One Shot, One Chance

by SpeederClaw

Chapter 7: Fresh Perspective

“…and just make sure to behave yourselves, boys,” Clyde ordered the duo. “This is Sweet Apple Acres, the most famous farm in all of Equestria.” Clyde, Vice, and Enzo all stood at the front of the grand farmhouse. Its lively red exterior, filled with intricate designs, was vividly visible in the dark night. Giant, white supports gave the house its shape and added to the farm-like uniqueness. The apple and arrow spinning sign gently swayed in the calm, cool night over the orchid purple roof. Clyde had seen this magnificence quite a few times, but this sight was news to Vice and Enzo.

Clyde stepped forward and gave the hard, wooden door a good solid two knocks. “Hello? Mister Macintosh, Miss Applejack!” Enzo and Vice exchanged unsure glances. Since both were directly behind Clyde, they were observing his cutie mark, trying to figure it out. It was the first time they had actually taken notice of said cutie mark.

“So it’s a silver shield with a blue cross-is that a mustache behind it?” Vice whispered to Enzo.

“Those are wings, Vice,” Enzo whispered back giving Vice an unamused look.

“Well excuse me; he always talks about them, so naturally I’d assume-never mind.” Vice scratched his head and the conversation was over. All three ponies stood, unmoving as they waited for an answer. The quiet night sent uneasy chills down each ponies’ spine. “Uh…” Vice had his doubts about this plan of Clyde’s.

The wooden door creaked open and there stood a large, hulking stallion. He was equal to Clyde’s size, but just a bit bigger. Clyde’s hazelnut eyes were staring directly into the other stallion’s eyes. Brushing his disheveled, light orange mane aside and rubbing his worn-out, apple green eyes, the stallion finally spoke. “…Clyde? What are yah doin’ here this late?” the big red pony said with tired confusion.

“Sorry to contact you so late in the night, Mister Macintosh, but this is urgent,” Clyde said. The tall pony peered over Clyde and noticed Vice and Enzo who looked like ants compared to the two stallions.

“What’s all the commotion about?” a voice said behind the red stallion. “Big Mac, what’s goin’ on ‘ere?” The attention came onto the orange mare who also had the tired look. Her bright yellow mane compared to that of Big Macintosh’s, but her lime green eyes had a little more life in them.

“Ahem, again, I’m terribly sorry for disturbing the Apple family at such a late hour,” Clyde looked back at Vice and Enzo as they simply stared blankly at the situation. “But, I need to ask a favor of you.”

“Is that you, Clyde? Goodness, it’s nice tah see yah again. So, uh, what exactly do yah need?” the orange mare said with just as much confusion as Bic Macintosh.

“Likewise, Miss Applejack. If I’m not mistaken, I know that you sort of run a business selling apples, correct?” Clyde said.

“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh answered for Applejack.

“So, you get your apples from bucking your own trees, right?”

“Eeyup,” Bic Mac repeated once more.

“Then would you be willing to accept these stallions to hel-“

“Nnope.” Bic Mac cut off Clyde and shook his head.

“Well, I guess we’re done here!” Vice said as he started to walk away.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE MISTER!” Clyde’s voice shook through everyponies’ head.

“Wait a sec, haven’t I seen you two before?” Applejack said pointing towards Enzo and Vice.

“Dunno.” Vice shrugged tilting his head.

“…I think so.” Enzo peeped out of truth.

“Huh?” Vice looked at Enzo for answers.

“I think I saw her before when I bumped into that small filly,” said Enzo trying to recall when the moment had happened.

“Yah mean Apple Bloom, mah sister? She has a big, pinkish bow on her head,” Applejack said.

Enzo nodded. “Yes, I think I caught a glimpse of you before-“

“I dragged yah off. Okay, okay what happens now?” Vice interrupted quickly.

“It seems we are at an impasse here,” Clyde said thinking for a moment.

“What makes these guys so special anyway?” Applejack said.

“These two have nowhere to live and are short of money. Have pity on them, Miss Applejack,” Clyde said sincerely.

“Okay…but we can’t just hire anypony off the street. I’m not sure if we can go through with this favor of yours, Clyde,” Applejack said uncomfortably.

“Didn’t think this plan fully didja?” said Vice snickering to Clyde.

