It was early morning and Celestia's sun was beginning to rise. The sun's orange glow shined through Applebloom's bedroom window and the little filly began to stir from the light. She was used to getting up at the crack of dawn and she stretched and yawned as she started to plan her day. It was the first day of the weekend which meant no school and applebucking season doesn't start until a few more weeks. Sweetie Belle was staying with her parents for the weekend and Rainbow Dash was going to take Scootaloo to Cloudsdale so she had the whole day to herself. She enjoyed hanging out with her two best friends but every filly needs to have a day to herself once in a while and she was going to put all of her free time to good use. Before she could head out, she needed to get some breakfast in her belly so she got out of bed, went through her morning ritual of brushing her teeth and mane and went downstairs to the kitchen. Before she even reached the bottom she could smell the food cooking and, just like every meal on the farm, it's delicious smell made her mouth water and stomach growl.

"Mornin' granny! Mornin' Big Mac!" she said with more enthusiasm than usual.

"Well good mornin' to you too Applebloom! What are you so excited about?" Granny Smith asked as she finished cooking the last batch of apple crumble waffles and set them on the table.

"Oh nothing much, just thought I might head over to Zecora's later today. She has been meaning to teach me more about potions and since I ain't got anythin' else to do I figured that today would be a good day to see her." Applebloom replied.

Granny Smith couldn't help but feel a little worried about the filly going into the Everfree forest all on her own. She knew that Applebloom has made multiple trips to get lessons from Zecora and she enjoyed each and every one of them but the forest is still a dangerous place for a little filly to be all on her own.

"Really? Well I suppose it would okay, but only if Big Mac can accompany you on the way over. That darn forest is no place for a filly to go explorin' in all by her lonesome." Granny said.

Big Mac downed a waffle in two bites and gave his trademark "eeyup" response.

"But Granny, I've made the trip plenty of times already by mah' self, and it ain't like I'm gonna be explorin', ah take the same path to her hut every time. It's the same one she takes to get to Ponyville. It ain't dangerous ah swear!" Applebloom pleaded.

"Well it may not be dangerous but ah don't think Applejack would appreciate it much if I let you go on your own. She is supposed to be back sometime this morning, why don't you wait a while for her to come back? I'm sure she would be interested in seeing what this Zecora has been teaching you about magical potions and elixirs and what not." Granny said, trying to convince the filly to go with somepony to protect her.

"Applejack ain't gonna wanna come! She's gonna be plum tuckered out when she gets back from the long train ride from the Crystal Empire." Applebloom argued.

Big Mac downed two more waffles while listening to the two. He swallowed the last bite and gave another "eeyup" in agreement with Applebloom. Instead of reaching for a fourth waffle, he decided that it was his time to add his part to the conversation.

"Come on now Granny Smith, let Applebloom go on her own. She's made the trip plenty of times now on her own and she's starting to grow up. I'm certain she will be perfectly fine." Big Mac said.

"See! Big Mac agrees with me!" Applebloom added.

Granny Smith rolled her eyes and gave in. "Oh alright, you can go, but first why don't you sit down and enjoy some breakfast. You have all day so there ain't no need to be in a rush."

Applebloom beamed with happiness that Granny Smith said she could go. She hopped up to her chair, ate her share of waffles as fast as she could and trotted out the door while yelling back to the two "Thanks Granny! Thanks Big Mac!"

The two earth ponies waved goodbye to the young filly and Granny Smith shouted "Be back before sunset."

Applebloom waved in response and trotted off to the path that she took to get to Zecora's hut. On her way over she took in the scenery around her. The sun was shining warm and bright and the apples on the trees were a bright red. Applebuck season wasn't far off and once it came most of her time would be taken up with chores around the farm and helping her sister and her brother with the harvesting. She decided to take a longer route to the forest which went around Ponyville instead of through it, taking in the natural beauty of the surrounding hills and plains. Off in the distance though she could hear a screeching noise that sounded like the brakes on a train. 'That must be Applejack's train arriving, I'll say howdy when I get back later today.' she thought to herself. Then she realized that the Ponyville train station was about ten miles back from where she was. Confused as to why the train was making a sudden stop out here she looked to the tracks and saw that there was only the engine and no cars attached to it. 'What in the hay is goin' on?' she pondered to herself.

What she saw next made her question if she was actually awake, or if she was just having a dream that felt real. She kicked herself lightly to make sure she wasn't dreaming and the small amount of pain told her that what she was seeing was most certainly real. A strange creature dressed in all black and stood on its hind legs got off the train engine and ran towards the Everfree forest. Applebloom crouched down hoping that whatever that strange looking thing was wouldn't spot her and thankfully it didn't. It stopped just in front of the forest, briefly looked back towards Ponyville and then it ran inside the forest. Her first instincts were to run back to the farm and tell her family about what she just saw, but she knew that they wouldn't believe her for a second and would probably ban her from ever getting more lessons from Zecora thinking that she experimented a little too much with hallucinogenic potions. With that in mind she followed the strange looking alien into the forest, making sure to keep a safe distance so that it couldn't hear her or see her.

I ran through the forest, doing my best to follow the dimly lit path. The map cut off at the edge of the forest so I had no idea where I was going, but I was trying to focus on finding a good place to hide from the search parties that would eventually sweep through the forest looking for me. I wasn't having much luck, however, everywhere I looked all I could see was more forest with no ideal places to take shelter. Through the thick treetops I could make out a mountain not too far from my current position, no more than 3 miles away. I climbed a tree to get a better view of it and once I reached the top I could make out what looked like a cave opening. 'Well, it's worth a shot' I thought to myself and climbed down from the tree and headed for the cave. After a half hour of walking I reached the entrance to the cave and even though the cave was high enough that the sun would illuminate the entrance, the inside was still dark. I figured that there probably wasn't anyone living in the cave so I decided to save the batteries in the NVGs and turned on the flashlight on the side of my helmet and entered the cave.

