//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Applejack: Undefeated // by CamWeck //------------------------------// It was a great day for running. Applejack ran with abandon over the well worn trail, her legs pumping beneath her so fast and hard that she barely seemed to touch the ground at all. It was a liberating feeling, to let loose like this, to just allow herself to run free with every ounce of energy she had. She had loved running for so long, and somehow, somewhere along the way, under all the stress of managing that failing farm, she had forgotten how much she loved it, how much it had meant to her. She would have to do this more often, just leaping onto the trail and letting herself go. "A...Applejack! C..can we slow down yet? Pleaase!?" Applejack blinked herself free from her thoughts and grinned wickedly before taking a quick look back. Twilight had somehow managed to keep up with her, although she was clearly straining herself much harder than she was used to in order to keep it up. The purple unicorns mane flowed behind her and sweat was streaming off her brow. "Now ya'all know the plan Twi!" She called out behind her, "We put a fair run ahead of the others first, and then we can slow down to a pace ya find more manageable. Just cuz' you're runnin' with me doesn't mean I intend to come in any other position 'sides first!" Twilight's ears fell back and her eyes filled with despair at the thought of having to keep up with her athletic friend for much longer. Applejack, on the other hoof, was doing her best not to fall over and crack up. In truth, they had already put a very good head start on most of the other competitors, and it didn't really matter to her if she won or not. This was just a fun exercise and a good chance to get back at Twilight for her demanding training regiment. She considered teasing Twilight for a few more minutes before finally deciding to let her friend off easy. "Alright then, this seems far enough, let's take it at a trot for now," She said before slowing down. Twilight almost fell over, chest heaving, and legs wobbly as she came to trot beside her friend. Her mane was plastered to her head and neck and her tail dragged in the dust. Applejack was unable to keep the goofy grin off of her face and pretended to admire the scenery so that Twilight couldn't see her smile. "I'm glad ya'all decided to join me this year, Twi. It's always more fun to do these things with somepony than alone." Twilight smiled awkwardly, she was still exhausted from the initial burst of speed, but was having an easier time keeping with Applejacks more reasonable pace. The two ponies were enjoying the scenery in relative quiet as they ran along, a quick look at a directional arrow turned them off at a right fork and deeper into the woods. Twi frowned as they changed direction and looked back on the sign curiously. She thought she had memorized a map of the trail, but maybe it had been changed just before the race started. She dismissed her worries quickly, since they stole from her concentration, and she went back to focusing on keeping pace. A minute after they went past a brown furred unicorn popped his head from the bushes and grinned maniacally. He gave the sign a spin till it pointed back in the right direction and hunkered down again, just as the main pack of racers went barelling past. He popped his head out again and watched them go. Billy had been right, the arrogant little dirt skin had been the first racer out of the gate, and it looks like some tribal traitor was keeping her company. The Esker family would soon teach those two a good solid lesson in the natural order of things... -----------@@@----------- "The racers have been off to a good start, with most of them concentrated together in the main pack, a few stragglers have fallen behind and a few more have gotten ahead!" Spike stepped back from the microphone and made a few more adjustments tot he balloons controls, making sure it kept up with the bulk of the racers. All things considered things were looking up. "Spiiiiike," came a high pitched whine from the other side of the basket, "I'm hungryyyyyyy! Didn't you bring anything else besides these dumb rocks?" Well, mostly up. Sweetie Belle sat in the corner looking miserable, she had pried open his lunch basket and found it full of a wide variety of gemstones, from common sapphires for snacking to some really juicy rubies if he felt like pigging out a bit. The unexpected hitch-hiker had already spilled many of them onto the floor of the basket and was digging down futilely to look for something a pony could digest. Spike rolled his eyes and walked over to the piggish unicorn. "Well, I did also bring some ice cream, but I don't think your sister would appreciate