S p l i t s

It was a warm, summer morning on Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's deep slumber was interrupted by the shining light of day peaking from her window. She stretches her rested limbs and gives out a satisfied yawn of relief. She climbs out of bed and reaches for her hat on her nightstand. She places her hat on top of her un-brushed head full of blonde hay. She ready for a good, productive working day as she takes in the air of the new morning. She leaves her room and walks by Applebloom's room and Big Macintosh's room. She climbs down the stairs and notices Granny Smith sitting back in her rocking chair, mumbling in her sleep. Applejack walks leisurely into the kitchen and makes herself some leftover hot apple cider and some fresh toast. She looked out the kitchen window and admired the early morning sky and all it's radiance. She finishes her breakfast and walks outside to the barn with some crumbs clinging to her cheek. She was fired up and ready to seize the day.

Applejack trots over towards Big Mac who was just about to enter the barn to pick up his trusty plow, so he could finish his plowing from yesterday. The fields for the new apple seedlings would arrive soon that week and Big Mac wanted to get an early start for his day. She tips her hat to Big Mac and he smiled as warm as that summer morning. She trots off to the side of her orchard where she had left off the other day.

"Well, time to get buckin'!" she says in a happy yet determined manner. Applejack loved working on the farm, always have and always will. She takes great pride for Sweet Apple Acres and for every single apple in her orchard. Even the rotten apples that she has to throw away are still very pride-worthy to her. She loves all apples, but I think we get the picture already.

She bucked quite a few trees by now, filling up the wooden buckets that rested by the trees overnight. She wipes a bead of sweat from her head from under her hat. "Hoo, wee! Today's gonna be a really hot one, I know it!" She continues to bucking more apple trees, until she comes across something, different.

She looks down on the ground and notices an odd looking apple. The color was obscure as well as it's shape. Applejack takes a closer look at the deranged apple and looks up at the tree from which it was closest to. None of the other apples were deformed like this one, in fact this was the only apple that was lopsided and blue in her orchard.

She's never seen anything like it, the only other unusually colored apple she's seen is a Zap Apple. This was no Zap Apple.

She sets the strange apple on top of the pile of other apples in a bucket and sniffs it. It didn't even smell like an apple. She examined more with her nose and continued to identify a scent.

Applejack scratches her head "Well, Ah'll be, it smells just like an orange, and uh...a smidgen of, uhmm... celery? A citrus-y, fresh-grown-out-of-the-ground celery." The strange apple was found next to an equally strange tree. Where the roots dug into the ground lies a gaping gashed hole, you'd think something as big as a pony lived in there.

Applejack, curiously, peered inside the hole and saw nothing but sheer darkness. She rescues her head from the mysterious tree and looks back at the apple, "Maybe Twilight knows more 'bout this than me, looks awfully foreign to me, her books must have SOME kind of information."

She puts the blue apple in a sack she finds in a nearby bucket and ties it around her waist. Applejack felt like she had no time to talk to Big Mac as she left Sweet Apple Acres. She feared her apple trees were sick and were producing stale fruits. The very thought of her apple trees getting sick, made herself sick.

She gallops into Ponyville and darts straight for Twilight's Library. Applejack arrives at Twilight's and knocks on the door frantically. She could barely stand the wait before Twilight answers to her distressed knocking.

Twilight Sparkle opens the door and greets Applejack a good morning. Twilight appeared to be deprived of sleep as usual. She had been up all night studying new spells to show Princess Celestia. She has taken her magic seriously, since she hasn't been writing to the princess lately.

"Why good morning, Applejack!" Twilight says with a yawnful smile. "What brings you here?"

"Twilight, Ah need yer help wit somethin'. It's really important!"

"Well come on in. What is it you need help with? You know, I'm sure I got a book for whatever it is."

"That's exactly why Ah'm here, ya see I found this strange apple, and I ain't seen anythin' like it. So I was wonderin' if you had any books on it."

