Dash must have set off at a sprint, determined to make the most of her start because run as she might, Applejack could catch sight of neither hide nor hair of her.
But the impressions left by her hooves in the muddy ground were simple to follow, and Applejack chased her trail through the woods due south towards the foot of the mountain.
The hoofprints left by Rainbow Dash remained absolutely regular and unbroken, and Applejack had to admit she was impressed that Dash was clearly sticking so rigidly to her self-imposed no-flying rule, even without her there to keep her on the level. That went some of the way to quelling her fury.
She had been more than just annoyed with Dash when she set off after her – she'd been fuming, and she hadn't quite been able to put her hoof on why. But running alone through the woods was nothing if not good for introspection, and so she'd been trying to fathom the reason for her sudden temper.
Had it been because Dash hadn't helped her when she might have been in trouble? Well, no, she decided. It hadn't really happened like that. She might not exactly have leapt into action, but of course Dash would have helped her had she really needed it. In the end though, she hadn't needed it, and Rainbow had known that.
Had it been, then, because Dash had laughed at her, and acted all cavalier and brash about her predicament? No, she decided again. Applejack had to admit she probably had looked kind of funny in that pit, all stuck-legs and muddy-tail. And as for being brash and cavalier... that was just Dash being Dash. In fact Applejack had long suspected it was one of the reasons she liked her so much.
Applejack had known a few too many pompous, ego-centric ponies in her time. Almost without exception, such ponies inspired feelings of quiet loathing and disappointment in her, and she went out of her way to avoid them, wherever possible. But not Dash. She was just different somehow to all those others. She was arrogant... but never condescending. She was full of herself, but never self-important. She was blunt, but never cruel.
She would openly tell everyone she met that she was the best flier, or racer, or daredevil ever, but she would never tell anypony that she thought she was better than they were, and that was the difference.
And the best part was she did it without even thinking. She didn't try to hide the ugly parts of herself behind a polite façade like all those other stuck-up ponies, because those parts just weren't there. She was Rainbow Dash and she didn't pretend to be anything else. Why would she need to? Applejack appreciated the inherent honesty in her character, and Rainbow appreciated ponies who told things like they were. Applejack was good at that. They were good friends. Great friends. In fact, Dash was one of the best friends she'd ever had.
So why was she so ticked off with her?
In the end she decided it was because Rainbow had just up and left her behind without so much as a backward glance, and as she thought about it, she decided that she was being unfair. This was a race after all, and it had never been anything else. Expecting Dash to wait for her and then being angry when she hadn't, sounded like a pretty bad case of sour grapes. Rainbow hadn't really done anything wrong, she concluded, and with this new revelation her anger finally, slowly, lifted.
Who's a silly pony? You are, Applejack, she mused.
But as the anger cleared away, Applejack found something else hidden behind it. The same sad, sour pang she'd felt earlier, when she'd hoped that this might be something they could do cooperatively rather than competitively, and realised that it wasn't going to happen. It was a race.
Rainbow Dash wanted to win. Applejack just wanted to run.
And running with a friend was so much better than running alone.
The woods began to thin, both in density and in actuality as the thick-trunked oaks and elms gave way to narrow-trunked, shorter trees; mainly silver birches and their ilk. The forest canopy overhead began to break, finally allowing real sunlight through, and the muddy ground began to dry and firm up.
As she ran on she thought she caught the sound of water, and a couple of minutes later she found herself joining the bank of a river running almost parallel with her course.
It was wide and fast-flowing, the far bank easily thirty yards away. The current was swift enough, and littered with enough flotsam in the form of dead branches and the like, that swimming across was sufficiently dangerous that it wasn’t worth the risk. With the mountain still almost directly to the south, Applejack found herself running alongside the right-hand riverbank as it flowed south-southwest. She would need to cross it eventually if it maintained its current course, but until she could find a safe place to do so it would continue to take her in almost the right direction.
Rainbow had clearly had the same idea, judging by the hoofprints she had left along the bank. And she clearly hadn't slowed down either.
Applejack picked up her speed to a full gallop but even so noticed that the various logs, branches and other debris being carried down the river were outpacing her. And oddly enough the river was flowing more or less – though not exactly – towards the foot of the mountain. That left her speculating on the nature of the terrain between here and there, and what effect that might have on the water. It might be best to try and cross it sooner rather than later.
