“A-Applejack! P-Please Wake up! Please!”
Instantly the Pegasus was bawling, panicking at the sight of the unresponsive earth pony. She was shaking so much from her hysteria it caused her voice to waver erratically. Fluttershy instinctively pulled the earth pony from a tiny fire that was within feet from her hooves.
Fluttershy screamed again, louder than she has ever had. She was jumping around frantically trying to find some way to get Applejack to wake up.
“P-Please A-Applejack! I need you! P-Please! Please wake up! Applejack!”
She put her ear to Applejack’s chest, gaining some hope when she heard a heart-beat. Fluttershy held the unconscious ponies head up, while she was still partially in air. Gently resting her head on the ground, she then darted up a hundred feet in the air, hoping to catch sight of somepony that she could call for. She yelled a few times, desperately listening for any responses from anypony. All she was met with was the crackling of the wood that the fire was devouring, and the sight of black-as-coal smoke that seemed to go all the way to the horizon. She flew down again, after realizing nopony could hear her.
“Applejack! P-Please! I love you! Please Wake up! I-I” She stood over the unconscious Applejack her tears dropping onto the injured pony’s forehead, “Why did this have to happen? I-I should have come earlier…please wake up Applejack! I need you…”
Through her panic, heart racing at a million miles per hour, she had a sudden idea. A while back, Angel had fallen and hit herself on the head and she went unconscious; this being something she had had never dealt with before, Fluttershy took him to a vet and he was revived by slowly getting the bunny to drink some water. The mare-nurse had told her that in situations when something is unconscious, it sometimes works to have them drink something as a jump-start to the brain in a way. If Applejack’s head injury isn’t too bad, Fluttershy felt this could work. It was her one and only hope to save her.
Quickly flying up and over the flaming tree that blocked their path, she grabbed her bucket. She then flew towards the healthy trees that were not too far from the fire. She nearly flew into one of the trees, her vision impaired by her distress. Fluttershy quickly plucked as many ripe apples as she could and threw them into the bucket; then launched herself back into the area where Applejack was trapped.
When she landed, she took Applejack’s hat out from the bucket and put it under her right foot to not lose it.
“Please wake up Applejack! P-please…I need you…” She said desperately, after a fit of coughing caused by the diluted air.
She then leaned over the bucket, now left with around ten apples. She grabbed one apple with both of her hooves, using all of the strength she had, crushed it; letting the juices from the apple drip back into the bucket below. The Pegasus did her best to guard the bucket from the sand and dirt around her, and used the short period of calm wind to her advantage.
Fluttershy repeated that action on every apple she had taken with her, taking a little over ten minutes to get the most from each apple. When she finished, it left the bucket about an inch full with apple juice. The bucket was about a foot and a half in diameter so she guessed it should be enough.
“P-Please work…I love you Applejack, p-please wake up! Please!”
Through her desperate sobs, the Pegasus lifted the orange ponies head up, her mouth slightly opening. She moved Applejack’s mane away from her face, and dragged her a little farther, because the fire was once again creeping towards the two of them. Fluttershy then grabbed the bucket, and tried her best to get Applejack to drink the juice in it. As it slowly dripped out of the bucket, she slipped just a little, some of it splashing onto the orange ponies face, mixing the dirt giving her face a muddy appearance.
Fluttershy waited a few seconds for any response from the motionless mare in front of her.
Her heart slowly breaking in two, she grabbed the bucket again, and with about two-thirds of the apple juice remaining, she tried again.
“P-Please Applejack…Please! I n-need you…”
The Pegasus’ hooves were shaking as she held the bucket, but was able to get some of the apple juice into Applejack’s mouth that time around, hoping she drank some.
Fluttershy waited once more for around 30 seconds, tears streaming down her cheeks almost endlessly. She was breathing so fast she was almost getting light-headed.
As the Pegasus prepared for another try, she kissed the unconscious pony on the cheek, causing herself to cry even more, even though she had to wipe her lips of the small amount of dirt she got on them.
