//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Uncharted: Applejack's journey 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
//------------------------------//

Because of the large hills surrounding the small town the sunset came considerably earlier than normal. That, combined with the jet lag from jumping from country to country in such a rapid manner meant that Applejack was extremely exhausted before it was even time for dinner.

The others didn’t even seem to be affected by the jet lag, as they were already beginning their study of the ancient lore surrounding Stonehenge, specifically looking for anything pertaining to a temple of some sort. To her credit, Applejack managed to stay awake for two hours before her body simply couldn’t remain conscious and she slumped down into the book she was reading. 

When she awoke it was dark, but with the barest hint of the unfamiliar sun beginning to peer over the hilltops. Someone, most likely Nathan, had moved her to her bed, and when she looked over at the other, where Elena was sleeping peacefully, Applejack couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that she had let them down the night before.

Wiping the sleep from her eyes she made her way to the bathroom, looking to take her first shower since when they were in Tibet over five days earlier. After turning the taps and waiting for the water to get up to temperature, Applejack took a moment to study herself in a mirror. If she squinted, it was almost as though she had never become a human. She still had the same freckles in her face, the same emerald green eyes and the same golden hair that she had always had, except now they lived upon a face of pink skin rather than one of orange fur. In fact, the only remarkable thing about her face now was the small cut on her cheek that she hadn’t even noticed before. A small bit of cried blood was caked around the edges, and when she touched it, the whole area felt very tender and painful.

‘I must have gotten this in the temple,’ she reasoned, looking away from the glass and pulling her clothes off. The first thing she put under the water was her head, letting the hot water soak her hair and roll down her back onto the floor. Applejack let out a sigh of content relief as she felt every muscle in her body begin to relax under the caress of the water. She arched her back slightly, enjoying the pop of her vertebrae. 

Back in Equestria, she was often the last one in the house to have a shower, meaning that it was nearly always cold and whenever she had the opportunity to have a hot shower, she never felt like leaving.

Her thoughts turned to Pinkie and Rainbow and how they had arrived in this place. The main thing on her mind was the fact that they had appeared with clothes. The second thing was the fact that she had absolutely no idea where they were or how they were being treated by Krushchev’s men. For all of Nathan and Elena’s assurances that the girls were going to be fine, Applejack still had her doubts. 

A knock on the door pulled her out of her daydream, and she realised she had been standing in the water for so long that her hands had gone entirely pruney.
“Hey Aj, are you about done in there? I’m not sure how much longer I can…” said Elena with a strained voice. Applejack apologised and hurriedly got out of the shower, almost being bowled over by Elena rushing through the door in the process.
“I’m already starting off the day fantastically,” Applejack groaned.

***

As Applejack struggled with boots that were a size too small, Nathan and Sully entered the room, arguing about Sully’s horrible snoring. Applejack was only half listening, until a plastic bag was thrown at her chest. Inside was a pair of heavy black hiking boots, as well as a new pair of black motorcycle cargo pants and an orange button up shirt. 

“What’s this?” she asked, holding up the shirt.
“We thought you would look good in orange. Don’t know why,” he explained, immediately going back to moaning at Sully. Applejack stared wide-eyed at the shirt, unnerved by the fact that it was the exact shade of orange that her coat used to be. Trying not to react, she slipped it over her white singlet, feeling a strange sense of calm when she looked down at the orange covering her arms. She then ushered the boys out of the room so she could change her pants.

Elena walked out a second later, a towel wrapped around her head.
“Hey, that shirt really suits you,” she commented and Applejack smiled.
“Thanks, so what did you guys find out about Stonehenge last night?” she asked, walking over to a pile of paper and books on the nearby table. 

“Well yes and no,” Elena replied, walking up beside her. “A few rumours and urban legends, but nothing concrete. But then we went through the reference book and surprisingly enough found things that linked Stonehenge’s many, many myths to the element of magic.”
“Like what?”

“Well it has long been thought to be one of the most magical sites on the planet, with literally hundreds of reported sightings of supernatural things like fairies, strange lights and the such. And to quote the book, ‘The element of magic is the most volatile, and will often cause the random manifestation of magical entities.’” Elena explained, showing her the entry in the book. Applejack blushed with embarrassment and thanked Celestia that Nathan had transcribed the book as she read it to them, otherwise they would never have been able to study without her.

“Let’s get a move on then, I just hope that Twilight doesn’t get captured like the others did,” she said and Elena moved to put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry; we don’t even know if Krushchev’s men saw the inscription. They may not have a single clue about Stonehenge being the next location,” Elena offered, but it did little to console Applejack. 

***

The road to the landmark was packed with hundreds of cars, making Applejack feel a little claustrophobic as their SUV was boxed in by other vehicles. To occupy herself, she had gone back to researching her new world on Nathan’s phone. Every time the car moved even an inch, Applejack’s head always snapped up excitedly. She wasn’t used to sitting still for such a long time, even when she took the train to Canterlot with her friends, a three hour trip either way. 

