Rush

Thump!

"Nothin' like a hard day's work in this beautiful farm!" said an excited orange-coated pony, who just smacked the trunk of a tree with her hind legs, causing the tree to vibrate and let loose all the apples that fell to the baskets below. This pony has her blonde mane and tail tied up at the end. She has white freckles on her cheeks, green eyes, and three red apple marks that can be found on either side of her flank. What makes this pony even more unique is that she wears a brown stetson hat. She never goes anywhere without it.

Farming in Sweet Apple Acres has always been her passion. Ever since she was a filly, she would always work hard at harvesting the apples and has excelled in her skills, mainly by kicking the trees at the base and sending the apples to the carefully placed baskets below. This technique is called apple bucking. Years of apple bucking have made her incredibly strong, a trait this farm pony is proud of. What mainly drives her to work hard is her love for her family. Her work ethic helps to bring food on the table. While she loves all her friends, none of them come close to having a special place in her heart like her kin do. The farm pony looks at the baskets and was satisfied with her effort.

"Time to collect these baskets and put 'em back in the barn." She starts rounding up the apple-filled baskets and placing them in a cart. "Hmm. Ah wonder where Rainbow Dash is. That pegasus is always late," the orange pony said with a frown.

Rainbow Dash was supposed to be at the farm an hour ago. The farm pony was starting to lose her patience. She finished rounding up the baskets and was getting ready to strap herself to the cart when her ears perked up.

Swoosh

"There she is," she muttered to herself.

She looks ups to the sky and spots a rainbow streak heading in her direction. The creature making the trail of rainbow circles five times around a tree that was just bucked and lands five feet in front of the farm pony.

"S'up Applejack," said the cyan coated pegasus with a smirk, her magenta eyes displaying confidence. The colors of her mane and tail were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. On both sides of her flank is a mark of a white cloud shooting a lightning bolt that’s colored red, yellow and blue. "How do you like my grand entrance?" she said with her head held high in pride.

"Grand entrance or not, yer late!" Applejack scolded. "Ya were supposed to be here an hour ago! Where ya been? Taking a nap?!"

"Hey! Taking a nap is just as important as work!" Rainbow replied defensively.

"Uh huh. Well that just means more extra time fer ya to work."

"I said I was sorry," Rainbow replied with a frown.

"Sorry ain't gonna cut it," Applejack replied and pointed her hoof at the cyan pegasus. "That sonic rainboom of yers has destroyed many of mah trees in the western part of the orchard. Ya should have known better than to perform that stunt right next to mah crops. Now ya gonna pay for damaging my livelihood by workin' fer four weeks straight, six hours per day. That means the more time ya waste, the longer ya'll be here."

"All right all right, I get it. Sheesh," Rainbow replied like filly who doesn't enjoy being on time out. "It will be a lot faster if you will let me gather the apples my way."

"That's not how we do things here, especially on mah farm." Applejack got into Rainbow's face, causing the latter to flinch.  "Ya'll gather these apples the way an earth pony does, got it!"

"Yes mam," Rainbow replied unenthusiastically.

Applejack turned and was heading for the cart.

"Now let's get ta work. Ah need ya ta-" she was interrupted by what sounded like thunder. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had their ears perked up. "Ya hear that?"

Another sound of thunder bursts out. The two ponies turned their heads into the direction of the noise, which was coming from the Everfree forest.

"Everfree weather sure is strange. Never heard thunder sound like that before," Applejack remarked. Another sound came out.

"That's not thunder Applejack," Rainbow replied as one more sound rang out. "That's...That's something else."

The noises kept coming, but this time in rapid succession. Multiple booming sounds were being made one after another. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were getting nervous, because they never heard these sounds before. After around thirty outbursts, silence started to creep in. Echoes were traveling for miles, even reaching the ears of the two alert ponies. It was an eerie moment. Potential danger was out there in the forest, and it made the two mares tense in their muscles. Uncertainty has the effect of creating fear, which is the case right now.

"I'm going to see what that is," Rainbow said as she crouched, ready to take off. Before she went further, she was pulled from the tail back to the ground by Applejack.

Applejack said 'hold on there' with Rainbow's tail in her mouth before she spit it out. "Ya don't know what's out there and it might be too much fer ya to handle. Git back 'n town and retrieve Twilight."

Rainbow glared at her farming friend. "Applejack, I can handle this. I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria, remember?" She pumped her chest with her hoof. "Whatever's out there is not going to be able to catch me or hurt me."

"Ah'm not takin' any chances. Ya can guide Twilight to where she needs to go and ya gonna need her magic in case things head south."

