//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Tales of Apple Scratch: Just Another Wild West Story // by TigerSwirl448 //------------------------------// Tales of Apple Scratch: Just Another Wild West Story By: TigerSwirl448 My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (c) Lauren Faust & Hasbro Apple Scratch Verse (c) Mariacheat-Brony Prologue The sun was rising high up in the sky above Sweet Apple Acres as Apple Bloom sat on the white washed fence watching her sisters and brother lead a horse pulling a cart to the orchard to pick up their baskets. Apple Bloom smiled watching her sisters’ smile and knew now that they’ve gotten better since the Council of Harmony left two weeks ago. She sighed remembering their sad faces watching the magical carriage leave for Canterlot. Apple Bloom missed them too but Vinyl and Applejack both were very close with two of the members in particular. Really close. Vinyl got close to Octavia Philharmonica and Applejack got real close to Rarity Belle. The younger apple remembered seeing her sisters hugging them before they left. But thanks to the promise of the Equestrian Games being in Ponyville, the sisters have lightened up some. The idea of seeing their dear friends again later on in the year gave them the perk they needed. Apple Bloom never forgotten the adventures she had with Pinkie Pie, learning about baking cupcakes and even seeing her inventions, of course she promised Pinkie not to tell Twilight how she brought her inventions over. Which is a little strange considering they just appeared out of nowhere into her hand. She remembered asking Rainbow Dash about Pinkie and she gave her a look as she sighed. “Just don’t think about it, kid. Or you’ll end up crazy like, Twilight.” Apple Bloom sighed hiking her legs up on the nearest post under her then placed her elbows on her knees, and perched her chin on her hands. She sighed again closing her eyes trying to think of something to do. She’s not needed yet in the chores and she would usually leave to play with her friends. But they all had things to do today. She opened her eyes hearing a bird chirping. She lazily turned to the road then blinked seeing the old barn down the dirt road. She blinked once then a smile appeared on her face. "That’s it!" She cheered leaping off the fence and ran toward the old barn. Of course it’s not just any old barn, it’s where Applejack and Vinyl fixed it up to be a gym where they wrestle and box each other, not to mention a place where AJ goes and blow off some steam. When Apple Bloom reached the door she pushed it to the side and looked inside. She can see the fighting ring, hanging sandbags, and broken empty bags on the floor. Apple Bloom winced seeing the place as a total disaster, it was as if a twister came in and blew everything to the floor. Apple Bloom knew her sisters were more responsible than this! "Oh boy," she whimpered. The previous thought was to clean up a little bit for her sisters before Zecora came by to check the gym out. But seeing how messy it has been since yesterday, Apple Bloom now felt like this was a bad idea. After a moment of regret she pulled up her sleeves taking on the work. No work was too big for an Apple. Apple Bloom grabbed a half-empty sandbag and started dragging it away leaving a trail of white sand behind. She looked at the staircase at the side leading to the upper story of the barn. She looked at the rickety stairs with fear. The stairs were built as a last minute thing back when her parents were still around. The upper story was once filled with hay and barrels, then it was cleaned out and now the upper story is used for storage. Apple Bloom lifted up the now light and empty bag and headed up the stairs hearing the wood creak and felt them wobble a touch with each step she took. She reached the top shaking from being up so high. She groaned seeing the dusty cramped upper story. "Now, um, where did Applejack say to put these bags?" She asked out loud. She sighed and started looking around as she walked past the boxes, covered lamps, folded chairs, folded tables, there was even a Ping-Pong table in the corner. Apple Bloom dropped the bag on the floor by the table to look at the old thing. She walked over to the table then placed her finger on the surface and rubbed her finger down to the right and immediately scrunched her nose. The old Ping-Pong table was literally covered with an inch of thick dust. She wiped her finger on her pants then happened to turn to a corner. She did a double take seeing a strange item among the covered boxes and chairs. Her