//------------------------------// // Episode 63: Speaking with the Earth // Story: Sarah's Adventure's in Equestria // by Zipp Storm //------------------------------// Third Person POV “48….49….50!” With a great leap off the tree branch, Mason landed on the ground with his sweater off, showing off his lean body through his grey undershirt. He stretched his back a little before resting over near a tree to catch a little break. "Pikachu, Pikapi." His Pikachu Libre said. "Thanks buddy." Mason said. “Mason!” Mason looked over to his right to see Applejack walking over, carrying two buckets of apples strapped to her back as she held a smile on her face. “Break time’s over, remember? You can stop exercising and training and get back to work.” “R-right…Okay Applejack.” Mason smiled softly and nodded before getting back up. “Sorry, I guess I forgotten to hear the bell ringing.” “Nah, it’s fine. Just don’t forget next time.” Applejack assured before walking off. “By the way, you better hurry up with the last few fields. Big Mac is just planning to sell some apples over by the market later on today after you both go and grab your sisters.” “Right. Thank you.” Mason nodded as Applejack began taking her leave. Finally regaining his breath, Mason got up and gazed at the tree he was sitting down from before and… “YAAAAH!” With one hard kick onto the tree, multiple apples fell down on the ground. Mason smiled before walking over and collecting the apples, but while he did… CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! "Pikachu?" Pikachu Libre asked. Mason looked around and began hearing crunching sounds. “Strange…that almost sounds like…” With narrowed eyes, Mason and his Pikachu walked over to one of the trees and looked behind them to see… “You!” Mason glared upon seeing who the culprit was, eating a bunch of apples in his arms. Jack and his Pikachu looked over behind them and saw Mason giving them a stern glare as Jack's mouth was covered with many apples as he mumbled “What?” “Jack Yamaki…what are you doing? And why are you eating all those apples?!” Mason demanded, his face showing off anger. With one big gulp, Jack dropped the many apples before stretching his back and scratching his butt before asking “What? I was hungry.” “Yet you realize that this is an apple farm. The same apple farm that you helped out on when the Flim Flam Brothers came and tried to take over?” Mason reminded, raising a brow while his arms crossed. His Pikachu Libre sweat dropped at Jack and his Pikachu. “So?” Jack scoffed, letting out a massive burp before rubbing his stomach. “Ahh…that hit the spot.” Mason and his Pikachu Libre gave him a dark glare, which seemed to tick off Jack a bit. HIs Pikachu Libre smartly stepped back a little bit. “You do know there’s a rule here on Sweet Apple Acres, right? You ate it, you bought it.” Mason stated sternly. "Pikachu." Mason's Pikachu Libre nodded. “Well that’s some messed-up rule.” Jack scoffed, crossing his arms. “It’s alright, I’ll get some of your Ren’s money and pay for it.” “Leave Ren out of this. It’s his allowance and he can do whatever he wants with it.” Mason stated, glaring at him. “Hmph! Well it wasn’t my fault!” Jack exclaimed angrily. “I was just hungry!” “You ate breakfast just two hours ago!” Mason argued. “Yet it still wasn’t enough!” “Oh my god! Just how obsessive with food are you?!” “What do you expect?! I have a massive appetite!” “Yeah, I wonder why…” “What’s that supposed to mean?!” “You’re fat and irresponsible, that’s what I mean.” “What you say?!” “HEY!” The two turned around to see Big Macintosh stomping over to them with a harsh glare at the boys. “Keep it down you two!” “Forgive me Big Macintosh.” Mason apologizes before glaring at Jack and said “But I caught him from eating nearly all of the apples at the orchard.” Big Mac glared at him, which made Jack growled at them and exclaimed “So what?! I was hungry, alright?! I couldn’t get any because I don’t got any dough and nobody would offer me food, alright?!” Big Mac growled and narrowed his eyes at Jack, who crossed his arms stubbornly. “So? It was just a couple of apples I ate. You have plenty of them around.” Jack scoffed, earning glares from both Mason, his Pikachu and Big Mac. “…I don’t have any money!” Big Mac scowled at him with an angry glare while Mason and his Pikachu tapped his foot with narrowed eyes that formed into a darkened look. “Well what the hell am I supposed to do?!” Jack exclaimed. “Then work here and paid off your debt.” Mason suggested