//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3.Applejack 
// Story: Discord's Heir 
// by Forum Explorer 
//------------------------------//

	“Right, nothin' to it then. Ah just got to go in there and get some answers from Paradox,” Applejack said to herself as she stared at the closed library door, “and it's probably going to be pretty awful. Traps, illusions, monsters; the whole nine yards. But if Ah want to help mah friends, Ah'm going to need to know exactly what Paradox did, not just to me, but to everypony,” Applejack sighed and slowly opened the door. The inside was pitch black, the light from the doorway illuminating only a single table upon which rested an unlit lantern.
“Hello Applejack, changed your mind?” Paradox said smugly, nowhere in sight.
“You know why Ah'm comin' in there. Now what are the rules to your little game here?” Applejack asked as she approached the table. With a slam, the door shut behind her just as the lantern lit itself.
“The rules are simple; just find me through the maze. Now, I'll give you two pieces of advice; don't lose that lantern no matter what, and just keep moving forward. Have fun!” Paradox said. Applejack stomped her hoof, but picked up the lantern despite her reluctance. As soon as she did, the floor underneath her simply disappeared and she plummeted through the air. Applejack fell silently, too startled to scream, before she landed on the ground, all four hooves landing softly upon the soil. Applejack looked around, it was still dark but she could see what appeared to be bushes floating in the air. Getting closer Applejack saw that they were the tops of trees, with the trunks going high in the sky. The roots hung above like tentacles, occasionally latching onto low hanging clouds which would scream in terror as they were drunk by the roots.  
“Whoa, that's creepy. Hmm,” Applejack looked around. “But it doesn't look to like it's tryin' to harm me, so Ah can handle a little bit of creepy.” Applejack kept moving occasionally dodging a lazy swipe of the roots. As she traveled, the 'forest' got thicker and thicker, with the roots getting harder and harder to dodge. Eventually, Applejack just gave up and let the roots caress her as she pushed her way through the bushy undersides of the trees. Suddenly, something caught her leg. Turning back, she saw that a root had coiled around it. Thinking fast, she swung her lantern, burning the root. It flinched away, releasing her leg. Applejack breathed a sigh of relief before noticing that none of the other roots were moving anymore.
For a second, nothing happened. Then all of the roots close by started lashing her repeatedly. The slaps of the roots didn't have much force behind them, but the sheer number of them made it feel like being pelted by hail. Applejack yelped at the pain, barely keeping her grip on the lantern as the roots whipped her. She swung her head desperately in order to drive the roots back with the lantern's flame. Every time she did, the roots would recoil and double their efforts. Finally, Applejack just gritted her teeth and took the beating as she worked her way through the bush. Applejack closed her eyes and just kept going forward til the lashes finally stopped.
Looking around, she noticed the landscape had entirely changed. The upside down forest had been replaced by the cool stone of a cave. Turning around, Applejack saw only the cave walls behind her. Ah wonder what Paradox is going to throw at me next? Caves that bite? Secretly actually a dragon? Applejack looked at the shadows that were being cast by her lantern. Actually, mah money's on some sort of shadow monster. Applejack gulped and started moving deeper into the caves. At first nothing unusual happened, but soon Applejack began to hear whispers. “Is somepony there?” Applejack called. The whispers went silent for a moment before increasing in frequency, but try as she might, Applejack couldn't hear what they were saying until she went deeper into the cave.
“Help, Applejack help,” The whispers faintly cried. Applejack shuddered and moved her aching body faster. Got to be careful, this might be a trap, Applejack thought to herself as she walked. “Applejack, save us,” the voices cried, getting louder as she got closer.
“Rainbow Dash?” Applejack called, hoping that she didn't recognize the whisper.
“Hurry! You've got to save us!” The whisper yelled.
“Ah, comin', just hold on!” Applejack yelled as darted forward. She ran as fast as she could following the frantic whispers through the twisting and turning cave tunnels. Finally she reached a dead end, the walls of the cave covered with flickering shadows. “Rainbow Dash? Where are you?” She yelled, putting the lantern down.
“We're right here,” the shadows in front of her said, swirling to take the shape of a pegasus. “Paradox trapped us in shadows. You've got to free us Applejack,” the Rainbow Dash shadow cried.
“How do Ah do that?” Applejack asked quickly.
“Give us a hug, then we can get out of here and become a real pony again.” The shadow stretched across the rocks, it's hooves spread wide.
“Seriously? Oh ponyfeathers Ah know what's goin' on here. Ya aren't Rainbow Dash, you're just some creation of Paradox aren't you?” Applejack said.
“What? No, of course not. How could you doubt your close friend like that? I'm Rainbow Dash.” The shadow said.
“Prove it then. What's mah mother's name?” Applejack asked.
“Um, was it Akane Apple?” The shadow guessed.
