A Strange New Pony in Town

by Dark Dienen

Chapter 10

Author's Note:

Well here it is and sorry about the wait but we finally got the next chapter out for yall hope you enjoy.

Applejack put a hoof to her mouth as she yawned.

It had been a slow day at the Apple family stall thus far, and with noon having now crept past she knew it was only going to get slower as the day dragged on. Had it not been for the fact that she was waiting for Xarzith to turn up, she would’ve either left for home for a few hours or allowed herself to take a nap.

There was a set routine in the market that hadn’t changed much over the years; mornings were the busy time for them, what with everypony trying to buy their apples while they were still fresh, or trying to get their hooves on the best ones - something which always made her chuckle, since Granny’s quality control made sure they were all ‘the best ones’.

Then about midday you’d get the smaller crowds of buyers looking for a quick lunch, those looking for cheaper prices, or the ponies that had been late getting out of bed for whatever reason. After that period, which had a strange habit of ending at twelve exactly, it was pretty much a pony every half an hour for the rest of the afternoon, if even that many.

Finally you had the on-their-way-home ponies who’d grab what was left. These were always the cheapest sales, but a cheap sale still meant bits for the farm.

A smirk crossed the pony’s lips as she glanced about at her fellow stall owners. The day had actually been far from a waste just because she hadn’t sold as many apples as usual. She’d managed to catch up with Daisy, Berry Punch, and Carrot Top while they’d each been waiting for customers during lunch period, and with Carrot she’d ended up striking an exchange deal for some of her seeds for next season. Plus, as perhaps as silly as it sounded, Applejack kind of liked to just mind her stall and watch ponies go about their everyday lives; she figured it was because life on the farm was kind of isolated, so it was refreshing to be amongst everypony for a time.

As that thought trailed off though, Applejack’s ears splayed back as another emerged from the back of her mind.

Of all the ponies she’d noticed from her stall over the day, and there had been many of them, there had been one pair that had really stood out to her, and that was because they’d stood out for all the wrong reasons.

That pair had been her friends Twilight and Spike. She’d been in the middle of serving somepony else, so she’d only managed to see them from across the market, but even then she’d noticed that Twilight had seemed as downtrodden as an old doormat and that Spike… eesh, Spike had looked about ready to sink his teeth into somepony at any moment.

“Might’ go see em’ tomorrow if ah’ get time,” she murmured, before rubbing her chin as she looked around the virtually desolate market. “Or maybe ah’ should n…”

“Go see who exactly?”

‘Girly’ mightn’t have been a word Applejack often used to describe either herself or her behavior, but she was sure the squeal she let out would’ve made Rarity proud.

Spinning around, she was met by the sight of a messy maned Xarzith standing calmly beside her stall, the snow furred stallion having seemingly appeared out of thin air, with his head tilted and his bright red eyes giving her a perplexed look.

Truthfully, she wasn’t sure what she was more at him; annoyed or surprised.

“In the future, do me a favor and don’t do that,” she said as she readjusted her stetson, glaring at the stallion. She huffed and shook her head. “Land sakes, were ya trying to scare the darn fur offa’ me? Ya could’a just said… well, just walked up and said hello.”

The stallion shrugged. “You looked like you were thinking something over, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

She grunted and rolled her eyes at how ironic his words were. Thinking and pondering about things was something she was doing especially often nowadays, and the thing at the centre of most those thoughts and ponderings was him.

Her heartrate now back to normal, Applejack proceeded to give him a once over, and as she did one of her eyebrows arched.

She and her brother had met him at breakfast only a few hours prior, and then his white coat had been washed, groomed, and all the rest for his morning meeting with some builder or rather. Now his hooves were practically dripping water, while the rest of his coat had flecks of mud and dirt in patches splattered across it.

“Did ya by chance go fallin’ into the stream on ya way here or something?” she asked after a moment, nodding at his hooves.

Xarzith grimaced. “More like I had to spend an age in it to get the mud out of my fur,” he said, holding up a dripping foreleg and shaking it. “Long story short is that I went for a walk this morning, and only came to realize just how sticky the mud around here was after I was pretty much covered in it.”