coldly. "Pikachu Pika." His Pikachu Libre agreed. “Eeyup!” Big Mac nodded in agreement before huffing and taking his leave. “You ate it, you bought it!” “Uhhh….” Jack sweat-dropped upon realizing on the scene he was in. “….What the hell did I just get myself into?” “You gotten a new job apparently till you pay off the debt. Now get to it.” Mason stated sternly, which made Jack grumbled in anger. “Bastard…” Jack sighed. With that, Jack had no choice but to pay for the eaten apples that he ‘unintentionally’ ate. He had to take off his overcoat and showed off only wearing his undershirt, but it showed his gut as he and Mason got to work. Big Mac let Applejack and Granny Smith what was up, and…let’s say, Jack’s gotten lucky that Applejack was busy tending another orchard from the other side of the farm. Otherwise, he would have faced her wrath. Mason and Jack were walking over in front of the orchard as Mason smirked and said “Hmph! You’re lucky that this is the last orchard Jack.” “Ha! Must be my lucky day!” Jack cracked his knuckles with a cocky grin. “Let’s get to work! This is will be a piece of cake!” “Trust me, it’ll be hard to get them down.” Mason smirked. “There’s no way someone that husky get them down.” “Oh yeah?!” Jack growled before running over one tree before tackling the tree, making some apples fall down. “Ha! How you like them apples?!” Mason rolled his eyes with a soft grin before walking over and knocking out a random tree, making all of the apples fall down, much to Jack’s shock. His Pikachu used Iron Tail and made more apples fall down. “No…how do you ‘them’ apples.” Mason smirked, which seemed to irritate Jack. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!” Jack yelled out before he kept tackling the tree from before, dropping some more apples in the process. Mason smirked at him before he went back to work and began using many fighting techniques to take down many trees down. Jack kept tackling many trees to drop as many apples as fast as he could. Their Pikachus' looked at each other and shrugged. They followed their owners and used Iron Tail to knock down the apples. While they were too busy taking down many apples, they weren’t aware that the Apple Family have been watching over through binoculars. “Looks like those boys are really going out on work.” Applejack smirked. “Well those big whippersnapper better pay the debt!” Granny Smith barked, waving her cane around. “Eeyup.” Big Mac nodded as they watched the two boys racing through the last fields to take down all of its trees. One Hour Later After that, the four sat down on the ground with heavy sighs as the boys were sweating too hard which was obvious judging how sweaty they are and how all of their sweat gotten their undershirts all sweaty. They were sitting down at a random tree while recovering from exhaustion. “Ha…gotta admit kid, you got some skills.” Jack chuckled before panting. “Oh man…never been this tired in my life.” “You know…I’m surprise a guy like you could go as fast as you were before.” Mason panted, forming a smirk on his face. “Well duh…I…work out…a lot…back in my…world…” Jack grinned before recovering a bit. He patted on his gut and commented “Just because I’m husky, doesn’t mean I can run as fast as any of ya!” “True…you really surprise me out there.” Mason chuckled before looking at the sky. “ Mason made an amused smile at him and said “True, but you still act like a child with a temper tantrum.” The Pikachus chuckled at that comment. Jack growled angrily while Mason chuckled to himself. “But we’ve been here for a year now, well…more like you, Rantaro, and Nicole been here for a few months. We know that we’ll find a way to go back, but there’s that possibility that we might not be able go back home soon and it could take years…” Mason looked at Jack with a sad look and continued “I know that our friends and families might be worried about us…but like Ren once said, we need to believe that we’ll find a home and maybe our lost memories might be the key to search out a way home.” “Yeah, I bet my old man is probably wondering where the hell I went. He probably sent out the whole Yamaki gang around the country to search out for me…but as a man…” Jack grinned cockily and said “Hmph! I can take care of myself. I’m a biker and heir to the Yamki Biker Gang, so I know how to fight on.” “No argument there.” Mason shook his head with an amused smile before saying “But still…I’m not sure. I mean, what’s the right choice and what’s the wrong one?” “Just pick