Suddenly Applejack coughed violently, a sign of life that made Fluttershy’s hopes sky-rocket. Fluttershy waited as silently as she could, each passing second making her more and more anxious, breathing fast and crying still. And there it was, Applejack groaned and slowly opened her eyes, filling Fluttershy with pure elation.
Though it obviously wasn’t over yet, Fluttershy collapsed over the earth pony, crying tears of joy, temporarily ignoring her situation to hold the delirious Applejack in her hooves.
“Applejack! You’re alive! You’re ok! I-I thought I lost you, I-I Can’t- I,” her words faded into gibberish as she clutched the confused earth pony as tightly as she could without hurting her. There was never a moment in her life where she felt as elated as the moment right then, when she saw Applejack open her eyes.
Just then a massive gust of wind knocked Fluttershy to her side, the hat flying away once more without either of them noticing.
Applejack looked around, shell-shocked by what she saw “F-Fluttershy? Why are you here? Why am Ah…”
Fluttershy reluctantly backed off, still crying tears of elation at the sight of Applejack waking up.
The dazed pony slowly tried to stand up, but once she put pressure on her left leg, a massive jolt of pain from her flank sent her back to ground, causing her to yell in agony. Everything that had happened to her then came back to her in an explosion of memory. She knew now how dire her situation was, Fluttershy now her only hope to survive.
“Are you ok Applejack?” Fluttershy said, heart once again breaking at the sight of her mare in such pain, “I-I hate seeing you in s-so much pain” She stammered, wiping away a tear, temporarily unaware of what’s yet to come.
“My left leg…Ah can’t stand on it,”
“W-what happened? Can you remember?”
Applejack focused despite a massive pulsing headache, ”Ah can…But that doesn’t matter right now ‘Shy! Ah can hardly stand if ah put weight on my left leg…that means ah can barely jump or even walk. Ah won’t be able to save ma’self by ma’self,”
Fluttershy squealed; panic once again setting in as she looked around them, they were completely surrounded by the unrelenting fire. The blaze had been creeping in slowly and steadily. Shocking both of them was the loud crash of another fallen tree, less than 10 feet from them, it soon engulfed by the ruthless flame.
“Fluttershy, ah need ya ta focus sugarcube,” She took a second to cringe as her headache tore at her from the inside, ”Fluttershy, ah know what ta do…Ah juss need you to calm down first, can you? For me?”
She slowed her breathing again, and looked Applejack in the eyes, ”Y-yes, what can I do?”
“There should be a rope near the entrance to the orchards…Ah need ya to find it and bring it to me, it shouldn’t be too far from here...please darlin’, ah know you can do this,”
Fluttershy gave Applejack another hug, slow tears dripping down her cheeks once more.
“P-Promise me you’ll be ok when I’m back…” Fluttershy said, her soft voice nearly in a whisper. The last thing she wanted to do was LEAVE Applejack here, injured and in the middle of a fire, but there was nothing else she could do. By herself she knew she couldn’t lift Applejack up and fly with her on her back.
“Ah promise,”
Fluttershy then flew off into the distance, desperately searching for the pile of rope. She constantly scanned each detail of the area for any sign of the rope or anypony else.
Through her determination and attention to detail, she spotted it quickly, and darted out of the air just to grab it. It was a long rope, but it was wrapped in circles, so she was able to put it around herself and fly back to the awaiting Applejack. It was nearly completely covered by sand, she was amazed she was able to see it through the polluted air from so high up in the sky.
She quickly flew back, careful not to lose the rope wrapped tentatively around her. She flew over the flaming tree that blocked one side of the path then slowly lowered in front of Applejack. It hurt Fluttershy to see Applejack not just looking so exhausted, but weak.
“I-I got it, Applejack,”
“Good, Sugarcube. Thank you,” Applejack cringed as another jolt of pain was sent up her body from her injured leg, “H-Here’s the plan, ah can stand on three legs right? Well ah need you wrap this here rope ‘round me as tight and secure as you can, because you’re gonna have the other end and help me jump over that tree that’s blocking our path, can you do this for me sugarcube?”
