//------------------------------//
// Saga 2: Honesty  
// Story: The Conversion Bureau: Reality Break 
// by Fullmetal Pony 
//------------------------------//

	“There ya are!” Applejack said as she trotted over to Alvarez, “Yer coat blends in pretty well with this place. Do ya need some help?” 
Alvarez had gotten tangled in the plants that had sprouted up underneath him and he couldn’t get his hooves free. “Y-yes, please.”
Applejack bent down and easily plucked the plants away from Alvarez’s hooves. “Ya ok?”
“I...I think. Are you one of the ‘seeds’ the spheres talked about?”
“Naw, A’m Applejack, A’m from Equestria. Nice ta meet ya though.” She held out a hoof. Alvarez just stared at it. “A’m guess’n you’re still getting used to the hooves?” Applejack awkwardly smiled at him.
“I... yeah, I’ve just been stuck in this forest for so long. I’m just glad someone is here now too.” Applejack looked like a saint to Alvarez.
“Well, don’t worry, we’ve got some moving ta do. Ah still think it’s a pretty nice home ya got though.” Applejack looked around the forest. “Shame that there entropowhatsit struck here.”
“You can feel that?” Alvarez could feel that the closest part of the entropy was a few miles away.
“Well, Ah am an Earth Pony, just like ya are, so feeling where stuff’s living and ain’t living is just a part of the trade.”
“But it doesn’t hurt you?”
Applejack gave Alvarez a quizzical look. “Why would it hurt me?” 
“I couldn’t move for at least an hour when I came into this forest.”
“Hmm,” Applejack raised a hoof to her muzzle, “well, A’ve always been an Earth Pony, feelin the earth is like breathin ta me. But I guess humans have never been able to do stuff like that. Growin stuff must be a pain for ya.”
“I...I never grew anything.”
Applejack’s confused look deepened, “But yer an Earth Pony, weren’t ya an Earth Human before?”
“What?” Now Alvarez was confused as well.
“Well the Princess said some humans look different than others. So Ah assumed ya had Earth Humans, pegasi humans, and unicorn humans.”
“I, um, it doesn’t exactly work that way. There are different races of humans, but not like that. Like in my city, everyone had a similar history and skin color, but the tourist were different. They were from different places and had different histories than us.”
“Ah think Ah kinda understand. It’s kinda like what we have down in Appleloosa with the buffalo.”
“Apple-what?”
“It’s a town some of ma relatives founded, but that’s not really important right now. We gotta go meet up with everypony else. Oh, Ah almost forgot!” She picked up the jewelry around her neck and handed it to Alvarez. He’d never seen anything look that precious, not even the gold ring he’d managed to steal one time. “It’s yers now.” 
“What...” he looked at the mysterious jewelry dangling in the pony’s hoof, “what is it?”
“It’s an Element, the Element of Honesty to be specific.”
“W-what do I do with it?”
“Well, the princess said ya’ll had to use ‘em now.”
“Can’t you just use it?”
“Ah would, but A’m Equestria’s Element of Harmony, not Earth’s. Yer Earth’s Element.”
“But...I...I’m not honest.” Something told Alvarez that even if he had lied, the pony in front of him would have called his bluff.
“What do ya mean?”
“I’m a thief, I only lived to steal!” Alvarez had always felt a twinge of guilt about his crimes before, but now they were weighing down on him like a sack of bricks. 
“Was there a reason ya stole stuff?”
“T-to live,” his eyes were starting to sting now, “and to make sure my family lived as well too. B-but now...now...” Tears cascaded down his cheeks as he remembered the horrific events that had led him here. 
“It’s ok,” Applejack patted him, “yer were honest to me about yer actions and it sounds like ya had integrity when ya stole. Ya only did it to help others right?”
“I...” he sniffled, “I think.” As he spoke, his flank glowed bright and, for a second, both he and Applejack were blinded. Applejack recovered a little more quickly than Alvarez.
“Huh,” Applejack was now staring at his flank, “bit of an odd cutie mark, but Ah think it works for ya.” A dinner plate and a shank now graced Alvarez’s flank. “Plus, if that’s not an indicator that yer honest, I don’t know what is.” The Element of Honesty was not draped around Alvarez’s neck.
Alvarez was more focused on the drawing on his flank though. “What... what is this?”
“That there’s a cutie mark, ya get one when ya find out what yer special talent is. Glad Applebloom isn’t here, she’d be mighty mad if she saw that a pony got a cutie mark that fast.”
“So, everyone gets one of these then?”
“Everypony,” Applejack corrected him and then looked up at the canopy and could tell that the sun was getting lower, “A’ll explain while we walk, don’t see much point in wastin more time standin around.” With that said, she started walking north. 
“Where are we going?”
“Ah told ya before, ta meet up with everypony else. It’s faint, but I think I can feel another Element north of here.”
“Ok,” he followed after her. For a few minutes there was an awkward silence, where the only noise was the sound of the forest around them. Then Alvarez spoke up again, “Am..am I going to be stuck like this?” As he spoke, he looked at his green hooves moving below him. 
