My Little Pony: Ren's Adventures In Equestria

by MaxTV1234

Chapter 44 - The SSCS 6000!

"Ren...I'm scared..."
...Where am I? That voice...is that my sister? I looked down to see my sister, whose hair was brown and short as she was holding onto me real tight, and I heard some whimpers coming from her.

"Ren...what are we gonna do?" Lillie asked in worried, looking at me with tear-filled eyes. Before I could reply, I heard shouts and banging coming outside before I looked over and saw my parents barricading the door as it kept banging. I heard the shouts...they were full of anger, envy, and such. I heard it all...it's...filled with despair. What's going on?

"Hey now..." I looked down to my sister with a soft smile and said "Everything is going to be alright! We're gonna be fine."

"O-okay..." She replied, wiping away her tears until we heard another banging knocking into the door.

"LET US AT THE BRAT! HE DESERVES DAMNATION!" One of the people outside screamed.

"Ren! You need to get out of here!" I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to see my older brother, whose hair was the same color as mine, but lighter.

"W-what? Jonas?!" I asked in surprise.

"We'll keep them busy! You need to get out of here! They're only after you!" What is he talking about? I-I don't understand what's happening.

"B-but...!"

"Please Ren..." I turned to my father, who gave me a serious and soft grin. "You need to get out of here and run as fast as you can."

"Y-you...you really mean that, dad?" I asked, feeling tears coming out of my eyes.

"Yeah. Remember playing that Sonic Dash game on your tablet? I need you to go as fast as him and never look back!" He said, filling me with determination and hope.

"But what about you guys?" I asked in worried.

"Ren..." My mom came over and hugged me tightly, holding back her tears. She looked at me and said "We'll always be in your heart. Just run and don't look back!"

"We'll keep them busy little bro." Jonas ruffled my hair a bit, causing me to chuckle until we heard a loud crashing sound coming upstairs.

"They're breaking into the house! You need to go now!" My father demanded. "Go Ren! Go!"

"O-okay!" I nodded before feeling my backpack on my back, which confused me. I must've had it on without me noticing.

"Ren..." Lillie looked at me with a curious look and asked "Are you gonna come back?"

I held my breath and darkened my face, wondering if that's ever gonna happen. I didn't want her to lose faith in me. So I gave her one answer.

"Don't worry Lillie, I'll come back." It seemed to work as Lillie smiled happily to hear before hugging me, along with my brother.

"Hey little bro, are you gonna fix this?" Jonas asked seriously, which I nodded and said "Yeah!"

"Ren..." Jonas raised his fist at me, gesturing to do a fist-bump with me, which I did. "Fix it!"

I nodded before running off to the back door. Luckily, no one thought of going through here! I kept running through the door until once I grabbed the doorknob, a light began shining brightly, causing everything to fade away...like a dream...U-ugh....what's happening? Everything...is going....static...

---

"AH!" I gasped, getting up with sweat forming around my head before I winced in pain. What the? What happened?

"Ren! You're awake!" I was soon hugged by a familiar yellow pegasus, who was feeling extremely worried for me. "I thought you would never wake up! I-I thought...!"

"You're alive!" I felt my face getting licked by a familiar Siberian Husky, who felt enjoyed to see me once again.

"Geez Fluttershy, Kodiak, take it easy!" I looked over to see Rainbow Dash, Mason and Carrie slowly waking up as they were resting up on the couches before they became relieved and joy to see me. Well Rainbow Dash, however, had an annoyed look on her face, looking towards Fluttershy in an irritated state. "I'm sure Ren is fine, but you don't gotta give him all your love like that!"

"O-oh! So sorry!" Fluttershy apologized, letting go of me with embarrassment written all over her face. "I-I didn't mean to hurt you more, Ren!"

"Nah, it's alright." I assured before stretching my back a little. "What happened?"

"You got electrocuted by that man from earlier." Mason explained, crossing his arms with a serious and stern look on his face. "You were lucky that tazer didn't directly electrocuted you to death."

"You can say that again..." I agreed. "Wait...where are we?" I looked around my surroundings, seeing myself where I am now.

"You're in Fluttershy's cottage." Carrie answered. "We all waited for you to wake up and hopefully wake up."

"Yeah, you were out for about a week." Kodi added, much to my shock.

"A-a week?!" I exclaimed. "No way! I was out like that!"

"Seems so. That tazer apparently held more electric power. I never knew that guy even had a weapon like that." Mason muttered before smiling softly at me before putting a hand on my shoulder. "But more importantly, I'm glad that you're still alright Ren. But next time, don't make our hearts race out like that!"

"R-right...sorry dude." I chuckled nervously before getting up from the small couch. "But man...a week. I probably missed some events."

"Not much. We all were just waiting and most of us had to leave." Kodi explained, resting his head on my lap. "Twilight, Jamie, Kaede, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack had to leave for some reasons."

"Yeah! Obviously for Cider season!" Rainbow exclaimed, feeling impatient.

"Cider season?" I asked in confusion. Wait, isn't that...?

"Duh! Cider season is what the Apple family does every year! They sell apple ciders to everypony here in Ponyville! Everypony knows that." Rainbow crossed her forelegs with a serious look.

"Technically, we're not that 'everypony', Rainbow Dash." Mason said sternly.

"Oh...right..." Rainbow rubbed her head bashfully before shaking her head and exclaimed "But seriously though! You guys got to try it! It's the best drink in all of Equestria!" Rainbow exclaimed in excitement, flying around in circles. "Made by the best apples by Applejack's family of course!"

"But I thought Apple cider is something until you're really old enough to drink. That's what my big brother always tells me." Carrie explained, causing Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to raise brows at him.

"What does she mean?" Rainbow questioned.

"See, in our world, Apple Cider is a alcoholic drink that only those at the age of 20 must have." Mason explained. "It's very dangerous and could affect your health, you know."

"Oh no Mason! Applejack and her family never put anything alcoholic!" Fluttershy assured. "She only makes the apple cider out of apples, that's all."

"You know, she does make a good point." I nodded with agreement before saying "And let me tell ya, since when did Applejack ever put alcoholic drink in an apple cider?"

"Hmm...fine..." Mason sighed.

"Yay!" Carrie cheered.

"Well I'm more excited to drink it myself." Kodi licked his lips, causing me to smirk at him while shaking my head.

"Well we should hurry because it's already morning, and I wanna hurry!" Rainbow whined. "The line is gonna be pack soon!"

"Relax Rainbow Dash, I'm sure it's gonna be a few ponies since the sun is almost setting." Mason rolled his eyes.

"Well if it wasn't for those two guys, then Ren wouldn't been unconscious for a whole week and I would've been first in line!" Rainbow exclaimed impatiently, causing me to smile nervously at her. Actually, speaking of which...

"Hey, I never did asked but...what happened to those two guys?" I asked, causing everyone to hesitate on that, except for Mason as he gripped his shoulders with an furious look.

"The man that shocked you, he somehow slipped away while you rushed towards you while you went unconscious. He used that moment to his advantage. He's been hiding around town for a while since many ponies stated on seeing a slim guy hiding behind the shadows." Mason explained.

"Y-yeah, big brother even told me to stay away from that guy." Carrie agreed with a nod.

"That guy is a total creep." Kodi commented.

"I know, but I'm sure that man didn't mean to." Fluttershy assured with a weak grin. "He was trying to defend himself from the...umm...."

"I'm right here, you know?" Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around my left arm in fear as we saw a fat biker man walking out with some crumbs left on his mouth.

"H-hey, you're...!" I exclaimed in shock, realizing who he was.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He rolled, crossing his arms in a huff. "Look...t-thanks for saving my life. Who knew you had the guts to do that."

"Hey, it was nothing." I rubbed my head bashfully with a sheepish smile. "Besides, I just didn't want anyone to fight. It just wasn't right."

"Tch! Yeah right! Fighting always feels like the right moment to teach a squirt like him a lesson." He scoffed. "By the way, names Jack Yamaki. Nice to frigging meet'cha."

"Thanks, Ren Loodan the names." I gave him a thumbs-up with a smile on my face. "This is my...girlfriend, Fluttershy." Fluttershy brushed her hair a bit, feeling embarrassed of that. "And this is my best pal, Kodiak. Kodi for short." I patted Kodi's head, causing him to chuckle a bit.

"Yeah yeah, I get it." Jack put his arms in his coat pockets in an annoyed state. "They told me their names for a while. That yellow pony even told me that you were her special somepony or what crap it meant."

"In other words, it means that a couple." Mason clarified.

"I-I knew what it was idiot! You told me a bunch of times!" Jack yelled, gritting his teeth and raising his fist at Mason in anger.

"Well next time, learn to not punch people from what you see." Mason said sternly.

"Yeah! You nearly could've knocked Ren out!" Rainbow exclaimed before muttering "Which was ironic..."

"S-shut up! The heck did I do?!" Jack exclaimed. "I said I was sorry, was I not?!"

"It's gonna take a long while for any of us to accept it." Mason said sternly. Jack growled angrily at him while Carrie held her brother's hand in fear.

"Well, ain't that the truth?" Rainbow agreed, rolling her eyes.

"Shut it skittles!" Jack exclaimed, angering Rainbow Dash.

"Who are you calling 'Skittles', fatty?!" Rainbow glared angrily at him.

"The heck did ya say?!"

"Everyone! Calm down!" I yelled, getting back on my feet and standing between Jack and Rainbow Dash. "Look! Let's just calm down and try to be friendly. I mean, it's okay. Jack didn't mean to try and punch me back then. So let's try to start over and forget about our first meeting. Let's just try and be friends?"

"Tch! Yeah right, what I should be doing is wondering where the heck is the exit?" Jack scoffed, causing the others to groan.

"How many times do you need to hear?" Mason asked irritably. "You can't leave the place. We're trapped in this world until we can try to find a way back."

"Like I would believe a punk like ya idiot!" Jack exclaimed, bursting with anger.

"Really? Exploding in anger for something minor like that? Who's the idiot now?" Mason scoffed.

"What?!"

"Guys, come on..." I groaned. Why can't we just be friendly here?

"Please everypony." Fluttershy begged. "I mean, we shouldn't be fighting. Besides, my animals are asleep and I don't wanna wake them up."

Fluttershy pointed out the window as we all gaze out and saw them relaxing and sleeping peacefully out there in Fluttershy's little sanctuary-like garden.

"Right, we apologize Fluttershy." Mason bowed.

"Yeah, my big brother and Jack didn't mean to." Carrie apologized.

"What the heck did I do?!" Jack exclaimed in anger. "You're the one who started it!"

"Technically, it was kinda you." Kodi pointed out.

"Why you!" Jack held back the anger inside as he gritted his teeth. Kodi walked next to me in fear he might try to hurt us.

"Well now..." I sighed before smiling softly at Jack and said "I'm just glad we can start over Jack. I just hope we can be good friends."

"Tch! Whatever..." Jack scoffed, crossing his arms before sighing and softening his expression. "Well...at least you're the only one who forgives me, right?"

"Right!" I nodded with a grin.

“Good! Now you finally forgave each other!” Rainbow sighed impatiently while Mason rolled his eyes and commented “Not most of us.”

“Whatever! Now let’s get going now!” Rainbow exclaimed, flying out of the cottage in a rush. I blinked in surprise before saying “Wow, she really wants to try out that apple cider.”

“Well what you expect? Apple Cider is good. I even drink some of myself.” Jack grinned, wiping the crumbs out of his mouth. I gave him an incredulous look, hoping that he was joking about that right?

“Wait, you drink Apple cider? Like…back in our world?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah, got a problem?” Jack sneered.

“No, I’m just surprised that you do. I thought people over 20 can drink alcoholic drink?” Jack rolled his eyes at me before saying “Well for your information, I’m 21.”

“Wait what?!” I exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah, even I was taken by surprise how old he was.” Fluttershy stated. “I never expected someone 21 years old would awakened in the home-ship.”

“Yeah well, it’s what you least expected.” Jack scoffed.

“Some of us didn’t felt surprise how old he was.” Mason sighed. “I was surprised that he acts like a little kid with a temper problem.”

“The heck did you say bastard?!” Jake growled angrily.

“Big brother…” Carrie sighed, shaking her head at her brother for still keeping a grudge at Jack.

“Well, should we go?” Kodi asked. I let out a shrug and answered “Guess so. Besides, I do wanna try out this Apple cider myself. After all, it’s made from Applejack and her family, and I know that they wouldn’t put alcohol in it. It’s bad for us back in our world.”

“Really? Is it that bad?” Fluttershy asked in worried as she began packing some stuff in her basket.

“Yeah, it affects our health and could lead us to many diseases.” I nodded with a serious look on my face.

“Which is why it’s illegal for young people to do that kind of stuff until they’re in their adult years.” Mason agreed, with Carrie nodding.

“Wow, it must be that dangerous for it to be illegal.” Kodi shivered in fear before shaking his head with a grin. “But either way, I’m sure the apple cider here in Equestria isn’t that bad. Besides, it’s just a mug filled with fresh apples, right?”

“Exactly Kodi, old pal!” I scratched underneath his chin, causing him to pant happily. I smiled over my pal before noticing the smirk on Jake’s head. He soon noticed before looking away with an upset look. I guess he was enjoying seeing me get along with him.

“Hey! What’s taking you guys so long?!” Wah! Where did she come from?! Rainbow Dash somehow came back right behind me with an angry and impatient look. “We need to go pronto!”

“Yeah yeah, hold your horses, skittles.” Jack rolled his eyes, ignoring the angry look from her.

“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash, we’re hurrying.” Fluttershy assured before finishing up with her basket. “Oh and Ren, umm…”

She soon took something out of her draw, revealing to be my Hacking Gun. “I-I think this belongs to you…”

“My hacking gun?” I asked in confusion.

“Y-yes, I thought you needed it back. When you were still unconscious, I put away your hacking gun for safekeeping.” Fluttershy smiled before handing it back to me. I couldn’t help but smiled at her, feeling quite happy that she would do that for me.

“Heh heh, thanks Flutters. You never cease to amaze me.” I smiled, causing her to glance away with a blush.

“Oh for god’s sake, just kiss already!” We looked back with Jack with an impatient look, letting air out of his nostrils. I guess Rainbow Dash isn’t the only impatient one around here.

“R-right, sorry.” Me and Fluttershy apologized, causing us to both to look at each other in surprise before glancing away with blushes. Carrie and Kodi let out some chuckles while Mason couldn’t help but make a small smile on his face, barely visible from his scarf.

“Come on! You guys can make out later! Get going!” Rainbow exclaimed, pushing us both out of the cottage while the others followed after us. Jeez, is Dash really that serious on getting that apple cider? It has to be if she’s that impatient. Must taste real good! It might even taste good…just like apple juice.

And so, we began running through a path that lead us towards Sweet Apple Acres, but Rainbow Dash was way ahead of us with a determined look on her face.

“So any reason why you’re so impatient as that guy over there?” Mason questioned, ignoring the protest from a certain blonde biker.

“Because I need to taste that apple cider right now! Every year, Pinkie Pie somehow manages to be the first pony to get apple cider and buys like 10 mugs!” Rainbow explained, forming an irritated look on her face.

“That kinda sounds unfair Rainbow Dash.” Carrie said, being carried by her brother.

“Exactly! It is unfair!” Rainbow exclaimed before letting out a chuckle and a sly grin. “But this time…I know for sure that I’ll be able to outrun her!”

“Too bad that the sun just rose, huh?” Kodi commented.

“Don’t worry. Some ponies don’t wake up that early anyway.” Rainbow assured, waving her hoof casually. “Since we’re totally gonna be, like, the next customers. The line won’t be long.”

“W-whatever! Just slow down a bit!” Jake exclaimed, panting heavily as we kept running. “I can’t run that fast! I rather get there faster with my bike!”

“Bike?” I asked curiously before realizing the motorcycle jacket of his. “Oh, so you are a biker, right?”

“H-huh? Y-you know?” Jake asked in surprise. “W-what gave it away?”