Despite her prior annoyance, Applejack couldn’t help but snort and smirk behind a hoof.

“Meh, it’s not really a big deal anyway. I’ll just wash them properly tonight,” he continued, replacing the hoof and looking about the market. “Anyway, enough of that. You said this morning that I should meet you here, and I’m here now, so what’s the plan for us?”

Applejack’s smirk widened, and the hoof that had been over her muzzle redirected itself at him.

“The plan is that ya’ll are gonna learn how to run this here stall,” she grinned, drawing an uneasy look from the stallion opposite her. She chuckled. “Look partner, whether any of us like it or not there‘re gonna be times when Mac and I’ll need to be workin’ the farm. When that happens we’ll need somepony else to be here, and since AB’s in school that somepony’ll probably be you.”

“I’d rather do your share of the farm work,” he muttered, lowering his head.

She offered him a reassuring shove in the side. “Now come on, don’t be like that. All ya gotta do is sell apples to ponies who wanna buy ‘em, ain’t nothing scary about that is there?”

“...Uh, I guess not,”

After a long moment of silence, Applejack huffed and rubbed her brow. “Alright, spit it out. What about this idea’s got your tail in such a darn knot?”

“It’s not that I have an issue with it, but… ugh... have you ever tried to sell something somewhere you really shouldn’t have?” he asked, now having a slight tint in his cheeks. Applejack shook her head, and he rubbed the back of his own. “Well, shortly after the Crystal Empire returned to normal… I kinda made the mistake of trying to swap some ice diamonds in the market there. And since they’re kind of a reminder of Sombra’s reign…”

“Ah take it they weren’t received well,” Applejack finished where he trailed off, wincing in sympathy. She exhaled. “Look, ah’m the Element of Honesty, and ah can honestly say that that ain’t gonna happen here, alright. The hay, maybe this’ll help ya get your confidence back.”

She plucked a golden delicious from a nearby barrel, balancing the fruit on her hoof. “Now look, ya’ll say that ya wanna fit in around here, right? Well part ah that is getting ponies used to seeing you amongst em’ around town, like here in the market.”

“So you’re saying that this’ll be good exposure or something?”

Applejack smiled and nodded. “Yep, and since everypony’ll see ya runnin’ our family’s stall… heh, let’s just say that if the Apple’s trust a pony, then most of Ponyville will too,” he went to say something back, but she’d already stuck the apple in his mouth, drawing an unamused look from the stallion that only made her laugh harder.

That seemed to finally sink the last of his resistance, as once he’d removed the apple he huffed and nodded, allowing Applejack a silent sigh of relief.

In the end it didn’t take long to get him used to how the stall was run. The three big rules were an apple was two bits, buying a dozen meant one wasn’t charged for, and no, you couldn’t make a down-payment for the coming cider season. As it was past noon they were in the afternoon period, which meant that a pony could choose any combination of apples for the same price, and once evening came around the price dropped to a bit an apple.

Quietly, Applejack was sure it had taken her longer to convince Xarzith to run the stall then it had to teach him how to run it.

“I still don’t get how your friend Rarity could do that,” he said flatly, placing his saddle bags and cloak down behind the stall. “Just… I don’t know, it doesn’t seem right in a way.”

Applejack shook her head. “It might seem a little underhoofed, but she’ll only ever do it if she feels she’s really gettin’ fed dry grass by the seller. She does run her own store, so she knows what it’s like to try and make a bit sellin’ stuff,” she said, before taking a glance around.

The market hadn’t picked up since Xarzith had arrived, and her concern for her friends was still biting at her, no matter how she’d tried to silence it. She could put if off for a day, but doing so would’ve left her feeling restless until she did check up on them. And with somepony else at the stall now was a perfect time.

