Some readers might find the following chapter disturbing.
Everfree’s canopy always became thicker as one went further in. Because of this, the moonlight that normally helped guide the way was often blotted out by the darkness. Walking down the path was almost disorienting, as the shadows often times tricked the eye into guessing if the path they were on was even correct. With such inky darkness broken only by the occasional dark green of the underbrush, it was no wonder as to why many ponies feared walking through this forest.
Despite having been into the forest many times, Applejack and Rarity still walked cautiously through the Everfree Forest. It wasn’t that long of a walk to the Castle of the Two Sisters; they’d made the trip many times. Yet something about tonight, about this forest, and most importantly about what they would find when they arrived at the Castle was weighing on them. It made the trek feel far longer than it had any right to be.
The sound of their footsteps were swallowed up by the wind and rustling of the leaves. At first, it’d been somewhat simple to believe the two had fallen behind. The sight of Twilight’s lavender fur could blend into the shadows easily, and Pinkie Pie was bouncing at the front of the group. AJ and Rarity had fallen behind the two, so them not seeing them on the path at first was normal. Steadily, however, it became apparent that wasn’t the case. They weren’t sure how, but they had been separated from their friends. Neither of them even saw when it happened. By the time they had noticed that Twilight and Pinkie Pie were no longer near them, it had been too long to even determine the time at which it happened.
It would have been easy to immediately scramble to find their way back to the group, yet neither of them did. Both of them knew that panicking would bring no good in this situation. This wasn’t the first journey, and as such they were aware of the danger that they were in. Having their Stands gave the two the confidence that they were more than prepared to handle themselves should a situation arise. Their main objective at the moment was to rescue Fluttershy.
The leaves crunched underfoot as the two kept walking. The path in front of them was only sparsely illuminated by what little light pierced through the trees. The ever present sound of the forest’s undulations of its leaves, scratches and the wind filled their ears. Despite knowing it was their heads getting to them, it was hard to ignore the creeping sensation this brought onto them. As such, they simply proceeded to the castle with extreme care while having a conversation to keep themselves from succumbing to panic.
“So, Rarity,” Applejack coughed somewhat awkwardly, “If I remember what Twilight said, Stands are supposed to be like, us?”
Applejack was the newest to the manifestation of one’s soul out of the entire group. Even though Rarity wasn’t much more knowledgeable than she was on the subject, Applejack still was hoping to alleviate her confusion with her. It had only been a bit since she awoke Country Girl after all, and she was still unsure about so many things.
“From what I’ve gathered, that is correct,” Rarity nodded, “They’re our souls, as Twilight put it. Our souls are representations of ourselves. As such, our Stands should be some sort of reflection of us.”
“Well that’s got me even more confused,” Applejack scratched her mane under her stetson. “I’m trying to put two and two together here and, well, those stooges are the furthest thing from you that I could probably think of.”
Upon hearing that, Rarity turned her head slightly and outstretched her right arm. On it, Cartney and Harrison formed, rushing up her arm to sit on her shoulders. Rarity let out a little breath from her nose and ran a finger atop Harrison’s head.
“Oh quite the contrary. I think my precious Diamond Dogs are a perfect representation of how I view the creative process. Multiple, separate, conflicting ideas and processes all trying to work at once. They don’t get along at all, and are always at odds with each other. It’s chaos, it’s rough, and it makes you wonder how anything manages to be accomplished. But when you are able to get everything to work together, you can create almost anything.”
“Anything!” Harrison piped up, brandishing his ripper, “We can make almost anything. Taking things apart and rebuilding them is what we’re best at.”
“Then what does that make mine?” Applejack, in turn, stared at her right hand. Slowly, her fingers began to gently turn green, forming vines that began to sway and curl around on themselves.
“I hardly think it’s my place to say that, darling. It’s your Stand, your soul. The one who would know what it means best is you.” Rarity tapped both Harrrison’s and Cartney’s heads, causing the two to vanish.
Rarity rounded a bend, touching a large rock that jutted out of the dirt surrounding the path to alert Applejack. She skirted around it, running her hand along it to see where it lay. Slowly, the hand with vines began to grow further, traveling up her palm and turning the flesh into plant life. As it reached her wrist, the vines, until then neat and orderly if still curling around each other, fully disengaged and began to sway in the air. Their tips reached out like feelers towards Rarity. If she wanted to, she could ensnare her friend in an instant. Yet what did that mean for the Stand itself?
“It’s, trees.” Applejack was silent for much longer than a minute, trying, and failing, to think of the significance of this, “Well, vines that, grow into trees. So, I like trees?”
“You didn’t sound so sure about that darling,” Rarity put her hand under her chin and tilted her head to the side, “Try to dig a little deeper. Think of it like, analyzing a work of art.”
For a moment, Applejack looked down to her hand. Her vines combined and bark fully grew over them to form a tree limb. She reached her arm out and pointed it directly at a nearby gnarled tree. Her ‘arm’ shot out, hitting the tree with enough force to knock a pony out cold. The tree splintered, its top slightly bending in to leave a large gash in its surface. It wobbled considerably, barely staying upright and likely to fall at the next storm.
“...It’s still trees, Rarity,” Applejack sighed, pulling her arm back in, “I really don’t think there’s much more to this than just, it’s turning my arms into trees.”
“You’re thinking too literal,” Rarity shook her head, “Think, what do trees represent to you? What exactly do you think of when you think of trees?”
