Harvest Time
CHAPTER 3
[Foreign Foreshore]
“This is unbelievable!” CJ marvelled at the sight before him: A vast forest that stretched across the entire beach. When he listened carefully, he could hear the sounds of birds chirping and other creatures making themselves heard. The fresh aroma of the air, and just the sensation of being somewhere other than home was... exhilarating.
“Well, let’s get cracking!” Zappo heaved a sigh, “I suggest that the first thing we do is establish where exactly we are. Archie, get up there and scout out the surroundings. I want to know our relative position to potential food and fresh water sources! I want to know if there are any other civilisations here other than our own, and if they are hostile or not. Understood? Here, take this with you...” Zappo produced a pen and a notepad from his backpack, handing it to Archie.
“Y-You can count on me, Zappo!” Archie saluted happily and took off.
“CJ, you and I are going to scout our immediate area for anything of interest, and/or potentially drive off any hostiles. We’ll establish a campsite here and keep watch over the Lapras. Kapish?”
CJ nodded in confirmation.
“Actually, we’re going to stay with my mother for the time being...” said Steve.
Zappo blinked, and then shrugged, “Fair enough, have fun with that. One less problem to worry about”.
“Fetch for us when you need us,” said Marco as they turned away and swam off into the horizon, “Farewell, and good luck, bold explorers!”
“Goodbye!” yelled CJ, “Thanks for the ride!”
He turned to see Zappo walking off up the beach, then started slithering in the other direction.
[Current Location Unknown, Several hundred feet in the air]
Archie was having the time of his life, spending hours scanning the surroundings and identifying important details such as rivers, forests and other landmarks, writing them all down as he flew about.
He could already spot signs of civilisation, taking note of a large collection of structures far off in the distance, as well as small cottages scattered around the countryside.
He picked out a flowing river at random and started following it in-country, spotting a large variety of plants and creatures as he went, and making rough sketches of ones he didn’t recognise (which was pretty much all of them). “So much to see!” he marvelled. As his gaze moved about, he spotted a large collection of clouds clustered close together off in the distance, with numerous rainbows protruding from beneath. “Wow,” he raised an eyebrow, “Is that for real? Incredible...”
He noticed the river flowed into a second one further up. On the bank in between them, was a small village. He noticed the amount of colour and flair put into creating them, and quickly summarised that this civilisation was probably more technologically advanced than where he came from. He spotted numerous creatures going about their daily business, walking casually here, there and everywhere. He lowered his altitude so that he wouldn’t be easily spotted, and flew in to get a closer look. He landed and stopped on the opposite side of the river and picked one out at random, making a rough sketch and jotting down basic details. It was similar in size and physiology to a Ponyta, except for the obvious lack of a flaming mane. Its eyes were considerably larger than a Ponyta’s, and had bright yellow irises. It had a grey coat, a bright yellow mane and tail, and had two wings protruding from its sides. As he compared his subject to the others, he noticed that no two of these creatures looked exactly the same, with a broad variety of colours, stylised manes and tails. Some of them had wings, some of them had horns on their head, and others still had neither of the above. As he squinted and edged closer to the lake, he noticed that they all had a strange picture on their flanks, further adding to the individualism.
“The diversity here is incredible,” Archie whispered softly, writing it down, “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
With a flap of his wings, he jumped to the other side of the bank to get within earshot; however he couldn’t isolate an individual voice to listen to.
He spotted a light-blue coloured individual with a multicoloured mane, magenta eyes, and wings, hovering about above the town, who suddenly screamed at the top of its lungs, “Stampede!”
The entire town suddenly went into a panic, rushing indoors and slamming their doors behind them. Within a few moments, most of them were all gone.
“What the...” Archie frowned. He took off into the air to assess the situation. Far off to the west of the town, he noticed a large cloud of dust slowly rapidly approaching, as well as the thunder of hooves.
“What on earth is that...?” He murmured. As the cloud neared, he noticed that there was a large herd of Tauros-esque creatures charging towards the village. “If they get any closer,” He realised, “They’re gonna flatten the village!”