curiosity piqued, she walked over to the boxes and started pulling them aside, leaving handprints of clean cardboard on the dust. After she was done moving the boxes, she sneezed from the floating dust in the air. She looked down and saw the strange shape covered with a blanket. She grabbed the fabric then pulled it off swirling dust into the air again. Apple Bloom ran to the steps and started coughing and spitting out the dust from her mouth. After she got the dust out of her mouth, nose and eyes, she went back to the strange box. Instead of a box she gasped to see a large wooden chest. "Wow, a treasure chest?" She asked hopeful to herself as she kneeled down on her knees before the large chest. She blinked seeing that where a pad lock should be was a large knotted up rope keeping the chest closed. Apple Bloom was confused by this. "Why would someone tie a rope where the lock should be?" She placed her hands on the old rope and tried to untie it. "Wow, this rope are sure tight!" She grunted trying to get the top knot loose. She sighed feeling her fingers getting scratched and scraped from the harsh rope. She sat down on her rump to think. Then she had an idea. Sometimes Applejack does this when she tried to untie a rope knot that was left tied for a long time. Apple Bloom spat onto the top knot and waited for the rope to soak up the spit. Then she stated to try and undo the top knot then gasped realizing the knot was easier to undo. "Yes!" She cheered as she started to untie the large knot. After a few minutes of spitting and untying, she finally pulled the long length of coarse rope off the chest. "A'right," Apple Bloom said smiling bracing her hands on the old brown black lid. "Let’s see what treasures you have." She chuckled as she pushed the lid up and the first thing she saw was the bright red satin cloth lining under the lid. The lining had small red apples. Apple Bloom smiled at the familiar Apple Family symbol. She looked down and frowned. "Huh?" She asked confused and disappointed. "Where’s the treasure?" She asked out loud. Inside the chest were a lot of picture frames of old black and white pictures, a lot of books, a wooden box, and several maps and a strange black-iron shaped apple. "What the, huh?" Apple Bloom asked picking up the heavy iron apple symbol. Apple Bloom placed the apple symbol back on top of a book. She picked up the first covered picture frame then pulled it out of a paper bag. She gasped at what she saw. The picture in her hand was of two women, around Big Mac's age. One woman was sitting on a chair holding a strange metal contraption in her lap. She’s dressed like her cousins from Appaloosa, cowboy hat on her head, cotton shirt, thick dark jeans, cowboy boots on her feet, and a leather vest over the shirt. She looked huge by her thick arms and shoulders and the scowl on her face was similar to Applejack’s scowl. The second woman was skinner than the first woman. She's dressed in a shirt, jeans, boots, with a studded belt with an apple buckle, hanging out from the belt was a strange handle grip to something. On her shoulders was this large dark blazer jacket. Her hand was on the AJ look-a-like's shoulder and her other hand was behind her back. What Apple Bloom found interesting was that this skinnier woman has combed back hair with a bowler hat on top of her head. She even had a pair of small glasses on her nose. She looked like the spitting image of Vinyl. "Great Epona!" Apple Bloom gasped staring at the picture frame more. "This is. . . APPLEJACK!" She screamed out with excitement as she ran to the wobbly steps. "VINYL!" She screamed out as she leapt off the fifth step. She winced popping her ankle then started running again. She ran straight to the horse corral. She turned hearing the horses whinny as she ran by saying good morning to her. She turned the corner of the horse stables to bump into someone. She bumped into the person so hard that she fell on her back on the ground. She gasped looking up seeing the ancient picture frame flying towards the ground. Apple Bloom yelped and leaped for it. She caught it in her hands. She sighed with relief after catching the old picture frame. She laid back on the ground happy. "Hey, Apple Bloom." A young voice said. Apple Bloom opened her eyes to see the young blue haired Titanian looking down at her with an amused grin. Apple Bloom can see that the elder sister was wearing her sunglasses in the bright sunshine. "Oh uh . . . Hi Vinyl!" Apple Bloom greeted rubbing her head with embarrassment. Vinyl Scratch, crossed her dirty arms across her chest smiling at her