Everfree Quest

by CartsBeforeHorses

Fruit of the Wilted Tree

At the same time that Pinkie and Fluttershy were entering their room, Rarity and Applejack walked into the bottle door. They walked down a long, dimly-lit stairwell for seemingly hundreds of feet. Finally, they reached an underground hallway.

“Are we supposed to each go together, or go separate? Should I take the left and you take the right?” Rarity wondered.

“Naw, I think that blue feller, Owie-what’s-his-face paired the two of us together for a reason. We shouldn’t separate because we’re liable to get lost. We just need to stick together like white on rice!” Applejack insisted.

“I guess you are correct,” Rarity acknowledged. The two chose to go down the left path. However, they were soon faced with the same dilemma: a path which split off into two different directions.

“Left again. I figure we reach another fork and go left, that way we end up back where we started in the worst case,” Rarity reasoned.

“Yup,” Applejack said. They both went left once again. This time, they did not reach a fork, but the hallway turned right and then another leftward fork presented itself, along with another rightward fork. They continued on for a dozen more forks until they were entirely lost.

“Wow, this is almost as bad as that maze that Discord put us into,” Rarity observed. “Why, at least that maze was outside and I could see the sun in that maze.”

“Yeah, this maze is underground. Not much under here but minerals and gems and such.”

“Speaking of…” Rarity lit up her horn.

“Are you really tryin’ to find gems at a time like this?” Applejack scolded.

“Well, there is never an incorrect time for fashion. And… wait, I actually have something! I’m picking up some gems as we speak! It’s over… here! Rarity indicated right and Applejack followed. Her horn continued to glow progressively stronger as they walked along.

“Maybe gems are what we are supposed to be looking for,” Rarity said.

“Then why in tarnation am I here?” Applejack questioned.

“I don’t know, maybe you are supposed to help me dig or something,” Rarity joked. She illuminated a brick in the wall and gems shone through. It appeared to be a solid gemstone brick, made of quartz.

“Well I’ll be darned,” Applejack said, “You’ve found a brick that was cut from a gemstone. Congratulations. Now can we PLEASE get on with this maze?”

Rarity pried the gem brick out of the wall with her magic and stored it in her saddlebag. She looked at her friend with a slightly irritated look.

“Oh come now, Applejack. If you had smelled apples with that nose of yours then I guarantee that you would be all…”

“Come to say it, you’re not gonna believe this but…” Applejack started.

“What, you smell apples right now?” Rarity joked condescendingly.

“No, but I really do! This-a-way!” Applejack ran off further down the path. Another fork came and she ran off to the left. Rarity followed and eventually the hallway led to a 500-square-foot room in the maze with an apple tree growing in the center. The room had no roof and the sun shone through from hundreds of feet above.

“Why, if it isn’t a grand ol’ apple tree! Snack break!” Applejack ran over to the tree, bucked the side of it and several apples fell. She picked one up and bit into it.

“Tht’s gud fod rght thare!” Applejack mumbled through a mouthful of apple. She wolfed down several more over the course of a few more minutes.

“That’s disgusting!” Rarity reproached, “Those have probably been in this dungeon for years. There’s nopony around to buck them, after all. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if these apples have fermented.”

“Now see here. I’m not gettin’ drunk off no apples. These are only slightly maybe possibly alcoholic,” Applejack defended, stumbling to the other side of the tree and bucking it again.

“You really must stop,” Rarity said, levitating an apple out of Applejack’s grasp that she was about to imbibe, “You look as if you actually are inebriated.”

“Why of courshe nawt, Rarity. Y’all are the naggerest nag I ever done laid eyes on. You know I never did liked you at all. Pretentious city folk, good fer nuttin.’”

“You reside in the same town as I!” Rarity corrected, “And as I recall we made amends at Twilight’s slumber party many months ago,”

(Rarity was referring to the duo’s long-standing rivalry and differences, which though amounting to nothing more serious than good-natured teasing during most times, got a bit heated at Twilight’s sleepover.)

“Sorry Rarity, that’s jus’ the alcoholic apples talkin.’ I didn’t mean any of it. I’m… so sorry!” Applejack bawled.

“Why Applejack, you simply must quit being a drama queen. And I would know what one looks like, after all,” Rarity said, “Now let’s finish the rest of this maze. Get up off the ground, stop crying, and let’s get to work. We have a key to find.”

“Ah suppose yer right,” Applejack conceded. She got to her feet, stumbling a bit, before shaking her head rapidly, “Boy howdy! Those are some mighty—hiccup—strong apples!”

“I’ll say,” Rarity agreed. “Perhaps, on second thought, you should lie down for a moment. I’ll explore the room alone and come back.”

