Time seemed to slow down. He could feel the pounding of her strong heart against his chest as he hugged her tight. Her hair whipping back in the rush of wind brushed against his cheeks.

They were falling down this crevice, about a mile down it seemed to Arthur. He looked down and he saw this red thing below them coming up real fast and their reflection. It's a little pool of water about six feet wide and one foot deep. They hit it and they splashed it dry. And that was when he lost his hold, and she got away.

He got to his feet quickly. He stood up just in time to see her running off, rope still hanging off of her. Part of him knew he should go after her. But his legs refused to move. He could only stand and stare at her, running free and wild and beautiful. His hat drifted down after him from the fall, landing softly in the remaining puddle, making small ripples. She vanished from his sight and he knelt down to pick up his hat.

He looked up at the ledge above him. The sun was still reaching a good ways down into the gulch. It was still the early afternoon. His shoulder bag managed to stay with him through the wild ride. He took out his lunch. A sandwich. Of course, by using the term 'sandwich', he was being generous. It was little more than a bit of peanut butter between a couple of bits of hardtack. But it kept him going.

He looked back into the distance where she had taken off to and set one foot in front of the other. His boots made little squishing noises from his wet socks.

Applejack kept running. She wasn't sure what it was that had just happened to her but she just wanted to get as far from it as she could. She made her way up an embankment, following a narrow path that ran along the edge of a sheer rock face. Suddenly, the loose ground of the path gave out from under her hooves. She found herself amid a small landslide as she slid through the loose gravel of the steep hill. Suddenly, her descent was halted when the rope around her neck became snared on one of the shrubs dotting the hillside.

She saw stars at the sudden crushing force on her throat. She reflexively reached the the rope, pulling on it to give herself some breathing slack. Her legs struggled to gain traction in the loose stones. She pulled herself up just enough to be able to breathe, if only just.

Arthur followed her trail quickly. It wouldn't be long before her dripped water path evaporated. It led up onto the steep hill at the end of the gorge. He knew that ponies were natural sprinters. Very fast over short distances in a gallop. But unless they were in the paced, trotting mindset for distance, they'd quickly tire themselves. He had this one chance to close the distance on her today before he lost the sunlight.

Again, he found her padded hooves difficult to follow, compared to other, cloven hoofed game. Her trail grew subtle. But he was able to narrow it to a specific path along a narrow pass in front of a vertical rock face. He jogged now, confident of his path. That is, until he came to the break in the ground. The color of the exposed dirt showed that it was fresh. His eyes followed the path of the pony-sized slide down the hill. There, he caught a glimpse of orange movement below. She seemed to be struggling.

He took a deep breath and stepped off of the path. He tried his best to keep his feet as he descended in a controlled slide. Not half-way down, he ended up on his backside, the gravel tearing up his jeans. He got down to where she was, but she hadn't run off yet. He could see the rope was tangled in the shrub just above her. He grabbed the trunk of it to stop himself. Below, he could see that she was getting very fatigued, from the constant struggle.

He reached into the bush, trying to reach the rope, but the hawthorns cut and stuck him as he tried. He snapped one of the branches, letting out a bit of the coiled slack. Applejack slid a couple of feet lower as her legs went out from under her a final time. The rope pulled tighter around her neck, as her vision faded. Arthur could hear her gasping as her eyes lidded shut slowly.

"Damn it!" He swore, gritting his teeth. He nearly punched into the thorny shrub, forcing his hand forward inside. White shots of pain streaked up his exposed forearm as his bleeding knuckles wrapped around the last bit of stuck rope, pulling it free. The rest of Applejack's body fell limp to the ground as she slide down the hillside.

"Chestnut!" He hollered, yanking his arm free of the bush, cutting it further still. He ran down after her, stumbling on the loose soil. She didn't have far to go before the ground leveled out, and Arthur came tumbling after her. "Chestnut!" He cried out, dropping to his knees beside her. She was unresponsive. His hands moved quickly, taking the rope from off her neck and tossing it away. He put his ear to her chest. Her heart was still beating. He put the back of his hand in front of her snout. He could feel her breath on the hairs on the back of his hand. She was breathing, but weakly. "Come on!"

