Prologue
It was eleven in the morning in the land of Equestria as the Pie sisters traveled in the friendship train under Celestia’s sun. The sisters mingled inside, some of them more cheerful than others.
Limestone Pie grumbled in her seat. "Why did I have to go again? There's tons of work to do back on the farm."
"To have fun, silly filly!" said Pinkie Pie, in her usual hyper tone. "You’re always working really hard like really, rea~lly, rea~lly hard!"
Limestone kept her hooves crossed. "I don't want fun. Fun doesn't pay the bills."
Pinkie frowned for a moment but then started bouncing around Limestone. "Bills? No one likes bills; they're so boring. Unless you mean duck bills! Duck bills are cool! They look so cute! Oh, I love bills and ducks! Ducks make the funniest little quacking noises. Quack quack! But how could you not want fun?! Everypony needs fun to make us smile and enjoy our friends and our family!"
Limestone groaned as her sister went on her rant. "Where are you taking us anyway? Why did we have to take a train?"
Pinkie finally stopped moving and leaned in towards her sister. "Weeell, I thought it would be nice if the Pies got to visit Appleloosa." She smiled. "Also, trains are amazing! They move so fast and are so comfortable and we can see Equestria along the way and all the animals and-" Pinkie continued to ramble.
Limestone's eyes widened. "APPLELOOSA! Pinkie that's on the other side of Equestria!" she said in disbelief.
"Exactly! It's almost like a road trip. We can see ALL of Equestria along the way. We can see the rodeo too. It'll be so much FUN!" chimed Pinkie happily.
"Pinkie, exactly how long did you plan this trip to be?" she asked worriedly. When her younger sister dragged her to the train station she thought they were just going to be gone for a few hours. But a trip to Appleloosa took at least a day.
"Only a week, silly," Pinkie said as she waved Limestone's concerns away. "Weeell, maybe a little longer if there's still more exciting things to do!" Pinkie was visibly drafting a list of activities to do in her head.
Limestone put her face on her hooves and groaned. From the seat across them Marble waved for Pinkie's attention.
Pinkie giggled a bit at Limestone and suddenly appeared behind Marble. "Yes sis? Are you excited too? This is going to be so much fun!"
"Emm... actually, I was going to ask: where will we be staying? We didn't bring any bits, you know... since we... didn't." She said in a small sweet timid voice.
"Oh! That's simple. I did a party for one of the ponies there and when he heard I wanted my family to visit he offered to let us stay at his place in exchange for the party! And another cake!" she added, motioning to giant container on her seat.
"We're staying at your friend’s house for a week?" asked Maud in her monotonous voice while she fed her pet boulder.
"A total stranger, more like!" huffed Limestone.
"Oh, come on girls. He's not a total stranger, he’s Braeburn; Applejack's cousin! He's really sweet and more than willing to let us stay," Pinkie explained.
"AND HE’S A STALLION, TOO!" Limestone yelled with disbelief.
"Oh yes! He's an apple farmer just like Applejack. He would give us a tour but he said he'd be really busy this week with the farm."
Limestone couldn't believe her ears. "Does he live alone?"
"Well, yes. That's why he can offer us a place to stay. He has two spare rooms and he’s usually out during the day so we can do whatever we want! We could even help decorate his house!" Pinkie started thinking of decoration ideas.
"PINKIE!" yelled Limestone, "don't you see the big problem here?!"
Maud and Marble perked up to listen with more attention to the conversation.
Pinkie tilted her head to side. "What do you mean? I thought you'd like a nice trip away from home. Plus we get a house with nice beds to sleep on. Isn't it awesome?"
Limestone took a few breaths to calm herself. "Pinkie, we’re going to be alone in a house with a lonely stallion! Celestia knows what he might try while we're there; he could be a big pervert!" she said, her voice rising in volume as she spoke ending up in a scream.
Maud looked at them with a bored expression and Marble blushed hard at the implications her sister was making.
Pinkie gasped. "You think Applejack's cousin is a pervert?! How could you say something so terrible?"
"We don't know what he could be thinking!" argued Limestone. "For all we know he agreed only because he would get to have four young mares sleeping in his house!"
Pinkie shook her head. "I can't imagine that someone as sweet and kind as Braeburn would take advantage of ponies. He even offered us spare rooms. Applejack always told me what a great cousin he was."
"H-have you met him?" asked Marble before Limestone could protest again.
"Of course I have. I've been to Appleloosa often and he's always helped me around town. Plus I threw a party for him a month ago," Pinkie said with a smile.
"I-is he nice?" she asked softly.
"He sure is! He even made me apple fritters on my visits. Everyone in Appleloosa loves him."
Marble smiled a bit as Limestone huffed and looked out the window. "We’ll see..." she said unhappily.
"Yay!" We're going to have so much fun!" cheered Pinkie.
"How long till we get there?" asked Limestone.
Maud looked at the clock on the wall "Six more hours."
Limestone groaned.
Pinkie jumped with enthusiasm. "Ooo! We can play I-spy! Or talk about all the things we're going to do when we get there, or-" Pinkie trailed off again.
***
At the same time, a number of miles away in Appleloosa orchard, Braeburn was hard at work bucking Apple trees under the hot sun. He was about to buck another tree but missed and fell to the ground when a sudden sneeze got him by surprise.
"ACHOO!"
He sniffled and looked up at the clear sky. "Woo-wie! Hope Ah'm not catchin’ a cold now," he said, standing up and adjusting his hat.
"Hmm. Why do Ah get the feelin' Ah’m forgettin’ somethin’?" he said to himself and pondered for a few seconds.
He shrugged. "Well, it couldn't have been that important if Ah forgot that easily," he said to himself and went back to work.
Author's Note
First story I ever uploaded here, really excited to hear what you guys think. Please leave your comments with your thoughts, I love reading and replying to them and your opinions make my story better.
Special thanks to my co-writer/proof reader Jaywalk, this story actually started as a RP we were doing just for fun.
Also thanks to Performance Major for proof reading.
And finally thanks to my Editor my dear Johnny boy who's grammar nazi skills make this story much better.
Let me know what you think~