“Your jacket.” I pointed out, causing him to make a tooth-eating grin and said “So? You like it, eh? Well I don’t mean to brag, but my dad makes the best jacket for the Yamaki biker family!”

“So your whole family is a group of bikers, huh?”

“Yes, he told us about that when we interrogated him.” Mason yelled as we were almost near Sweet Apple Acres. “But we’ll explain later, right now we need to-”

Before he could finish, I accidentally bumped into something right in front of me as I fell on my back.

“Ow!” I muttered, rubbing my aching back.

“Hey! Watch it!” I looked over to see a brown pony looking back at me with an angry look.

“Sorry man.” I apologized as he turns back, and just stood there.

“Ren, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked in concern.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” I assured with a smile.

“What the hay?!” Rainbow exclaimed, seeing something in front of us. We all looked over and jaw-dropped onto seeing such a long line to Sweet Apple Acres.

“Exactly, what the hay?!” Kodi gaped.

“You can’t be serious, right?” Mason asked, face-palming.

“What the f-”

“Hey! You can’t swear Jacky! You should know that this show is for the young ones, right?” Huh? We looked over to see somepony walking over, which was revealed to be Pinkie Pie with a stern look on her face.

“Pinkie Pie?!” I exclaimed in surprise, causing her to turn to me with a surprise yet happy gasp as she came over and hugged me tightly.

“Oh Rennie! You’re okay! Oh! I need you were okay! I just knew you were!” Pinkie exclaimed in joy, nearly crushing my back.

“Y-yeah, I’m glad to see you too.” I chuckled nervously before she put me down. “So what’s up with the long line?”

“You gotta be kidding me! You’re in the front of the line!…Again?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Yep-a-doodles!” Pinkie nodded.

“The heck’s wrong with this chick anyway?” Jack questioned. “She’s been acting so weird for the past week.”

“Trust us, we’re all questioning her.” Mason sighed. “But we learned to forget to ever ask that question.”

“So you came in first?” Carrie asked curiously, moving back to the main topic.

“Oh yes! Since everypony was so eager and probably missed out the good taste of the apple cider, I told everypony last night to come and wait in line in front of Sweet Apple Acres and camp out here till Cider season was officially opened!” Pinkie grinned. “Even Jamie, Twilight, Kaede, Rarity, Spike, and that weirdo with the hat is here.”

“I see…” I nodded before wondering about the last part. “Wait…weirdo with the hat?”

“Oh yeah! That guy with the fedora from earlier! You know, the one who shocked you and knocked you out for a whole week, remember?” Pinkie explained, much to our shock.

“What?!” Fluttershy gasped.

“And you never bothered to find that suspicious that he was here?!” Mason exclaimed angrily. “The man who shocked Ren to near death with a tazer?!”

“Yes…no…maybe so!” Pinkie shrugged.

“Un-fu-” Before Jack could finished, his mouth was sticked with duct tape on it, and it had the word ‘censor’ on it. Pinkie put away the duct tape back in her mane and sternly stated “Nah-ah-ah Mr. Yamaki! You can’t swear at all in this fanfic. The writers hasn’t even thought about putting bad words in this. Unless him or the fans wants to or not.”

She glanced over to something and started waving her hoof around, causing us all to feel weirded out by that.

“Umm…who is she waving, big brother?” Carrie whispered.

“I…have no clue.” Mason shook his head before glaring at the pink pony. “So where is he?”

“Oh, I saw him hanging around in the front of the line. He looked really curious about the apple cider!” Pinkie explained before we heard a bell rang. “Ooh! It’s starting! Gotta get back to the front of the line! Bye!”

With that, Pinkie Pie immediately ran off with an excited look on her face as Rainbow Dash twitched her eyes in annoyance before falling down on her knees with a shocked look.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy muttered as she came over and patted her on the back. “It’s okay Rainbow Dash, there’s always next year.”

Rainbow soon began to form an angry look before screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

We all covered our ears from the loud screaming, even some ponies from behind covered their ears and looks back in surprise from that intense screaming. Hot dang! That scream probably echoed all over Ponyville! Jack managed to get the duct tape out of his mouth with a bewildered and furious look on her face.

“What the heck was that for?! That little squirt!” Jack growled angrily.

“Just calm down.” Mason said sternly.

“I AM CALM!” Jack yelled angrily.

“You’re acting like an angry bull.” Jack gritted his teeth angrily, ready to knock out Mason.

“You guys! Stop!” I pleaded, getting in between them. “You guys are only gonna make things worse!”

“Ren, I understand that…” Mason glared over at Jack and said “But this guy gotten you electrocuted.”

“Mason, it was my own fault, remember?” I reminded him. “He and that other guy were fighting it out and I had to do something to step in. Besides, he was pretty frustrated and confused of where he was when we first met last week, right? So I can’t blame him. I mean, you were pretty confused and almost ready to attack when we first met, remember?”

Mason tried to argue back, but realized that I was right. He then let out a sigh and muttered “Alright…”

“Ha! Looks like your friend is taking my side!” Jack grinned, causing me to turn around with a glare and said “I’m taking no one side. I’m trying to make sure you guys don’t fight at all. It’s not gonna lead us anyway, okay?”

“B-but…!”

“Ren is right.” Fluttershy came over with a stern and soft look. “You need to be polite, Mr. Jack. So please stop this fighting and let’s be friends.”

Jack went silent, shocked to hear the two of us shutting him up with our polite and stern talk.

“Frigging dang it…fine.” Jack scoffed, glancing away from us. “Fine…”

“Thank you…” Me and Fluttershy said in unison, causing us both to look at each other and chuckled.

“Once again, you managed to win by talking to them, Ren and Fluttershy.” Kodi laughed. “You’re really good motivating people, are ya?”

“Well, it’s what I do best.” I rubbed my head bashfully. “Besides, Fluttershy is good at this too.”

“Well…I’m good at talking politely, but not in others.” Fluttershy muttered. “I-I’m just shy…”

How ironic…and yet funny, Flutters.

“Well, at least it’ll show you two to stop fighting now.” Carrie giggled.

“Yeah, and can they keep it down? It’s like hearing two dogs barking at each other.” Huh? Who said that? We turned around and gasped upon seeing who it was walking towards us.

“It’s you!” I exclaimed, pointing to the man wearing the fedora and such. “You’re…..Wait, who are you? I never got your name.”

“Looks like you’re awake. Good thing my tazer didn’t kill ya.” He smirked, causing some of us to glare at him.

“That’s not funny! You could’ve killed him!” Mason exclaimed sternly. “I’ve been looking all over the place for you. So you decided to show your face, huh?”

“Well I thought it was getting boring.” He picked his ear in annoyance before letting out a grin at us. “Besides, I’ve been studying around this place. Although, I’m surprised that I’m in some other world.”

“Don’t worry! It’s quite a beautiful world.” Carrie giggled with a smile.

“Says you little girl.” He snickered before covering his mouth as I hear him muttered “Although, how exactly did I end up here? This never happens to me in these type of situations.”

“Huh? Did you say something?” Kodiak asked curiously. The man glances over at the dog and said “I’m really surprised that the dog can even talk. Guess this world really is magical.”

“Of course it is.” I stated with a smile. “This world is filled with talking ponies, Pegasus, and unicorns. Trust us, it’s quite awesome.”

“Heh…spoken like a kid. Besides, really? Talking ponies? That sounds like something a seven year old could’ve come up with.” He shrugged with a nonchalant look on his face. “Anyway, besides all the crap and junk, what’s up with this place? Why exactly am I hear?”

“You woken up in a pod, remember?” Carrie reminded.

“And it seems like you’re stuck here until you all can find a way back.” Fluttershy added.

“Until now, you’re here with them. Besides…” Rainbow got into his face with a glare and said “You still haven’t told us your name nor apologized to Ren for nearly electrocuting him to death.”

“And I’m sorry then.” He shrugged with a smug look and said “And I’ll tell ya my name…for 1,000,000 dollars.”

“What the heck?! 1,000,000 dollars?!” Jack exclaimed in anger. “We don’t have that much cash!”

“Yeah! And that kind of money isn’t even in our world!” I added, feeling surprised by that before turning to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and asked “I mean, what’s the conversation rate for that?”

“I…don’t know.” Fluttershy shrugged.

“What do we look like? Math geeks? That’s Twilight and Jamie’s job for ya.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. Soon, we saw the line moving up a bit with Pinkie carrying about ten mugs in her hooves, causing Rainbow Dash to bit her lower lip in fear. “Oh dang it! I wished this line would move!”

“Oh? You interested in those apple ciders?” Fedora man asked curiously before shrugging “Makes sense since not every one of these ponies are gonna get some of the drinks.”

“Watch it!” Rainbow gritted her teeth at him. “I’m totally gonna get it in this line!”

“You wanna some cider? Well…have I got an offer for ya?” We all raised a brow at him before he pulled out several mugs of apple cider behind his back, much to our shock.

“Whoa! Where did you get all that?!” Carrie asked in amazement and awe.

“Oh, let’s just say it was such a good deal I made from that farm pony since I came after that pink pony with the puffy mane.” He smirked, causing Mason to narrow his eyes at him. I think he was just talking about Pinkie Pie. I mean, Rainbow stated that she somehow always end being first in line and all that. “But let’s say you guys can have this…for ten bucks.”

“Ten bucks?!” Jack exclaimed angrily. “That’s highway robbery there!”

“And we don’t have the bits for that, neither the bits to tell you our name.” Kodi sighed. “Besides, I’m just a dog. I don’t have any bits to buy things.”

I scratched Kodi underneath the chin, causing him to sigh happily as I said “It’s okay bud, I don’t blame ya.”

“Then I don’t have business with ya then.” He sighed in annoyance. “Besides, I think of that cash somewhere before? Aren’t those ‘bits’ arcade cash coins or something?”

“Oh no! They’re Equestria’s currency.” Fluttershy explained with a soft grin. “Princess Celestia made them herself.”

“Princess…Celestia? Okay, now you guys are just making things harder on me.” He sighed in annoyance. “Besides, this talk is getting us nowhere. Tell ya what…you guys can give me these ‘bits’ and I’ll tell ya my name.”

“Okay, that sounds like a good deal.” I said with a smile.

“Wait, hold on…” Mason glared at the man suspciously and asked “Just how much exactly?”

“Just about…1,000,000 bits.” He shrugged with a smug look, causing me to jaw-dropped.

“But I don’t have the money for that either!” I exclaimed.

“Then our talk is done and no one gets these apple ciders, then.” He scoffed in annoyance. “I’ll just take my leave and-”

“Oh come on! Let me have it!” Rainbow begged. “Please! I never ever bought a single mug of apple cider in my whole entire life since I moved to Ponyville! Please!”

“Alright…for ten bits or so.” He chuckled, causing Rainbow to pout.

“But I only have three bits, which is the price for the apple cider Applejack and her family always accepts!” Rainbow retorted.

“And yet I’m not that farm girl or whatnot.” He shrugged before saying “So if you don’t want these apple ciders, I’ll take my leave and find someone else who wants it.”

“Wait? You aren’t gonna drink one yourself?” Carrie asked, tilting her head a bit.

“I already tasted it. Doesn’t taste like the ones back home.” He stated, looking away from us.

“Wait…so does that make you over 20 as well?” I asked in confusion.

“Ugh…yes. I’ll tell my age then…I’m 20 years old. There, ya happy?” He sighed in exasperation. “Man, you guys ask a lot of questions.”

“Well we do wanna know a lot about ya.” Kodi pointed out, which I nodded.

“Whatever. If you guys don’t have 1,000,000 dollars and/or bits, then I’ll happily take my leave.” He stated as he began walking off. “Also…” He let out a smirk and said “Tell that Applejack pony that she might run low on buying some apple cider today.”

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“Whatever, see ya.” He sighed before walking away.

“Wait! Hold on!” I yelled, causing him to stop and glanced towards me as he irritably asked “What now?”

“I think you have no choice but to tell us. After all, you are really sorry for electrocuting me, then I’ll forgive you and make the others trust and forgive you by telling us your name.” I explained with a serious look, surprising the others.

“…You know, he’s got a good point.” Rainbow shrugged. The fedora man looked at me for a moment before letting out a chuckle and shrugged “Alright, I got no choice. You know how to make good deals. I like that.”

“So…are you gonna tell us or not?” Jack asked, crossing his arms in a huff.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it fatso.” The fedora man grinned, ignoring the protest coming out from the biker. “Call me Rantaro Wilde. It’s nice to meet ya and see ya. If ya want another talk from me, give me some of those bits since this world doesn’t have the money we used anyway. See ya…”

“Wait! What about the drinks?!” Rainbow yelled.

“Got any dough on me?” Rantaro asked.

“W-well…not that much…”

“Wait!” Fluttershy stated, pulling out some bits out of her pockets. “I think I have enough for some of us.”

“Now that’s more like it.” Rantaro grinned in a smug look. She handed her the bits as he gave her the mugs of apple cider, much to Rainbow Dash’s joy as she swiped one from Fluttershy and immediately drank some, much to her joy. “Welp, I’m off. Stay classy you all.”

With that, Rantaro walked off from a distance before disappearing.

“Well…he sure was an interesting guy.” Kodi commented.

“Tell me about it.” I sighed with a tired look. “But he makes the craziest prices. I mean, what is he? Some business man or something?”

“But I thought business people wearing suits?” Carrie pointed out.

“Pfft! Probably some advertiser or something.” Jack scoffed. “I’m not bothering to be in the same room with that guy.”

I then noticed Mason kept quiet as he crossed his arms with a serious and thoughtful look on his face.

“What’s wrong Mason?” I asked curiously.

“It’s that guy. Rantaro Wilde…I feel like I’ve heard that name before. But I don’t know where…” Mason muttered.

“Really? You know him big brother?” Carrie asked in surprise as Fluttershy handed her a mug of apple cider and drank it, feeling amazed by how it taste. “Wow! This cider really is good! Taste like apples!”

“Well it is called ‘apple cider’ for a reason.” Rainbow commented before sighing in relief. “But that felt so good…”

“Anyway…” Mason cleared his throat, moving back to the original topic. “I know I heard that name ‘Rantaro Wilde’ from somewhere, but where?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve even seen that bastard before as well. And I don’t mean back at that weird apartment like spaceship.” Jack agreed, crossing his arms in thought.

“Hmm…I wonder who he is…” I muttered, rubbing my chin in thought before Fluttershy handed me a mug. “Oh, thanks Flutters.”

“Anytime Ren.” Fluttershy giggled before she and I took a drink of it.

…Oh god! It taste awesome! Oh man, now I see why everypony likes it so much! It really taste so good! I can even taste the sweet apples in it!

“Wow! De-licious!” I commented with a happy smile.

“I know right? It was nice for that Rantaro man to give us some cider…with some prices, that is.” Fluttershy giggled nervously.

“You know, you didn’t have to give him the money. I would’ve pay it for ya.” I said, feeling guilty for it.

“Don’t worry, it was nothing.” Fluttershy assured with a soft grin. “Besides, you were unconscious and didn’t have time to get your money from home since Rainbow Dash was really eager to get some cider.”

“True, but at least she’s enjoying it now.” I pointed out.

“And it was worth it!” Rainbow exclaimed, patting both of us on the back. “Thanks Fluttershy! You’re a lifesaver! It was our lucky day to bump into that guy! In fact, I think I take it back from all those comments I said behind his back!”

“Really? Since when?” Kodi questioned.

“Since he electrocuted Ren, duh!” Rainbow rolled her eyes while I face-palmed and said “Rainbow Dash, will you please drop it? It’s all over and yet.”

“Whatever, I still don’t trust that bastard.” Jack rolled his eyes before taking a drink of the cider. He formed a grin and said “Huh…not half bad. Doesn’t taste like the ones back home, but it’ll do.”

“Whatever…” Mason shrugged before noticing ponies behind us. “And it looks like more ponies are coming over to join in as well.”

“Seems so.” I shrugged, noticing the ponies behind us as well. “Do you think we should move out of the way since we already gotten our cider?”