whatever it’s right.” Jack suggested, much to Mason’s surprise. “I-I mean…it’s your choice. You can’t keep relying on anyone to make your decisions. You’re your own person so the decisions must be made by yourself.” “Huh…” Mason blinked in surprise, which confused Jack. “What?” “Nothing, it’s just that…I’m surprised that someone like you would even say that.” Jack stiffened before huffing away with a light blush and muttered “W-whatever….I don’t care. Just wanna give ya advice…” His Pikachu Libre chuckled and fell on back. "Hardy Har Har, electric fluff." Jack grumbled. “Yeah…” Mason chuckled before remembering something. “Oh yeah, how’s Jamie? Has he been training with ya lately? I couldn’t arrive for our morning training because of my part-time job here on Applejack’s family’s farm.” “Meh, he came and I have to say, he’s improved just like newbie.” Jack explained before chuckling to him. “She's not a tiny brat anymore. But those marks on her face, it still makes me laugh to this day.” “True…I’m still wondering where they came from and why?” Mason wondered. “It’s just so weird…” “Meh, it’s probably nothing.” Mason gave Jack a deadpanned look and asked “How is growing two marks similar to a pony’s Cutie-Mark not nothing to be concern about that?” “I-I don’t know! Quit questioning me!” Jack exclaimed, which further Mason’s disbelief at that. The Pikachus' sweat dropped and sighed. “Whatever…” Mason sighed before looking at the skies. “But even so…what am I supposed to do? I mean, I don’t wanna leave Carrie behind…she’s my little sister and I don’t wanna disappoint her.” “True, you guys always stick together like glue. That’s the whole point with family.” Jack stated before taking out two apples from his pockets before tossing one to Mason. Mason caught it and blinked in surprise upon seeing one of the orchard’s apples in his hand before glaring at Jack. “What? You’ll get paid and you can use that money to pay off the apples while I pay off my debt for eating the apples here. See?” “….Fine.” Mason sighed before biting into the juicy apple, along with Jack. “Hmm…maybe I’ll give it more thought when the time is right.” “Well…good luck with that. But…” Jack wrapped his arm around and gave him a noogie. “Ha ha! You’re gonna make the right decision!” Mason grew a bit irritated on the noogie he was receiving, but couldn’t help but smile and laughed along with his friend till he widened his eyes as something began playing in his head. Flashback Mason was seen walking with Elena and Carrie through a clothe store. Mason was carrying tons of bag with clothes on them. They walked through one of the dressing stalls as Elena grabbed one of them and said “Alright, we’re gonna try out the new clothes. Is that alright Mason?” “Yes indeed Elena.” Mason nodded with a smile. “Good luck you two.” “Yay! Yay! Come on Elena!” Carrie grabbed Elena’s right hand as she pulled her into one of the dressing stalls. Elena chuckled with her foster sister as the two began changing their clothes while Mason leaned against the wall before he noticed some people walking by as they were looking at him and began whispering about something and that was mainly about him…and his sister. “Is that him?” “Yeah, I think so. He’s one of them.” “To think that he’s the lucky ones to go through with it.” “Wasn’t there supposed to be some little girl with him?” “I think so…” “Yeah well…why is it that he gets to go through it?” Mason gave them all a dark glare, causing the group of people flinching before running off. Mason looks back at his sister and lover, who were starting to come out of the dressing stall as they were wearing normal clothing that middle-class people wear. “I say that this may not be my style, but I can’t help but feel like a normal girl in this!” Elena giggled. “Me too!” Carrie nodded in agreement before turning to her brother. “Hey big brother! Do you think me and Elena look amazing?” “O-oh…” Mason covered his mouth with his scarf with a massive blush around his face, nearly turning his face red. “Y-you two…look amazing as ever…you two are so stellar as ever.” “Thank you Mason.” Elena kissed him on the forehead, causing Mason to blush more while Carrie giggled at them before noticing a bunch of people staring right at them. Carrie formed a concern yet scared look before hiding behind Elena and Mason as she called “Big brother? Elena?” The two looked at her in surprise before looking at what she was staring at the group of people, who were whispering and muttering to each other. “Why is