Before that thought had left her, she caught the briefest glimpse of a tiny flash of colour somewhere ahead, somewhere downriver. She wasn't sure she'd seen it properly, but she began to sprint as fast as she could just in case.
There.
Two hundred yards ahead the river briefly narrowed from a width of over thirty yards to no more than twenty, and shallowed considerably into a natural ford about hock-deep. Rainbow Dash was right there in the middle, slowly picking her way across to the far bank and looking very wobbly and unsteady as she did so.
The narrowing river, combined with its sudden reduction in depth caused the water to flow with frightening speed over the ford, and it was obvious that Dash was barely able to keep her footing on the smooth, slippery rocks beneath. Her wings were flared too, but only apparently as an aid to balance. Flying over the river to the far bank would have been trivial and much safer for her, but Dash was apparently sticking to her word even in the face of such ridiculous danger.
Applejack knew that it took much less of a current than you might think to sweep you off your hooves, and Dash was really struggling to resist the flow. On top of that she was also having to try and dodge the constant debris carried downstream. Most of it was just twigs, but occasionally a large, thick branch or log shot past her, far too close for comfort. Worse, the river further downstream looked much less inviting. It seemed to begin to foam into fierce rapids as it negotiated a pair of sharp, pointed rocks, and Applejack suddenly had horrific visions of Rainbow Dash being swept away into that torrent, never to be seen again.
Rainbow herself looked worried. It was a rare expression, and one Applejack had seen only a couple of times before, when she knew she was in over her head. But for some reason she wasn't using her wings to get her out of trouble. She seemed determined to wade across even in spite of the fact that she knew the current was too strong for her.
Why? Applejack scowled and gritted her teeth as she ran for the ford. She didn't care if Rainbow flew across the river! If there was a choice between Rainbow Dash keeping her promise and Rainbow Dash being safe, she would want her to be safe every time.
And, all of a sudden, she wasn't safe.
Rainbow Dash, looking down at the riverbed beneath her and planning her next fragile step, completely missed the large, long, rotten tree-trunk carried towards her by the pressing current.
Applejack didn't. She saw it. From a hundred yards away she saw exactly what was going to happen, and her blood ran cold.
"Dash! Look out!" she called desperately, as loud as her lungs would allow.
Rainbow must had heard something of her yell over the raging of the water because her head snapped up. But she saw only the huge trunk, twelve yards long and two feet thick, bearing down on her.
It was too close. There was nothing she could do. The trunk hit her hard. Knocked her from her hooves. The river took her and she was carried helplessly downstream towards the twin rocks and the furious rapids. She cried out something unintelligible. She beat her wings desperately, uselessly, her feathers waterlogged and incapable of providing lift.
Rainbow Dash was swept away into the torrent, never to be seen again...
No!
Applejack's hooves thundered, churning the dirt beneath them as she pelted desperately along the bank, reaching a pace unthinkable, fueled by adrenaline and terror. Her mind ascended to a new level of consciousness. A primal state of being designed for survival and nothing else. The woods, the earth, the sky, they all fell away. The river and the pegasus were all that existed now, and her new, cold mind had but one objective: remove the latter from the former.
At the point the rapids began in earnest, in the centre of the flow the two large boulders jutted side-by-side from the water, as though a gateway to doom itself. Rainbow was carried between and beyond them, lost to sight in the white-water, and there was nothing that Applejack could do to save her. Meanwhile the trunk that had hit her wedged itself against the rocks, resting perpendicular to the flow of the river. A two-foot wide, twelve yard long makeshift span held firmly in place by the pressure of the water upon it. And on the far side of the river, just a little further downstream, stood a small gathering of birch trees, each of their trunks suffering from an infestation of Climbing Vineweed; the thick, fibrous, rootlike vines climbing and spiraling around the bark.
Everything seemed to come together.
