Chapters Ruby and what remained of team JNPR trudged through the forest on their way towards the coast where they would hop on a ship and sail to Mistral, where they hoped answers about Cinder, and her connections to the Grimm could be found.
They’d been unknowingly stalked by Ruby’s Uncle Qrow ever since Jaune, Lie Ren, and Nora had all picked up Ruby from her home on the Island of Patch five days ago. Now they were well into Grimm territory, and they were being fiercely reminded of it at the moment.
“Jaune! Beowolf at your 6’ o clock!” Ruby called out as she impaled a Boarbatusk on her scythe, Crescent Rose. Without looking, she quickly fired a shot to her left and was rewarded with the sound of pained hissing, killing a Grimm that had tried to sneak up on Ren and Nora, who were tag teaming a King Taijitu.
Jaune turned and cleanly sliced his sword, Crocea Mors through the lone Beowolf, before turning back towards the Ursa Major that had been waiting for the Beowolf’s strike to attack. He ducked under the Ursa Major’s first strike and blocked the second with his shield before casting a worried look at Nora and Ren who had just managed to kill the Taijitu’s first head, and were just beginning work on the second, white head as he looked. Satisfied that his team was safe, he haphazardly blocked another swipe from the Ursa Major as he turned his full attentions back to his fight with the Ursa as he cut into the tendons just below one of the beast’s paws, causing it to go limp as Crocea Mors sliced through. Jaune quickly backed away from the beast’s next swipe and jumped out of the way of the Ursa’s giant maw as it had clearly decided to try biting him in half, rather than simply beat it’s prey’s shield or swipe thin air over and over . Sighing in relief at the worst possible moment, Jaune just barely avoided being impaled on the spikes of his opponent as it charged him in a bid to end the fight quickly so it could go lick it’s wounds. Jaune raised his shield in desperation as the beast saw it’s opening at last, ready to kill it’s prey and begin on it’s next victim.
CRACK
Jaune looked up at the noise, seeing the Ursa Major staring down at him, with dimming red eyes, and a new hole through the top of it’s head, where Ruby stood proudly, Crescent Rose folded into sniper mode, pointed down at the top of the beast’s head. Jaune offered a weak smile of appreciation, which Ruby replied to with a wide grin of her own before she back flipped off the beast’s dissolving back and offered her fellow leader a hand, which he took quietly, before turning around just in time to watch the end of Nora and Ren’s fight with the King Taijitu.
Ren jumped out of the way of the remaining head of the Taijitu, barely avoiding its attempt to club him with it’s dead half in the process, he fired at the Grimm’s eyes with his twin machine pistols, Storm Flower, distracting the beast just long enough for his partner to get in position.
“Nora Smash!” Said partner screamed as she cartwheeled through the air before bringing her large Hammer/Grenade Launcher, Magnhild to bear, slamming the large hammer into the skull of the King Taijitu’s last head, causing it to scream out in pain, just before she pulled the trigger on the handle, causing the snake’s scream to turn into a deathly wail as it went into its death throes, it’s baleful red eyes dimming as it’s body began to dissolve into black wisps in the air.
Ren and Ruby did a quick check of their immediate surroundings before pronouncing the area as clear, causing the four of them to wearily put away their weapons and pick up their supplies once more.
“We need to move, the Grimm will be moving in on us” Jaune said tiredly, but firmly, causing a murmur of agreement mixed with their groans of weariness. “I know guys, but if we stay here any longer, we’ll be fighting even mo-” he paused, “oh, you agreed, right.” He coughed slightly. “Moving forward then!”
Unbeknownst to them, a crow appeared to nod to itself from a branch above the fading carnage, before following them once again.
However, neither the Huntsmen in training, nor the disguised Qrow noticed that they were being herded, not simply attacked, but led into a deadly trap laid by their shadowy adversary herself.
“Okay, the cave is secure!” Ruby said, mocking the tone of a soldier as she did so. Jaune nodded in acknowledgement.
“Thanks Ruby, let’s set up camp then, I’ll take first watch.” Jaune said as he unpacked his sleeping bag and cooking supplies. “Ruby, you have second, Ren has third, and Nora has last, same as always,any problems with that?” He asked them, getting shakes of the head from two of them and an exuberant “Negatory!” from Nora, who was cheerfully checking her hammer for any damage before flopping down on her sleeping bag. Jaune smiled slightly at this, he hadn’t been himself since that day where Beacon had been attacked...where Pyrrha had..
‘No!’ Jaune thought to himself, pushing the thoughts of his deceased partner from his mind. ‘I can’t think of that right now, the rest of my team, and Ruby need me.’ He took a fortifying breath before looking over at Ren. “It’s your turn to get firewood, Ren.” He said as he began picking up rocks from around the cave to act as a fire ring. Ren nodded stoically and stood up from his position sat against the cave entrance, dusting himself off, he began moving silently into the brush.
Ruby, pass me a bag of deer meat please” Jaune asked as he got his cooking utensils laid out on a towel next to the fire pit. Before that could happen however, Ren came sprinting in, winded and looking worse for wear than he was when he left. There was also the glaring absence of any firewood, at all. Jaune raised an eyebrow at his friend, hoping nothing was wrong, and stamping mercilessly on that sinking feeling in his stomach. “Uh, Ren, a few twigs do no not a fire make.” He said in a deadpan snark trying to hide his worry for the moment. Ren quickly caught his breath and pointed outside the cave, where an ominous chattering noise was echoing throughout the rapidly darkening forest. He spoke in the closest to a panic that Jaune had ever heard.
“There’s an entire cyclone of Deathstalkers headed our way, we need to move.” Though to an outsider he would have sounded calm, it was clear to everyone in the group that Ren was panicking as much as they were, granted, it was all internal, rather than the frenzied packing and deploying of weapons that his friends showed.
Taking a steadying breath, Jaune took point with Ruby, stepping outside the cave and blanching at the sight before them, Ren may not have been specific in the amount of Deathstalkers in the group before them, but it was most definitely a cyclone. A very large one.
And they were all at least as large as the ones they had fought in their initiation at Beacon just a semester ago.
“Uhh Jaune?” Ruby said uncertainly, she had no problem leading, but she’d been deferring to Jaune’s command the last few days, because this was still his team.
Jaune took another look at the rapidly approaching Deathstalkers, they were still a fair distance away, but they knew they were here, not to mention the way they were spread made it nearly impossible for him to visualize them escaping through the large Grimm, leaving only one way to go.
Back in the cave.
Later on, Jaune would question how the Grimm knew they were there, and how they were smart enough to spread out in such a perfect formation, but that was for later.
Right now they only had one thing they could do.
“Back into the cave! We should have the advantage in there, and maybe another way out!” With that said, Ruby and his team followed him without a moment’s hesitation, running back into the cave, Nora and Ruby in the lead, Ren in the middle, and Jaune taking up the rear.
The four teens quickly ran into the cave, noticing in their rush for a good ambush point that the cave felt far large than it should, and that it was slowly turning from cave into tunnel, the walls looking more and more man made as they continued down their path.
“Why does it look like this?” Ruby asked as they continued their trek, noticing that the chattering that was so characteristic of the Grimm that were pursuing them had died out.
“Because I had it built that way of course.” Came a familiar voice from just beyond their vision. Ren raised an eyebrow, and Nora looked confused.
Ruby and Jaune were staring with wide eyes as the figure lit up the end of the tunnel…
Revealing Cinder Fall.
“What are you doing here!?” Jaune asked, his anger spiking at his partner’s murderer. Cinder smirked at the four people before her.
“Removing some threats” she said causally, flames igniting around her eyes as she smirked evilly at them as she rose a single white gloved hand towards them, an evil red orb glowing in her palm.
Ruby’s body decided to cease standing stock still in shock at this moment, her body burst forth in a flurry of rose petals, moving to strike the woman before she could do...whatever it was she was doing.
Cinder however, just casually flicked her free hand, sending a wall of flame at her adversary.
Ruby quickly disengaged her semblance, firing Crescent Rose towards the flames, sending her into a recoil assisted flip that she used to send herself hurling back out out of the way. Cinder shook her head in a disappointed manner.
“I thought you would put up a better fight.” She let out a sardonic laugh at the team in front of her as the orb that had been charging in her offhand fired towards them. They ducked out of the way, allowing it slam into the cave wall behind them.She smirked evilly at the slight shimmer forming against the rock as she she formed her weapon, the saber and bow combination forming together from black razor thin glass. “Salem sends her regards.” And with that, she released the string, the arrows glowing in a menacing orange as they soared towards the stunned group. They dodged once again, the explosive arrows slamming into the same wall the odd red orb had, an even stronger shimmer than before rippling through the smooth rock.
“I thought you would be a better shot?” Nora pointed out in a cheery tune as she swung Magnhild, the blow easily deflected by Cinder’s sabers.
“Oh, I wasn’t aiming for you four” she replied in a smirk as she stabbed a sword behind her, a seemingly random crow flying upwards to avoid it.
“You weren’t aiming for me either, I expect?” Came the slurred sounding reply from where the crow had once been. Cinder’s eyes widened briefly before going back into her controlled mask.
“Well hello Qrow, long time no see, here to attempt finishing what you started when I fought Amber, I suspect?” She asked, blocking Qrow’s sword with her own twin sabers, while seemingly conjuring a storm around her. Qrow responded by jumping out of the cyclone as it formed around his opponent. He hurriedly transformed his sword into it’s scythe and circled her warily.
“And what did Salem say about me to get you gracing me personally with your presence?” He could just make out Cinder smirking amusedly at him.
“Oh Qrow, how arrogant of you, what makes you think I was sent here for you?” She sent a stream of fire at him, taking full advantage of the Maiden powers she had taken from their previous owner to push back one of the biggest threats to her and her boss’ plans. “I was sent here for her ” she pointed at Ruby who looked confused, gripping her weapon tightly. “You’re just an added bonus.” With that she sent a large wave of the maiden’s powers at them, sending them stumbling into the cave wall, but instead of crashing into it, her five opponents went sailing through it, off to who knew where. She smirked as they disappeared, releasing the power of the Maiden as she floated to the ground. With that, she sauntered out of the cave, idly weaving between the docile Death stalkers that herded them here.
Two of her boss’ biggest threats had just been eliminated.
Author's Note
Hello guys! First story posted here on Fimfiction, and it's a crossover that I really wanted to do. MLP/RWBY is a crossover that I haven't seen enough of, or the story was made around the time RWBY first aired, and there are so many inaccuracies, along with OC teams that are nonsensical, that keeps me from liking them. So I decided, why not? I'll post this and see if anyone likes it, and if they do, hurrah!
