The Striped Apples

Rockstar pushed his sunglasses from his eyes to his forehead and stared at the sign in the middle of a crossroads.  The sign pointing to the left had the world Fillydelphia carved into it.  'Nope,' Rockstar though to himself, moving to read the other signs. The sign pointing to the right held the name Canterlot.  'Absolutely not,' Rockstar though, wrinkling his snout as though the name itself gave off a horrible odor.  Rockstar had come from the path labeled as Manehattan, so there was now only one more town to consider visiting.  'Hope this last'n ain't a bust, too,' he thought as he moved over to examine the fourth sign.  "Ponyville?  Dude, old names 'n good times," Rockstar said reminiscently as he set off along the path, using his wings to hover slightly above the ground.

Within less than five minutes, the silent traveling had become enough to bore Rockstar to death.  He landed momentarily to fish something out of his nearly overflowing saddlebags.  "Sweet, sweet music," He said as he placed a headphone in each ear.  As Rockstar hovered down the path, muttering the words and bobbing his head to the Ramanes' Pegakrieg Bop, he noticed that he had reached Ponyville.  He also noticed that he was getting a number a strange looks from the townsponies that were in the park he was passing through.  Rockstar just ignored the collective gaze of the park's patrons.  Weather it was because of his sporadic  head motions or his strange mane and coat colors, he didn't know.  He had grown up being the pegasus son of an apple farming Earth pony and a mute Zebra, so he had grown mostly ammue to the stares.  Mostly.  From a young age, he figured that he was somewhat of an Equestrian anomaly.  He was either picked on or simply ignored by his classmates at any school he went to, be it the school house here in Ponyville or Flight School in Cloudsdale.  Rockstar quickly pushed these old memories from his head and hovered onward to see if his cousins still lived at Sweet Apple Acres, bobbing his head to Rainbow Day's Equestrian Idiot as he went.

Rockstar stopped just outside the simple wooden arch that designated the plot of land to be Sweet Apple Acres.  "This is Sweet Apple Acres?  Naw, never would'a known if it hadn't 'a been for that sign," He mused, smiling at his own sarcasm.  He then picked himself up with his wings again, hovering to the front door of the farm house that was surrounded by hundreds of apple trees.  He dropped to his hooves in front of the porch steps leading to the door and powered down his music player, slightly sad that he was halfway though Nat King Colt's Orange Colored Sky.  Rockstar walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

A lavender unicorn answered the door, staring at Rockstar for a moment, not realizing that she was.  She quickly shook her head and asked, "Hello, can I help you?"

Rockstar could imagine how strange he looked to the mare, a stallion with a long black and green striped mane that came down onto his face and was pushed over to cover his left eye.  His brown coat with very light black stripes also did nothing to bring down the weird factor.  He smirked a little bit and answered, "I'm sorry, I thought that the Apple Family still lived on this here plot 'a land."

"Oh, they do," the unicorn said before the strange stallion could walk away. "Applejack, there's somepony here who is looking for the Apple Family."

An orange Earth pony with a blonde mane and a cowpony hat came into view from the inside the house. "Cousin Rockstar, is that you?", she asked when she saw the strange pony.

"Hey cousin AJ!", Rockstar said before crushing the Earth pony mare in a hug that had a grip to rival that of an Ursa Major.  It took a moment for Rockstar to realize that his cousin was in desperate need of oxygen. "Oh, sorry," He said as he released his grip and chuckled nervously.

After regaining her ability to breathe, Applejack smiled at seeing her cousin , "What brings ya down to little 'ol Ponyville, cousin?", she asked, motioning him to come inside.

"Just wanderin' around," he answered, sitting down on the couch Applejack had motioned him to. "Saw the town's name on a sign at the crossroads down aways an' just decided to wander myself up on this way."

The lavender unicorn came to a chair beside the one that Applejack was in and sat down.  "Rockstar, this here's my friend Twilight Sparkle," Applejack said, motioning towards the mare.

"Evenin' Miss Sparkle, I'm Rockstar Apple, Applejack's cousin," he said, shaking Twilight's hoof. "Don't know why they named me Rockstar, though. Not a kinda apple I've ever heard 'a."

"Hi, Rockstar," Twilight greeted warmly. "And you can just call me Twilight."

"Say, Rockstar," Applejack started. "You got a place to stay, seein' as how ya just wandered into town?"

"Naw, but I can find somewhere to stay the night," Rockstar answered dismissively.

"How about ya stay here at the farm," Applejack offered.

"Naw, ya know that I couldn't take off 'a ya like that,"

"Now ya know I can't just let ya go nowhere without ya havin' a bed to sleep in," Applejack said in a slightly more assertive manner. "And if ya saw no, I'll just hog tie ya and let ya sleep right on that there sofa."

"Well, when ya put it like that," Rockstar began, pretending to weigh his options. "I guess I could stay here."

"You are a smart stallion, Rockstar," Twilight said, smirking from witnessing the friendly exchange between the two cousins.

"Now if ya'll just follow me upstairs, Rockstar, I'll show ya to your room," Applejack said as she trotted towards the stairs.

After Applejack had shown Rockstar to his room, a small but very comfortable bedroom in the corner of the house, he took off his saddlebags, sat his sunglasses on the table next to the bed, and proceeded to pass out on the first comfortable bed he had slept on in a long while.