//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Applejack: Undefeated // by CamWeck //------------------------------// Esker Billy was confounded. This was his fourth fight in the arena, and somehow, he was losing again. He'd always been tough back home, tougher than all three brothers, all fourteen cousins, and even a couple of his uncles. Basically everypony around his age. The other fights had at lease made some sense, though. A couple of loses against other unicorns, they were professional he was fresh, so it wasn't too surprising they had beaten him. Even the pegasus made sense, though he still thought it was cheating how pegasus were aloud to fly and he couldn't use magic. But this fight, this made no sense at all! This stupid little dirt skin was beating him. A filthy, stupid dirt skin! It didn't matter what he did, or how he moved, the orange brat was always a step ahead of him. It was humiliating, and it shouldn't be happening at all! How the hey can a dirt skin beat a full blood unicorn? She HAD to be cheating. Esker blocked a hard strike to his left side, but it didn't really matter, the force was enough that he went sailing anyway and staggered against the back of the arena. Eskers white coat now had a huge red welt on it from the force of the blow, and right under his horseshoe cutie mark! His orange opponent backed off with a smile on her lips. She was enjoying this! She was toying with him! Eskers mind boiled with rage! How dare this stupid, ugly, fat little Dirt Skin toy with him! Didn't she know her place?! The hated pony leapt into the air and brought back her right hoof for what was sure to be a devastating blow. Esker panted heavily and tried to move, but his leg hurt from an earlier strike and wouldn't respond quick enough. No, this could not be allowed! He would not lose to some pony like her! He would not! His horn glowed yellow for a moment and he shot out a quick burst of magical energy. The blast struck Applejack square in the shoulder, knocking her out of the air and sending her tumbling across the arena. She recovered quickly and rolled to her feet, the head low, and a scowl on her face. Esker grinned and charged his horn up again for another blast. He'd show this Dirt Skinned.... A whistle rang out and both fighters stopped. The crowd was in an uproar, boos and hisses filled the stadium and drowned out all other noise. The referee whistle rang again and an angry pegasus in black and white stripes swooped down from the rafters to float above the ring itself. After a few seconds the roars died down and the pegasus took a deep breath. "Illegal use of Unicorn spells! Esker is disqualified! Match goes to the Undefeated Applejack!" The crowd cheered at the judgement, but it was not a congratulatory sound, rather it was filled with a righteous anger. Esker's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped in shock. He shook his head before calling out. "That's not fair! She tricked me! I demand a fair judgement!" he yelled as loud as he could. The judge turned and gave him a disproving look before shoting up into the rafters. In a rare display, lights lit up to reveal the judges booth, bolted to the support beams. An earth pony and a unicorn sat in the simple booth with an empty space for the pegasus between them. The pegasus ref waved his hoof at the others who simply nodded their heads back to him "Judgement is unanimous! The match call stands!" cried out the pegasus. Esker trembled with fury. It was a conspiracy! All to make him look like a fool! He'd show them! He turned his glare to the other end of the ring, where the earth pony was chatting to a small pegasus while she limped her way out. She had humiliated him, had cheated and conspired to beat him, and by Esker, she would pay. -----------@@@----------- "It was downright humiliatin'" Applejack said as she galloped along the rodeo track, "I mean, he wasn't much of a fighter to start out with, I coulda' finished him off right quick, but I thought maybe he was hidin' something. Than i'm durn fool enough to run right into a magic bolt like that." She looked down at her shoulder as she ran, the small burn wasn't even noticeable now. The blast itself hadn't been very powerful so mostly it was the shock of being hit that had thrown her off. "It's okay.. Applejack," huffed Twilight, "Magic attacks aren't allowed... in arena fights." "She's right. He cheated and you can't be expected to be ready for that," Scootaloo continued for the exhausted unicorn, her wings buzzing as she pushed her scooter along the outside ring. "I dunno, I feel like I should have been anyway. You never know what you'll face in the arena, and I feel like i should be able to take anything," the orange farm pony continued, her ears flat against her head. "This is.. really interesting and all," puffed Total Pages, "But why are we.. having this conversation while we're running?!" The chubby unicorn was not used to this level of exercise. Or any level of exercise, really. Nevertheless