the princess with them?” “Maybe she haven’t heard?” “Yeah right, she’s harboring one of those who’s immune to it.” “I guess so…” Mason narrowed his eyes before turning to Elena and Carrie as he said “Elena, Carrie, let’s go.” “Huh?” Elena and Carrie turned to Mason with confusion on their faces. “Big brother? What’s wrong?” Carrie asked worriedly. “I-Is it because…?” “I-it’s nothing…let’s head back with the rest of our family.” Mason suggested, which made Elena hesitate for a moment before nodding as she and Carrie immediately headed back to the dressing stall and in five minutes, they headed out in their normal attire as they began making their way out of here as Mason held both of their hands. Mason looked back at the sneers and suspicious looks from the other people, causing him to glare back at him before sighing to himself. “Why…..Why us?” Flashback Ended “Ngh!” Mason winced, much to Jack’s confusion as he ended his noogie and looked at him with concern. “Hey, what’s wrong with ya? I didn’t even given that hard of a noogie.” Jack stated. Mason shook his head as he placed a hand on his head and replied “I don’t know…it was something I remembered…” “Huh? Remembered?” Jack asked. “I-I don’t know…but I’m fine now.” Mason sighed in relief. “Heh, for a moment there, I thought you couldn’t handle one of my noogies.” Jack laughed, causing Mason to give him a deadpan look. “No, that wasn’t it.” Mason sighed before muttering “Never mind…” “Well anyway, I should keep on working with the rest of these trees. Hopefully, I get paid and managed to use that cash to pay off that recently made debt.” Jack scratched the back of his head before making a cocky grin. “Heh, don’t worry…I promise I’ll pay for it.” “You better.” Mason smirked before getting back up while Jack looked at Mason for a while, noticing his lean build. Mason noticed this before raising a brow and asked “Is there something wrong?” “Nothing, just that…heh, you got a nice bod there.” Jack teased, nudging him a bit before patting his gut, making it jiggle a bit. “But my gut is a man’s way to be strong!” “No…it doesn’t.” Mason replied with a blank look. “And frankly…I think maybe you should lose some weight.” “Hmph! Says you!” Jack scoffed, flexing his arm a bit. “I think ladies will dig a guy like me.” “The day I see you date anyone, whether it’s a human or pony, is the day I would get sit by you big fat butt.” Mason mused himself, ignoring the growl from Jack. But before any of them could say anything… "PIKACHU!" The two Pikachus' cried aloud. “WHOOOOOAAAAAAA!” And just by a second, both Mason and Jack were tackled by a blue blur, landing straight towards the apple orchard, knocking the three, including the one who landed on them, down for the count. But thanks to that unexpected turn, a faint memory began playing inside of Jack’s head. Flashback “Are you frigging serious?!” Jack slammed his fist on a metal table as he was seen speaking to a bunch of men wearing black suits and dark sunglasses. “You come to MY home, come and tell ME about this lazy stupid-crappy thing about some stupid project, and you all think that’s perfect for us?! No frigging way I ain’t doing this!” “Sir, please calm down and-” “Shut it!” Jack snarled and scowled angrily at them. “This situation is already right up my butt and you think that you could make me do what you say! Forget it, I’m out of here!” Jack immediately turned around and began taking his leave, wanting to forget about this scene and headed out the door. “Sir wait! If you just-” “SHADDUP!” Jack screamed, causing the two men to flinch in fear before he headed out of the door and slammed it shut, ignoring the two men’s pleas. “Hmph…Saving the seeds of hope, my butt…” Flashback Ended “U-Ugh…” Jack and Mason slowly got up and looked around before noticing a familiar blue pony laying on top of them. “Rainbow Dash?!” “W-what the?!” Rainbow Dash immediately gotten up from the ground and shook her head before glaring at them and yelled out “What are you two doing here?!” “We should be asking you the same damn question as well, Skittles!” Jack exclaimed, sneering at her. “What are you doing landing on top of us! My stomach isn’t some pin cushion for you to just land on!” “I wasn’t trying to! I just had a misdirection on one of my tricks and accidentally landed here! I wasn’t expecting any of you two to show up and me landing on you both!” Rainbow Dash retorted, glaring at Jack. “Well maybe you need to pay attention more, Skittles!” “Why not you not end up whenever I’m