Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to Apple Thief of Everfree’s Third installment. So as some, or maybe none of you have noticed, I put some stuff down in my blog about what I’m planning for this story.

Opening statement, I'd like to apologize. My writing once more got out of control. End opening statement.

This chapter is definitely going to be one of the longer chapters, of that I assure you! So...on with the story!

Edit: This will be Chapter 3, but there’s a 3.5 in the works, so chapter FOUR with actually be the FIFTH or SIXTH of the set. The chapter numbers have changed by the way.

LOOK AT MY BLOG!

Enough shameless promoting, onwards to the story!

Disclaimer: It’s on Chapter ONE! I’m not going back to that dark place again!
P.S. This first scene was suppose to come at the end of chapter 2, but I forgot to add it in.

~X~

Location: Canterlot, late night

Luna had taken her leave of the particular "grilling” of the one named Rarity when she took notice of how low the Sun hung in the sky. It would soon be time for a nightly duty and she usually preferred to do it in the comforts of her own home. So with some words of parting to her current company, she took off towards Canterlot.

As her figure flew through the evening air, she slowly allowed her magic to help with the transition between night and day. The sky growing darker as she grew closer to the city of nobility and the high-esteemed.

As she passed the gates, giving a nod to the guards around the perimeter of the city, she mulled over what had been learned on this endeavor into Ponyville. A new being having taken homage there and his, now that she knew it was a he, pursuits.

She was glad that Naruto had been of the affable sort. He didn’t seemed to want to bring harm to Celestia’s-no, their ponies.

She was going to have to get use to that.

Anyway the one named ‘Naruto’ seemed far more pleasant than her sister had worried about. Sure he was a thief apparently, she wasn’t there for that bit, but if anything he seemed to have a surprisingly good rapport with the Apple family.

She wouldn’t be “delving out some smackdowns” any time soon.

She really needed, to start learning these new phrases and idioms of today’s time, Celestia seemed to love teasing her because it.

It wasn’t her fault! It’s been over a thousand years! She was a little bit behind the times is all!

…maybe.

She shook her head of such thoughts as she came up to her balcony in the castle. She landed with the grace of one of her station required, though she was a bit rusty but she would admit this to no one!

She entered her room, and exited through the doors, coming to the ones beside her own.

“Dear sister, we have returned with a recounting of the state of affairs in Ponyville! Wouldst thou please open your doors?” She asked.

“You can just come in Luna,” a voiced called out from behind the door.

Upon receiving permission the moon mistress went beyond the wooden entrance. Taking in the room, and its sole occupant.

Standing at 6’7, well when she stood currently she was sitting, and adorned in a pair of yellow sweatpants and white tank-top, Celestia cut a regal, yet casual figure at the moment. Though Luna could never understand these “sweat” pants her sister liked to wear when “off the clock”.

Hey she might be getting better at this!

“What is it Luna? How did the checking in on my pupil go?” Celestia asked, as she sat cross-legged on her bed. Her eyes roamed the papers in her fingers before she focused on her little blue familia.

“She’s quite fine. Excitable as you’ve said, though we’re more surprised by how well received we were by her and her company, after what happened recently,” Luna answered honestly with a small bow of her head. She brought her head back up as she was embraced by her sister, and reciprocated in earnest.

“I told you, our little ponies will come to regard you as they do me with time. Ponyville is just a little ahead of the curb with being a more open community,” The sun goddess stated as the two of them separated and sat on her bed. Luna closed her eyes and nodded, before she brought attention back to the previous topic of importance.

“As for the reconnaissance, we are happy to inform thee that no hint of Discord being in Ponyville was found, though we did stumble upon a…subject of interest in our stay.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow to this, while hearing that nothing was amiss with Ponyville was always good news, the way Luna worded that statement left much to imagination of what was going on.

“Do tell.”

“Like we had stated before, the chaotic energy originating from Ponyville was in no way of Discord’s ilk, but it was from another creature whom may have some sort of relation to Discord,” Luna stated evenly.

Now that caught Celestia’s attention. The idea that there may be a second Discord was concerning, but from the way Luna was handling this, it may not be as serious as she was making it. She gestured for her to continue.

“His name was Naruto, and he called himself a Unique...”

~X~

Location: Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Sensei! Please, you can't!"

"...You've made me immensely proud Naruto. And if he were to be anything like you, I'm sure he couldn't make me any prouder"

...

"DAMMIT!"

The form of one Naruto shot up with a gasp, sweat trailing down his unclothed form as he fought for control of his heartrate. He let out a few quick breaths before he sighed, releasing tension from his body.

“Huh?”

He looked around, mind trying to piece together where he was, before he remembered the events of what was supposed to be a normal Tuesday. After which, he got up and stretched. Currently he was left in nothing but his boxers, with his jumpsuit folded and put on the edge of the bed, so the Unique felt inclined to consider his current condition.

He frowned.

