//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12: sickness 
// Story: A special request 
// by chaos2012 
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Applejack crashed onto the stone ground as the flames behind her lit up the entrance of the cave. Quickly crawling up, she got to her hooves and ran down the dark corridor away from the opening away from the fire. After several seconds, the light had completely vanished from the cave, leaving Applejack stuck inside with nothing to guide herself.

Coming to a stop, she dropped to the rocky bedding beneath her and gasped for breath. Her body felt like it was burning all over, her fur, hat and cape drenched with salty perspiration. The stone below her was actually quite cool, bringing a much needed chill to her underbelly.

After a moment of sitting alone, the darkness around her finally settled into her mind. Her eyes went side to side trying to decipher anything, but her vision was pitch black inside of the cave. Panic began to set into her thoughts as she sat their all alone, "Zecora? Where are ya?"

From in front of her, a light green glow came from around a turn ahead. It was Zecora, carrying a small jar in her mouth that carried an illuminating powder inside of it. Applejack smiled as her friend stopped in front of her, "There ya are. Ah didn't know where ya went."

Zecora lowered her head and set the small jar onto the ground so she could speak, "I am glad you followed swiftly behind. Being stuck outside with dragons would have not been kind." She glanced behind Applejack at the sounds of screeches and hissing. "Do not worry about the beasts, for they will not make us into their feasts. Open space is what those dragons fly,   so following us they will not try."

"Ah like the sound of that right there." Applejack chuckled as she began to stand up. When she did however, she winced in pain from her back leg. 

Zecora noticed the stumble, causing concern for her friend, "Are you alright? It is from the sting from earlier that caused us fright."

Applejack shook her head and put her leg back down, "Ah'm alright. It's just a little sore." 

Zecora was doubtful, but she wouldn't be able to do much inside of the cave in the dark. She knew they had to get out of the cave soon to be able to try to treat the injury. Bending down, she picked up the small lighted jar and turned to walk back down the tunnel from which she came. Applejack tried to ignore the pain in her leg as she followed en suite down the dark corridor.

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Ascending upwards in the tunnel, the two of them travelled for about thirty minutes in the dark and dirty passage way. Inside of the mountain side, the cave air was much cooler than the base of the Dragons eye. In fact, it gave a slight chill to Zecora as she walked inside. For her companion, however, chilly was not a feeling she was experiencing.

Applejack felt like her body was on fire as she walked behind. Her mind was in a foggy haze, messing with her thoughts as she tried to walk over the stone beneath her hooves, which were constantly wobbling with every step that she took. The worst part for her was her back leg; the pain in it had become so much that she wasn't able to place any weight on it, making her have to walk on her other three legs to keep going.

Step by step, the farmer tried to continue up the windy tunnel after her guide. Suddenly, she felt her balance go out, causing her to stumble to the side and fall against the wall. Panting, her mind was spinning as she tried to stand back up. 'Come on AJ, y'all can get through this.' she said to herself, forcing her body forward.

After another ten minutes, light came into view in front of Zecora, giving her a feeling of relief that they had come to the end of the dark path that they were on. Slipping the jar into her bag, she forward and exited the stone cave. She squinted her eyes tight as the bright rays assaulted her dark adjusted eyes. After a few seconds, her pupils contracted enough to allow her to open her eyes to look at their next location.

A large field was stretched for miles in front of them, it's brown tone  lending lending with the many dirt paths that were scattered throughout it. Inhaling deeply, she gladly accepted the fresh, clean air into her lungs. "It seems we have made it out of here. Now we can continue without fear." she turned back and smiled at Applejack, but when she saw the farmer, her smile disappeared.

Applejack was on the ground outside of the cave spread out across the dirt. Her body was Moving in small spasms every few seconds, the small wave of twitches shaking her. Zecora ran over to her side and saw what was causing the problem; the farmers back right ankle was swollen to twice the size of her other ankles, even turning to a slightly purplish tone that showed through her fur. 'The scorpion strike...' Zecora said to herself, 'I forgot about that in the middle of the hike.'

Pulling a small blanket out from Applejacks bag, she Spread it out across the ground next to her sick companion. Going over to Applejacks side, she rolled her over off the dirt and onto the cloth. Once she got her on, she went to her own bags and searched for anything that she could've made use of. Unfortunately, she did not have anything that could've been used for treating the poison.

Zecora always planned on having to counter many different things on the journey, but scorpion stings were not something that she ever planned on. She only had some things that could help numb the pain to help relieve Applejack. Looking around, she knew she wouldn't be able to find any good ingredients inside of the brown field, she she wouldn't even take the time to go and look for anything.

Grabbing the same glowing powered that she used to light up the cave, Zecora brought it over and opened up the lid to it. Pouring a tiny amount into her hoof, she lowered it down and was about to put it on he ankle when she stopped; the leg had to Have an opening for the powder to get inside. To her side, she grabbed a small rock in her mouth. With the jagged edge of it, she pushed down on the wound and slid it.

Applejack winced from the sudden sharp pain, then relaxed when the pain subsided. To her surprise, the pain in her ankle nearly completely vanished. Forcing her head around, she could make out through her blurry sight the glow coming off her leg. Before she could ask what it was, she fell back down to the blanket.

Knowing there was nothing else she could do but allow Applejack's body to fight off the poison, Zecora pulled out another blanket and layed it over her sick friend. She then took a container of water and soaked one of the rags that they had. Getting it wet, she bent down and wiped it over Applejacks face to keep her cooler. Even through the wet rag, she could feel the heat radiating off the farmers forehead.

"Zecora..." Applejack faintly said, "Why are ya doin this?"

Zecora was a little confused by the question, "Why wouldn't I help you with this. You were stung down in that abyss."

No, *huff* why are ya doin this? Y'all are risking yer life for Applebloom. Why?"

Zecora sat quietly as she took in the question. She didn't know what to say to Applejack to respond to it. When she looked back at the farmer, she saw that she had passed out on the blanket, her chest slowly but constantly rising as the former pony let exhaustion take her.