//------------------------------//
// The Forbidden Fruit 
// Story: The Dangers of Boredom 
// by ClankHoof 
//------------------------------//


As darkness approached, the group reached the top of a large hill. The lights of a small city beamed brightly below them. Miniapple-Less.

“Is the name a bit of a joke, like the 'Big Orange'? Wicked asked Pinkie.

“Silly, Wicked. It’s because the city banned apples a hundred and fifty years or so ago, when it was first established!” She grinned. Wicked was surprised by her response as if not expecting such a historic -let alone intelligent- answer from her. 

Applejack simply stared at the skyline of the city.

“We can go around, if you’re not ok with this, Applejack.” Twilight said, trying to help her friend's unease.

The freckled pony looked over at her friend. “No, It’s late enough as it is. I’ll simply have to disguise myself. We should be fine, as long as we leave early tomorrow.” She sighed, taking off her hat and folding it carefully into her saddle bag. Rarity handed her a long black cloak, so as to cover up her cutie mark. Then they headed down to the inviting lights below.

After a while of looking around, they managed to find a quaint hotel with a small VACANCY sign outside called the Hayton.

“Welcome. how may I help you?” A tan mare with an orange mane asked slightly under-enthusiastically from across the counter.

“Hello! we would like to rent a room for 8, please.” Twilight answered.

The receptionist glanced at a paper on her desk before responding. “Our rooms only accommodate 4; You’ll have to rent two.”

“Uh, well, I guess that’ll work.” Twilight handed over the bits, then turned to the rest of the group. “Ok, we’re going to have to split up.”

“OK, me Shadow will partner up” Wicked said. Shadow looked at him with disinterest, but then thought it would make it easier to keep an eye on the colt, so he didn't do anything drastic.

“Pinkie and I will go with them.” Applejack added.

“Score!” Wicked said in a hush tone so that only Shadow could hear, who then just rolled his eyes.

Pinkie started bouncing around her three bunk-mates, saying "It's like a sleepover! We can play games, and sing songs, and tell scary stories, and-" Applejack grabbed the mare out of the air, putting her hoof over her mouth to make her be quiet. This hardly worked, however, as she kept mumbling through the hoof.

The receptionist, used to all sorts of odd residents, handed them the keys without comment and pointed down the hallway to her left. They thanked the mare, headed down the hall, and unlocked the matching oakwood doors. 

The bedrooms weren't very well furnished. There were simple brown curtains over a single small window, dull white paint on the walls, a small bathroom with barely a shower, and a grubby mirror over a wooden dresser.

Shadow was the first to notice that the rooms also contained only two shoddy beds and a lumpy couch.

“I call the couch!” he said, trotting over to it.

“Don’t worry Wicked, you can sleep with me.” Pinkie told him as she started to jump on one of the beds.

“Um, OK.” Wicked said cautiously as he watched Shadow climb into the couch. Wicked made his way over to the bed and climb in next to Pinkie, who was still bouncing around, causing the already-rickety mattress to shake and rock.

“Wanna see how high I can bounce?” she asked, then proceeded to bounce higher.

In the other room, Rarity was putting up quite the fuss over how terrible the accommodations were. She took an entire one of the beds, and from one of her saddlebags managed to procure a pink blanket and matching pillows.

"I simply must speak to management in the morning about how they can...'improve' their decorating." She said as she also took out a small round tub of cream and went into the bathroom.

It was about this time that Pinkie started hitting the ceiling of her room, making a rather loud banging sound. Bits of white dust and ceiling paint fell onto the floor in both rooms.

“What the-?”Twilight said, looking at the wall with the others. Rarity had just starting to put cream on her face when the thudding surprised her enough that she lost her grip on the container, covering herself in the hypo-allergenic substance.

“Please tell Pinkie to keep it down.” Rarity moaned, looking at Rainbow Dash, who was too busy laughing at the sight. Rarity shot her friend a look, but it just made the situation even funnier.

Finally, Rainbow Dash was able to get a hold of herself. “Ok, ok. I’m on it.” She flew over to the wall.