I'm currently working on Chapter 2, so it should be done by next week at the latest.
The ponies are coming!
Ruby awoke with a groan as she looked up at the forest’s canopy groaning as she felt a headache coming on and her vision went blurry for a slight moment. The dirt felt so comfy, and she quite loved the comfort after Cinder had managed to beat them all - wait a minute!
Ruby immediately shot to full alert, sitting up and checking the area for her friends and her Uncle Qrow, who had somehow knew where they were...
She shrugged that question off for the time being, she needed to ensure her friends were okay!
A high pitched groaning coming from a bush answered her before she could call out for anyone as she ran over to the suspicious shrubbery, poking it curiously as a mop of messy blond hair slowly rose out of it, followed by the familiar form of her friend as he held his head. “Ugh...Ruby, what happened?” Jaune struggled to his feet and leaned against a tree trunk. “I remember Cinder attacking us and your Uncle Qrow, and then…” His eyes widened, noticing what Ruby had. “Where’s everyone else!?” He asked, setting aside his confusion to search for his team and friends. “Nora!? Ren!?” He yelled out, a slight desperate tinge coloring his tone.
“Here!” A Bubbly voice called from behind Jaune, causing him to jump in shock and whirl around, where he promptly face palmed upon seeing Nora.
“Good, now where’s Ren?” Jaune muttered to himself as he took a deep breath, scanning tree branches for his stealthy teammate, and not spotting him. “Ren!” Jaune called out once again, followed by Ren showing up shaking his head as if to clear it of any confusion. “Good, is everyone here okay?” He got nods from all three, some more exuberant than others, causing him to sigh in relief. “Oh thank Goodness” he said lowly, glad his team was okay.
‘Or what was left of them’ He shook his head.
‘Inner voice, why must you torment me now!? I have a team to lead through an unknown, and frankly, incredibly creepy forest, can we save the breakdown for later!?’ It didn’t respond.
Smiling inwardly at the victory against...himself, Jaune shook his head and took a deep breath to calm down as he looked around his new surroundings.
They were in a horribly untamed looking forest, which really wasn’t saying too much considering they were just in another horribly untamed forest a few hours ago, but this one felt more inherently… malevolent. Whereas the forest they had been hiking through not too long ago had the same undertone of unease and weariness, this forest just seemed to exude it in multitudes, as if the trees themselves were telling them to leave. Jaune decided to take the forest’s advice and begin looking for a way towards civilization. He turned to his team (and Ruby) to tell them his plan, but was surprised when a crow alighted onto Ruby’s shoulder, where it nipped her ear before leaping off and transforming mid air into Ruby’s uncle, Qrow Branwen. He gave them a slight smirk before addressing them in his signature slurred speech.
“Hello kids, little lost aren’t we?” He asked, causing a raised eyebrow from Ren, a head tilt from Nora, a hug from Ruby, and a sheepish nod from Jaune. “Well, while you four were taking a nap, I performed some recon and found a small village to the south” he pointed behind him. “Fair warning though, it seems exceedingly colorful.” He added in a stage whisper. Jaune nodded confusedly.
“Well, let’s move out you guys, we’ve got a village to get to!” His team plus Ruby nodded their assent and began following Qrow, who was walking cautiously through the underbrush, a carefree look on his face, but anyone could see the alertness in his eyes. They walked for what felt like hours before Qrow stopped ahead of them, holding a hand up to cease the other’s movements.
“Do you hear that?” He asked in a slurred whisper, pulling his weapon from his lower back in a well practiced maneuver, allowing it to unfold into its sword configuration as he held it in an offensive position. This action caused his four younger companions to draw their weapons as well as they began watching the brush with trepidation. Or...happy anticipation in Nora’s case.
Sure enough, Qrow hadn’t been hearing things, as a few seconds after they had been stopped, an ominous growling sounded throughout the clearing. The Huntsmen quickly jumped into formation, Qrow at the front, Ruby and Ren flanking him with Nora and Jaune watching their rear. As they began intently searching the brush for any signs of Grimm, ten pairs of glowing yellow eyes surrounded them, and as if on some unseen signal, their enemies leapt out of the brush and began circling them. However, they weren’t exactly what they had been expecting.
Instead of pitch black monsters with white bone armor like they’d been anticipating, their foe instead looked as if was made of wood. Their bodies looked as if the forest had simply cobbled together a pack of monsters to protect it from trespassers, their wooden, splintery teeth bared at the trespassers. “What are those?” Jaune asked nervously.
“I don’t know, but they don’t look friendly.” Ren replied in his usual stoic tone, watching and waiting for his opening.
“I’m sure they die just like any other Grimm!” Ruby replied positively, causing Nora to nod excitedly in agreement.
As if their wooden adversary could understand them, the wolves quickly jumped at them, hoping to end the fight preemptively, their thorn-like claws swiping at the group of humans in front of them.
They quickly dodged, raising their weapons into defensive positions as they ducked and jumped over their swipes before lashing out at them in kind. Their weapons easily finding purchase in their wooden bodies, cutting their foes in half, or simply smashing their heads and chests like a nut.
“Ha this is fun!” Nora exclaimed happily as she swung Magnhild into her opponent, sending it flying into a tree, where it broke into splinters and went inert. With a manic grin, Nora leapt at her next foe, quickly giving it the same fate as well.
Meanwhile Ruby and Qrow were effortlessly slicing through the wolves, cutting through even the wolves’ thickest tree like armor with surprising ease, sending them crashing to the ground, where they broke apart into splinters.
Jaune and Ren were the only two have problems with their foes, their blades neither big, nor sharp enough to slice their opponents with the ease of Ruby and Qrow, nor were they heavy enough to smash them into splinters like Nora. Seeing this, Ren had gone for a more acrobatic approach, flipping through the air before landing on their backs where he shot through gaps in their wooden hide.
Jaune had gone for his typical brute force way of fighting, bashing his shield against his opponent’s head before using their reactions to slam his sword through their unarmored eyes. He did this to the last two of the wooden wolves before sheathing his weapon and rolling his head on his neck, cracking it, and releasing a sigh of relief.
“That was easy!” Nora said as she hopped around the clearing, dancing around the remains of their foes with a grin. Ren shook his head in fond exasperation as he stowed his weapons away into the holsters in his sleeves.
“Yeah, almost too easy” Qrow said in agreement as he cast glances around the clearing. “Let’s keep moving you four, keep up, we’ve got to get to that village, there might be a more powerful opponent watching, like whoever made those things in the first place.” With that, they began their trek anew, granted, going quite a bit faster than they were before.
Meanwhile, a cyan pegasus was napping on a cloud over her friend Applejack’s farm. She was in the middle of a dream where she joined the Wonderbolts by performing a Sonic Rainboom in front of her idols. She was just about to accept her pin and uniform from Spitfire when a loud series of ear shattering bangs reached her ears, causing her to roll off of her cloud in a panic and crash into one of the many apple trees below her before she was fully awake. In a daze, Rainbow Dash shook the twigs out of her mane and spit the apple out of her mouth before looking over towards the Everfree Forest, where the sounds had come from.
“What the hay?” She asked the air, watching the forest warily. She floated in mid air for a few more seconds, debating on whether she should go look or if she should fly away to warn the town of Ponyville. She was about to choose the latter when the sounds went off again, closer than they were before, causing her to quickly decide on the former, for if they were that close to the edge of the Everfree Forest, even she might not be able to warn Ponyville in time. With her mind made up, Rainbow shot towards the creepy, unnatural forest, a polychromatic contrail in her wake.
Before sheepishly laughing to herself and flying back down towards Applejack to see if she’d be willing to tag along.
“How did they even do that!?” Jaune yelled in exasperation at the ten foot tall wooden wolf they now fought, the result of the ones they had killed earlier combining to make the monstrosity before them.
“I don’t know, but it’s totally awesome!” Nora yelled as she fired her grenade launcher at the beast, blowing a large hole in it’s side that seemed to be more superficial than anything. Nora pouted as she noticed it hadn’t slowed down in the slightest. “”That’s not fair!” She pouted up at the beast, as if it would collapse from the need to appease her.
It didn’t work.
‘Okay, need to take out a ten foot tall wooden monster that can keep moving without the majority of its hip ’ Ruby thought to herself as she jumped over a low swipe by the wolf ‘Bumbl- wait, only have team JNPR.’ She internally groaned, ‘If Yang were here, this fight would be over by now!’ She could almost feel the light bulb turn on above her head as she continued on this line of thought, smiling as the plan finally came together. “Jaune!” Ruby called out to him from where he was frantically blocking the wolf’s attempt to smash him to pieces.
“Yeah?” He called out out over the large beings snarling.
“We’re going to need to focus our firepower on it’s eyes or mouth, and since Uncle Qrow flew off to see if he could find who was controlling this thing, that means…” she trailed off, leading him to finish the sentence himself.
“Flower Power?” He asked as he ducked under another swipe, and blocked the monster’s attempt at biting him in half. Ruby nodded at Jaune excitedly as she used her semblance to dodge a swipe aimed for her.
“Flower Power.” She replied in a serious tone before breaking out in a large grin and propelling herself up the monster’s body, Crescent Rose’s sniper rifle firing behind her. Jaune smiled slightly as he looked over to Ren and Nora where they were trying to use range to their advantage.
A few minutes ago...
"Rainbow, are ya sure we're headin' the right way?" Applejack asked her friend testily, they had been walking through the Everfree for the past fifteen minutes, and Applejack and Rainbow were getting more than a little bit frightened. The Everfree wasn't a natural place, and simply being in it made them feel uncomfortable.
Not that they would ever let the other know that of course.
"What's the matter AJ? Gettin' scared?" Rainbow replied in a taunting voice that wavered slightly as she nervously poked a bush with her hoof. "Do ya wanna run away..." Rainbow shakily smirked, "chicken?" Applejack scowled up at her friend, using on of her hooves to tip her stetson over her eyes so she didn't have to look at the infuriating pegasus as she replied.
"No, I'm not. I'm gettin' tired of followin ya through an unnatural forest for somethin' I'm startin' to believe ya made up, is all." Applejack replied, secretly glad her face was covered by her hat, otherwise even Rainbow might have caught her obvious lie. "Now, let's turn around and get outta h-" she was cut off by a loud crack as they neared a clearing, their previous thoughts forgotten as they rushed towards the noise.
