CHAPTER 4
SCAR'S IDOL
It was very early, earlier than he usually woke up. Ironhead yawned and grumbled as he made his way through Ponyville. Applejack had insisted that he get there early so they could start working at the farm. He hated getting up early; Scar was still asleep when he left. "Stupid job hunt..." he muttered grumpily. "Why the hell did I say that..."
Some of the stalls he passed by were being set up by their owners, ready for a day of sales. He yawned once more and looked up, seeing the sun, its tip just touching the horizon. He also saw a strange, grey, cross-eyed pegasus mare with an envelope in her mouth and a saddlebag full of more envelopes. "Weird..." he thought before continuing on.
Eventually, he came across a dirt path lined with hundreds of apple trees. Looking up ahead, he saw the gate that led to the farm and galloped there as fast as he could. Eventually, the farm that was Sweet Apple Acres came into view. Pausing for a while to catch his breath, he then entered the farm looking around for Applejack or Big Mac or somepony.
"Uh...Hey Applejack! I'm here!" he called out. "Hello?"
The barn door opened, and Ironhead approached it. To his surprise, it wasn't Applejack who exited, but a yellow filly balancing a basket over her head. She spotted him and did a double-take, causing the basket to fall off her head. She went back, stuck her head back in the barn doorway and called out. "Uh Applejack? There's somepony here..."
The barn door opened, and Applejack stepped out. She smiled upon seeing the colt and approached him. "Ironhead, glad you can make it."
"Yeah, me too." Ironhead said giving another yawn. "Ugh...Do I really gotta be this early?" he complained.
Applejack chuckled. "Well ya gotta be. There's a lotta work to get done, so we gotta start early." She turned towards the yellow fillly. "Applebloom, why don't ya come over say hi?"
The latter approached her sister and looked up at Ironhead. "Howdy mister. I'm Applebloom. Nice to meet ya."
The way she smiled at him struck his heart. For a split second, he saw another filly in her place, a filly he knew well. Luckily, he managed to disguise that feeling well enough to go unnoticed by both of them. He just smiled back at her. "Same here kid. Name's Ironhead."
"I know. Ya beat Applejack and Big Macintosh at hoof wrestlin' right? I heard all about it."
"Yup, that's me." he said proudly. Applebloom's eyes widened in admiration.
"Wow mister Ironhead; that's amazin'! Nopony's ever beaten by big brother and sister at hoofwrestlin' before!"
"I'll tell ya what's amazin, the trees on the east field that need a buckin'." Applejack told her sister. "Go on; they ain't gonna buck themselves y'know."
Applebloom nodded before picking up her basket and running off. "She's a nice kid." Ironhead said.
"Heh. She sure is. Now why I don't I show ya around?"
On that note, Applejack showed Ironhead around the farm. She took him to all the orchards lined with hundreds of apple trees, the barn where they kept the pigs, even the chicken coop. As Ironhead tried to take note of all of that, they came across an elderly mare.
"Mornin' Applejack; who's yer new friend?" she asked.
"Oh, this here's Ironhead. He'll be workin' on the farm from now on. This here's my Granny Smith." Applejack said.
"Uh, hi there ma'am." he greeted. As she smiled back at him warmly, a dog came bounding out of nowhere and went straight for AJ and started licking her face.
"And this here's Winona." she said. Winoa then got a good look at Ironhead and froze up. She jumped out of her owner's arms and started snarling and barking at Ironhead, who took a step back and placed a hoof on his chest.
Crap...can she tell? he thought.
Luckily for him, Applejack was quick to control her pet. "Winona! What the-" She grabbed the dog before she could leap at Ironhead or something. "I'm awfully sorry 'bout this; she usually ain't this way 'round strangers. Down girl! What's gotten into ya?"
"I uh...maybe we should go." Ironhead suggested. Applejack understood and carried the still barking Winona off for a while. She returned a minute later.
"Now where were we?" she asked.
"Yeah, you said something about bucking apples a while ago." Ironhead said as they continued on.
"Oh yeah. That's how we get our apples 'round here." She took him over to an apple tree. "Like this."
She quickly turned and slammed her hind legs into the trunk. There was a loud thud followed by slight sway before several apples fell from their branches. "See? Real simple."
As she began to pick up the apples and toss them into a nearby basket, Ironhead looked over to another larger tree nearby. "So I just buck it?" he asked.