practicing my stunts, fatty!” “Oh yeah?! You want me to come over and fight ya?! I ain’t scared of fighting off a pony, specifically a girl!” “Oh yeah?! Those are fighting words!” “Enough you two!” Mason intervened into their conversation before sternly glaring at them. “You two need to stop fighting and just calm down! You’re just making things more worse than usual if you two end up doing this!” “Hmph! Fine!” Rainbow Dash and Jack huffed as they crossed their arms and looked away from him. “Oh god…” Mason face-palmed before looking over at the crater they were in. “What am I gonna tell Applejack about this?” “Oh stop it, she’ll be fine.” Jack shrugged till they heard a loud sound. “WHAT IS THIS?!” They looked back and saw Applejack and Big Mac staring at the big crater that appeared right in front of them. Big Mac and Applejack stared in horror upon seeing this as the former fainted while the latter glared angrily at them. “Who did this? Who’s responsible for this?!” Applejack demanded, glaring angrily at the three. Rainbow Dash, Jack, and Mason widened their eyes upon seeing Applejack like this since they never see the farm pony this angry before. Jack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other before they started pointing at fingers at each other. “She/He did it!” Jack and Rainbow Dash yelled out while Mason face-palmed and shook his head annoyingly. “Oh my god…why me?” Mason sighed. "Oooohh, big crater." a innocent voice said. They all turned and saw Sarah and Shimmer Glow along with Lucario. "Let me guess... Rainbow crashed into Jack and Mason and made this large crater?" "..... Yes." Mason said. "I got this Applejack." Sarah said. She used her Earth magic to make the crater disappear. "Nice newbie." Jack said. "Yeah, thanks Sugarcube." Applejack said. "Any luck with your mothers' rings?" "Well.. I was thinking I look for the Earth Unicorn first. Since.. you know." Sarah added. "So how are you gonna find this unicorn?" Applejack asked. "According to my dad, she lives underground somewhere very secretive. The task is finding her hiding place. She rarely comes to the surface and she is very shy." Sarah added. "Well if she rarely comes out and is very shy then how are you gonna make her come out?" Mason asked. "I believe I can help with that." They all turned around and saw Xerneas standing there. "Xerneas?! What are you doing here?" Sarah asked in shock. "I am here to help you contact with the Elemental Unicorns you seek to retrieve your mothers' rings. The Earth Unicorn and I are old friends as well as the other Unicorns. I can take you to her." "Really? Oh thank you, Xerneas." Sarah said. "Hop on." Sarah hopped onto Xerneas. "Big Mac, Mason, Jack, Applejack, can you watch over Shimmer for me?" "Oh course, sugarcube." Applejack said. "Eeyup." Big Mac said. "Sure newbie, good luck." Jack said. "We'll watch her, Sarah." Mason added. "Alright, Lucario, let's go." Sarah said. "Okay Mother." Lucario followed Xerneas as it leaped through Sweet Apple Acres and out of Ponyville. POV Ends Xerneas gracefully leaped across the large area with me on it's back and Lucario was running beside us. "So.. where are we going, Xerneas?" I saw a large cave up ahead. "We're going to where my old friends lives." Xerneas said and it stopped in front of the cave and I dismounted her. "She lives deep inside this cave." Xerneas added. The cave looked really dark and a swallowed a lump in my throat. I slowly walked into the cave with the two pokemon by my side. "Um.... hello? Anyone here?" I called into the cave nervously. I didn't hear anything for a moment until I heard a loud whinny from deep within the cave. "What was that?" Lucario asked. "My old friend." Xerneas said with a smile. We continued to walk into the cave until we saw a glow at the end. We walked in a found a small chamber where a unicorn layed. Her mane and horn are made of wooden branches, and has twigs and leaves throughout. "Woah...." Me and Lucario gasped. The Earth Unicorn stared at us with a sharp look. "Who are you and what are you doing in my cave?" she asked sharply. Lucario and I flinched at her tone. Something tells me she's a stubborn one Xerneas came forth. "Hello old friend." The Earth Unicorn looked surprised. "Xerneas? I-It's been a long time old friend." she got up and walked towards Xerneas and I saw a golden ring on her horn. This one had a small red lightning bolt in the center. Lucario and I came forth, "Umm... hi Earth Unicorn... my name is Sarah and this is my friend, Lucario. My