//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Winter's Bloom 
// by ViTheDeer 
//------------------------------//

The summer sun shone down on her in slanted beams through the tree tops. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she swiped it off with a motion of her hoof. She lined up the shot, her powerful back legs aimed directly at the tree trunk. She tensed her muscles, then let fly. A single, intense, incredibly skilled buck landed square on the tree trunk. She could feel the vibrations in the tree trunk, watched them in slow motion as they traveled up the trunk and into the branches, setting loose the ripest of apples to land in her waiting baskets.
She was about to toss the baskets onto her back, to carry them to the apple cart where Big Mac would be waiting for her, when suddenly the sky changed colors.
She felt a chilling wind surround her, icicles forming on every surface. She wrapped her legs around herself to keep warm. She called out for Big Mac, but the gale swallowed her words. She tried to press forward, to Big Mac, to safety, but the wind held her in place. It swirled around her in a white vortex, a tornado of ice and snow with her at the center. Beneath her, blackness as the earth opened up to swallow her whole.

Applejack awoke with a start. Absolute darkness surrounded her, and for a moment she thought she was still in the dream.
It wasn't long before she heard the distant sound of muffled voices, and the much closer sound of a pony snoring in a nearby alcove. 
Applejack stretched out a hoof and found the light switch, flicking it on. The single bulb dispelled the darkness, but did little to lift the gloomy atmosphere. Applejack tried not to think of the tons of earth and stone that must lie between her and fresh air and open skies.
She found her hat, setting it atop her head, and ran a hoof through her long tresses. They had already begun to snarl and tangle, and could use a good brushing, not to mention a wash. She thought back to the way Apple Bloom had cut her mane, short and boyish, and saw a certain amount of sense to that, given the circumstances.
Once she felt more or less presentable, her body presented her with... other urgent issues that wanted attending to.
Now, where did AB say th' "lavs" were?
She couldn't recall, the previous day had already faded into a gray, dull haze. She supposed she was still coming down off the adrenaline rush, and her brain hadn't quite caught the right gear yet.
She poked her head out the door and headed up the steep corridor. At the top, the tunnel ran perpendicular in both directions, the ends shrouded in darkness. Mentally flipping a coin, she turned right, and began trotting down the tunnel.
It wasn't long before she found the lavatories. They weren't much, little more than a hole in the ground, but they seemed to be fed by a trickle of water that kept them clean. There was even a washbasin filled with the same, ice-cold mountain water, and Applejack splashed some of it on her face and back. It felt good, bracing, but it also made her realize how thirsty she was. She considered drinking the water from the basin - it looked fresh and clean enough - but decided against it. After all, who knew how many hooves had been washed in that basin.
Her thirst was undeniable though, she she decided to set out in search of some sort of kitchen or grocery store or something.
The corridor beyond the lavatory was as devoid of ponies as it had been when she walked through it the first time. It occurred to Applejack that she had no idea what time of day - or night - it was. For all she knew, it was the middle of the night, or just past noon. 
She missed the sun overhead. She missed the green grass beneath her hooves, and the fresh, unprocessed air. 
She wasn't sure she could ever adjust to living in cramped tunnel like some kind of burrowing critter. 
T'ain't like I got much of a choice though. It's this, or try my luck with th' Icicles outside, I reckon.
She gave the air a sniff, and thought - or, perhaps, imagined - that she smelled something cooking coming from the tunnel on her left. She trotted in that direction, taking random turns as she did so until she was hopelessly lost.
After a few minutes of this aimless walking, she stumbled into a small cavern. It smelled of stale sweat, and seemed to be outfitted to be a gym of some kind. Barbells and weights lined one wall, while the other had a series of ropes and pulleys designed to exercise different muscle groups. Additionally, the room contained a pony, straining on her back as she lifted what looked to be her own weight above her head.
It took a moment, but Applejack recognized the pony as the one who had escorted her to the hideout - the "Captain" - partially due to the fact that she wasn't wearing her olive drab uniform. In fact, the only thing she was wearing now was a faded yellow headband to keep the sweat out of her sea-green eyes.
Applejack sized her up for a moment. The pony was all muscle, but not grotesquely so. Her toned, pale pink body was glistening with sweat. Her cutie mark, a wagon wheel, seemed to shimmer under the moisture.
Applejack cleared her throat. "Beggin' your pardon, but I was wonderin' if y'all could tell me where I might be able to rustle up some grub?"
