Follow skittle strike after he is changed forever and what happens after his unfortunate change.
In this story we will be following skittle strikes life after an unfortunate flight around his town of dodge city and the chaos that ensues afterwards.
In the city of Dodge Junction a young Pegasus stallion can be seen walking the streets nodding to the ponies he passes on his way to the outskirts of town.
His coat is an amber colour and his mane and tail a slight dark blue with green eyes. His cutie mark is an orange and blue ball knocking down pins showing his love for ten pin bowling, The stallions name is skittle strike.
He is well known and quite well liked for his fun loving attitude wherever he goes he will always find ponies willing to stop and wave to him or just have a small chat, But today he can be seen walking through town with a scowl on his face. While it is unusual to see him without his signature smile, the reason why he is scowling is because he is in deep thought.
For the last few months ponies have been seeing changelings roaming around the city but not many ponies know what their doing but everypony is on edge and it has left some unhappy, afraid of what they may be up to.
sighing to himself he gets to the outskirts of town when a voice stops him.
" Hey skittles where ya going, you busy" shouted a voice behind him.
Turning around he sees his bowling buddy and local guard lance flash "hey lance just going for a walk outside the city and stretch my wings, why you need me for something?"
lance is a green coloured unicorn stallion with a purple main and tail. with a dark blue stripe going down the middle and he has blue eyes.
The green stallion trotted up to skittles and said. "well I saw you going to the outskirts and I thought I'd be a bit nosey for once." The stallion shrugged. "But anyway, I was just wondering when I've finished my patrol whether you'd wanna go bowling later, have some apple cider. Haven't really done that for a while, so you up for it?"
"yeah sounds like fun, when you finish meet me back here, then we can show them all how bowling's done!" skittles replies with a grin.
"great, see ya back here in a few hours dude, we're gonna have a blast." Then the green stallion continued on with his patrol with a smile.
chuckling to himself skittles continued on, Stretching his wings giving a few flaps he flies off going higher and higher till he's at cloud level and going further away from dodge junction. But unknown to him a few pairs of eyes are watching from a distance and moving in the shadows of a building.
After about ten minutes of flying, skittles takes a look around him, he notices he's gone pretty far away from town and closer to the Badlands, where it is a known area of the changelings.
Turning around to go back to the town, he see's an earth pony on the ground waving to him, so feeling in a good mood he dives down to the pony to see what their after.
"Hey how can I help you?" skittles asked when he got close enough to the ground and landed a few feet away.
"Oh not much I was just hoping you might be able to help us with something?" the mare that he now see's asked him, she was a cyan coated earth pony with a black mane and tail.
raising an eyebrow at the mare for using 'us' instead of 'me' he just answers with a "yeah sure".
The mare just smiles and flutters her eyelashes at him saying "aren't you a gentlecolt, but what we need from you isn't much, we just need you to come with us so you can help us with our problem". After finishing the mare turns around and moves forward so he can follow her.
Skittles goes to follow and decides to ask the mare a question he's been meaning to ask after speaking to her. "I hope you don't mind me asking but why do you keep saying 'us' or 'we' is there somepony with you?".
Stopping to turn to the stallion behind her she turns around to speak to him. "Well our princess needs a test subject and we decided to grab you for said role". The mare said with a smile.
After she finished she was engulfed in blue flames and in her place, Was a changeling with a black carapace with a blue main and tail, a jagged horn on her head and blue insectoid wings on her back.
Seeing the mare change skittles goes to take flight but is halted when something strikes him in the back of the head knocking him to the ground, Where he then sees two more changeling move into his line of sight to stand next to the one he followed. He goes to call for help but the mare in the middles horn starts to glow and then he is struck by their magic which knocks the poor stallion unconscious.
Seeing that the stallion can't put up any type of struggle they move to tie up his wings in the mishap he wakes up on the way to the hive. And so they start their journey back with their test subject in their magic hold.
After carrying him for an hour they arrive at the entrance to the hive in the Badlands, after arriving into a dark room, they put skittles into a blue cocoon and leave to await further orders.
2 HOURS LATER
With a groan skittles starts to stir creaking open his eyes he cringes because of his head hurting, He goes to move his hooves to his head when he notices he can't move. Opening his eyes fully he notices that it's got low visibility, what he can see in the room is a single door in front of him.
Taking a closer look, it looks like the doors upside down, raising an eyebrow he realizes the door isn't upside down, he is and what he can see from his position is that he's suspended from the ceiling in a strange blue cocoon.
He's taken from his inspection from somepony clearing their throat.
"Well I can see your finally awake, took you long enough".
Trying to look around for the voice but being unable to move makes it pretty difficult trying to speak he finds while he can't move he can still talk inside of his cocoon. "where am I, what do you want with me". He asks quickly his voice coming out shaken from fear.
Coming into his line of sight he sees a changeling which is slightly taller than the ones that captured him. "Well you are in our hive of course, and to answer your other question we need you to test our latest pod we have created". she lets out a chuckle near the end of her answer and then moves closer to make eye contact and whispers the next part so only he could hear. "And what the pod your in does is turn you into one of us".
After hearing that last statement skittles could only stare wide eyed at the changeling standing in front of him with a big smile on her face, after a minute of silence he could only stutter. "w-what d-d-did y-you just say?".
