Before my story begins, let me just tell you a little bit about myself for those who haven’t read my first testimony. My name’s AJ. I’m a human on the last part of my nineteenth year. It’s been about six months since I secretly married my most chaste spouse, the young country mare named Applejack, and a little less then six months since we blew our cover and returned from our unexpected grand adventure. With the rest of the Apple family, I have been living happily on Sweet Apple Acres since I moved in following our return. Applejack and I have become incredibly close, and life with the cute, friendly cowpony on Sweet Apple Acres has been nothing less then a dream come true. We haven’t been without external problems, such as Ponyville still getting used to our marriage, but I have everything I've ever wanted with Applejack’s heart. As a matter of fact, when I close my eyes, I see what you see in the picture attached with this testimony. I’m not afraid of anything as long as I am with her. I just hope it stays that way.

“Boy, howdy! Ah’ can’t wait to see yer reaction to yer first zap apple harvest. We gonna have quite a bumber crop of em’ this year,” said Applejack in her loving, sweet country accent. We had just finished a hard day’s work, and she and I were lying against a zap apple tree in the shade, and the rays of sun were faintly penetrating the leaves and shining through on her sherbet coat and blonde mane. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Ponyville. The radiant colors in the orchard had always been so pleasing to me, especially matched with the heavenly blue sky and white clouds. Applejack, however, was the center of all of the beauty, with her cowpony hat and a pretty green bandana around her neck that was special to her because it was her father’s. Whether it be relaxing with her on days like this, working hard with her in the orchard, or just playing and having fun with her, I was in heaven.

“I can’t wait to see that blue ribbon around your neck after the Ponyville rodeo tomorrow. Unless, of course, they let me participate,” I said in obvious sarcasm, smiling at her.

“Hehe, you wouldn’t do as bad as ya think, sugarcube, just cause ya got a big heart,” she said, resting her head on my shoulder. Gosh, this day can’t get any better. These kind of serene moments with her made me feel like I could live forever. When she rested her head on me, there was so much magic and peace; there wasn’t a problem in the entire world.

“You know what I say? I say we go to the waterfall tomorrow after the rodeo, just you and me. We haven’t been there this month at all!” I said, and her eyes lit up with excitement. “The waterfall” refers to our secret spot. Way before she met me, Applejack found a beautiful waterfall with a swimming hole in the middle of the Everfree Forest. We had what you might say was our first “spark” when she took me there one time after we had been separated. It was also the spot of our secret wedding. We had been there a few times since our return, each one resulting in magical moments of fun and love.

“That’s a great idea, sugarcube! Hehe, you sure are cute when yer hair is all wet,” she said, bumping me with her shoulder and causing me to turn red.  

“Oh, I’m cute? And this is coming from the one with the most adorable white freckles on her cheeks?” Applejack blushingly smiled and pulled her down hat over her face. My heart melted; I could tell she loved it.

“Oh come on now, don’t make me too soft fer the rodeo tomorrow.”

I couldn’t wait to watch her compete. She loved playing sports, and she was a great athlete, no doubt of which had something to do with her most admirable work ethic. She deserved to be a great athlete given how hard she worked day in and day out on this farm, but much more admirable then her athleticism and even her work ethic was her humility. That was one of the million things I loved the most about her. She didn’t seek to be loved as much as she sought to love.

“Did ah’ tell you mah’ Aunt and Uncle Orange are comin’ in to visit after the rodeo? They sure gonna be in fer a wonderful surprise.” Oh, right. That. They had sent a letter in the mail a week prior of their visit, congratulating Applejack on her marriage and excited to “meet the lucky stallion.”  

“I can’t wait to meet em’,” I said, rather unenthusiastically. Applejack had also told me that they were kind of uptight, so that made me kind of nervous. Applejack started laughing, though, and just like that my uneasiness was gone. When she laughed, no matter what the situation was, you can bet I was smiling.

“Don’t you worry now, sugarcube. They love me and they trust me, so they’ll love you and trust you too,” she said. I sure hope so.

