It was getting late.
The evening slideshow of the entire light spectrum was gradually replaced with the graphite darkness that slowly but consistently muffled any sound, like a silencer in a pistol.
The night revealed an entirely new playground for many creatures of the black realm which slowly began to spread like dark venom in a victim’s bloodstream dyeing Ponyville as unsafe for anypony who dared to be awake at this time of night.
The Animals at Apple acres became silent, the bales of hay on the cart stopped rustling in the breeze that has halted in suspense of what is about to happen next.
Nearby, a cluster of cardboard boxes marked with “apple” and a picture of an apple lay on the ground ready for export the next day.
One of the cardboard boxes moved slightly in a direction, the cardboard box was not only upside-down but also had a large picture of an orange and the word “Oranges” written all over it… whatever was in that box apparently didn’t think this through well.
Mark sneaked past the pile of apple boxes
"Psst! Pinkie"
The box stopped at once
"Pinkie!"
"My name is not Pinkie" replied the orange box
Mark sighed
"Look, it’s just the two of us, it’s fine, I checked and nopony’s watching us"
The box remained still and silent
"Pinkie?"
No response
Maybe taking Pinkie wasn’t a good idea, a classic example of biting off more than you can chew
"OK, fine, agent seven double-o"
"Here I am!" the box exploded with a loud bang, confetti, and any other party-related good that you can throw up in the air flew out in every direction and pinkie popped up in a Y-shaped pose… she was dressed in her black cat suit, slick like a latex eel, her mane pinned back and her face was disguised by one of those minimalistic masks that don’t really disguise any part of the face in any possible way
"SHHHHHH!"
"Sorry"
"come on! Be a bit more serious, what is with the name and the outfit?"
"Oh I don’t know I just dressed like I thought a cool secret agent slash sidekick slash superhero slash investigator would look like, you like it?"
"Well, nopony’s going to recognise you, that’s for sure, and what’s with the name?"
"Oh, well I thought it would be cool to name myself with a number, you know everypony has a name so I thought it would be cool to try a number instead"
"For starters, why would you use a box of oranges to conceal yourself among boxes full of apples?"
"Well DUH! So that YOU can tell where I am!"
"And secondly… why the name? I told you, you don’t need to change your name, if somepony sees you, they’ll know it’s you so what’s the point?"
"Hey! It took me a long time to come up with the name, I had lots of ideas but only this one was good, like there was Solid Sn-"
"OK, I get it, it took you a long time and it would be a shame not to use it but we need to concentrate on finding AJ, all right?"
"Yessur! – Agent 700 saluted Mark"
"The plan is as follows, you go in through the main door of the house, keep an eye out from below, I’ll fly up on the first floor to Applejack’s window and see if she’s fine, all right? And remain alert to your pinkie-senses, let me know if something is coming up, all right? OK, go!"
Mark waited for Pinkie to reach the main door; although she was certain nopony was watching them she did a cryptic agent-like dance of stealth before she reached her goal anyway.
Much to Mark’s surprise, she squeezed through the dog-flap into the building rather than using that lock picking set he gave her specifically for this occasion (don’t ask how he got it in the first place)
"I heard of rats being able to fit through holes way smaller than them but ponies? I swear, that filly is made out of soft bubble-gum… actually that would explain the pink"
A few moments later Pinkie popped her head out of the flap along with one of her hooves and gave Mark the “it’s safe to go” sign.
Mark confidently but carefully flew up to the height of the first floor and began to approach the window.
"This is it, Applejack’s room; let’s see if she’s in there"
The changeling looked through the window
"Damn! I can’t see whether she’s in the bed or not!"
All Mark could see is the bedposts; unfortunately for him the rest of the bed was hidden behind the wall.
"Well, this is definitely her room because I see her hat hanging on the bedpost, but I don’t want to sneak in, if there’s something I learned from books and stories is that sneaking into somepony’s room is never a good idea, EVER."
Mark began of thinking of a way of waking her up, the next thing he knew, he was gently throwing small pebbles at her window from point-blank range
After a bit of commotion inside the room a few dozen rounds of pebbles, the Hay-coated pony opened her window
"Hay Mark, what in tarnation’ are you doin’ here at a time like this?"
"Hey, AJ, hope I didn’t wake you up"
There was a brief silence, during which the ever-sleepy face of AJ glared at Mark with the “ARE YOU BUCKING KIDDING ME” look
"I’m sorry, force of habit I guess"
"You mean y’all wake folk up at this time o’ night where you come from?"
