Chapter Six
Sweet Apple Acres
Sky Blazer was trotting down to Sweet Apple Acres with the hope of finally getting some food in his empty stomach. He decided to fly over head and see if he could spot the farm from above. It had been days since he flew, it felt good to soar through the air again. The wind running through his mane, the feeling of total freedom and peace. He spotted an apple grove and began his descent, He landed in seemingly never ending column of apple trees. As he trotted along the column’s of apple trees his gaze fell upon a brown leather stetson hat that had abandoned by some-pony. Sky picked up the hat and tried it on.
“Eh, not my style. This probably belongs to one of the farm hands, might as well return it. Damn it! Quit talking to your self.” Sky said as he face hoofed. He then made his way towards the farm house. Sky couldn’t help but be impressed at the size of the orchard. He suddenly saw a flash of orange as something made contact with his face knocking back against a tree.
“Gotcha! Ya hat thief!” said a voice as Sky regained his vision. An orange earth pony mare with blonde hair and emerald green eyes was standing in front of him with an angry look on her face. “Thought you could get away didn’t ya?” she said as she pinned him to the ground with her front hooves. Sky managed to wiggle himself free and jump back from the enraged mare.
“Look, miss I have no idea what your talking about!” Sky said as he returned the mares intense stare. “And for the record hitting some-pony in the face is not a proper greeting method.”
“Shut it! And don’t play dumb with me, you know darn well what I’m talkin’ about. That hat you have is mine!” she said as she pointed to the hat that was resting on Sky’s head.
“Oh this thing? Why didn’t you say so? I was on my way to check the farm house to see if this belonged to any-pony.” Sky said as he took the hat off and gave it back to the orange mare. She snatched it from his hooves and placed it back on top of her head.
“Well...Thanks. Sorry for bucking ya in the face earlier.” she said as she let out a sigh. Sky then touched his right eye which winced in pain, he realized now that it was black and blue.
“It’s fine, I’ve taken worse hits. Maybe you can help me, I’m looking for some-pony name Applejack. She’s supposed to work here.”
“Yer look’n at her.” she said flatly.
“Great.” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Why were you look’n for me anyway?” she said as she cocked an eyebrow.
“Well I was going to ask-” Sky then felt his left wing clench up.
“Ask me what?” Applejack said as Sky shoved her out of the way of a rainbow mane’d pegasus’s collision path. Sky and the mare had both crash landed in a near by tree. Sky opened his eyes seeing that the cyan mare had a worried look on her face, Applejack ran up next to the cyan mare and started scolding Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow! How many times do I have to tell ya to watch where your going!”
“Ugh...My head.” Sky said as he rubbed his head and got to his hooves. Rainbow then rushed over and gave Sky a crushing hug.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”
“Can’t........Breathe......” Sky managed to say through the pegasus’s iron grip.
“Sorry!” Rainbow said as she released the hug. “What are you doing out here any way? And WHAT happened to your eye?”
“Well as to what’s wrong with my eye you can ask her.” he said as he pointed at Applejack. “as to why I’m here. I was about to explain that before I was hit by SOME-PONY with a rainbow mane.” he said in an aggravated tone.
“You know this guy Rainbow?” Applejack asked as she eyed Sky with a condescending look.
“Yeah, this is the stallion I told you about! The one who saved me from the manticore.” Rainbow said as she put a hoof on Sky’s back. Applejack’s look turned from angry to surprised.
“YOU’RE THE HERO OF THE EVERFREE EVERY-PONY’S BEEN TALKIN’ ABOUT?” Applejack said in shock.
Hero of the Everfree? Where did THAT come from? Sounds cool though.
“Uh, yeah that’s me.” Sky said as he blushed in embarrassment.
“Oh my, I’m awfully sorry about bucking ya in the face earlier and accusing you of stealing ma’h hat.”
“YOU DID WHAT!?” Rainbow blurted in surprise.
“Relax Rainbow it was just a huge misunderstanding.” Sky said as he calmed the pegasus down, he then turned his attention to Applejack. “Ms. Applejack, apology accepted.” he said as his stomach let out a roar of hunger.
“Um? What was that?” Rainbow asked while trying to hold in her laughter.
“Oh, that brings me to why I’m here. I don’t suppose you have any apples you can spare.” he asked the orange mare with a blush on his face.
“I can do ya one better, and please hun, call me Applejack.” she said with a grin on her face. “Com’n RD?”
“Yeah, my shift just ended and I can use a something to hold me over till the part-” Rainbow said as she put a hoof in her mouth.