“No way! We need more!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“But we already have some apple cider, Rainbow Dash.” Carrie stated.

“True, but I need more of that stuff! It taste so good that I can’t get the apple flavor out of my mouth!” Rainbow sucked her lips a bit before forming a determined smile on her face. “So I gotta need that drink!”

“Fine…we’ll take our leave then.” Mason said as he began walking towards the front line.

“Wait! Don’t you wanna some apple cider, Mason?” I called.

“Maybe later. I just wanna head over to Sweet Apple Acres to go and check out to see if the Apple Family needs my help.” Mason explained. “Besides, I work for them, so that makes them my bosses.”

“Oh right…” I rubbed my head bashfully with a sheepish grin. “Well good luck dude.”

“Thanks Ren…and watch over my sister, will ya?” I nodded, promising to watch over his sister as he began walking towards Sweet Apple Acres. Well actually, now that I think about it, he has some work to do now. I mean, what with this Cider season underway, it’s understandable that he needs to help them out.

“Bye bye big brother!” Carrie waved goodbye to him as he disappeared the moment the line began getting shorter with more and more ponies coming around with mugs in their hooves. Sounds to me they’re having a swell time.

“Ren!” Huh? We looked over to see Twilight, Rarity, Spike, Jamie, Kaede, and Rosy coming over with happy and relieved looks on their faces. Heck, even Owlicious was with them as he rested on top of Jamie's head. “Y-you’re awake! Thank goodness!” Kaede exclaimed in joy.

“I-is that really you?” Jamie asked in surprise.

“My, oh my, we’ve been wondering when you’ll wake up!” Rarity exclaimed in joy.

“I’m so glad to see you awake Ren! And just in time for Cider season as well.” Twilight smiled.

“Ahh, thanks you guys.” I chuckled happily before rubbing my cheek in embarrassment. “Sorry if I frighten you all back then.”

“It’s fine Ren! We’re just glad to see you good as new!” Kaede smiled.

“Y-yeah…but…umm…” Jamie slowly pointed over to Jack, who gave out a grunt and said “What are you looking at, shrimp?”

“N-nothing!” Jamie squealed in fear.

"Hoo!" Owlicious leered at the biker, who leered back at him.

“Don’t worry you guys, we forgave each other already. Besides, we’re friends now.” I assured, causing Jack to roll his eyes.

“Whatever…” Jack scoffed.

“So anyway, we saw Mason walking into Sweet Apple Acres.” Twilight explained. “I heard him tell Applejack that he’ll be able to help out pick more and more apples for them.”

“Well can’t blame him, right?” I chuckled. “He’s really good at his job so far.”

“Yeah! Big brother will totally help the Applejack and her family with the apple cider.” Carrie agreed. “I mean, they sell these every year anyway, right?

“Yeah! Who knew the Apple family can make such good apple cider, eh?” Spike chuckled before taking a drink of the mug.

“Oh, so you guys just got your ciders, huh?” Kodi questioned.

“Yes, and while I had doubts about it due to the certain chemicals back in our world where they put drugs and such into an apple cider, officially making it illegal to drink unless you’re over 20 years old, but here…the drink taste fine. It was just filled with apples, nonetheless.” Jamie explained, writing some stuff down in his journal.

“Well it’s called ‘Apple cider’ for a reason.” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Well, it’s too bad you guys won’t be able to get enough soon.” Spike shrugged.

“Why’s that?” I asked curiously.

“You haven’t heard yet?” Twilight asked. “Apparently, The Apple family discovered that the barrel they’re using today is half-empty. Someone apparently stole some of its cider.”

What?! Somebody stole some of the contents? Wait, so does that mean that Rantaro…stole it?

“So somepony grabbed half of the drinks?” Carrie asked curiously.

“Well yes Carrie, but the strangest part is that Applejack told us that somepony left several weird things on the table. Jamie stated that those were dollar bills apparently.” Rarity explained. So I guess I was right then…but Rantaro paid for it? Well even if we barely knew each other by now, that…was nice of him to do so. But I don’t think using our world’s currency is able to pay for several mugs of apple cider. Boy, he sure is gonna get it now.

“It’s fine. Besides, I managed to get some cider already.” Rainbow grinned, confusing them.

“What in Equestria are you talking about Rainbow Dash?” Rarity questioned. “You are almost to the front of the line.”

We are? I looked past them and saw that we almost ended up at the start of the line. Huh…weird. Guess all this talking made time go so fast.

“Oh, we got some cider from that other human guy. You know, the one with the hat.” Kodi explained, shocking them.

“What?! You got some cider from him?!” Kaede exclaimed.

“But how?!” Twilight demanded.

“Apparently, he said that he made a good deal with Applejack and gotten them before he pay it for them.” I explained before saying “Oh yeah! I managed to get his name. He said his name is Rantaro Wilde.”

“Rantaro Wilde?” Rarity questioned.

“That’s what he said. My big brother and Jack said that they know him from somewhere.” Carrie explained.

“Wait…I think I heard it from somewhere…” Jamie muttered loudly. “I know for sure…”

“So you have heard of him, Jamie?” Twilight asked curiously, surprising him a bit.

“O-oh yes! I know for sure. I just need look over my notes.” Jamie said with a meek smile before frowning and said “Sorry if I don’t know.”

“It’s okay. I don’t blame you. You just didn’t know. I mean, I don’t know everything about Equestria, not even about your kind.” Twilight retorted, causing Jamie to blush a bit.

“R-right…sorry!” Jamie smiled.

“So how did you all get his name, darlings?” Rarity questioned.

“He said he’ll tell us if we pay him.” Fluttershy explained. “Although, his price wasn’t…good.”

“Really? Like how much? 20 bits or something?” Spike asked, taking another sip of his apple cider.

“No, it was more like 1,000,000 bits.” Spike widened his eyes before shooting out the contents of the mug in front of Twilight and Jamie, who gave him angry glares.

“What?! 1,000,000?! That’s a lot of bits!” Spike exclaimed in shock.

“And it’s quite impossible for any of us to give him that much money.” Twilight agreed, drying herself off. “I mean, who makes an offer like that?”

“Yeah…” Jamie nodded in agreement, thinking about it as well.

“You didn’t pay for that, right?” Kaede asked.

“Meow?” Rosy was curious about that too as she tilted her head in confusion while sitting on Kaede’s right shoulder.

“Nah, Ren managed to blackmail him for the incident last week that caused him to be knock out for a whole week.” Kodi explained, causing the girls and Jamie to look at me with shock. I rubbed my head bashfully and replied “Well I had to do something, ya know. Besides, Flutters pay for the mugs since I didn’t bring mine.”

“Well at least you gotten his name.” Spike shrugged.

“But although, I do not appreciate this man’s actions.” Rarity scoffed. “I mean, he shocked Ren with that weird gun thing in his hands! Then ran out and hid somewhere in Ponyville for a whole week! Isn’t that awfully suspicious to any of you?”

“I agree Rarity. It is weird. It’s best if we keep an eye out for him. Who knows what sort of tricks he might pull.” Twilight said in a serious tone.

“It’s okay you guys. He apologized to me about it.” I assured. “And I forgave him.”

“Are you sure about that Ren?” Kaede asked. “I mean, you know that he could’ve nearly killed you.”

“I know, and it wasn’t his intention at all. So it’s best if we don’t act like that to him. Sure, he may looks suspicious, but give him a chance, will ya?” I pleaded, which made them looked at each other in concern about that.

“Please everypony, Ren is right.” Fluttershy stepped in with a soft smile. “We forgave him just before you girls came and Mason left to help out Applejack and her family. So don’t you think you all should forgive him too?”

“W-well…” Rarity glanced away nervously, realizing that she had a point.

“I suppose you’re right Fluttershy.” Twilight softly smiled at her. “After all, we all need to forgive and trust him now. Surely he’ll treat us nicely if we return the favor, right?”

“Well I see why not.” Kaede smiled.

“Y-yeah…I am curious to know so much about him.” Jamie nodded, forming a soft grin.

“Thanks everypony.” Fluttershy smiled, blushing a bit as she stroked her mane a bit. I couldn’t help but smile happily that she would back me up on that. I really appreciate that. But you know, we barely knew about him and Jack, but I know they can be trusted. If only if Rantaro wasn’t so suspicious looking, then maybe the gang wouldn’t be able to have doubts about himself.

“Look, can we just stop talking about him already?” Jack demanded. “It’s getting me a serious headache just thinking about him.”

“Yeah! Let’s just stop talking about that Rantaro guy and move on to buy some lovely cider!” Rainbow agreed.

“Next!” Huh? Already? We looked over to see that we were next in line, seeing Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith operating the barrel filled with apple cider. I wasn’t expected us to be next so soon. Oh well, guess we’re finally gonna get another taste of that sweet sweet apple cider.

“Yes!” Rainbow grinned before rushing over and put her head underneath the apple cider machine, waiting for it to begin.

“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” Kaede asked.

“What does it look like? I’m about to get some cider! Now start it!” Rainbow demanded.

“You got it, Dash!” Apple Bloom nodded as she switch the faucet on, only for nothing to pop out as a drip of cider only dropped into Rainbow Dash’s mouth. “Uh oh. That’s the last of it.”

“W-what?” Rainbow raised her head out of the table with a look of shock and misery before it formed into an angry look. “Oh you’re all out again! Surprise surprise! And every single time I’m up, you just so happen to run out!”

With that, the crowd began complaining too upon hearing Rainbow Dash’s complaint.

“Uh oh…” I muttered.

“I’m sorry everypony! But don’t worry!” Applejack assured. “Tomorrow, we’ll have some more ready to sell!”

“Is there gonna be enough for everypony, or are you just going to run out like today?!” Rainbow complained.

“Everyone, calm down!” Everyone was silenced as Mason walked stepped out of the gates of Sweet Apple Acres with a serious look on his face. “The Apple family will and I promise that they will get everything ready tomorrow. Besides, apparently the barrel today was somehow half-empty, so we’ll prepare another batch of a filled up barrel of apple cider for ya.”

“So looks like Mason got the scoop about that, huh?” Kodi wondered aloud.

“So wait, does he work at a farm?” Jack questioned. “Doesn’t look like a farmer to me.”

“Nope! My big brother is a personal bodyguard to Elena. My foster sister.” Carrie explained, confusing Jack.

“It’s true. See, she and Mason are royalty.” I explained, shocking Jack.

“W-what?! Are you serious?!” Jack exclaimed.

“Well more like we got adopted, but I prefer being a normal girl.” Carrie chuckled with a bright smile while Jack rubbed his head bashfully and commented “Huh, that explains a lot. That dude is quite powerful. We might not have gone to a fist-fight, but I can almost feel it…in my gut.”

“In your gut?” Twilight questioned.

“Shut up! It’s a thing I have back in my bike gang. So sue me! I don’t give a crap!” Jack growled.

“Well it certainly sounds quite weird to our terms.” Rarity rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t need ya opinion, ya loon.” Jack grunted, ignoring the glare coming from Rarity.

“Ahem!” We turned back to Mason, who was clearing his throat to gain our attention. “Anyway, you all need to understand that we are trying our best to get business booming, alright?”

“Mason’s right.” Applejack agreed, stepping up. “Look, I understand you all are upset, but right now, we need to think about quality over quantity. Our cider’s made from the freshest, high quality apples on our farm. Our recipe takes time, love, and integrity. We’ve been trying to supply more for ya-”

“Which you don’t!” Rainbow yelled.

“Rainbow Dash, please settle down.” Mason said with a stern glare. “We need to take time and prepare them. If we sold them too soon with rotten apples, then it’ll make the drinks taste bad. If that happens, think about what might happened if ponies all over heard about how apple ciders taste so bad here in Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Oh who cares?! I just want my-”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP AND JUST LISTEN TO HIM?!” We all covered our ears upon hearing Jack’s loud shout. He let out a huff and said “Just hurry up and listen what they say…”

“T-thanks…” Applejack said, blinking in surprise.

“I really appreciated your help, Jack.” Mason softly grinned at him, who glanced away as he crossed his arms in a huff.

“I just did that because they were annoying me with all this arguing. It seemed pointless, alright?” Jack muttered.

“Well either way…thank you.” Mason smirked before giving Rainbow Dash a stern look. “You need to think about it Rainbow Dash. They need to make the apple cider very good and well. If ponies tasted it and found out how bad it was, then ponies wouldn’t want to come here, forcing the business to be shut down. Do you want THAT to happen Rainbow Dash? And besides, didn’t you already had a mug from Rantaro?”

“W-well…umm…” Rainbow glanced away nervously, sinking in Mason’s words.

“Hold on? Rantaro? Who the hay are ya talking about?” Applejack asked.

“He’s talking about that guy in the fedora!” I called, shocking Applejack.

“What?! So it was him that stole half of the apple cider juice! Why that-”

“It’s alright Applejack, I’ll be sure to find him this time and make sure he gets his punishment.” Mason assured. “And besides, Fluttershy pay for those mugs and so we gotten them, even Rainbow Dash tasted it. So I don’t think she has room to argue at all.”

Applejack looked at Fluttershy with a surprised look, who immediately sink and hid behind me before glaring at Rainbow Dash, who was whistling innocently.

“Well…seems like she has no room to argue at all.” Applejack said sternly.

“Indeed.” Mason nodded.

“Wow, Mason really chewed Rainbow Dash up.” Kaede blinked in surprise.

“That’s my big brother!” Carrie giggled.

“Why yes. He is quite the talker.” Rarity agreed.

“So now that’s out of the way, now what?” Kodi asked me.

“I don’t know, but I guess we’ll just have to come back tomorrow for it.” I shrugged. “Besides, I am more curious to drink more of that delicious apple cider.”

“Well…I-I wouldn’t mind to try it again as well.” Jamie agreed, feeling more interested in it. “I mean, I am curious to learn more of the substance of the apple cider sold here in Sweet Apple Acres.”

“What? You some nerd or whatnot?” Jack questioned, causing Jamie to flinch in fear as he shivered in fear and replied “W-well…I am quite curious to know that’s a-all, Mr. Yamaki.”

“Stop with the formal crap. Just call me Jack.” Jack sighed. “And stop shivering in fear.”

“What do you expect? You did knee’d him in the belly.” Kodi pointed out.

“And threatened him.” Twilight added, causing Jack to grit his teeth in anger. Before he could shout at us, we heard something coming our way, blasting through the crowd and stopping in front of us all.

“What the?” I asked myself. What the hay is that? Suddenly, two ponies were seen on top of the machine with smirks on their faces. They looked very identical, but the only difference was that their cutie-marks were different and one of them had a mustache. They nearly looked like those advertisers you would see in the 1980s or something.

Soon, the machine they were on started playing some music as it began spinning around like an amusement park ride, surprising us all a bit.

“What in the world?” Kaede thought aloud with a surprised look.

(Flim)

Well, lookie what we got here, brother of mine, it's the same in every town
Ponies with thirsty throats, dry tongues, and not a drop of cider to be found
Maybe they're not aware that there's really no need for this teary despair

(Flam)
That the key that they need to solve this sad cider shortage you and I will share

The crowd began to grow excited at the prospect of getting cider, but the Apple family and Mason seemed a bit wary of these two unicorn brothers as they entertained everyone with their song.

(Flim)
Well you've got opportunity
In this very community

(Flam)
He's Flim

(Flim)
He's Flam

(Flim & Flam)
We're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers
Traveling salesponies nonpareil

“Non-what?” Kodi raised a brow with a bewildered look.

“The hell is this crap?” Jack wondered.

“I don’t know…” Jamie replied, raising a brow as he began to feel wary of them.

“Umm…what does nonpareil mean?” Carrie thought aloud. The two brothers looked over at her, not even surprised by her nor our appearance.

(Flim & Flam)
Nonpareil, and that’s exactly the reason why, you see.
No pony else in this whole place will you such a chance to be where you need to be.

Flim picked up Apple Bloom and Carrie by the foreleg and gave them a peck on the forehead.

And that’s a new world, with tons of cider.
Fresh squeezed and ready for drinking.

