//------------------------------// // Wings of the Wind IV // Story: Applejack Gets Lost // by MagicS //------------------------------// Applejack stood before the elm tree. Silent and still the both of them. Her eyes fixated on the thousands of leaves on the tree. She closed them and focused on the beating of her heart, the only sound coming from her. Her mind was free of thought. There were no worries, no reservations, and no doubts. Applejack opened her eyes again and placed a hoof on the trunk of the great elm tree that loomed over her, far larger than one of her apple trees. The tree made the slightest of trembles and then instantly all of the leaves exploded off their branches and crumbled to bits. “Wow, most students would have trouble with that even after years” Applejack turned to Bedrock, grinning. “Well most students aren’t the best applebucker in Equestria!” “I don’t know what that is but alright.” He just shrugged and started walking away. “It’s almost unfair that you can do that after one morning of practice.” “Eheh, sorry, I don’t mean to brag or anything.” Applejack smiled guiltily and rubbed the back of her neck, walking along after him. “We were all proud of our abilities too when we were younger. It’s just we stopped being proud after, well, you know.” Bedrock rubbed his nose and inhaled deeply, sounding like he was stuffed up. “Anyways if you wanna keep doing this that’s fine but I have some special training for you once night falls too, if you want.” “Sure, sounds great.” Applejack looked above the tree line to the horizon, it would still be hours before night. “I’ll keep on working on this while it’s still light out then. Obsidian was going to show me how to carve objects with my tremors.” Bedrock nodded. “Good precision exercise. You should probably go find her, she needs something to keep herself occupied too.” Bedrock kept on going deeper into the forest, for who knows what reason, but Applejack took off back to the monastery’s entrance. Obsidian said she would be somewhere in there. The forest around the monastery made for the perfect place to strengthen her ability in Hoof of the Earth. Countless stones to pulverize, trees like the elm to practice more advanced techniques on, a constant stream of sounds that forced Applejack to focus harder on the beating of her heart and grabbing and focusing the vibrating power from it. Taking all the leaves off that tree also reminded her of how she destroyed Big Dad Redwood’s teeth, when she did that it was almost pure instinct. She knew what she wanted to do and her tremor moved perfectly from her body into him. Now she knew she could reliably do something like that whenever she wanted, and after practicing it all morning she could do it even bigger and better. Quartz had pretty much left her to her own devices. With her having the basics already down he said it would be better for a natural prodigy to discover and strengthen their own abilities. That didn’t stop the others from wanting to teach her a few things that Applejack wouldn’t really think of on her own. Like some of the more unique skills they had or were good at. While trotting back to the monastery Applejack stopped for a second to do some spur-of-the-moment practice. There were two trees in front of her, their trunks maybe about ten feet apart from each other. Applejack wondered if she had enough control at this point to send a tremor from one tree into the ground and then into the other tree to explode its leaves just like she did earlier. “Alright, let’s do this.” Applejack clapped her hooves together and went over to the nearest tree. Taking a steady breath and clearing her mind she focused on her heart beat. Again it might as well have been the only sound or movement to her now. With one sharp beat she captured the tremor from it in her hoof. Smiling she pressed her hoof into the tree’s trunk and let her Hoof of the Earth technique out. The tremor caused the trunk to shake as it passed down into the ground, Applejack could feel it practically in her bones as it traveled through the dirt towards the other tree. Her control and directing were perfect, the tremor easily made it up and into the other tree. Now she just had to see if it would have the desired effect. The other tree trembled and then shook with ever greater force as Applejack’s smile got smaller and smaller before the limbs and trunk of the tree burst outwards like a bomb was planted inside it. A branch was shot towards her, making her duck out of the way before it impaled itself into the other tree’s trunk behind her. Looking up at it nervously Applejack glanced at the devastated remains of the other tree. Applejack spat on the ground in frustration and frowned. “Fiddlesticks. Guess I still need some work.” She took a slower time getting back to the monastery after that. Admiring the forest and the animals inside it. She always appreciated the critters around Sweet Apple Acres, aside from those darn Vampire Fruit Bats, and of course the farm animals themselves. Hope Apple Bloom or Big Mac is taking care of Winona for that matter… Coming out of the forest Applejack walked past the old dilapidated pillars and went into the long, dark, doorway that led further into the monastery. There wasn’t any of that glowy lichen stuff or whatever it was here, which Applejack thought was kind of dumb. Did that mean the only way in or out of the monastery was perpetually dark? Still, she could see a light at the end of the hallway where it opened up into the big hall. She hoped Obsidian was close by since she still hardly knew the layout of the monastery at all. Getting into the hall, with all its huge pillars and lichen-filled recesses, Applejack could tell very quickly from the sheer silence that it was empty. She didn’t notice the last time she was in this room but each of her hooves left an echo to travel across the room as she walked further in. Instead of possibly getting herself lost Applejack decided to try and just call out for Obsidian. “Obsidian? You in here?” She yelled through the hall, the sound reverberating on the stone walls and traveling down the numerous hallways. “I’m coming! Hold on!” “Well that was easy.” Applejack sat down and waited for her to come. Even though she was still upset with the disciples, angry even, she knew Quartz was right about them not having the time for such luxuries. And she still felt really bad for all of them, especially Obsidian. It would be good to push all that personal stuff out of her head and focus just on her training with the four of them. If Night Storm truly was never far behind them it really might be any day now that he found his way back to the monastery. Applejack heard the thumping of Obsidian’s