Raising an eyebrow at the upside down stallion still with a smile she repeated her last statement. "we're turning you into one of us changelings isn't that great". After watching him for a little bit longer as the stallion freaks out she starts to leave, but when she gets to the door she turns her head to look over her shoulder and says. "oh and I'm princess Florence and I'll be paying you visits until it's finished looking forward to working with you, bye bye for now".
After the changeling now known as princess Florence left, skittles tried to calm himself down and was hoping somepony would notice he's still gone, but the only pony which would realize this would be lance after he finishes his patrol, but seeing as skittles has been unconscious for a uncertain amount of time they could already be searching for him, but whether the changelings that captured him left a trail or not, It was hopeless holding out for a rescue.
Later on as promised Florence came back merely to tell him that he doesn't need to worry about eating, the pod was made to keep the captive well nourished for the amount of time they were in there, He also found out that the change was going to take about a week and a half to finish.
The first three days were uneventful, princess Florence only stayed a few hours at a time to keep watch on the process, which he found out each part of him that changed was as painful as scraping your hoof on something and leaving a small scratch but overtime it only stung. The process seemed to start from the hooves and go up towards his body.
Days four to six were different while princess Florence was there she started conversation and when asked why she wanted to talk she merely stated, "I'm pretty sure your bored so talking might at least make it bearable". While talking he found out there were three hives of changelings, the hive he found himself has changelings with blue carapace and they are apparently the smartest of the three, the green hive are the strongest of the three hives with more changelings, and finally the red hive while the green and blue hives have black carapace with their respective colours, the red hive have white carapace with red highlights but they are deadlier than the other two hives.
Days seven to nine the process had changed his hooves and his body, all that was left was his wings and head. On day ten his head had changed and he felt his teeth change as well, some of his teeth had changed into fangs, but when the top of his head was done, there was no sign of a horn like the rest of the changelings. Within those days skittles had begun asking some questions but not many were answered. Although he overheard some things from some of the changeling guards about the green hive planning an attack on Canterlot while a royal wedding was taking place.
Day ten it was his wings that changed next and instead of becoming insectoids like the changelings, his wings stayed of that of a Pegasus, keeping his feathers.
"It seems the pod hasn't changed you completely, you didn't grow a horn and your wings stayed the same." Humming to herself she circles his small cocoon looking his body over while the majority of his body has changed, Having holes in his hooves and his carapace being the same black as the others his highlights were not blue, but the same amber as his coat and his cutie mark can still be seen. His mane and tail have kept his original blue but he now has a black stripe going through both.
"I guess you'll soon be able to feed of emotions next I bet your looking forward to find out what love tastes like aren't you."
"Yeah I'm really looking forward to that, how about when I'm out we can go on a romantic flight just the two of us hmm." skittles replied showing as much sarcasm as he could while not being able to move.
Just what skittles didn't expect is for princess Florence to giggle at his statement "Well I can tell your being sarcastic." she says rolling her eyes at him. "but you never know I might just hold you to that romantic flight whether you meant it or not, now get some sleep I'm looking forward to when you finish soon and you can stretch yourself, I imagine being cooped up in there for ten days is gonna leave you completely stiff." Then she leaves while giggling to herself.
About an hour after she left though there were small tremors going through his pod, since the only place he could look was the door he could see changelings running around frantically shouting things he couldn't quite make out. But there was one thing he heard over the rest of the shouting.
"THE GREEN HIVE ARE FALLING OUT OF THE SKY, WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS GOING ON!!!!!!"
Before skittles could think on it anymore, something smashed through the wall behind him bumping into his pond and knocking it too the ground, when it made contact the pod popped in a wave of slime going everywhere.
Noticing he's no longer hanging from the ceiling, skittles tries to get to his hooves, without much luck it takes him five minutes of trying to finally stand up but still being very wobbly. Finally able to move his head, he starts looking around and sees a hole in the wall behind him flapping his wings to try and take flight with no success.
Doubling his efforts now that he has a real chance to get out of the hive, he manages to flap his wings enough to grab hold of the bottom of the hole and slowly lift himself up and over, When he's high enough he looks out to see he's about 3 stories high from the ground, without the full use of his wings he looks back in he sees two changelings standing in the doorway staring at him, unsure of what to do he just gives a wave and says.
"Well I wanna say it's been pleasant, but I don't want to, so I'll be going now cya." Spreading his wings he glides out of the hole towards the ground which makes the changelings come of their stupor.
"Quick inform the princess he's attempting to escape, I'll bring him back!!!"
Turning his head he can see a single changeling coming after him, and is quickly gaining on him. Just when the changeling is about to be in reach of him a falling changeling hits into him.
Watching the changeling get hit he turns his head back around and mutters. "well that was lucky." Finally reaching the ground he stumbles and rolls and then slowly gets back onto his hooves looking back to see if he's still being followed he sees nopony around, breathing a sigh of relief. He finally has a chance to take a good look at himself, but all he can see is his hooves now have holes in them and looking back at himself, he has black carapace with light amber highlights along his body.
Moving away from the hive, leaving it behind him only one thing was going through his head.
"I'm free I'm free OW!" He then fell flat on his muzzle.
Continuing on from the hive while looking over his shoulder for any changelings following him he makes his way back to his home. Still wobbling around in the Badlands, after being left suspended in the air for ten days, unable to move has really left him weak and starting to feel hungry, but being in a hot and deserted environment isn't showing any signs of any type of food which would be edible.