little sister. "What were you running for?" Vinyl asked reaching her hand down. Apple Bloom smiled grabbing her hand and was pulled up to her feet. "Well, uh where’s AJ?" Apple Bloom asked dusting her pants off. Vinyl thought for a moment. "Uh, she went inside to check on Granny, why?" She asked. Apple Bloom looked at the picture frame in her hand and immediately hid it behind her back smiling. "Uh it's something I found in the gym." She answered. Vinyl blinked at that. "What did you find?" Vinyl asked curiously. Apple Bloom smiled getting excited. "Find what?" A southern voice asked, causing the two to turn to see the taller apple sister walk over to them rolling up her orange sleeves. It was Applejack, the eldest sister of the family, second eldest after their brother Big Macintosh. Apple Bloom smiled even wider. "Well, I was in the gym cleaning up for y'all. I went up to the second floor into the storage floor and I found this-" "Wait," Applejack interrupted. "You went to the second floor? Apple Bloom those stairs are old! You could have fallen." She said with clear worry. "AJ, come on," Vinyl said with a groan. "We ran up and down those steps hundreds of times. And we never got hurt." She said grinning. Applejack glared at her, Vinyl turned to her with a wavering smile. "What?" She asked confused. "Which is why I don't want Apple Bloom and her friend to do the same thing we did! Sure you and I didn't get hurt but remember who did?" Vinyl winced rubbing her neck. "Oh right, Cloud Kicker fell off the stairs once." "Exactly!" Applejack said with a nod. "At least she fell on her knees and not her face. If she wasn’t a Jupitarian she would have been a whole lot worse off." Vinyl blushed rubbing her neck some more. Applejack sighed then looked down at Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom gave up with her smile after being scolded. "Hey," Applejack asked noticing the picture frame in Apple Bloom’s hand "What you got there, sis?" "Oh, Apple Bloom said she found something on the second floor." Vinyl said looking back at Apple Bloom again. “Oh really?" Applejack asked. "What did she find?" Apple Bloom sighed shaking her head as she held up the picture frame with one hand then pointed at it with her other hand. Vinyl took the picture frame from Apple Bloom and stared at it. She pulled off her sunglasses to get a better look at the picture. "What the . . ." Vinyl said in shock. "AJ, look at this." She handed the frame to her sister to see her grab it. Applejack took a long look at it. She flipped it to the back then back at the front. "Uh . . ." She started staring at Vinyl then at Apple Bloom. "Where’d you get this?!" The sisters asked at the same time pointing at the picture. Apple Bloom got excited. "Well like I was sayin', I went to the second floor and I found this huge old chest in the corner. I pulled it out and untied the rope lock then I found all this cool stuff!" She exclaimed. Vinyl got super excited while Applejack was confused. "Wait," Applejack said. "Where did you get this again?" Vinyl grabbed Apple Bloom by her arms smiling. "Where is the old chest?" She asked smiling wide. Apple Bloom nodded smiling. "Come on, I'll show you!" She said running to the gym. Vinyl was rubbing her hands with excitement as she turned to Applejack to see her deadpanned expression. "What?" Vinyl asked blushing, her wide smile faltering. Applejack rolled her eyes. She followed her youngest sister to the old barn. Vinyl smirked then ran after her. Apple Bloom lead her older sisters up the steps to the second storage floor. Vinyl and Applejack followed the younger Apple through the skinny walk way through the large boxes. "Yuck!" Vinyl said before she covered her mouth to sneeze. "Geez, I don’t remember this place being this dusty." Applejack sneezed causing her hat to fall forward over her eyes. "Dang it, Bloom, this better be worth it." "It is, I swear!" Apple Bloom called out. The older sisters reached Apple Bloom’s place behind the Ping-Pong table. Vinyl laughed knocking on the table. "AJ, the old Ping-Pong table’s still here." She said smiling remembering the games they would play as kids. AJ laughed. "Well of course it is." "I thought you might have gotten rid of this old thing when I was in school." Vinyl said laughing. "Hey!" Apple Bloom called out. "Here’s the chest!" "Oh right," Vinyl said blushing. "Hey, AJ? When we're done looking at this stuff do you want to play a round?" Vinyl asked kneeling down with Apple Bloom. "That sounds fun," Applejack agreed leaning over the boxes to get a peek since there was no room