“You know, I’ve always wondered what happens at the end of a journey. When everything is said and done and the hero is no longer needed. What happens to them then?”
- Defiant Shield
It was another sunny and beautiful day down at Sweet Apple Acres. An apple farm with several apple trees as far as the eye can see and most famous for their, well, apple products. From apple cider to apple pies, the family that runs this farm makes it all. Applejack, and earth pony mare with an orange coat and blonde mane and tail; along with her iconic Stetson hat, was in the middle of her apple bucking. Her little sister, Applebloom, was helping out.
She was just a small filly with a yellow fur coat and red mane and tail, with a small red bow attached to the back of her mane. Applebloom wiped some sweat from her brow as she moved another filled basket of apples to the side.
“Whew, I’m beat,” she said with a sigh.
“You kidding? We’re just getting started, sis,” Applejack replied as she reared her back legs and gave a nearby tree a hard buck. Making all of the apples fall into the basket.
“Ah know that. I’m really excited for cider season!” Applebloom said with much excitement.
“Me too sis, just think about all of the customers we’ll have this year!”
“Just hope those good-for-nothing brothers don’t show up again.”
“Don’t you worry, if they ever show their faces here again I’ll-“
CRASH!
“What in tarnation?!” exclaimed Applejack.
Both sisters ran towards the source of the sudden noise, they ran all the way to the west field. When they arrived, they couldn’t believe what they saw, one of their biggest and tallest apple trees has been knocked down. It wasn’t chopped down by an ax, everything from the branches to the roots was ripped out of the ground and toppled over. Neither sisters could believe their eyes, they were both filled with shock and anger.
“W-who did this!?” yelled Applejack.
Applebloom trotted closer to the fallen tree to inspect it. She walked all around the tree until she found something lying behind it.
“Uh, sis,” called Applebloom. “You might want to look at this.”
AJ quickly trotted over to her sister behind the trunk of the tree. She let out a gasp and all of her anger vanished when she saw what caused the tree to fall. There, laying on the ground, behind the tree, was an unconscious earth pony stallion.
“Oh my stars,” she said with a gasp.
This stallion looked no older than Applejack herself, maybe younger. He had cream colored fur and a messy violet-blue mane that covered part of his eyes, covered his ears, and reached to the back of his neck, along with a long violet-blue tail. However, the strangest part that AJ discovered about him was his mark, or at least, where his mark should be. There were two small clothes stitched over on each side of his flank, normally where his cutiemarks should be.
Now, why would he have his cutiemark covered up? Applejack thought to herself.
She decided to push that thought aside for now and took notice at all of his injuries, he had bruises and cuts everywhere, there was even a little blood dripping from his mouth. Applejack decided to do the logical thing and bring this injured stallion in her house. She began lifting the body onto her back.
“What are you doing sis?” asked Applebloom.
“What’s it look like? This fella is injured and needs help. C’mon,” she ordered as she ran through the field with the stallion on her back.
Both of the sisters, and the unconscious stallion, made it out of the fields and towards their farmhouse.
“Applebloom go open the door!”
She did exactly what her sister asked, and opened the front door, leading in a rushing Applejack. She ran past the kitchen and past a confused Big Mac and Granny Smith. She ran straight up into her room and set the stallion on her bed. She took a step back and looked at the body, nervously. She covered her mouth with her hoof and didn’t know what to think next. Pretty soon her other family members entered her room with concerned faces.
“Sis, go get the first aid that’s in the barn,” AJ ordered.
“Sure thing!” with that, she ran off to the barn to find the kit.
“What you got there, AJ?” asked Granny Smith, an elderly green mare with a white mane and tail both tied in a bun.
“Me and Applebloom were out in the fields working, and we heard this loud crash and saw one of our trees knocked down!” she explained.
“What?” asked Big Mac, a bulk red stallion with a short orange mane and tail.
“Then we found this guy laying near the tree injured, so I decided to bring him in here. And what’s taking Applebloom so long?” she wondered. “Can you two go and see what she’s doing?”
“Eeyup,” answered Big Mac. With that, both ponies ran off to find AJ’s younger sister.
Applejack had her back turned at the unconscious stallion and started thinking to herself, and completely unware that the stallion was beginning to stir and slowing moving his head.
Just who in the hay is this stallion?! How did he crash into one of mah trees? Perhaps Twilight might know a thing or two. But what are the chances of her actually knowing who he is? Besides, I’m sure she’s busy with her new princess duties and wouldn’t want to be interrupted. And what am I going to say when he wakes u- Eep!
Applejack let out a small yelp as she felt something touch her flank. She turned her head around and noticed the stallions extended hoof was patting her cutiemark. She looked at his face and noticed that his eyes were only half-open and the blood from his mouth was starting to dry up. She was glad that he was somewhat awake, but was also irritated that he was still rubbing her flank with his hoof.
“Uh, do ya mind?” she asked in an annoyed tone.
“Not really,” he replied, having a very young and deep voice.
She quickly swerved around and swatted his hoof away, with a small blush forming on her face. The stallion then began to rise and sit up right.
