//------------------------------// // The Town Part 2: Sweet Apple Acres // Story: The Four Strangers // by The One and only One //------------------------------// The Four Strangers The Town Part 2: Sweet Apple Acres "From end to end of this galaxy, most are blinded!" - Gravemind (Halo 3) Twilight and the four unicorns started to head into the trees of Sweet Apple Acres, the real forms trying to avoid touching any of the trees and hitting the local population of birds that fly by. By the time they got into the heart of the farm the four Juggernauts had become exhausted from the effort, trying to not let it show threw the advanced holograms. They must have been doing a good job because Twilight didn't notice anything. They stopped and Twilight looked around to find Applejack leaving the barn with Big Macintosh following from behind with an empty cart. Twilight trotted over to greet Applejack "Hey Applejack." "Oh, howdy Twilight, what brings you here to the farm?" Applejack failed to notice the four unicorns walking up from behind Twilight. "I'm just showing the town to Obligation and his brothers and decided to show them the your farm after showing them the library." Applejack slightly flinched at the mention of the four unicorns. "Uh, Twilight, can I talk to you in the barn for a moment?" "Okay Applejack, just give me a second," Twilight turned around to face Big Mac, "hey Big Mac, can you what over Obligation and his brothers while Applejack and I discuss something." Big Mac looked over and answered with a simple, "Eeyup!" With that Applejack and Twilight entered the barn as Big Mac walked over to the unicorns in order to learn their names. "Howdy." "Hello good sir, my name is Obligation, and these are my brothers Tolerance, Mercy, and Restraint." Big Mac didn't seem affected by the names of the four unicorns, 'My name is Big Macintosh, but you can just call me Big Mac." After the formalities were finished the five stallions began to walk towards the apple trees, much to the Juggernauts discomfort. While in the barn Twilight and Applejack were discussing cautions about the new ponies. "Ah have a bad feeling about them Twilight." "What do you mean Applejack?" "Well, Ah can tell you they're hiding something." "While you mention it, every time I'm near them it feels like I'm being watched from all around me and they have been acting suspicious, also they didn't have any aura when they levitated things." "Also, after Applebloom woke up after getting her into bed she said that she wasn't rescued by anypony, but was saved by four large creatures." "Well, we can't do anything until we have more evidence to confirm our suspicions, so for now we will be nice and hospitable until then." "Okay, Twilight Ah can do that, thank you for listening." "Hey, what are friends for." ===== "So how do you remove the apples from the trees anyway?" Without saying anything Big Mac turned around and bucked tree, causing all the apples to fall into the baskets set up under the tree. Big Mac found the company of the other stallions to be a nice change in pace, but he also couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He just shrugged it off as him being paranoid because of his new company. Obligation seemed to be the most interested of the brothers, watching how some ponies worked to survive by growing food for themselves and others, he found it heart warming, just if he and his brothers had hearts. "May I try?" Asked Obligation as Big Mac was preparing to continue his normal process on the next tree, he thought about it, deciding that it wouldn't hurt anypony. "Eeyup, just don't hurt yourself." "I won't." Well, it was the truth, he was worried more about the tree itself than anything. Obligation got his hologram into place while he was ready to hit the tree with his arm. At the right moment, his arm began to swing forward, hitting the tree at the same time his hologram's hind legs hit it. He applied too much force, making multiple large cracks in the tree, with all the apples and some leaves to fall in the baskets. Big Mac had his jaw open in disbelief at the sight before him. Obligation saw what he had done and started to say he was sorry for damaging the tree. Big Mac was more impressed and angry at the unicorn. "Its all right, Ah just didn't know anypony could do such a thing." "No, it's my fault, I just don't know my own strength." "The one Ah would worry about getting mad at you is my sister, she gets oversensitive about the trees sometimes and you didn't mean too, so Ah forgive ya." Obligation settled down until Applejack and Twilight came over a nearby hill, at the sight of Applejack Obligation froze, he didn't want Applejack to see the cracks he put into the tree and started to panic, but Big Mac, being an understanding fellow walked over to Obligation. "It will be all right, Ah got this." Obligation relaxed and walked over to see what his brothers were doing as he heard Applejack yell at the sight of the tree and Big mac began telling her that he did it on accident. "What are you three doing?" Tolerance was the first one to speak up, "We were just comparing the structure of the trees of this world to previous ones that the our species has come in contact with, they seam to be the same in every way except for that they hold large amounts of energy." Obligation was intrigued by this development, "Anything else you find that is strange?" Mercy this time spoke, "Yes brother, it seems like there is no energy source for the tree, the tree itself is creating the energy." Restraint butted in, "It is, but I think we shouldn't be investigating the way this world works until we are sure that we are in the clear and the towns folk aren't as suspicious of us, we should just try to make friends in this town since we are going to be living here." Obligation had to agree with him and they decided to head back to the other three ponies. When they got there they noticed that there was another type of animal with them, it was smaller then a filly, with white and brown fur and had a red collar wrapped around its neck. They suspected that it is part of the canine family and possibly a pet of some sort. Big Mac and Applejack were also finishing up talking about the tree. "I'm sorry sis, I'll make it up to you later okay." "Al righty then, just don't let it happen again okay." Just when the four unicorns got close enough, the began to growl at the new arrivals. Mercy, being the closest one to them froze and stared at the dog in confusion as his brothers followed in and froze as well. Twilight, Applejack, and Big Mac also noticed how strange the dog was acting towards the four unicorns. Then the dog began to bark and snarl, getting ready to jump at Mercy, who was slowly backing away. "Winona!" Applejack yelled out, "What in tarnation is wrong with ya, they are just ponies, they mean nopony any harm." Winona didn't even stop to look at her master as she jumped at Mercy, but before coming in contact was gripped by Twilights magic and pulled her away from Mercy and his brothers towards Applejack, who glared into Winona's eyes. "Ahem greatly disappointed in you Winona, they may be new, but they aren't a threat, Ah taught you better then this when it comes to meeting new ponies." Winona noticed that the three ponies she was familiar with were glaring at her, her master telling her that she had did wrong, Winona began to calm down and had a look of sadness on her face as Twilight let her go. "Big Mac, can you please take Winona back to the barn?" "Yes, ma'am!" Big Mac took Winona and head back to the house and barn as Twilight and Applejack turned back to see the unicorn brothers calmly standing there, waiting on to see what would happen next. "Ahm sorry for the way Winona was acting to you guys, she's never acted that way before." Mercy spoke up first, "Its fine, as long as nopony got hurt, we're fine with it, isn't that right guys?" The other three nodded their holographic heads. As such applejack took the apples from the cracked tree and headed back to the barn as well, leaving only Twilight and the unicorn brothers behind. "So...were do you want to go now Twilight." Asked a pale faced Mercy. "Well, I can show you the Carousel Boutique next if you guys don't mind." With that the group left Sweet Apple Ares back into town.