Welcome to Ponyville!

by CharcoalShift

Riddles and Persistence

Shadow sighs and turns towards the dark colored stallion. He looks around, his hoof on his chin and figures out the next plan.

"Alright smart one, what do we do now?" she grunted, having no clue about the riddle.

"Hey, if I would've had a word in edge-wise we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Well excuse me for being impulsive!" she turns and huffs. Charcoal thinks hard about what Discord had told them both.

"Back in time you both must greet.... where you met with formal introduction..."

"I got it! We go back in time and... wait..." Shadow trails off at her own logic

"It wouldn't work. Time travel spells are too much for me, and even then, we wouldn't have enough time to find them all before it wears off."

"Then what do we do? If we don't figure this out soon, everything will fall apart!" Charcoal couldn't help but realize that and he shuddered at the worst possible outcome. Just then Applebloom comes rushing in from the path that leads to Apple Acres

"Mr. Charcoal! Mr. Charcoal!" she panted as she stumbled a bit before the two of them "Somethin's wrong with mah sister!"

"Well we found one of them." Shadow says blankly

"What happened Applebloom?" Charcoal says after giving an irritated look to Shadow

"She's not herself. Ah mean, when I bring up you or her other friends, she says that she don't know any of ya'll. Even mah brother is confused!"

"Well there goes the memory wipe from Discord, but what is she doing at Apple Acres and how does that deal with the riddle?" Shadow looks at Charcoal. Applebloom looks at the other two and beams brightly

"Ya'll doin' riddles? Ah like riddles!" Charcoal nods and turns to Shadow

"Well we need all the help we can get right?" he explains what happened and tells her the riddle. She ponders it for a second and comes up with an idea.

"Didn't you meet mah sister and mah family at Apple Acres?" she tilts her head. Charcoal facehoofs and Shadow's eyes widen. It was in plain view and they didn't see it from the beginning. The only problem now was how to change them back, and that was obviously not placed in the riddle.

"We need to find out how we can bring them back to normal." Charcoal looked determined. Shadow was still lost on what he had finally figured out.

"Uh... fill me in first on the riddle?"

"Oh... right. Well everypony is at the place where I apparently met them for the first time."

"Like just trotting up and saying 'hi, I’m so and so'?"

"No, too spontaneous, and it'll have us run in circles. More of a formal greeting and getting to know one another better kind of meeting." Shadow nodded and started heading towards Apple Acres

"So we just go and find them, and turn them back to normal right? Sounds easy."

"Now hold on miss impulsive. There's a trick to it." Shadow grunts and turns around with an annoyed face.

"What is this trick? If anything, it's out in plain view!"

"There are two of us, so he may have split the job to where we have to look for where WE have met them."

"In other words..?"

"Three of them are at a place where I have met them, while the other three are where you have met them." It was pretty clear at this point, and finally realizing it may have cut the time shorter than it should have if they went together. Applebloom looks at the two of them and jumps up and down.

"Can ah join ya'll too?!" she smiles. They look at each other and start to worry a bit.

"It's going to be very dangerous. Who knows what Discord is going to pull on us?" Charcoal looks at her with a concerned expression, but it doesn't faze her one bit.

"And? Ah helped yew two out in solving the riddle." she huffed. She's got a point, and regardless she'll be following them back to Apple Acres to get Applejack's memories back into check.

"I dunno..." Shadow didn't really know how to respond. Charcoal sighed and trotted forward

"Does it look like we have a choice? Now come on, we already wasted enough time with this fiasco." the two mares followed him down the dirt path, leaving Ponyville and heading towards the farm. During the trip there Charcoal could feel an empty sensation well up inside. A mix of anticipation, and fear. He knew that once he'd arrive to get Applejack, she would have no recollection of him, who he was, and what she meant to him. Applebloom could see it in his expression as he gave a deep sigh, and his pace began to slow down. She trotted next to him and nudged him a bit.

"Don't worry, ah'm sure mah sister will remember yew. We just gotta try." her optimism didn't really help him in the slightest, but he smiled weakly to show his appreciation for her efforts to cheer him up a bit.
The farm came into view and they could see two ponies standing in front of the porch. One of them was obviously Big Mac, and the other was none other than the element of honesty herself. It seems as if they were arguing over something as they
were seen more clearly.

"Ah'm tellin' ya Big Mac, Ah have no idea about this harmony mumbo jumbo that yer talkin' about." she stomps a hoof, very agitated. Looks like the argument was going on long before Applebloom met up with Charcoal and Shadow.

"Applejack, ya got to come to yer senses here. Discord has come back and ah'm sure he's the one that did this to you!" He turns and sees Charcoal "Charcoal, go on and tell her all the crazy things that's been happenin' here!" Sadly enough, he was at a loss for words. Charcoal looks at Applejack, who gives him the strangest look she's ever given.

"You look familiar...” she narrows her eyes and suddenly her temper comes back "Oh no, yer with Big Mac on this one aren't cha? Ah told you, I have no idea about these elements of harmony, or anything about this Discord character ya hear?"

"Applejack just let me explain!" he's suddenly cut off

"I don't want any explanation! Just leave me alone!" she gallops off into the orchards. Big Mac watches her disappear into the forest of trees and turns towards Charcoal, who was crushed by her sudden outburst.

"Now don't just stand there, go after her!" he grunted. Charcoal snaps into attention and chases her without giving a second thought.
He can barely see Applejack far off into the orchard, still galloping and he picks up the pace to try and catch up with her.

"Applejack! Wait!" he calls out, but her speed doesn't slow down a bit.

"Ah said I don't wanna hear any of that stuff!" she yelled

"Come on! Wait up! I can't keep this up forever!"

"Then ya might as well go back without me!"

"Doesn't your memories mean anything to you?!" He begins to close the gap between him and Applejack. She then makes an abrupt stop, which catches Charcoal off guard, and she bucks him. He is launched several feet back and is smacked against the thick tree behind him.

"Ah cherish my memories very dearly because it's all ah got besides mah family and this here farm!" she turns around to see the battered stallion, a bit of blood dripping from his forehead and mouth. She trots closer to check on him and see's the hoof print she left on the side of his face.

"Gosh... Ah hope I didn't hurt him too bad...” Applejack takes a closer look and her eyes widen as she suddenly remembers the events that took place with Applebloom in Everfree Forest. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she begins to remember everything again. She then looks at Charcoal again, who was unconscious and still bleeding.

"Oh sweet Celestia, Charcoal! Are you alright sugarcube?!" there was no response from him. He was out cold and this made her feel even worse for hitting him.

"Come on Charky, we got to get yew back to the farm." She tries to pick him up and manages to hoist him over her back. She makes a break for her house, hearing a dark laughter as she does so. The sky above her becomes dark and the trees beside her look as if they are rotting at the base of the trunk. The rotting areas then gave weigh with a snap and begin to fall towards her. She tries shifting her weight with Charcoal on her back to avoid the falling trees, but she is grazed by the branches that constantly try to whip at her legs. Applejack holds in small cries of pain as the trees fall over and try to impede her chances of escape. As she tries to clear a jump over a decomposing tree ahead of her, her hind leg nicked the edge of the bark, which shifted all of the combined weight of her and Charcoal to the front, causing her to topple forward and sprain her front-left leg. She tries to get up, as she is so close to getting back to the farm, but the sudden pain from her leg wouldn't let her get up. The dark laughter can be heard again from a distance, as she is now stuck at the mercy of the falling trees and Charcoal lying unconscious beside her.

Comments

[Cat Eye]

Oh No AJ Charcoal NOOOOOOOOOO

[Twisted but true]

Omg! Discords a stalker!