//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Winter's Bloom 
// by ViTheDeer 
//------------------------------//

The room Spokes brought Apple jack too was well-protected. A pair of guard ponies armed with sharp-looking spears stood by a heavy iron door, only to step aside with a salute once the recognized the Captain. 
Inside the door was a large room, dominated by an oval wooden table in the center. Every last inch of wall space seemed to be taken up by maps, charts, graphs and images.
For all its size, the room was barely occupied. Apple Bloom was standing in one corner, having a conversation in mildly hushed tones with a pair of ponies, also in dark uniforms.
The Captain stood near the door, barely moving a muscle, waiting for the conference to come to an end. Applejack tried to take her example, but found her hooves began to itch with impatience. She may have cleared her throat once, unconsciously. Twice, at the very most.
Eventually, Apple Bloom looked their way, and brought the discussion to a close. The ponies broke away, and trotted past them to the door.
Apple Bloom barely acknowledged their existence, instead moving to where a large map covered part of the table. 
"Ma'am, your mo- Applejack here has something she'd like to report."
Apple Bloom spared them the briefest of glances. "Not now, Captain. You are dismissed."
"Ma'am." Spokes saluted the General smartly, then turned on her heels to walk back out.
"Now wait jus' a cotton pickin' moment!" Applejack felt heat rise to her cheeks. "I got somethin' important to say, y'all jus' can't ignore me like that! I'm your sister, for Celestia's sake!"
Apple Bloom turned to give Applejack her full attention. Applejack felt herself digging her hooves in, not backing down an inch as her sister fixed her with a level, stern glare.
"What is it, sister?" The stress on the title made it sound like part insult, partly dismissive.
"Well," Applejack swallowed. "You see, I was thinkin'... you know how I jus' appeared here after I disappeared all those years ago? And, y'all know how Twi, RD, an' the rest disappeared th' same time I did?" She had to force her feet to stay on the ground, not to scratch the itch that was crawling up her leg. "Well... what if th' same thing happened to them what happened to me? Y'know... the 'time travel'... thingamajig?"
Apple Bloom stared at her, her eyes half-lidded. "Really?" Her tone was almost as though she was speaking to a five-year old. "You came up with that notion all by your lonesome, did ya?"
Applejack glanced at Spokes, still standing at attention beside her. "Well... Spokes here helped."
Spokes didn't move a muscle, yet somehow managed to seem like she was retreating just the same.
Apple Bloom's eyes made the tiniest of rolling motions. "And it took you all of, what, twelve hours?" Applejack really did feel heat in her cheeks, but not from anger this time.
Apple Bloom turned to the table and pointed at a few markers on the map. "I've already sent out three pegasus platoons to scour the skies for new arrivals, as well as sent out earth pony couriers to our various outposts to inform them to be on the lookout. What's more, Belle is already hard at work tryin' to narrow down the search field, with what little we know of the magic involved." She turned around to look Applejack square in the eye. Applejack was struck by how strange it was to be at eye level with the pony who, only a few days ago, barely came up to her knee. "But, thank you for rushin' up here with your thoughts. They were very helpful."
Applejack held very still, though she could feel her body trembling. Her eyes felt hot and moist. She could hear the blood pumping in her ears.
Apple Bloom turned to Spokes. "I believe I dismissed you, Captain." It was spoken as a statement of fact, and Spokes saluted wordlessly, and  head towards the door. Applejack turned to follow her.
"Applejack, can I have a word with you?" Applejack turned to look at Apple Bloom, whose position and expression hadn't changed. 
Apple Bloom waited for the metal door to close behind Spokes before taking a few steps toward Applejack.
"I know you're new here, and you're the closest thin' I have to fam'ly."
Closest thing!? 
Applejack clamped her mouth shut to keep from screaming in Apple Bloom's face.
Apple Bloom continued without a pause. "But I will not have you diprespectin' me in front of my subordinates."
Apple Bloom's face was mere inches from Applejack's muzzle now. "You have somethin' you want to say to me, y'all can go through the channels everypony else does, but I ain't got time for y'all to be comin'
up here, talkin' to me like I'm eight years old still. Do y'understand me?"