he was keeping pace as best he could with Twilight and Applejack as they raced around the track again and again, getting what he could of the conversation whenever they lapped him. "He has.. a point" said Twilight. "This here is Twi's trainin'! We're doin' the runnin' of the leaves tomorrow and as my personal trainer, Twi has to be able to keep up with me along the whole route! None of her holding back and makin' a dash at the end, no sirree! She's gonna be by my side the whole time! Ain't that right, Rarity?" The white unicorn smiled easily, seemingly having no trouble at all keeping pace with her farmyard friend. Not for the first time, Applejack was forced to admit that Rarity must go through a lot of physical exercise to keep that killer figure of hers. "Of course! Twilight is SO into cardio these days, aren't you dear? I've always thought that with a little work we could get rid of that baby fat of yours, maybe get just a touch of definition in the legs and you'll have colts falling all over you!" Twilight blushed at her words and lowered her head in embarrassment. She didn't really want to do all of this, but Applejack had been so insistent. Somehow she'd let the orange pony talk her into not just racing again, but trying to keep up with Applejacks impossible pace! Now her lungs burned, her legs screamed at her in constant protest, and worst of all her back ached. "And besides" called out Apple Bloom from the red wagon Scootaloo was dragging behind her, "It gives us a chance to really help with all this trainin'! Sweetie Belle was really hoping for a chance to be useful!" "Yeah!" the excited unicorn said, hopping up and down, "Applejack said you needed resist-dance to help you build up muscle, and that I was the best filly for giving you a challenge!" Twilight grunted as the tiny pony hopped up and down on her back. For a moment, no one else spoke. They all knew why Sweetie was the best choice for this task, and they also knew how sensitive she still was about her weight. Thankfully, Sweetie Belle was also slow enough, that she hadn't figured it out herself. -----------@@@----------- They stopped half an hour later after Sweetie Belle accidentally swallowed a bug and got sick. Twilight was in the farmhouse enjoying a very necessary bath while the other Crusaders consoled the crying and embarrassed little unicorn. Pages was laying on his back next to the track, his legs in the air as he panted for breath, and Rarity and Applejack were taking a few minutes to chat as they set up for a picnic lunch. "So you're saying you know the little cheat? And he still had the gall to behave like that in the ring?" Rarity asked, her eyebrow raised as she flattened the checkered blanket. It had to be perfect, no wrinkles, completely flat. "Well no," Applejack set the basket down and began taking out some of the packed sandwiches, "I know the Esker family a bit is all. There's a whole heapin' clan of 'em just outside the official limits of Ponyville. Way past the last Apple Orchards, and down where the roads are mostly overgrown on account of they ain't used much. They have a farm of sorts out there, mostly cheep grain, the stuff you feed to pigs as slop. They're a right 'ornery lot, and keep to themselves. All those signs out there telling ponys to keep off their property." "They don't sound very neighborly," Rarity replied as she set out the plates and folded the napkins. There was an art to this, and each napkin had to be folded just so. "They ain't so bad. Keeps to themselves most of the time, and occasionally they'll barter a bit of their moonshine for some cider. Hoo-boy, that is some powerful stuff! We usually use it to clean the plow or disinfect any scrapes and cuts a pony might get." The farm pony chuckled at the thought and set down the last of the picnic salads. Twilight was returning from the farm house, her fur having considerably less unicorn sick in it, and waved happily as she made her way to the picnic. The Crusaders had apparently gotten into a scuffle over something or other, but had already delved back into mutual forgiveness even as they forgot whatever transgression had occurred in the first place. Pages had somehow managed to get back to his feet and was hobbling slowly over. The picnic was eaten quickly with some light chatter and gossip to fill in the time. It was a sunny cool afternoon, and eating beneath the autumn leaves helped them all to relax and forget their aches and pains from the days running. The afternoon wore on into evening, and the low set sun began to turn the entire farm gold and brown. "Can you believe she came to my boutique the next day and asked if we could go out anyway? The nerve of some ponys! I mean, the whole point was to inspire her to give you a bit of a challenge, so if she'd at least done that I might consider something, but really! Applejack beat her in seconds! Why would I want to date someone who can't even get a simple task like that done? I had to explain this to her face before she finally