Fluttershy lowered her head nervously, “I don’t know, I don’t want to hurt you…”
“Fluttershy, please! Yer ma only hope right now, a-ah need ya to focus,”
Both ponies felt the massive amount of heat coming from the blazes and Applejack was slowly getting more nervous; she knew they were wasting way too much time.
“W-what if I mess up?! And you fall and hurt yourself worse!”
“No matter what, ah need ya too try sugarcube…the fires getting closer every minute, ah believe in you, ah love you, Fluttershy,”
“I love you too….”
Fluttershy took a deep breath and grabbed the rope. It was plenty of feet in length to where she could wrap Applejack around her mid-section several times and still have around 50 feet in length. Applejack had to stand idly on her three legs for Fluttershy to get it wrapped around her. She was barely able to keep her balance with the gusts of winds coming at them every minute almost like clockwork.
Fluttershy still managed to tie a decent knot. After making sure it was as good as she could get it, she tested its strengths by taking the other end of the rope and flying up and tugging on it. She decided it would have to work.
When she flew back down, Applejack suddenly collapsed onto her side, the Pegasus squealing in horror.
“A-Applejack! are you ok?!” She stammered as she landed next to the weakening earth pony.
“Ah’m fine, ah swear, it was juss the gust of wind thass all! Ah’m fine,” She lied. Her exhaustion was getting to her quicker than she thought. Pacing her breath, she let a little more time go by just resting.
“I-I’m sorry…” The Pegasus said meekly.
“For what, sugarcube?”
“That I’m not stronger or braver… or anything that could h-help right now, I wish I could be strong and brave like you or Rainbow Dash…Or be able to teleport you like Twilight Sparkle could…I just can’t do much and I’m worried that if we can’t get out of this, it’ll be my fault, and I-I just…”
“Fluttershy…” She said as she clumsily got back up, again balancing on her three feet, “You’ve done absolutely amazin’ right now sugarcube, ah don’t think anypony could a’ done better and ah mean that...now let’s get out of here, darlin’ Ah believe in you”
The Pegasus took a deep breath for confidence, “Ok…um, how’re we going to do this…?"
“Well, yer gonna have to be flyin' already, ah’m gonna start running, as best as ah can on three legs, when ah’m ‘bout 7 feet from that tree, pull me high as ya can darlin’ so ah can get over it,”
Fluttershy nodded, knowing whether she thought she could do it or not, she’d only find out when it happened, “I’ll try my best…”
Before they could start, another massive tree fell down behind them, startling them both. They knew their time was running out and needed to do this quickly.
“Ya ready, ‘Shy?”
“Y-yes,”
Applejack stood up as best as she could, Fluttershy took the end of the rope and had Applejack tie it around her, just above her wings and below her neck. It hurt her a little bit, but she knew it was necessary. There was about 30 feet of rope in between them.
The earth pony took a second to kiss Fluttershy, probably longer than she should have, but she really needed it. She put one hoof on Fluttershy’s face and spoke while looking at her in the eyes.
“Whatever happens, Fluttershy, remember ah’ll always love you,”
This caused Fluttershy to cry again, she could feel her quickening heart-beat in her chest.
”I-I will too! I love you so much…”
Applejack tried to give Fluttershy a confident smile, “It’s time, Fluttershy, fly up!”
The Pegasus flew up until she reached the limit of her rope. She coughed as she was hit by a layer of smoke, then got hit by the bright sun poking through the plume of smoke, which had changed directions with the wind. She then looked down to wait for the queue from Applejack. Even though she has participated in saving Equestria twice, saved Ponyville from a massive dragon that was spewing black smoke over the town; she knew this was the most important thing for herself she’d ever do, and it was only seconds away. She held the love of her life’s life in her hooves, and she wasn’t about to let her nervousness lose everything for her. Fluttershy took a deep breath (When the smoke was cleared for a second) and let adrenaline take over.
Applejack waved her left arm to her side as the queue, then started running as fast she could on three legs. Fluttershy flew at the same pace, keeping an eye on the orange pony below her.
7 feet away.