Applejack raced for the riverbank to the point nearest the wedged tree-trunk. Without hesitation, or even conscious thought guiding her actions, she made the leap and landed perfectly on the slick, narrow log. She didn't stop moving, pelting along its length to the far end with speed and sure-footedness to make a mountain-goat jealous. She barely even noted the river passing beneath her as she jumped again, easily clearing the distance to the new riverbank. Then she was racing to the birch trees, her eyes already locked onto a likely vine; the mottled green skin indicating a healthy stem, strong and supple. She grasped it with her teeth and it was the work of precious seconds to yank its lengthy coils from the tree it stifled. With a practised ease she fashioned the vine into an inch-thick lasso of makeshift rope, coiled it loosely about her neck and set off sprinting downstream once more.
She had lost sight of Rainbow Dash. And she had lost ground on her too. But she was going to catch up to her. Of this she was absolutely certain. Rainbow was in the river somewhere, and Applejack was going to get her out.
The rapids looked terrible. The white-water foamed and thundered between half a dozen more jagged rocks staggered down the river. Dash could be anywhere in that. She could even be underwater at this very instant, forced down by the current. Drowning.
But she wasn't. She was okay. She had to be. Because Applejack was going to find her. Applejack was going to get her out. Her certainty never wavered.
There she was!
Almost in the middle of the river, a small, jagged grey rock thrust about three-feet above the roaring foam. And Dash was clinging onto it for dear life, desperate to keep the rapids from tearing her from her only hope of survival. Her forelegs were wrapped around the triangular point of the rock while the river surged around and splashed heavily over it. Her wings, usually her salvation, were now a liability; when she tried to beat them, the water simply found more surface area on which to press and her grip slipped.
Her eyes were shut. Her teeth clenched. Her hold on the rock fragile and weakening all the time.
She looked scared.
It didn't matter. Because Applejack had found her. Applejack was there for her. And Applejack was going to get her out.
Applejack reached the bank across from Rainbow Dash. She and the rock were about fifteen meters away. So close. Applejack threw her new vine-rope to the ground. Then, she yelled as loud as her lungs would allow.
"DASH! CATCH!"
Rainbow looked up. Between the water splashing and crashing over her head, she made eye-contact with Applejack and, instantly, there was relief there. Like she knew she was going to be fine. She wasn't even safe yet. She wasn't even close. And yet, just in that look, Applejack could see the confidence, the brashness, the cockyness already replacing the fear.
The lasso whirled, and Applejack cast it out over the river with practised, perfect aim. The looped end reached the rock safely, and with some precarious maneuvering, Dash managed to cinch it tight around one of her forelegs. Meanwhile, Applejack wound her end around her own foreleg several times so it wouldn't slip, came as close to the bank as she dared, and planted her hooves firmly in the soft dirt beneath her, ready to take the strain.
Dash looked up at her. It was tough to hear over the roar of the rapids, but Applejack just about made out the words.
"Now what?"
Consarn it!
"Dash, let go!"
"What?!"
"Dash, trust me! Let go of the dang rock!"
A couple of thick branches sailed past, just beneath the vine. If something big came downriver and snagged it, or broke it... she'd lose her. "Dash, please! I got ya! Just. Let. GO!"
She did. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, released her grip on the rock and was swept away into the river.
The vine went taught. Applejack flinched, but remained firm.
Dash was carried downstream, but with the makeshift rope anchored solidly by Applejack, Rainbow's path through the river described the arc of a quarter-circle. No amount of raging or frothing water could carry her further away than the length of vine connecting her to the shore would allow, and so with Applejack acting as a pivot, she began to swing inward towards the bank fifteen short meters downriver.
With immense relief, Applejack saw Dash reach the edge of the river where the torrent flowed less quickly, and with a little difficulty the pegasus hauled herself up out of the water onto the safety of the shore. She disentangled herself from the vine, and only then did Applejack let her own end drop to the floor. She trotted to Dash. In fact it took all of her effort not to throw herself at her.
"Dash? You okay?"
"Yeah... I'm fine," she said, checking herself over. She gave herself a shake and flared her wings quickly a couple of times, casting the excess water off and returning herself to airworthy status. Then she turned a grin on Applejack. "Heh! Guess you caught up, huh? So much for my head-start."
Not even a 'thank you.' She'd half-expected it, but there was nothing quite like being taken for granted to make you feel appreciated.
But really, she was just glad Dash was okay.
And furious with her for taking such a stupid risk. "What the hay did ya think you were doin'? You can't wade across a current like that!"
"What? Were you even running along the same river? There wasn't anywhere better! How else was I gonna cross it?"
