• Published 25th Feb 2012
  • 3,169 Views, 145 Comments

Seven Ponies, Seven Trials, Seven Loves - Lieutenant Bubbles



Six ponies cast a spell to find their special somepony. But one will add herself by accident.

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Chapter Ten: Invitation

Part Two
Chapter Ten: Invitation

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Twilight and Applejack headed off to a small clearing not far from where Applejack and Silver had been harvesting. Applejack felt a little guilty leaving Silver alone in a strange place, but she didn’t want to be rude and leave Twilight hanging either. Twilight must have picked up on her signal because she asked Spike to go and talk with Silver.

“Aww, Twilight, do I have to?” It wasn’t that Spike didn’t like meeting new Ponies, but rather that he was incredibly curious about this spell Twilight had mentioned. He would bet all the gems he could eat that she was going to be talking to Applejack about it. Twilight nodded, and Spike slumped his shoulders. He didn’t want to argue with his big sister. He figured he’d find out about it in time. Maybe Silver would be as cool as Phantom was.

Twilight and Applejack watched Spike walk off towards where they had left a rather bewildered Silver. Twilight allowed herself a sigh of relief when she saw the last of Spike’s scales disappear over the hill.She trusted Spike, but she didn’t want him to hear anything about the spell. “Okay Applejack, I did more study and I found out some more about our spell.”

“Our spell? What about it?” Applejack was curious about what was so important that Twilight had come all the way down to the farm. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what the spell had done, or what Twilight had found out a couple of weeks ago.

“Well,” Twilight began, “I was doing some more research, and I found out more.” Twilight had started to paw the ground nervously again. It seemed to Twilight that the deeper she looked at the spell, the more hidden elements came to light. Twilight had never thought that there would be so many complications with the spell.

“Well what is it Twilight? What did you find out?” Applejack couldn’t hide her curiosity. The last bit Twilight had learned had been a both exciting and a bit frightening. After all, the thought that their lovers could be from other worlds left all sort of possibilities open. Phantom had turned out to be all right, but who knew how others would take it?

Twilight took a deep breath before beginning. “Well, it took a bit of cross reference, but I think this is the most important part. It seems that we will each meet our special someponies separately, one by one.”

“Well that’s not all that bad.” Applejack smiled. “If ah I have to wait to meet mine then I just have to wait.”
“There’s more. For each pony that is from another world, there is going to be a test, a trial of sorts, based on the original spell caster that will determine if they are able to stay in Equestria!” Twilight finished emphatically.

Applejack took a moment to think about this. If everypony who came from another world would have to pass a test to stay in Equestria, then every time one of them found their special somepony, there would be a chance that they could lose them. Applejack would have to talk to Twilight more about this, but not today. Right now she had to get back to harvesting. Celestia’s day was going to be ending soon and she needed to finish up the section of the orchard that she was in.

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Silver was hauling the last of the apple buckets over to the second apple cart. Applejack had been gone for a bit, and he’d had an opportunity to catch up a bit. He was moving four baskets for every ten Applejack had been filling, and so he had a lot of baskets to move. Luckily for him, Spike had come around and started to help him. It was a bit more than Silver had bargained for here. Ponies alone were a bit hard for him to accept, but he was dealing with it. The addition of a dragon threatened to shatter his composure completely. If anything else showed up, like a griffin, he would probably start foaming at the mouth, babbling, running around in circles, or anything else he could do when his mind broke completely.

Spike waved to Silver and thanked him, heading off towards Twilight at same time as she called for him. Silver figured that Spike was going to try and pry some information out of Twilight about the spell he’d mentioned. Silver had heard a lot from Spike about both Twilight and her friends. In fact once he thought about it, Spike had done most of the talking while they were together, Silver had barely said a word.

Silver smiled to himself as he took a moment or two to look around the orchard and take in the scenery. The colors here were a bit more vibrant than he was used to, but not altogether unpleasant. He was so caught up in the scenery that he didn’t notice Applejack come up behind him. The colors and the view were doing wonders for keeping him calm.

“It sure is beautiful ain’t it?” Applejack asked. Silver nodded in agreement. The setting sun had set the sky ablaze in a wash of orange and pinks, and the low and gleaming sun glinted off a thousand apples, setting the orchards ablaze. The long shadows cast by the trees were pierced by golden rays of sunshine that found their way through the leaves as they rustled in the breeze. It was indeed beautiful.

Applejack looked sadly at the orchard, the thoughts of just how much work still had to be done worried her, and even though all her friends were going to come and help, she wasn’t sure that it would be enough. Applejack knew that there wasn’t much more that she was going to be able to do today, so she resigned herself to needing to get an early start tomorrow.

Silver smiled, still looking dreamily off at the sunset. It was so breathtaking, and so much brighter than any other sunset he’d ever seen in his life. It was absolutely indescribable. He turned to Applejack, ready to get back to work.