“My farm, my apples, maybe if I stretched my family?” Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Should we really be talking about this right now? We haven’t seen Pinkie or Twi for a good bit now. I figured we’d have at least heard them calling for us by now...”
“Nothing wrong with passing time with some healthy discussion. Perhaps County Girl has something to do with those things?” Rarity paused, “You’ve lived your entire life around them, I’m sure that must have influenced you in some way.”
“I guess it must’ve,” Applejack turned her head back to look behind them, “I mean, it looks like its just showing that I’ve spent my entire life around them. So I must be connected to them. Trees are connected to me. There, solved. Now where did we last see those two?”
“On the forest path we normally take when we enter these cursed woods,” Rarity took a step closer to Applejack as they walked. “But now we’re nowhere near the path. It seems to have just disappeared out from under us. I suspect the same has happened to our friends. At this point I can only hope that they’ll be able to handle whatever kind of trouble they find themselves in.”
Applejack looked down at her feet. The ‘path’ they had followed had become narrow, tiny and barely defined, like some sort of animal-made path. The larger more defined route through the forest they always followed was gone. She wasn’t sure how they had… where had they deviated from the main path?
“How do you know that they’re going to be in trouble?” Applejack asked, “They might just be lost.”
“Trouble always finds us darling. Heroes beget danger, and danger begets preparedness. If our own escapades have proven anything, it’s that. I may not seem like it right now, but I’m on edge for when it finds us specifically.”
Applejack cast a look at Rarity. While she was smiling, she could only see the side of Rarity’s face. The fashonista’s eyes had grown cold and focused. Applejack turned her gaze away as her own eyes slowly adopted that same look, knowing what Rarity said was likely truer than she wished it to be.
The two had managed to find themselves in a clearing. The unnerving trees that were synonymous with the Everfree were still plentiful and existed all around, but there was enough room to see more than just them at this point. Only the small patches of moonlight showed the two the fragile path they trod upon. Unfortunately for the duo, what they ended up seeing wasn’t the path that they wanted to see.
Rather than perhaps a glimpse of the Castle’s spires in the distance, Applejack and Rarity found themselves in front of a large, murky pound. The surface of the water was a sickly green, tainted by the high amounts of algae. Both due to the darkness and the copious amount of growth, it was impossible to see past the water’s surface. Occasionally there would be ripples of some insect too small to see in the current light landing on the water. Overall though, the pond was unremarkable.
“I think I recognize this water,” Rarity slowly squatted down and peered across the surface of the water, “Isn’t it downwards from Zecora’s hut? Isn’t this where she gathers some of those ghastly smelling plants?”
“I think so?” Applejack’s gaze was directed at the water. She was attempting to gather any memories she could about it by staring long enough, “But, there’s a lot of pounds in the forest isn’t there?”
“No I’m sure of it,” Rarity pointed to the center of the pound, where an old, dead tree sat in the center, forming a natural bridge. “From that downed log I implicitly remember the worst creature imaginable ambushing me.”
“You mean that tiny frog?”
“The thing was slimy and probably covered in warts! You never know what those things are covered in!” Rarity shuddered and stood back up with a shake, “That’s not the point I’m trying to drive at anyway! What I’m trying to say is that if this is indeed the same pond, then Zecora’s hut should not be too far away. If we can find that, then we can find the path again and get a sense of where we are.”
“How’d we even get here in the first place?” Applejack pursed her lips together, “If were on the trail, we should’ve just reached her hut anyways, right?”
“I’m not sure. This forest had the most devious way of playing tricks with you!” Rarity crossed her arms, “Let’s see, which direction to Zecora’s? We would leave out her back door, which direction does that run? It can’t be too far a walk from here, it never felt that way before…”
Despite nodding her head, Applejack had stopped listening to Rarity. Something else had caught her attention. The ripples on the water’s surface was normal. This forest was full of all manor of bugs and insects. It was only natural to see their disturbances in the green tainted liquid. But there was one particular spot near the edge of the pond closest to the two of them that was bothering Applejack. She’d only noticed it by glancing about, yet now that she had she couldn’t help but stare at it. The way the water was rippling was far too large and occurred way more frequently than it should have if it were caused by mere insects.
These unusual occurrences went unnoticed by Rarity, who continued to walk as she talked about ways of getting themselves un-lost. This lack of awareness rose in Applejack’s mind when the rippling in the water started to become even more frequent. She slowly stepped forward, trying to see what it was. It rose to reveal that the rippling was not caused by something on top of the water’s surface, but rather, beneath it.
At first, what rose up from the depths appeared to be a beast. It was covered in mud, dripping with water, and the darkness meant its skin appeared to be completely black at first. Yet the more that it rose up, its shape was revealed. What was beneath the water become more and more obviously a pony. From the build of their shoulders and torso, it was a male pony. A male whom had his eyes set on Rarity. A Rarity who was unaware that he was doing so.
When the stallion rose up from the water, for Applejack it appeared as though it was in slow motion. It reminded her of watching a cart roll downhill, feeling as though it was taking far longer than it normally did. Yet just like that cart, when it crashed it seemed it took place far too quickly. Thus, despite Applejack realizing that this was indeed another pony, she had only a split second to react to it when it suddenly moved.
Applejack immediately kicked off with her foot to launch herself forward. She dashed forward right as the stallion from the pond pounced at Rarity. Rarity hadn’t even turned her head to see him barreling down on her when Applejack shoved the unicorn out of the way. Doing so meant Rarity was sent into the water to relative safety, yet meant that Applejack was the victim of the stallion instead.
