Sisters In Arms

by SuperBird64

Prologue: Don't (Make A) Deal With The Literal Devil

A yellow earth pony with a red mane and large red bow on the top of her head climbed a ladder and picked the last apple off a tree, dropping it into a basket below then climbing down.

"How is it coming along sis?"

"Hey Apple Bloom check this out!" Once Apple Bloom's sister, a orange earth pony with a blond mane and cowpony hat as her head accessory dropped an apple into her respective basket, she suddenly jumped from her ladder and kicked the tree with her hooves knocking the remaining apples down and onto the ground. As for the sister she landed on her back with no real pain heard or seen.

"That was cool but a bit unnecessary AJ." Apple Bloom admits which gets her a annoyed look from the latter pony named AJ. "What you said it yourself honesty is the best policy."

"But-you know just forget it." AJ said admitting defeat not able to counter something she said herself "Well we picked all the apples in the orchard, what now Applejack? Should we take a break?"

"I still got lots of energy left but there's nothing else to do."

"Same...think you can teach me that...Apple bucking trick?"

"Apple bucking? that's a horse thing but it has a nice ring to it." Applejack picked up one of the basket of apples, climbed up to the tree and started carefully placing them back on the tree

---

Apple Bloom landed a buck on the final tree sending the apples to the ground "Welp we've picked all the apples in the orchard...again but with apple bucking."

"I still have lots of energy left to spare Sugarcube." Applejack told Apple Bloom, daily work on the apple family farm had become such a common and everyday thing for these 2 Apple sisters that to them it's the equivalent of reading a story book.

"I'll go see if the newspaper has arrived." Apple Bloom made her way to the front of the barn where she found a pile of Everyday Equestria, the national newspaper, the pony with the flower namesake picked up the paper and brought it inside the barnhouse.

"Alright let's see what the headline today is." Applejack grabs the paper from her sister and looks down at the front page "Applelossanian outlaw robs vacuum store? Why would they choose a vacuum store over a bank. We also gotta remember to visit our cousin Braeburn one day."

Apple Bloom flips to the next page "I'll read the next story sis, giant insect attack at Ponyville border Captain of Royal Guard suspects smuggling operation. How does a vacuum store robbery beat a monster attack?"

Applejack flips the page again "Next story! Carnival owners fails to get customers with a new roller coaster that somehow doesn't make them go bankrupt. You know what I think I know exactly who's into these kinds of news stories." The cowpony walks over to an elderly green earth pony currently sleeping in a rocking chair which creaks quite loudly.

"Hey Granny Smith thou-" Somehow Applejack's whisper registered to the sister's granny as a yell as she suddenly woke up

"You'll never get my soul! Oh it's just you two...oh thanks for getting me the Everyday Equestria love these stories. Make sure to check up on your brother he can't be doing all the work himself." Ever since their mom and dad Pear Butter and Bright Mac passed while transporting apples not long after the sisters were born Granny Smith had been their caretaker and parental figure. Although she might be useless physically resulting in not a lot of contribution to the family business, a bit kooky and crazy at times she truly did love her granddaughters and would often give them wise advice.

The Apple Sisters make their way back to the orchard and found their brother a large red stallion working on a tractor engine "Still working on the tractor eh Big Mac?"

"Eeyup"

"Need any help big brother?" Apple Bloom offered

"Nope"

"You sure?" AJ added

"Yes i'm sure of it." Big Mac breaking his pony of few words nature is what the other 2 apples took as a sign that he's serious.

---

"Here's something we can do, see who can drink the most ciders. Hey Apple Bloom last one to pass out wins." Both earth ponies only manage to gulp down one cup of cider when their vision becomes blurry and seem to get a blue and red layer over the original similar to those old 3D glasses. Although their vision eventually cleared up and the filters disappeared both earth ponies passed out

***

"Well since that clearly didn't work let's try something more tame like kick the can." Apple Bloom empathizes her point by kicking an empty can of chicken soup into a trash can. Applejack follows this up by kicking a can of beans into a bigger piles of bigger cans which gives her an idea. She grabs all the cans, stacks them into a 5 at the bottom to 1 at the top tower and runs through it sending all the thrown cans clanging to the floor.