She chewed her lip, before turning back to the stallion. “Say, now that you know how this show’s run, would you mind if I went and checked up on something for a bit? Ah shouldn’t be long, and it’d help me sleep better too.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“...The exact reason for the signature white-blue colouring is unknown, but vigorous testing of many samples, as well as failed efforts to reproduce the gems artificially, has revealed that their colour is not caused by any recognizable magical properties. So far all indications point to their unique colouring either being geographically dependant, or perhaps in some way related to the harsh cold in which their deposits are found… well that doesn’t help anything...”

She turned to the back page. “High advisor to the Crystal throne and forty-seventh record keeper of the Crystal Empire, Bright Shine,” she rolled her eyes.

Twilight huffed and shut her book, her hooves rubbing her tired eyes. She’d been pouring through the pages on ice diamonds since she and Spike had gotten home… or after they’d decided it was best to avoid each other for a little while anyway, and so far she’d found nothing.

She stared at her own sheet of parchment, which so far only had a few lines scrawled on it. The problem was that all of the book’s information on the stones was all either historical or geological. Information like its ceremonial use in the jewelry of the crystal court, or its relative hardness compared to other common things and materials; neither of these types of information, even the historical, had given her the faintest clue into the mystery that was Xarzith.

Truthfully though… she wasn’t really sure what she was actually trying to find. What she knew was this; Xarzith’s family seemed to have access to ice diamonds, possibly at a source level. This in and of itself didn’t mean anything, but if she could dig deep enough she figured that there’d be some kind of information linking his family to the stones, like how Pinkie’s family would be known about in the rock industry, or Applejack’s in farming circles, and that this would give some insight into what was keeping him so clammed up…

...But what would that be? Would his family be a group a crystal nobles who had fled during Sombra’s reign? Would his bloodline contain Sombra himself? So many possibilities, but no way of narrowing them down in the slightest.

“I need coffee,” she sighed as she got to her hooves, feeling her headache from earlier threatening to come back.

Two minutes later she found herself sitting at the library’s kitchen table, a mug of coffee between her hooves, and staring idly through the window at the world outside. Calmer perhaps, but no closer to finding an answer.

She flattened her ears back. If it had been any other part of Equestria she’d been studying then there would’ve undoubtedly been more material to look through, but the Crystal Empire had only just returned from a millennium long absence, and family links aside there was no way of getting any more information about it quickly.

Twilight groaned as her head met the table. Why did it feel like somepony out there had it in for her? She was trying to help her friend now for Celestia’s sake.

“You know, I love you and all Twi, but there are times when I really think you haven’t changed since we left Canterlot.”

Blinking and turning, she found a familiar dragon standing in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the doorframe, claws across his chest, and wearing an amused expression as he looked over her. Oddly enough though... his voice didn’t sound as angry as she figured he would after their argument, rather his usual snarky self.

“Hey Spike,” she started, her voice quiet and neutral. “Are you… still mad at me about what I said and did earlier?”

Spike offered her a sideways smile. “You needed a wakeup call for how you were acting, that I’m sure about… but I shouldn’t have tried to guilt you like that. I know you’d never go out of your way to hurt me, or anypony else for that matter. That’s not like you,” he leant back against the doorframe and stared at the ceiling. “Let’s just agree that we both kinda messed up back th-Blah!”

The dragon hadn’t been ready for being yanked across the room by Twilight’s magic, but he decided to let it slide just that once, given that he had been pulled over so Twilight could wrap him in a hug.

“You good now?” he asked after a moment, although his tone betrayed that he had enjoyed it.

“I’m good,” Twilight smiled, nuzzling her scaly little brother before letting him go.

Her smile widened as he quickly went about pulling up his own chair, and once comfortable levelled his green eyes with her own, a claw resting under his chin. “So, have you given up on trying to spy on Ice Fire like a crazy pony yet?” he asked.

“I’ve given up trying to find out whatever he’s hiding by invasive means. What I want to do instead is get some indication of what it is, and then try to reassure him that there’s no reason to be embarrassed about it.”

Spike arched an eyebrow, prompting Twilight to sigh. “Spike, I don’t want him to have to feel like he needs to hide things from us, like you think you do with your meat eating. It’s natural for you to eat meat, so in my mind you shouldn’t feel the need to keep it under wraps.”