“Hey! keep it down in there!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she hit the wall. Twilight just sat there rubbing her forehead.

Pinkie immediately stopped bouncing and fell into the bed next to Wicked. Applejack chuckled and went to the other available bed.

“Good night, everyone.” said Applejack.

“Night.” Shadow said, his back turned to everyone.

“Good night Applejack!” Pinkie said.

“Yeah, good night.” Wicked said sounding a bit uneasy. This was probably because Shadow would every so often glance over his shoulder at the group, making sure nopony was doing anything out of the ordinary.

“Psssst! Wicked .” Pinkie whispered rather loudly, rolling over toward him “Guess what?” 

“Uh what?”

"I’m not wearing any clothes.” Pinkie Pie started to giggle.

“You haven’t been wearing clothes all day.” Wicked replied, looking at her confusedly.

“I know!” she then started to laugh. Wicked shifted his gaze off of Pinkie and over to the couch where Shadow was resting, only to find Shadow glaring at him intensely. Wicked took note of this and turned away from Pinkie, trying to pretend he was asleep.

~S~

In the morning they all gathered outside the rooms and started to plan the new day.

“So, how you sleep Wicked?” Rainbow asked 

“Actually, not so well. I kept having the feeling of being watched, and something kept stabbing me in the back of the neck.” He winced a little as he rubbed his neck..

“Oops, sorry. That was my pillow full of emergency party supplies!" 

“Is that normal?” he asked as he watched Pinkie pull out the pillow of party favors and making sure everything was still inside.

"With Pinkie Pie around, your sense if normal kinda goes out the window, so yeah." This was all Rainbow could answer back.

Pinkie chose this moment to pop up outside the window of the main lobby, while the door hadn't even opened.

“Never mind, lets just go.” Wicked replied. They returned the room keys to the receptionist and left the hotel.

"Alright, we have a little over an hour to pick up anything we might need before continuing on to..." Twilight checked her map for the fourth time, "Seaddle. And be careful how much you all spend. If we want this trip to last, we have to make sure we can afford to do fun things while still having enough to eat." She spotted Rarity staring intently at the display window of a nearby jewelry store. "I don't think you want to have to camp outside on rainy day if we can't pay for a room, do you Rarity?"

That got her attention, and she reluctantly pulled herself away from the glimmering accessories.

"Oh, don't worry about me, Deary. I'll behave myself." the purple-maned mare said sweetly.

"Alright, we'll meet on the West road at the edge of the forest at 10:30, OK?" Everyone nodded, then once again split into smaller groups. Applejack and Pinkie Pie accompanied Wicked to get him a few things they thought he would need while traveling with them. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity went to get breakfast, leaving Rainbow Dash and Shadow. They looked at each other for a minute, unsure of what they should do to help the rest of the group.

"Uh, want to race to the top of the highest building and back?" Shadow suggested.

"Sure. Last one back gets to carry Rarity's suitcase to the next town." Rainbow grinned, readying for the challenge.

"You're on."

With a burst of feathers and wind, the two Pegasi flew into the sky.

Down on the ground, a garbage can moaned.

"How the heck am I supposed to narrate this, when everypony is in different places at once?"  The pony inside asked himself, lifting the lid up with his head.

~S~		

Meanwhile, as Pinkie, Applejack, and Wicked were going around looking for what they would need, Wicked had spotted a nice little restaurant further down the street.

“Man I’m starving. how about you two?” Wicked asked.

“Yeah! I haven’t eaten since forever! What do ya say Applejack?” Pinkie asked, a bit too loudly because a few passerby stopped in their tracks, staring at the trio. Applejack reach out and covered Pinkie’s mouth with her hoof.

“Pinkie, you know that certain fruits aren’t allowed here, and i’m guessing my name including said fruit isn’t going to fly so well with the citizens, so maybe you shouldn’t mention it.” she whispered frantically, looking around cautiously.

“Mmm Kmm!” Pinkie said through her still shut mouth, and Applejack released her.

So...‘Jack’. You think we could stop for a bite over there?” Wicked said, trying to improve their predicament. However, it 	seems someone had tipped them off, as they saw two uniformed ponies crossing the street toward them.