for her to sit with them. Vinyl pulled off her shades and hung them in her shirt as she looked inside the chest with wide exciting eyes. "Dude, this is awesome!" She whispered pulling out a book wiping off the dust that landed on it. "Let me see that," Applejack asked pointing into the box. "This?" Apple Bloom asked pulling out the iron apple. "Yeah," Apple Bloom handed the heavy symbol to Applejack’s hand as she stared at it testing its weight. Vinyl sneezed covering her nose. "You know what, let's take this downstairs, out of this dust, I can't look at everything and sneezing every five seconds." Applejack nodded rubbing her tickling nose. "Uh yeah, don’t want an allergy attack." She said as she and Vinyl took the chest’s handles and lifted it up. "Whoa!" Vinyl said quickly trying to brace herself after Applejack practically launched the light chest in the air. "Wow, this is light!" Applejack said in surprise. "Ya think?" Vinyl replied rolling her eyes. "Alright, I’ll go first. Apple Bloom, get down the steps." "Kay." Apple Bloom said quickly taking the steps to the bottom floor. Applejack and Vinyl slowly went down the creaking steps to the floor. "Now where do we put this thing?" Applejack asked looking for a good space. "How about in the ring?" Apple Bloom asked crawling up on the fighting ring that was set up for the Equestrian Games training. Applejack and Vinyl looked at one another then nodded. "Sure,” "Sounds good." Vinyl and AJ climbed into the fighting ring then set the chest in the center beside Apple Bloom as she sat down. The sisters sat down with her as Vinyl started her excavation of photos and books. She set the books on the floor in a stack as Applejack took the first book and started looking through it. After stacking the last book to the tower, Vinyl started pulling out the picture frames and photos and set them in a pile near Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom began to look through those interested. Vinyl noticed the small box and pulled that out feeling weight on it. It's shaped like a rectangle with a polished finish. Painted on the lid is an apple symbol with some sort of painted calligraphy words in black under the Apple. "Apple Buck." Vinyl asked out loud wondering what that meant. She shrugged setting the box behind her in close reach for later. She leaned in reaching inside to look at two large books. She blinked finding a leather cylinder sitting between the two books. She picked up the old cylinder and opened it, she shook the cylinder until something metal slid out onto her hand. She gasped with a grin seeing what looked to be an old pair of cracked purple lensed spectacles. "Sweet!" She said out loud. "What?" Applejack asked looking up from a red covered book she was trying to read upside down. "Check out these glasses!" Vinyl said holding them up. Applejack and Apple Bloom looked at the pair of old styled glasses in her hands. Old dull silver frames and the lenses were actually colored deep purple, but one of the lenses were cracked. Apple Bloom gasped pointing at the glasses, remembering that one of the women in the picture had glasses. "Hey, that lady was wearing those glasses, here see!" Apple Bloom showed the old picture again. Vinyl looked at the photo then at the glasses in her hand. "Wow, this must have been her glasses!" Vinyl exclaimed getting a history nerd overload loving this. Applejack nodded impressed. "Hmm," She hummed thinking as she returned to the book she was reading. She groaned closing it. "Damn, these squiggly words are so hard to read!" Vinyl blinked turning to her now wearing the glasses on her face squinting. Applejack looked at her, she blinked then snorted. She covered her mouth to hide her laughter. Vinyl blinked then pulled off the glasses rubbing her eyes staring at the lenses with a glare. "Geez, these are super blurry. Does that lady have horrible eyesight?" She asked sliding the old glasses back in their case. "Hey, look at this!” Apple Bloom exclaimed getting their attention. “This picture has people that look like the Council of Harmony!" Apple Bloom exclaimed handing the picture to Vinyl. Vinyl gasped in shock grabbing AJ's shirt pulling her to the floor to look. It looked like a picture of a small cabin with a porch. Standing or sitting on the porch are a group of women and men dressed in old western clothes or dresses. "Wow!" AJ said recognizing one beautiful woman in a dress. "Hey, she looks just like Rarity! And look at that guy there in that dark cowboy hat," Vinyl took a look and gasped to recognize the smirk on the man’s face as he held