“And you want him to feel the same way about… whatever it is you think he’s hiding,” she nodded, and Spike leant back in his chair. “I can see why you think that’s a good idea, but Twi, if he’s like me, he might still want to keep these things to himself. It might be okay for me to eat meat, but I’d still like to keep it to myself for the sake of not disturbing anypony.”

“I understand that, Spike… but I’d still rather at least give him the option, just in case he wants to open up but is too afraid to right now, because he’s scared of how we’ll react or something.”

For a long moment Spike said nothing, he simply sat with his green eyes running up and down across her face, as if judging her words by her facial expression. No matter how long they’d lived together, Twilight would swear any day of the week there was more behind those eyes then she, or anypony else could know.

Eventually, Spike exhaled a breath again, this one carrying a long tendril of smoke with it, and began tapping the table with his claws.

“What if I said that I don’t think he’s a pony; or not a normal pony anyway?” he said at last, the words spoken downwards at the table.

For a second, Twilight thought she’d physically stopped breathing, and that the room temperature had somehow dropped a few degrees; that hadn’t been on her list of initial suspicions.

“So-o if he’s not a pony, what is he then?” she asked, swallowing and slowly putting her cup down. “And how do you know that, for that matter?”

Spike shrugged, his claw still absently tapping the table between them. “All ponies smell the same to me in a way… like, even though you and Rarity use different soaps and stuff, there’s a smell that tells me you’re both ponies… sorry if that sounds creepy. But yeah, Ice smells pretty much like a pony, but not quite. It’s like there’s another smell mixed in with it,” he tapped his chin. “Actually, it’s kind of weird when I think about it. He doesn’t smell like a pony, but he still smells familiar to me, which is strange since I’d never met him before he turned up that day at Sugarcube Corner.”

“You can tell all that just from your sense of smell?”

Spike grinned and flashed his teeth. “I’m a dragon, Twilight, and dragons are predators. We need a good sense of smell… for when we’re hunting cupcakes.”

Twilight snorted as she tried not to laugh. “Well, if Winona ever gets lost, I’ll point Applejack in your direct…” her words promptly fell away. “Dragons have a strong sense of smell… strong sense of smell, ready access to rare gems, unusually strong for a unicorn, elementally aligned magic, speaks dragon, familiar scent… Spike, have you ever noticed that’s it’s virtually impossible to sneak up on Xarzith?”

The dragon shrugged. “I guess so, why?”

He wasn’t entirely sure what her reply was, she’d already bolted from the kitchen by the time he’d finished, but it had sounded something like ‘It’s so implausible that it makes perfect sense!’.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Shaking his head, Spike hastily followed his sister-figure back into the library’s main room. There he found the alicorn virtually tearing through the book that had previously lay abandoned on the floor, and all the while mumbling incomprehensibly to herself while her quill raced across its parchment.

And then she suddenly stopped, and a grin that would make a mad pony jealous spread across her face.

“Uh, should I be concerned right now?” Spike asked tentatively.

“Nope, but you might want to come have a look at this,” she replied, spinning the book around so he could see the page she’d been looking at.

Needless to say, Spike initially just blinked in confusion. The page had the words ‘Frost Dragons’ scrawled as a chapter title, with a sketched depiction of a large dragon perched on a mountain peak just below, its wings spread and its eyes appearing to be staring at the reader.

“You think Xarzith’s a frost dragon?” he asked after a moment, trying to not bury his face in his claws.

Surprisingly, Twilight shook her head. “No... or at least not entirely,” she explained, flipping the book back over. “But just listen to this, Spike. Ehem, Of all the creatures that roam within the Empire’s borders, none can come close to boasting both the majesty and fury of the frost dragon, yep, yep, yes, where is-ah! Here! A curious trait amongst dragons, their colouring is always white for scales, and differing shades of light blue for spines, wings, and horns. This is no doubt to allow them to sit camouflaged in their snowy surroundings, where prey is a rarity and thus every hunt is no doubt a critical endeavor.”