Though she was only as tall as his shoulders when she stood, even with legs almost as long as his, she was much heavier than he was. He was a strong man by any measure, but there was no way he'd be able to carry her. Not even a modest distance. He dragged her out of the dirt and onto the soft grass, laying her onto her back. He sat down beside her, holding her head in his lap as he rubbed her chest vigorously, trying to get a response from her. Anything. Anything to get her to wake up. He gave her cheek a quick slap. Nothing too hard.

He could see on her neck the red marks from the rope burn, where it had shorn her soft, orange fur. It had been pulled tighter than it was ever meant to have been. "I'm so sorry." He hugged her close to him. Her eyes fluttered for a moment. She thought she'd heard somepony. That was when she saw the creature that had been chasing her beside her.

In a fit of adrenaline, she scurried and jumped to her feet. But her sudden movement after her ordeal caused her to become lightheaded and she stumbled again. Arthur was just happy to see her alive and well, but moved quickly when he saw her start to waver. Applejack tripped over her feet and fell again. He moved to catch her. He wasn't able to stop her fall so much as soften it as she landed sideways on top of him.

"OOF!" He pulled himself out from under her quickly. Her blood pressure had dropped too quickly when she stood, causing her to faint. He knew he only had a few moments. He pulled the bridal from his bag and fitted her with it quickly, trying a lead to it. This would be much safer than a lasso around the neck. He wrapped the other end firmly around his hand with the glove still on it. The other glove had been lost in the hawthorn bush.

This time, when Applejack woke, she tried to pull away, but felt a firm tension on her muzzle. Her eyes crossed as she looked at the small straps around her face and head. At the other end of the rope she was attached to, stood the creature, holding it tight, with his hind legs dug in. Applejack tried again to yank at the rope, trying to pull it free of his grip. and get away somehow.

"Whoa whoa!" He said, pulling back, though not as hard, but enough to show he wasn't letting go.

AJ's ears perked up. Did that thing just talk?

"Now look," He said, wrapping part of the rope around a nearby trunk for support, holding onto it now with one hand, "we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." He said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a fresh, red apple. "You see this?" Held it out to her. Her mouth practically watered and her stomach growled. She hadn't had a decent meal since she'd appeared in this world. "It's yours if you play nice. In fact, once we get where we're going, you can have as many as you like." He put it back in the bag, taking the rope with both hands again. "But if yer gonna keep on behaving like a stubborn jackass..." He looked back over his shoulder toward the sun getting lower. "Well, it'll be a long walk back to the ranch. You got that?"

Applejack stood frozen, the line still taught on her, still in shock of this encounter. He pulled the rope off the tree and started to walk, trying to pull her along. She instinctively resisted, trying to step backwards. The rope pulled against his cut-up arm. He winced and cursed, glaring back at her. "Such ingratitude," he muttered at her, "even after I saved your life."

Applejack looked down at his blood, dried on her fur where he'd pulled the rope from off of her neck, and where he'd rubbed her chest, willing her back to life. She looked back up at him. He just stood there waiting patiently.

"Can we move along?" He said, giving her a gentle pull. She looked back over her shoulder again, across the field. She could try the forest again. Everything in her gut was telling her to try to escape, just run. But where to? She knew nothing about this place. Where would she even go? He looked back at her captor. He clearly wasn't about to eat her. And she didn't seem to be in any kind of immediate danger. And the promise of good food, or hell, even any food at this point was worth the risk. She took a nervous step toward him.

"That a girl. Come on, I didn't have much for lunch, and I bet you're getting hungry too." he said. He knew just what to say it seemed. A couple more steps and he started walking himself, keeping a wide berth between them.

