Earth-Chan in Equestria

Chapters

Spring
Spring: The Worst Part Is The Tentacles
Spring: As Normal As It Gets
Spring: I Know My Name, What's Yours?
Spring: Soap Is No Laughing Matter!
Spring: Trouble With A Capital E! (Edited)
Spring: Blending In
Spring: A Couple Of Renegades
Spring: Sneak 100
Spring: Cultured Critters
Spring: Little Blue World
Spring: The Point
Spring: Judgement
Spring: Things Are Getting Flippin' Crazy!

Spring

Author's Note

This is the first fic I've ever committed to. I hope you excuse the clear signs of a novice at work. I expect to get a lot of feed back on grammar and the such, but for the most part, I'd love to hear what you all think of the concept. I really want to get Pony Earth-Chan started. I didn't find any made yet and I guess... well, as they say, be the change you want to see in the world. Or, something. Hehe, I think that was Gandhi. Maybe.... Probably. Could look it up, but who can be damned at a time like this? Bed time!

Spring

The decision had been made, there was no argument or objection. The Universe itself willed it so. As alive as any planet, any star, the Universe was just as cognitive as any being, so it knew when something was truly, and utterly unfair. Heck, the Universe had indirectly created the concept of right and wrong with a simple explosion of matter. Who could tell it any different? No one, and it liked that immensely.

What the Universe didn't like however is the tragedy of Earth-Chan. There were so many planets to keep track of, usually the Universe ignored them and let the commandment of physics and time watch over it's children of creation. The Universe knew negligence wasn't the answer, but any sufficient answer was met with catastrophic possibilities. It was best not to tamper with what already was. So much easier to let it's own life cycle play out, standing as a simple omnipotent observer, watching life come and go with nothing extraordinary really occurring, all except for Earth-Chan that is.

There was a sense of sadness that spanned all across the Universe when it thought upon Earth-Chan and her predicament. The Universe had no word to describe such tragedy. Well, maybe one. Human.

Of all the planets that spanned the entirety of it's infinity, of each solar system that spread across galaxy upon galaxy, the Universe had seen plenty of self destructive species inhabit it's creations. Plenty of violence, plenty of greed and aggression, plenty of naive beings thinking themselves into oblivion and taking it's creations with them. Nothing new happened to Earth-Chan that the Universe hadn't seen before. It would be impossible. Nothing has happened without residing within the Universe therefore nothing could trick or surprise the Universe. It had quite literally seen it all. Or so it thought.

The Universe could hardly predict the reaction Earth-Chan would have to the human populace. Where most of it's children of creation would get angry, sad, or maybe a tad resentful towards the Universe itself, Earth-Chan went a different route. A peculiar route. Earth-Chan embraced the Humans, and tried to make contact.

That had baffled the Universe, and more than once it had tried to intervene with Earth-Chan's decision. It went against the nature set in place. It destroyed the distance that had always been there between planet and surface life. It was abnormal and bastardizing.... But, it was also exciting.

The Universe couldn't deny that it had slowly adopted Earth-Chan's curiosity. What would happen if a planet tried to close the gap between it and it's populace?

So, against the Universe's better judgement, it allowed Earth-Chan to continue with her experiment, if one could call it that. The contact Earth-Chan made was sloppy. It had to be said. Every single attempt Earth-Chan made ended up being misconstrued as some sort of act from this 'God' character the humans had invented. What was mildly amusing at first soon backfired on Earth-Chan. Her messages were being used by the humans for a cause for conflict. It ruffled the populace each time she tried. Soon, intense divides started to form. The populace were at war.... This was saddening. It showed too. Earth-Chan had a growing sense of regret filling its being as things began to spiral out of control.

Still, Earth-Chan persisted. For decades, then centuries, and millennia and on and on. The contempt was rising. Soon, the Universe decided it was time to put a foot in. A connection was made, and for the first time since the beginning the Universe spoke.

"Child, why do you pain yourself? I grow weary just watching. I can only imagine what you feel inside."

This in of itself caused another stir. The Universe became unbalanced from this interaction. Chaos started to fall upon multiple systems at once. Galaxies starting to darken, utterly collapsing under the weight of this poor decision. The Universe had to draw back. It had to disconnect the connection and quickly.

But, before it could, it heard a response. A soft gasp of time and consciousness. It was a voice. A voice that should never have been heard. An interaction that suddenly corrupted the concept of distance. A voice that would ring across the Universe as a sense of anguish like nothing ever experienced before. It's mere presence highlighting the loneliness that the Universe hadn't truly acknowledged in all of it's cycle.

That voice carried with it words of passion, words of regret, mixtures of both, with sadness rearing its head. No anger, it noticed. Truly tragic in every sense of the word.

"I want to be friends... I want it to work." Earth-Chan had so softly answered, just before the connection had cut.

The Universe could never make such a connection again, least it destroy itself in the process. But, even so, it felt drawn all the more to such a small planet. Now transfixed upon Earth-Chan and her attempts to befriend her own living populace.

It got worse.

Each war resolved began a new one. Conflict never ended, but instead evolved constantly. The Human race seemed to be at a constant state of upheaval. Earth-Chan eventually stopped trying to make contact, seeing as she had only worsened her own situation. How hard it was to watch the curiosity of such a sweet little planet transform into a root of depression. The elements within' Earth-Chan began to roam wild only causing the Humans to grow more desperate. They'd begun to villainize Earth-Chan. Talk of abandoning her for Mars-Chan began to become quite common. It was a fantasy to leave Earth-Chan before she died and took them with her. It was disgusting.

The Universe had to stress itself not to act. It tried to send sensations in waves, to persuade Earth-Chan to purify herself. To rid herself of humanity before it was too late. But, nothing seemed to get through. That, as well as the possibility that Earth-Chan was just ignoring the Universe altogether. Clinging to some misguided hope.

World War 1, the first sign. It was apocalyptic to watch such savagery of blood and gore. This was to be expected though. And again, something the Universe had certainly seen before, but all the same, it was different with Earth-Chan. The connection made all those years ago still haunted the Universe, making it hard to not sympathize with it's Child of Creation. The compassion it held for this child was like none it'd ever experienced. It was a curse, but one it clung to. It didn't take long for the Universe to realize it had begun to harbor the same misguided feelings for Earth-Chan that Earth-Chan held for humans. It was a stretch of a comparison, but for some reason it made sense. Logic was iffy when it came to Earth-Chan and the Universe didn't care. It wanted Earth-Chan to be better, to feel better. It wanted her to regain her curiosity, that sense of spirit that she once had towards the beginning of her cycle. The Universe had become infatuated with it's memories of her. And that was a problem.

The Universe became unsteady as time passed, watching, wishing, and all too recently feeling. These feelings were not for it to have. Omnipotence did not coincide with feeling very well. There was only so much it could take and that was not a limitation worth keeping. It threatened the cycle. And the responsibility of creation meant the Universe must safe guard the cycle. It just made sense to survive and thrive. It was existence. But, now something more had entered it's thoughts. Earth-Chan started to rival the importance of the cycle. And that was unheard of.

World war 2, another blight happening far too quickly. It was rapid succession. This was horrible. A new sense of frustration rose from Earth-Chan soon after the last pool of blood was spilled. What the humans thought as world changing history was just another bruise left on the surface of their planet. But, this war came with scars too. Two deeply cut scars, defacing a single country. It was a devastating blot of fallout that disfigured Earth-Chan. It maimed her. And Earth-Chan had had enough. What followed could only be described as a tantrum. A venting of what was possibly the most repressed expression of anger Earth-Chan had ever felt. Record breaking Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Tsunamis wrecked havoc across the populace. Resources dwindled, lives were lost in droves, and wars continued as if the humans themselves ignored Earth-Chan's feelings. Discontent towards her had reached it's peak. They didn't care about her anymore, no matter how angry she got. Her influence on her own populace had dwindled to nothing. Her experiment had failed.

At this point it was a race against the clock. The Universe had to decide what to do. The second sign had come and past, three being the telling number. Everything happened in threes. This next World War would be it. The sequel to end all sequels. It was time to make a choice. There was nothing to be done to save Earth-Chan. Something the Universe lamented heavily upon. Something that would probably hurt it to the end of it's cycle. Maybe even after the cycle in the time beyond time. It ripped the Universe apart thinking about what could have been done. But, something could be changed. Something had to be changed. The Universe was not going to let Earth-Chan's story end here. The cycle be damned!

That's right, it didn't care about the Cycle anymore. Earth-Chan deserved another chance. A fair chance! Something! The Universe would not settle for nothing to be done. It would rather end itself. And before long it began to hatch a plan. Something fair. Or at least something that felt fair. It quickly became a balancing act of what strain the Universe could handle without it's commandments being undone completely. It had to be meticulous else it would darken everything and bring about nothingness. That didn't bode well. Even in this chaotic state of mind, the Universe was not suicidal. It wanted to live, it wanted to thrive, and it wanted to see Earth-Chan smile. Who said it couldn't have all three? It made the rules! It created this sandbox of creation, children of creation young and old. It started this! It held possession of the highest decree! The Universe would have it's smile!

World war 3....

A choice was made. The decision was final.

Earth-Chan began to tear apart as scar after scare covered her in her entirety. She was mangled in and speckled with fire and char. Her blue and green beauty slowly tainted a dark black coal color, with red sprinkled like a confection of horror and death. Her radiation levels rivaled that of a sun, something unseen in millennia. Any sense that once resonated from the Child was now muffled and muted completely.

The Universe could only keep working, even as it twisted and contorted with grief. It could do nothing to save it's Child. The Child it'd held so closely. A Child that it'd actually connected to. This first relationship, crumbling before it. The Universe shivered and stirred trying desperately to keep it's feelings in check. This would not do. This simply would not do! This was filthy, disgusting injustice that just Would Not Do!

A destination was found.

The Universe roared in pain.

The sacrifice to get the smile it craved was a heavy chunk of it's cycle given up.

The Universe screamed, senses of power and deep pain rippling through all of space and time.

The screaming continued....

....And eventually stopped.

The Universe refocused. All too quickly blocking out the corpse of a planet once inhabited. All too quickly trying to forget.

Instead, it honed in on a new planet. A different planet. A living planet with better inhabitants.

Suddenly, the Planet known as Equis had a new guest.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A blue earth pony mare laid in a meadow, belly down in a tall patch of grass. Sleeping soundly for the briefest of seconds before being stirred by an itch. The itch was actually quite bizarre. Itches hadn't been a thing before...

Shuffling around, the itching began to grow as more and more grass touch her fur.

Suddenly, the little pony let out an unrelenting sneeze, blasting a folly of grass into the air before slowly whisking back down onto her mane nearly blending in with the makeshift splotches of green that covered her head. Each green splotch resembled certain familiar shapes of her other form. Continents painted onto a otherwise blue ocean of mane, easily reflecting the surface she once adorned.

The little pony slowly opened her eyes to a brilliance of color. Another concept that had once been lost to her. Being aware of pigmentation is one thing, but to experience it was something else entirely.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" The mare screamed at the top of her lungs, taking in the first big breathes of true fresh air and holding it for quite a few seconds.

Spring: The Worst Part Is The Tentacles

The screaming didn't last forever, in fact, she really had to try just to keep the initial reaction going. It got boring sitting there, screaming like a lunatic though. So, the little mare switched it up and began to scoot around in a circle, surveying the surroundings, taking time to scream appropriately as she was met with each new color. This all became rather tiresome and eventually Earth-Chan had to give up on the screaming. Which was a shame, the feeling was actually quite exhilarating.

Her first thoughts were of familiarity. She knew where she was! The comfort was much needed having experienced the wonders and terrors of sight. But, how'd she get in a field? Was this her field? Was this all her? She took an appendage and rubbed it along the grass, curiously staring as she ruffled the turf, making little brickles of grass pop up. Admittedly, it was messy. But, touching this was surreal. This was her, but not. The appendage told her so. This wasn't her field. Which means...

"Nugh!" She finally realized that the appendage wasn't normal. In fact, she had more. Four! Four appendages! A quartet of fuzzy tentacles.

This concept was quickly accepted as fun and the mare began giggling as she rubbed the ground frantically, finding the feel of grass pleasant.

What a ride! She could keep doing this all day, but there was a sudden desire for change. She didn't want to rub the grass anymore. Something new needed to take it's place.

Looking herself over, she recognized blue in her coat. Colors, she knew colors! She was blue as she should be! She felt a little dejected by the lack of green. It left her sad. But short lived, such was her mind as she blazed from one discovery to another. Time eventually passed, as it tends to do and before long, the pony had figured out crawling and basic standing. Everything seemed to fit together the more she thought about it. Movement became obvious, standing on all fours became effortless. Walking.... Walking took a few tries. But for her first few hours of existence, the pony blew through her infancy stages and triumphantly took her first step. Then another. And several more. Away she went.

It was too easy to evolve her foot work, from brisk walk to steady canter to a heated jog. It was hard to stay running, and she more than stumbled her fair share, but once she got going, the feeling couldn't be stopped. She craved the power of each push she made with her legs. She craved the burn. She craved for a way to turn!

She hit the tree rather hard and was floored by a complete and utter stop. She squeaked in surprise as she was rendered nothing more than a pony puddle. She felt a new itch. This one slowly festering. It was also quite familiar. For a long moment, she knew pain.

But, this kind of pain seemed fleeting, and before long she drew in more air and was surprised by her immediate replenishing strength. Picking herself up off the ground, she picked up a tentacle and rubbed it across her face. Touching it for the first time. A new discovery! Two even! She'd met a tree!

Still touching her face, ogling her own features as she felt her snout, the pony stared happily at the tree as she took in it's structure and color. A forest sprouted behind the single tree, spanning for who knows how long. It was dark and gorgeous, giving her wonderful memories of a time before Urbanization. Well, before the excessive Urbanization.

Earth-Chan felt her ears splay back, a terrible feeling wracked her body. She couldn't help but sniffle as some bad memories came back. Sitting back on her rump, careful of not crushing her tail (Past experience), she had a small whimper as she lamented her failure. Of an experiment gone wrong. Of her own foolishness.

*"They deserved better..."* The pony merpled out softly, using the only Latin dialect she still knew. The pony perked her ears back up at the sound she made and found it pleasing. To comfort herself, she closed her eyes and let out a long noted vowel, letting the hum leak from her lips into a soothing sound of song. Following no real particular rhythm. She'd forgotten about this language. It'd been so long since she'd used it to communicate with the humans. And sound truly triumphed written text. For a while, nothing but Earth-Chan's off pitched singing filled the air, the tree leaves ruffling as a spring time breeze rolled past the sea of foliage. The pony ended with a soft sigh, her tears subsiding. It felt rather new and relieving to finally get to cry.

"Singing isn't really your forte, is it now?"

The pony was fairly spooked by the voice and quickly turned her head to the source, eyes opening wide as she was met with... Company!

A snake seething goat dragon floated not a foot from her, looking down on her while it laid suspended in mid-air, as if lofting on a soft cushion or chair that wasn't there. The being had a presence that could only be described as pure confusion. From hodge-podge horns to confusing hoof and dragon claw. This creature screamed 'mistake', and for more reasons than one.

The creature leaned his head towards Earth-Chan, obviously excited for her reaction. Much to his delight, he was greeted by the typical scoff of disgust he'd grown to love. Albeit, delivered in a rather new way. *"Why are YOU here?"* Earth-Chan practically spat towards the dreconequus. This elicited a devious smile from the creature known only as Discord: Spirit of Chaos (Self anointed ruler of fun). He couldn't get enough of these faces Earth-Chan unknowingly displayed with each second looking at him. It was a riot to watch her switch from expression to expression, fumbling with her features awkwardly before finally getting it right, all subconscious struggles she didn't even know she was facing.

"Oh, but I feel like that's MY line~ Somepony isn't in Kansas anymore, is she?" Discord flapped his wings and began to slowly circle his elongated body around the sitting pony's head, playfully slithering around the tree she sat under as if using it for suspension. "Ho ho, no, you've caused a lot of ruckus since the last time we met. So much stir, for such a little, insignificant ball. of. Dirt~"

He really knew what to say to push her buttons. It was a pain just to keep from reacting to his obvious bait. She refused to play his game, knowing the satisfaction it'd bring him. She knew how to stay civil! She was a Child of Creation for Universe sake!

*"You beat around the bush a lot."* She said with a smirk, mustering past her own aggravation to try and play coy back at him. It worked. Against her.

"Oh, quite, shall we get to the point? Yes, lets discuss." With a snap of his tail, the green landscape around them vanished, leaving nothing but void, and a curtain. The curtain drew and Discord stood, looking to put on a lecture, appropriate gown and vintage wig included. Earth-Chan sat in a wooden seat, propped up in a very bipedal manner, giving her a small fit of discomfort. She got over it as Discord began to speak.

"You, a body of gravitational mass, broken apart by destruction and fester.
Boom, a cataclysmic blast of brilliant measure!
Suddenly, The sky is screaming, of pain and abhorrent displeasure
We, the celestial few, could hardly deem what was the matter.
Me, The one with a clue, followed the distortion to this green field pasture!
You, now sporting a body anew, Need to start explaining a lot the heck faster!"

The Dreconequus empathized his last verse with a slap of a ruler to a chalk board, demanding her full attention. The pony had not been expecting a song. It was intimidating to follow up and left her on the spot. She could hardly compete with such an angry number and looked away in embarrassment.

*"I... I don't know. Things, were void. I-I couldn't sense anything."* It wasn't hard to stress the point that she had no recollection. She had nothing to recall. She was as lost as he was, if not as musical.

Discord, for all his sudden seriousness, knew a genuine plee when he heard one. At least, he liked to think. Unsatisfied with her answer, but understanding all the same, he snapped his tail and returned them to the edge of the forest they'd been previously. It jarred Earth-Chan to switch scenery so abruptly and she had to wiggle her head and mane to get the tingles out of her brain.