me letting you just eat a tub of that for lunch." Spike rummaged through another box and pulled out the colorfully marked container. Sweetie's eyes went as wide as saucers and she jumped at Spike, knocking him down in her exuberance. "Chocolate waffle crisp cookie dough! That's my favorite!!!" she cried out as she snatched the confection away, prying it open with her hooves. She glanced around for a moment, before looking back to Spike pleadingly. With an annoyed expression on his face he passed the little pony a spoon and she greedily began to devour the bucket. Content that his unwelcome co-pilot was out of the way for now, he grabbed the binoculars and scanned the race track to see what was up. After a few moments he frowned and looked ahead, then back. Where were Twilight and Applejack? After a few more minutes of searching he shrugged, and lifted the microphone to continue his commentary. -----------@@@----------- Twilight was exhausted. Beyond exhausted really, she had begun to enter a world where her vision was obscured by a bright whiteness, not really a light, just a presence, that overcomes the minds of those who are pushing themselves too far past their limits. She shook her head and briefly glanced at the pony next to her, watching the physically perfect Applejack run was an inspiration, heavy, strong muscle under bright orange fur, each stride was like a work of art, drawing Twilight to follow. She shook her head and blushed deeply. What was with her lately? She kept getting distracted by the most irrelevant things. Slowing down the pace had let her return to thinking a bit, but her lungs still burned and her legs were starting to feel numb, Maybe she should ask for a break? She looked again over to Applejack, who strode easily at the already gentle jogging pace they were maintaining. Would stopping mean letting her down? Surely she'd be annoyed, maybe even angry that Twilight was so weak and frail that she couldn't even keep up this slow a pace! Twilight swallowed hard at the thought, but she was getting way too tired, she needed to stop soon! But she couldn't let Applejack down! She shuddered a bit and gave an internal scream of frustration, desperately trying to clear her thoughts. "Who the hey is that?" Twilight blinked at the sentence and glanced over at Applejack, she had a confused look on her face and stared straight ahead. Twilight turned and saw the source of their confusion, there was another pony ahead of them! This should have been impossible, they were definitely the first out of the gate, and nopony had passed them at any time, but there was definitely some dust being kicked up by the form in front of them. Applejack gave a frown and narrowed her eyes. "Ya think it could be a cheater Twi?" she asked with a hard edge in her voice. Applejack was usually a pretty good sport, but she hated cheating, and the tone worried Twilight that her friend might do something a bit rash. She meant to give a real reply, but her exhaustion prevented her from speaking and instead she simply gave the impression of a non-committed grunt. Applejack seemed to take this as an affirmative and set her jaw before charging forward, Twilight looked in horror as her friend picked up speed. Desperate not to be left behind, the purple unicorn closed her eyes and strained forward with everything she had. "Hey! Hey You!" cried out Applejack as she began to catch up with the running figure. She passed through the dust and came out the other side to find herself face to face with... Derpy Doo? "Hi Applejack!" cried out the grey mailmare as she happily trotted along the path. Applejack knew that Derpy was a bit ditzy at times, but basically a good mare. It just seemed completely out of her character to be cheating! Maybe she had wandered off and back onto the trail though? "Derpy? How did ya'all get ahead of us?" she demanded. The cross eyed pony gave her a confused look, and scrunched up her muzzle at the question. "Ahead of what?" she asked, her voice filled with confusion. before she could reply though, there was a cry behind her and Twilight, eyes shut, mouth open as she screamed in pain, desperately trying to keep up the pace charged through the dust cloud and directly in Derpys flank. With another series of cries both mares tumbled forward and rolled several dozen feet before skidding to a stop. Applejack dug her hooves in and stopped over the two tangled up ponies. "Are ya'all alright?" she cried out as she looked them over. Derpy's eyes were spinning, but that wasn't too unusual and the pegasus was standing up without any real trouble. Twilight though, simply lay on the ground panting and wheezing, her hooves clutched to her chest as she struggled for breath. Both Applejack and Derpy were hovering