"No, I meant the courtesy-look, that’s not the point, I just came to make sure you’re doing fine, you know in case your family locked you in or something"
AJ lost it; she couldn’t stop laughing no matter how much Mark begged her to remain quiet in case any of her family members wake up.
Eventually Applejack calmed down
"I’m sorry Mark, ah didn’t mean to"
"I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from with that reaction"
"You don’t understand where I’M coming from? Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? Why in the blazes would mah family lock me up?"
"Well… you know… that whole “changeling thing” that happened yesterday…"
"Oh, that? Don’t worry, it’s fine, Ah said that you were a rouge changelin’ that just happened to be passin’ by through Ponyville for a day, ah think they bought it"
"I hope you didn’t mention anything about Fluttershy taking care of me?"
"Nah, don’t worry, it’s all OK now, but I have one question"
"What is it?"
"What made you think I was bein’ locked up or punished?"
"Well… wouldn’t they do that?"
"What kind of family would do that?"
"…"
Mark tried to avoid eye-contact with the pony but it was too late.
Applejack was no changeling but you didn’t have to be one to figure out what was going on here
"Hay, you wanna talk about it?"
"Nah, it’s ok, maybe my family wasn’t the best but being sad about it won’t do any good now"
Mark looked at her with a smile on his face and applejack saw the moonlight reflect from the fresh wet trail on his face
"It’s ok, really, I’m over it, not a big deal"
Applejack came up to Mark, lowered his head with her hoof and kissed him gently on his forehead
"It’ll be all right Sugarcube, ah promise"
A few minutes of silence passed by before anypony spoke again
"So, your family aren’t keeping you locked in or anything?"
"Like mah big brother likes to say: Nnope!"
"And they’re not doing anything nasty to you?"
"Once again, no"
"And you don’t need any help?"
"Third time's the charm"
"Ok, so I guess you didn’t need saving after all"
AJ snickered
"That’s mighty kind of you but no"
"In that case, I’ll be going, you probably got stuff to do tomorrow and you need to sleep, I’m really sorry for the trouble, I was just worried, it won’t happen again"
Mark got up and began to climb out the window
"Mark?"
Mark paused and looked back at AJ
"Yes?"
"Thank you…"
Applejack looked straight into Mark’s eyes
"That was the sweetest thang anypony has ever done for me"
"Sure, what are friends for?" replied Mark as he jumped out the window
"Yeah… friends…" Applejack whispered to herself as she gave mark a one of a kind look
"Oh, by the way, Pinkie says Hi"
"Wha?"
Suddenly, in a surprisingly convenient way for plot development, a loud noise came from downstairs; it was the sound of a bunch of hollow metal objects hitting the floor… the sound of trouble incoming with large steps from the nearby rooms and down the stairs alerted every fibre of the changeling’s being that has existed since the most primitive of his kind warning them from danger and it told him that it’s time to go and go FAST but he couldn’t leave without Pinkie…
"AJ, could you make a diversion?"
"Wha? Why?"
"It’s a long story, Pinkie’s downstairs, they can’t find us out!"
"Say no more" replied Applejack and began to scream like a banshee as Mark descended to the ground to scout the kitchen through the windows
The hoofsteps grew louder as the concerned family members rushed in to see what happened to their beloved sister and grandchild.
The big brother was first through the door but Applebloom was the first to speak
"What’s happened, big sis?"
Applejack stood in silence for a moment looking at her family members… she didn’t think this far ahead and on top of it all she never was a good liar
"Eeehhhh… nah, its fine, just a bad dream I guess, y’know I was just dreamin’ bout that… CHANGELIN’ yeah, the changelin’, he was chasin’ me down the orchard… don’t worry I’m fine"
"We heard some noise downstairs, you sure it was just a dream?" asked Granny Smith
"Yeah, I’m definitely sure ah was dreamin’… because… because it was happenin’ in the middle of the day!"
AJ gave her family an insecure smile that didn’t seem to convince them at all
"IN WINTER, really don’t worry I’m fine! Really, go downstairs and check if anypony hasn’t burgled us"
Meanwhile Mark and agent 700 were already far away from the farm.
The rest of the night in Sweet Apple Acres was as peaceful as any other, Applebloom, Bigmack and Granny Smith went to bed convinced by AJ that probably the mice caused the pans to fall in the kitchen.
All’s well that ends well… or is it?
That night AJ couldn’t sleep, one thing didn’t let her close her eyes, something that will give her much more trouble in their future than she thinks it will
"Yeah… friends…"