"What you think of th-AHHH!" The source of the cowpony's sudden yell turns out to be a large rat that either had somehow managed to fit inside one of the cans or the ruckus had somehow awoken it from the trash pile the first one being more likely to the sister and speak of the devil Applejack grabbed her sisters hand and they dashed back to the orchard.

"Okay think we got away" Applejack said panting a bit to feel something heavy on her head, confused she removes her hat only to find 2 large rats somehow in her mane. Apple Bloom screams, grabs a shovel and goes to smack the vermin but in classic cartoon slapstick the rat screams resulting in the slightly younger sister to hit the older one. Applejack's about to scold her sister only to find another identical rat which she tries to hit with a rake only to get the same result. The Apple Sisters go back and forth with hitting each other on the noggin until Apple Bloom passes out which causes AJ to hit herself in the face knocking herself out.

The 2 rats then come out from behind the 2 knocked out Apple ponies and cuddle against each other.

***

"Maybe there's some hidden apples we forgot about."

The slightly younger sibling climbs the ladder and pokes her head into the leaves only to unintentionally disturb a bunch of bats which wake up and are immediately attracted to her apple accessories empathized by hissing. She falls off the ladder and knocks down a beehive which smashes open once it makes contact with the ground.

"I'm not a real apple!" Blossom uselessly but knowingly tried to reason with the colony as she was running away from the colony. Back to the beehive which just broke open the bees started attacking the slightly older sibling "Don't look like a threat! Don't look like a threat! Don't look like a threat!" she mumbled standing still hoping the bees wouldn't sting her, but as soon as one of them crawled on her arm she freaked out and started running

After a bit of running away from their respective chasers the apple farmers crash into each other as a result the animals briefly started attacking each other, the bats ended up getting the upper hand as the swarm of bees retreated into the orchard.

"There you all are!" Applejack and Bloom, who were rubbing the back of heads turn them to find the source of the sudden call being a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane. The bats eyes suddenly turn from blood red to blue as they all fly over to the pony and land on her like a bunch of birds, a few even cuddling against her face.

"Thank you for finding them."

"You're welcome I guess." Apple Bloom said as the peagsus walked off she then noticed that her sister's hat had landed on her head and in place of the sister's hat was her unraveled bow ribbon. They exchanged head accessories and then spotted a mole take an apple from a basket.

"MOLE!" Apple Bloom announces

"Oh no please don't tell me it on my face?"

"No an orchard one!"

The critter quickly retreats into a hole which Applejack reaches into, only to retract it when she feels the mole bite and then scratch her hand, luckily the marks weren't deep enough to draw any blood. Apple Bloom pulls out a mallet and waits patiently but when the mole comes up it spits a lump of dirt into Blossom's face causing her to fall back and get one side of the mallet to land on her face making her see stars,

Applejack decides to stupidly stick her whole head into the hole but rather than finding the apple stealing mole she instead nabs the attention of a bunch of earthworms which all start to slither on her. She screams into the ground struggling to get out but once she fall backwards onto a shovel "Welp at least that thieving mole didn't get away with more than one app-" her statement gets jinxed by said mole throwing not 1, not 2 but 5 bitten or rotten apples.

***

"Might as well get back to work." Apple Bloom sighed in acceptance, climbing up a ladder going to replace some apples on a tree only to drop the one she was about to replace onto the tree which started rolling towards the forest.

"I'll get it Sugarcube!" Applejack assured her sister running after the apple which stopped at what she first assumed was a small plant but when she stood up she found herself staring at a wooden sign pointing to the right "Hey sis you might wanna check this out."