After some time, the lure for information shifted from the world at large to Applejack’s companions, especially when she thought about what she knew about them and came up with nothing. 

“So Nathan, how did you get into this whole thing?” she asked, tossing the phone into his lap. Nathan, who was driving at the time and whose knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel in frustration, seemed to snap out of a trace when the phone landed on his legs.

“What? Oh, I’ve kind of always been into it. I remember stealing the ring I wear around my neck as probably my first real adventure,” he told her, showing off a gold ring he had tied around his neck with black string. 
“Wait, you stole that? Where from?” Elena chimed in.

“A museum in Columbia, it’s actually where I met Sully for the first time,” he explained, giving a nod to his elderly friend. 
“And so what, you just decided to become a fortune hunter? Why?” Applejack asked and Nathan seemed to hesitate for a while, shooting quick glances at both Sully and Elena.

“I-I suppose it’s the only thing I’ve ever really known,” he replied, shrugging. 

***

They arrived at Stonehenge to find it crawling with tourists, and when she they looked across the field where the stone were located from the top of a nearby hill, it closely resembled an anthill or even Canterlot during hearts warming eve. 

They decided to wait until it was dark, mainly to avoid the inevitable questions they would get if they started searching for an ancient temple in the middle of the day. 

Applejack was really surprised that even after the sun had gone down, people were still hanging around in the field, taking photos by torchlight and much to Applejack’s confusion; praying to it. 

When the last person finally left, they rushed down the hill and quickly set up a few battery powered lanterns as light sources. Nathan took out his black notebook and started flipping through the pages of notes, looking for any sort of clue as to the entrance of the temple. Meanwhile, Applejack started looking around for something that would vaguely resemble Twilight’s cutie mark because she felt certain that it would denote the entrance, just as it did in New Orleans. 

There were a few times where the moss covered stones were pitted in such a way that it might have looked like a star, but ultimately they were just too small or didn’t have enough points to be Twilight’s cutie mark. 

“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way, what if there is no symbol of the element of magic because the strange sightings ARE the symbols,” said Sully, going quiet as the rest of the troupe stared at him with dumbfounded expressions. “Think about it; the element of magic is meant to be the most volatile right? Then it would have no need for fancy iconography because the only people who could interpret the magical outbursts are those LOOKING for the element.
“Hey, that’s actually a really good idea Sully,” laughed Nathan, giving his friend a slap on the shoulder.

“Yeah, but… How do we get into the temple if there is no real entrance?” Applejack asked. She liked the idea, but there were too many holes for it to be plausible.

“I thought of that as well girly. It’s like I said, people who could interpret the magic are those looking for the element, so they would have to have gotten the others first. So all we have to do is figure out how we use the other elements to open the gate,” he explained, obviously very pleased with himself. Applejack hesitated for a moment before unclipping the element of honesty from around her neck as Elena fished the other two necklaces out of her bag. 

When Elena handed them to Applejack however, all three gems started to grow incredibly bright and the gold metal grew red hot. The latches of each necklace snapped to each other, forming a triangle. By now Nathan, Elena and Sully had backed away, leaving Applejack standing in the centre of Stonehenge with a triangle of glowing magic. If not for the fact that she was holding onto the gems, Applejack would have burnt herself on the gold. The triangle started to pull away from her grasp, hovering in mid-air in front of her. 

Miniature arcs of purple lighting were soon visible around the necklaces and Applejack hurried backwards to avoid being fried by a stray bolt. A low hum filled the air as the triangle started to spin, the sound increasing in volume as the rotations got faster and faster and the electricity got more violent. 

Applejack had to cover her ears when the booming sound of expanding air hit her ears. The Triangle had apparently exploded in the same manner as the one Pinkie had arrived in, but considerable smaller. She jumped in fright when something glowing bright purple shot out of the sphere and rocketed into the sky, before gravity halted its upward escape and flung it back toward the ground. 

It fell back through the centre of the triangle, which had now resumed spinning at a phenomenal rate, and became embedded in the soft muddy ground underneath. 

None of the treasure hunters moved for a while, all of them scared that whatever it was might be dangerous. The spinning triangle started to slow down and suddenly broke apart, each necklace also planting itself in the ground.

Applejack was the first to approach at the encouraging hand gestured from a cowering Sully. She cautiously eased her way, step by step, toward the necklaces, and whatever they had released. When she got close enough, she let out a loud sigh of relief and bent down, grunting slightly when the ground resisted her. She tore the piece of gold from the ground, holding it aloft like a hero from a tapestry.

“What is it?” Nathan asked, stepping out from behind one of the stones.
“This, my friends, is the element of magic, and ah have a feeling it’s going to lead us to Twi.”