Applejack stumbled slowly through the pitch black Everfree forest, cursing quietly under her breath. Navigating through the thick, overgrown wilderness without getting lost, was hard enough in daylight – let alone during the night, when the only light source was coming from the silver moon.
“Oh, horse apples where is that darn path…”
She swore again stepping into a deep puddle, her hooves sinking nearly to her knees. It wasn’t the first ‘mud-bath’ of the night either – her coat was soaked through, with a mixture of water, muck, and sap. Grunting angrily, she pulled herself out of the pond, only to realize that she lost the sense of direction, yet again.
She shook her head, rolling her eyes in frustration. “Next time you tell Apple Bloom, to be home before nightfall, perhaps you should listen to your own darn advice!”
As she berated herself, her eyes glanced at her brimming saddlebag, allowing her anger to subside a little and even put a small smile on her dirty face. Inside the bag, was a mixture of rare herbs and spices needed for a special delivery she was making. That package was worth all the trouble and hardship she was put through that night.
Searching for the lost path, Applejack trod carefully, straining her eyes to see something in the dim moonlight, when her ears registered a quiet rustle and perked up involuntarily. She stopped dead in her tracks sniffing the air, but aside from the usually moldy smell of the rotting plants, there was nothing – definitely no stinking timberwolves or hydras nearby.
“Hello? Anypony there?” She said and waited, but got no reply. “Rainbow, if that’s you then I swear – try to prank me, and you’re gonna get from here to Canterlot in ten seconds flat, by a ‘bucknight’ express!”
As she listened, the clouds above suddenly gave way – allowing the moon to brighten up her surroundings – painting the wilderness around her in silver and showing her the path she was looking for earlier. Applejack smirked, but a quick glance above washed her smile away almost immediately – she had a short window before the clouds would cover the moon again. With no time to waste, she trotted towards the trail. Whatever the earlier rustling was, it was gone now, or perhaps it was just her imagination playing tricks on her – she didn’t care anymore. She wanted to get out of there, to wash away all the mud and sap, to get to her comfy bed and finally get some well-earned sleep. The mere thought of peaceful slumber was putting a gentle smile back on her face.
All that changed, when something hit the tree next to her, producing a sharp crack-like sound. She stopped again, turning towards the noise, only to hear three more quiet pops coming from her saddlebag. Her eyes widened – her bag was ripped open, the precious merchandise she needed so badly was quickly spilling onto the ground. Instinctively, she tried putting her hoof to somehow seal the leak when a searing pain, shot through her abdomen.
“Ow! What in tarnation?!” Applejack yelled, both from surprise and pain. It was then, she noticed that a trickle of blood was coming from behind her ripped saddlebag.
For a moment she froze in place, her brain too bewildered to make any sense out of the situation. With her face wrinkled in confusion, she observed the precious red fluid, leaving her body, drop by drop – until a familiar rustle coming from the nearby bushes snapped her awake.
Run. Her mind screamed. Run you idiot, RUN!
She didn’t have to be told again.
***
Applejack galloped through the thick bushes of the forest with blinding speed, trying to ignore the pain. She didn’t even turn to find out who, or what was after her, she just kept running – faster and faster. With adrenaline rushing through her veins, she would leave Rainbow Dash in the dust.
She ran until a weak glimmer of light cut through the wilderness – getting stronger with every passing second. Ponyville! She grinned, pointing herself directly at the source of the glow. It meant cutting through even thicker bushes, but with her stomach bleeding, she needed to hurry.
Even with the adrenaline in her veins, she was starting to feel a stabbing sensation coming from her torn belly, and every intake of air felt as if filling her lungs with hot needles. Her earth-pony stamina got her that far, but with the agony quickly intensifying, she was running out of time – her body couldn’t take much more.
All of a sudden the moon hid behind the clouds again, filling the forest with pitch black darkness. Battling the thorny bushes as well as her own body, Applejack failed to notice a steep slope in her path – she tripped, her body rolling and bouncing like a rag-doll. Her plunge lasted for a few seconds, before ending on a thick tree below. For a moment, she lay there dazed. The wind was knocked out of her. As she tried to breathe in, a sharp pain shot from her stomach. The earlier wound was now swollen, bleeding more profusely and radiating painfully. She tried to stand up only to feel agony coming from her leg.
“Sweet Celestia! That hurt…” She glanced at the source of the sensation, and her eyes widened. Her left front hoof was severely lacerated and mangled.
Most ordinary ponies in her predicament would panic, screaming their lungs out for help and inviting the timberwolves – or whatever was after her – for lunch. Fortunately, Applejack knew better. Breathing heavily, she tightened the belt on her saddlebag, so that it would press on her wound, limiting the bleeding to a minimum. She forced herself up on her remaining hooves, picked up her hat and started limping home.
Applejack moved slowly, climbing up the slope and fighting through the pain on each step. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she once again saw the light on the horizon – bigger and stronger this time. Her face brightened – it was a reflection coming from Twilight’s castle. She was much closer than she thought – minutes away from the outskirts of the village, at most.
“Come on, girl! It will be over soon...”
Just as she said it, something rustled close by.
“Or not…”
Gritting her teeth from the pain, she darted into nearby bushes just as a crack of branches filled the air. She rested motionless on the floor with her eyes wide opened, and heart-pounding. She was barely breathing, trying not to make a sound. Please don’t come this way, please... There was no fighting her way out of there – not in her condition. All she could do is wait and pray for… whatever was out there to go away.