"Yup. One good buck'll get 'em." Applejack said walking over. "Give it a try; hit it as hard as ya can."
Ironhead raised his eyebrows. "I don't think that's a good idea..." he said nervously.
"Why's that?"
"'Cause it's still early." He gave a fake yet convincing yawn. "And I'm not really at full strength yet so..."
"Aw c'mon. Don't think ya can take it?" she asked him.
"Well...yeah but-"
"And here I was thinkin' I jus' hired the strongest pony in all Manehatten and Ponyville." She knew how to use that tone well. She had used it several times on stubborn ponies (especially a rainbow-maned friend of hers), and it got them doing what she wanted every time.
"I am!" Ironhead exclaimed, his pride hurt.
Applejack smiled slyly and began to slowly walk away. "Oh well. You don't gotta do it if ya don't wanna. I'm sorry; shoulda gotten somepony else. If yer still lookin' for a job ya can handle, I think Pinkie's hirin' too. Meantime, I'll go get Big Mac-"
Ironhead wouldn't hear the end of it. "What-I-I'll show you who's strong!" he yelled pointing at her. As he turned and reared his hind legs, Applejack smirked.
"Always works-"
The thud she heard next was a lot louder than she expected. It was then followed by a loud, ripping sound that made her freeze and was then followed by an even louder thud that made the ground shudder slightly. Blinking twice, she slowly turned around; her jaw hung loose as she took in the sight of an uprooted apple tree with a very nervous Ironhead standing before it.
"Uh...oops...?"
Scar had one big problem about his search: he had no idea where to start.
"Grr...Stupid job hunt." he grumbled as he flew around Ponyville. If only his brother wasn't at work, he could at least give some suggestion on what to do first. But he couldn't do anything about it; he'd have to search alone.
"Light...light...light..." he muttered. Nothing he found seemed to have anything to do with light. He sighed and put up and extra burst of speed, passing over ponies doing their everyday jobs. Still, he found nothing out of the ordinary. He touched down in a nearby park and sat on a bench to rest a bit.
He took this time to admire the town some more. To him, Ponyville seemed like a great place to live. The folks were nice, there were plenty of jobs to get and, knowing and somehow befriending Pinkie Pie, chanced to go to fun parties and stuff. For a while, he had been thinking of where to move to live on his own, and Ponyville seemed like the perfect place.
At least it was better than other places he knew. Twice a year, Equinox would take the six on them on family vacations to places like Fillydelphia, Los Pegasus and Manehatten (ponies there were really dull and boring). Only he had been to Cloudsdale though; it was for the Best Young Flyer's Competition, something that didn't interest Ash at all.
He stretched a little and hopped off the bench, ready to resume his investigation. Of course, he still had no leads at all. He considered finding Sweet Apple Acres and trying to get Applejack to give Ironhead some time off. Of course, Ironhead had only been there for a few hours.
"Maybe they get lunch breaks or something..." he wondered.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts, he failed to notice the storm cloud slowly approaching him from behind. Nor did he notice the sniggering, cyan pegasus behind it. Scar decided to act on his decision and spread his wings, ready to take flight. And that's when Dash hit the cloud.
The results were exactly what she expected. There was a flash and loud crack, and Scar shrieked and messed up his take off causing him to fall flat on the ground. The sight caused Rainbow to double up with laughter. She pounded the cloud several more times in her laughter, sending a few sparks flying here and there.
"Yeah yeah, now who did that?" she heard Scar say. She poked her head and got a good look at him for the first time.
"Hey new guy, over here." she called out to him.
The second he saw her, his eyes widened while his pupils shrunk at the same time. She passed it off as nothing and flew down to him. "You're the new guy right?" she said running a hoof through her mane. "Thought I'd give you my own little welcome."
Scar laughed nervously. "Yeah uh...It was…a really good prank…I uh…don't remember you at the party..." He couldn't believe his eyes; he had no idea she lived in Ponyville. He tried to keep his cool even thought his heart and brain were going wild.
"Yeah, sorry about that; I slack off at work sometimes, well...most of the time, but I really had to catch up yesterday, so I couldn't go. Ah well. So...welcome to Ponyville I guess..." She shrugged and offered a hoof. "Name's Rainbow Dash."
