Twilight Sparkle had during her ascension said that all would be fine and this was true. There seemed no new monsters, malevolent demigods, until then barely unknown infestations or any other threat to Equestria or Ponyville in particular. To the contrary, the little town had seen a growth in prosperity since Twilight Sparkle had become not only an Alicorn, but also royalty. But this didn’t influenced the behavior towards Twilight and her behavior towards the rest of the townsfolk much, that is, if you excluded the four stoic royal guards, who followed her wherever she got. Mostly those four would only be a slight inconvenience for her closest friends or the unlucky pony who would be too loud inside the library.
The farmers around Ponyville were the ones who had gathered the most profit out of the prosperity which came with being the homestead of one of Equestrias princesses. One of the biggest was surely Sweet Apple Acres, but all the other farms as well had grown in size since the town was frequently visited by ponies who sought the newest addition to the rulers of Equestria. It had grown close to a point where the Apple-family would need to hire seasonal workers to help in their harvest. Luckily for Big Macintosh and Applejack, the two main owners of the farm, until now the two hard work-ponies were able to shoulder that load by themselves, which they enjoyed quite a bit. But it was spring, not autumn and between taking stock of the trees, their state and the state of the buildings, there was relatively little to do. The first harvest was due in a few weeks’ time and today was one of little work, so that Applejack would normally occupy herself with baking some apple pies to sell tomorrow at Ponyville’s market.
But currently she was chasing Rainbow Dash, who had decided, that for one reason or another only the speedster was able to tell, it would be a good idea to snatch AJs trademark Stetson and zoom of. This occurrence had recently become somewhat standard, because the daredevil Pegasus with the polychromatic mane was often bored. Training, napping and pranking could you only bring so far and so she had developed the habit of sneaking on AJ and stealing her hat, which was a sure way to get a reaction from the otherwise level headed mare, which in turn was sure to get her at least some entertainment.
The chase went to and fro in Ponyville, causing quite a distraction from everyponys every day work and soon there were bets on how long it would take AJ to acquire back her beloved headgear. But until now Applejack was unable to get a hold on her airborne friend. Every time she got close, Dash would make a sharp turn or even fly a few feet higher, turning around to tease her with a snicker and waving AJs hat.
The first few times, AJ got rather angry about Dash’s antics, her hat meant a lot to her and having it taken without her permission from her infuriated her a good bit. After Dash’s game of ‘snatch-a-hat’ had become more common, AJ had found it a good distraction from her work, but today Rainbow was stretching it a good bit and she grew annoyed. She knew that it would be no use to ask politely. Dash didn’t mean ill, but she enjoyed this little game too much to care if AJ wanted to just put an end to the game and get her Stetson back. Fortunately AJ had come up with a plan by now. There were a couple of small alleys in town, whose grounds where shielded from the sky by the roofs of the buildings on both sides. A fair share of said alleys ended in dead ends, so Dash would be unable to make a break for it and disappear into the sky. Slowly but surely AJ heralded Dash toward one of those alleys and it wasn’t without a victorious smirk on her lips, as she had finally her multi-hued friend cornered.
“Ok, RD. Fun’s over. Now give me mah hat back!” Dash ignored her, searching frantically for an exit, not wanting to go back to, well, probably napping. Not that she had something against napping, to the contrary, if there would be a contest of ‘Best Napper Competition’ she was sure she would have won a few times in a row, but she had too much fun to let this pass.
“No way, AJ. I’m too awesome to give up already!”
AJ snorted and narrowed her eyes, taking slow steps towards her trapped friend.
“Ah said: Give me mah hat back.”
Dash shook her head and stuck her tongue out, tempting AJ with a teasing, sing-song tone “Make me,” which caused AJ to put her smug grin back on, “Ya have nowhere to run now, RD, ya’ll never git past me now. So Ah asking ya kindly once more: Please give me mah hat back.”