He flew overhead, and was about to make a move, however he stopped himself when he saw a lone Ponyta-looking creature, with green eyes, an orange coat, a sandy-blonde mane and a broad-brimmed hat running on one side of the group, and a small canine on the other, beckoning and urging the stampede to shift its direction. The others in the town watched on as slowly, but surely, the herd changed its direction at the last second and came to a complete stop next to the bank. The crowd in the town started to cheer loudly.
The lone ranger walked up to what Archie identified as the leader of the herd. “Now what was all that about?” she asked. He instantly noticed her strange accent.
“Oh my! Begging your pardon Applejack,” the bovine apologised, “but Mooriella here saw one of those nasty snakes!” The other members of the herd gasped at the sound of the word ‘snake’. “And it gave us the willies, dont’cha know?”
“I completely understand,” Applejack nodded, “Just next time, try to steer clear of Ponyville”.
“We certainly will, Applejack. So long, Winona!” The herd turned and started walking back to where they came from.
The crowd started cheering again as Applejack waved in appreciation and started running off.
“Impressive,” he mused, writing down the event in detail as he flew back towards the beach, “Wait until the others hear about this!”
[Foreign Foreshore, Late that Afternoon]
“... not only that, it appears that they speak the same language we do! It’s absolutely fantastic!” Archie finished his lengthy report to Zappo and CJ, showing them the pictures he drew.
Zappo and CJ stared in surprise at what he had written, “Huh... very interesting...”
“Well, I for one am keen on meeting these creatures,” said CJ.
“I believe they are called ‘ponies’, judging by the plurals they used and the amount of times it was used in a sentence,” said Archie, “I couldn’t really make out much else about them, unfortunately”.
“Not to worry,” CJ smiled, “This alone is incredible, regarding the fact that it’s based on pure observation!”
“Although, one of them did mention that they don’t particularly like snakes,” Archie frowned, “I can’t predict how they’d react to an eight foot long Serperior”.
“Oh,” CJ sank, “Well, there’s only one way to find out, right?”
“By the way, what did you find?” asked Archie.
“Wood for a campfire,” Zappo stepped aside, “Please do us the honours, oh living candle”.
Archie smirked and held the end of his tail near the neatly arranged pile of sticks and fallen branches, the bright flame causing it to ignite.
“We also found plenty of berry bushes, many of which we’ve never seen before!” CJ said excitedly, “Some of them taste delicious!”
“It will last us awhile, until we can find a more permanent food source,” said Zappo, producing one from his backpack for Archie to see. He accepted the berry and examined it for several seconds, before swallowing it whole.
“Huh,” Archie shrugged, “Not bad”.
“There are lots of other weird and wonderful creatures around here too!” CJ began, “and the remarkable thing is that they all left us alone. The complete lack of violence as we know it is astounding!”
“While I found it quite boring, really,” said Zappo, “There is a true sense of peace and harmony about this place, and it’s noticeable in how calm and still the place is. None of the creatures we came across really intended to bother us. That said, a lot of them were only one or two feet big, so they were probably intimidated...”
“Whatever the case,” said CJ, “I propose that we start trekking towards this ‘Ponyville’, and perhaps introduce ourselves to the locals. The only way we’re going to discover anything is if we go out and ask questions. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?”
Archie and Zappo nodded. “We’ll head out tomorrow,” said Zappo, “If we start now, we might not reach the town before nightfall”.
“We’re not gonna reach it in just twelve hours by walking,” said Archie, “It took me a considerable amount of time just to fly there, so walking might take as much as two days!”
“Well, let’s start now then,” said CJ, “The sooner we begin, the sooner we get there”.
“Fair enough. What a waste of a new campfire,” Zappo muttered as he kicked up sand and extinguished it, “Let’s go. We’ll have dinner on the way and sleep in trees or something”.
The three bold explorers set pretty much straight after that, entering and disappearing amongst the trees.
[Several Days Later]
“It was ‘round about... here, when I spotted the village,” said Archie, meandering overhead, “See? There it is, in the distance!”
“No, I don’t- wait, there it is. I see it now,” said Zappo, perched on the branch of a tall tree, “Hah! Get a load of that cloud formation over there!”
“I know, right?!” exclaimed Archie, “It’s insane! And it’s in the exact same spot as it was last time I saw it...”
