Applebloom’s POV
CMC Clubhouse
…
“Whad’ya mean we ain’t goin’ ta Sweet Apple Acres?!”
Joe didn’t turn away from the telescope. “I’m sorry. What part of that is unclear?”
“How’s about the part where we agreed ta check with the farm in the first place?!” I shouted.
Joe was silent while I sat here, boiling over in a fit of rage. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was resting on the ramp outside the watchtower I would already be halfway to the farm by now.
Meanwhile, Joe never dared to tear his eye away from the telescope. He continued taking notes on everything he saw with his other hand. He didn’t bother getting angry.
“I agreed to help you get to your farm because we thought that was a safe place to go,” he explained. “Judging by your tone, I’d say we both understand whatever’s going on at that farm isn’t normal. Am I wrong?”
“Th-That’s not.” I could feel my teeth grinding on themselves. “Them goats are exactly why we need ta hurry down there!”
“No. It isn’t.”
He leaned forward and was now carefully studying something. His calm demeanor only made me that much more infuriated. “We know nothing about those goats except that they’ve obviously had control of that farm for a while now. They’re secure.”
“So what if they’re—” “So,” Joe replied mockingly. “We are composed of a girl who I can hardly call a tween and a college student with the density of a stick. What are we to do against a legion of goats led by a Minotaur with militaristic defenses set up in every direction?”
I could feel my face begin to turn as red as my hair. “Mah family might be down there!”
“And if they are, they are well protected. Be sure of that.” He turned the telescope to look towards the edge of the farm where the Everfree met the east orchard.
“Ms. Bloom, the situation has officially changed. We thought we were only dealing with a purple dome in the sky. We aren’t. We’re trapped here with a legion of goats defending that stronghold of a farm they’ve settled in.”
“Defendin’ it?” I stared at him. “It don’t belong ta them!”
“So you’ve expressed.” He rolled his eyes, still stuck to that telescope. “Ownership doesn’t matter. We have no idea what they’re defending it from. It could be Ponyville. It could be your family trying to take it back. It might be something worse than goats.”
“So, what? Ya want us ta jus’ do nothin’ an’ sit here watchin’ ‘em?” I crossed my arms with a scowl.
“I never said that,” Joe told me. He sounded less than calm for a second.
Good, I thought.
“Well, it sure sounds like it. Or am Ah wrong?” I bit back.
“Careful. Those are my words you’re using.” He didn’t sound any less calm but he finally lowered the telescope to look at me. “I use them to prove a point. Not to challenge people.”
“Doesn’t mean Ah’m wro—” “Actually. You are,” Joe chomped back, keeping the attitude. “You think I want to sit here in a cramped tower and spy on a bunch of goats like an obsessed neighbor? No. I would much rather be anywhere else.”
“But ya said that we ain’t goin’ ta the farm.” I tensed my glare.
“And I meant it. We. Are not.” He stressed the one word in a way where a chill ran down my spine. “I am not going anywhere near that farm. You, on the other hand, are a master of your own fate.”
Wherever my train of thought was trying to lead me, it was long down the track now. All my anger had left with it too. Now I just felt singled out.
“Ya ain’t even gonna help me?”
Joe took a moment to take a breath and shake off his frustration. “What do you want me to say Ms. Bloom? That I’ll be happy to help? That I’ll gladly run down and help you take on dozens of goats? For a family that may or may not actually be down there right now?”
“You don’t know that,” I called him out.
“And you do?” He narrowed his eyes. I refused to admit that he was right so I gave out a huff and left it at that.
“You were not there. You woke up at a schoolhouse. Thirty minutes away,” he pointed out. “You also said you remembered making those paper airplanes recently but they’re coated in dust.”
I thought over what he said for a moment. “You think that means my family woke up somewhere else.” I didn’t ask a question. I knew that’s what he thought.
“What makes more sense?” He asked."That we are the only two to wake up in some random area with no memory of why? Or that we are not?”
I had no answer for that. Joe knew that too. So rather than admit it, I stood up and looked out at my family’s farm from above the leaves and branches.