“Say sugarcube, who the hay is that?” I poked my head up at her and saw that she was squinting her eyes at something in the sky. I looked up, and barely visible in the sky under the branches were what appeared to be a pegasus pony flying fast directly at us. A little closer and we saw it was Cloudchaser, a mare with blueish purple skin and a blue and white mane. She descended swiftly, and we saw she had a look of horror. Oh no. Please don't ruin this moment between us. Applejack and I looked at each other nervously and stood up. Cloudchaser hit the ground with a thud about fifteen feet in front us. She tried to talk, but all we heard was panting and babbling. Applejack told her to calm down and take a deep breath, and words finally came out in between the heavy breathing.

“A-Applejack! AJ! R-runaway train! … headed s-straight for… Ponyville station!" Applejack stepped back as her mouth and eyes flew open in shock.

“W-what?”

“You mean like it’s gonna fly through the station without stopping?” I said.

“No, honey! The station’s bein’ repaired today! Anythin’ goes over it, it’ll crash!” said Applejack.

Relaxation time with Applejack had come crashing to and end. My heart started beating fast and my muscles twitching with anxiousness. A runaway train; that’s a big deal!  

“Rainbow Dash is the only pegasus athletic enough and brave enough to stop it, but we can't find her!” said Cloudchaser.

I threw my hands through my hair; ohmygoshohmygosh, what do we do? My heart was pumping out of my chest and my legs felt like they were going to give out. Trains were extremely heavy and powerful things that could destroy a town like Ponyville if they crashed. Two minutes ago, I was in paradise with Applejack. Now I was paralyzed with fear as I pictured the runaway train crashing into helpless foals.

“East or west?” shouted Applejack to Cloudchaser, who pointed west. Applejack wasted no time and ran over to me and kneeled down for me to get on her back. “C’mon honey, it’s you and me!” My mind was spinning with so much anxiety and nervousness that I hesitated for a second. It certainly appeared she and I were going have to stop this thing ourselves if no one else would. I didn't know how to deal with this, but thank Celestia she did.

I hopped on her back and grabbed around her neck, and just like that, my next adventure with her had begun. She weaved through the trees in her orchard and bolted right up through the front gate to Sweet Apple Acres, running so fast that the wind in my face was causing my eyes to water. We came up to the group of buildings and houses that make Ponyville, and Applejack sprinted around them out into the open hills and fields that surrounded the western part of town. She let out a loud and majestic neigh as she galloped through the beautiful meadows away from town towards the tracks. She was so brave, graceful, and determined as she sprinted the both of us out toward that rampaging train that I couldn’t help but smile but for a moment at her epic display despite being in a very scary and serious situation. Go, baby. What a great adventure and bonding moment this would be if we pulled this off. I was proud to be on top of her, even as I breathed a million times a minute and held on to her neck for dear life. I lowered my eyebrows and licked my lips as I buckled down my mind, deeply inspired by her. Let’s do this, Applejack.

We came next to the train track leading into town, with the train not far in front of us. She started to run out the side to turn her angle so she could run along with it.

“Ok, we need to get into the engine and pull the break!” I shouted to her, and she seemingly nodded and galloped right over along side the train’s tender (the place where the fuel is kept) as it roared through the countryside. Steam came out from the side and was blowing right through us as she sprinted at unbelievable speeds to keep up with it. I had so much adrenaline pumping through my body I could barely even feel my heart as it pumped a hundreds of times a minute. If I fell, that was it for me. We were quickly running out of time, too. Ponyville was right in front of us. Both of us were now completely in mission mode as I anxiously waited to reach out to grab the side of the steam locomotive where I could enter the engineer’s cabin.         

Applejack ran with the train as close as she could without getting us killed, until she we was right next to the stairs going up to the egineer's cabin. Barely able to think clearly in all the excitement and drama, I threw one arm around her neck and the other out towards the bar meant for climbing up into the cabin. I gripped it tightly, but the force of the train knocked me right off of Applejack’s back, leaving me hanging off the side of train with my legs in the air. I looked down at the moving ground in horror as I swung my other arm around to grab ahold of the bar. I gripped the side rail with both arms and pulled threw myself onto the steps leading to the cabin door. I went to run up them, expecting myself to handle the rest of the situation, but Applejack had other plans. She leapt up onto the speeding train and struggled with all of her might to get herself up as her hind legs dangled off the train. I reached down and grabbed her front legs and pulled with everything I had. She was a lot heavier then me, but the adrenaline and the plain fact that I wouldn’t let her fall gave me strength to pull her up onto the speeding train.

