Goodlands and Applejack

Chapters

Wandering Stranger
As The Wheel Turns
Apple Bucking
Perplexed
Entanglement
Explainations & Speculations
Ebb and Flow
Unforeseen Consequences
Lost and Found
Return Trip
Unexpected Guest
The Mane Misfits
Slumberland
Seeing the Light, at Last
The Walls Come Crubling Down
Epilogue

Wandering Stranger

It was a fine day, with a slow steady breeze. The sky was blue, and birds were flying overhead. A young stallion made his way to a new town. He was an odd stallion to say the least, having a palomino coat, with the front of his muzzle being a dark brown mud color. His dark, ocean blue eyes were hard to see under his old battered fedora, that he wore to cover his mane, which was a mixture of cloud white, and green (like that of the bottom side of a leaf). His tail was a mixture of dark green and bright red, and was sticking out of an old pair of overalls, that were patched and frayed. This stallion had walked a many miles, and was tired. He wanted to find a place to call his own, and settle down, and this place looked nice enough. Several ponies were walking about in casual greetings, saying hello to one another and enjoying the rather wonderful day they had.
Keeping his head down so as not to attract too much attention, the stallion worked his way through the town seeing how nice every pony was. Looking over his shoulder he noticed a young purple scaled dragon walking beside a talkative pony, with dark hair and pink stripe through it, they were discussing something, but were out of range to fully make out what their conversation was truly about. Before he had had time to face forward however, he walked face first into another pony.
"Sorry bout that." he said taking a step back. She quickly started to talk to him in rapid speech.
"HELLO THERE!" yelled the pink pony right in front of him. "who might you be? I've never seen you before, are you new here? Have you ever been here before? I don't remember you, so you must be new here!" she said in a very fast high pitched voice bouncing all over the place. "Whats your name?" she asked as she got only an inch from his face.
Grabbing his hat he said in an small voice "um I'm Goodlands."
"WELL HELLO GOODLANDS, I'M PINKIE PIE!" Goodlands took a small step back as she yelled at the top of her lungs once again. "So what brings you to Ponyville?" she asked mere inches away from his face yet again. She seemed nice enough, though a bit heavy on the energy..
"Oh, I, I was just looking for a place to stay." he spoke softly under the brim of his hat.
"Well you've come to the right place. Ponyville has a place for everyone, and meeting someone new means we get to have a PARTY!" this last word was shouted so loud he had to grab his hat again.
"Oh no, madam I'd rather not. I'm no good at parties ma'am." but before he could say more she zipped off in the opposite direction saying something about a party cannon. party canon? He thought. He quickly moved on before she could draw anymore attention to him.
Shortly thereafter Pinkie Pie arrived back at the center of town with her party cannon, but became sad as she found she couldn't discover the location of Goodlands.
"Hmm.. Perhaps he wants to settle in before he has his party. Oh well." she said setting off the party cannon in small celebration, few ponies paid this little attention.
Walking alone through Ponyville, he was stopped by another pony shortly thereafter, this time by a pegasus who was leading a group of little baby chicks.
"Oh excuse me." she said in a soft angelic voice, floating backwards "i need to get these little ones back to their mother." she smiled and continued on her way. "this way little ones, don't be scared."
He bowed to the pegasi as she worked her way through the main center which he noticed had a lovely fountain in the middle. After the last chick had made their way across his path, he gave a small smile and continued on until he heard a ground trembling crash..
"Big McIntosh! Are you alright?!" Came a southern voice from female pony a little ways up. Almost losing the stetson on her head, she rushed over to a bigger pony who was stuck under a wagon sporting several apple crates, and was now trying to dislodge himself from the the wreckage.
"Eeyup." gasped the bigger pony. Goodlands rushed over to the cart and lifted it as best he could using his back. The golden pony not missing a beat, pulled Big McIntosh out from under the cart. After he was a safe distance away from the cart Goodlands lowered it, and it sank deep into the ground.
"How bad is it?" asked the golden locks pony.
"I'll be fine." he had a deep voice, and Goodlands could tell he was hurting, and trying to hide it.
"Don't you be coy with me Big Mac, you're hurt, i can hear it in your voice." she said looking at him with a knowing eye. "You ain't foolin no one. Come on, we're taking you to the hospital."
"Nnope... We have more work to do at the farm, and you're going to need help. Remember the last time you did it ALL by yourself?" he asked as his back legs shook. He winced as he took a step.
"Prideful, stubborn fool.. Now you listen to me. I wont have you out there hurting yourself more then you already are simply because of your pride. Now come on, we're taking you to the hospital." she looked over at Goodlands and her eyes softened "would you mind helping me get Big McIntosh here to the hospital?"
"Oh, um yes ma'am." he said and got on the other side of Big McIntosh to help steady him.
"I'm fine." he said as he tried to take a step only to wobble and lean heavily on Goodlands.
"FINE my putootie. You're going nowhere fast, and the only place you ARE going is the hospital." their was such a finality in her voice he couldn't give any more objections. His head drooped a bit as the golden pony and Goodlands slowly walked Big McIntosh to the hospital, where the nurse took over, and took him to the back. Waiting by the door, Goodlands watched as the golden pony went with her into the back. Shortly afterwards she returned and they walked outside together.
"Thanks stranger for all yer help. Names Applejack that there is my big brother Big McIntosh. The doctor says he'll be fine, but he needs some rest and stay off his hooves a bit." she said looking back at the hospital doors. "he's as stubborn as a mule, that one." she growled and immediately noticed a mule walking rather close she quickly amended. "No offense."
"None taken.. That seems to happen all the time." he said as he carried on his way.
"Ain't seen you around here before partner, you new here?" she asked as the mule sidled away.
"Oh, well yes ma'am, my names Goodlands, Nice to meet ya." he responded with a small bow of the head. He noticed her green eyes, shinning bright in the morning light. He gave a small smile.
She scowled at the ma'am bit but said in a kind voice "Well Goodlands, thank you kindly. He's too stubborn for his own good. Now if you'll excuse me i need to go and figure out what happened to our cart." she nodded, shifted her hat and headed toward her cart.
"Um madam, if you'd like.." but he was cut off by her before he could finish his sentence.
"Madam? I ain't used to being called madam. If its all the same to you, we'll be having a little less of that there fancy talk, and just stick to good old Applejack. Feels weird being called "Madam"."
"Alright, old Applejack. May i?"
"OLD?! I'm not that old." she scowled and looked at him, to which he smiled.
"Sorry Ma'am. My apologies" he said with another small smile, "I was only meaning to offer my help." he said with a small bow of his head.
"Oh that's alright, no need for madam or ma'am. I wont turn down good help though, especially as my brother's currently getting all patched up."
"Yes ma'am." he responded and started heading toward the cart. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, she rolled hers as he responded with a ma'am, he gave a small smile. He did feel a bit bad for the big fellow named McIntosh though.
Upon arriving at the cart, she walked over to the front right side of the cart, moved several of the crates with Goodlands help and looked at the now busted up wagon wheel.
"Well, this is not good. The wagons' wheel is broken. Not sure how that happened." she puzzled looking over the broken front wheel. "shoot now how am i going to get this to the market?" she asked to the wagon itself, looking at the pit the wagon had made.
"I think i can help you there, ma'am." Goodlands said walking over and lifting the peg off the ground with his back. Holding it there he looked knowingly at Applejack as she looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed a bit.
"What did i say about the ma'am? Its Applejack, and are you sure you can hold that?" she asked looking at him with her eyebrows raised. "Its bound to be heavy." A lot of strength was put into the lift, the wagon weighed a ton. It was stacked with nine full barrels of apples and two crates of apple cider, and several other boxes he didn't have a clue to what they contained.
"I believe i can ma'am." he responded with his chest slightly puffed out, not bad for a pony holding up one fourth of a rather heavy wagon. Perhaps he had bitten off more then he could chew on this one, but for some reason the sight of this ponies face as she smiled, made the extremely heavy wagon feel like nothing to him. He was going to pay for this later, that much he knew.
"Well alright, follow me and we'll find something to prop it up over there so i can start selling my wares for today." she led the cart as he worked his way out of the small pit the wagon had created when it crashed. It took some time, but he worked his way into the town proper where she found a rather large rock and propped up the wagon to began setting up shop. "Thank you kindly once again Goodlands, I truly appreciate it." she said sweeping her hat off to him. He swept his brow but kept his own hat on his head.
"Not at all ma'am, happy to be of help." he said with a wide smile to cover his aches. That wagon was truly heavy, but his pride would not allow him to say as much. He got out of her way as she started her sales pitch, and headed over to a small building.

As The Wheel Turns

After a short time talking to a stallion over at the small building, he got to work helping him with some daily routines. Goodlands wanted to have a new wagon wheel waiting for Applejack as she would need to get her cart home, as well as help Big Mac, but he had no money to get a new wheel so he spent most of his morning helping the wainwright/carpenter of the town. He wasn't sure how to go about making a wheel, so he mainly worked off the cost of just outright buying one. It wasn't too hard for him to do, but then again, he was no stranger to hard work. It took him most of the morning to get the money for the wheel together. By the time he was done the sun was at the top of the sky. He thanked the stallion and put the wheel into a satchel that he'd also roped into the deal, and headed out the door. As he was nearing Applejack he heard a voice that resonated from earlier that day.
"Have you seen Goodlands, the new pony? I have things set up for a party, and when i find him the party will officially be on!" came the voice of the loud but happy-go-lucky pony he had narrowly dodged that morning. His eyes grew big as he upped his pace. Making it back to the wagon Applejack was in full selling mode and taking orders for pies and fritters of different kinds. Goodlands made himself nearly invisible as he walked over to the side of the cart that had the missing wheel. It was away from the crowd so he went undisturbed as he silently fixed the wagon. *well as silently as one could be while fixing a wagon, but with all the noise the crowd was making he pretty much went unnoticed.*
He followed the wainwright's instructions for the wheel, and made sure to do it right putting everything into place as best he could.
After finishing up with the wheel, he sat there watching the ponies once more going about their daily routines, wondering what kinds of things they did for fun.
He seen a blue blur fly overhead followed by a rainbow. A pegasi that had left a rainbow in their trail, now that was something.
Some time later, he was sitting near the front of the wagon when Applejack came around to see him. She smiled at him, and walked over.
"You didn't have to sit here all day. Wasn't their something you had planned? Family to visit? Friends?" she asked politely..
"Um no ma'am, I didn't sit here all morning i.." but again he was cut off.
"Big McIntosh, How are you feeling, you alright?" she walked over to Big McIntosh who looked down with a pained expression.
"Eeyup." he then nodded to her and then to Goodlands.
"Well I'm about to pack up and head on home. You need to be resting, doctors orders." she said with finality, much to his dismay.
"Nnope." he responded, but coward a bit when she glared at him.
"Doctors orders." she growled then cheerfully continued "We need to get you home, I need to figure out how i'm going to do that, and what I'm going to do with this here wagon. Guess I'll have to come back here and get it, later.." she said pushing Big Mac towards the road.
"Um ma'am, I'll help you, if you don't mind." Goodlands spoke up as Applejack was unsuccessfully pushing Big Mac down the road.
"I appreciate the offer but even empty, that wagon's still heavy." she said as she stopped trying to push Big Mac. She turned to look at him "You're strong I'll give you that, but you could seriously hurt yourself trying to lug that thing all the way to my farm." she looked over him and noticed him standing next to an unbroken wagon wheel.. "When did you? How did you? Where did you?" she looked perplexed at this latest update.
"I guess that only leaves the who, what and why." he said jokingly. "I fixed it earlier while you were taking care of your wares."
"Well goll-ee. Thank you ever so much. That was mighty nice of you." she turned and looked at Big Mac, "guess you'll be riding on the front seat of the wagon. Doc says you need to be off your hooves. Go on." she nudged Big Mac who reluctantly got into the wagon a scowl covered his face. "If you'd like to help me pull this, then that would be wonderful, Goodlands. Here I'll get you the money for that there wagon wheel." she said heading toward the front of the wagon.
"No need for repayment, madam.." he responded in kind.
"I wouldn't feel right not paying you back for helping me here." she pulled out some money to give to him but he bowed,
"Its quite alright. It didn't cost me anything, i just helped a feller over there, and got that thrown in as part of the deal."
"Are you sure you wouldn't like payment? I mean i really appreciate it and all, but I'd like to make sure you're paid for your work and all."
"It's quite alright, besides we need to get Big McIntosh here home, that's more important." he said heading toward Big Mac.
"That's true i suppose." she said and together they got the wagon moving towards her farm, Big Mac sulking in the front seat.

Along the way she told him about life on Sweet Apple Acres, and the apple business. The cart was much more manageable now that it had its fourth wheel. Occasionally they'd hear a grown from Big McIntosh whenever they'd hit a bump in the road.
"I've been working on this here farm since i was a little filly. With my brother here, my younger sister Apple Bloom, and good old Granny Smith. Together we've bucked more apples, then we could ever count over the years." She said with pride, then lowered her voice "Not sure what I'm gonna do bout that right now, with Big Mac being hurt and all." their was worry in her voice as she glanced over her shoulder, then Goodlands spoke before he even had a chance to think of what he was saying.
"I can help there miss, if you'd like."
"Please, call me Applejack." she chuckled. "I'm not used to that, if you want to call someone miss, madam, or "ma'am" you're looking for Rarity. She likes all that fancy stuff, I'm just not used to it." she looked over at him with a twinkle in her eye.
"Yes ma'am. I'll try to remember that for later. But uh that offer's still open if you'd like some help on your farm. I'd be more then happy to help." he said as they made their way down the road.
"Well, I'll definitely need the help, and I wont say no to good help, but i don't even know you. I mean, have you ever even worked on a farm before?" she looked at him searchingly.
"Yes ma'am I believe I have, once or twice before." he puffed his chest out a bit as he said it.
"We'll see." she said "How bout starting tomorrow? I need to finish up whats left over from the southern side of the farm.."
"Eeyup." came a conformation from behind them both simultaneously looked over their shoulders, and chuckled. Her laugh was soft, and light, his cheeks reddened a bit, if he kept this up, he'd be as red as Big Mac in no time. He inwardly frowned at himself.
"Do i need to bring anything to accomplish this? Or should i just show up as is?" he asked glancing at her.
"No special tools required. Got all the supplies we need on the farm. Mainly buckets, ya know for catching all the apples that fall out of the trees." she smiled back at him.
"Well alright then. I believe i can do that."
"So you got family here to visit?" she asked looking over at him.
"Sorry ma'am, I'd rather not talk about that.. It's a touchy subject." he said looking forward.
"I didn't mean no offense, just curious is all. Did you have to travel far to find Ponyville?" she asked.
"No offense taken miss, I have traveled a fair amount, yes. I was glad when i came here, its rather less hectic compared to the big city, lot quieter too. Plus everyone seems more laid back, and calmer.." he said smiling to her. "And more polite." he thought inwardly, but didn't voice that bit.
"Eeyup." said Big Mac from behind them, just to let them know that he was still there.
"Your brother's conversations are so riveting." he said with a chuckle. "Has he always been a reticent kind of pony, or did something cause that." he asked in an undertone.
"Not sure what that means, but Big Mac's always been a little on the quite side. Ever since.."
"Applejack!" came Big Mac's voice from the cart. Looking over his shoulder Goodlands seen that Big Mac was wearing a scowl on his face.
"We don't talk about it." she said with head down "not since..." she stopped again. "best we drop that subject, for now." she said in an undertone.
They slowly worked their way towards the farm. When they arrived at the farm, Goodlands helped put the wagon in the back of the barn as Applejack helped Big Mac into the house, aided by Granny Smith who'd been worrying over her and Apple Bloom who'd come out to tell her about some stuff Goodlands didn't catch.
"That will do just fine right there." she said as Goodlands was pulling a cover over the wagon.
"Yes ma'am." he responded as he left the wagon behind. He headed out to the doors of the barn and help close them. "I uh, guess i'll see you tomorrow then." he said as he looked into her bright green eyes. Stars reflected in them, and the moonlight made her look even more pretty. At this he felt his face go warm, why did he have to go red now? He found small comfort in the fact it was mostly dark outside, so he was pretty sure she hadn't noticed.
"Well, um yeah. Tomorrow then. I'll see you here bright and early, as we've got quite a bit of work to do." she nodded and headed back into the house. As she entered he turned and headed toward the field, wondering where he was going to sleep. This he hadn't thought of until now, but he was sure he'd find a nice tree to camp out under. The night was still and warm, and he did have a nice new satchel as a pillow. He wandered around for a bit, his stomach growling from not eating today. He'd hopefully find a way to get something to eat tomorrow. Hopefully.

Apple Bucking

Goodlands was walking along a starry sky, stars shooting around him feeling light as air when he seen Applejack's face in front of him. Her big green eyes, her beautiful smile, her mane flowing in the starry fields.
"Hello Miss Applejack." he said as she looked knowingly at him she opened her mouth and out came the crowing of a rooster. Perplexed Goodlands stared at her raising his eyebrows. "I'm sorry?" was his only response. Then he heard it again, a rooster was nearby crowing at the morning sun.
"I'm going to have to talk to that there rooster." he said as he woke up abruptly. He got up and put his brown fedora back on his head. Grabbing his satchel, he tossed it over his back, and headed for the farms' barn.
He was standing their when Applejack came outside and spotted him.
"Well aren't we eager." she said coming up to him. "Usually I'm the only one up this early. How long have you been standing here?" she asked.
"Oh, not long ma'am. Shall we get started?" he asked her eager to start the day.
"Well i came out here to get some eggs for breakfast." she said as his stomach began to grumble.
"You hungry?" she asked looking at him.
"Yes ma'am i am." he said with a sheepish smile.
"Well then let me get something thrown together, we'll eat, and start our day of work." she said. After a hasty but delicious meal, they headed out.
"Today we're going to be collecting apples, and picking out the ones that are still good. We use those to make our Oh-So-Famous Apple Cider."
"Sounds like fun ma'am. Can't wait to get started." standing around several of the trees were several buckets, Goodlands hadn't noticed the night before.
"All you have to do is kick the tree like so" she bucked one of the tree's, and all the apples fell down from it into the three baskets lying on the ground, nearly filling them up. "Then once you've filled the baskets take them over there to the barn and Granny and Apple Bloom can start sorting them out."
"That I can do ma'am." he said walking past her to the nearest tree.
"One of these days you'll simply call me Applejack I hope." she joked amusingly.
"Yes ma'am. One day i might." he turn around and gave it his best shot.WHAM! He hit the tree with such force that all the apples left the tree and fell mostly in the buckets.
"Would ya look at that. You seem to have a knack for this, ya know." she smiled and headed off toward the barn turning to look at him over her shoulder. "if you need me, I'll be at the barn taking care of the critters." and off she went toward the barn.
Shaking his head he headed over to a second tree and started to get to work. The day was long and he had kicked so many tree's, he had lost track of how many. By about the umpteenth tree or so, his legs felt like rocks were in them; but the work wasn't so bad, and he did seem to have a knack for it so he kept on going. Every five trees or so he'd gather up his buckets of apples and head over to the barn. They were stacking up fast he thought.
"Care for some apple juice?" asked Big Mac's pushing a cart of glasses, filled with an amber liquid.
"Yes sir, i think might." he said taking a sip of the juice through a straw. It was delicious tasting, and helped cool him down all the same. He looked at Big Mac and asked " feeling better?"
"I reckon." he said then started drinking some juice himself.
"Miss Applejack wont let you do any of the hard work, will she?" he asked
"Nope."
"And its driving you crazy, isn't it?"
"Eeyup." he said, as his head drooped.
"Apple Bloom don't stare, it ain't right. You act like you've never seen someone helping out on the farm before." came Applejack's voice from behind Goodlands. She obviously had just dropped off a bucket of apples and was heading over to them.
Goodlands looked around and noticed a young filly looking at him, "howdy there little miss."
"Howdy yourself." she said back to him, as she nodded.
"Shouldn't you be getting back to helping granny sort out apples?" asked Applejack as she stopped at the cart to take a drink of juice her self.
"Was just trying to be friendly is all." and she headed back toward the house to continue helping with apple sorting.
"Don't mind her, she means well, but sometime her heads in the clouds." she nodded toward Apple Bloom, and rolled her eyes, she finished off her juice, and looked at Goodlands."You got any sisters?" she asked nodding at Apple Bloom.
"Um, well i, no ma'am." he said in a small voice.
"Oh, well i guess it's really none of my business. Shall we get back to it then."
"Right." said Goodlands, emptying his own glass, and heading back to the field. The day progressed and more tree's were getting kicked then could be counted.