"Quick Applejack, hide in here!" Rainbow called out in a whisper, waving her hoof towards her and the bush she was holding the branches apart in. Once she dove in, Rainbow followed not long after. "Let's see what's going on out there" Rainbow said as they poked their heads out of the bushes.
They promptly balked at what they saw.
"What the hay..." Applejack muttered as the two focused on the scene before them.
“Ren, Nora!” He called to get their attention, they looked towards him, seeing his small smile as he yelled out, “Flower Power!” Nora’s grin became much more feral, and Ren nodded.
Ren waited until just the right moment before he flipped off the end of the hammer and slammed Storm Flower’s blades into the monster’s viney hide. With a quick flip of a switch, Ren activated the fire dust in the blades of his weapons and took the monster’s flinch as a chance to pull the blades out of it before running across its shoulder and leaping onto it’s cheek, using the uneven hide as stepping stones to pull himself upwards.
Nora meanwhile, had just landed on the beast’s head, slamming Magnhild downwards into it’s skull to use her momentum in a devastating strike. She grinned manically at Ren and jumped down onto the monster’s snout, firing a round from her grenade launcher into one of it’s eyes, causing it’s head to careen backwards, making Nora jump, but leaving an opening for Ruby and Ren to swing their weapons straight for it’s eyes, landing a pair of devastating blows that caused the odd green energy that glowed within its eyes to leak outwards, it’s body seemed to turn gray and rickety as the force keeping it together exploded upwards, lighting up the mid-afternoon sky in a bright flash of green that shone over the treetops. This explosion of life energy, combined with the loss of its structural integrity caused the monster to fall backwards, breaking into so much kindling as the forest floor raced up to meet it, prompting the three attackers to leap off of it and into the safety of the trees before leaping back down to the ground.
“Well…” Ruby panted as she folded up Crescent Rose and placed it on her back. “That was a thing.” And with that, she fell onto her backside, letting the adrenaline induced crash wash over her as she relaxed into the forest floor. Ren collapsed much the same as he leaned against a tree trunk, sliding down it until he was sitting down. Nora however, looked as excited and ready for action as ever. She looked at the large amounts of timber around her and pouted as she observed the carnage.
“Aww, it’s broken!”
Jaune facepalmed at his teammate’s reaction.
Meanwhile within view of the clearing where the team had just fought.
“What in tarnation are they, Rainbow?” An orange pony, wearing a brown stetson questioned her companion, a cyan pegasus who was hovering a few feet above her friend.
“I don’t know Applejack, but that was AWESOME!” She gushed, pressing her hooves against her cheeks. She coughed as she caught her friend’s incredulous glance. “I-I mean, yeah it was cool and all, but they could be dangerous” She said, quickly hiding all indicators that she had just been gushing over the strange bipedal creatures and their odd weapons. “I say we follow ‘em and see what they’re doing, we need to know if they’re going to attack Ponyville!” Applejack nodded at this, agreeing with her friend’s idea.
“That sounds like a good idea Rainbow, but wasn’t there a fifth feller they mentioned? Crow or somethin’?” As soon as she finished this sentence however, she heard a muffled yelp from above her and looked to see the missing fifth creature holding Rainbow with one arm, his other hand covering the mare’s mouth.
“Yeah, there was, and he’s trying to figure out just where they are, mind shedding some light on that?” He said, slurred voice sending a wave of intimidation down Applejack’s spine.
Author's Note
Hello everybody! If anyone is wondering about the fire dust in Ren's weapon, that's because on the wiki, Kerry said something about them being "wind and fire" blades. I just took it literally.
Team JNPR and Ruby looked quizzically at the two pastel colored.... ponies across from them, and then shifted their gazes upwards to Qrow who was standing behind them, arms crossed as he listened to their story.
“So let me get this straight” Qrow started, his ‘ I don’t believe a word you’re saying, but I’m a teacher so I have to at least act like I do’ voice going full tilt. “We’re in the land of Equestria, where the country is ruled by a winged unicorn named Princess Celestia that raises both the sun and moon, who rules over three different species of...ponies, Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasi…” He gave the Pegasus a look, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, and wanted to blame it on his alcohol. “How am I doing so far?” He asked.
The Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, he remembered was her name smirked at him in an exact copy of his own smugness and replied, “Pretty spot on, but you forgot the part where Pegasi control the weather, Unicorns use magic, and Earth Ponies are great farmers, or just land workers in general.” She then put her nose in the air, “And I’m the fasted pegasus of them all!” Rainbow said arrogantly. All this accomplished was a raised eyebrow from Qrow, rolled eyes from Applejack, and after a very high pitched squeal, and a trail of rose petals that ended led to where she was now getting a crushing hug from Ruby. “W-What the Hay!? Get off me!” She said, struggling in her binds.
“Awww! She’s adorable!” Ruby said excitedly, squeezing the poor mare even tighter. “I mean look at her! She’s small, fast, and flies, and she’s just awesome!” Ruby’s voice sounded like it had gone beyond the range of human hearing as she talked faster as she held Rainbow out away from her, the mare kicking petulantly all the while, but she had her normal smirk back now.
“Yeah, I’m awesome, tell me something I don’t know.” Rainbow said before she cocked her head to the side, flared her wings and shot out of Ruby’s hands. She stuck her tongue out at her former captor and did lazy loops in the air. “Hah! Can’t keep me down!” Ruby was staring at the Pegasus in awe, her mouth slung open in amazement. She stood like this until she felt a small tug on her combat skirt, prompting her to look down at Applejack, who had a small smile on her face.
“Now don’t go inflatin’ Rainbow’s ego no more than it already is, Ruby, she’s already arrogant enough as it is.” Applejack warned her, Ruby sheepishly rubbed her neck as she realized what she’d been doing. Applejack smiled gently at her and came to a decision, so far these weren’t bad folk, sure, they were funny looking and all of them except Qrow and Ruby had mostly been staring at them, but they clearly weren’t monsters, so with the same small smile on her face, she looked at the rest of the humans in the clearing and announced to them, “Come on y’all follow us, I think we’ve all had enough of this here forest.” They all gave some form of agreement, except for Qrow, who’d vanished at some point in their previous conversation. “Uhh, where’d Qrow go?” Applejack asked, looking quizzically up at Ruby. She looked around the clearing before a small crow landed on her shoulder and nipped her ear. She pointed at it.
“He’s right here” Ruby replied, the crow seemingly sticking it’s tongue out at her. Ruby simply rolled her eyes at her Uncle’s antics. “Really Uncle Qrow, do you need to go as a bird?” Ruby asked exasperatedly, he only nodded. “Fine!” With that, she looked back down at Applejack, who was now taking her turn to look at them confused.
“Uhh, can all of y’all do that?” Applejack asked, her hoof pointed at Qrow. Ruby shook her head.
“Nah, we all have a different semblance than Uncle Qrow, he can change into a bird, I can run super fast, Jaune can make a shield of aura around him” she leaned down to Applejack’s ear, “he just can’t control it yet.” She winked at the pony and continued, “Nora can use electricity to make herself stronger, and Ren can use his aura better than anyone else I’ve ever met.” She smiled at the pony, “That clear it up for ya?” Applejack scratched her head.
“So, y’all Semblance whatsits are kinda like our cutie marks?” She pointed at the three apples on her flank. Ruby looked at it confusedly.
“You call that a cutie mark?” Jaune looked at it oddly. “I just thought they were tattoos.” He shrugged. Applejack looked at him with her head tilted to the side in bemusement.
“Tattoos? What are th-” she shook her head. “Nevermind, we get our cutie marks when we realize our special talent, mine’s runnin’ Sweet Apple Acres, best darn Apple orchard in all of Equestria.” She stood a little straighter in pride. Rainbow rolled her eyes at Applejack.
“Please, that’s nowhere near as cool as mine!” Rainbow said, pointing her hoof at her own cutie mark. “I got mine when I did a sonic rainboom as a filly!” She said happily, crossing her arms in pride, then noticed the blank stares she was getting. She rolled her eyes, “I was racing a couple of bullies who were messing with one of my friends, and I went so fast that I broke the sound barrier, and left a wake that looked like a rainbow!” At this Ruby’s eyes seemed to shine like stars before she wiped her knuckles on her shirt.
“Heh, you may think you’re fast in the air, but I bet you can’t beat me on the ground!” Ruby said smugly, smiling at the mare floating above her. Rainbow smirked at her.
“Hah! I like you Ruby, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on ya, I’ll kick your flank in a race, land or sky!” A growl broke out through the clearing, causing the two ponies to jump, and three of the four humans to reach for their weapons. Ruby chuckled sheepishly as the Qrow on her shoulder seemed to give her a deadpan glare.
“Sounds good, but uh, could we get out of the creepy forest and maybe grab some food before we think about racing?” Ruby asked nervously. Rainbow and Applejack finally seemed to remember where they were as well, if the nervous glances they cast around the trees were any indication.
“T-that sounds like a darn good idea, Ponyville’s this way.” Applejack said as she started leading them out of the forest, perhaps a little faster than was necessary.
“Oh great” Jaune moaned as he began to chase after his team and the two ponies leading them out of the forest. “First we get our butts kicked, then we end up in pony world in a creepy forest, fight wooden wolves that become one giant wooden wolf when you kill them, and now we’ve got to run.” Jaune sighed. “Of course, can’t we jusy have a nice leisurely walk for once?” He continued grumbling to himself as he ran after them.
Fifteen minutes later, Rainbow and Applejack led their five new friends out of the forest and onto the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres. The two mares seemed overjoyed that they were finally out of the Everfree as Rainbow took to the clear skies and did lazy loops above their heads, and Applejack got a small smile upon seeing her home. “Here we are y’all! Sweet Apple Acres, home sweet home! Come on y’all, I’ll introduce ya to the family, then we’ll show ya ‘round Ponyville!” With that, she trotted off towards the farm, leaving the others standing there dazed.
“She...she wasn’t joking.” Jaune said faintly, he’d been hoping this had all been a joke, or some sort of fever dream, but upon seeing Sweet Apple Acres, that theory was thrown straight out the window. Remnant was far too hostile to have an orchard like this and have it last for longer than a few days without the Grimm destroying it. The fact that it existed and had clearly been here for a long while without any noticeable defenses brought the truth to all five of them.
They weren’t on Remnant anymore.
Sure they’d all been expecting it, but a simple Apple orchard was all it took to shatter any and all hopes that they were still in their world. Which caused Qrow to begrudgingly acknowledge that they’d quite possibly been right about just about everything.
Except the winged unicorn, alicorn, whatever, that apparently raised the sun and the moon, he was still calling bullshit on that. Purely for manly pride.