“This is for you isn’t it?” Clyde said. The silence of the night took over as each and everypony stood still. Not a muscle was moved as Clyde, Vice and Enzo awaited Applejack’s response to their predicament.

“…tell yah what, I’ll take ‘em in for now, Clyde,” said Applejack motioning for the duo to come inside. Big Mac had opened his mouth, but Applejack silenced him with her hoof before he could utter a single sound. “...and before you protest, Big Mac, Clyde has a good point. We can’t just leave these ponies out on the streets…it just ain’t right.” Big Mac closed his eyes and sighed.

“Eeyup, you take care of ‘em.” With that said, he trudged on out of view.

“I still don’t trust ‘em,” Applejack whispered to Clyde.

“Understandable, Miss Applejack. Thank you for taking these boys in.”

“You owe me one,” Applejack said with a wink.

“Anytime, take care, Miss Applejack.” Clyde gave a slight nod of his head and headed off. After a few steps he outstretched his pure, snow white wings and extended them fully. The stallion prepared for lift off and left the world below him, soaring through the ever cool night.

~~~~~~~~~~

“…and this ‘ere is your room,” Applejack said as she neared a cracked, wooden door. Its wear and tear damage only gave off an uneasy feeling about the room behind it.

“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Vice whispered doubtfully to Enzo.

“No.” The shaky door creaked open, sending a horrible screech down the duo’s spine. Applejack seemed unfazed by the dreadful noise. She simply stood and watched as the two stallions collected their thoughts.

“Alright that right there-what the?” Vice caught himself mid-sentence at what he saw behind the door. The bluish-purple room gave off a pleasant surprise to the duo. The dark, starry night was emitting from a single square window. A small wooden table with a worn out candle was set aside along with two small stools. As they stepped in, the green bed with a single white pillow was evident. “Ohh…that’s awkward,” Vice said looking at Enzo.

“There’s only one bed, so y’all will have to make due,” said Applejack.

“Calling shots on the bed!” said Vice as he flung himself on the soft bed. “Awesome.” He plopped his head upon the cold, fluffy pillow.

“Just try not tah break anythin’,” Applejack said walking away.

“Hey…thanks for taking us in,” Enzo said as Applejack was almost out the door. “We really appreciate it, right Vice?” Enzo looked directly at Vice with hardness in his scarlet eyes.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Vice said as he tossed and turned in the bed. Applejack looked at the duo for a moment, then simply left without a word.

“Well now, Enzo, I guess we’re living fancy now,” Vice said with a laugh.

“I’m sleeping on the floor and we’re living in a farmhouse.” said Enzo irritably.

“Okay, but it’s better than what we had before,” Vice said shaking his hoof at Enzo. “Nobody said fancy had to be high-class, I’ll make do with this.” Enzo walked over to the dim lit candle and stred into the spark. Its shape swayed back and forth as he inspected it.

“Say, Vice, do you think that we’ll ever get back home?” Enzo said still staring at the fire.

“Most likely not, what home is there to go back to?” Vice subtly choked up on his last words. “Ahem, uh…say, Enzo, how come you weren’t all shy in front of that Apple-that girl, huh?” Vice changed the subject as quickly as he could with total disregard to Enzo’s well being.

“What? Um…well.” Enzo didn’t dare look Vice in the eye.

“I mean, the nurse was pretty fine, so what does that mean for Apple-this girl?” Vice just could not remember the mare’s name at all. It bothered him that the mysterious Apple something was at the tip of his tongue.

“...what are you trying to get at?” Enzo said hopelessly.

“You think she’s ugly, don’tcha?” Vice claimed with an evil snicker.

“No, I never said that!”

“Not attractive, maybe?” Vice corrected himself. Enzo finally looked Vice in the eyes and didn’t say a word. “So, Apple-whatever is not attractive. Okay, that’s okay.” Vice was having his fun toying with Enzo.

“Just because she isn't particularly pretty...doesn't mean-“

“Excuse me?” Applejack seemed to have appeared in the room without anypony noticing. Enzo froze and Vice didn’t bother turning towards Applejack.

‘You’re kiddin' me,’ Vice thought with defeat. “Hey, what happened to the rights to privacy?!” He stammered.

“Y’all would think that I’d be a lil skeptical?” Applejack said stepping toward Vice. “I still don’t trust the lot of you and I guess my suspicious were correct.” She raised her hoof to Vice. “Insultin’ somepony behind their back is worse than doin’ it tah their face.” There was obvious resentment behind those words, but Vice disregarded it as he tried to cunningly wriggle his way out of the situation.

