Earth-Chan in Equestria

by zack black


Spring: Sneak 100

This new gallop didn't sit well with Earth-Chan. It felt different from the others. The running was different, the pacing was off, almost frantic in it's rhythm. She had to give more effort, more exertion. Far more than the magic tingles had asked for. With that exertion came the first few stings of fatigue. Being tired. That was new to her among other things. Dealing with the concept of tired wasn't though. Another familiarity hidden within the new world of mortality.

Mortality. That wasn't right. She was by no means immortal in the first place. After all these years, someone far more naive might fool themselves into thinking they were immortal. Heck her old friend Moon-Chan had been a prime example of such naivety. Born from her own being, Moon-Chan had been a daughter to her. Though that mother-daughter relationship never evolved, instead both opting to see each other as sisters. It had been an odd decision, but at the same time it gave them both a sense of equality. What a silly pony she would have been.

Earth-Chan shook away her thoughts. Her own stream of conscious distracting her from the task at hoof. It was time to run now and Pinkie was already getting a little too far ahead.

Still, it bugged her. She hadn't really considered it at first, but it was a wonder what happened to Moon-Chan. What was her fate?

That question tripped the poor mare up. She fumbled heavily and nearly fell over herself. It took a firm plant of her fore hoof to finally regain some bearings. She had to slow down to remember her steps. Pinkie dialed back for her as it became obvious that Earth-Chan was having a rough time.

"Come on. No time to get nervous, we gotta get to the get go if we're gonna avoid being spotted!"

Clearing her own head, she gave one finally shake of her ears before nodding to her pink friend. Regaining her vigor and joining back up with the baker.

Together they rushed deeper into the Orchard. Weaving at angles so that the trees might help cover their escape. The daylight gave no cover, meaning this was all depending primarily on Applejack to keep the attention off them. Pinkie ran with confidence though and it was quite infectious. Everything about the pony seemed to be. If she believed in Applejack's 'truth' then why shouldn't she?

Together they went a good distance before both agreed it would be a good time to start circling back. They arched their route through more trees, making it nice and wide. The pegasi were already here and hovering around the impact zone. They could no longer see Applejack, which in of itself was a good thing. Having to focus on just pegasi meant their focus wasn't as split. Using the leaves and foliage as superb cover, they managed to come back unnoticed from behind the house. As they got closer, the house itself became their beckon of hope as it's shingled roof shielded them completely from the pegasi.

Pinkie kept on her hoovies as she tip-toed closer to the edge of the house. There was a large gap between the house and the barn with no real cover to use, meaning this next sprint was going to have to chalk up to timing and luck.

The peppy pony started to crouch in a low stance as she shuffled closer to peek around the corner. While she checked, Earth-Chan kept close. Making sure to sneak a sniff or two of Pinkie's tail for comfort reasons. There was something to behold of a tail that smelled so sweet, heck it even helped get her panting under control. Even with blaring repercussions filling her head, the filly couldn't help it. The smell helped her calm down and what Pinkie Pie didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Suddenly, the tail went berserk, signaling Earth-Chan to both stop and pay attention as Pinkie swiveled her head back to relay what was happening.

Earth-Chan gave an innocent smile as Pinkie turned around to whisper. She had to crouch down low to be at eye level with the pony as well as hear her while she talked in a super sneaky voice. "I think half the town is here or something, that was a lot of colors."

"Really? That sounds kinda pretty actually."

"Shhhh, it was, it was, but no time for that. Applejack is spilling the beans. But, I think she's gonna lead them down the whole route we took. Meaning we can book it once they're gone."

"Wow, I never took you for a professional sneaker, Pinkie." Though there was a lot she didn't know. As absorbent as she might be right now, there simply hadn't been enough time in the day to soak up every little detail about her new friend. It was decided there and then that Earth-Chan would make a point of hanging out with the baker... once this all blew over of course.

"Hehe, you haven't even seen a fraction of my sneakiness."

"R-Really?"

"Girrrrrl, do I have some stories for you."