"You've got wings, Dash!"
"Aw, no. This is a race, and I told you, I'm gonna run it fair and square so there's no argument over who the most awesome pony is!"
"The race?! Dash, you coulda been hurt!"
"Pfft!" Dash scoffed. "I'm fine. What's the matter, Appleslack? That yellow belly isn't back, is it?"
Applejack fumed. "I ain't scared, Dash, I'm–!"
"Great! 'Cause I really don't wanna win by forfeit!" said Dash, turning away with a superior grin. Then she was off on her hooves again, galloping fast towards the mountain.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Applejack in a rage, racing after her. Towards the mountain. Getting closer all the time.
* * *
She had to beat Rainbow Dash.
It probably wasn't the best plan ever, but it was the best she could come up with.
Dash seemed determined to see this crazy race through to the end, no matter how dangerous it might get. Even if Applejack were to pull up now, quit cold turkey, and refuse to run another step... Rainbow would run on to the finish without her, just so she could get her bragging rights. And considering what they'd been through so far, Applejack wasn't going to let Rainbow go on alone. In case something happened to her.
So she was committed to reaching the end with Dash already.
But if they reached the end together and Dash won... oh there was going to be so much smugness and gloating. Rainbow Dash had built this up as the be-all-and-end-all of races, and she would be rubbing Applejack's nose in it for ages. Maybe even forever.
And... as good a sport as she was... Applejack didn't think she could take that. Not forever. What if... what if it went on so long that she started avoiding Rainbow Dash, just to escape the constant bragging? What if they ended up not hanging out together? They might drift apart or, eventually, even stop being friends...
But if she won... it would be different. Dash would be disappointed sure, but Applejack would pep her up again. She'd make her feel better, not worse. They'd find something else they could do, maybe together this time. They'd go back to being friends like always.
Pretty much the future of their entire friendship rested on Applejack winning this race now. And that was something worth fighting a whole lot for.
So she had to beat Rainbow Dash.
They both ran hard, neither willing to give up the lead. But the playful banter of earlier was gone, replaced by the fire of determination.
They left the bank of the river as it continued its journey south-southwest, and found themselves once more running through the flat, sparse woods. And although Witch Mountain loomed large ahead of them now, the land had not yet started to rise.
After a short while they picked up a trail. An actual beaten dirt track through the woods, though overgrown with shrubs and clearly not maintained. It was pitted and puddly but it took them directly south, heading right for the mountain. After a mile or so the track narrowed and Applejack, seeing her chance, dug deep and forged ahead by a couple of lengths. Dash wouldn't be able to overtake her now without running through the undergrowth crowding the edges of the trail. That would both slow her down, and risk her getting a few scratches she didn't need.
Faintly, and from somewhere off to the right her ears picked up the sound of the river once more. Distant, but roaring. The noise was similar to the rapids earlier, but somehow hollower and more final. As though it had begun to cascade into a waterf–
Whoa, Nelly!
She hadn't been paying attention to where she was running, and the speed she was going meant she hadn't seen it until it was too late.
A chasm. Two-hundred yards across to the other side, and running for what seemed like miles east and west. There was no warning – the forest just ended, the ground falling away into a great, yawning void. The rocky sides of the canyon stood jagged and irregular, stretching as far as the eye could see as though some great, impossible force had simply torn the earth apart long ago. About half a mile away to the right, the river plunged over the edge into a beautiful cascade, tumbling down and down into the abyss, joining a new river far below, flowing eastwards now toward whatever ocean it would eventually call home.
The trail they had been following led directly to the mouth of an ancient, narrow rope-bridge reaching across the gulf. Even from a cursory glance it was obviously in poor repair, all cracked slats and frayed ropes, and just wide enough for one pony to cross at a time.
And before she could react to the rotten wood, the sickly, weak ropes, and the crumbling anchor points... before she could stop... Applejack was already on it, and being pressed heedlessly forward by Rainbow Dash at her heels.
Gonna be okay. Don't look down. Look straight ahead. That's where you're goin', Applejack. Don't look down.
But that little voice in the back of her head... that little survivalist sixth sense... had done something with the information it had received. Performed some little, instinctive analysis on the state of the ropes and the condition of the anchor points. And in a quiet, very apologetic voice, it informed her that unfortunately, the bridge in its current state could not support the weight of a pony. Let alone two.