The stallion clung to Applejack’s body like some sort of serpent. His wet, slick and cold body was latched into her right shoulder and wasn’t letting go. She struggled, but even with her superior muscle, she couldn’t shake him off. The stallion looked at her with a crazed look her in eyes and opened his mouth wide.
Strands of wet drool dripped from his mouth as he licked Applejack’s right up the cheek. Applejack was helpless to do anything while he did so. Her face curled up naturally in revulsion to such an action, especially as she felt the cold line it left on her face.
Rarity had taken notice finally after Applejack had shoved her out of the way. She scrambled her way up from the water, shaking it from her eyes. Seconds after she turned around to see her friend under attack, she had formed Beatle and was putting its ripper in motion. But by the time she had separated the two and the enemy was sliding off of Applejack, he had already accomplished her goal of licking her face.
It took a moment for Applejack to recover from being stunned by what had just happened. She could barely even process what he had done to her. But once she did, she was instantly extending her arm into roots and looking for the nearest tree to use. Rarity was likewise attempting to sew the stallion to the ground. But their assistant proved too slippery to catch. Within seconds he was back under the water, disappearing in a new wave of ripples.
With their assailant gone, Rarity scrambled over to Applejack. Beatle had been disassembled into her four components in order to have more sets of eyes around that could keep watch in case their attacker came back. The four dispersed in a semicircle around their User, each brandishing their ripper in preparation.
Applejack was completely still in a stupor. She was still trying to comprehend what had just happened to her. An enemy had just ambushed her and got her in the perfect position to launch some sort of attack. But, instead, all he chose to do was lick her up the face. Aside from how uncomfortable and violated that made her feel, she just couldn’t comprehend why.
“Applejack!! Are you alright!?” Rarity gasped as she closely inspected Applejack’s cheek. She was just as turnt around about the situation as her friend was. Despite the oddity that these Stands had brought to their lives, this situation was up there in terms of the weirdest situation.
“Yeah... I think so,” Applejack began to brush away the slick mud stuck to her body, starting with the cheek that was licked, “I, don’t really understand what he just did, but, that varmint is still around and we best…”
As Applejack wiped, she noticed that something was off about her skin. She suddenly felt a bump that hadn’t been there before. Her hand slowed to and her fingers traced the outline of the bump. She lightly pressed her fingers into it, feeling the now slightly warm and loose flesh. That was how she found out that it was growing into a more defined shape. The realization of this unnatural occurrence made Applejack yank her fingers back from her face and let out a sound of sheer disgust.
This new growth didn’t go unnoticed by Rarity either. After a brief pause of confusion, she bent down and got a closer look at whatever was growing underneath Applejacks skin. When she looked closer, Rarity grew even more disgusted at the sight of it than Applejack.
It was hard to make out an exact image through Applejack’s skin, but Rarity could have sworn that it almost seemed like a fetus laying on its side. The skin of Applejack’s cheek looked as though it’d almost blistered, letting her see slightly inside. Rarity awkwardly reached up and tried to run her finger along it.
As though reacting to the touch, the skin suddenly vibrated. Before Rarity’s eyes, the strange thing underneath the skin grew! Rarity yanked her hand away from it as the skin bulged outwards to make room for it. It grew rapidly, causing the lump to grow larger and larger until ‘it’ had almost tripled in size. Rarity found herself holding down bile as ‘it’ now bulged grotesquely from Applejack’s skin.
“What the hay is this?!” Applejack cried out and shock. The new weight on the side of her face made her entire body shudder. Her hand rested on the growth in her cheek. It shook and wobbled with every motion of her mouth.
“Be thankful you can’t see it. I would bet good money that its the trouble that has found us,” Rarity nodded grimly. “As for what exactly it is, I haven’t the faintest idea.”
“Well can you cut it out of me?!” Applejack gagged, “Your dogs have those needle things, don’t they?!”
“No ma’am,” Lennon turned around from his post and informed Applejack. With a signal, the four all converged back on Rarity and took perches on her.
“We can separate it if it's attached to anything inside of you, but we can’t cut through your skin,” Lennon followed up, “We can only separate two different objects.”
“Yeah!” Cartney quickly agreed. “We only separate, no cut!”
“I do suppose that I could cut through your cheek myself with something sharp and remove it that way if we had to.” Rarity had her head turned away from the growth, not being able to look at it. “And then have them sew it back up once its out.”
“No thank you!” Applejack stood up abruptly, “It ain’t a good idea to be doing that with that, user too close. Plus, that just sounds a might too painful.”
“And unsanitary,” Rarity added. “We’ll only do that if push comes to shove. But separate it from her anyway, just in case it's some sort of parasite.
Wordlessly, Starr and Cartney jumped from atop Rarity and climbed onto Applejack. The other two Diamond dogs took perches on Rarity’s shoulders, staring t the water’s surface and awaiting for the strange pony’s return. Starr and Cartney pulled their rippers from their backs and plunged them into Applejack’s cheek. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and winced as if she was getting a shot, but the tools harmlessly phased through her skin.
It took a bit more time than usual for the mutts to trace the whole shape due to how complex it was. The whole while, Applejack had her eyes turned firmly away from their work. When the task was completely, the foal-like growth began to sag inside of Applejack’s cheek. She stumbled a bit as the sudden shift in weight slightly threw her off balance. But she nodded in whatever form of satisfaction she could bring up in a situation like this.