"Celestia if you can hear me, please turn down the sun a bit it's too hot today." skittles whispered to himself hoping to cool himself down from the heat.
He has been walking for thirty minutes now, stopping to take a rest he takes another look at himself, still seeing himself in his changeling form, frowning to himself wondering how he can change to look like he used to.
'How do I change? I've seen them do it but how do I?' thinking to himself, he starts to think of himself looking like he use to light amber coat, blue mane, when suddenly he becomes enveloped in orange flames.
His body shifts and he looks like his old self before he had been captured by those changelings, just a single difference he still has the black stripe going through his mane and tail.
Sighing to himself he can only think to himself. 'why does that stripe stay, somepony will definitely notice that when I get back!'
After resting for another five minutes, he starts getting up, his legs feeling better after finally being able to walk around, moving on and now happy to be looking like a pony again, he starts to see a forest ahead of him, hoping it will be the hayseed swamps and also hoping he can also get some type of food into his belly to at least state his hunger for a while.
Twenty minutes later he's on the outskirts of the forest, looking through the trees he can see some bushes with some blueberries on them, going closer to them he can see they like ripe and juicy.
"I wonder if their poisonous or not, I've never been good at telling the difference for wild berries." Sniffing the blueberries he can't smell anything wrong with them. "you know what I'm not exactly that hungry so I think I'll skip this one time, I'm sure I'm close to home anyway, just need to follow the tree line and I should be able to see it soon."
So skittles starts to go along the tree line in hope of finding any signs of finding dodge city and finally seeing his friend lance flash.
While walking on the outskirts he could hear the sounds of bushes rustling in the treeline, looking over he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary so he continued walking but keeping an eye on the forest knowing that manticores, cockatrices and some hydras are known to be in there.
After a while something catches skittles eyes, squinting his eyes he can see what looks to be buildings, finally seeing something resembling civilisation he spreads his wings and starts to flap to go faster, getting closer to the town he can start to make out familiar colours of some of the ponies he knew in town.
getting closer he can't stop the smile that makes it's way on his face.
Another three minutes he finds himself looking upon the familiar sight of dodge city. Looking around it seems nopony has noticed him yet.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees a welcome sight the form of one lance flash trotting up to him in his full armour flanked by two earth pony guards brandished with their spears.
"Hey lance am I glad to. . . . see . . . you" skittles trailed of when lance got closer seeing him looking at him not as a friend.
but as an enemy.
"HALT, stay back changeling your gonna be coming with us and no funny business!" lance exclaimed at him
Taking a couple of steps back from his outburst skittles could only stare agape at his friend.
"But lance it's me, it's skittles don't you recognize me?" skittles replied finally able to talk.
"Oh don't give me that, somepony saw skittles ten days ago being taken away by a group of changelings, your tricks won't work on us." lance signalled the guards flanking him to surround the supposed changeling. "Now your going to come with us, then your gonna tell us where your hive is so we can get back our friend and everypony else you took!"
Skittles could only look between his friend and the other two guards, while it was true he was taken, they didn't know how he managed to escape. " Well yeah I was captured, but I managed to escape a few hours ago, come on dude you know me." he tried to plead with him but the look on lances face said he wasn't buying anything.
"Well clearly you don't know my friend, because last time I saw him he had blue hair, you seem to have made a mistake with your disguise." lance states with a smirk, knowing that he caught the changeling in front of him. "because last I remember, my friend doesn't have a black line going through his mane and tail so quit talking your only making it worse!"
Because of the shouting being done by lance they were getting a lot of attention from the ponies walking by, some of the ponies looking at skittles strike the same way as the guards, with only suspicion and a few others looking at him angrily being ones who were close to him, they grew up with him for years but now they couldn't even recognize him.
Looking around at the ponies he loved as friends and family, he couldn't believe this 'why are they acting like this' he thought to himself while looking around frantically, hoping that somepony would believe him and help.
Just as he was looking to his left some thing came flying from his right and hit him in the back of the head, looking down he saw a decent sized rock, what he also noticed from where he got hit he could feel something wet falling down his face. Putting his hoof to his head he brought it back round and saw some blood. His blood.
Then another rock hit him, looking round he saw more ponies picking up rocks getting ready to throw them. So as quick as he could he spread his wings and took flight away from them and going back a distance away from town before they could catch him. Turning around back to his home he could see them preparing to follow him, knowing he couldn't stay he started to go again not daring to look back with tears falling down his face, wishing this could all be a dream and that he would wake up from this nightmare.
Flying for ten minutes getting a good distance from dodge city, he finds a small area with some fruit bushes. Having been here in the past he knows these blueberries are good to eat so heading his growling stomach he starts eating. Having ate enough he sits down on his haunches thinking back to what just happened, he breaks down into small sobs, knowing he can't go back he looks around. Then he sees a sign going up to it he sees it says 'Appaloosa 10 miles' looking in appaloosas direction decides that's where he'll be going.
Looking up he notices it's becoming darker, looking around the only area which looks the least bit safe for sleeping outside is the berry bushes he had seen a little ways away, so he heads back towards it. When he gets back to the bush he lies down by the bush, as he does lie down does he feel the fatigue hit him and he falls asleep as soon as he closes him eyes.