“So that’s a ‘no’ on helpin’ me out?”
Joe didn’t speak right away. He actually had to think it over. “Would your family want you to risk running into trouble without knowing for sure that they’re in trouble to begin with?”
I slumped a little. “They wouldn’t want me gettin’ inta trouble even if Ah knew they were stuck in it.”
“Then I’m going to respect that,” he told me. “That said, I physically cannot stop you. If you actually meant to punch me earlier, I’d still be eating dirt right now. If you think you need to charge into your farm, go ahead. I would do the same thing.”
“Wait. Ya would?” I blinked.
“Of course,” he scoffed. “If I had a good reason to think my brother was down there, I would be the idiot here,” he admitted. “I won’t blame you if you go now. But I won’t help you either. Not yet.
“Think about that.” Those last three words he said pointedly. As if it were supposed to mean something.
And with that, he turned back and returned to the telescope.
“Yer sayin’ it’s my choice?” I waited for him to answer but Joe didn’t talk anymore.
I’m guessing that’s a yes.
I stood on that ramp and started staring towards my farm. As a pony it wouldn’t take five minutes to get to my house. As a human it’d probably be ten minutes if I ran to it.
Except now there were goats crawling all over the place like ants. Hay, from this far out they even looked like ants to me. But that blue Minotaur? He was so big I could see him pointing with his arms even without the telescope.
Then there was that giant statue. It was parked right in front of our house, keeping me from seeing it. When I tried to lean one way or the other to get a better view, all I could see was the corners of our roof poking out from behind.
Finally, I looked back at Joe. He was taking more notes like he didn’t just tell me I could run off on my own. Did he even care if I went down there or not?
‘I would do the same thing.’ That’s what he told me. But then he also said ‘I would be the idiot here’ if he did.
I blinked. Wait a second. Did he call me an idiot? I started burning a hole into the side of his head but what good would it do? He already pointed out every reason why running down there wasn’t a good plan.
‘Think about that.’ He said it as if that was supposed to mean something. Think about what? Why it ain’t a good idea? You made it loud and clear already.
Then I remembered what he said before that. ‘Not yet.’ Why not yet? Does he want to be sure that my family’s down there?
No. That wouldn’t be it, I realized. Again, he said that if his brother was down there then he’d be the idiot. So that means I’d still be an idiot even if Granny and Big Mac was down there.
“...This is some sorta riddle err somethin’. Ain’t it?” I tried to ask.
Joe, again, said nothing. But in the most obvious way, he rolled his head around before looking back to the telescope.
I wore a flat look. Wow. He really goes all in when it comes to making a point, doesn’t he?
I took a slow breath and let it out. “Fine then. Ah’ll figure it out on mah own.”
Without another word from either of us, I climbed down the ramp and let him be.
Joe’s POV
Watchtower
…
I rubbed my eye and adjusted my glasses before checking my watch. 6:15. It had been two hours and 48 minutes since I first checked it at that schoolhouse and eighteen minutes since Bloom had walked away.
Even though it was past six o’clock, the sun hadn’t moved at all. It would have been alarming to me had I not remembered who Princess Celestia was. Although, all I understood was that she had something to do with the sun. So the still sun was a little creepy.
Before I stopped getting distracted, I did a sweep of the orchard between this treehouse and the farm. There was no sign of Bloom passing by. I didn’t see any changes from the goats’ activity either.
Before I wasted my time thinking about it I took a breath. What would you even do if she ran in? Go after her? Waste of time, I scolded. If she left, she’s on her own. That’s what she decided.
As I told myself that, something at the farm made me refocus my efforts. The minotaur I kept tabs on suddenly stopped talking to the goats around him and put his hand up against his ear. Then, his expression became something between surprised and angry.
He began pacing back and forth, talking while his hand stayed up against his ear.
Earpiece, I recognized. I couldn’t tell with the spyglass before but he had to be using one. Which meant that he had constant communication with the goats that had ones as well.
After he was done pacing, I saw him tap the side of his head he had the earpiece in and he spoke again. But this time I could hear it.