"Well, poo. I'll admit my only lead was you, so I'm at a loss of what to do..." He coughed into his talon, clearing this throat of all the rhymes before letting out a sigh. "Look, this is where we're at. You're a pony. You shouldn't be a pony, and you definitely shouldn't be on the surface of another planet. I've got shivers running down my spine at just talking about the anomaly of that thought process!" The Drake hybrid scoffed and threw his arms in the air. Literally. Catching them in their sockets as they fell back down. "This is more chaos then I ever had planned for this world. And it's not even the fun kind!"

Earth-Chan barely soaked up what he was saying, but the underlining tone was clear. *"You're scared?"*

That struck a cord with Discord, and he gave a frown. He looked her over and shook his head. "Ha, me? The chaos overlord? Hardly~"

Suddenly, the Draconequus appeared beside her. "But!" It scared the ever loving fur off her own coat, causing her fluff to stand on end as she quickly back pedaled away from the creature. Her rump pushed against the tree, leaving her pinned with fright before she slowly began to hone in on those glowing red and yellow eyes.

"YOU should be." He leered closer, keeping her fixed with a dark glare. "Because if this comes to bite us all in the flank, if it starts to negatively affect this world, if your presence gets her hurt. I will NOT hesitate. You will know True Chaos. Do I make myself clear?" He raised his brow inquisitively, expecting his answer right then and there. Earth-Chan could do nothing but nod softly, her little body starting to shiver like a leaf.

This was not how she thought this conversation would go. If you could even call it that! She felt interrogated, she felt antagonized, she felt berated! And, she couldn't help but understand completely. She empathized with his fear. It made sense, and for what she knew of the Drake, it was rather odd to have him be so protective of anyone other than himself.

Their usual interactions back when she was in orbit were very malicious, if not light-hearted at best. For all his prodding, all his mischief and deceit, the pony assumed he had grown a heart. Somewhere in there.

It left her feeling shamed at having caused such a stir from him of all beings. This was her fault some how. She should make it better, but what were her options? Where did she even start? Those questions brought up memories. The same questions she'd asked when her first try at contacting the humans had failed. She'd failed again. She was good at it.

With a look of dejection, the blue earth pony hung her head and whimpered, her eyes closing in a sense of defeat. *"We're clear... I will do my best to blend in with this world. Maybe that's the key to this... 'Stir'."* She offered, trying to regain a sense of reassurance. *"Maybe I can make it better?"* She didn't promise a fix, she had no intention of trying. This was beyond her. If the Spirit of Chaos was at a loss, then where did that even put her?

The Spirit kept watching her for the longest time, reading her. As new to the experience as she was, it left her feeling awfully self conscious having him stare at her. With a hushed whine, the pony began to squirm and fidget wishing to escape this silence. She'd spent well over four billion years in muted silence, and she could not even begin to compare it to the unease she felt now. Why must he keep eye contact?! What was he trying to accomplish?!

Discord smiled at her after a while.

That snake! Had he just been playing her? Her suspicions were proven as he smirked himself into a chuckle, before finally relaxing into a sharp laugh at her expense. "Ahaha, yes, lets hope you can... Hmmm, though blending in is going to be a challenge. You don't exactly scream the word normal."

Earth-Chan found herself taking offense to that, she looked herself over and gawfed. *"Ah, wha, there's nothing wrong with me!"* In actuality, she had no basis for that statement. Normal for her was being a 3,959 mile wide ball of gravity compressed rock. It suddenly dawned on her that the word pony had come up quite a few times. Was she really a horse? Were those tentacles actually hooves? Questions for later.

"Nothing wrong with you? Nothing Wrong With You?! Nothing Wrong With YOU?!!" The drake blinked before giving a slight nod. "You're actually kind of right, you're not the hardest mare on the eyes. Plus, that color screams adorable." He gave a Cheshire smile as he pat her lightly on the head, her blush was slow to catch up, her embarrassment only now fitting uncomfortably on her face.

"No ho, the problem is that tongue of yours, or per say, the talk that comes from it. You sound like the definition of alien." He snickered at the concept of her being an 'other worldly being'.

"Here, I'll fix you're grammar up if you'll do me one favor."

Earth-Chan lost her blush in place of pure curiosity, she tilted her head at him and gave him a big stare with those round, bright eyes. He suppressed the urge to break his cool and start petting her. No instead he wafted his tail up and in front of her face, almost completely obscuring her vision.

"Blink."

He snapped his tail, causing her almost immediately to blink as instructed. To her surprise, the spirit was gone, nothing had changed. As far as she was concerned. It was getting dark. And in the distance, she saw the color of lantern light highlighting the top of the hill. There was a village. She remembered the concept of those. Kinda. It meant people.... err ponies? Horses? Wow, this was hard to process, even for a new born such as herself. Shifting away from the tree, she began to canter out into the field of grass, following the light to her destination. Wherever that meant.

Author's Note

Okay, lots of feed back! Lots of nice words. It's hard to not talk to you guys, but I'm kind of nervous about this, so I'd rather not get too blather-mouthed in the comments. That said, one or few of you have offered art and/or proof-reading. I feeling like I could only accept one of those offers though. If you'd ever give me the time of day to proof read for me (I REALLY need it) that would be amazing! Art wise, I figured art is up to you. Don't feel compelled to make art for someone else. Make it because Pony Earth-Chan is cute and worth drawing! I wouldn't feel right accepting art of her, because this is in no way my original character. I don't own her, therefore I shouldn't have her art 'Drawn for me'. If you find some more art made out there, link it to me please, but I think I'll keep the cover art just the way it is. Thank you all the same!

Now, that out of the way, I have some Self Defense classes to attend! Wish me luck!

Spring: As Normal As It Gets

Earth-Chan had a little moments pass to finally reflect, and what a reflection it was! Having wondered into the local town of lantern lit paths, she'd stumbled upon a fountain. It's spring water cascading down into a pool, it's flow creating a curtain of liquid beauty that attracted Earth-Chan, mesmerizing her in so many ways. When she got closer it's reflective surface acted as a mirror and for the first time that day, she could see who she was. Who she'd become. And to be honest, she looked nothing like a horse!

What was with the eyes? They were ten times the size of a human's! And look at her hair! Mane. Whatever! Look at it! It... It... Oh there was the green! She had green! She wasn't completely blue after all! The relief that swelled up inside her was quite immense from such a lack luster discovery. Comparatively, learning about running had been much more exciting, but something about having more familiarity covering her made things better. She smiled at her self and immediately frowned, then opened and closed her maw rapidly. She stuck her tongue out and waggled a good waggle before she blew a raspberry and slipped it back into her mouth. She made puppy eyes to herself, tried the whole winking thing, and even won a staring contest!

Finally done gushing over her face, she began to go through some more thorough inspection. She stepped back a bit, craned her neck and took a side look. She was rather skinny than she was use to, though the universal appeal of losing weight was not lost on her. She let out a satisfied purr and continued her pony anatomy class. Her legs were shapely, meaning she had the right muscle tone for a horse, if a little lenient in some places. Her rump noticeably kept a little bit of it's mass, though nothing too out of proportion. She liked it. She liked her rump, and the brown thing that was plastered across it.

Oh, wait yeah, what the heck was that? She had dirt on her? Was that from sitting in the grass? Breaking her trance from the makeshift water mirror, she swirled her head around and gave her butt a good look-see. With out all the rippling and trickling it was clearer to see that she was rather heavily stained on both sides of her flanks. That wasn't very nice to look at. She should fix that when she had the chance. It didn't smell bad, and didn't really feel messy either. But it clashed heavily with her blue and that was a no go.

Still, she checked out pretty okay. Not really horse like at all, but for the most part she could get use to seeing herself. Once she got use to seeing in general that is.

The last thing to look at was her tail, but it was really more of the same. Her mane and tail shared their coloration, albeit different continents. Once she soaked herself in she looked back to the fountain and scooted closer, sitting in front of it and returning to her simple pleasure of watching it flow.

A new set of questions started to resonate inside her head, finally her thoughts moved on to something a little deeper than physical appearances.

Questions like, Why?

She knew where she was suppose to be, she knew what had happened to her. Nothing was missing, all the memories were there. Her mistakes weren't going anywhere. But, yet, she felt none of it. The scars were gone. The pain wasn't there. And neither were her humans.

Why?

What a good question. None of this felt real. What Discord had sung started to replay in her head, causing her to gently tap her hoof to the beat presented.

"Cataclysmic blast?" She repeated, scoping out every syllable, trying to find clues. What had that been? Surely she hadn't blown up, those scars didn't have nearly enough penetration to dismantle her like that. What was the blast? Why did it mean she had to be here, why did it mean she was suppose to be a pony?

Stretching out her hoof, she passed it through the curtain of water and let it splash against her. She slowly traced the hoof towards her own reflection. The water began to break and split, her new face was slowly obscured, distorted and disheveled. Eventually it broke completely into a unrecognizable blob of blue and the occasional green.

"What purpose is there for a Child of Creation... without her own creations?"

She hadn't heard it til now. The voice was different. She had a new sound. It was soft at base pitch, but rasped with emotion. She didn't recognize her own dialect anymore. She didn't recognize a lot of things recently. The new sound only pushed her mood deeper south. Her ears pinned back as the pondering became too much. She needed a distraction from all this and fast. She was on the brink of tears again and, for some reason, the relief from last time didn't seem probable.

"Um, Ma'am? Y-You've been at the fountain for well over a couple hours now... I'm not a stickler for the whole loitering rule, but... I'd like to at least ask if everything's okay?"

She hadn't been paying attention again. Always so caught up in herself. Last time she had an excuse, discord was the master at sneaking, but this pony had literally just walked up to her clipping and clopping like crazy and she'd never even heard a peep! Getting startled for a record breaking second time since being awake, the blue mare gasped and quickly turned away from the fountain, setting her now soaked hoof back on the stone tiled floor, dripping profusely. It hadn't dawned on her how absorbent she was, or that the water would have very 'chilling' consequences.

Blinking over to the source of the voice, she spotted a very gray maned pony sporting a nifty police vest. His look of concern was unmistakable, with the hint of growth as she showed more and more signs of shivering. She couldn't help it, that fountain had betrayed her. She had been bamboozled and she had no one to blame but herself. It was the tree all over again!

"It's late out, Ma'am. Suppose to get chilly here soon, what are you doing splashing in the fountain at this time of night?" The gruff sounding police officer had a bit of crisp in his voice that Earth-Chan found soothing. The question itself was hard pressing though and completely ruined her enjoyment.

"U-Uuuuuh, yes. I was, errrr.... Eugh... Blending in?" She offered with a sheepish smile, curious as to if she was in trouble or not. Her shivering had now managed to encompass her entire body as she sat. Her flicked her tail around so that it would wrap against her hooves a little and offer some smidgen of warmth.

"Right...." The officer responded, slowly approaching her with a perplexed stare. "....That aside, you look cold."

Earth-Chan let out a whimper as a breeze rolled by, as if cued by the officers words alone. She couldn't handle this much right now. It was one thing to live in torture. It was another to slap ones self into a tree. But, contracting hypothermia became a very serious scare like no other. One that Earth-Chan had almost no basis for other than a few sensations she'd felt from humans. She'd learned a lot from those sensations. It was a lot of what kept her afloat during recent events, but if one thing hadn't been stressed enough, it was that dying alone, broke, and more relevantly COLD was Not a good time.

"Yes. Very." She nodded to the Officer with a forced smile, trying hard not to whimper again. She wasn't good at holding it in. Her little noises seemed to emphasize her answer and the night guard stopped his questions and took action. His vest was given to her out of courtesy and he began guiding her to the police station.

Swept up, all of the sudden, his arm around her withers, Earth-Chan was left defenseless to the nice gesture and allowed herself to be guided. The guard was consistently reassuring her that everything was gonna be okay. His soothing voice back in full force. Through all the shivering, she couldn't help but smile a bit. This was a good first impression. She hadn't really expected much, she'd been told how she looked, her one real give away had been whisked away with a little bit of chaos. She could play this game. She could blend in. This was going to be easy.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah, no.

This was impossible! It had gone wrong the second she'd woken up!

Sure, the warm bath was nice. She'd gotten into a bit of trouble with the soap after dissolving every bar they had, and that led to a little bit of chastising, but for the most part she'd been treated quite well last night. She got a cell all to herself, one with extra blankets and pillows added to the bed. She had no unneeded company. And the key to her own cell was kept on the night stand in there with her. It was seclusion paradise!

But the second dawn hit, the second old 'Mister Gruff' had unlocked the door to the station and waltz back into the jail house, Boom, here came the questions.

What happened last night?

It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, but where do you live?

Why didn't you ask to be lead home?

Do you not live here?

Where did you come from?

Can I get you anything to drink?

It was never ending! It was suffocating! How was she suppose to blend in if she had to stick with a lie the entire time? She was terrible at lying, literally no experience in the art. The second she tried to give an answer he'd do some kind of follow up tactic like, 'Oh, that's nice, where are you visiting from?'. What was she suppose to say? Milky Way?!

And oh, don't get her started on the whole. 'I don't know if I can keep you here for too long, do you have another place to stay?' scenario. He brought HER here, thank you very much.

She let out a breath, collecting herself finally after suffering a mild panic attack. 'Mister Gruff and Snooty' had been waiting for an answer to his last question, having slowly risen from his chair and already heading for the door to the Station's kitchen. He turned his head, pushing the door open with his hoof while looking back.

"Last chance...."

She didn't know what to drink. She'd never been parched before. She'd only really felt the sensation since he had brought it up. The needs she now had were very difficult to keep track of. Where most needs would fall into place as regular acts of survival, she was still having to fill in a lot of gaps consciously. No wonder she was so distracted. What a perfect excuse.

Shaking her head, she recognized that she had been backed into a corner by pleasantries, she was forced to choose. Being rude did NOT blend in! She went with what she knew best and requested a simple glass of water. It was an amazing fall back given how well acquainted she was with the compound. Weird thoughts crossed her mind about tasting herself for the first time as 'Gruffy von Eisenhower' disappeared into the kitchen, seemingly satisfied with her answer.

She waited for a bit. A tad longer. And suddenly she had an urge to not wait anymore. She remembered that the fountain wasn't that far away. She remembered that she still had a lot of questions to answer and still no real answers. She all too recently remembered how uncomfortable that had been.

So, with an abrupt stream of new logic, it suddenly made perfect sense to take a blanket from her cell, walk casually to the jail door aaaand make a break for it. For all her efforts, she couldn't help but be a little rude.

Author's Note

Okay, so it's really difficult right now not to seem cold towards you readers. I get what comments are usually for. I get how weird it is to not use them. I'm not falling back on some kind of blanket excuse like shyness. I'm anything but shy. I just... Don't have it in me to comment yet. I'm too focused on trying to get this out on a regular basis. I don't want to get caught up in the comments too much. Really, it's a concentration issue. And I'm going to test a new way to remedy it. Once I'm deeper in the chapter numbers I'm sure I'll get over it and start chatting it up with you guys. So far, you've all been super interesting! Ups and down voters alike. It's fun to put on a show like this and see who comes to watch. I hope it's entertaining for a bit. A least long enough for me to get my message across.

Spring: I Know My Name, What's Yours?

It was stuffy, cramped, and itchy. Itches weren't boding well for Earth-Chan. She'd begun to understand how random these sensations were. It was a mix bag of delight or aggravation or some new feeling all together. Itches told you something was wrong, but that's about it. Details were left for you to find out. You had to investigate, evaluate, and dictate your own choices on how to handle that itch. Or, simply put, you scratch when you can. And Earth-Chan couldn't.

She was a little huffy at that, not use to denying her instincts like this, but any wrong move would tip them over as they walked and honestly, she wasn't sure she could find the spot to itch under all this hay either way. Not willing to take another huge risk quite yet, the earth pony feel in line and keep up the pace.

Together Earth-Chan and 'Chaotic Pink' had stowed away in a squared bale of hay. The fit wasn't ideal, but they had somehow snuck past patrol after patrol of ponies, slowly meandering along with the shuffle of their hooves.

Earth-Chan couldn't figure out where they were going. 'The pink one' had refused to spill the beans, it was impossible to see through the hay, and her face happened to be slightly buried inside that cotton ball tail of hers. 'Pinks' seemed to think nothing of it, but Earth-Chan couldn't help but blush at being so intimate towards a tail. It wasn't like this was her first experience, but tails were private. They were kept in the back for a reason and this felt like a huge invasion of 'the Pinkers' privacy.

It didn't help that she'd taken a sniff and liked the aroma from such a tail. She couldn't determine too many smells yet given her sniffer still hadn't been used enough for her to have a repertoire to base anything on, but sweetness was too universal to miss. And it became a guilty pleasure to sniff every other chance she got, trying to keep it on the down low that she'd started in something rather embarrassing.

Nothing was said and Earth-Chan refused to be the pony to speak out about it. Her cheeks starting to grow flushed as she realized it was probably time to stop. Besides, it was better to keep herself distracted with keeping pace rather than... doing that.

They walked in unison. A small shimmy combined with the rhythm of a march. 'Panks' even kept the pace with a slow, methodical chant of numbers.

"I, 2, 3. I, 2, 3. I, 2, 3."

It was actually quite relaxing to follow along. The rules of threes always there to keep the world in balance. Earth-Chan figured they'd gone a good while. The danger was bound to be gone, whatever danger a group of slightly passive aggressive ponies could be. There was nothing to hide from, yet here they shimmied. Continuing to do so as if on the run from sunshine itself.

"S-So, where are we going?" Earth-Chan quietly whispered as they stopped at the sound of hoof steps, laying and waiting for the next chance to move.

"Shhh, we're sneaky ponies right now." 'Pinkers' hushed back at her, brushing more pink tail in her face in what Earth-Chan wanted to believe was an unintentional act of excitement. She'd started wagging it more often though, and it was getting harder and harder to buy into those think hopes. Did she know she was sniffing?! Oh gosh, was she encouraging it? Was it blissful ignorance?! What game was this pony playing?!!

"Mmmph, look... I appreciate the help, but this is taking forever." She lamented the fact that the tail had been discovered to be the source of her newest mental itch. "And it's r-really stuffy in here. Can't we just walk normally?"