He was slightly sticky and sweaty, his tails probably worse off with them being more fur than muscle, no doubt from before when he was dealing with his…nightmare. Feeling more than slightly uncomfortable with the thought of revisiting the dream, he went about rectifying his current physical situation. If anything, from the way it was still kind of dark out he assumed it was early in the morning.

He was happy he didn’t need to wash his clothes though. Few applications of the concept of water left his clothes more than just clean. Dirt and grime slid off like magic, he he, and he was never really in need of more than necessary unless he suddenly outgrew his jumpsuit, which was unlikely, he was 21 after all.

He looked over to the corner of the room where a mirror stood. He looked at his reflection, his eyes narrowing as they focused in on the large sunburst-like scar upon his navel. His stare seemed eternal before he turned away, hands clenched but face neutral.

Now where was that bathroom again?

~X~

Applejack awoke this particular morning with a strange feeling of giddiness. She wasn’t really sure why. Maybe she was just being optimistic about today? Possibly, it was getting close to Applebuck Season, so maybe. She did enjoy her job and bucking apples was always a nice workout whenever it came up.

Good ol’ Apple family genes, none the better.

She got up from her bed, her form clad in the same nighttime outfit as usual, before heading to the door. She stretched as she walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. Her mind set on brushing her teeth and preparing for the day.

As she set herself down the hallway, she took notice of a crack in the guest room door and the sound of the shower running. All the while, her mind was barely taking note of it, her hand on the doorknob, before she heard the sound of someone talking.

“Huh, didn’t know Jackie had her own personal rubber ducky?”

*quack, quack*

Her eyes shot wide as she recognized the voice and it all started coming back to her.

Tuesday, the game, the bet and their win. It all flashed into her mind in moments and she realized that she was just about to walk in on the blond thief in the shower. Her hand shot back away as if burned.

“Hmm?”

She froze.

“Someone there?” Came Naruto’s confused voice. She remained still, heart beating in her chest for reasons beyond her comprehension, before she relaxed as she heard the sounds of the water splashing.

“Must have been my imagination. Man never had a hot bath like this before, in so long.”

She quickly made a plan to leave the immediate area, and in her haste chose to go in the guest room. Door shut behind her, she released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. She leaned against the door before taking the room she was in.

“The guest room? Ah need to get out of here and fast,” she announced, before she put her hand on the doorknob, but just as she did she saw something on the bed.

“Must be his clothes.”

She’d made no other observations, but for some reason this one kept her planted in her spot. She shook her head of a weird thought.

“Nah, now hold it there Applejack,” she chided herself, “That would be more than a bit creepy, and I reckon he wouldn’t want anypony just touching his clothes like that.”

That’s what she said at least, but she found herself moving towards the linens. She stopped above the clothing, her head snapping back towards the door, straining her hearing and giving a sigh at the sound of small quacks in the distance.

She brought the jumpsuit to bear in front of her, unfolding it and taking a good look at it. She took notice of the fact that it seemed just about her size, if not a bit wider across the waist. She was not too surprised by this, considering the blonde male was just about her height and he was more than just fairly muscled, if his arms were anything to go by.

“Huh that’s weird,” she stated as she felt the fabric, before she took a sniff.

Now Applejack was no creep in any sense of the word, but she was surprised that the clothing smelled of the Unique, yet at the same time pure water. Heck it felt like it was slightly cool to the touch, and it was like it just came off the clothesline!

She gave it a weird look, before she got an idea. The area on the bridge of her nose grew red, as she went through the paces of putting on the jumpsuit. Once done, she couldn’t help but comment.

“…This feels really nice.”

She turned to a mirror in the corner of the room, and took herself in. The jumpsuit definitely clashed against her fur, something Rarity would no doubt find some objective horror in. The outfit fit snug to her frame, with the wider waist being compromised by her bust to fit almost perfectly. Her tail was fine once through the hole near the base of the spine. To finish it off, she flipped the hood over her head, sliding her small ears into the holes at the top.

She moved her arms around, feeling the freedom of movement in the joints, noticing that her arms didn’t fully fill the arm holes.

“Guess he got more muscle on his arms than Ah first though,” she whispered. There was another item she noticed.

A necklace. A cord strung though a small metal loop that held a crystal of some sort in it. She picked it up from the desktop, and marveled at it, the crystal in question was a light shade of turquoise. She carefully placed it around her neck, looking in the mirror at it. So occupied she was, that she didn’t notice the creaking of the door being opened.

~X~

“Maybe I shouldn’t have taken so long,” Naruto commented, as he left the bathroom, towel around his waist. He currently had another towel on his shoulders, one hand rubbing one of ends of the towel ferociously into his follicles with the other hand squeaking with the rubber duck he found in the baths.

“Still can’t believe that Jackie’s got a rubber duck,” he commented as he played with the rubber animal with the letters “A.J.” written on the bottom.

*quack, quack*

Oh the fun he could have with this thing. If anything, he'd blame his canine side.

He looked up at the guest door, to find it closed which brought a confused expression to his face.

“Didn’t I leave this open?”