“Imagine that...” CJ stared at the buildings of Ponyville, “We’re meeting a completely new civilisation! I... I ‘m so pumped! Let’s go!”
“No,” Zappo grabbed his friend by the tail, “We have to find the right moment for the occasion. Is there anything to eat around here, by the way? I’m starving”.
“I do believe I spotted a large apple orchard not far to the south-west of here,” Archie scratched his chin.
“Come on then,” Zappo jumped out of the tree, “CJ and I are gonna go search for this orchard, you see if you can wring any more information about this place”.
“Got it!” Archie nodded, flying low towards Ponyville, sketchpad in hand.
“Are you sure this won’t be stealing?” asked CJ concernedly.
“Hmm,” Zappo thought about this, and then shrugged, “I dunno, we’ll find out when we get there”.
They broke into a sprint, dashing through trees and narrowly avoiding fallen obstacles until they arrived at the edge of the forest. Before them were rows upon rows of apple trees with baskets sitting at their bases, stretching far off into the distance. A large farm house with a barn was perched on a hill not too far away.
“Ha! We’ve hit the mother-load here!” Zappo smirked.
“But it looks like someone owns all of this,” said CJ worriedly, “I don’t want to be caught stealing!”
“Look, someone’s coming up the road!” Zappo pointed out.
A pony of similar description to the one in Archie’s drawings was trotting up the path towards the farm. It was light purple in colouration; with a dark-purple mane and tail with a single pink stripe running through them; large, dark purple eyes and a horn on her forehead.
“Funny lookin’ thing isn’t it?” Zappo murmured, “Looks like a miniature Rapidash had a make-over”.
They watched as the pony walked up to the one Archie described as ‘Applejack’, who was kicking the trees, dislodging the apples and causing them to fall into strategically-placed baskets. However, she looked half-asleep while doing so, even from a distance.
Zappo and CJ became silent to listen in on the conversation.
“What on earth is that pony doing?” the purple pony muttered.
“Whoops,” Applejack murmured as she accidentally kicked over a basket of apples.
“Hey Applejack!” called the pony. There was no response. Applejack looked asleep on her feet.
“Applejack!” the pony called again, this time a bit louder. Still no response.
A bright light enveloped her, and she suddenly reappeared in a bright flash in front of her.
“Apple-JACK!” the pony shouted.
“Huh?” Applejack shook herself awake, “Oh, howdy Twilight!”
“What is all this?” asked Twilight, looking around at all the baskets of apples around them.
“It’s Applebuck season,” replied Applejack with a yawn, walking up to the next tree. Twilight startled her by teleporting again. “Whoa!”
Twilight looked confused, “Apple-what season?”
“It’s what the Apple family calls harvestin’ time,” explained Applejack, not breaking pace, “We gather all the apples from the trees so we can sell ‘em”.
“So, why are you doing this all alone?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Cause Big McIntosh hurt ‘imself,” replied Applejack simply.
“What about all those relatives I met when I first came to Ponyville? Can they help?” Twilight teleported again.
Applejack sighed, “They were just here for the family reunion. They actually live all over Equestria and are busy harvistin’ their own orchards. So uh, I’m on my own. Which means, I really should git back to work”.
They both stood there in awkward silence.
“*Ahem* Hint, hint, get back to work?” Applejack frowned.
“Fine,” Twilight stepped to the left to let her pass.
“Could you step aside, Twilight?” Applejack didn’t seem to notice, even though she was looking right at her the whole time.
“I just did,” Twilight frowned in concern, “Applejack, you don’t look so good”.
“Eh, don’t you three worry none!” Applejack started walking away, “I’m just fine and dandy!”
She kicked at another tree, missing by a long shot, “Whoa!”
Twilight looked worried, “Do you... want some help?”
“Help?!” Applejack perked up, shaking her head, “No way, no how!”
“But there’s no way you could do it all on your own!”
“Is that a challenge?” Applejack threatened, getting in Twilight’s face.
“Uh... no?” Twilight backed away.
“Well, I’m gonna prove to you that I can do it! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got apples to buck”. She walked away to another tree and gave it a kick. Twilight shook her head in frustration and started walking back towards Ponyville.
