The Machine

by ADRNEL

Chapter IX~The Forest~

Chapter IX

The Forest

---

Day 36

It is a beautiful autumn morning in Ponyville, the leaves are changing color and everypony in town is getting ready for the upcoming winter.

In a pathway in the outskirts of town, Adam, wearing a longcoat and scarf, is walking a smiling Apple Bloom to school.

"Ah really appreaciate you doin' this." exclaimed a happy Apple Bloom to the human.

"Well, you did insist for me to walk you to school today." stated Adam, not sure why the filly next to him was adamant on him to do so instead of her older sister or brother.

What Adam doesn't seem to notice is that Apple Bloom has a big crush on him and wanted him to take her to school so she can spend more time with the human. The filly is still not sure why she has such a big crush on him, it's just something about him that makes her feel at ease and safe, plus all the stories he would share about his home time period and science makes her like him even more.

"Ah was thinkin'," continued the filly. "maybe after school you can hangout with me and my friends at the clubhouse, maybe help us come up with an idea to help us earn our cutie marks." she wiggles her rump at him upon saying 'cutie mark', as part of a naive attempt at flirting.

Adam, too busy trying to not get lost on the way to the schoolhouse, doesn't notice. "I'm sorry, but me and Twilight are going to be visiting a contractor pony this afternoon and then I have to help Spike with some errands, so I don't think I'll have time to be with you and your friends." explained the human.

Apple Bloom feels crushed after hearing what Adam said. "Oh...okay then...maybe next time." stated a defeated Apple Bloom. They then finally reach the schoolhouse where many of Apple Bloom's classmates are outside playing before class begins.

"Okay then, got here just in time." stated Adam, crouching down so he can talk to the filly more easily. He could see two fillies, one with a tiara and one with glasses give him dirty looks.

"Thanks for helping me with the homework, you're a great tutor." praised Apple Bloom who then wraps her forelegs around the human's neck in a hug.

"Thank you, now get to class, you don't want Miss Cheerilee to get angry for being tardy." stated Adam, letting Apple Bloom go. The filly happily smiles and nods in agreement before galloping off towards the school building, just as the morning bell rings.

Adam watches the filly gallop inside and the walks off to begin his busy day.

---

Recess time, and the foals of Miss Cheerilee's class are playing and having fun, at one of the wooden tables in the playground, Apple Bloom is busy drawing a crudely drawn picture of herself hugging Adam in front of a giant red heart. After finishing she puts down the crayon and looks at what she's drawn, letting out a loving sigh at the sight. Suddenly, a pair of pink hooves grabs the drawing.

"Why lookie here Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom has a crush on the two legged freak!" exclaimed a grinning Diamond Tiara to her friend, showing her what Apple Bloom has drawn.

"HEY! GIVE IT BACK!" yelled a desperate Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom and alien sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G~" chanted the two bully fllies, while snikering. "Oh poor naive Apple Bloom, what can you possibly see in that freak!?" stated Diamond Tiara, taunting the yellow filly.

"Yeah! What can you POSSIBLY see in him?" agreed Silver Spoon.

"He's not a freak! He may look funny, but he's actually pretty nice!" defended an annoyed Apple Bloom.

"Ooh you hear that, the blank-flank here is actually defending him, isn't that cute?" stated Diamond Tiara to her friend. "Besides," the pink filly then turns to Apple Bloom. "I think he prefers a REAL mare with expierience than a poor little inbread naive blank-flank like you." taunted the tiara wearing filly.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLIN' INBREAD?!" yelled an angry Apple Bloom, taking offense to that. Suddenly, Apple Bloom's two friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo show up.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU TWO!" yelled Scootaloo at the two fillies. The two fillies just give Scootaloo a dirty look, Diamond Tiara then takes the drawing, throws it to the ground and stomps on it with all four of her hooves.

"Come on Silver Spoon, we have better things to do than deal with that alien-loving freak." Silver Spoon follows close behind as the two fillies gallop off.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo quickly comfort a crying Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom? Are you okay?" asked a concerned Sweetie Belle.