galloped off, whimpering and crying. It was so demeaning." The other three adults looked at each with worried eyes as the Crusaders stared at Rarity in a fascinated sort of horror. Desperately, Twilight tried to change the subject. Being Twilight of course, she managed to pick the most awkward possible topic. "So AJ, how did your talk with Granny Smith and Big Mac go?" Everypony froze and turned to look at Applejack. She fidgeted a bit before finally giving a deep sigh. "It ain't gone yet. Every time I want to bring it up I just get so dang nervous that I can't bring the words out," She took off her hat and looked at it as she spoke, "I can't figure out how to explain to them why this is so important to me. I'm not even sure I can explain to to myself sometimes. I'm not sure what I'll do if they disapprove." "You better tell them soon," Rarity pointed out, "It'll be worse if Pinky tells them first, and it's been some time since she said she would." "I know, I know. I just need some more time to think about it. Look, it's gettin' mighty dark and ya'all should be gettin' home while there's still a bit of light." The others all glanced at each other. The arena was always open late, usually well after midnight, so all of them were getting used to being up most of the night. All except Sweetie Belle, who had rather stopped paying attention when she figured out there was a final slice of apple pie no one else had eaten. "If you say so," said Twilight. She was a bit disappointed, having hoped to stay late enough to get a good excuse to spend the night. Rarity picked up her sister, who whined at not getting to finish her fourth slice of pie, before making her way back into town with the others. Apple Bloom and Applejack gathered up the blanket and plates and put everything back in the basket before making their way back to the farmhouse. "Hey sis," asked the little apple pony, "Is what you're doing really okay? I mean, i know you said it was dangerous and all, but if it's so dangerous you think Granny and Mac might not approve, maybe they'd be right?" Applejack looked down at the concerned face of her little sister. It was hard to think of a good response. The fights were dangerous, and she could get seriously, even permanently hurt if she wasn't careful. But inside of her, she knew she needed them. Some part of her needed to hear the crowd, and the announcer, needed to feel herself move so quickly through the arena, dodging punches and kicks and landing that perfect strike. Applejack wondered for the first time why she needed it all so badly. Every time she thought about quoting, it felt like someone was squeezing her heart, and all the worry and all the failure would come flooding back on her at once. She squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered briefly at the thought of spending her days sitting around the farm, watching it all fall apart around her. "It's really not that bad," she finally managed to reply, "But it's easy to see it as worse than it is. I just need to find the right way to explain it, so they don't dismiss it out of hoof. Sides, it's worth the bit of risk if just for the prize money" Apple Bloom gave a confused look to her sister, but said nothing more as they made their way into the house. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day for Applejack, and she would need her rest. -----------@@@----------- The pegasus ponies had been working for days to make sure the sky could be extra perfect for the running of the leaves. The paths were nice and dry, and a slight overcast was set up over the hotter sections of the trail. Rarity and Fluttershy lounged on a blanket near the starting line, enjoying the weather as they waited for their friends to line up. "She's still stuck out there in Cloudsdale? It's been almost a month already!" Rarity looked taken aback by the news and reached a hoof up to lower her new, pink and gold Hoity Toity approved sunglasses. Very expensive. "I'm afraid so," Fluttershy responded as she nodded her head, "There's some concern over this island in the western sea and a potential storm gathering around it. It's supposed to be kind of weird, but I really don't know anything else." "Well I don't see why they should be keeping her for so long over something like that. Here, let me get that for you." Raritys horn glowed for a moment as she adjusted Fluttershys bonnet. The large shady hat was moving around a bit with the breeze and proving to be a bit of a trick for the pegasus to control. "Thank you. Well, uhm... they sometimes take in the best agents the weather bureau has for emergencies like this and keeps them on call, and well, Rainbow IS the best these days, so it kind of makes sense." "i suppose. Still, it's such a shame to have her missing out on the leaves festival. I know she was looking forward to a rematch against Applejack. Oh, speaking of..." at this point Applejack happily trotted up to her two friends, a smiling Twilight in tow. "Howdy gang!" she called out