He thought for a few moments, before shrugging it off like no big deal. Continuing into the room, with the duck now in his frazzled tail, as he rubbed both hands into the towel on his head. Vision obscured, he didn’t know what scene he would find once he removed the towel.

“What the-?!”

*quack!*

~X~

Applejack could have summed up the current situation eloquently.

“Uuuuuhhhhhhh…”

She froze in place, before slowly, but surely, turning around. Eyes closed from when she got caught, she cracked them open to face the music, and if they weren’t attached to her person they might have just as well popped out of her head.

Now let it be said that the farm mare was interested in guys. She’d seen her fair share of magazines in newsstands with some very good looking stallions. That’s the thing though, they were stallions pretty much made for the front page to catch the eyes of wandering mares to snatch up and buy the pieces of parchment.

So she always knew what reality was, and what was for eye-candy. They were good to look at, but nothing to really go gah-gah over. That was more Rarity’s shtick. She’d seen mares go googly eyed over her brother when he takes off his shirt, so it’s not like guys like that didn’t exist, but for her it wasn’t that simple.

Applejack Apple was not shallow, not in the least, yet at that point in time her mind chose to defect against the idea. Eyes trailing down the form of one former-apple thief named Naruto.

“You okay over there Jackie, you looking at me all weird?” The blond in question asked, as he moved closer. To her.

Her voice got caught in her throat as she watched the half-naked blond walk forward, abdominals and pectorals in full view.

Naruto, she was sure if not before then definitely now, was fit. She’d known this. How could she not? He had to be to give her family and friends the runaround for as long as he did before, but it never occurred to her HOW fit the blond was. Now here in front of her without his jumpsuit, which she was still wearing by the way, in his full glory she was speechless.

Water dripped down his shoulders to his lower body. The liquid going in almost slow motion in her eyes, as it trailed down the firm contours of his body, only ending once it hit the “V” near the end of his firm abdominals, and a surprisingly large scar, disappearing into the towel around his waist.

It was from that point on, her mind chose to go directly into the gutter.

~X~

The blond found himself in a weird position, as he stood front of Applejack. Her form unresponsive to anything he’d said up until this point, and it was worrying. Her face just kept getting redder and redder before he was sure she’d become just like one of her own apples.

Not even squeezing Mr. Quackers was working!

*quack, quack*

He’d finally decided to just shake her awake. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Come on AJ! Wake up!”

“Huh?!” She exclaimed out of her stupor before coming eye to eye once more with Naruto, and then once again becoming completely and totally aware of the blonde’s half-naked state. Also his…

*snap, snap, snap*

She brought attention to his fingers once the spiky haired one finished his motions.

“Yeah, we are NOT going through that again,” he stated, eyeing her with a raised eyebrow. She had the decency to blush and look away from him.

“Seriously. One, are you okay? Your face is like totally red, might want to get that checked out. Two, why are you in here? And Three, I need you to pay attention to this one, why are you wearing my stuff?” He fired off question after question.

With each question Applejack grew redder, and even more nervous. She needed a way out of this situation.

Come on Applejack, improvise!

“Um! A-ah was, uhhh….Coming to get ya!” She spouted.

He raised his other eyebrow, as she continued.

“Ye-yeah that’s right, we get up early in the morning to start chores and since you’re here now, Ah thought Ah would make sure you’re up to speed on how things are done around here!” She ran with this, it was the closest truth she could play right now without flubbing any of the words.

He gave her a narrow eyed look causing her to sweat, before he shrugged and nodded.

“Okay, I can see that.”

*sig-*

“But that doesn’t explain why you’re wearing my clothes.”

“Urk!”

Now he was giving her a truly curious look. She started sweating even more now. Damn him for being so observant, her diversion had failed! Him and his distracting body!

Stupid, sexy Naruto!

“Uhh…” She trailed off, waiting for something to come to her. She was a horrible liar, this was going to end up a disaster.

With her drawl, Naruto leaned forward waiting for the answer. Yet, just as she opened her mouth to answer Granny Smith’s voice rang from downstairs.

“Come and get it while it’s hot!”

Applejack chose that exact moment to thank Celestia and Luna for small blessings. And Granny Smith.

“Well as you can see we gotta go downstairs! Time’s a wastin’ and we got chores to do! Hahahaha.” There was a forced laugh at the end as she maneuvered around the blond as they walked to the door.

“See ya down-Wha?! *quack*”

“Jackie watch it-Oomph!”

As the farm mare was planning to leave, she found herself tripping over her rubber duck towards the floor, with Naruto diving after her to stop her fall.

“Ugh…” The blond male groaned as he rub his head, back to the floor with the towel around his waist keeping his modesty intact. He blinked away the blur in his vision, only to take notice of Applejack on his chest.

He stared hard.

Naruto was many things, but a person who was familiar with girls he was not. How would he be? The orange mare on top of him was basically his first, and only, female acquaintance of this world outside of Everfree, and everything in there wanted to kill you. This new experience right now was sending a lot of signals to his brain he didn’t understand, yet he couldn't help but find his eyes stuck this mare.

