Applejack turned and saw several ponies from Maple Town running towards her from up the road. She saw Mayor Rooter, Sure Suture, Peach Pit and a number of others that she didn’t know by name. They were navigating the now twisting and warped road, the ground not completely flat or free of boulders anymore thanks to Karza. Applejack merely stood there and waited for them, realizing she was more exhausted than she felt, and in a bit more pain now that the adrenaline had worn off. She still kept her guard up, using Hoof of the Earth to make sure Karza had truly left. She didn’t want any of the ones coming to get hurt.
“Howdy,” Applejack said as they finally got near. “Why’d you come out here? I told you I would take care of it.”
That didn’t sound so impressive with the way she looked.
“W-We got worried after a while—we couldn’t stop watching after you and thinking what you were doing,” Mayor Rooter said. “Before long we decided to follow you and then, well then we started feeling the ground move and heard all these loud noises and came running...”
“It was almost like an earthquake, really startled us. It also didn’t feel right to let you get hurt when you’re not even from here,” Sure Suture said.
Applejack looked down at her bruised and cut up body. Not like she was angry at them for coming to help—and she still wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to beat Karza when he decided to leave. She nodded in appreciation to the ponies and gave them a smile. “Alright… you mind if I spend another night in Maple Town then?”
“Ouch! You think you put enough alcohol on that danged thing, Doc?” Applejack grumbled as Sure Suture went about cleaning her wounds—currently in the process of dabbing an alcohol-soaked rag to one of the cuts on her leg.
“Just let me go about my business, you’re a tough mare aren’t you?” Sure Suture didn’t meet her eyes as he continued his work.
“Yeah, yeah...” Applejack muttered and just let him finish his work.
By the end of it she had a few bandages on her body along with some gauze and bits of cotton wrapped around her hooves and legs. For the most part nothing major had happened, but Sure Suture also wanted her to put some ice on the spot she had been hit by the larger rock. Applejack was pretty sure she’d be fine after a night of rest. Just needed some good food and a drink of water in her and she’d be right as rain.
She rested her head back on the pillow of the bed she was on in his doctor’s office. A fittingly small building for a small place like Maple Town—but still with everything a doctor needed. She wasn’t sure if she was going to sleep here or not but it probably wouldn’t be too uncomfortable.
That is if all the others crowding the office wouldn’t leave first.
Right now it was crowded with a very curious Mayor Rooter, Blast Miner, Peach Pit, and Melody Jewel, while quite a few other townsponies were standing around outside the building. They were all rightly curious of what happened. And the ones more knowledgeable about Karza were very surprised that she could still be called okay after facing him. Applejack was still hoping they’d have enough soon and leave so she could just get to sleep, she was already thinking about the rematch with Karza and what she was going to do about him.
Mayor Rooter cleared his throat and stepped up to her bed. “Well it’s good you’re okay. Melody Jewel was right that we should’ve gone out to see if you needed help...”
Applejack raised an eyebrow over at Melody Jewel. “You convinced em to do that?”
“Sorry I couldn’t come out myself...” Melody Jewel sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “I was a little scared but I figured it was still wrong for us to not even make sure you were okay. You’re not from Equinestan, no offense, so us heaping all our problems on you just felt wrong. And knowing what happened to those soldiers we couldn’t just not make sure nothing like that had happened to you...”
“Truthfully it almost did...” Applejack rubbed at her neck where she had briefly been buried up to.
Blast Miner then walked up beside Mayor Rooter as well. “You know, and pardon me if this is rude since you’re recovering and all, but I can’t help but be curious how you actually managed to fight back against Karza for so long. How did you do it when he can control all the earth and rocks around you?”
Applejack normally wouldn’t have minded telling him the whole truth—but she had made a promise to keep Hoof of the Earth to herself and not let it become a spectacle. It was a private thing and she wanted to keep it that way out of respect. So all she could really do was keep Blast Miner and the others wondering. “Well I’ve got a few special tricks under my hat too. I aint the type of mare that can be bullied around by somepony like him.” She frowned. “That Karza though… you all really weren’t kidding about what he can do.”
“Yes… he’s really something. I can’t begin to think of how a pony could do what he does,” Blast Miner scratched his head.
“What are you going to do now?” Mayor Rooter asked. “Are you going to turn back since-”
“Turn back?” Applejack immediately cut him off. “Absolutely not. I said I’d help you and I meant that. I’m a mare who keeps her promises. If I didn’t keep this promise I couldn’t call myself Applejack anymore—that’s the way of it. Besides, although I may not like fighting I don’t like losing one bit either and I’ve got a score to settle with that crazy pony. Tomorrow morning I’m going back out there to settle things with him.”
“You are?” Melody Jewel asked, her eyes going wide.
“Sure am,” Applejack nodded.
“I can’t say that’s a good idea,” Peach Pit shook his head.