“Whoa there, partner. Ya might wanna take it easy there,” assured Applejack as she went to stop him midway.
“W-what happened? Where am I?” he wondered, fully opening his eyes, revealing his pupils to be a blueberry type color.
“Well, you’re at Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville. And me and my sister just found you crashed landed into one of our trees,” she explained.
“Really? My bad,” he said calmly.
“It’s fine. I’ll admit, I was a little sore at first, thinking some ruffians might have cut down one of our beloved apple trees just for the fun of it. But then I realized it was just some accidental landing. It was an accident right?”
“Well, I didn’t intend to crash into an apple tree today, so I guess you could say it was an accident,” he replied rubbing his head. “Wait, you said Ponyville?”
“Ah sure did. Why you ask?”
“I think I’ve heard of it,” he pointed out.
“Really?”
“Yeah, this is the little town where a lot of disasters happen right?” he asked nonchalantly. Applejack was a little taken back at that comment. She knew that their little town was famous, but not for something like THAT.
“Uh, no,” she answered.
“No, this isn’t Ponyville?”
“NO, I mean ‘No’ as in, not a lot of trouble happens here,” she corrected him.
“Really? But didn’t the three-headed dog, Cerberus, invade this place?” he asked curiously.
“Well, only because he got out and such,” she said.
“And isn’t this also the place where a huge parasprite invasion happened?”
“Uhhh…”
“Come to think of it, isn’t this the village that Discord himself decided to screw with first?”
“Alright, I get it! A lot of strange stuff happens here,” she exclaimed, getting annoyed with this stallions questions. “Wait, how do you know about all of that stuff anyway?”
“My…..uh….mother, told us,” he hesitated.
“Your mother told you?” she asked.
“Y-yeah. She used to tell us all sorts of stories that took place in this little village. Quite the bedtime stories if you ask me,” he said with a chuckle.
“Oh. Hold on, you said ‘us’?”
“Yeah, I have a few brothers and sisters back at home.”
“I see, I have one more question.”
“Yes?”
“Why were you playing around with mah flank when you woke up?” she asked agitated.
“Oh that, I was just making sure I was in the real world and not in another one of my nightmares,” he explained with a sheepish grin. “But dreams can be tricky sometimes, maybe I should double-check,” he said as he gave a big smile and waved his hoof around.
“Ah think once is enough,” she hissed as she covered her flank with her tail and blushed. “Besides, you’ve already made decent impression on me,” she said sarcastically.
“Aw how nice…uh….what’s your name?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, mah name’s Applejack. Proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres, as you can already tell,” she proclaimed proudly. “By the way, what’s your name stranger?”
“My name’s Defiant Shield. But everyone just calls me Shield,” he introduced.
“Well then, Shield, other than that other moment, ya seem like a good pony.”
“Likewise. I should really thank you for taking me in and-“
ROAR!
“What was that?” the stallion named Shield asked.
“I dunno,” replied AJ. Pretty soon they both heard loud screams coming from outside. AJ became really worried and hoped that it wasn’t what she thought it was.
“That sounded like it was coming from the town,” AJ stated.
“Well, let’s go!” exclaimed Shield as he hopped out of bed and ran towards the door.
“Now hold on a minute there!” AJ called out, stopping Shield from leaving her room. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to have a tea party with King Sombra on the moon- where does it look like I’m going?” he asked sarcastically. “I want to go see what’s causing all that noise,” he finished sounding unnaturally excited.
“Oh no you don’t. Not with those injuries!” pointed out Applejack.
“What injuries?”
“The one’s one your-“
AJ was found dumbstruck when she noticed that there was no longer a single scratch on Shields body, apart from the stitched clothes covering his flanks.
“What? Ah swear, when I found ya, you were covered with scratches and bruises and blood dripping from your lip!”
“Well, they’re not there anymore.” With that, the stallion ran through the door and down the stairs with AJ following close behind.
“Wait!”
Meanwhile, the rest of the Apples were returning with all of the supplies that Applejack no longer needed.
“Hey, sis! We finally found the-“
ZOOM!
A cream colored blur zoomed right past them, as they noticed AJ running down the stairs.
“Applejack, what’s going on?” asked Applebloom.
She was inturrpted when she heard a loud roar coming from the town square in the distance.
“What’s going on it that there’s some kind danger happening in Ponyville, and our ‘guest’ for some reason wants to check it out. Ya’ll stay here now!” she told her sister and she ran after the stallion.
Shield looked behind and noticed that AJ was following suit. He then stopped and waited for the apple farmer to catch up.
“Oh, so you’re following me after all?” he asked surprised.
“If it means getting more answers out of ya, than yes,” she huffed.
“Cool, fine by me. C’mon, Apple bottom. Let’s go see what all the commotion is,” he said eagerly as he raced off into town.
“Alright, just wait for me,” she paused realizing something. “And mah name is Applejack!” She then ran after the mysterious stallion and hoping that nothing too bad was happening in Ponyville.