Water hurt.
To be more accurate, water hurt when you hit it after falling about two hundred feet. And after being lit on fire and severely burned in several places. But the pain was a slight, very slight, blessing in disguise because it snapped Applejack’s mind back into full gear. She wasn’t sure if anything was broken from the fall but she knew she had to struggle to stay afloat as the current of the river carried her terribly hurt body downstream. The rapids and her panicked flailing threatened to drown her as her head was constantly finding itself submerged. It was difficult to calm down though with every single fiber of her being screaming out in pain.
She didn’t even see the rock in the middle of the river, she just felt her body smack against it before being swept aside again. Discombobulated, she tried paddling about with her hooves, trying to get into a normal swimming motion. But she just didn’t have the sense to tell what was going on anymore, she paddled and flipped over and around like a rag-doll tossed into a washing machine. Swallowing more than one mouthful of water on accident Applejack could tell less and less of what was going on. Her world was nothing but water and spinning and her vision started to fade more and more.
Apple Bloom… everypony…
She wasn’t sure if she was fully awake anymore, it felt like she was in that half-dreamlike state she would sometimes get in when she worked herself too hard and didn’t get enough sleep the previous night. Everything felt jumbled to her. Applejack’s body felt like it was weightless, like she was floating on a cloud. Her mind was too rattled to think harder about anything, she was just left to go with the flow from one sensation to the next.
This sense of grogginess continued until she heard a voice that was most certainly not her own. Then more. Applejack realized she had stopped moving, but her whole body was numb, almost as numb as her mind, and she almost didn’t notice. The water from the river was still pounding against her but she was stuck on some sort of net in the river.
She could hear ponies yelling but didn’t have the strength to move her head to look at them. As the cold water continued to run over her she closed her eyes and finally fell into a real sleep.
Applejack slowly opened her eyes to find herself in bed again. Despite what she had just been through she was much more aware of things than when she had woken up in the Spirit Shrine after collapsing from her fever.
That included being aware of how much pain her body was in.
“Ughhh...” Applejack groaned as she raised her head to look down at her body, seeing it covered in bandages that made her look like a mummy. “Rarity would… like the new fashion statement.” At least she wasn’t so badly hurt that she couldn’t make jokes, Applejack thought to herself.
Sitting up a bit despite the pain Applejack took a look around the room she was in. Unlike at the Spirit Shrine where she had her own private room this was clearly a normal hospital room. Five other hospital beds just like the one she was in filled the room, and a big window at the end allowed light to pour in. It had a nice inviting atmosphere, would’ve felt just like being in Ponyville General aside from the walls of this building being made from slabs of stone.
Applejack carefully checked out her body to make sure she could move everything just fine, there was a lot of pain but nothing seemed broken. She didn’t have a problem moving her limbs or anything either. The burns on her body probably weren’t as severe as the first time considering she didn’t essentially stick her hoof into a raging magical fire this time.
Looking at the window Applejack decided to get up out of bed, if light was coming in that meant that either it hadn’t been too long since she had fallen into the river in the first place or more than a whole day had passed. Things would be really bad if the second possibility was the right one. She gingerly got onto her hooves and pushed through the pain and soreness. Now she was sure there was nothing broken so that was good at least. Sidling up to the window and taking a gander outside Applejack was happy to see what looked like a normal village. It wasn’t on fire and there were no screams so Green Field likely hadn’t arrived yet. The village itself wasn’t as unique looking as the two-building town but it was still pretty interesting to Applejack as it looked like a lot of buildings were built directly into the canyon wall. Opening the window a bit, Applejack leaned her head out to see that even this hospital room was just slightly jutting out of the wall and the rest of the hospital was probably built underground. Below her there were a few standalone buildings along the side of the river, they mostly looked like ponies home’s. There was probably a whole series of interconnected buildings and passages all built inside the canyon that you could never see from outside. Her little sister and her friends would love to explore a place like this.
But Applejack really didn’t have any more time to appreciate the view. She had to warn these ponies that Green Field was coming and then get back to the Spirit Shrine.
Green Field might be going to the Spirit Shrine right now though after knowing they helped me…
Applejack stretched to get all the kinks out of her muscles, then started walking to the door. She’d leave the bandages on for now at least until she got to the Spirit Shrine and could get some magic healing again. But before she could open the door a pony on the other side swung it open for her. He was clearly a doctor, wearing the classic white coat and with eyeglasses pushed down his nose.
He looked shocked to see her up and moving around. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“Sorry but I got a lot of important things to do, thanks for treating me and all though.” Applejack practically pushed him out of the way. “Also I gotta warn you about something, if you can spread the news to everypony in town?”
“What in blazes are you talking about?! You’re lucky to be alive first of all, you need to get back in bed and rest! Those burns were very serious and your body was bruised and beaten all over.” The doctor tried to gently push her back into the room. “If those kids didn’t see you coming down the river who knows what could have happened.”