(Flam)
More cider than you could drink in all your days of thinking

“I doubt that.” Rainbow said bluntly.

“Same here as well.” Mason added, looking at them with a suspicious and skeptical look.

(Flim and Flam)
So take this opportunity

(Flim, Flam, and Crowd)
In this very community

(Flam)
He's Flim

(Flim)
He's Flam

(Flim and Flam)
We're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers
Traveling salesponies

(Flim, Flam, and Crowd)
Nonpareil

(Flim)
I suppose by now you're wondering 'bout our peculiar mode of transport

(Flam)
I say, our mode of locomotion

(Flim)
And I suppose by now you're wondering, where is this promised cider?

(Flam)
Any horse can make a claim and any pony can do the same

(Flim)

But my brother and I have something most unique and superb
Unseen at any time in this big new world

(Flim and Flam)
And that's opportunity

(Flim)
Folks, it's the one and only, the biggest and the best

(Flam)
The unbelievable

(Flim)

Unimpeachable

(Flam)
Indispensable

(Flim)
I-can't-believe-able

(Flim and Flam)
Flim Flam Brothers' Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

We all gaze at the machine, seeing how huge and amazing it looked by structure. But…can this thing really make as much cider as they say?

“That can’t be true…” I looked over at Jamie, who stared at the machine with a suspicious look. So I guess only he and Mason are suspicious by their arrival and their little machine. I mean, Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000? That’s such a mouthful. I mean, try saying that five times fast? I prefer calling it…the SSCS 6000. Seems pretty short.

“What do you say, brother?” Flim asked, standing next to his nearly identical twin brother.

(Crowd)

Oh, we got opportunity
In this very community
Please, Flim, please, Flam, help us out of this jam
With your Flim Flam Brothers' Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

“Pardon me, miss.” Flim turned over to Applejack with a grin. “It would be a great honor if my brother and I could borrow some of your delicious, and sellbindingly fragrant apples to demonstrate what our beautiful machine can do?”

“Uhh, sure, I guess…” Applejack replied, feeling unsure about them. You know, I’m…starting to have doubts about them as well.

Opportunity, in our community

(Flam)
Ready, Flim?

(Flim)
Ready, Flam?

(Flim and Flam)
Let’s bing bang zam!

Both brothers charged their horns, glowing in a green aura as they both shot a beam together and into their cider making machine, powering it up as it began to whir to life.

And show these thirsty ponies a world of delectable cider!

“Cider! Cider! Cider!” The crowd repeated as they watching the machine did its work, even Rainbow and Kodi were curious to see it go on. Soon, the machine started moving by itself and hovered over one of the apples trees in the orchard, sucking up all the apples from the branches and into the tube leading into the SSCS 6000.

Watch closely, friends!“ Flim shouted.

(Flam)
The fun begins

“Now, this is where all the magic happens, folks!” Flim shouted before he began his explanation about how it works. “Inside of the heaving, rolling, cider-press-boiling-guts of our machine, the apples that have been plucked fresh from the trees, as we speak, are being turned into Grade-A, top-notch, five-star, blow-your-”

“We get it! We’ll just watch it for god’s sake!” Jake shouted, interrupting Flim, who gave a huff towards the big guy.

Soon, all of us crowded around to get a better look at the machine doing its job, sorting out all the good apples from the bad with the blinking green and red lights.

(Granny Smith)
Now wait a second, hold it!
You two just over-sold it!
I guarantee that what you have just won't compare
Cause the very most important ingredient
Can't be added or done expedient
And that's quality, friends, Apple-Acres quality and care!

(Flim)
Well, ma’am, I’m glad you brought that up, my friend, I say I’m glad you brought that up!
You see that we are very picky when it comes to cider if you’ll kindly try a cup!

Flim held a mug in his hands, wondering which one would accept it until Jack swiped it away from him.

"Oh please, like this mechanical do-hickey can make some good cider." Jack scoffed before taking a gulp of it, and just three seconds, his eyes widened in shock before shouting "NGHAARRR!"

"What? What is it?" I asked in worried.

"This...cider...is...so....goood!" Jack yelled, causing everypony to gasp happily and began cheering in excitement.

"I-it's...that good, huh?" Applejack asked in shock.

(Flam)
Yes sir, yes ma'am, this great machine lets just the very best.
So what do you say then, Apples?
Care to step into the modern world
And put the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 to the test?

The crowd began chanting 'Cider' over and over, seemingly getting those two brothers winning the crowd ver.

"So what do you say, folks?! Do you see what the Apples can't?" Flim asked. I looked over and saw how worried Applejack, Granny Smith, Mason and Big Mac were while Apple Bloom and Carrie were enjoying their little song.

(Flim and Flam)
We're saying you've got

(Flim, Flam, and Crowd)
Opportunity
In this very community
He's Flim, he's Flam
We're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers
Traveling salesponies nonpareil

(Flim and Flam)
Yeah!

"You got a deal!" Apple Bloom exclaimed with a happy smirk, much to our shock while the crowd were chattering happily about that.

"Not so fast!" Granny Smith exclaimed, pulling Apple Bloom away from them. "No way no how that machine matches up with the care we put in our cider!"

"I agree with Granny Smith." Mason agreed, giving the twin unicorn brothers a stern glare. "What makes you guys think this machine can produce quality over quantity?"

"Trust us, young human, this machine is a great machine that'll surely make your business boom!" Flim assured, wrapping his foreleg around Mason's shoulder, who still gave him a stern look.

"So I take it you knew what our kind is, right?" Mason asked, raising a brow.

"Course we do! Everypony in Equestria knows about your kind! It's quite remarkable, isn't it Flim?" Flam asked his brother, who nodded and replied "Sure is Flam! Seeing a new species in our planet is quite beautiful."

"Stop talking." Mason said sternly.

"But big brother, if it really does work, we could make everypony in town happy!" Carrie exclaimed.

"Yeah! Then we won't have to deal with another angry customer!" Apple Bloom added.

"I just don't know, you all. We've always made cider the same way." Applejack said, feeling doubtful about it.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac nodded.

"Don't worry. We'll sweeten the deal." Flim assured. "You supply the apples..."

"And we'll supply the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000." Flam finished.

"Then we split those sweet sweet profits..." Flim and Flam said in unison.

"That might sound like a good deal." Carrie smiled.

"Yep! It's just a 75%-25% profit." Flim stated.

"Deal-"

"Hold on!" Applejack stopped her sister from saying anything before looking at them with a suspicious gaze. "Who gets the seventy five?"

"Why us, naturally." Flim stated, causing the Apple family to gasp in shock.

"And we'll throw in the magic to power the machine for free." Flam added.

"You both are crossing the line, you know that?" Mason asked sternly.

"Y-yeah..." Jamie stepped in with a stern look. "In order for the Partnership to start, both companies needs to work together and have the equal amount of work, or else both companies will fall down. It's economics basics..."

"Right..." Applejack nodded before looking at the two brothers with a serious look and said "Cider sales keep our business afloat through the winter. We'd lost Sweet Apple Acres if we agreed to this."

"So? What'll it be?" Flim and Flam asked in unison.

"Obviously no deal!" I exclaimed, stepping up for Mason, Carrie, and the Apple family. "Why should they agreed with all this?! You two are just robbing of their whole jobs! If you lose Sweet Apple Acres, where could they go and think about what might happened? Then no one will ever buy good apples than here."

"Ren..." Mason put his hand on my shoulder with a soft smile and said "Thank you."

"We really appreciate the help Ren." Applejack smiled at me before glaring at the twin brothers. "Sorry, but like my friend here said is right. No deal."

"Hmph." Flim scoffed. "Very well. If you refuse our generous offer to be partners, then we'll just have to be competitors."

"C-competitors?" Jamie asked in surprise.

"This can't be happening, right?" Kodi wondered.

"You wouldn't dare." Applejack snarled.

"Oh no?" Flim asked in a mock gasp.

"Don't you worry, everypony! There'll be plenty of cider for all of you!" Flam shouted to the crowd, who let out a cheer.

"Once we drive Sweet Apple Acres out of business." Wait what?! Those of us who were near them overheard what they muttered, causing us to gasp.

"You bastards!" Jack pushed me and Mason aside, with an angry look on his face. "What do ya mean you'll drive them out of business? You think this is some joke, huh?"

"Oh my good human sir, what ever do ya mean? We would never do that!" Flim assured with a grin. "After all...that's how business roll."

"You dirty bastards! I'll show ya who's boss!" Jack exclaimed angrily as he was about to pounce until they immediately switched a lever on, and made the SSCS 6000 to fly the coop. "W-what the heck?! Those little!"

"Jack, please calm down." Mason sighed. "I understand your anger, but it's not gonna solve anything. But then again, those two will pay for their actions."

"But still, they're gonna run Applejack's family business?" Kaede asked, feeling alarm of this. "That's so...cruel!"

"Yeah! They lived here, and the best apple sellers ever!" Kodi added, feeling furious at the Flim Flam brothers arrogance and such. You know, if I know one thing...those two aren't like the Mario Bros.

"I rather knock their crap out!" Jack growled.

"Yeah! How dare they not give me the cup of cider?!" We all gave Rainbow Dash unimpressive looks. "What?! I like apple cider! I need more, alright?!"

"...You are just a dumb pony, that's what." Jack commented dryly, ignoring the angry glare sent by Dash.

"But it's not fair! They can't run Sweet Apple Acres like that, right?" Carrie asked in worried.

"Yeah! It's even our home! Where we grew up..." Apple Bloom formed a sad look until Applejack and Big Mac comforted her as the former stated "Don't worry. There's no way those guys can do that. They don't even have apples to make Apple cider."

"That is quite true." Jamie nodded in agreement with a solemn look on his face. "Besides, I was studying their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 quite a bit and saw how it operate. Unfortunately, I never gotten much info about it except seeing the speed rate of it."

"Speed rate?" I questioned.

"I think Jamie means about how fast it goes. I saw a bit of their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and it would seem that its control by the pull of a lever, judging by which position it goes." Twilight explained.

"Really? That seemed pretty easy to operate that machine to make cider." Kaede said, slightly surprised by that.

"So what now?" Carrie asked in concern. I noticed Mason held a determined look as he clenched his fists tight, much to my concern. I just hope that he doesn't take it personally. Besides, he just started out this job as a local Sweet Apple Acres apple farmer, and I bet he cares about them more than ever.

"We need to make sure that they won't beat us." Everyone else turned to Mason as he made a serious and determined look. "We can't let them overrun the Apple Families' business, right? Besides, after seeing their cocky and confident attitude of theirs, they don't care whether if the apple cider taste good or not. They only care about the money and their motivation for greed."

"Well...can't argue with that." Jack shrugged.

"Yeah! What my big brother said! We can beat them!" Carrie said with a bright smile on her face. "I wanna help out as much as I can!"

"Me too! Me too!" Apple Bloom volunteered.

"Now that's the spirit, you little whippersnappers!" Granny Smith smiled. "Now come along! Let's go make another batch of apple cider!"

"Eeyup!" Big Mac nodded before walking towards the fields to prepare themselves to get some apples.

"I'll help too. My strength and speed can help out get more apples in no time." Mason smiled.

"That should be good." Applejack chuckled. "Thanks for the help, you two."

"No problem, Applejack." Mason smiled. "Besides, I just can't let them kick you all out of your home. It's just not right, and I can't imagined what might happened if they do so. But they're arrogant, so I have a feeling they'll get what's coming to them."

"And besides, stealing one's product is quite illegal." Jamie added. "And it doesn't seem they don't care about quality over quantity."

"Heh, guess you got some brains in there after all." Jack grinned, causing Jamie to glance away nervously.

"T-thank you J-Jack..." Jamie chuckled nervously.

"Well I guess we'll take our leave then." I sighed. "We'll come back later."

"I see why not. It shouldn't take long." Applejack smiled. "Normally it takes a day, but with these extra hooves..." Applejack smirked at Mason and Carrie before saying "I say we might get it done in an hour or so."

"Well in the meantime, why not we head over to the home-ship?" Kaede suggested. "I mean, they're new rooms that just opened up Ren!"

"Really?" I asked in surprise. "I'm quite excited to find out what it is!"

"Trust me, you're gonna love them!" Kaede smiled excitedly.

"I never really explored the new areas. I stayed behind with you back at Fluttershy's cottage because I didn't feel like exploring without ya." Kodi said, lowering his ears a bit. I petted him on the head, cheering him up a bit.

"Don't be fret, Kodi." I assured. "I mean, you were worried about me after all. It was quite nice of ya to do that for me."

"Heh heh, thanks Ren." Kodi smiled, nuzzling my leg a bit. Fluttershy softly smiled over us, seeing the bond between us quite strong.

"I guess you two are quite close." Jack smirked before we noticed a little bump up on his shirt. "But not as close as me and Jo Jo."

"Jo Jo?" I questioned as the little bump around his shirt started moving and it revealed to be a brown chubby guinea pig. So that's Jo Jo, that's quite cute. "Whoa, a guinea pig?!"

"Ahh!" Fluttershy cooed, flying a bit close to Jack's face. "He's so cute and chubby! You two must be so close to each other! I mean, he must really love you, huh?

"Course he is! Had him since two years and he's quite the coolest." Jack made a tooth-eating grin at me, boasting about his bond between him and Jo Jo. Jo Jo, on the other hand, looked over and let out a squeal upon seeing Kodi before hiding in Jack's coat pocket.

You know, I'm surprised that a biker like him owns a guinea pig. I guess not every biker can have a cool pet, but his's is pretty cool...in his own standards, that is.

"Well I say that you got a cute pet." Fluttershy smiled brightly, causing Jack to look away, feeling embarrassed about that.

"I prefer 'cool' over 'cute', pony." Jack scoffed, causing Fluttershy to smile nervously at him before landing next too me. "Besides, he and I are the best of friends!"

"I see, but anyway, why not we head over back to the home-ship? We can talk a lot back there and get to know each other more." I smiled.

"Whatever. I'm starving anyway." Jack snorted.

"Well either way, let's go." Kaede offered.

"I would like to join in and see the place again with you guys." Fluttershy offered. "If ya want me to, that is..."

"Course you can come! Do you even have to ask?" I chuckled with a small blush while Fluttershy smiled over me.

"Thanks Ren." Fluttershy giggled before kissing me in the cheek, causing me to chuckle more. Jack made a sly smirk on his face while the others grinned or shook their heads in amusement.

"I suppose things will never change between those two." Mason commented. "Well, I suppose I gotta get back to work."

"And I'll help too! To teach that two meanies a lesson!" Carrie added, feeling pumped up apparently before she and her brother began leaving inside of the farm.

"W-well...I would like to come too. Just so I could research more about the place and explain them all for ya, R-Ren." Jamie softly grinned.

"Thanks you guys." I chuckled with a smile.

"We'll stay here and watched over things." Twilight suggested.

"And maybe buy a few cider for the taking?" Spike smirked before flinching from the look Twilight was giving him.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid that only one pony can have one drink." Mason said sternly, shocking Spike. "I'm sorry Spike, but if we're gonna save some cider for those who couldn't buy it, I'm afraid that it'll have to do."

"Ahh...okay, I understand." Spike sighed.

"Don't worry dragon dude. I'll make ya some apple cider." Jack grinned before we heard his stomach rumbling. "Right after lunch."

"Well I just hope for my sake that he doesn't make any apple cider." Kaede whispered to Rosy, who nodded in agreement upon hearing our conversation.

"Well we already explored the new floors while Ren was unconscious, so I see no point." Rarity thought aloud.

"Whatever! I just want my cider so I'm staying put!" Rainbow exclaimed before widening her eyes. "But first! I need to use the mares' room!"

With that, she blasted off, leaving a rainbow trail behind, which impressed Jack.

"Dang, she sure knows how to be speedy." Jack whistled.

"Yeah, and you haven't seen anything yet." I chuckled.

"Well we'll see you guys later, and Ren..." Applejack turned to me with a soft smile. "I'm glad that you're awake. Sorry for not mentioning it. Also, keep an eye out for the big guy. I can already sense some trouble from him since last week."