Before the Earth-Chan could even blink, she was met face to face with her pink accomplice. Staring straight at her, the pony gave her a very sour frown before sighing. How had she turned so quickly like that? Gah, more unnecessary questions! She ran away from the Police pony for this exact reason darn it!

"You are really bad at playing along, aren't ya?" She said with bemused expression.

That gave Earth-Chan a bit of a wince. She'd not thought of it as a game. Heck, she didn't even know where she stood on the scale of maturity. Who was she to be a party pooper? That said, this felt a lot more complicated than just playing along. This felt like she'd missed an undertone or too. Maybe a signal had been lost on her. Why were they still in the hay bale though? The question was on the tip of her tongue, but suddenly she thought better of it. She was already being chastised here for not getting the game, clearly too many questions weren't called for, right?

"I guess I'm trying to understand is all. Everything is kind of crazy for me still." She trailed off in a mutter, feeling several layers of confused.

'Pinkers' rolled her eyes and giggled, reaching up a hoof gave her a small boop. "Silly, I'm not actually mad. We just have a lot to teach you, don't we?"

"About what?" Earth-Chan asked, her eyes crossed lightly as she looked at the hoof booping her.

"Hehe, well, for starters, how to greet ponies. I'm guessing that's why Brighty is after you."

Earth-Chan blinked from her small trance and let out a scoff. "Wha- A Pony Hunt over not saying 'hi' properly?!"

"Well, why else would he do it? Brighty only goes after either criminals or unfinished business. If he's not out to clear some air, then that would make you a bad pony. And you're not a bad pony. I know bad ponies. I've met a few. I've met bad ponies turned good ponies by other good ponies. And good ponies turned bad ponies who wanted to be better ponies, but only came closer to being bad ponies, so a bunch of good ponies had to come to a weird pony village to tell the bad pony that communism isn't okay."

Finally letting out a breath after that stream of consciousness, 'Mrs. Pinkie Winkie' polished her hoof off on her own chest tuft and examined her appendage like a work of art. "But yeah anyway, I wouldn't call myself an expert or anything, but if you want an experienced opinion, you've come to the right place."

"Ugh, where is the right place, by the way? We've been stopped for a while now."

The pink pony threw the hail bale up over both their head and let it fall to the side, reveal them as well as revealing where they were after all this time. "Welcome to the cupcake emporium of ponyville, Sugar Cube Corner!"

Earth-Chan gawked at being in-doors. She hadn't even noticed the switch from stone tiles to wooden boards. Heck, now that she looked at it, the door had a bell. How did she not hear the bell?!

"W-When did we?" She stuttered, mentally tripping over herself at the leap in logic. She'd been flabbergasted enough to not realize what the term cupcake emporium had meant before the smell suddenly took her. "Oh my gosh, what..." She sniffed her nose into the air and began following the scent, eyes fluttering closed as she chose to concentrate more of the sweet sniffs than anymore of this confusion. "...Mmmph, what is that?"

Her nose lead her to the counter. So she promptly sat in the stool presented so she could get closer to the warm scent. The pink pony quickly joined her, sitting the seat next to Earth-Chan as both enjoyed what the chief was cookin'. She'd all but forgotten her need to hide as that delicious, nose tickling smell threw caution completely out the window. She didn't care if this cook saw her. Heck, maybe that'd be good if she did. With a little luck, maybe she could get a sample~

"Morning Mrs. Cake! How's the baking?" 'Pinkers' greeted happily.

The fore mentioned 'Mrs. Cake' turned from her oven and smiled warmly at her visitors. "Oh, Pinkie Pie. It's been wonderfully slow today. Just catching up on a few treats before the rush hits soon. How's your day off been and who's your new friend?"

Mrs. Cake checked to make sure her timer was set before discarding her oven mitts on a rack above her stove. She turned with confidant posture that only a proud creator could muster. Something Earth-Chan greatly appreciated to see. It made her warm up to the pony before she even had a chance to say, "Hi." She wasn't going to mess this one up. She'd learned from her mistake.

"Hello deary." She beamed before looking back to 'Pinkie Pie, apparently' for an introduction.

"Oh, well. That's actually a good point, Mrs. Cake. I hadn't asked yet." Pinkie answered with a thoughtful frown. "Weird, cause I usually get all over that."

The blue, elder mare was just as perplexed, shaking her head at the answer with her own expression of confusion. "That's not like you, Pinkie. And I've heard nothing about a party for this pony eith-"

She was interrupted rather quickly as Pinkie Pie flagged up her hoof, giving her a pleading look all the while. "Ah ah ah, ixnay on the artypay, Mrs. Cake. Shhhhhhush~"

It took a moment of pure staring before it all dawned on the confectionery cook and she gave a small nod of realization before giggling into her hoof. Earth-Chan wasn't an idiot though. She could catch on to a secret as well as the next pony. She just wondered who the party was for. She hoped that whoever it was had a fun time. She on the other hand had a few more questions to deal with.

"Um.... right. So, I guess names are in high demand around here." Earth-Chan looked rather apprehensive at keeping on subject, but it seemed right to avoid spoiling the party for whichever pony, so she wanted to get use to ignoring the topic so she didn't let anything slip.

Mrs. Cake tilted her head at that and gave a reassuring smile. It was hard to tell if she was making an effort or if every smile this pony gave just happened to feel reassuring, but she couldn't help but smile back. Her good mood was infectious. "It's not demanded from you, deary. It's just another way of saying 'hi'. I won't prod you if it's a difficult topic, no matter the size of the issue at hoof. We can talk about something else if you'd like."

Oh, that didn't help. She wanted an out, but that was nice enough to make anyone spill the beans. This could be a case of blatant reverse psychology and Earth-Chan wouldn't care. The mare just had a presence about her that screamed.... Oh what was it. Motherly? Yes, oh sweet universe that was it! This pony had every signal characteristic of a mother at the ready. Ready to listen. Ready to comfort. Ready to help.

"N-No, it's nothing like that. I just.... um." How do you explain the lack of a name to beings that use names and titles as if they're everything?! Earth-Chan was called Earth. Dirt. She was the latin equivalent to the word literal. How does one make a name out of something like that? "Well... My name comes from far away. It's a little hard to explain. But um..."

Earth wasn't horrible. She'd accepted that humans and celestial just calling her that. It was easy to identify with, she'd heard it more times than what was worth counting. But, the question really needed to be asked, was it worth hanging on to? She had a whole new world to discover. She had possibilities now. She had something more than just a conscious now. She had a voice. She could make a decision.

"My name is what I want it to be. I guess. And I want to be known as something different than what I was. I haven't really decided what that is yet." Earth-Chan liked to open her thoughts up. It felt kind of relieving to share a thought like this. Something more than just small talk or questions. It was nice to feel some connection for once. It was too easy though. She had some reservation still creeping inside. She shrunk back a little on her stool. A feeling of smallness starting to take root. Insecurities started to flood in. What if she said too much? What if it happens again? What if this is just another beginning to an even worse failure?

Mrs. Cake broke in though, filling her mind with a soothing voice in place of some of those bad thoughts. "That makes sense, deary. I can completely understand." The mare reached a blue hoof over and held Earth-Chan's comfortingly. A mothers touch. She was good at this. "Names can bring a lot of value to who we are. It's important to be the one that gives that value to yourself. I know it might not compare well, but I had something of the same kind of crisis you're having when I was younger. But, a good friend helped me through that. Give it some time, and maybe a few more hellos, and I'm sure you'll have ponies there to help you too."

Earth-Chan nodded at that, agreeing whole-heartedly to everything the plump chef pony said, caught up in the delight of having someone so intimately care. It brought back memories of her night with 'Brighty'. Memories of her time with her humans. Memories of warmth. As sparse as it was back then, those warm fuzzies were nothing new to the planet turned pony. Finally, another familiarity.

Earth-Chan sniffed, having not realized she let herself get so teary. She hadn't meant for her first real hello to be sad, but it'd also worked out far better than she could have hoped. These weren't bad tears. But, they weren't happy tears either. They were tears that needed to happen. For the second time, Earth-Chan was allowed to cry. And she did.

Walking with a purpose, Mrs. Cake briskly walked around the counter to go meet Earth-Chan for a hug. She was a little late though, as Pinkie Pie had already scooped her up, but that didn't stop her from joining.

Together they shared a moment of sniffles and warmth. Leaving quite the impression on a very damaged pony.

Once the moment passed, the hugs broke apart. It was reluctant, but Earth-Chan knew it was silly to hope those moments would last forever. She knew better than any pony that they never did.

"So, how about a place holder? Something to call you until you choose what name you want?" Pinkie Pie offered. She was a somber pony when the time called for it. It was clear that any zaniness and disapproval earlier was all for the sake of fun. It made Earth-Chan smile when she was finally struck with the question. She didn't want to say anything permanent, and that's what Pinkie was offering. A short term solution to her thoughts and issues.

"Mmmmm, hmmm, well. It was initially Earth." She said, pondering the taste of that word and how it left her lips in the equine dialect.

"Right, Earth Pony... Wait, you use to just go by Earth Pony?" Pinkie was confused just as much as she was confusing.

"Wha? No, just Earth..."

"Pony*"

"Earth!"

"Pony*"

"Pinkie Pie!" Earth-Chan whined out, exasperated.

"Present!"

"No, Pinkie.... My title use to be Earth."

"And it kind of still is."

"What, why? I thought we were exploring new ideas! "

"No no no, nothing to do with that. You're an Earth Pony! Like me! And Mrs. Cake... And Brighty..." The Pink pony tapped her chin in concentration. "Actually, I kind of wonder if you've really stopped to smell the Unicorn and Pegasi yet."

"The what and what?!"

"How about Earth-Chan, keep things original and a little fresh!"

"That... Defeats... The purpose.... Of our conversation. Go back a second though, what were you saying about Unicorns?"

"And Pegasi!" She chirped happily.

Mrs. Cake let out a chuckle as she made her way back around the counter into her kitchen, seemingly unaffected by the wackiness happening before her. She knew something Earth-Chan didn't. It was unfair for her to keep from warning her, still It was rather self evident. Even now as Pinkie listed off different versions of Japanese styled Earth names. That there was some battles you just don't fight.

"...-Sama. Earth-Sensei. Earth-Kun! I like Earth-Kun!"

"Uuuuugh, Pinkie, you're the sweetest terror I've ever met.... Just... Chan. We can stick with Chan for the moment?"

The pink pony cheered as a temp name was finally decided on. As exhausting of a process as it had been, she was just glad it was temporary. There was no way a name like Earth-Chan was ever gonna stick. Soon she'd get her thoughts straight and see about a new name. A pony name. What would it be?

Author's Note

Alright. Well, this is the part that I always love. Nooooootes!

So, I have a problem. There is no current 'Pony name' for Earth-Chan. The meme has not been fully ponified at all. Which means I have to make something up. Which is actually not one of my strong suits. Frankly I'd rather get an audience pole going on what her future Pony Name should be. But if that doesn't go over well or if no one can agree on anything I'll just cast my own Judgement and put it in when the time comes.

That said, what did you guys think? Pinkie got first exposure to Earth-Chan. Next is *Beep* quickly followed by *Beep*. I'm looking forward to y'alls reactions. Until then, see you next chapter! ^.^

Spring: Soap Is No Laughing Matter!

It was getting well past noon. The sun at it's peak, beaming down its rays of spring warmth. With it at their backs, ponies could bask in said warmth without any fear of an overdose. The sunshine was perfect for a walk. Two earth pony mares could be barely spotted enjoying such perfection on the outskirts of town. Keeping clear of any unwanted glances as they made their way along the perimeter of Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie had decided Earth-Chan deserved a grand tour! Which sadly had to be adapted given their current circumstances. Pinkie tried to suggest they use the hay bale again, but Earth-Chan made it clear she wasn't comfortable in confined spaces, which wasn't the real reason, but not necessarily a lie either. The poor pony looked devastated, having felt like she'd forced her new friend into such an uncomfortable predicament. Earth-Chan was left to console the silly pink pony as they walked side by side, making sure things were still okay every other minute or so.

Pinkie Pie was a whirlwind of emotions sometimes. It was mind boggling to figure out where the wackiness ended and the sweet caring pony started. She could really do without the headache since it wasn't enough she had become a fugitive in the span of a single day, no now she had a friend. Pinkie Pie, for all her quirks, bells, and whistles was her first friend as a pony so she might as well play along every now and then. As crazy as that word seemed to Earth-Chan, it really fit the pony she used it for. Of course she'd heard the word friend before. She'd made connections with humans before, using the word as a term of connection and endearment.

Though, this time around, the word had a sense of force to it. For reasons unexplained, it tingled her lips when she used it. Earth-Chan noted the word made her ears flicker by themselves too as if an aurora of feel good wind suddenly engulfed her when she spoke it. Everything about the word was kind of exciting and cheerful. She'd ask for some explanations, but for now, chalking it up to weird pony stuff seemed to do it enough justice. Still, it rolled around in her head a lot as they walked and talked. Earth-Chan got distracted with all this whimsy, she'd completely missed Pinkie's last sentence.

"Earth to Chan. Earth to chan, hello. Are ya in there?" Pinkie's hoof waggled in Earth-Chan's face, causing her to blink out of her stupor and react with a gasp. She'd been holding her breath!

"Oh, oh my gosh. T-Thank you, Pinkie. That was...That was getting intense!" The pony sputtered a couple of times as she gasped in a few more breathes before finally regaining herself.

"Hehe, wow. That was crazy. Your hair was fluttering, your eyes crossed, and you started turning purple. Did you just forget how to breath?"

Earth-Chan was left a little embarrassed by that question and turned her head a way from her friend, blushing. "N-NO. I didn't forget, I was getting to it. There's a lot to think about today and sometimes the uh.... the order gets jumbled.... it's a work in progress."

Pinkie happily nodded along in quick acceptance. "Oh, tell me about it sister. I can't tell you how often my other gal pal Twilight has to remind me to take a breath. Usually it's because of how quickly I can rant. Hehe, haven't ever had a problem with just walking though." Her snickers underlined that last sentence annoying Earth-Chan quite a bit

"Let's just appreciate the fact that things are calming down and leave it at that. Where are you taking us by the way?" Earth-Chan shrugged that last part off and trotted ahead leaving a giggling buffoon in her dust. Looking around, Earth-Chan noticed the dirt path start to break into splotches. Fizzing out with each smaller spot before nothing but grass touched their hooves.

With the road gone the scenery began to gain more and more foliage. Trees began to speckle their path, making them have to accommodate as they walked. What began as simple tangled thicket slowly became more organized the further they went. Trees started to have their own rows. It was quite perplexing to see such an unnatural growing pattern, but it all came to light the second Earth-Chan looked up at the leaves. She'd been such a silly pony. It was clear where they were. They were surrounded by a paradise of fruit. One of her absolute, all time favorites! They were in an orchard! Her friend had brought her to an apple orchard!!

Breaking out into a gallop, Earth-Chan led the charge as Pinkie followed in tow behind her with a gentle bounce, giggling all the while at the blue mare's reaction. Before she knew it, Earth-Chan was frolicking through the orchard, huffing heavily as she picked up speed. She didn't have to focus on where she was going, the trees kept everything on track. It was nothing but power, her hooves exploding underneath her as she kicked up splashes of dirt in her wake.

It was amazing to have so much confidence in her own foot work. She'd nailed this running thing to a tee, and her mastery was on full display. Earth-Chan tore across the landscape, focusing on a lake in the distance as her destination. She could use a drink.

Things were getting hard to see, both the wind and her own pace bouncing the world around her and blurring it with watery tears. It got to be uncomfortable, so the pony opted to close her eyes. And for a few seconds life felt carefree. There was no bounty on her head. No awkward feelings that muddled up her thoughts. No weird ponies... "Hey, wait up!" Okay, not as Many* weird ponies. Something about working up a sweat was so addicting. So exhilarating. She could get lost in this orchard forever and it wouldn't even matter.

"The hay are y'all doin' on mah farm! Pinkie? Why'd y'all come the back way?"

"Earth-Chan! Left! Go left!" She could go left, but why? Straight was faster. Straight was easier. Straight was great! Though the moment left a hint of deja vu in her mouth. It tasted a lot like a tree. Well, she could tell where this was going. Just replace the tree with a thick accented farm pony.

"Wait, are ya blind?! You're headed right for.."

Earth-Chan winced slightly, her eyes still closed as everything seemed to slow down.

Here she was again, another predicament. A literal run in with a new pony. Another surprise waiting for her. She'd done this before. She was starting to get into the routine of things. All she had to do, was let it happen. Maybe things will end well this time. Maybe she was destined to crash into every pony on this planet. Maybe it was fate to slowly bash her head in with the force of her own clumsiness. But, hey, at least she was developing a tolerance. That was good. A strong head meant stronger thoughts. Structure was important after all.

With all her preparation in order, it felt so drawn out to wait for the inevitable. So, with that, things went as they should. Just as they were meant to be.

Opening her eyes, Earth-Chan blinked away some tears from the stinging earlier. It was a split second, but she noticed an orange blur wiz past her. The blur had just left the corner of her gaze before she realized what the real hub-bub was about. She was headed straight for a lake! It'd gotten so close so quickly, of all the trickery. She was convinced it was brain damage this time. Not splashes! This was going to be the fountain all over again! If it wasn't one constant, then it was another!

"Hang on, Ah got cha!"

Suddenly, there was a pinch behind her. Then a tug. Then a yank. And in one rapid move the poor filly was yanked by the bushels of her own tail and halted dead in her tracks.

"Yaaaaaaagh!" Her hooves left the ground, still propelled by her momentum, only to come whipping back. Her body momentarily stretched in an unimaginable manner before snapping back to a more imaginable form. So quick was the whiplash, she didn't even have time to squeak before her own yelp was muted by her eating the dirt.

"Oof, that's an owie." Pinkie Pie quickly approached, the sound of her bounce against the ground making Earth-Chan's ears twitch, even as she lay muzzle buried in the dirt. She perked her ears and followed the sounds from above like a beacon, picking out from all the inner ringing, she heard two voices chatting away.

