//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Uncharted: Applejack's journey 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
//------------------------------//

‘Come on AJ, get up. It was just a little ole train crash. You’ve been in worse. Now get up!’ thought Applejack as she writhed on the ground. Sharp shards of gravel were digging into her skin as she rolled onto her stomach, wincing as a bolt of agonising pain shot up her arm from her left wrist. Opening her eyes, she saw just how much devastation the train crash had actually caused; trees all around her were ablaze or completely torn out of the ground after the carriages of the train had crashed into them. Applejack got to her feet, instinctively placing her hand over the bloody wound in her side. With a groan she gripped the shard of metal that had embedded itself in her abdomen. She took a few deep breaths before tearing it out, crying out at the same time. She gritted her teeth against the pain, throwing the three inch long piece of shrapnel on the ground as she started to walk. 
‘Some of Twilight’s healing magic wouldn’t go amiss right about now,’ she thought, smiling as she remembered the lavender unicorn that seemed so far away now. She suddenly spotted a body lying on the ground not far from her, and her eyes went wide when she realised who it was. She quickened her pace, but her wound prevented her from running. 
“Nate! Nate!” she yelled, dropping to her knees when she reached the prone figure. Applejack put her ear to his chest, listening for the sounds of life. But it was silent. Starting to panic, Applejack put both of her hands on his chest and started to push down in regular intervals, ignoring the intense pain in her wrist. After thirty compressions, Applejack moved to his face, placing her mouth over his and exhaling. The same way Nate had shown her long ago. After two puffs, she went back to compressing his chest. Tears were starting to form in her eyes as she looked at the lifeless form of her friend. After the twentieth compression on the second set, however, Nate’s eyes snapped open and he sat up straight, taking a huge gasp of air. Applejack let out a cheer, hugging Nate tightly as he took long, deep breaths. After a moment, he returned the hug, still panting heavily.
“Thanks… AJ,” he said, giving her a quick pat on the back. She helped him to his feet and the two began to search the area for anything helpful. The first thing on Applejack’s list was medical supplies, for Nate, it was most likely a weapon. 

“We gotta be quick AJ, Mikhail’s men can’t be too far away,” he said as he searched through the pockets of a padded military vest. The dead man wearing it was part of an organisation of power hungry individuals lead by a vicious man by the name of Mikhail Kruschev, and they had been hunting her and Nate for a long time, and across multiple countries.
“Ah know Nate, and don’t worry, There is no way that ah’m going to let them get to the element of harmony,” Applejack promised, briefly touching the necklace that she was wearing. It was gold, and adorned with a red ruby in the shape of an apple. It also happened to be extremely powerful, and she had to protect it. 
The sound of a helicopter suddenly filled her ears, and she quickly finished bandaging her wound, storing the leftover first aid supplies in a pocket of her black, Kevlar-lined motorcycle cargo pants. Nate tossed a revolver to her, giving her a quick nod.
“Are you ready?” he said as she pulled the hammer back with her thumb.
“As I’ll ever be Sugarcube,”
***

Applejack rubbed her tired eyes as the lavender unicorn in front of her read from a large, leather bound old book. Around her neck sat the necklace that symbolised her element of harmony, namely honesty. Standing beside her and all crowded around the unicorn were the other bearers of the elements of harmony; the cyan Pegasus Rainbow Dash, the element of Loyalty. The Pinkie Earth pony Pinkie Pie, the element of Laughter. The white unicorn Rarity, the element of Generosity. The yellow Pegasus Fluttershy, the element of kindness. And last, but not least, the lavender unicorn Twilight Sparkle, the element of Magic and the one reading the book. Twilight had dragged them all into the Everfree forest on some secret mission that required the elements. But so far, all they had done was walk to the middle of the forest, to the ancient and run down castle of the pony sisters and listen to Twilight read aloud. 

Behind her sat the altar where they had first found the elements of harmony, when Nightmare Moon, the psychotic alter-ego of Princess Luna, had returned after a one thousand year imprisonment on the moon. The six ponies, using the elements and the power of friendship, had managed to change Luna back into her old self. Since then, she and her five friends had been almost inseparable, and she didn’t think it was going to change anytime soon.
“Oh hurry up Twilight! I have things to do.” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, flapping her wings to show her impatience. 
“Like what? Napping on a cloud?” asked Rarity sarcastically. Rainbow gave her a sharp look, and Applejack rolled her eyes. The two had been at each other’s throats more than usual lately. Pinkie told her it’s because they are in love, but Applejack just dismissed it as Pinkie’s usual amount of randomness. 

“Just calm down Rainbow, I’m almost done. If I can get this spell right, we could learn so much. Like how the elements came to be, how Luna and Celestia used them to defeat discord, or even how Celestia used them to banish Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said excitedly. Rainbow gave her a blank look, while Pinkie and Fluttershy smiled.
“Oh... my, that does sound exciting,” said Fluttershy, and Applejack was surprised to find out that Fluttershy was such a history enthusiast. Pinkie Pie however, was bouncing up and down on the spot.
“You bet it does Flutters, I can’t wait to see the parties that must have had. I mean, it’s not every day somepony gets to banish their sister to the moon using the most powerful magical force known to ponykind,” she said and Applejack just sighed.