“Huh,” Zappo smirked, “Bit of a stuck-up, isn’t she? Reckons she can clear all this by herself...”
“Hmm, kinda like a certain Raichu I know, eh?” CJ chuckled, “Always going solo all the time, without any help at all...”
“Hey, unlike her, I actually could complete the large tasks on my own!” Zappo retorted, “But even I can tell that this is way out of her league. I say we give her a hand”.
“What do you mean?” CJ frowned.
“Listen up, here’s what we’re gonna do...”
[Sometime later, several hundred meters above Ponyville]
“They don’t suspect a thing...” Archie murmured as he flew about, almost directly above Ponyville. He kept himself to a high altitude above the cloud cover where he won’t be easily spotted, and started sketching pictures of the landscape for future reference. The Pegasus’ on the clouds below him never bothered looking upwards, so it gave him a superb opportunity to draw them in closer detail as well.
“That’s right,” he whispered softly as he drew a random pony sitting on a cloud, observing the land beneath it, “sit still for me just a bit longer... and there!”
He made a satisfied nod, and slowly descended back down towards the forest west of Ponyville. As he did, he noticed Applejack pacing towards Ponyville. Curious, he kept his eye on her as she approached the blue-and-rainbow coloured Pegasus He saw several days ago. While he couldn’t quite hear them, he watched as the Pegasus showed her a large contraption: a tower to jump off of, which would land them on a see-saw, which would then catapult whatever was on the other end sky high. Applejack clambered up the tower as the Pegasus stood on the opposite end of the see-saw.
After a moment, she jumped and missed the see-saw completely, landing flat on her face to the right of the target.
“Ooh, that’s gonna hurt in the morning,” Archie cringed.
Applejack hauled herself off the ground. The Pegasus was clearly unimpressed as she climbed back up the tower for another attempt. She jumped again... and missed again. Archie just facepalmed as the disoriented pony made several more tries, missing and landing hard each time. The Pegasus had had enough, and He could see it mouthing off at her. Applejack shrugged sheepishly and just reached up and pulled the end of the see-saw down. The Pegasus just shot her an angry look. Applejack then released the see-saw, and had one more go at jumping off the tower. However, when she dropped the see-saw, the Pegasus was caught off by gravity, and lost its footing. Applejack jumped before it could get back up, and was launched off into the distance without any chance to abort it.
Archie watched in amusement as the Pegasus was flung across to the other side of the town, landing on someone’s balcony with a crash. “A bit of a madhouse down there, isn’t it?” He murmured.
[Applejack's Farm]
“There!” Zappo announced proudly, “That ortta make her life easier!”
CJ looked around them. A considerable portion of the orchards had been cleaned of their apples, with full baskets nearby each one, and Zappo walked away dusting his paws off with a grin, “I think she’ll appreciate that in the end, don’t ya think?”
“Erm... oh look! She’s coming back!” CJ pointed out. They both dashed up a tree and hid.
Applejack looked around lazily, “Huh? I don’t remember buckin’ these trees... ah well...”
She walked on to one that hadn’t been harvested yet, and gave it a kick. Only a handful of apples fell down.
“Dude, she looks stoned,” Zappo murmured quietly, watching on from his hiding spot.
Applejack leaned down and picked up an apple in her mouth, and hit her head on the way back up on a low branch. “Ow!”
Twilight suddenly appeared from behind a tree, “Applejack, can we talk?”
Applejack looked confused at the request, indicating she didn’t understand.
Twilight repeated the question, “Applejack, can we talk?”
“Can be squawk?” Applejack shouted, looking disoriented as ever, “I don’t think so...”
“No, can we talk?” said Twilight.
“Twenty stalks?” Applejack still didn’t hear her properly, “Bean or celery?”
“No!” Twilight became frustrated, “I need to talk to you!”
“You need to walk to the zoo? Who’s stopping you?”
“I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!” Twilight shouted.
“Well why didn’t you say so?” Applejack frowned in confusion, “Whatcha wanna talk about?”
“Definitely stoned,” Zappo murmured, “Or maybe drunk”.
“Rainbow Dash dropped in to see me today,” said Twilight in a loud voice.