"Hey!" Jake yelled, highly offended by that.

"Nah, it's alright and I'll make sure of that." I waved it off before turning to Kaede, Kodi, Jamie, Rosy, and Jack. "So come on you too! Let's go!"

"Hoo!" Owlicious said.

"You know Owlicious, we're going to the home-ship to see new areas to explore." I reminded him, only to get another hoot from him. "Riiight...see ya you all."

"See ya Ren! Come back later for some sweet Apple Cider!" Apple Bloom waved goodbye to me as we made our way back to the home-ship for some exploring to do. I wonder what kind of rooms do they have now? Well it's obvious it's gonna be...

---

Later
"A POOL?!" I don't frigging believe it! We have a pool in the lower levels of the home-ship?! Awesome sauce! As soon as we arrived back, we took the elevator as Jamie hit a new button as it descended down to the lower levels of the place. Well it's the only floor we got here anyway. Anyway, it lead us to a small place that had two doors, the blue door was for the boys while the pink was for the girls, but no matter which one you took, it led us to this place! A pool! I'm surprised that we have one.

"I know right? I was surprised to see one here as well." Fluttershy agreed, smiling over my reaction.

"So cool! I always wanted to swim in one!" Kodi barked happily, almost eager to jump into it. Rosy, on the other hand, hid behind Kaede's hair, feeling scared of going into the pool since cats hate water.

"It's alright Rosy, you're not gonna be in it." Kaede cooed, softening her fur a bit.

"Heh heh! I was surprised to see it too!" Jack grinned, scratching his butt a little. "I can almost be ready to jump and have fun in it!"

"M-maybe some other time?" Jamie suggested. "We pretty much have a tight schedule."

"Says who exactly?" Jack leered, causing Jamie to flinch from his glare.

"N-no one!"

"That's more like it." Jack smirked, causing me to frown a bit. Can he at least be a lot nicer to him? If we're gonna be friends, he should respect them. Anyway, I began walking around the pool area, seeing that it's five feet and it gotten steps in the pools for anyone wanting to come out. Heck, it's even got a lifeguard chair in here. I mean, who can even be a lifeguard?...Hmm, probably Mason. He's the most responsible out of all of us.

"You know, we were planning on going into the pool, but we decided to hold it off." Kaede stated. "It wouldn't feel the same without ya."

"Ahh, thanks you guys." I rubbed my head bashfully, feeling happy that they would wait for me to wake up. "But you know, this pool is really great. Whoever made this...I give them five stars!"

"You don't have to rub it on our kidnapper." Jack growled, causing me to grin sheepishly. Well I wouldn't exactly call the people who made this ship our 'kidnapper'. Though, I wonder if it the person who designed this really is our kidnapper?

"You know, it's quite weird on how all this water came into this ship and how do you clean it out?" Fluttershy wondered.

"Well there must be a water tank system that cleans up the pool automatically. It must be hidden somewhere in the home-ship, that's my best bet..." Jamie muttered aloud.

"Yeah yeah, we get it." Jack rolled his eyes, surprising Jamie.

"Not again!" Jamie exclaimed.

"Anyway, let's move on!" Kaede suggested, feeling like we've already explored the place now.

"Oh! Ren, there's a new place that you're gonna enjoy." Fluttershy smiled.

"Really? Why's that?" I asked curiously.

"Just follow us and you'll see." With that, we exited out of the pool and back into the locker room, and into the elevator as Kaede hit one of the accessible buttons, allowing us to move upwards to the top floors, which was above of Jamie's library/room, and once we stopped, the elevator doors opened, revealing a big garage-like area, but the place had some grass growing around. But the best part was that there was motorcycles in here, but it looks like they don't function.

"Jeez, how long did all this been here?" I questioned aloud.

"We were wondering about that, but none of us figured that out." Kaede shrugged.

"This ship has be quite old, improving my earliest theory..." Jamie muttered. Is he talking about that photo Mason brought to us? I'm still confused by that besides seeing a younger Granny Smith and her family discovering Ponyville. I still don't believe that the home-ship could've been here more longer than we thought. I mean, I'm sure there's a good explanation on that, right?

"Heh heh! This here is where we can fix any engines. A perfect place for me to fix up my bike and ride some of these cool bikes." Jack grinned. "And oh yeah, there's a door that lead us to my room....well, the room I'll be staying here till we get back to our world." Jack pointed over to the white door at the far left, which we headed over as I grabbed onto the doorknob and twisted it open, revealing to be a messy room, what with a bunch of bottles on the ground, along with clothes and such on it. There was a small plasma HD TV in here, and a couch-like bed in here with a big blanket that probably fit Jack.

"So this is your room?" I asked.

"Ugh! It looks disgusting." Kodi commented, which Jack ignored as he kick some bottles away as Kodi continued "Did this place looks like this when you all found it?"

"No, it was actually clean, but when Jack moved in, he...redecorated the room." Kaede rubbed her head bashfully with a nervous grin and sweat-drop.

"Dang straight! It's just like home!" Jack smiled before lying down on his couch, letting out his bulging gut out. "Ahh...I'll give our kidnapper credit, he sure knows how to give us the luxury life."

"Seems so." Jamie agreed, glancing away nervously. "But are you really sure that the person who made this is our kidnapper? I mean, I-I understand about waking in those pods and such, but still...!"

"Hey! I say what I say and I know I'm right!" Jack yelled, frightening Jamie as he hid behind me, causing me to chuckle nervously before I looked at Jack and said "Come on Jack, can't you be nicer to him?"

"Whatever, not my fault he's a coward." Jack commented, causing Jamie to glance away sadly. Ooh, that's gotta leave a mark. "Anyway, not that we're done exploring his room before we headed over to another door that was next to Jack, just to the far right corner of the garage.

"Say, what door leads there?" I asked curiously.

"It lead us to a bedroom which we presumes to be Rantaro." Kaede answered.

"His room looked so neat and nice. I guess he likes to be neat and tidy." Fluttershy said with a smile before we entered the place, seeing a loft bed to our right. On the top was a comfortable mattress made for two people to sleep on while on the bottom showed a couch, along with a carpet, beanbag, and a fridge. To our left side of the room was a Comcast HD TV attached to the wall. In the middle of the room was a dining table that it looks like he can enjoy eating his food in privacy while a large window was showed above the dining table, seeing how high we were up from the floor.

"This room is quite neat. I'll give him that." I commented.

"I know right? It looks quite nice from when I first saw this room." Fluttershy softly grinned.

"Meh, I've seen better." Jack scoffed.

"Well we don't know much about Rantaro, but we do know that he loves keeping his rooms tidy." Jamie said, putting his hand on his chin in thought. "He must be pretty good at organizing things..."

"Yeah, at first, we didn't know whose room was that until we remembered about Rantaro." Kaede explained. "Seems like he must've been coming back here to the home-ship without ever showing his face to us."

"Yeah, I guess..." I shrugged. But you know, Mason, Jamie, and Jack seemed to know him from somewhere, but where exactly? The way how he sold those mugs of apple cider to us, it sounded like he was some advertiser, or maybe a franchisee? Nah, probably not.

"Anyway, there's one more floor that we hope you'll enjoy Ren." Fluttershy smiled happily. I looked at her in surprise before noticing the gang, except Kodiak, were grinning brightly. Me and Kodi looked at each other in confusion, wondering why they're smiling like that.

---

Later
"So Ren...what do you think?"

.....No....frigging...way!

"No frigging way!" I exclaimed, panting excitedly and having an excited look on my face. Apparently, we headed back to the elevator and headed to the next floor, revealing to an arcade-like casino in here. No, it felt like one of those recreational rooms you see in clubs and such. But this place was awesome!

"Impressive, huh?" Fluttershy giggled at me and Kodi's reaction. "This place seems like it has many games in here."

"Yeah, possibly every game known to mankind." Jamie added, writing some stuff down in his notebook.

"This place has every single game in existence?!" Kodi gaped. "That's amazing!"

"And awesome at the same time!" I added. "I mean, look at this place! It's got Galaga! Sonic Dash Arcade Edition! Mario Kart 8 Arcade Edition! Pac-man! Street Fighters V! Super Smash Bros Ultimate! Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed! Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, one of those Crane machine games! Oh wow, they even got an arcade version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and one of the old Polybius machines. This place...is paradise! A gamer's paradise!"

I ran around the place with Kodi and Fluttershy by the side, seeing every arcade game in existence. I've been to many arcades for years, but never to this place! I can't wait to play every game here!"

"Jeez, what's up with him?" Jack questioned.

"Ren is...a gamer. An experienced and a pro at them apparently." Kaede answered, chuckling nervously.

"He seems to play any game he finds." Jamie added, deadpanned. "But he's quite excited about seeing this place, I'll give him that."

"Oh..." Jack sighed. "So he's a videogaming nerd? I see."

Who cares you guys say?! I want to play with them right now! I can't wait to enjoy this moment!

"It's even a got a bar that sells food and drinks by itself by whatever you typed on the keyboard." Kaede pointed over to my right and saw it was one of those bars you see adults go to and have a drink. However, this bar wasn't one of those types. I mean, sure it looks like them, but like Kaede stated, it sells food and drinks by anything you type on this futuristic keyboard.

"I was confused by it until it pulled out a lemonade ice tea for me." Fluttershy explained. "It tasted so sweet and nice."

"Really?" I smirked before rubbing my chin in thought. I got up on the chair, along with Kodiak as he sat next to me while I looked down at the futuristic-looking keyboard. Hmmm....I know! How about a chocolate milkshake!

I typed 'Chocolate Milkshake' onto it, and to my awe, it really did get what I wanted.

"Awesome!" I said in amazement before taking a slurp out of it. "Mmm! It really taste so good! How does it do that?"

"Even I was surprised by that too." Jamie said with a smile. "Apparently, me and Twilight deduce that their might be a machine inside the home-ship that can mass produce all these types of food automatically whenever you type it into that keyboard. Our time of era was quite far ahead in our world!"

"Well, that is surprising." I said with a shocked look. Hmm...if this stuff was made in our time of era? Then...why wasn't it showed to the public? It feels quite amazing to enjoy. Why not reveal to the people? I think many people would enjoy this!

"So this is all the rooms, right?" Kodi asked.

"Yeah, just the five rooms we showed you guys." Fluttershy nodded. "I'm quite amazed that this ship has so many things that me and the others never seen before."

"I know right? This is pretty epic, Flutters." I grinned before slurping onto my chocolate milkshake. "So what now? You guys wanna go and see if the others are selling apple cider by now?"

"I see why not. We've been here for a while, so I see why not." Jamie smiled.

"Yeah, but first..." Jack got onto a seat and typed something, revealing to be french fries with a meatball sub. Wait...oh no.

"Umm...what's that?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"It's a meatball sub, what do ya think?" Jack asked, looking at her with surprise, while she held a look of horror.

"M-meatball sub?" Fluttershy muttered in shock.

"Yeah...because we eat meat, ya know? What? You didn't know?" Jack asked, while the rest of us face-palmed at that. God dang it Jack!

"Flutters..." I turned to her with a worried look and said "Look, I understand that you're about to faint, but listen! I'm sorry for hiding this from you! It's true that we eat meat, but we also eat vegetables! Besides, we don't eat any animal! Some animals we protect! We swear!"

"B-but still...you guys eat meat?" Fluttershy asked, shivering in fear. "That's so...!"

"We know, revolting." Kaede sighed. "But like Ren stated, we don't eat any animal we see. Besides, there are others who have different types of diets."

"And it's not like we eat meat for enjoyment." Jamie added. "It's a way to survive since the beginning earth and its countries were found. I knew about this from a while ever since I noticed you ponies only eat hay and such, and I realize that it might be awkward to tell them what to eat, so...sorry."

"...A-Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked. "You guys...really mean it?"

"Course we do Flutters! Would I ever lie?" I asked with a small smile. Fluttershy looked at me for a while before sighing and said "Alright, you guys have a point. Sorry if I gotten you all frightened."

"Don't worry. Besides, humans don't eat ponies and horses at all." I assured.

"Really? What do you humans eat?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "W-well...I just hope it's not one of my animals."

I...highly doubt that. What with the chickens around your garden/backyard.

“Well it’s-” Before Jack could say anything, Jamie immediately waved his hands in high alert and exclaimed “It’s probably best not! We just don’t wanna frighten anypony upon learning that!”

“Well…it’s understandable. But…I was just scared you all might try to eat me.” Fluttershy muttered, feeling afraid.

“Uh oh, now we done it…” Kodi muttered, seeing how frightened Fluttershy was. I put down my milkshake and came over to her side, hugging her softly that soon made her relax.

“Sorry if we didn’t tell you Fluttershy. We were just worried that you and the others might become afraid of us to even talk or hang out with.” I said in a tone of sadness.

“I wasn’t.” We all glared at Jack dryly, who just shrugged and continued eating his meatball sub.

“…Anyway, what I’m trying to say, we’re sorry.” I apologized, which made her smile softly at me.

“It’s okay Ren, but next time, please don’t hide anything else from us.” Fluttershy begged.

“No problem.” I nodded with a smile before realizing something. “Wait, you guys came here last week, right?”

“Right.” Kaede nodded.

“Why? What’s the problem?” Kodi questioned.

“Well if this thing was here, wouldn’t Twilight and the others noticed this about different types of food we eat here?” I questioned.

“Yeah, that’s what we fear. Jack nearly came here and tried ordering something until Mason got into another argument with him, making him completely forget about it until today, that is.” Jamie explained with a sigh. “It’s a miracle that he didn’t remember about it.”

“Shaddup!” Jack yelled, causing Jamie to flinch in fear. This is totally gonna be a thing now, eh?

“Okay, I see. Just asking.” I shrugged. “Anyway, it’s best if we head out now. We already explored more bits around the place.”

“Yeah, but you gotta admit, some of these rooms are unique.” Kaede giggled before looking over the arcade casino room. “Even this room.”

“Yeah. I just hope it doesn’t affect my studies.” Jamie said, writing some more notes in his journal. “So are we done now?”

“Sure James, let’s go.” I nodded with a smile before we all began to leave the place while Jack had some smudges from the meatball sub on his face, which disturbed us all. This guy acts like a five year old at a restaurant. I guess all bikers like him can do whatever they want. “You know Jack, I never learned much about you.”

“Heh, so interested in me, are ya kid?” Jack grinned while crossing his arms. “In case you must know, I’m the heir to being the leader of the Yamaki Biker Gang. It’s known for being bikers in my family for generations to generations. I’m a member of it and my dad is the leader.”

“Really? I think I heard about the Yamaki gang.” Jamie said, overhearing our conversation. “They’re a band of misfits that zooms across the country. Many witnesses states that they see them drive through the highway, bridges, and across the countryside of Texas.”

“Dang straight.” Jack grinned, puffing his chest proudly. “My old man is known for being the greatest leader.”

“It sounds like a big responsibility to lead a big gang like your family, huh?” Fluttershy asked shyly.

“Who cares? I can handle it just fine.” Jack picked his ear a bit while his pet guinea pig, Jo Jo, came out of his shirt and rest on top of his hair. “Besides, who cares what people say about me? I’m the best there is!”

“What? His weight?” Kaede whispered, causing me to chuckle.

“The heck you say?!” Jack demanded, causing us to glance away from him while we whistled innocently. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Y-you know J-Jack…you don’t always have to be rude, right?” Jamie smirked.

“Shaddup.” Jack scoffed, causing Jamie to frown sadly.

“O-okay…sorry for asking then…” Jamie muttered.

“Wow, Jamie really looks depressed, huh Ren?” Kodi asked in concern, which I nodded in agreement. I feel bad for Jamie. Jack should probably apologize to him for being rude to him. Jamie is a nice and shy guy, and just tries his best to be brave. Although, with a big fat brute like Jack, it’s hard for him to stand up…some times.

Soon, we all entered back into the elevator and headed back down to the main room AKA, the living room. But as soon as we arrived, we saw a familiar fedora wearing man with an orange case phone in his hands.