“Doesn’t, exactly feel much better…” Applejack felt sick herself just from feeling it, “But, thanks, Rarity.”
“Now we shouldn’t dilly around her any longer,” Rarity announced as Cartney and Starr joined the others back atop Rarity and aided in the lookout, “Let us proceed with extreme caution.”
Rarity pointed to the tree in the middle of the pound, “I remember now. That downed tree. Its roots point roughly in the direction of Zecora’s hut. I think our best course of action would be to proceed there and see if she can provide us any assistance?”
“Like what?” Applejack asked.
“Well for starters, protection. The dangerous creatures of this forest stay away from her hut for good reason. Not just because of any wards or charms or voodoo; but because she can be legitimately terrifying if she wants to be. Or so I have been told by Sweetie Belle.”
“Yeah, Apple Bloom tells me things like that too. I can believe it given where she, you know, lives.”
“Secondly, she could have some sort of cure for whatever that inside of you. I doubt it, since it is most likely Stand related, but it couldn’t hurt to try. After all, Zecora does seem like the type to know about Stands.
“And lastly, as well as most importantly, the others could have found their way there as well. Or Zecora at the very least could have seen them. Her hut is one of the only two landmarks we have in this forest. The other being our destination.”
“Yeah, I agree with you on all of that,” Applejack started to tip her head, but the growth shifting in her cheek made her shudder and freeze up, “So it looks like we’re going to try and pay Zecora a visit.”
“As for how we are going to proceed…“ Rarity put her hand to her chin and examined the pound. “We need to get to the other side. I suppose the quickest way would be to use the tree as a bridge. Let’s hope our new friend isn’t waiting for us…”
Slowly, the two made their way around the bank of the pond, keeping sharp eyes on the surface of the water. Even as they made it close enough to climb onto the tree, neither could tear their eyes off the murky depths. The only light letting them peer into the depths was the moonlight, and even then Luna’s light let them see only perhaps a single inch into the water.
The log rattled as the two climbed atop its massive roots. They both took the trek one step at a time. They walked slowly as to try and not fall off of the dead log. It was laden with slippery slime and moss, making each step they took a risk. Not only would it be a mild annoyance for them if they fell into the water, but it would also but them at risk from their attacker whose whereabouts are still unknown to the both of them.
Applejack already had her fingers turned into vines, awaiting for their attacker. The log wasn’t very long, but every step felt like a gamble as to whether or not it would be the time something would burst out to grab them. Yet, with all of the danger and threat present, the two made it to the other side and dismounted the log without incident. Both mares jumped down from the log.
A mental sigh of relief inside both of their heads was cut short, however, when they heard the soft sound of something breaking the water’s surface. The sudden noise pierced the silence around them. Instantly, the pair turned around to face the source of the noise.
It was a frog. A large frog. It’s slimy brown skin was shining with the water it had just leapt from. Its two large eyes blinked at the two, and it let out a deep noise from its throat a moment later.
At first, Rarity and Applejack thought it was just simply that, and that only Rarity had reason to fear it. The frog shifted slightly, and then the moonlight highlight something on it. There was an abnormally large growth protruding from its back. This growth look exactly the same as the one sagging in Applejack’s cheek.
The frog took one hop towards them. When its tiny feet touched the ground, the growth inside of the frog’s back started to shake. The one inside of Applejack’s cheek did the same. In an instant, both of the growths violently ripped out of their hosts.
Blood splattered across the rocks from both of them as Rarity was treated to the sight of two halves of a purple, stone fetus flying through the air towards each other with the soundtrack of Applejack shrieking in pain and an indescribable sound coming from the frog. Both halves went directly towards each other, and joined to form one whole fetus statue.
When the two halves connected, the complete statue glew brightly down the center, before exploding into a cloud of smoke. From the cloud a storm of purple well scattered in all directions. From the brief seconds Rarity had to take in, the cloud seemed to give way into tiny points. Rarity had the privilege of not feeling the intense pain of her face being torn open and was able to attempt to dive out of the way right into the lake.
However this attempt was unsuccessful as Rarity was hit with one of the thorns directly in the breast. Applejack was writhing in pain the entire time, and ended up getting hit by a thorn as well in her thigh. Several more embedded themselves in the dead tree, beneath the water’s surface, and in the ground around the explosion site.
From the spots that were hit by the thorns, new growths similar to the one that was originally in Applejack’s face began to grow at a rapid rate. Rarity, however, was focused on attempting to quickly trudge her way through the water and aid Applejack. The mud at the bottom of the pond sucked her feet down with every step, making her struggle to get near.
From behind Rarity, the rouge licker rose from beneath the water once again. He opened his mouth and from it a bird flew out. This bird had a hard time flying, however, since a growth was blocking its entire face. When it managed to fly close enough to Rarity, the growths ripped from their hosts like before.
Another glow, and more thorns. The unimaginable pain from her chest turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The second she felt it, Rarity fell over in pain and inadvertently submerged herself underneath of the water. She felt of the vibrations of more thorns as the were plunged into the water, but stopped just short of touching her.