a woman that looked similar to Twilight with his arm. “Dude, that’s the same smile that’s on Cloud Kicker’s face!” Vinyl said shaking her head dumbfounded. She pointed at the woman in the Cloud Kicker look-a-like’s arm. "That girl looks like Twilight,” She noticed another man, possibly a teenager holding a metal contraption behind his neck with a glowered scowl. He didn’t look like he enjoyed the picture taking. “This other guy looks like Rainbow Dash. See that glower?” Vinyl asked smiling a touch. Applejack nodded smiling. “Yeah, that does look like Dash.” Applejack gasped pointing at a woman dressed in a suit with a top hat a skewed on her head leaping in the air waving with a huge grin. “There’s a woman that looks like Pinkie!” Applejack said shaking her head with wonder. Vinyl gulped seeing a young woman that made her heart pound. "Man, this girl here looks like the spitting image of Octavia!” Vinyl squeaked seeing the flirting smile on the woman’s face. Vinyl turned to Apple Bloom. "Are there any others?" She asked interested. She wondered if there were other pictures of the look-a-likes. "Oh yeah, there are a ton of them.” Apple Bloom said picking up several pictures at once looking at them. She let a few drop to the floor as she stared at one picture strangely. "Uh why is this girl dressed like this? That’s a strange looking swimsuit." She said. Vinyl took the picture wondering what she meant. Immediately her smile faded and her face went red in a deep blush at who was posing in the picture in fancy lingerie. Applejack peeked over Vinyl’s shoulder to see why Vinyl’s head was turning into an apple. Applejack started laughing, she fell on her back pointing at Vinyl as she groaned. "Is that how you see Octavia in your dreams?" Applejack asked laughing at Vinyl's beet red face. Vinyl grumbled a few curses at her as she stuck the picture into her back pocket to look at later. The last outing with the gorgeous cellist was still fresh in her memory. Her blush still on her face Vinyl pulled out her shirt collar a few times to get air down her shirt with an angry glare at Applejack as she continued to laugh. "Shut up, AJ!" She growled glaring at her. "Hey, I found another one that looks like a swimsuit," Apple Boom said looking at another picture. The two sisters immediately squashed the younger girl to look at the next picture. Vinyl began laughing seeing who the woman was as AJ's face went beat red. She snatched the picture from Apple Bloom’s hand grumbling to herself as she turned away from the others looking at the picture of the woman in lingerie. Apple Bloom rubbed the back of her head glaring at the other two as Vinyl was snickering. "Is that how you see Rarity in your dreams AJ~." Vinyl cooed falling on the floor laughing. Applejack placed her hand over her chest where she can feel the small crystal that symbolized Rarity. Her face still blushing mad as she stuck the photo into her shirt pocket to look at later. Vinyl finally calmed down wiping her eyes from the laugh. She went back to the chest to take another look. She remembered the two large books and picked them out next. They’re both large. One book was heavier than the other as she turned around on her knees and set the two books on the floor. She opened the heaviest one since it looked thicker and well used. "What ya got there?" AJ asked from checking the picture pile to make sure Apple Bloom doesn't find any more provocative pictures. "Hmm, not sure." Vinyl said opening the book and blinked at what she found written on the first page. "Uh the front page says, Our Legacy." "Our Legacy?" Apple Bloom asked scooting closer to Vinyl to stare at the book as Vinyl flipped the page. On the second page there was a charcoal drawing of a farm. There were also small pictures glued on the page next to the charcoal drawing. The pictures were of the same women as kids. Apple Bloom laughed pointing at the small pictures of the girls. "They look silly in those frilly clothes." "Well that was what they wore back in the day." Vinyl said as she continued through the book. Seeing more pictures and charcoal drawings of places, people, even an old Wagon Train sign up poster. Vinyl carefully unfolded it and smiled seeing a piece of old Equestria history before her. She read the old faded print and stared at the name of the only destination the poster advertised. “Hmm, Frontier City. Never heard of it.” Vinyl said with a scowl thinking. "Hey Vinyl," Applejack’s voice got Vinyl to look up from the poster. "Yeah?" "Can you read this squiggly stuff?" Applejack asked showing her a small green