirty projectiles and at a fire rate of two rounds a second…. Three, Two, One,” Twilight whispered to herself, the monotone curiosity in her voice sending a cold shiver up Applejack’s spine. When she finished her count down, and the rifles had all stopped firing right on cue, Applejack watched in awe as Twilight quickly deactivated the force field, her hands igniting in a light show of sparks and energy, before thrusting them outward and creating a wave of white light that cascaded toward the soldiers, colliding with all of them and sending them flying.

Twilight grabbed Applejack’s arm tightly, dragging her over to the SUV, where she placed her other hand, which was once again glowing, onto the vehicle.
“Keep calm,” she said simply, as they all disappeared in a flash of white light.

***

Nathan and Sully heaved, throwing up from the sensation of being teleported, with Elena having passed out in transit. Twilight was looking around the dark field cautiously, as though expecting another attack. Applejack just watched her silently, unsure of how to act around her at the moment. 

After a moment, Twilight’s frown changed to a satisfied smile and she leapt on Applejack, giving her a big kiss on the cheek and a hug tighter then the farmer had ever felt before.
“Oh Applejack, I’m so happy to see you again. It’s been so, so long,” Twilight exclaimed happily as Applejack returned the hug, nuzzling deep into Twilight’s embrace.
“Aw shucks Twi, it’s only been a couple of weeks,” Applejack replied casually, tears of happiness forming in the corners of her eyes. Everything about Twi seemed so much like home, even the scent of Ponyville. Twilight pulled out of the hug, a look of shocked confusion in her eyes.
“What? A couple of weeks?”
“Yeah, these folks found me in an ancient temple on top of a mountain, and I’ve been travelling with them since, trying to find a way home.”

“Oh no… Uh, Aj, I think there’s something you need to know,” Twilight said, taking a few steps away. 
“What is it Twilight? What’s wrong?” she asked, suddenly worried for her family.
“It’s not been ‘a couple of weeks’ in Equestria. You’ve been missing for five years,” said the pale girl, looking down at her feet. Applejack’s knees buckled at that, causing her to collapse onto the soggy ground beneath her.
“F-Five years? And my family?”
“Every pony’s fine, but a few things have changed in your absence.”
“Like what! Tell me Twilight Sparkle, or Celestia help me I will punch you!” Applejack screamed, her voice starting to crack.
“Well for one, I’m no longer the Ponyville librarian. I’m now Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria,” explained Twilight, and with that, two glowing light purple wings appeared from nothing on her back, spreading wide and looking as though they were made from nothing but light.

“P-Princess?” Applejack asked weakly, her eyes glazing over from the beauty of Twilight’s wings.
“Yes, I should also tell you that your family misses you deeply. Granny Smith, Applebloom and your nieces.”
“Nieces?”
“Yeah, Big Mac and Fluttershy married about two years ago and now they have twins; Red Delicious and Whisper Jack, named for you,” Twilight told her, crouching to look her friend in the eye. Applejack continued to cry, but a small smile had found her lips.

“Tell me more,” she said, reaching out and pulling Twilight close. “Tell me everything.”
“We can go more in depth when we are in a safe place, but for now you should know these important facts; Pinkie and Dash are a couple, Applebloom has her cutie mark, Spike got accidentally changed into a pony by Discord when he got free and went on a rampage, although that turned out well, because he’s married to Rarity now… But that event did mark one big change for us. Because you weren’t available to be the element of honesty during that time, we had to find a replacement.”
“Wait, what are you saying?” 
“I’m afraid you are no longer the element of honesty in Equestria,” Twilight explained, the look of shock on Applejack’s face making her cringe.
“Well then who is?”

“Applebloom took over. Applebloom is honesty.”