“That’s quite neighbourly of her,” remarked Applejack.
“Yes, except that she crashed onto my balcony when you launched her into the air!” said Twilight.
“Oh... yeah,” Applejack grinned sheepishly, “I wasn’t feeling quite myself this mornin’”.
“Because you’re working too hard, and you need help!” Twilight walked up closer.
“What? Kelp?” She looked confused, “I don’t eat kelp. I don’t even like seaweed!”
“HELP!” Twilight shouted, “YOU NEED HELP!!”
“Nothin’ doin’ Twilight!” Applejack frowned, “I’m gonna prove to you, to everypony, that I can do this on my own!” As she walked off, she hit her head again on the low branch. “OW! Now if you’ll excuse me,” she stumbled off, “I’ve gotta go help Pinkie Pie...”
Twilight sighed in frustration as she walked off in the other direction.
“Every-'pony'?” Zappo murmured, raising an eyebrow, “What the hell is that? It’s pronounced everybody! Dumbass...”
[Several Hundred Metres above Ponyville]
Archie continued flying around, drawing different ponies at random from above, getting an idea for the different colours and varieties that they come in, and noting that some of them, specifically the ones with horns, possess mysterious powers not unlike the Psychic Types back home, most commonly telekinesis.
“This is just fantastic!” He smiled, flipping through his sketchbook for a fresh page, “the amount of new discoveries here is off the charts! And we haven’t even started looking for treasure yet! Something new just pops up and falls into our arms wherever we look. I don’t reckon I’m even scratching the surface here either...!”
He noticed Applejack dragging herself up the street and into a lavishly-designed shop, with what he assumed was another one of her friends. They were in there for about half an hour, when they opened up a window, offering free muffins to the public. He watched as the trays were cleaned out in seconds.
As they ate, one by one, they all suddenly started throwing up and becoming violently ill.
“That’s disgusting,” He remarked with concern as other ponies rushed in and started taking them away. He followed them from above to a tent marked with a red cross.
“I wonder how they managed to screw that up...” He murmured.
After a few moments, Twilight was at the tent, along with a small purple dragon, “We came as soon as we heard!”
“Oh, thank you Twilight!” said a nurse, “We need all the help we can get!” She pointed to a crowd of green-faced ponies, all lying around feeling very sick and sorry for themselves.
“Oh no, what happened?” asked Twilight, as the dragon picked a muffin off the ground. A worm suddenly poked its head out at him.
“There was a mishap with the baked goods,” explained the nurse.
“No! Not baked goods!” a voice called out from in the tent, “Baked bads!”
“Applejack!” Twilight growled almost instantly.
“Mmm!” smiled the dragon, eating one and carrying several others in his arms, obviously enjoying them, “Want one?”
Twilight shook her head and grimaced in disgust.
[Applejack's Farm]
“Goodness,” exclaimed Zappo as they explored the orchards, “How big is this property?! It goes on forever!”
“There’s no way in Hell she’ll get this done without dying first,” CJ shook his head.
Zappo spotted her heading back up the road, “Speaking of the devil, here she comes again”.
They dashed back up a tree, and it was quite a while before she walked past underneath.
They watched as she dragged a cart up to a tree and gave it a kick. A dozen apples dropped down, and one fell on her head, jolting her awake. “Huh?”
She towed the cart to a dip, where she tilted the cart backwards and emptied it into a basket... and then found she was still hitched to the cart, dangling in the air, upside-down and with no way to get back down. Not that it mattered, because she fell asleep again anyway.
Twilight appeared again from behind the other hill and walked up to her, “Applejack, we need to talk!”
Applejack woke with a start, “Oh, it’s you Twilight... *yawn*... I know what yer gonna say, and the answer is still no!”
“Not to upset your apple cart, but you need help!” said Twilight determinedly.
“Hardy-ha...” Applejack flailed about to tilt the cart, “No I don’t!”
“Here, let me help!” Twilight didn’t budge.
“Help?! No thanks!” Applejack kicked around some more, “A little more... a little more...”
The cart finally tilted enough and fell with a thud, “There!” She walked up to the nearest tree, “I’ll prove to you that this apple can handle these apples!”