Red hot with pain, Rarity dragged herself through the water and onto the shore. When she was on the grass, she saw her Dogs climbing over her and frantically attempting to sew the large hole in her chest shut. Rarity narrowed her eyes, gripped them one by one, and threw them as hard as she could at Applejack’s prone form. Rarity dragged herself up onto the muddy bank, the dogs frantically working to sew up Applejack’s face before rushing over to attend to their User.
When all wounds and clothing were repaired, the two mares got up and looked around. Their assailant had hidden himself again. They weren’t sure whether or not this was a good thing. It became clear to them that his whole modus operandi was that he would ambush them. So for all they knew, he could have been around them.
Rarity took in a deep breath to calm herself and force out the pain from her chest, “We should… let us review the situation thus far. Our enemy’s Stand ability seems to revolve around growing half of his Stand inside of living things. When two halves get close enough to each other, they will tear themselves out of their hosts and join up with each other. At which point the completed Stand will explode into a shower of thorns.”
“Thorns that make more halves in whatever they touch,” Applejack looked down to the new growth growing inside of her inner thigh with a look of apprehension. It was exactly where a thorn from the prior explosions.
“Right,” Rarity still didn’t gaze at it nor her own chest, “And I would wager that his saliva is the method he must use to form growths otherwise. Which would explain our less than pleasant initial encounter with him.”
As she talked, Rarity stood up, “To what end this is for is very clear as well. Obviously his Stand is meant to cause a chain reaction and create a continuous cycle of explosions that tear his victims to shreds.”
When Rarity moved out of her sight, Applejack caught sight of something behind her. It was hard to see completely in the dim light of the forest, but she saw movement where it shouldn’t have been. She swore she saw a patch of grass behind Rarity moving.
Applejack didn’t think about it for even a second further. She stood up as well and put both her hands out in front of her. Her arms turned to vines and the vines wove into a bull’s form, which ran straight for the moving patch of grass. It lowered its head and thrust its horns as hard as it could. The result was revealing the enemy Stand user, who had covered himself in grass to blend in.
Country Girl used its horns to fling the enemy into the air before untangling itself into vines. Halve of its vines expanded and formed a web around their target. Applejack attempted to close them in and ensnare him. Each time a vine ensnared him, however, the mud coating his body let him slide out before she could truly grip him.
“Darnit, hold still you varmint!” Applejack shouted while she could feel his muddy body slide through her Stand. Her right arm recoiled from him, launching outwards to her side. It’s vines connected with the roots with the fallen tree they had crossed previously.
With a great heave, Applejack lifted the tree out of the water. Mud that had formed around it over all the years it had rested there fell off in clumps along with the dripped pond water as it flew through the air. Applejack brought it down with all of her might onto her attacker.
The tree hit the ground with a mighty thud. The ground shook as grass and soil flew into the air where it landed. Rarity fell down onto her butt from the force. Applejack heaved from the effort, retracting her vines from the dead tree. As if to mock her, she suddenly saw him slide off to the side and climb on top of the tree trunk. He gave one mocking look before running off into the thicker part of the forest.
“Son of a gun is just too slippery.” Applejack spat on the ground and returned her arms to normal. “And on top of that his whole shtick is that he’s good at camouflaging himself it looks like.” She walked over and picked up a metal tube. A quick glance inside shoved Applejack the spitball it contained.
“It’s bad enough that we can’t catch him, but he could attack us from anywhere too!” Applejack chucked the tube as hard as she could into the pound. “And as the final rotten apple in the basket, I’ve already got one of his Stands inside me, again! Now it’s only a matter of time before we find another one and get peeled apart!”
“Well if there’s one thing this latest encounter has told us,” Rarity acknowledged everything Applejack had said with a nod. “We shan’t dilly dally here for any longer. Let us make our way to Zecora’s hut, like we had planned, and quickly. We cannot risk anymore surprise encounters!”
The pair shared a glance and stuck close to each other as they rushed down the path to Zecora’s hut. Their Stands stood at the ready. Both of them threw their eyes about the path as the sound of leaves and dirt getting distributed under their feet as they proceeded deeper into the forest. Every small sound that they thought they heard made them jump in suspect that it was their attacker ready to ambush them. Whenever the say the grass in front of them or the leaves above them rustle, they just about launched whatever attacks they had in its direction.
With the speed they were moving, the pound was far behind them to the point where they could no longer tell where it was. The path became little more than a single tiny band through the underbrush, almost impossible to spot; though Rarity insisted that they were still walking the right direction. With every step they put between them and the pond, the more secure the two felt with their decision.
Rarity was the first one to spot the trap laid by their attacker. It had looked like a normal knot in a tree ahead of them. The canopy blocked out much of the light in the forest, so it was hard to make out too much details. Only when Rarity got closer did she see the shape of the enemy Stand’s ability bulging from the bark.
Unfortunately, they had gotten too close. Being on edge the whole time did allow Rarity to tackle Applejack behind a nearby tree just as she started crying out in pain from the half inside her being ripped out of her thigh. She heard the explosion followed the sound of thorns embedding themselves into all of the surrounding trees, including the one that was shielding them.
There was a brief pause. For a moment, the silence made Rarity feel it was safe. But then she heard the sound of something being ripped from tree bark. Then another explosion plus thorn shower. Another pause, then the exact same sounds in sequence again. Then again. And again. The noise grew in intensity as a horrifying realization overcame her.
“The trees are growing the Stands!” Rarity shouted as she put her hands over her head and crouched down in cover. She realized that by walking deeper into the forest they had gone into a death trap. She looked around and realized how hopeless the situation was.
