//------------------------------// // Saving Private Apple(jack) // Story: Overactive // by Mariorulez14 //------------------------------// Author's Note: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all associated characters, locations, etc. are property of Lauren Faust and Hasbro. I do not own these characters, nor do I claim to own them. Now then, continue on with your entertainment endeavors. Overactive A story by Mariorulez14 Chapter 5 Personally, I thought I'd already done my fair share of running around for the day. These ponies, however, didn't seem to care. It's not like I'm out of shape or anything, I'm actually pretty thin and can hold my own when it comes to lifting. It's just that I have a huge problem with stamina and I'm usually out of breath after the first couple minutes of straight sprinting. I didn't really have a choice on whether I wanted to quit or not though, since I was trying to keep not just a sugar-fueled pink mare in my sight, but a yellow pegasus and a lavender unicorn as well. Heck, even Twilight and Fluttershy looked like they were having a hard time keeping up with Pinkie. Twilight looked back at me and I saw her horn swallowed by a purplish glow as I felt myself being lifted up off the ground and pulled up to pace with her and Fluttershy. The unicorn mare faltered a bit after I hit the ground running and the magic stopped, but the pegasus grabbed her hoof and helped her along. A few yards ahead of us, Pinkie was pulling a repeat of our trip to the petting zoo, weaving in and out of pedestrians, down alleyways and across streets without paying any heed to her surroundings...or us for that matter. We came to a stop at the school, closed and locked up due to the weekend. Twilight immediately fell to the ground panting and I did the same, both of us trying to catch our breath as quickly as possible before Pinkie Pie dashed off again. Fluttershy was trying to calm down the party pony, whose eyes darted around worriedly in hopes of catching a glimpse of their missing friend. “Pinkie, we can't rush anymore...Twilight's exhausted from her magic and running around following you and so is Joel. Somepony might get hurt if we try and go farther right now.” “But Fluttershy,” Pinkie snapped in a tone that I hadn't heard her in since I met her, “Applejack's out there hurt somewhere and we're sitting here on our flanks! She could be in a lot of trouble!” Pinkie's entire body started twitching as she said this, signaling that there was a “Doozy” in store in terms of her Pinkie Sense...as well as getting a wary look from Twilight, who was probably still paranoid about her first run-in with Pinkie's strange ability. After a few minutes, Twilight and I got up and started southward toward Agnes Chaser's Fruit Orchards, located a few minutes' walk away from the school. Agnes Chaser's was an orchard that had been around since my great-grandpa moved to Edgarton, my home town, over 100 years ago. It was a huge expanse of apple, pecan, almond, orange, cherry and pear trees that the cross-country runners and football players often used for shade (and a quick snack) during their practice sessions during the late summer. The owners of the orchard, who were descendents of the orchard's namesake, offered not only free roaming of the land but field days to the elementary school and picking what you wanted for a fee on the weekends. Not only did it remind me of Sweet Apple Acres, but it was the absolute perfect place to find a pony whose special talent was bucking fruit off of trees, especially since an entire three-fifths of the orchard was dedicated to apples. The ponies and I entered the orchard as Pinkie Pie began shaking again, signaling that The Doozy hadn't subsided. All the while, I was trying to sort through all the possible scenarios in my head. Did Applejack vanish into thin air? Did she get attacked by some kind of animal? Was she sick? There was a lot running through my head when Fluttershy let out a gasp and ran a couple yards ahead of us. I could see that there was a tipped bucket of apples next to a fallen apple tree. Lying next to the bucket with an agonized look on her face was an orange pony wearing a western-style hat who had a back leg smashed under the wide trunk of the tree. “Fluttershy, yer alright...that's good to know...” the pony said in a Southern drawl. She tried propped herself up a couple inches, but fell back onto her belly after letting out a pained yelp. “Oh no, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie dashed forward and immediately set out trying to force the log off of Applejack with a headbutt, but Twilight caught hold of her with her magic and moved her back a few feet. “I wouldn't try that Pinkie, you might end up hurting Applejack more than she already is.” I walked up to the tree and crouched down to take a look at the break between the stump and the trunk. “What happened? It looks like someone crashed a truck into it!” Applejack looked