"Pleh! Shucks, Ah'm awfully sorry about that one. Saw ya going towards the lake, figured you were looking for a swim. Woulda loved to let ya too, but ah can't just be opening my lakes up to anypony like that. It'd encourage trespassin'!" Farm pony walked around from behind Earth-Chan so as to properly talk to her. The filly kept her muzzled muffled with grass and dirt though as she grumbled briefly. Earth-Chan could have thought of a thousand different ways to stop herself and none of them had anything to do with yanking someone's tail like a savage!

Pinkie walked around the opposite side of her fallen comrade and sat closely next to her in her time of need. She patted that pretty blue and green mane, ruffling up what was already a pretty nasty case of bed head, combined with all the battle damage from today's events. Even Pinkie had to hold her tongue least she say something offensive about her neglected locks of mane.

Earth-Chan appreciated the gesture all the same and turned her head to look at Pinkie. Her mouth speckled lightly with small clumps of dirt, looking like something close to a messy snack gone wrong.

Pinkie snickered at the sight and reached a hoof down to wipe away a few of the dirt bits.

"It's cool AJ, she's with me. Hehe, plus that's probably not even her biggest fall today. This pony is addicted to falling down."

Earth-Chan rolled her eyes at that and nudged her hoof away from her mouth, huffing out a very bemused breath. "I am not addicted! I am a victim of circumstance."

"Aren't you being chased for stealing a blanket for no reason?"

"Pinkie! That is completely different! And I had every right to that blanket as he did, he gave it to me."

"Loaned* it to you. For one night."

"If there were terms and conditions I figured he would have said something!"

Pinkie blinked at that before snickering all over again.

"What?" Earth-Chan was beside herself. She was innocent! At least, she felt she could argue her case.

"Well, usually pony's don't have to spell it out that 'This is not a permanent gift'. It's kind of just assumed." Shaking her head Pinkie turned her once comforting pat into something a little more playful and condescending. "Poor Earthy, just can't seem to figure out this pesky foriegn equestrian culture."

"Excuse me for interuptin' but Ah was wonderin' if ah heard right. You're the filly everyone's fussin' about?"

Pinkie stopped petting Earth-Chan and stretched her arms out as if showcasing the blue mare to 'AJ'. "The one and only!"

'AJ-Pon3' seemed to grow a tad more deadpanned in her voice. "Really, Ya stole a blanket and three bars of soap?"

"Four* bars of soap."

Earth-Chan groaned, slowly starting to pick herself up, having grown tired of the floor. "Those soap were Not stolen! They were used for cleaning purposes!"

"Four though?" Turning around, Earth-Chan was met with a perked eyebrow and very inquisitive stare. It seemed quite obvious that the orange mare wasn't very approving of her escapades.

"Look, this was dealt with the night it happened. He told me it was bad, I felt bad for being bad, and then everything was suppose to be good and not so bad. Now I'm in the rough, the entire town probably hates me, and I've had to revolve my entire morning around some kind of pony hunt thought up by a cranky old police pony with a soap n blanket complex!" Earth-Chan was panting by the time she'd finished her tirade. Today had been absolutely ridiculous and it showed on her face along with the exasperation in her voice.

'AJeet pai' let out a sigh, shaking her head as things started to piece together for her. "Ah don't care for how he went about it, but ah can understand why Bright Star went so far."

"Because he's a cranky old watch-pony whose overdue for some RnR?" Pinkie gave a good guess, one Earth-Chan was more than willing to accept.

"No, it's more than that Pinkie. It's not like ya to forget something like that."

"A joke does not mean I forgot, AppleJack! I just rather not bring it up out of nowhere like that." Pinkie gave a huff and turned her head away hawtly. Her cheeks puffing out as she adorned a rather sour expression.

"Ain't out of nowhere. This here filly deserves some facts. It'll help her get an idea." Applejack looked to Earth-Chan with a sigh, taking her in for what seemed like a long draw. Both ponies stared at each other for a moment, the mood slowly getting translated. Things were getting uncomfortably somber, Earth-Chan's ears started to splay back against her head as she began to feel uneasy.

"No point beating around the bush. The uh... The blanket ya took was prolly a gift from Bright's late wife." Letting out a breath, she broke eye contact and looked off to the side. "Ya, ah reckon there's some sentimental value to that blanket. Ah also reckon he made it a point of catchin' you over it."

Earth-Chan slowly nodded at that, lost to the shock of realization. "B-But, he let me use it..."

"He probably didn't think of ya as the thieving type. That, or it didn't dawn on him to think twice. Poor fella goes the extra distance all the time, blocks his judgement sometimes." Applejack let it all sink in for a second before continuing. It was clearly hard for her to recount. She had to blink the tears away before the started.

"Like ah said, good or bad, some of his decisions are hard to get behind. But, I get this big ol' fuss. Still, ain't lookin' to guilt ya anymore than ya already might feel. It just seemed like you should know where the 'complex' came from is all. There's more to the stallion than just having a few screws loose. Ah just wish he'd give it a rest already." Slowly the mare shifted back onto all four hooves before walking in front of Earth-Chan and giving her a stern look.

"Ah don't know ya much. There's not too much to go on. But, Ah know Pinkie keeps good company. Ah know ya haven't lied yet about this whole ordeal. And I know you mean well. Which is all a good start... But, you owe that stallion an apology."

Another quiet nod, Earth-Chan suddenly feeling very small all for what shes done. It was so hard to imagine holding value like that for an inanimate object, but loosing a loved one rang the right bell. She couldn't really pretend she knew the weight of marriage and romantic love, but she'd connected with many humans... and a couple ponies now, that she cared for. She valued those she'd lost. It was just another concept that took some thinking over. Suddenly, putting value in objects didn't seem so far stretched. Still, a silly way to remember those who've passed.

"Mmm... You're right... if I can get some more time alone with him sometime soon I'll make sure to say I'm sorry." That was all she could think of to say. It'd probably lead to a conversation a lot deeper than a simple sorry, but that was for another time.

"There's still the whole soap thing too. Were they gifts as well?"

Applejack smirked at that, her hoof used to wipe under her eyes to clear a few tears. "Nah, ah think he just used the soap as an excuse to raise your profile. It's one thing to snatch a blanket, but you add soap to it and that chalks up to a decent five bit ticket."

"Wha, a profile?! He used soap to give me a profile!?! And what the heck is a ticket?!" How could such a sad story end in outrage? She'd been on the brink of tears for this pony one second, the next she was ready to throttle him.

Thankfully Applejack was courteous enough to explain the concept of tickets. Which lead to a deeper explanation about what bits were. All leading to a couple of very apt questions.

"How the hay do ya not know what money is?!"

"It's never come up!"

"Whatcha mean it's never come up? Ya can't do nothin' without money these days!"

"Look, all I'm saying is that since I've gotten here, I have not once needed money." It was the truth and she was determined to hold to it.

"Okay, but before that what did ya do?"

Tilting her head, Earth-Chan could only stare in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Before ya came to equestria, whatcha do without money?"

Oh sweet creation, it was a universal necessity! Earth-Chan had no plan for these kinds of questions. It was one thing to avoid questions about where she came from, but concepts like money couldn't be swept under the rug. No amount of culture shock could clean up after the fact that she had never dabbled in currency of any kind.

If only she'd been given a run down of society, a book or something would have worked wonders. Blending in was a simple concept, but Earth-Chan couldn't fill certain gaps herself. Humans were complex creatures with a knack for building societies. But even with what connections she'd actually made with humans, for all her worth, she could not remember a time where money had come up. She knew her trees had eventually fallen prey to the necessity of trade and goods, but that was were her knowledge stopped. Greed had been a common emotion she'd felt radiating from the human populace off and on again, but that gave no incite into the reason. The more she listened to Applejack the more complex it seemed to get.

Apparently Equestria and more over all of Equis(Which with a little questioning, Earth-Chan learned that that was the name of planet they were on) used a very bare bones gold and gem value program. It's what her humans had started with if she remembered correctly. Applejack's explanation of how their currency is mined from the planet itself felt all too familiar to the mines that had been dug into her to find Earth-Chan's resources.

The origin of the materials was where the simple part ended though, as suddenly the value aspect was introduced. It seemed like every single country on Equis had their own value system, each one evolving in different fashions. It was all the same gold and gems, but apparently different amounts of the same thing could be bought at different places for the same price. By the time they'd scratched the surface of pony economics all three ponies were left bored out of their minds.

Applejack, while knowledgeable, didn't have all the answers to some of the questions Earth-Chan asked. What little she did ask that is. This led Applejack stumbling over her own train of thought more than once before she flat out gave up on the explanation all together, much to the relief of both fillies listening to her.

"Since ya won't have the bits for the ticket, Bright Star will probably work a deal out with ya instead to work off the money. So I wouldn't worry about all the specifics. Still, the fact ya've gone this long in life without worryin' about money. Pardon me for sayin' but I'm a tad envious." Shaking her head in disbelief, the farm pony started up walking away from the two. Looking her over her shoulder as she did she beckoned the girls to follow her.

Earth-Chan looked to Pinkie who had merely fallen into step behind AJ with her usual bouncing and figured the 'Grand-Tour' was gonna be held off for later. She could probably consider this the first tourist attraction which wasn't a stretch given the apple tree paradise surrounding them. Earth-Chan quickly ran to catch up, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. Surrounded by apples, talking with some company, and having a walk. It was a nice first stop. I slower change of pace.

Earth-Chan walked with a sense of hesitation though. There was a pattern here. Set in place by recent events. She could just be getting a little paranoid, but one could only wonder when the next crash would be. It was a very small worry that was pushed aside to answer one of Applejack's question. But like all bad feelings, Earth-Chan's worries lingered. As well as a certain feeling that someone was watching.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Universe adverted it's gaze for a second before going back to watching intently, suppressing it's presence as much as it could. The celestials were aware of it. There would be consequences. No, there were already consequences. But this had been worth it. This had all been worth it. She was living. She'd even smiled. She was having some fun. This was all good. It made up for the pain. It made up for all the confusion and repairing. The sacrifice had been worth it.... but, maybe it could do a little more~

A new plan grew. It began anew. The Universe was up to no good.

Spring: Trouble With A Capital E! (Edited)

"So, what exactly did ya do with all that soap?"

It was such an obvious question, Earth-Chan had to refrain from groaning as Applejack finally addressed the age old elephant in the room. Of course it was bound to come up. She didn't blame Applejack for asking. Heck, it was part of the reason she was on the run in the first place. It's just always a little disappointing when things resort to questions all over again. Did ponies not just do things just to do them?

Letting out a sigh, Earth-Chan kicked her hoof at a pebble as they passed it, watching it tumble along the path. They'd followed Applejack's lead for a good minute before it was soon made obvious where they were headed. Up along the hill there was a very hard to miss barn perched at the top along with what looked to be a converted stable, but more homely. It was a country side house brimming with excitement. The wear and tear wasn't too distracting as it simply added to the allure. Being old as dirt, Earth-Chan could appreciate the aesthetic. With their lovely destination in sight, they walked at a leisurely pace with nothing to do but talk.

"Yeah, I never did ask you, but why did you blow through four bars of soap? That's a little excessive, even for me." Pinkie Pie asked, still bouncing casually, not missing a beat even when constantly interrupting her own speech with a new vault into the air. It was hard to tell if she was just naturally loud or if her voice carried easily because no matter how far she hopped into the air, Earth-Chan could hear her perfectly, as if she were walking like any other pony right next to her.

Letting out another, longer sigh Earth-Chan gave the pebble one last kick before turning to address the question at hoof. She'd played around with embarrassment for the greater part of two days, what was a little more to add to the pile? "Okay. Hear me out. It was a difficult time. And they weren't coming out..."

"Ya gonna cue us in, Sugarcube? Or is this the part where we start guessing?"

"Oooo, ooo! I'll guess! You were trying to get those green things out of your mane!" Pinkie was always quick to the draw when it came to a brand new game, but it took Earth-Chan aback a bit to hear such a blatant jab at her appearance. Looking up at the the fuzz draping above her brow, she could only scoff at being called out for having 'splotches'.

"Wha, that is my mane!"

"I am so sorry. I had no idea about your struggle." This cheeky pink pony was talking down to her! Even going so far as to rest a condescending hoof on her shoulder in mock sympathy. If Earth-Chan hadn't seen the smirk at the corner of Pinkie's lips there would be some words. Very terse words!

"Why? I think they look cute. They even have little names." Smiling up at her own head, she thought fondly of each continent. Each one having it's own history along with a plethora of cultures and diversities. Conflict and triumphs peppering across different ages of renaissance and plague. If these ponies only knew the stories these bits of green could tell~.

"Ya named your splotches?" Applejack deadpanned, putting her hoof back into the conversation before Pinkie completely hi-jacked it.

"Well, they were kind of named for me. You should hear some of the names though!" Earth-Chan gushed, looking up at her mane, noticing it draped lightly in front of her eyes. She didn't really like it like that, so she took a hoof and pushed her bangs to the side, making sure they slide back into place. That worked all of two seconds before they immediately fell back. It was then that Earth-Chan realized the full scope of her bad mane day.

Pinkie let out a light snicker that pulled Earth-Chan's focus away from her mane concerns. "Fine fine, but if not those splotches then what?"

"Mmmmph, try lower." Her hint was an attempt to play along. It seemed Pinkie was committed to what was honestly a nice detour from the immediate question.

"You used them to deep soak your hooves?" That was a good guess, but honestly she hadn't even thought about how dirty her hooves were during that bath last night. Too distracted.

"Higher." She wasn't sure if that was a dead give away considering how long it took for them to think it over. Applejack had kept up with the game itself, but was till more interested in getting an answer. Both seemed deep in thought as they took short glimpses at Earth-Chan before remembering the need to walk and refocusing back on where they were going.

Suddenly all three ponies stopped as the other two started to look Earth-Chan over. The gears turning in their heads were evident by their expressions. It didn't take long before their faces both lit up, making poor Earth-Chan sigh in exasperation.

"Wait ah minute..."

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing!"

Earth-Chan rolled her eyes at Pinkie's out burst.

"Look, I had no idea they were permanent! I thought the more soap the better. It was an hour of weakness and struggle and I'd appreciate it if you didn't..."

Both Pinkie Pie and AJ broke out into a fit of laughter. Their amusement built to the absolute peak before spilling over into a cascade of silliness. The farmer and baker were left clinging to each other as both began to melt into a pile of pony and giggles.

"Hahaha, you tried to wash them off?" Pinkie Pie let out a cute little snort that only made her laugh harder as her insides continued to rage with mirth.

"Sweet Celestia, Ah don't think Ah've ever heard of somepony trying to wash their cutie mark off." Both were making a scene that Earth-Chan was glad nopony else could see.

She let out a bemused snort and scuffed her hoof against the ground. "I don't even know what cutie marks are!"

"Hehe, eeeh, what? H-How could ya not?" Slowly picking herself up from the pile she shared with Pinkie, Applejack bit her lip as she tried not to imagine Earth-Chan scrubbing her own butt in a fit of desperation. But it really wasn't working.

"Look, I'm not sure about half the things around me lately." Earth-Chan let out a huff, tired of feeling clueless about 'common knowledge'. Just because the word common is applied does not mean everypony is in the loop! "Cutie marks just weren't a thing back where I came from.."

"Well, ah reckon wherever ya came from must've had a shortage of other ponies. It'd take somethin' to that extreme for you to have never heard of a cutie mark." Applejack finally started to settle down enough to give her new companion a real look. This look had a little more stare to it which was less than desired, but tolerable. It makes sense that she would grow more and more curious as they kept talking. With all the culture shock, Earth-Chan felt nothing but unnatural given the girls reactions to her answers.

Applejack had a point though. There really was a lack of ponies back in the milky way. When she was still Earth... not the Earth she is now but... When she was still Earth Prime, the pony species paled in comparison to the human population. It was practically an after thought. They were a sub-species of horse given the time of day solely for their cute looks and efficiency in carrying large loads. She deemed them another creation of her own creation's and simply allowed them to exist without much else thought. Even then, those ponies didn't talk! The differences between those and the ponies here on Equis were so monumental, it was like looking at a completely different species. She'd liken them to humans and apes in range of difference, but even then, at least humans and apes still resembled each other well enough. About the only thing Equis ponies had in common with her ponies were name alone.

"Yeah, the um... the pony population was a little low, I'd say. And what cutie marks we had were a lot less cute if I remember correctly." Earth-Chan winced as she did what she could to avoid the topic of branding. Lot of pained cries, burnt flesh, and bad times. Not her favorite human practice, but one she could overlook for the sake of being a lenient mother to her creations. Still, nopony needed to hear about it, especially not a couple of horse sympathizing... horses.

"Pony population. Pony. Population. Pony Pop... ulation. Pony pop. Pony pop?" Pinkie echoed Earth-Chan like a bright and bubbly parrot before giggling as she began to drive the abbreviation into the dirt, singing it over and over again as if parodying a song. "Pony pop. Pony pop. oh poni-poni-poni ~ Pony pop."

Applejack watched her friend slowly sway back and forth as she got into the beat. Her and Earth-Chan exchanged a look before rolling their eyes in unison. "Well, more to my point is... Ah'm guessin' ya don't know what your cutie mark stands for?"

Looking back at her own rump, Earth-Chan gave it a few seconds to really study the dark muddy stain on her flank. Taking in every darken hair as if it were a new clue to solving her own 'cutie mark' riddle.

"No, not a clue." She looked back to AJ as she added, "Honestly didn't know they were symbolic either."

Earth-Chan had to scoot as Pinkie came dancing by, now in full musical number as she kicked out her hooves in a cute little rhythm. "...Tell ya why, no pony sweeter than Pinkie Pie! And when she's rockin' by with her shaky dance... Girl, ya haven't got a chance~" To give her credit where credit was do, It was quite the catchy little song.

"They are! Cutie marks have all sorts of meanin's. It hard to really narrow down all of em' accurately. But, for the most part, they're symbols of passion. They uh... they're what ya make of em' honestly, but the connection is special. Ah don't know how deep their magic goes, but ah know I'd be lost without mine." Both mares were trying their best to ignore the pink pony as she kicked things up a notch in the last chorus, her volume breaking barriers it shouldn't. Still, it was a cheery tune, if not a little obnoxious.