Applejack was lying on the ground, wounded while her dogs were busy sewing her skin and clothes back together. Even if she did have her dogs, they wouldn’t be much help. The trees keep making more Stands. The Stands make more explosions. The explosions kept making more Stands in the trees.
Rarity knew the two had to find cover. She opened an eye and looked about for something, anything to shield them. Thorns whizzed above her head. She cowered down as a thorn narrowly stabbed her in the face, hitting the ground right by her cheek.
There! Rarity could see a little bit of cover formed by one of the tree’s roots growing over the path. Reaching out, Rarity gripped Applejack’s hand as dragged the mare along the ground. Thorns continued to speed above their head,s each one possibly spelling doom if they were hit. The rough dirt underneath them scrapped at her stomach as she dragged the mare underneath the roots, letting her roll onto her back and breath with their limited safety.
Now she had a chance to think. She looked out towards the trees, and something seemed wrong. The explosions were still going off, but not in the exponential way she thought they were. Something clicked inside of Rarity’s mind. If it was truly as she thought, then why hadn’t this forest turned into a storm of thorns yet? Cautiously, between explosions, Rarity peaked around the tree. She saw multiple growths inside the trees. Right before she ducked back behind cover, she noticed that there were growths in trees right next to each other that weren’t reacting.
Why? Why weren’t the growths spreading further? Wasn’t that the whole point of the Stand? Rarity also realized that she was only hearing one explosion at a time. Yet there were so many trees that seemed to be within range of each other. Each singular explosion also sounded like it was coming from roughly the same place every time.
When Rarity looked to her side, she could see one half every time ripping from a new tree before the explosion happened. But she never saw the other half.
“Applejack!” Rarity sprung to her feet. Everything had become clear inside her head. “Dig your Stand into the ground and join them with the tree directly across from this one!” She patted the tree they were taking cover behind them. “Then uproot it! Do it now!”
The newly patched up Applejack didn’t even question Rarity’s orders. She thrust Country Girl underground and tunneled them underneath the tree. When she sensed that she had made contact with the next tree, she joined with it and tore it from the ground.
“Now what?” Applejack asked.
“Nothing, drop the tree,” Rarity looked full of confidence.
Again, Applejack did as instructed and let the tree fall to the ground with a thud. And that was the last loud noise the two of them heard. No more explosions. Nothing was setting off the Stand anymore.
With the utmost caution, Applejack and Rarity crawled out from their cover. They looked all around them as the trees and ground where peppered with purple thorns. The tree that Applejack had uprooted laid dead on the ground. Huge chunks of it had been taken out from where the Stand ripped out of it. It looked more like an old rotten piece of wood on its lower parts than a tree.
The trees all around the felled one also contained chunks ripping out of them in similar regards, only not as frequently. They also each contained a growth of the Stand. None of them were setting the other off, however.
“Why isn’t anything happening?” Applejack asked, observing their surroundings. “Why aren’t those parts joining with each other?”
“It was just as I hypothesized,” Rarity declared. “For some reason, only this tree I had you kill was setting off with the other trees. The rest don’t react with each other. But why? What is different about this tree than the rest of the ones surrounding it?”
“Well that’s easy,” Applejack crossed her arms and smirked. “That’s a redwood. The rest of the trees around here are oaks.”
“Redwood… That’s it!” Rarity shouted. “Two growths from the same type of organism cannot set each other off it would seem! That’s why the frog triggered the first explosion! We just learned something incredibly important about our foe.”
Rarity walked over to the nearest tree and put her hand to it. “I would also wager that that a single victim can’t have more than one growth inside of it. Otherwise these trees would be covered in them at the moment.” She observed the large number of thorns embedded in them, and yet only the single growth in each.
“Well I guess that knowing how it works will help us avoid it some more,” Applejack straightened her hat. “But it really won’t do any good when he’s still so…”
Rustling in the treetops above them. Both of them went dead silent and looked up. The rustling stopped, but they kept their eyes trained on the trees.
Rarity’s eyes couldn’t see it, but Applejack could pick it out right away. In one of treetops above them, there was a spot of leaves that didn’t match the rest. Without hesitation, Applejack joined Country Girl with that tree’s and attempted to grab the stalker with its branches. But once again he just simply slipped right through her wooden fingers and started to flee through the trees.
Before he left, their foe threw them down a parting gift. Rarity’s face looked horrified as she realized it was a squirrel that he had infected with his Stand. The poor creature never even got a chance to hit the ground before the growth inside it ripped out and joined with another one inside the trees.
Neither of them could react in time. They both got punctured by a thorn. Both in the arm. They both backed up from each other, before the growths in the trees ripped out of them and formed more explosions. The two ran in opposite directions with their teeth gritted in pain. The explosions had embedded new thorns inside them both. But this time they had gotten out of range of any infected trees.
“Are you alright?!” Rarity shouted as loud as she could. Already her dogs were climbing up her and working to repair the hole in her arm.
“No.” Applejack shouted back. “My arm’s been torn and I got another one in my side.”
“I have another one in my arm,” Rarity replied. “Hold on, I will help you in a…”
“No!” Applejack shouted again. “We’re both infected now Rarity! If we come anywhere near each other we’ll kill each other! You just go on ahead, I’m going to go the other way and hopefully draw him away from you.”
“But Applejack! You’re still hurt!”
“And if you come near me then we’ll both be hurt even more, probably killed!”