Nora however, was taking the revelation a lot better than the others (except possibly Ren, but it was always hard to tell with him), “Oh my gosh! It looks so colorful! And this means that they were right and we’re in an entire world of little ponies!” Nora squealed. “This is the most adorable adventure EVER!” Nora said excitedly as she punched the air in anticipation. Ren nodded in his own form of agreement, as it tended to be the best way to stop a Nora rant.
“Well” Rainbow Dash began, “I wouldn’t say adorable, at least not all of us…”Rainbow coughed as she pointed at herself. “Some of us are far too awesome to be adorable.” This caused Ruby, Nora, and Jaune to laugh quietly to themselves, and Qrow was making rather odd hacking noises that could be interpreted as a crow’s chuckle. Rainbow simply gave them the stink eye before flying back down towards Ruby as Applejack started talking about her family and the upcoming reunion.
“So Ruby, what was that weapon you were holding, it’s awesome!” She gushed as she flew next to her new friend. Ruby smiled widely as she pulled her weapon from her back, transforming it as she twirled it around, showing it off to Rainbow Dash, who was looking at it in muted awe.
“This baby is Crescent Rose, my weapon. It’s a high caliber sniper scythe, capable of slicing through metal and trees without a problem, she’s made of the highest grade metals, and can transform into a smaller form, where I can only fire the sniper.” Ruby rambled on as Rainbow continued to fly around it. She looked at Ruby with a raised eyebrow as she kept talking about her weapon.
“What?” She asked dumbly as she looked at her, debating whether or not to label her as an egghead. Ruby chuckled sheepishly as she rubbed her neck, having noticed her rambling. She instead coughed to regain a bit of her dignity and replied.
“It’s also a gun.” Rainbow nodded at this, that was better.
“Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?” The mare asked her.
“I was rambling, sorry” Ruby ducked her head, “I’m a bit of a dork when it comes to weapons, but otherwise, I’m not so bad!” Ruby smiled up at Rainbow, “That’s Weiss and Blake’s...job…” her smile disappeared, to be replaced by a small frown at the thought of her lost friends, however, Ruby being Ruby, shook her head and banished that thought for later when it was just her and Jaune to bond over their losses. Rainbow either chose to ignore her frown or didn’t notice it in the first place, opting to cock her head at her instead.
“Are all your names weird? I mean, yours is pretty normal, Berry Punch has a foal named Ruby, and one of the flower ponies are named Roseluck, so yours is at least somewhat normal, the rest of them are just so...odd!” Rainbow threw her hooves up in the air to emphasize just how odd their names were. Ruby shrugged the unintended insult aside, and instead looked at the mare with a raised eyebrow, not dignifying that question with an answer and instead asking Rainbow about herself and Ponyville.
“So Jaune, you got experience with farm work, eh?” Applejack asked the stal- man, she was walking next to. He nodded as he looked out at the orchard in a sense of nostalgia, skillfully ignoring Nora’s...enthusiastic ideas of what Ponyville would be like.
“A little, I mean, my grandparents own a farm, it’s not an orchard though, I helped them out when I was growing up, before I went to Beacon to become a Huntsman.” Applejack nodded, ignoring the shiver she got from the image of a Grimm she’d been shown from Jaunes’ scroll.
“Yeah, I think I might like that, Applejack, if it’s alright with your family. Some familiarity would do us all some good I think, and working on a farm would make me feel at least a little bit closer to home.” He sighed in sadness at the thought of home, how Beacon and Vale had been overrun with the Grimm, and his partner, who had been so horribly pulled away from him. He shook his head to get the ghost of a feeling of Pyrrha’s lips on his out of his head. He hadn’t been looking forward to telling Pyrrha’s parents of her demise, but with the CCT down, and the communications between Kingdoms being down due to it, someone would have had to tell her parents in person.
Applejack noticed his sadness and lightly bumped him. “Cheer up partner! A week from tomorrow, the Summer Sun Celebration will happen down in Ponyville, and the princess herself’ll be there, if she can’t help ya find a way home, ain’t no one in all of Equestria who could!” Jaune smiled slightly at her attempt to cheer him up, it did work, ever so slightly. The thought of home, and getting to do something at least somewhat familiar to him with some friendly peop- ponies, until he got back there. He nodded to himself, maybe this place could do him some good.
Jaune was knocked out of his reverie when Applejack called for him. He looked ahead at her, and saw her and everyone else standing in front of the gate into Sweet Apple Acres “Are you coming Jaune?” Ruby asked him, looking at him with her head tilted to the side. He shook his head and nodded, running to catch up with them as they walked towards the house.
Applebloom sat in her room with a small pout on her face. She’d gone to school, finished her chores, and had even done her homework, and now she had nothing to do. Applejack, Big Mac, and even Granny Smith had all been busy the last couple of days, what with both the upcoming family reunion and the Summer Sun Celebration. Her brother and sister had been out apple bucking and working around the farm more than usual, and she was either too young or too small to help them with either, and Granny Smith was very domineering when it came to her family reunion plans, that plus her helping Applejack with a menu for the Summer Sun Celebration, meant Applebloom was ushered to the living room, or her bedroom as soon as she finished her chores, as they just didn’t have time to keep an eye on her, and there wasn’t much she could do outside of her normal chores around the farm. So there she sat on her bed, wondering what could have possibly happened to cause Applejack to run off into the Everfree Forest with Rainbow Dash like she had done over an hour ago. She was beginning to get worried, she might have been a filly, and a very adventurous one at that, but even she knew that ponies weren’t supposed to go into the the Everfree Forest. Just as she was psyching herself into gathering the guts to enter that unnatural place alone to go find her sister however, she caught sight of Rainbow Dash and a few odd shapes being led towards the farmhouse by what looked like Applejack. Applebloom grinned and shot out of her room, only stopping for a moment to tell Granny Smith that Applejack was back and that she was going to run out to meet her. She galloped down the walkway and jumped towards her sister, the sudden weight forcing Applejack to fall forward, ending in the two of them tangled together in an ungraceful heap.
“Applejack! You’re back!” Applebloom said excitedly as she hugged her around the neck. Applejack smiled as she returned the hug, before looking at her quizzically.
“ ‘Course I am Sugarcube! Ain’t nothin that can keep me away from y’all!” She looked up at her little sister with a small scowl before asking, “Now would y’all mind gettin’ off of me?” Applebloom smiled sheepishly as she rolled off of her sister and stood up. She looked curiously at the four odd creatures and the crow on the shortest one’s shoulder before looking back at her sister.
“So, Applejack, who’re these critters?” She asked curiously, hearing an odd ‘squee!’ noise from one of the odd critters. Applejack rolled her eyes, clearly already getting used to the critter’s odd behaviour.
“Well Applebloom, they-” she paused for a moment before turning towards the shortest one, with a black mane that had red streaks in it. “I’ll let you explain sugarcube.” Applebloom’s lingering fears evaporated at that, Applejack only called friends and family sugarcube!
“Well…” the new critter trailed off, looking around as if she was trying to think of something. “I’m Ruby, and we’re uh...humans, from a place called Remnant…” Applejack led the six of them back to the house as Applebloom slowly but surely got enthralled in Ruby’s story of her home.
Author's Note
I'm back with a new chapter! I know things are going a little slow, but the pacing will pick up in the next few chapters. I'm just getting the RWBY crew established in Equestria before the events of FIM. I hope you enjoyed!
“Well that’s an interestin’ tale there young’uns, and I’m sure we all agree that y’all are welcome to stay in the barn ‘till y’all either get back to your home, or ya find a place of yer own here in Ponyville, in exchange fer a little work on tha farm, right Apples?” The oldest mare in the room, Granny Smith, asked her fellow kin. They all nodded in agreement, having all listened to their story. Jaune was the only one who was actually somewhat content with the arrangement, his grandparents might not have had an apple orchard, but he figured some semblance of normalcy would be good for him at the moment.
The others however, accepted purely for having no other choice, (And Nora because of Ren.). Ruby did thank them profusely, but even she wasn’t too thrilled about staying in a barn. She took it with decent grace though, leading her team in following Applejack to their temporary accommodations.
“Now I know it ain’t much to y’all, but it’s warm in here at night, and that’s better than sleeping outside, right?” Applejack said optimistically as she led them into the barn. Ruby looked around with a small, possibly fake, smile as she took in the bales of hay, apple barrels, and wooden floors.
“It’s great, Applejack” Ruby said with a forced smile, she wasn’t happy with it, but she could make it work, if her team- old team, had made their beds at Beacon into bunk beds, she could manage something comfy with hay, tarps, and barrels! Applejack simply smiled back at her as these thoughts ran through her head, and said she would be willing to show them around Ponyville when she got done with her chores, and to get settled in while she did them.
“You’ll be starting out tomorrow!” She said cheerily as she headed out the door, shutting it behind her.
“Well, let’s get started!” Ruby said as she began pulling out tarps. Nora cocked her head sideways.
“What are we doing?” She asked curiously.
Applejack came back a few hours later, not really expecting them to still be in the barn, after all, it was just a barn. Still, when she pulled open the door, she saw something she didn’t expect.
The barn was still mostly the same, except for the loft in the back, it had been transformed completely, and looked almost nothing like it did when Applejack had gone to finish her chores.
The tarps they folded in the corner were now hanging from ropes in the rafters, and stuffed with hay covered by tightly tucked blankets, the barrels and boxes had been pushed to one corner of the loft, and the four of them were standing there in front of Applejack, a sheepish look on Ruby and Jaune’s faces, contrasted by the toothy grin from Nora, which was once again contrasted by the stoic look on Ren’s. Surprisingly, it was Ren who spoke.
“I told them not to do this much.” He said shortly, and that was as much as she’d heard from him since he’d gotten here. Honestly, she thought the poor boy was mute ‘till just now.
Applejack let Ruby and Jaune suffer her critical look for a couple more seconds before it turned into a wide smile. “Well shoot, sugarcubes, I think it’s perfectly fine the way it is!” She shook her head and looked at them all in turn. “Can’t expect a pon...person, to sleep on the cold hard ground after all, even if it is in a barn!” She looked up at the hammocks, “Careful though, Rainbow might come by and steal one of y’all’s bed for an afternoon nap!” Team RNJR took a collective breath of relief and smiled at Applejack, well, Nora smiled wider. The mare turned towards the door and beckoned them after her.