Behind some bushes the stallion skittle strikes begins to stir, Groaning as he starts to stretch from sleeping on the ground.
It was not comfortable.
After getting up and looking around seeing he's alone he sighs knowing what happened yesterday wasn't just a dream. Remembering how his friends more or less disowned him thinking he was a changeling, well they were right but they don't need to know what happened in the changeling hive.
Looking down he couldn't help feeling saddened by the fact he won't be able to go back home for a while, at least until everything calmed down. He is brought out of his depressing thoughts when he hears his stomach growl, looking back to the bush he was sleeping in he sees there is still some blueberries left, so he eats a hoof full of them, until he is somewhat full.
Sighing to himself. Now that his belly is full, he starts a small trot to the sign pointing towards appaloosa, seeing the arrow pointing in the opposite direction from dodge city, he starts heading in that direction.
Following the path he can't help but think back to when he was in the hive for those ten days, his thoughts go back to the changeling Florence that spoke to him while he was there. Whenever she came to speak to him, first she was just curious, then she seemed to start asking the more personal questions.
What really got him thinking was the last day he was in the pod she actually started flirting with him, while thinking back to her he couldn't stop a single thought go through his mind. 'wonder what she's doing right now'. shaking his head from that thought he tried to wonder why he started caring what she was doing. 'she had her changelings foalnap me, just so she could turn me into one of them!'.
He remembered what they said when they captured him. "Well our princess needed a test subject and we chose you for said role." He thought back to that day and thought to himself. 'why me though, from what we were told they should have had other ponies they had captured which they could have used so why me?' shaking his head he continued down the path which nopony else seemed to be using at this moment in time.
Continuing on the stallion just keeps his head lowered making sure to keep on the path leading to his destination.
Walking along the pathway, all skittles could hear were his hooves on the dirt, or the birds flying around chirping. On his way to Appaloosa he took frequent breaks, still being weak from being trapped for so long, alternating from using his hooves and wings to make sure he could get his strength back in both.
getting closer and closer to Appaloosa nothing much happened throughout his journey apart from the passing bird or pony who waved with a friendly greeting.
Flying for another three hours he can start to see Appaloosa in the distance, now able to see the town he starts to fly a bit faster now to get there quicker and get some proper food, some bits to get further away from anypony that may recognize him in case they knew what happened to him.
Finally getting to the outskirts of the town he lands and starts looking around at the town of Appaloosa when he hears a voice from in front of him.
"Howdy there stranger, and welcome to Aaaaaapaloosa. mah name is Braeburn, what brings you to these parts!" the stallion spoke in a southern accent.
Looking forward towards the stallion now known as Braeburn. He can see an amber stallion, with an orange mane and tail, which has a light amber strip going through both, and his cutie mark consisted of an apple.
Putting on a smile knowing he can speak to somepony without worrying. "hey uh Braeburn, I'm skittle strike and I'm only looking for some food, a place to stay for a bit, and earn some bits for travelling. If you can help me with that, that would be great." Skittles spoke then continued with "but I don't have any bits at the moment."
"Well I can definitely help you with all of that, and if you don't have any bits, you can help me with some applebucking but I will warn you, it can be mighty hard, are you up to it?" Braeburn said.
"Well, I could use the exercise, so yeah I can help you with applebucking." Skittles replied.
"Great!, but before you start lets get you some food, you look a might hungry, come on follow me."
Following behind Braeburn, Skittles couldn't help but feel happier now that he can try to move on from what had happened yesterday and try to have more fun.
Just ahead Skittles could see rows upon rows of apple trees, walking past them he could see some ponies putting some pies onto a table, being curios Skittles can't help but ask. "Hey Braeburn, so what are we gonna be eating, because all I've eaten recently were just some berries."
Turning his head Breaburn says "Just some apple pie, apple fritters and other apple treats, then after we're done eating we'll be going to our small orchard to start your work, but since it will be a bit later in the day we'll only be out there for a few hours, and then I'll be showing you where you'll be bunking for the night." Braeburn said with a smile.
Smiling back they head towards the table picking up a slice of apple pie, apple fritter and apple juice. Then moving to a unoccupied table to eat at, now seated striking up a conversation Braeburn asks. " so after you have some bits where are ya'll planning on going next seeing as your not planning on staying."
shrugging Skittles just states "not sure really just looking for somewhere I can relax, work and have fun, so anywhere really."
Putting a hoof to his chin. " well mah cousin lives over in Ponyville she runs her own apple orchard, I'll be going to see her in a couple of days. Depending on how you do here ah could recommend you to work there, so you don't have to worry about searching for a job there what do ya say."
"Yeah that sound like a good idea, but why are you helping me so much, don't get me wrong I'm happy your helping me, but you barely know me?"
Raising an eyebrow at the stallion Braeburn replies. "Well you seem like a decent stallion and I like to think I can tell who I can trust to who I can't, and you look like you could use a friend right now, that's why I got no better reason than to help somepony who needs it" he states confidently.
Smiling from Braeburns kind words Skittles just says a simple thank you and goes back to eating his delicious pie.
After finishing their food, they head towards the rows of apple trees to start applebucking, leading Skittles to a row of apple trees Braeburn turns around at the end of the row. "Now your gonna start from here and go buck down every apples of the tree, and I don't wanna see you flying, just buck the tree then move on to the next got that?" Braeburn said.