“Ah guess it must be rough for ya being a human and all. But Equestria’s a real nice place... has gotten a little rough in the past few years though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, after we saved Princess Luna, we thought things would be great. They were, they were just too great. Everypony was celebrating Luna’s return and for a lot of ponies that meant new foals. Foals just kept coming, why, we must have run out of apple cider faster each year. But then we started havin to let ponies sleep under our trees. At first, we let a few stay in the barn, help with the daily grind, but soon the barn became full. Sleepin under the trees was better than sleepin on the road. At least until winter came.” Applejack’s face darkened. 
“The trees don’t make fruit in the winter and it was so cold outside. We had to keep some of our trees growin, but we couldn’t let the ponies freeze either. Ah still remember Applebloom crying when we had to take down the first tree she successfully bucked. Three years after Luna came back, we didn’t have any more trees to burn. We couldn’t sacrifice any more, we still had ponies to feed and that was getting harder as well. A’m just thankful some unicorns got fires and matches as their cutie marks. If it hadn’t been for the magical fires, Ah don’t know what Ah would have done. But even magical fires can only last as long as the unicorn casting the spell is awake and keepin the fires going was taxing.”
As Applejack spoke, Alvarez thought back to the many cold winter nights he’d spent on the streets. A cheap fire made of newspapers and the warmth of his brothers and sisters had been the only thing that had gotten him through those nights. “I understand, the cold is truly a merciless thing.”
“But luckily, the Princess had a plan. She’d actually had it for a while, but seeing the situation Equestria was in must have pushed her. Ah think reviving the Elements helped her send more warnings here as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the Princess had apparently been trying to send stuff to this world since Luna had been banished. Equestria’s problem was a recent one, but yours was something that’d been going on for a long time. The Princess knew now was the time to act.” 
“So that’s why this is all happening now then?”
“Ah think, bu-” Applejack stopped. They had reached the edge of the forest, but now a greater challenge was in front of them. A few yards ahead of them, they could see a man who looked like he was running from something. But now he was forever frozen, running as fast as he could with one foot eternally off the ground. “Shoot, this might get a little rough.”
“I-it’s the dead zone,” Alvarez shook. 
“Yeah and there’s no way around it.” Applejack had her eyes closed as she spoke, she was looking for a way around the entropy. “Well, guess we’ll just have to power through it.” 
“Do...do we have to?” Alvarez nervously asked, but Applejack had already entered the entropy’s zone. “W-wait!”
“See,” Applejack’s voice sounded a little more strained now, “that wasn’t too bad. Let’s just get through this quick, ok?” She started to gallop through the frozen city’s streets. Alvarez followed. 
At first, Applejack kept a good lead on Alvarez, but he soon caught up to her. As soon as he passed her, he knew something was wrong. “Do you need to rest?”
“No!” She was sweating hard now and breathing heavily, “it’s probably just a few more minutes of galloping, then we’ll be-” Applejack fell down.
“Applejack! Applejack!” Alvarez cried out. “No! Not again, I...I won’t lose anyone again!” The gem around his neck flashed and then Applejack was suddenly on his back. He didn’t question how she’d teleported onto his back, he just knew it was time to run. He ran even faster than when he’d first become a pony. He felt the cement crack a little under the force of his hooves. All he cared about was getting away from this hellish place and saving the one creature who’d been able to help him. The city gave way to the jungle again and then the information surge hit Alvarez. He tripped on a root and he and Applejack tumbled forward. 
When he got up he saw that Applejack was in front of him. But her orange coat now looked faded and grey and she was barely breathing. “Applejack! Please, stay with me! I... I can’t lose another sister!” He’d only know her for a couple of hours, but somewhere deep down, Alvarez felt that he was connected to this pony, just as he was now connected to the earth. “Please!” Fresh tears ran down his face. 
But he then he felt something in the earth. It wasn’t the same as the information surge, it was more quiet and gentle than that. It was a small heartbeat, it was Applejack’s heartbeat, but it was growing more quiet. “No!” Alvarez screamed at the heavens. “Live!!” He poured all his energy into the heartbeat. Things grew fuzzy as his energy started to give out. The last thing he saw was a bright flash.
~~~
“Hey!” Applejack’s voice called out to Alvarez, “come on, it’s not worth ma life if ya die!”
“Ugh,” Alvarez could only open in eyes, the rest of his body was completely sapped of energy. But he was glad to see that Applejack was up again, her coat still looked a little faded though. “Are you ok Applejack?”
“Yeah, better than ok, ya actually helped get some help here.”
“Glad to see he got his Element working so fast,” came another voice. Alvarez couldn’t see who the voice’s owner was. “But we’ll need to watch it on teleporting, it takes a bit out of me. But it looks like both of you have seen worse.”
“Oh, good, there’s somebody else here,” Alvarez’s voice was strained, “heh, now it’s my turn to get carried.” Alvarez passed out again.