It was just like when he found her in his room, wearing his clothes and his necklace. He'd thought he'd be angry, but he wasn't, which was strange. Seeing her in his necklace, her his present and the necklace his past, a clashing of his timelines. More troubling yet, he found himself focusing more on Applejack wearing his necklace, than the indignation of his necklace being wore by somebody else.

It made him feel a type of way…happy? Sort of? He wasn’t sure, but it did in a way, but he'd never bring it up. He just knew that it would be an awkward subject to approach, and he wanted to steer clear of it.

So he just sat there with a dumb look on his face, as Applejack was straddling him in his doorway, in his clothes and jewelry, with her hands on his chest.

He didn’t know how to deal with this situation!

~X~

Applejack knew the second her vision cleared up, she was in for something.

She wasn’t expecting that something to be this.

She just stare at him, and he stared back. The both of their faces growing redder by the second. It seemed like neither of them wanted to address the elephant in the room, but they both knew they couldn’t stay like this. Applejack especially since she knew that anyone could take this situation in the wrong-.

“Hey Naruto ya seen- Sweet apples?!” A voice cried out, causing both the downed blonds to look up in horror as Apple Bloom stood there in the hallway, hands over her mouth. They had just enough time to suffer this before Big Mac stepped out of his room, and have his mouth drop at the current predicament.

On the bright side, they didn’t have to focus on their current situation. Down side, everyone else was now.

~X~

They didn’t meet anyone’s gazes, and breakfast was a quiet affair…Oh who was he kidding, they teased the ever loving Tartarus out them!

“So you finally got straight to it, did ye?” Granny Smith.

“What were yall doing on the floor like that?! Is this another one of those adult things Granny Smith keeps talking about?” Apple Bloom.

“…” Big Mac was not amused.

He groaned as they finally got to the chores. He didn’t need any more Big Brother Stares™ nor any questions on the intricacies of the adult world from the Apple filly. So here they stood, him decked out in a pair of dark orange sweatpants and white muscle shirt.

His own makes of course, decorated with a few of the same concepts threaded into its fibers as his jumpsuit. The others themselves were decked out in the blue get-ups from before. He was glad to see them put those to good use, than to just chase him around.

Currently they were lined up, with Granny Smith walking in front of them like some sort of drill sergeant, though he and Jackie still couldn’t maintain eye contact for too long, but it was getting better.

That had to count for something, right?

“Okay, all in attention!” The eldest, female Apple exclaimed, the three of them coming to attention.

“We got chores to do, and since we got a new worker with us for the foreseeable future, we’re gonna run down the chores of the household!” She announced, as she came to a stop.

“First off, Big Mac get to plowin’ the fields…”

“Eeyup.” The Eldest and only male Apple on the farm answered, trailing off to the shed. Granny nodded before turning to a smiling Apple Bloom.

“You go and get Milda ready for the evening milking won’t cha, Sugercube?”

“Ah’m on it!” The filly zipped to her work in the barn, leaving both Naruto and Applejack to stand at attention in front of the Apple elder.

“Normally I’d set Applejack off to go start bucking some trees, but since we need one of ya to help you,” she pointed to Naruto, who finally along with Applejack, realized what was about to happen, “I set to it, to see the both of you working together. Now hop to it!”

Before they could protest, she was already on her way to the rocking chair on the porch, leaving them before they could get a word in edge-wise. They just kind of sat there in awkward silence for a bit, before Applejack decided that they should get to work and keep themselves distracted.

She started with having them get to looking around the farm for any form of repair it may have been in need of.

“Now usually, Ah would start with the fences. Check for any mold, rotten or otherwise unwanted pieces. After walking the whole way we check the barn, shed and the outside of the house to see if there’s anything in need of repairs, and give it to Big Mac to look over and get the materials for.” She stated, as they proceeded to do just that.

By the end of the small trip around the blocked off perimeter, they came up with: 4 pieces of rotten fence planks, the barn needing to be washed off and the house being in “okay” condition. Writing things down on a little checklist on the side of the shed door. Setting it down, she continued.

“Now we need to go weed the fields, replace the hay for the cows and…”

And that’s how things continued until they got to the “main course” so to speak of the chores. They washed down some of the equipment, the plow after Big Mac was done with it, weeded the fields, and checked out the chicken coups for some eggs. Until finally they came to the last, yet most expected…

Applebucking.

At this point all of them, Granny Smith and Apple Bloom included, were in front of the orchard. The apples going from one side of the acres to the other 3 fields of Apple property.

It was a LOT of apples.

“So this is the “final destination” so to speak, huh?” He summed up his thoughts.

“Eeyup.” The red stallion answered, a smile on his face. The rest of them were like this too, save Apple Bloom who seemed to have a determined look in place. Granny Smith noticing this on the little filly, nodded her head at her, watching in amusement as red haired sibling rushed at one of the trees with a battle cry.

It wasn’t a moment later that a large *Thwack* was heard, along with multiple thumps as apples hit the floor. Apple Bloom came back with a dizzy, but proud look, before falling on her rear.

The others chuckled at this before they set off.