a little embarrassed at the mention of the tree as she forced out a chuckle. “I guess ah was buckin' a little too hard...lemme tell ya, apple trees in this world're sure a lot weaker 'n the ones back at Sweet Apple Acres.” “Well first things first,” I said, standing back up, “we have to find a way to lever the tree up and get you out.” “Joel, don't you think you're rushing this a bit?” Twilight said. “For goodness' sake, you haven't even introduced yourself!” I think I might have blushed a bit, seeing as I was so caught up in getting Applejack free and cared for took priority over telling her who I was. “Erm, yeah...my name's Joel. I'm kind of a fan of your...” I stopped to choose my last word carefully; Pinkie Pie might be aware that they're from a cartoon, but the other ponies might not. “...dimension. Too hurt to shake hands, um, hooves?” “Nah, I can manage.” Applejack stuck her hoof up and I grabbed it. All of a sudden, it felt like I set my hand on a washing machine strapped to a mechanical bull as the orange pony started to shake my hand with more force that I anticipated. As much as I wanted to scream Oh God, please stop before you tear off my arm!, I smiled and braced for possible limb loss. “Name's Applejack. Pleasure 'ta meet'cha.” The pony relinquished rights to my arm, which I let limply dangle at my side until the feeling came back. I looked over at Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who looked like they were both deep in thought about how to solve the dilemma at hand. I heard footsteps behind us as I turned back to Twilight, who I thought was pacing, but she looked as surprised as I did at the sound. I did a one-eighty and came eye-to-eye to Shelby, who was carrying with her a car jack and some ropes. We both looked at each other in surprise. “Um...hi.” I said after a few seconds. Yep, that's me. Smooth-talking extraordinaire. ---------- Shelby wedged the car jack under the tree trunk about a foot from Applejack's trapped leg as Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie and I tied ropes around nearby trees (I'm not exactly sure how Pinkie and Fluttershy tied their knots, but hey, they got the job done). After all the ropes were secured, Shelby let us in on the plan. “Pinkie Pie, you're going to pump the jack to raise the log.” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie Pie saluted and took her position. “Applejack, when you think you can get out, give us a yell.” “Can do,” said Applejack. “Everyone else, we're going to untie the ropes. When we're all ready, we're going to pull the ropes to reduce the slack and re-tie them once Applejack has enough room to get her legs free.” At this point, I could tell that she was dead-serious about what we were about to do. She had that “I'm-giving-the-orders-here-and-no-one-tests-them” look in her eyes that made you want to do what she was telling you out of the fear she'd hurt you later. The rest of the ponies, Shelby and I got into position, untied the ropes and waited for her to give the signal. “...Now!” Pinkie immediately set to work on the jack, bouncing casually up and down on the lever. The tree started to lift off the ground, inch by inch, as Twilight, Fluttershy and I pulled our ropes in pace with the steadily-rising tree. The pink mare picked up bouncing speed and the tree let out a few creaks and cracks as it started rising faster. “Pinkie, slow down! You might break the tree going that fast!” Shelby yelled. Pinkie stopped and looked over her shoulder, blushing. “Sorry!” She went back to her original bouncing speed, but by that point she didn't really need to. The jack was only halfway extended, but the log was levered up far enough as evidenced by Applejack's yell of “I think ah can git out!” We tied up our ropes as Pinkie hopped off the jack lever and started to help Applejack out from where the tree trunk used to be and gave offered her shoulder for support, which was accepted. The orange mare's leg was swelled and discolored a slight purple, indicating that it was broken. If not worse... “Thank ya' kindly, everypony...” Applejack let out a sigh of relief. “Not a problem, AJ! Friends have to look out for each other! Now let's get you back to Joey's house so that you can see Rarity! We still don't know where Dashie is, but I'm sure we'll find her soon!” Pinkie smiled at her friend, who chuckled. “...Glad to see you too, Pinkie.” We all laughed as we began to head back to my place, but then I remembered something. Pinkie and I ditched Rarity. She's going to be royally pissed. ----------- “Of all the things that you could have done, you left me here with that thing you call a father!” Rarity was a whole shade of red away from her usual alabaster composure and I swear she had steam coming out of her nostrils. Rarity apparently had a rough couple of hours. Being a Saturday in fall, I completely spaced out that when no one was home my dad invited some of his friends from work over to watch college