It didn't.
Behind her, something crumbled. Something snapped. Something twanged. And as she passed the halfway point of the bridge, her stomach lurched sickeningly as it simply fell away from under her.
The support ropes on the north side had given up, their frayed and rotten threads pulled apart and releasing most of the bridge to fall through the air into the rift. The ropes on the south side fared better, remaining strong and taught, at least for now.
Applejack desperately grabbed at one of the stronger-looking wooden slats beneath her, wrapped her hooves around it and clung on for all she was worth. The bridge swung like a pendulum, and she along with it, towards the south wall of the canyon. Applejack cried out as the rock face rushed at her with alarming speed.
She shut her eyes and braced for the impact.
When it came, it wasn't as bad as she'd feared. She had thought that the rock face would dash the remaining slats to splinters and send her tumbling inescapably into the gorge below. But instead she found herself just able to cling on as the bridge struck the solid cliff. As the jolt came though, she felt her Stetson's normally unflappable grip on her head falter and fail, and it tumbled away. She was helpless to save it – she couldn't reach out for it without falling herself. Automatically, she followed it with her gaze as it sailed far into the chasm below and... and now she was looking down.
Urk. Her stomach turned a somersault.
Heights didn't usually bother her too much. Sure, she preferred to keep her hooves on the ground, but she'd been up in Twilight's balloon many times, not to mention visited Cloudsdale before now. But somehow, being in such a precarious position on the side of a gorge spoke to some little, primal fear deep inside her earth-pony ancestry. It was a long, long way to the canyon floor and the shallow river.
She did however finally see why the bridge had sustained less of an impact than it should have when it hit the cliff.
Twenty feet below her, with one of the guide ropes clenched tightly in her mouth, Rainbow Dash was hovering. She'd done her best to arrest the momentum of the bridge as it fell, and she had done enough to allow Applejack to hang on. Dash looked up at her and let go of the rope. Then she beat her wings a tad harder and lazily ascended to her level.
"Whew, close one! Everything okay?"
"I think so," said Applejack, looking herself over. "That is, aside from the fact I'm stuck halfway up a cliff holdin' onto a bridge that might give out at any second."
"I know! This is almost exactly what happened to Daring Do when she got cornered on the Bridge of Kali-Ma! How weird is–?"
"Dash!" snapped Applejack, as she awkwardly tried to find secure purchase on the unsteady bridge. "Would ya please quit yakkin' about Daring Do?!"
Rainbow Dash responded by fixing her with an offended scowl and a grumpy pout.
Applejack finally wrestled herself into a position where it didn't feel like she was about to be blown off the bridge by a stiff breeze. She looked up at the the cliff above her, the summit about a hundred yards straight up and looking a long way away. Then she looked pointedly at Dash, flapping easily beside her. Then deliberately back up at the cliff face. Then back to Dash. When no reaction was forthcoming, she frowned at her. "Ain't ya gonna offer?"
"I'm waiting for you to ask," Dash retorted.
Applejack gritted her teeth and growled a low growl. Fine! She glared up at the cliff face stretching above her once more, challenging her. With great care, and no help at all from Rainbow Dash, she began to climb.
There was just enough space between the slats of the bridge – now the rungs of the ladder – for her to wedge her forehooves between them and get a good grip. Likewise, she could just about get her hind hooves onto each slat in turn and it wasn't long before she found a slow, deliberate rhythm of ascent. About one-in-four of the slats were broken or rotted – not fit to support her weight, and had there been two or three bad rungs in a row at any point, she would have become stuck and unable to climb any further. But by some luck she always found a sturdy one within reach, and her progress toward eventual safety remained steady.
And all the while Dash was there, hovering lazily only a couple of feet away, like this was all just another day.
"You timing me at this, too?" Applejack asked irritably after a minute of climbing, deliberately not looking at Dash. She could just imagine what her smug, pegasus face might look like about now.
"Technically, I was behind you when we hit the bridge, so really, I'm below you right now. I'd reach the top after you no matter how long you drag this out for."
"Right. And in the meantime you're just gonna float there and watch me, huh?"
