//------------------------------//
// 2.5 A Scholar and A Farmer 
// Story: My Little Pony: Northern Aggression 
// by A. Tuesday 
//------------------------------//

	Everfree.
Ponies talk about the terror of the mystical forest – the darkness of it, the cockatrices and manticores and other horrifying creatures, ghost stories of ponies going in for a “swim” and then others finding their bones sprawled about a watering hole or some other thing like that.
But, perhaps most of all, the never-ending-ness of the Everfree is what scares ponies the most.
Twilight Sparkle knew that better than anypony else.
She reflected on this as she used her magic to carve a mark in the tree she was near, levitating a knife with her magic. She carved a number “73” in it – to signify what number tree this was. It was the only way the unicorn could get back. Back to the middle of the woods. Back to Applejack and their tiny, ramshackle shelter.
The scholar slumped against the tree, sliding down it until she came to a rest at the trunk, sitting down and taking a minute to rest. She lifted a hoof and brushed the sweat off her horn and forehead. Celestia, why was it so hot?
She had to have done something wrong. She always managed to get out of the Everfree just fine before. This shouldn’t be any different.
But, ever since she and Applejack teleported from that Tennessee battlefield to Equestria, the duo hadn’t seen a trace of civilization. From Twilight’s estimations, they must’ve teleported to the far side of the forest, far away from any sort of town or city except for the small huts and houses that hermits made. She couldn’t even find any of them, either.
The unicorn levitated her canteen in front of her and took a swig from it. Thank goodness all of her war gear came with her. She almost left it with Dash – she wanted the ties to be cut clean between her and AJ and the friends she was leaving behind. She’d come back for them, there was no doubt about that.
Eventually.
Cool water crept down her throat, chilling her body and saving it from the ridiculous amount of humidity in the air. Twilight let out a sigh of contentedness before replacing the canteen back in its pouch. Her lavender eyes were drawn to the darkening sky. The sun was beginning to approach the horizon.
She had been out here almost all day, and no progress was made. The unicorn left in the morning, came back to the shelter for lunch and to check on AJ, and then went out again. That was…what, six, maybe seven hours ago?
The scholar had no idea. Although, she did know it was time to turn in for the night.
She turned and looked at the “73” she had carved in the tree. Leaning her head past the tree a bit, she saw the one behind it – a crudely carved “72” in it.
It’d be a long trek back.

Long trek, indeed. By the time the wooden sticks that served as her and her friend’s home came into view, the sun had set, and Luna had just begun her ascent of the moon.
Luna, Celestia. Why aren’t they looking for me? They’re princesses – I’m Celestia’s protégé. They can find me. They can find us. Why haven’t they?
She shook her head. Thoughts like this only made her head hurt. And more often than not, her heart, as well.
She walked by the small spring they had formed camp around, within a small clearing in the woods, and saw the box made out of sticks, using the side of a tree as support. On one side, half of the wall wasn’t existent, and there was a light shining from the inside. Various odds and ends were strewn about the inside. 
Home, sweet home. 
For the past two, maybe even three weeks, this lovely box had been exactly that.
Home, sweet home.
The unicorn sighed and walked in, the lantern casting a deformed shadow across the sticks that made up the wall – a shadow of a tired, worried, and near-despairing scholar. She looked worse now than she had during the war.
But, it was nothing compared to Applejack.
The orange mare had just been lying on her back, staring at the cracks of night sky that got through the ceiling made of sticks. She didn’t even notice her friend walk in. Her emerald eyes, just below the bandages wrapped around her forehead, were focused on the stars and nothing else.
Twilight magicked the piece of cloth that served as their door over the opening of the small shelter, using small rocks to keep it in place. After making sure that was done, she laid down on the sand/grass mixture that the floor was and removed her canteen and cap. Putting it to the side gently, she turned back to the farmpony, a sad look in her eyes.
“Hey,” she said, gently.
The pony turned to look at her lavender friend, and her eyes lit up fairly quickly. She even managed a small smile. 
That was good. AJ was recovering.
Twilight continued speaking. “I…I, um…well, I couldn’t find Ponyville today…again…but, I think I might be close to the edge of the Everfree,” she lied.
Applejack nodded slowly, her eyes having drifted to a pebble on the ground. 
Seeing a sadness and disinterest setting in, the unicorn quickly tried to come up with better news. “On the bright side, I haven’t seen any timberwolves or cockatrices or, um….anything like that. That’s good, right?”
Her friend yawned. She didn’t even seem to hear her.
A lump began to form in Twilight’s throat. She tried to push it down with more conversation. “So, um…I was thinking…you’re doing better, aren’t you? You can…um…well, would you want to come with me tomorrow? You know, to go scouting out for Ponyville? It must be terribly boring in this…in this tent.”
Applejack stopped looking at the stars and looked to the wall at her feet. She blinked a few times before looking to Twilight, just blankly staring. The unicorn thought part of her lip turned up – but, on second thought it was just her imagination. The farmpony looked to Twilight as if expecting her to continue – but, as the scholar had learned over the past two weeks, that wasn’t what AJ was doing.
