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// A Message - Adventure, Drama 
// Story: Krizak's Compendium of Concise Chronicles 
// by Krizak 
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So I suppose you’re wondering about this bottle.

It isn’t the sort of bottle you’d usually find with me. A mug of hoofmade hard cider is usually my drink, not this hoity-toity wine from Canterlot’s cellars. But I made an exception, on account of how it was Rarity that bought it for me, her present congratulating me on being chosen as Equestria’s representative at the World Apple Conference, being held this year in far-off Neighpon.

She also said that it was to take the edge off should I get a mite scared on the flight. Girl always sees more than I’d like her to.

I’d tell anyone that the reason I don’t like flying is because an earth pony should keep her hooves on the ground, but the truth is, it just scares the manure outta me. That time when my friends and I all went to Cloudsdale for RD’s big rodeo, the only thing that got me to step out onto that cloud was my trust in Twi’s abilities, and even then I was taking nervous glances every couple of seconds. So the idea of flying on one of them new-fangled airships was positively frightening, and what happened didn’t do much to improve my view.

I wish I could say just what happened, but I was fast asleep at the time. All I remember is shouting, flames, a call to the lifeboats, and then us crashing into the water. The impact threw me away from the ship, and probably saved my life, since when it began to sink, it sucked all the other survivors down with it.

I wish I could’ve done something, saved somepony, but it took all my strength just to stop from being pulled under myself.

I swam for hours afterwards, till my muscles burned hotter than that time I tried to buck the entire of Sweet Apple Acres by my lonesome. I was a darn fool, though. If this island had just been a trick of the light, then I would have died out there.

Not that dying is entirely off the table, mind you.

This island’s small. I could probably buck a coconut from one of side to the other if I put my strength into it. Be a waste of food, though, cause coconuts and a few patches of dry grass here and there is all I got. What I wouldn’t do right now for some of the apples I had packed away in my bag. I hope the fish like them.

I drank through the bottle the second night… well, at least what I didn’t use to clean the nasty cut I got when the waves pushed me into a coral reef. Gonna chuck this out into the sea in the bottle, hope the current carries it back to land.

I’m not worried, mind you. Moment my friends hear about what happened, they’ll come galloping to my rescue, and I got myself food, water, and shelter enough to last a while. But it doesn’t hurt to hedge your bets, so if you found this bottle, I ask if you’d kindly head to Ponyville and visit Sweet Apple Acres, and if I’m not already there, tell my sister, my brother, and my granny that I love them all so very much, and I miss them dearly. Find my friends - you can start with Twilight Sparkle, at the library - and tell them that I love and miss them as well.

Oh, and give Rarity her bottle back. She’ll know what it means.

Sincerely,
Applejack