She gave the tree several hard kicks, “Ugh, come on... apples! Fall off!!”
“AJ,” Twilight frowned concernedly, “I think you’re beating a dead tree”.
Applejack looked up, and indeed, there was nothing on it. “I knew that,” Applejack walked off.
“Actually Applejack, I had something else I had to talk to you about,” Twilight followed behind her, “I just came back from Ponyville Urgent Care, and I-”
“You know, I’m a little busy to get lectured now Twilight,” Applejack growled.
“But if you just let me help-”
“No, no, no, no, NO!!” Applejack yelled as she increased her pace, “How many times do I gotta say it?! I don’t need no help from nopony!!”
“Ugh! That pony is as stubborn as a mule!” Twilight sighed.
An actual mule happened to be standing nearby.
“No offense,” she smiled sheepishly.
“None taken,” replied the mule.
“It’s ‘nobody’ you piece of...” Zappo muttered.
[Sometime later, back with Archie]
Archie settled down in a tree in the woods near Ponyville for a quick break and examined everything he had written down so far.
“Phew... my arm hurts now from all that writing!” He stretched it about to release a cramp building up in his wrist.
“Applejack! Winona! Stop!” a soft voice cried out, “You’re scaring them!”
“We know what we’re doin’!” replied a second voice in a far more gruff and irritated tone, a voice Archie quickly learned to identify as 'Applejack', “Come along, lil bunnies!”
He looked around in confusion and spotted the orange mare and her canine companion from earlier cornering a group of rabbits near a small fence.
“That doesn’t look good,” Archie murmured.
All at once, the rabbits all panicked and bolted in every direction, with a large bulk of them heading straight for Ponyville.
Archie quickly took flight and powered up and ahead of the distressed horde.
“Goodness, they’re quick!” He frowned, struggling to get ahead.
Above Ponyville, Rainbow Dash glimpsed out west and saw another large cloud of dust heading their way.
“Stampede!!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, sending the rest of the town into a panic.
“There’s nothing stopping them from entering the town!” Archie realised, then frowned determinedly, “except me!”
The charging horde of bunnies dashed closer by the second. The ponies in the town all stared in horror as the army of fluffy animals was almost on top of them.
Suddenly, a thick pillar of roaring fire slammed into the ground just moments before they reached the bridge, which moved about and reduced the pathway to a molten, impassable pulp. The critters were startled and came to a complete stop, paralysed with fear.
Everyone looked up to see a large red dragon with its tail on fire flying overhead. There was a brief moment of awe, which then turned into a moment of terror, when someone shouted “Dragon!!”
Archie didn’t even look as everyone dashed back inside their homes in terror. “Well, there’s that crisis averted,” he breathed a sigh of relief, “I honestly don’t know what they seriously could’ve done, considering they’re so small, but ah well”. He turned and saw everyone was still inside their homes.
“Well, there’s no point in hiding myself anymore,” He murmured as he landed in the centre square. He looked around, and caught a glimpse of them all hiding away behind curtains and doors.
A pony wandered around the corner and gasped in horror, before fainting and collapsing on the spot.
Archie looked concerned, “Hmm, I have a slightly bad feeling about this...”
As Twilight casually strolled back into town, she immediately became concerned when she saw a pony passed out in the street.
“What happened?” she asked.
“D-d-d-d-Dragon!!” the pony whimpered, pointing in Archie’s general direction.
“What do you mean? Spike’s not that... oh. I see”.
Twilight gulped as she slowly approached the large Fire/Flying Type Pokémon, “Um... hello?”
Archie blinked and turned around to face her, “Oh, hi! I was wondering where everyone went!”
“W-What are you doing here in Ponyville?” Twilight asked nervously.
“Well, there was a big stampede of these little, weird creature things that threatened to overrun this place, so I stopped them just before they could, see?”
Twilight gazed past him and through the smoke to see a group of rabbits huddling together in pure terror.
“I-I see. Do you happen to know what triggered the stampede?”
“Nope,” Archie shrugged, “I only heard voices from where I was, but I did overhear a pony making a lot of yelling. I think her name was... Applejack? Anyway, I think she was talking with another pony who's voice I didn’t recognise, and I think the creatures must’ve been frightened off by all of Applejack's yelling".