As the day drew to a close several clouds were noticeable in the sky Applejack approached Goodlands, as he kicked what felt like the hundredth tree that day.
"Now that's what i call a good day." she surveyed they bucked trees and looked at Goodlands "My goodness Goodlands, you are a mighty fine help. With your help I'll have this done in no time." she said looking up at the clouds. "It appears Rainbow Dash is falling behind. She sure could use a helping hand it seems... Pity you cant fly. Or perhaps we're due for some rain." she said turning away from the clouds to look at Goodlands. He turned away from the clouds and looked at her.
"Rainbow Dash, ma'am?" he asked, he hadn't heard this name yet.
"Yeah, she's one of my Pegasus friends. She and the other Pegasus tends to the clouds around here, and she tends to show off whenever possible. You should see her, she's like a rainbow blur when she gets going. It's enough to make your head spin." her eyes crossed for second like she was watching something he couldn't see.
"You have many friends here, ma'am?" he said softly.
"Sure do. There's Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. Those are my close friends, but shoot I'd say I'm friendly to every pony in Ponyville. We all like one another round here, what about you? You got friends here." she asked him.
"No ma'am, i don't. I have met Pinkie Pie though, she was one of the first ponies i met here in Ponyville."
"Well be careful or she'll pull out the 'Party Cannon' on... wait a second, you don't have no family, nor friends here?" she prompted?
"No ma'am, and i do recall seeing her with a cannon." he said thinking back.
"So where in Equestria, will you be staying? Wait a minute, where did you sleep last night?" she asked in bewilderment.
"Oh, um, i slept under that tree over there." he pointed off in the distance, "or was it there?" he changed his direction slightly.
"You were sleeping out here? In the field?" her jaw dropped as he nodded.
"Yes ma'am. Sorry bout that, perhaps i should have asked first. My apologies, I uh, can see about acquiring a place in Ponyville tonight though, if you'd like." he said looking over his shoulder towards town. "does Ponyville have a hotel?" he asked.
"Are kidding me? Shucks I wish I'd known, I'd have made a space up for you in the barn loft. Why didn't you just say something?" she asked with kindness in her voice.
"Well ma'am i was... "he sighed "I'm rather ashamed to say it, but i don't like to ask for anything. I'm just used to taking care of myself, ma'am..." he said with a sheepish grin on his face.
"Ah, it ain't nothing, you are helping us after all. Come on, we'll get you set up in no time." and off she went towards the barn grabbing a last bucket of apples, and following suit, he grabbed a bucket himself and headed to the barn.

After a short time Applejack had made up a small bed for him in the loft. She even put up a lantern on a bale of hay which had fireflies in it, that gave off such a warm glow, that the room felt nice and cozy. He was glad she'd done this for him.

"Want i put your hat up here." she asked nodding towards a hook on one of the pillars.
"NO!" he said very quickly, this startled her. "I'll take care of that, miss." he said to cover the awkward moment. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, to which he gave a small smile.
"Well then, how bout something to eat? You must be hungry after today." she asked looking at him.
"Yes ma'am. That'd be wonderful." he said as his stomach growled very audibly.
"I'll be right back." she headed out of the barn, and he sat down looking at the lantern fireflies,he looked up as he began hearing plunks on the roof, that meant it was raining. He took his satchel off and laid it down next to the lantern, his eyes were growing heavy in the warmth the barn had collected throughout the day. A little while later Applejack came up the stairs that led to the lower floor, she came to where he was and placed the plate in front of him.
"It's coming down out there. Glad we got you all set up." she said shaking the water out of her hair. He began eating, rather fast. "so what did you eat last night then, if you slept outside?" she questioned him.
"Nothing ma'am." he said in between mouthfuls.
"Nothing? Ugh. Why didn't you say something? You mean you went all day yesterday without food? Well now i feel really bad." she frowned as he looked up at her.
"its quite alright ma'am. I'm kind of used to that. This is delicious, i thank you much." he began eating again. She watched for a moment as he devoured the food on the plate.
"No problem." she said "thanks for the help today. Hopefully we'll have another great day tomorrow, that is if you still want to continue helping me. "
"Of course i do, ma'am." he said, bits of food hanging off his chin.
"Well I'll see ya bright and early then." she said with a soft smile. She then left him to his eating.

Perplexed

Walking through a field with a plow stuck to his back, he looked up at the sun, which was blazing overhead. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and continued on as best he could, this things was heavy. Upon reaching the end of the field he met Applejack who stopped him.
"Howdy miss, just finished the third row, should we start the northern side?" he asked looking over at the other side of the farm. To which she opened her mouth and again out came a rooster's crow.
"Not again.." he said as his eyes opened, and he was staring at the barn ceiling. "I'm beginning to dislike you Mr. Rooster." he brows furrowed.
Waking up in a barn wasn't that unusual for Goodlands, but he did feel a bit off, as he was more used to waking up under a tree these days. Oh well he thought as he looked at the lantern, the fireflies had all left sometime in the night. That was probably for the best, as he had fallen asleep almost immediately after eating. He put his hat back on his head, and grabbed the plate from the night before, then he headed toward the house.

Walking out of the barn, he turned and walked smack dab into a big pig belly.
"Sorry Mr. Pig" he said as he picked the plate up he dropped in his abrupt stop.
"So how'd you like the barn? Was it comfortable enough?" asked Applejack as she stepped out of the house.
"Yes ma'am, it was lovely." he had dropped the plate on the ground. "It seems i forgot my satchel up there." he said looking over his shoulder. He turned around as Applejack came withing mere steps of him. They both seem to go for the plate at the same time, bumping heads, and giving a small "ouch". Both their hats had fallen off, she rubbed her head, but he quickly put his hat back on, put his hoof under hers and flip it in the air and onto her head.
"Sorry bout that, nice toss though.." she said looking up at her hat. While she did this he grabbed the plate, and headed toward the house, she followed in toe. "Well i do hope you've rested up nice and proper, for we got even more work to do today, that is if your up for it." she opened the door for him, and waited. He headed on in and gently put the plate in the sink to be taken care of later.
"Well ma'am, I've got to repay you for the room and hay. And that delicious meal that i was given last night. May i ask, who made that?" he said smiling at her.
"That would be me. Been cooking and baking for ages, glad you liked it. And theirs no need for repayment. You're helping us remember. Are you hungry?" she asked going slightly pink around the cheeks.
"Yes ma'am, i never turn down good food." he responded looking around the house for the first time.

Applejack started whipping up food as he stood next to the door, and in no time they were enjoying another fine meal. Her cooking was some of the best he'd tasted in some time, that was for sure. Soon they were cleaning up and heading outside to start the day off. They made it a little ways out past the barn when an Alicorn came up the trail toward her house. He stood there as Applejack stopped to greet her friend.
"Well Howdy there Twilight, like you to meet my new friend here Goodlands. Goodlands, this here's Twilight Sparkle." she said in a proud voice. "She's our Princess." she said in a whisper.
She seemed hurried about something, as she looked at Goodlands.
"Oh, um hello." she said in a fast voice, "I don't mean to be rude but introductions will have to wait I'm afraid." she turned to Applejack with her full attention. "Applejack have you seen Fluttershy? I cant seem to find her anywhere, and none of the other ponies have seen her either. I mean i know she was supposed to be helping Princess Celestia an all, but I'd have thought she'd be back by now." She responded.

"Haven't seen her in some time. Maybe she's still up at the castle, perhaps she's working with Rainbow Dash?" she asked pointing up to the sky.
"I'm not sure, I've had several Pegasus out looking for her. Birds keep showing up at my Castle, and i don't speak bird." she said looking at Applejack, occasionally glancing at the sky.
"She could be off helping some bunnies, or a bear, or doing something of that nature and forgot the time, or is having a bit of trouble from some of her more stubborn critters. Would you like me and Goodlands to search for her as well?" she asked still looking up to the sky for a sign of her.
"No its okay. I was just wanting to find out why birds keep showing up. Its weird, they show up and chirp a bunch, leave a mess all over the place, then fly off."
"Could it possibly be a sign of help? Maybe they're trying to get you to follow them." Applejack interjected.
"Maybe." said Twilight, "If i don't hear from her soon i might have to join in on the search myself. Not that i haven't been already." she said looking to the sky once more.
"Tell you what Twi, if we see her, we'll tell her to head towards your castle, that way she can interpret what the birds are saying."
"Thanks Applejack. Oh and it was nice to meet you Goodband." she smiled at Goodlands then turned towards town.
"Oh um, that's Good Lands, miss Sparkle." Goodlands said correcting his name.
"Miss Sparkle?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"Don't worry, he keeps doing that. I've tried to get him to call me Applejack but, he wont do it. I'll brake him out of it eventually." she said jokingly.
"Um Okay. Well you have a lovely day Mr. Good Lands."she said nodding towards Goodlands, " you too Applejack" and she took off heading towards town, flying over head looking all around for Fluttershy.

They proceeded to continue working the fields, Applejack staying behind to take care of the animals, and the farm. This continued for the whole day, he worked the fields, ate another delicious meal, then headed back to the barn. Goodlands was for the first time in a long time, Happy. It felt good to be doing hard work with good people.

The next day, Applejack told him of a town visit she needed to make, and he decided to help with that as well, Big Mac stayed behind this time, much to his annoyance. Goodlands helped pull the cart, as they had twice the usual amount of apples, and apple baked goods then they usually had thanks to the extra pony around the farm.

"Applejack!" came a high pitched voice from Pinkie Pie from behind them. They both turned to look at her as she came up to them. "have you seen Fluttershy? She hasn't been seen for a couple days now." all of this was said so fast Goodlands had a hard time keeping up.
"Still? I'd have thought Twilight would have found her by now. This isn't good." as she was talking to Pinkie Pie several other ponies came over to talk.
"Still no sight of her." said a Pegasus to their right. This must be Rainbow Dash, thought Goodlands. "I've looked all over, even have several of the other Pegasus looking out for her too."
"I haven't seen her around for some time either." said a more formal pony, this one was a unicorn. "who's your friend here Applejack?" she looked at him as she asked this.
"Oh this, every pony this here is Goodlands. He's been helping me on the farm ever since Big Mac got hurt by the wagon a few days back.." she said giving introductions. "This here is Pinkie Pie, who you've already met." she said pointing to Pinkie Pie, "Rainbow Dash" he was right in his assumption that this Pegasus was in fact Rainbow Dash. " and Rarity." she said pointing to the formal pony.
"Greetings to every pony." said Goodlands looking at all of them in turn. They all made greetings in turn then looked back at Applejack.
"Perhaps she's been working on making Angel behave himself, or dealing with a particularly stubborn bear. These things would tend to take up a ponies time." said Applejack as she threw out a theory of Fluttershy's absent.
"That's true darling, but Rainbow Dash has stopped by her house three times already. Twilight says she's stopped by her house twice as well, and I've been to her house once my self in the last three days." said Rarity.
"Well maybe Discord's entertaining her. Perhaps they're off somewhere together learning about some new species or some strange critter. Never know with Discord." offered up Rainbow Dash, to which they all nodded at this.
"DISCORD?!" interjected Goodlands. "As in THEE Discord?" his face showed his unease at the name Discord.
"I see you've heard of our friend then." Applejack responded looking at Goodlands. In turn they all looked at him.
"Friend?! You all are friends with Discord? Are you sure we're talking about the same creature?" he asked, looking directly at Applejack.
"Spirit of disharmony, king of Chaos, master of mayhem. Is that the one you're referring to?" she asked with her eye's wide open.
Just then a strange figure appeared in front of them with a small 'pop'. He was very peculiar as he was a mishmash of several different creatures thrown together.
"Did i hear ponies discussing me? You aren't being rude i hope?" he asked as he straightened a tie around his neck, he was sporting business jacket and tie, pince-nez, and a pair of galoshes.
"We're looking for Fluttershy, have you seen her?" asked Applejack.
"Darling, whoever came up with your ensemble?" asked Rarity looking perplexed.
"Is that really important right now?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Haven't seen her since she stopped in at the castle." he said. As Discord opened his eyes he spotted Goodlands. "Oh, who do we have here?" he asked, lowering the pince-nez down his face as he came within inches of Goodlands face. "nice guise." he said so only he could here, his eyes grew very big "No! It cant be.. But that would mean.." and with that statement he popped out of existance.
"You know Discord?!" all the ponies asked Goodlands in unison. He opened his mouth to answer but a voice behind them distracted him.
"There you all are. I've been looking for you.." Twilight said coming over to them.
"Still no word from Fluttershy?" asked Applejack as she approached them.
"No and its been several days now. More and more birds keep coming to the castle, but I'm having little luck figuring them out. Sadly Spike isn't faring much better them myself. He is trying though."
"Spike?" Asked Goodlands, looking at Applejack.
"Twilight's helper. He's a dragon who's known Twi here longer then anyone." she said in response to Goodlands. Looking at Twilight, she said "we just had a run in with Discord, who promptly disapeared upon seeing Goodlands here." she said pointing to goodlands.
"Goodlands?" asked Twilight looking at him "you know Discord? How? Where? You know what, that isn't important right now." she said shaking it away "I need to find Fluttershy, i'm worried, and I need to figure out why my house has become a nest. I don't want to be rude, but they're making a mess up there. I feel sorry for Spike, he's the one cleaning up their droppings." their was a collective "EWW!" from the group at this. "well i need to continue my search. You all will alert me if and when you find her wont you? Oh i hope she's alright. I mean we could just be missing her when we show up at her house." they all considered this, and then Twilight turned and headed off.
"Well i think I'll make another round as i clear out the sky for today. I can also look for her at the same time." said Rainbow Dash as she headed off towards the sky in a flash.
"I need to be going myself... Please keep me updated if any of you come across her as well. Also it was nice meeting your new friend here Applejack. Perhaps he should stop by sometime and get a new pair of overalls. His look like they're on their last stitch." Rarity looked at him and said in a wide smile "stop by and I'll set you up with a new pair straight away. If your going to work hard, you need to at least take care of your clothes, darling."
"Where are you headed off to in such a hurry?" asked Applejack.
"Oh i have a few things prepared for today, that's all." Rarity responded. "Though i am starting to worry about Fluttershy.."
"She's probably just be trying to teach a bear to do ballet or some other nonsense." she frowned at this, "wouldn't be the first time either." she grumbled. They smiled at some past memory then Rarity turned to head off.
"Hopefully its something like that and not something serious." she said over her shoulder "have fun all."
"Well I'm gonna go and help with a party tonight for another pony. Its their birthday and that means it needs to be extra fun for them.. I'll keep an eye open for Fluttershy, though. Bye..." Pinkie Pie said as she bounded off.
"Well i need to set up shop.. What do you have planned for today?" she asked as she Goodlands as she started getting things prepared.
"I figured that I'd look around town and maybe get to know some other ponies. This place does seem to be rather friendly."
"Well have fun. I'll probably be leaving around dusk, if you'd like to help with the cart again."
"Yes ma'am. I'll try to be here by then." she rolled her eyes at the "ma'am" but otherwise she continued preparing to sell wares again.

Entanglement

As Goodlands walked around Ponyville he looked on with curiosity at the shops and their display windows. He gave small bows to anyone who he passed, and said greetings to anyone that came close enough to hear him. While walking around he spotted a Pegasus coming out of one of the shops, covered in flower.
"Hello madam, how are you today?" he asked as he came close to her.
"Alright i suppose." she said in a light higher pitched voice. Her eyes crossed, but she smiled as he looked at her.
"Out enjoying the day are we? It is a nice day isn't it?" he asked looking up to the blue sky as a rainbow flew overhead only to disappear shortly thereafter.
"Well, i am enjoying the day yes, but i was asked to come out here, as i have made a mess inside Sugarcube Corner. I caused Mr. and Mrs. Cake to be covered in flour, and they wanted to clean up before starting their next cake. So I'm out here to make sure that doesn't happen again. I am very glad its nice out here, and not raining." again she smiled and looked at him.
"Covered in flour you say. How did that happen?" he asked "Does this happen often?"
"No, well i assume it does, but today is slightly different. You see I knocked over a large bag of flower that they had stored for their multi-layered cake that their making for tonight. I didn't mean to."
"Oh i bet there's no need to worry, they'll have it cleaned up in a jiffy, they are bakers after all." he said pointing to their shop.
"Oh yes, i believe they will. They are the best cake makers in all of Ponyville. They've made cakes for every pony in Ponyville."
"Is that so? Perhaps I'll get to taste their cakes some time. So far I've only eaten food made by miss Applejack. She's a fair cook herself." he said referring back to the delicious food she had made for him over the past several days.
"Hmm. I have had several apple fritters made by Applejack. They are delicious." she tilted her head sideways "does that mean you are not from around here?" she asked looking at him with curiosity.
"Oh, how rude of me, i did forget to introduce myself. My apologies. I am Goodlands, and no I'm not from around here. I arrived a short while ago. May i ask, who are you?"
"Me? Well my friends call me Derpy. Nice to meet you Goodlands." she said holding out her hoof, to which Goodlands met with his own.
"Likewise miss, and may we share cake one day, and laugh about the Cake makers being covered in flour." he said with a smile.
"I sure hope we do, and i hope you continue to have a wonderful day." she still had a small smile while saying this. "I don't mean to be rude" she whispered "but i have some things to do today, so i must be off, goodbye Goodlands." She said as she expanded her wings, then took off up to the sky.
"Have a wonderful day madam." he said tipping his hat to her.
Walking over to Sugarcube Corner, Goodlands poked his head in on the couple that were inside. They were in the process of cleaning up just as Derpy had said, thus Goodlands spoke up.
"Good day to you, i was just wondering if you all needed any help cleaning up. Figured i might as well make my self useful while i wait." he said as Mr. Cake walked past him with a broom in his mouth.
"Oh no thanks sweetie, we'll take care of it." said Mrs. Cake.
"Oh we'll be fine. This isn't the first time we've been covered in flour." said Mr. Cake, they both seemed like good natured ponies, thus Goodlands smiled and headed toward the center of town. Shortly after this he came across several other ponies making greetings and learning a bit about the town until he heard it, a scream for help.
"TWILIGHT!" came the loud voice of the dragon Goodlands seen when he'd entered the town.
Goodlands headed over to where Applejack was standing, a small crowd gathering around.
"Hold on there sugar cube, whats all this kerfuffle about? Take a deep breath, and explain whats going on." said Applejack as Spike leaned against the cart catching his breath.

