Applejack had been lying on the bathroom floor on one of the towels, just staring up at the ceiling light for a good half hour. This was usually the best way to dry her back, rolling around on a lush, puffy towel.
Sadly, these towels were cheap and thin, reminding her of the towels from that Manehattan hotel when she’d helped Rarity on numerous occasions, before her boutique opened.
The steam was finally starting to thin out when she rolled onto her side, then belly, and stood up. She kicked the towel towards where Bill had left one he’d used, as well as his mucky clothes, beside the toilet.
Enough time had been wasted, and grabbing a comb brush she’d found, she wrapped the two hair bands around it for easier travel. Grabbing the dryer towel of the bunch she’d used she draped it on her back, picked up the brush in her teeth, and she unlocked Bill’s door.
She gave it three gentle knocks.
“All clear, you can come… out? In?”
Applejack opened his door, seeing the human staring at the mess of papers taped to the wall over the desk. Like he’d mentioned before, he had indeed found clothes as he was dressed similarly to before, including socks.
He had on a plain white T-shirt, and a pair of jogging shorts not unsimilar to the ones he’d been wearing when they met, just these were blue instead of his black ones on the bathroom floor.
“I figured we needed ta talk,” Applejack began, brush in her mouth, “but it takes a while ta dry ‘nd comb my hair. Figured two cakes, one party.”
“Sure,” Bill agreed, not looking away from the wall.
Finding a spot on the floor, she laid down the damp towel and sat on it. She began working on her tail first, brushing the golden hair from dock outward, working any knots or split ends, all the while using her other hoof to wave it about and aid in the drying.
“Well, I feel like the most important thing to talk about right now is this,” Bill said, pointing to the wall he had been intently staring at.
“The stuff that ain’t crazy magic symbols?”
“Yeah. It’s all stuff about this place, mostly things that should be impossible.”
“Like the back of the garage?”
Bill hesitated, then cleared his throat. “Surprisingly, no, the biggest one? Escaping.”
Applejack paused, brush in mouth as she turned to look at Bill.
The human had done the same, but also was now staring at the mare like he’d seen her for the first time just now.
I probably look like a mess, and he’s tryin’ ta not laugh.
He then quickly cleared his throat, and began again.
“Yeah. There’s other things, but most of it makes no sense, stuff about checking ley lines and barriers and something about ghosts? I don’t know. Then there’s stuff here about logging, moving trees to and from place to place.”
He gripped one of the sheets of paper, and with a quick clean tug tore it from the wall.
“And I quote, Now that we know logging is the name of the game, everyone else has been more apt to arguing. I see no reason for this, just do the job, and maybe we go home. Or sit around and argue, and we die here. End quote.”
“Well, that ain’t ominous or nothin’. Loggin’, huh? Fellin’ tha timbers themselves, or movin’ ‘em?”
Bill set the paper on the desk surface, then looked on the wall until he found another one, doing the same as he removed it.
“Just moving it. Someone? It has circled and with question marks, by the by, already cut them and stacked them.”
He tossed the paper with the previously tossed page.
“So I mean, if they’re right, then this should be quick and easy. Move some logs, bam, go home.”
A shiver ran down Applejack’s spine, and after finishing with her tail, she wrapped the first hair scrunchie around the end like she normally would. She gave it an experimental flick, and was satisfied. Next was her mane, but she needed to say something first.
Bill, however, beat her to voicing something.
“Oh you found those hair ties.”
Applejack smiled. “I sure did. Thanks fer thinkin’ of me.”
“Of course.”
There was a brief moment of silence, then Applejack spoke.
“Well, I were ‘bout to say tha I helped with some loggin’, back when I was a filly. Had to fell some old trees along the Everfree border. Mostly I just helped gather the smaller sticks fer campfires.”
“Oh great,” Bill slapped his hands together, “then this shouldn’t be too bad, if you remember anything. How long did it take you?”
“It took us three months.”
Bill’s smile began to flatten like a tire with a nail.
“‘nd that were fer five trees.”
He waved his hands toward the mare. “How!?”
Finally voicing what she felt was important, she started brushing her mane. “We’re earth ponies, we’re proud, and we work hard. I remember several unicorns offerin’ to help, but were turned down.”
“Don’t you guys have any sort of logging equipment?”
“We had axes, chain, ‘nd strong backs.”
“That’s the stupidest-”
Applejack waved the brush in her hoof, away from her mane. “I know, I know, trust me, Twilight taught me that lesson years ago. Still though, it ain’t no easy task. Simple in idear, but in practical sense?” she shook her head, then went back to brushing her mane.
“So, what then? Do we take this seriously? Or just try to hop in that little vehicle outside and try to drive off?”
Brushing her mane, Applejack was quiet as she thought about it.
"Well, obviously, we need ta help Flint. Then try ta locate our fourth party."
"We are only guessing there is a fourth."
Hitting a snag, the mare worked it out with a tug and tinge of pain. “My gut tells me there is another out there.”
“Your gut is also full of old, stale crackers.” Sighing, Bill took a seat in the wheelie chair at the desk, looking up at the wall. “Well, he also does mention there being four of them in some of this stuff. It’s just frustrating, like he was trying to keep track of what was going on, but didn’t organize anything, just jotted down random thoughts and moved on. One of these is even just scribbling on a napkin.”