"Ya gonna tell her about the one where you and Twilight snuck into Canterlot?"

Earth-Chan nearly jumped out of her own coat as a new voice joined the fray. Looking up, she was suddenly made aware of the fact that they had crouched beneath the frame of a low built dining window. It's white wooden lip hiding the features of the house's interior from their view below and instead framing the head of what looked like a ponified incarnation of applesauce. The voice's coat was a cream wash of inner apple coloring delicately woven into a fuzzy coat. Two big orange colored eyes were then gently framed by a mane that could only be another tribute to apples. The voice's mane was a deep red, lightly combed to the side and down the neck with a messy top of bright colored bangs. Just above her head were the edges of a bow that highlighted her creamy sauce colored ears with a pinkish aurora.

"Apple Bloom!"

Earth-Chan cut her gaze away from the pony fruit above them to give Pinkie a stern shushing, trying to do her best impression of somepony not wanting to get caught today. It worked, and the silly filly reeled her volume back a bit as she continued.

"What are you doing around here?"

"Ah live here. The better question is what are y'all doin' here?"

"Oh, nothing. Just playing some pretty intense hide and seek."

"Pinkie, that's not..." Pinkie shook her hoof at Earth-Chan, forcing her to stop her sentence right in its tracks.

"Ah ah ah, no corrections until you really think about it. Where am I wrong in that comparison?"

"...."

"Ya hiding from the explosion?"

"No silly, we're hiding because of the explosion!"

"Pinkie!"

"Sssssh, you're too loud, Earthy. Think sneaky thoughts." Earth-Chan let out a sigh. Pinkie Pie was a hard pony to deal with. She played this little game at her own pace. She changed the rules whenever she wanted and broke those very same rules a second later. As much of a joyride as Pinkie was, Earth-Chan felt like she was coming to an unexplored limit of wacky pony overload.

"That's crazy, which one of ya caused it. You or her?" It probably wasn't to hard to guess who had caused the explosion as Earth-Chan immediately avoided the filly's gaze. She pushed off from her spot below the window and sat properly, still refusing to look at the apple sauce pony out of embarrassment. Well, maybe a peek.

Smiling as happy go-lucky as expected, Pinkie gave a quick nod. "Yeah, I'd call it a collaborated effort. We both caused it."

Earth-Chan had a hard time understanding if Pinkie Pie was still playing a game anymore. She could only stare as the pink pony all but lumped herself in as if she had something to do with the carnage from before. "Pinkie...." She whispered the name, wondering what it meant to lie on the behalf of someone else. She was besmirching this pony's good name. She'd ruined a part of another pony's farm. She'd stolen somepony's blanket. What kind of pony was she? Everypony wants to be a good pony, right? That's what AJ had said. But, did that 'everypony' include her? Did being a guilty pony mean she was good? Did feeling guilt excuse any of her recent behavior?

Apple Bloom  gave a huff at that and crossed her hooves. "Both huh? Well, in any case, ah'm stuck inside until this whole thing blows over. Big Mac and Granny ordered me to stay in the house, they don't even think ah can help!"

"Well, that's no fun. You could at least be out there looking for us." Pinkie giggled at that and looked around to exaggerate her next point. "Then again, you're the only one whose caught us, so...." Still a tad out of it, stuck in her own thoughts, Earth-Chan took a back seat to this conversation, opting to just listen while she did her best to avoid quite of a few of her own inner questions.

Applebloom balked at that, mulling over the thought before coming to a smiling conclusion. "Heh, yeah. Ah guess that is a little satisfying."

"See, and now they're about to run off to the woods to go searching for us and you've got us spotted." What the heck was this pony's goal here?! As much as she wanted to just sit back and listen, Earth-Chan was starting to feel quite compelled to butt in. Pinkie Pie was throwing their fate into the hooves of a child!

