Ghost awoke to sunlight in his face, groaning, he got up to see everyone else was not in the room he left the room and went down to the throne room and saw the team waiting for him "enjoy your nap sleeping beauty" Skull asked him chuckling.

"I slept fine, but now that we are awake we need to figure out were we are Spectre I want you to head out scout out the forest and see if you can find a town or settlement."

"Roger that sir" Spectre then looked at Frost and told him to stay in the castle before heading out. Frost's wounds were still fresh and Spectre didn't want him out there if they got attacked by something alot bigger than both of them could handle.

"Skull, you and I are staying here to guard this place and keep any unwanted visitors out."

"You got it boss" the hulking juggernaut got to his feet with his machine gun and headed towards the entrance to stand guard. Ghost decided to head to the library and look for books that could tell him a bit more about where they were and the history of the castle, Ghost walked into the large and only thought of one thing.

"Great, just like studying at college all over again."

Spectre was looking for the edge of the forest if he could get out of this forest he would have a better chance at finding a town if he got out of the foliage. After maneuvering through the forest for a few minutes he finally got to the edge where he could see nothing but apple trees with fresh apples. He looked to the sky whispering a 'thank you' before pulling out an empty sack and climbed up one of the trees. He collected just enough to where the bag was almost full, unfortunately for him lady luck must've been piss drunk mad at him because as soon as he closed and tightened the sack he felt the tree get hit by something and then shake causing him to fall flat on his ass.

"Son of a bitch" he groaned as he got up to see two HUGE green eyes staring at him.

"What in the hay!?" came a female voice with a very thick southern accent. Spectre immediately got to his feet and saw a little orange pony with freckles and blonde mane and tail, both of which were tied in pony tails, she also had what looked like an ass tattoo of three apples but that wasn't caught Spectre's attention, what caught his attention was the big stetson on its head.

"Aw...how cute" he said but failed to see the pony blush an intense red on its face. 'Now where did that voice come from I don't see anyone around and the voice sounded a bit too close for my liking' he thought he continued to look but couldn't see anyone.

'Ah well..' he turned to the pony who continued to stare at him with a scared expression. He walked over to it and pet it behind the ears and the effect was instant one of it's hind legs started thumping up and down with it's eyes closed and what appeared to be a smile on it's muzzle. When he stopped it gave him a look of confusion "you better head back home little pony" and with that he walked off towards the trail Spectre walked for about seven minutes before he heard the silent clopping of hooves following him he turned around and saw the orange pony from earlier, trying to and failing, hiding behind a tree watching him. He stared for a couple more minutes before continuing down the path when he got to the end of the trail where a wooden fence line and a big sign held up by wooden poles which were connected to the fence he turned to read it.

"Sweet Apple Acres...huh creative" he continued ahead but went off to the side when he saw a town ahead to avoid being seen by anyone he wasn't sure if the in inhabitants were hostile or not. As he was about to head back into the forest and make his way around he heard more clopping behind him he turned around to see the same orange pony once again still trying be stealthy and once again failing terribly.

"What a weird pony" Spectre continued into the forest and went as fast as he could to lose the pony following him. When he thought he was far enough he started to slow down and began walking at a normal pace again. After an hour he was able to get a good view over the town, he got to a crouch, pulled out his sniper and began to look at a welcome sign on the outskirts of town.

"Ponyville, seriously what could've possessed people to name it tha-" just then he saw that walking around and greeting each other were ponies of all shapes and colors. Spectre just sat there, watching all of the ponies conversing with one another when he realized something that the voice back at the apple orchard most likely came from that orange one with the stetson, the same one that he had called cute out loud.

"Well, this just got awkward" he moved to his feet and strapped the sniper to his back before heading back to the castle until he heard a scream. His adrenaline kicked in as he raced to the sound of the noise he ended up in a clearing and saw the orange pony getting attacked by a weird hybrid creature. The creature had the body of a lion but had a scorpion tail and bat wings, Spectre remembered from his study in mythology that this was a manticore, a top creature in the food chain and it looked like it was about to enjoy some pony hide.

Spectre quickly aimed his sniper before getting the manticore's attention "hey, come fight someone your own size you big, dumb animal." That did the trick and manticore was now charging at him Spectre waited, and waited and-

*BANG*

The might manticore fell with it's head blown completely off, Spectre got to his feet and looked at the now dead predator before going to check on the pony. "Hey, you alright?" he asked crouching down to see if it was hurt, after his inspection he looked back at the pony.

"You mind telling me what you were doing out here."

The pony looked down at the ground before 'she' spoke in the same accent he heard when he fell "w-well I came in here because I was following you."

"And why were you trying to follow me."

"I was curious when i went to buck some apples off a tree and collect them I was expecting to see apples fall from it but instead I see a big creature with red eyes that calls me cute, pets me behind the ears, and then wonders off leaving me to follow you into the Everfree Forest only to come back later to save me from becoming a manticore meal."

Spectre just continued to look at her before looking up and seeing the sky darken a bit he then looked back to the mare "whats your name?"

The mare stood up with pride and answered "Applejack of the Apple family and owner of Sweet Apple Acres."

Spectre flinched a bit before pulling out the bag filled with apples and giving it to her "then these are yours, I thought they were wild apples but since they were on your land they belong to you." If there was one thing that Spectre wasn't it was a thief, to him stealing from others especially if they worked hard to earn it was the most scummiest thing you could do.

Applejack looked at the bag before pushing it back "no, you keep it, you earned after saving me." Spectre put the bag back and looked at the sky again, it had gotten darker.

"Com'on I'll escort you home, who knows what else is out here at night" Spectre lead the way activating his night vision with Applejack following behind him. After a couple of hours they finally made to the edge of the orchard Applejack told him thanks before turning and leaving to go home. Spectre turned as well and went back to the castle to give a full report to Ghost, however as he was on his way back he didn't notice a pair of blue, snake like eyes watching him.

Author's Note

Well another one done, and some friendship between Spectre and Applejack this going to be good. The voting is still up and here are the results.

Ghost: none

Spectre: none

Skull: none

still nothing but ah well.