“Oh yeah? You’re on!” exclaimed Dash suddenly, speeding directly towards AJ with narrowed eyes and a confident expression on her muzzle. She threw the hat in the air, high over AJs reach, getting it almost stuck on one of the beams of one of the roofs, and faked a move to the left, which was unnecessary. AJ was too distracted with her hat to notice RDs maneuver or even really notice that Dash had pushed her to the side while she watched the arc of her headgear, which landed, to her chagrin, slightly askew on Rainbows head. With a cheerful “later.” Dash was off again, lifting herself a good couple of feet into the air, being sure to keep out of her farmpony friends reach for a few minutes.
AJ meanwhile just stood there, watching her beloved hat and her friend Rainbow Dash, who she wanted to hug very, very hard, because one doesn’t just strangle ones friends, but she was certain, that a very, very firm, hard hug would be alright. She stomped a hoof and was after her cerulean friend. Said friend was waiting for her, but kept her distance just barely out of AJs reach, teasing AJ by flying upside down and playing with AJs hat in her fore hooves. AJ, having nothing better on her hooves right now, played along for the moment and tried to jump high enough to grab the hat, but she knew, that Dash wouldn’t let it happen that way.
“Oh, come now, AJ, you know as well as me, that this won’t work. I want a challenge, not an easy win… like always,” Rainbow joked and continued to withhold the hat from AJ. AJ stopped her jumping and tried to spot anything that would help her to get back her hat, while she chased Dash around Ponyville some more. While her eyes roamed around for something that would act as some type of substitute for her lasso, she failed to notice another pony and barreled right into her, sending them both tumbling down into a heap of tangled limbs.
From above Rainbow watched with poorly contained amusement as the two ponies tried to free themselves from each other. Halting into a hover and bursting into laughter as it seemed, that their attempts were futile and only succeeded in entangling them more, leading ultimately to a position where one pony laid atop the other. After their struggle, they only now were aware of the awkward position they had maneuvered themselves in and they stopped almost instantly. The pony on top, an earth pony mare with somewhat swapped colors to AJs orange coat and straw-blonde mane and tail, slid from AJ, sat on her haunches and glared at the apple farmer.
“Well, this time it’s definitely not good running into you, Applejack.” The mare huffed and then shifted her gaze to Dash’s form, which still shook with laughter and could only barely keep in the air “You should by now know be aware of the tricks that mischief-maker has up her sleeves.”
“Hey!” Rainbow landed and shoots Carrot Top a glare of her own, but kept still a safe distance from AJ.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded, mocking AJ by putting the Stetson on her head and pushing it into a position that emphasized her remark. Well, at least it was Dash intention, but she failed miserably, pushing the hat too far so that it fell over her eyes. “Gah! Dumb hat!” Rainbow took the hat back into her hooves and herself back into the air.
Applejack was now glaring at Rainbow too “Mah hat ain’t dumb!” she looked back to Carrot Top “Sorry ‘bout that, sugarcube.” Carrot Top answered with an exasperated sigh and a shook of her head. She was normally not the best of friends with Applejack, but that was to be expected. Not that she had anything major against the other farmer personally, but being a rival tended to stop them to be too much acquainted with each other. She flashed Applejack a smile and fixed Rainbow Dash with a glance out of the corner of her eye. Applejack noticed this and gave a short nod in response. Together both earth pony mares pounced suddenly on the surprised Pegasus. Dash was taken off guard, but recovered in time to avoid the combined attack.
“Nice try, but you have to be faster than THE Dash. Which, we should be honest here”, she smirked towards AJ, “is way out of your league.” That statement earned her groans from both earth ponies, who righted themselves for another double attack against the amused Pegasus, who had herself started to circle her earthbound companions. But before neither Applejack nor Carrot Top could try to catch the airborne mare she shoot of into the general direction of Carousel Boutique, calling to them in a mockingly sweet sing-song tone “Bye-bye, gotta dash.”
Both ponies paused and Applejack scratched her neck in slight embarrassment “Sorry again ‘bout this, sugarcube.”
Carrot Top shook her head again, but a genuine smile on her muzzle and said, “Don’t worry, Applejack. Now go and get your hat back. Almost everypony in town knows how much it means to you. I would help you, but I need to get to the newest patch of land I bought. Staying competitive against your farm and all that, you know…”
Applejack nodded and took off after the rainbow maned Pegasus.