"She's right, Adam will NEVER fall in love with an inexpierienced little filly like me." stated the yellow filly, crying. "I don't know a single thing about romance!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," urged Scootaloo. "I'm sure Adam will love you no matter what!" assured the pegasus filly.

"You don't understand Scoots! ah've been trying to get his attention for weeks now, and yet he still doesn't notice how ah feel about him." explained Apple Bloom to her pegasus friend.

"Well, it's not like you can force him to fall in love with you." mused Sweetie Belle, trying to lighten the mood. This statement causes Apple Bloom to get an idea.

"THAT'S IT!" Apple Bloom then quickly sprints off towards town, leaving a confused Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo behind.

---

At the Cutie Mark Crusader's club house, Apple Bloom quickly takes out a large book from a bookshelf and opens it to a page her fellow crusaders have bookmarked last Heart and Hooves Day, the love potion.

"I'll just make this love potion, give it to Adam, and he'll fall in love with me in no time!" proudly exclaimed the filly to herself. "But I don't have many of the ingrediants." she states, defeated. She suddenly gets another idea. "Ooh...maybe Zecora has them."

She then grabs one of her saddlebags, and trots off towards the Everfree forest, by herself.

---

In another part of Ponyville, Adam, Twilight and a contractor pony stallion are looking at an empty plot of land. "Well Mr. Gray, we'll be happy to build a home to fit your porportions for free!" happily states the contractor. "But it could take a while to build it."

"How long?" asked Twilight while surveying the empty lot.

"About two months Miss Sparkle." stated the contractor. "Because we are talking about a home built to the porportions of something the size of an alicorn." he explains.

"Well, I can wait two months." explained Adam, trying to be polite to the contractor. "When can you start?"

"Next week." the stallion then trotts of back into town leaving the human and purple unicorn alone.

"So," began Twilight, curious. "why did you want a home in Ponyville again?"

"Because I think this place is starting to grow on me, most of the inhabitants are friendly, it's not as hectic or stressful as my time period. So I was thinking of building a second home here I case I needed to get away from it all." he explains.

Just then, he sees a mint green unicorn mare and her peach Earth pony mare friend walk by, the unicorn smiling at the human and waving at him, while the peach pony just rolls her eyes in embarrasment at what her friend is doing. They both continue on their way

"See, friendly." stated Adam to Twilight.

---

Inside Everfree Forest, Apple Bloom is happily trotting down the path, heading towards Zecora's hut. She eagerliy continues on until she hears a twig snap, followed by a sinister growl. Apple Bloom turns around to see a scary sight; a timberwolf standing in front of her, growling and ready to attack.

The filly, scared, cautiously and slowly backs away from the timberwolf, but the creature follows her.

"Nice timberwolf, easy there timberwolf..." stated a scared Apple Bloom, sweating and trying to hopelessly calm the creature down. The timberwolf just snarls at her angrily and hungrily. The filly then turns around, and in a fit of panic and adrenaline, sprints away from the creature, trying to outrun it.

"SOMEPONY HELP ME!" yelled a scared Apple Bloom, too focused on the timberwolf gaining on her to notice the ground fall out from under her. The filly suddenly finds herself tumbling, hard, down a steep muddy incline. She continues her tumble down the incline until she ends up landing into a muddy puddle of water.

Apple Bloom, in pain and disoriented, slowly gets up from the puddle, she is wet, muddy, her body covered in several cuts and bruses, her mane is now a wild bowless mess, and she can feel her hind right leg is broken, because she immediatly feels a strong shooting pain whenever she puts her weight on it. She slowly hobbles out of the puddle and into another path, until to find herself lost.

"HELP!" she yells with all her might into the sky.

---

Sunset, and in Ponyville, Adam and Spike have just finished the shopping and are heading back to the library.

"It's a good thing I now have someone with me that can carry a lot of items." stated Spike, arms carring several bags, happy that his errands where made and completed easier and quickly because of the human.

The two of them suddenly Applejack galloping towards them.

"GUYS! GUYS! I NEED T' TALK T' YO'!" yelled the orange mare to Adam and Spike. She stops in her tracks in front of them, a look of concern on her face.