“Of course,” Twilight facehoofed, “I should’ve known. Well, thank you for the help, I guess”.
She teleported to get around him, and ran off to find Applejack. Archie noticed a dull-yellow Pegasus with a pink mane had appeared next to the rabbits, and was trying to calm them down with a soothing voice. After several moments, he recognised it as the second voice talking with Applejack in the forest.
“Cool!” a small purple dragon stared at Him wide-eyed from across the street, “I’ve never seen a dragon like you before! My name’s Spike. What’s yours?”
“Archie,” he replied, walking up to the small creature, “I’m not really a dragon as such. I’m what you call a ‘Charizard’”.
Spike frowned, “Hmm, never heard of it”.
“Not surprising really. I’m not from around here at all, see. I’m an explorer, and I travel from place to place discovering new and exciting things, like treasure!” explained Archie, “I was born on an island a long way east of here, and I’ve travelled all around, looking high and low for cool and exciting things!”
“Your tail’s on fire,” Spike pointed out.
“Yes, I know,” Archie frowned, “It’s supposed to be like that”.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” asked Spike.
“No, on the contrary. It’s a part of my biology, indicating that I’m alive. If it starts looking small, it generally means I’m real sick, and if it goes out, it generally means I’m dead,” replied Archie, “The opposite is also true. If it’s big and burning brightly, as you see here, it means I’m all fine and healthy”.
Spike stared at it with awe, “That’s awesome! Can you breathe fire as well? Like this?”
Spike then spat a column of fluro-green fire into the air. It barely reached up to Archie's face before fizzling out.
“Heh, that’s cute,” Archie smirked, before spitting a much larger, deep red inferno skywards, punching clean through several clouds on the way up.
“...Wow!” Spike looked like he was going to burst with excitement, “That is AWESOME!”
“Spike!! Get away from that thing!” yelled a voice. They turned to see several ponies gathered around them. “It might be a dangerous monster!”
“Monster?” they both asked in confusion. “I don’t see anything wrong with him,” said Spike, “He looks safe enough to me”.
“Well, obviously not for them,” Archie sighed with a shrug, stretching out his wings, “Feel free to come find me when they feel a little more open for conversation. I'll probably be somewhere around the outskirts of that enormous forest over there”. And with that, he took off and flew away.
“What was that for?!” Spike yelled, “You drove him off! He wasn’t such a bad guy!”
“To be honest, he DID look cool with that fire display...” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“You can never tell with dragons like that,” the mayor remarked, “They’re a mysterious group of creatures that we know little about. We can’t take chances”.
“There,” Fluttershy meekly walked up to them, “The bunnies are all calmed down and back where they belong. What happened with the bridge, by the way? The space in front of it’s all burnt up and impassable”.
“Didn’t you see the dragon that left just now?” asked Dash, “It was huge, and stopped the stampede with a pillar of fire!”
“What?!” Fluttershy practically shrieked, “A dragon? In Ponyville?!”
“It’s gone now, though,” Rainbow laid a hoof on her back, “so no need to worry”.
“Thank goodness,” she settled down. They all slowly dispersed and went back to their business.
[Back at Applejack's Farm. Again.]
“Must... keep... buckin’...” Applejack gasped in exhaustion, “Just... a few... more... Must finish harvestin’...”
Zappo and CJ were watching from up a tree. “She just keeps on going!” they murmured in surprise.
Twilight appeared once more from up the road. “Alright Applejack,” she said in a stern voice, “Your applebucking hasn’t just caused you problems, it’s over-propelled Pegasus’, practically poisoned plenty of ponies, and terrorised bushels of brand new baby bunnies! I don’t care what you say, YOU NEED HELP!”
“Ha!” Applejack chuckled, “No I don’t. Look, I did it! I harvested the entire Sweet Apple Acres without your help. How d’ya like them apples?”
A large, red pony with a yellow mane and a yoke around his neck walked up behind her, “Um, how do you like them apples?” He pointed out to the other side of the orchard, showing many more trees left untouched.
Applejack sank like a stone. “Where’d the apple...?” she collapsed in a heap.