"Yeah, no flying, got it." nodding his head Skittles watched as Braeburn went of to his own row of apple trees to get started on.
Now on his own he turns to his own tree, making sure the baskets were underneath the tree he turns around bracing his front hooves, he bucks straight into the tree with a thud. Feeling good with his first hit he turns his head to see how many fell of, but he only notices about five apples fell into the baskets below, frowning to himself he bucks the tree again this time getting eight more apples to fall.
Looking over to Braeburn he notices he's already on his second tree while another pony is moving the barrels from the now empty tree. Turning back to his own tree he takes another three more hits to empty his first tree, moving onto the second, doing the same as the first tree takes four hits to empty the second tree.
Continuing throughout the rest of the day Skittles was able to get another twenty four trees done before Braeburn came to tell him that the day was over. Finally over Skittles stretches out on the floor to rest his aching legs from the strenuous work he was doing, which brings a chuckle from Braeburn.
"don't ya worry you'll get better the more ya do it, here's some water, you look like ya could use it." hoofing him the glass of water Skittles gulps it down. "well when your ready I'll show ya to my place I got a spare room for guests for ya to use."
After relaxing for a while Skittles finally gets the energy to follow Braeburn over to his house, which looks like a small barn from the outside on the inside he had a small fireplace, a couch directly opposite it and photos of family members on top of the fireplace.
Braeburn took skittles upstairs where there were three doors, two were on the left hand side of the hallway while the third was on the right hand side. "now the first door on the left is my room, the room next to that will be your room for the few days you'll be staying here." then pointing his hoof to the third door. "and the door on the right is the bathroom, now we'll be waking up at 6:00 In the morning so I expect to see you bright and early and make sure to get a good nights rest we got a lot of work to do, so get some rest and I'll see ya in the morning."
And with that Braeburn went into his room leaving Skittles on his own, making his way into his room, the room only had a bed and a bed side table. Going over to the bed Skittles flops down onto the bed and goes to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Waking up in the morning Skittles could still feel his muscles aching, looking around the room Braeburn had let him sleep in he took notice of a clock just above the door squinting to see it in the dark he could see it was 5:40 sighing to himself he decided to get up and go take a shower to wake himself up easier.
Getting into the shower he now starts to realize just how much he needed one, not bathing in anyway for two days after being able to move can make your fur feel horrible. His wings felt like they had a bit of extra weight from not getting mud and dust off, and the majority of his feathers were out of place so a good preening was in order.
After finishing his shower which took twenty minutes, time now being a few minutes after 6:00, and feeling much better, now that he was clean he headed downstairs smelling the sweet smell of pancakes.
Heading into the kitchen he can see Braeburn cooking another plate of pancakes.
yawning to himself. "Morning braeburn, thanks for letting me stay here and for letting me work with you."
"No problem, I'm glad your up, not many ponies would find it easy to get up at this time, would you like some coffee to go with your pancakes?" Braeburn replied.
"Yes please, and I just woke up and saw the clock above the door saying it was nearly six, so I decided to have a shower to help wake myself up." Skittles answered.
"Well I'm nearly done with the last load of pancakes and after we're done eating we'll head over to the orchard to get everything ready for the day, since we'll be going to ponyville the day after tomorrow, I'll be seeing how much work you'll be doing today and tomorrow to see if you'll be any use to mah cousin, her orchard is much bigger than ours so there is a lot more to do."
Starting on their breakfast of pancakes and coffee, while eating Braeburn told Skittles what they would be doing throughout the day for their workloads and what time they would be breaking for lunch.
After finishing they headed out to the barn in the middle of the orchards, getting a couple of wagons filled with buckets they started putting them all underneath the trees they would be working for the day. With the buckets under the trees they started bucking the trees.
Finally getting a better idea from Braeburn in where to buck the tree to get more apples to fall down to get more trees done, Skittles found himself being able to buck a single tree down in three hits, while it wasn't as quick as Braeburn, being able to buck a tree in one go he felt he was doing much better with the exercise from using his legs.
After a few hours getting a good amount done they broke for lunch, going over to the same place they had done the day before with their apple pies, Braeburn decided to strike up a conversation seeing that Skittles was too tired to start one.
"So Skittles where did you live, before deciding to start travelling around?" Braeburn asked.
"Well I lived in dodge city, I guess I just wanted to see what other places in Equestria are like so I decided to go travelling." Skittles replied.
"If you don't mind me asking what did you like to do in dodge?" Braeburn asked.
Smiling to himself. "As you can see from my cutie mark, I liked bowling, no matter what, I would always make sure to go to the local bowling alley to have fun and relax. Which reminds me do you happen to know if Ponyville has a bowling alley over there?"
Thinking to himself. "hmm I think they do but I've never really been much of a bowler so I never really tried looking, you might need to ask somepony when we get there if there's one over there or not." Braeburn said.
After finishing their food they went straight back to work, Skittles struggling to keep up with everypony else not being as strong as an earth pony.
A few hours later Braeburn trots up to skittles. "Hey Skittles I know your not used to doing this, so if you like you can have another break so you can stretch your wings a bit."
Looking over to the stallion Skittles thinks about stretching his wings. "Yeah I think I'll do that, thanks Braeburn I'll see you back here right?"
"Nah I'll see ya back at my place, it's getting a bit later in the afternoon so I think you can just spend the rest of the day doing whatever you like, so go get some rest or have a walk around town." Braeburn replied smiling.
