The Lockseed's curse

by Equestriasservant

Chapter 8: AppleJack's training

Shadow watched the girls, along with their human captive make their way to the library in the center of Ponyville. He sighed watching them laughing at Jay as he gazed around in wonder at the thatched roofs and the tree-house where Twilight Sparkle lived. He couldn't understand why he felt so down or why he didn't want to follow the group. He made his way along an opposite path to the group. His head down, Shadow wandered along the the pathways, ignoring calls of greeting from the ponies around the town. Something was making him feel so down, it felt as though a massive metal block was stuck on top of his back. Ever since he'd woken up in a bed in the Canterlot infirmary, with Twilight, Luna and Rainbow exclaiming assuredly that, even though he'd done some damage to the human, he would live with no permanent damage. Though he'd been unable to remember much. He remembered getting angry, so angry that he wanted to hurt the human, then a voice inside his head, then....nothing.

"C'mon Girls, I heard the mah sister's comin' back today." The unicorn looked up at the loud, squeaky voice. A group of three fillies had just walked onto the path ahead of him. One of the fillies, a yellow filly with orange eyes, a red mane and tail and a large pink bow in the mane was the one that was talking. The other two gave squeals of happiness. One was a unicorn, who had fur as white as Rarity's, with a curled mane of pinkish purple, whilst the other was a deep orange Pegasus with a scruffier, deeper purple mane, with light purplish eyes. Each of them were smiling widely. Shadow noticed with a start, that none of the fillies had cutie marks. He smiled slightly, remembering the innocence of youth. He waited for a few seconds, watching the young ponies begin to sprint towards the station, though the running was cut short as a loud voice yelled out.

"Hey Blank Flanks, enjoying being wastes of space?" Two other fillies had appeared in front of the sprinting fillies. The three skidded to a halt. Both of the new arrivals were earth ponies. The new arrivals both bore identical, grins. One was a pinkish color with a mane of light violet with a white strip through it. The cutie mark on her flank was in the shape of a jeweled tiara. The other was grey furred with a ponytail braided into her silvery grey mane. Her cutie mark was a silvery spoon. Judging from the evil smirks they were giving towards the three, it was clear to Shadow that they were hostile. The yellow filly with the bow stepped forward. Her southern accent reminded him strongly of AppleJack.

"Get outta our way Diamond Tiara. Jest leave us alone!" But the two snooty looking fillies did not move. Their smirks only widened. Shadow sighed. This wasn't anything to do with him and he didn't want to get involved with a fight between five little fillies. He turned to leave. Just at that moment, there was a small clatter and a cry of pain. He turned round to see what had happened. The Alabaster Unicorn was sitting o her backside, with Diamond Tiara standing over her. Tears were beginning to pool in the fillies eyes. Shadow felt a familiar fury rising up. He stormed forward his hooves making loud stomping noises with his fury. The two bullies looked round at the black Unicorn rushing at them, giving squeaks of fright before running off. Shadow came to a stop watching the two bullies running away. Breathing heavily he turned round to appraise the three fillies behind him.

"Are you three okay?" He demanded. The three fillies were staring at him with wide eyes. "What?" he asked uncertainly. The three fillies shuffled closer, big smiles breaking out on their faces. "Uh....Ok...." Shadow stammered, turning round to leave. "See ya!" He called out, walking away. He heard soft clopping behind him and stopped. "Anything you wanna say?" He asked turning his head to look at the three fillies still following them. The Orange Filly stepped forward, opened her mouth and yelled:

"That was so COOL!" Shadow sighed irritably. Why was it whenever you wanted to be alone....Something like this Had to happen?

---

Jay groaned tiredly as he collapsed onto the spare bed in Twilight's library. Four hours.....four hours......of answering questions. He never knew that a QnA could be so tiring or could take so long. Twilight had forced him to sit with her and answer question after question about who he was, where he'd come from and other questions of the like. He wandered if Twilight was slightly deaf. He must've said "I can't remember much," about a hundred times or more. Closing his eyes, he rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling. He would never have guessed that anybody....any-pony could be so probing. Then she'd mentioned that AppleJack had managed to secure him some work at the Farm she owned. His eyes still closed, he listened to both Spike and Twilight heading off to bed. Then just as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard Twilight call out:

"Jay?" He answered with a sleepy grunt. "I hope you sleep well. Goodnight!" Jay smiled slightly at the Unicorns goodnight. He wondered vaguely if her goodnight was either a true gesture or....something else. His sleep was interrupted by a loud voice shouting in his ear. Jumping up, Jay tripped over the beds railing and falling flat on his face. Groaning with both sleepy anger and a rising pain in his face, the human rolled over to look up at AppleJack staring down at him with a soft smile on her face. He frowned up at her, licking his lower lip to clear the blood beginning to pump out of the cut on his lip. Jay sat up and glared at the Orange Farm pony. Glancing out of the window, he saw that the sky was still dark. Checking the small clock on his mantle side table, he saw that it was still only three-in-the-morning.

"Howdy partner!" AppleJack said, tipping her stetson hat. "Didn' Twi say I was gonna come get ya?" She asked, grinning at the annoyed human. Jay shook his head and stood, stretching his limbs with an grunt. Several loud cracks filled the room and he glared down at the smiling, hat wearing pony that dared to wake him up at three in the morning. The Earth pony gave him a soft nudge with a chuckle and followed him down the stairs into the main part of the library, before out of the door. Every time he turned to ask about where the heck they were going, the farm pony continued to nudge him down a long dirt path. Soon, both of them had walked away from the main part of the town. Several fields had opened up, revealing a large building. It was in the center of a field with a large field of trees, each adorned with a large quantity of apples of varying types.