Rarity tried to call out to Applejack, but all she heard was her footsteps going in the opposite direction of her. She was half tempted to just be stubborn and go after her anyway. But she knew that Applejack was right. That fiend’s Stand ability had made it so that they couldn’t be near each other. This was the safest option. But it was only moderately so.
Their enemy had proven that he was adept at being absolutely anywhere without their detection. Even if they weren’t together and risking setting off each other’s growths, they still were vulnerable to his ambushes. Even more so now that they weren’t together to look out for each other.
Splitting up was absolutely not an option. Rarity knew this at once. But with that growth still in her arm, neither was staying together. She needed to get to Applejack. She also needed to get rid of this growth in her arm.
“Boys!” Rarity called out, “You are positive you can’t cut this out of me?” Rarity asked her Diamond Dogs as they appeared on her arm.
“Positive,” Starr affirmed. “We can’t cut, only separate.”
“Then,” Rarity would not be defeated. She had power. She would use it. She just needed to know how. She needed to make it so that the growth in her arm wouldn’t get near Applejack.
“Then separate my arm from my body!” Rarity shouted the idea as quickly as it came to her. She didn’t even think it over, as was required for such a rash idea.
“What?!” All four of them shouted in unison. Rarity didn’t wait for their responses, however. She had already plucked a needle and ripper from their backs, and went to work reforming them. Soon Beatle was in front of her.
“I hope you realize what this means,” Beatle commented while Rarity willed her to separate the muscles and tendons from her arm bone, as well as bone from its socket in the shoulder. “You’re arms about as separated from the rest of your body as I can make it. The rest, will have to be the dirty way.”
Rarity’s arm went limp, the muscles, tendons and the bones in the socket now all loose. The only thing holding her arm on now was her skin. Rarity took one look at her arm, slowly chuckling slightly at the thought of how insane this idea of hers was.
“I am well aware,” Rarity grabbed hold of a nearby stick. Beatle grabbed hold of her limp arm. “Now, do it before I regain even an ounce of rational thinking.” Rarity put the stick between her teeth, Beatle nodded, Rarity nodded, and then Rarity had Beatle pull as hard as she could.
~~~
All Applejack ever wanted was a simple life. She liked things predictable and routine. She realized this long ago when she was a filly. That’s why she opted to stay on her farm instead of moving to the city with her relatives. But ever since she met Twilight, her quite, normal life had been uprooted.
Most of the time Applejack didn’t complain. Most of the time it was for the better that her routines were broken, and Applejack ended up doing something fun. But this was not one of those times. This was in fact one of the handful of times where her normal life being changed resulted in her life being endangered.
Needless to say, Applejack wasn’t happy about it. She didn’t like it, not at all. Nopony would like having their live threatened. But what really frustrated Applejack about it was that she had the tools to fight back against it, but she didn’t know how to use them!
Tools where something she knew how to use. When you needed to put a new board on the fence, you used a hammer. Applejack knew how to use a hammer. When one of the pipes was leaking, you used a wrench. She knew how to use a wrench. Dead apple tree? Hatchet. Need to plant a new sapling? Shovel. Applejack knew how to use tools to solve problems.
When you’re fighting a Stand, you use your own Stand. That’s what Twilight had told Applejack. Her Stand was the tool. But she didn’t know how to use it. She thought she did. She thought all there was to it was grabbing a tree by its roots and turning it into her arm. But the problem wasn’t solved, so she wasn’t doing it right.
What more was there to using Country Girl than she already knew then? What wasn’t she seeing? Was that all there was to it? Just trees? And, did that mean that’s all there was to her as well? Was she nothing more than just her farm?
While Applejack was lost in her depressing thoughts, she failed to notice a bulge in the tree bark behind her start to move. The enemy Stand user had been waiting in ambush there, and now his prey had moved into position.
He leapt from his hiding spot with a large knife branded in his hand. Applejack heard him the second he came within stabbing distance of her. Turned around to face him, moving her head out of his knife’s range and instead causing him to embed it in her shoulder.
Applejack gritted her teeth to the point of nearly cracking them from the pain and immediately turned her arms into vines. They pushed the enemy away from her, but still couldn’t get a good grip on him due to how slippery his mud coated body was. He sprinted on all fours along the top of her arms. Applejack turned her arm back to normal as fast as she could, but not fast enough. He lunged at her again.
“Get your grubby hands off of my friend!” Applejack heard Rarity’s voice gradually coming closer to her. Right before the enemy reached Applejack, he was pushed face first into the ground by Beatle. She attempted to sew him to the ground, but he got up right as she put her needle through him.
“Rarity!” Applejack shouted, “What are you doing here?! I told you to get to…” Her words were cut off by the sight of what Rarity was now missing. “Your arm! You’re arm’s gone!”
Rarity stood in front of Applejack, her face stained with tears and her still attached arm clinging onto the stump of where her other arm was. Blood had soaked the side of her shirt, still trickling somewhat down from it. Rarity’s body was shaking heavily, and from the way she was staggering, it looked as though she was on the verge of passing out. Yet her eyes were burning with a fierce determination that overpowered that feeling.
“It can be reattached later,” The now one-armed Rarity assured her friend with a shaky grin, “For now, I say it’s time we deal with a pest!”
Beatle took hold of her needle in her first. It pulled back on it and the enemy was tethered towards her by the diamond string. His face was dragged right into the Stand’s first. Rarity felt the pain of a good solid blow against her own knuckles.
