//------------------------------//
// Family 
// Story: Lost 
// by AJapple 
//------------------------------//

It wasn’t time for applebucking season, but Applejack felt like kicking something. The sun was hidden behind clouds, painting everything with a grey light. Those clouds shouldn’t be there, she scowled at the sky. Rainbowdash should've taken care of the fluffed menaces. That way the sun could shine on her trees and her apples could grow. 
The clouds should be gone and the apples should be growing and that good for nothing pegasus should be napping in one of the trees. That were how things used to be, how they should be. 
“Ah!” she yelled through gritted teeth. Didn’t want anyone to hear her. Her hoof connected with the rough bark and she could feel the tremor work it’s way from her hooves to the shuddering limbs above. Of course they weren’t any apples at the moment, just tiny unopened blossoms. Mac would hate it if she was bucking this early but at the moment the farm pony didn’t care. It was a way to get rid of the pain, and help clear her mind. Nowadays she needed a clearer mind. It seemed she was the only one who cared about her mental stability.
Twilight was being her crazy, obsessed self, trying to find their missing friend. Rarity was freaking out, so much so she forgot to eat. It was all Applejack and Sweetie Belle could do to keep the poor mare from starving. 
Fluttershy was directing her animals to search the whole forest and beyond, all the while holed up in her cottage bawling her eyes out. 
Pinkie Pie was just scary. Applejack had always known how unstable Pinkie Pie was, but the disappearance of Rainbowdash had turned her for the worse. Hair flat and legs sporting various cuts from dangerous escapades into the forest screaming the name of the cyan pegasus. It was obvious Pinkie care about her friends, maybe a little too much. She wasn’t even allowed to live with the Cakes anymore. Of course the mental issues could be leftover from their time in the realm of King Sombra. 
It was his fault that Rainbowdash was gone, that everything had fallen to pieces. 
Applejack kicked the tree again, harder and harder until she heard the unmistakable crack of wood as the whole tree toppled over. 
“Damn it!”
Applejack spat squeezing her eyes shut. The urge to cry bulit up in her chest and she forced the grief back down. It wouldn’t help to cry, tears wouldn’t bring her back. The farm pony turned her face to the sun, which had finally broke through the clouds. “I miss you Rainbow.” she whispered. “We all need ya….who’s gonna annoy me to death huh?” a ghost of smile flickered across her lips before disappearing. “You promised me a flight ‘round Ponyville remember?” Applejack whispered. 
Rainbowdash had been there for her, all through the pain of Sombra’s tricks. Both the pegasus and earth pony relied on each other to help get them out of there, and Applejack had failed her friend. The guilt weighed down her shoulders and gnawed at the hidden doubts tucked away in the back of Applejack’s mind, leftover from days of a blood soaked past. The farm pony straightened herself and wiped at the faintest drop of water adorning her cheek. 
She stared at the serenity of the orchards and the familiar sun kissed farmhouse settled comfortably in the center of it all. This place was her home, a place of comfort and peace. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect it and the ponies living within its large boundaries. Applejack hesitantly touched the scar resting on her muzzle, she’d fought long and hard to keep this place safe, to keep her family safe. Rainbowdash was part of her family, just as Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy were. Except, Rainbowdash seemed like something more. Applejack felt the need to rescue her, to care for her. Applejack lifted her chin, there was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect her family and she was about to prove how deeply that belief ran.