//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Apple Heist // Story: Valoriant // by Melonman //------------------------------// “This is ridiculous, we are heading into a farmland possibly filled with our enemies just to get some fucking apples!” Alex continued to argue in my head. I was nearing out of the everfree forest and heading towards the apple orchard that I had spotted to get some apples to survive on hunger and Alex had been giving me constant headaches none stop. But my real intentions were to actually delay Alex’s plans on ruling over equestria as long as I could. I have to find out what really happened during Alex’s story… or if it really happened at all. I still don’t trust Alex 100% but his story felt real for him to burst into anger like that. I'll have to hear it from Celestia's side of the story but first ill have to establish peace with these ponies and show them that I didn't mean harm. I just hope that the history of Alex’s village being attacked wasn't recorded….Oh, who am I kidding of course it was recorded. “Ugh, this is going to be harder than I thought.” I thought to myself as I rubbed the back of my head from the pain. “Like I said this is ridiculous. If you think it's so hard why are you even doing this then?” Alex asked with harshness in his voice. Realizing I had been caught I quickly responded. “Uh-um...I mean it's going to be hard to survive without food you know? Don't you need to eat?” “ Don't need to, eating is the least of my concern. All I need are my books.”  Alex responded back. the headache was gone much to my relief and we were now nearly approaching the apple orchard. I can't believe I almost got myself caught. There goes soliloquizing myself I guess ill have to leave with my thinking to leave my thoughts to. We were out of the everfree forest as I covered my eyes with my hand from the bright early morning sun rising from the skies. Day 1 of officially being in equestria has begun. Rubbing my eyes I looked up to see many apple trees, the barn was out of view meaning that this place must be huge.” Our goal is to find a basket of apples and get out as soon as possible.” I said to Alex but here came the first obstacle of my mission. There was a dirt road between the apple orchard and the everfree forest along with a white fence railing over the apple farm. It was an open clearing leaving me with no place to hide. I'll have to run out of the everfree, hop into the fence and find an apple basket all the while without being caught by anypony around the area. It was relatively early in the morning so these pony farmers might have already been on the field harvesting. Just then the headache had returned and so was Alex’s protest. “Ok, there is no way you are doing this just to get some apples. You're not risking revealing yourself to the ponies just for some fucking apples are you Justin? Fucking apples might I remind you. Alex continued to protest. It was risky, I knew this farm was being runned by Applejack and her family but this farm was huge. what if she had help? That's when I remembered a certain tool that could scout the area for us.  I then switched to Sova and was preparing to release the owl drone raising my arm up where the drone was currently holstered. “Nope, but might as well scout the area for any ponies around.” And with that the owl drone was released from my arm and was now hovering in the air. I then place my right arm next to my right eye a beeping noise was heard as I begin seeing through the owl drone’s eyes.” Fascinating, are we this drone right now?” Alex asked curiously. “Not exactly, we are just seeing it from its point of view,” I replied back. “Sending the drone in now.” I said to myself aloud as the owl drone began to turn and head straight toward the apple orchard. The drone itself was moving at a decent speed much to its speed in the actual game which was slow as hell. I was flying on top of the trees making sure no pony spots the drone coming towards them and freak out. It wasn't long till I finally spotted the farm ponies and oh my god… If Alex weren't in my head right now I would be screaming with joy and glee. I lowered the owl drone down to the tree branches to get a proper view of the ponies. I don't know why these ponies are so fucking cute that I could literally die just by looking at them for too long. There were mare's and stallions all over the place harvesting. Trees were shaking everywhere around the owl drone from the powerful kicks from the farmer ponies. All of the apples fell perfectly landing into the buckets down below. They were all happy pony farmers that loved what they were doing and I couldn't help but smile. How could these ponies be responsible for the extinction of humans in this world? Surely something else might have attacked them that night. “Stop staring at our enemies and get those fucking apples already! We don't get all day!” Alex shouted causing me to lose control of the owl drone a bit from the sudden headache. The owl drone slammed into an apple tree with a loud thud before I managed to take control of it before it could hit the ground. Immediately when I saw all of the pony's ears perk up I flew the drone back up into the trees while their backs were turned. I could see the pony's heads turning frantically trying to find where that sudden noise had come from. “A’hm not the only one who heard that right?” The stallion spoke up. “It probably just sum Lil critters wandering around nothing ta worry about.” The mare replied as they started grabbing their baskets of apples and walking away. “Alex could you please stop giving me a fucking headache?! Literally!” I yelled at him…no pun intended. “You should be thanking me! You were clearly gawking at those farm ponies and I had to snap you out of it! Have you not listened to my tale of what these ponies did to our race?!” Alex continued to shout in my head the headache was unbearable and it felt like I got shot in the head by a bullet. “OK! Ok just stop already.” I shouted out loud. “It's just that I've never seen these creatures before you know? They are all so different compared to the ones that I had in my world…So much life.” I said as I see the farm ponies leave with the basket of apples on their backs. “Remember your purpose Justin, You are here to help me take over this world do not be blinded by