//------------------------------// // The Storm // Story: Strange Happening // by Z-A-C //------------------------------// I've been on Youtube for about two hours now and Applejack was bored. She didn't say anything but I could tell because the energy in the room changed awhile ago I just ignored it until it got to me. I looked over at her. "Alright fine, what do you want to do?" "Ah don't know just not sit around all day it's starting to get to me." I tried to think but couldn't come up with anything. So I just shrugged and went back to my computer. After a few minutes I finally gave her a proper response. "Well I would suggest that we play a video game but with your hooves you wouldn't be able to hold the controller." I paused the video and faced her again. "I am sorry Applejack but there's not much to do around here." I went over to my bed and sat down on it, looking at her and waiting for her to respond to me. When there wasn't one I shook my head and went downstairs to get a drink. "Hey Applejack!" I yelled through the house. She came out of my room and stood at the top of the stairs. "Yeah?" "Want something to drink?" "Uh sure." "Too bad." My mom glared at me and Applejack started back towards my room. "Chill out guys I'm just joking. Whatcha want?" Applejack came downstairs and sat at the table. "Water would be fine Ah suppose unless you have apple juice?" I checked the fridge and shook me head. "Alright then. Water please." I silently got a cup out of the cabinet and grabbed a bottled water of of the fridge and poured her a cup of water. "Thank ya sugar cube." "You should feel honored I was saving that for later." "Were ya now?" "Well actually no....I wasn't. To be honest I forgot it was in there otherwise I would be drinking it instead this." I sat by her. "What is that stuff anyway?" "Mountain Dew. It's like a lemon-lime drink or something like that. One of my favorites. Want some?" "Uh...no thanks sugar cube. I'll just stick to the water." "Alright then." I looked out the window and saw that it was raining a bit. I didn't think anything of it and just spaced out for awhile. --------- It's been awhile since Applejack and I have sat down at the table now. I was playing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on campaign mode and she was watching me play. I told her the this was different from Zombies because you actually had an objective instead of just running around killing shit until you eventually die. She said she'd give it a fair shot and that she was skeptical but that was an hour ago. Whether she actually agreed with me or just couldn't find anything better to do, she was still here. After about an hour or so my dad came home and mentioned to my mom and I that it was supposed to storm later. Sense this is Indiana we didn't really give a shit. I shrugged and my mom actually responded and then they started talking about the normal stuff. You know? The 'how was your day?' kinda stuff? And I just continued playing until dinner was ready, which was about another hour or so. My dad and I managed to get a few games in though and Applejack was still watching. I looked back and she was asleep. "Or maybe not ." "Maybe not what?" My dad asked. "I thought she was watching us play but nope. She's asleep." My mom finished making dinner and we stopped and went over and got our plates. After I sat my plate down I went over and woke Applejack up. "I was tryin' to nap here!" "Oh I'm sorry I thought you liked eating. My apologies go back to sleep and miss dinner." Her stomach growled. "Nah that's alright, Ah needed to wake up anyway." I silently chuckled and went over to the counter to help her fix her plate. "Alright we have some more 'pony friendly' food tonight: We got Caesar salad and pasta that has no meat in it. Do you eat pasta?" "Not normally. Usually only the fancier ponies eat pasta but If yer asking if it's safe fer me to eat, then yes." "Alright how much do you want?" "A hoof-ful of both if ya don't mind." "Alright go sit down, I'll bring it to you." I piled on the food and brought the plate over to her. "I hope you don't mind but I put ranch on the salad." "Not at all sugar cube." I looked at her for a second taking a drink of my flavored water (because I've already reach my M.D. limit for today) and finally said something. "Ya know I've been wondering why do you call me that?" "Oh Ah don't know I call all my friends that." I was kinda surprised to say the least. She considers me a friend already? Wow. "Huh." Was all I managed to say. "What?" "Well we've only known eachother a full two days and you consider me a friend already. It just threw me off guard I guess." "Is there any reason Ah shouldn't?" I thought for a little bit. "No not really." "Alright then." "Yeah." We were silent for the remainder of dinner and I went back to the video games after I was done eating. ++++++++ I've been playing for about two hours and changed over to Skyrim about forty-five minutes ago. It was raining pretty hard now and thundering a bit but nothing to bad yet. I was in the middle of a quest when the power went out. "Aw shit!" Applejack looked a bit startled. "What happened?" I sighed. "I 'Fus-Ro-Dah'd' to hard," She looked confused. "The power went out so no more video games for awhile." "Is that all? Shoot Ah thought something bad happened." "Uh well...maybe something bad did happen just not around here." I shrugged. "Congrats Applejack you get to be apart of the tradition of standing out on the porch while it's storming." "Don't ya think that's um..." She paused in thought. "Stupid? Probably. Considering one time there were tornado conditions and what did you do? Sit on the porch. Now come on." She shook her head. "Alrighty then." I opened the door for her and we went onto the front porch, I sat in one of the chairs and she just sat down on the floor. I had my iPod with me and put on the song that I usually play during a storm. I had the volume low enough the I could hear the rain and thunder over the music. I closed my eyes and just let the sense of hearing take over. I hardly had heightened hearing due to the hearing loss thanks to my dumb-ass. Word of advice kids: Never shoot a gun without hearing protection it's been over a year and my ears are still ringing! Anyway, after the song was over I opened my eyes and in those few minutes the storm had gotten worse. I sat there watching