“Me neither. Perhaps we can get help from somewhere else again. Get more ponies who can fight together. Surely Karza’s threat of destroying Maple Town wasn’t real?” Sure Suture suggested.
“But she was already able to fight him far better than even that group of soldiers. Maybe we should trust her,” Blast Miner shrugged. “She’s definitely got some way of taking care of herself.”
“Well I… um… I’m not sure...” Mayor Rooter hesitated, his mouth was twisted up in turmoil as his eyes darted back and forth across the small room. “W-We still don’t want to foist all our problems on you… b-but you seem very capable, more than the rest of us. I’m not sure what we should do, do we need to fight at all? W-What if Karza just doesn’t bother doing anything else as long as we leave him alone?”
“You can’t do things that way,” Applejack shook her head. “I didn’t get a clear answer from him—in fact I think he’s totally crazy—but he’s obviously not just doing this to sit around doing nothing later on. He said he’d take over Equinestan soon enough. That alone means you can’t just ignore the problem, you already know he’s dangerous, ignoring him isn’t going to fix anything.”
“If that’s the case then I agree, but still, just what can actually be done? Are you certain you can fight him again? You were already hurt by him once,” Sure Suture said.
“I know what he can do now. I’ve seen him fight and I’ve seen him use his crazy powers. I’ll be better prepared tomorrow morning,” Applejack said.
“You don’t want any of us to maybe come and help?” Peach Pit asked. “Not that I really want to but maybe we can do something...”
Applejack shook her head again. “No, and it’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but you don’t need to and just downright shouldn’t put yourselves in danger like that. I might be able to take care of myself against him but Karza’s powers are way too dangerous for ordinary ponies like you. You’d just be getting in the way and I couldn’t fight him if he was targeting you, I’d never be able to figure myself if any of you were hurt doing that.”
“But you’re not an ordinary pony?” Blast Miner raised an eyebrow at her.
“Not… entirely,” Applejack sighed. “I mean, yes, but no. It’s—I’m just a regular earth pony like any other. I promise.” She rubbed her head and grumbled in annoyance. “Ugh, I’m making this sound way more suspicious and weird than it is. But just trust me again, alright? This Karza fellow is a bad, no-good, rotten punk but I’ve dealt with worse. I can tell that after meeting him.”
“You certainly speak with much more… conviction than any other pony I’ve met,” Melody Jewel said. “You have a certain charisma to you.”
Applejack awkwardly grinned. “Well thanks I suppose. Although I don’t think I really talk special none...”
Peach Pit scratched the side of his head and grimaced. “I guess if this is the way it’s going then the least we can do is get you some good food. I’ll take care of that.”
“And on that note I think I’d like the rest of you to file out now as well too,” Sure Suture said. “Let the mare get some rest, she’s been through enough today and we don’t need to bother her with more of this inquisition now that things are settled.” He looked over at her. “You can just stay in this room for the night, and don’t worry about a charge.”
“Thanks for the hospitality,” Applejack nodded.
Sure Suture snorted humorously. “We’re the ones who need to be thanking you.”
“Don’t worry about paying for anything,” Mayor Rooter said.
“Tomorrow morning I’ll make sure to see you before you head off again, just listen for my music,” Melody Jewel smiled. “And when you come back after taking care of whatever you need to do at Elysium’s View we’ll give you a warm welcome and gladly help you out in whatever way you need. Maybe even put on a welcoming back party—the best you’ve had.”
Applejack, briefly thinking about one of her friends in particular, knew that was very unlikely. She still smiled for the mare in front of her. “Thanks a lot, Melody. I’ll be looking forward to that. And for the rest of you… once I leave town, give it an hour or two before you head to the passage. If I’m not there anymore it means I won and you can rest easy.”
“We’ll do that. Goodbye for now then,” Mayor Rooter said, beginning to shuffle some of the others in the room out. “Rest well—and best of luck tomorrow. I suppose we’re all counting on you.”
Applejack waved goodbye to them as they left the room, Sure Suture included, and let her hoof fall down to the bed as soon as they were gone and the door had shut. “And I may not know how exactly I’m gonna beat him yet, but I still wont let you down.”
Though she ended up being pretty bored in the patient’s room she was now staying in, Applejack decided to be a good patient and just stay in bed so she could be at her best when she faced Karza tomorrow morning. Peach Pit later came back with some of the freshest and tastiest peaches she had ever eaten in her life along with a glass of carrot juice and the promise of a hot peach cobbler when she made her return visit to Maple Town. Applejack, as much as she would have preferred apples, had to admit that the simple meal of peaches was one of the best meals she had had on her entire trip so far. A later checkup from Sure Suture and a wash and that was pretty much all she did until it was night outside and Applejack felt the desire to sleep crawling up her body.
She glanced at her hat that was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room from her bed. The two roses in it looking just as colorful and alive as when she had first been given them. Applejack took a deep breath and rolled onto her most comfortable side, closing her eyes and falling to sleep.