Applejack's day began much differently than usual, instead of the smell of breakfast to wake her up, she woke up to the old smell of paper. She opened her eyes slowly, finding the notebook next to her nose, the papers smell burning her throat. She slowly sat up and stretched, her back popping several times as she got ready to start her morning chores. Her hoof was still sore, but she was able to walk on it now, without having to bite a hole through her lip. Her bed creaked as she got off of it, the sheets still in some order. She grabbed the notebook and slid it into her bedside table, where she would remember it. Donning her Stetson from the bathroom, she hid her mane inside her hat, and walked downstairs, in the early light of morning. She made her way outside and towards the barn, ready for a long day of scrubbing rust and uncovering, whom she presumes, is Jarla, although it says Churchill on the side.
She opened the latch to the barn, and let the large barn door swing open, as early morning rays struck the machine. The light bounced off patches off rust, like a dull sword bouncing off a shield. She stood in the doorway as she started to feel a bit intimadated at the project before her. She approached the machine and decided to gut the interior, maybe find another journal or something to tell her what this thing is. She climbed on and into the machine and started removing objects that weren't nailed down or stuck to the actual metal. The birdcage was moved first, itself covered in rust. She could probably give it to Fluttershy, or just sell it, the cage was large enough to house a small Phoenix. She moved towards what she would guess would be front, as she saw levers, gauges and a seat that resembled more of a bed. She pulled on levers and panels, but nothing budged, so she moved towards where the big barrel ejected out of, able to stand on her back legs and still have room, she spotted what could be a window, but has long since been filled with dirt. She looked around and spotted a small circulur cut out in the metal and reached up to it, finding it stuck, but moveable.
Crawling to the rear of the machine, she found several more circulur holes, trying both of them. One heldfast, and rust fell into the interior, but the other dropped, revealing what looked like mounted googles. Putting herself up the goggles, she looked through and realised they were a telescope. She backed away and stepped on a soft blanket. Looking down she saw that a blanket was covering a part of the floor. She slowly reached down and pulled the blanket away, and felt her breath catch in her throat as she stared back at what was covered. Underneath the blanket was a yellowed and beaten skeleton. She coughed as she fought the urge vomit, as she kept her eyes locked to the skeleton. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, it was much taller than AJ. She placed the blanket over the skeleton and kept away from it, as she hastily checked over the rest of the interior, spotting two small boxes. She grabbed the two and got out of the machine, her mood severily dimished as she closed the hatch to the coffin.
She placed the small boxes on the table and took a step outside, the sun now in the sky as it's rays shined down on the sad Earth pony. She took slow and deep breathes as she tried to rationally think about this, but her mind was screaming to breakdown. She fought the urge to follow her brain and slowly took steps back into the barn. She walked over to the small boxes and prepared to open them. She opened one and found several pictures and postcards, though the postcards where of places she never heard of.
"Manhattan? New York City? London and Berlin?" On the first few postcards she thought they may have just been typos or misprints, but when she got to where ever London and Berlin where her thoughts flopped. Looking through the pictures she saw pictures of several creatures. Applejack looked through them all and most where just group photos, but some where pictures of four creatures sitting on a big metal machine, the same one sitting in Applejacks barn. On the back of some of the photos there where captions, some where mundane, like "Donna's 15th birthday" or "My biggest fish" but the ones of the group of, what Applejack presumed, male creatures sitting on the machine, read "The crew of the best damned tank in Europe" or "Jarla just got us to the Eiffle Tower". Tank? Eiffle Tower? Applejack's head was running faster than Pinkie's mouth on a sugar high as she tried to figure things out. "Tank? Are you a tank, whatever that is?"
The machine was silent as it rested happily. Applejack put all of the pictures and postcards back and opened the second and saw three cylindrical objects, and an indentation of an object ment to fit in with the three other objects. A note was taped to the top of the lid that had a short message, "If they catch you, this is a better way out."
AJ sighed softly and closed both boxes, setting them next to the bird cage, before returning to the machine. Grabbing some rust remover and a bristle sponge she set to work. She started with the top and scrubbed and watched as metal slowly became rust free, she opened a hatch and scrubbed both sides of it, doing the same with the other hatch. She started humming in her head and lost track of time as she cleaned the machine. Several spots of the body where split or broken, nearly falling off. Some where dented and bent, but still attached. When she pulled away from the machine she saw the dark green metal shining through. The metal was still dirty, but she could have Applebloom clean the body. She looked at the sky and saw the sun was past center sky. She smiled and grabbed the two boxes and quickly ran upstairs to her room, grabbing the notebook. She left the farm quickly, making her way to Twilight's castle. Applejack would prefer to have just her trying to figure out what this is.