They made their way back in the direction they'd come from, a winding path along the bottom of the gulch, heading downstream back to the river where she'd first seen him.

"I'm Arthur by the way." He said. "Sorry, I should have introduced myself sooner, but I uh, heh heh, had my hands full." He chuckled. Applejack tried to speak, but the metal bit in her mouth turned it into a crude vocalization of a whinny.

"Well it's nice too meet you too, Chestnut." He filled in a name for her. "You know, you've had me on quite the run the last couple of days. But I wouldn't be much of a Stetson if I'd just let you get away. No ma'am. I've got a family name to uphold." He looked back a her with a quick smile. He looked up at his cowboy hat and gave it a twang with his finger.

"See this here hat? My great, great grandfather, John B. Stetson invented it back in the 1860's. Made a fortune selling 'em to folks all through the western frontier. The company had been passed down through the family, eventually to me. That business had been my whole life. But I'm older now. I never took time to settle down 'n have a wife 'r kids. So didn't have anyone to pass it on to."

"You ready for this?" He asked as he waded into the river, across to the other side with the raspberry bushes where she'd first seen him. He was in up to his waist. Applejack waited at the shore for another moment. "Come on, I'm gett'n cold." She stepped into the river after him, able to keep her head above water as they forded the shallow river. She climbed the bank on the other side, shaking off her wet mane. Arthur stood and waited for her to finish. She thought he looked silly in his wet clothes and squishy sounding boots as they started walking together again.

"So as I was saying, with no one to pass the business on to, I ended up selling it off to some business called HatCo, down in Garland Texas." He said. Applejack had no idea where that was, but she was starting to enjoy listening to Arthur talk. "I took the money and decided to get back to my family roots, out here in the 'wild' west." He said with an edge of sarcasm to his voice. "Bought me a ranch. And I could have bought some horses too, but I decided to do it the old fashion way." He looked back at her again. She cocked her head a little.

"To be honest, I'm not really sure why I decided to try this." He sighed. "I'm not really any good at it. You're actually only my second one." He smiled. "But don't worry. I've got some great accommodations waiting for you." He laughed again to himself. "Listen to me going on talking to you like this, expecting you to be able to talk back. It's just been so long since I've actually talked to anyone new, I guess I've just really missed the opportunity."

The path out of the valley led up the side of a shallow plateau, and there, as they reached the crest of the top, was the ranch. It wasn't anything remarkable. A fenced pasture, a small farmhouse and a sizable barn. The sun set just as they reached the edge of the property. He took a lantern from off of a hook on the side of the house, lighting it up. He led her inside the barn, opening her stall. She cut him a sideways look.

"Well go on." He said, motioning with his hand. "Oh, here." He turned around and grabbed a pale of apples and set them inside the stall for her. Her stomach took control of her legs, walking her into the stall as the door closed behind her.

"What do you think, Buck?" He said behind her. "Didn't I tell you she was the prettiest mare I'd ever seen." Applejack looked up behind her from the pale she'd been eyeing. In the stall across from her was a stallion that was a bit taller than her. He was about the size of her brother, Big Macintosh.

"Buck, this is Chestnut. Say hello Buck." Arthur said. Buck stared blankly at her with vacant eyes before letting out a snort and a neigh. "At'a boy Buck." He said turning back to Applejack. "Well, now that you two are acquainted, you can go ahead and eat." He said as he unbuckled the bridle from her head, pulling the bit free. Applejack wanted to say something, but thought better of it for the moment, choosing instead to eat for now. "Nighty night." Arthur called from the door as he left them for the night.

Applejack waited until she was sure he was gone. She looked back at the stallion across the way. "Buck, what's going on here?" she asked. He just stared back at her. "What is this place? Where are we?" Still he said nothing. "What's the matter? Can't you understand a word I'm sayin'?" She took his silence for a 'no'. "Horseapples." She muttered before she ate her fill and settled into the soft hay bedding.