“Ugh…no one calling. Guess my clients aren’t bothering to answer me like always….” Rantaro said aloud.

“What’s he doing?” Kodi asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“And what’s that in his hands?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Oh, that’s a phone. An i-phone to be exact.” I answered. “It’s something our kind uses to either play games, read, look up stuff off the internet, and call anyone you know and used for emergencies.”

“And it looks like an I-phone 7 to be exact. It was sold in September 7, 2016 worldwide by Apple.” Jamie added. “Hold on…since when did he have a phone?”

“Wait…I’m starting to realize something, why don’t we have our phones?” Kaede said, realizing about it.

“Well that’s what I thought too, but I couldn’t find it when I was getting used to Equestria.” I rubbed my head bashfully with a sheepish grin.

“Me too. I checked out my room, but nothing at all to find. My phone somehow v-vanished…” Jamie added with a worried look.

“Same here, I couldn’t find the dang thing at all.” Jack shrugged.

That’s…really strange. So none of us couldn’t find our phones at all. So…why does Rantaro have a phone? This is quite weird.

“Hey, if you guys wanna act like chimpanzees, go play outside.” Rantaro said. “I’m busy.’

”Hey Rantaro, surprised to see you here.“ I said as we walked over to him in the living room. ”What brings you back here?“

”Just picking up a call.“ He replied bluntly.

“From who exactly?” Jack questioned suspiciously.

“A call from no one of your business, fatty.” Rantaro answered, angering Jack.

“What?!” He exclaimed as he tried to punch him until me and Fluttershy stopped him.

“N-no wait! Jack! Calm down!” Fluttershy begged.

“Yeah! Just calm down man!” I added, not wanting him to pick a brawl with him at all. Jack soon calmed down and scoffed at him.

“Besides…” Rantaro glanced at us with a smug look on his face while he put his left hand in his pocket. “I can’t seem to be picking a call at all. Strange since most of everywhere has no signal, but this place is the only one that has the strongest signal out of all.”

“Really? Only here?” Kaede asked, tilting her head in surprise.

“Signal?” Fluttershy questioned.

“It’s an electric impulse or radio wave transmitted or received.” Jamie explained before turning to Rantaro and asked “But…why do you have a phone?”

“What do ya mean?” Rantaro asked, glancing at him with a curious look. “What? You never own a phone before?”

“W-well…no…it’s just…”

“What Jamie is trying to say that we all do own phones, but I guess we never realize that once we woke up from those pods, we completely realized now that our phones weren’t with us to call help.” I explained, helping Jamie out.

“Y-yes…that was what I was gonna say, but thank you Ren.” Jamie glanced away nervously while Rantaro looked at us with a suspicious look, but he kept his smirk.

“Really? Neither of you ever looked into your rooms and found your phones?” Rantaro questioned.

“No, we haven’t. Not even when we woke up.” I nodded as Rantaro glanced away from us, like he was in deep thought.

“Is there something wrong, Rantaro?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Nah. Nothing at all. But it looks like I’m the luckiest guy for finding my phone in my own room when I investigated this place on my own.” Rantaro smirked before putting his phone back in his pockets. “Guess you guys weren’t good enough to find them.”

“Hey!” Jack exclaimed angrily.

I don’t know…Was he lucky enough to find his phone so easily?

“So…I got bored today and came to rest up. Nothing much, really.” Rantaro shrugged.

“But…I saw those twin brothers heading over to Sweet Apple Acres and they seemed really interested by one of those apple trees made by one of your friends.”

“Twin brothers…do you mean Flim and Flam?” Kodi asked in surprise

“Huh? Are you frigging serious?” Jack widened his eyes upon hearing that before gritting his teeth in anger. “Those two sniveling bastards!”

“Flim and Flam? Those two?” I asked with a raised brow. “Over by Sweet Apple Acres?”

Well this can’t be good.

“Yeah, just thought I let you guys know. You don’t trust at all, do ya?” Rantaro asked with a smirk on his face. “Can’t blame ya. I saw those two just before I got home and when I learned about them by some witnesses, I realized those two can’t be trusted.”

“Gee, you think?” Jack scoffed.

“I really have to agree though.” Jamie nodded. “I mean, I know what Flim and Flam even stands for. It stands for trickery and Con-artistry, after all.”

“Seriously?!” Kodi gaped. “Well that’s also a new reason why we can’t trust them!”

“W-well…you do have a point.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but agreed with Jamie’s statement. “After all, they did say that they were gonna get Applejack’s business out of the way, and I don’t want Applejack and her family to lose their home. They grew up in that place and made so many memories.”

“Really, huh?” Jack asked in surprise.

“Yes, it would be awful that it would happen.” Fluttershy nodded.

“I have to agree on that as well, Flutters.” I nodded. “I mean, Applejack, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith really love that place and made so many apple treats.” I glanced down with a sad look and muttered “We can’t let Flim and Flam take it down.”

“Same here, Ren.” Kodi nuzzled my hand, letting out a whimper.

“Well what are we waiting for?!” We all looked at Jack with surprised looks on our faces as he had a look of determination in his face. “We can’t let those thieving conniving bastards get the better of them, right?! If family’s that important, then we gotta protect family, don’t we?!”

“Jack…” I muttered, feeling impressed by how he’s willing to help now. It’s like he just 180 his personality.

“What?! What are you idiots gonna do, huh?! We’re going now! Those bastards are gonna be picked off.” Jack cracked his knuckles before taking his leave out of the home-ship.

“W-wait for us!” Jamie called as he and Kaede followed after him.

“I guess we should get going, huh Ren?” Fluttershy wondered.

“It seems so. But we have to! For Applejack and her family!” I yelled in determination before realizing something. “Oh my…I’m starting to sound like Jack.”

“How ironic since you just met him.” Rantaro smirked. “Heh heh, so you’re going to help him, are you not?”

“Course I am! We’re friends after all!” Rantaro gave me a confused look before asking “Friends?”

“Yeah! We’re all friends! We gotta stick together if we wanna get back to earth.” I smiled happily.

“Yeah! Best friends forever!” Kodi barked happily.

“And we’re in this together. I want Ren and the others to head back home to their friends and families.” Fluttershy added. Rantaro looked at us for a moment before letting out a small smirk.

“Well…that’s surprising.” Rantaro said before he began walking away. “Well…I wish you good luck…friend.”

“Umm…thanks dude.” I smiled as he began leaving the living room. You know, suspicious looking he is, I say that he’s a good guy at heart. Though, I am still confused on why he has a phone while the rest of us don’t. It’s just…too weird.

“Anyway, should we get going Ren?” Kodi asked curiously.

“O-oh right! Come on you guys! Let’s go!” I exclaimed with a serious look before we left the home-ship and made our way towards Sweet Apple Acres to see what the Flim Flam brothers are up to! Hopefully, the Apple family can sort this mess out in no time with those guys, right?

---

Later
Phew, we finally made it. In the nick of time, no less. I managed to catch up with Jamie, Kaede, Rosy, Jack, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.

“Hey guys, did I miss anything?” I asked, trying my best to catch my breath.

“Well…not much to be exact. Just the Apple Family, Mason and Carrie arguing with the Flim Flam brothers.” Kaede explained. “And trust me, it’s not going okay.”

“Like how?” I asked. She pointed over to see Mason glaring angrily at the Flim Flam brothers as he yelled “Do you two even care about anything?! Is money and trickery the only things that entertain you both?!”

“It does, one hundred percent.” Flim nodded.

“Besides, do ya want to dissatisfied these ponies?” Flam asked, seeing the crowd so thirsty for it.

“God dang. This whole town really likes their cider.” Jack commented loudly.

“Tell me about it.” Jamie sighed.

“Ponyville is a sweet Apple Cider country!” Apple Bloom argued.

“Our cider speaks for itself!” Applejack added.

“let’s up it to the test then!” Flim smirked.

“Anywhere, anytime!” Apple Bloom glared at them with a smirk.

Uhh…why am I getting the feeling this is going to be a bad feeling?

“Yeah! We can show you jerks that my big brother and the Apple Family can make the best cider in all of Equestria!” Carrie smirked until she was held back by Mason.

“That’s enough Carrie. Please.” Mason said, not wanting his sister to be involve with them.

“Ahh, look at that. Defending his own sister. Isn’t that cute?” Flam chuckled.

“Yeah! It’s kinda cowardly, don’t you think?” Upon hearing what they said, Mason glared at them and said “Cowardly? Cowardly?! How is defending my sister cowardly?! I care about her and I won’t let something happened to her!”

“Big brother! Calm down!” Carrie grabbed onto her brother’s sweater tightly, not wanting him to fight them.

“She’s right, young man.” Granny Smith agreed. “You can’t go and picking up fights with them.

“Ooh, what’s the matter, Granny Smith? Chicken?” Flim taunted, causing Granny Smith to narrow her eyes in anger at him.

“What did you call me, sonny?” Granny Smith asked, glaring at the twin ponies.

“Uh oh…” Kodi muttered.

“Uh oh, indeed…” Fluttershy agreed with a worried look.

“If you’re so confident in your cider, then what’s the problem?” Flim shrugged.

Granny Smith continued to glare at them until she spoke “Tomorrow morning, right here!”

“What?!” Mason exclaimed.

“But I’m afraid we haven’t any…” Flam made a mischevious smirk. "Apples..."

"You can borrow our apples over by the south field." Applejack stated, narrowing her eyes at the Flim Flam brothers. "It'll be worth teaching ya varmints a lesson or two about messing with my family."

"Yeah! We're totally gonna beat ya into tomorrow!" Carrie added, glaring at the brothers.

"Really? You and your 'big brother'?" Flam asked, taunting that last part at Mason. "Are you two even related to the Apples?"

"Well...no." Carrie hesitated on that.

"What's it matter? It doesn't matter." Mason stated with a serious look.

"Actually, it does. How can two weird creatures like yourselves even work at a place like this dump?" Flim chuckled, adding more fury at the Apple Family, and unexpectedly, us as well. "Besides, you're not family nor even a pony at all!"

"Tch!" Mason clenched his fist, feeling like punching the living daylights out of them.

"Mason...just don't get angry at them." Applejack assured, patting him on the back. "I don't care what they say."

"But...what if they're right?" Mason questioned, causing me to frown over at him. Mason is having doubts in himself. I hardly ever see him like this.

"Well anyway. It's best if we go." Flim stated before remembering something. "Oh and there's just one thing. If you win, then you can keep making apple cider for Ponyville and can keep Sweet Apple Acres."

"But if we win..." Flam added with a smirk as he and his brother said it together. "We'll take Sweet Apple Acres into our own."

"....Deal." Applejack sighed.

"What?! Applejack?!" Mason exclaimed in shock.

"Okay then! Until tomorrow!" Flim and Flam laughed before they got onto their SSCS 6000 and driven off. Mason and Carrie looked at each other in worried while the crowd dispersed and were mumbling about what just happened while the rest of us walked towards them with worried.

"Don't worry you guys. I know you'll win tomorrow." Twilight assured.

"We'd better." Applejack said with a concern look. "Cause if we don't, we're gonna lose our farm."

Mason kept silent, sinking in what Flim and Flam said.

"Big brother?" Carrie pulled onto his sweater, feeling really concern for him. "They're not gonna listen to ya, are they?"

"S-sorry...it's just that..." Mason bit his lower lip, feeling hesitate about it.

"Mason, don't listen to them!" I exclaimed, surprising him a bit. "You can't let them get the best of ya!"

"I-I know that...but...they're right. I'm not even related to the Apple family...I'm...just an employee..." Mason looked away, feeling anguished by this.

"Big brother..." Carrie frowned, feeling guilty for her brother.

"So what?!" We all turned to see Jack walking up to Mason and just five seconds, he punched Mason in the gut, causing him to fall down to his knees in a huff. "Are you gonna let them give you that crap?! Stand up for yourself man!"

"Mason!" Rarity gasped before glaring at Jack. "What is your problem?! You could've nearly killed him!"

"She's right! Punching Mason isn't gonna solve anything!" Applejack said, poking Jack's belly. "I don't know if this is how you bikers solve these kind of issues, but that's enough!"

"Shaddup! I was giving him a talk! Besides, he's fine!" Jack scoffed before turning to Mason, who was clutching onto his stomach with Rarity and Carrie helping him. "Now listen! Family isn't about being born by blood! It's about bond! My entire family of bikers weren't by blood, but bond! Even if we were different, we were still like a family! Who cares what they say?! You need to stand up for yourself and don't let them get to ya! If you care about the Apple family, then stop your whining and get to it!"

Mason soon got back up and looked at Mason with a glare before letting out a soft smile. "Y-yeah...thanks. I'm surprised that you gave out a good and motivating speech. Almost like Ren.

"Hey!" Me and Jack yelled, highly offended of that. I cleared my throat before saying "But you know, Jack's right. It's not about being born in a family by blood, but by bond. You may have worked here for a month with them, but you're a part of them. In fact, you're a part of us. We're all family."

"Yeah! Remember the Sisterhooves Social, big brother?" Carrie reminded him.

"Yeah! Carrie thought of Kaede and Ren as older siblings figure. Even Sweetie Belle, Scootalo, and I think of you as an older brother." Apple Bloom smiled. "Including Ren."

"Ahh, Apple Bloom..." I chuckled, rubbing my head bashfully.

"Y-you're right...I am so sorry for doubting myself and made you all worried about me." Mason apologized before making a smirk at Jack. "And thank you for your encouraging words Jack."

"I was just saying..." Jack glanced away with a blush.

"But still, thank you...but still..." In a flash, he punched Jack real hard in the gut, causing him to hold his gut in pain. "That's for punching me in the gut."

"Heh heh...payback, was it? I deserved that." Jack chuckled while the rest of us smiled at the scene.

"Ahh, now that's brotherhood right there." Granny Smith chuckled.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac nodded in agreement.

"I know that tomorrow that they'll beat the Flim Flam brothers in no time!" Kaede said with a smile.

"Meow!" Rosy agreed.

"Totally! There's no way they can be defeated by a machine, right Ren?" Kodi asked me, excitedly wagging his tail.

"Right!" I nodded with a smile.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac nodded with a grin.

"But...are we even sure we can?" Jamie muttered loudly. "That machine is quite good at making cider more faster..."

"We know we can win Jamie! After all, we just gotta have faith in them." Twilight said with a smile.

"Faith?" Jamie asked in confusion.

"Of course! After all...that's the point of believing in others." Twilight smiled. "You just gotta believe in them and I'm know for sure that Applejack and her family won't fail."

"Faith..." Jamie muttered, glancing down with a sad look. Twilight's right. We just gotta believe in the Apple Family. I just know that they can do this.

---

The Next Day
Well, today's the day where the Apple Family will be facing off against the Flim Flam brothers. This is it! It's time for the Apple family to show them why they're the best cider making ponies in all of Equestria and put them into place. Everyone, including us, watched the competitors get into place.

Mason, Carrie, and Apple Bloom waved at us while me and Kodi waved at us with a smile on our faces, wishing them good luck.

"So what do you think, you guys?" Jamie asked with anticipation. "Think they can do this?"

"Of course! They can do it." Kaede assured with a grin before glaring over at the Flim Flam brothers, who were just relaxing on their couch on top of the SSCS 6000. "But those guys...they're definitely bad news. Just look at them! Lazying about in their makeshift couch."

"Ain't that the frigging truth?" Jack rolled his eyes.

"Some big event, huh?" Huh? I turned over to see a familiar fedora man coming over with a smug look on his face. "What's this about?"

"Oh! They're having a competition to see who makes the best apple ciders!" Pinkie answered, getting into his face. However, he was hardly surprised by her appearance as he just continued to smirk.

"Really? The best ciders? Well I don't know who to decide." He chuckled.

"What are you talking about? It's obvious Applejack and her family." Rarity retorted.

"Yeah! And besides, at least I can at least get another batch of some apple cider." Rainbow stated, causing us all to give her blank looks. "What?! I'm thirsty, okay?!"