over her now, looks of concern on their faces. Twilight strained to see properly, to make herself get up, but she just couldn't move anymore. She looked up into Applejacks big worried eyes and began to cry. -----------@@@----------- "That's a bit weird, isn't it?" Fluttershy spoke, mostly to herself. as she sat on the sun blanket. She gazed at the distant balloon were Spike was making his announcements and frowned slightly. "I'm sorry dear, what was that?" Rarity sat in the shade of an over sized pink and purple parasol, lounging on a fainting couch she had somehow managed to get out near the finish line. She had been listening to the commentary and reading a stack of fashion magazines as she relaxed with her best friend. Tricking Sweetie Belle into hiding in the balloon may have been a bit mean, but she was sure her sister was having fun with Spikey-wikey. The two of them were very cute together, and Rarity held some private hopes that Spikes little crush would one day brush off of her and onto someone of a more appropriate maturity. "It's just that.. well. I-It's probably nothing" Fluttershy looked down and began to twiddle her hooves a bit nervously. Rarity smiled gently reached a hoof down to gently rub her friends back. Fluttershy had trouble relaxing around most ponies, but Rarity had a tendency to listen to her when others wouldn't, and never seemed to judge her or her sometimes, weird decisions. A lot of people tended to look down on ponies who lived on the edge of society, by themselves, with lots of pets and an aversion to long conversations. "Spike hasn't mentioned Applejack or Twilight at all." she finally squeaked out. Rarity frowned and sat up, looking down at her friend. "Really?" "Well, he mentioned that they were the first out of the gate, but he hasn't said one word on them since. And, he just said Raindrops was in the lead. Isn't that a bit weird?" Rarity kept the frown on her face and looked up at the balloon. Fluttershy was right, it was weird. It seemed impossible that anypony else in ponyville could outrun Applejack, and if she'd even been passed Spike should have brought it up just on that improbability alone. "I'm going to go check with some of the officials" she said, standing up and hopping over her yellow friend, "do let me know if they mention anything else, but it's likely they just took a wrong turn and got lost. I swear, they never mark the paths on this run properly" Rarity walked off as Fluttershy nodded and turned her attention back to the commentary coming from above. -----------@@@----------- Applejack was furious. She stomped on the ground in anger and finally sat down with a deep scowl on her face. "I can not believe this is happening! How could I have been so stupid!" she cried out and turned to glare behind her. Twilight and Derpy both looked taken aback and turned to fae away from the furious Earth pony. It had taken several minutes to calm down Twilight, who had finally managed to choke out how exhausted she was, and how she had almost passed out. Applejack had been startled and even upset, mostly because of how worried she now was about her friend. After a quick hug she'd told the purple unicorn to take as much time as she needed to recover, and scolded her gently for not letting Applejack know just how badly she had been, Applejack couldn't understand why Twilight had been so reluctant to tell her. Maybe she had teased too hard about the race, pushed Twilight when she shouldn't have. She began to worry that she was taking too much advantage of Twilight, and that maybe she wasn't being a very good friend about it. But it was the conversation with Derpy that had really gotten her riled up. The Mailmare had explained that she wasn't in the race at all, and was just returning from a delivery. Since it was the days last package, she'd decided to detour through the woods and enjoy the autumn leaves before they were all knocked down. "I totally forgot the running of the leaves was today! But shouldn't we be well out of the way for the track anyway?" she'd explained as she sat with the two racers. She pulled her official Ponyville mail map and pointed to their location. Indeed they were way to far east, near where the woods meet up with the Everfree forest. Twilight had regained a bit of her breath and confessed that she thought they had gone off the path a while back, but hadn't been sure enough to say anything. And so, Applejack kicked and tore at the dirt beneath her, once again, someone had done the simple trick of turning a sign and she'd been completely thrown off course and away from the race. There was no way to get back to the track in time to catch up with the other racers, even if Twilight hadn't pushed herself too far to safely do anymore