Casino this way

"I think we just found something to do sis!" Apple Bloom exclaimed "Apple Bloom! You know what Granny Smith said about gambling, it is dangerous, addictive, risky rigged you know what most ponies say the house always wins." Applejack explains "Well Granny Smith never had a rule against sneaking out and we can always settle for an arcade." Blossom points to a sign pointing to the left.

Arcade this way

"Would you consider an arcade a casino for young ponies Applejack?"

"Not really at least you can actually win something for all your underage 'gambling' so I don't see why not."

The sisters look forward and notice how beautiful, majestic and almost magical the forest looked. Apple Bloom goes to pick a flower only to get her hand smacked seemingly out of nowhere which came courtesy of a green earth pony with a reddish mane and wearing a gardener like outfit.

"Hey this is private property! Don't touch the plants or step on the grass!"

"But this is a forest a single pony can't own a entire forest." Apple Bloom points out and counters, "I'm renting it but that's besides the point! My main point is that don't you care about nature and the wonderful life it creates like Cuck-coos a subspecies of Cockatrices, now if you excuse i'm gonna go chain myself to a tree."

The 2 apple ponies watch as the gardener walks over a gardening bag, pull out some chains and start to tie them around herself and a nearby tree. Confused and a bit uncomfortable from their sudden encounter the continue along the trail to the not so majestic part of the forest.

"Hey is it just me or is there a huge increase in vegetables?" Applejack asked fondling a almost ripe carrot. The sisters had memories of playing in this part of the forest which was growing a few unripe and sometimes rotten vegetables luckily none of these dead vegetables had a powerful enough smell to drive them away.

"Must've been the work of that tree hugger." Apple Bloom responded pointing a thumb back. It not even a few more steps along the trail when they're confronted by a dark blue pegasus with a white mane dressed in a glimmering suit "Hi there could I interest you 2 lovely mares in my Las Pegasus hotel? It offers amazing services at a reasonable price."

The sisters cringed a little and together they say "We're good"

***

The siblings were glad that was the last random encounter as they eventually reached the arcade but rather than it being on the side of the trail it was instead at the end of it another, even more peculiar they noticed was that the building itself looked very rundown and the building was styled like a 2nd generation one aka the time period when their parents were still alive.

"You think anyone could be inside?"

"Maybe" Apple Bloom simply responded walking up to the door and pressing her body against it in hopes of opening it to no avail "Locked!"

"It's a pull door Apple Bloom." Applejack pointed out pulling on the handle and revealing that the interior of the building was completely different than the exterior while it still kept the second generation retro look it was in way better condition, with a colorful carpet, some classic arcade cabinets and a few modern arcade games. Speaking of the devil the small amount of patrons occupying these games were strange to say the least they all wore excessive amounts of accessories.

The duo were so caught up in the sight that they didn't notice that they were in front of with 2 doors on either side. "Hello welcome to Try Your Luck arcade!" a pink pegasus with a light blue mane tied in curls and about Apple Bloom's greeted the sisters at the entrance "My name's Cozy Glow!"

"Sure you're a legitimate business? What's your slogan?" Applejack asked raising an eyebrow already suspicious of this place "Um? At this arcade you can test how lucky you really are!" Cozy's somewhat delayed response luckily for her only got her a weird look from both Apple ponies.

"Hands please" The earth ponies reached their hands out which the pegasus then stamped with clearly visible red ink, leaving them with each a 3 digit number respectively. Cozy opened and let the earth ponies through one of the gates and into the gameroom.

"Cool they have a token machine!" Apple Bloom inserts a bit into the machine only for said object to spit it out. She tries again stupidly deciding to look into the bit slot. The slightly younger sibling played a dumb game and won a dumb price in the form of the bit poking her in the eye briefly blinding her.

"How about I give it a try sis" Applejack inserts a bit and covers the slot with her palm but this doesn't have a affect on the machine rejecting the coin.