Her blank eyes gave Twilight an indecisive answer, and only added to the unicorn’s sadness. Swallowing, Twilight nodded slowly. “Well, we can talk about it in the morning, I guess. Good…good night, Applejack.”
Twilight watched as AJ looked to the sandy floor for a moment, before rolling over and facing the wall, falling asleep. Twilight turned the lantern off with her magic, and rolled over to face her own wall.
A statement she made once rang through her head.
	“She’s…she’ll be alright. I managed to get the bullet out and patch up what I could with magic. It’ll be a very, very long time – but I think she may pull through.”
“Pull through.” The things that phrase could mean…
Applejack wasn’t in immediate danger anymore. From Twilight’s daily checkups, it seems like AJ could’ve started walking around and doing normal things again as of a couple days ago. Could’ve.
‘	But, in reality, she couldn’t. There was something else Twilight didn’t quite account for when patching up Applejack. And that was just where the bullet went.
Applejack no longer had metal in her head. There wasn’t a bullet in her brain anymore, but it left a mark. A mental mark.
It affected the farmpony in a unique way. Her mental capacities had deteriorated – or, rather, they had plummeted altogether. She couldn’t speak, she barely ever moved of her own accord – she was normally unresponsive to whatever Twilight said. All she ever did was look at the scenery around her, blissfully unaware of the world. All she ever did.
It was up to Twilight to get food for her, make her comfortable, bathe her in the spring – everything. She had become, in all reality – no matter how much Twilight despised the word now – a vegetable.
“She’ll be alright.”
The unicorn buried her face in her hooves. Why? Why does this have to happen to her? Why can’t we find Ponyville? Why?
A soft whimper came out of her mouth. She immediately muted it, letting tears flow freely from her eyes while trying not to wake her friend. But, the sobbing continued. Twilight did her best to block out the sound.
Thoughts of Applejack and her dilemma, their lost-ness – even thoughts of the ponies she left for dead (which, she reluctantly accepted, is what she did) crept into her mind. They wouldn’t leave. Instead, they only fueled the depression.
They were never finding their way home. They were never going to – 
And then, she stopped crying.
A soft hoof had wrapped around her chest. 
Twilight looked down at the darkened orange silhouette of an earth pony’s hoof, and followed it to Applejack, who was sleepily looking at Twilight with a comforting look in her eyes. 
The unicorn just stared at her friend, unable to speak or move. Drawing a blank of what was going on.
Applejack then nuzzled her friend, before going back to sleep, this time closer to her friend. Her hoof hadn’t left Twilight.
She was comforting her.
As Twilight turned to face the wall, a shaking smile found its way onto her face, to complement the redness of her crying eyes. She…she must’ve been too loud. But, she didn’t quite care anymore.
Her only response to all of this, as she fell asleep staring at the wall, as released in a single whisper.
“Thank you.”

Dawn broke through the tops of the Everfree the next morning, a cacophony of forest animals providing ambient accompaniment. The sunlight pierced through the branches and sticks, and into Twilight’s eyelids.
The unicorn opened tired eyes, still puffy from the previous night’s crying. She carefully moved to remove the orange hoof from her chest, only to find that it wasn’t there anymore.
Twilight raised an eyebrow, still lying on the ground. The mare propped herself up on her forelegs and looked to the left of her, where Applejack should be, only to find the cloth and straw that served as bedding was unoccupied.
The scholar scratched her head for a second, before realizing that it probably wasn’t good that AJ was up this early in the morning in her condition without first telling the unicorn. Not that she really could, but still.
Twilight stood up in the shelter, and moved to grab her canteen and cap, but they weren’t there, either.
Her gear and Applejack were missing.
As fast as the bullet that had handicapped Applejack, she leapt off of her bed and bolted out of the cloth door – 
- only to smack right in to Applejack, sending them both sprawling. 
AJ hit the dirt, dropping the gear she had been holding, while Twilight had flown forward into the small spring. Sound was lost to her for a moment as all the unicorn heard was the sloshing and churning of the freshwater. She pushed herself up on her hooves, getting her head out of the water.
Once she was fully out, she shook like a dog, getting the water everywhere and trying to get her wet hair out of her eyes. When the last swoosh of her hair was completed, there was Applejack, standing right before her. A little dirty, but nonetheless cheerful, and wearing Twilight’s cap. The scholar’s canteen hung from AJ’s mouth, along with her saddlebags.
“Sorry, AJ,” Twilight apologized, “I’m a bit of a klutz sometimes. You alright?”
The other mare didn’t respond. Just kept staring. She blinked, and leaned forward, almost shoving the canteen into Twilight.
“Yes, I see you have my stuff,” the lavender pony commented, as she levitated her canteen around her neck and magicked the cap onto her own head, “Does this mean you’re coming with me this morning?”
