//------------------------------// // Chasing Fillies // Story: Apple of Another Color // by MrTyreste //------------------------------// "What happened?" Applejack ran outside as I followed close behind her. So much for sleep,I thought to myself, but it must have been urgent if Granny Smith was yelling herself silly beforehand. The clubhouse looked a bit banged up, but we didn't pay much attention to it until we walked inside. That was when my heart sank, and from the look of Applejack's flushed face, so did hers. The interior of the clubhouse was in shambles. The floor had been scorched from something, Applebloom's little table had been shattered into several pieces, and there were obvious signs of a struggle from the look of the scuff marks on the floor. "Oh my goodness." Applejack cried. There I saw it, Applebloom's ribbon torn in two and blood was on it. "Who coulda done this?" Granny Smith asked, tears in her eyes. "What kind of monster takes kids?" I wondered myself. I had never heard of fillies being taken out of their home in the middle of the night before. Granted this was their treehouse, but it was the same principle. Maybe there was a darker side to Equestria than I thought, or maybe someone horrible was out there, with Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. "I don't know, but ah'm gonna find 'em." Applejack ran back to the house to grab her hat. "Anything I can do, Granny Smith?" I asked her politely. "Couldja look after mah granddaughter? Make sure she gets home safely, with Applebloom." Granny Smith told me. "Ah know it's a lot to ask fer, but-" I stopped her. "I was planning on helping Applejack anyway." I smiled. --- "Johnny, ah appreciate the offer to come with me, but ah don't want anything happening to ya. This is mah sister and her friends we're talkin' about." Applejack protested as she tied her hair up into her usual ponytail and placed the hat onto her head. I tried talking to her, telling her I could be useful in case they were up a tree or something, but Applejack kept refusing me. "Ah can just buck 'em out." She replied. "And if they're tied up?" "I'll chew through the ropes!" "What if they're at the bottom of a lake?" Applejack froze with a look of sheer horror on her face. "Right, nevermind." I guess that would mean instant death. "Ah don't care where they are, ah'm gonna find 'em!" She declared before running out the door. I followed her, much to her dissent. "Johnny! Ah told you ah will handle this, so just-" "Granny Smith told me to come with you!" I shouted. Applejack froze, processing what I had just told her. "She wants me to keep you safe, and to help you find Applebloom and her friends. I know I'm just human, but I can do something for you. I can-" I was stopped short by a pair of lips meeting mine. "Thank you." She smiled, then looked around outside in what I saw as a confused state. "Beggin' yer pardon, Johnny, but ah do need some help." She muttered. "How do you know which way they went?" She sighed as she looked around furiously as though praying for some clue to pop out of thin air. I examined the ground outside the treehouse, trying to find some kind of trail. Finally, I saw a few hoofprints trailing towards the woods. "How'd you do that?" Applejack asked me, a look of happy curiosity on her face. "Just something I picked up." I winked at her before I led her to the trail. And hopefully to her sister.