Applejack was quite apt at ignoring her though and continued with a sense of vigor. "Heck, some of the ponies Ah've met wouldn't be the ponies they are today if it weren't for their cutie marks. It's somethin' else first gettin' it. Helpin' others get theirs. You should meet my sister, she's got tons of stories about helpin' ponies figure out what makes them great. It's just... It's right. I can't think of a better word than right."

Earth-Chan scuffed her hoof against the dirt once more, this time feeling a tad more sheepish as she tried to pay rapt attention, while also failing quite miserably. "It uh... It's neat to hear you so passionate and all..."

"Not translating well, is it Sugarcube?"

Earth-Chan shook her head, and sighed. "I'm not trying to be mean."

"Perish the thought."

"But, I don't even know where to begin with magic runes. Runes weren't my forte back where I came from."

"See, that's just the thing, they aren't runes. Just symbols. The magic it uh... shoot, it uh." AJ scratched her chin with her hoof as she tried to find her words. When none eventually came she shrugged her shoulders and looked off in the distance.

"This isn't mah forte either. Ah'd tell you to go talk to our friend Twilight about it, but I'm thinkin' that can wait. Shes got her princess duties, a protege, and the whole nine yards. It'd be better to catch her later in the day. Mmmmmmm." Squinting, the orange cowpony kept studying something off in the distance. Earth-Chan tried to figure out her angle, calibrate the trajectory, all in awkward attempts to see where the pony was looking. By the time she'd gotten a good idea, her cheek had found itself pressed against AJ's, their fluff brushing together into a collage of blue and orange.

"Ahem..."

Blushing brightly, Earth-Chan inched away from AJ to give her some space before resorting to asking questions like a normal pony.

"Wha..."

"Ah was just thinkin'..." AJ interrupted, smiling to herself as she stomped her hoof in satisfaction. "...Shoot, what the hay, Ah've got a little time. If Ah can't tell ya what cutie marks mean, Ah'll show ya!"

Tilting her head to the side, Earth-Chan could only wonder what the silly farm pony meant. AJ seemed to have made up her mind though as she grabbed a hold of Earth-Chan's hoof and gave a tug towards a new direction. Leaving the house for another time it seemed.

Before she could even ask, they were in a gallop. A shout behind them told her that Pinkie was not crazy about being ditched mid-song. Still, she caught up with hardly any difficulty. And with that, Earth-Chan followed after her new friends, off to learn just a little more about the new world around her. It felt like a pipe dream, but maybe fitting in won't be as impossible as she thought. Her hopes were starting to lift a little.

And that... was a mistake.

Author's Note

New edits to this chapter. I've completely lost the last version. Wifi crapped out. Had myself a bit of a dramatic fit, but managed to pour in an hour into this bad boy and revise it. Honestly, I like this version a little better. Anyhoo, hopefully getting some help here soon with this proof reading debacle. Time will tell!

With that, I pass out into nothingness. Let the dreams take me!

Spring: Blending In

A mighty clunk of hoof meeting wood struck her ears with force, sending out sounds of weight and precision usually reserved for a calamity. The ruffle of leaves as impact bounced the tree's center gravity back and forth added to the collage of sound as the nature surrounding reacted to such a fierce blow. It might have been Earth-Chan's imagination, but she could swear that even the roots below vibrated with the rippling energy sent cascading through it's mass which in turn cause the very ground she stood on to shiver. As faint as the feeling was, the tingles she got from feeling the ground shift, even just a little bit, was all she needed to realize what magnitude of a kick that had actually been.

Within the split second the shivers arrived, the sounds stopped. While an impression had been made on Earth-Chan, nature seemed to resort back to normal just after a few seconds as if the kick hadn't even happened.

That is, before the first plop resounded. Looking to the source, a single apple had fallen from the tree. It looked crisp, swollen with juices, the very picture of ripe that captured Earth-Chan in a passionate stare. She wanted that one, but so soon did she step towards it another fell right next to it. And then another. The tree had only begun to react.

Plop.

More and more, the single apple was joined by an avalanche of others.

Plopplopplop, Plop fwop!

With nothing there to catch them, the apples pitter-pattered against the grass, flung by their own momentum they bounced against each other in the clustered pile that slowly began to form at the base of the tree.

It was unknown how long the apples fell. Forever felt like a good fall back word, but realistically, it had to be seconds. Everything happened so flawlessly, as if the kick was a natural occurrence that had been granted the authority to bend the tree to its will. The resilience that the tree proved to have was unlike anything Earth-Chan had ever imagined. What would have snapped or shattered one of her own trees in half back during Earth Prime Time only seemed to quake this seemingly indestructible wooden pillar.

Now that the apple storm had finally subsided, Earth-Chan walked over, moving past a very proud looking farm mare basking in a job well done. The blue mare inspected her friends work, picking up an apple out of the pile and looking it over.

"How ya like that? Little bit of earth pony finesse and years of practice." Still beaming with pride, AJ motioned to Pinkie Pie, who had witnessed the same spectacle as she did yet seemly glossed it over with a neutral Pinkie Pie smile. Spoiled to the beauty of a well placed kick. "Y'all should see what her sister can do with rocks."

Pinkie Pie seemed to enjoy the mention of her sister and nodded heavily at the praise. "Oh yeah! Mauds super duper strong, like woof, she hits like a brick. Then she can tell you what's in said brick!"

Still stuck on the apple in her hooves, Earth-Chan misses a little bit of Pinkie's sentence. Not meaning to ignore her, just suddenly hyper-focused. She loved apples. They were one of her favorite growths. She knew a thing or two about her apples and this... this was unbelievable. "I mean, most of these aren't even bruised! How did you manage to break every single stem?! And... And the heck does this have to do with the brown on my butt?"

Falling victim to her cravings, along with not having eaten all morning, Earth-Chan looked to Applejack for permission. The question was written all over her face, even as she gestured to the fruit in hoof. Applejack for her part stopped all that smug smiling and returned to a normal farm girl smirk as she nodded to her. She seemed to understand the mare's desires and sat on her rump in wait, possibly to see Earth-Chan's reaction to one of her home grown apples.

With permission given, something she was going to have to make a point of asking for from now on, the blue filly took another scan of her treat, finding the perfect spot to munch. Once she found what was deemed the roundest spot of the apple, she bite down and had herself a good chew.

Applejack's smirk grew as she saw her bite down. Her eyes moved as if scanning her face for any subtle hints to how it tasted.

She was disappointed when nothing happened.

The second bite came far too quickly for her tastes, but she dismissed her feelings to focus on the question at hoof. "Well, that there was just a taste of what a Cutie mark is all about. They're a little broad, but basically ah can kick that tree like that for three reasons..."

Applejack couldn't help but sigh as a third bite was taken without so much as a hum of delight. She wasn't out for compliments, but there was just a certain charm to hearing satisfaction from other ponies. It told her that all that work, days and weeks of nurturing and care, it all paid off. It told her she'd done a good job, like a good pony.

Everypon wanted their claim to being a good pony. It always manifested itself into different desires, different actions, and different words. But, no matter the path, everyone wanted to walk the route of a good pony. So, with that in mind, it just felt a tad upsetting to get no reaction at all. Heck, it almost seemed like she was getting sad. Who the hay gets sad from eating apples?! Her apples! How?!!

Letting out a breath, Applejack ignored what she figured to be a blatant insult for the sole purpose of keeping friendly. She could be reading it wrong, so that's what she banked on. "...First, Ah'm an Earth Pony. We're Earth Ponies. That means we've got our special connection with our hoofs to the ground below. Where Unicorns and Pegasi got deep connections to magical leylines and the sky respectively, we Earth Ponies are deeply connected to the earth around us. S'Why we're the growers and the muscle a lot of the time. We can use and explore the world around us a little better than other races just because that's how we're tuned. The strength behind mah kick was bigger because of the kind of pony that ah am."

"Yeah, being an Earth Pony is kind of awesome that way." A quick hoof bump was shared between her and Pinkie, small smiles exchanged before both looked back to Earth-Chan, who'd nearly finished her apple during the explanation. That was a little more comforting. At least she liked it enough to keep eating. Maybe she'd read to much into it. Maybe Earth-Chan was trying to focus on all this new information.

"Heh, second is the fact that Ah've been doing this for longer than Ah can frankly remember. Ah've got mahself so trained for this, Ah could close mah eyes and buck the right spot every time. It's a good work out too. S'got me a little bit more muscle in the legs than the average pony."

"It's true, her legs are crazy strong! This one time, she came up to these researcher ponies and saved them from getting smashed by a giant boulder! Pow! She caught it with her legs like it was nothing! Didn't even budge! You should have seen it!" Pinkie's face lit up as she animatedly described the scene, using her hooves to showcase the size of the boulder. As good as the praise felt, there was a slight problem with what Pinkie said.

"Pinkie, ya weren't there. Ah don't even remember tellin' ya any of that in the first place, how do ya know all the parts ya weren't around for?" Applejack looked at her friend in shock, having been certain she'd kept from boasting about what it took to get her artifact during the Shadow of Ponies debacle last week. It blew her mind sometimes when her friend talked so on point about impossible things like it was nothing. She new the rule about questioning it, but honestly, how could she not?

"Eh, lucky guess." Pinkie responded, smiling her signature goofy smile like it was no big deal. Applejack could never read that girl when she was like this.

"Right, well, where was ah again?"

"Three." Earth-Chan's answer was muffled with an apple. At some point she'd picked up a second apple and started on it, the first nowhere to be seen, evidently devoured whole by the obviously hungry mare. She made sure to smile in appreciation, both to show she was perfectly fine with her eating more and to relieve the anxiety built up from her own inner assumptions.

Still smiling, Pinkie Pie pushed to the back of her mind for later questioning, Applejack continued. "So, third and most importantly, mah cutie mark gives me a certain understanding of apples that others don't have. Now, these days it's more of a reflection of what ah already know, but the symbol itself gives off a magic that gives me uh... an inside look to apple related situations." Rubbing the back of her head, AJ struggled through this next part as she fumbled from thought to thought, trying to figure out a cohesive way to explain this.

"So, say this apple tree. It's so apple related it's not even funny. As apple as ya can get, right?" She smirked as she walked over to her tree and stroked it's trunk with an utmost sense of care.

"Just about any Earth Pony can buck it well enough to shake it's leaves and get a few apples to fall. Ain't too hard given enough practice. But, think of having instructions. Not how to buck, but just how the tree is. How it works. Sure ya can read up on plants like anypony else, but we're talkin' somethin' on another level. It uh... It's hard to explain. But, Ah can sort of sense each tree and the apples that grow on em. Not all the time, takes some focusin', but it's sort of like a sixth sense where ah can kick certain spots that other ponies might take a few bucks to find in one go. Ah can come up to every tree in this orchard and nail that sweet spot every single time. It's that sweet spot that makes all the apples fall instead of just a hoof full at a time."

Applejack had to take a second to collect herself. Lecturing was not her strong suit. It felt like she was botching this whole explanation up, but this was as best as she could describe it. At this point, she'd run out of examples and was simply continuing on memories from school from way back when and conversations with twilight about the subject.

"So it gives you a sort of clairvoyance for apple trees?" Earth-Chan asked, finishing her second apple and going for a third. Sheesh, somepony was hungry. Though, it was getting close to lunch.

"Clar- what?" AJ was an educated pony sure. She could read like most could, but sometimes ponies just decided to speak fancy for no other reason than to give off an appearance. What in all of Equestria did clairvoyance even mean?!

Pinkie Pie giggled beside her and gave the farm pony a nudge. "I'm thinking she's starting to get it AJ, way to go~"

She was just going to have to assume Pinkie knew certain words she didn't. Maybe she paid attention to a few more words in the dictionary than she did. Who knows. All the same, she was glad she at least hadn't confused the poor filly.

"Right, well then... Ah guess what Ah want to end on is kind of a guess on what your cutie mark stands for. Ah've looked at it a few times and Ah think Ah get it."

Earth-Chan held off on taking a bite of apple number three to retort. "What's the verdict, doc?"

Smirking at the joke, AJ shook her head. These ponies were just trying to one up each other in silliness. Earth-Chan had a ways to go, but AJ could appreciate her efforts to rival Pinkie Pie, as misguided as those efforts were.

"Heh, It's no secret, but ya've got a mound of dirt for a cutie mark. Or, more appropriately as mound of earth."

Earth-Chan sat on her rump and munched on apple number three, chewing quickly in excitement as new answers began to pour out in front of her. Her little blue and green speckled tail flickering back and forth against the grass.

"Ah don't know how well the dots connect, but mah guess is, you're an Earth Pony to the core. That there is probably a special talent for diggin' or shapin' the earth. Maybe you're like ah... Architect or somethin' of the like." It was satisfying to know that she remembered that word. Made her feel a whole lot better about Clairvoyance.

Pinkie was the quick to interrupt. With what else, but a nice round of giggles and laughs. "Hehe, AJ, I could have told her that."

She rolled her eyes at that and gave the pony a light poke in the shoulder with her hoof. "Ye, well Ah beat cha to it."

Returning to a more light-hearted mood, apple taste reactions all but forgotten, AJ moved towards another tree. This one had it's apples still, ready and waiting for the first harvest for this spring. It was almost time to get to work harvesting. Preparation had already gone underway. Some helping hooves were being hired as they spoke. Granny Smith and Applebloom both were hard at work setting up interviews with some new ponies. Others had returned for another season and were being given schedules by Macintosh. Applejack had come out here to start finding which few patches had ripened first. Having memorized the entire orchard by now, she need no pen and paper. Hard to hold em and walk anyway. She would remember which trees weren't Ripe, given that that was a smaller list to make, and would relay the message to Granny. She'd write down the tree numbers, make some notes, and file those a way for harvest day.

That all said, she was nearly done and had been on her way towards the house for a rest anyway. With that, it wasn't much of a bother to entertain some company on the farm for a minute before she hoped back to it. She wasn't about to forget all those numbers any time soon anyway.

With a swing of her head, she motioned for the others to come over to the new tree. Pinkie hopped on over while Earth-Chan tossed the core of her last apple to the side before walking up too.

Brushing her hoof against the bark of the new tree, she made a circle as if marking a spot and stepped back. Displaying it for both ponies to see.

"It's got less to do with cutie marks, but Ah couldn't help but notice ya had some gaps in your pony knowledge. Ah'm just guessin' ya aren't too well attuned to the whole pony scene given where ya came from. That makes quite a bit of sense actually. My granny once told me if ya raise a hawk with a bunch of Chickens, it'll grow up believe'n it's ah chicken and never fly. Seems to fit the bill with what ya've got goin' on. If ya haven't been around ponies all that much, then ya might not have been livin' like one either. For a lack of a better solution, Ah thought Ah'd give ya somethin' to do that'll help ya hone in yer Earth Pony magic. Itsa long shot, but no reason not to try, right?"

Earth-Chan tilted her head at what she said, obviously not catching on to the situation. She'd been a little vague maybe, but in her defense a lot of thinking had been done to come up with that explanation earlier, so mental exhaustion was more than a reasonable excuse.

"Sugarcube. Ah want ya to give this here tree a buck and see how it feels. Ya look like ya got some power in your legs. Shouldn't be too hard."

Pinkie Pie gasped, flagging her tail out and giving a quick hoof clap of approval. "Perfect! Bucking trees is as Earth Pony as you can get!"

Earth-Chan looked over to Pinkie and quirked a brow. "You can do it too?"

"Well ya! Not as good as AJ, but come on. You can't get more therapeutic than kicking the hay out of a tree. Think about it, you could work off all the stress of being a criminal, AND get in touch with your Earth Pony side. Win-Win!" Pinkie beamed a smile at Earth-Chan, sending good vibes and radiating confidence. It seemed infectious as Earth-Chan puffed out her chest and smirked.

"Well... Okay. I'll give it a whirl.... Not a criminal though." She snapped over at Pinkie before slowly approaching the tree and turning away from it, backing up a few more inches before squaring her hooves.

"If you say soooooo~" Pinkie sang aloud keeping herself from giggling again so not to drive Earth-Chan too far up the wall. AJ couldn't help but commend the mare on getting along with Pinkie for so long within the day. That usually took a lot more practice. Another good sign to trust this mare.

Earth-Chan decided to take the hit and get the little pink menace back later with some jokes a her expense. She was saving up. She figured she had a few now. There would be revenge! Later though.

For now it was time to kick a tree. Not exactly something she'd expected to do today, but she could follow the logic behind it well enough. Plus, seeing AJ's kick made it seem all the more natural to give it a try. Not like she had the strength to deliver even half the kick that the farm pony had given earlier, and it was quite clear the tree could take it no matter the hit, so she felt pretty confident going in.

Giving out a soft breath, she looked over to her friends and smirked sheepishly. "Any tips on bucking a tree?"

Both looked at her in confusion, probably trying to deduce if she was serious or not. She was. Never had she ever thought of bucking something. Where would it have ever come up in all the millennia she's existed? No, she needed pointers. That was a little too revealing though. No normal pony would go this long without bucking. If she didn't word this correctly there would be more very pressing questions coming up. She was better though. She had some mistakes under her belt to learn from. This would be easy.

"Hehe, you know, so I don't sprain an ankle. Out of touch and all that." She'd latched onto that excuse quickly, feeling all too lucky to have had it delivered to her on a silver platter like that. Leave it to meeting new, honest ponies to help you get better at lying. As horrible of a sentiment as that was, Earth-Chan couldn't help but smile at the irony.

"Oh, right, just don't over extend. Keep yourself balanced. Make it quick. It's a snapping motion. Ya snap out, then immediately fold em back in under ya. If ya leave your hooves there for too long it'll throw yourself off balance. That and get ya stuck in a weird position."

"Okay.... um, how about any Earth Pony tips?" Earth-Chan would rather prolong this and get as much fundamentals as possible. Who knows, at this rate, the first kick might even actually hit the tree!