football before they went out to “play some golf”, as my dad says (my mom and I both knew that he was working overtime to get some extra money, but we played along). “It was dreadful! Your father and a lot of other humans were drinking soda and eating chips, making a mess of the place, staring that the television and yelling at other humans who were playing some awful sport dealing with tackling each other over a ball! It was barbaric, the concept of that game. They had people being taken to the hospital every few minutes!” “Football.” “Beg your pardon?” “It was my dad and some of his work buddies watching football,” I explained. “Well, American football. Football in other countries is a sport we call 'soccer'. And yeah, you have to excuse my dad...he knows how to throw a football party, no matter how small.” Pinkie ran in with a Ziploc bag full of ice that she handed to Fluttershy, who was attending to the injured Applejack. “Your dad sounds like the kind of human I'd like to meet, Joey! Parties about a game?” “You should have come a couple months later, you would have seen his annual Super Bowl party.” Pinkie just about fainted with the mention of the words “super” and “party” used in the same sentence, getting a laugh out of Shelby. “Well I don't care what you call it, Joel, I'm still furious with you. I insist that you never leave me alone again or I might do something drastic!” I thought back to a previous thought about her feeding me my own hands and nodded in agreement. Applejack must have seen me and turned her head in my direction. “That's just another of Rarity's empty threats, Joel. Don't sweat it, she's got plenty of 'em.” Rarity let out a “hmph” and turned away, settling in on a few pillows from my mom's closet. After Rarity appeared to have mentally isolated herself from the rest of us, Shelby explained what had happened in the past day. She found Applejack bucking apples at Agnes Chaser's on the way back from my house and she invited the pony to stay at her house. Applejack had gone out to buck apples earlier, after which Shelby found her stuck under the tree while going to check on her. “Heh, yeah...if it wasn't fer her, I'd prob'ly still be stuck under that ol' tree!” Applejack tried to sit up and give Shelby a hoof-bump, but winced in pain and laid back down. “Don't move too much, Applejack, or the splint won't settle right.” Fluttershy hadn't taken her eyes off of her friend's hurt leg for a second since we got her laid out on the couch, treating it with all the love and care she would have if it were one of the animals she took care of regularly. “Oh, alright Fluttershy, I guess yer the doctor here.” Applejack settled back into her original position as Pinkie Pie came back in from the kitchen, turned on the TV and started to find something to watch. “Joel, I'm amazed at the technology here on Earth!” Twilight was coming up the hall from my parents' room. “Boxes made of plastic and glass that show pictures? What do you call them?” “Televisions! Also TVs, tubes, idiot boxes, picture boxes or tellies!” the party pony chirped from her position in front of the living room TV, finally stopping on Food Network's Good Eats. “I'm...fine with calling it 'television'. I have to do more observational studies on it though, I found an interesting bit about the animals on Earth.” “Wild Kingdom or Planet Earth?” Fluttershy mumbled while wrapping the makeshift ice pack to Applejack's shin. “You too, Fluttershy?” The lavender unicorn looked shocked. “Am I the only pony who didn't know about television?” “Prob'ly,” Applejack said. “Saw a little of a show called Swamp People at Shelby's place 'fore mah accident...interestin' stuff. Buncha humans out 'n the water, wrestlin' alligators.” Rarity re-adjusted herself and looked over at Twilight “I've taken to watching America's Next Top Model and Toddlers in Tiaras myself.” Twilight just stood there for a while with a look on her face that was somewhere between angry, confused and interested. She eventually trotted over and took a seat next to Pinkie Pie, who was watching intently as Alton Brown talked about the history of Indian curry. ---------- My mom got home from work around 7 that night. The first thing I heard was the sound of a few full paper bags hitting the ground in the kitchen. My first thoughts went to dinner as I walked down the stairs to ask her what she was making, but my thoughts went elsewhere when I saw my mom with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide in shock. I didn't even need to ask her what was the matter or follow her gaze to figure out what was wrong. My mom was staring straight at the sleeping ponies situated around the living room. My mom's eyes darted back and forth from the ponies back to me. After what felt like a half-hour of staring at each other, she quietly said “What are those?” At that moment, my brain found the absolute most clever thing I could have said in the situation. “Your imagination."