//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: Just Past Sunrise 
// Story: According to You 
// by Razor Blade the Unicron 
//------------------------------//

A farmer rises with the sun, so, naturally, Applejack always awoke before most of Ponyville. She rolled out of bed and then yanked a brush through her mane and tail a few times. Once she had gotten it flat enough to tie down, she grabbed a hairband to keep it out of her face and hooves, and finished off by placing a stetson on her head.

She trotted downstairs, hearing Big Macintosh's door open upstairs. She grabbed an apple as she headed outside to begin her morning routine, with her actual breakfast to be eaten when Apple Bloom woke up to go to school. In just a few years the filly would have to wake up to do chores in the morning, too, but she still needed plenty of sleep at her current age.

As she stepped outside, Applejack took in a deep breath of fresh air. Not only was the smell of bark and dirt delicious, but it also gave her a sense of how the trees were doing. Each season had a different smell to understand. Summer meant juicy apples and relaxed trees, autumn meant savory apples and excited trees, winter meant no apples and sleeping trees, and spring meant sweet apples and waking trees.

The smells in the air said that the apples were juicy and the trees were relaxed. She frowned in concern. It was spring, not summer. The apples should have been sweet and the trees waking. She took in another breath, and the apples were savory and the trees excited. Something was very wrong.

"Big Mac!" she called out to her brother. "Can ya come over here? Ah think we've gotta problem." He quickly came out of the house and over to her. "The apples ain't right. It's like somethin's messin' with 'em."

Big Mac took in a deep breath, with his frown mirroring Applejack's. "Eeyup," he said in affirmation. "Can't even smell 'em."

Her eyes widened in alarm. "That ain't what Ah got. They were summer and fall apples!"

He took in another breath. "Spring."

"You they're..." She struggled to think of the correct phrasing. "Cyclin' through the seasons?"

"Eeyup."

"And none of us were out late or anythin'?"

"Nnope."

Applejack bit her lip in concern. "Alrighty... You go wake up Granny Smith." Big Mac arched an eyebrow to ask what she was going to do. "Ah'm going to find Limestone. If there's anypony who would know what's goin' on here, it would be her."





Rainbow Dash hated being awake when the sun rose. The morning air was terrible for flying, and her wings were slightly numb. But she had no choice but to wake as a beam of sunlight landed squarely over her eyes, forcing them open.

She let out a groan and reluctantly sat up. Her haunches rested comfortably on a fluffy cloud as she fixed her mane with her hooves. She had a pretty miserable headache, and was tempted to bury her head in the cloud to try and make it go away.

"No more night sessions..." she muttered. "Ugh, Twilight was right about that headache..."

Forcing herself to function, Rainbow spread out her wings and took flight. She dove straight down towards the city below, followed by a casual spin to the side before she clipped the top of any buildings. She wasn't in Ponyville, but instead Canterlot.

The city sights didn't interest Rainbow. Everything was made of stone, as opposed to the wooden cottages of Ponyville and puffy cloud buildings in Cloudsdale. The shops had nothing of interest for her to buy, with the only one she even considered visiting being one devoted to Wonderbolts merchandise.

She skipped past everything and went straight to Canterlot Castle. She saw Princess Celestia out on her balcony, raising the sun higher and higher into the sky. She saw guards exiting the castle to go train, each holding a spear. And she saw the Night Guards waiting to be taken of their shifts.

Rainbow landed on a balcony and seamlessly switched to walking down the hall. She gave a friendly wave to the Guards she saw, receiving one back from a thestral guard, Pumpkin Moon.

"Good morning, Miss Dash!" said Pumpkin politely. "How were your sessions with Lieutenant Sparkle?"

"No sweat!" replied Rainbow instantly, quickly leaning in to whisper. "My head is killing me."

Pumpkin gave no response, as if she hadn't heard the whisper. Naturally, all of the other thestral guards in the area could hear Rainbow, but the pegasus didn't know that. Rainbow and Pumpkin were friends, and Rainbow trusted her enough to prevent her ego from getting in the way. Most of the guards who knew Rainbow even had a wager going on of how long it would take her to succeed.

It was a very steady pattern. Once a week, Rainbow came into Canterlot to train with Twilight Sparkle. Nobody actually knew specifically what the two of them were training, but from the hints that Rainbow unintentionally dropped, it had something to do with when Nightmare Moon returned.

Rainbow was training to fight against mind control. Twilight had nearly broken free of the control that Nightmare had put on her, while Rainbow had been at the mercy of her every whim. It had been the unicorn's idea, with her having left Rainbow a note about it a while ago. It was taking a while to teach the brash pegasus, but slow progress was better than no progress.

As she turned a corner, Rainbow nearly ran into somepony. She flew to the side just in time, and turned to see that it was Shining Armor, Captain of the Day Guard. "Hey, Shining!" she said casually, before noticing his expression of concern. "Something up?"

Shining looked very tired. "I've been searching all night for Twilight and I can't find her."

"Are you sure she isn't wrapped up in a book somewhere?"

"I already checked the Canterlot Library and Castle Archives. Nopony had even seen her in either place."

"Are you sure she didn't just go out to train and, like, fall asleep or something?" Saying that about Twilight sounded absurd, even to her.

Shining shook his head. "I checked everywhere she would possibly go in Canterlot."

Rainbow's eyes lit up with an idea. "What if she went to Ponyville?"

"Well, she would have left a note. But maybe-"

"Say no more!" She spread her wings wide. "I'll be there in a flash!"

Rainbow zipped down the hall and back outside, leaving a rainbow contrail behind her. Shining sighed, not sure if it was in concern for Twilight, or for impatience with Rainbow. Either way, that at least covered Ponyville. There was still half of Canterlot to go.