"Well, do you have the "strange apple" with you? What's so strange about it anyway?"

"Yeah, hold on, lemme just..." Applejack opens the sack and pulls out the mysterious apple. "Ya see, ain't it weird?" Applejack sets the apple on Twilight's round table.

"Hmmm..." Twilight uses her magic to levitate the apple closer to her vision. "I see what you mean." She turns it to all directions and closely inspects it. "And this isn't some rotten Zap Apple?"

AJ shakes her head. "No it ain't, it ain't even Zap Apple season, it passed. And it ain't rotten neither, smells just fine to me, well not like a normal apple, but definitely not rotten and dying-like."

Twilight sniffs the apple. "It smells like...lemony, or...orange in fact. A very earthy-pungent orange." She concludes.

Applejack sighs,"Twilight, do ya'll have anythin' in yer books about this?"

"Let me look around a bit. Once I find something, you should show me after where exactly you found this. And Applejack, don't worry, maybe it's a new breed of apple or a rare mutation. Nothing to get yourself worried over." She reassures.

"Oh, thank you Twilight! Will it take long?"

"Nope, finding things isn't a problem for me." She calls out loudly, "SPIKE!"

Spike is awoken early from his morning nap and sluggishly moves downstairs to meet with the two grudgingly. "What is it Twilight, I'm still sleeping..." He says in a groggy apathetic tone.

Twilight smiles to Spike and says, "Spike, I want you to find a book called 'Cuisines from around Equestria' or anything similar that I have about foreign food or things of that nature, you got that?"

"But, Twilight..." Spike groans as he rubs his eye tiredly.

"No 'buts'. Applejack and I are counting on you. Make us proud!", she smiles and walks toward the front door.

Spike looks at her confused, "And where are you going?"

Twilight turns to Spike and says, "We'll be right back Spike, Applejack and I have to do some investigating." She waves a hoof at Applejack to follow her.

The two ponies arrive at Sweet Apple Acres to search for some answers. Applejack guides Twilight to the tree with the gashed hole.

Twilight looks at the strange old tree. "This is where it came from right? This tree?"

"Yeah, Ah think so anyway, it was already fallen when Ah found it though."

Twilight makes mental notes, "I see, did you check inside the tree?"

Applejack nods, "Ah can't see anythin' in there. Maybe you could use your magic to see in better, like a light?"

Twilight smiles brightly,"You're right! Ok now, stand back. We don't know what's inside this tree, or what could come out of it."

Applejack backs up a few steps to give Twilight Sparkle some room. Twilight lowers her head and magically lights her horn to see inside clearly.

As soon as Twilight;s eyes begin to focus, Rainbow Dash swoops in and lands next to Applejack, curious as to why Twilight had her head in a tree.

"So uh, what's going on? Did Spike get stuck in the tree or something?", Rainbow Dash asks.

Twilight retrieves her head from the tree and turns around to look at Rainbow Dash. Twilight shakes her head. "No, Applejack found a rather peculiar apple next to this tree and so I'm investigating." She smiles proudly.

Rainbow's face drops, "An apple? Seriously? If you're that bored we could go swimming or something, it's too hot to be putting your head in a stuffy old tree."

Applejack turns to Rainbow Dash and shows her the blue apple.

Rainbow Dash slightly impressed says, "Well, you are right about it being 'peculiar', but who cares, let's do something."

Twilight annoyed, "If you don't want to help, Rainbow Dash, or even be slightly interested in this rare find, you can always leave, you know."

Rainbow Dash trying to make up and excuse."I know, but you see, I uh..." She didn't want to admit that the blue apple mystery intrigued her.

Applejack interrupts, "...got nothin' better to do?"

Twilight and Applejack giggle at each other teasingly.

Rainbow Dash enraged, "Oh yeah, well I could say the same thing to you!"

"Alright Rainbow, calm down, it was just a joke."

Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes at both of them.