"What's wrong Applejack?" asked a concerned and worried Adam, knowing from her face that something is wrong.

"Have yo' seen Apple Bloom? She's late fo' dinner an' no one has seen her since this afternoon!" exclaimed a worried Applejack, desperate to find her missing little sister.

"I haven't seen her since I dropped her off at school this morning." answered Adam, trying to calm the farmer mare down. "Does she usually wander off on her own without telling anypony?" he asks.

"Sometimes, especially when she's gonna-" the mare suddenly gets an epiphany. Her expression suddenly changes to a mix of shock and anger. "GOSH DARN IT APPLE BLOOM! NOT AGAIN!" Applejack yells to the sky.

"What is it?" asked a confused Adam.

"Ah reckon ah know whar she wandered off to." Applejack states.

---

Nighttime is approaching as Adam, Applejack, Spike and Big Mac are standing in front of the entrance to the Everfree forest.

"So you think she's in there?" asked the human to Applejack for confirmation.

"If she's not in town o' th' farm, she's in there, probably visitin' that zebra Zecora." explained Applejack. Big Mac, with a serious face, steps up towards the forest. "Eeyup." agreed the red stallion.

"Then we need to find her, it is getting dark and it looks like it can rain in there at any minute." stated Adam, wanting to help out in getting Apple Bloom out of there.

"Ah reckon it's best that yo' let Big Mac here go wif yo', that forrest is exactly safe, especially at night." explained a concerned Applejack.

The group then sees Big Mac drops his saddlebags and take out a white glowstick, and throws it Adam, who catches it in his hand. Adam, never having see one before, has a hard time figureing out how to turn it on or how it works.

"Just bend it until yo' hear a 'snap' an' it should turn on on its own." explained Applejack. Adam does as told and sees the glowstick begin to glow.

"Fasinating" was all the human says in reaction.

Adam then sees Big Mac take out another, even longer glowstick, about double the size of Adam's, and turn it on, the longer stick giving off an even brighter glow.

"No fair!" exclaimed a shocked Adam. "Yours is bigger than mine!"

"Don't go thar!" spat Big Mac while attaching the longer glowstick to his yoke, giving the human a dirty look. Spike and Applejack just blush at what they heard and giggle quietly.

"Okay...well I guess mine can still do an adequite job regardless." mumbled Adam to himself, feeling strangley jealous at Big Mac.

---

In the forest, Apple Bloom manages to hobble into a cave, she sits on the cave floor, near the enterance, she's lost, alone, hungry and scared, this is not how she wanted the day to go.

"All ah wanted was for Adam to love me!" stated the filly, sad and starting to cry. Just then the sound of thunder booms across the sky, followed by a downpour of rain outside.

---

In another part of the forest, both Adam and Big Mac are walking through the raging downpour.

"APPLE BLOOM!" they both take turns yelling, hoping for a response. Adam can see Big Mac's expression get more and more stern the deeper they get into the forest.

Suddenly, they hear a twig snap, followed by a sinister growl. The human and stallion turn around to see an angry timberwolf behind them, ready to strike.

"Adam, when ah say run, run!" ordered Big Mac, the human just nods in agreement to the order. A minute passes by in the stand-off between them and the timberwolf before Mac finally gives the order.

"RUN!" he yells and the human and stallion quickly sprint in opposite directions. The timberwolf is briefly confused but decides to instead chase after the slower of the two; the human.

Adam is trying to run as fast as he can, but he's no stallion, making it easier for the timberwolf to gain on him. Adam tries to sprint top speed until he suddenly trips and falls down a muddy incline. He continues to tumble down until he lands in a muddy puddle at the bottom, face first.

Adam gets up, he's completly soaked and muddy with a few bruises, but otherwise fine. He looks around to find that he lost the timberwolf and his glowstick, he then lets out a sigh of relief. "Why must I always find ways to get hurt?" he mumbles to himself, standing up. He scans his surroundings until he sees something strange in the mud; a pink bow.

