Chapter 3

The Horse Awakens

A few days after the Gala I found myself once again back a sweet apple acres helping Aj with her day to day help. I didn’t complain; a lot of the stuff she does is alot of hard work. Bucking that many apples trees, selling apples, growing crops, selling them as well, and maintaining her farm. I for one am not much of a farmer by any means but Aj has taught me a lot of things while I work on her farm. It’s a learning experience and it gives me something to do everyday. I help Aj mostly with the heavy lifting since Big Mac is busy tending the crops. My steam wagon became more useful that I ever imagined. Aj and I were riding back for the marketplace and Aj started up some small talk

“I gotta say Rich you’ve done so much for, with all the money we’ve been making we might have to expand our orchard, it’s bee awhile since that’s happened, with all those extra tree’s we could feed everyone in Equestria”

“Well Aj i'm always here to help” I said

“And we appreciate it in fact I think we got a surprise for you when we get back” she said

I'm not one for surprise’s usually they don’t excite enough but Aj seemed very happy about it so how bad could it be. We drove down past the gazebo and up toward her farm. I parked out in front of their barn and let Aj off. I stepped down off the wagon and turned to see the apple family waiting for me as Aj joined them.

“So I take is this is the surprise” I said

“Well we’ve been talking and we’ve decided since you’ve helped us so much,” she paused for a moment

“We decided to make you an honorary member of the apple family”

I was shocked beyond my brony sense's , I mean I don’t really have any family here in Equestria that I can familiarize myself with. I don’t have any relatives or siblings, and then I had a brief memory of my old family that I left behind when I came to Equestria. I’ll never forget my mom, my dad, my sister and my brother and the thought of them brought a tear to my eye. They raised me to be a good person and now im being adopted into a new family made me tear up even more. I walked up to Aj, knelt down and hugged her real tight. I started to cry a little bit, I couldn’t be any happier

“Thank you, im honored.” I cried

Applejack put her hooves around me to comfort me

“It’s the least we can do”

Applebloom started jumping up and down

“I’ve got a new brother, this is the best family ever,” she yelled

“Eeyup”

“You’ve definitely earned it” Granny smith said

After a brief moment a loving embrace from my new family I let go of Aj

“I’m gonna have to change my name to Richard Apple Smith”

They all got a laugh out of that

“Well welcome to the apple family Rich” Aj said

Then flying by I saw a glimpse of a rainbow and knew full well that rainbow dash was nearby.

“So your part of the apples now” said a familiar voice

I turned around and saw Rainbow standing behind me

“Way to eavesdrop on a conversation their dash.” I said

“I was flying by and heard what was going on and since your now part of the apples, im making you my honorary brother too” she said hugging me

“I guess im everyponies brother now” I said

“Rainbow dash” Aj said disgruntled

“What” she said “I don’t have much family either, I need a brother and besides he’s the one that saved my when I was trapped in that other world”

“Well Richard has been helping me nonstop these past few days helping the apple family”

“Rich puts his life in danger and almost died protecting me” dash said pulling on my arm

“Rich donated all his free time and effort from work by helping me and my farm” Aj now tugging on my other arm

“Rich likes danger and action not farming”

“Rich likes helping others not being selfish”

“Girls” I said, “your hurting my arms”

Both of them let me go at the same time

“Sorry bout that sugar cube”

“So which of us do you want to be family members with” dash said

I really didn’t give it much thought

“Why can’t I be part of everyone’s family, im mean everyone seems to like me enough anyways.”

They both looked at me with a raised eyebrow

“But which of us do you like more?” dash said “Im super fast and super brash” doing a few loops in the air

“Im just as brave and bold as you and I don’t have wings.” AJ said standing proudly

“ I can make sonicrainbooms”

“I can knock down a forty-foot tree with my own fours hooves”

Aj and Dash got in each other faces about to get in a serious fight but being the big brother on the inside I had to stop it before it got out of control. So I stepped in between them and pushed them both aside

“Girls look It’s not a popularity contest, I love you all equally how can you possibly make me choose”

They both looked at each and knew I was right

“I recon that’s what twilight would say” AJ agreeing with me

“That’s so boring”

I reached out and head locked Dash

“What’s not boring is giving a fellow sister a noogie” as I rubbed dash's hair, Aj couldn’t help but laugh

“Ow your messing up my hair” Rainbow started flapping her wings causing me to lose my balance, i fell and let her go in the process. I got back up as rainbow flew up a few inches until she was level with me

“You wanna wrestle then lets wrestle” she said she then flew toward me crashing into my chest and knocking back down into the dirt and started holding me down but I was able to pin her.

“Hey” AJ said, “you leave my brother alone” she then jumped into the fray, now I was wrestling both ponies at the same time getting dirty in the process. After a good long while we were outta breathe and covered in dust.