"Well in that case..." He pulled out a mug of apple cider, which surprised us all. "Been saving this since yesterday."

"Awesome!" Rainbow grinned as she tried to grab it until Rantaro stopped him as he pulled out his hands and said "Nah-ah-ah. Cough it up!"

"Ugh...do I have to?" Rainbow asked irritably, only to receive a deadpan look from him. "Ugh....fine."

She slapped ten bits into his hand, which he accepted before he gave her the mug of apple cider, much to her joy.

"Seriously? Bribery?" Twilight said, sternly gazing at Rantaro.

"It's what he does best, apparently..." I sighed. Still though? What's up with him? Why does he like doing this?

"Attention, everypony!" We all turned to Mayor Mare, who was making an announcement from her megaphone. For a second there, I almost mistake that for my hacking gun. "We are about to begin the competition! Each team has one hour to produce as much cider as they can! After the barrels have been counted when time us up, the winner will be the sole provider of apple cider for all of Ponyville!"

"Good luck Mason! Carrie! Applejack!" Kodi and I cheered, causing the three to smile over at our support.

"Now...are both teams ready?" Mayor Mare asked. The Apple family, Mason, Carrie, and the Flim Flam Brothers glared at each other in anticipation.

"We're ready!" Applejack called out.

"We've been born ready." Flim said nonchalantly. Now that's the sound of arrogance there.

"Frigging morons..." Jack cursed under his breath, still irritated by those brothers.

"Then let the cider making..." Mayor Mare brought out a small hourglass and turned it upside down before shouting "Begin!"

With that, the competition went underway as Applejack bucked the first tree while Mason used his bamboo pole to swat the apples out of the tree, while Apple Bloom and Carrie carried a wooden bucket on her head, catching them as they fell. When the two buckets got full, the filly ran over to Granny Smith and poured the bushel out next to her, where she inspected each good apple from the bad, placing the perfect ones onto a chute leading to the presser while tossing the rotten ones away. Big Macintosh ran on the treadmill to grind the wheel into the fresh apples, pouring out cider into a barrel. As soon as it was full, he placed a lid on top of it and rolled it aside, putting an empty one in its place and continued running.

"Alright! We got a full barrel! We'll beat them Flim Flam brothers in no-" Applejack jaw-dropped as she stopped mid-sentence upon seeing the SSCS 6000 already making three barrels over their side. "...time?"

"Don't celebrate so soon, Apples!" Flim taunted before he and his twin brother took a sip of their cider.

"You're already falling behind." Flam added, both brothers clinking their mugs together.

"That's so unfair." Kodi whined.

"Yeah!" Kaede agreed.

"What are we gonna do?" Fluttershy muttered while I continued to watch over with a worried look.

Soon, the Apple family and the Hunter siblings were already falling behind. After only near half a dozen barrels, they started to get exhausted as Applejack's bucking and Mason's strength were started to get weaker, Apple Bloom and Carrie's burst of energy were beginning to dwindle, Granny Smith exerted more energy than she should at her old age and was slowing her inspection and Big Mac was panting heavily from all this running.

"I...can't...keep...going...big...brother..." Carrie complained.

"We can't give up Carrie, we need to keep going..." Mason panted, almost ready to pass out.

"Oh! This is just dreadful! Even at top speed, the Apples are only making one barrel to the twins three!" Rarity exclaimed in shock while gazing over at Mason with a worried look. "Oh Mason...Carrie..."

"W-we gotta do something!" Jamie exclaimed, holding onto his journal real tight until he was grabbed by the tie by none other but Jack.

"Well let's go then!" Jack exclaimed.

"W-wait what?" Jamie asked before being dragged by him.

"Yeah! We gotta do something! No way am I gonna watch them get tired out by this and lose their family's farm!" Kaede exclaimed.

"He's right! We need to help them!" I added before rushing over to the competition with Jack, Kaede, Kodi, and a forceful Jamie on my side.

"W-what? Ren? Kaede? Jack? Jamie? Kodi?" Applejack looked over at us with a surprised look. "What in tarnation are you doing here?"

"We came to help you, idiots!" Jack exclaimed.

"But what about the rules? You guys can't just breeze in here and help us out!" Mason retorted.

"Mason!" I yelled, giving him a serious look. "It doesn't matter! We need to help out with ya and not let you guys lose your jobs! Besides, isn't that what family do? We are all family, after all...brother."

Mason widened his eyes at me before sighing and smiling over at me. "Alright, help me out...brother."

"Awesome!" I exclaimed in excitement.

"And we're here to save the day as well!" Huh? We turned around to see Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash came over with smirks on their faces.

"I just spoken with the mayor and apparently, it doesn't matter if there are no honorary members of the Apple family, those who are close to them can compete in it!" Twilight smirked.

"Well that's quite satisfying." Kaede chuckled before clapping her hands together. "Alright! Let's get to work!"

"Yeah!" I nodded before taking out my hacking gun. Jack scoffed at it and stated "Oh please, like that thing can even help out?"

I raised a brow at him before pointing it over at a nearby apple tree, shooting it with 'Break' and knocking all the apples out of it, causing Jack to jaw-dropped at me.

"You were saying?" I smirked before blowing the smoke coming out from the hacking gun...like a boss.

"A-ahh..." Jack twitched his eye a bit before regaining his composure as he scoffed "W-whatever! It's good enough for me! Let's get to it now!"

"Wait a minute, what about the other guy? Rantaro?" Rainbow reminded us. Speaking of which, where is he? I haven't seen him since the thing started out.

"Looks like he disappeared...again." Jamie sighed.

"Seems so." Kaede shook her head. "But anyway! Let's get to work!"

"Yay! Let's begin!" Pinkie cheered.

"I'm ready!" Rainbow grinned.

"Hopefully I won't get dirty after this." Rarity added.

"I-I'll give it my all!" Fluttershy smiled.

"Let's do it everypony!" Twilight exclaimed in determination. Applejack and Mason couldn't help but smile at us, happy to see us helping them out.

"Thank you all for helping us out." Applejack smiled.

"We really appreciate all of your help." Mason chuckled, smiling proudly at us all. "Besides, I think we can agree with this. We love to have the rest of our family helping out."

"I think of that too!" Applejack nodded.

"Hey, never leave a man behind as they always say." Jake laughed, patting Mason's shoulder a little hard. Mason smiled over at him and nodded before we all began to get to work.

Me, Applejack, Fluttershy, Jack and Mason began knocking out apples off their trees. Rarity, Kaede, Rosy and Granny Smith were helping each other out in the quality-control station. Pinkie, Carrie, Apple Bloom, and Kodi were using the baskets to catch the apples. Big Mac and Rainbow Dash were running through the treadmill, increasing more of its speed of cider production. I kept blasting some trees with my Hacking Gun, only using 'Break'

"Break!" I shouted, shooting another tree and knocking some apples out of the ground with Kodi and Apple Bloom catching them

"Alright!" Apple Bloom cheered.

"We're gonna win this!" Kodi barked happily as we continued to move on. Kodiak has a point, we are totally gonna win this!

"Come on Rainbow Dash! Keep pressing!" I heard Twilight shouted over at Dash as she continued to increase the speed.

"We don't have time for quality control if we wanna win this thing!" Rainbow argued.

"Rainbow Dash! Shut up for one minute, will ya?!" Mason yelled.

"Big brother's right, Dash! If you get one bad apple in the cider, it's gonna taste bad!" Carrie added, causing her to growl angrily and kept moving. Well...that'll surely teach her a lesson about being patient at least.

Soon, I noticed both Mason and Jack slamming a tree together, knocking more apples down.

"Not bad for a biker." Mason smirked.

"And not bad for a bodyguard. I almost take everything back. Almost." Jack smirked, patting his gut out.

"Whatever..." Mason rolled his eyes while I smiled at the two of them. Looks like those two are finally getting along than I thought.

---

One Hour Later
"Time's up!"

Thank god, finally! I never...felt so...tired before...in my entire life...man. My hacking gun's power was nearly out of power, and looking around to see everyone was tired.

"Dang...I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack..." Jack sighed, taking off his coat, revealing his meaty but muscular arms.

"Tell me about it. But this isn't nearly as tough than the training I had when I worked as a personal bodyguard." Mason panted, taking off his sweater and revealed his muscles, making some of the mares, including Rarity, from the crowd to blush and admired them. Hmm...seems like Mason got some admirers in their eyes.

"But you know what? I think we did a good job, everyone." Kaede smiled.

"Yeah! We totally did! There's no way we could've lose to those meanies!" Carrie added.

"W-well....judging by all this cider we made. I saw we did pretty well." Jamie chuckled with a soft grin.

"You know what? You all are right. No way we could've lost to them." Applejack nodded in agreement.

"You're right Applejack, and I'm proud of you." Twilight smiled.

"Thanks Twi."

"Integrity like that will always be...rewarded." Jamie added.

"Flim and Flam wins!"

"Wait what?!" We all exclaimed in shock as everypony else was too shocked to hear that as well while the two conniving twins were getting giddy at that.

"W-w-w-w-we lost?!" Kodi gaped.

"Daww, too bad, Apples." Flim chucked with a mischievous smirk.

"Guess you'll just have to find a new line of work that doesn't match your names quite so...perfectly." Flam smirked slyly.

"Hey! That's no fair!" I exclaimed. "You guys must've cheated!"

"Cheated? Us?" Flim asked in mocked surprise. "No way we could've cheated. I say you all are the cheaters themselves."

"What?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"What do you mean we cheated? We've worked together as a family." Rarity stated, glaring at the two brothers.

"True, but still...you all had a mighty big help with each other, making the production more faster, just like he warn us." Flam explained, much to our confusion. He? Who is he implying. "Isn't that right...Rantaro?"

"Indeed it was...." We all slowly turned around to see Rantaro standing over five feet from us all with a sly smirk from his face. "Flim and Flam."

"R...Rantaro?" I asked in surprise.

"It was quite a fun match. I really appreciate your work efforts, you guys." He slow-clapped for us with a smirk. "Too bad you had to lose. Who knew that the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 could go turbo fast after I gave them a suggestion to let them use it in case they saw you guys might work together. After all, I did told them that they you all seemed very close and are willing to help them out."

"You bastard!" Jack growled, cracking his knuckles in anger. "Why that scamp!"

"I don't believe it!" Kodi blinked in shock.

"You...were on their side?" Applejack asked, her face forming from shock to anger. "How could you?!"

"You whippersnapper!" Granny Smith growled.

"Rantaro! Explain this now!" Twilight demanded.

"W-why? Why would you do this?" Fluttershy tearfully asked.

"It was quite simple really." Rantaro shrugged as he began to tell us what happened.

---

Flashback
"I gotta say brother, those Apple family and those two humans are gonna be quite the competition tomorrow." Flam stated as he and his brother were relaxing on the SSCS 6000 nice and comfy as the sun was setting down.

"Don't worry, they won't be that much of the competiton." Flim assured with a wave of his hoof.

"I wouldn't say that." The two brothers looked down to see Rantaro looking at them and their machine with a smirk on his face. "But I gotta say, I am impress with it. You two call yourselves...the Flim Flam brothers, correct?"

"You darn right my friend!" Fim nodded with a smile as his brother asked "So you must be one of those humans we heard about, eh?"

"Wow, guess our kind are famous here in your world, eh?" Rantaro asked rhetorically before shrugging "But yeah, names Rantaro Wilde."

"So Rantaro, what can we do for ya?" Flim asked. "You aren't spying on us to go and tell those Apples and those humans about us, will ya?"

"Oh please, like I would waste my time with them." Rantaro shrugged. "But I gotta admit, you two make a wonderful business with this contraption."

Rantaro gazes at the SSCS 6000 with a sly smirk on his face. "So this machine can make apple cider in a second?"

"Well of course! This machine was made from our hearts and souls!" Flim nodded before he and his brother hugged each other.

"Yep! Like a member of the family!" Flam nodded.

"I see..." Rantaro nodded, glancing away from them before turning back with a smug look. "But hey, I learned about a competition you guys are about to have tomorrow with the Apple family and I thought I could give ya an advice or two."

"And why should believe in ya?" Flim asked suspiciously.

"Well...if its trust ya want, I'll tell ya a little secret of mine..." Rantaro gestured to them as the two came in closer as he whispered something to their ears. After he was finished, Flim and Flam let out laughter before patting him on the back.

"Well I gotta say! You gotta be great with that!" Flim laughed.

"Yeah! So what's in it for us?" Flam asked, feeling interested in him more.

"Let's say that if you guys win, I'll be your franchisee and help you franchise your whole business. You two would be great and amazing with it." Rantaro smirked. "But I must warn you, those Apple family might get back up from their friends."

"What? Those other humans?" Flim scoffed. "Please, like they can match up to us."

"I don't know, they looked promising to me. They don't joke around." Rantaro snickered. "Besides...they could beat you by a second if your machine can go to its normal speed. Unless you can maximize it."

"Well, there's always the turbo power, but we never did that." Flam stated before he and his brother looked at each other in concern about it.

"But remember this, if you lose, then you'll lose the rights to beat those Apples and won't be able to get enough profit for your cider making business. You two came here to Ponyville for that reason, right? Not to make everypony enjoy themselves with your apple cider, but to earn their profits from those suckers. A normal person would be suspicious of that, but after seeing these ponies for a while, these guys are too naive and would fall for anything." Rantaro explained before he began walking off, tilting his fedora bit.

"Just remember...in case they're beating you, try to use that turbo power boost of yours. It might come in handy if ya ever want to win and you need me. If ya want to be the richest ponies in the world, then do that." Rantaro took his leave while the brothers looked at each other in thought, wondering if what Rantaro might be right about that. Unbeknownst to them, Rantaro smirked before hearing them shout "Wait!"

They both rushed to his side as Flim said "You got yourself a deal!"

"And what a wonderful deal it would be!" Flam added as Rantaro smiled at them and shook their hooves.

"Well...it'll be an honor to work for you...Flim and Flam."
Flashback Ended

---

"N-no way!" Apple Bloom gasped. "You sided with them?!"

"How could you Rantaro?!" Kaede exclaimed angrily.

"That's how business rolls. Besides, I don't see why that's a problem." Rantaro shrugged with a nonchalant look on his face.

"But Rantaro!" I called, gaining his attention as he glances at me. "But I thought we were friends! After everything we've done together! I...I thought we were your friends!"

"...Who said we were friends?" Rantaro asked, surprising me. "All I remember is that you called me your 'friend', but I didn't accept it. I mean, come on! Friendship, so bogus."

"But what about the magic of friendship?" Twilight questioned. "Don't you even care about that?"

"Magic of friendship? Please, that sounds something a seven year old could've come up with." Rantaro rolled his eyes, angering Twilight while I felt devastated by everything he said. So...he was joking.

"You bastard! I'm gonna kill you!" Jack screamed as he was about pounce at Rantaro until both Mason and Carrie stopped him.

"Stop it! It's no use!" Mason yelled.

"Are you kidding?! He's siding with those bastards and now the apple family lost their home thanks to those chumps!" Jake argued.

"I understand that, but you need to calm down! Fighting isn't gonna solve anything!" Mason retorted.

"Big brother's right! So please stop!" Carrie begged. Jack looked at them for a second before scoffing and decided to let it go...for now.

"Fine..." Jack glared dangerously at Rantaro, who returned a smirk back him before returning to the Flim Flam brothers and said "So you guys, why not sell your cider to the folks? I bet their 'thirsty' after today's work."

"You know what? That we'll do!" Flim nodded before giving three mugs and poured of their ciders and gave them to some ponies.

"Yeah! Now we're gonna turn Sweet Apple Acres into our own business! Flim Flam Fields!" Flam snickered before he and his brother began laughing.

"That's no fair!" Kodi exclaimed.

"Life isn't fair, little doggy." Rantaro snickered, patting him on the head as he growled angrily at him.

"Rantaro..." I muttered, feeling heartbroken that he would betray us.

