Chapter Three

Applebloom tried to make sense of what she had just seen. Who in Equestria was that? What was that he had in his teeth? Brushing off the thoughts of the scene that just transpired, she headed out into the orchard. She immediately spotted Applejack, busy as always bucking the apples off a tree, sweat dripping down her face from the strained effort of continuing the kicking routine for hours.

"Hiya, sis!" Applebloom looked up at her big sister, a huge grin on her face.

Applejack was taken aback at this. Her face wore a puzzled expression as she spoke.

"Applebloom! What in tarnation 're ya doin' here? Shouldn't you be at school right now?" Applejack's eyes narrowed at the little filly before her.

Applebloom's expression had taken a sudden shift from happy to scared as she looked at the menacing glare of her sister.

"Well ya see-" Applebloom sighed. No point lying. She was terrible at it anyways. "Miss Cheerilee sent me home cuz ah got in a fight with Diamond Tiara again."

Her head dropped to the ground as she finished. She didn't want to see the inevitable look of disappointment on her Applejack's face. She could hear the short groan Applejack had let out, though.

"Now what've ah told you 'bout fightin'!? Ain't never solve nopony's problems by fightin'." Applejack saw a lot of herself in her little sister. She would get in trouble doing the exact same thing when she was a filly. Same lecture afterwards too. She never thought she'd be the one giving that lecture at the time, though. She would always have to hear some long story from her parents about- Woah there brain. Let's not go thinking about that, there. Focus. She snapped out of her thoughts. Applebloom's eyes were still glued to the ground.

Applejack let out a sigh, then lowered her head to her little sister's eye level.

"Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean ta yell. Just don't go doin' it again, kay?"

Applebloom's head lifted from the ground to meet her sister's gaze. "Okay, sis. Thanks." A smile found its way onto both ponies faces, and they shared a quick hug.

"Oh, there was something I wanted to ask you, sis. Who was that in the house a few minutes ago?"

Applejack didn't respond right away. Her mind was busy processing the question.

"Uh, pardon?" Applejack's heart rate picked up. She was hoping she was just being paranoid. Ah'm sure it ain't what i'm thinkin'.

Applebloom continued, "Yeah, there was a little pegasus colt inside. He had a little bag in his mouth, too. I asked him who he was but-"

Applebloom never got an answer to her unfinished question. Applejack was already galloping towards the house. Her eyes were wide. Why that little- If ah ever get mah hands on him ah'll... ah'll... Well I don' right know what i'm gonna do, but he's gonna be sorry, you just watch! She pushed open the door and galloped into her room. Inspecting the night stand, she found something was missing. The bag of bits from yesterday's cart stand sales were missing. "Aw, horseapples."

---

The little foal galloped towards the library's doors as fast as his legs would carry him. Once inside, he slammed the door shut, before collapsing into a heap onto the library floor. He hoped to Celestia he hadn't been seen. Panting heavily, he barely picked up the sound of a voice.

"Um, can I help you?"

His eyes shot up. In front of him was a purple unicorn mare, giving him a quizzical expression. She obviously was rather confused by the sudden intrusion. Is it an intrusion? This is a public library, after all. Isn't it? His thought was cut short as he felt himself being brought back to his feet by magic.

"Haha. Uh, thanks." His face shied away as he spoke. He really hadn't planned this far ahead.

There was a long pause between the two for a few minutes, both of them just standing there, waiting for the other to speak. Eventually, the unicorn decided to speak.

"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Did you come here looking for a book?"

He was still collecting his thoughts, so he just gave her a blank stare for a few more moments.

"Hello? Are you listening?"

Oh right! Say something, idiot! "Uh, yeah. Sure! A book!"

Of course he didn't need a book. Not unless the book was about how to hide from ponies. But he really just needed a distraction to calm his nerves at the moment. He trotted over to one of the bookcases, pretending to search through titles for something interesting. Suddenly the front door of the library bursted open and the foal, assuming the worst, froze up and shrank up into a tiny ball.

"Rainbow! What have I told you about knocking!"

The blue foal looked up. His eyes met the sight of the unicorn giving an angered glare at a rainbow maned Wow you don't see that often cyan pegasus.

"Yeah, yeah. Look, Twi, is it here yet?" The pegasus mare's face held an expression of hopeful excitement. Was she expecting some kind of package? Wasn't that what the post office is for?

Twilight let out a long groan. "Rainbow, you do realize ponies don't just deliver books here, right? Busting in here like this everyday for the past week yelling 'do you have it' isn't helping. If there is a book you want, I can have it ordered and delivered here."

"Hehe. Sorry. It's just that Spitfire just released a book on advanced aerial maneuvers and I just gotta to have it!"

At the mention of that name, the foal jumped to his hooves again, running over to the other pegasus, a grin on his face matching hers.

"You're a fan of the Wonderbolts too!?" As he didn't talk to many ponies, the idea of chatting with another fan always excited him.

The sound of the young voice startled the rainbow maned pony. Her head started moving around in each direction, attempting to locate the origin of the voice. She eventually noticed that blue colt beside her, grinning ear to ear at her.

"Heck yeah I am! Not to mention i'm a shoo-in to be the newest member!" She beamed with pride as she spoke, puffing out her chest.