"AppleJack...?" he asked confusedly stopping for a second. AppleJack pushed him again, smiling. Jay sighed. "Okay, no questions for me then." Jay groaned. AppleJack chuckled before she sped up slightly to walk beside the human. She smiled widely at him with another chuckle. Jay looked down at her, still feeling annoyed about being brought out so early. The stetson wearing pony led the way into the farm. Glancing at the sign hanging on one of the fences, Jay saw the name: Sweet Apple Acres. A large Red stallion with red fur and a deep orange mane with a green apple for a cutie mark was waiting for them at the entrance to one of the giant fields. As they got closer, Jay could see the muscles flexing to beneath the Stallions skin. AppleJack smiled as she led Jay over to the giant red Stallion.

"This here is Big Macintosh Jay. He's mah brother." Jay smiled and extended his hand. Big Macintosh was so tall that Jay didn't need to bend down to shake his hoof. Big Macintosh's shake was so strong that Jay actually felt his arm and indeed his whole body raised up into the air and then forced down into the earth a few centimeters. Jay withdrew his arm, rubbing it to get the aching feeling out of his joints. He smiled at the big stallion. "You ready for work big Mac?" AppleJack asked.

"Eeeeyup!" Macintosh said, eyeing Jay softly. AppleJack and Jay exchanged a smile before the human and two farm ponies walked into the field. The sun was beginning to rise above the tops of the trees before the little group stopped in the middle of the field. AppleJack walked up to one of the trees, turned her back on it and kicked the tree with both her back legs. There was a series of loud clunks as the apples from the tree fell into the multiple buckets underneath it. Jay watched in awe as AppleJack began to move from tree to tree, kicking the trees in the same fashion. AppleJack smiled whilst Big Macintosh walked over to the buckets and picked them up. AppleJack sidled up to Jay and pushed Jay over to one of the trees with buckets filled to the brim with large juicy apples.

"Here's what you gotta do." AppleJack said as Jay looked at her, questionably. "Celestia wants us to teach ya about friendship. Since we're the elements o' Harmony, she thought we'd be the prime teachers." Jay nodded understandably. AppleJack pointed with a hoof towards the buckets. "I want ya to help Big Mac moving the buckets until we're done. Ya'll get some breakfast once we're done." Jay grinned. AppleJack watched as the human got to work, hoisting the buckets over his shoulders. Though, the Farm pony grinned softly as she heard the tell-tale signs of hunger coming from Jay's stomach, that his willingness to work, was coming more out of his desire for food, rather than a desire to learn anything. Smiling to herself, AppleJack returned to work.

---

The group of three were so focused on their work that they didn't notice a pair of blue eyes staring at them from behind one of the trees. The creatures long limbs were covered in black clothing, almost identical to the ripped garments Jay was wearing. A black rectangular driver was tied around its waist, secured with a silver belt. The black mask covering the creatures head obscured almost everything about the creature. Small streaks of blonde hair stuck out from under the black cotton. A soft chuckle filled the air as the creature moved away, holding up a lockseed.

"You poor sap Jay. I'll see you soon." The creature moved back out of sight as Jay looked around as though he'd heard something. Moving back, the shadows bent around it, wrapping it in shadows. Within seconds, the darkness had faded like the morning mist. By the time Jay made it over to the tree where the creature had stood and looked round it, There was nothing there.

---

Jay frowned as he looked behind the tree. He'd thought he had heard a voice coming from behind the tree though when he'd finally made it over, there was nothing there. He walked the full way around the tree and even looked up at the branches. Nothing. The human frowned again. He was sure he had heard something. AppleJack called out to him:

"Hey Jay, what's goin' on over there?" He looked round at the two farm ponies. Both of them were attached to a harness at the front of the cart, now laden with large buckets of apples. He shook his head before making his way over to the two ponies. "Hearin' things?" She asked, giving Jay a soft knock on his leg. Jay felt his limb buckle slightly with the force of the punch. As they made their way back to the farm, another pair of ponies opened the door and stepped out. One was an old looking, green furred mare with a white mane and tail with shaky legs, wearing what appeared to be a patterned shawl around her neck. The other was smaller with yellow fur and a big red bow in a red mane. The smaller one ran up to them with a yell of greeting. "Hey there Apple-bloom, Granny Smith." AppleJack said smiling at the pair of them. The other two were staring at Jay. "This is Jay. He's the guy we're teachin' a lesson to." Apple-Bloom walked up to Jay and smiled.

"Hey there mister." She said happily. Jay smiled, knelt down and held out his hand. Apple-Bloom took it with her tiny hoof and they shook. AppleJack seemed happy that both of her relatives had taken to Jay. Granny smith had nodded at Jay with a calculating look before saying:

"You al-right there young un'?" Jay nodded with a smile before standing back up.

"It's nice to meet you both." He said with a chuckle. "I've never seen such a nice farm before!" The four farm ponies all smiled at Jay's praise. With a smile Big Mac took the other harness from AppleJack before moving away to park the wagon. The Stetson wearing pony gave Jay another little nudge to get him moving toward the open door.

"Lets get some food in ya Jay, then Rainbow Dash wants to meet ya in town. I'll take ya there after Breakfast." As the group made their way towards the farmhouse, they failed to notice the black furred unicorn staring at them from behind a large knot of trees. The shadowy unicorn grinned, showing sharpened, pearly white teeth. A feeling of elation was rising inside his stomach. He turned to face the other figure standing behind him. He nodded calmly.

---

"Did you glean anything useful from the observation." He asked. The creature nodded with a small chuckle. The feminine voice that spoke out from under the black mask, made the unicorn smile even wider.

"Yes. He is no match for me." The creature watched Jay being pushed into the farmhouse, before turning away. "Not yet though." the female creature said walking away. "I need more time before I kill him. But when I do.....oh when I do."