"Why Tails?, why did you pair me with her!?" Knuckles thought to himself. Once the group had gotten to the village they had each set off for a different emerald. Knuckles had been stuck with Rouge and apparently their emerald was at a farm of sorts. It was in a field covered by apple trees, according to Knuckles's ability to sense chaos energy emitted by the emeralds. What had happened, most likely, was whoever worked there had dropped the emerald while going about their chores.
"Knuckie, you sure that emerald is here?" asked Rouge the bat, refering to Knuckles using the nickname she had thought of a while back.
"I can sense the energy coming from it Rouge, I am sure its somewhere around here." the red echidna replied, walking off in the general direction of the energy source.
Rouge shrugged and took to the air, flying low and slow to avoid anything seeing her.
"Weather i like it or not i guess ill have to trust him, i don't have his ability to sense the emeralds after all" Rouge thought. She turned her attention to the task at hand listening closely for any sign of someone, or something approaching.
"There!" Knuckles exclaimed quietly, seeing the yellow glow of the chaos emerald. He started to run towards the emerald, but before he could get there Rouge grabbed him and pulled him behind a tree.
"What are y-"
"Shut up" Rouge whispered in response.
The bat and echidna peeked from behind their hiding place, at first they saw nothing but the emerald's yellow glow piercing the darkness of night. Then they saw it: an equine figure, orange in color, wearing a brown stetson and two small bags strapped across its back. A symbol of 3 bright red apples depicted on its flank, it's tail and mane were blonde with red hairbands at the ends.
"Here it is, ah wonder how it is that ah dropped it an' didn't notice the light" She said, speaking with a deep southern accent.
"I don't care if she is the one who brought the emeralds here or not, no one takes the emeralds and goes unpunished!" Knuckles thought, angry at the thought that of all things a horse now had an artifact he was supposed to be guarding. So he did the only thing he could think of and charged at the horse.
***
"GIVE ME THAT EMERALD!" was all Applejack heard before spinning around to face a red spiky creature, barreling towards her. It stood on two legs like a dragon, and had white cases over its "claws", spikes coming out of the top of the case.
It raised an arm lashing out with a spiked "claw", Applejack barely managed to dodge the attack, the spike grazing her neck.
"Hey, it ain't polite to hit a girl!" She said lashing out with a strong buck, normally only used when she was working. Her legs struck home, really hard, hitting the creature in the midsection, propelling him into a nearby tree. "Ya'll learn yer' lesson?" she called, smiling at how easily she had taken down the creature.
To her surprise he stood up, and brushed himself off, not a scratch on him.
"How the hay?!" the farm pony thought her mouth agape, if she had hit another pony with that buck they probably would at least be knocked out from the impact.
"Not bad, but that emerald is mine!" its stated, its claws clenching into fists and holding them with the spikes pointing towards Applejack.
"Sorry partner, but this here emerald is stayin' with me, ah' done made a promise to mah friend Twilight, and ah' am gonna keep that promise!" she stated readying herself for the fight. The creature charged again, but this time when Applejack dodged he was quicker with his reactions, spinning 180 degrees to face her and striking her in the back with his claw. Pain shot through Applejack's body as she stumbled around for a few seconds taking another blow, this time to he head. "Horsefeathers, how'd he become so darn fast!" she thought to herself, breathing heavily.
He charged at her once more, when he was only a few inches away she lashed out another kick, connecting once again with the creature. He didnt go flying into a tree this time, he had blocked the orange earth pony's strong buck with his own fists.
But he had gotten the wind knocked out of him, and while he was catching his breath Applejack unleashed her strongest kick yet.
*WHAM*
The creature was sent hurtling through 2 trees before being stopped by the 3rd accompanied by a solid 'WHACK'.
She turned and started off towards her home at a slow casual pace, grinning from the pride of protecting the emerald as she had promised to Twilight.
"I reckon that settles that lit-" Applejack was cut short by a fiery meteor slamming into the ground right next to her, she whirled around to face the creature, who's fists were now on fire. He swung his fist once more, a fireball formed from his hand arced out towards her. She leaped out of the way, but was blown off balance when a second fireball exploded right underneath her. The force of the shockwave sent her tumbling to the ground, landing on her side. She quickly got up and readied herself for another attack. But she felt different now, or her saddlebags did at least, they didn't feel, quite so...heavy anymore.
Suddenly Applejack realized that she no longer felt weight of the emerald in her saddlebags. She checked her saddlebags, one of them was torn open. Hoping she had just dropped it she looked around, but she did not spot its glow anywhere in the orchard or in her immediate area.
"Oh, horsefeathers!" Applejack mentally said, the glow was gone, and with a sudden shower of dirt and a quick paced digging noise, she realized the creature was gone as well.
"Ah'll tell Twi' in the mornin'." she promised herself, slowly trotting away, wondering how Twilight would react to her loosing the emerald and breaking her promise.
***
"That was easy" the G.U.N spy, Rouge the Bat, stated gazing into the emerald, admiring its beauty.
"You didn't even help!" Knuckles said, leaping out of the tunnel he had just dug to get to the meeting place.
"I DID get the emerald when that horse dropped it, that counts as helping, right?" she countered, grinning at her partner.
"I guess it does" grumbled a slightly annoyed Knuckles, as the two treasure hunters hurried off towards the town.
***
If Knuckles, Rouge, or Applejack had bothered to look closely at the shadows of the trees, they would have noticed the white armored pony, with lime-green dragon-shaped eyes watching them battle.
"So these ponies aren't as unfamiliar with combat as i thought, especially if one can match that knucklehead in strength" she thought to herself, smiling as she turned away. The body armor panels on her back opened up as two metallic mechanical bladed wings unfolded, she did an experimental flap, then she silently flew off into the night.
"I may not know much of this land known as 'Equestria' but i do know the elements and the 7 chaos must be united, against the true enemies" she said to herself quietly, determined to complete her mission. The armor on the back of her wings opened two small panels, the inside of the now exposed tubes glowing a slight red before tiny but powerful jets activated, silently, but quickly, propelling her to her destination.