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// Prolouge- discovery  
// Story: Mystery on Sweet Apple Acres 
// by Scribble Worthwords 
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It was a hot summer sun that beat down upon the deep red fur of big Macintosh, his sister's vibrant orange coat glistened in the dazzling light, her three-apple cutie mark bobbing up and down. "are y'okay with that big Mac?"
"Eeyup " 
"that new harness still chafin'?"
"Nope" 
They trundled along in a happy silence, his wagon already piled high with apples, hers yet to be filled with the fresh, ripe cider apples from the south field. The south field had not been quite the same since Flim & flam's disastrous visit a year earlier. Applejack loved the south field... It was where she'd bucked her very first apple tree, and the place where she sought refuge when things got tough. They clambered up the familiar hill, coming to the top of the atoll. In a few steps, they would see it. Applejack's whole body tingled in anticipation. She found herself already there, remembering other hot days spent there when she was just a filly, her flank as blank as a canvas.
Now you jus' cut that out, Applejack!  she told herself silently. You know ya oughtn't get so attached to thangs! Now c'mon! There's cider apples to be bucked!!
They topped the hill, and there, Spread beneath them lay... Nothing... Absolute nothingness, save for a whole field of dirt and a few wisps of grass... Applejack reared up, whinnying in disbelief. "What in tarnation..? Where's all the trees, the apples?! I mean they're just gone!"
"Eeyup" big Mac mumbled in horror. Applejack settled herself,  and began to think. "I don't get it... A whole field of apples can't just disappear, can it?!" big Mac considered that thought. Confusion flashed, briefly,  across his face.  At last, he gave a doleful "nope" and sat down and did the most surprising thing- he began to cry,  bawling his eyes out in the mud. "oh c'mon now big Mac... 'T ain't that bad... Jus' a few trees gone 's all..." offered Applejack hopelessly.
"ain't it?  this ain't 'Jus  a few trees' its the whole field! There ain't never been nothin' this bad on sweet apple acres since the drought... We ain't gonna have enough apples to make cider for the town... Its awful....”
“awful? I’ll tell ya what it is, it’s jus’ plain impossible! T’ain’t no-one what knows ‘bout the south field ‘cept members of the apple family, but none of them’d do somethin’ like this... and the hired farmhands... nah, we trust ‘em too much... but someone’s to blame!”
“Eeyup” snifed big Mac. Applejack wandered, dumbstruck, down to what was left of the field. All around Her lay roots and huge lumps of wood. Everything else, Trees,  leaves AND apples was just gone. Gargantuan piles of dirt rose like mountains from the ground. Applejack gazed at them in awe.
“what the... these must have somethin’ to do with what happened here...”she mused silently. She stood  looking and thinking for a few moments. Then with a sad resignation tinting her voice, she said “c’mon big Mac, we’d better tell the rest of them the bad news...”
“Eeyup” he agreed solemnly. Then, in a gloomy, almost mournful silence, they walked back to the farm buildings. Dejectedly,  Applejack took one final look at the field, and continued on her way; the shine having seemed to have disappeared from her tarnished copper body.