“Did we lose him?” Applejack asked, out of breath.
“I don’t know,” replied Macintosh, panting heavily. “I think we did.”
“That was terrible,” Apple Bloom added with a tremor in her voice. She was curled in a fetal position throughout the long ride away from the cornfield. One thing was certain that she was going to have nightmares about this entire dreadful experience. And to make matters worse, she was still starving.
Macintosh looked around. They were surrounded by trees and grass, just like before. It wasn’t long before sunset. Macintosh jerked his head down and let out a sigh.
“We have to find shelter,” he said. “We can’t stay out here for long.”
“Where can we go?” Applejack asked.
Nopony wanted to travel any further, so all three decided to make camp on the spot they were standing. Macintosh and Applejack removed their saddles and rubbed their backs of the pain of pulling the wagon all day. Apple Bloom remained on the wagon. Thanks to the scarecrow, she feared that something will appear out of nowhere if she was on the ground.
“What do we do now?” Applejack said while stretching. “We don’t know where we are, we ain’t got food.”
Macintosh didn’t answer. He gazed about the woods and the dirt path. Then something up on a tree caught his eye. Hanging from branches were some kind of yellow fruit. They were of different sizes.
“I don’t think we have to worry about food,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to the fruit on the tree, causing Applejack to make a disgusted face. “I know you ain’t expecting us to eat those,” she said.
“Unless you wanna starve, I say we have no choice.”
“But you don’t know if they’re poisonous or not! Anything could happen!”
“Applejack, if they grew on the tree then that means they’re okay!” She raised her hoof to object, but Macintosh already marched toward the tree. Applejack shook her head and grumbled. Apple Bloom climbed out of the wagon after feeling that everything was safe, and approached her sister.
“Did Mac find food?”
“I don’t know what he found,” Applejack answered.
They watched him pick three of the yellow fruit off the tree. He came toward his sisters and gave them one each. “I know it ain’t much, but it will have to do,” he said. They inspected the fruit by sniffing it. Apple Bloom tasted it with the tip of her tongue.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Apple Bloom asked.
Macintosh shrugged. He took a bite of it. “It’s okay to me.”
Apple Bloom still wasn’t sure whether to trust her brother, but her stomach told her otherwise. She threw caution away and bit the yellow fruit. Her eyes squinted, she sucked in her cheeks. “It taste kind of sour.”
“That settles it,” said Applejack. “I ain’t eating anything that’s sour.”
“Don’t matter. There’s plenty more up that tree for me and Apple Bloom,” Macintosh said.
Applejack’s stomach made a low ruckus. She watched her brother and sister eat away the yellow fruit, then defeatedly took of a bit of it herself. She almost spat it out due to how sour it was. Just like Apple Bloom she sucked in her cheeks, but she fought through the bitterness. The yellow fruit reminded herself why she didn’t like lemons or eating green apples.
“It’s gonna get dark soon,” Applejack said. “We have to build a fire.”
“I’ll get some firewood,” Mac said flatly. He went through the bushes with the fruit in his mouth.
An air of uneasiness surrounded Apple Bloom. The scarecrow was still fresh in her mind, and she feared he might appear like a phantom, yelling at her face and wielding his scythe. She couldn’t believe something like could happen to her. Who would chase a little filly with something sharp and dangerous like that? she thought. She hope he’ll stay in that cornfield where he belongs.
She heard Applejack make a disappointed noise. “This trip is off to a great start,” she said ironically. Applejack sat on the ground, took off her stetson. Apple Bloom joined her. She thought she’d need the company.
“Apple Bloom, I just want you to know that the trips me and Mac take ain’t always like this,” she said. “What’s happening is just bad luck. Maybe tomorrow… things will get better. Hopefully.”
“Yeah… hopefully,” Apple Bloom repeatedly. Suddenly, she had a craving for a strawberry-banana ice cream sundae with a cherry on top, along with a nice, cold glass of root beer. She didn’t know why.