Rarity left her friend lying under the shade of the apple tree and searched the rest of the room. She found that there were no other entrances or exits from the room besides the one which they had entered from. However, one wall contained a large inscription carved into the stone bricks,

“This tree is old and wilted.

Please, oh please, get rid of it.”

“Applejack, I believe I have found our next clue,” Rarity called out to her friend.

“Eeeeyup,” Applejack hiccupped, “And what might that be?”

“It says that we have to remove this tree from the room. Now I’m no lumberjack, Applejack. Sober up a bit more and get to work!”

“It don’t take a sober-minded pony to know that’s not gonna work. I’ve got mighty powerful legs but not powerful enough to level a full-grown apple tree. Unless there’s an axe or somethin’ ‘round here that I can use.”

Rarity continued searching the room, but to no avail.

She returned to her friend and reported the disappointing result, “Applejack, there’s no tools here that I can find. Unless you propose burning the tree to the ground.”

“That’s actually a mighty fine idea, Rarity,” Applejack jumped to her feet. She shuffled over to the apple tree and bucked it a few more times until some twigs fell out. She took one in each hoof and rubbed them together, but soon discovered it would be difficult to start a fire.

“These twigs are damp. It must’ve rained here recently. I can’t start a fire with this, and even if I could, this ol’ rotten tree ain’t gonna burn very easily.”

“Hmm…” Rarity pondered. Then, “Aha!” She removed her quartz brick from her saddlebag and held it up to the sun. After a few moments she managed to focus the sun’s rays on a patch of grass. A thin whisp of smoke briefly rose from it, but no flames arose.

“Y’all are never gonna start a fire like that. Not without some fuel. Here, lemme show you,” Applejack picked up some apples from the floor and mashed them on the ground all around the tree. She bucked the tree several more times and continued to pound the apples into more mush, a process which took about twenty minutes. Soon, the entire base and trunk of the tree was covered in an apple mush.

“Now, the alcohol in these here apples will make startin’ a fire much easier,” Applejack assured.

“Ah, I see!” Rarity beamed. She focused her lens once again at the base of the tree. This time, flames rose until the entire tree was engulfed. The two stood back from the massive conflagration.

“Now that’s what I call teamwork!” Rarity exclaimed. As she said this, the back wall with the inscription fell away to reveal a hidden cubby hole.

“In there!” Applejack and Rarity ran towards the wall, skirting the edge of the flaming tree. Inside the small hole, they discovered a key was hidden. Rarity reached in and grabbed it. It was a silver key encrusted with garnets. (Had Rarity not been using her own levitation magic to grab the key, she would have noticed that it was drawn to her by its own accord as with the key that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had found.)

“How pretty!” Rarity stored the key in her saddlebag. As she did this, Applejack coughed.

“Oh, no need to be so passive-aggressive, Applejack. If you want the key, you needn’t use the ‘ahem’ trick. Just ask politely and I shall simply give it to you—ah-choo! ”

Applejack and Rarity coughed and wheezed. They looked back and discovered that the previously open-air room had been enclosed by a roof, which seemed to have fallen into place when they grabbed the key. They were going to suffocate from smoke!

“Let’s *wheeze* get outta here!” Applejack urged. They both ran back towards the exit. They continued down the hallway at a breakneck speed.

“Which way did we *hack* come in here from,” Rarity asked, her eyes blurry with tears from the stinging particulate smoke.

“I don’t know! I don’t remember!” Applejack yelled.

“Well, maybe…” Rarity’s horn lit up as she sensed for gems and realized there were some in the area.

“The others must have found similar keys to ours! I’m picking up more gems this way!” Rarity led the way and Applejack followed. They continued for several minutes until they reached a fork in the road that appeared familiar, and figured they were near the exit as Rarity’s horn glowed brighter. However, they soon reached an obstacle.

“There’s a… *wheeze* pile of rubble in the way! It must’ve fallen when we picked up the key!” Applejack said.

“Well *gasp* why don’t you REMOVE IT!” Rarity gasped for air and began to black out, her vision patchy.

“Hold on now, I got this!” Applejack heaved rubble out of the way, bucking it behind her with her powerful legs. She stumbled a bit, still slightly buzzed from the apples.

“HURRY!” Rarity urged. Soon, Applejack had formed a clearing in the top that they could see the main room from. She crawled through and reached the other side. She gasped for breath.

“I… can’t… make… it…” Rarity meekly cried, asphyxiated by the smoke. She fell to the floor.

“Hold on now, I gotcha!” Applejack threw her lasso around Rarity and pulled her up the pile of rubble and back through into the main room.

“Hey, where have you guys been?” Pinkie Pie inquired.

“Oh, you’re safe! We were so worried!” Fluttershy flew over and gave hugs to Applejack and Rarity. The two friends sat for a moment, catching their breath. They had completed their challenge.

Now, the only ones left who had yet to return were Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.