‘Typical Pinkie,’ she thought. 
“Eureka!” Twilight yelled suddenly, making the others jump. “I think I found it. Everypony on the altar.” Applejack and the others followed Twilight to the altar, where she moved them until they were all standing on a silver six pointed star, except for Applejack, who noticed that her star was gold. When she asked Twilight about it, she was informed that it was gold because it pointed due North. Twilight then took up her position on the star next to Applejack and started to fill her horn with magic. A magenta aura formed around it as Twilight’s expression turned to one of concentration. Applejack could tell that Twilight was pouring everything she had into this one spell, and she hope it wouldn’t hurt her. The unicorn’s eyes began to glow, along with the crown she wore that represented her element. Applejack looked at her necklace to find that it was also glowing, as were all of the others. Twilight let out a cry of pain, as a large blast of magenta energy shot out from the tip of her horn and landed in the middle of the group, before detonating in a wave of energy that knocked them all off their hooves and away from the altar. Applejack flew the shortest distance, slamming into a wall behind her. When she opened her eyes, the entire room was filled with bright light and a tremendous wind had appeared, picking leaves, dirt and even rocks off the ground and sucking them toward the altar, where an enormous circle of energy was drawing everything into it. 

Applejack suddenly realised that she herself was being dragged toward the circle. In a panic, she started to try and get to her hooves and run away. Her hooves scrapped across the stone floor as she tried to stop herself getting closer. A magical aura formed around her, and through the bright light, she spotted Twilight, her horn once again glowing with magic energy as she struggled against the unearthly force that was drawing Applejack in. For a moment, nothing happened, Applejack stood perfectly still as Twilight’s magic tried to pull her away. Then the force pulling her toward the altar got noticeably stronger, dragging Applejack even faster, along with Twilight, who was still connected to her by the magical aura. Applejack’s back legs were suddenly lifted off the ground, as the purple aura failed, leaving her exposed. With a scream, she was flown toward the altar, barely managing to grab the edge of the stone before the magical circle engulfed her completely. Her back legs were all the way in, and she could no longer feel them. Tears were now streaming down her face as she cried out for her friends to save her. Just as she was about to lose her grip, she heard Twilight’s voice over the wind.

“Applejack, don’t be afraid. I will find a way to save you, no matter what,” she yelled. She said more, but by then Applejack was focussing on keeping her grip, hoping that the magic would burn out soon. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head just in time to see a large rock hurtling straight for her head. The rock hit her in the side of her head, causing her to lose her grip on the edge of the stone altar. With one last scream, Applejack was sucked in to the magical circle.
***

The first thing she noticed was the cold. Her entire body was shivering from the frigid breeze that was whistling through the building.
‘Oh good, at least I’m still in the ruins of the castle,’ she thought, opening her eyes to examine her surroundings. The entire area was covered in snow, except for a small circle that surrounded her. In the distance she could hear shouting, as well as another sound she didn’t recognise. It sounded like lots of tiny explosions all going off at once, or a very muffled version of the sound that Pinkie’s party cannon made whenever it went off. 

Her entire body felt strange, as though nothing was in the place it should be. She looked at her front hooves and screamed. Her orange hooves were no longer there; instead, she had these strange pink appendages that reminded her of Spike’s claws for some reason. Breathing heavily with fear, Applejack examined the rest of herself. Her face was almost completely changed. Her ears had moved to the side of her head, her snout had all but disappeared, leaving her with a very small one in the middle of her face and her mouth underneath that. What shocked her most was the fact that her tail was missing, meaning that her flank was exposed. She calmed down slightly when she saw that she still had her cutie mark, even though it had moved from her flank onto her leg and more toward the front. She was still shaking as she finished exploring her new form. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but she knew that this body was much too bouncy for her liking. 

‘What in the hay did Twilight do to me? What am ah? Where am ah?’ she wondered, as the cold got steadily worse. She started shivering again, as the wind started to pick up. Applejack started to look around for something she could use to light a fire, when a loud noise drew here attention to the other side of the room she was in. Three dark shapes had just come through the door, slamming it behind them. They were walking on two legs and for a moment she thought they were diamond dogs, judging by the fact that they looked shaggy from this distance. They started to make their way toward her, and she could hear them speaking. Applejack quickly hid behind a nearby collapsed pillar and listened to them, while all the while hoping that they were friendly. 