The unicorn's concentration faltered momentarily, as she cast an eye and flicked an ear in Applejack's direction. She continued to pumping the weights though, her impressive biceps shimmering with sweat from the strain.
Applejack waited patiently. Had she been back home, she might have been growing impatient by now. But, given the circumstances, she felt it might be best to keep a low profile, let her frustrations stay beneath the surface. 
If she let them show now, that might only open the floodgates, and there was a lot of emotion waiting to well up. No, better to keep it under control. Wait, watch the Captain as she completed her set.
Waitin'. Seems t' be all I ever do these days. That'n run for my life
The unicorn finished her set and fixed Applejack with a level gaze.
"Can I help 'ya?" The unicorn levitated a towel to her forehead as she spoke.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to bother y'all. I was jus' wonderin' if I might y'all might have somewhere I could get some grub, and maybe some water?"
The unicorn stared at her for half a second, then reached out with her hoof and tossed Applejack a small canteen. Applejack caught it in her teeth, trying to smile gratefully as she did so. She was afraid it might have come across as more of a deranged smirk, but the unicorn didn't seem to notice.
Taking a sip from the tepid water inside, Applejack felt instantly relieved. "So... I never did catch your name, sugarcube?"
The unicorn shook out her mane, beads of sweat flying through the air. "You're Applejack, right?" The unicorn levitated the canteen back to her own lips, not bothering to wipe the rim first. "Boss' old mare?"
Applejack wasn't quite sure how to respond to this pointed non-answer of her question, so she simply nodded.
The unicorn gave a smirk. "I must say, your family ages gracefully."
Again, Applejack was at a loss for a response, but there was a twinkle in the unicorn's eye that made her feel more at ease.
"Thank'ee kindly, miss..." Again, she tried to fish for a name. 
This time, the unicorn held out a hoof. "Name's Spokes. Pleasure to meet you." 
Applejack shook the offered hoof, the other's mare's flesh clammy from the workout.
"A pleasure t' meet you, Spokes. Now, if I ain't a bother, could y'all point me in the direction of the mess? I'd be much obliged."
"Sure." Spokes began storing the weights, her back turned to Applejack. "Was headed there myself. Give me a few, and I'll show you the way."
Applejack was about to offer to lend a hoof, but Spokes had the equipment stowed before she even had a chance to speak up. Without a word, Spokes trotted past her and down the tunnel Applejack had just entered from.
Applejack wasn't sure if it was hunger, lack of sleep, or just plain disorientation, but she realized how light-headed she felt as she followed the mare. Her tail, a cherry-red hue, bobbed in front of her hypnotically as she followed. Spokes kept it short, boyish, though not nearly as short as Apple Bloom kept it.
Something that Spokes had said earlier set her ear twitching. "Hold up a sec, did y'all just ask if I was AB's mom?"
Spokes cast a glance over her shoulder, but kept up the pace. "Yeah, ain't ya?"
Applejack shook her head vehemently. "Older sister. I may be in the wrong time, but I ain't that old!"
Spokes looked straight ahead and continued on. "Sorry, my mistake ma'am." It was hard to tell with her coat the color it was, but Applejack thought she could detect a hint of color in her cheeks. "Got my wires crossed."
"No harm done. I thought y'all meant older sister earlier." Applejack said, as way of clarification. Spokes seemed not to hear her as she turned a corner and down a set of stairs.
Sensing the conversation falter, Applejack instead tried to commit to memory the route they were taking. She was truly impressed at the expanse of the base. There were doors and passages meeting the tunnel just about every few paces, and the two of them passed ponies going the opposite direction on multiple occasions. None of them really paid them any mind, though, too focused on their own activities to notice that one of the ponies hadn't been with them for even a full day.
The air was think with the scent of the ponies living in the cramped, airless conditions. Applejack tried to picture what it must have been like, living underground and out of the sun for almost a decade. Her mind balked at the very notion. She couldn't imagine being apart from the green grass, blue sky, and brown apple tree trunks. 
The musk of two thousand ponies slowly gave way to cooking smells as Spokes led her up one final set of stairs.
As Applejack reached the top of the stairs, what she had at first taken to be a slightly larger room bit by bit revealed itself to be a truly massive cavern. The ceiling receded away into the darkness, lit by an array of fluorescent bulbs around its nearly circular perimiter. The only way Applejack could even make out the top of the dome-shaped void was through the flickering light of a large cooking fire set in the center of the room. Ponies were huddled around it, engaged in conversation and watching the flames dance under the metal grille, on top of which were an array of pots and pans slowly simmering away. The smoke rose nearly straight up before disappearing through a hole in the pinnacle of the dome. A pair of pegasus ponies darted around near where the chimney started, hanging vegetables and long strands of grass to be smoked in long rows hanging from the ceiling.