book. Vinyl folded the poster back up then closed the large scrapbook. She took the green book looking at it. "Hmm, this book feels like it was used a lot." She said opening the book and flipped through a few pages and stopped seeing a photograph sticking in the binding. "Hey, this looks like a picture of the women, again." Vinyl said showing the picture to Applejack and Apple Bloom. "Yeah, they look older than the first picture. Close to Granny’s age." Apple Bloom said pointing at the picture. Applejack nodded taking a peek for herself. It was a picture of the same women but they appear to be a lot older than the other picture. It shown the same two women sitting on a porch of a two story farm house. There was a confused scowl on the Vinyl look-a-like and the AJ look-a-like had her hand on the other's knee as she smiled. Applejack took the picture and squinted staring at the Vinyl look-a-like to notice a lost look in her eyes behind her glasses. Applejack’s eyes went soft recognizing those eyes. "Hey!" Vinyl said as she was flipping through pages. Applejack looked up from the photo at Vinyl. "Listen to this." Vinyl said as she flipped back pages then started to read out loud. It has been two years now since Melody had gotten sick. I have decided to make this special book, a Memoir so the speak, to read to Melody at night. Not only that but to give to my family to tell them the whole truth on why I left. Applejack set down the picture and sat next to Vinyl to look over her shoulder. "You can read that scratch?" She asked pointing at the hard to read cursive script. "Uh yeah, sort of." Vinyl said squinting her eyes to get a better look at the writing. “Not the best handwriting though.” "Well, read more!" Apple Bloom said shaking Vinyl’s arm. “Who's Melody?" she asked getting excited. Vinyl shrugged. "I don’t know. Now don't interrupt me." Vinyl said with a smirk at her sisters before clearing her throat again to read. Hopefully by rewriting our history, not only to give to my family, but maybe this might remind Melody of everything we had done together. It is sad to think that now she's forgetting everything we have done. I think it happened when Rose passed from the birth, Great Horse Gods bless her, and when her son Tucker left with his girl recently. And now I'm all she has left. "Aww," Apple Bloom said with a frown. "Poor Melody." Vinyl nodded slowly hushing her. To whomever reads this memoir, what you will read is the honest to goodness truth. I am sorry for hurting you for leaving the family and leaving the Apples behind. But to tell you all the truth, it was the best decision of my life. I got the gold, I got the most beautiful woman in the world, I got to own a new plot of land, and made a living. But I’ll tell you this, I do feel guilty for hurting you so, but not to worry. Here it is for you to know. I would never be the woman I am today if it weren't for that blue haired, crazy, money seeking girl I followed out here. Will I ever go back to Manehattan? No, never. I'll be here in the mountains tending my cattle and protect this place until the day I die. At least keep the one last promise I gave to Melody before she got sick. Keep our treasure safe, and keep our home protected from our enemies. Maybe someday, one of you might come and get me. I hope one day, we can see each other again and have an Apple Family party just like before. Annabelle Apple. "Annabelle?" Applejack asked confused. "I never heard of her." Vinyl nodded confused. "Yeah, same here. But this is an author’s note." "You mean there’s more?" Apple Bloom asked getting excited. "Yep, a whole lot more. By the look of this, there is a huge reason for why this Annabelle Apple left the Apple Family." Vinyl said intrigued. Applejack shook her head. "Nope, we have work to do before Zecora comes over with our team to train." "Aw, come on, AJ. I know you want to see who that beauty was." Vinyl teased smirking. Applejack blushed. "Hey just because she looked like Rarity, doesn’t mean I want to know who she was." "Who knows," Vinyl teased again. "She might be an ancestor to Rarity." "Ya think?" Applejack asked curiously. Vinyl shrugged. "Well, I'm going to read this anyway. Are you going to listen?" Vinyl asked hearing Apple Bloom giggle with excitement. Applejack sighed in defeat. "All right fine! Go ahead and start reading." She said in defeat sitting on the floor next to Vinyl looking at the iron apple symbol in her hands. Vinyl smirked as she leaned back against the chest getting comfortable. "Alright, here we go." She said flipping a page to the first chapter.