“Are you sure this was it Nate?’ asked a rough voice that obviously belonged to a stallion. 
“Of course I am Sully. The massive beam of purple light that was visible for miles definitely came from this chamber, hence why we have all of Mikhail’s men after us,” said another voice, once again belonging to a stallion. He sounded frustrated.
“Woah! Who are you?” exclaimed a mare’s voice from behind her. Applejack called out as she turned. She stood up and ran at the wall hoping that she could get away from whatever that thing was. She backed up against the wall, as the three creatures got closer. The one that had startled her was holding up a hand to stop the others, who were pointing something at Applejack. 
“St-stay back!” she yelled at the creature as it slowly walked toward her. It had a mare’s voice, but she was definitely not a pony. In fact, she looked more like the way Applejack did now. 
“It’s okay. I promise that I’m not going to hurt you, my name is Elena, what’s yours?” she asked and as scared as she was, Applejack could tell that this ‘Elena’ wanted to help her. 
“A-Applejack, mah name is Applejack,” she told her, still cowering against the wall. Elena took a step closer.
“That’s a nice name. How did you get here Applejack? And why are you naked?” Elena asked, and it was then that Applejack realised that they were the same thing that she was, just wearing clothes. 

“There was this purple light, and then ah woke up here. In this body,” she explained, as Elena held out her hand and helped her to her feet. For some reason, balancing on two legs was nowhere near as difficult as it used to be. Elena took off her coat and helped her put it on. The coat was long enough that it went all the way down to her thigh. Applejack was just pleased that it was warm more than anything. 

“There we go, at least you won’t embarrass the boys now,” she said, and started to lead her toward the other two creatures. One looked quite old; his hair was greyed, as was his moustache. In between his teeth he held half a lit cigar. Applejack had the sudden urge to punch him in the face so that he would get rid of the cigar. She hated smoking; it was such a disgusting habit. She had once caught her brother Big Macintosh and his friend Caramel smoking behind the barn on her farm. Not only had she broken both of their noses, she had also told Granny Smith, who had forced the stallions to do everyponies chores for a whole fortnight.  She restrained the urge though. She doubted it was a good idea to attack these things when they were only trying to help her. She looked at the other one. He was much younger, his hair was black and in his hand he held a black notebook. 

“Well who do we have here?” asked to older one, and Applejack recognised the voice as belonging to the one called ‘Sully.’ He walked over to her and grabbed her hoof-claw thing with his own; bringing it up to his face and kissing it. Applejack couldn’t help but be a little weirded out by him. 
“Victor Sullivan, at your service,” he said, taking a long drag on the cigar. The other one grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him away.

“Leave her alone you dirty old man. You’re scaring her,” he said, giving her a wink. Sully gave a huff and then walked back to where he had been standing before, which also happened to be the very same spot that Applejack had woken up in. The younger one grabbed her hand and shook it gently, looking her straight in the eyes.
“Nathan Drake, nice to meet you,” he said, letting go and turning to Elena. “Has she said anything of importance?”
“I’m not sure, she said that there was a flash of purple light and then she woke up here. Although I’m curious to know exactly how she got to Tibet and why she’s naked,” Elena told him and Nathan just sighed, looking back at Applejack. 
“Well we can’t just leave her here. Mikhail’s men will kill her in a heartbeat,” he said. Applejack paled, this place was much more dangerous then she thought. Elena nodded, leading her to the clear spot where she had woken up. Nathan had his notebook out again, and was flipping through the pages.

“Well whatever was here, it must have come from something,” said Sully, bending down to look at the stone. “Something valuable hopefully.”
“That’s where ah was lying when ah woke up. Like ah said, ah don’t really know how; or why I’m in this body now, but…” she trailed off as Nathan gave her a look. 
“What do you mean, ‘this body?’” he asked, and just as she was about to answer, Sully laughed, pulling something out of the snow. It was Applejack’s element of harmony! She started to make her way toward it as fast as she could, but Nathan stopped her.
“Hey, give that here, it’s mine,” she said, holding her hand out. Sully brought it closer to his chest, as though he was a protective mother.
“Sorry girly, but finders keepers,” he said, as he began to dangle it just out of reach. 

“Please give it here. It really is mine, ah can prove it,” Applejack begged, pulling the coat up just enough to show her cutie mark. “Look at the gem on it. It looks exactly like one of my apples doesn’t it?” but Sully raised an eyebrow, obviously not convinced. Applejack was starting to become upset at the thought of what might be her only ticket home in the hands of someone that only wanted it for greedy purposes. Elena stepped forward, putting her hand on Applejack’s shoulder.
“It really means a lot to you doesn’t it?” she asked and Applejack just nodded. “Hand it over Sully.” He grunted and tossed it Applejack, who immediately hugged it tightly when she caught it. When she placed the golden necklace around her neck, the ruby started to glow, letting out a cascading wave of light that brightened up the whole chamber. Elena and the others had backed away from her as it was happening, and stayed away after the glow died down. 

“Alright, I think you have some explaining to do,” said Nathan as he started to advance toward Applejack. All of a sudden, a large explosion ripped apart the door at the other end of the room, followed by a group of people all dressed in black.
“Aw crap, looks that that will have to wait. Elena, get her somewhere safe. Sully and I get rid of these clowns,”