Chapter 4
“I had come down to the cargo bay to help with the unloading. After all, as the personal protégé of Princess Celestia, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to impress her. As I passed off a few dozen crates with my magic, thinking that it was an impressive display of magical prowess, I noticed Applejack trotting along and pulling a floating platform full of boxes, easily twice as many as I had just helped load. I stood there for few moments, staring at her, thinking about how lucky I was to have such a strong, dependable friend like her around.”
-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 213
“This just ain’t normal.”
Applejack was working her way through the forest, warm sunlight filtering down through the chartreuse canopy and the cool breeze blowing an earthy fragrance past her which reminded her of the Everfree forest. She was trying to wrap her head around her surroundings, and more importantly, what the hay had happened to her.
She had been in Twilight’s library, watching Rarity perform some spell. Truth be told, that magic stuff had always been over her head. She just had no use for it, so why bother learning anything about it? But she did appreciate its uses for ponies like Twilight and Rarity. Unicorns were natural magic users, and boy howdy, when they do something amazing with magic, even a farm-pony like Applejack is impressed.
Still, maybe if she’d let Rarity concentrate on that spell she wouldn’t be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, dodging low-hanging branches and avoiding rocks that sprang up in her path. She had seen Twilight trying a new spell before, and that pony always had to focus her attention on what she was doing.
Thwack! A small branch smacked her in the head. She raised a hoof to rub the spot it had fallen on, only see one of the strangest animals she’d ever laid eyes on. It was about her size, and its face seemed contorted into a perpetual grin, with large incisors and black, beady eyes. What annoyed her the most was that this thing appeared to be enjoying the fact that throwing that bit of wood had gotten her attention; the creature was apparently just out to annoy her.
Deciding that giving attention to this thing would just provoke it further, Applejack just kept walking, ignoring the periodic bits of thrown twig. But with each object that bounced off her head her patience got worn thinner and thinner. Finally she whirled around as fast as she could and shouted, “Alright, you nasty varmint! You’re gonna...”
The creature was gone. It couldn’t have moved that fast, though. No creature Applejack had ever seen could move that quickly, not even Rainbow Dash.
Suddenly she felt another stick hurled at her backside. She whipped around, only to be pelted again. Were there more than one of these things?
No matter. She picked up a stick of her own, intent on bucking it into that creature the moment it showed its face. “Show yourself, you half-pint halfwit!” she spat around the branch in her mouth. After a moment it popped up in a nearby tree, giving her what might have been considered a lewd gesture. Gotcha. She dropped the stick, then bucked it hard, sending it flying at the creature at incredible velocity.
It never made contact. The small creature had stepped out of the way, but it wasn’t nearly as simple as that. It had done so fast enough that Applejack had never seen it move, with the only sign that movement had taken place being the small cloud of dirt and moss kicked up along its trail.
Her jaw dropped at the sight. “That can’t be!” In desperation, she picked up a mouthful of sticks and used her tail to wallop them all toward the creature, and somehow it managed to avoid the barrage, all the while giggling maniacally as the sticks splintered against tree trunks and embankments.
Applejack was getting angrier than she had any right to be. This little demon was maddening. It just kept annoying the horseapples out of her, which was diverting her from her main purpose.
“Looks like somepony’s afraid of gettin’ their hindquarters bucked by Equestria’s finest apple-bucker! You afraid ta come down here and face me pony ta... monkey?” It looked almost offended at being called a monkey, but it obliged, scampering down the tree in a blur of light gray fur.
There it stood, taunting her. Applejack’s raw, seething anger at this thing was boiling over, and pretty soon she pawed at the ground and began to charge. Why he’d just hold still for a whuppin’ was not something she considered, as all she could think of was showing that little creature who was boss, but even so as soon as she got within a few inches of it, he sprinted off, then stopped fifty feet away in the blink of an eye.
Applejack charged even harder, breaking into a full gallop, but it was no use. The creature was simply much faster than she was.
She watched as the monkey-thing waved at her and scampered off, then resumed her long trek in the woods. She was a bit upset at how pointless that whole encounter had been.
Just then, something occurred to her. This wasn’t any sort of creature she’d seen before, even at the zoo. Could this be... no, A.J. That’s not even possible. She shook her head. The very notion that she’d been transported to some bizarre alien world was simply too outrageous to consider. “Heck, this ain’t like one of Spike’s comic books, where weird spaceships fly around with aliens onboard and other such nonsense. It’s just a weird forest.”
She swallowed hard.
“Ah hope.”
The trek was getting more and more tiring. Applejack was a strong pony, even by earth-pony standards, but she’d been at this since she’d first landed here. The tousle with that annoying monkey-thing sure didn’t help matters.