"Its Fluttershy, she stuck in some giant moving mud-slide-monster-thingy." he said pointing towards the place he just came from.
"A what?" asked Applejack.
"It was this giant moving mudslide thing, i don't know how to describe it, it was like the size of a small mountain, and it was moving, with eyes and a mouth. Fluttershy, she's stuck inside it. Only her head is sticking out. Rarity is trying to help her out, but she wasn't having much luck when i left. She told me to go get Twilight as she'd know what to do." he breathed heavily as he finished his sentence, clutching his chest.
"What in... RAINBOW DASH!" Applejack yelled towards the sky, a moment later, Rainbow Dash came bounding towards the ground.
"What is it?" she said about two feet off the ground.
"Go get Twilight, and make it snappy. Spike says he's found Fluttershy, and she's in danger." without another word, Rainbow Dash zipped off in search of Twilight.
A short while later Twilight arrived and was panting as she landed.
"Rainbow Dash says Spike found Fluttershy, and she's in trouble."
"She is, it some really big blob thing, like a moving mound of mud. Rarity spotted it." he said as he pointed in the opposite direction. "Its over this way." he turned to start running back the way he came. As they ran, Twilight picked up Spike with her magic and put him on her back. They quickly picked up the speed as all of them raced down toward Spikes given direction.
Off in the distance they could see the large mound of moving mud that was the creature Spike described with Fluttershy, and Rarity stuck its base. Both of them looked as though they were half asleep, weak and with bags under their eyes. It was moving fast as Twilight stopped a few feet away, she used her magic to try and pull Fluttershy, and Rarity out of the mass but couldn't.
"Don't get too close Twilight." said Fluttershy but her voice was weak and sounded faint.
"Hang in there girls!" she yelled as she tried using her magic to try and pull them out. The monster took notice of her doing this and quickly slammed down a blob of itself, but missed Twilight as she dodged out of the way. Magic encircled her horn as she sent a beam of energy towards it, to which it didn't do anything. Spike hopped down off Twilight's back, and ran up to try to pull Rarity's hooves, but was almost caught up in the blob as well. Without her noticing, the thing move a bit of the ground that Twilight was standing on, and with a Gloop sound she two was stuck in the blob. Using her magic she created a bubble around herself to give her some time to think. She was protected for the moment but it seemed to be costing her as she labored to keep the bubble around her. She looked in deep concentration. It seemed that the monster was absorbing her magic.
"TWILIGHT!" yelled Applejack and Spike together Applejack looked around and kicked up several rocks toward the blob, which then absorbed them with ease. It had little affect. "No good. What are we going to do?"
"I have and idea. We need to get back to town. The Cakes have several bags of flour we can use." said Goodlands to Applejack, she stared at him in bewilderment, but he turned and headed back to town towards the cake shop.
"Why do we need flour?" asked Applejack running next to him, Spike on her other side.
"No time to explain. I need you to gather up as many ponies as possible." he said as they ran.
"Um.. Okay." she said in bewilderment, but took off in another direction as him. Spike also took off in another direction, Goodlands didnt have time to worry about him though, so he headed towards the cake shop.
Upon entering town, he looked up as Rainbow Dash came over to where he was, and said "Gather as many pegasi as you can, and get some rain clouds together, fill them with milk please." Rainbow Dash looked at him with her eyebrows raised, then flew off to collect several pegasi, while Goodlands headed inside the cake shop.
He heard crashes off in the distance as he pilled several bags outside of the shop. Shortly thereafter Applejack came running up followed by several ponies.
"Here are the ponies i could find on short notice." a breathless Applejack said as she caught her breath. He pulled another bag of flour out of the shop and turned towards them.
"Alright every pony, we need to dump these on the creature. Cover as much of him as you can." while he was saying this he heard a terrible crash. Looking over Applejacks' shoulder he seen that the monster was already closing in fast. A Pegasus came landing next to him to which he looked at her "Derpy, i need you to distract him. Keep him busy, but do not let him touch you. We need a bit more time." he said and off she flew towards the blob.
Every pony standing there started grabbing bags of flour and heading towards the blob.
"Vy are ve coving it in fower?" asked Applejack as she headed towards the blob with a bag of flour in her mouth.
"You'll see." responded Goodlands, his teeth clenched on his own bag of flour. They didn't have to walk very far as the creature had already destroyed several buildings and houses. All the ponies that had bags of flour were trying their best to cover as much of the creature as possible. He dropped the bag of flour.
"Pinkie pie, a word if you please!" yelled Goodlands towards the crowd of ponies.
"Brobdingnagian!" she yelled back towards him. His expression flattened as he looked over at her.
"I need your help for a moment."
"Oh, well why didn't you say so in the first place?" she asked heading over towards him. "whatcha need?"
"Eggs, my dear. As many as you can. We need to saturate this thing with eggs." he said in all seriousness.
"If you say so, I'll see what i can do.." and off she went towards town. Shortly thereafter Rainbow Dash was heading back over towards him.
"Well we've got several rain clouds, filled with milk for whatever reason." she said as she came close to him. He tossed his bag towards several ponies who were trying to cover the base of the blob.
"Put them over top of the creature, and then have every pegasi go and collect bags of flour and dump them on the creatures head. Then when i give the signal, we'll make it rain on it." Goodlands instructed to her, without question she flew up to the other pegusi in the air above them, then headed towards Sugarcube Corner. "Alright every pony!" he yelled towards the crowd. "You're doing great, once its covered, Rainbow Dash is going to rain on its head, thus turning it into cake mix!" he yelled once more "once this has been accomplished, i need every unicorn to use their power to pull the girls out of there." they nodded as he finished and continued with their work. Rainbow Dash and the pegasi were already heading towards the clouds.
As they made their way back towards the folds, Pinkie Pie showed up with three party cannons and aimed them all at the blob. BANG! Off went he cannons as Pinkie shouted with glee.
"Now that's what i call an egg-cellent egg-splosian!" she yelled as several dozen eggs met their mark. She kept reloading and firing at the blob, until she ran out of eggs.
Everyone at the base backed off as the monster started slowing down due to the strange make up that its body was now. Goodlands pointed his hooves at Rainbow Dash, down came the milk, as all the pegasi caused a nice little milk storm directly above the blob, then every unicorn pulled at once with their magics, to retrieve Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight.
There were three large squelching sounds, followed by popping sounds and out came Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who all noticed the giant blob, and promptly ran away from the monster.

"Alright every pony, get out of the way!" Goodlands yelled towards them, they all moved out of the way rapidly. "You will not ruin this place." he spoke softly under his breath, moving towards the blob, it looked directly at him and started forward moving much slower then before. He stopped and and stood his ground, his stance was that of a pony ready to defend, defend ponies he barely knew, a place he couldn't even call home, but this place didn't deserve such a fate. He wanted this place to remain, he wanted to stay here, thus he'd have to resort to drastic measures.

Standing there his eyebrows furrowed he removed his hat from his head, putting it on the ground next to him. His light green, and cloud white main flowed about the jagged and cracked horn, which stuck up from his forehead, pieces of it missing and looking as though it were about to fall apart, determination was etched onto his face. "LETS TURN UP THE HEAT!" he yelled as power began to build around the destroyed horn, the air around him began to become hot and heavy. He gritted his teeth as he aimed his horn towards the blob, energy crackled around him, a heat wave was coming off him, and then suddenly a wide cone of energy burst forward, heading towards the mound, hitting it directly where its gut would be, it stopped progressing, and looked down.
"Listen up every unicorn, follow Goodlands lead. " yelled Twilight allowing her magic to flow out towards the blob as well, several others followed suit, and after a small period of time, the now batter mix blob suddenly turned into...
"CAKE!" yelled Pinkie Pie, "It's raining cake. This is caketastic" she caught a piece and swallowed it in one gulp. "Eat up every pony!" and off she went.
Their was much cheering from the crowd as the cake pieces flew everywhere falling down in a strange cake storm. Ponies here and their eating cake as it landed on the ground. Looking up they noticed a figure flying towards them, many of them started bowing as she landed.
"Princess Celestia!" came Twilight's voice as she came to a stop in front of Celestia.
"Sorry I'm late every pony, but i only got the message a short while ago." she said talking to Twilight.
"Message? What message?" Twilight asked, confusion etched in her face.
"The one Spike just sent me. Something about a giant mud monster." as she was saying this Spike came running up from behind her, panting and wheezing.
"We need..." he said in between breaths "a new system... for sending... messages." he said trying to catch his breath. He leaned on Twilight's side, as he put his claw on his chest. Looking around he noticed that many ponies were eating cake, and their was no sign of the blob that he's seen earlier.
"Where'd it go? It was here." he said to Celestia "right here." he pointed to where all the ponies were. "Fluttershy..." as he said her name she came walking towards him "but i... Twilight." he said looking at Twilight.
"They seems to be alright to me." Celestia said as she looked first at Fluttershy, then Twilight, then back at Spike, as she said this a chunk of cake landed on her horn and she looked up at it. She used her magic to remove it and it landed next to Spike.
Twilight spoke up as Celestia was looking at Spike. "Spike its okay. Its gone now, whatever it was. I'm still confused on what exactly that thing was, but we were helped by Goodlands here." she said pointing over at Goodlands who was picking up a small glowing stone off the ground, it was lying where mud creature was before it was destroyed. He pocketed it and turned around, picked up his hat put it on his head, then turned towards the others.

Explainations & Speculations

Princess Celestia looked at his face for a moment, confusion etched on her, "Do i know you?" asked Princess Celestia, perplexed. "You look vaguely familiar."
"You might." he said "It's a lengthy story." replied Goodlands as most of the ponies started gathering around to hear the tale. Pinkie Pie was still eating cake as she listened. "Alas, I'm not sure on several parts, i only had notes to go on, but I'll give my best educated guess." he said sitting down himself. "I come from a place called The Palomino Plains, where my father ruled for some time. He became weak as he continually used his magic to conceal the lands from outside influence. One of those influences was Discord, who was trying to turn all lands into complete chaos. Before he pass though, Discord had vanished, and my father was not faring well."
"Wait a second, you mean to tell me this was before Princess Celestia banished Discord? That would make you like, over a thousand years old." interrupted Twilight.
"Yes, well.." said Goodlands looking off into the distance. He looked up at them once more "my father King Roots, left my older brother Whitehoof and I the ability to look after the Plains, with our old keeper Bluegrass. Things started off well, but soon went down hill." he again stared off into the distance once more.
"At first we did what we could, filling in the role of leadership. We did our best to get along as any siblings do. I tended to spend much of my time in the library, where as my brother for some reason, had our old keeper Bluegrass keep close to me, while he allowed some of his friends to help advise him. Not only did they advise him, but they also helped him learn a different kind of magic, one that was dark and went against my father's teachings. Eventually he became powerful enough that he believed he could look after the plains by himself." he paused for a moment looking up at pegasi clearing the sky.
"Please continue." said Celestia in her motherly voice.
He pulled his vision from the sky, looked back at Celestia then nodded. "I tried to stay out of his way, i spent much of my time studying our father's teachings, of growing crops and tending to the land. I even studied building and repairing, i learned as much as i could." he started to pace back and forth. "I even spent time trying to discover the magic my brother was learning, but again i came up short." he stopped and turned towards them again, "Then one day, this giant "blob" showed up, and started ruining the Plains. My brother came to me, wanting me to relinquish my power to him, but i refused. He became angry, he demanded that i give him my power, but again i refused." he paused lowering his head slightly and sighed.
Looking back up he noticed even the pegasi had landed and were sitting around, starring with wrapped attention, some where still eating cake, but others were waiting, so he continued.
"I immediately started looking into what it was that was destroying my home, but I came to no avail. My brother went out and stopped the creature in its tracks, using the darker magic he'd learned, thus proving he was more then capable of taking care of the lands. Shortly after that he had me banished from the castle, for not helping him, but i believe it was more of a cover, because he started believing that i would try to push him out." several ponies looked at one another then back at him.
"He didn't attack you did he?" asked Applejack quietly.
"He did. He had my title stripped from me, my powers taken from me, and he put me into a Zircon prison."
"A what?" interrupted Twilight.
"A prison made of Crystal. With symbols etched into it to stop one in place and time. I could neither move, age, blink, breath, or do anything, i was stuck in limbo. At least that's what Bluegrass stated it was. Apparently after my brother imprisoned me, he had put me on display, like some sort of statue. He wished to remind every pony of the failure that was his younger brother. For he told every pony that I had ran away while he was tending to the Plains. Bluegrass had seen through this lie, and one night he had taken me out of the plains and left our homelands. He headed to Equestria and found a cave in which he could store me. He spent most of his time studying from any book he could find,visiting several libraries trying to figure out a way that he could break the spell my brother put on me." he sighed once more "Sadly he couldn't figure it out, and that's why I've only just woken up." he said, he was pacing back and forth again.
"That's horrible." said Celestia.
"I agree. Once i woke up, i knew nothing of this land. After leaving that cave i came across Van Hoover, where i hopped on a train and headed out, visiting many places and eventually landed here. I've been staying here in Sweet Apple Acres farm. I do not know what happened to my homelands. " he said wiping his brow "Bluegrass named the blob Coremound. Because of the core being able to absorb that which is around it taking it into itself and creating a body of its own.."
"So that's how you knew to cover it in flower, eggs, and milk. Your brother had already dealt with something like this before. But how did it go from being in the Palomino Plains to here?" asked Twilight.
"Bluegrass believed that my brother froze the core of the Coremound inside my Zircon prison to keep myself, and the mound frozen in time forever. Thus ridding himself of two problems in one go. I believe that the Coremound was absorbing the magic contained in my prison slowly over the years, thus once it became extremely weak i was able to break out of it. I looked all throughout the cave and around the cave, but never found the Coremound's core. After searching for it for some time i believed it to have possibly been destroyed by something already, only to find out once i got here, i was wrong." He stopped pacing and sat back down.
"Well personally I'm glad you had some knowledge of it. It allowed us to quickly get rid of it, and as a result Ponyville only suffered a small amount of damage. Much less then it would have if i had needed time to go and figure out what exactly it was, and how to get rid of it. I'm not even sure i have a book on it." said Twilight looking at Goodlands.
"I bet you do.." said Spike in an undertone.
"I'm also glad you had knowledge on this subject." said Applejack "because of you, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight were all able to get out of this here mess much quicker then they otherwise would have." she said, she then pointed to his hat "and i was wondering why you never took that off. Why didn't you just say you were a 'Unicorn', with a broken horn? Shoot we could have gotten it fixed, i think. Can he get it fixed?" she asked turning to Celestia.
"That I'm not entirely sure. I'd have to look into it, but i believe its possible." Said Celestia.
"I've spent enough time being just a regular pony, that I'm quite at ease with it. Plus i didn't tell you i was a unicorn, because I'm not a unicorn." he said to Applejack, she jerked her back at this.
"Every pony here seen you use your magic, why lie to me about it now? We all already know." she said accusingly.
"I have not lied to you madam. I am not a unicorn, i am in fact a Malicorn." he said using his busted horn to remove his hat and overalls. As he did the group around him could see what looked like stumps sticking out of his back, right where wings would be. Their was a collective gasp from every pony around him.
"Stage gasp." said Spike in a whisper that only Twilight could hear. She glared at him as he looked at her, he turned back as his face became stony.
"A Malicorn.. What the.. is that even possible?" Applejack asked Celestia.
"Well yes Applejack, that's the male form of an Alicorn, though there aren't any left in Equestria." responded Celestia.
"Well we know of at least one." Applejack said pointing to Goodlands who was being inspected by Spike, who was checking his cutie mark. She noticed it too, it was that of an open plain with trees off in the distance and a small pond in front of them. It looked like a painting of sorts.
"When my father passed his powers unto my Brother and I, I was made a prince in his stead, along with my brother Whitehoof. When i was banished from the Plains, he had my horn destroyed and my wings... Well you can see for yourself." he said painfully, as he put his overalls back on, he also lowered his hat back onto his horn.
"I'm sorry Goodlands." said Applejack as she put her hoof on his back.
"it's alright miss." said Goodlands in an undertone.
POP! They all jumped as a loud popping noise hit the air, Discord was standing next to Celestia leaning on her.
"What have i missed?" asked Discord to Celestia.
"Well, that thing there wrecked quite a bit of Ponyville, while you were MIA.. Why didn't you tell us their was a giant blob monster about to attack Ponyville? Or why Fluttershy was no where to be found?" asked Twilight looking dubiously at him.
Discord turned to looked over his shoulder at Fluttershy "OH there you are Fluttershy, I'm so glad you're okay." he pulled a bright blue herb out of thin air and laid it in front of her "for our tea next week." he said smiling.
"Oh, thank you." she said picking it up and placing it under her wing.
"I haven't a clue as to why i couldn't detect that thing." he said looking over at where several ponies were eating cake.
"I believe the magic in the core must have prevented many from knowing about it. Including myself and Discord..." Princess Celestia said looking at him.
"Well if that's the case, i think i need a word with you." he said looking at Celestia, his tone flattening, "A private word if you don't mind." he said looking to where Canterlot was "Shall we..." Discord said turning to Celestia.
"Well." said Celestia, "i hate to have to run but it looks as though I'm needed. I think I'll be heading back up to Canterlot." Princess Celestia said to Twilight, everyone bowed to her and she and Discord took off towards Canterlot.
Twilight turned and looked at Fluttershy "I'm glad you're okay. How long were you stuck in that thing?"
"Oh, well i was stuck in there for only a few days." she said looking embarrassed.
"How have you been eating? What have you been eating?" asked Twilight.
"Carrots and apples. Several birds and Angel have been bringing them to me." she responded.
"Huh, well would you mind stopping by the castle and finding out whats going on with the many birds that have recently taken up refuge there?" asked Twilight to Fluttershy
"Oh, those are the birds i sent to try and collect you. I see that they didn't succeed."
"No they didn't, although they have redecorated the floor. " said Spike with a sour expression.
Their was a collective "EWW!" from the crowd. Then Twilight and Fluttershy took off towards the castle together.
"Well perhaps we should help out around town. Some of these ponies are going to need help restoring their homes, or shops." said Applejack pointing at the destruction caused by the Coremound. Many then nodded and headed off to collect wood for the houses and other materials. Feeling he could help with this, Goodlands headed off with Applejack to help rebuild Ponyville.

Ebb and Flow

As Goodlands and Applejack went about restoring the town, Goodlands noticed that several ponies were singing as they went.
"We're filling our days with laughter and cheer, as we work together with those we hold dear.
Building our homes and making them grand, so that we bring harmony back to our land.
If we all pitch in and do our part, it'll be more special cause it came from the heart.
We can start off small but make it so much more, our homes will be bigger then they were before.
Because we've come together it wont take to long, and like us ponies they'll stand so strong."
Goodlands raised his eyebrows slightly and stared around for a bit then leaned over to Applejack.
"Is this common? Do they always sing while working?" he asked.
"Yeah it's pretty common, although we don't ALWAYS sing while working, but it does happen quite often in Ponyville." she responded with a smile.
"Oh, well i hope you don't think me rude, but I'm not a very good singer, so i think I'll let you take care of that." he said with his own grin.
"Suit yourself." she said and headed off towards some ponies, Goodlands at her heels.
They worked all day stopping for a short break here and there, but always going back at it with determination. They had to make sure that at the very least the houses were fixed, if not several ponies would be sharing room and hay. They took care of most of the damage but it was getting late when they all disbanded and headed home.
Goodlands met Applejack at her cart and they headed back to the farm together.
"Well i say Goodlands that was some day. How ya feeling?" asked Applejack.
"I feel quite good. Wish we could have done more. Sorry you didn't get to sell much today." he said as they started pulling the cart towards the farm.
"Oh that's alright. Their were ponies that needed helping, and i can take care of that another time." they both took off into the night, until they came to the farm. Upon arrival Big Mac was closing the barn doors, he turned around as they approached.
"Applejack!" came a high pitched voice to their left, it was Apple Bloom heading towards them "What happened? We seen a big bright flash.." she stopped right in front of Big Mac.
"Eeyup." nodded Big Mac.
"Well this giant mound of mud was attacking Ponyville, we covered it in flour, eggs, and milk, and all the unicorns in town used thier magic to turn it into a giant cake. Oh and Goodlands here is a prince from a far away place called the Palomino Plains, where he and his brother once ruled, but his brother became a bit of a stick in the mud, cursed Goodlands insided a Zircon prison, which lasted over a millennia, only for him to wake up and travel all over Equestria, ending up here. Oh and he's a Malicorn..." she said really fast, as both of them looked dumbfounded. "Get all that?"
"Nnope." responded Big Mac, and Apple Bloom.
"Good. I'm off to bed its been a busy day and we've got plenty more to do tomorrow... See you then Goodlands." she said heading off towards the house. Apple Bloom shook her head, and took off following her sister. Now it was just Goodlands and Big Mac.
"I seem to miss all the fun.." said Big Mac looking somewhat sad.
"Eeyup." responded Goodlands. They both chuckled as Big Mac headed towards the house, and Goodlands headed towards the barn, to put the cart away.

Over the next few days Goodlands, Applejack, and Apple Bloom all helped fix up Ponyville doing their best to help where needed. On the fourth day, it seemed that Big Mac was doing better so he decided to go with them when they headed to Ponyville. When they arrived just outside of town they noticed their was a couple inches of water moving outward from the main square. As the cart got stuck in the mud they all looked at one another, then towards town.
"Not sure why theirs all this water here, perhaps one of the ponies in town will know." said Applejack as she started heading towards town.
As Big Mac and Goodlands tried to move the cart one way or the other, Rainbow Dash landed beside Twilight a little ways up. Applejack turned around and headed towards them. Both Big Mac, and Goodlands headed towards them as well, Apple Bloom sat watching them from the seat of the cart.
"See.. The whole town is flooded. I'm not sure what caused this, but i know it wasn't from rain." said Rainbow Dash to Twilight.
"I have no clue where all this water is coming from, but i am going to try..." she was cut off by Spike who was splashing his way through the water.
"Twilight, a message from Princess Celestia." he said working his way towards her. Pinkie Pie came hopping along, and swoop to pick Spike up. Sitting on her back made the process easier as they both worked their ways towards Twilight. Upon arrival he stood on her flank looking directly at Twilight "Apparently several places have been flooded, and she's trying to sort it out. I didn't know Ponyville was also flooded or I'd have sent a letter back letting her know. I only found out when i ran out of the castle."
"It's okay Spike. Did she give a reason as to why these places were flooded, or why Ponyville is now a water park?" asked Twilight.
"Nope. Just said she was trying to sort things out." he said looking worried.
"I think this is salt water." said Goodlands, but no one really paid much attention to the kind of water it was, only that Ponyville was now becoming a bog.
"Now what are we going to do?" asked Applejack looking at Goodlands "we need to see if we can get the cart unstuck. We'll just have to take it back to the farm." she said to Big Mac.
"Eeyup." said Big Mac, as they headed back to the cart to try and move it towards the farm.
"Whats happening? Why is their water coming from Ponyville?" asked Apple Bloom.
"No idea, but it looks as though several places are flooded, and Princess Celestia is trying to figure out whats going on. No point trying to go into town, not if its flooded, we'd just have a harder time trying to get the cart back to the farm later." as she was explaining this to Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Goodlands went about trying to dislodge the cart, after some time Twilight came over and helped them with her magic, thus speeding up their progress by a considerable amount.
"Thank you Twilight. Guess we.." she indicated her self as well as Big Mac, and Goodlands "should get back to the farm. Please let me know if you find out anything."
"No problem. I'm going to head to the castle, and wait till i hear from Princess Celestia. Hopefully she can figure out whats going on." said Twilight as Spike tread his way to her side. She magicked him onto her back, and off she flew.
"Well, we should get going." Said Applejack as they headed back to the farm.
Upon arrival at the farm, Apple Bloom explained to Granny Smith about the town being flooded and how they couldn't even get into town becuase of it. Applejack stayed behind to help Big Mac put the apples in her cellar, while Goodlands put away the cart. After doing so he caught up with them and finished putting the apples away.
"I do hope that Princess Celestia figures out what's causing the flooding. This is definitely bad for the farm, a lack of sales is going to be hard on us." she looked worried as looked over the farm.
"Eeyup." said Big Mac, heading towards the house, leaving Goodlands and Applejack alone.