"Sorry probably should've put an out of order sign there." The sisters heard a strange pitched almost awkward sounding voice say. The sisters looked over to find a earth blue pony with a black mane which looked like another emplelyee at this rundown arcade "I'll take those."

The Apple sisters give the employee their bits and in exchange he gave them each 4 tokens except they didn't feel like actual tokens they felt a bit plastic and cheap.

"Hey any reason why these tokens feel fake and we got clearly visible numbers on our hands...Crystal Hoof?" Applejack asked squinting to read his name tag

"Budget cuts alright this place has been open for...let's see here." Crystal starts counting his fingers and then the tiles on the ceiling? "I lost track, a long time okay."

"Well that was strange." Applejack muttered as she walked over to a retro arcade cabinet game called Stack A Cake the art on it showing a light blue earth pony with a pink mane decorating a cake. The demo gameplay showed 3 cake layers of combined flavors being stacked but topples over die to the last layer being placed badly.

She pops a token in and starts playing, the first layer was vanilla she pressed a red button, the only control on the cabinet knowing the first layer didn't require any skill. The next layer was chocolate, the apple pony squinted a little and placed down the second layer, which was slightly off. Although she swore she saw it slide into place.

Following that layer was a strawberry one which was placed almost identically to the last one. After that was a coconut one but due to how focused Applejack was on the screen she mispressed the button which placed the layer very badly. The earth pony expected the cake to topple over and get a game over only for the layer to slide into place and somehow this gets her a new high score as not only does the message appear but it also transitions to the initial screen with APJK being what she decides to place.

A bit shook up at her incredible luck or glitch in the game she backs away from the retro cabinet only to bump her back into a claw machine. She goes to insert a token only to find not only an out of order sign but also demo gameplay? The inside of the machine showed what looked like a passed out black, bug like equine dressed in a suit, holding cymbals held up by the claw and being moved around the glass box.

On the other hand Apple Bloom approached a more modern looking arcade game called Everfree Stand the demo gameplay showing roots developing the screen resulting in a game over screen. As for the game itself the only controller was below the token slot which was a plastic majestic looking axe. She inserts a token and picks up the axe which starts the game up.

The opening scene shows a first person view of a root wall forming in front of the player and then around them. She started waving the axe around slicing right though the thin roots, she got a double, triple and quartet slice and a super slice when a extra big root came on screen. This gave Apple Bloom memories of she and Applejack playing Fruit Ninja with Big Mac where he has to slice all the fruit they threw except the apples with one game ending in their older brother accidentally slicing his own arm which brought this activity to an end.

This basically was Fruit Ninja except with no feature to stop her from getting slice happy. It was a few more bigger roots later when she accidentally hit a patron breaking a lens off their sunglasses glasses she help them up when she notices that right before they covered their eye with their hand she swore they had a non reflective blue insect like eye.

"Sorry about that" Apple Bloom apologizes to the patron who doesn't say anything but also doesn'y sjow any signs of bitterness or anger with the earth pony. She looks back at the arcade game which had displayed a game over but also new high score and initial screen.

She put in APBLM and looked for another game when she found a very out of place coming soon area containing many deactivated arcade machines like Appleloosa Duel, Stalk Stalker, Sugar Dash, Volcanic Digger & Scrapable Art just to name a few. Feeling a bit uneasy she backs away from it.

She shortly meets back up with her sister and both settle on a game that was a mix of a retro arcade cabinet and modern setup called Jacks Of All Fruits the art on the cabinet being a mare collecting pears and a stallion collecting apples. It made the Apple sisters a little emotional as it reminded them of their parents.

They picked their characters both settling on mare apple farmers. The duo then had to choose a game mode split screen or co-op. They settle on co-op and grip their respective joystick, it starts raining a variety of fruit but the sisters knew to only collect the red apples.

Curious to see if there were any bonus points in this game she collects a green apple and surprisingy to her it gives her some extra points. This eventually escalates to the sisters pushing each other around the screen, attempting to nab green or golden apples ultimately resulting in 3 strikes in the form of non apple fruits.

