Chapter 1: The Long Run
“Apples! Fresh from the farm!” an orange pony hollered out into the busy town square. Adjusting the brown hat upon her blonde mane, she returned the hoof near her mouth and shouted again, “Straight from the orchard to the cart!” Her voice was proud of the crop she was selling, just as proud as she was of her profession.
Turning around to look at the apple cart, she watched as her little sister, a yellow filly with a red mane and a large pink bow resting atop it, sell her some apples to a customer. “Thank ya’ll! Come again!” she thanked the customer as she welcomed the next.
Out of the corner of the orange mare’s eye, she saw a red stallion making his way toward the cart with a large barrel on his back. Sweat was dropping from his orange mane as he carefully maneuvered his way through the crowded plaza.
“Here, Big Mac, let me help ya with that,” the mare said to her sibling as she trotted quickly to his side. Lining herself up next to him, she arched her back up to aid in supporting the heavy barrel.
“Thank ya, Applejack,” the stallion’s words were ones of relief and ease. “How’s business goin’ fer the afternoon?”
With a little big of struggling in her voice, she replied, “It’s goin’ great. Applebloom really has a knack fer sellin’ apples at the cart, an’ she seems to be enjoyin’ it, too.”
Big Mac smiled, “That’s great to hear.”
The two ponies continued to cautiously make their way through the busy plaza with the heavy barrel of apples. Luckily for the siblings, the crowd worked with them and stood to the side of them to allow the brother and sister through.
“Easy there, Big Mac. We’re almost to the cart,” Applejack stated, almost trying to give herself a little encouragement as well.
Not far from the Apple siblings, a loud, frantic voice called out, “Excuse me! Coming through! This is a bit of an emergency!” His hoofsteps were quick as his statements. This brown stallion weaved in between the various ponies of the crowd, accidently bumping into them and apologizing, “Sorry, in a bit of a rush!” With his head turned to speak back to those he had just passed, he did not see the two ponies with a barrel on their back.
The brown pony ran into the orange mare, knocking her off balance and causing the barrel to roll off both her and her brother’s backs, crashing to the ground. The wooden barrel broke open, causing the apples within to either be completely smashed by the force of the drop or roll away on the ground.
Looking at what he did, as well as the spectators who watched the entire scene unfold, the brown stallion apologized swiftly, “Terribly sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to do that on purpose, I’m just….in a bit of a rush.” With that, he continued his weaving amongst the masses, continuing with his statements.
Big Mac offered his hooves to his sister who was still on the ground, “You alright, Applejack?”
She was too busy to reply, “Hey you! Get back here an’ at least help pick up the mess ya made!” Taking her brother’s hooves, she got back up onto hers. “Yeah, ah’m fine ah guess. Jus’ wanna go get that stallion an’ at least make him own up to what he did.”
“It’s quite alright, Applejack,” Big Mac shrugged it off.
“No, it ain’t!” Applejack raised her voice, “In fact, ah’m gonna chase that darned pony down and make him help us!” Before her brother could insist, the orange mare was gone.
Moving fast through the crowd, Applejack followed the brown stallion as best as she could. Following the same weaving fashion as the stallion, Applejack was able to cover a lot of ground and even get the brown pony in her sight. With the both the crowd of ponies completely gone and the element of surprise, the orange mare closed the gap between them considerably.
‘Jus’ where do ya think yer goin’, troublemaker?’ Applejack thought to herself as she sped up.
The two ponies, running at full gallop speed, were outside of Ponyville completely. With nowhere the stallion could go, Applejack believed she had him where she wanted him. However, a strange blue box sitting next to a few trees seemed to be his destination.
A sly grin appeared on Applejack’s face, ‘Perfect, if he tries to hide in there, ah got him trapped.’
Just as she predicted, the brown pony galloped at full speed into the blue box. Applejack followed suit. However, while she was expecting a small space for her fugitive to hide in, she was considerably surprised. Upon entering, she found it was much larger on the inside. The interior consisted of a large room with a platform in the middle with a hexagonal table in the center. There seemed to be a few hallways that allowed a wanderer to travel even further inside. Before Applejack could study her new surroundings more, she heard a voice.
“This won’t do, this won’t do at all. What gives them the right to just fly on down if we don’t hand over some fugitive that they failed to keep an eye on? Well, the Shadow Proclamation allows them, but still that’s not the point. It’s not like this planet has the technology to hear them broadcast their message,” the brown stallion was loudly speaking to himself. He was fiddling with the instruments upon the hexagonal panel on the platform.
Applejack looked up to see it was the same stallion that had ran into her in the Ponyville square, “You!” She angerly pointed her hoof at the pony.
“Me?” he turned to see the annoyed face of the mare, “Yes, hello….how did you get in here?”
“Never mind that, yer the pony who ran into me in the market, causing the barrel of apples to be ruined!” Applejack quickly stormed her way up the stairs and onto the platform.
The brown stallion paused for a moment to think, “Ah, yes. That. Well, I am truly sorry about that incident. I was in quite a bit of a rush. I didn’t mean to do that, but….”
Applejack interrupted loudly as she drew closer, “But nothin’! Yer gonna come back with me and help mah brother an’ me clean up the mess, an’ then yer gonna give us a formal apology!”
The brown pony looked at Applejack before shifting his eyes quickly to the console, and then back to the orange pony in front of him. “That does sound fun and all….but I have a more pressing matter at the moment,” with the second half of his statement, he hit a large button on the console. The machine came to life and began to make a strange, whirring noise. As it did, the entire room shook violently.
Catching Applejack off guard, she fell forward and landed on top of the brown stallion.
Outside of the blue box, it vanished from sight.