“Nope,” Applejack reached down and picked up the lantern before walking away. The shadow yelled and begged as she walked away but Applejack ignored it. She kept walking through the cave, which started to get tighter and tighter til Applejack was almost crawling. Finally, she squeezed her way through a hole and fell down onto a hard surface. “Now where am Ah?” Applejack groaned before looking around.
Applejack gasped her eyes widening in awe as she gazed at the scenery around her. A great ruin of rock, steel and glass surrounded her, the sky full of swirling dark clouds. The ground beneath her had transformed into a smooth black rock, it's black sheet broken by smooth lines of yellow and white. A tower of glass was to the right of her, many of it's windows shattered and even the top of it having been broken off by some monstrous force. Applejack took a few tentative steps forward, her gaze fixed firmly at the heights above and the ruins around her. For a few hours she wandered the ruins and took in the sights, and finally stopped at a crossroads, lit by colours of red and green. Sitting down she placed the lantern on the ground and stretched her jaw a bit.
“Now where should Ah go? This place... Well, it's creepy, to say the least. Besides, Ah need to focus on finding Paradox, not satisfying mah curiosity,” Applejack stared at another glass tower, this one's roof still intact. “Still, Ah guess Ah could do both. Ah bet from the top of the tower Ah'll be able to see everything around and get to poke around one of these buildings at the same time,” Applejack mused. She walked around the tower til she found a shattered window close enough to the ground for her to jump into. Applejack nearly fell over in surprise when her entry triggered a loud screeching noise and some flashing lights. She dashed forward and broke through the door to the hallway. From there she ran away, following the clearly marked signs pointing to the stairway. She ran up a good three flights before she decided to rest and see if anything was going to happen from that alarm.
At first Applejack thought that the alarm hadn't been noticed, or the ruins were truly as abandoned as they first appeared to be. But then, she spotted a shiny object moving through the streets towards her location. Applejack waited a while til it came into view. It was a group of metallic skeletons moving forward in a line, their shape somewhat like Paradox's. Applejack watched them for a little while longer before turning around heading back down the stairs. Whatever those things were, Applejack intended to avoid them. Unfortunately, by the time Applejack had gotten back to the ground floor, the skeletons had already managed to surround the building. Shoot, they move faster then Ah thought. Now what do Ah do? Applejack thought as she peered at them from behind a door. Up close the similarity to Paradox was even more evident. The creatures had the same shape, just a skeletal version of it, with the skeleton being made out of some sort of shiny metal.
Suddenly one of the skeletons turned around, its eyes flashing red. “UNKNOWN LIFE FORM DETECTED. ERADICATE POTENTIAL THREAT.” With that, its hands popped off its wrists and two narrow tubes extended. From the tubes shot a hot burning flame, igniting the door in front of Applejack. She yelped and quickly scrambled away, running back up the stairs. “LIFE FORM RESISTING ERADICATION. EXCESSIVE FORCE AUTHORIZED.” The machines at the back pulled out a tube and loaded it with something. Applejack quickly dove behind the door and bucked it shut. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could, but before she could make it half way up the stairs, the door exploded behind her. The shock-wave knocked Applejack over and actually pushed her up the stairs, flinging her into the wall behind her. Applejack groaned and slowly stood up, looking down the stairs. Several of the metal skeletons were already striding through the flames and beginning to climb the stairs.
“Oh come on,” Applejack groaned. The skeletons paused and detached their wrists. Applejack grabbed the lantern and sprinted up the next flight of stairs, the flames igniting where she had just been. Applejack didn't hesitate and immediately began climbing the next flight of stairs. She didn't stop for several minutes til her muscles were burning and her lungs ached. Applejack paused and, not hearing any pursuit, walked over to a nearby window to check how high up she had gone. Immediately, Applejack took a step back as her head spun with vertigo. She had apparently climbed more then half the way up the tower and was at an extreme altitude. The view was amazing, with the ruins stretching as far as the eye could see, massive buildings and strange monuments were all around her. Applejack rested, enjoying the view for a few moments before spotting incoming trouble. Three flying vehicles, somewhat like that weird pedal copter Pinkie had made, were approaching fast. They were the same colour as the skeletons downstairs and had long tubes strapped beneath them.
Applejack took cover as the vehicles turned to face her before it launched more explosives to either side of her. She was far enough away, and had enough cover between her that she only suffered a mild ringing noise in her ears, but Applejack knew she'd have to start moving again. Again, she began to run up the stairs, but now explosions would clip at her hooves and knock away her balance. More then once she stumbled and had to scrabble to make up ground as the explosions got closer. Never a moment was she given a chance to rest or to think of a plan. She just ran with the blind hope that safety would lie ahead and the certainty that death laid behind her.