dad said you knew my mother." The Earth Unicorn looked at me, "Yes I did. Your mother was very kind and caring, very loyal to her friends. She gave me this ring to protect and give to her next generation." "Yes, Sarah Gem is her daughter and her father said that the rings will be passed down to her." Xerneas said. The Earth Unicorn nodded, "Yes, but before I give you the ring, you must prove you are worthy." "Prove I'm worthy? How?" I asked. "I will give you a test to see if you are as loyal as your mother was to your friends." The Earth Unicorn stated. "See if I'm as loyal.... well I guess-" Suddenly, "Mother! Mother!" a voice came. Huh? I turned and saw Dragonite flying into the cave with a face of extreme distress. "Dragonite? What's wrong?" I asked, concerned. "It's Ren and the others, they're sick!" Dragonite exclaimed. Lucario and I gasped. "Sick?! What happened?!" I exclaimed. "It's better if I show you." Dragonite said. I turned to the Earth Unicorn. "Sorry, Earth Unicorn, but I have to go and check on my friends, we'll have to do the test later. Dragonite, let's go." I hopped onto Dragonite and we immediately flew off with Lucario rushing behind. Soon we made it to my castle and I burst in and found my dad and his brother along with my friends pokemon and dragons. "Sarah, thank goodness you're here." My dad said. He dragged me into the same room where I placed all my friends when they were sick and I saw they were in bad shape. They all had a purple line on their faces and they were groaning and moaning. "What happened?" I asked. "These little mushroom pokemon came out of nowhere an blasted everyone with this purple smoke and now they're like this." Douglas said. "None of the medicine we have here works on them." "That's because their poisoned from Poison Spore." "Poisoned?!" My dad exclaimed. "Oh man, what do we do?" "I've gotta find some Pecha Berries. They'll get rid of the poison. I'll be right back, Dragonite, Lucario!" I rushed out of the room when my dad stopped me. "Wait, what can we do?" "I need you all to keep them comfortable until we come back with the Pecha Berries." I explained. "Right." Douglas said and we rushed out of the castle and outside of Ponyville into the nearby forest. Dragonite searched through the trees while Lucario and I searched the bushes. Then we came across some pink berries with white spots on them. "Are these Pecha Berries?" Lucario asked. "Yes!" I exclaimed with joy. "You found them?" Dragonite asked as it flew down. "Yeah." I replied. Lucario and I picked the berries from the bush. "Come on let's go!" and we rushed back to Ponyville and into the castle. "Dad, we found them!" I called. "You did?! Great!" Douglas said. I blended all the berries into a liquid and I gave all to my friends and the purple lines disappeared and they opened their eyes. "Sarah? What are you doing here?" Ren asked a little groggily. "Dragonite came and got me saying you all got sick from Poison Spores and I rushed right over." I explained. "But what about the Earth Unicorn?" Mason asked. "We found her and she was gonna give me a test but when I heard you guys were sick I said we should continue it another day." I added. "But Sarah you were close to getting your mother's ring." Twilight said, feeling bad. "Hey now, you guys are more important than a test. You're my family." I said with a proud smile. "Perfect." We all looked and saw Xerneas and the Earth Unicorn entering the room. My friends gasped at the sight of the Earth Unicorn. "Holy..." Jack said. "Crap baskets." Ren added. "I am very proud of you, Sarah." Xerneas said. The Earth Unicorn came up to me and lowered her horn and the ring slipped right into my hands. "The ring? But... I didn't perform the test." I stammered. "You did, just not in the way you think." The Earth Unicorn said. I thought about it for a moment and looked at her. "Healing my friends was the test?!" I said. The Earth Unicorn nodded, "Your mother would put her friends before everything else even if it seemed difficult and by abandoning your 'test' so you could help you friends showed me that you are just as loyal as your mother was." I smiled at the Earth Unicorn. "Thank you." I gasped. The Earth Unicorn nodded. The ring glowed a little and magically floated onto my horn and slid down to the base of it. "Now you have the first ring of your mother's crown, Sarah. There are more out there." Ren said. "And I'll find them.... with my family by my side." I stated. Everyone smiled at me and I smiled at them.