"You know, if you need help, you just gotta–"
"Does it look like I need help?!" said Applejack. "I'm doin' just fine on my own here. What I meant was, why don't you make yerself useful or somethin'? Go see if'n you can find my hat down there." As she said it, she automatically looked down again. Which was a mistake. She gave a sharp intake of breath and forced her gaze upwards. That's where you're goin', Applejack.
"Uh..." said Rainbow, considering. Through the corner of her eye, Applejack saw her look at the gorge below, then up at the remains of the bridge above her. "Nah. I'm gonna stick around here. Just because, y'know?"
"Oh, don't let me keep ya," grumped Applejack, continuing to focus on the climb. "I'll be just dandy. Turns out this here ain't no more difficult than climbing a tree."
She felt the double-take. A split-second hesitation before the reply. "Seriously? Since when do you know how to climb a tree?"
"Are you kiddin' me?" Applejack shot. "You seriously think an earth-pony raised her whole life around trees don't know how to climb one?"
"I've just never seen you up a tree before."
"Maybe that's because I ain't a foal any more, Dash. I stopped climbing 'em about the same time I had to start buckin' 'em."
"Just saying, maybe you should try it once in a while. Trees are pretty awesome. The best ones even come with free apples, so it's like, you wake up and there's a snack right there."
"They don't come with free apples, Rainbow Dash! You steal the apples and I pretend not to notice!"
"Oh come on! They literally grow on trees!" Then, after a quiet, contemplative second, she said, "Okay fine, so I probably owe you for about a bajillion apples then. Uh... how much is an apple anyway?"
"For you, Dash?" said Applejack. She stopped climbing, sighed and gave a subtle shake of her head. She'd never really been bothered by Dash's harmless scrumping. Because... it kept her coming back to the farm. "Tell ya what," she sighed again, beginning her ascent once more. "You give me the five bits I had to drop Rarity to fix her dish up and we'll call it quits."
"Oh," said Dash. "S–sure."
"Assuming this stupid race don't kill me before I make it back home," Applejack griped.
There was a faint snort of derision from behind her. "Yeah, like I'd let anything like that happen. Why do you think I'm still here, watching you?"
Applejack frowned. "Because you thought I'd need your help. Probably wanted to hear me beg for it, too. Well, I got news for ya, Dash," Applejack sneered as she pulled herself over the top of the cliff to safety. "I did it on my own, without your help! Ha!"
Wait. What?
Applejack blinked and looked around. Sure enough she was standing on the cliff-top on the south side of the bridge, safe and sound. The remains of the bridge itself trailed away over the rocky precipice and out of sight, and on the far side of the gorge lay the woods and the waterfall. Tentatively, Applejack approached the edge of the cliff and looked over. The bridge hung vertically, a hundred yards straight down, and what seemed like only moments ago she had been all the way at the bottom there, climbing.
She looked at Dash as the pegasus alighted beside her.
Had she... had Dash been distracting her? To take her mind off the climb?
Had she been helping her?
"Dash?" Applejack asked, "Did you... were you doin' that on purpose?"
Dash looked at her with her confused face. "Uh, doing what?"
"Talkin' to me. 'Bout climbin' trees and apples an' such."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Then she stared back at her with a frown. "Look, just because you turned into Grumpyjack all of a sudden doesn't mean I'm gonna start giving you the silent treatment."
"Okay," said Applejack quietly. She wasn't sure if that was a yes or not. "Thanks all the same."
"Sure, whatever." Dash waved a dismissive hoof. "Now you'd better get running, because I'm totally about to reach the top," she said, peering over the edge at the nonexistent pegasus climbing the bridge, hot on Applejack's heels.
Applejack was startled for a moment. Then she softened her voice. "Dash, look. This race–"
"Is going to decide who the fastest and most daring and most awesome pony in Ponyville is," interrupted Dash. "And I don't wanna win by default, so go on. Get going, because here I come!"
With a sad grimace, Applejack looked around, up at the mountain towering above her now, then back to Dash, whose attention was still focused on something over the edge of the cliff. Rainbow still wanted to win; still wanted to beat her. That was her primary goal in all this.
There was that awful, disappointed pang again.
And Applejack was forced back to the position she'd been in just before they'd reached the bridge. She had to end this race quickly, and she had to win it.
Reluctantly, she took off galloping up the mountain trail.