“You do realize that our friend Vinyl has a white coat and a blue mane too though, right?”

Twilight gave him a smirk before turning back to her book. “Another curious trait is their apparent fascination with ice diamonds, and in turn virtual disregard for all other gemstones as anything but food. It is as if these stones hold some kind of special or secondary meaning to them, though since imperial scholars have only ever witnessed this behavior from afar, this is purely speculation and cannot be confirmed.”

She skimmed down a few paragraphs, before speaking again. “As the name frost dragon suggests, these dragons do not breathe traditional dragon fire. Instead, with a number of scholars having witnessed it first-hoof, frost dragons expel a sort of magical ‘frost fire’, which they appear to be able to vary in temperature; one researcher some years ago reported that he was hit by a stream from an agitated individual, which in the end did little more than chill him - as if being dropped in a frozen lake, in his own words. In the opposite sphere to this, many of our scholars have witnessed prey being frozen in solid blocks of ice, before being taken up in the jaws and carried back by the dragon to its respective cave.”

She peaked over her book with a questioning look. Spike exhaled and rubbed his temples. “You’re forgetting one major thing though Twilight, and that’s that Xarzith looks and smells like a pony. There’s something else in there for sure, but still mostly a pony.”

In a surprising action, Twilight smirked, closed the book, and put it aside. “Spike, have you ever heard of hippogriffs?”

“Tch, I’ve only lived in libraries my whole life,” he snorted and folded his claws. “They’re the results of pegasus ponies and griffins getting together. Why?”

Her smirk widened. “What if I told you that griffins weren’t the only other creature that ponies could have offspring with?” she’d never tell him, or anypony else for that matter, but his face when he connected the dots was practically priceless. “They are rare, extremely so actually, but there have been young born out of dragon-pony relationships before. You said yourself that Xarzith smelled kind of like a pony, but not quite, and yet his smell was familiar to you for some reason. Well, what smell could be more familiar to you than that of another dragon?”

Spike groaned, and this time did bury his face in his claws. “But that doesn’t make any sense. If he’s half dragon or whatever shouldn’t he have some… you know, dragon features or something, like scales or spines?”

Twilight hmm’d and looked over her parchment. Spike had a point, and as curious a shape as his horn was she couldn’t quite call Xarzith out on that alone.

If Hippogriffs were anything to go by, cross-race offspring always inherited some manner of physical features from both sides of their parentage, which meant that Ice Fire likely should’ve had some defining feature that marked his own parentage, if he was indeed part dragon. His lack of a cutie mark wasn’t really enough, nor was his funny shaped horn for that matter; they could easily be put down to being unlucky and an odd unicorn bloodline trait respectively. That left the possibility that the dragon features he had he was somehow concealing from sight, but how… wait…

“Medication,” she breathed, before slapping herself with her hoof. “Of course! Two weeks is a ridiculous amount of time for a pony to adapt to new climate, let alone something like a dragon!”

“What are you-” Spike started, only to blanch when Twilight teleported across the room, and reappeared directly in front of him, grinning like a maniac.

“Spike, it’s his medication! It’s not for climate adaption; it’s for suppressing and concealing any physical traits that would show him as a dragon! That’s why he’s been taking it so long,” before Spike’s eyes the alicorn princess starting bouncing giddy circles around the room. “And that’s why he had to go see Zecora! Because his natural dragon magic is overpowering the effects so fast that he’s probably almost run out of potion! It all makes perfect sense now!”

“TWILIGHT!”

Within the span of a heartbeat, the formerly overjoyed Princess Twilight Sparkle was backed up against the far wall, and looking at the annoyed dragon opposite her like he was about burn down their home.

She’d never heard Spike roar before, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it again soon.