"Excuse me ma'am, have you or your companions seen a rather unstably-minded grey mare anywhere around here?" They asked Applejack.

The southern mare released the mouthful of air he subconsciously had been holding before answering. "Er, no Sir. I haven't seen anyone matching that description, Sir."

The guard looked at her more closely, and she realized that her accent might've given her away.

"I just can't put my hoof on it, but you seem familiar..." Applejack drew the cloak tighter. When she did, however, she accidentally pulled it partially off her flank, revealing one of the apples underneath.

The second guard noticed the same time as Wicked and Pinkie, who gasped.

The guard motioned to his partner, and their eyes narrowed. "You should know the law here. You're under arrest, for harboring the forbidden fruit." They grabbed Applejack using their unicorn magic.

"Um, I'm completely unaffiliated with Applejack. Never seen her before in my life...shoot." Wicked groaned as he was also levitated into the air, unable to move.

"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna come! Take me too!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping into the floating bubble. The guards shrugged before beginning their march.

~S~

Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy, unaware of their companions' plight, were busy enjoying croissants in a cafe across town.

"I can't believe there's a coffee bean shortage going on across Equestria! I haven't had my morning cappuccino supremo in three stinking days!" Rarity whined, pushing her glass of soy milk around her side of the table with one hoof.

Twilight was equally unamused as to the shortage, as she usually needed a bit of caffeine to get going at a good pace most mornings. She was drinking a cold strawberry frappuccino while peering over her map. Fluttershy was quietly sipping a green tea, glad she never got used to the bitterness of coffee, and that tea was healthier anyways.

Finally, Twilight took her eyes off the parchment. "What sounds more interesting, the Caribbean, or the Bahamas?"

Rarity instantly stopped sounding like a drama queen and stared at Twilight with shock and amazement. "You're thinking about taking us to the Bahamas?"

"What? No, I'm planning my retirement cruise," She pointed at the map, "I was thinking about us heading to the Caves of the Forgotten. I heard they've had a rather serious haunting problem recently."

The white mare slumped back, crestfallen. Fluttershy shivered. “T-t-that sounds s-scary. W-w-where's that?"

"Just outside of Seaddle, actually. We'll be there in a few days." She noticed a large cardboard box slide into the cafe, bumping nearly every table and chair before stopping next to theirs.

Twilight sighed. "you've gotta be kidding me. I thought Pinkie was going to train him. He can't burst into the middle of the story like this." She face-hoofed.

Alright, I'll take of it," Rarity said, gracefully getting up from her chair and beginning to open the box.

“Ok, narrator, we need to...what the-!” Rarity jumped back as a grey mare popped out, breathing heavily.

“Derpy, what the hay are you doing here?” Twilight asked, bewildered.

Derpy looked around, confused. “Erm, I don't know. I found a muffin in this box, but when I went to go get it, the box fell on me. I didn’t know how to get out!” she hugged Rarity. "Thank you for letting me out! I ate the muffin too fast, and now I need to go to the bathroom!"

She stumbled out of the box before heading for the door. However, she didn't have the best eyesight, so she missed the door completely and instead fell out the open window.

“So, if Derpy was in there, where’s the narrator?” asked Rarity.

The ponies look over to see a brown hoof waving at them from a small plant in the corner.

“Uh, no hard feelings about what I said earlier?" Twilight said sheepishly to the bush. The stallion put his hoof straight up.

Twilight scratched her head. "Is that a 'hoof up' or are you giving me 'the hoof'? It's kind of hard to tell without seeing any other body language."

The narrator forgives the purple pony for her past misconception of his skills at his job. He also would enjoy a bite to eat as well, as he hasn't eaten since they left Ponyville.

"Oh, right. Waiter! A croissant for the plant, please!"

A young colt took that moment to rush into the cafe, yelling, "there's going to be a live hanging in the center of town later today! A group of ponies broke the forbidden fruit law!" And ran back out.

The trio looked at each other, all reaching the same conclusion. Applejack's been discovered!