"Oh, hehe, that's easy! Just go with the flow girl~ Let your body kick the tree. Then put your muscle into it. Really drive into the kick. Think of it as you backing up your own Earth Pony battering ram with a torque of pony power. Imagine that and you'll be golden!" Pinkie's seriousness was hard to catch some times, but hidden under all that silly, there was some good advice in there.

Giving a nod of semi understanding, Earth-Chan readied herself and let out a soft hum as she gave it a heap of concentration.

"Okay... Ready..."

Taking a breath, leaning on her fore hooves just a bit, she reeled back her hind hooves and with a sharp exhale, she threw them out against the tree, hoping for the best.

There was a sudden tingle. She felt it. She accessed the tingle. The tingle was accepted. The tingle asked for exertion. Earth-Chan didn't see anything wrong with that. She gave the tingle what it wanted.... and then the tingle amplified.

Suddenly, this tingle fluctuated. It expanded quickly, then just as quickly retracted. It was focused. Err- Actively focusing. It kept expanding and retracting. The tingle was pulsing. It was drawing something in. The tingle was gaining energy.

Things had been taken out of Earth-Chan's hooves. This tingle had only deemed it necessary to ask for permission before doing whatever it pleased. It was hard to explain, but even with such an obnoxious tingle, she treasured it's existence. Like a friend all but forgotten. Come to catch up, like the years past never even happened. She welcomed this intrusion and continued to feed it with her careful exertion. It wasn't really all that physically draining, but it took focus. She focused the tingle til it tingled no more. Slowly it subsided. It was refocusing. It was leaving. It hadn't even said goodbye. It'd just gotten here. But, with the door suddenly open, Earth-Chan some how knew this tingle would be back. She knew it now. She would remember it. Remember what it felt like to accept this tingle and let it into her body.

With a crackle of energy, in the span of a second, Earth-Chan accepted magic into her being for the very first time.

Maybe, a little too much.

KARAAAAACK!

Bright Star had been discussing with a fellow police mare about his little pony hunt today. He'd just reached the middle of explaining these recent events when a loud crackle exploded from out of nowhere. Followed by a shock wave of deafening sound and power. With a swivel of his head, Bright caught sight of something tumbling through the orchard on the hill. A plumb of dust and carnage made it hard to make out, but it seemed like a tree of all things had started to tumble down the hill. What first struck him was the fact that this wasn't just a log chopped and accidentally left to tumble. No, this was a full tree. Branches still full of little red dots of what could only be ripe apples. Second thing to stick out was that in the tree's wake was what could only be described as a wooden blood bath. Multiple apple trees seemed to be disheveled from the single tree's passing. Badly scraped and tipped heavily to the side from the force of the runaway tree.

His jaw was left dropped at the sight as the tree finally came to a stop. The mare beside him could only copy his expression in absolute shock as the dust finally started to dissipate. Loud shouts of panic and worry began to spread around the civilians close by. Several pegasi had quit participating in the pony hunt to go fly over and see if everything was alright.

What ever had just happened, it was an emergency. That notion didn't take long to set in. Both police ponies nodded to each other, their faces growing stern and serious. Without a word they began galloping in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

Author's Note

I have found a willing participant to check my grammar. I shall be setting up a google doc method to have him correct my grammar. This is all wonderful milestones! Now all I need is to find someone to proof read and I'll have a team set.

Then maybe these will have a little more polish and I can learn how to write better in the process. This will be a win-win... win! Extra win given the three person team I'm looking for. Anywho, hope you like this. I took a good minute to write this one. Mainly because I wanted this scene to flow. I'm not sure how well it flows. I'm not sure what mistakes are there, but I feel confident. Onwards we march!!!

Spring: A Couple Of Renegades

Applejack was not where she had been standing a couple seconds ago. No, she found herself sprawled out a few yards away, slightly dazed and utterly confused. She had seen what happened, though. She watched the entire catastrophe as if it were a step by step play screening. The impact, the magical surge from Earth-Chan, the carnage. Celestia's name, the carnage! It was a horror film played on loop in her brain. Replaying over and over so she could try and make sense of what had just happened.

It'd just been a test. The pony was suppose to kick her legs out, miss and/or hit, give the tree a tussling, and then it was over. That had been simple. Why had this changed so drastically? Why wasn't this simple anymore?

Picking herself up from her new spot she slowly walked back to where the tree had once stood, looking down the pathway of destruction with a sense of loss and confusion. She stepped carefully. The tree had uprooted, leaving a gruff looking hole filled with fresh dirt. It was a blight on her field. All of it. This was one of the worst cases of damage she'd seen in the past few years. The trees grazed from the tumble had slumped over and probably weren't going to be fixable. Some might be able to be readjusted, but the others weren't going to cut it. Their damage would have some effect on quality. Quality was everything to the Apple Family name. Those trees would have to be cut down and replanted. They'd have to make good use of the wood, try and disperse some of what they couldn't use to other family members. Maybe they could sell it as firewood? No, it was spring, the sales for firewood wouldn't amount to much anymore, the window of opportunity there had already closed long ago.

Replanting would take some time, it had to be done immediately if they wanted any hope for a crop next year. Even then, first year trees wouldn't have that good of a turn out. They could borrow some trees from other orchards, Apples were always willing to look out for family. But that still meant a huge cut in time for their regular harvest. Summer would dry out the soil making the transfer difficult. There were so many options, but the pros and cons all wasted time for their harvest. Time was the key here. She didn't have time for this! This shouldn't have happened! It was supposed to be simple!

This was going to set things back.

It was supposed to be simple.

She would have to bother her family for help.

It was supposed to be simple.

This would hurt their funds.

It was supposed. to. be. simple!

AJ let out a huff of breath as she shook away her own inner monologue. Turning around, she quickly honed in on a still shocked and befuddled Earth-Chan. She had no idea what she'd done. All the setbacks, time wasted! Applejack’s season just got a thousand times harder all because of her!

This pony. What nerve, what absolute gall. To take such an innocent situation and demolish it with a swift kick from Tartarus. She'd broken the plan. So many corrections to make, all because she decided to break the plan!

Seething, the farm pony had to grit her teeth to keep from saying something wild. She refused to let herself talk when she got like this. It'd taken a lot of friendship lessons to realize, but saying something crazy during a reactive phase wasn't a good idea.

She had to compose herself, which was way more easily thought than actually done. She could not stop the rush of actions pouring into her head. She wanted to act immediately, but she still had to deal with the darn hooligan who'd gotten her into this mess. She had to address this situation. Don't react. Just act. Calmly. Take a breath. She did. Then another so she could organize the jumbled thoughts. She kept her cool. She just needed to keep breathing. Air, Air was key. In out, in out. Smoothly~

"Whoa..." Earth-Chan finally gasped, looking bewildered by such a chaotic turn of events. Turning to Applejack, she seemed to barely register the death stare being sent her way. Still caught up in the moment, eyes pin pricked with adrenaline, the blue mare failed to follow up with anything else to say.

"N-Now AJ...." Pinkie Pie picked herself up from her own spot and quickly trotted to her friend, putting a hoof to her shoulder to consult her. "I know, I know, I know. There's a lot to be upset about."

"Pinkie, she destroyed mah farm!"

"She didn't mean to! It's obvious she didn't!"

"Intent don't excuse actions!"

"Alright, but come on, it's what, maybe a dozen trees?"

"Do ya know how many apples are on a dozen trees?!"

"No...."

"Ah do! This is gonna ruin the season!"

Pinkie Pie huffed. "This is not gonna 'ruin the season'. You've had fruit bat problems way worse than this!"

AJ knew she was right on at least one regard. The fruit bats had taken out an entire section before they were finally reasoned with. But, that wasn't her point. That wasn't THE point. This wasn't because of some random infestation. Somepony had gone and wrecked her trees! That very same somepony who was currently the most wanted mare in Ponyville. That same pony, who came from who-knows-where. That pony, who couldn't tell her hooves from her tail! That same gosh darn pony... who was now starting to frown as it finally dawned on her what she did.

"O-Oh my gosh... wait, I did that? I did that!" Blinking rapidly she looked back and forth between the girls and the carnage. All the while her ears pinned back against her head as she started to whimper. "Noooooo, oh no no no, Applejack. I... I wasn't thinking.... I-I just did what you guys said.... It felt so weird and I just kind of... I... Oh my gosh." The mare was left a stammering mess as she stared out into the distance, taking in the destructive scenery. "I don't know where to start. I-I'm so sorry."

Her face all but completely dropped. She looked so sad suddenly. She reached up with her hooves to cradle her own head as she sat back on her rump. Her hooves rubbed through her messy mane with worry. Her expressions changed rapidly, some flashing by while others got stuck on her face. She looked like she was having a breakdown. Good, that'd make two of them. Served her right.

Applejack winced though. That wasn't the right way to think. Heck, she'd been trying to avoid that exact reaction. Thank Celestia it didn't spill out of her mouth this time. Still, what was the right feeling here? Why was she so angry? Well, obvious answer, but better question, what was she gonna solve by being so angry? This had never worked out in her favor before. Did she just decide to have an epiphany this one time? It took this long for her to get a grip? Yikes.

Deep down, AJ knew she was a stubborn pony. She knew she could convince herself that it was perfectly within her right to be mad, furious even. Heck, plenty of ponies would agree with her too. It'd be so easy to get mad, stay mad, and get even. But, then what? She'd still have to fix things. She wouldn't necessarily feel any better. And Earth-Chan... well, as far as first impressions go. They'd be out the window.

It was her fault though! Why be lenient?! This crazy pony who came from some faraway place, didn't know anything about the world around her, barely knew anything about herself, and yet walked and talked like she had some kind of clue....

Oooooh, wait, shoot she had to stop there for a second. This all sounded a little familiar.

A tangent of thought turned into a nostalgic trip, which slowly expanded into a session of reminisce. Certain memories lead to others, in a string of consciousness without rhyme or reason, Applejack started to remember.

Memories of her time in Manehatten flashed through her head.

Memories of her parents passing. The pain that'd brought. The grief that'd driven her away in the first place.

Memories of being alone, even when surrounded by all those ponies.

There was more to this than just a mistake made.

Earth-Chan, whoever she was, didn't have a handle on life. That much was clear. She had a knack for trouble, an eccentric personality, and a naive outlook on right and wrong, but to pretend like she couldn't sympathize with her, even a little, was a silly notion.

This was a weird time to get sentimental. Maybe it had something to do with Earth-Chan's reaction, how genuine her regret sounded when it rang from her voice. Maybe it was something more personal. She'd had a few emotional conundrums lately after having met and connected with her long lost Grandpa Pear. Some memories of her parents had become quite fresh as of late. Maybe today was just a Wednesday. Everypony got sentimental on Wednesday.

Whatever the case may be, something about thinking it over like this helped. She felt better having worked it over in her head. This satisfaction being the exact reason she'd started controlling her temper in the first place. With a little bit of effort, she'd found it in her to forgive. In record breaking time too. This deserved a treat, likely some left over apple cobbler from earlier this week as a reward.

With those plans suddenly in mind, it felt guaranteed that this tree debacle would NOT ruin her day.

"Applejack, What in tarnation was that?!!"

"Aah, Horseapples..."

Suffice to say, that was possibly the coolest thing Earth-Chan had ever experienced. She had no idea what to expect with the concept of magic, but what she had tapped into was amazing. It felt good to tap into magic. It felt unsettling at first, but if she overlooked the initial feeling there was so much more for her to focus on. All these complicated emotions become tangible as she converted power and feeling into raw force.

Her heart was still pulsing as she had turned to inspect her work. It was unbelievable. Carnage looked cool! Holy heck, it all looked so intense, like an after affect of one of her own hurricanes. It was chaos and mayhem turned into a scene, captured for her to gaze at in all of its brutal glory! It was a trail of destruction like nothing she could have ever predicted. And for some reason, it gave her fond memories.

She had to force herself not to smile. It became very obvious very quickly that the ponies behind her were not coping well with recent discoveries as well as she was. There were probably good reasons as to why. She couldn't for the life of her remember what those reasons were though. Did they not see the debris? Was scene too much for them to handle? What, did a few bruised apples get these ponies queasy?

Apples?

Wait a minute. AJ is a working pony. A respectable mare with a thick southern drawl who wears a farm pony's hat. It was recently deduced by Earth-Chan herself that this pony must be a farmer. But there weren't a lot of crops around. A few towards the house when they'd started walking towards it, but out here in their little section, it was just rows and rows of trees. She knew what a tree farm was. She knew what an apple tree was. Apples were great! Apples on the flank. AJ had apples on her rump. They were surrounded by apples. This was AJ's farm. She knew that. Something wasn't clicking though. Why did she feel guilty suddenly?

The bruised apples were from the trees, the trees were part. of. the. orchard.

Oh sweet universe, she'd wrecked private property!

The stunning slap of realization should have come way sooner. But, yet, here she was, thinking selfish thoughts of magic and wonder. Still, she couldn't deny that there had been a thrill to that kick. And suddenly the guilt hit.

As if following some kind of correlation, these feelings slapped passed her one after another, filling her entire being with a slow building construct of bad feelings. Her ears pinned back and she turned to look at AJ.

Another slap. The look Applejack gave her as their eyes met made her recline. Her cheeks glowing red from the slaps of all this embarrassment. Having been thoroughly smacked straight, her ears splayed back against her head as she whimpered out a pathetic apology.

AJ only continued to stare in frustration, border-lining pure rage as she seemingly fought the urge to smack a pony. That expression stayed firm for a couple seconds. Earth-Chan couldn't look away all those seconds, left under the gaze of disappointment and disapproval, she stared back teary eyed as those green eyes pierced her. Then, her features began to soften. It had been subtle, but once it'd happened, Earth-Chan finally let herself look away. The shame of it all leaving a sting that drew a few tears down her cheek. This was yet again just another excuse for tears it seemed. She wasn't a crybaby. But, something about having the ability to cry gave her all the permission to let loose.

Letting out a loud sniff, Earth-Chan brought her fetlock to her eyes and wiped away her tears. Now wasn't the time for that. She needed to get better at tear management. Right now, it was time for some follow up. She had some major apologizing to do. She was going to fix this before it became a repeat of Bright Star.

Looking back up at Applejack, the guilt riddled mare prepared to shoot wave after wave of apologies. Ready to go any distance it took to show the mare that she didn't mean it.

Sadly, the world had different ideas.

"....Tarnation was that?!!"

"Ah, Horseapples."

"Oooo, Heya Granny Smith!" Pinkie seemed more than ready to change the conversation as she regained a little more smile at seeing the old earth pony come hollering after them. It was weird to see her bounce so freely from emotion to emotion, but Earth-Chan was starting to understand that's just how the girl emoted.

"Pinkie, this isn't the time for hellos, we've got to make sure granny doesn't see Earth-Chan." Applejack looked just about as panicked as one could get at seeing an old pony. Earth-Chan had her fair share of bad run-ins with old ponies. Still, it was hard for her to tell if Granny Smith was a name or an actual family title.

"Wait, so you're not mad?" Pinkie gave her a look of gratitude. Her thankfulness was shared. Earth-Chan really doubted she could handle more than one peeved pony in today. Gosh, it was still her second day. Did time move slower for creatures than it did for planets or was that just all in her head?

"Ah didn't say that. Ah just think it'd help cool things down if the pony responsible wasn't immediately present!" Well, that just left more fun to be had later. The blue mare could only frown at the implications of a future lecture in store for her. Even though she'd resolved to fix this issue something about having yet another pony upset with her left a bad taste in her mouth. These whacky situations were starting to tarnish her good name.

"Well, that will help with Granny Smith sure, but how do we avoid the rest of them?"

"The rest?!"

Both AJ and Earth-Chan followed her direction as Pinkie pointed down the hill towards Ponyville. A flock of pegasi were inbound, and closing in fast. Their worried calls already starting to become audible. Two fronts were now blocked by incoming ponies, leaving fewer and fewer options for escape.

Clonking her own noggin with her hoof, Applejack let out a huff as it became quite clear that this was going to be her whole day today. "J-Just take Earth-Chan and head back further into the Orchard. Ah'll get their attention while y'all double back and use the barn as cover."

"Kay! Where to after that?"

"Phuuuuuh, Ah don't rightly know. I'm have'n a hard time thinkin'. Ah guess ya can't go wrong with Fluttershy. Try her."

Pinkie Pie beamed at that answer, completely satisfied with the new option. She turned towards Earth-Chan and grabbed her by the hoof, starting to tug her away from the approaching crowd.

"W-Wait, what are you gonna do, AJ?" Dragging her hooves, she resisted Pinkie's tug long enough to hear Applejack out.

"Well, Ah reckon Ah'll do what Ah'm good and tell the truth."

Earth-Chan gawked at that, feeling like she'd missed something here. "W-Wait, the truth?! What about that whole plan?"

Pinkie Pie yanked a little harder making the filly relent. She turned around and followed after her friend, leaving AJ to stand her ground.

"Don't worry too much about it. AJ's a smart pony. I'm pretty sure I know what she's up to." Pinkie assured her as they broke into a gallop, once again on the run. Behind them, Applejack greeted her grandpony and began what was likely a very long explanation.

Author's Note

Hazzah! An edited chapter before a publish! I have to give all my thanks to TotallyNotABrony for doing a fantastic job. Giving great tips and over all fine trimming my chapter. I hope to work with him a lot more in the near future.

Now to find that proof reader. Not super needy for this. It's just someone to help make sure I keep my continuity. We'll see if that works out. But, in the mean time! Things are coming together nicely. The story is in full swing. Just a few more set pieces needed.

And with that, the people said Let The Games Begin!

Spring: Sneak 100

This new gallop didn't sit well with Earth-Chan. It felt different from the others. The running was different, the pacing was off, almost frantic in it's rhythm. She had to give more effort, more exertion. Far more than the magic tingles had asked for. With that exertion came the first few stings of fatigue. Being tired. That was new to her among other things. Dealing with the concept of tired wasn't though. Another familiarity hidden within the new world of mortality.

