//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: My Little Gemcraft // by Registered Anonymous //------------------------------// I DON’T OWN MY LITTLE PONY OR GEMCRAFT THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS AND THIS IS A NON PROFIT STORY THAT I AM USING BOTH FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. Chapter 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville Library 7:14 A.M. I slowly awoke from my slumber as the first rays of light entered through the library’s windows. I stirred slowly with my mind telling my body to ‘get up’, but my body decided to reply back with a stubborn ‘no’. Just as my mind was about to give up and let my body go back to sleep again a sudden strong aroma hits my nostrils. The aroma of it being a very strong smell that woke up my mind as well as my body. My body quickly complies to my mind’s command and begins getting up. “What is that wonderful aroma?” I ask myself groggily as I stretch my body making it pop in some places. The aroma was coming from the kitchen and I decided to investigate. As I enter the kitchen I discover that I was not the only one up as I see Twilight and Spike sitting at the kitchen table drinking something from mugs. It took them a moment to notice that I was there with Twilight being the first to notice. “Oh hello Zekeal, I hope we didn’t wake you,” Twilight says apologetically as she notices me. “Don’t worry the sun beat you to it first Twilight, by the way what is that earthly smell?” I ask her as I take a seat next to her. “Oh it’s just some coffee Zekeal? Don’t you have coffee back where you were from?” Twilight asks quizzically. Oh so the aroma was coffee was it? “Yes, I have heard of it back in my world Twilight I just never really tried it before due to the fact that it was so expensive. So I just stuck with tea most of the time.” I reply back to her “But I wouldn’t mind trying some if you don’t mind.” Twilight smiles at me and says “Sure thing Zekeal.” She then proceeds to pour me a cup of coffee with the help of her magic into one other mug and levitates it towards me. I promptly grab the cup and thank her for it right before I took a sip. Coffee tastes incredibly horrible. “Ugh! Why is it so bitter!?” I yell out in disgust. Twilight rolls her eyes and says “You have to add cream and sugar first Zekeal. Don’t you normally add sugar to your tea if it’s too strong?” I blinked twice and mentally facepalmed myself for my idiocy. I then proceed to add the cream and sugar from the table into my mug and took another sip. Better. Much, much better. The coffee still had a bitter taste to it, but with the cream and sugar in it made the coffee slightly more bearable to me. I sigh as I felt the liquid travel through me warming up my body in the process and making me more steadily awake and filling me with energy. “This coffee is quite good. Thanks Twilight.” I say to Twilight with a smile on my face. She returned the smile “No problem Zekeal. Plus you may be in need of it today since you are going to have to help Applejack with her orchard remember?” I suddenly remember the promise I made with the orange earth pony yesterday. How I promised her that I would pay her back for the apples I ate in her orchard as well as the walls I erected. “Oh right. Don’t worry I didn’t forget Twilight.” I reply back to her “But I guess I should be getting over there then huh? Since she is more than likely awake by now right?” “Actually that would be a good idea Zekeal. Plus there won’t be as many ponies out at this time so you won’t really cause much of a panic if you walk by yourself. Plus I have another task to get done today by checking on a friend about the weather forecast for the Summer Sun Celebration.” Twilight says to me. “Oh and who is this other friend’s name?” I ask curiously. “Her name is Rainbow Dash and she is a Pegasus pony who controls the weather around here in Ponyville,” Twilight replies back to me. “Oh alright then, well please tell her that I said “Hi” and I would enjoy meeting her sometime,” I told Twilight, although the real reason that I wanted to meet with Rainbow Dash was to understand how Pegasus can control the weather here in the first place. “Sure Zekeal. Although I would have to warn you she can be a little big headed at times, but she is actually quite a loyal friend.” Twilight replies back. I nodded and began making my way towards the door of the library. “Alright see you some time later Twilight,” I call back to her. “I’m sure we will Zekeal, also don’t forget we still have to go over to Rarity’s to get your robe tailored up for Princess Celestia’s visit tomorrow.” Twilight replies back to me. “Sure thing Twilight!” I shout back to her as I exit the Library. “Now then off to Sweet Apple Acres then,” I say to myself as I begin a slow jog off towards my destination. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sweet Apple Acres 8:09 A.M. As I made my way down the dirt path I could make out the red barn of Sweet Apple Acres in the distance and quickened my pace to get myself there faster. I entered through the front gate of the farm and began looking around for Applejack. “Now if I was Applejack where would I be-“I began saying to myself right before bumping into some other person or pony for that matter. I looked forward to see a larger pony, possibly a stallion, with a red coat of fur all over his body with a tuft of orange hair on the top of his head. He was giving me what I could tell a look of neutrality towards me while he moved a straw of hay to one corner of his mouth to the other studying me. This leads to an awkward silence between the two of us for the next moment or two. “Um uh excuse me, but do you know somepony by the name of Applejack? I am here to clear out the orchard of the stone walls.” I start saying trying to break the silence. The stallion looks solemnly at me and says “Eeyup.” while motioning his head towards the apple orchard. I gave him a nod and thanks as I make my way into the apple orchard. Not even three minutes later I finally find Applejack placing some big, wooden baskets around one of the apple trees. “Hey Applejack!” I called out to her to grab her attention which it did. Applejack turned around and waved a hoof at me while smiling. “Glad to see you here so early Zekeal. I thought it would be another three hours before you got here.” She says while chuckling a little. I sigh and reply back “Hey I might not be the most athletic, but I do have sense of duty to get things done.” “Fair enough partner. Anyway I take it you are ready to start knocking down your stone walls right?” Applejack asks while she turns around and bucks the apple tree near her making all the apples in it fall into the baskets below. “Yeah I just needed to let you know I am here and also things might start getting a little noisy one I start tearing down the walls.” I explain to her. “Not a problem partner you can make as much noise as you want just mind the apple trees alright?” Applejack says to me “Also see me afterwards and I’ll tell you what you’ll have to do to pay off the apple you owe me.” “Sure thing Applejack I’ll see you in about an hour or so.” I say to her as I walk away towards one of the stone walls I erected. As I got closer to it I slowly formed a grade 1 gem in my hand and began fusing mana into the gem making it into a gem bomb, but not too dangerous to me or anyone else. At least everything, but the wall I was about to throw the gem bomb at. I reared back my arm and then threw the gem bomb at the stationary wall and upon impact the wall gets completely destroyed with all the stone slowly turning back into mana and not creating a huge mess with debris. There was also a slight ‘boom’ sound after impact that scared off a couple of birds, but that was to be expected. I chuckled a little at the sight before me and thought “Best part about creating structures with mana. No messes.” I then turned my attention back towards the rest of the walls in the orchard and began my task with removing them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 hour and 22 minutes later “And…” *Boom!* “Done.” I said to myself as the last of the walls came tumbling down and dissipating into mana. The task took a little over an hour to complete and took a fair bit of mana, but at least it’s behind me now. “Woo-whee! You sure did a number on those walls Zekeal.” Applejack compliments me as she trots over to where I am “And without harming any of the apple trees as well.” I chuckle lightly and reply to her “Well it’s just the way my magic works to begin with AJ.” “Good enough for me partner, but anyway lets discuss how you’ll pay for them apples you ate.” Applejack says as she trots over to one of the nearby apple trees “I want you to buck or harvest, in your case, ten apple trees.” I nod to her and say “Sure I can do ten easy!” I proceed to materialize a gem in my hand and prepared to throw it at one of the trees. At least until I was interrupted. “Also you can’t use your magic,” Applejack adds on smiling. What? “What?” I ask her in mid-throw almost dropping the gem in my hand onto the ground in my stunned state. “Ya heard me. You can’t use magic. I allowed you to use your magic for the stone walls before, but that was because it was a special situation.” She explains to me “This time I want you to show me how hard you can work by doing physical labor.” Physical Labor. Two words that make me shudder just by thinking of it and worst of all I can’t use magic. She must have planned this out for me. What a clever girl. I sigh heavily and reply back “Fine. I’ll do it, but are you going to help me?” “Sorry this is your job to pay off your debt so I can’t help ya,” Applejack says to me grinning mischievously “You’re on your own partner.” Scratch that she is not a clever girl. She is the cunning, evil mastermind of all things dealing with debt collecting! “Surely you can’t be serious Applejack? I can’t climb these trees!” I tell her pleadingly. “That didn’t stop you from climbing into one and began snaking on my apples,” She replies back with an ear to ear grin. “… *sigh* Alright so where do I begin?” I say with a sense of defeat in my voice. “You can start with this one and then any others that have baskets under them,” Applejack explains to me. I look up at the tree Applejack mentioned. The lowest branch I could see was about where my head was maybe a little higher. This was not going to be a very fun experience for me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville Library 12:37 P.M. Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, Spike were finishing up some last minute chores before going out to see Rainbow Dash and her preparations for the celebration in about a week. “The Teachings of Teleporting: For Beginners, check. The Complete Biography of Starswirl the Beared, check. And The Studies of Ursa Majors, check! Seems like everything is accounted for Twilight.” Spike calls out to her as he finished shelving the final book in his hands. “That’s great Spike,” Twilight says as she puts on her satchel harness over her back “Now then let us get on to seeing Rainbow about the weather schedule for the celebration.” Spike nods in agreement and begins making his way across the room until a certain yell breaks the quiet silence of the library. “TWILIGHT!” Not even a second later the door to Twilight’s library almost gets practically destroyed by none other than her friend, Rainbow Dash. Twilight could only look on to see the door to her home ripped from the hinges from the impact her friend just caused on it. Not only that, but the impact made most of the books that Twilight and Spike just shelved fell and littered the ground around the inside of the library. “Rainbow! What in the name of Celestia would make you break my door down?!” Twilight practically screamed at her. “The door can matter later! What’s this rumor about you having some strange creature living with you?” Rainbow Dash explains as she began looking around for said creature “He hasn’t tried anything funny yet?” Twilight sighs and says “No Rainbow he hasn’t done anything to me that would cause me harm. In fact he is quite nice to say the least, but I appreciate your concern for my safety.” Rainbow Dash took a moment to think about what Twilight just said and replies “But from the rumors I heard around Ponyville he sounded like a big monkey!” Twilight giggles for a moment at Rainbow Dash’s comment and replies “Actually that’s a pretty good description for him Rainbow, but as I said before he isn’t dangerous to us ponies.” “Well that’s a relief, at first I thought I was going to have to rescue you from him using these babies!” Rainbow Dash says while punching in the air like a boxer. Twilight rolled her eyes for a moment, but not in an annoyed way just in an understanding way. Rainbow Dash was just being Rainbow Dash. Loyal. “Anyway Rainbow I am glad that you came over actually, Spike and I were about to come looking for you to begin with.” Twilight says trying to change the subject. “Oh really? Well what can the fastest flyer in Equestria do for you Twi?” Rainbow Dash says beaming with pride. “I need to know how the weather preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration are coming along Rainbow.” Twilight explains to her. Rainbow Dash grins and says “The weather is coming along quite nicely, Twi. Nothing, but clear skies for the Celebration in six days.” “That’s great to hear Rainbow.” Twilight says as she makes a mental note to check off the weather preparations on her checklist “Anyway thanks for telling me that Rainbow now about that door you owe me.” Rainbow Dash then looks over at the destroyed doorway and back over at Twilight and smiles embarrassingly while saying “Right… uh will a sorry and an I.O.U. suffice for now?” Twilight just shakes her head and says “No, but I’ll lend a hoof if you want to fix it sometime later today.” Rainbow Dash nods at Twilight’s offering. “But for now would you want something to drink?” Twilight asks Rainbow Dash with a warm smile. “Sure Twi I would really appreciate it and if you don’t mind may I read another one of your Daring Do books?” Rainbow Dash replies back. “I wouldn’t mind at all Rainbow and I you stay a while maybe you’ll get to meet Zekeal!” Twilight says while heading towards the kitchen. “Who?” Rainbow Dash asks while grabbing a Daring Do book from the shelf. “Oh that’s right silly me I forgot to mention his name, Zekeal is the name of the creature that was in those rumors that you heard of around town.” Twilight explains to her as she brings out a tea set. “Zekeal? What a funny name for a creature. So besides him being nice what else is he like?” Rainbow Dash says as she puts the Daring Do book back on the shelf slowly taking more interest in the creature than her thirst for reading. “Well it’ll take some time to explain so it would be best for you to sit down if you will Rainbow.” Twilight says as she sits on the couch. “Alright.” Rainbow Dash replies while settling down on one of the chairs. “Good now to begin Zekeal is actually a species that his kind calls humans…” Twilight begins explaining to Rainbow Dash of what Zekeal was like. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweet Apple Acres 2:45 P.M. Five hours. These five hours were the roughest I have ever had. I had fought hordes and hordes of beasts and monsters back in my world with my powerful magic. But none of those experiences could have ever prepared me for this strenuous endurance challenge that is known as physical labor. I had to climb up some of the trees in the orchard, but luckily some of the branches in the trees that I climbed were close enough to other trees that I just had to tightrope across to get from one to another. But, during my time up in the tree I ended up getting a ton of sap all over my wizard’s robe. It was going to take days to get all this sap out! And don’t get me started about the heat, it may have been shady, but the humidity was still getting to me. It really felt like hell for me. But now it is done. All fifteen trees completely harvested by my hands only. No magic what-so-ever. Good god I feel exhausted. Oh well whatever doesn’t kill me can only make me stronger. I was currently up in one of the trees I harvested resting. No sense in trying to find Applejack just yet, and also the fact that I didn’t really want to move an inch from the spot I was resting in. “ *sigh* Now I know how it feels to be a farmer back where I’m from. I pity those people so much.” I say to myself as I begin to close my eyes prepared to begin sleeping. “Hey Zekeal are you up there, partner?” God damn it there goes my nice easy feeling of restfulness. “Yeah I am up here AJ. I just got done with the last tree you told me to do,” I say to her looking down at her. “Good! Now we can get on to paying your interest. Another five trees should do it.” Applejack says to me with a grin. I look down at her with a scared look on my face and she noticed it and began laughing. “I’m only kidding partner, come on down and I’ll treat ya to a late lunch!” Applejack says to me keeping a warm smile on her face. “ *sigh* Don’t do that Applejack you almost gave me a heart attack.” I say as I slowly lowered myself down “And thank you, all that I have had this morning was a cup of coffee.” “Then let’s not stay here anymore. Come follow me back to the farmhouse Zekeal and get something in that stomach of yours.” Applejack says as she led the way back towards her home. The walk was relatively short and we finally reached the farmhouse. When we entered I felt a sudden sense of homeliness to the place. It felt quite nice. Applejack then turns towards me and says “Alright so what do you want? We got apple fritters, apple pie, apple cobbler, apple cider….” And so on and so forth with foods that have apples in them. “Uh do you have some lettuce some other vegetables? I am feeling in the mood for a salad.” I tell her feeling that I had enough apples for one week since yesterday. “Sure Zekeal.” Applejack says as she opens a cabinet and pulls out a full head of lettuce, a tomato, and carrots “Will this do Zekeal.” I nod to her and say “This will do just perfectly, thank you.” Then I proceed to fix my salad with the given ingredients and once I finished preparing it I quickly ate it and thanked Applejack for it. “No problem partner, but why would you eat your salad that fast? You got some place to go?” Applejack asks me with a raised eyebrow. “Actually I do. Twilight said that we had to go see her friend Rarity to find me a new set of robes.” I explain to her “And I think a new set of robes would do greatly with all this sap in my current pair.” I then proceed to pull my robe at the edges stretching it to show her and to prove my point. Applejack chuckles and says “Well then don’t let me stall you for any longer, Zekeal. You go on ahead and leave.” “Thanks Applejack and thanks for the meal too!” I reply back to her as I leave through the front door of the farmhouse. “No problem, Zekeal and don’t be a stranger you’re welcomed anytime!” Applejack calls out to me while waving a hoof at me. I proceed to wave back at her giving a curt no as I make my way down the road back to Ponyville. I take in a deep breath of fresh air and looked up at the clear blue sky studying it for any alterations or imperfections. I found none. I smile at this and sigh deeply as I continue to admire this calm setting as I walk down the road back to Twilight’s library. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Chapter 5 Hey everybody hope you enjoyed this chapter like all the others before and sorry for not updating in a while, real life and fan-fiction do not mix well, but hey the best chili tends to simmer for a while right? But on another note I am currently on my university’s spring break so hopefully if I am not too lazy this spring break I’ll be able to get out another chapter during the week maybe even two. But anyway enough about my personal life remember thumbs up, track, favorite, OR just leave comments about grammatical errors, continuity errors, or how you liked/disliked the chapter as of now. I won’t force you do these things, but they help in some ways. ….Hmmm normally Zekeal would have interrupted by now, I wonder why. Pinkie Pie: Hey everypony! What the hell!? Pinkie Pie!? Why are you here!? How did you get here!? Pinkie: Well duh I got through that hole in the wall over there. *points at the 4th wall* *I proceed to facepalm myself* I really got to fix that thing, but why are you here to being with? Pinkie: Well Zekeal told me to say that I am going to be in the next- *I cut her off by clamping my hand over her mouth* No! Don’t say anything Pinkie Pie! Not another word! Pinkie: *manages to get my hand off of her mouth* But why? I just wanted to say that I was going to be in the next- *I proceed to clamp my hand over her mouth again* You know what? Maybe I should just end this here. This is Registered Anonymous… Pinkie: *muffled* And Pinkie Pie! Signing off. Check ya’ll later!