100 years
A lone alicorn trotted down a sandy, yellow path. The silence, while eerie, also gave her time to think about why she made that portal in the first place. And why didn't she let Spike come with her? While they were good questions that an outsider would like to know, they were dumb questions to her.
She built the portal because she wanted to see other worlds besides hers and the humans. She didn't bring Spike along because he was out helping Rarity and she didn't want to take him away from her for however long they would be in here. She told her friends beforehand, thankfully, but she still got the feeling they were worried for her.
Her eyes were closed as she thought about her day, but the intoxicating aroma of corn filling her nostrils and forced her to stop thinking, stop walking, open her eyes, and see where the smell was coming from.
And, wouldn't she know it, she was right in front of a cornfield, which held stocks as high as a skyscraper She took a step forward, hungry as could be, about to take a small bite out of the closest corn stalk, when somepony stopped her.
"Hey, that ain't yers!" The pony called from somewhere up above. Twilight turned her head upwards, expecting to see if Cadence the Good changed her mind and wanted to accompany Twilight on her journey. What she saw was a scarecrow standing on a platform, high above the field.
"Did you just talk?" Twilight asked it; it didn't respond. She shrugged and tried to take a bite out of the corn once again. This time, she had her magic ready.
"I said, that ain't ye-" a flash of magic made the entire field freeze, including the scarecrow. It didn't put much strain on the alicorn, considering each plant barely weighed a half a pound. Twilight looked upward to see the scarecrow's mouth open, her eyes darting to and fro. Twilight gasped before charging up her magic some more and levitating the scarecrow down to the ground.
"You can talk?!" Twilight asked immediately.
"What kind a witchery was that? What did y'all do ta mah vocal cords? Whay coulden't ah speak? Who are y'all?!" The scarecrow asked for a lot of answers out of Twilight, who was obviously still trying to get her head around the fact that a scarecrow was talking to her.
She tried to answer all those questions with a simple sentence, but winded up repeating her question from before. "You can talk!?"
"Yea, ah can talk; is there a problem with that?"
"Well..." Twilight paused, worried she might've offended the talking scarecrow. "No...it's just, where I come from, scarecrows don't...talk."
"That don't mean y'all had ta freeze me with that there magic a yers. Last time ah saw that kinda magic was a hundred years ago, ah reckon." The scarecrow nodded in a self-agreeing manner and placed a pleasing smile upon her face.
"One hundred years ago?!" Twilight gasped, astonished. "But--but how?!" You should have died by now!" As if she just realized how rude she sounded, a light blush formed over her lavender cheeks. "No--no offense..." She mumbled.
"Aww, don't go gettin yer horn in a twist. It's all fine an dandy. Ya see, a hundred years ago, Ooze was just like any other magical land there is. There were the CMC that played in the pumpkin patch as Cadence the good watched over em. There was a local Lumberjack, a fierce lion in the Everwild Woods, and a famous yet humble apple farm, which my family an ah ran."
"You had a family?!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew it came out wrong once more. "I mean...where's your family now? Are the inside? Are they other scarecrows or something?"
"Naw," Scarecrow said, sounding sad, since Twi had accidentally touched a sensitive spot in her memories. "Ma ma and pa got...uh...fire set to 'em the moment they were turned to scarecrows by the Tyrants. Granny, Applebloom, Big Mac, and ah barely escaped with our lives." Suddenly, her head snapped up from looking at the ground and her expression was as serious as a military leader's. "Why should ah be tellin you mah life story, though?" She snapped. It was like a switch had been turned on, bringing her guard up again. "Ah hardly know y'all! You could be a spy for them Tyrants! There gunna set me on fire, just like they did with the rest of mah fam'ly!" Tears started to well up in here eyes as she stared daggers at Twi. "Go on, now. Put me back up on mah post an get! I don't need ta tell nopony nothing about what ah went through before ah got stuck here!"
Twilight stared at her, taken aback from the sudden outburst of emotion. After a moment, she reclaimed her senses and decided it was okay to try and convince Applejack--uh--crow--yes...Applecrow seemed like a perfect name for her--to explain this world's magic to her again. She took a tiny, tentative step forward towards the upset pony-scarecrow hybrid that had her back turned to her and was mumbling softly to herself.
"Applecrow...?" Twilight began, "I know your sad, and I'm sorry for bringing up painful memories, but--"
"NO!" Applecrow shouted, jumping around to face Twilight. "Just shut yer hey trap and keep walkin, spy! I don't want nothin ta do with y'all anymore!"
Her outburst didn't stun Twilight this time. Instead, she just nodded as if what Applecrow had said made any sense to her, and kept talking. "How do I convince you that I'm not a spy?" Twilight asked, "would a spy ask you to join them to see The Wizard of Centuries in Hay City?"
"I suppose not..." Applecrow admitted. "I guess ah'll come...but ah'm still keepin' mah eyes on you." Twilight smiled before leading the way to Hay City, Applecrow trailing behind her but stopping after a few steps. "Did y'all just call me Applecrow couple sentences ago?" She asked, giving Twilight a suspicious look.
Twilight's cheek blushed; she hadn't realized she had said the nickname she gave to the scarecrow in her head out loud. "Yeah...I'm sorry...I was just thinking on how you looked like my friend from back home--her name is Applejack--and since your a scarecrow as well, I thought I'd combine the names. I can--stop calling you that. I mean, if you don't like it. What's your actual name? I can call you that instead." She knew she was rambling on about nothing, but she couldn't help herself. It's what she did when she was embarrassed or upset or nervous.
"Don't you fret nothin' bout nothin'. Ah prefer that name more than Applejack--mah givin name--an that's the honest truth!"
Twilight was so taken a back from the similarities of Applecrow and Applejack that she found herself not replying back, making Applejack give her a weird look after a while."A-a-are you sure?" She asked, finally finding her voice.
"Positive." Applecrow smiled. The switch turned on again as her expression turned serious once more. "But ah ain't kiddin bout keepin mah eye on y'all."
Twilight nodded then lead the way towards Hay City once more, Applecrow by her side, with no interruptions on their path.