“Applejack? Applejack!” Twilight called out in concern.
“Huh?” she looked up at her friend.
“Oh good, your okay. Now Applejack, I completely respect the Apple family ways. You’re always there to help any pony in need, so maybe you can put a little bit of your stubborn pride away so that your friends can help you!”
“Okay, Twilight,” Applejack nodded.
“I’m not taking no for an- what?” Twilight looked stunned.
“Yes Twilight,” Applejack looked desperate, “Yes please! I really could use your help!”
“There we go!” Zappo sighed, “She finally spat it out!”
“Goodness, it looks like you’re watching a soap opera, for Arceus’ sake,” chuckled CJ.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now let’s get out of here before they find us...”
[Several hours later, somewhere in the Everfree Forest]
“This is the spot, I think,” Spike murmured to Twilight, who was following close behind. "He said something about the 'outskirts of that enormous forest over there', so he must've been talking about the Everfree".
“I still can’t believe you talked us into this...” she muttered.
“Archie!” called Spike, “Where are you, man? You can come out now! I’ve convinced them to let you stay for a bit!”
Archie emerged from behind a tree, “Thanks little buddy! I just have one question...”
Zappo and CJ emerged behind him. “Can my friends stay too?”
Spike and Twilight looked stunned, “... What are you?”
“Here we go,” Zappo muttered.
“Pleasure to meet you,” smiled CJ.
Twilight smiled nervously, “Seriously Spike, who are they?”
“I don’t know! He never told me about them!” he replied anxiously.
“These are my exploring buddies,” Archie explained, “Zappo and CJ”.
“Look, if you’re uncomfortable with us, we completely understand,” Zappo raised his paws defensively, “We’ll just camp out here and be out of your hair...”
Twilight nodded, “It’s probably for the best, for now. I recommend that you keep your distance for the time being, until the other ponies start warming to you, which I’m sure they will with time. Okay?”
The explorers all nodded in agreement, and Spike and Twilight headed back home.
END CHAPTER 3
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This is a really cool fanfic so far. I look forward to reading more, though if Zappo had chosen a rock type, the team would've been totally equalled out. Although they're in Equestria so screw the Pokemon logic.
Well. I've read up until this point and though I am enjoying the story, there seems to be a lot of action and dialogue, but not enough description. That may be all fine and dandy, but it tends to make things a tad bit vague when reading. Not to mention the fact that the timeline skipped all-the-hell over and broke my concentration in the story.
If you're a band/orchestra player, think of your story in terms of the following analogy:
Brass = Dialogue
Woodwinds = Description
Percussion = Action
Your story is a bit too much like a marching brass unit. I can't hear your clarinets and flutes. What little I do hear needs a bit of work. Try balancing out the descriptions by adding more, and lessening the action a little by slowing down a hair. It's okay to slow down the story to add more details. Example: The crates that fell. You could easily have had a beautiful shpeel about what they looked like, or how heavy they were as someone carried it to the beach where the Lapras were.
Example: You could easily have had a beautiful shnell about what Treasure Town looks like for all of your readers (not including me for this one) that haven't played Explorers of Time/Darkness.
Also, push the return/enter bar twice to separate your paragraphs a little better. It'll prevent readers like me from being intimidated by the Wall-of-Text.
I hope to see your writing improve as I continue reading.
<3 DarqFox
2454766 Thanks for taking the time to read and review my story! Much appreciated.
Regarding description, I've tried to develope a writing style with most of the necessary expository description, such as backgrounds and histories, in the characters' dialogue and thoughts, and this will show up particularly in some of the later chapters, thus explaining why my work will have a tendency to be dialogue-heavy.
The Treasure Town scene was intended to be short and sharp, introducing Team Valkyrie and telling the reader what their role in the story will be, and why. In this case, an Exploration Team heading for Equestria to... well... explore. I admit that it probably is a little bit rushed, but at the time, I was simply impatient to get into the good stuff.
I've cleaned up the spacing for the first five chapters, so it should't be as much of an eyesore now.
Again, thanks for your time and effort.
I am surprised this has not dislikes. Not that this is bad, but even the best if stories always have dislikes. Weird.