Granny Smith collected Apple Bloom before the two went off to get the carts, while Big Mac went off to start bucking his own set of trees.

“So is this going to be one of those things that looks easy, but is actually a lot harder than it looks?” The spiky blond asked, his hands behind his head. AJ grinned at him, making him sigh. Yup it was going to be exactly like that. So she set him up near twos that were right next to one another.

“So yeah, applebucking ain’t as easy as we make it look, nor does it involve any sort of head trauma,” they snickered at the joke. Apple Bloom aimed to amuse.

“Ah want ya to keep a close look at how Ah do it first.”

She then set herself in front of the tree trunk, before rotating at the hip, lashing out with a leg. The hoof-end made contact with the center of the tree with *thwack* before being following by the thuds of apples falling into baskets.

He clapped a little, watching as the orange farm mare flustered for a second before bowing, and then aiming himself towards his own tree. He closed his eyes and envisioned the picture of AJ’s form. The start-up rotating of the firm hips, the momentum swinging lean, raised leg, the knee shooting outward along with her hoof. The well-muscled mare striking wood…His eyes snapped wide, causing him to choke up, as his leg whipped out awkwardly, leaving him off balance.

“Wha-whoa!” Leading to his inevitable position on the ground.

Applejack’s guffaws, didn’t help either. Though she was nice enough to give him a hand up.

“Y-ya okay there, s-sugarcube,” she tried hard to keep the amusement from her voice, but ultimately failed. He grumbled, eyes aimed towards the tree with ferocity, though that didn’t stop him from thinking about what just happened.

‘What the hell was that?’ His thoughts were going in circles. Where did all that extra information come from? None of it had anything to do applebucking!

Gah! Stupid, sexy AppleJack!

He set himself in front of the tree once more before launching into action. His leg whipping forward like a piston, pawed foot landing square into the tree trunk. Several fallen apples later, and he was feeling pretty good about this. They continued for a while, before they stopped for a break. They sat on a stump of some old tree, back to back with some distance between them.

He looked out to the section he had dealt some justice too, after his humiliating failure. Though he wasn’t the only one to feel some pride for his efforts.

“Not bad! Ah mean ya messed up your first, but ain’t nobody perfect, especially not when it comes to applebucking.” AJ complimented, as she took a good look at his latest tree trunk, before scrutinizing it. He came to her side, and gave a worried stare.

“What? Ah man, there’s something wrong with it isn’t there? You’ve been doing that to almost every tree I’ve kicked today.” He whined.

She shook her head, though he wasn’t sure if she meant that towards him or the tree. He was left in the dark for a moment before she elaborated.

“It’s nothin’ like that, just making sure the trees alright.” She said with a certainty.

He gave her a look. Seeing his expression, she was about to fill him in, but someone else explained.

“When it comes to applebuckin’, it’s a lot more than just some strength and a kick. Well, technically it is, but control is also important.” The two of them looked to the voice to find Granny Smith and Apple Bloom back with carts in tow, with Apple Bloom carrying a couple bottles of water as well.

“Right, it’s like Granny said,” Applejack continued, accepting a bottle from her sister before pointing to the tree he’d kicked last, “see here? Your power seems pretty good and you’ve got the spot right, but your control is a smidge bit off.”

He looked to the trunk, and noticed the imprint of his foot lay into the bark. He took a moment to look at all the other trees in the orchard, and found them missing such marks in the shape of hooves, and sighed.

He frowned at that, but he honestly felt like he had been doing well so far.

Apple Boom chose this moment to speak up.

“Ah remember Granny saying that we gotta treat the trees with respect. That the land is always watchin’ and stuff, right?” She looked to the eldest Apple who nodded at her.

“Ya gotta be able to leave the tree intact, form and all, and fill it with positive vibes. That’s one of the basics of earth pony groundwork.” Granny finished, fixing them all with a smile.

He thought about this for a second, and decided he’d give it another go, but in his own way.

Standing and walking over to another tree, before, instead of getting into start-up position, and lay his hand against the tree. It wasn’t even a second later that the tree started to shake abruptly for a moment, before stopping, yet not before all the apples fell from the tree’s branches.

He grinned at this, before fist-pumping, right as the rest of the leaves and some branches fell from the same tree.

*twitch, twitch*

He stood stock-still in victory position, before letting out a yell of indignation.

“FFFFFUUUUUUU-!”

The string of curses leaving his mouth were definitely not child friendly, and Granny had foreseen this outcome and planned ahead. Apple Bloom being none the wiser of why her grandmother had given her earplugs, but did as told and counted to 10.

Meanwhile Applejack just sat there with an amused deadpan look, eyes half-lidded as she sipped her water. And she would have continued to sip her water, were it not for a line dropped by the eldest Apple.

“Boy’s got the curses of a sailor, and frame of a well-built wagon, I’m sure he’ll be a good husband for ya.”

Cue spit-take.

Big Mac who had just came to get a cart, looked at the scene of a yelling Naruto and a flustered Applejack for a moment and went on his way.

