Applejack felt herself being pelted with heavy rain as she reappeared. She opened her eyes and looked around at the surrounding forest. She got up onto her hooves, and then looked up at the stormy sky and said loudly over the pounding rain, “Is this what ponies mean by ‘when it rains, it pours?”
Thunder boomed in response, and Applejack sighed as she pulled the brim of her hat over her face to shield it from the rain. She then stomped angrily in the muddy ground beneath her in frustration, and then went to turn towards the time machine.
Applejack quickly discovered that her angry stomping was a mistake, as the ground she was standing on was so muddy that all four of her hooves were now stuck deep in the mud.
“Dang it,” Applejack muttered as she tried to pull her front right forehoof out of the mud. When the mud seemed to only tighten around her hoof, she growled and exclaimed, “Why do Ah keep getting stuck in places when all Ah wanna do is leave!”
With a tug fueled by frustration, Applejack managed to pull her front right forehoof out of the mud. Applejack sighed in relief, giving the smallest of smiles, but then the sound of something rushing fast came to her ears. Applejack looked ahead of her, and she suddenly noticed that she was standing in an empty river, with its foliage strewn banks on either side of her. Then, Applejack spotted a terrifying flash flood approaching from less than a mile away.
Applejack stood with her front right foreleg raised slightly, breathing heavily as she stared blankly at the rapidly approaching flood. She then swung her entire body to her left as she pulled up with her front left leg with all her might. There was a loud pop as her front left hoof popped out of the thick mud, and Applejack found herself standing up on her hind legs.
“Come on, come on, just two more!” Applejack shouted to herself as she tried to lift her right hind leg out of the mud, flailing her forelegs wildly as she stared down at the hoof she was trying to free. Applejack took another look at the approaching flood, and this led her to bring both her forelegs down to awkwardly grab onto her right hind leg.
She gave several desperate tugs, and her right hind hoof finally slid out of the thick mud.
Applejack smiled giddily as she stood up on one hind leg. “Yee-haw! Only one more to-,” Applejack’s excitement faded and her smile fell as looked down on the leg she was shakily standing on. “Uh. . . wait, how am Ah gonna-.”
The sound of roaring water caused Applejack to look back up just as the wall of flood waters crashed into her.
Applejack was tossed and spun wildly through the fast-moving water, until she was finally flung out into the air. She opened her eyes and saw that she had been washed right over the side of a waterfall, and the bottom was several yards straight down.
Applejack cried out as she began to fall, but seeing that it wasn’t that much further than the average high-dive, she quickly forced herself to calm down and went into a diving position.
Applejack closed her eyes as she braced herself for the splashdown, only to be taken completely by surprise when she felt the blunt impact of solid rock. Her eyes snapped open as she beheld the large bolder at the waterfall’s bottom, on which she had the misfortune of landing on.
Her hind legs were stuck straight up, and her forelegs were spread eagled, keeping her balanced in her awkward, upside-down position. Her tail swung back and forth like a limp pendulum as her body gave the occasional twitch.
“Ouch,” Applejack groaned out as she felt the pain and stiffness in the muscles in her back. She then gave a sorrowful pout and said, “Ah can’t move. . .”
Applejack then noticed the familiar green glow coming from her right. She looked in the direction and saw the time machine floating nearby. The bottom half of the device had gotten caught behind some smaller rocks just below the surface of the water, preventing it from being carried away by the rushing river fueled by the waterfall just behind the pony.
Applejack was unable to move her forelegs due to her locked muscles and odd position. She let out a groan as she began vigorously kicking her forelegs while shifting her body to her right. Eventually, she was able to throw off her balance enough so that she fell sideways, her body landing right on top of the machine.
The was a flash, and Applejack and the device were both gone.