the storm when in between lightning flashes I notice a much dimmer flash come from the woods. I stared at where the flash came from for awhile until I saw something purple emerge from the tree line. "Y'all see that?" I pointed in the direction of the purple thing. "I think so. Is that the 'thing' in the woods you always talk about?" My mom teased. I rolled my eyes. "No. He wears a black hooded cloak and is slightly spectral with his face obscured by darkness." She looked shock by the description and didn't say anything else. "You see it Applejack? Over there, purple thing came from a flash. See it?" She squinted in the direction of the purple creature. "Twilight?" "Twilight?" "Yeah Ah reckon she's the reason Ah'm here but Ah can't tell if that's her or not." I looked up at the sky and the clouds were almost black. "Well as much as I don't want to, I'll go check it out." "Ah'm going to!" "Nope" "And why not?" "Because there are dead trees that might fall down and I don't want you getting hurt." "Ah appreciate it but she my friend and Ah'm going with you!" I looked at my dad. "What do you think?" "I don't think any of you should go but it looks like she's going anyway so you might as well go and keep her safe." I sighed. "Alright Applejack dress and we can leave." She nodded and I went inside and upstairs to my room and stared to get dressed. ========= I went back outside and tapped Applejack on the head causing her to look up at me. "I'm set let's go." "Right." "You should probably leave your hat here so you don't lose it in the wind." She tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm....nah." "Ok then lets go before it gets any darker." She shook her head and we stepped out into the cold rain and headed down to the woods. It started hailing about a quarter of the way down and I started running to take shelter in the barn but I noticed Applejack wasn't with me. I called out to see where she was. And I got no answer. "Applejack!?" "Where are ya I can't see in this rain!" "Oh for the love of!" I ran towards her voice and found her trying to hide under her hat. I picked her up and felt a couple fingers go....somewhere....just my luck. "What in the!!" "Sorry sorry sorry sorry." I said as I ran into the barn and sat her down. She was blushing (understandably so) and shook her head. "You should really be more bucking careful where you put yer bucking hands!!" Meanwhile I was puking in a corner and then after that I went over to a puddle and tried to wash my hands off and my mouth out to get rid of the taste of puke and made the mistake of scratching my nose. "Aw Fuck!! Goddammit! Son of a....ugh." I went back to the corner and started puking again. Then I went over to the same puddle and did the same thing except for scratching my nose. "Fucking apples...." It stopped hailing as bad and we headed out. I didn't say anything to her I just tapped her on the shoulder and started running towards the woods when I looked behind me she was following so I guess she understood. I opened the gates and left them opened for Applejack and just continued towards the woods. I had reached the woods and began searching not really paying attention to where Applejack was. I saw Twilight (I think that's Applejack said her name was) and carefully but quickly approached her. "Twilight?" She turned around and her eyes went wide. "Come with me I'll get you to shelter." And in response she lowered her head and shot something at me. "Fuck..." I caught the glowing ball of what the hell ever this is did a 360 from the force of this thing and shot up into the air. "Whoa betcha I can't do that again." She took the bet and shot at me again from her.....horn?!?! I held up my hands to catch this one but apparently I'm only capable of epic feats only once. The ball hit my hands and exploded, sending my flying into a tree about ten feet back. I did manage however to say, or rather yell very loudly a certain cuss word that starts with an "F". I didn't pass out but everything was blurry and Applejack ran over to me. "Sugar cube?!" I didn't respond. "Oh no. Zane!! Are you okay!?!?" "Kill, destroy, maim, ravage, harm." I looked up and pointed at the cause of my being like this. "That one!" She looked at what I was pointing at and saw her friend looking at me still in her battle stance but with her head lifted. "Twilight?!" "Applejack?! Get away from that thing!! He could hurt you!" She looked at me and back at her friend. "How can he hurt me when he's out cold?!" "What?" She looked at me. "Oh...I guess you're right." She started to walk over to us. I slowing raised my head. "I'm not knocked out. I just can't move." I said in a calm, very aggravated voice. "Now if you ladies will be so kind as to get my the hell off of the ground and to shelter. I would be so happy and probably wont hurt her." I gritted my teeth. "Come on Twi, help me out here." "What!? Did you not hear him?!?!" "Yeah Ah did, that him being him. Ya gonna help me or not?!" "Hurry the hell up! If you haven't noticed it's storming and I am soaked. GET. ME. OUTA. HERE!!!" They picked me up and carried me over to the picnic shelter and sat me down on the table. "Thank you. Now would you mind telling me why you attacked me?" "Yeah Twi why did ya?" "I panicked! I saw a strange creature coming toward me and freaked out!" "Tell me Twilight would a potentially hostile creature offer to take you to shelter in a storm?" I asked. "Well in the Everfree maybe. And I can see that's not where we are..." she kinda trailed off a bit. "Yeah yeah yeah we'll get to that later." "...But what I'm really curious about is how did you deflect my spell? That was amazing. How did you do that?" "No idea. But you're a fucking unicorn." I looked over at Applejack. "I don't think you told me about unicorns." "So you didn't use a spell to deflect me spell?" "No it just kinda happened. Is there a spell you can use to I don't know make me able to move again?" "Oh right, sorry." She said as she cast another spell to cure my state of paralysis. "Thanks. Now do you have a healing spell? I think you broke a rib or something." "Yeah. Just continue laying down and I'll cast it." And she did. Most of the pain was gone now and I felt like I had more energy. I didn't say anything and just concentrated on keeping warm. Needless to say I don't like Twilight to much right now. I'll make her sleep in the barn.