We ran to the center of the cabin where I looked out the window ahead and saw us closing in on Ponyville. There were tons of gauges and levers that neither of us understood as we desperately looked for the way to stop it.

“AH' THINK THAT'S THE BRAKE!” she yelled over the roar of the train, pointing to a red lever sticking out of the ground.

“YOU GET THE BRAKE, I'LL UNCOUPLE THE REST OF THE TRAIN!”

I ran back to the tender car reached down into the area where the coupling connected it to the locomotive. My thinking was less train, less crash; makes sense, right? I ran back up the center of the cabin where Applejack looked at me with great despair and crippling disappointment in herself. My heart was crushed as I saw that the red handle was snapped and unable to move. She told me later that she bucked it so hard it broke off. I looked up and saw something that gave me a tiny sliver of hope. There was a sharp curve in the tracks about one-hundred yards before they entered Ponyville.

“SPEED IT UP!” I shouted, and Applejack looked shocked.

“ARE YOU CRAZY?”

“NO, I’M NOT! SPEED IT UP AND IT WILL JUMP THE CURB!”

Applejack looked down at the speed lever and pushed it forward with her right hoof, looking back at me nervously. We ran over to the steps to get ready to jump the train. I looked deeply into her eyes as I was about to jump, unaware of what kind of physical condition we would turn out. She looked at me with great concern, then closed her eyes and looked down, then looked up again.

“HONEY, HOP ON MAH’ BACK!” she shouted.

“WHAT?” Everything was happening so fast I didn’t know what she meant.

“NO OFFENSE, BUT AH’ GOT MUCH STRONGER LEGS THEN YOU! HOP ON MAH’ BACK!” I looked at her for a moment, and then we hugged each other tightly but very briefly and I hopped on top of her back in a second. She took a step down and jumped right off the moving train right before it got too fast to jump. She landed on the ground and ran forward a few steps before we tumbled over in a cloud of dust. Not Rainbow Dash, not Daring-Do, not Big Macintosh, nor anypony else could’ve landed that jump the way she did. I landed flat on my back and she landed right on top of me, face down.

We both were dizzy and dazed at first, but once we could got it together we swung our heads in the direction of Ponyville. I looked on in desperate hope from an angle on the ground that was both sideways sideways and upside down. It was either going to work, and it was going to jump the tracks, or the locomotive was going to derail at the station and put a dent in Ponyville. If it didn’t work, I would’ve worsened the crash and maybe even the death toll by speeding it up. I hoped and prayed, with Applejack on top of me so that her belly was on mine.

The train approached the curb and started to lean off the tracks. It wasn’t completely off, and my heart stopped beating completely as it continued to thunder forward. Just before it reached the straightaway into the station only a hundred yards or so in front, the train leaned all the way off the tracks and plunged into the Earth, causing an explosion and sending a sea of dirt and smoke into the air as the force of the massive engine pushed its way forward through the ground towards the city, coming to a halt about twenty yards from the buildings on the edge of town.

Looking onward from an open field right outside of Ponyville, with Applejack laying face down on me, I let out a deep gasp and let my head fall back to the ground as Applejack lowered hers onto my chest. We were completely worn out, drenched in sweat, and covered in dust, not to mention still gasping for breath. After resting a moment, she lifted her head and stared lovingly at me with an exhausted but beautiful smile.

“We did it, sugarcube,” she said, her voice feeble but her spirit bright.

“You were incredible, Applejack,” I panted, smiling wide and reaching my arms around her. We hugged each other tightly in triumph as she closed her eyes lowered her mouth right onto mine for a gentle kiss. She tucked her back legs in by my sides so I couldn't get up.

“Whooo-eee. Ah’m plum-tuckered out. Ah’ think ah’ll just stay right here like this ‘till the rodeo tomorrow,” she said smiling.

“Oh no you don’t,” I said, putting my hand behind her ear and rubbing her sweet spot.

“Hey, stop! That tickles!” she said as she laughed and rolled off me until she laid right beside me. We turned our heads toward each other and smiled happily. It didn't matter that my body was sore; I was as happy as could be as I as laid there with my hero.