“Come on y’all, since you’re gonna be stuck here for the next few days at least, let’s introduce ya to Ponyville so the folk down there ain’t too scared of ya.” The humans looked at each other, and with a shrug, followed her out of the barn and yanked out their weapons at the sound of an inhumane (‘Inequine?’ Ruby thought to herself ) growl. This action caused Applejack to chuckle sheepishly.
“Right after we grab some lunch.” She said, causing the team to follow her to the farmhouse for a late lunch.
After a small lunch of far too many apple themed things in Ruby’s opinion, and they had found out that Qrow had abandoned them to making the barn livable under the guise of “intel gathering”, they were well on their way to Ponyville when they were delayed once again as Rainbow Dash landed proudly in front of them.
“Hey you guys, what’s up?” She asked, trying to look bored, although the twitch in her tail belied her excitement. Applejack smiled at her friend as she answered.
“I’m just takin’ these four down to Ponyville, introducin’ ‘em to the townsponies. Y’all wanna come along, Rainbow?” She asked, causing the pegasus to nod excitedly as she hovered in the air, level with Ruby’s head.
“Sure, I’ve already got the weather set for today, so c’mon, let’s go!” Rainbow replied, flying next to her human friends as they resumed their walk towards Ponyville. Ren raised an eyebrow (inwardly of course) at the phrasing of her sentence and and looked at her questioningly.
“You set the weather?” He asked, curiosity edging into his voice. Rainbow and Applejack both looked at the four humans with curious expressions.
“Yeah, of course! The weather doesn’t just do itself, y’know?” Rainbow said sarcastically, causing the four of them to look even more confused. “What? Are you telling me that the weather does do itself where you’re from?” The four of them nodded. Rainbow shook her head, “You people are so weird.” She said with a shake of head, Applejack nodding sagely along with her.
They had been walking towards Ponyville the entire time this conversation was taking place, and by the time team RNJR had accepted the fact that Pegasi basically controlled all the weather in Equestria, they’d finally entered the town,
As they walked, the humans couldn’t help but notice that the ponies seemed rather timid around them, the way would stop and stare at them, and seemed to be deciding whether or not they should run and hide in their houses. Although, they did notice that the presence of Rainbow Dash and Applejack caused them to warily watch them, and a few braver ponies to wave at them, which team RNJR returned, some with more gusto than others. Even though some of the ponies would wave as they passed, none of them seemed to muster up enough courage to introduce themselves, prompting the two ponies escorting them to name them as they passed.
“That pegasus is Blossomforth, she’s a member of the weather team, and right next to her is Thunderlane, WHO’S SUPPOSED TO BE MOVING CLOUDS OVER SWEET APPLE ACRES RIGHT NOW!” Rainbow Dash said as they passed a light pink mare with a watermelon colored mane, and a black pegasus stallion with a blue-silver mane. Clearly Rainbow’s irritation with the stallion must have been long standing as she glared at him until he disappeared in the direction of the apple farm. Applejack snickered behind her hoof along with Blossomforth at this, and continued to lead them through town.
“That over there with the blue and pink mane is Bon Bon, she runs a sweet shop, and that mint green mare right next to her is Lyra Heartstrings..” she was cut off by Lyra fainting in surprise as she pointed at the four humans. “Well, uh, I guess we’ll have to introduce y’all later..” Applejack said sheepishly as they shuffled off past the cafe the two mares had been eating at. “Now comin’ up here on the right is Sugarcube Cor-” Applejack was interrupted at this point however by a very pink pony who had just popped her head through the open top half of the bakery’s door, who proceeded to do an extremely loud gasp.
“New friends!” She said excitedly, somehow managing to go from the door of the bakery to hopping around the four humans in less time than it took any of them to blink. “I’m Pinkie Pie! What’re your names!?” Pinkie Pie seemed more interested in befriending the four people it seemed, rather than noticing they weren’t ponies.
Nora grinned wider than Ren had seen since Pyrrha’s death, he inwardly groaned, he could feel the migraine from these two combined settling in already.
“Hi there! I’m Nora! We’re humans from a place called Remnant, it’s a place full of nasty mean monsters that wanna kill all the humans, called Grimm! But we’re Huntsmen and Huntresses, so it’s our job to defeat them and keep everyone safe!” She explained excitedly, and very, very fast.
Pinkie however, seemed to think this was a perfectly acceptable speed of conversation of picked up the line of conversation immediately. “Ooh! Ooh! That sounds so cool, but scary! I mean, there’s monsters here and all, but they normally stay in the Everfree Forest! That’s the big scary forest on the outskirts of town, it’s full of unnatural and scary stuff! I’m Ponyville’s resident party pony! I work at Sugarcube Corner with Mister and Mrs. Cake! They’re the best bakers in Ponyville, you have to come over sometime!” The mare said, matching speed with Nora flawlessly, she took a deep breath, and then began to bombard them with questions.
“So what are your names? What’s your favorite food? Mine’s cupcakes!” Pinkie stopped for a moment to drool slightly ”What’re your favorite colors? Mine’s pink, it’s the best color ever! Where are you staying? Are you all planning to stay in Ponyville for long? It’s been a reaaaaaaaaaalllllyyyyyyyyyy long time since someone new came to Ponyville! Matilda, she’s a donkey, moved here six months ago!” Pinkie seemed to be vibrating with excitement, and Applejack and Rainbow had long suffering looks on their faces that seemed to indicate that this was a rather common occurrence. The humans on the other hand, looked slightly dumbstruck at someone who seemed to give Nora a run for her money. This was followed by Nora picking right up where Pinkie left off, answering her questions at the same speed.
“That’s Ruby, and that’s Jaune, they’re like team RNJR’s Co-leaders! This one is Ren!” Nora seemingly teleported onto her best friend’s back. “My favorite food is pancakes! They’re the best thing ever! Especially when Ren makes them! He adds this stuff to the batter, but will never tell me what it is for some reason, and they taste heavenly!” She seemed to be fantasizing about her friend’s pancakes at the moment, as it took Ren calmly waving his hand in front of her face causing Nora to continue. “Anyways! We’re staying with Applejack’s family until next week when your Princess horsey comes here, so we can get back home!” Nora jumped in the air, smiling manically at Pinkie, whose grin was stretched further than anyone had thought possible. Pinkie walked over to Nora and put one of her forelegs around her shoulders, patting her arm with a free hoof.
“Nora, you and me, we’re gonna be best friends.” She said calmly and soberly, though the feeling was ruined when Pinkie’s expression went back to her natural bubbliness. “I’ve gotta go new friends! I’ll see you guys later, I’ve got a party to set up!” With that, the pink pony hopped off, humming happily as she bounced down the street. Jaune put his head in his hands and groaned theatrically.
“What’s wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked, a tinge of concern in her voice. Jaune looked up at them despairingly.
“There are two of them!” He groaned, Ren nodding his head sympathetically, his hand on Jaune’s shoulder in a silent show of support.
Nora however, didn’t seem to notice, and let out an excited squeal. “I know, right?! Isn’t it great?”
Jaune shuddered in response.
After their...interesting…meeting with Pinkie Pie, Applejack led them through town, pointing out different ponies she knew as they passed them. Ruby found herself in awe of how normal the town seemed for a world full of ponies. She did however find the ponies’ names amusing from how accurate they were in relation to their jobs, like Roseluck ,Daisy Chain, and Lily Valley who ran one of the town’s flower stores, to how well they related to the respective pony’s personality, like with Ditzy “Derpy” Doo.
Overall, it seemed just like being home in Patch before she went to Beacon, but with ponies, which to Ruby, made it even better! She wished that Yang was here to see this, she’d have so much fun, not to mention the puns she’d make. Ruby cringed, maybe it was good Yang wasn’t here…
She quickly crushed the depressing sadness that welled up inside her once more and waved at a pony with three carrots as her cutie mark that Applejack had introduced as Golden Harvest, or Carrot Top to her friends. They walked all through the little, town meeting all sorts of ponies before they came up on a building that looked like a Carousel, Applejack led them inside, a little bell above the door announcing their presence.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chique, unique, and magnifique, how may I help you?” Came a cultured, posh sounding voice from behind a mannequin (Ponnequin? Ruby thought to herself). The pony stepped around from behind the obstruction to reveal a white unicorn with an indigo mane and tail, three diamonds upon her flank. “Why hello there, Apple-” her greeting was cut off by her slightly shocked, yet still cultured sounding gasp as her eyes fell on the four teenagers in her shop. She composed herself admirably though, eyeing their clothing with open curiosity. “And who might your…” she seemed to be looking for the polite word to describe them, before she settled for “friends be?”.
Applejack smiled at her friend, but she introduced them all the same. “These here are Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren, Rainbow an’ I found ‘em in the Everfree Forest fightin’ off some Timber Wolves. My family is lettin’ ‘em stay on the farm ‘til the Summer Sun Celebration, since they’ll probably be needin’ Princess Celestia’s help to get home.” However, it seemed that Applejack had lost Rarity the moment after she’d named them as she was currently inspecting their clothing with something akin to excitement sparkling in her blue eyes.
“These clothes, oh what fabric is this made of?” She asked as she held Ruby’s cape in her hooves, marveling at it somewhat, while clearly lamenting the multiple small rips and tears in their clothing.
Ruby scratched her head, mystified by the pony’s obsession with clothing, and answered with a shrug. “It’s polyester, but I don’t see..” she was shocked however, when she saw a blue glow around the unicorn’s horn reach out and surround her as Rarity pushed her towards a stand, a measuring tape simultaneously measuring her in almost every way possible, the unicorn muttering all the while.
“Well this won’t do at all! I don’t know how it is where you come from, Ruby, but in Ponyville, we don’t walk around with our clothes in tatters! I’d be glad to fix it, in fact, I insist, your cape is in impeccable condition though, considering the state of the rest of your ensemble.” Ruby blushed slightly at the attention Rarity was giving her as she admired her outfit.
“Thank you ma’am, but we don’t have the money, it’s no big deal.” Ruby said quietly, but was rather surprised when Rarity gave her a piercing look.
“Nonsense, I would never accept payment for this anyways, it’s just a simple patch job, besides” her eyes lit up with glee and anticipation, “I’ll get to study the fashion of an entire culture, why, who knows what sort of trends I could inspire by simply examining your clothing?” She sounded immensely pleased with herself as she ordered the four of them to disrobe. This was met with much nervous coughing and sputtering from everyone, Ren included.
“Uh...yeah, about that…” Jaune said, coughing into his fist as his face reached heat levels rivaling that of the sun. “Y-you see, humans like us, we uh...sorta don’t have fur to cover our..uh stuff. So we...kind of..have to wear clothes everywhere, for um decency and warmth and stuff.” The teen looked mortified at what he was saying, but mercifully the ponies got the idea, and waved him off with red cheeks.