As Carrot Top continued her walk to the outskirts of town, she was sure, that she heard Applejack shout, “Come back here, ya thievin’ vermin!”
Carrot Top chuckled and wondered how long it would take her rival to get her hat back. Her thoughts drifted to more serious matters, as she neared her destination. The patch of land was on the outskirts of town, quite a ways from her farm, but somehow this patch was really cheap for the amount of Bits that it provided. Rumors had it, that there was a curse or if you believed Pinkie Pie an old haunted graveyard for misbehaving pets who died under spooky circumstances during Nightmare Night, but whatever the case, Carrot Top didn’t believed in both stories.
The simple and obviously real root lies in the fact, that the land is a bit uneven and it would take some extra work to remove some larger stones here and there before the land can be used properly. thought Carrot Top as she took her newest possession in. The land was large enough to allow almost as much carrots to be planted as she already had around her farm, but the land seemed a bit softer and was littered with stones. The biggest ones were about the size of a hoofball and some were rather planted firm into the fertile earth. Carrot Top noted, that some rocks appeared to be out of another material, which made them look rather crafted then anything, but she just shrugged it off as a weird light reflection.
Carrot Top, like almost any earth pony farmer was rather pragmatic and so she got to work, removing the stones, depositing them onto the edge of the land she owned. I will just have to haul them to one of the masons in town; maybe earn a few extra Bits this way. occupied Carrot Top her thought as she worked her way through the soon-to-be fields. As she removed one of those artificial looking stones, she had the impression that it glowed shortly and the area around it grew dimmer, but as soon as that impression came, it was also gone. She shrugged it off and continued her work, but every time she removed one of those stones the same things happened and she imagined it to become colder.
After some time, the sun indicated it was already late afternoon; Carrot Top had nearly removed all stones and was taking a short break. As her eyes took in the sight of her almost complete work she noticed something odd. There were grey-white lines on the ground, running hither and wither, painting a sort of pattern or something on the rocky earth. The lines seemed to glow a dim red. Or are they pulsating? Must be the low hanging sun, playing tricks on my perception. She chastised herself, but her gaze was locked on the lines. She followed the biggest line, which wound its course through the entire field. A feeling of unease started to grow in her guts, because the line seemed to follow a circle. In every cardinal direction there were ominous drawings, extending the line. Her feeling grew stronger and stronger that maybe Pinkie Pie was right about this place. As the logical part of her brain realized what she just had thought it made her laugh out loud, forcing her to release the tension that had built into her mind. Unwillingly her eyes fell on what seemed to be the center of this strange circle. In the middle of the center there was one rather large rock, build out this same mysterious, seemingly artificial material, because it looked to smooth to be any regular stone. She walked back to the pile of rocks she had already moved aside and searched for a few moments before her gaze fell on a similar rock. She examined it. It was black, with a smooth, glass-like surface. Here and there weather had chipped its surface, revealing a porous core. “Well, I’m no expert like Pinkie, but I think this is obsidian. What does it do here and better, from where is it? Here is no volcano,” Carrot Top shrugged. It was unlikely, but stranger things had happened in Ponyville before, so she continued her work with the rocks, deliberately ignoring the odd grey-white lines. It took her some more work, but finally the rocks were removed from the field and she would be able to begin to plow the land tomorrow. As she had dragged the stones across the earth it had been unavoidable to disrupt the grey-white lines, which were, to Carrot Tops astonishment nothing more than rock salt, something she had discovered during her work. There was only the stone in the center of the circle left, its surface shimmering in the last rays of sunlight, beckoning her to remove it and finally be done with work for the day.
But suddenly Carrot Tops feeling of unease returned. There seemed to be something about this particular rock that looked unnatural, more so than the few other obsidian rocks, which she had found on the edges of the rock salt circle that marked the four points of a compass. She got the feeling that it would be better to leave this particular rock alone and to turn away and never come back, but without her notice she had already started to move towards the strange rock. She came to a stop directly before it and although her instincts screamed at her to stop she reached out, wrapping her forelegs around the rock, which didn’t move at first, but slowly and surely gave way. Finally she was able to move the rock, shoving it from its spot, letting it land with a muffled *Thump* on its side. And suddenly there was blackness.