I was only exploring for a few minutes before I came across a large cavern that was surprisingly filled with gold and gems. I was standing there in awe at my newfound fortune, admiring all of the gleaming gold and shiny gems. "Well, maybe me getting kidnapped by these little horses wasn't such a bad thing after all." I said to myself as I set my bag and rifle down on the cave floor and explored the cavern more to find out just how much gold and gems were in here.

I was inspecting a handful of gems when I heard what sounded like hoofsteps coming from the other side of the pile of riches. 'Goddammit, they're on to me already!?!' I cursed as I dropped a handful of gems and drew my M9 pistols from their holsters. I knew the noise made from the falling gems would give me away but I didn't really care. If the soldiers that came looking for me were anything like the guards in the dungeon then I would be able to take them on no sweat. With that in mind I ran around the gem pile while letting out a war cry with my pistols ready to shoot any living thing I saw. To my surprise I only saw one pony standing next to my rifle and bag, the triggers on my pistols were half squeezed before I stopped myself from firing. It was different from all the other ponies I saw, most of them being no taller than my stomach but this one came up just above my knees.

It wasn't its size that made me stop, but rather the scream it let out. It sounded just like a little girl's, no older than 12. I looked down at the smaller pony that was now shrinking away from me, and noticed the pink bow on its mane. I realized that this one was only a child and that it was probably following me through the forest out of curiosity. I could tell by the frightened look on its face and how it was trying to make itself as little as possible that it was terrified of me. There were no other ponies in the cave, just me and this little uh...filly! That's the word, but if it didn't return home soon then the townspeople may assume that I killed her and that wouldn't help my situation at all.

I lowered the pistols and put them back in their holsters and the little filly began to relax a bit also. We stared at each other in awkward silence for a few moments, trying to decide on what to do next. The little filly said something in its strange language, the only part that made any sense to me was "Applebloom" but that didn't tell me much and I wasn't very interested in entertaining the little filly so I pointed a finger towards the cave entrance and said "Alright, you need to get back home to your parents so go on, get out of here." The little filly gave me a confused look and started to say something when it looked towards the cave entrance and then got a horrified look on its face. It started to back away from whatever it saw. I was confused by the filly's strange reaction and looked towards the entrance to see what the filly was so scared of and immediately saw why.

Standing in the entrance to the cave was a huge dragon with green scales and an angry look on it face with smoke coming out of its nostrils. Its voice echoed throughout the cavern but I couldn't make any sense out of it. As far as I could tell it spoke the same language that the ponies did which meant I wasn't going to get very far with communication. I heard the filly say something from directly behind me and I turned around to see that the filly was hiding behind me. 'Oh okay, I guess I'll be your shield then.' I thought as I turned around to face the dragon that growled at the filly's response. I could see the dragon's mouth was beginning to glow like fire and if the dragons in this world were anything like the ones from the fairy tales back on Earth then that meant it was about to let loose its flame on us. I picked up the filly in my arms and dashed behind the large pile of gold and gems as I felt the heat of the dragon's fire on my back.

I set the filly down and drew my pistols and quickly climbed to the top of the pile and started firing at the dragon's head. The dragon roared as it covered its face with its claws trying to protect itself from the incoming bullets. I saw my opportunity to get in close and quickly holstered the pistols. I drew out the knife and machete as I made a mad dash straight for the fire-breathing lizard and buried the two blades into the dragon's chest as deep as I could. The dragon roared in agony and smacked me away, sending me flying across the cave, the blades still buried in it's chest. I rolled across the cave floor, dazed by the sudden hit and my body was in pain. I looked up and saw that the dragon was busy trying to pull the two blades out of its chest and realized that I landed next to my rifle. I also noticed that the dragon was standing directly underneath a group of very sharp stalagmites that were on the cavern's ceiling and got an idea. I picked up the rifle and fired the grenade launcher at the ceiling directly above the dragon. The dragon looked up to see what the loud boom was that came from above and saw multiple stalagmites falling down straight at his face. It tried to move out of the way but it was too late and the stalagmites buried themselves into the dragon's body.

After the dust cleared I saw that the dragon was lying on the cave floor motionless with blood pouring out of its chest and all the places where the stalagmites stuck out of it. I picked up the knife and put it back in its sheathe but the machete was still stuck in the dragon's chest. I grabbed the handle and pulled but the machete didn't budge. I had to use both hands and placed a foot on the dragon's throat to pull it out and I put the machete back in its sheathe.

"That should teach you to mess with me mother fucker." I said to the dead dragon and turned around to see the little filly standing behind me, its face one of complete shock and awe.

"There, you got your show, now get out of here." I said to the filly and pointed towards the entrance. The filly didn't say anything in return, not that I expected it to since we still didn't have any idea what each other was saying. It made its way out of the cave, taking one last look at me before it left for good.

"To the victor, the spoils." I said to myself and started filling my bag with as much gold and gems as I could.

Author's Note

Well here it is, the 5th chapter to my story. It is with great sorrow that I must tell you all that this story will be put on hiatus for a while, for I will not be able to publish another chapter until mid to late September due to the fact that I will have very limited access to the internet until then. I will work on the future chapters during that time but unfortunately you probably won't be able to see them. Please be patient with me and I promise your patience will be rewarded with more chapters. Until then, see you later everypony.