The One Free Apple
Chapter 4: Part 1: Chapter 04
Previous Chapter Next ChapterApplejack stopped in the port right under the red barn Skyla mentioned, but something seemed strange about it.
"It's too quiet..." Applejack thought.
She cautiously left the airboat and climbed the ladder that led to Station 7. Upon arriving there, she saw what was wrong: there was a Headcrab Shell in there and three corpses on the ground, two of them with a headcrab attached to their heads.
"Station 7, come in." Applejack looked at the radio where Skyla's voice was coming from. "I already sent Applejack to you, she will be arriving any minute now. Station 7, do you read?" She ran toward it.
"Skyla, it's me!"
"Oh, Applejack! Thank goodness, you made it safely. What happened, why isn't anypony answering me?"
"They're... They're dead!"
"Dead?!"
"A Shell hit the place. Headcrabs got two o' them. The other must've died when the Shell hit the buildin'!"
"Oh, goodness... Dead... This... This can't be happening!" there was a brief moment of silence, then Skyla said again: "Wait, you said that the Headcrabs got two of them, right?"
"Yup!"
"Did you killed them?"
"What?"
Applejack heard a groan coming from behind her. She slowly turned around and saw the two ponies with headcrabs on their heads getting up, while groaning and moaning.
"Your answer is 'no'. No, Ah didn't killed 'em!" She grabbed her pistol and pointed at the headcrab on the head of one of the ponies and shot a few times and soon it dropped dead. The other "zombie" threw a nearby barrel at Applejack. She managed to dodge it, but it hit the microphone of the radio, smashing it.
"Applejack!" Skyla called. "Applejack, are you ok?"
The former farm pony shot the other headcrab zombie and grabbed the broken microphone. "Skyla, can ya hear me?"
"Please, answer me, Applejack! Are you ok?"
"Ah'm ok! Ya hear me? Ah'm ok! Skyla?"
"Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok..." Applejack heard the faint sound similar to the one of flying carriage from before coming from the radio. "Shit! Applejack, if you're ok and you can hear me, run! There's a Chopper going after you! Run!"
Applejack dropped the broken microphone on the ground and ran back to the airboat. "Sorry for leaving ya worried, Skyla, but Ah can't come back now! Ah'll send ya word when Ah arrive in New Ponyville!" she then accelerated the airboat.
The Chopper Skyla was talking about surpassed Applejack; it was indeed the same thing from before. Apparently it didn't noticed her, because it didn't stopped or started shooting at her.
Right after the Chopper was another flying machine, but this one was different, almost like a living creature. One of the Sylphs Sweetie Belle told her about, maybe? But this one didn't disappeared in the horizon like the Chopper; it landed not too far away from her and the container it was carrying opened; several CPs got out of it.
"Oh, horseapples!"
Applejack accelerated as much as the vehicle could, lowering her head to give the CPs less chance to hit her only unprotected area. After avoiding many bullets, dodging piles of wreckage and taking dangerous turns, she came across a closed floodgate.
"Oh, for the love of Luna..." she looked around and saw one single building connected to the floodgate. "Well, Ah don't have many choices here!"
She parked near the bulding and climbed the ladder leading to it. When she opened the door, she was greeted with two things: the first was bullets from three CPs and the second was Celestia's face in a big screen. Apparently she couldn't see Applejack, because even after she stepped in, she kept talking, probably to many:
"We now have direct confirmation of a disruptor in our midst, one who has acquired an almost messianic reputation in the minds of certain citizens. "
"Wow, do they really consider me that much?" Applejack thought while shooting back at the CPs.
"Her figure is synonymous with the darkest urges of instinct, ignorance and decay. Some of the worst excesses of the Old Canterlot Incident have been laid directly at her feet."
"Hey, Ah take offense to that!" she yelled at the screen. After killing the CPs she approached the screen, curious to listen to what her former ruler had to say about her.
"And yet unsophisticated minds continue to imbue her with romantic power, giving her such dangerous poetic labels as the One Free Apple, the Mare of Freedom. Let me remind all citizens of the dangers of deification. We have scarcely begun to climb from the dark pit of our species' evolution. Let us not slide backward into oblivion, just as we have finally begun to see the light. If you see this so-called 'Free Apple', report her. Civic deeds do not go unrewarded. And contrariwise, complicity with his cause will not go unpunished. Be wise. Be safe. Be aware."
The image faded to black. Applejack sighed. "Good, now Ah have a bounty on mah head! Well, screw ya too, Celestia!" she grabbed her SMG and resumed her quest for the handwheel that would open her way.
After passing (and killing) through a couple more of guards, she found it. With some effort, she managed to turn the handwheel and open the floodgate.
"Now, back to--" an alarm rang. "Oh, ponyfeathers! What now?"
She ran as fast as she could, but the place was already overrun by CPs.
"Ah can't fight that many!" she thought, then looked around for another route. That's when she saw a footlocker labelled "explosives". She grinned!
"Any signs of her?" one of the CPs asked the other.
"Negative!" was the answer.
"Hey! Masked dude!" Applejack called. All the CPs pointed their guns at her. "Fetch!"
A small metal cylinder with a red light flew toward her and landed gracefullly in the middle of them. Applejack took cover.
"Grenade!" one of the CPs shouted, but it was too late and it exploded.
"Those are pretty useful. Ah'll take some!" Applejack said, wrapping a belt with five grenades around her waist. She then went back to the airboat, this time reaching it. She accelerated and went through the now open gates. There were many more CPs shooting at her now, and even two tanks on a bridge shooting rockets at her, one missing her for mere inches!