“Twilight, this is what I’d hoped to avoid with you. If I wasn’t here to stop you, what’s the bet you would’ve shot out that door and gone looking for Xarzith?” Twilight winced and blushed. They both knew she likely would’ve done just that. “Look, Twi, just… ugh, you need to get this into your head; just because you’ve discovered something, doesn’t mean everypony has to know that you did. Understand? We don’t even know if you’re right about this, and you saying something you shouldn’t, can and will get us both into trouble.”

“Y-yeah, sorry about that,” she replied, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. “You’re right. I guess this is something we should be keeping between the two of us for now, huh?”

“Tch, what are Pinkie Pie’s words about abusing trust and losing a friend?”

“...Forever,” she shuddered.

Spike nodded. “Yep, so for everypony’s sake I think it’s best if what we know, if it’s actually true, stays within these walls. Otherwise you’re probably going to both destroy a friendship, and anger somepony who might be part dragon.”

After a moment, his expression softened and he sniggered. “Besides, look at it this way. One way or another, Ice is eventually going to have to stop drinking that potion stuff. At that point, If you are right about all this, he’ll just about have to come clean to us whether he wants to or not.”

“You’re right, heh, and who knows. Given how on edge he’s got Applejack lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already feeling the heat.”

Unfortunately for both dragon and alicorn, Applejack had heard just about everything they’d said in the last ten minutes. She’d been standing at their door, her hoof raised and ready to knock, but not daring to in case she missed out on hearing something important.

To say her head hurt from what she’d heard would’ve been an understatement.

“Well… ah sure as hay didn’t expect that,” she murmured to nopony in particular, lowering her hoof to the ground.

Xarzith was a half-dragon? She agreed with Twilight, that was so utterly ludicrous and yet made so much sense; the dragon tongue was one thing, anypony could learn another language if they had the time and the patience, but the diamonds, the unusual strength, the ability to smell her all the way down the hall. Yeah, those were things she couldn’t pass off… the question was, ‘what to do about it now that she knew?’

If there was one thing she was sure about, it was that she wasn’t going to let this slide; truth be told she was far over being fed half-truths by the stallion she was housing.

Spike was probably right about just confronting Xarzith being a bad idea, so she couldn’t just march up and try to force him to admit what he was… but maybe… maybe she could make it so he couldn’t hide what he was any longer, even if he wanted to.

Her fear for her friends now dealt with, she turned and headed back towards the market, a plan already forming in the back of her mind.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Ugh, don’t even bring her up. I swear that mare just about drove me crazy in the few minutes I had to deal with her,” there was a dull thump as Xarzith face-hoofed, followed by knowing laughter from both Apple Bloom and Macintosh. “Seriously, it was like, ‘and if I buy one more apple, will that change the price?’. After the seventh time she asked I seriously wanted to just shove one in her muzzle.”

A smirk crossed Applejack’s face, but she couldn’t quite manage the same laughter as her siblings.

With dinner eaten and the day done, they’d all retreated to the comfort of the family living room, the room’s fire providing some much enjoyed comfort to their tired bodies, as well as a nice backdrop to the sharing of the day's stories. Granny had since headed off to bed, and there was no doubt that Apple Bloom would soon follow, but the youngest Apple had been surprisingly willing to stay up just a little longer to hear a few stories.

Applejack knew she should’ve been enjoying the time more than she was, but the sight of a certain stallion sitting and warming his hooves by her family’s fireplace, and the knowledge that his white fur might actually be concealing white dragon scales… she just couldn’t quite get past it.

She had to do something about it.

“Awhh, alright everypony, as much fun as this is that’ll be it for me today,” she said, getting up from her chair and stretching out. “Don’t know ‘bout the rest of ya, but that shower is singing siren songs to me, and I’ll be darned if ah’ ain’t answerin’ ‘em.”

“Just don’t use all the hot water, alright,” Mac said, smirking and throwing her a cheesy look.

Applejack huffed and blushed. When she’d met Rarity for the first time, and they’d talked about home life, the unicorn had virtually ordered her to take longer showers so as to properly ‘rejuvenate’ herself. That had led to many a cold shower for the rest of the family, and Mac had made sure she’d never forgotten.

“Night sis!”

“Night, AJ. Sleep well.”

