My name is Apple Jack.

I live in a small earth-pony village called Pony Vill. I grew up on an apple farm with my younger sister Apple Bloom, my older brother Big Macintosh, and our grandmother Granny Smith. We're only the tip of the ice burg when it comes to the Apple family, but we're the only ones currently residing in this small town. The rest of our family is scattered all over, from the vast deserts of Appleloosa to farthest reaches of the Frozen North. My kin had never been known to stay in just one place very long; in fact, my farm is the youngest-living Apple relic to date! Nearly a century, and I intend for it to stand for a century more.

The day I learned to walk is the day I learned to buck. With the help of my late father, Bright Mac, I learned how to knock the apples straight from their branches. Where to kick, when to kick, and how to kick. He taught me just as he taught Big Mac before me, and it was in that same skill I trained Apple Bloom, since our parents were around to witness it. I remember them going off together with the rest of the party, to cross the mountains, on the long journey to deliver our product North to the meeting point with the unicorns. They never came back...

I earned my cutie mark not long after that. Running away from home, trying to find them. I just couldn't believe they were gone! I would've kept walking that train for miles if that comet hadn't called me back home again, and then called my cutie mark right onto my flank. I've been working my fields ever since then; bucking, plowing, harvesting. Growing and making our little farm flourish. Loading up the carts for the journey north every month, and stocking up our stores to last when the pegasi would bring the first snows down on top of us. What more could an earth pony want?

Apple Jack was in the middle of making breakfast when Apple Bloom busted through the door like a bull on the loose. Yellow pelt and long scarlet hair, her mane pulled with a tight bow, and mixed eyes wide with frenzy.

"Apple Bloom!"

The young filly didn't stop until she ran into her older sister's leg and fell promptly back on her flank.

"What the hay has gotten into you?"

Apple Bloom scrambled to her hooves and said, "There's something wrong with the orchard!"

"What do you mean something wrong? Fruit bats?" Apple Jack's expression fell. "Is Big Jerry back? I told that darn bull to get lost! I swear if he's eating our crop again..."

"It's not Big Jerry!"

"Then what is it, Apple Bloom?"

"I don't know, exactly, but Daisy Jo and I was just wandering in the west orchard, looking for falling apples cause Daisy Jo wanted a snack, but then we saw that all the apples was rotten!"

"Rotten? That's impossible! Big Mac checked them trees just yesterday, didn't ya Big Mac?"

Big Mac lifted his head up from the newspaper he was reading just long enough to say, "Eeyup." He was a massive red stallion, a large green apple cutie mark taking up a majority of his flank. His hair was a light ginger, his mane pulled back into a red bandana to keep the ginger locks out of his face.

"Well it's true!" The young filly stomped her hooves, "I swear it! Apple's don't lie! And these'ns are rotten!"

Apple Jack rised. "Take me to 'em, then."

"I will!" Apple Bloom stomped her hoof, "Follow me!"

Apple Bloom lead her older sister out of the house, into the orchard filled with bright red fruit nearly ready to be bucked and harvasted. It didn't take long for red to turn to brown, and green leaves to turn to black. The smell of rot filled the scent all around the west orchard, littered with the fallen, brown crop that lay in mushed-up piles beneath every tree.

"Holy crabapples..."

Daisy Jo ran to up to them, barely bigger than Apple Bloom, with a light purple pelt spotted gray and a blonde mane expertly arraged with flower-shaped barrettes.

"It was like this when we found it, Miss Apple. Honest."

Apple Jack leaned down to Daisy. "Daisy Jo, I'ma thinkin' ya should run off and tell your folks 'bout this."

"Yes Miss Apple Jack!" Daisy Jo ran off in the direction of her home.

"And Apple Bloom? You go and tell Granny bout this, kay? I'ma check the place out."

"Is it the blight?"

Though Apple Jack started to walk away, Apple Bloom stuck to her like a burr.

"Granny Smith's always talking about the blight. Blight this, blight that, but I ain't never seen no blight."

"Nither have I." Apple Jack put her hoof to the bark and it peeled right off the tree. "But this ain't no apple blight."

"Then what is it?" Apple Bloom gasped and cowered, "It's not changelings is it? Or windigo's?"

Apple Jack hummed. "Were it windigo's, the wind would be a howling and so would the timberm wolves." Apple Jack strained her hears, but didn't hear one peep coming from the forest. "And it's not cold. Think we can rule em out."

"Can we rule out changlings?" Apple Bloom gulped. "Please?"

"Go on and get Granny. She'll know what to do."

"Yes Apple Jack!"

Apple Bloom ran off as her older sister told her. Apple Jack reared up on her hind legs and placed her forelegs on the trunk. Her hooves slipped right off and she banged her muzzle on the way down.

"Ugh! Horse raddish!" She rubbed her muzzle and sat back on her haunched, "Darn tree's more slippery than a snail."

A few moments later, Apple Jack heard the sound of three sets of hooves approaching and turned quickly to greet her family. Granny Smith was a few paces behind the other two Apple siblings, but soon she too came up over the hill; scrawny and green, with blonde hair streaked in gray and a cutie mark of an apple pie.