running. She stopped her wordless tantrum and sat down on the ground, hanging her head low. One more failure. Couldn't even read a stupid map and stay on a dumb track. Everything came racing back to her, the failing farm, the lost iron pony competition, all the second place ribbons at the Canterlot rodeo, and so many other failures piled one on top of the other to remind her that, in the end, she was a loser. She should've known better than to try and win a race. There was only one place where she was any good at anything. "I'm real sorry Twi. I shoulda' noticed the sign was moved and led us in the right direction in the first place." She turned to see the exhausted unicorn look down, unwilling to meet Applejacks sorrowful gaze. Applejack couldn't help but wonder if her friend thought of her as a stupid failure too. It wouldn't surprise her. She was so kind, to put so much effort into trying to help her idiot earth pony friend that she wouldn't even tell Applejack when she was hurting. Twilight could've been seriously injured if she had pushed herself much harder, and that also would've been Applejacks fault. The orange farm pony took off her hat and held it in her hoof, looking into the bowl of it and remembering another time she had failed someone. How her mom and dad had tried to comfort her in their last minutes, and her mom had given her this hat. One more instance of other ponies suffering for her failure. She looked up at the two other ponies and opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a flash of yellow light and a sudden feeling of pain on her shoulder. She rolled with the blow and came to her hooves in a fighting stance. She glanced over and in horror saw two more blasts hit her friends, Twilight, already weak from the run, appeared to be unconscious, and Derpy, who had been knocked down, was curled up in a ball cowering and wailing in fear. Another blast shot from the bushes and Applejack dodged easily before rushing forward, she dodged two more blasts and suddenly found herself floating in the air. A blue and red magical aura showed that she was suspended by unicorn magic. She struggled and squirmed, but it was no use, without some sort of footing, or something to grab hold of, she was trapped. Two unicorns stepped out of the bushes to either side of her, one had a white coat with a yellow mane, and his horn glowed red. The other unicorn seemed to be almost identical, except his coat was yellow and he had a white mane, they even had identical cutie marks, which appeared to be a couple of moonshine jugs with "XXX" written on their sides. Applejack knew them from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place them, not until a third unicorn strode out of the shrubbery. "Esker Billy!! What the Sam-hill is the meanin' of this!?" she struggled again in the air, but it was no good, she was trapped by the two brothers holding her up. She recognized them now as other members of the Esker Clan, ponies she'd seen about during their irregular dealings, but she didn't know their names. Two other Esker ponies trotted out from the trees and onto the path. One of these was a big bruser with a black coat and a matching mane, and a simple shovel as his cutie mark. The other one was smaller, but had an unusually long horn, his green coat a sharp contrast to his pink mane. His cutie mark appeared to be a woodcarving knife. "You know what this is about, you damn dirt skin! You cheated on me back in the arena, and I'm here for a little payback!" Applejacks eyes went wide, first at the blatantly tribalist insult, and then at the accusation of cheating! She narrowed her eyes and her blood began to boil. "You cowardly, underhanded, snake! Ya'all was the one that broke the rules! How dare ya' hurt my friends and than accuse me of being a cheat! You're the cheat!" Esker Billy pushed forward till he was nose to nose with the farm pony. "YOU PUSHED ME! YOU TRICKED ME AND YOU CHEATED! YOU KNOW A STUPID DIRT SKIN COULD NEVER HAVE BEATEN ME IN A FAIR FIGHT AND YOU TRICKED ME!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his family members turned to face him and nodded in unison. The Black pony took this time to walk over to Derpy and give the cowering pegasus a little kick. She wailed in fear and pulled herself in tighter. This seemed to amuse the larger unicorn who chuckled to himself and gave her another harder kick. Applejack glared into Esker Billys eyes and held him with a hard stare. "I'll fight ya'all right now. Let me down and we'll have that fair fight you wanted. No judges around here. Just you, and me." Billy shook his head and grinned wildly at the earth pony, his wide eyes filled with a deep hatred. "And give you another chance to cheat? Or maybe just run away? Oh no. Ya