"Well, what should we do for the rest of the day?" asked Applejack to Goodlands looking over her shoulder. "Perhaps we could build you a small cottage on the grounds, so you don't have to continue sleeping in that uncomfortable barn." she said looking over at the barn.
"We could do that i suppose." he said as they headed towards the trees.
"Any chance i could hear about your homelands?" she asked as they went to gather wood and other needed supplies. They worked until it was getting around dusk when they both decided to call it a night. They had built a nice foundation, and a bit of the roof, but it wasn't complete so they decided to finish the project the next day.
"Sic parvis magna." said Goodlands looking at the start of his new cottage.
"Beg pardon?" asked Applejack as they both looked at their work.
"Greatness from small beginnings. I think." he pondered "it'll be a proper home in no time." he said smiling at her, to which she smiled back.

Waking up early Goodlands walked outside the barn and met Applejack, who was standing there waiting on him.
"I was going to head on back to town, gather more supplies for the cottage, and see if they've figured out why Ponyville has now become a pond. Would you like to join?" she asked as she started towards town.
"After you.." he said pointing towards town. So they headed up the road, only this time they met water before even making it to the spot that they had yesterday before going home. So they had to slosh around till they made it to the center of town. Once there they found Twilight talking to the others and went to see what was going on.
"Princess Celestia is trying to help all those who's houses have been destroyed. I think we should help her out.." she said as they approached.
"But how?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Whats going on every pony?" asked Applejack, as all her friends looked at her.
"Princess Celestia sent me a note this morning." said Twilight in response "she says that several places across Equestria are flooded as well, apparently a massive tidal wave from the west hit a couple of days ago, and she was going to check it out. I told her that I'd investigate what was going on, while she helps as many ponies as she could. Many have had their houses flooded, and there's sea creatures everywhere."
"So we're headed out west." said Rainbow Dash "we should probably start gathering supplies. It could take a couple of days."
"I was going.. I mean..." interrupted Twilight.
"You don't think we're going to let you go alone, do you?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"She's right. Theirs no way we'd let you go and have all the fun." said Applejack.
"Oh girls, i do appreciate it. Thank you..."
"Tis nothing darling, we're more then happy to go with you." said Rarity.
"Well we're going to need quite a few things. I'll ask Spike to help me get some supplies together, but I do feel bad leaving every pony here with their houses in ruin like this though." Twilight said biting her lower lip.
"But if we don't get to the bottom of this soon darling, it could get worse. Much worse." said Rarity.
"Goodlands and I can take care of that. We'll help as many as we can while you gather the supplies." said Applejack to Twilight.

"I'll help you all as well." said Rainbow Dash, "Care to help us Pinkie Pie?" she asked Pinkie Pie.
"Sure." she said and off she went.

"I'll help you all Applejack." said Fluttershy.

"Well i need to head on home, and put all of my dresses upstairs, so they don get ruined by this water. That's a lot of fabric to try to replace. Once I'm done, I'll meet you all at the castle, and we can all head out together." and off she went.
"RIGHT!" said the last of the ponies standing there in the circle.
This took a lot longer then he'd have thought it would have, but it did make the day go by somewhat fast. All the ponies of Ponyville were helping one another, and going from house to house trying to move as much of their stuff up to the upper floors, while staying in high spirits.
After most of the houses were taken care of, Applejack had the idea to bring several plows from the farm, and made several crude aqueducts to help channel out some of the water that was sitting in town. With the help of several ponies this worked well, and pushed it towards several small ditches that were created to make several small ponds.
Shortly after they started doing this the others showed up and gathered together to head out.
"Good luck out there, be careful and come back." Said Mayor Mare.
"We will..." said Spike riding on Twilight's back..
They all went back to trying to dry out Ponyville, slowly and steadily till they were exhausted. As dusk fell they all headed home. Goodlands wished Apple Bloom, and Big Mac a good night, and hit the hay. He spent the next day draining Ponyville, and also helped out with chores around the farm, doing whatever he could to keep himself occupied.
He spent several days working on his cottage, as their was still a lot of work involved with it. He steadily worked through the days and late into the nights. Stopping only once he could no longer see well. He'd finished much of it, but he still needed to paint it and then finish the interior to make it an actual home.
Every night he'd hit the hay wondering where the girls were and whether they were alright. It wasn't until many days later that Applejack had returned looking tired but nothing more. Goodlands spotted her walking down the path to the farm, as he and Big Mac were finishing up the roof of his cottage. They put down their tools and headed towards the fence surrounding the farm.
"Good news every pony. We figured what was going on." She said looking over their shoulders and noticed the cottage off in the distance. "I See you completed your cottage. It looks wonderful." she said a little winded.
"I did, thank you. Big Mac here helped as well."
"Eeyup." said Big Mac nodding.
"Why don't we head in and get you something to eat, while you tell us whats been happening while you were away." said Granny Smith.
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry. Wouldn't say no to a nice glace of apple cider though. " she said looking at them all. "Where to start..."
"You might as well just start from the beginning." said Granny Smith as they headed into the house. They all stood around the table as Big Mac grabbed them all some cider.
"Start at the beginning of all that happened. We're curious as to what happened out there." said Apple Bloom.
"Eeyup.." said Big Mac as Goodlands started drinking his apple cider..

"Well as you may already know, the girls and I headed out west to figure out what was going on." she said a dreamy expression on her face.

Unforeseen Consequences

"Oh i just cant wait to see Van Hoover. I've only read a few things in my books about it. Did you know..." started Twilight to Spike as the rest quickly lost interest in what she was saying. They mostly stared out the windows and watched as the scenery went by. It was rapidly changing from roaming hills, to flatland's, to forested areas. It was a sight to behold as the girls witnessed places they'd never been before. With the exception of Cloudsdale. They spent a whole day through the Unicorn Range, and then came to Van Hoover. The further they went the more water they had to deal with until finally they couldn't go any further due to the train having problems pushing against the current.
"Last stop ladies. Sorry we cant further, but with all this water its wreaking havoc on our engine." said the conductor as they came to a stop. Many of the worker ponies were trying to push the train back they way they had come. This was taking considerable effort do to them having to manually push the train.
"That's okay. We'll walk from here." said Twilight as the girls got off the train and headed further into Van Hoover. They sloshed their way through the water and debris that was floating away from them, heading towards the opposite side of the city.
They soon came to a small community that was off by itself away from Van Hoover. It had only several buildings, that were mostly destroyed, and a small fishing place.
"We need to find a sea worthy vessel. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, scout the area and see..." started Twilight but was interrupted.
"How but that one over there?" asked Pinkie Pie pointing to a large, rather rickety old ship. Several of them looked at one another in alarm.
"Maybe the captain is still on it and will help us.." said Fluttershy. They all shrugged and headed off towards the old boat.
"Hello.." yelled Spike "is any pony there? We need to get across the ocean and figure out whats going on."
"Doesn't look like anyone is home." said Applejack, her sense of foreboding growing with each step towards the ship. As they came close an older pony came heading out towards the leaving train.
"Excuse me sir." said Twilight to the pony "is this your boat?" she asked.
"Um, yes... Yes it is. If your in need of it, by all means take it. But I'm heading out of here while the trains' still here." he said, and headed off.
"But we need a captain." she said to his back.
"No we don't." said Pinkie Pie "I can steer it."
"Pinkie Pie, when have you ever.. You know what, i think I'll just go with it." said Applejack.
"That's probably for the best.." said Rainbow Dash, as they all started heading off towards the ship.
As they did, Twilight noticed that the name Palomino Hind was written on the stern in white letters.
"I wonder if that means something." she said to Spike pointing it out. He shrugged and they headed up to get on the boat with the rest of the ponies.

It soon turned out that Pinkie Pie did know how to captain a ship, and well. Who knew?
"Rainbow Dash, fly up to the crows nest and give us our heading." said Pinkie Pie pointing up...
"Um, sure." she said flying up to the crows nest.
"You might want this." said Twilight as she held up a spyglass. Rainbow Dash swooped back down grabbed the spyglass and headed back up to the crow's nest.
"Does any pony see a sextant anywhere?" asked Pinkie Pie, looking around.
"Pinkie Pie head in that direction." said Rainbow Dash pointing out directly in front of them.
"That's Captain Pinkie to you, ya LANDLUBBER! And if my natural sense of direction is spot on, that would be NORTHWEST! Onward you scurvy ponies, lets get moving before the sun sets." she said pointing outwards, suddenly sporting an eye patch and rather large hat.
"Um, Pinkie, the sails aren't in great condition, and we're not moving." said Applejack. Pinkie payed her no attention, much to her annoyance. "Ugh.. Captain, we're experiencing some rather motionless problems. Please advise." she said rolling her eyes.
"Well boatswain, why not raise the anchor? Then we should get this Galleon moving. What say you?" she said looking at her with her right eye.
"Um.. Aye aye captain?" she said as she and Rarity went to move the anchor. Applejack pulled at the chain, while Rarity used her magic to pull at it as well. It took them some time getting it up and running, but they managed.
"Ah feel that me hearties? The cool air, mixed with the rush of the sea water." said Pinkie Pie breathing deep as they set out to find what was causing such a disturbance in Equestria. It became harder to continue as they went out further, the water started getting rougher as it was constantly pushing against them. The weather started to get rough, and their boat was tossed this way and that, but Pinkie Pie was quite capable as she kept them on track heading towards the creation of this weird water wonder. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight were all using their wings to push the sails against the oncoming water, which was helped out by Applejack, Rarity, and Spike, who were rowing as best they could.
"My arms are so sore." said Spike who's arms looked three sizes too big for his body after rowing as much as he could.
"Ah there, there little buddy." said Pinkie Pie, patting him on the back. "it'll be night soon and you can rest then. Buuuut until that time comes, HEAVE HO YOU SALTY DOG, OR IT'LL BE BRIG FOR YOU!!" she shouted and Spike jumped, as did Rarity. They continued on for a few more hours, as night had fallen. All of them were exhausted.
"Batten down the hatches, and drop anchor boatswain.." said Pinkie Pie to the crew. All of them just stopped and looked at her, in confusion. "tie everything down, and drop anchor. We're calling it a night. We'll pick up tomorrow when we've fresh sunlight." she said and headed into the captains cabin. They grumbled as they all headed down into the crew quarters. Non of them did much talking as they found a place to lie down, falling asleep almost immediately.
After what felt like mere minutes they were all being woken up by Pinkie Pie, who was yelling something about off yonder, and that they needed to hurry up, lest they never get their sea legs. All of them shrugged but headed up to the top.
"Pinkie Pie, did we have to be up so early? I don't think i even fully closed my eyes last night." said Rainbow Dash hiding a yawn.
"CAPTAIN PINKIE PIE! Now lets get to work every pony, we're making really good time." she said in response to the complaint. They all groaned and headed back to their places so as to continue towards the blip off in the distance.
A short while later Applejack noticed Spike off to the side hanging his head over the railing and looking at the water.
"Rubies? Why is it rubies? I didn’t even eat rubies!" said Spike as he hung his head over the side of the boat.
"Whatcha looking at Spike?" asked Applejack walking over to him.
"Oh nothing. Just not feeling so hot right now." he said lifting his head up looking queasy, he looked at her, his face was the odd shade porridge.
"Oh, is my Spikey wikey sick? We should be there soon enough." said Rarity coming over to comfort him as they continued on their way.
"I'll be fine. We should keep going so that i can get off this wretched thing." his cheeks bulged and he flung his head back over the railing. The two girls looked at one another then went back to rowing.
After another hour or so, they finally came within sight of the blip they'd seen earlier. Its was a strange creature that was massive. Perhaps the size of a castle, or small mountain. With the head of a goat and the hind quarters of a fish it was a strange sight to behold.
"HELLO THERE!" yelled Twilight to the creature.
"Are you sure it can even understand us?" Asked Fluttershy, "perhaps i should talk to it. I'm not sure what kind of creature it is though, to be honest."
"WHO DARES ATTACK ME IN MY HOME?!" it asked in a booming voice.
"I do think it can understand us. I'll see if i can find out whats going on." said Twilight as she flew up to it, to talk directly to it...
"Um hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I come from Ponyville. Who are you?" she asked speaking directly in front of its face.
"I AM TYPHOON! WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOME?!" his booming voice washed over her as her hair flew back from the ferocity of it.
"Well, my friends and i are wondering why so much water has been flooding Equestria as of late. Would you happen to know of its cause?" she asked.
"I AM TRYING TO FIND MY WIFE MONSOON! I FELT HER PRESENCE NOT TOO LONG AGO, BUT I AM UNABLE TO VENTURE ON LAND! SO I WILL FLOOD IT TO SAVE HER!"
"Oh wow, okay, you might want to take it down a few notches." she said with a small sheepish smile.
"WHY SHOULD I BE QUITE?! SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU COMMAND ME TO?!" he asked his eyes squinting at her.
"Well, I'd like to help you, but you see i will soon be deaf from your, um, amazing voice and all." she said as she straightened her hair back to its original place.
"OH, sorry.." he said in a whisper, which was still loud, but much softer then before.
"I'd like to help you, but I've never met this Monsoon you speak of. What does she look like?" she asked.
"My wife is beautiful, with long flowing green hair and soft as clouds eyes, her skin is a light blue and she of course doesn't have horns as i do." he said looking mournful.
"Oh, she sounds pleasant. What happened? If you don't mind me asking.." she asked.
"Well, my wife and I had an argument. She left some time back and hasn't returned. I would have thought she'd have returned by now, but she hasn't. I thought I'd give her time to cool off and let her have her "space", but that was some time back, I am worried about her, and a few days ago i felt a massive surge of power from that direction." he said pointing towards the direction they'd just came from. "So now I'm going to rescue her, but to do that i need to go in that direction, which i cannot, until i cover it with water. Land and I don't get along well." he said looking angrily in the direction of Equestria.
"Actually Typhoon was it? I believe that the power surge you speak of was in fact caused by my friends and myself back in Ponyville. Their was this monster-mound-thing and we kind of destroyed it, but to do that we had to focus our power on it." she said pointing over her shoulder.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" he shouted "that was my beloved Monsoon, who is trying to tell me she's in trouble, i just know it."
"That's not possible. Up until today I've never seen one of your kind before in Ponyville, and I'm sure that Princess..." she started but his boom cut her off.
"MY KIND?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT LITTLE ONE?!" he shouted again her hair flew back, and became stuck in that fashion once more.
"Nothing ehehe, i didn't mean any offense to you, its just that I've never seen you, or one that looks like you. I'm not even sure what you are to be honest." she said sheepishly smiling again.
"I AM THE GREATEST HIPPOCAMPUS THAT EVER LIVED! FOLLOWED ONLY BY MY WIFE, WHO IS THE FAIREST OF ALL HIPPOCAMPUS OUT THERE!!" again he boomed at her.
At this time Fluttershy came up to him.
"May I?" she asked Twilight who nodded, she looked at Typhoon. "Now you listen here mister. Theirs' no need to yell at Twilight, she's only trying to help, and." she said getting right up close to his left eye "if i were you, I'd keep my temper under control. We help those in need, but we don't like being talked down to just because we're small. So either you handle your temper, or we wont help you find your missing wife." he back away slightly as she spoke to him.
"You'd be willing to help me find my wife?" he asked gently as she stared at him.
"Of course we would, that's what we do, we help others in need." responded Twilight as Fluttershy nodded.
"I don't know what to say." said Typhoon as he scratched his head.
"Thank you would be a nice start." said Fluttershy.
"Tthhaaankk yoouu.." he said with difficulty.
"You're welcome." said Twilight "but i must ask one request." at this he raised an eyebrow "could you please remove the water that's been flooding our lands? Many ponies are now without homes, and some need to rebuild, but cannot until all the flooding has stopped."
"I can do that." he said with a nod.
"Well, i think we'll be on our way. If we come up with anything, we'll send a pony to you with information. Okay?" she asked as he once again nodded, though this time with less enthusiasm.
She flew down to the boat and explained exactly what was going on, though this wasn't needed as everyone on the boat could and did hear what was being said by him.
"its going to take us some time to get back to land, not to mention we'll have to look for her. It could take weeks to find her." said Rainbow Dash.
"For that i have an idea." responded Twilight as she flew back up to Typhoon. "Well this is slightly awkward, do you think you could give us a nudge towards Equestria, so we can get about looking for Monsoon quicker." she said pointing to the boat, again he nodded and breathed in deep.
Twilight landed back on the boat and yelled "HANG ON EVERY PONY!" WOOSH!! they were off with incredible speed towards Equestria. What had taken them considerable time to get to him, only took them minutes to get back to land.
As they arrived they all got off the boat and headed back to the train station that was now deserted and headed inland.
"Oh now how are we going to get back to town? This walk will take forever." asked Rarity.
"I'll fly up and see how far the train is. It shouldn't have made it too far as we've only been gone for a short time." said Rainbow Dash who took off to the sky to see where the train was.
It soon turned out that the train was only off in the distance by a small walk, so she headed down and told them how far away it seemed to be. After walking a little ways they spotted the train sitting idly on the tracks headed towards Ponyville. As it transpired the train had to be repaired due to several components being ruined due to the water. They approached it and Twilight told the conductor what was going on while Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped with the repairs. After another short time they were all off heading back towards Canterlot.
"Ugh, now i can catch up on my beauty rest." said Rarity as she found a compartment and laid down to catch up on the rest she'd lost while on the boat. The rest followed in pursuit and likewise all of them, with exception of Pinkie Pie, laid down and slept most of the trip there.
Once they had awoken, the talked about their next step of the finding of this Monsoon.
"I think we should head up to the castle, and see if Princess Celestia has returned yet or not. Perhaps she has an idea on how we can find her. I've never even heard of a hippocampus, let alone one in Equestria." said Twilight.
"Really, I'd have figured you'd have read something in one of your books about them." said Applejack, Rarity nodded to this.
"I may have, but if i did, their wasn't much, for i don't remember them at all. Perhaps they tend not to deal much with ponies, he didn't seem to know we were ponies.
"Twilight's right. We should head in and talk to Princess Celestia. She might be able to help us. Or have more knowledge of where to start." said Fluttershy nodding towards the original idea.
They all agreed and waited for the train to pull in to the Canterlot station.

