The days in Maretime bay passed quickly, Applejack spending her days working her fruit stand in the town square, while sending her evening with the young mare whose family she had befriended so long ago. The apple pony had sold most of her crop by the end of the second week, and on the evening of the last day Sunny had helped her pack up the contents of her cart once more, and seen her to the edge of town.
"Good bye, aunt AJ! Sorry dad couldn't be here to see you off." The young mare gave her a hug. "See you again next harvest season!"
Applejack smiled, saying her goodbyes, before leaving Sunny behind, and trotting a little ways down the road outside of town. The earth pony mare trotted until Maretime bay was entirely out of sight, then stopped her cart to wait at the edge of the forest. She stood there for several minutes, staring into the darkness, until three earth ponies emerged from the shadows, and stole silently towards the apple cart.
"Hello Applejack, here we are." One of the ponies called out from the darkness, whose voice the earth mare recognized as Argyle. "Let's get this over with, quickly and quietly."
The other two ponies with Argyle were covered in cloaks and robes, so AJ could not make out who they were. Each of them carried a small, wrapped bundle, which both ponies set in the back of Applejack's cart. Both of the bundles started to cry when they were put down, and the two ponies immediately put a hoof on each of the little foals to calm them.
"There there, it's going to be all right." The one cloaked figured whispered in a stallion's voice, which seemed on the edge of cracking as he talked. "Miss AJ will take care of you both, and get you to your new home."
"Goodbye, little ones." The hooded mare beside him sobbed softly, caressing each of the foals she would never see again. "May this mare take you to where you will be safe, and where you will be loved."
The two parents softly sung and caressed the little foals to sleep. Then the foal's father quickly led the sobbing mother away, tears streaming down both of their faces. It tore at Applejack's heart to see these two being forced to abandon their children like this, but she knew it was the foals best chance for survival. As the couple slowly trotted back towards Maretime bay, Argyle came forward to say his farewell.
"You'd better get going AJ, before anypony from town who might be out late notices we are missing." He quickly trotted up, giving the older mare a hug. "Goodbye Applejack, I hope to see you again next season. Have a good journey... and good luck."
As the three other ponies melted away into the darkness, Applejack walked back, and silently slipped the tarp over the back of her wagon. Quickly hitching the cart up, she trotted away from the direction of the town, and deeper into the equestrian wilderness. The two foals in the back were still fast asleep for hours, as AJ pulled the cart along through the darkness. Although she wanted to go back and check on the little ones, the mare knew she had to make as much time on the road before daybreak.
"Hold tight back there, little fellers." Applejack muttered softly. "We'll be stoppin' at daybreak, and ah'll try ta tend to y'all then."
They continued this way through the woods, until the first light of dawn began to break over the horizon. Finding an out-of the way clearing in the woods, Applejack finally parked her wagon in a secluded clearing, and went to check on the pair of little ponies. She found the pair were yawning, and just beginning to wake up. There were the adorable little foals, looking just as they had in Argyle's photographs, looking up at AJ with their bright and inquisitive eyes, and giggling happily.
"Aww, ain't you the sweetest little angels?" The earth pony cooed, picking each foal up out of the cart one by one. "C'mon, let's get y'all taken care of!"
Sitting down on the back end of her cart, AJ used the baby supplies she had left Maretime bay with to diaper, feed, and clean both babies, before rocking both of them back to sleep. Then, she quickly worked to set up a campsite, before sitting down to look over a map.
"Now, let's see..." The earth mare scanned the piece of unrolled parchment, trying to gauge things by her yellowing map of the Equestria she had known, and comparing it to what she knew of modern Equestria. "Which way would be the safest to go, to avoid traveling ponies, and equine electronic surveillance?"
Right now, she was at the edge of the forest north of Maretime Bay (listed on the map by it's old name of Baltimare), and she and the foals had several options. If they tried to head north, they could catch the train from New Pegasopolis (Formerly Fillydelphia) to Zephyr Heights (formerly Canterlot) though they would have to be carefully disguised. From there, they could probably follow the old broken up railroad tracks south to Ponyville, where it would be easy to get the colt and filly to Unicornia and Butterfly Island.