“Relax Dash, I already know about the party. I ran into Pinkie earlier today, or rather she tried to run into me and Twilight.” He said as he walked with the two mares down the pathway to that led to the farmhouse.
“What do ya mean tried?” Rainbow said as she cocked an eyebrow.
“She tried to tackle hug Twilight at lunch, but I managed to get Twilight and myself out of the way while Pinkie was in mid jump. Plus I knew she was following us for like ten minutes before she tried tackling Twilight.” he said as he continued down the path. Sky didn’t notice that the two mares had stopped in their tracks. Sky turned around to see the two ponies have looks of shock on their faces. “What?”
“You managed to avoid Pinkie Pie’s sneak attack!” Rainbow said in surprise. “I’ve been trying to do that for years.”
“Rarity said she has this habit of popping up out of nowhere at random times.”
“Yup, just last week she nearly gave me heart attack when she popped out of a barrel of apples. Ah really should have seen that coming.” Applejack said with an annoyed look on her face.
“Relax AJ, I was able to find her with my-. Never mind!” he said as adverted his eyes from the two mares.
“You were able to find her with your what?” Rainbow asked as she flew in front of him. Sky then tried to back out of the awkward question.
“Nothing Dash, just me rambling nonsense.” he said as he gave a weak grin.
“Sugar cube I can smell a lie a mile away and right now you reek of it.” Applejack said as she held a blank look on her face.
“Okay fine, I’ll tell you guys. But please keep it a secret.” Sky said as he let out a sigh.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” the two mares said in perfect unison while going through the motions.
“What was that?”
“That was a pinkie promise, Once you make it you can’t ever break it.” Rainbow said with a serious look in her eye. Off in the distance Sky could have sworn he heard some-pony yell FOREVER.
“Well what happens if you do break it?”
“Trust me sugar. You don’t want to know.” Applejack said as the memories of their last trip to Appaloosa came creeping back.
Sky looked at the two mares, who now showed eagerness in their eyes. “I’ll tell you two after I get some food in me I haven’t eaten all day. Deal?”
“Fine the farm house isn’t to far away, once were there you can take your pick.” Applejack said as she led the way.
The rest of the way was completely silent, even the rainbow speed demon was lost in thought. Sky kept digging through his mind to try and see how he was going to explain his ‘talent’ to them. As the three friends got inside Sky could smell the fresh apple pie being taken out of the oven. Sky’s eyes boggled at the steaming pie that was cooling in front of him. The three friends sat down and began to eat. Once Sky had had his slice of pie he decided to hold up his end of the bargain.
“Alright, that was best apple pie I’ve ever eaten.”
“Thank ya kindly. Now about that story.” Applejack said with a grin on her face.
“Right I haven’t forgotten. I suppose that I should start talkin. I have this little ‘talent’ that allows me to detect other ponies movements. I don’t know how it works but I get little tells that mean different things. Like when I tackled Applejack, my left wing tightened up and that means something is about to hit me. This ‘gift’ has saved my life more times than I can count.” Sky finished as he glanced back at the two mares who’s both jaws hung in amazement.
“Well all be. You’ve got Pinkie sense!” Applejack exclaimed.
“I’ve got what?”
“Pinkie has the same ability. She is able to predict things at random times.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me! I’ve been all over Equestria and I’ve never met another pony with the same ability." their conversation was interrupted by three small fillies that came bursting into the room. A yellow earth pony, an ornage pegasus and a white unicorn
“HEY APPLE JACK WE WERE WONDERING IF-” the three fillies then saw that Applejack had company and quickly shut their mouths. Sky recognized the white unicorn instantly.
“Hey Sweetie Belle.” Sky said with a grin on his face.
“Sky!” Sweetie Belle said as she turned back to her friends. “Girls, this is the stallion that saved us from the manticore!”
“Yeah I remember you now!” said the yellow earth pony.
“Wait, I though Rainbow Dash saved us?” said the little orange pegasus.
“You’re half right darlin, Rainbow carried you three to safety while he distracted the manticore for y’all to escape.” Apple jack said as she pointed to Sky Blazer.
“See I told you that’s what happened.” Sweetie Belle said to the orange pegasus.
“I still don’t see how this guy could’ve taken down a manticore.”
Ouch! Right in the pride.
Rainbow then proceded to give the orange pegasus a light tap on the arm.
“Hey, watch it kid, this guy saved our flanks and if you don’t believe me then take a look, he’s got the scar to prove it.” Rainbow said with an angry look on her face.