"Alright, well then, I'll see ya later then, I'm gonna fly around for a while." So Skittles flapped his wings and started flying off towards Appaloosa.
Flying around town Skittles can see some clouds above the town, flying up to one he puffs up the cloud to relax on. "Ahh I haven't slept on a cloud in so long." Lounging on the cloud he can see all the way to the apple orchards all the way to the other side of Appaloosa, seeing everypony going about their business he just puts his head back down onto the pillow to rest after bucking so many trees and flying around after so long.
After sleeping for a few hours he opens his eyes to see the sun is setting and the moon is taking its place in the sky. Jumping of the cloud to head back to Braeburns house, he can see it in the distance with a light on in the living room, so he floats down to the door.
Opening the door and trotting in. "hey Braeburn I'm back!" Skittles called out.
"Welcome back, what did you do with your afternoon?" Braeburn asked.
"Oh nothing much just flew around for a while, then went to sleep on a cloud, forgot how comfy they were." Skittles said smiling to himself.
"Well glad you got to relax today, because tomorrow you'll be working all day long with me, since you seem to be getting better at it. Then the day after you'll get some bits for the work you've done, then we'll be going to ponyville." Braeburn told Skittles.
Nodding his head to show he understood. Sitting down at the table for their food which is apple based products, which is still as delicious as ever.
After eating Braeburn headed up to shower before heading to sleep while Skittles headed up to sleep for the night since he prefers to shower in the morning when he wakes up.
Waking up in the morning around the same time as the day before, Skittles went to have a shower again to prep himself for the long day ahead of him, after washing his mane and tail, then preening his wings since a couple of his feathers were out of place, he headed downstairs for some pancakes and apple juice.
When they started, Braeburn was bucking the trees while Skittles would pick up the baskets putting them in the wagon, when the wagon was full of buckets of apples, he would take them over to the barn to store them and bring back empty buckets to put underneath the next load of trees.
After they went to have their lunch break, they swapped jobs so Skittles was bucking trees while Braeburn took the wagon full of apples to the barn and back throughout the afternoon.
After finishing for the day, Braeburn and Skittles went back to his house to relax before they go to ponyville.
" Well you got your bits for working for the three days you've been here, which was eighty bits, since we won't be working tomorrow, since we'll be going to see my cousin, I think you've earned some of my apple cider!" so Braeburn went over to his fridge and brought out some mugs of fresh apple cider, getting one for himself he handed another one over to Skittles.
Taking the mug of apple cider from Braeburn, Skittles took a swig of his cider and sighed as the delicious cider went down.
"Been a while since I had apple cider as good as this, thanks for this Braeburn, thanks for everything your doing for me." Skittles said with the biggest smile he could muster.
"Well, no problem there Skittles, just doing what anypony would do, besides, I'm sure if my cousin found out I left somepony I could have helped, she'd be giving me a right talking to." Braeburn said with a chuckle at the end.
"Oh ya that reminds me, I've been wondering for a while now who your cousin is? you haven't said your cousins name yet." Skittles asked, wondering who he might be working for.
"Oh ah haven't? well sorry about that, anyway her name is Applejack she owns sweet apple acres along with her granny, big brother and little sister." Braeburn said while taking a swig from his mug of cider.
After hearing who his cousin was, Skittles could only gape in shock. "Wait as in Applejack the element of honesty?"
"Yep that's her, and let me tell ya, nothing can get past her, she can tell if somepony is lying, not sure how though?" Shrugging Braeburn just continues to drink his cider till he finished his mug, then starts to fill it up again.
Seeing Braeburn finishing of his first mug Skittles decides to do the same.
"Well I know how I get when I have to much, so I'll probably go to sleep early tonight, before I forget, what time is the train we'll be getting tomorrow for ponyville?" Skittles asked as he put his mug in the sink in the kitchen.
Remembering what time the train is leaving at. "The train for ponyville will be leaving at 10:30, and it will take about an hour to get there so we can rest on the train." Braeburn said as he finished filling up his second mug.
Skittles headed upstairs with a, "see you in the morning." and left Braeburn to enjoy his drink, getting into his room after taking care of his business he went to sleep to be ready for the journey to ponyville.
After going up the stairs towards his room, and getting into his bed he finds sleep relatively easy.
Waking up in the morning he can see the sun is high in the sky already, figuring he slept a while longer than he usually does he gets up and stretches his body out. Walking up to the door, reaching his hoof up to the door he can see a black hoof in it's place, looking to the rest of himself, he can see he must have changed to his changeling form in the middle of the night.
Remembering how to change his form, he closes his eyes and thinks on the way he usually looks.
Orange flames moving over his form, he looks at his hoof seeing his amber coat covering him again, reaching for the door knob he opens the door and moves outside his room.
Only to stop seeing Braeburn standing on the other side looking at him.
Raising an eyebrow at the stallion in front of him. "hey Braeburn you alright?" Skittles inquired.
Coming out of his stupor, Braeburn just shakes his head. "sorry I must still be a bit tipsy from the cider, I could have sworn I saw something flash inside your room."
Freezing himself Skittles just looks off to the side, thinking he could have been caught, looking back at Braeburn, Skittles tries to respond as he usually does. "yeah, you might be, because, um, I don't have anything that might make a flash, anyway I'm gonna go have a wash up now so, I'll see you downstairs for breakfast, ok, yeah see ya down there."