"Y'all give me a break, already!!" she shouted, but they ignored her, never stopping their offensive. The explosions of the rockets were causing waves on the calm river, making the airboat harder to keep steady. Finally she managed to get out of their shooting range, but that didn't meant she was safe. She heard the sound of propellers; the Chopper was back.
"Well, if it isn't mah ol' friend!"
The flying machine was shooting at her and dropping explosives on her, but now that she was swimming in calmer waters, it was easier to handle the airboat. After dodging a few strikes she took shelter in a tunnel. There, she stopped the airboat near a patch of dirt, got out of it, sat on the ground and took a deep breath.
"This is way harder than Ah thought it was goin' to be..."
She noticed a crate near her. She would have ignored it, wasn't for the three apples drawn on it. She carefully opened it and found in there the thing she wanted the most, but that she less expected: an apple. A red, round, firm and juicy apple. Her stomach growled in hunger and excitement. She failed to notice the hourglass drawn in the bottom of the wooden box.
After a few more minutes catching her breath and enjoying the only food she had in a good while, she returned to the airboat and accelerated it.
"Ready for round two?!" she shouted as she saw the Chopper hovering on the sky, waiting for her to leave the tunnel. Apparently the CP controlling the Chopper was, for it started dropping explosives as soon as Applejack was spotted.
Applejack crossed a good portion of the rivers crossing City 17, going through plants, abandoned factories, empty ships, warehouses and even a couple of ghost towns, all while being chased by the chopper.
Everything was going just fine, until Applejack failed to notice an explosive right in front of her. The explosion sent both her and the airboat flying and she hit the ground. Hard. It didn't took long for her to lose her senses.
* * *
When she opened her eyes, she expected to be either on the same place she fell on or ir prison, but she was actually in a comfortable bed.
"She's waking up!" said a mare.
"Oh, finally! Is she ok?" asked a stallion.
"I guess so. I mean, she opened her eyes!"
"Where... Where am Ah?" she asked, getting up with a terrible pain on the side of her head. The ground was harder than she thought.
"Station 9!" the unicorn stallion said. "But soon it will be just another empty hole in the riverside. We're pulling out! It's too dangerous."
"The airboat. Is it ok?"
"Yes, don't worry about it. The Vortigaunt is working on... A few things!" the unicorn mare said, helping Applejack to stand. "Can you walk?"
"Ah... Ah guess so!"
"Bring her here, Snowfall." the stallion said.
Snowfall nodded and, even with Applejack insisting in telling her that she could walk just fine, she kept Applejack's hoof wrapped around her neck, helping her walk.
"Here, take a look at this." the stallion said, standing near a map of the southeast of City 17, where they currently were. He pointed at an specific area on it, which had a red circle around it. "This here is the dam, it's just up ahead!" he then pointed at another area on the map, which had a tack on it. "And this here is New Ponyville, Rarity's hideout. It's practically just around the corner, but it's next to impossible to arrive there with that Chopper on your tail. Besides, we wouldn't want you to take the enemy straight to one of the main bases of the Resistance. Good news is, the Vortigaunt is working his magic on your airboat, so you'll have a little more firepower going forward. And I think he is nearly done. Go on, now!"
Applejack nodded and left the room. Her airboat was right outside, practically unscratched, but with a new feature: a mounted gun.
"Greetings to the One Free Apple." the Vortigaunt said with his raspy voice, apparently a characteristic of the species.
"There we are!" the stallion said. "That gun came from the same kind of Hunter-Chopper you're up against, so it will do a hay of a damage to the flying bastard. Take that Chopper down and you should be able to go to New Ponyville safe and sound!"
"The One Free Apple will accept this weapon, or suffer greatly on the road ahead!" the Vortigaunt said.
"Yes, what he said!" Snowfall agreed. "Now go, miss Applejack. Your friends and family are waiting for you!"
"Alright!" Applejack said, jumping on the airboat. "Thank y'all for savin' mah life. Hope Ah see y'all again soon!"
"No, we're the one to say 'thank you', Applejack." the stallion said. "The Vortigaunts predicted that you will play a major role in saving us all."
Applejack chuckled. "Ah didn't know Ah was that important!"
She tightened her grip on the handles of the airboat. Snowfall lowered the gates and and she accelerated it.
"Farewell, miss Applejack!" Snowfall shouted, waving her hoof.
"For freedom!" shouted the Vortigaunt.
"Show 'em what we're really made of!" shouted the pegasus stallion.
"Don't worry, you guys." Applejack thought. "I won't let you down!"
When she left the tunnel, the first thing she saw was the Chopper, waiting for her again.
After sailing through the hazardous waters near yet another abandoned factory, full of CPs and headcrab zombies, she arrived at the dam. Upon arriving there, she met once again her oldest nemesis, the Chopper.
"An' we meet again, big boy!" she said, aiming her mounted gun. "But this time is the last. Say goodbye!"
Applejack shot the Chopper as it shot back while dropping bombs, which she skillfully dodged this time, not missing a single one. After a couple of minutes shooting at each other, Applejack shot a vital piece of the Chopper, making several parts of it explode and its propellers to fly each in a different direction.
"How d'ya like them apples?!" she shouted.
But her moment of glee didn't last long, for the destroyed Chopper was now falling toward her. Applejack's eyes widened. She turned the airboat around and accelerated, but she didn't go far before the dead Chopper hit the water, causing a wave. It wasn't a very big one, but it was big enough to make Applejack lose control of the airboat and go through one of the open gates of the dam, falling down the damn waterfall of the damn dam. Next Chapter: Part 1: Chapter 05 Estimated time remaining: 21 Minutes