Twilight stopped, catching her breath. “This looks like it did on the map…”

Sure enough, it did. There were various houses around the town, each one constructed of a fine wood. No house was without a patch or bush of flowers. While the majority of flowers were pink, there were a few of different colors such as blue and dark red. A river flowed near the entrance to the town, but occasionally, blue fish with sharp teeth could be seen on the surface. The air was fresh and clean, filled with a sweet scent.

“So this is Petalburg,” Spike mused. “This looks like a place Fluttershy would love.”

Twilight looked around. “I wonder if there’s somepony to talk to.” Then she spotted an orange Earth Pony in the distance with a familiar hat. “Hey, is that…” She dashed towards the orange pony, Spike following.

The orange pony’s straw hat kept the sun out of her eyes as she carried a basket full of green apples in her mouth. When she saw Twilight, she turned towards her quickly, knocking a few apples out of the basket. “Hey, Twilight! That you?” She asked, although with the basket in her mouth, it sounded almost incomprehensible.

Twilight dashed to the Earth Pony. “Applejack!”

Spike ran beside her. “Man, it’s good to see a familiar face…”

Applejack lowered the basket in her mouth down to the ground, and turned to the side to spit something, facing Twilight once she did. “What r’y’all doin’ here? Some kinda fancy study?”

Twilight giggled. “Sort of… Cadance, Spike and I went to Rogueport for a meeting about the economy system. Though, really, I was just a backup representative… But Cadance went missing. A guard of hers said she had bought a map, and we found one. The closest town to Rogueport was this one. What are you doing here, Applejack?” She paused a moment to catch her breath.

Applejack heard somepony yelling something, presumably at her. “I’LL HAVE ‘EM OVER N A SECON’!” She yelled back. “Apple Honey struck an apple goldmine, and me and a few family members came down to help ‘er. I reckon she’ll share…though obviously that ain’t the only reason. Ain’t like she’s a stranger.”

Twilight nodded. “Well, have you seen Cadance around? I don’t want to lose her…”

Applejack shook her head. “Ain’t possible, Twi. Sorry. Before y’all ask…” She picked up the basket in her mouth again and ran over to the far house, dropping off the apples, where a pony’s hoof could be faintly seen bringing the basket in. She ran back over to Twilight after that. “Ain’t no way to go past this here village. Cockatrice infestation that’s keepin’ anypony from leavin’ through the exit on the right side a town.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. She had been turned into stone by a cockatrice before, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. “Why would a cockatrice - or several of them - be here, though? Don’t they live in forests?”

“Ahm just as confused as you are, Twilight, this ain’t a natural habitat. Those Cockatrices are really impedin’ our progress.” Applejack responded. “We ain’t got any way to stop ‘em, either.”

Twilight sighed. “I wish Fluttershy was here. Her Stare could probably get rid of them.”

Spike thought. “Well, maybe we should explore the town. Ask around. That sort of stuff.”

However, before any of them could move, a large shadow blotted over the town. Twilight looked up to see the greyish-black underbelly of a dragon. It seemed particularly agitated, roaring loudly and constantly. Its wings were 20 feet in diameter, four times the size of that of a normal pony. As soon as it had appeared, it had gone, flying out of sight of everybody, into the white clouds…

Spike yelped and cowered, hiding behind his hands. Twilight backed away. “What was THAT?! Well, it was a dragon, but… You get what I mean!”

“Oh, THAT thing? Pssh, ain’t nothin’ to worry bout. That’s just the dragon.” She replied, as if she had seen a slight drizzle appear when there was no rain forcasted.

Spike got up, but he still seemed afraid. “And you’re not even worried about it? It could torch the town or something!”

Even by simply flying over the town, it had caused chaos. Ponies were running around, screaming… including some guards standing near gates at the far end of the town.

Applejack stepped backwards a few feet and turned to face the gate, recognizing the sound of it creaking open and clucking everywhere. “Now that’s sumthin’ we should be worried about!” Applejack motioned for them to get out of town amidst the ensuing chaos. Twilight and Spike followed Applejack to the entrance of town, running out as fast as they could.

After a few minutes, Twilight panted. “That was sudden… What happened to the residents?”

“We ‘ave a shelter for things like that. I reckon everyone got in safe...’course we usually have more time to prepare n what not, but I reckon everypony’s safe.” Applejack responded, once again awfully nonchalant, like this was an everyday occurrence.

“Then we should go back in,” Twilight said. She turned around and immediately gasped, for several statues that were once ponies stood around the town, each one with a frightened expression. A lone cockatrice was pecking at the ground.

“Git outta ‘ere!” Applejack kicked at the cockatrice while it wasn’t looking, sending it flying. Injured, it hobbled out of the town. Now that she had seen the full extent of what could happen, she was beginning to become frightened.

“Uh, Twi...there any way t’ reverse this?” She asked, trotting over to a random statue, and inspecting it from every angle, as if she expected to find a magic button.

“Only the cockatrices… cockatri? Whatever, only they can reverse it.” Twilight looked around. “And they’re not here anymore… They must have some sort of hideout, or something.”

Applejack gritted her teeth in anger. She picked up an apple off the ground and bit into it so hard it burst, spitting out the core. “Well, let’s hogtie us some Cockawhatevers and send ‘em to the hoosegow!”

Twilight nodded. “Looks like they’re not at the city gates anymore. Let’s go find their hideout.” She started off towards the city exit, ignoring the two stone guards. Applejack ran along with Twilight, Spike on her back because he didn’t feel like running.

End of chapter!

Author's Note

This was just a breather chapter to set up what's to come. And yes, Applejack is Koops's replacement. :P