cheerfully, "Ya'all ready to watch me and Twilight come in first and second at this here little jog?" The others grinned at the farm pony and gave a little snort of laughter. Twilight looked about a bit nervously at the others as they chatted in the few minutes they had till race time. She couldn't help but wonder why she was here. She didn't really like racing all that much, and there was no way she could keep up with Applejack. If they ran together, like AJ had sworn they would, she'd just slow the farm pony down. Twilight lowered her face as she realized, once again, that she could just be slowing Applejack down in everything they do. She had no real experience with physical training, all she had were a bunch of instruction books. Applejack deserved a real partner, one would keep up with her. When Rainbow Dash returned from Cloudsdale she should take over Applejack's training regiment. Twilight knew that was for the best. She just wasn't as good at this as Rainbow, and besides, she and Applejack had a lot more in common. It just made more sense for them to spend all their time together. "Come to me Twilight," The purple pony was broken out of her funk with Applejack's words and looked up to see the Farm pony holding out a hoof. Slowly, she raised her own and placed it in Applejack's. The farm pony pulled Twilight close to her and leaned in, looking deep into her eyes. Twilight began to blush furiously. Was this happening? What was happening!? Applejack leaned forward and pressed her forehead against Twilights. The Purple unicorns breath came up short and she barely suppressed a small gasp. She trembled with Applejacks face was so close to hers. "Nope, no fever," Said the farm pony backing off, "Ya'all is distracted by somethin' Twilight? You weren't answerin' us for a minute there and we all got a bit worried." Twilight twitched, her eyes wide and cheeks flush with embarrassment. "YES!" she shouted, than covered her mouth as everypony startled from her volume, "I mean, yes. I'm fine. I was just thinking about.. uh... how we account for gravity due to the curvature of space time when calculating geodesic orbits!" Everypony else exchanged a series of odd looks, before shrugging it off as Twilight being Twilight. The two racers went to positions. Pinky Pie was conspicuously absent from her usual job as announcer this year, so Spike was on his own. He thought this was for the best, as he always felt Pinky was too easily distracted to do a proper job. "Welcome everypony to this years Running of the Leaves!" he called out into the magic microphone he'd attached to the balloon. The crowds below gave out a large cheer, and stomped their hooves in applause. Spike very much enjoyed being the center of attention and puffed up at the sound of it all. "The usual announcer will be unavailable this year so I, Spike, will be doing solo duty!" With that he maneuvered the magical controls to bring himself near the starting line. All the glory and fun would be his and his alone this year! He grinned at the idea and his eyes winked vertically, that is, until another, familiar voice called out from the microphone stand. "Racers are at the gates!" squeaked Sweetie Belle, her tail waggling behind her in excitement. Spikes jaw opened then shut before he finally stuttered out in shock. "S..sweetie Belle?! What are you doing here? How did you get in the Balloon?!" The portly little pony turned around and gave Spike a big grin. "Yes, I am Sweetie Belle! I'm announcing the race, and I dunno. I think I snuck into the basket for a nap while Rarity was having a boring talk with Fluttershy, but I didn't think it was THIS basket." Spikes eye twitched and he slapped himself in the forehead, bringing his clawed had down over his face. "Fine," he said with a sigh of resignation, "You can help me with the announcement, but don't touch any of the controls and try not to eat all of the snacks in the lunch basket. Sweetie gave a little gasp and leapt from the microphone stand. "You have snacks?! I want to eat the snacks!" she cried out. "Big surprise," Muttered Spike to himself as he grabbed the Microphone. "Are we ready everypony!?" he cried out as he watched the starting line. All of the racers lined up and lowered themselves into a starters position. "On your mark, get set...GO!" The race was on! Hundreds of ponies rushed from the starting line and began to make their way through whitetail woods, leaves flying behind them as they went. "Hey! This is just full of Gemstones! I Can't eat these!" -----------@@@----------- Back at the Apple family farm, Applejacks curtains waved gently in a light breeze. the sun shown through the window and lit the dust into a golden beam of light that made the whole room seem to glow warmly in the silence. This was not to last however, as a weird whirring noise began to come from outside. With an odd sputter, a tiny white pony, flew through the open window and landed rather clumsily on the floor. It bounced off the wood and finally came to a halt with