“Nnope.”

Granny Smith just smiled.

~X~

The blond allowed himself to sigh as they brought the haul to the Apple home. They’d been at this since early morning and finished in the afternoon.

Meaning he had a whole afternoon of tinkering to do!

Or at least that was the plan, after he took a bath. So first of things to be taken care of.

List:
-Set up his clothes
-Attain Mr.Quackers
-Get in water
-Bath Time!

So it was a surprise that on his way to his room to attain Quackers, that he was stopped by Jackie. She was leaned up against his door, with a stern look on her face.

He had a feeling that he’d be doing nothing of what he planned after his bath.

~X~

And he was correct.

Currently, they were walking down the path from the Acres to Ponyville proper, back in their normal clothes. In each of their arms was a basket of apples, and his tails were holding some eggs in a bag.

He was dreading this trip.

“So explain this to me, one more time,” he spoke, as they came closer and closer to the heart of Ponyville. He was already noticing some of the looks he was getting from those who were mulling about. Up in the sky he noticed some pegasi moving clouds, and even one gray one who seemed to be wearing some sort of uniform moving slowly but surely over the rooftops.

He’d never even thought he’d be back here again after his last trip into this town some years ago.

Well at least not in full daylight.

So with that mindset in hold, they entered the heart of the town. Every so often, somepony would stop to look and stare as they passed. It was getting unnerving, but he just dealt with it by focusing on Jackie’s reply. Better curious stares, than angry ones.

“Just ignore ‘em,” she started, not oblivious to the looks he was receiving form the towns ponies, though she was sending some narrowed eyes in a direction behind him.

“And like Ah said before, we got some deliveries to make and since you’re going to be around for a bit, ya might as well learn how we run things.” She reasoned, though she couldn’t help but glare, subtly, in the direction of another set of mares who were eyeing her company's well toned arms with more than friendly looks. She snorted.

What did they know about him? Absolutely nothing.

“Right, I get that, so why is it that we’re heading towards what looks like a clothing store?”

As he said, they were closing in on a place that looked really fabric orientated. Whether it was the fabric exterior or the ponnequins in the windows, they clearly labeled this a place of fashion and that phrase set off some alarm bells in his mind.

Didn’t this place look familiar?

Applejack just kept quiet as they came to the doorstep, knocking lightly, causing him to tense for whatever reason. When the door was answered by a familiar looking white filly, with a fidgety smile.

“Welcome Applejack, and…Naruto?” She sounded surprised, nervous and confused. Not that he didn’t understand her confusion, this would be his first true passing in Ponyville. He’d involuntarily relaxed a little, but for some reason he couldn’t fathom he was still tense. Why was she nervous to begin with?

Wasn’t there something about Sweetie Belle he was forgetting?

They’d been let inside, and he was sure now this was a clothing store. The dresses and suits he saw lined up across each wall, and the display window said the whole story. He cut his observations short to listen in on the conversation.

“…you can tell your sis we’re here.” Applejack finished. He missed a lot of content in that conversation, but that last bit stuck him. Wait who was Sweetie Belle’s sister again?

“…” She looked off to the side, before commenting.

“Well you see, my sister has been downstairs the whole time, he he…” She trailed off with a false laugh, her eyes widening behind him. Naruto heard the door slam behind him and knew.

He wasn’t leaving this boutique, without some form of fight.

~X~

A fight he lost oh so completely.

So here he stood, in nothing but his boxer shorts and tank top, as Rarity moved from place to place around his form. Measuring tapes, threads and needles spread about him in mid-air suspended by light blue magic. The white mare herself, seemed to zip around his form in a blur, arms wrapping all forms of measurement tools to his body.

“*sigh* Are we finished yet?” He called out, annoyed. His eyes turned to the side of the room containing the three other occupants of the boutique. One of them being Sweetie Belle who had an apologetic expression on her face, and the two other traitors.

AJ seemed to find much amusement in his predicament a light blush to her cheeks, if her smirk was anything to go by, and then there was Pinkie.

Seriously, what the actual hell was she doing here? Though he had the thought that they planned this beforehand. It was the only thing that made sense. What with how they tackled him once Rarity had a hold on his arms.

He’d be getting even sooner or later, of that he swore.

He felt a prick in his side, as a needle passed.

He knew she was getting some form of revenge out of this.

~X~

He cricked the side of his neck, as they walked down the street from another delivery, throwing another sour look Jackie’s way. She seemed to just wave him off with a shrug.

“Oh quit yer bellyachin’, ya deserved it and you know it.” She stated.

“Yeah, next time you get into it with Rarity, I’m sure to just hold you down as she has her way with you,” he retorted with a “harrumph”, before crossing his arms. His tails holding the last two deliveries. One with eggs and the other apples.

She rolled her eyes, before nipping that in the bud.

“Right, and Ah’ll make sure you never taste another apple treat for a whole year.” THAT caused his eyes to widen to comical amounts.

“You wouldn’t…” He shot back nervously, but upon seeing her grin he knew right then and there…

Applejack was pure evil.