Lost and Found

Upon arriving they headed up directly to the throne room to find Princess Celestia, though she wasn't there, Princess Luna was.
"Greeting every pony. My sister hasn't returned yet. Did you all discover what was caused the massive tidal wave that recently flooded Equestria?"
"Yes we did, and you're not going to believe this but, a hippocampus named Typhoon is trying to flood Equestria so that he can search for his love Monsoon. Apparently when we destroyed that mud mound thing, the power was felt by Typhoon and he believes that it was actually caused by Monsoon."
"Typhoon... Now theirs a name i haven't heard in some time. Hmm... That might explain why I've been seeing several strange dreams as of late. But i believe these are coming from the east." said Luna as she pondered this news.
"So you know of Typhoon?" asked Twilight. "You know what, that's not important at the moment. We need to discover where this Monsoon is located, and bring her safely back to Typhoon, so he doesn't start flooding Equestria again." Luna looked puzzled at this.
"First we need to stop the flooding from destroying more of Equestria.." said Luna who was cut off by Twilight.
"Oh, that's another thing, we agreed to find her and bring her back, and he would remove the water from Equestria, as well as stop flooding it further."
"That's wonderful news. The removal of water, not the fact that this Monsoon is in danger. Or perhaps she's just hiding from him. Still those dreams would have me believe otherwise." she said.
"Where are the dreams coming from?" asked Twilight.
"I'm having trouble discerning where exactly they're coming from. It seems as though theirs something blocking my ability to home in on them. I know they're coming from off the eastern coast, but when i try to find out exactly where they are coming from things become really blurry for me." she said looking disappointingly.
"Leave it to us, we'll find out where she is. Perhaps these hippocampi are magical creatures and thus make it hard to focus on. Seeing as we've had little dealings with them." she said reassuringly.
"Very well. I'll send word to my sister and let her know exactly what you discovered." she said.
"I'll do it." said Spike who pulled out a piece of parchment and began writing a short letter to Celestia.
"Oh, and do be careful.." she said to Twilight, who nodded and turned to the other ponies. Spike blew on the letter as it vanished and turned towards the others as well.
"Well every pony, we've got a mission to take care of, so roll out." said Twilight. They immediately headed out to start the next part of their quest to find Monsoon and dry up not only Ponyville, but all of the other parts of Equestria that were currently flooded.
"When have you all ever rolled anywhere?" asked Spike quietly.
"I roll all of the time silly." said Pinkie Pie as she became a ball and begun rolling towards the front of the castle.
"So how are we getting, wherever it is we're going?" asked Applejack.
"How about a hot air balloon?" suggested Spike. He didn't think he could take another sea voyage.
"That sounds like a great idea Spike." said Twilight. "we'll ride a train to Baltimare and then hitch a ride on one of their hot air balloons towards the eastern sea.. That way we wont have to deal with sea sickness this time around." she said with a wink towards Spike.
"I'd better fly there and let them know we're coming, that way they can have a hot air balloon ready for us, for when we arrive." said Rainbow Dash. They all nodded and headed to the departing train in the station. It took them quite some time to get to Baltimare, Rainbow Dash met the train about half way there, and looked pooped when she came into their compartment.
"It's been set." she said breathing heavily "it will be ready when we arrive." and she collapsed on one of the beds in their room.
Upon arriving at Baltimare they wanted to look around the city a bit, but both Twilight and Fluttershy quelled this idea almost immediately.
"We're supposed to be helping Typhoon remember?" Fluttershy reminded them, to which they all nodded and headed towards where Rainbow Dash had set the hot air balloon up for them.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike all crammed themselves into the small basket, and it was being guided by Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight, who occasionally rested in the basked as well. They headed out towards the eastern sea in search of the elusive Monsoon. It didn't take nearly as long this time around, as they were airborne they didn't need to go around landmarks or be stopped by water on a track. It was a rather boring ride, but they soon spotted off in the distance an island, and knew immediately that Monsoon was there. There was this giant vortex of water surrounding it, It was sixty or so feet high, and was in perpetual motion. Luckily being inside of a hot air balloon, they didn't have to try and sail through it, so they flew over it. Still the wind from it did throw the balloon off a bit.
"Think of the magic being used to keep this vortex going, it must be very taxing." said Twilight marveling at the vortex wall, as they passed over it.
"It could be Monsoons' doing. If it is, she's probably not even noticing. To us it would be difficult, but to her, who knows if she's even bothered by it." responded Fluttershy also looking at the vortex.
"This serves as a pretty good deterrent if you think about it." said Rainbow Dash, flying next to them. "who'd wanna try and sail through that?" she pointed at the vortex "it probably wouldn't end well." at this they all nodded and continued on.
They landed down on a small open grass plain surrounded by a lot of vegetation. There was a small stream near them heading towards they way they had come, and the land looked to be in good condition.
"Why do you think Monsoon would be here. Wouldn't it make more sense to be out in the ocean like Typhoon was?" asked Twilight to the others as they tied the hot air balloon down "it doesn't add up."
They pondered this for a moment until Applejack spoke up "perhaps we should just go and see her." they nodded and headed off towards the center of the island.
As they walked they noticed that the shadows of this forest reminded them of the Everfree forest, they walked for a brief time then came to a large cliff side, with a small crevice in it. They all looked at one another, then headed inside.
Upon entering the cave proper, they noticed a large cavern with several stalactites and stalagmites scattered around to which Rainbow Dash pointed at and said with a chuckle "it looks like this cave has teeth."
"Those are stalactites and stalagmites." Said Twilight pointing in turn.
"Whats that?" asked Spike.
"Well." said Twilight going into an explanation as though she were in class and answering a teacher " these are speleothem's, which are mineral deposits that takes ages to form what we see here. They are called stalactites and stalagmites."
"How do you tell the difference between the two?" asked Applejack.
"Well the way i tell them apart, is stalagmites have an M in them, those are the ones that form on the ground and look like M's. The stalactites have a T in them, and form on the top of the room. At least that's always worked for me." she said as she pointed to both of them in turn. They all made an "AH.." sound as she explained the difference to them, then headed on their ways.
"Um, not to complain or anything, but is it rather bright in here? I mean theirs no lights anywhere around, yet we can see as though its perfect day." pointed out Rarity.
"Now that you mention it, it is bright in here.. Weird." said Twilight.
"Maybe another spell from this Monsoon." said Pinkie Pie, shrugging, to which they all shrugged in turn and continued on. Along the way Twilight kept telling them interesting things she'd read about some of the flora growing inside of the cavern. Until she came to a strange neon glowing mushroom, which stumped her. They left it behind and soon came to a large open area that contained salt water and a large creature with green hair, and white eyes. This they presumed had to be Monsoon. Twilight flew up to the the creature and spoke to it as calmly as she could.
"Um, hello.. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm assuming you're Monsoon?" she couldn't hide the nervousness of her voice, but she did her best. Sadly the creature didn't respond at all. Her eyes held the look of one who was staring off into the distance, or looking into their past. "Um, hello.." she said waving her hoof in front of the creatures face. Still no response. "Fluttershy, care to give it a whirl?" she asked looking over her shoulder.
"Um okay.." she said and timidly flew up to the creature. "Hello." she said, also waving her hoof in front of the creature, no answer again. They both flew down to join the others.
"What do you thinks wrong with her?" asked Applejack "she looks dazed." she said.
"WHO PRAY TELL ARE YOU?!" they all jumped as a loud booming voice echoed through the cavern. They turned to look at the creature, the voice didn't come from her, but instead from a Dog? He was bipedal and built like a Minotaur, but with a dogs head, and he was slowly descending from the top of the creatures head towards them.
"You were asked a question.. It is rude not to answer.." he said as he made his way towards them, landing only feet from them. He was a very built creature, with well defined muscles and a large loincloth around his waist. His coat was that of gold and black fur weaved in and out of one another, his nose was sharp as were his ears, small and pointed, gold fur started from his nose and worked its way towards his eyes, and even from this distance they could see the solid black sclera, with what looked like lightning moving out from the center, almost as though it were moving.
"I am Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike. Who are you?" she said pointing a hoof in turn to each pony, and Spike.
"The Jackal wondered when someone would show up looking for this creature." he said as he moved his arm towards the creature behind him. His voice was calm and smooth but arrogant, as though he didn't have a care in the world.
"The Jackal?" they asked together, to which he swung his arm back towards his abdomen and gave a small bow. This time they noticed several rings adorning his left hand. As he bowed he kept his eyes on them, which made them feel uneasy. It looked as though they did have lightening in them, and it was moving as he moved.
"The Jackal admits, he was expecting a much larger creature to come looking for her. The Jackal presumes he sent you in his stead, correct?" he held his hands out towards them.
"We offered to help him. This would in fact be Monsoon then?" asked Rarity.
"Rrarrity corrrect?" he said rolling his R's and standing back up, she all but shivered at this. "Yes this is Monsoon." He then turned to Twilight. "The Jackal wonders.." he put a finger to his pointed chin, "will Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity..." he pointed as he came across each one of them, and paused when pointing at Spike " and Spike be taking Monsoon from this cavern on this day?" his words were as smooth as silk. Every word he spoke seem to flow into the next word.
"Yes we will." said Fluttershy, as he looked at her she shrank back "if that's okay with you." she gave a weak smile.
"We gave our word that we would help return Monsoon to Typhoon if we could, and that's exactly what we're doing." said Twilight taking a small step forward. A small smirk crept its way onto the Jackals face. Twilight took a small step back.
"It would seem, that there is a dissension between us. The Jackal believes you to be" he rubbed his chin, "misguided." he paused, "Perhaps you should leave now Twilight Sparkle, for The Jackal has much work to be getting on with." he said taking a step towards them.
"Ugh, enough chit chat, i say we go full butt kick mode, and take this corrupt canine down." said Rainbow Dash flying up into the air and flying towards the Jackal.
"Rainbow Dash NO!" yelled Twilight, but it was too late, she was gaining on the Jackal, who seemed not to even care. He wasn't even moving to get out of the way. WHAM! She collided with Monsoon at full force, and fell dazed into the water with a small splash. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled again.
"Well that hurt?!" she said as she emerged from the water, she looked over at Twilight, "i didn't know you had a twin." she shook her head and slowly flew back over to the gang.
"Are you alright darling?" asked Rarity putting a hoof on her shoulder.
"I'm fine, sadly i don't think that's going to work though, he didnt even flinch." she scowled looking at him.
"That was folly Rainbow Dash, you should spend your energy convincing your friends here to go home." he turned to walk away, "come beast, you have work to do." he said to Monsoon.
"TAKE THIS!" Yelled Twilight as she created a ball of energy using her horn, she sent it towards him and he turned to toss the energy away as if it were a pebble. She gasped as her magic flew away and dissipated. "How?" she asked "that should have stopped him in his tracks."
"I didn't know you could do that." said Fluttershy.
"I came across it just recently, right after that mud monster thing attacked Ponyville." she responded.
The Jackal raised his left hand slowly towards them and all of them were pushed back towards the wall opposite. Dust and dirt were slung around them, but they were relatively unhurt.
"You bore The Jackal. Begone from this place before you anger The Jackal." he said as his eyes began to change color.
"NOW!" yelled Spike as he bit The Jackal ankle.
"Agh!" exclaimed the Jackal, as he flung Spike away from him. "Loathsome little nuisance." while he was distracted Twilight hit him with another ball of energy, he turned at the last second and took the blast directly in the chest. He flew back onto the ground at Monsoons' stomach.
"SPIKE!" they all yelled at once, running over to him.
"I'm fine." he said standing up, "what about him?" he asked pointing at Jackal.
"I think he's just unconscious." said Applejack walking over to him, she nudged him with her hoof "he's still breathing, so my guess is he'll be alright."
"Well that didn't do what I'd hoped for.. I thought he'd be stuck in place, and we could simply take Monsoon back home." said Twilight looking perplexed. They all walked over to look at him lying on the ground.
"Oh, who are you?" asked an angelic voice from above. They all jumped and looked up.
"Well..." said Twilight "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. We've come looking for you." she said flying up to eye level with Monsoon.
"Me, how did you know i was here?" she asked looking confused.
"It's a long story, one we can tell you on the way." said Rainbow Dash also flying up to where Twilight was.
"We've come to take you back to Typhoon, who's looking for you. I would assume that you are Monsoon correct?" asked Twilight.
"Yes i am. Nice to meet you Twilight, Is Typhoon alright? Has something happened to him?" she asked in that same angelic voice. It was uncanny how such a soft voice could come from such a large creature.
"Well he's been slowly flooding all of Equestria trying to reach you. So we offered to come find you if he'd remove all the water and sea creatures.." Twilight started to explain, but was interrupted.
"Oh that foolish Typhoon, he's always being brash, never thinking with his head." she responded looking annoyed.
"Well i don't mean to be pushy, but we need to get you back and soon. I'm not sure how Ponyville has fared, and I'm pretty sure my farm has become a swamp by this point." said Applejack.
"Ah, and i was going to enjoy my new swimming pool." said Pinkie Pie with a small smile.
"Right you are. Do you know the way? I'm not sure where we are to be exact." said Monsoon looking around inside the cavern.
"Well how did you get here?" asked Twilight.
"I'm not sure. I have no knowledge of this place." she responded, a sad look crossed her face.
"Well whats the last thing you do remember?" asked Twilight.
"I recall an argument with Typhoon, going off on my own, going to sleep, and then waking up here with you all."
"Well we'll help you find your way back, how's that?" said Twilight, to which she nodded.
"If you all would like, you can ride on my back. I know most of the ocean currents pretty well, it shouldn't take me long to discover where we are and how to get back." she said pointing to what looked like a small pebble size light in the distance. After they climbed onto her back the cavern started to become dim. They all looked around and Rarity spoke the thought that had crossed several of their minds.
"What should we do with him?" she asked pointing to the Jackals' body, who was still lying there unconscious.
"Leave him. By the time he wakes back up, we'll be long gone. He'll have no idea where we are and we wont have to worry about him any more." said Rainbow Dash, to which they all nodded.

Return Trip

After a few minutes they were out of they cave which only had one way in and one way out that was connected to the ocean. So it wasnt to difficult to find the exit, they came outside to a low sun about to set, the daylight was fading fast.
"We're going to need to sleep somewhere." said Twilight so Monsoon could hear her.
"Can you sleep back there? I can go for several days with out sleep, i should be fine. Unless you all are uncomfortable, then i can stop before we make our lengthy trip." she said over her shoulder to them.
"I'm fine, this is way smoother then the ship we were on." said Fluttershy.
"It is a rather smooth ride, if i do say so myself." said Rarity.
"How bout you Spike? Feeling alright?" asked Applejack.
"This is way better. I don't feel uneasy at all." he said yawning "though I'll probably nod off here soon." he walked over and sat with his back against her neck as his eyes started to close. It was getting late, so he decided to curl up and sleep.
"How are we going to get past the vortex surrounding the island?" asked Pinkie Pie. Just as she pointed to the vortex swirling around the island, she noticed it just seemed to dispel.
"I have a feeling that was my doing." came Monsoon's voice. "but i wonder why that foul mongrel wanted a vortex concealing this island."
"No clue. He was a strange one, and their could be any number of reasons for it. Guess we wont know now." said Twilight, to which others nodded. After a short time they decided to rest in a semi-circle near the base of Monsoons back. Pinkie Pie gave Monsoon directions based on her internal compass, and the stars in the sky.
By next morning they were well on their way toward a familiar landmark. They'd have to go around Equestria to get to where Typhoon was. Spike sent another letter to Celestia to let them know that they had found Monsoon, and to send word to Typhoon that they were gaining on his position with rapid speed.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm getting hungry." said Spike, to which the others nodded.
"Well this is no banquet, but." Pinkie Pie said as she pulled several energy bars out from a satchel on her back and one medium sized topaz, and handed them in turn.
"Pinkie where did you get that satchel from??" asked Rarity.
"I grabbed it before we headed off towards the cave, why?" she asked, as though this seemed obvious.
"Why didn't i think of that?" she asked in response. They all talked while eating, pointing out the strange shapes of clouds, Twilight and Fluttershy occasionally going up to talk to Monsoon. They soon came to a place that they recognized and she headed for a place that she apparently knew. It took them a few days to get there, but by the time they did, it was late in the day when they seen Typhoon off in the distance. It would seem that Monsoon was a very fast creature as she made her way to him in no time flat.
"MONSOON!" he exclaimed aloud upon seeing her. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" he met her, and they hugged while the others looked on. They didn't mind riding on the back of Monsoon, but they were itching to get back to solid land.
"I'm fine dear, and theirs no reason to shout." said Monsoon in kind, "these lovely ponies helped me get away from this strange canine, and his out of the way island."
"CANINE?!" he stooped his head a bit, and lowered his voice "canine, what canine? Where was this island?" he asked.
"Its to the southeast from here." she pointed over her shoulder towards the way they had come.
"I see. So the ponies kept to their word." he looked at them and his expression softened. "I admit i had my doubts, but you did do as you had promised."
"Of course. We don't mind helping out those in need. Its what we do." said Twilight flying up to eye level with both Typhoon, and Monsoon, who was a head shorter then Typhoon. "Did you remove the water from Equestria?"
"I did. I've also been in contact with Celestia. She explained that you all had found Monsoon, and were heading in my general direction. Thus i removed the water as i said i would. Sorry for that, i was just so worried about my Monsoon." he said with a sheepish look on his face.
"It's nice to know you cared enough to try and flood all of this land just to find me, but really was that necessary dear?" Monsoon asked giving him a stern look.
"I may have overreacted, but i was worried." he said then bowing his head a little, "sorry."
"Its alright. I only hope no one was hurt due to your rash behavior." Monsoon said lifting his chin up.
"From what Celestia told me no one was hurt, only damage to several homes."
"Well you just have to make it up to them wont you.. Now I'm going to take these lovely ponies back to land, they must be tired of sitting on my back. They're probably hungry as well." said Monsoon gingerly.
"Oh Celestia brought this as well." he put a rather small box onto Monsoon's back. Upon opening it the girls found several sandwiches and some sapphires, along with a note.
Dear Girls, this is for when you arrive back. I'm sure the journey has been long, and your probably hungry, so i made sure you had something to eat. Hoping all goes well on this endeavor, please come see me when you return.. Yours truly, Princess Celestia.

They soon arrived in the same place they had found the Palomino Hind, and said a quick goodbye to Monsoon, and Typhoon.
"They look like such a nice couple." said Fluttershy
"Lets just hope they don't have another argument." said Rainbow Dash, to which they all nodded and headed off.
Luckily for them, or because Celestia had set it up there was a train waiting to take them back to Canterlot, so they got on train and headed off towards their destination.
"Twilight are you okay." asked Spike as the others sat on the train happy to be back in a familiar place. She looked unhappy about something, and at Spike's question the other girls came closer to her.
"I'm not sure Spike. Somethings nagging at me, and i cant put my hoof on it." she said in response.
"Oh sweetie, you're probably just worried over Ponyville. I'll bet when we get back everything will be fine. And hopefully dry." said Rarity trying to cheer her up.
"I hope so too. I shudder to think whats become of Sweet Apple Acres." said Applejack.
After another lengthy ride, they finally arrived back at Canterlot, they all noticed Twilight was still looking uneasy about something, but nothing they said made her feel any better, even she couldn't figure out what was bothering her. She just had this feeling something was off. Putting this out of her mind for the time being she spoke to the others.
"Perhaps Princess Celestia can help me figure out why i feel the way i do. I mean we helped Monsoon get back to Typhoon, and Equestria is now dry once more, but still."
They immediately headed for Celestia's chamber to talk to her about their journey.
"Hello my little ponies. I trust everything went well." said Princess Celestia, looking pleased. She was not alone though, someone else was there in the room. Gilda who was sitting a little ways away starring out of one of the windows.
"Rainbow Dash.." came her voice as she turned towards them. "I was just telling Princess Celestia that I'd come to hang out with you, but you weren't here. She said you were off doing some errand. How was it, did you see any neat creatures on your trip?"
"Princess Celestia, do you mind if i go and tell Gilda here about our trip?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Of course. Have fun.." she said and Rainbow Dash and Gilda flew out the window while Rainbow Dash started telling her about it.. "So how was the trip?" asked Celestia to Twilight.
"Well.." and off she went recounting the whole story. Once done she looked at Celestia with the same puzzled expression on her face.
"Whats wrong?" she asked "by the sound of it, you were amazing. Why the long face?"
"Well, its just that, that Jackal character didn't do very much. He seemed like a powerful foe, and there was very little struggle. I thought things were going to be much more.." she was interrupted.
"You thought there was going to be a big conflicting battle that would take place, and the whole of the world would come down to you and him, and there would be this epic duel?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Well yes.. i feel as though it should have taken us a much longer time, or at least he'd have done something. But he didn't, it was kind of weak. I mean how is it that someone of his power, someone who could have enslaved Monsoon, go down with only one spell. And how was he controlling Monsoon." she asked looking to Celestia for answers.
"Well, perhaps you're much stronger then you think. Perhaps he was preoccupied with controlling Monsoon, thus he wasn't able to give you his full attention. Their could be any number of things on that matter. How he was controlling Monsoon, I'm not sure, their could be many theories to answer that." she said softly.
"But i.." she started, but was interrupted.
"Oh sweetie, not everything has to come down to a big duel, or even an epic showdown. Sometimes a simple solution works the best." said Rarity putting a hoof on her shoulder.
"I guess you're right. Perhaps i was just expecting more from him then that." she said doubtfully.
"He did seem like a powerful foe." piped up Fluttershy.
"I think you all did amazingly. I think you all should go home and have a small break. Hmm." said Celestia also trying to comfort Twilight.
"I suppose. I just thought friendship would play a part in here, somewhere." who did seem to have cheered up slightly.
"Well, i don't want to seem rude, but i think I'd better be getting back to the farm. Not sure whats been going on, and I'm hoping it hasn't become a bog since i left." piped up Applejack.
"Oh it hasn't. I believe your new friend Goodlands has been helping in your stead." said Celestia "you ponies did a wonderful job, and you should be proud."
they all gave her a collective "thank you." and then began heading towards Ponyville.
"Back to another train." said Spike who looked rather miserable at this idea.
"Well at least you all are on the right track." Celestia chuckled as they headed out. This did not cheer him up at all.