"Applejack I can-"

"Please Rainbow!" Applejack looked at her friend with concern. "Ah've got a bad feelin' about this, and Ah prefer that Twilight be with ya."

When Rainbow noticed her friend's concerned face, she soften her attitude and sighed through her nose.

"Fine," Rainbow got ready to take off in the direction of Ponyville. "I'll be back when Twilight and I are finished." Applejack nodded before the colored pegasus flew and went her way.

"Ah hope mah bad feelin' is wrong," Applejack muttered as she watched her friend's rainbow trail in the far distance.

"APPLEJACK!"

The farm pony turned to see who was calling for her. Two fillies were running towards her, one a white coated unicorn with green eyes and a light purple mane and tail; the other was an orange coated pegasus with purple eyes, mane and tail. The former was Sweetie Belle and the latter was Scootaloo. These two fillies are good friends of Applejack's little sister Applebloom. Something was wrong. Applebloom was not with them and the two fillies had a look of worry in their eyes.

"Girls, Where's mah sister?!" Applejack inquired, fearing the worst.

The two fillies came to a halt in front of Applejack and started speaking with heavy breaths.

"We're sorry....we're sorry....she's....," the two began.

"Girls, calm down. Take deep breaths and then speak," Applejack said, forcing herself to remain cool and collected when she wanted to freak out herself.

The girls took a few seconds to catch their breaths and looked up with terror in their eyes.

"We were playing hide and seek earlier," Scootaloo began. "We were trying to see if we can get our cutie marks by being good hiders from each other."

"Applebloom told us she was going to hide in a place where we won't be able to find her," Sweetie belle continued. "We've spent hours looking for her and we don't know where she is!"

"We called for her all over the farm and she hasn't responded! We're scared she might be in trouble!"

Applejack took a moment to think about what she's been told. Applebloom would have surely responded if her friends called for her, especially if she had won a hide and seek game. There was another fact Applejack needed to consider. Applebloom was the adventurist type, always wanting to explore the unknown. This kind of attitude usually got the little filly into all kinds of trouble. If Applebloom was not responding, she could either be unconscious somewhere in the farm or she might have left altogether. If she's not here, and knowing Applebloom, she might go to the one place that is always filled with adventure but with danger as well.

No. Applebloom Ah hope ya didn't! Applejack thought, a chill coming down her spine. She looked down at the fillies with urgency. "Girls, go find my brother and tell 'im to look for Applebloom in the farm. Afterwards, stay in the house until Ah call for ya. Got it?"

"What are you going to do?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ah'm gonna look for her in the forest. Ah might have an idea of where she is. Now git going!" She commanded.

The two fillies obeyed and ran to look for Applejack's brother while the orange farm pony ran in the direction of the Everfree forest. Earlier she had told Rainbow Dash not to enter the forest without Twilight, because it would be foolish to face an unknown threat unprepared. The situation has changed for the concerned farm pony because now her sister's life is on the line. She doesn't want to take the chance that her sister would be killed by the time back-up arrives. Therefore, she's going in alone to save her sister, even if it meant risking her own life. She would gladly give her life for her family.

As she left her farm and was nearing the Everfree, she caught sight of somepony leaving the forest. When she saw who it was, her spirit was lifted.

"APPLEBLOOM!"

"SIS!" yelled a yellow coated filly who had orange eyes, a red mane and tail, with a big pink bow tying the former.

Applejack stopped running and opened her front limbs to receive her sister. The little filly jumped to her sister's embrace and was sobbing.

"A-Ah'm sorry, s-sis," Applebloom said as she continued to cry. "Ah'm so sorry....." She just kept on crying and hugging her older sister tightly.

Applejack had mixed emotions running through her. She was angry that Applebloom ventured into the Everfree forest. The little filly was told repeatedly to not enter the forest without adult supervision. But at the same time, Applejack was relieved that her sister was safe and sound. Losing a relative is something the orange pony does not want to experience. Right now, Applebloom is weeping her heart out. Whatever the filly saw, it was enough to scare her and make her cry like a foal. She needed comfort at the moment. Applejack hugged her sister gently and wanted her to know that the danger is over.

"We'll talk about yer punishment later," Applejack said softly. "Let's just git ya home now."

"Sis," Applebloom said quickly, still hugging her older sister and was slowly ceasing to sob. "Ah saw a creature in the forest....it walked on two legs....made some loud noises from the front hooves..."

"Don't worry sugarcube," Applejack replied while patting her sister on the back. "That critter ain't gonna hurt ya. That Ah promise ya."

"It didn't hurt me," Applebloom replied. She wiped away her tears and looked at her older sister in the eye. "It saved mah life."