“Yes well, I suppose I’ll just have to pick up your clothes later then” Rarity said, regaining her dignity with a graceful air. “However, if you’re going to be staying in Ponyville for at least a week, or if Celestia doesn’t know how to send you home, who knows how many moons, then you’ll need clothes, so no arguing you four, stand still so I can measure you!” She said this with an uncharacteristic authority to her voice that team RNJR didn’t really think they had a choice in the first place, so they accepted this with a dutiful nod, though Nora did fidget far too much. No matter how much they insisted on paying her back somehow, Rarity wouldn’t hear of it, “I’d do the same for any of my friends, so stop complaining, and Nora STOP FIDGETING!” Nora squeaked rather nervously and stayed still for the rest of Rarity’s measurements.
Finally after what seemed like hours, Rarity let them step away from her as she started levitating swatches of fabric, clearly ready to begin designing. “I’ll be seeing you four tonight, I suspect, tata for now Ruby, Nora, Jaune, Ren.” The four waved at her as Applejack led them out of the store, walking over to a nearby tree and bucking it, causing Rainbow to slide out of the tree and hit the ground, rousing her from her nap.
“Get up Rainbow, we still gotta show these four the rest of Ponyville!” Applejack said cheerily, causing Rainbow to shake her head free of the cobwebs of sleep. Rainbow glared at her friend for a moment before she began flying slowly, keeping pace with Ruby as she challenged her to a race back to Sweet Apple Acres when they were done being given the tour of Ponyville.
“You’re on Rainbow, I’m the fastest thing on two legs!” She boasted, puffing her chest out in pride, doing a rather fair imitation of a peacock. Rainbow smirked and flew a lazy corkscrew and loop around her new friend.
“You may be the fastest on two legs, but I’m the fastest thing in the air!” The mare boasted, a self satisfied smile on her face as she crossed her front hooves arrogantly. Ruby smirked at her, already anticipating beating her.
“Now calm down y’all, I’d beat ya both anyways, now over there is Mayor Mare, she’s in charge ‘round here, and the pony she’s talkin’ to is one of my distant, distant cousins, Hayseed Turnip Truck.” She pointed to a brown mare with a gray mane, who seemed to be giving a stern lecture to a cream colored pony with buckteeth, a brown mane and a baseball cap. Everyone looked at Applejack with confused looks on their faces. The mare simply blew a stray bit of mane out of her eyes and looked back at them. “I said distant, distant, cousin didn’t I?” They simply went back to following her after that.
After a half hour of walking through Ponyville, and going a short ways out of town, they reached the edge of the Everfree forest once again, but rather than arriving at Sweet Apple Acres, they found themselves at a homely looking cottage, surrounded by animal feeders, a chicken coop, and a large amount of bird houses, nests, and baths.
Applejack led them up the footpath ( ‘hoofpath perhaps?’ Ren thought to himself. ), and gave them a quiet rundown on the final pony they were going to meet before heading back to Sweet Apple Acres. “Now this here is Fluttershy’s house. She’s mighty shy, so don’t be too loud, and be as nice as possible to her, her feelins' are easily hurt” she explained as she knocked on the door. They heard a quiet squeak, and a few seconds later the door was opened by a timid looking yellow pegasus with yellow fur, a pink, flowing mane, and blue eyes. She looked very withdrawn until she saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the ones at her door, and a small smile crossed her face.
“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash, Applejack, how are you?” She asked politely, before noticing the four people with them. She squeaked cutely, and her eyes widened as she saw the four critters with them that were looking at her. She let out a small squeal and began flying around them, marveling at everything about them. “Oh who are your four new friends? I’ve never seen such critters before, they’re so amazing!” She asked excitedly as she continued to study the four of them, wondering who had put them in clothing. This statement caused the blond maned one to cough awkwardly and lock eyes with the mare who’d been examining them.
“Oh uh, we’re not critters, we’re humans, I’m Jaune Arc, this is Ren, the redhead is Nora, and the shortest one is Ruby.” This statement caused Fluttershy’s excitement to cough, sputter, and die a horrifyingly painful death as mortification settled into it’s place. She quickly lowered to the ground and curled up into a ball hiding behind most of her body with her mane and tail, making her look rather like a pink lump rather than a pony.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack glared at the boy for this development, and he sheepishly rubbed his neck before leaning over to place a hand on Fluttershy’s head. “It’s alright Fluttershy, you didn’t know, you don’t have to be afraid of us, we just want to be friends, promise.” He said this in the kindest voice he could muster, years of experience with his younger sister making him sound as nonthreatening as possible. One eye opened, then two, looking at him with fear plainly written in her eyes before she shakily stood up and gave Jaune a small, tenuous smile. Jaune returned it and ran a hand through her mane before standing back up to his full height. Rainbow Dash was looking at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, Applejack looked just as surprised as Rainbow.
“H-how!?” Rainbow Dash asked as Fluttershy introduced the humans to Angel Bunny, Harry the Bear, and Hummingway the Hummingbird. She was still talking quietly, and she flinched almost every time they asked her a question, but there was no mistaking the small smile on her face as she lead them to the chicken coop to introduce them to Elizabeak and the other chickens. Applejack shrugged, just as confused as Rainbow.
“Maybe ‘cause they’re not ponies, it’s easier for her to talk with ‘em? I dunno Rainbow, but I do know that it’s darn nice to see Fluttershy talkin’ to someone new, rather than hiding under her mane and lockin’ up like she normally does.” Applejack said with a smile, she’d had a good feeling about the four of them, and she was glad she’d been right so far, even if the thought of Nora and Pinkie together made her shiver in fear.
After Fluttershy had led them around, introducing her to all of her animal friends, the six of them, led by Applejack, took them to a road that led straight to Sweet Apple Acres, then drew a line in the dirt before standing behind and making Rainbow and Ruby do the same.
“Alright you two, we’re racing to Sweet Apple Acres, got it?” Rainbow asked the two of them, getting nods in return, she smirked at the two of them. “Don’t be too upset when I beat you two, alright?” She asked arrogantly, getting an eye roll from Applejack and a competitive smirk from Ruby.
“Start us off, sugarcube?” Applejack asked Jaune, who nodded and stood to the side of the line.
“Alright, I want a good clean race you three, got it?” Jaune got three nods in return, he nodded and began counting down. “Three...two...one... “ Jaune took a breath, “GO!” He shouted, causing the three to rocket of the starting line, Rainbow taking to the air, Applejack going full tilt right off the bat, and Ruby...leisurely walking forward twenty feet before disappearing in a swirl of rose petals. “Wow, they’re faster than I thought.” Jaune said to his teammates before they started walking towards Sweet Apple Acres, Nora humming a cheerful tune as they went.
Applejack was galloping as hard as she could, a competitive smile on her face as she raced her friends, it had been a while since she’d last been in a race like this, and she was enjoying every second of it, the wind in her mane, the sight of her gaining on Rainbow’s tail, the rose petals in her face…
Wait what?
Applejack looked around in shock as she looked ahead of her, rose petals littering the dirt road as far she could see. “What in tarnation?” Applejack asked aloud, picking up the pace to try to catch whatever had gone past her that quickly.
Rainbow Dash was having a great time, she was in the lead, flying as quick as she could without starting off in a dive, and she was winning! Honestly, how much more awesome could this race be going? Her thoughts on winning however, were cut off when she saw a streak of red, trailing rose petals, rush past her. The mare felt a competitive smirk cross her face.
“Bring it on!” She shouted as she put even more effort into her flying, rainbow contrail in her wake.
Ruby was laughing maniacally as she streaked towards Sweet Apple Acres, her two new friends had apparently thought she would lose easily, seeing as they hadn’t actually seen her run yet. She would have paid all her lien to see their expressions when she’d streaked past them, it must have been hilarious.
Quickly disengaging her semblance long enough to take the turn into Sweet Apple Acres’ gates, Ruby launched herself onto the sign, sitting atop it with her legs swinging in the breeze as she waited for her two competitors to finishing eating her rose petals, and finish the race.
She didn’t have to wait long for Rainbow, she seemed to be following the rose petals, and didn’t notice the source of them was right in front of her, as one second she’d been flying full tilt towards the finish line, and the next, she’d hit something and fell with it into an ungraceful heap on the ground.
“Did someone get the number of that truck?” Ruby asked as she held her head, shaking it slightly to clear it of the cloudiness that had settled onto it. She looked up into the bewildered eyes of her pegasus friend. “Oh hey Rainbow, how’s second place?” She asked smugly, causing the mare to huff and roll off her, crossing her forelegs petulantly as she hovered above her.
They were joined just then by a heavily panting Applejack. “R-Ruby” she puffed a bit, taking a deep breath before she looked at the human. “When you said you were fast, you weren’t kiddin’” She said through her breaths, causing Ruby to smile in self satisfaction. “So I take it, you won then?” Ruby nodded excitedly.
“Yup! By a minute, at least!” Ruby exclaimed with a huge smile on her face.
Rainbow replied by huffing and waving one of her front hooves in the air. “Pssht, yeah right. More like a second! I was on your tail the whole time!” However, her tone sounded more like she was trying to convince herself, rather than them. Ruby smirked at the Pegasus.
“Sure ya were, Rainbow, you just keep telling yourself that.” Ruby got a raspberry in response. Applejack rolled her eyes at this, amused at the mare’s maturity.
“So, how long do you think it’ll take the others to get here?” Rainbow asked, causing Applejack to shrug.
“I don’t know, few minutes maybe? They are only walkin’ after all, we should probably wait for ‘em.” Ruby and Rainbow nodded at this, the two of them beginning to brag about how fast they were to one another.
Ten minutes after their race concluded, Jaune, Ren, and Nora walked through the gate of Sweet Apple Acres, Qrow right behind them, hands in his pockets, whistling a jaunty tune. Rainbow flew over to them. “What took you three so long? We’ve been waiting forever!” She said impatiently, Ruby rolled her eyes, but she gave a little nod in agreement with her pegasus friend, her speed gave her the rather childish habit of impatience.
“Not all of us are super fast like you Rainbow.” Jaune said, a deadpan look on his face, Rainbow shrugged unconcernedly at this, before flying upside down with her forelegs behind her head. Ruby looked at her Uncle Qrow with a raised eyebrow.
“Where were you Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked curiously before she rushed forward to hug him. “Get lots of ‘intel’ on the small village of timid friendly pony people?” She asked sarcastically, causing Qrow to give her a noogie with a smile on his face.
