//------------------------------// // Just for Seleucus, part 2, Interlude 3 // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 3 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 3 By TDR Just for Seleucus, part 2, Interlude 3 [Sweet Apple Acres] Applejack twitched and groaned a little, rolling off her bed. The not so distant peal of thunder barely making her ear twitch. They had seen the storm coming in as she and Applebloom made their way from the market earlier so the sound was little surprise. Her hooves thudded lightly as she walked over to the mirror, grabbing a brush and straightening out her mane before tying it again. With how she felt earlier Applejack figured a nap would be good and she told Applebloom to wake her up before they headed out to the club house. Given the giggling and occasional shout from downstairs the other Crusaders were here already. Applejack sighed, feeling a good bit better after her nap. Might be an idea to go and see if Rahs had already brought the pizzas before she took the next dose of her medication. Trotting down the stairs she was greeted to the sight of the three Crusaders, plus Spike, sitting at the table already pigging out on pizza. Granny was in her rocker rambling on on some story to Rahs who seemed to be doing his best to humor her. “Hey sis good timing. Pizza just got here. Stay away from tha red box, that's Spike's double ghost pepper one. Rahs had tah sign a waiver tah get it. And tha one in tha blue box is tha griffon feast fer Rahs. Ah ain't gonna tell yah whats on that, specially if yer still feeling ill.” Applebloom commented. “Heh. Thanks Bloom, ah figure ah will have a few slices of that tha one with tha bell peppers and onions.” The group of them sat down around the table eating and occasionally going on about some random thought or another. It was mostly the crusaders talking. Either Spike brought up something from a game, or one of the others proposed a crusading idea. Those ideas were either shot down by an adult, considered, or noted as already done in Spike's master check list of cutie-mark attempts. Applejack had managed two slices and was on her third, pausing only to try not to snicker as Granny's dentures got stuck in the slice she was trying to eat. Of course then there was a sudden wave of nausea again that forced her to put down the third slice and close her eyes. “Sis, yah feeling alright?” Applebloom asked getting up and moving to her side. Applejack was going to respond with another complaint about her medication when a sharp pain in her chest caused her to double over slapping both her fore hooves on the table, rattling the plates and causing the others to jump up and crowd around her. Another sharp pain caused her to gasp and jerk up to her rear hooves sending her chair crashing to the floor as Rahs caught her holding her up as she staggered. Applejack jerked falling back and crashing down atop of the table sending dishes and pizza flying as she spasmed. Spike and Rahs both started to freak out doing their best to hold the flailing mare still as Rahs grabbed a pizza cutter forcing the handle between her teeth to stop her from trying to bite off her tongue. While Twilight had never had any sort of seizure, the pair of them recognized the signs of it from various sources. Applejack flailed as every one tried to help though there was a shriek as a splatter of blood seemed to burst from her chest, the pizza cutter falling from her mouth. Everyone jerked back at that as Applejack managed to lift her head watching as her orange furred chest seemed to stretch and writhe before bursting open in a shower of gore showing a small canine like head made out of sticks and leaves, covered in her blood. It let out a tiny howl before clawing the rest of the way out of her chest and skittering out of her to tear across the table. There was a great deal of screaming from those present though Applejack heard one voice clearer than the others. “Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, Metis get back here. No, not yet, stop!!” Applejack blinked turning her head and raising an eyebrow as she watched the little wooden chest burster skitter across the kitchen floor with four odd looking puppies chasing it. “Damn it.” Applejack turned her head to look at the source of the voice seeing a deep purple furred diamond dog looking creature, obviously female judging by the ample chest she had, standing in the door way to the rest of the house. Applejack blinked again as the canine padded over after the puppies grumbling to her self as she scooped them up, her long ears flat to her head tail whipping, all of which had little glowing points of light floating over the tips the puppies all had the same sort of glowing balls over their ears and tail tip as well. “ A moon dog?” Applejack questioned sitting up, oddly not feeling any pain despite being able to look down into her chest. All the others had stopped moving as well. “Hmmm?” The purple bitch questioned as she scooped up a gray furred puppy who was gnawing on the tiny timber wolf. The others yipped and barked trying to hop up to grab at the raised pup and his prize. “Lovely, the dreams over. I told Io they were too young for their first hunt, but noooooo.” “What tha hay is going on here and who are you?” Applejack demanded. “You're not going to remember, you never do.” the moon dog sighed before blinking and finally noticing the frozen image of Rahs. “Then again you did know what I am.” Applejack flattened her ears. “My name is Sheeba, I'm one of the Apple families dream guardians along with my mate Io, and his parents and grandfather. These naughty little things are our pups... Europa. She points to a solid black puppy who had gotten bored and was now gnawing on a fallen pizza slice. “...Callisto...” She pointed to a white furred puppy who was attacking one of the other puppies and biting his tail. “...Ganymede...” she pointed to a deep purple puppy who was getting attacked and trying to fight back. “And Metis.” Sheeba holds up the gray puppy who had managed to catch the tiny timber wolf, she had already half eaten it by this point too. Sheeba did look rather proud of that. "This was supposed to be their first hunt, but they don't listen very well. Granted they are only three years old.....” “This is a dream?” Applejack blinked. “Well yes... ponies don't usually live with a large gaping hole in their chest.” Sheeba commented her head tilting as she looked over the image of Rahs before whistling. ”Damn if I was a few years younger and didn't have a mate, I would be all over this... I've never seen the lost pup before though I've heard rumors.” The moon dog looked to Spike. "And one of the missing dreamers too. Neat. I know the filly dreams about him a lot, but I don't think I've ever seen him in any of your dreams yet. To be fair I did a lot of the Nightmare Moon dreams and then I've had these little biters to look after.” Sheeba sighed. “Ah still have no clue what's going on here.” Applejack stated trailing of as Sheeba lifted up the back of Rahs' coat to whistle again. “Seriously, look at that ass, he has got to work out....”Sheeba considered. “ Unless you're projecting how you view him.” “Unless ah'm what?” Applejack stated a blush forming on her face at the Moon Dogs blatant comments about Rahs. “He's a friend of tha family that's it. Ah ain't projecting nothing.” “Riiiiight.” Sheeba grinned.” Still given what I've heard about those other three who dream about him regularly, this is pretty tame....” “What?” “Never mind, like I said you won't remember this, you never do.” Sheeba sighed as the whole world seemed to shake. “ There we go. See you around Applejack.” Another harder shake and the dream faded. One more and Applejack opened her eyes to Applebloom staring at her from the side of her bed. “Hey sis get up. We're gonna head over tah tha club house here in in a minute. Spike's showed up and Rahs is going tah git tha pizza.”Applebloom fussed shaking Applejack again. Applejack grumbled sitting up and slipped off the bed, her hooves hitting the floor with a thud. The idea of pizza made her ill for some reason but not in a way she could attribute to the medication. “Yeah, yeah ah'm up. Go on finish gitting yerself ready, ah'll be down in a sec.” Applejack shook her head before rubbing her eyes. “Did tha nap help?” “Lil bit, go on, it's gonna be cold out make sure yah got everything.” Applejack shooed her sister out the door before rising to head to the bathroom. She paused in front of the mirror staring at it for a moment trying to piece together the shreds of memories of the dream she had already mostly forgotten. There really was only one thing that stuck solidly and it confused her. “Was ah dreaming about Rahs?”