She looked around for a nice clearing to rest for the night. She’d been on plenty of camping trips since she was a filly, and knew that the best locations had a fresh water supply and plenty of cover to keep wild animals at bay.
For a few moments she wished she was a pegasus so that she could simply fly up and look for a suitable location. However, as soon as the thought entered her mind she pushed it out with a vengeance. She was an earth-pony, and proud of it! Ain’t nopony that can beat an earth-pony at growing things or performing feats of strength and endurance, and the thought that she needed wings to find a place to sleep was just insulting, or would have been if somepony else had said it to her.
She hopped over a log, and then through the trees. Despite the dim light, she found a small lake with a clearing next to it, surrounded on three sides by a squat mountain. It filled her with such relief that for a moment she allowed herself the luxury of feeling joyful. But she sobered up immediately. For the time being she needed to keep her wits about her and her mind focused on what she was doing. If she didn’t, it might jeopardize the chances of finding her friends again.
Looking around the oasis of grassland, she took a moment to notice just how beautiful this place was. Warm, orange-yellow sunlight streamed down from the top of the mountain, itself framed by the verdant forest and the calm, clear lake. Birds glided above her, no doubt heading to their nests to take care of their youngins, or else simply to rest after a long day of hunting for meals. She allowed herself the luxury of a smile and then settled down on the soft grass for the night.
As she blinked, bleary-eyed after a long night camped next to the lake, she dreaded what she might see in front of her.
Before she had opened her eyes, she had heard a faint breathing noise, and it had taken all of her effort not to scream or run. She didn’t want to look, but she knew she’d have to sooner or later.
When she did, she felt ashamed and angry at herself.
Standing in front of her was… a pony. Though it was certainly not quite the same as the ponies she was used to. The creature’s coat was dingy brown and its eyes were small and beady. Its muzzle was long and ugly, and Applejack had no idea where in Equestria it could be from. Nevertheless, she knew that if she wanted to find her friends, her best bet would be to enlist the help of this pony. She put on a friendly smile and approached the creature.
“Finally, somepony to talk to! I was beginnin’ to get a little worried that there weren’t no other ponies ‘round these parts. I’m Applejack. What’s your name?”
The creature looked at her, then made… what was that noise exactly? Certainly nothing she’d ever heard before. Applejack was starting to feel a little frightened, but decided to press on and hope that this pony understood her. “Uh, listen. I’m tryin’ to find a group of my friends. They’re about as tall as me, one’s an earth-pony, two are unicorns, and two are pegasi. I’m sure they’ve asked about me.”
The pony just stared at her.
Applejack was getting impatient. “Look, I don’t have time for any shenanigans. I’m tryin’ to find my friends, and if all y’all’re gonna do is sit there and stare without so much as a word, then maybe I’d better try to find help somewhere else.”
It held Applejack’s gaze for a moment longer, and then bent its neck down to eat a tuft of grass. Applejack sighed, and then decided it was time to take her leave of this strange pony.
As she walked out of the clearing and into the forest, she looked back forlornly at the creature, then started walking in the same direction she had been the previous day.
Most ponies would have given up hope by now. But Applejack was no ordinary pony. She was tough. Resilient. Still, this trek past tree after tree was beginning to take its toll. She knew she’d run into her friends eventually, but thoughts of her friends hurt, or dying, were beginning to creep into her mind. They were clawing at her subconscious, and being alone in this big forest certainly wasn’t helping matters any.
Suddenly her ears picked up a faint noise. It wasn’t the sound of an animal. It was mechanical, and had a cadence to it as well, which suggested that it was probably some kind of machine. A wave of disgust rose up in her gut as she was reminded of the Flim Flam Brothers and their crazy apple cider-making contraption. But it didn’t sound like that thing did. Maybe it was… what was the term? A combine harvester? Those machines were used by farm ponies, and she swore she’d heard them before when she’d visited her relatives down south, who grew grains. If farm ponies were nearby, that meant civilization was, too!
The sudden surge of hope flooded her, releasing waves of adrenaline and happiness. She went straight from a standstill to a gallop in less than two seconds. If only Rainbow had seen the sudden burst of athleticism!
But she didn’t have time to think about what Rainbow Dash was doing. The one thing that consumed her mind was that this new sound meant ponies, and where there were ponies, there was hope.
She got closer and closer to the edge of the clearing. Openings in the trees were getting wider, and pretty soon she was able to-
Her legs planted themselves in the ground, and she scooted to a stop, frozen in terror at the sight of the fearsome machines she saw walking in the clearing.
“What the bucking hay are those things?!”