Applejack appeared in mid-air, and promptly fell downward. Her senses were slightly scrambled from having the downward force suddenly taken off of her, combined with the sensation of falling. So, she showed no reaction to her descent, only letting out a grunt when she punched through the thick canopy of tree branches below her. She fell down into the forest, rolling and falling simultaneously as she dropped through tangled vines. The plant life did end up slowing her descent down a bit, resulting in her landing on all four hooves with a solid, yet non-damaging, thud.
Applejack huffed and puffed as she shook the cobwebs out of her head. She blinked her eyes and looked to her left and right anxiously. Then she looked ahead of her and spotted her hat on the ground a few feet away.
Applejack stood breathing fast and shallow breaths for a moment, and then quickly stepped forward. She was immediately held back by something that she felt wrapped around her midsection. She turned her head to look behind her, and she saw that during her fall, a thick tangle of vines had wrapped around her barrel. The green rope made a V-shape as each end went upwards into the trees, with Applejack in the middle of it.
“Just vines,” Applejack remarked as she looked behind her on both sides. She then tried to crane her neck backwards in an attempt to bite at one of the vines holding her, but all it got her was a pain in her neck.
“Doggone it,” Applejack muttered to herself as she rubbed her neck with her front right fetlock. She then planted her all her hooves firmly on the ground, and then leaned forward in an attempt to pull free. She dug here forehooves into the ground while she tried to push herself forward by walking with her back hooves. The triangular shape of the vines that held her was strong, and it although the vines stretched a bit, they only let her move forward about a yard.
Frustrated, Applejack started bucking wildly, but had to stop when she felt all four of her hooves leave the ground.
“Wha- whoa!” Applejack cried out as the vines suddenly contracted, carrying her up a few inches off the ground. “No no no, not this again! Put me down!” she said in a panic while trying to reach the ground with her hooves. The vines that held her sprung her up and down, only allowing her hooves to get about half an inch towards the ground before springing her back up several inches, again and again.
“You’re teasin’ me!” Applejack said furiously as she slowly bobbed up and down, but then her anger faded into sadness as she closed her eyes and hung her head, saying miserably, “Everything teasin’ me. All of it. Every single darned thing.”
Applejack remained that way, eyes closed and head down in dejection, for a few minutes. Then she noticed that she was bobbing up and down anymore, and that she could feel the ground beneath her hooves again.
Applejack opened her eyes and lifted her head up, and her eyes fixated on her hat on the ground in front of her, seemingly out of her reach.
Applejack stomped her right forehoof and shouted, “Ah ain’t gonna let myself get beaten by some ol’ vines, or Ah ain’t an Apple!”
The stubborn farm pony then twisted her body to the left and to the right, pulling herself forward with her front hooves with all her strength each time. The vines stretched and strained from each tug, but still held fast.
She then threw herself backwards, and then broke into a sudden forward galloping charge towards her hat. The vines naturally held her in place at first. Then, the vines pulled her backwards, but Applejack merely leaned backwards into it. Like an ice archer’s bow, the vines sprung Applejack forward. She also pushed off of the ground with her hooves to push herself forward into the launch.
Applejack smiled as she was sent right over her hat, which she then promptly grabbed with her teeth. However, the vines were now like a rubber band, and they snapped her backwards with even more force than what had been used to send her forwards.
Applejack kept her teeth clenched on her hat as she was snapped back so hard that the vines broke where they were wrapped around her midsection. This flung her into a big tree, and Applejack winced when her back struck the trunk.
Applejack slid down the trunk of the tree, and she felt her rump rest on something cold and round. The odd yet familiar sounds told her that it was the time machine, and Applejack simply closed her eyes and waited as the device powered up and zapped her and her hat away with it.