He slumped over in defeat. As they came up to the last delivery of the day. They walked along the barrier to Everfree moving to a cottage in the distance.

He’d looked up to find AJ giving him a look, before he sighed and straightened out. Bringing the eggs and apples to his arms as the front door opened and he found a rabbit, giving him weird looks.

He looked to Applejack for some form of help but she just walked inside. He turned back towards the rabbit who was cross examining him, before he hopped back inside, with the blond following after.

The cottage was homey for sure, and he took notice of all the nooks and crannies filled with animals that seemed to all be watching. Watching him.

Yeah sure that was just dandy.

They headed out back to find Fluttershy talking with some foxes.

“I’m sure the eggs will be here soon,” she reassured them, before taking notice of him and AJ.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry, I had to take care of these two and didn’t notice you knocking.” She replied nervously, thanking Angel, the rabbit from before, for letting them in.

“Ain’t no problem Flutters, just here to drop off the eggs ya asked for,” the farm mare said, nodding to Naruto who handed over the white ovals and apple bushels before he found himself in front of two head-tilting foxes.

“Uh, hey Fluttershy? You explaining to me about why your animals all seem to have some sort of problem with me?” He asked, moving from side to side, the foxes following his movement. He noticed that Applejack was walking towards the corner where he could hear some barking, before disappearing around the edge of the house.

“Oh, they’re probably just interested in your looks.” She said with a smile at the display of the foxes around him. He then noticed that the number of vulpine creatures around his being had increased three-fold. Though the additions seemed to all be quite a bit smaller than the previous two.

He sat down for a moment, and they chose to pounce not a second later. Two jumping onto his chest, while the others were just messing with his tails. The two adults standing by, watching with apt interest. He flinched back in memory.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He watched as the skull's fleshy eyes turned his way, it's crimson optics burning with fury beyond his own comprehension.

*thud, thud*

He looked down towards his chest where a pair of black beady eyes gave him a seemingly worried look. He relaxed slightly, reaching out and scratching one underneath its chin, before the other accosted said hand with it's small body.

He allowed them to do as they pleased as he waited for AJ. The young kits moved in and out of his own furry appendages, with glee. Nipping at his fur in painless ruffles and the like. He was actually enjoying it a little.

Before they all tensed and jumped off him leaving him confused, but not for long.

It wasn’t a moment later he felt something clamp painfully down on his tail. He yowled, and ran around the clearing doing his best to dislodge whatever had chosen to smartly latch onto his backbone extensions.

“Winona!”

Applejack came running around back, causing him to stop and look to his rear finding a mass of white and brown fur latched onto his tail with its own wagging happily.

He was not amused.

The orange mare came around and removed the fur-ball allowing him to caress and smooth over his bristled fur. He felt the sting down to the base, and couldn’t help the curse.

“Fucking dog.”

~X~

They’d finally gotten home, the sun setting on the horizon at their backs.

“Ugh, that was way more tiring than it needed to be.” He said stretching once they got into the house, his eyes keeping track of Winona, as she passed by, though he would swear up and down she shot him a mischievous grin on her way in.

Clever girl.

AJ came up beside him, scratching her head sheepishly.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Winona ain’t never did that before. Now that Ah think about it, you’ve never been around when she’s been around, actually.” She gave him a curious look.

“Why do you think I set up to never come around on any other day? I knew that Tuesday was the day you sent that ball of pain of anguish away to get checked.”

She found herself surprised to realize that, he was right. She did always get Winona checked up on Tuesdays.

She’d honestly never noticed before.

~X~

He stretched out on his bed. By this point it was already late in the evening. Most anyone else was either getting ready for bed, in bed or finishing up some small bit of cleaning.

He’d taken a shower, not a bath, and was just laying out on his sheets in an orange tank top and white boxers. He was definitely looking forward to catching some Z’s soon, but before that he set up up his room some more.

His pictures were up above the bed, with a few of his tools put into the desk drawers. He had a small mantle set up on top of the desk to hold his spear and glove, with his Senju necklace on a small hook beside it. His bag was on the back of the chair by said desk, and his jumpsuit was folded up neatly on the cushion.

A set of jars, concepts within or not, were set up on the shelf above the desk. With a few on the desk itself. Left there for tinkering once he had the time to do so.

He got up and walked over to the desk, before running his thumb over some of the jar lids. He inspected the few on the desk, before setting them to a side. He reached over into one of the drawer, retrieved a set of green goggles, pulled his notebook out of his jumpsuit pocket, and began scribbling down some notes.

He didn’t hear Applejack come through the door before he found a mug of warm milk and an apple fritter set by his hand on a dish. He looked up with a jolt, luckily keeping the chair on its feet, before turning to the room’s intruder.

Back in white tank top and short shorts, she cut the same strangely entrancing sight as the first time, but he was more wondering why she was here. She gave a gesture at the window, and he took notice of the fact it was pitch black out. He released a sigh, before biting into the apple sweet, enjoying every moment of it.