it's hind legs wrapped over the front of its head, it's front legs lay splayed out to either side. After a few seconds it uncurled itself and slowly, unsteadily got to its feet. The tiny pale creature looked around with two solid black, pupilless eyes, taking in the whole room before finally stopping its gaze on Applejacks Vanity. It clumsily lifted two legs and fell over onto its side. After a few seconds of struggling, it had gotten back to its feet and was now slowly, awkwardly making its way over to the vanity. The tiny creature had trouble remembering which leg went first, or in which order, and frequently fell over, having to start the whole process of righting itself from the beginning. After several minutes it sat at the foot of the vanity and, for lack of a better term, considered its options. Finally the creature began to spin in a circle, hiccuping and gurgling as it went. Occasionally something would pop inside of it, and its face or a limb would bulge out at unnatural length and angles, stretching the stitchery that held its tiny body together. It slammed on top of the counter and again took a few seconds to right itself before looking around. It stopped at the hairbrush Applejack had left under the mirror and paused again, it's head turning sideways. Rather than go through all the trouble of trying to properly walk the short distance, the tiny white pony leaned back and tossed itself at the brush, flopping across the table and landing near its target. It turned its head and gazed at the brush, a few strands of gold hair still caught in it's bristles. The pony slowly opened its mouth, which was almost as wide and long as its head and it's thin, tentacle like tongue crept out and wrapped around a few strands of hair. It pulled the hair into its mouth and swallowed them whole before lickings its teeth and gums clean. The creature turned about slowly, pushing itself along with just its chin so it wouldn't have to bother figuring out all those other muscles as it went. When it had turned around completely and was facing the window it gathered up its limbs beneath itself and shoved hard, launching itself off the vanity and back onto the floor. It landed with a thud and bounced a couple of times before coming to a stop. "Is somepony in there?" It stopped all motion and held perfectly still. Somepony had heard it! Panicking it flailed its limbs wildly in an attempt to right itself. Somewhere, inside its head, it heard a voice, possibly multiple voices, but it wasn't really smart enough to consider things like numbers. "Probability levels are stable at Seventy-Eight percent!" "Good good, tell it to get the hell out of there before somepony sees it!" The creature wiggled wildly and finally managed to get its legs under itself, at that moment, the door opened, and, from its perspective, a giant yellow pony with a red ribbon walked into the room. "Applejack? Are you in here? Shouldn't you be at the race by now?" called out the monster as it made its way inside. With another desperate leap the tiny pony made for the window, but it flailed through the air and hit the wall next to the windowsill instead, bouncing off with a thump. Applebloom turned to look for the source of the noise and saw the tiny pony flailing on the floor. "Probability levels at Fifty-four percent and falling fast! Forty-Seven Percent!" "Damn it all! Get it out of there! We need those sympathetics!" Apple Bloom walked to the corner of the room next to the window where she saw what looked like, a small white mouse? She'd never seen one that looked this weird before, but what else could it be? The strange rodent think hiccuped and leapt into the air making a hideous popping and clicking noise as it went. Apple Bloom took a step back, not believing what she was seeing, and finding the unnatural creature repellent. "Probability levels at thirteen percent! Seven percent! Zero! We have dissolvement!" "BLAST!" Apple Bloom stared in horror as the tiny white... thing, fell apart. It's flesh melted like red and white candle wax, its bones crumbled before liquefying themselves and even its eyes stretched out and popped like squeezed cherries as it turned into a puddle on the floor. She gave a cry of horror and ran from the room to get Big Macintosh, half panicked over the bizarre sight. She still had trouble believing it had even happened, and by the time she was at the bottom of the stairs, she was questioning whether or not she had just been seeing things. Meanwhile, back in the room, the small puddle that used to be a strange white pony, bubbled and steamed, bits of itself floating away and fading from existence. By the time Apple Bloom returned with Big Mac, there was no trace the tiny creature had been there at all, except for a few strands of Applejacks hair laying on the floor. "Damned unlucky that." "Any chance of the secondary succeeding?" "Not likely, but we'll keep it on her anyway. Who knows. Maybe she'll cut herself during this silly run of theirs." "One can hope."