Applejack nodded, feebly. "Good. Then y'all are dismissed." Apple Bloom turned on her heels and stalked away. Applejack swallowed, and slowly made her way back to the door.
Well. That went well.

Spokes was waiting for her just outside the heavy metal door. She didn't say a word, giving Applejack a chance to come down as they trotted together silently through the maze of tunnels.
Only after Applejack felt she could trust herself to open her mouth again without spewing words that she really didn't want to be caught saying in mixed company, did she realize that she hadn't the foggiest idea where the two of them were going.
"Um," she began, looking over at the pink mare.
Spokes continued to look forward, but a crooked smile formed on the half of the face Applejack could see. "Feel better?"
Applejack nodded dully. Spokes trotted on, turning a sharp corner. "Bloom has that effect on ponies. It's part of what makes her such a great leader. If I had to guess," Spokes winked. "She probably got that from her sister."
Applejack hung her head, the barest of blushes forming on her cheeks.
"She really ain't the filly I remember, is she?"
Applejack hadn't even noticed they stopped, on an intersection of four hallways that smelled faintly of axle grease and ozone. When she felt a hoof on her shoulder, she returned to the present once more.
"It's been, what, ten years?" Spoke's tone was gentle. soothing. "And they haven't exactly been the easiest on any of us."
"Yeah." Applejack looked up, into Spokes' green eyes. "I suppose they ain't."
"Once you get to know her, you'll see she's not so bad. You just got to... give her a chance to get used to the situation, that's all."
Applejack nodded again, chewing her lower lip.
Spokes retracted her hoof and gave Applejack a gentle punch on the shoulder.
"C'mon, I think I know something that will make you feel better." With a swish of her cropped tail, Spokes turned around and headed down one of the corridors. Applejack followed as the smell and sounds of machinery grew more prominent.
The corridor ended not in a door, but rather onto a ledge overlooking another large cavern, though not nearly as huge as the mess hall. And, unlike the mess hall, this chamber was brightly lit by fluorescents and spotlights, a mismatched array that was bolted to the walls and ceilings. 
The ledge led to a catwalk, which in turn led to a set of stairs that led into the pit below. From their vantage point, Applejack could see at least a dozen ponies, mostly unicorns, milling about with a sense of quiet urgency.
The conversations and discussions of the ponies below were masked by the whine and whir of the machinery that took up the majority of the floor below. Applejack couldn't wrap her head around what all the machines were for, but the ponies working them looked to very proficient at using them.
As the two of them descended the stairs, Applejack could see that many of them were wearing white lab coats, if slightly grimy and grey from use. None of them seemed to pay the two visitors any mind as they went around their various businesses.
Applejack was grateful at least that Spokes seemed to know where she was going. They weaved around machines and piles of parts, long workbenches littered with parts and tools, and ponies running from one workstation to the next with little regard for anything going on around them.
As they rounded one particularly complex machine that rose twice as high as Applejack herself, she saw a small area that seemed to be separated from the rest of the workshop. Benches were arranged in a semi circle around a set of three large blackboards. Each one of the blackboards was scribbled full of indecipherable symbols and complex equations, with space only left for large, complex diagrams.
Standing in front of one of the boards with her back turned to the mares was a white unicorn. Her lab coat was, almost paradoxically, spotlessly white, and covered her cutie mark and the base of her tail. Her mane and tail were both bi-colored pink and purple, and both long and disheveled.
The mare seemed to be muttering something to herself, tapping a stick of chalk to her mouth absently.
Spokes stood and cleared her throat, but the mare didn't seem to notice.
"But if the coefficient is negative, that would mean..." she levitated the stick of chalk to an equation high on the board, then erased a notation with her hoof closer to the bottom. "But then that would mean that this would have to be a function of the sine, not the cosine..."
Spokes cleared her throat even more loudly, to the point where it was almost a cough. The mare tossed her hair over her shoulder, and spared them the briefest of glances, then went right back to her board. The chalk was staining her lips white to match her coat, but the mare didn't seem to notice or, if she did, to care.
Spokes rolled her eyes, and moved over to give the mare a tap on the flank.
