Deleted Equinophobia Chapter · 1:36am Sep 17th, 2014
Just a deleted chapter I wrote that never made it in. It takes place in Chapter 2, originally planned to be the start of the chapter. It was never fully edited, only touched up, so pardon some less-than-stellar moments. You can see influences from this one put into Chapter 4 later on.
Applejack strode through the dusty streets of Ponyville, saddlebag at her side, and ignoring the curious looks the townsfolk gave her.
The earth pony wasn’t in the mood for them anyways. She had more important things on her mind, most of which was centered on finding out who, or rather what, had given her a black eye.
Reaching one particular tree in town, she knocked on the door to the hollowed out growth of nature. After a few moments, it opened to the words, “It’s a public library you know. You don’t have to- Whoa. What happened to your eye?”
Applejack regarded the young dragon staring inquisitively up at her. “Jus’ a mishap on the farm. Is Twilight here?” she asked.
Spike shot a brief look at the deflection, but answered, “Yeah. She’s up in her room doing… princessy stuff.”
“Thanks,” she replied plainly before shuffling past, leaving one drake wondering what had had gotten into her. Or into her eye, more specifically.
Applejack made her way up her up the stairs, taking the familiar path that she had so many months ago on one particular stormed-in slumber party. The memory brought a small smile to her face as she reached the closed the door to her friend’s room. She pushed it open, revealing a complete mess of papers, books, and scrolls blanketing the room, many of which seemingly floating on their own accord. Through the hurricane of paperwork a lavender form could be seen at her desk, horn alight as she scrawled across parchment with her quill at a constant rhythm, complete oblivious to the outside around her.
“Sure is clean in here,” remarked the visitor.
At the sudden sound Twilight quickly straightened, her horn’s glow fading out, along with all the airborne materials clattering to the ground with a rough ruckus. Twilight’s head swiveled around the room, facial expression showing grief as she saw the mess, but the forced a friendlier smile at seeing Applejack. “Oh, hey Applejack. Didn’t hear you come in.” She paused for a moment. “Would it be alright if you knocked before coming in next time?”
Words from Twilight’s assistant came to mind, but she ignored them. “Sure thing. Sorry if Ah was interruptin’ anything.” She glanced at the room, now being somewhat-literally blanketed by papers.
“No, no it’s fine. Just boring old paperwork from Canterlot.” As she walked over to Applejack’s spot near the bed, she noticed the proverbial elephant in the room. “Applejack! What happened to your eye?”
“That’s sort of why Ah came here. There was some kind of animal on the farm eatin’ the apples. It threw something at me while Ah was chasin’ it off.”
“Okay, but what about your eye? Do you need an ice pack? I’m sure I have one in the freezer.”
Applejack shook her head. “Ah already heard enough o’ that from Big Mac. Ah’m fine,” she insisted.
Twilight responded with a pop of purple magic, causing an ice pack to appear floating in front of Applejack’s face. Twilight got an annoyed look in return. She only responded with, “Apply on and off in ten minute intervals.” The glare didn’t let up, but she took it begrudgingly nonetheless. “So what is it you came to me for?”
Peering through only one eye, not that the blackened one allowed much difference either way, she said, “It’s about the critter that gave me this. Ah’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“I assume you want to know what it is then?” Twilight concluded. At Applejack’s nod, she asked, “I’m flattered you came to me for help, but wouldn’t this be something Fluttershy would be better suited for? She tends to be the expert when dealing with animals around here.”
“Ah would’ve gone ta her any other day, but Ah don’ think this is jus’ some ol’ animal that wandered out of the forest. It seemed… Ah don’ know. It jus’ seemed differnent. It walked upright like a minotaur and was wearin’ clothes of all things. It also was downright terrified o’ me; runnin’ and hollerin’ when Ah got close.”
Twilight though for a moment. If not for the clothes part, she would’ve written the ordeal off as some rare or undiscovered animal following natural behavior, but there were only some species that wore, much less made, clothes. Funny thing about that; they all were intelligent species. “It doesn’t sound like anything I know of off the top of my head. Why don’t we head downstairs and see if it appears in any bestiaries? Unless you’re too busy with farm work and were just stopping by to let me know about the animal,” she considered, knowing the daily grind of the farmer was a long one.
“No, Big Mac is covering’ fer me. Says Ah can’t aim a buck straight with one eye,” she muttered the second half, “But there’s one more thing you should know about the thing.” She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a rectangular… thing with wires coming out of one end and set on the bed. “This is what it threw at me.”
Her curiosity piqued, Twilight looked at the prism, making observations. It wasn’t anything she’d seen before; it was a gray-silver color, one side dominated by black glass. Along the thin edged were occasional bumps or holes, one of the latter having the cords protruding out of. “What is this?” she asked aloud to no one in particular.
Applejack answered anyways, shrugging, “Beats me. It was holdin’ it when Ah found it. Try puttin’ one of the ends of the cords up ta yer ear.”
Her friend glanced confusedly at the odd request, but did so anyways. In a moment, her eyes widened at the sound of a melody coming out. It was a basic guitar pattern, although played by a type of guitar she did not know about based on its distorted sound, repeating to drums and another instrument she couldn’t place, this one like an organ, although it did sound pleasant. She was startled as a loud, powerful vocal track sung by a male singer suddenly entered, preaching long and drawn out words in synch to the beat. She noted not a single word or phrase made sense, appearing to be either in gibberish or a completely different language.
“It’s playing music!” she said surprised.
“It has been ever since Ah picked it up. It’s been playin’ songs endlessly, a different one each time Ah listened in. Ah figure the thing was listenin’ ta it.”
“This is incredible!” Twilight exclaimed, “I wonder how it works. How does it have so many songs in it? How does it even carry songs in it? It certainly couldn’t hold a record. And the speakers! How did they get them so small but still able to work?” She fuddled with it with her magic, taking the strange music player in at different angles.
“Maybe its owner could tell us,” Applejack not-so-subtly hinted on purpose.
“Right,” she said, blushing a bit as she came out of her scientific mind’s lust for knowledge. “Shall we hit the books?” she asked.
“Why not jus’ try to track it down now?” the orange-coated pony answered with a question, “That would make finding out what it is go by faster.”
“True,” came the reply, “But that’s just it. We don’t know what we’re looking for. It could be something dangerous.”
“Didn’t seem that dangerous when Ah was chasin’ it off.”
“Also true, but better safe than sorry, right?” she appealed.
“Ah guess so,” she relented before the two descended the stairs, leaving a mess of a room for Future Twilight to deal with.
And in case you're wondering, Chapter 5 will be up in 1-2 days. 
Actually, this would work out decently well if inserted correctly, otherwise it could be put in as some sort of 'Lost Chapter' to help keep context for later