"Ah, home sweet home. I think I'll go and sweep out the castle." he said once they had arrived back in Ponyville. His eyes grew rather large at this. "never thought I'd miss sweeping a castle."
"Never thought I'd hear you say those words Spike." chuckled Twilight.
"Likewise. Well see you all later. I'm gonna head on over to the farm." said Applejack.
"I'm off to create a new line of dresses. The coat of that Jackal character has given me inspiration. It'll look fabulous." Rarity grinned broadly at this thought.
They all said their goodbyes and headed off towards their homes. Applejack seen Big Mac and Goodlands working on his cottage from a little distance up the road, and noticed that it was shaping up to be a fine little cottage.

"And well, here i am. Its been a rather lengthy journey, and my hooves are beat. And I'm not sure i ever want to ride in a ship again. Still we did get to see some nice scenery." she said with her recap.

Unexpected Guest

The following morning Applejack awoke and came out to find Goodlands painting his cottage. It seems she had slept in do to the sun being already close to noon and all.
"Its looking mighty fine, there Goodlands." she said walking up to his cottage.
"Thank you ma'am." he said "now i just need to give her some furnishing, and it'll be all set. My very own cozy cottage." he smiled at her, to which she smiled back.
"Well lets go into town and get said furnishings, shall we?" she asked, to which he put his brush back in its can, and nodded.
Along the way he told her about the chores and how he and Big Mac had built all the little rooms in the cottage, the fact that he'd gotten more then a "Eeyup" from Big Mac was a shock to him, and how lovely the day was. Upon entering Ponyville, they noticed that Spike was in full swing describing the different locations to what looked like a slightly older dragon. One that had a similar color to Spike.
"Well howdy there Spike. Who's this here? Friend of yours?" Applejack asked as they approached him.
"No, this here is my brother, Scales." he said his face filled with glee. "He says he was told of me when we went through Baltimare, someone there seen me and asked if we were related. So he came here to find out. Turns out we have the same mother, thus he's my older brother. Can you believe it, i didn't even know i had siblings." he said bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"B..brother? Well I'll be, that's amazing Spike. I'm Applejack, this here is my friend Goodlands. Welcome to Ponyville."
"Thank you. Its nice to meet you both." Scales said to them in turn, Goodlands nodded as he looked at him.
"Does Twilight know yet?" she asked looking back at Spike.
"Yeah, we're throwing a party in celebration. I cant wait. Will you be able to make it? You too Goodlands. I mean anyone can attend. I'm so excited.. i mean i finally get to talk about dragon stuff with another dragon. Which i cant do with Twilight, unless i want to be bored stiff with information she's gotten out of books." he said his face going all stone like.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." she exclaimed "Should i bring a gift?" she asked under breath.
"That wont be necessary, as its custom where I'm from to give others gifts when one meets new friends. I'd like to do that anyways as you all have been taking care of my younger brother and all. A thank you if you will. Two birds one stone, and all."
"Well that's mighty nice of you. When is this party of yours?" she asked looking bashful.
"Tonight, Pinkie Pie's setting it up. I cant wait." Spike exclaimed.
"Well we're going to go and pick up some stuff for Goodlands new cottage, where should we meet up at?" Applejack asked.
"Here in the town square. I think Pinkie Pie will be able to have everything ready by then." he said "say Applejack, do you think you could together some food and drink for the party?" he asked, to which she nodded and he and Scales went off to as Spike kept a running commentary of the different places around Ponyville.
"Well shall we get going, looks like we've got plans for this evening.. Plus i need to let Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Granny know about the party." she asked looking at Goodlands. "Or did you want to stay at home, so you could take care of your cottage?"
"My cottage isn't going anywhere." he said, a feeling of pride coming over him "wouldn't dream of missing the party."
So off they went to purchase some furniture for his cottage. They didn't need to buy much, as Goodlands stated that he could build most of his furniture out of wood. Goodlands, and Applejack picked up what he needed and headed back to the farm. Applejack went to tell the others about Scales' upcoming party and to get things ready for the party that evening.
Night time rolled around and they headed back to Ponyville proper, to which the party was already in full swing. Every pony was having a good time and Spike was making a fool of himself on the dance floor. Of course so was Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, and Discord were off to the right talking about something and Rarity was talking to some fancy pony, as Rainbow Dash and Gilda, were off laughing about something. In fact everyone was having a blast. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were also there having a good time too. Twilight was mid conversation with Celestia when Applejack and Goodlands walked up.
"I didn't even know he had a brother. Oh hello Applejack, Goodlands." she said upon seeing them.
"Evening Twilight. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." she said stopping in front of them.
"Good Evening Applejack. I must admit, i didn't know that Spike had any siblings either. But I'm not surprised by the news to be honest. Thinking Spike was an only dragon is rather silly. I'd just never come across them. Till now." said Celestia to Twilight.
"Well I'm happy for him. Now he has someone to talk to about all the strange things dragons get up to." as she said this Owlowiscious, flew over her head to land on a tree branch near by. "Good evening to you Owlowiscious.." she said smiling at her pet owl. He gave a resounding "WHO" in response.
"Her pet owl, Owlowiscious." said Applejack to Goodlands.
"I had gathered that, miss." he said in response to her. She rolled her eyes and went off to get some cider. Sometime later in the evening, Scales got up on a small platform, and looked out at the crowd.
"Thank you every pony, for this warm welcome. I truly appreciate it." he gave a small smile to them all. "also thank you so much for watching over my little brother. He seems to truly enjoy living here, if i go by how much he's talked of you all. Thank you once again." and he promptly stepped down and headed towards Spike. At this there was much cheering and the party started again.
After everyone became exhausted from the party they all said their goodbyes and only Celestia, Luna, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight were in the center all getting ready to head home.
"Sadly my sister and i must be off as well." said Luna to the crowd.
"True. I'm rather exhausted. You all try not to stay up too late. Hmm." Celestia said looking rather tired.
"I need to be going as well." said Discord, he turned to Fluttershy "still on for tea time?" he asked she nodded and he popped out of existence.
"Well goodnight every pony." said Celestia, as she and Luna flew off towards Canterlot.
"Oh, i almost forgot." said Scales looking at the ponies around them. "I wanted to give you these." he said pulling out a box that was stashed near by. "as a way of saying thank you for watching over my little brother." he handed in turn six necklaces one to Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and finally to Twilight Sparkle. "oh, sorry" he said to Gilda, and Goodlands "i don't seem to have one here for you two. I'll see if i can get you both one tomorrow."
"Don't sweat it. Jewelry isn't really my thing. I'm gonna go crash, Dashie, see ya later." she said looking at Rainbow Dash. She nodded and Gilda flew off towards the clouds.
"I'm not much for jewelry either. But thank you for the gesture." said Goodlands, holding up a hoof.
"Well these look lovely darling." said Rarity putting hers on. They did look nice, old but with and exotic hint to them. "Aren't you going to try them on?" she asked the others. So they each in turn put theirs on, they all marveled at them. They looked expensive. "Where ever did you get them?" asked Rarity.
"In Baltimare. I heard Spike was traveling with six other ponies so thought I'd grab some of these as a small thank you." Scales said with a smile.
"Well thank you. They truly look lovely, especially in this moonlight." said Twilight looking at her own. "they must have cost a fortune."
"Nah, they had a sale on them. I mean they weren't that expensive at all." he said with a small chuckle, to which all of them chuckled.
"Well I'd better be off, I'm overdue for my beauty sleep." smiled Rarity, as she gave Spike a small kiss on his cheek, his blushing was noticeable even in this light. "Congratulations once more, see you all tomorrow." and she headed off towards her house.
"Right, we'd better get going to. I'm beat from all that dancing." said Applejack.
Their came a collective "Night" from the group as she and Goodlands headed back to the farm.
"Woo-wee, that was fun. I'm plum tuckered out. Cant wait to hit the hay." Applejack tried and failed to stifle a yawn.
"I too am rather tired." said Goodlands in response.
Upon reaching the gate that to her house she leaned on Goodlands and in a quiet voice said "Good night Goodlands." and headed off. Now he was blushing worse then Spike.
"Must of been the Cider." he said softly and headed towards his cottage. He stared up at the stars and smiled broadly. For once he was truly happy, he had friends, his own cottage, and maybe he was falling for this lovely golden locked palomino. Maybe one day, he'd also get a kiss, WHAM! He'd walked right into his cottage. He quickly looked around to make sure no one had seen him do that, then quickly let himself into the house.
The next morning he heard a loud voice coming from outside. Was that Applejack, he thought? No too high pitched. They sounded troubled whoever they were, so he got up stretched, and yawned and then he'd heard what the voice was shouting about.
"APPLEJACK?!" came the voice outside, it was Apple Bloom. He hurried up and headed outside to see what all the commotion was about.
"Whats going on? Where's Applejack?" he asked as he reached Apple Bloom.
"Shes not here. Usually she's up already taking care of the animals, but i haven't seen her, and none of the pre-breakfast chores have been done." Apple Bloom explained.
"It could be that she was called to help the others. Maybe she had to run into town." said Goodlands in response.
"Maybe." came Big Mac's voice from over by the house.
"I'll go check. No sense getting all worked up over nothing. Maybe Twilight Sparkle or one of the others stopped by." said Goodlands looking at the two.
"She usually leaves a note if that's the case." said Apple Bloom, looking worried.
"Eeyup." said Big Mac as he approached, he too looked worried.
"I'm gonna go into town and see if i cant find her." he was starting to worry himself now. This was not like Applejack. So he headed off towards Ponyville leaving the farm behind.
Upon arrival he noticed several others looking puzzled, Gilda, Spike, and Scales were talking animatedly.
"Goodlands, have you seen Twilight?" asked Spike when he walked up to them. "Gilda here says she cant find Rainbow Dash either."
"It's not like Rainbow Dash to just run off without saying, well anything." she said as she looked from Spike to Goodlands. "Could it perhaps be a summons from Princess Celestia?" she asked looking at Spike.
"No, I'd have received the letter. And the map didn't show them needed anywhere, at least not to my knowledge." he looked as though he were going to be sick. It happened suddenly his eyes widening and he belched. Green fire came out of his mouth, along with a scroll tied with a ribbon and a seal. "It's a letter from Princess Celestia." he said unrolling it.
"There needs to be a better way to deliver letters. That has got to be painful." said Gilda looking at it with interest. He quickly read the letter and looked up.
"We're needed at the castle." he said looking directly at Goodlands. "It seems urgent."
"I got this." said Gilda, "hop on." she said turning her back to Spike. He quickly jumped onto her back and she flew over to Goodlands and grabbed his overalls with her talons and headed towards Canterlot.
"See you when i get back Scales." he said waiving goodbye to Scales, who waved back.
They arrived right in the room of Celestia a short time later.
"I have some bad news." she said to them.

The Mane Misfits

"Why, whats going on? Do you know where Twilight and the others are?" asked Spike as he climbed down from Gilda's backside.
"I do. That's why i summoned you here Spike. Goodlands, you're here too?" she waved it away "I received this letter this morning." she said as she magic the letter over to them, and suspended it in front of them, it reads:

The clock is ticking from where you stand, they are trapped here now on this island. You want them back and that is for sure, you coming here is their only cure. Come and collect them if you dare, and save your precious little mares. But hurry about and do make haste, or their weakened minds shall simply waste. Night and day they will toil away, as their bodies slowly begin to decay. You should come alone and do not be late, for this is where The Jackal awaits.

"What do you make of it. Clearly this Jackal has taken them, but I'm not sure how. Or why.." she started, but in came another mare. Princess Luna had come in.
"I am here, why the abrupt summons? Is everything alright?" asked Luna in turn.
"This letter showed up not too long ago, and I've already sent for Princess Cadance." she said showing Luna the letter, to which she gasped.
"Who is this Jackal and why would he take the girls?" she asked looking at Celestia.
"Of that I'm not sure, but we do know where we need to go. I do hope Cadance shows up soon."
"He's the one who was controlling Monsoon, i bit him to distract him while Twilight used her magic to subdue him." piped up Spike.
"It's a trap. You mustn't go. I.." Goodlands was stopped mid sentence.
Princess Cadance came flying in through the large window that connected to the balcony "I'm here, whats going on?" asked Princess Cadance as she tried to catch her breath.
"This foul beast Jackal has taken the girls, and wants Celestia to come collect them." said Luna turning to her. The letter was then held up in front of her and she quickly read it.
"But you mustn't, this is clearly a trap." she said looking from Luna to Celestia.
"But i must.. These girls mean a lot to me. Not only that but what kind of princess would i be if i didn't protect, or come to the rescue of my subjects. This isn't up for debate, i must go retrieve them." she said so severely that neither said anything. "Sorry." she amended, her voice much softer.
"Its alright, your worried about them, and we understand. That's why we'll come with you.." said Luna, as Cadance nodded.
"STOP!" interjected Goodlands, everyone jumped and looked at him. "You will not go.." Celestia looked taken aback.
"Goodlands what are you doing? Those are princesses you're talking too." said Spike in a soft voice.
"I understand that." he said looking over his shoulder, then back at Celestia "I will go instead."
"You?!" asked Luna "and what is it you think you will do, walk right in and demand he hand them over?" she scowled at him.
"Think about it milady. This is clearly a trap, and he's expecting you." he said pointing at Celestia "he's probably got some kind of devious plan for when you go to collect them. But he's not expecting me. He knows nothing of me, thus i have the upper hoof." he said to them all.
"You would certainly have the element of surprise." she said as she took in his words.
"The only thing i don't know is the location of this Jackal." said Goodlands a look of worry on his face.
"I can go as well. I know the way, it'll be easy for me. I watched the whole thing from a hot air balloons perspective, thus i know the route we'll need to take." added Spike "besides Twilight's my best friend. I cant stay here and worry about her, not when i can help."
"I'll help as well." they all turned towards Gilda as she pointed to herself. "If Dashie's in trouble, i might as well go pull her out of what ever mess she's gotten herself into. Besides, don't want her having all the fun.."
"Hmm.." said Celestia pondering these events. "I want you to take Discord with you. His magic could prove useful." at this every one in the room stared at her in amazement.
POP! "Okay this needs to stop, i was in the middle of a bath involving marshmallow fluff." he said as he glared at Celestia.
"You are needed for official Canterlot business." Celestia glared right back at him "I need you to to help Goodlands here with retrieving the girls."
"You want me to help him? Are you serious? Wait what happened to the girls?" he asked in bewilderment, she quickly showed him the letter. "The Jackal? There's a name i haven't... but what does he want with the girls?" he asked quickly.
"No idea, perhaps its to get at me. I want you to accompany them and bring them back to me." she said her face falling slightly "please." shock crossed his face.
"Oh fine, but we're going to need more then just him." he said pointing at Goodlands.
"I'm going to, ya know." said Spike quickly.
"As am I." said Gilda
"Still, we're going to need more help. If i know this rabid mongrel as well as i think i do, he'll throw everything at us, as soon as we enter his chamber. We're going to need more power then this.. Uh no offense." he said looking over at them.
"Fine." she said a stern look coming over her face. "TRIXIE!" she shouted out loud, to which a small unicorn mare stepped into the room.
"The Great and Powerful TRRIXIE has arrived." she said upon entering the room.
"Seriously?" asked Discord not hiding his doubt one bit. "This is your help?" he held a thumb up over his shoulder at her.
"The Great and Powerful TRRIXIE is more then capable of handling any challenge." she boasted.
This garnered uproarious laughter from Discord. Even Spike smacked his forehead.
"We're doomed." Spike said under his breath..
"Um, not to complicate matters here" said Gilda "but I'm not sure i can carry all of them on my back."
"Your right. We'll need another. A pegasi would do. But where to find one on such short notice." asked Celestia thinking out loud. A loud crash outside the window made them all turn.
"Your mail your highness." said a small pegasi entering into the room via the window she'd just smacked into.
"Derpy, good timing." she said looking at the small pegasi.
"DOOMED!" said Spike, this time not even trying to conceal his voice. This sent Discord into hysterics.
"I always deliver your mail at this time your highness. Do you have a letter that needs to go out?" she asked in her sing song voice.
"No, but i do have a request of you. We need another flyer, and you'll do perfectly." she said glaring at Discord again. "Will you help them on their quest?" she asked.
"Indubitably.." she said looking over at the others. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"To mount Doom." muttered Spike.
"Yes what is this quest you wish to send The Great and Powerful TRRIXIE, and these other fools on anyway?" asked Trixie to Celestia.
"I need you all to go with Goodlands, Spike and Gilda here and save the girls from certain danger." she said looking very serious.
"You expect The Great and Powerful TRRIXIE to go and help Twilight Sparkle?" a look of disgust crossed her face.
"Only if Trixie wishes to fulfill her promise." she said with a wry smile.
"Very well." she grumbled as her face turned red.
"Well shall we crack then chaps?" Discord asked in a very sing-song voice "I have an entire Mr. Ed collection i'm supposed to be watching." he said walking towards the balcony. They all nervously nodded and headed in the same direction.
"Good luck every, uh one." said Celestia looking uneasy.
Spike hesitantly climbed up onto the back of Derpy, Discord abruptly and hastily picked up Trixie and then proceeded to cradle her in his arms, much to her annoyance, and Gilda flew over and picked up Goodlands with her talons, then they headed out towards the island of the Jackal.

Goodlands couldn't remember ever being part of a stranger crowd of misfits. Derpy with Spike on her back, followed by Discord holding an uneasy Trixie, and Gilda flying with Goodlands under her who had to constantly look forward, else he felt uneasy. It was a long way down if she suddenly got tired and dropped him. He would then be Flatlands he thought. This didn't help.
"So how did come to be in Celestia's Service?" Goodlands heard Discord asking Trixie as he flew on his back.
"I was put into service to make up for my misdeeds against Twilight and her friends. Look could you just watch where you're going? I'm sick enough as is. I don't particularly like heights." she said as she looked ahead, her legs trembling visibly even from this distance.
"Suit's yourself." he responded and dropped his head back.

After several hour's of flight, Spike doing his best to give Derpy directions, to which she'd try and follow without making him queasy. Spike finally noticed a small island off in the distance, which made Gilda remark that she was glad, as she was getting tired, and didn't want to drop Goodlands, which didn't make him feel any better. They soon touched down upon the small island. All of them glad to be on solid ground. Except Discord who still stayed in the air, and just floated along beside them.
"It's this way." said Spike his legs shaking after what had to be a rather interesting ride. "Come on the girls could be in serious trouble." so off they hurried towards the same direction as he'd come last time he were here. They soon came to the same crevice in the mountain he'd seen before and slowly entered it. They each worked their way through, again Discord was the exception who just popped himself on the other side. They walked as Spike nervously explained the difference of stalactites and stalagmites. They kept going until they came to the glowing mushroom that had stumped Twilight, this of course Discord plucked and ate at once.
"Illuminating." he exclaimed as they all stared at him.
"What is wrong with you?" asked Trixie starring at Discord in disgust.
"My dear pony, i don't know where to even begin answering that question." he said with a large grin on his face.
"Well, don't. We haven't the time to ponder that perplexing conundrum. Let us be on our way." said Goodlands moving between the both of them. They headed off once again toward the large opening where Spike had seen Monsoon. Upon entering the clearing they spotted the girls all going about in manual labor, shifting rock and moving it from one place to another.
"Twilight." exclaimed Spike as he ran over to her. She was using her magic to move rocks, and paid him no attention. "Twilight its me. Spike." he said coming over and standing right in front of her. "Twilight?" he asked waving his arm in front of her face.
"She will not answer. She is currently busy, can you not see?" asked a booming voice. They all turned to look at the newcomer as he made his way towards them. "Sadly these ponies are not much use. That beast was much better at the task then these girls will ever be, but they are doing the best that they can." he held his arms out to show that each was working tirelessly.
"You will release them, and now. No pony should have to be put through this... Why have you done this? What have you done to them?" asked Goodlands stepping forward.
"Who are you? You are not Celestia." he said looking over at him, then noticing Discord "You.." he exclaimed "when did you become the old nags lapdog? It would seem she has taken over your mind as well. No worries." he pointed his finger at Discord "That one!" he shouted.
Immediately Twilight turned her head towards Discord and used her magic on him, he was caught in a strange pink bubble and moved over to a place in the wall. He tried to get out as she did so, but every time he'd try to disappear he'd reappear right back inside of the bubble.
"Twilight what are you doing?!" he exclaimed shock on his face. "We're friends don't you remember? Why are you doing what he wants?" Wham! He was stuck inside a strange prison encapsulated in the rock wall.
"Keep trying if you might. Every time you use your magic, the cells will simply drain it from you." The Jackal gave a small laugh.
"Twilight snap out of it, come on we're here to get you out of here. We're going to take you home." said Spike pushing on her chest, but to no avail.
"She cannot hear you, little nuisance. The Jackal has her now." at this he gave a maniacal sort of laugh but it didn't last very long. "All of your friends are now under the control of The Jackal."
"No!" exclaimed Spike "this cant be. So what is she a zombie then?" he asked glaring at the Jackal.
"No little nuisance, she's simply doing what her master has commanded her to do." he grinned wickedly. He pointed his finger at Spike, then Twilight used her magic to fling him away. It was if he were a stone she was simply discarding. Luckily Derpy caught him mid flight and she put him down in front of the others. As the Jackal had pointed at Spike Goodlands noticed that the necklace around her neck glowed a strange orange color, which made him ponder if those necklaces where the cause of all of this.
"Why? Why do this?" asked Goodlands once again stalling for time, and to get answers.
"The Jackal has already explained it, These ponies stole his beast of burden. That Monsoon was a much better digger then these ponies will ever be. Thus she had to be replaced. They took her away from here, and so they have taken her place." he looked coldly at Goodlands while he explained all of this.
"How? How did you corrupt their minds?" he asked pointing at Twilight.
"You see they are not wearing simple accessories, those allow one to control the minds of another. A gift from a pony with a deep-seated grudge against a certain entity that should be on display there." he said pointing to Discord. "This pony wants revenge, and is willing to pay a lot to receive their just reward. The specification were not relevant, so the Jackal did not ask." again he smiled.
"But how did you know where to find us?" asked Spike his teeth beginning to show in the form of a growl.
"These ponies gave away their home location. Does the little nuisance not remember the last time he encountered The Jackal? Twice two of them said the name of their hometown. Ponyville!" he said this last bit with a growl. "The Jackal sent word to this pony about the 'encounter' and that pony sent the ever useful Scales there in order to bring thee Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle here. He gave them the necklaces as he was ordered to, and they were to come here when no one was around to see them leave. The Jackal believes that Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle, carried the Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity here. Once they had arrived they were put to work immediately." he spoke of this as though he were explaining one plus one to a three year old.
"My brother?" asked Spike "But how did he get to Ponyville?" he asked.
"The Jackal does not know, nor does he care. That was dealt with, from his side."
"What exactly are you looking for here though?" cut in Goodlands, to which Jackal turned his eyes back towards him.
"There is a core here somewhere on this island. Once The Jackal finds it and unlocks the power contained within, The Jackal will become immortal. Then The Jackal will have enough power to remove any obstacle in his search for the fabled objects of power that are said to be scattered around Equestria. Once they have been found The Jackal will absorb their power, and have complete dominance over all." he grinned broadly.
"So you're doing all of this, just so you can rule the world." Goodlands asked.
"Of course." The Jackal said smoothly.