Just below that, a trio of wooden shelves were mounted into the walls all around the perimeter, and Applejack could just make out a number of pegasi, and even a flightless pony or two, sitting there with their legs dangling and chattering among each other.
The floor was laid out with benches and tables, all horribly mismatched as though they had been scavenged from homes all over Equestria. Most of the seats were empty, though what seemed to be a lively game of cards was happening at one circular table, tucked into an alcove along the wall.
All in all, with the shelves and ladders leading to them, the cavern looked like it could easily hold the full two thousand some ponies that made up the settlement, and still have room for a small dragon or two.
It wasn't until Spokes made a clicking noise from halfway to the center of the cavern that Applejack realized she had been standing at the top of the stairs, gaping. She quickly took Spoke's jerk of the head as a hint, and cantered hurriedly to catch up with her.
An earth pony in a tattered apron appeared from a set of stairs hidden in the floor that circled the cooking fire. She was carrying a tray piled high with wooden bowls that glinted dimly with the moisture of having been recently washed. The mare spoke a muffled greeting to Spokes as she set the tray on a once-ornate sideboard next to and assortment of spoons and cups, before returning down the stairs to what Applejack assumed must have been the kitchens.
Spokes didn't hesitate in picking up a pair of bowls in her dull red magic, glancing at Applejack for approval. Applejack gave a slight nod, and watched as Spokes ladled a thin broth soup from one of the pots into each of them.
Applejack followed Spokes to a table near the fire, and sat down opposite her. Spokes wasted little time in carefully lifting a spoon to her mouth, blowing across it to help cool the boiling liquid.
Applejack would have lifted the entire bowl to her mouth, but given steam rising from it to mix with the smoke that hung in the air, she felt it would be best to let it cool for a while first.
"So..." A laugh rose from one end of the cavern, interrupting Applejack's attempt to make conversation, but it quickly bubbled away. "Where y'all from, Spokes?"
Spokes slurped the soup loudly from her spoon before replying. "You're new here." She stated it as a fact, though it almost sounded like an accusation. "So you don't know yet, but I'll tell you now. We... don't really talk about before." Spokes slurped another spoonful, and Applejack suddenly found the contents of her own bowl extremely fascinating.
"But," Spokes continued, her tone softening some. "If you must know, I came from Detrot, by the way of Appleloosa." There was something in the way she spoke the name of the town that made it sound less like a place, and more like an event. Applejack realized with a mild shock that she had almost forgotten they were in the middle of a war.
I sure hope Braeburn didn't get himself tangled in nuthin' serious.
She knew it was a vain hope.
Spokes had taken the opportunity to feed herself another three spoonfuls, and Applejack felt it was worth risking a sip herself.
"I was twelve when the Icicles attacked." Spokes stared at the wall behind Applejack as she spoke, her eyes glazing over. "They didn't hit the North until nearly a month after the invasion started. I remember hearing the news reports, seeing the ponies mustering in the middle of town, getting ready to march and fly against the Frosties." Spokes took another sip, slowly savoring the taste. Applejack tried to sip quietly. The soup was thin, but warmed her belly quite nicely.
"Canterlot had already fallen by then, but we still hoped - prayed - that they would turn back, be satisfied with what they had already conquered. But there was no stopping them. They were going to take back the land that once belonged to them, one way or another."
Spokes shook her head, then looked into Applejack's eyes over the rim of the soup bowl she had held in her hooves. "I enlisted at the age of fifteen. Far too young. I wasn't home when Detrot was evacuated. I don't even know what happened to my family. I only hope they made it to the Griffon Empire." 
Spokes lifted her hoof to her eye, the held it out in front of her, staring at it as though in amazement. "Huh." She set her hoof back down. "Guess you do run out of tears eventually." She went to spoon another portion of soup, only to find her bowl empty.
"Anyway, like I said, I was in Appleloosa, and when that went to Tartarus, Bloom found me." A hint of a smile crossed her face, and she even let out a faint chuckle. "General Bloom, thought she wasn't a general then, and you didn't here me call her nuthin' else, we clear?" She even winked at Applejack, who was currently pouring the last drops of soup down her throat. "You're welcome to help yourself to seconds, by the way."