Skittles then rushed towards the bathroom to wash up to get ready for the day.
The morning went about the same as the rest, with the two stallions eating breakfast and idle chit chat. After that they just relaxed and then waited until the train would arrive.
After a couple of hours waiting the time was now 10:00, so they started their trek towards the train station, where they bought their tickets for ponyville, after about ten minutes the train arrived into the station. And then they boarded the train for ponyville, where they both decided to get some sleep on the trip.
After taking going to sleep for the train ride, I'm awoken by Braeburn nudging me awake. "hey, Skittles wake up, the trains pulling into the station, it's time to get off."
Groaning I stretch myself out hearing some clicks from my neck, looking out the window I can see we're arriving at Ponyville station.
"Thanks for waking me." I yawn. "So what are we doing first when we get of the train?" I say starting to follow Braeburn of the train.
"Well first, we're going to go see Applejack to see if she'll let you work there, then afterwards, I'll be helping out at the farm for a while and we'll see what Applejack will want you to do. She may not need you till Monday so she might let you have a look around Ponyville."
Getting of the train, I see there's not many ponies around. Looking around I can see the town seems fairly quiet, ponies just going about their business. Seeing Braeburn calling me from the other side of the train station I trot to catch up to him.
"Your going to love it here, everypony who lives here are great, you won't find anywhere more friendly than Ponyville." Braeburn states with a smile while he waves to some of the ponies milling about.
Walking through the town, It does seem really peaceful here, ponies walking around without a care in the world. Looking at the ponies going about their business, waving to some, where others just smile and give a friendly nod in my direction.
While I was looking around at the houses and the scenery, I failed to notice the pink mare that saw me and made a bee line straight for me until she was straight in front of me.
"Hi I'm pinkie pie and I've never seen you before so you must be new here because I know every pony and every pony knows me and since I don't know you you must be new so I thought that since you just arrived I'd come over and say hi and welcome to ponyville! oh and hi Braeburn."
Completely stunned that a pony was able to say that much without even taking a breath I can't bring myself to say anything, all I could do was do my best imitation of a fish. I was only able to say anything after I got a shove from Braeburn. " um, hi, uh I'm skittles strike, and yeah, it's uh nice to meet you pinkie." holding out my hoof for the pink mare known as pinkie to shake. I'm surprised instead of a hoof shake I get a bone crushing hug.
Looking over to Braeburn while I'm being crushed by this pink mare, all I can see is him stifling his laughter with his hoof in front of his muzzle.
After a while Braeburn is able to control himself to help me. "pinkie, I don't think he can breath, you may want to let the fella go."
After looking at Braeburn, pinkie looks at me slowly turning as blue as my mane. "oopsy my mistake I forget how strong I am sorry, oh right I gotta go places to be, cakes to bake, see ya later."
And just like that, I'm able to breath again and pinkie had just disappeared in a blur of pink. Looking around I see a lot of ponies go back as if nothing just happened, turning my head to Braeburn with an eyebrow raised. "What just happened?"
"Pinkie happened, it will be a lot easier if you don't think about it. It will just give you a headache." Braeburn tells me and continues to lead me through town towards sweet apple acres.
Getting through the town was easy enough, not many ponies paid too much attention to us, apart from the ponies who had met Braeburn before, others had merely opted to wave to us from across the path.
Finally arriving at the gate to sweet apple acres, I could see just how vast the trees were. There was about five times as many fields here than there were back at Appaloosa.
Walking through the gate towards the apples family farm, I was blown away from how fresh all the apples smelled they all looked ripe and juicy. It was hard to restrain myself from flying up and picking one to eat.
Going through the entire farm was a struggle to stop myself from eating all the apples in sight, so when we started to hear the thumps of somepony bucking the trees we started in the direction of where we heard the sounds coming from. With Braeburn leading the way we finally found the pony responsible for the sounds.
What I saw took my breath away, she was absolutely beautiful, her orange coat shimmered from the small spots of sweat dotting her coat. Her blonde main and tail tied up into the classic pony tail looked stunning and to top it all of she wore a Stetson on top of her head.
While I was staring at the orange coated mare, I didn't notice Braeburn walk past me and towards her. " hey Applejack how ya been cousin."
Turning towards Applejack tilts her hat back to see us easier. "howdy Braeburn, been busy with the harvest, but not much else has happened around here." Looking past Braeburn she motioned to me with a hoof. "who's the pony ya brought with ya Braeburn?"
Looking back towards me Braeburn looks surprised for a second then motions me forwards. "well this here is Skittles Strike he's been helping us at Appaloosa and I remembered you saying you could use some extra hooves so I brought him along to see if he could be of any help to ya, well what do ya think willing to give him a try?"
Looking over at me Applejack walks up to me and starts inspecting me, walking around me she gives a couple of thoughtful hums while she inspects my rear legs.
"Well he looks like he has some muscle on his rear legs, but being a Pegasus you might find it harder to buck the trees, but I take It you figured that out working on Braeburns orchard." Applejack said with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah it was hard bucking the trees there, but as I kept doing it, it got easier to do and get more apples to fall down with each kick, but I can only get about seven to ten apples in each buck." I said looking at Applejack trying to sound confident in what I could do at the moment.