Slumberland

"We're back." said Twilight looking around.
"Girls.. Are you all alright? What happened?" Celestia asked in turn looking around. Doing a quick headcount, she realized their number was one short. "Where's Goodlands?" she asked looking at Twilight.
"He stayed behind to allow us to get away." said Spike walking up to Celestia, he noticed that she was looking very tired, in fact she, Luna, and Cadance were all looking tired.
"He did what?" shocked she took a step back from him. Spike continued on to explain everything to her and the others about the necklaces and the fight as he was one of the ones who was able to retell all of the story.
"You okay sweetie?" Rarity asked Applejack who was standing off by herself.
"I'll be fine." she said sternly, she turned to look at Twilight "we need to go back.. we need to bring Goodlands back."
"Applejack, we... We cant. Its too dangerous." said Twilight "that whole place was sinking, if we teleport.."
"We have to. He saved us from that Jackal feller. We've got to go and bring him back. He was hurt, and we cant just leave him there." she said as her temper began to rise.
"But that whole island is gone. There wont be anywhere for us to teleport to.." said Twilight walking over to her, she turned away from them as they were all looking at her.
"I think I'm going to go home now." she said her head hung low. She headed out as the rest of them stood around looking at one another.
"I should get back as well." she heard Cadance say as she exited the room. After making it out of the room she sped off towards Sweet Apple Acres, saying nothing to any pony that gave a hello, or similar greeting. She wanted to be back home.
It took her some time to get back to Ponyville, as she hadn't taken the train to do so, upon reaching town, she immediately headed for home. It was late in the evening when she arrived which meant that no one was up at this time, so she wouldn't have to explain what all had happened. She went in to the house and headed upstairs saying little to Big Mac, who apparently was still up. Once in her room she put her hat on the hook by her bed, and went over to the window to stare out towards the night sky. After a while she decided it was time for bed, so she headed over and laid down and tried to fall asleep.

"Why did you leave me behind Applejack?" Goodlands asked looking at her with sorrow in his eyes. "You could have come back for me." he said as he turned and started walking away.
"No, don't go." she said chasing after him.
"You don't even care. How sad." he said over his shoulder.
"Ugh." she sat up covered in cold sweat, staring across the room at her open window. Breathing heavy she got up and realized it was already mid morning. Grabbing her hat she walked downstairs and was greeted by the family. She spent a small amount of time explaining what she could recall and upon seeing the looks on their faces, she decided to go out and start the days chores.
She worked throughout the day brushing off any who came to try and comfort her, trying her best to ignore the small cottage on the grounds. She didn't know why she'd felt this way, but she wanted to be alone. She didn't want to talk about it. She felt as though she were responsible, she knew she wasn't, but still guilt weighed heavy on her shoulders and she felt bad.
That night she had another dream, this time the farm was being sold to make money as their business was falling through. The Flim Flam brothers were outselling them with their new business, and to make matters worse, Granny sold the farm to keep them from going bankrupt. She awoke once again, covered in cold sweats and feeling miserable. So again she stayed at the farm just doing her chores, and instead of pitying herself, she decided to keep working harder on the farm, to keep her self distracted. Only talking when necessary, and in short sentences. On the third day she had awoken again after another awful dream, wondering if this would continue on forever she decided to go ask Luna about it. She was heading towards Ponyville when it happened.
"There you are." said Rainbow Dash heading towards her from the direction she'd just came from. "We're needed at the castle. Princess Celestia sent Twilight a letter this morning. We're to meet up at the castle." to which Applejack nodded and headed towards Ponyville.
The ride up there on the train wasn't a pleasant one for her, as she mainly spent the whole ride watching the landscape go by, hearing the others discussing the reason they were summoned and occasionally glancing over at her. She just stuck her head out of the window and felt the breeze while she waited.
They all gathered outside of Celestia's main chamber talking for a while until they all got curious as to why they hadn't been let in yet, so they went in. Upon entering she seen Goodlands standing there alone, like he was waiting for something.
"Goodlands, you're here. But how?" she exclaimed running up to him and stopping a few feet away.
"Why Applejack? Why didn't you come back for me? Why did you just leave me behind?" he asked slowly turning towards her. His face showed only anger as he looked at her.
"I wanted to, but.."
"But you didn't. No, you left me there to fade along with that island. You don't care do you? You could have tried to come back for me, you could have done something." he said bitterly.
"But i wanted to, it's been weighing on my mind ever since i got back." she responded.
"Did you even care i wonder? Did you.." he started again.
"Applejack, snap out of it." came Goodlands voice. Suddenly a more battered Goodlands stepped through the Goodlands she'd just been talking to.
"What? Wait whats going on?" she asked taking a step back. "is this another dream?" she looked at him in confusion.
"I daresay i believe it is. Now wake up." he said coming closer.
"But you're, i mean back there, we just..."
"Applejack I'm here now. I'm right in front of you. Please snap out of it." he was very close to her now. She shook her head rapidly, and when she looked at him, the room came into focus. Every pony in the room was standing stock still, all looking as though they were staring at the wall transfixed.
"You're alive.." she exclaimed hugging him.
"Easy love, I'm still not completely healed." he said giving a small smile.
"What in Equestria was that all about?" she asked pulling away from him.
"I believe that was some kind of living nightmare. Look at Princess Luna." he said pointing over at Luna, she was shaking on the ground curled up.
"Make them stop. Make them stop." she kept muttering.
"I think she's having an overload of the other ponies who are suffering from the same thing." she said pointing to the other girls.
"I think your right. But what do we do?" she asked looking back at him.
"Leave it to me. I may be able to do the same for them as i did for you. We'll see." he turned and started towards the closest pony.

He put his horn against Pinkie Pies head and immediately he was in a small room looking at a very sad Pinkie Pie. She was staring out of a window and she looked heartbroken.
"Pinkie Pie, what seems to be the trouble?" he asked walking over towards her.
"No pony needs Pinkie Pie any more. Everyone seems to be thoroughly depressed. I've tried to make the others laugh, or set up decorations, or even just do birthday parties, but no one seems to need me for that. Its like i no longer exist." a small amount of tears seemed to be collecting around her eyes.
"Well what about.." he thought for a second "the wedding?" he asked looking hopefully at her.
"Wedding?" her voice was small, but hope seemed to be building insider her. "Who's wedding?"
"Um.." again his brain whirled for an idea "Mine and Applejack's." he was dumbfounded by his own thoughts. Should she ever find out he'd just said that, no now was not the time to think of that.
"Yours and APPLEJACK'S?" she gasped "You two are getting married? Why wasn't i invited?" she asked as her old self flared back into her eyes.
"We've been, uh, keeping it a secret until just recently. You are invited, in fact i just came over to see if you'd like to do the decorations.." he invented wildly.
"AWESOMFANTASTARIFIC!" she yelled and a strange black smoke seem to dispel around them.
They were back in the castle and he headed off towards Rarity, who was standing on Pinkie Pies right.
"But wait, what are you?" she asked as he put his head against Rarity's forehead.

He was in some kind of shop, a boutique perhaps? Ahead he could see Rarity crying into an empty box.
"Rarity, why are you crying?" he asked as he hurried over to her.
"I'VE LOST MY INSPIRATION!" she wailed, crying harder. "this is absolutely thee worst thing that has ever happened to me.. I haven't been able to come up with anything for ages, and I'm worried i wont be able to create anything ever again. I need something, a banquet, party, dinner, something.." and she put her head back onto her hooves.
"How about uh.. Uh wedding!" he said rolling with the idea he'd had when trying to wake up Pinkie Pie.
"A wedding!?" she stopped crying immediately "whose? Do i know them?" she asked.
"You do. Applejack and I are getting married. We'd uh, like you to design the dresses." he said looking awkward.
"Oh darling that magnificent. When is it going to be?" her eyes grew bright, as suddenly the same black smoke evaporated from around her. "wha? Whats going on?" she asked looking around.
Goodlands was already putting his forehead unto Fluttershys'.

"Hello, is anyone there? I have no idea where i am." said Fluttershy inside a room made of cobblestone. Goodlands entered the room and seen her standing looking at around thirty doorways leading out of this room. It was like a giant maze.
"Fluttershy are you alright?" he asked walking over to her.
"Oh thank goodness. I've been lost in this maze and I'm trying to find the others. Have you seen them?" she asked looking around at each doorway.
"They're this way." he said going back the way he had come. "come on, we'll just keep taking a left. I've heard that is a safe bet on finding one's way out of a maze."
"But there are scary monsters out there. I don't want to face them alone."
"You wont be, I'll be right here. Come on, the girls are over here." they started down the maze, taking several left turns. Eventually the feeling of being alone and lost left Fluttershy, and the black smoke was dissipating around her as well.
"Oh thank you." she said "what am i doing here?"
"No problem, now to help Rainbow Dash." and off he went to put his forehead up to hers as well.

"But guys, i can no longer fly, you know that." said a flustered Rainbow Dash.
"Whats going on?" asked Goodlands walking over to a wingless Rainbow Dash.
"All of my friends are flying off and leaving me behind. I cant fly, and they are all up there." she said pointing up at her friends who were flying around way above her.
"hmm." he thought for a moment, until Applejack appeared next to him, with her hoof touching his side.
"What is this?" she stopped and looked around "what in Equestria? Rainbow Dash?" she asked looking at Rainbow Dash.
"Applejack, boy am i glad to see you. I'd thought you'd left with the others." she said her eyes glowing brightly.
"Nope. She stayed behind to be with her friend." Said Goodlands on the spot.
"Well I couldn't let my friend be all alone could i?" Applejack asked.
"It's no fun being stuck down here while every other pony gets to go up there, and leave us behind." said Rainbow Dash looking crestfallen.
"You know, its not too bad down here on the ground. Less chance of falling down here." Goodlands said with a smile "and we get a heads up when the rains about to come."
"I guess your right, i just don't want you all to leave me here by my self." she said in a small voice.
"We'd never do that." Applejack said putting her hoof onto Rainbow Dash's shoulder.
"Really?"
"Of course we wouldn't." as they hugged the black smoke lifted from around them.
"What the?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed looking around.
"Long story, not sure myself." Applejack turned to Goodlands who was heading for Twilight now. "i didn't know i could join you in the dream sequence."
"Me either." he said putting his head to Twilight's' Forehead.

He was in a room in a different castle, Twilight sitting on a throne looking miserable as all her friends sat around her looking very old.
"Twilight what is going on?" asked walking up to her.
"Goodlands? All of my friends are aging without me. I don't want to lose them. It took me for ever to find good friends and now they're getting old, and I'm not. What do i do?" she asked on the verge of tears.
"Hold on one sec." he said and pulled himself from her. "I'm going to need your girls' help." he said looking over at the others standing around. "Applejack, if you wouldn't mind." he nodded toward Rarity, and the others, then turned towards Twilight.
Back in the strange castle, he walked up to Twilight who was still looking miserable, only this time he had the others with him.
"Twilight, are you okay?" asked Fluttershy. Twilight looked up and immediately her face glowed.
"GIRLS!" she yelled getting up from her throne. "How did you, but then who are they?" she asked pointing to the other girls sitting in the thrones around hers.
"Twilight darling, you've let this place go. Who has been doing your cleaning?" asked Rarity, to which Twilight gave a large smile.
"I've missed that voice, I've missed all the crazy things we used to do." she said looking happier then she'd ever looked before.
"Wake up sugar cube, its time we figure out whats going on and put a stop to it." said Applejack.
"Wake up?" she started but the same black smoke dissipated from around her as well. "Oh girls." she said as tears began to fill her eyes. "it was like you all were barely there."
"Sweetie, there's no reason to worry about that, we're right here. And we don't expect to go anywhere any time soon." said Rarity as she hugged her.
"Besides worrying about it will only rob you of the fun times we could be having." said Fluttershy who was also hugging her.
As they were discussing this, Goodlands put his head to Spikes head, who'd been standing near Celestia.

Spike was sitting alone on a hill side, his head was down and he was staring at his feet.
"You alright chief?" asked Goodlands who sat down beside him.
"They're gone. All of them. And it's all my fault." he said as his eyes brimmed with tears.
"They're not. They're currently at the castle, waiting on you to return." as he said this Spike, who's head didn't raise up, pointed over to his left. Following this Goodlands looked over and noticed a giant crater off in the distance. "Spike, listen to me, this is a nightmare, Twilight's fine, i promise." he said trying to comfort him, Spike looked at him.
"A nightmare is right. Had i only been there, instead of off looking for my brother, I'd have been able to help her." he put his head in his hands. "What am i going to do now? Celestia was there too. I cant even go back to the castle. I'm all alone."
"No you're not." said Twilight as his head jerked up.
"Twilight!" he yelled and looked over at her, he jumped up and ran to hug her. As he did the smoke vanished and they were all standing around Spike hugging Twilight around the neck.
"Whats gotten into you? What was that all about?" Twilight asked as he pulled away.
"Oh, uh nothing. Just a nightmare is all." he lowered his voice "one I'm glad to be rid of."
"And now for her." said Goodlands as he pointed towards Celestia, "Twilight could you magic me up there? I believe I'm a little short." so she covered him with her magic and magicked him up to eye level with Celestia.

He was right back in the same room. Celestia was standing in the same spot and looking horrified. In front of her was Twilight, who looked more angry then Goodlands had ever seen her before.
"If you cared so much then why did you send me off? Why did you get rid of me? Why do you always send me off to do such dangerous stuff?" she glared at Celestia who looked horrified "Is that why Sunset Shimmer ran away?"
"You could say that." said a strange pony Goodlands had never seen before. She was a golden unicorn with red and yellow hair, and she looked livid..
"No Twilight. I wanted you to grow, and learn. Books can only teach you so much. I'd never want anything to happen to you. You're very special to me. I promise you, I've only ever wanted you to succeed. You have to understand." she said, she looked heartbroken.
"So much so that you rarely ever visit, you barely ever even write. I'm much better off without a teacher. I've been doing fine without you, thank you very much." as Twilight said this, another Twilight came walking through her and spoke to Celestia, who had closed her eyes.
"Princess Celestia, don't believe a word of it. I'm here and I'm happy you've trusted me with such important missions. I'm pleased to go out there and help others. Its what i was meant for." she said stopping only a foot away. Celestia looked up.
"But i.. But you.." this time more smoke then anyone else in the room turned to vapor and vanished.
"What was that?" asked Celestia who looked at Twilight, who was standing on the back of Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She looked from them to Goodlands who was being supported by Rainbow Dash. "What is going on? Where did you come from? I thought you were.." she started looking around.
"I believe that was what we call a living nightmare." said Goodlands as Rainbow Dash put him on the ground.