"Hmm, ah could start hollerin'." Applebloom leaned over the window sill, propping her cheek with one hoof while still crossing the other against her body as she gave a smug sigh. "That is... unless ya wanna strike a deal~"

"Ho ho, that was quick. I thought you'd beat around the bush some more." Pinkie Pie grinned back at the filly, seemingly satisfied with this turn of events. This was all bewildering for the blue mare though. How could she gamble getting caught on the whim of such a sketchy apple pony?

"Kay, how's this. Two weeks worth of cup cakes for me and my friends."

"I can make it three weeks, but spread out for one cup cake per day, each."

"Four weeks, same rules."

"Four weeks! That's eighty-four cupcakes! Are you trying to bankrupt the Cakes?!"

"Nice try Pinkie, but you and ah both know that you buy your own supplies for personal requests. It's four weeks or ah start gettin' loud."

Slowly wiping away a tear, Pinkie held back what was a very convincing sob, her lip trembling.

"Nuh-uh. No tears, that's not fair!"

Shaking her head, Pinkie tried to dry her face as quickly as possible, having to give a polite cough to clear her throat "Oh no, it's just you are growing up so fast, I swear just the other day you were a blank flank filly out to prove yourself. Now you're a cut throat businessmare and it's just... soooooooo sweet!"

"Ugh... Okay. Do we have a deal, though?"

Letting out a small sniff, Pinkie reached out a hoof and bumped it with the filly. "It's a deal."

Nodding in confirmation, the little filly even so graciously gave them a route to take, informing them that a mad dash to the barn would end in disaster. She included a run through of which hey wagons were light enough to move. She suggested they use those to block half of their walk to the barn. No one would notice if that wagon moved a bit apparently having barely been used all year. The filly doubted that even Applejack would notice. That said, it'd be suspicious to go too far with the wagon so Apple Bloom recommended they go halfway then go for the sprint the rest of the way. It cut their exposure down immensely.

Both ponies quickly thanked the filly and had started to creep towards the wagon discussed. Before they could get too far a small 'psst' rang from behind. Earth-Chan perked her ears, just barely catching the sound. Looking back, she saw Applebloom watching them leave with another all too smug smirk.

"By the way, ya probably shouldn't do that tail thing in public. It's kinda weird."

Earth-Chan's went wide eyed as she stared at the applesauce in the window, frozen in horror at the implications of somepony having caught her in the act. There was a quiet whisper from Pinkie Pie for her to catch up. Feeling a shiver rush down her spine the pony turned away from the filly and rushed to catch up with her friend. Meanwhile, Applebloom kept her smile, still watching as they left. With a shake of her head she pulled back from the window and shut it before going back to her duty of 'staying in the house' like the good filly she was.

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The wagon had worked perfectly. They'd managed to stave off detection until the group started to follow Applejack into the orchard to search. They left behind a small group to watch over the farm, but nothing too substantial. They slipped away with ease while using the barn for even more cover while they took off towards their next destination.

The gallop had gotten a little better as they got farther and farther away from the group. All the tension starting to ease away, laying dormant for the next encounter.

"H-How long do you think we have until they find out where we're going?" She couldn't help but worry, even if things were dying down. This had actually turned quite stressful even.

"Aaaah, AJ's got us. We'll have enough time, silly."

Earth-Chan sighed at that and took her assurance as a typical dismissal. It was frustrating to have to rely on somepony who she had just vandalized. Pinkie seemed to catch wind of that frustration and 'tsked' in disapproval. "Ah, come on, we're about to meet some more friends, you gotta up your smile game."

"Easy enough said than done, how do you keep so relaxed like this? At this rate you'll end up dragged into my problems, Applejack will have to deal with her loss of trees, and I'll eventually get caught and run out of town. What's there to smile about right now?"

"...Hmmm, remind me to get you some cupcakes. I've got just the recipe for the funk you're in."

"W-Wait..... wha...."

"Ooooo, we're here! And I think she's outside too. Perfect!" Pinkie jostled up into a quicker pace, leaving Earth-Chan behind.

"Hold on, you said cupcakes?"

"Not right now, silly! Hehe, it's time to say hi to... Oh hey, Rainbow's here too!"