"Sorry Ren, but I don't trust anyone. That's what I learn from life." I looked at him with a confused look as he continued "Why else did I not give you my name? Your life, name, and everything about yourself are precious to ya. You must think for yourself, and care for yourself. That's what I learn from my childhood."

What does he mean by that? So that means he never trusted us from the start? Sure I understand that, but still...to use like that...and deceived us...that's so cruel."

"I can't believe you!" Rainbow exclaimed angrily. "I so take everything back from you!"

"Are you seriously gonna do this?" Rarity questioned, pointing over to the Apple family. "What about them? Don't you see how much they care about each other?"

Rantaro glanced at Applejack and her family as he let out a snort and scoffed "Please, like I care. Family is nothing more than a nuisance!"

"What?!" Mason, Jack, Twilight and Rainbow Dash leered at the man until Applejack shouted "That's enough everypony!"

We all turned to her as she sighed sadly and said "They won fair and square. A deal's a deal."

"Applejack! No!" Carrie cried.

"But sis! I don't wanna leave Ponyville!" Apple Bloom complained.

"Sorry Applejack, but I'm afraid we got no choice..." Applejack glared over at Rantaro, with a frustrated look, along with her family as he kept his smirk. Everyone else glared at him while Pinkie began crying because now the Apple family have to move away. I don't believe it...Rantaro...why? Is it really the end of us? I can't believe it...I don't wanna! Applejack is one of the best friends I ever made since arriving to Equestria! She made so many memories here in Sweet Apple Acres! I even remember coming here on my third day in Ponyville...this is so messed up! Dang it!

"Bleh! What the heck is this?!"

"Is this cider or dirt?!"

"Why does my cider have worms and branches in it?!" Huh? We all turned around, including the Flim Flam brothers, as we all jaw-dropped in shock upon seeing ponies spitting out the contents of their drinks and threw their mugs down on the ground.

"What's going on?" Rainbow questioned. Jamie narrowed his eyes at the mugs before gasping in realization.

"It's the cider! That's what!" Jamie pointed out. "Something in the cider is causing them all to spit out the drinks!"

"Then that means..." Kaede covered her mouth in shock as she gasped "No way! The cider is terrible then!"

"What?!" Flim and Flam gasped in shocked.

"Ha ha ha ha!" We all turned to Rantaro, who was laughing with a smile on his face. "Well...looks like you guys are out of business."

"W-what?" Flim asked.

"Explain yourself, Rantaro!" Flam demanded angrily.

"You guys forgotten the most important thing to run a business. Ever heard of the quote 'Quality will always prevail over quantity'? Apparently, you two ponies didn't. Besides, I knew this might happen."

"What?!" We all exclaimed, shocked to hear that. W-wait a minute...is Rantaro...?

"Yeah, I knew about that the turbo boost might've caused the machine to not only suck in the apples, but as well as the dirt, trees, and stones. I witnessed it during the competition since these guys over there were too busy with making apple cider." Rantaro pointed over to us as we all gaped at him while he continued "Besides, it was quite amusing to see you two now in humiliation and embarrassment."

"B-but what about our deal?!" Flim exclaimed.

"Oh, I just lied." Rantaro shrugged with an uncaring look, ignoring the shocked looks from the brothers. "I lied in order to expose the truth out of ya."

"The truth out of us?" Flam asked.

"That you two are sniveling conniving dirty liars that tried to outrun their business. A family business, to be exact." Rantaro explained, his face turning serious. "Let's think about this. Ever heard of monopoly before? From the sources I've learned that Sweet Apple Acres holds many different farms that sells the best apples in all over Equestria, correct? So if you took down the business here, the source of where it all began, then every apple business here would crumble down and if you sold your apple business here, then it would lead to a disaster. After seeing every one of these ponies drinking those apple cider of yours, then that means you two would get in so much trouble for all this. So I'm afraid that you two are done for. Besides, why would I work for a bunch of suckers like you?"

....No comment. No one said a thing upon everything Rantaro just explained. This guy means business.

"N-no way! B-but you told us your secret! Everything you told us! You're like one of-"

"Don't compare me to low-life con-artists like you." Rantaro sternly said, crossing his arms. "I may have conned people from the past, but at least I don't run their business out of the picture. It just seems unfair and most businesses I conned are places I like to eat and sleep after all."

Flim and Flam jaw-dropped from everything, shocked that they just got outsmarted.

"Also, if I were you...I say run for your life right now because it looks like your 'customers' are gonna demand a refund." Rantaro pointed the crowd behind Flim and Flam, who all glared angrily at the two brothers.

Flim and Flam started sweating nervously as they asked the crowd for their opinion.

"You wouldn't even pay one cent?"

"No!"

"How about two cups for one cent?"

"No!"

"....Two bits for a barrel?"

"NO!"

The brothers backed away and whimpered nervously, realizing that Rantaro was right.

"It looks liek we've encountered a slight...problem here in Ponyville." Flam whispered to his brother.

"Nopony wants our product...next town?" Flim suggested.

"Next town! Let's go!" Flam suggested.

"Let's go, Flim!"

As the two brothers got on their contraption and tried to escape, their machine started malfunctioning.

"W-what the? What's going on? Why isn't this thing working?!" Flim demanded.

"Oh right. While we talked yesterday, I had a little friend of mine take care of that problem for ya." Rantaro smirked. "Isn't that right, Gizmo?"

"Gizmo?" Fluttershy questioned and to answer her question, something began shaking out of Rantaro's fedora, revealing to be an adult sized grey Raccoon who gave him a high-five. "Ahh, it's a raccoon!"

"A raccoon?! For someone like him to own for a pet, he's quite uncouth!" Rarity scoffed.

"But still...did he just helped us?" Kodi asked slowly.

"It sure looks like it." Jamie shrugged. I began to slowly let out a happy smile and yelled "Yes! Thanks Rantaro! I was starting to have doubts on you! You're awesome!"

"Heh heh, it's what I do best." Rantaro shrugged. "Besides, I lied to you on everything I said to you just to convince those suckers. Besides, they can't take all the fun from me."

"Huh? The heck do ya mean by that?" Jack questioned.

"Hey! You'll pay for this Rantaro Wilde!" Flim exclaimed, shaking his hood at him.

"Yeah! You'll get what's coming to ya!" Flam added, angrily glaring at them.

"Ugh...you two are so annoying." Rantaro rolled his eyes. "Oh and by the way, you two won't be needing this."

Rantaro pulled out a small bag and threw it to the crowd, revealing to be a bag filled with bits, much to everypony's joy as they immediately gotten all their profit back.

"W-what?! How?!" Flim and Flam jaw-dropped.

"Again, when you two weren't looking from our little talk yesterday." Rantaro snickered.

"Why you little! You traitor!" Flim growled.

"You know! We can tell everyone your little secret right here! Right now!" Flam threatened, hardly surprising Rantaro.

"Whatever, not my problem." Rantaro shrugged.

"What?! You little!"

"Alright, I think I have had enough with them." Mason sighed before turning to me and asked "Hey Ren, is your hacking gun still working?"

"Just a little more power left in it, why do you ask?" I asked.

"Please help 'fix' their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000." Mason winked at me before I let out a smirk and nodded before aiming my hacking gun at the SSCS 6000 at them and shouted "Paralyze!"

The electric beam shot at the machine, causing it go haywire and immediately was driven away straight out of Ponyville with the brothers yelling "WE'LL BE BACK!"

"Well...that was one way to get rid of them." Twilight commented with a raised brow.

"So wait, does that mean?" Apple Bloom turned to her sister with an excited grin.

"Yep! That means we won! Sweet Apple Acres stays!" Applejack smirked.

"And look everyone!" Carrie pointed over to all thirty barrels of apple ciders that we made so far during the competition. "Looks like we just got enough apple cider for everypony!"

"Indeed little sister." Mason ruffled her hair up, causing her to giggle.

"Ha ha! Now that's teamwork!" Jack wrapped his arm around the two siblings with a grin. "Also, I'm sorry if I said all those things to ya back there. Hope you can forgive me, dude?"

Mason looked at him for a while before smiling over at him and said "After you and the others helped out with me and gave me that lesson yesterday, I say you're already forgiven."

"Ha ha! Thanks!" Jack ruffled his hair, which he didn't mind.

"You know Mason, you were pretty awesome back there!" I added, nudging him a bit.

"Same to you Ren." Mason nodded. "But besides that, is it true? Did you really see me as an older brother?"

"Well yeah! You remind me a lot like my older brother, only much more cooler!" I grinned, catching Mason by surprise before he ruffled my hair and said "Well, I appreciate that...little brother."

"You too, big bro." I teased.

"And I say that I love being a part of this group." Kaede laughed, joining in.

"Y-yeah...me too." Jamie nodded with a meek smile.

"I say we all deserved it to be in it." Applejack smiled as the others came in for a hug, all except for one.

"Hey Rantaro, you want to join in?" Kodi asked curiously. Rantaro glanced at us and said "Why should I? Just because you guys won doesn't mean anything on what I said."

"What do you mean? You did this all for us!" Twilight pointed out. "You helped save Sweet Apple Acres by double-crossing the Flim Flam Brothers."

"Heck yeah!" Jack grinned. "You got the guts to do that to those sneaky bastards! I'm impressed!"

"Indeed. Besides your weird and suspicious ways, I say you deserved to be a part of this group." Rarity smiled over him.

"Mi'lady speaks the truth." Mason grinned, causing Rarity to giggle and blush lightly.

"Oh Mason..."

"And while I detest lying, I say you sure taught those brothers a lesson." Applejack said, smiling over him.

"Well of course. After knowing some about you since last week, I learned that you like telling the truth, but lying is good too." Rantaro stated. "Lying may be a bad thing, but sometimes it can lead us to the truth. Lies, white lies, any type of lies you use, sure they may not be the full truth, but it helps lead to it. Remember that..."

"Uhh...thanks?" Applejack raised a brow.

"You know! I'm quite impress with this whippersnapper! Just who is he?" Granny Smith wondered while Big Mac shrugged.

"Whatever...besides, take this." He threw in some more bits at them, which Apple Bloom caught. "Just something for repaying for your cider after I stole half the batch. Think of it as payment from me."

"Heh...not half bad." Applejack smirked.

Rantaro smirked back at her and said "That's how I roll. But anyway, I'll be taking my leave. Not like I have business here..."

"Come on dude! How about one cider?" I offered. "We are friends after all!"

"Friends?" Rantaro questioned. "I told ya, who said we're friends? I meant what I said, we are not friends, we're just strangers."

"But still, I'll work hard in hopes in earning your trust." I said with a serious look, causing Rantaro to glance at me. "I don't know how long, but I'll be sure to see you smiling and calling me your friend."

"Same here." Fluttershy added. "I hope we get along so well."

"Me too!" Pinkie added, appearing in front of Rantaro. "I hope we become good friends! Hopefully until next season or so!"

"...What?" Rantaro questioned.

"Nothing! Just something aloud." Pinkie giggled, causing us all to feel weirded out by her. Okay, let's just not jump ahead of her on that...or whatever that meant.

"Well whatever...enjoy your apple cider." He shrugged as his pet raccoon, Gizmo, ran back up to his shoulder and handed him two mugs of apple cider, one for him and one for Gizmo.

"W-what the?" Applejack widened her eyes as they turned back and saw that they used the apple cider on it while everypony else looked at him with awe and amazement.

"How did he do that?" Apple Bloom questioned.

Rantaro glanced at her and smiled before saying "That's what I do. I always get business rolling. See ya."

With that, he began to leave while we watched him leave off a distance from us.

"Still as suspicious as ever." Kaede sighed.

"Well at least we're all started to trust him at least..." Twilight sighed.

"Indeed." Rarity nodded.

"I don't!" Rainbow huffed. "Now come on! Let's get some cider ready!"

"Calm down Rainbow Dash. We'll get ready for it." Mason sighed.

"Yay! I want some cider too!" Carrie added.

"Count me in as well!" Jake patted his gut while Jo Jo nuzzled his cheek, agreeing with it too.

"Yeah! I'm down with it! What about you guys?" I asked the crowd. "Want some apple cider as well?"

"No!" Everypony yelled, causing me to blink in surprise.

"...You're kidding right?"

"Yes!" The crowd smiled as they rushed in and prepare to buy some apple cider. I then noticed Rantaro watching afar with a smirk on his face. Huh, guess he wasn't planning to leave at all. Just staying off a distance from us, that's all. I have so many questions about this guy. Who is he? Why does he have a phone but not us? And what did Flim and Flam meant about telling him about some secret?

"Wait..." Huh? I noticed Jamie in deep thought. "Rantaro Wilde...lies...AH!" Jamie slowly began widening his eyes in shock before letting out a loud scream. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"What? What's wrong Jamie?!" Twilight asked in alarm. Jamie slowly turned to Rantaro in fear, his legs shaking and his face went pale.

"T-that man...I know who he is..."

"Y-you do?" Fluttershy asked in confusion.

"What do you mean you know him? You've heard of him before?" Rainbow questioned.

"H-he's...Rantaro Wilde. The world infamous broker." Jamie pointed to him as he glances towards him while the rest of us looked over him with shocked, surprised, disbelief, and angry faces.

"What?! A broker?!" Jack exclaimed.

"Wait...now I remember!" Mason widened his eyes in shock before glaring straight at Rantaro. "He's a broker! Just like Jamie said! He's well known in the underworld society!"

"Yeah, yeah...now that you mention it, I've seen him once before! He once beaten a pal of mine from a game of poker!" Jack exclaimed angrily. "It's him!"

"A broker? What's that?" Pinkie asked. "Ooh! Is it someone who breaks a pony's body?! That is scary!"

"No, that's...not it Pinkie." Kaede stated.

"No. Not at all." Twilight shook his head before looking over at Rantaro with widened eyes. "A broker is a criminal who buys and sells things for his own profit."

"What?!" Kodi exclaimed. "I-is that true?"

Rantaro glanced towards us, leaning against the wall of a building before letting out a smirk.

"Well...looks like the cat's out of the bag. I didn't knew you guys would've found me out, but it looks like I've been caught." Rantaro chuckled with a sly grin. I looked over him with a shock and yet pale expression upon hearing all this.

"Rantaro...is a criminal...?" I muttered. No way...the next humans that woken up in the pod was an outlaw biker...and a broker?...What the heck is going on anymore?!
To Be Continued

Author's Note:

Oh my god! This has got to be the longest story I've ever written before! I hope it was worth it for you guys to read! Also, introducing the two new humans!

Jack Yamaki is a biker whose family been outlaw bikers for generations. He's next to inherit the leadership of leading the Yamaki Gang from his father. Rumors has it if ya called him fat, the person will get clobbered by him. He owns a guinea pig named Jo Jo, and he really is soft around him.

Next up is Rantaro Wilde, a world-reowned broker who is known throughout the underworld society and made quite a reputation. He knows how to slip out of police custody and finds a way to escape the law by negotiation. He's sly, cocky, suspicious looking and loves to share a story or two about his wicked past.
He owns a raccoon named Gizmo, who helps him in many deals and such when necessary. He likes to lie to people whenever he feels like to in tight situations, but he does to reveal the truth as he states that lies can sometimes lead ya to the truth.

I hope it was worth it! Good night folks! I need some rest! By the way, enjoy the credits. I hope you like this one!

Also, that arcade room was inspired by a store called Round One. It's an awesome place that you guys gotta try. Though I think I exaggerate on some of those games. I've been there before, but not for long. But it's a good place to check out and have fun! I have some photos of what it looks like in the home ship:

Number of Humans: 7

Comments

[The Taios]

Heh, maybe we should call em’ Rantaro the shadow broker. :3

[Best]

Awesome job as always can't wait to see the next one

[The Taios]

(Flim and Flam)
Flim Flam Brothers' Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

but what happened to the other 5999 super speedy cider squeezy?

super sqeezy. 🤣

[MaxTV1234]

9279812
Oh nice one! I didn't think of that one!

[dar88]

7 down 2 more to go I must admit a biker and broker I did not see that coming this should be a good lauth, The pets they have was a good idea suits them to a T can't wait to see what happens next