The orange pony looked to the ground, eyebrows scrunched in concentration. She moved her mouth in weird ways, and as Twilight perked her ears, she could actually hear sound coming from them.
“Err…ugh…y-…mmm…arr…I….y…argh!”
Applejack stamped her hoof on the ground in frustration. Now it was Twilight’s turn to be the comforter. The mare placed a hoof on the farmpony’s shoulder. AJ stopped and looked up to Twilight, a slightly regretful look in her eyes that she couldn’t get whatever she needed to say out.
“It’s alright,” Twilight said reassuringly, “You are. Thank you, Applejack. This…this means a lot to me.”

“And…that makes ‘93’!”
Twilight had just finished carving the number into the corresponding tree, and now, with somepony to talk to, was feeling much more cheerful about doing all of this. “Look at that, Applejack; we’re almost to one hundred! Wait…that’s not really good, is it?”
AJ seemed to ponder it a bit, standing not too far away from the tree, and did something which slightly resembled a shrug. 
Twilight smiled and waved it off. “Oh, of course it’s good,” she commented, more to the benefit of herself than her friend, “It means we’re making progress, right?”
Applejack smiled. 
“Right!” Twilight used her magic to open the saddlebag pouch and placed the blade in it. 
They had been trekking for the better part of four hours, taking breaks every now and then to sit and rest, something Twilight was careful to do with Applejack around. She wanted to make sure AJ was alright the entire time, no matter how much longer this scouting thing took. But, the unicorn didn’t care – she finally had company on one of these trips. 
Speaking of which, she trotted over to where her friend was. “How’re you holding up? Alright?”
AJ closed her eyes and smiled, giving a short, brief nod. 
“Fantastic!” Despite what she had been thinking to herself last night, Applejack was making a bit of progress, and Twilight was immensely happy for that. Hey, it was better than when she was lying on a table inches from death. If only she could hear that sweet, backcountry-tinted voice again…
But, it was what it was. Twilight couldn’t care too much at the moment. This was the first time she was with somepony for the whole day. The whole day! For the past three weeks, most of her days had been spent by herself, foraging for food, adding to the shelter, scouting in different directions. This specific trail she was working on she only started last week, but she had a hunch that this trail might just be the one.
“Alright, AJ,” Twilight happily said, “Why don’t you pick what direction we go in? Remember, we’re looking for a clearing. Do you see somewhere where there might be one?”
Applejack looked around the forest, keeping a look out for a clearing. Twilight highly doubted she’d actually find a clearing of some sort, considering she herself had barely any luck. So, when Applejack pointed a hoof to a seemingly random direction, and Twilight noticed the lack of trees past a bit of them, she almost jumped in place.
“Yes, AJ!” the unicorn exclaimed, “You found one! Come one, I’ll race you there!” And, giddier than a schoolfilly, she ran off into the forest, Applejack quickly catching up and running past her.
The canteen clanked crazily against her chest, and the heat and humidity were as unrelenting as yesterday, but Twilight didn’t care. She was with her friend, and they had found a clearing. It could be the clearing. The one they were looking for.
Nothing could bring her down.
Applejack stopped at a point in the clearing, standing still and looking at something with a fierce intensity. As Twilight approached her, she noticed that it wasn’t a point in the clearing. It was the edge of a cliff.
She turned her jog down to a slow trot, and stopped at the edge. Her eyes lit up and a smile wider than Ponyville itself found itself on her lavender face.
They had reached the end of the Everfree. There, at the bottom of the rocky cliff, was a town. Not Ponyville, but it didn’t matter at this point. A town. A town with log cabins, and smoking chimneys, and wagons and carriages and figures going about their business.
Civilization.
Civilization.
“Applejack!” Twilight yelled, “We did it! We found a town! We can go home now!”
The orange mare didn’t seem to share much enthusiasm. She just stared, confused at a wooden post on the edge of a cliff. She didn’t appear to acknowledge Twilight at all.
The unicorn approached Applejack and tapped her on the shoulder. “AJ, did you hear me? We’re finally – “
The farmpony put a hoof on Twilight’s mouth for a moment, ceasing her speech. Then, with the same hoof, she tapped the post, which, now that she was closer, Twilight could see was actually a sign.
“What is it?” Twilight asked, “Is it the sign? Here, let me read it.”
AJ moved back as Twilight stepped forward, studying the wooden post. There were only two words on the entire sign.
“Ambersville, Georgia,” Twilight read aloud.
Ambersville, Georgia.
Georgia.
That wasn’t Ponyville.
That wasn’t even Equestria.
Georgia is an American state.
American.
This wasn’t the Everfree forest.
It was Appalachia.
Twilight and AJ had never left the world, or the country.
Twilight’s teleportation was still a bust, as she realized with wide eyes and a mix of fear, anger, and depression settling in.
They had only teleported deeper south in the United States.
And, by the looks of a Navy Jack flag flying in the wind down in “Ambersville”, not only had they not left the way, they had teleported into what was technically enemy territory.  
Still wearing all of their Union equipment.