The human picks up the bow and realizes who it belongs to; Apple Bloom.

"APPLE BLOOM!" he yells in no particular direction, the rain continuing to fall. He looks around to find a small path leading away from the incline he just tumbled down on. Adam hypothesies that that must be the mostly likely route the filly took. He follows the path while continuing to yell her name every minute.

---

Apple Bloom is trying her best to sleep, but the hard cave floor, the downpouring rain, the cold and the pain from her broken leg are preventing her from doing so. Her ears suddenly perk up when she could've sworn she heard her name being called.

"APPLE BLOOM!" yelled a distant familiar voice, this time slightly louder. She immediatly recognizes that voice; it belongs to Adam.

The filly takes a deep breath and then yells at the top of her lungs; "I'M IN HERE! IN THE CAVE ADAM!". She immediatly hears the sound of feet pounding on the wet, muddy ground, getting louder and closer to the cave, she then sees a familiar figure run up towards the cave, the figure of a creature that can run on two legs, tall and thin; a human.

"Apple Bloom!" yelled the human upon entering the cave, happy to have found the filly. "Are you alright?" he asks.

"Ah's fine, just my leg." she explains. Adam goes up to her and examines her broken hind leg. He then takes his long scarf, plus two sticks from the cave floor and begins work bandaging it.

"This should keep you from moving it until we get you to a hospital." explained Adam, finishing up.

"Ah's sorry ah got you in this mess, if ah hadn't gone off we wouldn't be in this mess." apologised the filly with shame. Adam just envelops her in a hug, letting the filly cry on his shoulders.

"Now, now, don't blame yourself, as long as you're okay, nothing else matters." he tenderly explains trying to comfort her. He then suddenly feels Apple Bloom giving him a quick peck on his cheek, he is shocked and surprised by this act. "What was that for?" he asks the filly, letting her go.

"For saving me silly." responded a greatful Apple Bloom, blushing, happy to feel safe again, she always feels safe around the human.

"Well, because of the storm, I suggest we wait here until it clears up, so until then, I suggest you snuggle up next to me so we can keep each other warm, okay?" he explains the filly.

The filly just happily nods in agreement, she trotts up to him and curls up next to him. They both close their eyes and fall asleep as the rain continues to pour.

For Apple Bloom, this is the best and most secure night in her life...so far.

---

The next morning, Adam and Apple Bloom, who is being carried in the human's arms, are leaving the forest, surprised to see a beautiful and nice day outside. The leave the forest and reach the closest home to the forest; Fluttershy's cottage.

Adam knocks on the door only to be met by a very happy Fluttershy. "Adam! Apple Bloom! You're okay!" she exclaims. Suddenly, several other ponies rush out and greet the two. Apperently, Applejack, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Twilight and Spike have spent the night at the cottage with Fluttershy, while Big Mac found Zecora's hut, but because of the storm was forced to spend the night at her place. It was a happy reunion.

---

"And so, it is with great honor and dignity that I, Apple Bloom, declare Adam Gray, human, an honorary member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" announced the filly from her podium.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle happily cheer as they give Adam his offical Cutie Mark Crusaders cape.

It has been three days since Adam got Apple Bloom from the Everfree forest, and he's glad things are back to the way they should be. He glady accepts the cape.

After about an hour, Adam leaves to go run errands for the farm, leaving the three fillies alone in their clubhouse.

"So...have you confessed your feelings to Adam yet?" asked Scootaloo to her friend.

"You know, ah think it's best that ah wait...for now." she answers with a sly look on her face. "Besides, ah don't care if he has feelings for me or not, just spending time with him is good enough for me."

"Well, as long as you're happy," answered Sweetie Belle. "We're happy!" She then brings both her friends into a tight friendly hug.

All three fillies just smile, happy that everything worked out well.

NEXT TIME: The Confession

Author's Note:

NEXT WEEK (4/13):
The Confession, a Fluttershy-centric chapter.
That's all I'll say about it....Spoilers.

Also...there's an AMA going on, so go to my blog and leave a question for me to answer!
Thanks

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[Gizmo Hibiki]