Of course they could try going over the mountains, past the rambling rock ridge and through the everfree forest, but that would take them through the dangers of Dream Valley. The feudal ponies of Dream Castle, with the three tribes still integrated and magic still powerful and plentiful, despised the xenophobic and paranoid ponies of modern Equestria with a passion. They wouldn't recognize Applejack because she looked different now, and the earth pony might be vaporized by unicorn horn-zap on the spot. So it was better to take the long way back to Ponyville.
As she rolled up her map, AJ groaned had how cumbersome and wrinkly the parchment was. Many of her friends in the different towns had suggested the earth mare should get a cell phone; it would be easier to use for communications and location/map purposes. But it would also make Applejack easier to track on her journeys around Equestria. Besides, this earth mare was old fashioned; let Argyle and Sunny use those newfangled contraptions, AJ would stick to the old ways.
As the earth pony mare readied her bedroll for an early morning nap, She suddenly felt a rush of wind in the trees overhead. The two foals woke up and began to cry, as AJ tried to calm them, and looked around to see if what was going on.
"Shhh, little fellers," See whinnied soothingly, while looking around in every direction. "It's gonna be all raight... I think."
A rush of air and a shadow went by on her left, followed quickly by a another on her right.
"Anypony out there?" Applejack called out into the trees. "Ah'm warnin' ya, ah won't go down with a faight!"
AJ took a defensive stance ready for an attack from all sides. Everything was silent for a few moments... as if the air around her was holding it's breath in suspense. Suddenly, two winged ponies came flying in from opposite directions, tackling the surprised Applejack right off of her hooves, and sending her and the two newcomers tumbling to the ground.
"Hey, what do y'all think yer doin'?" AJ yelled, kicking at the two winged mares. " Get off me, or y'all gonna be sorry!"
"Uh oh, Star Flight!" A white mare with a turquoise and violet mane yelped, jumping free from the tangled pony pile. "It looks like we ran into another pony!"
"Oh dear, Hear Bright, that is not good!" The other winged pony, a mare with a hot pink coat and mane the same color as the first pony. "We are, like, so sorry miss! Are you all right?"
As they helped her back onto her hooves, Applejack was too dizzy from being knocked over to do anything, and too shocked that these winged ponies who had plowed into her didn't attack because she was an earth pony. "I... uh... what the hay...?" With a gasp, the shocked farming mare stumbled a few steps, before collapsing back onto the ground in a faint. The two winged ponies were left staring at her in confusion.
....
Back in Maretime Bay, a deputy stallion was making a report to an executive pony in privacy of her office. It was a report meant only for her ears, and it troubled her greatly.
"Our spies have confirmed your worst fears, ma'am." The red pony with the blonde mane stated, a troubled look on his face. "The farm pony has taken the twins away from the town, and may be as far as Zephyr Heights by now."
"Thank you, Deputy Sprout, you have been most helpful." The executive mare narrowed her eyes, leaning back in the office chair at her desk. "Send out word to all of our agents in the other earth pony communities; I want those twins brought back here and on dissection tables for experimentation before the week is out."
"Of course, ma'am. I'll see to it right away." Sprout cocked his head. "Should I alert my superior, Sheriff Hitch, about this matter?"
"No, officer Sprout. Hitch Trailblazer is too 'moral' and 'good' a pony to support murdering two innocent foals." The executive adjusted her glasses. "He does not have the stomach to do what is necessary for the good of earth pony equity."
"I don't understand, ma'am." Sprout asked in confusion. "What is so important about these foals? They are already gone from town, so they are of no threat to Maretime bay. Why eliminate them?"
"Because they could be used as a symbol, deputy Sprout." the mare got up out of her chair, and walked over to the large office window to look out at the town. "The children of two earth ponies... a brother and sister who are of the winged and horned oppressors ... all in one pony family." The Executive pony shook her head. "Their continued existence threatens everything earth ponies achieved in the Coltural Revolution, when the three pony tribes of Equestria were forcibly separated, and every monument and reminder of pony unity was torn down and destroyed."
"I understand, Ms. Ma'am." Sprout replied in a confused tone. "I-I think."
"Some foolish pony dreamers, who believe we can all reunite as friends, must be sacrificed for the good of the herd." She glared angrily out across the town, toward the lighthouse Sunny and Argyle lived in. "Of course, we are all working towards the day when separation will no longer be necessary." The business mare closed her eyes, thinking of her ideal future. "One day, we shall achieve total pony inclusion. For once we wipe the filthy slime of the winged and horned oppressors off the face of Equestria, there will be nopony left for us to exclude."