//------------------------------// // < ^ > < ^ > // Story: Appledashery Vol. Two // by Just Essay //------------------------------// "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh galloshes..." Applejack paced and paced in a nervous, fruit-shaped circle. A layer of sweat traced the edges of her fresh hoofprints on the outer palace lawn. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh great gallopin' galloshes, y'all." She stopped only to bite her bottom lip... and gaze at the looming palace walls. They remained in place, ever solid and ever real. Nothing could change the fact that Rainbow Dash had just flown over them. "Nrnghgggggggh..." Her freckles turned red and redder. Her ears drooped to the point of falling off. The mare took a look behind her. The outer fringes of Canterlot urbanity lingered under cold lamplight. Near hyperventilation, the mare looked ahead once more. The walls continued to loom. And just beyond the nearest corner, no less than a dozen guards paced about. They looked cold and resilient and ready to swing a spear through a farm pony's blonde skull upon first sight. "Okay... okay..." Applejack stammered wetly between even wetter heartbeats. She swallowed a lump down her throat and leaned against a patch of hard wall to steady her weakening limbs. "It's alright. It's... n-not the end of the world." She exhaled through pursed lips. "She ain't her normal self. They won't be blamin' her for bein' no assassin or burglar or nothin'. Just... a sl-slap on the hoof and some jail-time! That's for sure!" She inhaled—shakily. "But... but then again... she'd never live it all down." Her left eyebrow twitched. "...and them Wonderfolks will never let her into their fold. She'd have to get cloud work far from Canterlot... or Cloudsdale... or even P-Ponyville!" An exhale, and her lungs nearly collapsed. "And... a-and she'll blame it all on me! Once she knows that I was trailin' her like a fuzzy vulture!" Her green pupils shrank to pinpricks. "She... m-might never talk to me ever again!" And it was then that Applejack, froze altogether. Breathless, she looked up the full height of the wall. She glanced right—towards the guards. A beat... and then she glanced left. She saw trees. Rows and rows of lonely, unnoticed, buckable trees. One in particular stood close to the wall and stretched high... high... higher. Applejack finally breathed again. With determined hoofsteps, she trotted briskly—albeit quietly—towards her new destination. "Grnnnngh..." Applejack grunted. "Mrmmffff..." She couldn't help it. She hadn't exerted herself this much since her last blue ribbon contest. Nevertheless, there the mare was—crawling up the wall. She accomplished this by placing her spine flat up against the palace wall and using her four limbs to "walk up" the trunk of the closely growing tree. In such a fashion, she was able to navigate the small space between the natural structure and the partition she was hoping to scale. All of this—of course—sounded a great deal easier on paper. In truth, Applejack was sweating up a storm, and she could already feeling her lower limbs buckling with the effort it took to maintain her speed—much less her elevation. A dull pain throbbed through her back, and she somehow knew she'd have scraped flesh and bruised muscles the morning after. "Grffffffff... just... a little more..." She knew she shouldn't have been talking. But the entire effort already felt so dangerous... so absurd. It was a wonder none of the guards had seen her yet. It couldn't have been this easy to sneak into the Royal Palace, could it? The night hung cold and calm through her peripheral vision. As a matter of fact, there was no sign of any wandering ponies in armor. It pained her to look for them, because doing so meant glancing at the ground—which was growing distant at a frightening rate. One little slip and Applejack would be plunging twelve feet... fifteen... twenty... "Mmmmfff... darn it, sugarcube..." She gnashed her teeth, sweating. "...why c-couldn't you just fly over the edge of a day care?" Just then, she heard hoofsteps... and the tell-tale rattling of armor. Applejack clenched her jaw shut—along with every other muscle in her body. She breathed thinly, her entire spine locked in place and the limbs included. She lingered high above the ground, pinned like an orange door stop between the tree and the wall. After a few agonizing seconds, she heard the hoofsteps with heart-stopping clarity. There was no doubt that a pair of guards were trotting directly underneath her. Armor rattled... rattled... and came to a stop. Applejack felt like sobbing. Every stern rebuke and warning that Granny Smith had ever told her came thundering through her little pony ears right then and there. She imagined being sketched on the front page of the Ponyville Sentinel. "Central Equestrian Local Found Trespassing on the Royal Lawn." She had failed her friends. She had failed her family... Apple Bloom. What kind of a role model was she now? She clenched her eyes and tried to think of something to make the torture pass faster. In the throbbing darkness, a patch of blue crossed her mind, carrying with it multiple daring and courageous colors. "Hrmmmfff... it's quiet again," a voice rasped beneath her. "Yeah. Was almost exciting for a second there," a second added. "Damned Gala. Oh well. Nine o'clock." "I've got six." "Carry on." Armor rattled once again—a heavenly sound. Both sets of hoofprints went separate ways, one heading northwest and the other heading southeast. Applejack remained in place, struggling to not whimper. At long last, she felt it was safe to move again. In truth, it was merely a guess. When she shimmied up the rest of the height between the tree and the wall, it was done so in a desperate burst of speed. Soon she reached the topmost portion of the tree trunk. She craned her neck. The top of the rampart loomed in front of her as well. "Mmmmf... ffffuuu... grrfff—ummfff!" With a heave of her farm-bred muscles, she backflipped up onto the top of the wall... ...and landed flat on her belly. "Ooof!" Applejack winced all over. She was bruised, aching, and covered in sweat. But she had made it. "Grfff... land's sakes..." Her voice was a wispy, foalish whisper. Nevertheless—with adult perseverance—she pushed herself back onto all fours and took a sharp look around. Miraculously, she had scaled the wall in a break between the patrol. But it wouldn't remain that way for long. She could already sense guards coming and going. Below her—verdant and lusch under starlight—was a wide stretch of the palace garden, full of hedge mazes and fountains and statues. But—most importantly... ...she saw Rainbow flittering off in the distance, heading northeast across the ornate grounds. Without wasting another second, Applejack hopped from the top of the wall, scaling herself down to the gardens one ledge and windowsill at a time. At last, her four pony hooves struck the pliable soil... and she galloped briskly towards the nearest hedges for cover from scanning eyes.