The mare bit her lip as she turned and headed up the stairs. She didn’t want to feel bad about what she was doing, but darn did the stallion’s voice in her ear make her.

Once she’d reached the second floor, she headed along the hallway towards the bathroom, making sure her steps were loud enough that they could be heard from downstairs, and thus make it known that she had indeed headed for the shower. Once there Applejack turned the shower on full blast, before quickly, and as quietly as she could, backtracking down the hallway to Xarzith’s room.

For a few moments she paused at the door to his room, the two sides of her brain fighting over whether what she was doing was right or not; she’d put a roof over his head and tried to be nothing but his friend, so she deserved to know the truth about who he was… but then again, who was she to say that now was the time for it come out.

Finally, she raised her hoof to the knob. “If ah’ regret this later on, then so be it,” she huffed, pushing the door open and heading inside.

Already knowing what she was looking for and where it would likely be, Applejack headed straight around the bed to where Xarzith’s saddlebags lay, all the while keeping her steps as light as possible.

With shaky hooves she unclipped and opened the nearest one, revealing amongst other things the small glass vial she had come looking for, the blue liquid inside now down to perhaps a sip or two at most with its frequent consumption.

It was strange. In the low light the stuff even looked somewhat eerie and unusual, or perhaps that was just the part of her that was saying she shouldn’t be touching it, she wasn’t sure.

As gently as she could, and with her brain still in a state of conflict about her actions, she pulled the vial from his’s saddlebag and quickly headed for the window, the amount of time she spent in the room now her priority. The wooden frame creaked a little as she pushed it open and let in the night air, but thankfully only enough to be heard from the hallway and not the living room downstairs.

Mentally cursing herself, and with a silent promise to her parents that she was only doing what she thought was right, she unsealed the vial and poured out the small amount of liquid left in it, gritting her teeth as the last few drops were drained. In the dark it was hard to tell, but with the recent lack of rain she was sure the ground below would soak it up quickly.

“Gonna take a lot longer for me to forget doin’ it though,” she muttered to herself.

What followed felt almost like a dream to Applejack. She stashed the vial back in Xarzith’s bag and clipped it shut, closed the door as quietly as she could when she left the room, and crept back to her awaiting shower.

Once there she closed and locked the door like she was being pursued by a manticore, pulled the shower curtains across, and exhaled as she allowed the hot water to run across her now sweaty fur, her mind trying it’s best and yet still failing to catch up with the rest of her.

She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d just done, or what to expect when morning came

Comments

[SolarEclipse912]

Something tells me this isn't going to end well.

[DT42]

It's back!

[amiamera]

All I can say is ugh. Applejack has performed one of the most irresponsible actions she could. If that really was medication then she could cause serious damage. Imagine that it was heart medicine or medicine for schizophrenia, that can lead to death. Heck, let's go with something simpler and possible: the medicine suppresses the frost dragon traits because frost dragons require a colder temperature and if he doesn't suppress those traits he will die due to overheating. Applejack knows nothing and takes an action that, if she was wrong, could cause a loss of life.

Further that's an invasion of privacy and destruction of private property with the potion costing real money. Applejack should not under any conditions become friends with Ice Fire imo. This is betrayal of honesty, trust, and hospitality. No matter how guilty she feels, she still chose to do it and damn the potential consequences.

[ice_cream_in_winter]

Applejack you silly pony, the ground isn't sick...

[Grekoy]

This is not going to end will.

[Lord_01010000]

Well Applejack's going to be a popsicle soon.

[shirotora]

6618103 Agreed. There should be some kind of consequence for her actions, and not just a simple slap on the wrist.

[PetuTheViewer]

6618103 Agreed. You just explained it better than I could have hoped to myself.

I don't think this version of Applejack should in anyway be still connected to the Element of Honesty. Her actions here were so dishonest.

[Rocka Leone]

6618103 i second that, also i have a feeling that the next chapter is not gonna be pretty.

[Ziper Ace]

Apple Jack your curiosity is going to kill you bruh