“Oh yeah squirt, learned quite a bit” he paused a second, clearly winding her up before leant down and whispered in her ear. “It’s full of ponies that can talk, and they’re very easily frightened” he said in a very serious voice. Ruby looked at him, blinked, and then laughed uproariously at him.
“Well it sounds like you were productive today, Uncle Qrow” she choked out through her snorts and giggles. “Whatever would we have done without your help?” Ruby shook her head slightly before she took her Uncle’s hand and started to lead him to the barn with the rest of her friends. “We’ll show you where we’re staying while we’re waiting for their leader to get here, in exchange for light work around the farm.” The seven of them walked over to the barn, and opened the doors, before getting startled and nearly blown off their feet by an explosion of confetti and loud shouts of “Surprise!”
Team RNJR and Qrow looked around confusedly at the party decorations, streamers hung from the rafters, a banner proclaiming “Welcome to Ponyville, Qrow, Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Nora!” hanging form the edge of the loft. Pinkie, along with Rarity stood in the front of the crowd of ponies that were standing around, smiles on their faces, welcoming the new arrivals to their town. The humans looked at each other, confused by the party, while behind them, Rainbow fished two bits out of her coin bag and handed them to a very smug looking Applejack.
“Wh-Wha-What?” Jaune asked, Ruby’s head tilted to the side conveyed the same question. Pinkie Pie smiled widely at them as she hopped over to them.
“Aren’t you going to party?” Pinkie asked excitedly, before she realized they were probably wondering why she was throwing a party. “I always throw parties for newcomers to Ponyville! So, when I heard you were staying for a while, I decided to throw you five one as well!” She said happily, causing Nora to beam wider than normal and grab Pinkie in a hug.
“You are awesome, Pinkie! Let’s party!” Pinkie grinned manically and shouted an affirmative before the two of them disappeared into the crowd. They could faintly hear her shout “Pancake cake! Pinkie Pie is the best pony ever!” over the din of the crowd. The other four humans looked at each other, shrugged and joined the frivolites, though Qrow shortly ended up leaning against a wall next to a big red stallion.
“You Big Mac?” Qrow asked casually as he took a swig of his flask, which he noted with some dismay, was feeling rather light.
“Eeyup” the pony next to him answered. Qrow nodded in acceptance, they stood there for a few minutes, neither really saying anything before Qrow asked his next question.
“Eeyup” the stallion replied. Qrow nodded once again, though his next question came slightly faster this time.
“Wanna go get some?”
“Eeyup.”
“Alright, let’s blow this joint.”
With that, the two navigated around the ponies mingling about, left the barn, and walked side by side as they headed towards Ponyville and sweet drunken oblivion.
Author's Note
Sorry this chapter took so long, I first started in on it immediately after I wrote chapter 3, but then I got distracted, and then I went to Bronycon, where I wrote a little more, and it was only over the last few days I really dug in and finished it. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time. We unfortunately still have at least one chapter before we reach Season 1, Episode 1, but we'll get there soon!
The next morning team RNJR and Qrow were awoken by a very chipper Applejack as she opened the barn door and shouted for them to come down and grab some breakfast with the family before they were shown what they’d be doing for the day. The five of them rose groggily, mumbling ‘good mornings’ to each other as they rolled out of their hay filled hammocks, stretching their backs as they stood, before heading out of the barn and up to the Farmhouse, trailing along behind Applejack as she rattled off chores.
“Well, we’ve got pigs and chickens that need feedin’, crops that need waterin’, and apple trees that need buckin’-”
“Wait, bucking?” Jaune asked curiously, he’d understood the other stuff, and he’d be more than happy to help with that, as it was something he was familiar with, but apple bucking just sounded...odd. Applejack nodded in response.
“Yup! Apple bucking, it’s how we get the apples off the trees ‘round here. Just kick the tree, and down come the apples.” The mare noted that they seemed somewhat confused at this, so she just continued on. “Anyways, we’ve always got bakin’ to do around here, and Granny Smith could use some help with that, cause we’ll be headin’ into market today with fresh apples, and apple pies, that’ll be a good way to get the townsponies used to y’all, so I’ll see about takin’ one of ya down there with me when I go with the cart.” She finished her explanation just as they crossed the threshold through the backdoor of the house and into the kitchen of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Well good mornin’ to y’all!” Granny Smith said as she tottered over to the table, balancing a plate of apple covered pancakes on her back. “You’re just in time! Breakfast’s just now finished!” As she finished the sentence, she felt the plate lift off her back, and turned her head to thank whoever took it, instead seeing Nora faceplanting into the pancakes, devouring them like a timberwolf would eat a pony.
“Nora!” Came the annoyed shouts of Jaune, Ruby, and Ren, causing Nora too look up, her face covered in apple syrup and slices as she sheepishly sucked a bite of pancake into her mouth.
“Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut guuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyys, they’re PANCAKES!” Nora licked her lips, “That are just as good as Ren’s!” The rest of team RNJR just gave her an unimpressed stare, while Qrow shrugged and took a seat next to Big Mac, who was making a good impression of a zompony. He smirked at the stallion’s discomfort.
“Hangover?”
“Eeyup.”
“Don’t drink much I take it?”
“Eenope.” Qrow smirked and gave the stallion a mocking pat on the back before settling down next to him.
“Well, we’ll just have to fix that.” He took immense pleasure in Big Mac’s groan as he laid his head on the table. Applejack gave him a glare that would have rotted half her orchard.
“Oh no you don’t! Y’all got Big Mac hungover, so ya can just take over any of the chores he can’t do. The last thing we need is Big Mac gettin’ sick so close to Applebucking season!” Qrow just shrugged, unconcerned with the work and studied the food on the table as he decided on what to take. Ruby sighed and shook her head as she took the space next to Applebloom, used to her Uncle’s personality by now. The rest sat down soon after, and surprisingly conversation flowed easily over breakfast, Applebloom all but begging Ruby to tell her more stories about her team before Applejack bustled most of them out the door and led Ruby, Jaune, and Nora to the orchard while Qrow sauntered off after Big Mac.
“Y’all just follow me while Big Mac takes Qrow out to the fields. With Ren helpin’ Granny Smith, I’m gonna be takin’ y’all to the southern orchard to help harvest apples.”
The four of them finally came to a stop after following Applejack through almost identical rows of trees for almost an hour. “Alright y’all, this here is how ya buck apples!” She quickly ran up to a tree before spinning around and kicking the tree with her hind legs, causing the apples to fall off into pre arranged buckets. “I was gonna have these trees done yesterday, but then y’all showed up, so I figure ya could help me catch up.” The three humans looked at each other, and shrugged before walking over to their own apple trees, giving them a hard kick.
The tree’s branches shook, but only Nora got any apples to fall.
“I guess we gotta do it our way guys.” Jaune said, grabbing a basket before scrambling up the tree and into its branches, picking the apples as he went. Ruby nodded with agreement and did an aura infused jump, landing in the top of the tree, where she began working her way down, picking faster than Jaune.
“I can do it her way!” Nora grinned excitedly as she pulled out Magnhild, slamming the head into the tree trunk, causing all the apples to fall out as if Applejack had done it.
Applejack just shook her head, glad at least one of them could do the job the Earth Pony way, even if she did need a hammer to do it. With her explanations out of the way, she got to work, bucking tree after tree, making sure she got every apple from the tree she hit before moving on to the next one.
Even though Nora was the only one who could even try to keep up with Applejack’s speed in bucking (and even then, Nora had to be careful so she didn’t knock down the trees), the three of them proved to be more of a help than a hindrance, cutting a couple of hours out of the normal amount of time it took Applejack to buck the amount of trees she was, and allowing them to be done with the bucking by the time Applebloom was sent out with wrapped up sandwiches, and water from Granny Smith.
The five of them all leaned up against a tree trunk, sipping their water and nibbling at their sandwiches, occasionally taking a bite of an apple that Applejack had handed them.
“Well, I gotta say, I’m impressed. I wasn’t expectin’ to be done harvesting by lunch, now we just gotta haul these here apples up to the barn, and you two can go help Big Mac and Qrow” Applejack nodded at Jaune and Nora, before she took a sip of her water, tipping her hat down over eyes as she took a moment to relax. Ruby cocked her head to the side in curiosity.
“What about me then? Am I going to the market with you?” Applejack gave her a nod, and Ruby shrugged, trying to seem somewhat nonchalant, even if she was excited about it. She couldn’t help but find the ponies adorable, and besides, she was a better choice for helping sell apples, seeing as how Qrow would most likely be too brash, Jaune would be somewhat shy about it, Nora would be impossible to control without Ren, and Ren would be too quiet. Ruby shot to her feet as she drained the last dregs of her water, putting her trash in a pocket of her combat skirt.
“Let’s get these apples carried back then!” Ruby said, grabbing a single basket and shooting off in a flurry of rose petals.
“She’s not gonna spill all of those apples on her way to drop them off, is she?” Applejack asked worriedly. Jaune gave a short laugh in reply.
“Ruby? Nah, she may be clumsy, but she can carry a basket of apples while she uses her semblance.” He got to his feet and brushed the dirt off of his jeans, getting an idle thought that they would need cleaning soon. “We should probably grab a few of these so Ruby doesn’t do all the work, if she does get tired, she might just end up spilling them.” With that they all grabbed a basket or two and began the trek back to the barn.
It was nearly suppertime when Ruby and Applejack got back from the market, having sold all of the apple pies and a few bushels of apples. They both walked through the backdoor of the farmhouse, Ruby looking slightly more tired than Applejack. The two of them flopped down at their spots at the table, eagerly awaiting whatever Granny Smith had cooked up.
“So, what all did you guys do today?” Ruby asked, looking at her Uncle and her team in curiosity. Qrow put his hands behind his head as he detailed his day, making it sound far more exciting than it actually was.
“-Then, the wheat attacked! It would have got Big Mac were it not for I and my mighty scythe!” Qrow said heroically, Apple Bloom looking at Qrow, eyes shimmering in adoration, Big Mac looking amused, Ruby laughing, and everyone else rolling their eyes at the display. Ren just mentioned his was spent cooking, and went back to listening to Nora blather on about whatever it was she blathered on about.
“Soup’s on everypony!” Granny Smith said as she put a large bowl of salad down with flowers and hay mixed in, before going to get the second bowl, until Ren grabbed it for her. “Why thank ya, whippersnapper. That’s mighty kind of ya.” Ren smiled in response, setting the second salad down, minus the grass and flowers.