"Granny!" Apple Jack ran to Granny Smith, "The apples are rotting!"

"I can see!" Granny Smith, "I do have eyes you know."

"Well. Yeah." Apple Jack pressed her ears down, "The uh trees are dying."

Granny Smith hummed. She hobbled over to the nearest tree and dug her hooves in the dirty until she uncovered a powerful root.

"I ain't never no tree rottin' this bad, right down to the root! Let 'lone a whole section 'o orchard!"

"Whatcha thinking Granny? Changlings? Fruit bats?"

"Were it changlings, they'da made a snack of us all by now, and fruit bats only eat the apples, not the tree. And there ain't none resting in the leaves!" Granny Smith reared up and knocked a branch with her hoof, and the gentlest of blows brought down nearly have of the decaying leaves.

"Then what is it, Granny?" Apple Bloom asked.

Granny Smith pursed her lips and spat on the ground. "Well that's a darn bad omen if I've ever seen one." She spun away and pushed past the other three Apples, all of which scrambled to get out of her way. "We needa get the girls together for a town meeting."

"I can get Merriweather!" Apple Bloom offered, "She shouldn't be that far from here!"

"And I can get Breezy." Apple Jack offered, "Big Mac, you okay with getting Bay?"

"Eeyup!"

"Then get to it!" Granny Smith snapped, "We ain't got all day!"

The three siblings looked between each other and then all ran for their designated assignments.

The entire town was gathered, though it wasn't very many ponies. Seven families all together, thought they were so interchangable it would easy to mistake them as one. The Apple family, the Cherry family, the Shy family, the Breeze family, the Rich family, the Cake family, and the Weather family. Mares and stallions and foals alike all waited on the four elders gathered inside of the court hall, discussing topics forbidden for all those not of the rank. They had been talking for what seemed like an eternity, leaving their families worrying and waiting.

Fluttershy, the elder Shy siblings, was cuddled up beside Apple Jack; at far as earth ponies went, she was one of the most beautiful ones that Apple Jack had ever seen. Pale, yellow fur that seemed to reflect both the sun in the day and the moon at night. She had long a long, wavy mane pulled back with butterfly barrettes into a gorgeous cascade of rosy pink. Her flank, hooves, ears, and muzzle were patched in white, and on her forehead a wonderful brown marking remarkably simular to a butterfly. Her eyes, though closed at the time, were of a pale shade of pink, and her cutie mark was a pink and white bunny standing on its hind legs to sniff at the wind.

"What do you think it is?" She whispered to her friend, "They've been in there a r... really long time."

"Dunno. Granny mentioned something about bad omens."

Apple Jack flinched when she felt something rub against her side, but when she turned to look, all she did was groan.

"A bad omen? Not with me around."

"Zephyr Breeze!" Fluttershy scolded.

Zephyr Breeze was the younger of the shy siblings and, if anything, the exact opposite of his sister. Where she was quiet he was loud, and where he was abnoxious she was gentle. But, being a member of the Shy's, he wasn't the worst looking pony around; he was tall (or, at least, what could be consider tall for an earth pony) with green fur and long strands of yellow hair. They were just as wavy as his sisters but without any of the natural beauty, and his mane was pulled up in a messy bun. His cutie mark was a feather floating above two lines of a cross-breeze.

"What, sis? You scared too?" Zephyr was suddenly in betwen them, fast as the wind, and pulled both Apple Jack and Fluttershy close to him. "Don't worry, I'll keep you mares safe!"

Apple Jack raised a hoof and pushed Zephyr away. "I think we can do fine on our own."

"Don't need to deny it, baby. Let it all out. Zeph's right here."

Fluttershy pulled out of her brothers grasp and turned to face him, putting a hoof to his chest. "And 'Zeph' would do better over there." She turned him around, "Go."

"Ey, ey, ey little sis!" Zephyr fell backward onto Fluttershy and pulled her beneath him. "I can take a hint."

Apple Jack growled and grinded her teeth. "Obviously not." She was wasily able to shove the stallion off of Fluttershy and send him stumbling into a group of Cherry's. "Since you're still here."

Three steady, drumming hoof beats against wood sounded through the area, and everything stopped; even the birds stopped their chirping and the cicadas stopped their humming and a wood pecker on a nearby house stopped it pecking. All of the ponies gave the four elders their full attention.

Granny Smith cleared her throat. "Us here have decided to send a small party out to visit our neighbors."

"We need to see if the other communities are suffering from crop failure as well, or it's just us." Said Bay Breeze; she was a golden mare with an equally gold mane and green eyes, her cutie mark a rose.

"I can go!" Apple Jack immediately offered, "There a'lotta Apples o're in Apple Loosa, an' if they're'a strugglin', I wanna help."

"I can go too!" Fluttershy immediately offered, "I mean, think of all the poor animals without food!"

"Think of all the ponies that could starvin' this winter." Apple Jack countered.

"Well, uh..." Fluttershy dug her hoof into the dirt, "Them too, I guess."