Applejack followed up on Rarity’s attack. She dug her vines into the ground and grabbed the nearest tree she could. With her mighty oaken arm, she swung right for his chest. It hit him square on and dragged him along with the trunk’s arc. He quickly flew out of the range of Beatles string, forcing her to release it from her needle.
Soon afterwards, the enemy climbed up onto the tree branch and leapt off. He pulled a straw from his pocket and fired a spitball right at Rarity. She quickly dodged to the side, but a growth started forming in the tree behind her. Applejack noticed this and backed up immediately, dropping her tree arm in the process.
The enemy grinned and spat straight from his mouth on another tree near Rarity. Applejack’s keen eyes saw that it was another redwood. The first one that had been hit was an oak. They were both in range of each other. Thinking fast, Applejack moved to save Rarity while the enemy fled into the forest.
Applejack’s arms went into the soil and grabbed the roots of the redwood. She picked it up and backed up as far as she could while pulling the tree close to her. She needed to put as much distance between this tree and the tree behind Rarity as possible. This involved bringing the tree and its growth closer to the one in her leg.
Rarity shouted Applejack’s name, and both of them closed their eyes in anticipation of what was about to happen. But it didn’t. Nothing happened.
Bewildered, Applejack looked at the tree. The growth was clearly still in it. The growth was clearly still in her leg as well. But they weren’t joining together and exploding. Rarity walked closer in bewilderment, unable to understand why.
“I don’t understand,” Rarity gasped. “They should be triggering each other. Why are they not?”
“Because two growths from the same thing can’t trigger each other…” Applejack gasped. Her eyes widened in realization. “There can’t be two growths in the same thing. And two growths from the same type of thing don’t trigger each other.”
Applejack flexed the branches of the tree like fingers. “The growth in the tree isn’t triggering off of the growth in me because, they’re the same. They’re the same things! I don’t control the tree, I am the tree!”
Applejack released the tree from her arms, killing it and the growth in the process. “And, it’s not just the tree either. My Stand, Country Girl, it’s not vines… its roots! Roots are the life of plants. Roots connect plants to the planet. My roots connect me to plants. We become connected. Which means…”
Applejack stretched her roots down into the ground directly below her. She found the roots of the grass on the ground and connected to them. She joined with the grass. The grass was one unified network, all connected. She was connected to it. She could feel what the grass feels.
“Something’s tearing up grass a couple dozen yards away,” Applejack informed Rarity. “We hit that varmint pretty good. So I reckon he’s not going to be able to climb like he was doing, and instead is trying hide himself in the grass.”
“Excellent Applejack!” Rarity exclaimed. “But how do we defend against his Stand?”
“I think I have an idea.” Applejack eyed Rarity’s missing arm. “Maybe, it’s more than just plants I can join with.”
Rarity eyes flashed with knowledge, “Well, I do hope we’re compatible blood types then.”
With prompting from Rarity, Beatle undid the stitches on Rarity’s arm stump. Immediately, Country girls roots connected with the raw flesh. More specifically, she found the veins left opened from the missing arm. Rarity felt them dig into her arm, joining her blood flow with Applejack. The two were connected now. They were now the same being.
The two that were now one ran towards where Applejack felt the grass being disturbed. Sure enough, they saw the enemy Stand user trying to make a grassy disguise for himself. The two weren’t having any of that.
As soon as he saw them, the injured enemy pulled out his straw and fired a spitball at them. It landed on Rarity, who looked simply annoyed by it. She already had a growth inside of her by proximity of Applejack. A new one would not grow inside of her.
The User’s eyes blinked in confusion. He pulled out a fish that was still barely alive from his pocket and licked it. The flopping animal flew through the air at them and it caused the growth in Applejack’s leg to rip and explode. As blood burst from her leg, Applejack was already prepared for it. As soon as the cloud formed, Applejack used her other arm and grabbed a tree to block the thorns with through the pain. One hit the tree trunk, forming a new growth inside of it, and then she dropped it.
The User’s eyes turned from confusion to panic. He reached down and took now a tiny snake that had a massive lump on its tail. As soon as he tried to throw it, however, he found his arm was bound. Lennon gave a toothy grin as the diamond threads had joined his arm with the roots of a nearby tree.
“Actually… let him up for a second,” Applejack turned to Rarity, “I wanna make sure he won’t follow us.”
Rarity, raising an eyebrow, had Lennon undo the threads. Before he could even move, however, Applejack had extended her other arm and this time wrapped her roots around his body like coils of a rope. They completely covered him, swallowing him up as he let out a screech of terror.
Raising him up, Applejack let out a little tssk as she drew her arm back, then sent it barreling forward. The force of her punch sent him flying through several trees, snapping and cracking the bark of each one as he flew along. When her fist stopped ,the impact of being jostled around inside her fist had knocked the stallion completely out. She brought her fist back, opening up her hand and dumping him down onto the ground.
When they got close enough, the four Diamond Dogs leapt at their foe. With needles brandished, they sewed the enemy to the ground so that he could not more at all. His now unconscious breathing added nicely to the ambience of the forest.
“We better go get your arm,” Applejack looked towards where her roots were dug into Rarity’s stump, “I don’t think we should stay connected like this for too much longer. We’ll drive each other crazy.”
“Agreed, and after that,” Rarity grinned as she turned towards the path, “Let’s go find Zecora.”