Mortality. That wasn't right. She was by no means immortal in the first place. After all these years, someone far more naive might fool themselves into thinking they were immortal. Heck her old friend Moon-Chan had been a prime example of such naivety. Born from her own being, Moon-Chan had been a daughter to her. Though that mother-daughter relationship never evolved, instead both opting to see each other as sisters. It had been an odd decision, but at the same time it gave them both a sense of equality. What a silly pony she would have been.

Earth-Chan shook away her thoughts. Her own stream of conscious distracting her from the task at hoof. It was time to run now and Pinkie was already getting a little too far ahead.

Still, it bugged her. She hadn't really considered it at first, but it was a wonder what happened to Moon-Chan. What was her fate?

That question tripped the poor mare up. She fumbled heavily and nearly fell over herself. It took a firm plant of her fore hoof to finally regain some bearings. She had to slow down to remember her steps. Pinkie dialed back for her as it became obvious that Earth-Chan was having a rough time.

"Come on. No time to get nervous, we gotta get to the get go if we're gonna avoid being spotted!"

Clearing her own head, she gave one finally shake of her ears before nodding to her pink friend. Regaining her vigor and joining back up with the baker.

Together they rushed deeper into the Orchard. Weaving at angles so that the trees might help cover their escape. The daylight gave no cover, meaning this was all depending primarily on Applejack to keep the attention off them. Pinkie ran with confidence though and it was quite infectious. Everything about the pony seemed to be. If she believed in Applejack's 'truth' then why shouldn't she?

Together they went a good distance before both agreed it would be a good time to start circling back. They arched their route through more trees, making it nice and wide. The pegasi were already here and hovering around the impact zone. They could no longer see Applejack, which in of itself was a good thing. Having to focus on just pegasi meant their focus wasn't as split. Using the leaves and foliage as superb cover, they managed to come back unnoticed from behind the house. As they got closer, the house itself became their beckon of hope as it's shingled roof shielded them completely from the pegasi.

Pinkie kept on her hoovies as she tip-toed closer to the edge of the house. There was a large gap between the house and the barn with no real cover to use, meaning this next sprint was going to have to chalk up to timing and luck.

The peppy pony started to crouch in a low stance as she shuffled closer to peek around the corner. While she checked, Earth-Chan kept close. Making sure to sneak a sniff or two of Pinkie's tail for comfort reasons. There was something to behold of a tail that smelled so sweet, heck it even helped get her panting under control. Even with blaring repercussions filling her head, the filly couldn't help it. The smell helped her calm down and what Pinkie Pie didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Suddenly, the tail went berserk, signaling Earth-Chan to both stop and pay attention as Pinkie swiveled her head back to relay what was happening.

Earth-Chan gave an innocent smile as Pinkie turned around to whisper. She had to crouch down low to be at eye level with the pony as well as hear her while she talked in a super sneaky voice. "I think half the town is here or something, that was a lot of colors."

"Really? That sounds kinda pretty actually."

"Shhhh, it was, it was, but no time for that. Applejack is spilling the beans. But, I think she's gonna lead them down the whole route we took. Meaning we can book it once they're gone."

"Wow, I never took you for a professional sneaker, Pinkie." Though there was a lot she didn't know. As absorbent as she might be right now, there simply hadn't been enough time in the day to soak up every little detail about her new friend. It was decided there and then that Earth-Chan would make a point of hanging out with the baker... once this all blew over of course.

"Hehe, you haven't even seen a fraction of my sneakiness."

"R-Really?"

"Girrrrrl, do I have some stories for you."

"Ya gonna tell her about the one where you and Twilight snuck into Canterlot?"

Earth-Chan nearly jumped out of her own coat as a new voice joined the fray. Looking up, she was suddenly made aware of the fact that they had crouched beneath the frame of a low built dining window. It's white wooden lip hiding the features of the house's interior from their view below and instead framing the head of what looked like a ponified incarnation of applesauce. The voice's coat was a cream wash of inner apple coloring delicately woven into a fuzzy coat. Two big orange colored eyes were then gently framed by a mane that could only be another tribute to apples. The voice's mane was a deep red, lightly combed to the side and down the neck with a messy top of bright colored bangs. Just above her head were the edges of a bow that highlighted her creamy sauce colored ears with a pinkish aurora.

"Apple Bloom!"

Earth-Chan cut her gaze away from the pony fruit above them to give Pinkie a stern shushing, trying to do her best impression of somepony not wanting to get caught today. It worked, and the silly filly reeled her volume back a bit as she continued.

"What are you doing around here?"

"Ah live here. The better question is what are y'all doin' here?"

"Oh, nothing. Just playing some pretty intense hide and seek."

"Pinkie, that's not..." Pinkie shook her hoof at Earth-Chan, forcing her to stop her sentence right in its tracks.

"Ah ah ah, no corrections until you really think about it. Where am I wrong in that comparison?"

"...."

"Ya hiding from the explosion?"

"No silly, we're hiding because of the explosion!"

"Pinkie!"

"Sssssh, you're too loud, Earthy. Think sneaky thoughts." Earth-Chan let out a sigh. Pinkie Pie was a hard pony to deal with. She played this little game at her own pace. She changed the rules whenever she wanted and broke those very same rules a second later. As much of a joyride as Pinkie was, Earth-Chan felt like she was coming to an unexplored limit of wacky pony overload.

"That's crazy, which one of ya caused it. You or her?" It probably wasn't to hard to guess who had caused the explosion as Earth-Chan immediately avoided the filly's gaze. She pushed off from her spot below the window and sat properly, still refusing to look at the apple sauce pony out of embarrassment. Well, maybe a peek.

Smiling as happy go-lucky as expected, Pinkie gave a quick nod. "Yeah, I'd call it a collaborated effort. We both caused it."

Earth-Chan had a hard time understanding if Pinkie Pie was still playing a game anymore. She could only stare as the pink pony all but lumped herself in as if she had something to do with the carnage from before. "Pinkie...." She whispered the name, wondering what it meant to lie on the behalf of someone else. She was besmirching this pony's good name. She'd ruined a part of another pony's farm. She'd stolen somepony's blanket. What kind of pony was she? Everypony wants to be a good pony, right? That's what AJ had said. But, did that 'everypony' include her? Did being a guilty pony mean she was good? Did feeling guilt excuse any of her recent behavior?

Apple Bloom gave a huff at that and crossed her hooves. "Both huh? Well, in any case, ah'm stuck inside until this whole thing blows over. Big Mac and Granny ordered me to stay in the house, they don't even think ah can help!"

"Well, that's no fun. You could at least be out there looking for us." Pinkie giggled at that and looked around to exaggerate her next point. "Then again, you're the only one whose caught us, so...." Still a tad out of it, stuck in her own thoughts, Earth-Chan took a back seat to this conversation, opting to just listen while she did her best to avoid quite of a few of her own inner questions.

Applebloom balked at that, mulling over the thought before coming to a smiling conclusion. "Heh, yeah. Ah guess that is a little satisfying."

"See, and now they're about to run off to the woods to go searching for us and you've got us spotted." What the heck was this pony's goal here?! As much as she wanted to just sit back and listen, Earth-Chan was starting to feel quite compelled to butt in. Pinkie Pie was throwing their fate into the hooves of a child!

"Hmm, ah could start hollerin'." Applebloom leaned over the window sill, propping her cheek with one hoof while still crossing the other against her body as she gave a smug sigh. "That is... unless ya wanna strike a deal~"

"Ho ho, that was quick. I thought you'd beat around the bush some more." Pinkie Pie grinned back at the filly, seemingly satisfied with this turn of events. This was all bewildering for the blue mare though. How could she gamble getting caught on the whim of such a sketchy apple pony?

"Kay, how's this. Two weeks worth of cup cakes for me and my friends."

"I can make it three weeks, but spread out for one cup cake per day, each."

"Four weeks, same rules."

"Four weeks! That's eighty-four cupcakes! Are you trying to bankrupt the Cakes?!"

"Nice try Pinkie, but you and ah both know that you buy your own supplies for personal requests. It's four weeks or ah start gettin' loud."

Slowly wiping away a tear, Pinkie held back what was a very convincing sob, her lip trembling.

"Nuh-uh. No tears, that's not fair!"

Shaking her head, Pinkie tried to dry her face as quickly as possible, having to give a polite cough to clear her throat "Oh no, it's just you are growing up so fast, I swear just the other day you were a blank flank filly out to prove yourself. Now you're a cut throat businessmare and it's just... soooooooo sweet!"

"Ugh... Okay. Do we have a deal, though?"

Letting out a small sniff, Pinkie reached out a hoof and bumped it with the filly. "It's a deal."

Nodding in confirmation, the little filly even so graciously gave them a route to take, informing them that a mad dash to the barn would end in disaster. She included a run through of which hey wagons were light enough to move. She suggested they use those to block half of their walk to the barn. No one would notice if that wagon moved a bit apparently having barely been used all year. The filly doubted that even Applejack would notice. That said, it'd be suspicious to go too far with the wagon so Apple Bloom recommended they go halfway then go for the sprint the rest of the way. It cut their exposure down immensely.

Both ponies quickly thanked the filly and had started to creep towards the wagon discussed. Before they could get too far a small 'psst' rang from behind. Earth-Chan perked her ears, just barely catching the sound. Looking back, she saw Applebloom watching them leave with another all too smug smirk.

"By the way, ya probably shouldn't do that tail thing in public. It's kinda weird."

Earth-Chan's went wide eyed as she stared at the applesauce in the window, frozen in horror at the implications of somepony having caught her in the act. There was a quiet whisper from Pinkie Pie for her to catch up. Feeling a shiver rush down her spine the pony turned away from the filly and rushed to catch up with her friend. Meanwhile, Applebloom kept her smile, still watching as they left. With a shake of her head she pulled back from the window and shut it before going back to her duty of 'staying in the house' like the good filly she was.

The wagon had worked perfectly. They'd managed to stave off detection until the group started to follow Applejack into the orchard to search. They left behind a small group to watch over the farm, but nothing too substantial. They slipped away with ease while using the barn for even more cover while they took off towards their next destination.

The gallop had gotten a little better as they got farther and farther away from the group. All the tension starting to ease away, laying dormant for the next encounter.

"H-How long do you think we have until they find out where we're going?" She couldn't help but worry, even if things were dying down. This had actually turned quite stressful even.

"Aaaah, AJ's got us. We'll have enough time, silly."

Earth-Chan sighed at that and took her assurance as a typical dismissal. It was frustrating to have to rely on somepony who she had just vandalized. Pinkie seemed to catch wind of that frustration and 'tsked' in disapproval. "Ah, come on, we're about to meet some more friends, you gotta up your smile game."

"Easy enough said than done, how do you keep so relaxed like this? At this rate you'll end up dragged into my problems, Applejack will have to deal with her loss of trees, and I'll eventually get caught and run out of town. What's there to smile about right now?"

"...Hmmm, remind me to get you some cupcakes. I've got just the recipe for the funk you're in."

"W-Wait..... wha...."

"Ooooo, we're here! And I think she's outside too. Perfect!" Pinkie jostled up into a quicker pace, leaving Earth-Chan behind.

"Hold on, you said cupcakes?"

"Not right now, silly! Hehe, it's time to say hi to... Oh hey, Rainbow's here too!"

Author's Note

Anyway, I've gotten to my favorite pairing. I love pegasi. I love the concept of flying. I love these two characters just as much as I hate them. I never save a single pony from scorn. All ponies have their low moments and I refuse to overlook them. Still, birds! Bird horses specifically. Aaaaaah, can't wait. ^.^

Spring: Cultured Critters

Author's Note

Still wondering how this will play out? Cool. Glad to grab and/or keep your attention. You might be wondering what took me so long. Answer being something something insert excuse here. Listen, these excuses are weird. I don't even know how well others receive them, but when I read an excuse like this I just kind of roll my eyes and get back to reading. So excuse me if I don't really understand the point. If it urks people don't be afraid to to voice your opinions. I'm actually curious how people these days receive hiatuses or slow uploads. What is the optimal upload schedule for you? What do you normally prefer? I'm not going to try and meet your standards, but I'm certainly willing to have a conversation about them. ^.^

Spring: Cultured Critters

There wasn't a lot of expectation heading towards this next house, if you could call it a house to begin with. The greenery had fully claimed the thatching, making a pelt of natural grass improvise as a makeshift roof. This was homely to her, but Earth-Chan hadn't even really caught the name of the pony who lived here. 'Butterfly' was it? This pony was just a suggestion. That was it. A face that had not been fully sketched. There was no personality to go on. There was just curiosity manifested in the form of a quickened pace, but that was about it. Earth-Chan did her best to keep up with Pinkie Pie, but it was challenging. They'd done so much running. SHE had done so much running. Exhaustion had reached it's peak a couple runs ago and now the poor pony was just about on her last few fumes. The only thing keeping her going was that spring time warmth

The shimmer and glam of sunshine on her blue coat was wonderful. No matter how over heated she might get, there was something equally reviving about such bright warmth beaming down on her back. As they approached the cottage, Earth-Chan caught sight of a blue pegasi with a very explosive mane hovering above, suspended mid-air by the perpetuated flap of her quick wings. The humming bird pony was circling around and conversing with another grounded pegasi. This one was a yellow butter pony with a pink, sleek avalanche of stylized hair disguised as a regular horse mane. These manes were beautiful, with matching tails to boot. She liked the color pallet before her eyes. Her eyes tried to wonder though, and the poor pony had to keep herself from staring at those matching tails. She was suppose to blend in. Who cares what that jar of applesauce thinks! She's not weird! She's not hurting anypony!

Wrinkling her snout, Earth-Chan frowned and looked off to the side as she mumbled. "It's a compliment anyway, so who cares?"

The silly mare lost herself again, trapped in a self constructed echo chamber of excuses as she reasoned the pros and cons of tail sniffing.

"Heya girls! Whatcha dooooooin'~" Pinkie greeted her friends while helping Earth-Chan stop with a block of her hoof.

Earth-Chan walked in place for a couple seconds, unwilling to be halted, yet gaining no ground at all. Her hooves had started to dig into the ground before she realized she'd been acting a fool. With a cough she sat down and gave a sheepish smile. Both pegasi had turned to say hi to Pinkie only to end up watching as Earth-Chan embarrassed herself.

The pony filled to the brim with rainbows seemed to think it was funny. Even 'Butterfly' was hiding her own smirk with a hoof. It was such a weird thing to be laughed at for... was she taking this too seriously though? Wait, were they laughing about the walking gag or did they know she was staring at their tails?! Was she being weird?!!

Earth-Chan's cheeks lit up bright as eyes fell on her. She had no idea what was being thought. How hard were they judging her?! It was too much to think about and they just kept staring!

Soft merps escaped the pony, eliciting even more stares. Worried ones, but stares all the same. The ponies around her frowned at her reaction, no one understand the true extent of the pony's discomfort.

Opting to move on from the silence that had begun to form, the winged color spectrum picked up the conversation with Pinkie, leaving the weirdo pony for later it seemed. "Oh, heya Pinks. I'm here helping Fluttershy. I don't know if you heard it, but this huge explosion happened and scared all her animals."

"Oh trust me, I know about the explosion. Let me tell you~ Still, I thought your first instinct would be to go check out the scene. Gauge it's awesomeness."

"Well yeah. But, you know... If I did that... who'd help Flutters?" Rainbow motioned to her fellow pegasus as if she were a well placed token excuse, but the tinge in her voice told a lot. There was care and compassion in the way she spoke about helping her friend.

'Flutters' looked to her friend and gave an appreciative, warm smile before immediately contrasting herself with a sudden frown as concern scrawled across her face. "W-What was that explosion though, Pinkie? It was... loud."

"Oh yeah, you said you knew. What's happening?" The multi hued horse kept lower to the ground as she talked with her friend, acting like she was constantly about to land, but never quite committing to that decision.

Pinkie smirked a bit and looked over to Earth-Chan. The poor girl was still recovering from her own weird mannerisms and was in no condition to be convincing.

"Weeeeell, uuuugh, lets say Applejack had some... tree troubles." She nudged Earth-Chan, cuing her in that she was at a loss for what to say. Still wearing her big bright grin, she continued to lightly elbow the pony until she spoke up.

"Y-Yeah... she um. She had a tree relocated." Earth-Chan mentally face-palmed as she chastised herself for giving such an absurd answer.

"R-Relocated?" Of course she'd have to follow up with something, that was expected. Winging it was going to have to be the one and only contingency plan.

"Yeah, not far...."

"What does that have to do with an explosion?" That rainbow was destroying her concentration!

Earth-Chan scuffled at the ground with her hoof as she thought long an hard. References. Anything! Something to draw on. She had been conscience for multiple millennium, held contact with one of the most intelligent creatures ever created on her surface, and observed their society for six thousand years. How do you explain exploding trees!!!!

"Baaaaaaah...cccccccc..."

It was on the tip of her tongue, she just had to force it out. This was common. This occurred rapidly and was a disaster for orchards and forests alike. It had a chance of tainting produce which would be devastating for an apple farmer, quality was everything, which meant there was cause for quick and decisive action. It would be understandable if somepony became frantic for a solution, maybe an explosion perhaps? But, what was the word! She knew it existed, she was the dawn of it's creation! The humans became hyper aware of it's existence in the mid eighteen hundreds(Their numbers, not hers). B-B-Buuuuuuh.

"Bacteria! Oh my gosh, haaaa! It's tree bacteria! Thank the universe!!" Stomping her hooves she jigged a subtle jig as her memory saved her credibility for the first time ever! Hazzah!

"Oh my... that sounds serious..."

Earth-Chan stopped her celebration short and returned to a more sober expression. "Super serious. It's like a disease that eats away at a tree's life force. It drains them of nutrients and stuff. Messes with the leaves so it can't get sunlight."

"Wow, that's horrible... how's AJ holding up?" Rainbow fluttered down and landed next to her yellow friend, suddenly far more invested in the weight of the conversation.

Wow was right, the fact that she could recall any of that was a blessing. She had always paid attention to the essence of thought as the humans poured their minds into figuring out how Earth-Chan worked. She'd always been so happy to have them be so curious about her, she couldn't help but listen in on the thoughts and sounds of scientific discovery as it glorified each and every strand of her natural occurrences. It had been one of the more significant leaps in connecting with each other. Earth-Chan treasured the fact that she had memories built by humans stored in her mind. It made it feel like they were with her, helping her with her struggles bit by bit.