"We were hoping to send at least three." Merriweather piped up.

"Then I'll be the third." Offered Bon Bon; a cream-colored mare with white spots and pink-striped navy curls. Her cutie mark was of three candy treats. "I think I have some family out there."

"Then it's settled!" Granny Smith tapped her hoof, "Get ready girls."

"No!"

The crowd looked around at the sudden shouting. Apple Bloom ran beneath the hooves of many of the ponies gathered, and three her hooves around Apple Jack.

"You can't go!"

"Apple Bloom." Apple Jack gently removed her younger sister. "I gotta."

"No you ain't gotta!" Apple Bloom's eyes were brimming with tears, "What if ya get lost? Or hungry? Or can't find your way back?"

"Ain't gonna worry about that, youngin'." The crowd parted for Granny Smith as she approached and pulled a map out from her saddle bag, "We drew up this here map for ya." She handed it off to Apple Jack.

"Thanks." Apple Jack said through her mouthful of paper.

"Bet mom and dad had a map..."

The guide fell out of Apple Jack's mouth almost immediately. "Apple Bloom!" Apple Jack gasped, then quickly gathered the map back in her mouth, "Don't you wor'y 'bout that, Bloom. I ain't going anywhere near the mountains."

"But what if there are Timber Wolves? Or monsters?"

Apple Jack took the saddle bag from Granny Smith's haunches and put it on her own, carefully sliding the map into the pouch to free her mouth and say, "I can handle 'em. Strongest pony there is, just like pops." She tapped her hoof to her chest.

"And pop's still died, so you could too!"

"We aren't going very far..." Fluttershy offered, "And we'll be back in a full days... won't we?"

"Of course we will be! Ain't nothing that'd keep me away. C'mere." Apple Jack sat back and opened her hooves to embrace Apple Bloom. "There, it's okay. You'll have Granny Smith and Big Mac lookin' after ya, and the whole town too for that matter. It takes a village to raise a filly after all." Apple Jack ran her hoof through Apple Bloom's hair before standing up and turning to the shaking Fluttershy and the proud Bon Bon. "I'll be fine. But we do gotta get on the road if we wanna make it through the Everfree before sundown."

Fear flashed through Fluttershy's eyes. "W...we're... going t... through the... Everfree?" Her voice cracked and her body shaked.

"'course we are! It's the quickest way to and from Apple Loosa."

"But...t...there are... m... monsters."

"No monster's'll get ya while I'm around." Apple Jack swore, "Apple's honor. Y'know I can break that."

"Mhhmh..." Fluttershy rised on shaky legs and wiped her eyes of tears, "I... suppose I should... go get ready."

"Me too." Bon Bon added.

"Make sure ya grab only the essentials!" Apple Jack called, "Don't need nothin' fancy." She then turned her attention back to Apple Bloom, "Would ya like to help me pack a wagon, sis?"

Apple Bloom blinked. "Uh huh."

"Then let's get a move on!" Apple Jack ducked her head under Apple Bloom and lifted the filly onto her back, "We're burning daylight here!"

Together, the younger Apple sister helped the older to pack a small wagon for the journey; in the end, they had packed much more into the wagon than Apple Jack would have liked to take. Odds and ends and assorted things that would just weigh her down, but when she tried to remove anything Apple Bloom would always have some sort of objection.

"No! What if you get caught in a net?" She had objected when Apple Jack tried to remove a machete.

"What if you get lost?" She said when it was a compass.

"What if you need clothes? Granny says you can never have too many!" She said when Apple Jack tried to remove the twelve outfits packed for her.

Eventually Apple Jack gave in. She let her sister ride in the wagon all the way back to town where the other two members of the party were already waiting, packing nothing more than small saddle bags as they had been told."

"Finally!" Bon Bon said, "What, you pack your whole house or something?"

"No." Apple Bloom said matter-a-factly, "It was too big."

"Uh. Apple Bloom," Apple Jack addressed her sister, "Why don'tcha just go along and play?"

Apple Bloom hung her head. "Okay..." She hopped out of the wagon.

"I'll be back soon, sis." Apple Jack pressed noses with her sister, and then Apple Bloom ran off in the direction of home. Apple Jack watched as she went until she faded out of view, and then she turned to face the others, "We can take turns pulling the wagon and riding in it; I'll take first shift."

"Okay." Bon Bon hopped in the wagon, "But do we really need all this stuff?"

"It makes Apple Bloom feel better."

Bon Bon gave a heavy sigh. "Okay, it's just gonna weigh us down."

Apple Jack looked over to Fluttershy and, after a few seconds of watching her hesitant and feeble attempts to climb into the wagon, Apple Jack ran over to her.

"Here, let me help." She crouched down and let Fluttershy crawl onto her before standing up and giving the yellow pony the boost she needed to climb in beside Bon Bon.

"Thank you..." Fluttershy twirled her hair.

Apple Jack gave a tilt of her hat. "Any time." She pulled the harness onto her shoulders and locked it in tight. "Let's get to it!"