"Woooooah. That's awesome!" He began bouncing up and down with giddy excitement. He knew he looked silly, but was in too elated of a mood to care.

"Hey, settle down there." The cyan mare put a hoof down on his shoulder, ceasing his excessive jumping. "Say, I was about to go out and try some new moves. Wanna come watch?" She watched his eyes go wide as she finished speaking.

This has got to be the coolest pony ever! "Sure!" He resumed his joyous hopping, merrily bouncing out of the library. He looked back, seeing the two older ponies were still having a conversation. "C'mon! Let's go! I've got to see this!"

"Looks like you've made a new friend, Dash." Twilight said, followed by a quick chuckle.

Rainbow. Dash. Dash Rainbow? No, that sounds stupid. Rainbow Dash? Yeah, that's got to be it.

After a wait that seemed to drag on forever, Rainbow Dash finally left the library, her newest fan following in hot pursuit. He followed her far out from Ponyville, out onto a huge, open grassy field. Once there, he laid on the grass, getting lost in the relaxing feel of the breeze blowing through his mane as he watched Rainbow Dash soar through the sky. That is so cool. I can't wait until my wings are big enough to fly.

He spent what felt like hours cheering on the flying pegasus is she performed loops, spins and flips through throughout the afternoon. It really was the most fun he had remembered having in a long time.

"Woohoo! Go Rainbow Dash!"

Wait a minute. That wasn't his voice. Where was that coming from? He turned to the left to see a little orange filly sitting right next to him, screaming the cyan pegasus' name. Is she wearing a rainbow wig? Having caught him looking at her, she turned to face him, grinning.

"Hey! So you came to see Rainbow practice? Me too! I'm her biggest fan! Oh, I know! You should join the Rainbow Dash fan club! It's awesome!" The filly's voice was filled with adrenaline.

He wasn't really sure what to make of this pony's attitude towards him. He really wasn't used to this kind of company. Usually ponies went out of their way not to talk to him.

"Uh, I think i'll pass on the fan club. She is a pretty great flyer though."

The two spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the flight show. Despite everything that had happened today, he was having a good time. It really seemed like today was his lucky day. That feeling wasn't going to last much longer, though.

---

Applejack burst through the library door, panting and sweating. Twilight looked over to the farm pony with an unnerved, irritating stare.

"Nopony seems to know how to knock today, do they?" She made no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.

"Mighty sorry, Twilight. But ah need yer help trackin' down somepony." She sputtered out between gasping for air.

"Sure thing, Applejack. So who is it you're trying to find?"

---

Rainbow Dash had finished her little routine, and was now just letting herself soak in the praise from her little admirers. Mostly Scootaloo, of course. The blue pegasus foal opted to just stare at the cyan mare, eyes glistening with envy at her incredible flight skills. Nothing could ruin this moment. Well, almost nothing.

"Gotcha!"

He found himself suddenly pulled under somepony's foreleg, and was being carried away. Orange coat? Oh no. No no no. Not now. Please, Celestia, why!?

"Woah Applejack, what're you doing, stealing my fans away from me?"

Uh oh. That was Dash's voice. This was about to get really awkward.

"Rainbow, this ain't no fan ya wanna have. This here thievin' varmint stole mah bits! Now cough 'em up 'fore I make ya!"

The rage in the farm pony's eyes was terrifying. If he had the bits, he would have already handed them over and be mumbling out an apology. Unfortunately, all he could do was sit there shaking, letting horrible scenarios play out in his head as to what was going to happen.

Applejack put him back onto the ground. He was too terrified to run away though.

"I'm s-sorry... I... I don't-" He couldn't even manage to stammer out his sentence. he didn't want to see the reaction he would get when he told her he didn't have the bits.

"Out with it, you! Ah can't believe ah trusted ya, ya low down little-"

Those words cut deep. He had heard ponies say things like this to him time and again, and it never got any less painful to hear. He could feel the tears beginning to well up in his eyes, but he blinked them back. Wouldn't be any good for them to see you cry, now. He looked up to see Rainbow Dash's face, a hurt expression across it.

"Is that true?" He could hear the disappointment in Dash's voice as she said it. Hearing it made his skin crawl.

"I'm so sorry. But I don't have the bits anymore. You see-"

He was cut off when Applejack picked him up and began shaking the terrified foal.

"Nah you listen here. Ah work mah flank off every day tah make these bits, and ah'll be damned if'n i'm about to let some no good thief swindle me outta them! Now I said hand it over!"

He was afraid of this. This was usually the part where things got violent. It seemed he still had some luck on his side today, though.

"AJ, calm down!" Rainbow's voice was stern, her eyes locked with Applejack's. Applejack slowly lowered the pegasus back to the ground.

"Alright, now how about we let him explain himself." Rainbow looked down at him, the same pained expression on her face as before. He couldn't bear looking at it. "I'm sure he has a good reason." There was a bitter anger in her voice as she spoke.

He cleared his throat, which had, up until now, felt quite closed off, and began to stammer through an explanation.

"So after I left the farm, I"... Next Chapter: Chapter Four Estimated time remaining: 38 Minutes