“So what’s got ya up so late?” He heard her ask, looking over to his notes before looking into the book itself. He pulled up his goggles, watching in amusement, all while sipping his milk, as she tried and probably failed to recognize what was written down in the book.

“What’s with all this weird chicken scratch?” He rolled his eyes before pulling it from her fingers, flipping a few pages forward and setting it back within her hands. She looked over it again, this time eyes probably narrowed in probably concentration.

“Structural Concept Thesis Encoding?” She gave him a look, which he answer by taking the book away again and setting it on the desk.

“It means that whenever I write my notes, and stuff, I write it down in my own personal code to make sure it stays safe,” he explained, as he set to his mug down.

“The words you see are written in another language, probably not found here in Equestria, or at least not in the more populated places. My teacher taught me this, which is Japanese, German, Latin and a weird alien tongue I’m still not sure about.” He finished with a shrug.

“Ah don’t get it, you definitely don’t talk like one o’ them intellectual types, and yet from what Ah can read in this here book, you might be just as smart.”

“Well why would I want to? I don’t like stressing out big words, period. And honestly, would you really want a second Twilight running around?” He joked before chortling, she followed along. He finished off his milk, and removed his goggles from his head before setting them both back on the desk.

“But yeah, I should be getting some sleep, we got more applebucking to do tomorrow don’t we?” His voice turn sour, and a grin appeared on her muzzle.

“Yup, but luckily we won’t be doing as much as we did today. So we’ll focus more on your bucking technique. Who knows in a year ya’ll be bucking like an Apple in no time.” She stated in confidence.

“I’ll hold you to it.”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, how’d you do that thing with the tree earlier today. All ya did was touch it, and it all came falling down like a beaver dam.” She was a touch curious about that.

He had to remember what she was talking about, before he snapped his fingers.

“Oh that? It was something I was testing out. I applied the concept of “vibration” to the tree and sort of over-exerted it.” He explained with a sagely nod. She gave him a confused look.

“Exerted it?”

“Yeah, it’s like…I pushed it beyond its limits so to speak. I gave it a rumble, and with some extra pushing I pushed past the concept’s limit.

He walked over to her, raised his hand where a small yellow orb, before pushing the orb into the hem of her tank-top. It wasn’t a moment later that she felt the fabric start moving on it’s over. She could help but laugh a little.

“It kind of t-tickles.” She said with a small snicker. He grinned slyly at her before pulling up another yellow orb. This time he forced the magic through his arm into the small sphere, turning it red. It rumbled almost viciously, before he sent it into her shirt.

The change was instantaneous.

Instead of just giggle her whole body start shaking, and she couldn’t stand straight. Every part of her looked like a small blur before it all stopped, leaving her fur frizzy, and her mind dazed. She almost fell back, before being caught under the armpit by a pair of arms.

“Oh Jackie, you should learn that when Naruto Uzumaki is wronged, he gets his payback. No if’s, and’s, or but’s.” He grinned down at her. She looked up at him, and her face flush for a moment before she pouted to the side. He just chuckled at the childish display before setting her back on her feet. She wobbled for a bit, before shaking it off, and going towards the door.

“Oh just remember ya sugarcube Ah’m going to enjoy putting you through your paces tomorrow.” She said, steady once more.

“Oh don’t worry Sheriff Jackie, Ah don’t want no trouble,” He retorted, his voice dripping with a fake southern accent.

“Well we’ll see ya varmint.” She played along, before they laughed it off.

“I’ll see you in the morning AJ, night.” He said.

“Yup! See yall in the morning.” And with that she walked back down to the room. Once more he found himself watching her tail swish side to side, before he flushed and closed the door.

Running a hand down his red face, before he jumped into bed. Making sure to turn off the lamp on the desk first, he turned in for sleep.

Today wasn’t so bad.

Author's Note

And that's a wrap. Not much to really say about this chapter, other than it was supposed to be longer. As in include all of the Applebuck season longer, but I scrapped the idea once I got to the end scene.

I realized I want to end all my chapters like that and just went for broke with it. So yeah, much wow, yadda, yadda, yadda ending compliments to the reviewers.

P.S. Big Mac is an awesome character to sort of play jokes off of, huh.

P.P.S. Who like's short-shorts? Naruto likes short-shorts. Well that and Apple-bottoms. *badum-tish*

P.P.P.S. Something, something, something, third line!

Now I know many of you are probably wondering, what is the deal with Naruto and Rarity, right? Once more I wanted to elaborate on that, but I fell short of the inspiration. Make no mistake, I KNOW what I would write for that but I just don't feel like it.

Renewal: Another one down with two more to go, before I'm all caught up. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed going back through my work and adding a little bit more to the build-up in some sections. I added a few more flashback scenes, or really "Memory Breaks", as I like to call 'em. I added a few words to the Fluttershy scene, a definite few new things to the morning scene between him and AJ, and his slow revelation.

Overall not much, but stuff was added on so we have a better full picture of what's to come. A few more spacing and spelling errors, and we're done and ready to go.

Kick back, and enjoy a read!

~NRK Out~