“Why don’t y’all like flowers and hay?” Applebloom asked curiously, having noticed that the humans were only eating salad from the second bowl.
“Applebloom, they mentioned it yesterday, ya silly filly.” Applejack said, shaking her head before continuing on, “their stomachs can’t handle flowers or hay, can’t digest it.” Applebloom cocked her head, confused by Applejack’s choice of words. Her sister rolled her eyes, “They’ll get sick if’n they eat hay or flowers.” Applebloom’s mouth formed into an ‘o’ in understanding.
“Well why didn’t ya just say so?” Applejack facehoofed, while team RNJR laughed at the exchange. The eight of them moved to the living room at some point, just talking and laughing, until it was time for them to hit the hay, quite literally for the humans.
As team RNJR climbed to their loft, their spirits were considerably lower than they were when they left the Apple family’s home, well except for Qrow, though he always seemed to be in high spirits, regardless of the situation.
Over the course of the day, they’d been able to ignore the fact they were in another world, the ponies were just so much like… people, it had been as though they’d just been staying in someone’s barn for a couple of days, not trapped in a world where a winged unicorn controlled the sun and moon.
The sadness that the thought of home brought upon them settled over them like a heavy blanket, muting everything but their heartache as they climbed into their hammocks. Jaune stared up at the ceiling, thinking the same thing as his team. With a sigh, he was the first to speak.
“Are we ever going to get home?” The silence that followed was somewhat oppressive, but he knew that his friends were still awake, except for Qrow, whose snoring cut the air like Crescent Rose through a Beowolf.
“I think we are.” Ruby answered in a measured voice, clearly thinking it over. “If this Princess of theirs is as powerful as they say, then I think we’ll get home just fine.” The silence after that was much more comfortable before Jaune replied.
“What if we can’t?” His voice held a slight warble to it at the thought of his family. Sure, his parents didn’t believe in him, thought he would flunk out in the first semester, but they were still his family. Not to mention his seven sisters, he was worried sick about them, wondering if they were okay. He hadn’t been able to speak to them for months now, with the CCT gone. ‘They probably think I’m dead’ he thought sardonically. ‘That I died during the Battle of Beacon, just like Pyrrha.’ He quickly squashed the line of thought, not wanting to even entertain the thought of his partner, her image haunted his dreams and nightmares enough.
“Silly Jaune! Of course we’ll get home! When did you become such a pessimist?” Nora piped up, her bubbly tone forcing Jaune out of his depreciating spiral of pity and sadness. He managed to crack a smile at that. Leave it to Nora to make him feel better, sometimes she was better at that than Ruby.
“Nora’s right Jaune, we’ll get home, if Cinder could bring us here, then someone else should be able to send us back.” Ren said in his measured, calm voice. Jaune sighed in reluctant acceptance.
“Yeah….you guys are right, we’ll get out of here, and we’ll be back on the trail to Mistral in no time. Good night you guys.” With a chorus of replies, Jaune slowly fell into the realm of sleep.
Things fell into a bit of a routine over the next few days, Applejack would wake up the humans in the morning, and after breakfast, they would split off to do chores, whether they were simpler ones, like picking apples, or helping out with the rest of the farm, feeding chickens, pigs, and taking care of the rest of the crops at Sweet Apple Acres. Of course, it was over these days that their situation actually began to sink in, but team RNJR didn’t let this get them down, knowing that somehow, they would be going back home. It was hard to tell how Qrow was taking it however, as seemed to be going with the flow, seemingly not caring whether he was in Equestria or on Remnant.
Applejack and Granny Smith had noticed that they were depressed about their situation, and they had just the plan to ease their pain.
The Apple Family Reunion.
With Applebloom already acting like they were part of the family, Granny Smith had all but made them part of it. Treating them as more than just guests, and telling them stories of her youth, and just acting as though the five of them were just more grandkids for her to tell about her own youth. Applejack and Big Mac decided to go with Granny’s decision, though Applejack suspected that most of the reason Big Macintosh went with it was because he wanted more male friends to spend time with, seeing as how almost all of his time was spent doing chores and hanging around the farm.
It was with this thought that Applejack finally finished her trek to the barn, she smiled at how quickly she had gotten used to this arrangement over a week, and pushed open the barn doors. “Come on y’all! It’s reunion day! We gotta finish gettin’ everythin’ all set up before the rest of the family arrives!” She gave one of the support beams a hard buck to wake them up the rest of the way before continuing. “We got wood to gather, tables to set, and food to prepare, so let’s get started!” With that, she ran out of the barn, and headed back inside the house.
Team RNJR blearily headed up the path, stretching and yawning the entire way as Qrow just hummed a jaunty tune, hands stuffed in his pockets. The five of them slumped into the farmhouse, and all but Nora made their way over to the Apple’s coffee pot, halfheartedly fighting over who got the first cup until Qrow grabbed the pot out from in front of them, filling his up before passing it to Ruby. She quickly poured herself a mug before sitting down in her now customary spot beside Applebloom, and sipped her coffee happily.
As they dug into their breakfast, with Applebloom talking happily about how excited she was for the reunion, and telling Ruby her exaggerated stories about cheek pinching from her older family members, Applejack began handing out who was doing what.
“Ren, you’ll be helpin’ Granny and I with the cookin’, Ruby, you’ll be gatherin’ the wood, Jaune’ll be settin’ up the fire pits and kettles for apple butter and apple fritters, Qrow you’re helpin’ Big Mac with whatever he needs help with, and Nora you’ll be harvestin’ any extra apples we need.” She nodded in satisfaction, “I think that’s it, let’s get ‘er done y’all!” Applejack stood from her spot at the table and went to the counter to begin getting out the ingredients and bowls.
“What should I do, sis?” Applebloom asked before she could get into the motions of baking. Applejack sighed, she knew Applebloom wanted to help, but that was exactly what Applejack was afraid of, her sister’s “help”, tended to be more of a hindrance than anything else.
“Well sugarcube, with all the extra help we got this year, I don’t think there’s all that much ya’ can do…” Applejack felt her heart clench at Applebloom’s sad expression, her tail curled around behind her, and tears pricking her eyes. She sighed, “I’ll tell ya what sugarcube, if I have anythin’ I need help with, I’ll be the first to let ya know, alright?” Applebloom nodded morosely, knowing that it was a mere platitude, just as she was about to sulk her way back up to her room, however, Ruby blocked the doorway, keeping her from going to the stairs.
“I could use a little help with wood gathering, Applebloom. You’d be able to carry the smaller sticks that we need to start the fires, while I carry the bigger logs that will keep it burning, what do ya say little buddy?” Applebloom’s grin spread across her face as she followed Ruby out the door with a hop in her step.
“Well, that’s everythin’ all set up, and not a moment too soon, look!” Applejack called out as a veritable convoy of wagons, airships, and ponies appeared over the horizon. “Anythin’ else that’s needin’ to be done, Granny?” She asked, when she didn’t receive an answer, she turned back to look at the porch and saw her grandmother asleep in her rocker. “I’ll take that as a no.” Applejack chuckled before it was interrupted by Jaune coughing awkwardly.
“Uh..Applejack, are you sure that we should be here? They uh...won’t freak out like the ponies in town did will they?” He shuddered as another thought came to mind, “or like Lyra did when we went back into town?” That mare, Jaune had decided, was insane. Applejack’s chuckle became a full blown guffaw at this question.
“ ‘Course they won’t! They’re just as friendly as we are, you’ll be just fine! Besides, with all the help y’all have been givin’ us, I’d say you’re already part of the family!” Jaune smiled at that, noticing Ruby and Nora do the same at this statement. Ren’s smile was small, but he knew it was there.
“We’ll let’s get ya introduced then!” Applejack said with a smile, leading the five of them towards the crowd of ponies that had taken over the entire front yard of Sweet Apple Acres, and was slowly spilling over towards the fields.
Team RNJR felt a small shiver go down their spine as they approached the crowd, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Qrow transform and simply sit on Ruby’s shoulder.
“Coward” he heard Ruby mumble under her breath, which Qrow responded to by nipping her on the ear.
After multiple introductions, hoof shakes, and very sore arms, team RNJR sat tiredly against a few trees, relaxing after their latest bout of helping with baking. It seemed that the Apples really liked apple fritters, seeing as how they had an entire row of kettles dedicated to making it, right next to the apple butter kettles. They were just relaxing into a nap in the early afternoon sun when they heard someone ringing what they now recognized as Granny Smith’s dinner bell, and Applejack’s voice shouting out “Soup’s on everypony!”. They looked at each other, shrugged and got up, heading for the tables set out in the orchard. They got there just as Applejack was finishing up introducing everypony to someone, apparently perfectly timing their entrance with Applejack’s introducing everyone to somepony they couldn’t see among the crowd.
“- Qrow Branwen, Ruby Rose, Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Big Macintosh, Applebloom, aaaaaannnd,” she gestured over to Granny in her rocker. “Granny Smith.” Applejack looked over at the sleeping mare. “Up’n’attem Granny Smith, we got guests!” She said, causing Granny to get up and blearily make her way to the table.
“Wha? Soup’s on? I’m comin’, I’m comin.” With that, she took her spot at the table, the smell of food getting her woke up.
“Why, I’d say you’re already part of the family!” Applejack said to the only other pony that wasn’t seated, allowing them to notice the purple unicorn with what looked like a bipedal lizard sitting on her back.
Said purple unicorn then did a spit take, and looked incredulously at the Earth pony in front of her. She laughed nervously before sputtering out a farewell, “Okay, well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way!” She turned to leave, but found herself blocked by Applebloom, who was giving her puppy dog eyes that made Nora and Ruby’s begging look trivial in comparison.
“Aren’t you gonna stay for brunch?” She asked in a morose tone that tugged at everyone’s heartstrings, making it almost impossible to even consider saying no. Though the mare seemed to be trying her hardest too, anyone could see her resolve was crumbling.
“I’m sorry, but we have an awful lot to do..” everyone could hear the halfhearted tone in what was clearly a token resistance. Everyone at the table except Qrow and team RNJR let out a disappointed sigh, causing the unicorn to sigh and look at the lizard on her back before answering.
“Fine.” This brought a round of cheers to everypony at the table as she was herded to a chair in front of Jaune. He gave her a nod and handed her a plate of apple fritters.
“Hi, my name’s Jaune, what’s yours?” He kindly introduced himself, a small smile on his face as he grabbed a piece of pie. The unicorn looked at him and his friends curiously before introducing herself.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal student, and Overseer for preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