Twilight relights her horn and continues to search, "Now, where was I?"

Twilight peered through the hole, instantly mesmerized. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Colors she had never seen before, objects, people, things, animals, and even other ponies that didn't seem 'real'. She stayed silent and in awe in some of these rare sights that have never been viewed by any pony eyes. Then, she saw something familiar heading towards her, she couldn't make out what it was but she felt like she knew it. Her eyes widened, she screamed and backed up out of the hole before the unknown object had made contact with her.

"Hey everypony! What's up?" the unknown object said.

Twilight rubs her eyes and looks up from what emerged from the tree hole. "Pinkie Pie?"

"Pinkie Pie, how in the..?" Rainbow Dash suspiciously.

"Pinkie, are you alright? How did you get in there?" Applejack turns to look at the tree. "Isn't it a little cramped in there?" Applejack asks confused.

Pinkie Pie smiled a toothy grin and said, "Are you kidding? You can fit an elephant in there! Or five!"

Twilight regained herself and said to everypony, "She's right, it looks like a small regular tree on the outside, but when you look inside there's so much space and yet, so much inside."

Applejack scratches her head and looks at Rainbow Dash who was as equally confused. Applejack looked to Pinkie Pie and asked, "Well how in the hay do you fit in there? And ain't it dangerous?"

"No, it's fun, you should try it." She smiles and giggles.

Twilight asks Pinkie Pie, "Look, what is it exactly? How long have you known about this?"

Pinkie Pie giggles and snorts, "I use it to go wherever I want to. Sometimes they're different places and sometimes they look the same and it feels like I didn't go anywhere but then I notice things that are...out of place."

Rainbow Dash asked, "Well do you know if they're more of these, hole things?" As Rainbow Dash asked this Twilight was showing Applejack the huge spaciness within the tree and explaining the different things inside.

"Well duh, where do you think I go once I enter this hole? Out of the same one? Well, sometimes yeah but, it's kinda unpredictable." Pinkie Pie said. "They're pretty much scattered all over Equestria, although very rarely somepony ever finds one. The only ponies that I know that have used this is me and.."

Rainbow Dash interupts, "Yeah yeah, but why did you keep this a secret from us? What else are you hiding?" Rainbow narrows her eyes at Pinkie.

Pinkie smiling, "'I'm not hiding anything, I just keep it as a secret."

Rainbow Dash facehoofs and gives up. It was no use arguing with Pinkie.

Pinkie Pie continues, "You see, you go into a different place in there, and it's usually rare to end up in the same place."

"What do you mean Pinkie?" Twilight asks turning from the tree intrigued.

"Well, you see how there's different worlds inside those little sphere things that let you see inside that specific world? Well, once you go in and try to find the original world where you came out from, it's usually really difficult, I mean there's just so many worlds with different variables and such."

Applejack looks at Twilight, "Is it me, or does Pinkie Pie sound kinda smart?"

"Or just being 'Pinkie Pie'." Rainbow Dash added.

Applejack gives Pinkie Pie the strange apple. "Pinkie, do you know where this came from?"

Pinkie Pie stares at it with widened eyes and the look of realization swamps her face, almost in absolute terror. "I don't know." Pinkie says then eliminating all traces of previous emotions, almost oblivious. "I don't really keep track of all the places I go to, it's unpredictable and new worlds are being made all the time."

"Who makes these worlds? These 'different places'?" Twilight questions.

Pinkie Pie says "Well I have an idea who, she's the only pony besides me to ever find these holes to the different places."

Rainbow Dash, "Pinkie, we don't have time for jokes. If you're not going to give us any good information then I'll go into that transporter thing myself!, she says bravely.

"Ok, go ahead it's really fun, sometimes I do a canon ball or a belly flop, don't worry it doesn't hurt, there's no water in there just pretty glittery, space stuff..."

"Well, I'm going in head first!" Rainbow Dash declares as she zooms straight into the hole and disappears.

To be continued...