“Attention!” A voice echoed after a mechanical screech. It had to be from the speakers I spotted around the farmyard. “It seems we have an intruder southwards! Round up and form your search parties and double the patrols! Let them know when they start intruding, we start pursuing!”
Even with the speakers, it was hard to hear him from this distance unless you were listening. But from what part of that I caught, I knew that staying here wasn’t an option.
I glanced over at my notes. I had pages of information about their stronghold and their habits. Some of it was probably useless but I could skim through it later. I tucked them and the spyglass both into my bag and threw it over my shoulder.
Letting my legs stretch for a second, I carefully climbed down the ramp and sharply turned the corner towards the clubhouse’s door. There was some useful stuff that I was interested in grabbing while I still. Had…
“Huh? Oh hey,” Applebloom greeted me. “Ah was startin’ ta think you’d never climb down from there.”
“You’re...Still here,” I noted, admittedly a little surprised.
“Well, y-yeah,” she mumbled. “Ah took some time ta think over what you were sayin’. And.” I could tell she was chewing down some sort of pride. “You were right.”
Naturally, I thought but buried that for now. “So you’re not going after all then?” So what intruder did the goats find?
She shook her head. “No. If Ah get caught tryin’ ta help out, then Ah’ll just get in the way. Or even worse, nopony might know if mah family’s even trapped ta begin with.”
Good, I thought. It sounds like she thought past what I told her. “Then what do you plan on doing next?”
“Well, I’m trying to write out this note.” She pointed down at the paper she had in front of her. I took the chance to enter the clubhouse and look for myself. “Ah figured that if Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle’s in the same boat as us, maybe Ah should let ‘em know Ah’m alright. Plus let ‘em know about Sweet Apple Acres. Only…”
I tried to read her note from the side but there wasn’t much to read. She had maybe two sentences and judging by the small stack of crumbled paper, she had been at this for a while.
“You don’t know how to hold the pencil right,” I pointed out.
She sighed. “Yeah. With what we were doin’ earlier, it was only a word err two at a time. An’ as long as Ah could remember what Ah meant ta write it didn’t matter. But my writing’s always been sloppy. Even before the hands.”
She really wants to make sure they get the message. I tried to think it over for a second. Actually, a note might be the right idea.
“Let me help you write it then,” I offered. “Besides, I want to leave a message for my brothers. In case they find this place too.”
It was also possible that they might be with her friends and anyone else from this town. It’s a stretch but it won’t hurt to write my note anyways. Not the way I’ll write it anyways.
“Yeah, that’d be a great help actually,” she told me, taking out a new paper and sliding it over to me. “Thanks. Really.”
“It’s no problem.” I told her.
It only took a minute for me to write whatever she said. Towards the end, I wrote my own small message asking that this paper be brought to my brothers if someone else gets this before I wrote my message on the back.
“Woah. What’s any a that s’pposed ta mean?” Bloom asked, unable to read any of it.
Perfect, I cheered. I was hoping she couldn’t. “Remember how I said I was born in Germany? Well, this is German. Both of my brothers know it so I’m hoping only they can read it.”
When I finished my note I wrote ‘Sold 1’ at the top in English. Again, my brothers were the only ones who are meant to know what it meant.
With the letters finished, Applebloom had us pin it to the front of the podium that was inside the clubhouse so that anyone coming inside would see it right away.
“Good call,” I told her. “Now we need to get ready to go right away.”
“How’s come?”
I quickly filled her in on the minotaur’s message about intruders but to my pleasant surprise, Applebloom didn’t immediately jump at the idea that it was her family. In fact, she was quick to realize exactly the kind of danger we were in.
So we got to work snatching a few supplies from her clubhouse. The lantern hanging from the roof, two decent enough blankets, some rope, a hammer and nails, and finally a small pack of sealed food bars.
Whether the food was still edible would have to be figured out later. We had already spent too much time with the letters and supplies.
So we snuck down the ramp and, when we were sure the coast was clear, we started going as far away from the clubhouse and Bloom’s farm as we could. Bloom and I both headed out in the same direction, quickly coming up with an idea of what we should do next.