Looking between Applejack and Braeburn, I could see Braeburn was looking at me with a small smile on his lips and Applejack had a thoughtful look on her face, most likely thinking on what she should say.
After a few minutes, Applejack moved back over to the tree she was bucking when we had arrived. "Well, we could use the extra hoof. So, what we could do is have you start tomorrow, so today, you can just have a look around Ponyville, you'll also been staying in the spare room we have in the barn if that's alright with you. We'll tell ya what you'll be doing tomorrow after breakfast."
Nodding my head I shift my wings to get the numb feeling out of them to prepare for flight. "alright I'll be back here later on then and thanks for giving me a chance Applejack, I'll do my best not to slow you down." looking towards Braeburn "Thanks for helping me out Braeburn I really appreciate it and I'll see you both later then."
Spreading my wings I flap them to get myself of the ground and start heading back over too where we came from.
Getting closer to Ponyville I can see ponies from above going about their business. Landing in the middle of the market, I can see a lot of ponies around here buying their groceries at some of the stalls and from what I could hear at pretty decent prices.
Looking around I see a building which looks like a gingerbread house, I feel tempted to take a bite of the house. I start to make my way over to the building so I look at the sign above the door which reads 'Sugarcube corner' guessing it's a place to get something to eat I make my way inside.
When I get inside all I could smell was everything sweet and savoury, I felt like I could gain weight just from the smell alone, even before I start eating anything. Making my way up to the desk where a plump looking mare had just finished serving another customer.
She had a cyan blue coat with a two toned pink mane and her cutie make were of three cupcakes.
"Hello dearie, what can I get ya?" the mare behind the desk asked me.
"hmmm, can I get a strawberry muffin and a chocolate milkshake please."
"sure, that will be five bits please."
Handing the bits I'm asked to wait over at a table where she would bring them over to me shortly, sitting down at a table next to the window so I can enjoy my snacks while looking out at the scenery around Ponyville.
After a couple of minutes the mare brought them over and introduced herself as Mrs cake, looking back out the window while sipping on my milkshake I see a purple unicorn with purple hair with a pink stripe going through her mane and tail, walking around with what looks to be a small purple dragon which has green spikes going down his back, tail and a green underbelly.
While looking around outside I don't notice that said unicorn and dragon had walked into Sugarcube corner and ordered something at the counter, as they walk past me the purple unicorn stops and pokes me on my shoulder.
Turning around I see the unicorn looking at me with a smile, giving her a smile back. "hello something you need?"
"oh no I just can't see any other tables available mind if we sit with you." giving the mare a nod they move to sit at the table with me. "Thanks and my name is twilight sparkle but my friends just call me twilight and this is my No 1 assistant spike, who is a baby dragon." said baby dragon gives a thank you and his own greeting.
"I'm Skittle strike and it's nice to meet you twilight, I've heard a bit about you, from what they've said about you and your friends in the newspaper, they say you've saved us quite a few times now haven't you." I replied.
"Really you've heard about us?" I could see a little bit of a blush on her cheeks. "we never really wanted to get any attention, we just tried to help out and do our part, so what brings you to Ponyville?"
I'm actually here to work a friend of mine brought me here to work at sweet apple acres with Applejack and her family she said I could start tomorrow, I'm having a look around Ponyville today so I can get familiar with the town."
"Really I'm glad she let you work there, Applejack is really stubborn about letting ponies help out at their farm took all of our friends to convince her to let us help her with the harvest before."
"Yeah I'm glad she gave me a chance to work with her, I could use the bits and stuff to do."
" I see, well I hope you enjoy working with Applejack, she does need help on the farm even if she won't admit it herself or ask for it, so I'm glad your able to help them out."
"Yeah I'm glad she said I could start tomorrow, I've only been apple bucking for about a week so I hope I won't slow them down much on their farm, from what Braeburn told me they have a lot of apple trees to go through for the harvest."
Looking out the window again I see it looks to be midday, standing up from the table. "sorry to cut this short Twilight, but I'm going to have a look around town so I can see what other kinds of shops you have here." going towards the door I think of a question to ask. "Hey twilight, before I go do you happen to know if you have a bowling alley in town?"
"Oh yes, we do but I don't know where it is since I don't normally play it much."
"that's good to know, I played it all the time back in dodge junction which was where I lived before going to Appaloosa, so I hope I might to play it again with more ponies with me." Waving to Twilight and spike I head towards the exit.
Leaving Sugarcube corner I start to walk around Ponyville seeing all sorts of shops everywhere, there was. Quills and sofas, carousel boutique, the library, the hospital and eventually I found the bowling alley which was actually called Pins bowling lane.
Looking up towards the clouds I can see the Pegasi moving them around, it looks like it's going to be sunny with cloudy patches this afternoon.
Flapping my wings to get higher and higher I'm eventually above the cloud layer and looking down at the town below me, looking around I can see a forest far on the outskirts of Ponyville. 'Must be the everfree forest, I've heard that place is very dangerous where ponies try to stay away from it'. flying over to get a closer look at the forest I can tell it's nowhere anypony wants to go near it just screams 'DANGER'.
Landing on the outskirts of the everfree forest looking into the forest all I can see is trees and vast amounts of darkness, seeing as I can't see too far into the forest. I turn around to head back towards Ponyville so I can find a path back towards sweet apple acres, to find out where I'll be sleeping.