Applejack started to tell Silver that they were done, but just before she opened her mouth, she realized that she’d taken up his entire day. He’d probably had things to do today, and she’d just been working him like any other farmhand without even considering that. “I’m sorry Silver. I just took up your entire day and you probably had things that needed doin’.” Applejack looked genuinely sorry and Silver wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. He really hadn’t had anything to do, and even if he had somehow come up with plans after being magicked into this world, he would gladly have given them up to help Applejack. Sure working on the orchard was hard work, but it was also enjoyable, and Applejack was good company.

“It wasn’t a problem at all. I’m glad I could help.” Silver smiled at Applejack, and wondered what he would do now that it appeared they were done. He didn’t know anypony here, and he still was fuzzy on where exactly here was.

Applejack thought for a moment. She was glad that Silver wasn’t mad that they’d used a whole day on the orchard, and even more grateful that he hadn’t been upset that she’d disappeared for a bit with Twilight. A couple of her other farm hands had quit on her when she’d had to go and help her friends with various things. A slight rumbling broke her train of thought and she realized that her stomach was growling. She’d skipped lunch to get more work done, and she knew that Silver had also. Applejack had a sudden idea.

“Hey Silver, if you’re not busy this evenin’ would ya like to have dinner here? It’s the least I can do to repay ya after all the hard work you put in today.” Applejack knew that Granny Smith wouldn’t mind. Heck, if she’d been here, she would have insisted on it. Even Big Mac would have offered. Sure Silver was an almost complete stranger, but he’d done more than a fair share of the work, and he’d earned it.

Silver thought for a moment. He was hungry, he had no money, and he had no idea where to go to eat here anyways. Maybe a little longer with Applejack wouldn’t be so bad. After all he’d enjoyed her company and he would maybe be able to find out a place where he could stay. If he was genuinely in another world, he’d have to try and take care of himself. Part of him still hoped that this was all a crazy dream, but the exhaustion he felt was a little too real, and he didn’t think that he could dream up something like this. “Sure, that sounds nice.” Silver had no idea what kind of food he’d be expected to eat, but anything homemade would always be better than an MRE.

Applejack smiled and nodded in approval. “Alrighty then. I guess we should head for the house.” Applejack started walking back to her house, and Silver followed diligently afterwards, making sure that he paid attention to where they went. If he needed to get back to this part of the orchard, he was going to make sure he could do it on his own.

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Applejack had told Silver to wait outside for just a moment while she told the rest of her family that they had a guest. Granny Smith and Applebloom were in the kitchen putting dinner together. “Hey Granny, I brought somepony back fer dinner.” Granny smith stopped stirring the pot on the stove and stared at her granddaughter. “He’s waitin’ outside cause I wanted to make sure you knew first.” Granny and Applebloom gave each other a sly look when Applejack said “he”.
“So it’s like that huh?” Granny Smith said with a smile. Applebloom giggled semi-silently into the salad.
“It’s not like that at all!” Applejack said quickly as a blush rose to her cheeks. “He helped me out today in the orchard and I thought that dinner would be a good way to thank him.”

“It must be getting serious then if you’re bringing him home to meet the family.” Granny Smith was relentless. Her smile kept getting wider and wider. Applebloom had been trying to control her laughter, and was now visibly shaking with the effort of keeping silent. “Ya know, I met my third coltfriend in the orchard. Or was it my fourth? Maybe the fifth?” Granny Smith drifted off into another one of her rambling stories about her youth, the kind at which Applejack was used to tuning out. With a sigh, Applejack resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be teased about this, and went outside to bring Silver in.

When she and Silver had entered the dining room, Applejack was not surprised to see her brother already sitting at the table. She still felt bad about the accident that had broken his foreleg, but there really was nothing she could do about it now.

Silver was in awe of the Apple family home. He’d grown up in apartments almost all his life, and while he had been with the Marines, he’d lived in the barracks. He’d been too lowly in rank to rate private quarters, and he didn’t want to spend the money on a house off base. The place seemed enormous to him. The dining room was very spacious, and he was surprised by the size of the table that had been squeezed in. The table was large enough that his entire Squad and maybe two extra fire teams could sit there comfortably. It seemed that the Apples had company often enough that a large table was a good idea.

As Silver looked around the room, he saw a large Red stallion with his foreleg in a sling.Silver took a step into the room around Applejack, coming into stallion’s range of view.

“Howdy stranger. The name’s Big Mac. Who might you be?”

Silver made the connection between the red stallion at the table, and the Brother that Applejack had off-handedly mentioned earlier that day. “I’m Silver Wrench, Nice to meet you.” It felt sort of right to go by that name. In a way it seemed to suit him better than his actual name.

Any further conversation that the two of them might have had was cut short as Granny Smith and Apple Bloom walked into the room with trays of food balanced precariously on their backs. “Dinner is served!” Applebloom called out cheerfully. With that, everypony took a seat as dinner started….