“Well I haven’t had that much fun in awhile.” I said trying to get the dust out of my clothes

“That what sisters are for” Aj said

“Yeah the best sisters” Dash said

“Well I better mosey on home now and take a shower” I started up my wagon and rolled on down towards home

“Ya’ll take now ya hear.” I said in my best country accent

“See ya’ll later” as the apple family and dash waved goodbye

I started driving back towards but then that felling of being watched caused me to stop the wagon and look around, again no pony was there. I kept on driving going past the edge of the Everfree forest when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark figure near the edge of the dark forest.
I looked and saw the figure disappear into the woods. A lot of thoughts went through my head, do I follow it, do I ignore it, or should I tell somepony. I choose the later; I mean what could possibly go wrong. I stopped my wagon and made my way towards the entrance. I grabbed my hatchet with me just in case I needed to defend myself, I hoped I wouldn’t have to kill anything while I was in here. I started walking down the only road that was presented to me, all the while keeping an eye out for any dangers like Timberwolves or poison joke. The Forest was dark and smelled icky im surprised no pony ever comes in here I mean other than Zecora. I walked for what seemed like an hour until I saw that shadow again I raced into what ever danger could be lurking around the next tree only to find a clearing. A Ray of sunshine was able to pierce a little opening in the trees and in the center was a large statue of a pony dressed a general’s uniform and hat. I must have stumbled upon the memorial of that General Pony, Magenta Nightfall. I walked closer to it as it loomed over me; there was some inscription written on the statue.

Magenta Nightfall Beloved student of Celestia, she rose to the top only to fall by her own will

It creeped me out knowing that there was a long and forgotten student of Celestia that she wanted to forget and for a good reason. I wanted to leave but I noticed under the inscription was a slot and in the center was a small dusty book.

“This must be the General’s Journal.” I said

My hand reached out, but something in me said don’t, my hand shivered as to what could become of this. I pick up the small book and opened it. It was blank, and then I skimmed through to the very last page and found some writing left by her.

“And with that I shall rise again and take my revenge on Equestria”

“That’s it that’s all she wrote.” I said

But then the ground started to shake and the book began to glow. Then fierce winds rushed pashed me as the book began to levitate and glow brightly. The book opened and magical currents started to pour out and manifest in front of me. The manifestation started to form into a pony but I didn’t stick around to see what was going to happen next for I knew full well that it was her, General Fall. I ran back the way I came passing some Timberwolves but I was beyond scared straight to even care. I just kept running until I saw the opening, I made a dash knowing there were Timberwolves right behind me. I exited the forest, jumped into my wagon, hitting the lever and driving away at full speed.

Back in the forest General Fall stood proudly next to her statue as she took a deep breath.

“Finally, after all these years I have returned to rule over the lands i so rightfully deserve” she said

Behind her the clanking of her clockwork soldiers stood faceless and expressionless ready for her command.

“Now my army let us take back the lands that was stolen from us shall we” she said as her soldiers began to march towards PonyVille

I drove as fast as I could towards twilight’s castle, zipping past ponies almost hitting a few. I saw Twilight's castle in the distance but I glanced back towards the Everfree forest to see if anything changed. I came to a grinding and screeching halt in front of her door as I jumped out, bashed my way through the doors and ran upstairs to the round table to find Twilight and her friends looking at me like they expected me to show up

“Rich what are you doing, why do you look all scared and devastated” Twilight

I tried to catch my breath after what I just witnessed

“General (Huff) Fall (Huff) is back,” I said breathing heavily

All of them except for twilight looked at me with confusion. Twilight looked just as scared as me

“Who in Equestria is General Fall” Aj said

“She was once a student of Celestia but her thirst for power caused her to turn evil, so much so that she tried overthrow Celestia and Luna” she said

“How come we’ve never heard of her before” Dash said

“She must have had a reason maybe she’s way to powerful even for all of us”

Just then a clockwork Pegasus crashed through one of twilight’s windows and landed on the round table in front of the mane six. It stood up as it ticked, clicked, and tocked as it looked at them.

“Subject’s found, mission detain” it said

Before it got the chance to do anything I ran up to it with my hatchet in hand and slammed it into the metal face of the soldier. It lost its balance and fell over, hatchet still in face. I twitched a little bit then I pulled the hatchet out and started whacking at is head denting, bending its neck trying to cut off its head it to so wouldn’t get back up. Eventually i caved its head in and it ceased to move. My hatchet was broken beyond repair so I tossed it aside.

“Richard” Twilight said

“Sorry you had to see that girls”

“Never mind that what in Equestria is that thing?” she asked

“Its one of her clockwork soldiers that she made in order to take over Equestria” I said looking down at the dead soldier

“And it looks like they’re very hard to kill”

“Well what do we do?”

“I don’t know, maybe we should let the Princess’s know”

“Good idea but we’ll have to get past those soldiers” Twilight said

“Alright lets get going” I said as we made our way down stairs

Whatever was waiting for us outside we all knew it couldn’t be good

Author's Note

The Villian is here but who can stop her