hooves against ratty carpet and turned to see her coming down the same hallway that Applejack’s “room” was. Applejack raised an eyebrow at the large sack Obsidian was carrying on her back. The sparkling-white-maned mare came up to Applejack and smiled before dropping the sack on the center of the large carpet. It made a heavy thud and Applejack could only take one guess as to what was in there. “Rocks?” “Yep! Here, look at this.” Obsidian cheerfully upended the bag and dumped all the rocks onto the carpet, they were all about the size of a buckball with a couple a bit smaller. She held her hoof above one of them and then quickly tapped it, the rock shook slightly for a second before hundreds of cracks spider-webbed across its surface. Bits and pieces of the rock began to crumble away until only a small object was left. “Is that?” Applejack asked, partially in awe of what Obsidian just made. “Mhm.” Obsidian held up the small pony sculpture she had just made from the rock, it fitting neatly in her hoof. It wasn’t particularly artistic or detailed but being able to make a pony statue from a rock with Hoof of the Earth impressed Applejack to no limit. “Okay, now you can try. I can always get more rocks too but I don’t want to stop until you can make a perfect pony!” Obsidian happily hefted a rock to her. “Uh, alright, might take more than one or two tries though.” Applejack took the rock from her and placed it on the ground, trying to think how she’d do this. “Um, and by the way, Applejack.” “Huh?” Applejack looked up at Obsidian, who was looking at her with a troubled expression. “What’s the matter?” “I just wanted to thank you, for still sticking around us and everything. I wouldn’t blame you if you were madder, or just left.” She pawed at the ground bashfully. With her hair and the way she was acting it was like Applejack was looking at Fluttershy. Applejack didn’t respond to her immediately, she kept her hoof rocking back and forth on the stone, fixing her emerald eyes on it and trying to imagine carving out a pony sculpture. “I’m… still real upset with ya.” She finally answered. Obsidian’s lip trembled and she sadly closed her eye. “But.” Obsidian perked up again as Applejack continued. “I know what you’ve been through, and honestly there are bigger things to worry about now. I can keep civil with y'all until this whole business is taken care of.” Obsidian looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated. After a moment she simply nodded and Applejack got back to focusing on turning a rock into a sculpture. This was a little bit different, not like applebucking at all. She had the tremor in her hoof and was trying to picture what she wanted in her mind but she had no idea how to get it to work right. Less thinking more doing. With that last thought Applejack pushed the tremor into the rock, shaping and directing it as best she could. It crumbled to pieces much quicker and far less uniformly than when Obsidian did it, eventually leaving behind a jagged pyramid like piece of rock at the center. Not the desired result. Applejack looked up at Obsidian who just grinned back at her and nervously chuckled. With a sigh Applejack grabbed another rock. “This could take a while.” After several hours with Obsidian the sun had finally fallen over the horizon. Applejack had wandered out of the monastery and back into the forest looking for Bedrock, having no idea where he was and with the lack of light she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to find him. Luckily he seemed to have been waiting for her and was close to the entrance of the monastery, whatever special sort of training he had for Applejack was something he wanted to get started on quick. The two now stood in a small clearing in the forest, trees and rocks dotting the perimeter. The stars and the moon gave them just enough light to see each other, with the heavy chirping of crickets blocking out most other sounds. “So why night?” Applejack asked him, only a little tired from the busy day she’d already had. “What I’m going to teach you is about sensing things you can’t see, but starting you out in total darkness is a bit much. Like this you can still see vague shapes and objects.” Bedrock moved to the tree line of the clearing, becoming a blurry shadow to Applejack. “Now stay where you are. You’re going to feel a slight vibration in the ground.” Applejack did as she was told and a moment later she felt that small tremor beneath her hooves. “I just sent that out, I know exactly where you are and can perfectly make out what you look like with that.” “What do you mean?” She questioned him, her face scrunching up in confusion. “How do you think I knew about that sand worm back then? Or those hired mercenaries? I constantly send out subtle tremors from my body, when they impact something I get a feel for that object. What it is. Where it is. What it looks like. If there’s something unusual around, like that sand worm, I can tell.” Applejack couldn’t see his expression but he seemed to be pretty proud of his talent. “Normally the tremors are so small and weak that they’re totally imperceptible and they can’t be used to damage an opponent, the one I just sent out I made sure you would feel.” “Alright, so you want me to learn this too?” “It would be pretty useful, if there’s anything on or in the ground you’ll know about it. Nothing can sneak up on or surprise you. Well unless there’s some kind of magic involved I guess. Or if they’re flying too.” Bedrock reluctantly let that last part out. “You can also learn to do the opposite, but it’s harder. If you can train yourself to feel the vibrations coming from other moving things it means you don’t have to constantly send out tremors of your own, but at the same time that wouldn’t tell you about things that are still or hidden. I never learned how to tell somethings location or identity from its own vibrations reaching me. That part of my training was cut short.” Applejack took it all in, she was pretty sure this was the most she had ever heard Bedrock speak. She wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to do what he did, unlike the other Hoof of the Earth techniques she couldn’t think of any way this related to applebucking. Even the sculpting was “simpler” in its own way. “Well hay, I’m ready to try it.” She saw the vague shadow of Bedrock nod. “Good. Now you should be able to see the outline of this tree next to me, I want you to try sending a tremor to it and tell me exactly what it looks like. Down to every last scratch in the wood.” Oh boy. Applejack squared herself and stilled her breathing. Again, there was nothing to do but to do it. A few hours later she would turn in for the night a happy mare.