The mare let out a "squeak," and turned around to see who had interrupted her concentration. 
As she saw her face, Applejack's jaw dropped. For the briefest of moments, she saw her friend Rarity standing in front of her, plain as day. It was only when she blinked, and registered the color of her mane, did she remember where she was.
"Sweetie Belle?" Applejack could barely believe her eyes.
The mare across from her cringed slightly at the sound of her name. She seemed to ignore Applejack as she turned to Spokes.
"I told you, I'm working as fast as we can, but we really don't have anything to go off of." Sweetie Belle's eyes darted toward Applejack for a fraction of a second before returning to Spokes. "One data point might as well be none. Tell the General that, unless another pony materializes out of thin air anytime soon, any results I give her will be little better than guesswork." 
Sweetie Belle's eyes seemed to glaze over, as she stared past Spokes into the middle distance. "Unless we can figure out what spell was used... hmm, maybe if I could take some readings where the pony appeared..."
Applejack was about to interject, when Spokes spoke up. "You know Bloom won't let you out there. You're far to valuable to us for field work. You know that."
Sweetie Belle's ear flicked, the only acknowledgement that she made that she had heard the mare.
Applejack cleared her throat, though it had about as much effect as it had when Spokes did so. "Sweetie Belle, don't y'all remember me? It's me, Applejack!"
Sweetie Belle turned and fixed her gaze on Applejack. Her eyes seemed to scan her, as though working out a complex puzzle in her mind with most of the pieces missing. The unicorn took a half step forward.
"Applejack. Of the Apple family. Bearer of the Element of Honesty, last seen 4 April, 1005 A.B." She took another half step forward, her voice nearly lifeless, as though reading from a file. "Sister to General Bloom, companion of Princess Sparkle. Yes. I know who you are. Now, if you excuse me, I've already performed my readings on you while you were alseep. You have nothing more you can help me with, and I have a lot of work to do..."
With that, she pressed past the two ponies and rounded one of the tall machines, out of sight.
"Well..." Applejack wasn't sure what had happened, or how she felt about having been "measured" whil she was asleep. She scratched a forehoof, wordlessly.
Spokes turned to face her. "Well... that kinda backfired."
"She... did she even remember me?"
"The thing you have to remember about Belle," Spokes looked in the direction she had disappeared in, and lowered her voice. "From what Bloom says, she was never really the same after her sister disappeared."
Applejack nodded, her hoof still scratching her foreleg. Spokes continued, "Bloom says she threw her whole energy into finding out where she went. And, when that failed, she became obsessed with science, hoping to find a way to end this war."
Applejack gulped back the tears that once again threatened to overwhelm her face. "I see... Poor thin'."
"Yeah." Spokes sighed. "Sorry, thought it might do you good to see a familiar face."
Applejack placed a hoof on Spokes', only to have her flinch back in response. "Sorry... I really do appreciate it though. It was... nice to see Sweetie Belle again. Jus' wish it coulda been under better circumstances."
Applejack let out a loud laugh, in spite of herself. She was fairly certain she had just heard the biggest understatement ever uttered by ponykind.

Applejack wasn't sure what to do with herself after the ill-fated meeting with the pony from her past. Spokes had to excuse herself, as her duties as squadron leader called to her. 
Applejack was sorry to lose the company of a familiar face, but she supposed there was no reason she should cause any more disruption to daily life in the fortress than she already had.
Before she left, Spokes offered to show her the way back to her tiny living quarters. Applejack gave it some thought, and politely declined, though she would be much obliged if she could show her back to the mess.
Spokes was all too happy to comply, though the path was actually much shorter than Applejack had anticipated.
She felt like she was getting a little better at keeping her bearings in the dark and twisting passages. She at least felt she had a handle on how high - how deep? - they were, if she sometimes got a bit confused about which way was north. A few intersections and doorways even seemed familiar by now, though she couldn't say how they all fit together.
Conversation with Spokes was light as she led her back to the massive cavern. Applejack asked her about her squadron, and Spokes replied that it really just consisted of the three ponies that had found her. They were usually assigned patrol duty, spending five or six days out in the wastelands, tracking enemy movement and the like. They were also officially to look out for survivors, though it wasn't a duty any of the ponies expected to have to exercise this far into the war.
