//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: One Trick Pony // by f0xhole //------------------------------// Applejack woke up bright and early, as usual. Leaping out of bed, she trotted downstairs to grab herself a quick breakfast (apples), and packed a bag for her day out, consisting of a few bits, some lunch (apples), a spare Stetson just in case, and a small snack (oranges. Got to have some variety in diet, you know). Satisfied that she had everything she would need, she headed out the door. It was only a few moments later when she stopped, realising that she had no idea where she should go, or for that matter, what she should do. “Gosh, I sure could use a little help with this.” Applejack muttered to herself. “Wait, help! That’s it! Ah’ll just ask around to see who needs anything, and I’ll be sure to find something Ah can do.” With that, she set off into town, her head held high once again. But when she reached the town square, she realised a tiny flaw in her plan. The entire village was totally silent. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…” she muttered to herself. “I’ll just come back later.” She turned back towards the farm, when suddenly a huge purple flash, accompanied with a static buzzing caught her eye. As she looked for the source, she realised she could smell smoke as well. “Somepony’s in trouble!” Applejack dashed off to find where the mysterious light had come from, growing horrified as she realised she was heading in the direction of the Golden Oaks library. “TWILIGHT!” Applejack called. A (mostly) violet coated unicorn with a dark mane, complemented with pink and bright purple stripe through it, slowly pushed open the door of the library, blinking soot from her eyes as she did. “Applejack?” she said, brushing some singed hairs from her coat. “Twilight! Oh, thank goodness yer alright. Ah was worried somethin’ terrible had happened!” Twilight giggled a little. “Oh, it’s nothing too serious. Just a little magical mishap in my latest project. There shouldn’t be any permanent damage,” she finished, with a slightly nervous laugh. Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, as long as everyone’s OK.” Applejack turned to leave, but stopped after taking a moment to think. “Say, Twi, I don’t suppose ya could use some help with that project o’ yours?” Twilight tapped her chin. “Well…I suppose so…I never really took you for the science-y type, Applejack.” Applejack laughed. “Oh, well, you know…Ah just thought I’d try something a little different today. Expand the horizon, an’ all that?” She grinned, a little too widely. Twilight smiled. “Well, that’s great, Applejack! Come on, I’ll show you what I’ve been doing.” Twilight led Applejack into her basement, where she saw a weird, helmet like object with electrodes attached. “I’ve been trying to find a way to amplify teleportation magic. As you know, teleportation is a relatively simple spell that creates a miniature wormhole in space that can be used to bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla bla, bluh…” Applejack stared, not quite knowing how to respond. In the end, she settled for ‘smile and nod’. “…and so in order to overcome the limitations of distance, I decided to take a technological approach rather than a magical one. However, the machine calculates based on distance, not location, so we need to find a way to take the movement of the planet through space into consideration…” “Uh, so Twilight?” Applejack interrupted. “…by installing a compass and enchanted calendar into the dev…hmm, sorry Applejack?” “Uh, what is it that you actually need me to do?” “Oh! Well, I was hoping that you could be a test subject for me.” Seeing the look in Applejack’s eyes, Twilight added “Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. We’ll only do some short range work to calibrate the direction.” Twilight shivered a little, a giddy smile on her face. “Oooh, this is so exciting!” Applejack grimaced. She could feel in her bones that this was going to end badly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Okay,” Twilight said. Applejack was feeling somewhat ridiculous with Twilight’s contraption now strapped to her head, but she gritted her teeth and reminded herself it was for a good cause; proving that Rainbow was wrong. “We’re just going to try to get you upstairs for now. So, just close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on the balcony.” “Are you sure about this, Twi? Ah mean, I’ve never tried using magic before…” “Don’t worry about it, Applejack. Just concentrate, and I’ll take care of the rest.” “Well, alright, if you say so…” Applejack closed her eyes and tensed herself, envisioning herself in the room where she had slept during their sleepover. A bright light pierced her eyelids, and floor became soft and bouncy. When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing on Twilight’s bed, just as Twilight herself burst into the room. “Hmmm. You didn’t imagine yourself on my bed, did you?” Applejack shrugged. “I was meaning to end up just over there, actually,” she said, pointing to far corner. “Not too far off.” Twilight nodded. “Okay. Just a little fine tuning should do it.” Twilight hopped onto the bed and started adjusting a few dials. Applejack sighed. As much as she was happy to be helping out, she wished she was back on the farm in her own element. She smiled as she thought of her home and workplace; the huge apple orchard, the barnyard, Winona running around chasing birds, the clear open sky… A bright flash and a scream interrupted Applejack’s thoughts, as Applejack looked over to Twilight and realised that they were suddenly falling through the clouds, the ground approaching a lot faster than she felt it had the right to. “What did you do!?” Applejack asked, panicking. “ME!? I didn’t do anything! What did you?” “I didn’t do nothin’! I was just thinking about how nice it would be to get home!” “WHILE WEARING THE TELEPORTATION DEVICE!?” Twilight screamed. “…oh….” They grabbed onto each other, screaming as the wind blew past them. Applejack shut her eyes, waiting for the impact to come.