Applejack pushed off his hoof and looked at him with a hard expression. “Look, you don’t know it but you’re in danger. There’s a pony coming to attack this village. I understand that you want to make sure your patient is okay but we really don’t have time for all this. How long was I out for anyways?”
“What?! Y-You were only asleep for an hour or two, we put our burn salve and other remedies on you as quickly as we could. And attack? But why? I don’t understand.” The doctor shook his head while backing away from Applejack.
“The pony coming to attack you is a gal named Green Field, she’s from that farming community out west that was destroyed by a vicious group of thugs. She came here to ask for help but your town refused, now she’s got a magical artifact and she’s coming to get revenge on y’all.”
The doctor paled. “O-Oh, well I remember hearing about that happening to the farmers out there but I don’t know anything about her coming here or us refusing to help.”
“Doesn’t matter to her. She’s on the warpath. Even if it was just your leaders or whoever that refused her she’s gonna see your whole village as guilty.” Applejack sighed. “Look, just please go and tell everypony you can that she’s coming. You need to run, or hide somewhere safe.”
“Um, well, alright. Thanks for the warning.” The doctor nodded to her but then frowned. “What are you going to do? You really should just rest, you’re badly injured.”
“Nothing broken, good enough for me.” Applejack stretched once more and walked out the door. “I’ve got a pony to stop.” She stopped and glanced back at the doctor. “What’s the fastest way to the Spirit Shrine from here?”
After hoofing it as fast as she could through the forest to the huge mountain wall Applejack had finally made it back to the huge stone steps that led up to the Spirit Shrine. Thankfully for her the river flowed in a curve that went towards the mountain. So after being swept downstream for a while and ending up at the canyon village she turned out to be much closer to the Spirit Shrine than where she had initially fallen in. Her body ached something fierce now and she couldn’t go near as fast as normal but she still didn’t see any sign of Green Field. Either she hadn’t gotten to the Spirit Shrine yet or she was still going to attack the canyon village that she was going to in the first place.
And now I gotta climb all these darn steps…
It was torture on her joints but she made it up. Applejack had enough determination to play through anything short of crippling. Taking the time to catch her breath, Applejack looked behind her at the valley.
Her eyes widened.
“Oh, that’s not good.”
A huge column of smoke and fire was steadily making its way through the forest in the valley towards the Spirit Shrine. It looked like a living forest fire, slowly consuming everything in front of it as it crept towards its destination, leaving nothing but charred and blackened earth in its wake. At the size it was at now likely every other village and settlement in the valley could see it. Applejack was half glad that it meant Green Field wasn’t attacking that canyon village now but the other half of her was very, very worried. If Temperance and the others didn’t have a way to stop the Heart of Fire everything here was gonna go up in flames.
The doors to the shrine opened up behind her as she watched the approaching fire.
“Applejack, come inside, we need to talk.” She heard Sincerity’s voice calling out to her.
Applejack stood there for a few moments longer. Eyes glued to the inevitable coming of Green Field’s inferno. Her face was twisted in worry and she clicked her tongue, turning from the fire she walked towards Sincerity and the doors to the shrine.
“I guess you could see that coming?”
“Yes.” Sincerity nodded as she guided Applejack in. “I’ll take care of your wounds quickly, then we can meet the others in the sacred garden.”
Sincerity led her to another room in the shrine that Applejack had never been in before. Applejack pretty much tore off her own bandages while Sincerity and another mare calling herself Humility prepared their medicine and got to work. She felt it working almost instantly, it must work a lot better on surface wounds than something like a fever. Helped that none of her burns were as bad as her hoof that first time.
“So what’s the plan? Temperance and y’all going to give me another talisman?” Applejack asked her.
“No, they can’t make another one so quickly, and if it failed once you probably wouldn’t be able to get it to work on Green Field again. Instead we are… giving you something else.” Sincerity replied, her face looked conflicted as if the ponies had come to a decision that doesn’t sit well with her.
“What do you mean?”
“Let us take you to the others. Temperance will explain everything.” Sincerity and Humility then led her out of their medical room, taking her back to the large shrine room Applejack knew well.
They were all there, she recognized Tranquility and Resolution and of course Temperance. All of them looked like they were troubled by something and Applejack had the suspicion that it wasn’t Green Field coming.
All eyes turned to Applejack.
“Um, I’m guessing you have something important to tell me? Sincerity mentioned you were gonna give me something and all?” Applejack said while rubbing the back of her neck and trying to ignore the nervous gazes of the shrine ponies.
Temperance nodded and walked towards her. “Applejack, we have come to make a difficult choice. Although it pains us we believe this is the only way to stop Green Field and fix this problem. This problem that is all our fault in the first place. There is but one thing we can do in atonement for our inaction and negligence even though it goes against our entire purpose here.” Temperance closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “We shall bestow upon you the Heart of Water.”