"I need a breather." Applejack admitted walking over to skee ball, she pops a token in and lazily throws the first ball surprisingly it lands right in the 10000 point hole in the corner, she shakes her head and rubs her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating as the 10000 points on the scoreboard was very real.

"Let me give a shot big sis!" Apple Bloom exclaims grabbing the next skee ball and to her surprise she scored another 10000 points hole in the opposite corner. They both went back and forth with scoring 100000 points and by the end they had accumulated a total of 100000 points.

"By golly! Haven't seen any luck like this in an entire generation!" A hole in the crowd of patrons formed and Cozy Glow walked through "Looks like your luck test did really well! You know what i'll take you to my manager come along!" Cozy leads the apple sisters through a door which led to a room with a table. On the table was a board game with 2 dice and piles of tokens. Sitting at the table was a few patrons identical to the game room ones but the one who stuck out like a sore thumb was a green unicorn with a brown mane, wearing a photographer like outfit.

"Oh you 2 must be the lucky patrons" Is all the unicorn said before a green flash of light surrounded her and when it disappeared revealed a black creature with insect like wings, teal mane holes in her horn legs and arms. She wore teal armor over a dress of the same color which the duo found as a very strange fashion choice.

Speaking of which once they've processed the unnatural sight they screamed, tripped and crawled backwards "What's wrong she's only my manager." Cozy said revealing that she was a pink and blue bug looking creature, this only fueled their panic fire causing them to accidentally crash into a patron knocking all their accessories off revealing a similar appearance to Cozy's manager and proving Apple Bloom's suspicion.

The manager approached them pulling something out of her pocket. Applejack and Bloom close their eyes hoping for the worst fate only for it to never come, they slowly open their eyes to find that the manager had actually offered them 2 red dice

"Oh sorry guess I forgot to introduce myself the name Queen Chrysalis i'm the one who really test one's luck." she randomly dumps a bunch of playing cards from her left wrist armor to the right one, before taking that off and dumping it back into the left one.

"What's the deal with Cozy and that patron having similar looks to you?" Applejack asked "And why can only you and her transform?" Apple Bloom added

"Simple those powers are only given to the higher ups which includes..." Chrysalis trails off leaving the room and coming back with Crystal Hoof which prompts him to drop the now obvious disguise revealing a similar appearance to Cozy except he was lime green with orange antlers "Thorax Cozy's co worker the henchbugs if you may."

"Don't you mean your henchbugs?" AJ pointed out

"Queen is just a title" Is all the Apple sisters were given to ponder which was interrupted by Chrysalis reoffering the dice "Come on test your luck." she said showing no sign of malicious or evil intent, they each respectively take a die, approach the table and blindly throw the dice and open their eyes to find a 5 on the first die and a 4 on the second.

"Impressive." Chrysalis compliments before pushing her medium pile of tokens towards the duo signaling they've won. "I bet my entire stock!" Cozy declares betting her slightly bigger stack of tokens, she rolls and gets a 6 on the first die and a 3 on the second.

Applejack grabs the 2 dice encasing them in hands, she does a little breathing exercise before tossing them onto the table landing a 5 on both. Cozy didn't say anything or show any emotion as the Apple sisters took her stock of tokens. They went on to beat every other patron at the table including Thorax who had the biggest token pile at the table.

"Truly impressive! I can't believe it! These 2 can't lose!" As soon as the 'Queen' said that a puff of smoke appeared at the edge of the table

"Nice run you 2....apple ponies I presume. Haven't seen patrons like you in a entire generation." The duo look up to find a creature very similar to the illustrations of demons with red skin and horns except this one had a black torso, bull like head features, completely dark eyes with yellow pupils and a goat like beard.

"I'm the owner of this establish, the name's Lord Tirek or as outsiders called me The Surface Devil." Tirek then rolls a pair of dice getting a 3 and a 2 "How about we raise the stakes? Beat my roll and i'll make a 1 million bit donation to your family but fail and i'll get your souls. So do we have a deal?"