Finally she burst through a door and was left on the roof. The wind tugged at her hat, but Applejack quickly kept it in place with a hoof. The view around her was ignored as Applejack was purely focused on where the next attack would come from. Thus, when the flying machine popped up behind her, she spotted it and started running directly away. It fired multiple times, the explosions following directly behind Applejack as she ran towards the edge of the building. Without hesitation, Applejack leaped off the edge, her jump propelled by the explosions behind her. She tumbled through the air, her vision blurring as she quickly slapped a hoof on her head to catch her hat. As she fell Applejack caught glimpses of the rapidly approaching ground. Ah hope this doesn't hurt too bad, Applejack thought as she closed her eyes.
Next thing she knew the whistling of wind in her ears stopped and she could feel a faint pressure under her hooves. Applejack opened her eyes to see a featureless black void around her, the lantern's light revealing nothing. Applejack hesitantly started to take a step forward but, before her hoof could land, she was interrupted by the landscape changing. The blackness quickly melted away to reveal the main room of Twilight's library.
“Congrats Applejack! I had one more part to the maze but after that last bit with the dramatic jump away from the explosions... Well, what could top that? That, and I felt that it might be going a little too far with that part. I don't actually want to hurt you after all,” Paradox cheered popping out of the lantern which faded away as Paradox sat on the floor.
“Paradox! Were you in that lantern the entire time?” Applejack shouted in surprise.
“Indeed I was,” Paradox nodded. “Now let me explain how this will work. You can ask me any question and I promise that I'll answer it truthfully. I don't promise to provide proof or to answer fully however. But once you leave the library, which you can do at any time, this deal ends and I'll just do whatever I want.”
“So why don't Ah just stay here and keep ya trapped?” Applejack asked, thinking quickly.
“Two reasons; one, there is no water or food in here, you'll have to leave eventually. Two, I can be in two places at once. In fact, I'm doing so right now, one of me is at Canterlot right now,” Paradox said.
“What? How does that work?” Applejack said.
“It's kinda simple once you know the trick to it, I just travel back in time but to a different location. So after this conversation ends, I'll travel back to before it started and keep working on my plans, while past me is going through the whole lantern maze with you,” Paradox explained.
“What was up with that maze anyways? Ah mean both you and Discord had those creepy mazes,” Applejack muttered as she thought about what she had just been told.
“My maze was partly inspired by Discord and partly by some artists from home,” Paradox said, catching the question despite the quiet volume. Applejack ignored him and moved onto her next question.
“Alright then, how do we defeat you?” Applejack asked, staring directly into Paradox's eyes.
“With the Elements of Harmony of course,” Paradox said, grinning.
“Where are the Elements of Harmony?”
“Where you left them,” Paradox replied.
Applejack nodded, “Where did ya send mah friends?”
“I scattered them across space and time. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are in the far north, beyond Equestria's borders. Pinkie Pie is at some random tropical island. Rarity has been sent back in time to before Equestria was founded, and Twilight has been sent to a different dimension,” Paradox said.
“Well how do we get them back?” Applejack demanded in frustration.
“You don't. Either they make it back on their own or they don't come back at all,” Paradox said pointing at Applejack.
“They will make it back,” Applejack growled, glaring at Paradox.
“Almost certainly, but who knows what'll happen between now and then?” Paradox said with a smile. “Perhaps they'll change their minds about turning me to stone.”
“Fat chance. Now how do Ah break that spell that keeps me trapped in Ponyville?” Applejack asked.
“Again, you can't do anything. The spell can only be broken by a very powerful and skilled unicorn. So, you know, Twilight. Though I suppose the Princesses would be able to break it as well,” Paradox answered.
Good thing Ah sent Derpy with that message. She'll contact the Princesses and they'll bust me outta here lickity-split. Then we can track down Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. “Wait a second, why are Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy together and the rest of us are on our own?” Applejack said, interrupting her own train of thought.
“Ultimately, because the two of them are in a relationship and I'm not cruel enough to split them apart. Also, because I felt like it,” Paradox said.
“How did ya know they were in a relationship? Actually how do ya know anythin' about us in the first place?” Applejack paused for a second then interrupted Paradox as he opened his mouth to speak. “Actually never mind, that's not important. What Ah want to know is what is your plan? What are ya goin' to do next?”
“Why, cause chaos of course,” Paradox said, smirking. Almost perfectly on cue a loud roar came from outside. Applejack quickly dashed out and saw a large fluffy pink dragon dive bombing the town, spraying a brown fluid from its mouth.
“Is-is that a cotton candy dragon with chocolate milk for breath?” Applejack gasped.
“Yup, and you just left the library. So, I'm going to go and find out why I created a cotton candy dragon in the first place. Anyways, good luck slaying the dragon!” with a cheery grin Paradox snapped his fingers and disappeared. Taking a deep breath, Applejack adjusted her hat and charged the dragon, yelling a battle cry.