Macintosh returned with a pile of sticks on his back. He tossed them by their legs on the ground. Applejack sat up and struck two rocks together to make a fire. While she was doing that, Mac went to the tree to pick more of the yellow fruit. The fire was finally ablaze. Macintosh delivered the fruit to his sisters, although Applejack didn’t want to eat it a second time. She gave her piece to Apple Bloom. “You take it,” she said. “I know how hungry you are.”
They sat around the fire in silence. During times like this either Macintosh and Applejack would initiate the usual campfire activities, like songs or stories, but nopony was in the mood. It only has been a day on the road, but it already felt like an eternity. The last of the sunlight beamed through the tall trees, and soon they will be under the cover of darkness. Apple Bloom felt a sudden reaction in her stomach.
“I feel dizzy,” she said.
“Maybe you’re just tired,” said Applejack. She put her orange hoof to the side of her head. “Come to think about, I feel pretty dizzy too.”
Macintosh was about to speak, but he was feeling the same effects as his sisters were. His vision gradually became blurry and unfocused, as did Applejack and Apple Bloom’s. When they tried to say something they stumbled slowly on their words. Soon they were babbling incoherently.
Apple Bloom didn’t know what was happening to her. She rubbed her eyes as her sight became distorted. There was a yellow elephant with big eyes and wings flying back and forth from the trees, and where it the flying elephant left bright sparkles floating in mid-air. Apple Bloom screamed, but she was too weak to run away, so she crawled backwards. She tried to call out to her sister, but she didn’t know that what came out of her mouth was gibberish. Applejack didn’t fare well, either. She hid her face behind her stetson at the horrible sight of a giant balloon poodle twisting a clown into shapes she never knew were possible. Macintosh gazed at the brightly, multicolored sky as dogs and cats whose bodies were conjoined to the middle dropped pies into the ground which exploded. Soon, their senses were fading, the strange visions were going. And, without warning, the siblings dropped to the ground. Everything was black.
Apple Bloom’s head was spinning furiously. When she tried to open her eyes, her sight left everything in twisted shapes. She shut and open them repeatedly until her vision cleared. She found Macintosh and Applejack lying on the ground, motionless, but still breathing. What happened? she thought. There were only fragments of what she could remember, but she did remember from the night was something large and pink flying before her eyes. Thinking about it for too long gave her a headache. Apple Bloom wobbled on her legs, keeping steady while waking her older sister.
“Applejack, wake up,” she whispered. “It’s morning.”
She lightly tapped Applejack’s arm. Then she shook her gently. Applejack’s bottom lip twitched; she mumbled something in a slurred speech. After a few moments, she finally emerged from the ground with that “Okay, I’m out of bed, what do you want?” look.
“That was the most awful dream I had in all my years. Why does my head hurt so much?” she asked painfully.
Applejack struggled to lift herself up, afterward she approached Macintosh and woke him as well. However, she had forgotten how much of a heavy sleeper Mac was sometimes. Applejack tried to yell, but her voice was too weak to be loud. She even tried kicking him, and that wasn’t enough. “This is just dandy,” she huffed. “Who knows how long Big Mac will be asleep for.”
Apple Bloom sat herself on the ground and watched Applejack stand over the sleeping Macintosh. Despite feeling light-headed, she became puzzled. There was something itching at the back of her mind. Something about the new day was bothering her. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but it felt as though something was missing. Something very important.
She looked around, and to her horror she realized what was missing.
“The wagon’s gone,” Apple Bloom said in a loud voice.
“... What did you say?” Applejack said flatly, although Apple Bloom could sense the outright fear in it. She stared at her little sister with huge, pleading eyes. Applejack jumped from tree to tree, from branch to branch. They must have misplaced it, she thought. The wagon can’t be gone, it was impossible. The search proved futile. Applejack slumped on her hind quarters, her hooves on the side of her head in defeat. She gazed back at Apple Bloom, frozen with disbelief.
She let out an ear-piercing cry so loud that it made Macintosh jump to his hooves.