Applejack was a bit skeptical about this idea of losing their souls to this Lord Tirek Devil creature but knew that with her luck she shouldn't worry. Apple Bloom on the other hand was completely worried about this deal not wanting to know what will happen if they lose their souls.

"Um sis maybe we should back out of this d- DEAL!" Blossom's whisper of worry was easily overpowered by her slightly older sister's exclamation. Applejack didn't even hesitate immediately throwing the pair of dice onto the table, Apple Bloom's world seems to go in slow motion from a mixture of nauseousness and worry as the dice bounce around the table and ends with each landing with a 1.

"SNAKE EYES!" Applejack didn't even get time to process her massive loss when Tirek yells the latter slamming the table knocking back Chrysalis, Thorax, Cozy and the other patrons at the table

"Now about those souls..." He trails off, the apple sisters close their eyes expecting the Devil to suck their souls out only to feel a claw against their backs now expecting him to rip it out of them. Tirek does seem to rip something out of them but they don't seem to feel their consciousness or spirits being moved.

The duo open their eyes to find 2 the demon holding 2 pieces of paper, more accurately contracts with their names at the top in bold letters.

"Those are our souls?" Applejack questions

"You mean we have pieces of paper in our bodies?"

"It's not as complicated or demonic as other outsiders say it to be." Tirek expected them to ask something like that but didn't expect was for the 2 earth ponies to fall to their knees in a begging postilion.

"Please Lord Tirek The Surface Devil there's gotta be some other way" Applejack begged "We'll do anything just please don't take our souls." Apple Bloom added

"Well since you did refer to me as Lord..." He trails off giving the 2 pony farmers their souls back followed by spawning in a Notice Of Repossess

"Here's a new deal. You see almost all my clients have cheated on their side of the deals, many of these runaway debtors could be captured within a few hours or days but sometimes it could take up to a few weeks or months. But that doesn't mean every debtor has been captured there are still a select few that none of my employees or I can catch which is why I'm giving you 2 the task of retrieving their souls."

Applejack takes the Notice Of Repossess and finds out it was more of a list than a actual notice and reads a few names from different parts of the list "Rockhoof, Tree Hugger, Gladmane, Flim & Flam, King Grover there is no way you expect us, 2 simple earth ponies to retrieve all these souls."

"You want to raise the stakes? Alright you 2 now have only 48 hours and-"

"Alright! Alright!" Apple Bloom interrupts "We'll do it! Don't want you to raise the stakes even more."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Deal!" Both Apple family members declare each respectively shaking the demon's hands.

"What happens if we don't collect all the souls within the time limit?" Applejack asks which Tirek answers by spawning in 2 dolls similar to the duo and slices off the heads with a finger which lands right in front of the 2 apples.

"I'll not only have your souls but also your heads!" Out of nowhere, out of the blue, very randomly the demon turns his lower half into a horse body becoming a centaur and bucks the Apple sisters knocking them through a wall, leaving a hole which Cozy and Thorax immediately start fixing "Now get to it! Remember 48 hours!"

They've just dealed with the literal Devil

Both literally and as a figure of speech

Author's Note:

I'm gonna be honest I made lots of last minutes changes to this story (While writing the chapter)

Comments

[RainbowRaptorDash1]

Hmm… is this Cuphead x MLP?

[Comickook]

11870420
Indeed it is. But that's all we can say without spoilers.

[RainbowRaptorDash1]

11870553
Okay

[Comickook]

Hey there. Thanks very much for getting this story started. While I'm not going to spoil anything, I WILL say that, so far, you did a really good job on the additions to expand this out. The dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up are wonderfully done. Liked the stuff with AJ and Bloom on the farm before they ended up in the gaming zone and got into the mess with Chrysalis and Tirek.

REALLY looking forward to more of this.