the pony's kindness…. For they might just stab you in the back one day.” Alex said the last part quietly but enough for me to hear. probably saying that to himself as a reminder of how the ponies betrayed him the headache was finally gone but the pain was still there. “Understood.” I said releasing a heavy sigh as I continued to control the owl drone and follow the farm ponies from a safe distance. They were all talking to one another but I couldn't tell what they were saying as long as they were distracted. I have to somehow get Alex off of my head and lose him he’ll keep watching my every move and one wrong mistake could possibly lead me to my death. For now, ill play along and wait for the opportunity to come. After a few minutes, the farm ponies finally stopped and were now placing their baskets of apples on a wagon that is also filled with apples. The farm ponies shortly left after that continuing their work of harvesting. No pony was guarding the wagon it was just they're sitting idly by on the dirt road just waiting to be filled. “Steal the wagon.” “Wha-what did you say?” “Steal the wagon.” He repeated much to my dismay. “What?! No, I'm not gonna steal that wagon.” “You said you wanted apples right? Well here they are! that wagon of apples could last you for days without hunger.” “But that's stealing!” “Why the fuck do you care? It's just apples that they harvested for us to steal.” “...” “...” “Fine.” “Finally we have agreed on something.” As much as I wanted to protest not stealing the wagon I didn't want Alex to raise suspicion about me this early on. I placed the owl drone resting in a tree branch before disconnecting the drone as I prepare myself to head toward the wagon using the everfree forest as cover. After about 5 to 7 minutes of running the wagon was in view this time it appeared to be almost full of apples. I darted around the area and I spotted the owl drone still sitting tightly on the tree branch. There were only a bit of farm ponies around but they weren't entirely close to the wagon much to my relief.  Now how was I going to move this wagon filled with apples? it will be heavy considering how many they were. I experienced this back home when I took a 4-day vacation at my parent's house and they worked me to the bone one of which I had to carry loads and loads of apples which I had a slow pace on doing so. But those were just sacks of apples imagine if I were to move that wagon on my own! I'll just have to pray that these powers had also improved my strength. I was already readying myself to sprint toward the wagon and get out as soon as I could when Alex suddenly shouted in my mind. “STOP!” Alex shouted causing me to trip a bit from my running stance. “What? What is it?” I asked as I stood up from my recent fall. “Get down you idiot there is a fucking pony coming!”  Hearing this I immediately ducked into the bushes and was now in a crouching position. Great right when I was just about ready to get this done there had to be somepony to stop me from doing so. I could hear the sound of hooves clopping into the ground and had stopped shortly after this pony must be next to the wagon. Then I heard rapid noises coming from my right ear growing louder and louder until it had stopped as well. Then as I feared a familiar voice came from a filly that I knew all too well who it was. “Applejack! Applejack!” The filly shouted with concern in her voice causing me to flinch even more to who she was talking to. “What is it sugarcube?” Applejack asked as the filly took heavy breaths from running. I peeked my head out to have a proper view of what was happening right in front of me. There she was. Applejack right in front of me. The element of honesty looked down at her sister who was sweating and had her head down still exhausted from her run. Once she gathered enough air she spoke up looking at her sister. “What are the royal guards doin here in ponyville? I was supposed to meet up with the girls today until one of the royal guards told me to go back home saying it's not safe to be playing around.” Applebloom says in confusion hoping to find the answers from her sister. Now, why was ponyville filled with royal guards? That was something Alex and I wanted to know as we both listened carefully to the conversation. The sudden increase of security in that village meant that something big was going on… And I had a good feeling why. “I'm sorry that you weren't able to see yer friends applebloom but that guard was right. It's not safe to be playin' around right now.” Applejack said in an apologetic tone before continuing. “Something happened last night in the everfree forest. A loud explosion woke up the entire town. Luna said that everything was going to be alright and said she was going to check the sudden explosion in the everfree forest. We didn't get any news from luna after that until today when Celestia sent her royal guards here just in case any danger comes runnin' from that forest.” Applejack finally finished as she turns to check up on the apples in the wagon. “Do you know who could have caused that explosion?” Applebloom was still searching for answers only for applejack to shake her head. “That's the thing, we don't know what or who caused that explosion last night. Luna didn't come back to tell us what had happened. Somethings not right about all this.” Applejack said having questions of her own. There it was, I didn't know that my arrival to this world would be that loud to wake up an entire village. But then again, This is starting to feel like one of those displaced human stories in fimfiction. It always starts with the human being teleported in the everfree then timberwolves come around and try to kill him. In the end, the human befriends the ponies and eventually goes back to his world after defeating the main villain and saving equestria. I hope the same case goes for me here and as much as I loved being here. I would rather go back home and see my family again. I will see them again.  “One more basket should do it!” I hear applejack shout to the other farm ponies. We were running out of time and I had to act as soon as possible. Then once again, the headache returned. “We were being watched this entire time! While you were fighting those wolves the fucking princess of the night must have been observing you from above! It won't take long until word spreads around equestria about our existence! Alex shouted again. That is where I snapped. I have had enough of Alex’s constant shouting and headaches towards me.  “Maybe, if you weren't just leaning against that tree and had done absolutely nothing you would have actually known about luna’s presence that night and had tried to stop her!” I shouted back I didn't care what would happen to me. I was still mad about that night when Alex just sat by and watched me fight the timberwolves and if I didn't discover my abilities I could have died. “It was to prove that you were not a useless piece of shit and that was the only way to know of your powers!” “Only way? Hah! That's funny, there could have been multiple ways to discover my abilities you know that might have been least harmful than last night!”  “You expect me to actually go easy on you? If I didn't summon you I could just fucking kill you in a matter of seconds.” “Wanna bet?” I challenged causing the headache to hurt even more. “You actually think you have a chance against me?! If I weren't in this state right now I would have accepted your feeble request. But that will have to wait. Once I have my magic back I’ll show you what I'm really capable of.” Just then we heard the filly speak up again causing us to stop our little argument and focus back on the two ponies before us. “Does Celestia know about all this?” applejack could only turn to applebloom and by the look on her face she seems hesitant to answer. “I'm not sure, but I was called from twilight and the rest of mah friends that she got news from the princess last night saying to be prepared for what is to come out of that forest and that we shouldn't share this message to anypony but only us six and the royal guards. If we were to encounter anything out of that forest we are to use the elements of harmony and bring the two creatures to canterlot once we have them.” Applejack replied back before continuing. “She also told us that they wield magic and might use them against us if we were to be hostile to them or they would be hostile to us. If they do…well let's just say it won't be good. I just hope that we can somehow make peace with these creatures so that things won't go out of hoof.” “I'm sure you can do it, sis! After all, you are the element of honesty, and if they ever want to make peace with you and the others. You would know right away!” Applebloon cheered for her sister causing her to smile a bit. “I sure hope so, but for now mind keepin this ah secret for me. I'm not supposed to share this with anypony.” Applejack whispered to applebloom. “Don't worry sis your secrets safe with me.” Applebloom said zipping her lip with her hoof to which applejack laughed as they hugged each other. Applejack, that's it! If I were to show these ponies that I didn't mean any harm and they wouldn't believe me she would! I have to stroll around ponyville and... Well, surrender to the royal guards there. that way I would be escorted to canterlot with Alex and meet the two princesses! Maybe they could even help me find my way back home! This was perfect! “Justin… Burn her.” I hear alex say with venom in his voice. “What?! Why?!” “Didint you hear?! She's an elemental bearer! This is our chance to murder these bearers! That way the elements shall be useless!”  “But-But…I~”  “Fucking burn her NOW!!!” Alex screamed into my head. As I'm about to make a decision I am about to make. I held both of my arms together creating the fireball once again. I then stood up from my hiding spot and was ready to throw the fireball at applejack and applebloom. They didn't seem to notice me as they were still hugging. I was shaking I didn't know what to do. Do I kill them? Or Do I betray Alex?.. The choice was obviously clear and I knew I shouldn't have done it when I first encountered Alex. I threw the fireball as far as I could missing both applejack and applebloom. The fireball hit an apple tree as it ignited in flames rather quickly causing the farm ponies to panic. Both applejack and applebloom stopped their embrace as applejack and the rest of the farm ponies quickly acted, finding any water nearby and tossing it into the raging flames. “How in the hell did you miss that?!” Alex yelled but I ignored him entirely. As I took a running stance and electricity started to circulate around me then I took off towards the wagon. I quickly grabbed both handles of the wagon and started sprinting towards the everfree forest with the help of the High Gear ability. Applebloom saw the wagon suddenly move but wasn't able to see the one who was pulling it. “Applejack! The wagon!” Applebloom shouted to her sister. As applejack turned her head the wagon was already gone as it heads into the everfree forest.  “Horse apples! We've been robbed! Applejack shouted in anger. “Uhm applejack you might wanna take a look at this!” One of the farm ponies shouted causing applejack to turn her attention to the tree. There, many farm ponies stood in place. they were shocked to see what was right in front of them. Applejack pushed herself from the little crowd to see what they were looking at which also made her shocked as well. The tree that was hit by the sudden fire turned out to be fine as no burnt marks were found and all the leaves were still in place. That fire covered the entire tree and here it was still in one piece. “Applejack look at these hoofprints!” Applebloom shouted. Once Applejack had reached her sister she looked down to the dirt road to see hoofprints on the ground. But the thing was these were not hoofprints at all, these were prints applejack had not seen before, and they only appeared to be two of them instead of four. She looked into the everfree forest trying to put the puzzles together. Could it be? Applebloom seemed to have the same idea as her sister as she looked up towards applejack. “Do you think these prints are from the…..creature?” Applebloom was terrified that the creature of the everfree had been near them this entire time. Applejack turned to her sister with a serious look on her face. “Twilight needs to know about this.” Ability discovered: Duelist/Neon: High Gear- The user channels the power of electricity for increased speed. When the ability is charged, the user triggers an electric slide causing the user to slide on the ground whilst still moving forward.