“Dash!” Sky yelled as shot a dirty look at the cyan pegasus.
“Really, can we see it mister?” the earth pony asked while giving the puppy dog eyes.
How can I say no to that look?
“Applebloom! Don’t be rude to the nice stallion.” Applejack said as she glared at the little filly.
“It’s alright AJ. If they want to see it then it’s fine by me.” Sky said ash he got up and showed the them all the scar from the manticore. Sweetie Belle was glaring at it like a science project.
“Weird. It was bigger before at Rarities place.” Sweetie said as she scratched her chin. At this statement Sky hurried over to a mirror and notice that it had gotten smaller.
“Huh, you’re right it has gotten smaller. I must be a fast healer then. No biggie give it another day or so and it’ll be just another scar.” At this statement the three fillies backed away and decided to go back to playing outside. Sky then shifted his gaze back to AppleJack and Rainbow Dash who just sat there with a dumb look on their faces.
“I’m mighty sorry about that sugar cube.” Applejack said as she blushed in embarrassment.
“It’s fine AJ. I know how kids can be, they’re just curious and I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean to cause offense.” Sky said with a slight chuckle. The three small ponies suddenly zipped back into the room unannounced.
“Oh yeah I almost forgot! Hey Rainbow Dash when are you and Sky Blazer gonna get married?” the orange pegasus asked. Hearing this Rainbow’s face lit up like candle in embarrassment.
“WHAT?” Rainbow said at the top of her lungs.
“Why would you think that sugar cube?”
“Well when I was in the hospital I saw him and Rainbow sharing a hospital bed and sleeping together.” Scootaloo said now noticing an enraged Rainbow Dash glaring at her. “Well....uh...I...gotta....go.....do........ my homework. Yeah, go do my homework! See ya later.” she said as she zipped out the door, hopped onto her scooter and made tracks away from Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack suddenly had a smug grin on her face and looked toward Rainbow and Sky who were now blushing profusely.
“Well, looks like Rainbow’s found herself a colt friend.” she said in a teasing manner.
“AJ, let me explain. Rainbow was tired, so I allowed her to rest her head on my bed and she must have moved her position while she was sleeping.” Sky said as he was trying to calm the angry pegasus down.
“Right! That’s exactly what happened!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Fine, fine. I won’t pester ya about it. I’m not Rarity.” AJ said as she tipped her hat back. “Ah, just got one more question for ya sugar cube.”
“What?”
“What in the hay is that thing and why is it glowing?” Applejack said as she pointed to Sky’s necklace which was glowing brightly.
“Yeah that’s pretty weird.” Rainbow said as she eyed the piece of jewelry.
Sky pit his lower lip thinking how he could explain.
“Well, this necklace was a gift from my mother, as to why it’s glowing. I haven’t the slightest idea.” Sky said as he eyed the necklace. “Come to think of it, it was doing the same thing when Rarity was around it. Weird.”
“Well why don’t you ask your parent’s. Maybe they know the answer.” Rainbow said.
And there it is.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re dead.” Sky said as he looked back towards the two mares who now had a sad look on their faces.
“Um....Sorry to hear that. I’m sorry for asking.” Rainbow said as she put a hoof on his shoulder.
“Sorry if we brought up bad memories sugar cube.” Applejack said as she put her hat back on and trotted over to Sky’s side.
“Girls it’s fine. I already told Twilight and Rarity, it would only be a matter of time before you two found out.” he said as he gave them a reassuring grin. He then saw the two mares give a nod and brought him into hug.
“Ladies I’m fine really. It’s taught me to look out for myself.” Sky said as he broke the hug.
“But, how do you cope...ya know...being alone all the time?” Applejack asked.
“I travel a lot and I meet new ponies, usually they’re nice. But eventually I take my leave and go to the next town.”
“Are, you gonna leave us?” Rainbow asked with a sad look on her face. Sky didn’t know how yo respond to this question without hurting their feelings.
“I’m not gonna lie Rainbow. Yes, I will leave eventually, but I have no idea when that is. It could be in a week, a month maybe even a year from now. Point is I don’t like to stay in one spot for too long, I have to keep going, I have to keep searching.”
“Wait searching? What are you searching for?” Rainbow asked as she backed away. Sky realized he said too much and decided that it was time for him to leave. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost dinner time.
“Well, I gotta go. See ya tonight at the party.” he said as he zipped out the door and back onto the orchard, leaving Applejack and Rainbow Dash sitting at the table.