Seeing the Light, at Last

"I came here from the island that the Jackal resided on until he sank it into the ocean." Goodlands said.
"But how? I thought you couldn't fly." said Applejack hopping down off Pinkie Pies back.
"I came by way of hot air balloon. The one that you all evidently took there, and left behind. After i was thrown from that monster, i had to swim back to the place he was. Only to find what was left of him. I rushed all around as the cavern was falling apart, and headed away from there. I headed out toward the island proper, to see if there was vessel of some kind. No luck, then i found a deflated hot air balloon and basket. It took some time, but i managed to get it back in the air and immediately headed here. Upon arriving i noticed you all standing around, staring at one another and rather nasty dark fog permeating the room, the only ones not seeming to be staring off into space was that guard" he pointed over to the guard standing in the front of the room, "and Luna there. She was on the other hand shaking like mad. I tried to wake you, but to no avail, so i tried to see what was the cause, and well you seen how that went." he said pointing around.
"I wonder why the magic that caught us, didn't effect you." said Twilight, walking over to him.
"Because it only works on ponies." said a dark, low gravelly voice from behind them. They all turned to see a nasty piece work walking towards them. He stopped a few feet away and they could see him well now that he was standing in the light. He was a unicorn, slender and under fed, with a off grey colored body, and an ugly blackened mane with almost white strips going through it, his eyes were a soft red color and he looked as though he'd spent the better part of his years in a cave, with little sunlight. His left eye was twitching as he looked over to Celestia. His cutie mark was strange as well, a circle with criss-crossing circles inside of it all coming to a smaller circle in the middle.
"Hello, you old nag. Long time no see." he said shooting her a look of disgust.
"Dreamcatcher." she whispered a shocked look on her face.
"You know him?" asked Twilight in amazement. To which she slowly nodded.
"Of course she does. She's the one who sent me away." he said with a snarl.
"But where have you been all this time?" Celestia asked bewilderment playing on her face.
"In the same dank cavern that that imbecile resided. I waited for ages, only ever leaving it for short periods. I had just returned from sending off that little dragon, with several necklaces, when what should i find, but his body left behind his cave crumbling and this small sphere glowing with magic. Upon collecting it i was able to absorb the magic still inside of it, which naturally shattered it of course. Then having gained much of my lost power, i vowed to head back here and seek my revenge." he said showing them the pieces of the sphere, and glaring at Celestia.
"Revenge for what?" asked Twilight, looking between the two of them.
"I banished him from Equestria when i discovered what he was doing to the other ponies i was teaching at the time. He was draining their magic through his nightmares. I never thought you'd return, i didn't even think you were still around." Celestia said anger now taking over.
"Yes, if she deems someone unfit for her precious pony society, she simply exiles them." he growled.
"You left me no choice. I tried to stop you from using your magic that way, but you wouldn't listen."
"Why should i listen to an old nag like you. I'd have become more powerful then you, had you not stopped me. And that's what you fear. Someone taking your place on that self made pedestal." he growled.
"Wait a moment, you said your magic only worked on ponies? Then why didn't it work on Goodlands?" asked Applejack, looking over at Goodlands.
"Two in this room are not as they appear, Goldilocks. Why not show yourself, add in to the festivities." he said looking over at the only guard in the room. A small frown appeared on his face.
"Why throw me into this? Cant handle the nag by yourself?" asked the guard who glared at him.
"I think it is you that is scared. Hiding behind your mask." he said with an evil grin. "either way i will destroy princess sun butt here." he said glaring at Celestia once more.
"No one calls me that." she said as her eyes narrowed. Twilight glared at Spike who let out an audible snort at the name. He immediately became stone face, and Twilight turned back to glare at Dreamcatcher.
"Enough of this!" he exclaimed and charged up his horn. He aimed it directly at Celestia who also charged up her horn in response. CRACK! A loud explosion filled the room, making everyone's ears ring. They all jumped and looked at Celestia, who, other then looking angry was no worse for wear. They turned to look at Dreamcatcher whose horn had shattered. His legs shook as horror took him. He slowly looked up.
"No.." he whispered "what have you done to me?" he asked in horror.
"Nothing. I mentally blocked you is all. All the power you were trying to throw at me rebounded upon yourself. I think its about time you left." she said a stern motherly look on her face.
"This isn't over." he said as went to charge his horn again. With a strangled sputter his magic fizzled and he looked dazed. He shook his head, glared at Celestia, then rushed out of the room.
"Sadly, i think it is." she said, now turning towards the guard in the room.
"So many ponies having nightmares." said Luna slowly standing up "that was horrifying." she said as she looked over to Celestia. "what has been going on?"
"An old student came back for one last nightmare." she said looking at Luna "His own." she turned towards the guard once again, "and now for you.."
"Very well, Princess sun butt." he said with a wide smile. Slowly the magic fading from his body he went from being a regular guard to Queen Chrysalis. Tall and dark as night she stood there, proud and with her chin up. "It has been too long, Celestia... or should i stick with the sun butt?" she asked and evil grin playing across her face. Everyone gasped, except Celestia.
"Gasp." said Spike in a flattened tone. No one paid him any attention, as they were all focused on Chrysalis.
"But that Dreamcatcher feller said two in this room weren't as they seemed." said Applejack looking at Goodlands who was glaring at Chrysalis.
"Good girl." said Chrysalis "why don't you show them." she said looking menacingly at Goodlands.
"You're not.. It cant be." said Applejack in horror. He too slowly revealed his true identity. A solid black stallion with crumbling horn, yellow eyes, and destroyed wings. Shame covered his face as he looked at her. They all gasped again.. Even Spike this time.
"I'm sorry." he whispered.
"Oh don't be... You have done well for yourself. Infiltrating this kingdom and getting ever so close to sun butt here." she said pointing to Celestia and giving a wicked cackle. "We have quite the reunion here don't we." she said as several other guards stepped in and started changing into changelings. Turning away from Applejack he glared with pure disgust at Chrysalis.
"Why must you ruin everything?" he growled towards her.
"Ruin? Cant you see? I will soon take over this land and rule Equestria. With my army at my side we will dominate this land, entirely." she slowly walked towards him.
"Then i will stop you. I have come to love this land. I have come to have friends. I have made my own home, and you have come to destroy it. You know nothing of love, kindness, or loyalty. You only know hatred and betrayal." he said his teeth bared.
"Even if you do, she.." she stopped and pointed at Celestia "will surely banish you. And then where will you go? You will have no where.. Help me claim this land and you will rule with me, my son."
"SON!" the whole room exclaimed at once. The look of surprise was on everyone's face.
"If i am to be banished, then my last parting gift will be to send you ahead of me, mother." he spat the last word starting for her. For the first time fear filled her face as she took a step back.
"There will be only one banishing from this kingdom." said Celestia stepping in front of Goodlands as he looked up at her. "I fully intend on protecting my subjects." she said spreading her wings out and glaring at Chrysalis.
"How could you side with these, these ponies?!" demanded Chrysalis.
"It was the easiest thing in the world, mother. After you exiled me, i found this place. And much to my surprise, i found i like it here." he said glaring at her.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE!" she was knocked aside by the small blast sent her way from Luna, who looked very taxed by this.
"Discord now!" shouted Celestia. Behind Chrysalis appeared Discord who touched her with something causing her to become encased in a strange yellow crystal, which toppled to the floor with a heavy thud.
"I'm surprised that worked." he said looking at Celestia "Princess Sun Butt." he said with a mischievous smile, to which she glared at him. At this the other changelings looked on in horror as their queen was now a giant Yellow crystal lying on the ground at Celestia's feet.
"What is that?" asked Twilight walking over to it, and peering at it intently.
"A Zircon prison." Celestia said holding Twilight back "i got the idea when we first met." she said looking at Goodlands.
"But, i didn't even know that was real. I'd only read the notes." he said looking from the crystal to Celestia. "That means.."
"After you told your story, i had Discord go and search for this Zircon you spoke of. He did of course fill me in on you being a changeling." she said smiling at him.
"So you've known all along?" Goodlands asked dumbfounded.
"Yes. I also knew that your mother was here. But i wanted to wait for her to show herself, and for Discord to return with the Zircon."
"But why did you let me stay in Ponyville?" he asked looking over at Discord, then back to Celestia.
"Because i wanted to see 'why' you were in Ponyville. You had just help save it, what was the reason for you being here. Thus until you had given me a reason to, i seen no reason to remove you. You then went in my stead to save the girls." she said pointing over to the others "i knew you cared about them. I even heard you built yourself a small cottage on Sweet Apple Acres. If you were going to do something devious, why go to so much trouble to fit in? It seemed to me, you were just trying to find a place to call home. And here today, you came to the rescue again, aiding in returning all of us from our own worst nightmares. I'd say that makes you more then welcome here." she gave another one of her motherly smiles.
"You mean, i can stay?" he hesitated to ask.
"Yes i do. Or did you wish to go and be with them?" she asked pointing to the now horror struck changelings.
"Of course i want to stay. I love it here." he said taking on the guise of Goodlands again.
"Then its settled." she said heading back towards her throne.
"I think I'll just dispose of this." said Discord touching the Zircon prison and disappearing with another small Pop.
Goodlands turned to Applejack who was still stunned.
"May i still stay in my cottage, madam?" he asked her.
"I.. I don't know what to say." she said looking back at him.
"Thank you would be a good start." whispered Celestia as she passed her, Applejack looked up at her, and received a small wink.
"On three conditions." Applejack said looking back at Goodlands "you'll need plenty of rest for the start of the week. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and I'm not going to let you off easy, just cause you're a changeling an all." she said with a small smile.
"Yes ma'am. Bright and early." he smiled back. "and the other conditions?"
"Don't you be going and changing into different ponies, just to mess with me." she smiled.
"Alright. And the third?" he asked.
"Just call me Applejack." she said as everyone around started laughing.
"Sister, what should we do with them?" Asked Luna pointing towards the changelings all grouped together.
"Your Highness." said Goodlands looking from the changelings to Celestia "if i may ask a small request. These are my kin, and many of them think the same as i do. They just want to find a place to call home. Could they possibly live here in Equestria too?"
"Hmm..." she said looking over to Luna "I believe we can do that. What say you?" she asked towards the group of changelings. They looked around at one another, then one timid one stepped forward to speak.
"We have no where else to go. We'd love to have a place to call home, and not get run off because the way our mother wanted us to be." he said in a shaky voice.
"Well so long as they are productive ponies to society, then yes i believe we can fit them in as well." she said lifting her right hoof. At this there was much cheering from everyone in the room.

Upon the train back to Ponyville the girls sat in a compartment all to themselves each talking to one another. Applejack and Goodlands off by themselves talking separate as Spike entered.
"Celestia says she's already got a small place set up for them and ready to go. Tonight they're going to be putting on a show at the local theater for the ponies of Canterlot." he said sitting down next to Twilight.
"Well that's just fabulous. I do hope they enjoy it here." said Rarity, smiling.
"Some are coming to Ponyville as well." said Pinkie Pie. They continued on their conversation as Applejack looked at Goodlands.
"So are you really a prince?" she asked raising one eyebrow.
"An 'exiled' prince, yes. My mother banished me from her kingdom when i refused to help her with her evil schemes. All that about the Palomino Plains stuff I'd actually found in a journal in one of the caves I'd stayed in. It was about an exiled unicorn who was slowly becoming a crystal. The rest i made up on the spot." he stopped and looked at her "sorry for lying to you, but i thought you all would immediately run me out of town if you knew i was a changeling. Can you ever forgive me?"
"Of course i can. Shoot you've helped us numerous times, that cavern of that Jackal feller, and those nightmare's we were all in. Speaking of, whats this i hear about a wedding." she looked at him solemnly. To which his eyes grew very big.

The Walls Come Crubling Down

Relying on the fact that the Jackal seemed to love hearing his own voice Goodlands kept him talking, and while he was talking Goodlands nudged Spike ever so slightly so as to get his attention.
"When i say now, head for Twilight, and destroy that necklace." he barely whispered out of the corner of his mouth so only Spike could here him. To which Spike gave the smallest of nods.
"Power is all that matters in this wretched world. The Jackal will have that power. No Princess will ever be able to match The Jackal once he has succeeded." again he began his maniacal laughter. He threw his right hand up into the air. White hot flame's began burning in the palm of his hand, it was surrounded by electricity.
Goodlands took his hat off and whispered "Now.." as the Jackal started moving his hand towards the ceiling. Spike nodded and dashed with all his might towards Twilight.
Goodlands began building his own energy which began to make his head hurt, his teeth were clenched and it felt as though they were going to crack from the pressure. His eyes were fixed on the Jackal, and his brows were furrowed, he pulled as much as he could, and put it directly into the blast that came out of him. It was wild and potent but not very concentrated thus it was weaker once it finally hit him. Boom! At that same moment the Jackal dropped his arm and aimed it at Goodlands.
"YUAGH!" exclaimed the Jackal as his magic erupted towards Goodlands eating away at the power he'd just sent towards the Jackal. Not much of Goodlands magic hit the Jackal, so it did little to him. On the other hand Goodlands tried to dodge the on coming magic which hit his left shoulder and burned all the way down his body, burning his tail even. Goodlands landed on the ground with a heavy thud. Something small fell out of his pocket.
About two feet away Spike dove for the necklace around Twilight's neck, clutching it in his grasp he flew around her taking her down as he fell towards the floor. The wind knocked out of him, he tried as best as he could to yank it off her, but he couldn't due to Twilight using her magic to unclasp his grip.
"Not today little nuisance." said the Jackal as he picked Spike up and tossed him away from Twilight, he landed on the ground and rolled towards the opposite wall. "Remove these pests." The Jackal commanded and the girls immediately started towards them, as the Jackal turned slowly towards Goodlands.
Goodlands slowly got up, trying to stop the pounding in his ears. He shakily stood and stared at the Jackal as best he could.
"Such a valiant effort. Pity it was so weak." the Jackal spat him.
Goodlands quickly looked around for the others, Derpy seemed to be doing her best to avoid Fluttershy, as Gilda was doing her best to fend off Rainbow Dash. Trixie was dealing with Rarity, but was about to get flanked from Pinkie Pie, and Twilight was advancing on Spike who was just now getting up. This wasn't going at all how Goodlands had imagined. Wait a second he thought, where was.. His eyes grew big as he seen conformation on the Jackals face. He quickly turned to his left to see Applejack approaching him, her eyes were a dull grey color, blank and staring off into the distance.
"Applejack, please this isn't you." he said backing up "you've got to listen love, you need to snap out of it." he said as he caught the Jackal out of the corner of his eye pointing to the small sphere lying a short ways away from where he was standing. Still backing up he noticed a slight pink glow around it, and assumed the Jackal had made Twilight pick it up for him.
"Stop!" commanded the Jackal, and the girls stopped immediately. He looked intently at the little sphere in his hand, it gave off a small soft glow "The Jackal wonders what this is?" he said holding up the small sphere "Great annoyance" he said pointing towards Goodlands "what is this?"
"I'll tell you, but only if you release them." said Goodlands looking around, the others were in a bad spot. The Jackal laughed bitterly at this.
"How noble." he mocked "Sadly The Jackal believes that he will figure this little puzzle out regardless. It was worth a try for sure, but ultimately you are unnecessary.. Remove them." he said turning away from Goodlands.
Again Applejack started towards Goodlands, who kept backing up until he collided with the cavern wall.
"Applejack please, you need to snap out of this, your friends are in danger and they need you." he said as he started to push her with his front hooves. "Applejack." he said as he pushed with all his might.

As the Jackal looked at the small sphere he began to feel something, was this power? Was he in fact gaining power? No, he felt strange, weaker perhaps. Could this sphere be draining him? Was that even possible? By the time he realized his folly it was too late. It was actually absorbing his energy, taking it in at a rapid rate. He was starting to feel light headed, 'this was impossible' he thought. His eyes began to widen.
"APPLEJACK!" Goodlands exclaimed directly into her face. His front hooves slipped and he fell forward, as he did his right hoof caught the necklace, and pulled it away from her causing it to shatter. His eyes widened as Applejack's eyes quickly focused on their mouths connecting. A small red tint appeared around both their cheeks as she pulled away.
"What in Equestria?" Applejack blurted out "whats going on, where are we?" she asked giving a small look around. She dropped her voice really low "were we just, uh kissing?"
"Your friends are in trouble, the cavern where The Jackal resides, and yes.." he responded in rapid succession "now's not the time, we need to save your friends." he pointed over to the others.
"Whoa nelly!" she exclaimed "whats going on with them?" she asked looking over the mayhem.
"Those necklaces, their controlling your friends. They need to be destroyed." they looked at each other and nodded. Using his magic he removed the necklace from Rarity just as she was hit in the head by a rock that had been magically thrown at her by Trixie.
"Ouch! What ever did you do that for?" she exclaimed glaring at Trixie. She used her own magic to pick up a rock to hurl back when Trixie's eyes grew big.
"No you have it all wrong, you were attacking first.." she said backing up.
"Rarity, she's on your side. Help remove the necklaces around your friends necks." Yelled Goodlands as he rushed over to help Derpy who was being cornered by Fluttershy. "Remove her necklace Derpy!" he yelled in her direction, to which she swiped at Fluttershy and hit the necklace. It shattered and Fluttershy blinked a couple times then looked at Derpy.
"Oh, I'm so sorry.. Whats going on?" she asked as Derpy began to quickly fill her in on the current predicament. Looking over they noticed Trixie had Pinkie Pie encircled with her magic as Rarity was using her magic to destroy the necklace. Gilda was wrestling with Rainbow Dash and pulled the necklace off her mid grapple.
"Where am I?!" Rainbow Dash blurted out, she looked dazed but not to worse for wear.
"I did it!" yelled Spike as he managed to pull the necklace off Twilight.
"Spike?" she asked looking confused "whats going on?"
"Long story, we'll explain later. We need to get Discord, and get out of here." he said pointing to Discord.
"How did he get in there?" she asked looking over at the cell.
"Um, you put him there." he said in a small voice.
"Oh. Um, oops." she said readying her magic to release him. Swoosh! Magic narrowly missed Twilight as it flew past her. It would have hit her had Spiked not pushed her out of the way.
"We can do that later." he said pointing over to the Jackal who was generating more magic.
"This wretched thing is of no use." said the Jackal as he threw the sphere in his hand away. "Little nuisance!" he yelled aiming his hand at Spike, "you have lost The Jackal his servant!" as magic came towards him, Twilight stepped between them and used her own magic to battle with his. They met mid air and sparks and electricity flew away as the two collided and tried to over power one another.
"Every pony, a little help!" Spike yelled to the others who all ran over to where Twilight was standing.
"Shall we?" asked Rarity as she to used her magic to pick up rocks and threw them at the Jackal. Trixie followed in suit and Applejack kicked several rocks towards him as well. Pinkie Pie hurled several her self while Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Derpy all flew over top of the Jackal to pelt him with rocks as well.
With his other hand the Jackal covered himself with a magical barrier that threw the rocks back towards their owners.
"Keep at it girls." said Goodlands who started powering up his own broken horn to aid Twilight. Ducking and dodging the girls kept tossing, and kicking rocks towards him. Gilda flew over and tried to drop a large rock on his head but it flew away in a rapid motion, to which she had to dodge.
"He.. Seemed... Like... Such... a... Pushover!" said Twilight as she focused her energy on him.
BOOOM! The raw but unfocused power of Goodlands flew over causing the Jackal to use both his hands to push back the powers that were being aimed at him.
"Now girls, hit him with everything you've got." said Spike as he began to build up fire in his throat. Pinkie Pie grabbed his tail and pulled causing a blast of green fire to be aimed at him, while Applejack kicked several stones at him. Derpy, Fluttershy, Gilda, and Rainbow Dash flew overhead throwing stones down on him.
Rarity and Trixie were using their magic to do the same. Then several things happened at once, the rocks made contact, as he now had no barrier, Spikes fire engulfed him, and both Goodlands and Twilight's magic hit him full on in the chest. He flew back several feet and landed with a heavy thud, causing dirt and dust to fly up around him.
"Did we get him?" asked Applejack leaning forward to see if he was breathing.
"I think so." said Twilight, breathing heavy from the strain. "Discord." she said heading over to where he was sitting, playing a game of cards.
"Oh remembered me, did you? Could you get me out of here. I thinks its a one way ticket into here, I've tried teleporting several times, but to little avail. Unless someone from the outside disturbs this barrier, i think I'm stuck in here." he said poking at the magical barrier. Twilight used her magic to lower the barrier, and Discord touched it as he passed through it. "Tastes like gooseberry." he said smacking his lips. A rumble off to their rights made all of them jump.
"If The Jackal is to fall, so shall you all." he said standing up and raising his arms out wide, magic pulsing around him.
"You shall all perish, you pestilent, pernicious, PONIES!" he yelled "YAUGH!" a giant shock wave emitted from him, as the whole cavern begun to shake violently.
"Ever pony, on me!" yelled Twilight who created a semi-sphere of magic surrounding them all.
"There is no escape, Twilight Sparkle. The Jackal will pursuit you, TO THE ENDS OF EQUESTRIA!" he bellowed as he began to build energy up for another attack.
Rocks were falling from the ceiling smashing into the magic round them. They harmlessly fell to the ground and landed nearby.
"Discord, could you teleport us out of here please?" Twilight asked holding the magic as best as she could. Goodlands knew that the Jackal was going to hold to that threat, and thus he promptly kissed Applejack on the cheek and headed out of the circle.
"Goodlands no!" Applejack yelled as Goodlands broke through the magic barrier, running directly towards the Jackal.
"Go! You don't have long." he yelled back and collided with the Jackal at around his abdomen.
"Filthy bane of existence!" said the Jackal as he grabbed Goodlands by the back of the neck.
"GO!" he yelled once more to the others. The Jackal slung him towards the opposite direction, he flew with incredible speed. Off in the distance they heard a loud boom..
"GOODLANDS!" Applejack screamed as the Jackal turned towards them once more. An evil grin was playing on his face, as he began to advance on them.
"DISCORD!" yelled Twilight gritting her teeth as she held the bubble of protection as best she could. Just before they disappeared a massive boulder landed on the Jackal.
"Eww nasty." exclaimed Pinkie Pie, and with a loud 'POP' they were now floating high up above the island which was sinking rapidly into the ocean.
"A maelstrom.." Discord said, and with another 'POP' they were landing back in the castle in Canterlot.
"GIRLS!" said Celestia walking over to them, relief covering her face.

Epilogue

"Papa, papa. Wake up, papa." said a small high pitched voice from his left.
"Autumn..." Goodlands grumbled, opening one eye slowly to see a small palomino filly, with bright as the sky blue hair and light green eyes looking back at him. Her little horn peeking through her blue hair. "it is too early to be up. I'm tired." he said closing his eye again.
"No its not. Its time to get up, papa.. We's gots a busy day today." she said running around in circles.
"She's right." said Applejack to his other side "it's time to get up." she got out of bed and walked around to where Autumn was dancing on the spot. "You head on downstairs, we're on our way." she turned to look at Goodlands as he again cracked his eye open. "Pancakes, or waffles?" she asked.
"Waffles." he groaned and sat up, as she headed downstairs. He got out of bed and headed over to the window. It was a fine day today, the clouds were nowhere to be seen, and the sun was shining bright. It seems Scootaloo wanted today to be just right for Apple Bloom. He yawned and headed down the stairs as well.
"I know, and Apple Bloom will look beautiful in her dress. I've seen it. Special treatment from Rarity, cause i know her so well." came Applejack's voice from the kitchen.
"And i get to be the flower girl." Autumn all but screamed, as he entered the kitchen.
"Your tux is over there." said Applejack as he entered. He was cut off mid yawn.
"What?! I ain't wearing that." he said indignantly.
"If you don't, Apple Bloom'll be crushed." she said with a knowing smile "You have too."
"Then she'd just be applesauce." he said walking over to Applejack and kissing her on the cheek.
"Apple Bloom as applesauce. Apple Bloom as applesauce." repeated Autumn, her hair had changed to a nice light pink color.
"See what you got her saying?" asked Applejack smiling at him, he smiled right back. Suddenly her eyes went blank..
"What? What is it?" he asked looking over his shoulder, then back at her. She opened her mouth and out came the crowing of a rooster. "what?" he asked, and again she crowed like a rooster.
His eyes shot open as he was now staring at his bedroom wall.
"I really do dislike that rooster."

End

"Seriously? I had like fifty two different puns i was sitting on with this one. Seriously the writers are getting lazy as of late."

Pie