As she laid there listening, the sound started getting weaker with every passing second – disappearing completely, sometime later. Applejack stayed put for a few more minutes, waiting for the creature to return, until a cold shiver snapped her awake. She glanced down only to notice a small pool of red fluid covering her hiding place. She was running out of time – her body shutting down from the loss of blood. She needed to move.
With conceivable effort, Applejack managed to force herself up again, her head spinning. OK... Now to Ponyville…
She managed only to stagger a few steps before some kind of web knocked her off her hooves and sent her flying through the dense vegetation – painfully pinning her to a tree a second later. She winced in agony, as one of the lines bit directly through her wound, deepening it. In desperation, she flailed her hooves, trying to get free, only to make the net tighter.
The rustling came back, and something emerged from the nearby bushes. For a moment Applejack stopped struggling and glanced at the thing. It was a bipedal creature, almost twice the size of an ordinary pony, wearing some weird looking clothes that covered its face and most of the body. That was all Applejack could tell in the darkness of the night... And because her eyes focused on the giant knife, the thing was holding in its right hand.
Her heart skipped a beat. She pushed her hooves against the web, with all her might. “Come on! COME ON! ... Please ...” But the net didn’t budge. “HELP!”
The beast stopped, tilting its head and observing her struggles. For a moment they stared at each other – the creature scanned her from top to bottom shaking its head. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it started raising the knife.
“No… W-wait, wait!” Applejack screamed, trying to place her hooves in a guard position, but the net was holding them in place. She exchanged one last glance with the creature and let out a deep sigh. “D-do it quickly…” She closed her eyes accepting the inevitable.
But instead of cold metal piercing her chest, a loud crack filled the air. She blinked, just in time to witness the beast in the air, flying in the direction of the slope she climbed up just a few minutes ago.
***
Applejack quickly scanned the horizon and after seeing her savior sighed both in relief and annoyance. Of all the creatures in Equestria, it had to be him – James, the local human freak, a.k.a ‘walking brewery,’ or ‘captain one-liner’ was standing at the edge of the slope. While his black high-tech armor was barely visible in the moonlight, his grin was noticeable even from a distance.
“Uuu, somebody didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation!” He chuckled, as the body of the creature rolled down, disappearing into the bushes at the bottom.
“Um, a little help please?” Applejack said.
He approached the tree she was tightenedto, and his grin widened. “Damn! I should have known you were into bondage. Never parting with your rope should have been a dead giveaway—“
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ugh, could you stop with your usual cheesy talking and help me?”
“Fine, fine – no fun with you,” he glanced at the tangled web. “This may take a minute.”
“OK. Where did you come from anyway?”
“Apes... If you believe Darwin,” Applejack’s eyebrow arched. “Oh, you mean how I got here? Well, here I was looking for a perfect spot to hide a body—“
“WHAT?! Who did you kill?!”
“No one! … well, not yet, but if Rainbow Dash pranks me again, I want to be prepared,” Applejack rolled her eyes in response. “Anyway, I heard a scream and decided to investigate and… here we are,” he shook his head in frustration. “Ah hell with this thing, let’s just break it.”
“I tried, but that net is too—”
A loud snap-sound interrupted her, as James tore the first part of the mesh. “Forget you are talking to a nano-enhanced super soldier, eh? I can tear through this thing faster than a newborn with bloody diarrhea can fill a diaper!”
“Ugh, you really didn’t have to describe that to me… just get me out of that thing,” she shivered. “It’s getting cold…”
“Yeah, whatever – what the hell are you doing here anyway?”
“I needed some herbs to make some of my special cider for an important client, but ever since those new weather ponies took over, we had problems growing them on the farm so—”
“So you decided to venture into the Everfree, alone, after dark?” James shook his head. “And I thought, that Rainbow Dash was the only brainless one, in your gang…”
“When I went to Zecora it was still daytime, but she wasn’t home, so I waited, and then we had some tea and... I guess I lost track of time.” Applejack sighed. “Look, I know I messed up, but could you please hurry before that... Thing come back?”
Just as she said the words, the last part of the web snapped, releasing her to the bushes below the tree. “Done and don’t worry, that Diamond Dog or whatever that was is probably far away from here—”
A soft thud followed by a loud ‘THREAT DETECTED!’ alert got James attention – his eyes widening immediately. “Oh, crap…”
He darted in front of Applejack just as something exploded. The blast knocked Applejack of her hooves, and lunched James in the air, his body absorbing most of the impact. He landed on a tree with a loud crack – his face burning with anger.
“Goddamn it! That’s IT!” James shouted, cocking his gun as his visor locked down with a hiss. “I’m gonna make you pay for that – pay with interest!” He jumped into the nearby bushes.
Applejack laid flat on her stomach, as loud bangs filled the air, followed by the noise of struggle and some swearing, followed by more swearing… and even more swearing. The language! Sheesh… A few moments later, the creature flew above her head, hitting one of the trees. It got up pulling out the knife again, but before it could make a step, its body sparkled like a Christmas tree, and it dropped to the ground hollering and convulsing for a moment, before passing out.
James stepped out of the bushes with a grin, his arm particle cannon still letting off some steam. “I guess, the bill must have really shocked him!” He chuckled, but Applejack was silent. “Oh, come on! You guys really need to learn to appreciate a good one-liner... Applejack?”
“Can-t br-eath...” She mumbled, gasping for air.
James pulled her up from the bushes and froze. “Shit! Why didn’t you tell me earlier you were injured so badly?! All right, I get you to the hospital, just stay with me… Applejack!” He yelled, but there was no response. “Applejack!”