Patrol squads were always arranged in threes, one pony of each type. Pegasi served as advance scouts, and could warn of Windigoes in the area. Earth ponies usually carried the bulk of the supplies, and unicorns provided the magical charge needed for their weapons.
The weapons, which Spokes called simply "heat rays," were apparently one of Sweetie Belle's inventions, and the one that finally turned the tide of war in the ponies' favor.
Applejack didn't have time for much more exploration of recent history, since she was deposited rather unceremoniously at the entrance to the mess hall, which was even emptier than it had been the first time Applejack was in it.
One thing she hadn't quite gotten a handle on was telling what time of day it was. Without the sun overhead, she was fairly lost in that regards, especially since she had hardly seen a clock since she had arrived.
The cooking fire was low now, burned down to little more than coal and ashes. The looks of the ponies scurrying about, collecting dishes from the various tables littering the hall, gave Applejack the impression she had just missed meal time. Her stomach was still full from the soup, so she didn't bemoan that fact one bit.
She did notice, however, that her sense of smell seemed to have dulled since she first arrived. In the hours she spent here, she somehow managed to become accustomed to the smell of sweat and musk and food and, in a word, ponies, that permeated the underground fortress. There was one smell that managed to permeate the combined odor of over two thousand ponies - that of freshly brewed, very dark, coffee.
Applejack never had been much of a coffee drinker in her time. She preferred a nice, hot cider on those days when the chill cut through her coat and down to the bone. But the smell had a quality of familiarity to it, and she found herself drawn towards it as if by a subtle magic.
She found the pot, just to the other side of the cooking fire, being maintained by an elderly-looking stallion with kind eyes. It was only after she had let herself be hoofed a cup of the black, oily brew, that she realized that the pony serving it was probably no older than herself. Or rather, that he was most likely born around the same time. She squinted at him briefly to see if she could recognize him, but if he had been from Ponyville, the toll the war took on him left him unrecognizable to Applejack's eyes.
"Thank'ee kindly" she said, doffing her hat, and carefully carried the mug in her teeth to set it down on a nearby table. The mug had an image of a smiling yellow sunflower, with the words "Sunshine Cafe, The Finest Coffee in Manehattan" written in faded black lettering circling it. Not for the first time that day, Applejack had to laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation she found herself in.
She sipped the coffee, carefully. It was thin, so weak as to more resemble hot water with a hint of coffee flavor, but it was hot and welcome just the same.
As she sat there, gingerly sipping the near-coffee, she allowed - for perhaps the first time since she had arrived - her mind to wander.
She thought of Sweetie Belle, of her sister. Of what she had learned about Big Mac and Granny and everypony she ever knew or held dear.
She thought of this terrible war she woke up in the middle of. About the Hearthswarming stories about Windigoes and the power of cooperation that banished them from the land.
Was it really magic that drove them away? Or did we fight them for this land once, long ago, before any pony's memory? Even before Luna and Celestia arrived. Maybe we're still fighting that same war, just from opposite sides?
She thought about her friends, Fluttershy and Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie. Were they really out there, somewhere in the wastes? Or had the Windigoes found them already, and... She refused to let her mind wander down that path. Twilight and RD could take care of themselves, she was sure, but Fluttershy? And Rarity, though she loved her, these weren't Diamond Dogs they were dealing with. And Pinkie... well, Celestia only knew what Pinkie Pie would do. 
Probably throw the Windies a "Welcome to your new occupied nation" party.
Applejack smirked at the thought. She hoped they were all right. Her hooves itched the more she thought about it, from being trapped underground while her friends were in a dark and dangerous future. The coffee turned bitter in her mouth as she downed the last drop.
She slammed the cup on the table as she finished the drink, adding to the multitude of chips and fractures in the cheap plaster. 
I'll be dag-gummed if I'm gonna sit here doin' nothin'.
With a determined look on her face, she stormed out of the mess hall. 
Moments later, she found herself completely, and hopelessly, lost.