Paranoia

by Valorousspectre

Prologue

PROLOGUE:

Applebuck season. The time when physical exertion was the most common past time for the two prominent farmers of Sweet Apple Acres. After all. Somepony had to buck them apples out of the trees.

This particular day was bright, sunny and almost cloudless. It was warm, but not overly hot. Thankfully, Big Mac had managed to remain uninjured this season, so Applejack didn’t have to collect ALL the apples. A cool breeze was quite common as well, which certainly helped Applejack as she plodded relentlessly towards the barn, making to store the apples she had in her cart in the loft. The cart was piled high with baskets, and it was more likely they’d, they being her and her brother, would leave storing them in the loft until later that day when it was too dark to continue bucking without harming themselves.

Not that that’d ever stopped Big Macintosh before.

Stowing the baskets in the barn, AJ started back through the orchard. The trees she passed by were bare of apples, and leaves littered the ground as well from where they too had been shaken off. Not many, but still. AJ didn’t mind. She enjoyed the feeling of earth and leaves beneath her hooves. Her muscles were starting to complain as she leaned forward on her forehooves before pushing off, only bucking out her hooves at the last minute, letting her weight do most of the work, bringing a rain of more apples down into her baskets. She smiled and sat down, wiping sweat from her brow.

AJ was a simple pony really. She liked sun, trees, earth and apples. But she was also proud and rarely accepted help. So it came as a surprise to her when she came across three trees bare of fruit and baskets.

“Tarnation?”

She looked around in confusion, the Stetson hat resting upon her head swaying in time with a gentle breeze. A few hoofprints here and there was all she saw. Grumbling and assuming it was her brother’s fault, she moved onto the next set of trees and swiftly forgot about it.

Right until she came across three more.

“That does it! Dang it Big Mac, Ah told ya to stay in yer own field!”

“Ah was.”

AJ turned to see her brother stepping out from the tree line, standing before her. Big Macintosh lived up to his name. He was massive. Tall and very well built, Big Mac rarely left the farmhouse. When he did, he was the talk of the town’s mares. He was a handsome stallion, and his soft spoken demeanour won him a lot of favour with the single mares of the town.

But Applejack swiftly persuaded them to lose said favour.

Not that he was interested in a relationship. Big Mac was quite fine with working, and rarely paid attention to such things. Right now, he was looking down at AJ expectantly.

“So, ya gon’ tell me what yer doin’ buckin’ apples in mah fields?”

AJ bristled indignantly.

“Ah did no such thing! Yer the one buckin’ mah trees!”

Big Mac shook his head.

“Nope. Ain’t touched these trees.”

AJ fumed quietly before sighing.

“Fine, Ah believe ya. But if it weren’t you, an’ it weren’t me, who?”

Big Mac nodded towards the hoof prints.

“Ah’ll bet these’ll tell us. Ya go get yer friends AJ, Ah’ll follow these.”

Comments

[Imakidbanme]

*sees twilight sparkle romance fic thing*
*said this was sequel*
*read later-fav-like*
*go to other story and repeat previous step*
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