"You sure?" Applejack felt extremely hungry, but she didn't think food could be too plentiful, and didn't want to take more than her fair share.
Spokes just waved a hoof in midair. "Normally, it might be frowned on, but we take care of our own. You've been through a lot, it's the least we can do to help. Besides," Spokes leaned slightly over the table, lowering her voice. "The faster you're back to full strength, the faster we can put ya to work!" As she grinned, her horn began to glow, and Applejack's bowl began to lift itself off the table and hover in the general direction of the fire.
Not wanting to be rude, Applejack let her host fill up a second bowl of the soup, even though at the same time she felt like a freeloader for not fetching her own food.
"'Put me to work' how, do ya reckon? I ain't much of a fighter."
"Well, we don't all fight, at least not all the time. Sure, we're all prepared to defend ourselves should the Icicles get too near, but a good number of us here are just like you. Farmers, tailors, cooks, cobblers... I used to make carts, myself, and I still do when the need arises." Spokes set the bowl back down in front of her guest, who blew over it in an effort to quicken its cooling. "But I think you may be of more use out there than you think. Bloom, well... Let's just say, I've heard a few stories. Discord, the Changelings, Nightmare Moon... is it true you took on a red dragon single-hoofed?"
Applejack tilted her head down, ostensibly to blow over the soup bowl, but having the nice side effect of the brim of her hat hiding her cheeks. "T'wasn't single-hoofed. Each of those times you mentioned, I had my girls with me."
Applejack had to take a deep breath at the thought of her best friends from before all this happened. 
Can't let myself think about what must've happened to them. RD and Twi, they got bite in'em, but Rarity? 'Shy? Best not to dwell...
She barely noticed Spokes' wide-eyed, slack-jawed stare. "What?"
"I... I was just teasing. I mean, sure, Bloom told us some tall tales, but... are you saying that all really happened?!"
Applejack tilted her head slightly, then began ticking off with her hoof in midair. "Changelings, check. Discord, double check - though 'Shy has to take most of the credit there. Nightmare Moon? That was the first night Twi came into our lives." She found herself smiling at the memory. "We five had such quiet lives before she came to town, but I wouldn't trade it, not for all the apples in Equestria!"
Applejack blinked, realizing with a start that, for a moment, she was miles away, and ages ago. Twilight, Fluttershy... they were all gone now. Equestria was a very different place now, and it didn't belong to the ponies anymore.
Spokes didn't seem to notice. She seemed to be hanging on Applejack's every word. "Wow... I can't imagine having been friends with the Princess... and a bearer of the Elements, before you had to give them up. And now, here you are, drinking soup with a nopony wainwright's apprentice from Detrot..."
"Yeah..." Applejack forced a chuckle. "The world sure is funny sometimes."
She tried to ignore the lump in her throat as she spoke the words, chasing it down with a sip of soup.
"Kinda makes ya wonder what happened to the other five Elements. Y'know, after they disappeared."
Applejack's hoof froze in mid-air, lips pursed to take another sip from the bowl. Slowly, evenly, she set it back on the table.
"What did y'all just say, sugarcube?"
"Hmm?" Spokes was using her magic to toy with her tail and mane. "You mean about the other five elements? Well, everypony knows they disappeared when the Icicles attacked. Just like you did."
Applejack's eyes narrowed. "They weren't captured or killed or got outta Equestria? You absolutely sure?"
"Well, nopony knows for sure." Spokes caught on to the intensity in Applejack's voice. She began to chew on her lower lip, thoughtfully. "Bloom would know the best, but yeah, after the invasion, we hadn't seen hide nor hair of any of the bearers. Until you showed up, that is." Spokes' gaze locked with Applejack's. "Out of nowhere... With no memory of the past ten years..."
Applejack nodded slowly as she watched Spokes reach the same notion she had.
"So what y'all are sayin'" Applejack completed the thought for the both of them. "Is that if I got flung forward in time, and the other five disappeared the same time I did..."
"...then it stands to reason that the same thing might have happened to them!"
Spokes stood up suddenly, nearly flipping their table, and sending the soup sloshing in the bowl. "We have to inform the General immediately!" All hint of 'Bloom' had left her voice, and she was back in full-on solider mode. Applejack stood up in turn, and found herself jogging to catch up with Spokes, who was making a beeline for a door in the back of the cavern.
Well, don't that beat all. Applejack couldn't help but smile as she chased after the Captain. Maybe everythin' will work out after all.
She tried to ignore the voice that reminded her, things almost never do.