ain't gettin' out of this so easy." With that he turned on his hooves and kicked Applejack in the gut as hard as he could. She gasped in pain at the hard hit and clenched her eyes shut, but it didn't stop there. He bucked her twice more in the gut, the last one had her gasping for breath. He turned around and used the pinch of his hoofs wrist to grip her hair and force her head up. "You embarrassed me, and humiliated me. And now, i'm gonna do the same to you, and your friends, the retarded cloudhumper, and the purple little tribe traitor." Applejacks eyes went wide in horror and then shut as the first hoof struck her in the jaw. -----------@@@----------- Twilight floated on a sea of blue. It wasn't water, and it wasn't a fluid either. It was more like the essence of blue itself. It was electric, and tingled her all over as she floated. She struggled to remember how she had gotten here, but everything was a blank. There was no before here, not that she could recall. Except, she was sure there was. Applejack had been mad about something, and then there was a burst of yellow light. Her friend had been struck and rolled through the air. That's right! There had been magic! A definite pulse of it had come from the side of the road and, they were under attack! Twilight's eyes shot open and she stared into the deep blue eyes of another unicorn. His pink hair bobbed a bit as he stepped back before grinning widely. "Oh good. Ya'all is awake!" he grinned wickedly and his horn glowed with a green magic, he pulled a sharp knife out from his mane and let it float between the two of them, "I likes it better when I can hear the little animals all a screamin, so I bets I'll likes it better when I use this onna pony too..." Twilights eyes were wide, and she glanced quickly around. Derpy was only a few feet away, a large Black unicorn was kicking her repeatedly and laughing as she cried out. "Noooooo!!! P-please stooop! D-do-don't make me fight! I h-hate fighting! I haaate fighting! P-please no! They p- promised! N-never again! P-pppleaase! Nooooooooooo!!" Even as she listened to Derpys loud crying she heard another sharp sound and her eye rolled over to see Applejack, suspended in a duel cooperative magic field (nether unicorn was probably strong enough to lift an uncooperative pony on their own, few unicorns were) while a third leaned back and firmly punched her right in the chest. The orange Earth pony had bruises on her side, stomach and face, and a swelling black eye. She glared at her assailant though with a steady fury. As Twilight took this in she felt something tap against her horn and looked back at the mad blue eyes of the green and pink pony standing over her. "Ya really shouldn't be worried about them. We're gonna play a little game ya see and.." He never got to finish his sentence. The blast of purple magic sent him flying well over the treeline and he crashed through the forest canopy several hundred yards away. The other unicorns stopped and turned to see the tiny purple pony slowly struggle to her feet and glare at them with a deep anger in her eyes. The large black unicorn stepped over Derpy and suddenly found himself lifted bodily into the air. Unlike the two brothers holding Applejack, Twilight had no trouble at all lifting an unwilling pony. She flipped the larger unicorn over her head and into a tree behind her horn first. his eyes rolled for a moment before he regained his senses and found himself stuck. He pressed his hooves against the bark and strained to try and remove himself. A burst of yellow magic flew at Twilight from the unicorn that had been hitting Applejack, only for Twilight to simply absorb the blast into her own horn. Billy's eyes widened in shock. He'd never even heard of a unicorn that could absorb magic like that! He glanced around quickly than smiled as a plan came to mind. Lowering his head he fired three more quick shots at the frightening opponent. Two flew wide and the third was absorbed as easily as his initial blast. "Give up now. Your magic is far weaker than mine, and I can easily handle all three of you." Twilight managed to get her speech out, but she was trembling inside. Between her exhaustion from the run and the surprise hit she had taken earlier, she was rapidly running out of energy, it was hard for her to even stay awake, nevertheless focus well enough to make a decent attack spell. If they came after her with magic she should be able to turn it against them easily enough, but if he chose to physically fight her, she would be in trouble. The white unicorn grinned broadly back at her. "Dontcha' mean four?" Twilight puzzled this briefly before turning in a rapid circle. Surely enough, the large black unicorn was right behind her, a chunk of tree still stuck