“How do you know I was talkin’ about you, huh?” Vice had trouble pooling his words together. Applejack gave him a look of doubt.

“You said Apple, so I’d assume-“

“You’d assume! Tsk, tsk.” Vice said wagging his hoof.

‘Stop digging yourself a deeper hole,’ Enzo thought worryingly. Applejack let out an exasperated sigh.

“Listen, just be ready to work tomorrow, ‘kay?" Applejack was trying to be the bigger pony here. She glared at Vice who was subtly celebrating with his trademark smirk before she promptly left the room.

“The things you do,” Enzo said.

“Yeah, the things I do!” Vice said gloriously. Both ponies kept to their own, Vice the green, comfy bed and Enzo the cold, hard floor. It wasn’t long before the duo found themselves fast asleep after a hectic day.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Everypony up!” an unknown voice shouted. The message surged through the entire farmhouse, eventually reaching Vice and Enzo’s ears.

“Ughh.” Vice slowly cracked open his eyes. “What?” He looked over and saw Enzo already up and alert. The pony noticed Vice stirring and gave him a questionable look.

“Yo-argh-what time is it?” Vice said with a raspy voice rubbing his violet eyes.

“'bout six a.m.” The duo both shot their attention at the mare walking in.

“Why so damn early?” Vice said with agony.

“Normally you’d have been woken up at around five o’clock sharp, so consider yourself lucky today,” Applejack said calmly. She was staring at Vice with a weird expression on her face. “…didja sleep with that trench coat on all night?” Vice assessed the situation and shot back a clean response.

“Well, ya know, I was feeling mighty tired. Just fell asleep with it on I guess. Any more questions?” He finished smiling triumphant as ever.

“Alrighty then...just meet me downstairs when y’all are ready.” She left the room as Vice slowly exited his bed. He didn’t bother fixing it as he had no intentions of being neat. Celestia’s sun was just rising as a few rays of sunlight escaped through the single square window. The room filled with subtle warmth. Vice performed several stretches consisting of twisting the back and rolling the head. Enzo retied his scarf and secured his blue band around his wrist. Each finished their duty and both started for the door.

“You seem to have a plan for everything, Vice,” said Enzo.

“How long you think we can keep this secret, huh?” Vice said in a somewhat serious tone.

“We’ve kept it for this long.” Enzo trailed off as he looked into the distance.

“We’ll play it by ear, eh? C’mon, let’s get this over with,” Vice said as the duo headed downstairs.

Comments

[Literature]

Hmmm. This is confusing.

Reread ALL the chapters!

[SpeederClaw]

628633 Sorry...I haven't posted in a while...so things would get confusing. I apologize...I didn't except Minecraft for the Xbox to be so addicting. It also didn't help that I got Pokemon: SoulSilver last week and that I've got like 200 projects and tests for the end of school. But, expect chapter 8 soonish (I hope o.o)

[Snowfyre]

is wondering what happened about blitz, you seem to writing more about these two and less about blitz

[Longshot]

Not a bad chapter overall. Good descriptions. Interesting little side story but you really need to get this plot moving. I have never seen a story that takes 8 chapters for the story to really get started. Even my history textbook went faster than your story (on second thought I take that back, nothing is slower than my history textbook). This story is about Blitz, right, than why don't you focus on him. This most recent chapter now makes the description of your story off of what it really is, which is now the tales of Blitz, Vice and Anozo. I would honestly prefer to hear about him rather than these two other characters.

Apologies for the rant but I had to get that out there.

Now a dance from our resident Hawkeye Pierce.

24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1i0qen7Pl1r6cleeo2_400.gif

Also shipping detected.

strangecosmos.com/images/content/136407.jpg

[SpeederClaw]

629275 I appreciate the rant as it helps me figure out the pacing of the story. To be honest I am going to elaborate more on Vice and Enzo as this was my original plan: to branch off with other stories. Didn't really want to provide too much in the description (hence only Blitz was mentioned) because I felt it was kind of a spoiler. I do see your point that the story should revolve around Blitz...but I wanted to do this.

[Longshot]

631890 Well I understand, but you might want to change the description.

[SpeederClaw]

632165 yeah that's probably what I was trying to get at...any suggestions?