CHAPTER 3
The stench was acrid, and strong. It burned her nostrils like the laughter of Sweetie Belle. Soon, the smell got so strong that she had to bury her snout in the grass. ‘Applejack…’ visions of that terrible moment played through her head. The shout, the smudge, the tackle, ‘Applejack…’ suddenly, Applebloom was awake. “She tried to stop me! She cared!” Her revelation was cut short, however, by a lungful of thick, foul smoke. ‘FIRE!’ She mentally screamed. Panicking, she looked around- the Symphony was silent, the Brotherhood obscured. She blindly walked in a direction, but when she felt heat creep up her face, instinct kicked in, and she ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction. She was blind; every beautiful root only served as an obstacle now, as if Nature was calling her to join together in fate. “No!” She shouted after a particularly nasty fall left her hoof bruised and throbbing. She got back up, and kept limping, finally exiting the smoke into clean air.
“Help!” She weakly shouted. “Big Mac, AJ, help!” She collapsed coughing onto the ground, and soon she heard the clopping of hooves as Applejack ran to her.
“What is it? What is i-Oh, sweet Celestia! Are you ok!?”
Applebloom lifted her head up slowly, coughed weakly, and muttered, “The-the forest is on fire.”
“I know! I was worried sick about you!”
Another meek cough. “No, the forest. Save-save the forest”
“Shucks to the forest-my baby sister is hurt. Twilight-get over here! Applebloom needs help!”
Soon she felt herself lifted by magic, and as she drifted away, she saw the dark lifeblood of the forest spiraling towards the clouds. “The forest, save the forest, save…forest…” she blacked out, with the image of her friends cutie marks burned into her head. As she slipped away, she heard a whispering, “Save the forest, it’s all I have anymore.”