to his horn where Billy had blasted him free with his two other blasts. The larger unicorns face was filled with rage and he lifted a large hoof into the air. Twilight didn't have time to react, she closed her eyes and prepared to receive the blow, but it never came. Behind her she heard a unicorn shriek in pain. and opened her eyes to see one of the two brothers staring at his head in horror, his horn had been cut, a full three inches removed from the tip, and blue magic poured out, almost liquid as it streamed from his head. His eye's rolled into his skull and he fell to the ground unconscious. The other unicorns, including Twilight stared in horror at the sudden mutilation, and where so distracted they didn't even notice that, with the magic dissipated, Applejacks feet also hit the ground. The yellow haired unicorn was flying through the air a fraction of a second later, his ribs shattered from the double hoofed buck right into his side. He slammed into a tree and fell to the ground as his world turned black. An orange blur rushed past Twilight and the large black unicorn shuddered before falling down unconscious. Twilight looked up and saw Applejack standing over her protectively. Her bruises stood out as dark stains against her fur, and blood dripped from her snout. Her eyes though, were a perfect green fury. The wind blew gently, making her hair, loose from its usual bindings flow gently in the breeze. Twilight blushed deeply at the sight of her friend, so strong and powerful, standing over her with such determination. Applejack stared at Billy Esker with a harsh finality. The white unicorn stumbled backwards a couple of steps and then shook himself. He lowered into a fighting stance and scowled at his hated enemy. "This isn't over!" he cried out and his horn glowed yellow as he charged forward. Suddenly though, all the world was her eyes. Applejacks bright green eyes had moved with an impossible speed, and his face was snout to snout with the orange earth pony. "Yeah, it is." -----------@@@----------- "So you didn't see anything? Nothing at all?" Raritys voice was filled with concerned as placed a new bandage around Applejacks trunk. The three assaulted friends had managed to make their way to the starting line after leaving the battered Eskers behind. Derpy had been largely unharmed, just shaken by the violence of it all, and had helped to carry Twilight back. They had immediately been taken tot he medical tent. "Nope. Just a quick blur of green and a flash of metal. Next thing I knew that Esker fellah' was screamin' his mouth off and half his horn bounced offa' my nose. I was too messed up from the punchin' to see anything more'n that." She flinched a bit as Rarity pulled a bandage especially tight. All things considered, she had gotten off luck. no broken bones at all, just a bunch of bruises. "Ugh.. horrid." Rarity shuddered and took a step back. She gave Applejack a sad smile, "Not that i'm not glad someone saved you, but you have to understand, the idea of someone cutting off a unicorns horn is...well.. ugh," she shuddered again. "The guards are back. They say there's no sign of the Eskers." Fluttershy walked over and sat next to Applejack and Rarity. Applejack looked down at her with a blank, sad face. Fluttershy smiled and reached up to give her orange friend a much needed hug. Applejack hugged her back, and looked over at Derpy and Twilight, who were chatting amicably enough as they sat in the bunks next to each other. Twilight was healthy, but the exhaustion had really knocked her out. Still, all Applejack could see was her own failure. It was her fault her friends had been attacked. It was her fault that she wasn't strong enough to protect them. -----------@@@----------- Deep out in the woods, a tiny white, stitched together pony, no bigger than a doll, pulled itself out from the knothole it had been hiding in while the guards had searched the area. it flopped to the ground and rolled for a moment before becoming still. After a minute it managed to get its four legs beneath itself and staggered across the path, managing to fall over only once or twice before reaching its destination. Just a few hours earlier, Applejack had been suspended here, while Billy Esker had punched her repeatedly in the face, and the ground below was dotted with little red spots, bits of blood, dripped from an almost broken snout. The tiny creature opened its mouth as wide as it could, the hinge of the jaw nearly at the back of its head and it leaned down to take the dirt and blood and swallowed it in one loud gulp. It hiccuped and began to spin, slowly but gaining in speed and floated into the air, strange clicks and whirls as it went. It began to spin faster and faster and with a sudden pop, vanished.