Applejack snickered through the brush in her mouth.
“Let me guess, Twilight, was it?”
“Naw, another friend, Rarity. Dressmaker, whenever she found inspiration, she’d draw it on anything. There’s one of her design’s on the inside wall of our barn, drawn in lipstick.”
“That’s funny.”
“Yeah, she’d be that from time to time. Then again, so could I.”
Silence took over the conversation, as Applejack focused on her mane, and thought about her friends, family, and farm. She’d occasionally look to Bill, finding him as similarly lost looking, deep thinking apparent by his expression.
When she was happy with her mane, she placed the second scrunchie on it in her traditional ponytail. Satisfied, she stood, gathering the brush and towel on her back, and walked towards the bathroom.
“Say, Applejack?”
She paused, turning her head to look back. “Yeah?”
Bill was wiping off some of the heavy dust on the desk. “How’d you come up with five years?”
Confused at first, then her mind clicked.
“B’cause this looks about how my parents' room looked by the time any of us mustered the courage to go in after they died.”
“Oh.”
Silence, then, Applejack faced forward again.
“Jus’ gimme a few, then I’ll be ready to go check out that, uh, Suv you called it?”
“Just the letters, S-U-V, but yeah, sure. Give me a few minutes to clear my head. Knock when whoever’s ready first?”
“Sounds good.”
Applejack closed Bill’s bathroom door behind her, replaced the brush under the sink, placed the dirty towel with the others, and then walked into her room, leaving the bathroom door ajar for the time being.
She looked at the bed, still neatly made, a pillow under the cover to keep it protected. With a resigned sigh, she gripped the sheet edge in her teeth. Giving it a mighty tug, pulling with her neck muscles, she sent five years worth of dust and dander all over the room, something she never thought she’d repeat again.
----------
Applejack was closing the dresser drawer when Bill poked his head through her open bathroom door.
“Hey, uh, it’s been like a half hour. Are you good?”
Blinking, she looked at the wound alarm clock. “Oh, wow, lost track o’ time.”
“Cleaning can do that. My mother would get lost for hours, miss appointments or skip lunch.”
“Yeah, I jus’ don’t like ta not be busy.”
“Well, I think you better try and enjoy it for the evening, cause if we’re gonna go out there and do some exploring, we’re gonna be feeling like shit for a while. I helped out on a missing person mission in the forest years back, three days out in the hills of West Virginia was miserable enough for me.”
Applejack laughed. “Try campin’ with a pony twice yer size, snores like a chainsaw, and jus’ ate a whole can o’ beans fer dinner.”
“Oh, that sounds… flatulent.”
“Har-dee. Still don’t know how Sugar Belle does it.”
“Sugar Belle?”
“My brother’s beau, they’re pretty serious. She’s stayed over at the farm a few times. Probably gonna get hitched here soon.”
“Heh, hope you got thick walls.”
“Nope. First time it happened, didn’ know what was goin’ on, thought maybe somepony were breakin’ into tha house. Boy was that embarrasin’.”
Bill leaned against the door, holding his gut as he laughed quietly. “Holy shit, that’s amazing.”
Applejack shared in the laughter. “Now I can laugh about it, but then, I couldn’t look ‘em in the eyes fer days.”
As the laughter died off, Bill looked at Applejack with a sad expression. “You already miss them, huh?”
“That obvious?”
He nodded. “I miss my parents, too. Hadn’t seen them in a few months, we live in different towns, but close enough to occasionally visit.”
“No special somecreature?”
“Girlfriend? Nope. Last one left me with a note on my door about a year ago. I was kind of glad, she was too controlling and I was about to break it off anyway. You?”
She shook her head. “Usually too busy, or the occasional hook up don’t go no further than the next mornin’ when they’re back on the road.
Bill raised an eyebrow. “You hook up with drifters?”
“Or the occasional out of towner. Not wise to hook up with too many ponies in a small town, if ya know what I mean.”
“Ah, yeah, that makes sense,” he said, then looked around. “Well, you got the room mostly dust free. Mine’s still a disaster, but I got the bed and desk, which is all I’m worried about for now.”
Applejack looked to her own desk. “I still need ta see what’s in them there binders, but I figured it could wait fer tonight.”
“Night time reader I take it?”
“Nothin’ like layin’ in bed after a hard day’s work with a good book, cold cup ‘o cider, and soakin’ yer hooves in epsom salt before driftin’ off to sleep fer the next day of work.”
He shook his head. “Crazy. I hope you’re not gonna try to hold me up to some sort of crazy standard like that.”
Stepping up to him, Applejack gave his thigh a pat. “Naw, a scrawny thing like you would bust like a twig.”
Bill gasped, eyebrows raised high and mouth open in shock. He watched her trot to her bedroom door and open it.
“Well? Come on, Skinny. Let’s go check this contraption of yer human ingenuity.”
Then, she walked out, tail brushing her door as she turned and left.
Bill was left standing there, and then his mouth closed, lips forming a small smile as he shook his head.
“This is going to be an interesting time, that’s for certain.”
He slowly walked out after her, leaving her door open.