He already knew that. "I'm...I'm Scarlet Blur...But everypony calls me Scar!" he added quickly whilst shaking her hoof. He couldn't believe it; he was actually shaking her hoof!
He sounded both nervous and excited which puzzled her a bit. "Scarlet Blur huh? Weird name." she commented. "What's up with that?"
His mission was gone from his mind which was now driven to do nothing but impress her. "It's 'cause when I hit the air, that's all anypony ever sees."
He spread his wings and took off leaving behind a small could of dust and a red after image in Dash's eyes. She turned her gaze upwards seeing his form rise higher and higher until he was nothing but a tiny red dot in the sky. When he reached a satisfactory height, he looked down on the tiny Ponyville behind him and readied himself.
"No powers..." he whispered before diving.
With Rainbow watching, Scar spun himself at a dizzying rate while the ground approached. At the last second, he pulled himself out of the dive and continued spinning as he darted across the ground. The wind he made Rainbow's mane ruffle as she watched him pull up and straighten himself out.
He spotted a bunch of clouds nearby and gathered them up and flew around them, forming them into a tall column of clouds. He flew aside before charging right in again planning on splitting the column in half. When he was halfway there, he gasped as Rainbow suddenly burst through the center of the tower, splitting it in half. He regained sense long enough to veer to the left as she flew past him. Chuckling a bit, he flew in after her.
When he finally caught up with her, she turned and flew upside down so that she could talk to him. "Yeah, I guess that was pretty good." she said with a casual wave of her hoof. "Lemme show you how we do it here in Ponyville."
She flew off prompting him to chase after her. Rainbow laughed a little at his attempt to keep up with her and sped up. Scar's eyes widened as she flew away from him and put up and extra burst of speed, reaching her once more. Flapping harder, he managed to overtake her.
Rainbow of course, just wouldn't let this happen. Scar watched her as she dipped low to the ground and flew in after her. The two pegasi flew into town with Scar worrying that they might hit something as they flew. True enough, a building which looked like the town hall came into view. The two of them veered to the right just before they could hit it.
Several ponies on the street gasped and parted as a blue shape darted past them followed by, just as his name said, a scarlet blur. They flew past buildings, stalls, street lights and other ponies without hitting anything though the wind they created caused quite a disturbance. Scar was the first to notice this and flew up to Rainbow.
"Hey, we're bothering everypony. Maybe we should pull up." he said just as they turned at a street corner, frightening Carrot Top who was on her way home after picking up groceries. "Sorry about that!" Scar called at her.
"Oh yeah. Good point." Rainbow said finally realizing the results of their little race. She looked up. "OK. Last one to that cloud smells worse than dragon dung; go!"
"Wait-what?" Scar said but Rainbow had already begun speeding towards the cloud she indicated. Not wanting to be seen as dung in her eyes, he sped up there as fast as he could. The two of them were neck and neck; it would be hard to tell who would've won. Giving out a loud cry, Scar pushed himself to flap faster, desperate to win.
The cloud burst as the two pegasi shot into it. They spread they wings and managed to brake a few feet away from where the cloud was. Panting from exhaustion they looked at each other.
"You lost." they said together while pointing at the other. "No, you did. I won." They pointed at themselves. "Quit copying me!"
Just then a third voice rang out. "Rainbow Dash!" A pegasus mare flew near them and put her hooves on her hips. "There you are; your break ended half an hour ago."
"Oh yeah. Eheh...Sorry about that Cloudkicker." Rainbow laughed embarrassed before turning to Scar. "Sorry Scar, but I gotta go..."
"Oh..." Scar said, his ears drooping a little. "I mean...I get! You got work and stuff...It's OK. I completely understand." he finished.
Rainbow smiled and gave a playful punch to his side. "You're pretty cool Scar. Maybe some day, you'll be almost as awesome as I am. Any way, I'll see ya around!"
With that, she took off with Cloudkicker, leaving behind her signature rainbow trail and a dazed and elated Scar. He had a goofy smile on his face and a distant look in his eyes. His flapping slowed down to the point where he was starting to fall slowly.
"She thinks I'm cool..." he said with a dreamy smile.
His body eventually hit the ground, but he barely registered the pain. His head was busy, filled with thoughts of Rainbow Dash, her sleek, cyan figure, her beautiful, prismatic mane, those deep, magenta eyes filled with unquenchable spirit.
"She thinks I'm cool..."