Left to her own treasured memories, Earth-Chan had been opted out of the conversation yet again as both girls turned to Pinkie for answers.

"Well, she could be better. Maybe overreacted a bit, but I think she got a hold of herself."

"So, that explosion was Applejack blowing up one of her infected trees?"

"Yeeeeah, I think that's what Earthy was getting at. I wouldn't say she did it herself though...."

"She hired somepony else to blow up one of her trees?"

"Earthy?" Rainbow

"Yes! Hi!! I'm Earthy... err, Earth-Chan. Nice to meet you both!" Earth-Chan bailed as fast as she possibly could from the rest of that questioning. Questions here, questions back there, questions from start to finish. She had plenty of questions herself. When did it get to be her turn?

Both pegasi noticed the lack of introductions and winced, both back pedaling heavily so that they could try and be more polite.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria." The pony held her head high after delivering her title. Earth-Chan had nothing to base that on, so merely took her at her word. Frankly, anything deviating from explosions was preferable at this point.

"And I'm Fluttershy." 'Flutter Butter' quickly chirped in after Rainbow.

Earth-Chan felt the dawn of realization hit her as she heard Fluttershy's name. That's what Pinkie had said. She was Fluttershy! This was her cottage! They were surrounded by HER animals!

Realization struck twice today as the blue mare began to whiplash back and forth, finally acknowledging the fact that they were being closed in by creatures of all sorts.

"Ummmm..." Looking to Pinkie Pie she could get nothing but a shrug from the baker, as if this was some kind of inevitability.

"Oh ho, don't worry. You don't have to feel anxious around my critters." Fluttershy assured, trying her best to dash Earth-Chan's uncomfortable gaze with a winning smile. She was a convincing pony brimming with confidence, something about the animals seemed to reinvigorate Fluttershy changing her mannerisms with their comforting presence. Something about that co-dependence spoke to Earth-Chan. She really liked this butter Pegasus.

That said, this situation was getting a little worrying.

"Yeah, but um... F-Fluttershy? Why are they staring?"

Without looking to her gathered critters, the butter pony waved a dismissive hoof at her question and shook her head. "Oh, I know how it must feel, really I do, but they're only taking a quick glance. It's an innate curiosity that a couple sniffs in your general direction should cure. I think you should just give them a couple seconds to get use to your scent."

"Uh.... Flutters?"

Earth-Chan let out a little eep as she took a tentative step back.

The corners of Fluttershy's reassuring smile dipped into a curious frown as she finally turned to see what the commotion was. Her own gasp left the ponies around her feeling suddenly very tense.

"Oh my... t-this isn't normal.... E-Everypony? Can you hear me?" The pony reached a hoof out and waved it in front of the face of a snow white bunny that huddled close to her. "A-Angel?"

Nothing, none were responding to Fluttershy's voice. None even acknowledged her, instead favoring to stare. They stared intensely at Earth-Chan, their eyes wide and wonder struck. Their expressions looking both lost and curious as their irises pulsed with emotion. It was unclear what the thoughts were behind those fuzzy faces, but it was clear that they were intent.... on getting closer.

As a group each pet, both big and small, took a collective step towards the blue pony. The sounds of all paws hitting the dirt at once had a very intimidating dull thump to it that made everypony present flinch. Earth-Chan quickly followed up with another step back in response.

"Ooof, well girls it was fun catching up, but if you'd look at that, it's getting late! Me and Earthy here need to get back to Sugar Cube Corner for some... cakes. Hehe, so, we'll just be on our way~" The pink pony quickly grabbed a hold of Earth-Chan and hoisted her into a very awkward hold, gripping her by the withers and dragging her along as if she were unconscious. The extra weight wasn't working and they were immediately cut off from town by a very big bear.

"Yipe..."

"No No, don't worry. He's a friendly bear!"

"Fluttershy, now isn't the time for excuses, this is getting out of hoof quick!" Rainbow shot back at Flutters, then flapping up off the ground the rainbow mass blurred in motion as she sped towards the other pairing, cutting in between them and the bear. All in a split second she was puffing out her chest and glaring the bear in the face. "Hey, back up, Bub!!"

The bear didn't even register her existence, though he seemed to acknowledge that was something was obstructing his view of what he desired. There was a brief growl of warning before the bear began to rear back his paw. Nothing was going to stand in the way. He was going to get the blue pony.... and then.... and then who knows what.

Rainbow saw the strike coming. She was slow on the realization, but quick on the reaction. With a mighty flap of her well trained wings she was able to waft up a little distance between her and the swipe. The animal's claws coming too close for comfort.

"Woah, that... that..." Rainbow frowned as it dawned on her that she was meant to bleed with that hit. This bear had gotten cut throat far too quickly for her liking. It was so unexpected given the swipe itself was so dismissive. The power and claw behind it was unmistakable though. If she had taken even a little of that attack she would have been hospitalized.

"...I'm about to make you regret missing, big guy." The pony readied herself mid flight, eyes lowering into a heated squint. A cocky grin spread across her lips. An aura of confidence began to emit from the battle ready pony. She knew how to take on a power hitter like this. Her speed would make quick work of this big fuzz ball.

She was prepared to go all out when a sudden voice finally caught up to her, just in the nick of time. "Rainbow! Don't... I mean, just let me talk to him..."

Fluttershy walked past all three ponies and cut in front of Rainbow Dash from her own position on the ground. Flaring out her wings, the butter pony entered what could only be described as her element as she looked into the hazed eyes of her bear friend and stared. And stared. And stared.

Clearing her throat, she intensified her gaze as if trying to burn a hole in his face with concentration alone.

The couldn't be sizing each other up, it was taking too long. All the same the bear seemed glued to his spot for the time being.

"I don't get it, do we run or help her?" Earth-Chan felt unsure how much help she'd be, but if she could send a tree flying... yeaaah, something told her that would kill it. She decided to opt out of power kicking the bear. Still, with that option nixed, what help was she?

"No, don't worry. I think she's got him locked up with The Stare... We should be okay." Rainbow let out a sigh of relief as she swooped down to the ground. "Good, I was not a fan of kicking his butt. Guy makes great tea."

"No, Rainbow, he's barely even focused on me. I don't know how much my stare is actually affecting him!" Fluttershy was worried if her voice was anything to go by. Heck, she sounded quite struggled, it was a wonder how much energy actually went into whatever stare magic she was using.

Even as the four of them focused on the bear, smaller creatures were starting to creep up from behind. It had gone unnoticed until a single squirrel made the daring jump and mounted the back of the poor blue earth pony. Still jumpy from the threat of the bear, Earth-Chan let out a shrill cry before swatting her tail at the intruder. She had a lot more swing in that appendage than she though as she batted the offending squirrel off her back.

Twirling around she faced where her attacker had come from and was shocked by the sheer number of critters looking back at her. All of them had their creepy gazes transfixed on her, never blinking, inching closer. When she saw that a few more were going prone, ready to pounce she let out a call.

Pinkie and Rainbow heard the commotion and were already turning to look her way when the first huge volley of little critters pounced. None were fast enough to move in time. Before any could as much as blink Earth-Chan was consumed by fuzzy critters. Each creature immediately began to cling sharply to their target, pinning her with claws so as to keep themselves in place. Earth-Chan let out a very loud scream as she was suddenly treated to the sensation of a hundred small prickly needles piercing her skin. In turn the creatures began to retract some of their claws and instead opt to hug the now pain riddled pony. Still, with the damage already done Earth-Chan was left a panicked mess. She tried to waggle the creatures off, but that in turn made them cling again, giving her new prickles, which in turn made her waggle more. The cycle was obvious, but Earth-Chan couldn't see the solution, so blinded by the pain she could barely think straight.

It was a very sudden surprise when she suddenly felt hooves embrace her, arms brushing around her body and quickly ridding her of a few prickles. Still, there were plenty clung tight. Some that didn't want to let go. Some that left quite the marks when brushed at. These animals were laying claim of her body. They were dug in nice and tight. They were here to stay.

As painful as this was, she almost wanted to cry at the sad memories this situation brought back. The resemblance was unmistakable... That and the searing pain. That was a good tearjerker.

As much as she appreciated the decrease in prickles, this treatment wasn't helping entirely. Her mind hazed once more as her body pulsed with signals, all telling her to run.

She was tired though.

Run!

It hurt to run.

It hurts not running, so run!

Where can she go? There's a bear.

RUN!!!!

Pulling away from the collective help of both Pinkie and Rainbow, she began running. Her path was covered with critters, all who began taking the opportunity given to try and latch on to the fleeing equine. She was able to bob and weave by the bigger ones , but more little critters latched on. More prickles piercing her, breaking just enough skin to hurt. More than enough reason to keep on running.

Once she cleared the mob of animals she was able to straighten out her path. She picked up speed, no energy left in her body yet speeding along with the power of adrenaline. The critters held tight as their makeshift ride became rugged and hazardous. Some were to small and weak to keep latched on and fell to the wayside, left in the dust. Still, others persisted, causing the pony to keep up her stride, terrified of what was behind her. She didn't have to look. She didn't have to guess. She knew.

She was being chased.

That was scary, that was familiar. That was annoying. The pain was getting worse. It was starting to weigh her down. She was going to slow down soon. That was scary too.

"There she is!!! Everypony, I found her!!!"

Earth-Chan's eyes went wide as she realized she'd gone the most familiar route she could fine. She had defaulted to what had felt safe. She had ran a good distance too. She gone back! It was the crowd! Applejack quickly came into view, looking nervous as she saw Earth-Chan running towards them, then confused when she saw what was behind her, then horrified when she put two and two together. Everypony else looked rightfully miffed at the sight of a criminal such as herself. Bright Star broke through the crowd and joined a spot next to Applejack. He seemed stoic, but definitely had some disappointment in his eyes. That stung... almost as much as the critters. His expression quickly changed too, evolving in a very short time to a look of shock as her animal infested figure came into better view.

With two paths blocked she had few options. Three if she counted the fact that she was wanted in town. That place wasn't safe... No where was!

Except maybe another option entirely.

Banking to the left, the critter covered earth pony made a bee line for the forest. With a flick of her ears Earth-Chan could hear the loudest 'What in tarnation?!' come from behind her as she disappeared into the foliage. The stomping of hooves and paws alike stormed behind her. She was still being chased. These animals were still hurting. She needed to fix both of these problems.

It didn't help how unfamiliar she was with this forest. This could be difficult. Thankfully more and more of the critters were loosing their stamina and falling off. That seemed like it might fix itself with time. Meaning the next step was escaping. How though? The animals could smell her, the pegasi could spot her, she could barely think enough to construct a plan, and to top it all off her hooves felt like lead! What was left?! What could she possibly be missing for this to snowball any further?

As if to answer her question a quartet of growls could be heard in the distance.

With a scared squeak the pony instantly veered off to the side in an attempt to avoid all of that nonsense. "Nope nope nope nope nooooope!"

Spring: Little Blue World

What was the point? Each step seemed too familiar now, been there, done that. Why so tedious? Maybe it was all the running that had plagued the day, but that never seemed like enough to leave her this tired. No, there was plenty of different reasons. No rest, endless questions, mistakes, failures, and no one to tell her why. She had simply reacted to every occasion brought to her as if visiting from an outside perspective. As if none of these decisions really mattered. And here she was.

Running was a blessing, but useless in the fact that it didn't answer why anything was happening. Why wasn't anything working? Why was she here running for her life?

No answers, and she was getting increasingly weary as time dragged on.

With all the little critters lost to the path behind, Earth-Chan could finally put all her efforts into weaving through the trees. She tried to be as complicated as possible. She dipped under brush, crawled through brambles, trying her best to put as many obstacles between her and the crowd as possible. The brambles had taken a few more cuts out of her, but it felt worth it having a wall of them behind her. She gained some more confidence as she ran a little longer. Before long, her trot was silent and devoid of any immediate danger. Taking a well needed breath, she slowed to a stop and sat next to a tree, draping herself against it as she took advantage of the few seconds she'd been given to rest.

Looking back she stared at a scene of unfamiliarity. The series of trees and winding paths she'd just traversed looked unrecognizable from such a new angle. Earth-Chan doubted she could actually find her way back at this point. She doubted she'd be welcomed back. She doubted her own survival above all. Her scratches hurt as a few had been cut deep enough by the small critter claws to draw up a fair amount of blood. She took a second to rub at her own forelegs, inspecting her cuts carefully, wincing every time a few clumsy touches stroked her skin the wrong way.

Earth-Chan knew she was in bad shape, but what was the next move? Out here, on her own, trying to escape... She had no one to follow. Her last ditch effort to get away had stranded her with no guide to follow. Nothing to go on, nothing to do next. She could run some more, escape further, but that wasn't a plan. That didn't even deserve to be called an idea. What next?

Her routine was broken. She suddenly realized how dependent she'd been lately. The first step of following had been so detrimental to her routine that without it, or anyone for that matter, everything fell apart. It shouldn't matter, the routine didn't work anyway. It was broken the second it started. Even so, without it she felt lost. A hole had opened up, needing to be quickly replaced least she go mad out here in these Universe forsaken woods.

What were her traits? What emotions could she draw from? Where was her drive?

She was 'curious'. Though that didn't stem far from confusion, which wasn't a very good basis to work from.

She was 'tired'. And that left her with the option of staying still and waiting for the inevitable. Not very ideal, her scratches empathizing her disapproval.

She was 'sad'. All that amounted to was confusion but with a different skin to it. Her sadness couldn't evolve properly. There was no stable ground beneath her sadness, thus she was given no options from the emotion. Nothing to drive her.

She was 'angry'. But, to what extent? Half of the problems surrounding her were clouded in mystery. Where could she direct her ire? Who else was there to blame at the end of the day? The ponies? She had no business getting angry towards them. She'd wronged them. At least, a good few of them. Those who felt important to her in such a small time of bonding she had already betrayed or inconvenienced in some way. No, being mad only lead to being guilty and sad given her recent history. Which meant no options, no drive. Another dead end.

She was 'lost'.

Earth-Chan frowned as her own self assessment looped back to square one. She could think herself into a coma, but that option was too 'tired' oriented. Opting against it, she fell back on running. She fell back on the broken routine. She couldn't think now anyway, she was still trying to get away. Once she got someplace safe... then she'd try thinking again. That was her excuse. It was a good excuse. It helped her ignore her worries. It helped her ignore the lack of a plan. It helped her stay sane just a little while longer.

Pick herself up from the tree, taking a few more deep breaths, the pony began walking onward. Before she could make it even a couple yards though she was halted by a very familiar growl.

Looking at her from the bushes was a growing number of yellow eyes encompassed by the shadows of the bushes and trees. Only the faint outline of wolf like features could be distinguished. It didn't take a genius to decipher the situation. There was a pack in front of her. More growling from both sides corrected her conclusion. There was a pack surrounding her.

Slowly, a cluster of imposing figures emerged from their cover, revealing themselves to their prey, radiating their confidence in a meal well caught. A chill ran down Earth-Chan's spine as a collective howl sprung from the wolves, blasting her with an intimidating wall of sound. They were imposing to say the least, but a certain feature of theirs caught the pony off guard. Every single one of these wolves had the make of branches and bark. They seemed to be compiled completely of wood!

It was a mystical spectacle to be sure. One that left her in awe for a small period of time. Yet, the feeling of wonder was short lived as she realized they'd begun to close in. They were taking slow steps, but each one closed their distance from Earth-Chan. Backing away, she managed to bump back into the tree she'd just rested against, her retreat cut off.

She could fight off a few. She could tap into some of her tingles... but they'd get her eventually. No, inevitably. This was the result. This was the necessity. She had to face it. There had to be a reason she couldn't find her drive. There had to be a reason that things felt so empty, and there was. She knew the reasons. This had been a mistake. She was a mistake. And the world planned to erase her. It was death all over again.

This was it.

She was tired... She was sad... She was mad... She was a mistake.

A couple tears slowly began to mat Earth-Chan's face.

She let out a sniff before her lip trembled into a grimace.

Her look of pain growing as she continued to lament.

Her mind flurried with regret before she let out a finale whimper.

"Just... do it."

The wolves inched closer, some pressing low, ready to pounce.

They were taking so long. It was starting to get agonizing for her to wait, her resolve fluctuating throughout every passing second. She was ready, she wasn't. She needed death, but at the same time it was so scary. It was so unbelievably frightening. The worst part is she knew the darkness that came next. She'd experienced it. She wasn't ready for this, but at the same time, she was long overdue.

"Do it!"

The biggest wolf of the pack, likely the Alpha of the group, took lead. Taking his steps all the more boldly, he approached Earth-Chan with a sense of malice and oddly enough respect. He had an understanding to him that was cold and unyielding. It became apparent that he would have first strike. Maybe even first dibs. Earth-Chan hoped he choked on her bones and died.

He began to prone his stance similar to the others behind him. Things had begun to tick by slowly, moments captured in clips and reeled to about half speed. The Alpha began his pounce, the power in his legs contorting with power, force shifting beneath wolf flesh as muscle strained to gain enough force to leave the ground completely. Pushing off, the wolf practically hovered there, determination etched across his face, jaws slowly widening apart, tongue lolling out. This was the kill.

Earth-Chan waited, her scream silent to her own ears, her own frustration deafening her ears, bring on a sense of muteness to the world around her... Which lasted for longer than she'd expected honestly.

And still. Nothing, not even a crunch of fatality. Nothing but silence. If her eyes had been closed she'd have guessed she was already dead, but instead she continued to stare into the face of a wolf's open mouth full of prickly wooden teeth and fangs. It's looming presence unnaturally suspended mid-air, stuck in its entirety.

The wolf floated endlessly, never committing to its once forward motion as if rebelling against the laws of nature. This was beyond some kind of inner freeze frame. This wasn't the feeling of slow motion, this was a void of all motion. Everything in its entirety, from the wolf in front of her, to the pack surrounding, to even the forest and it's sympathy of life and breezes. All had gone quiet. All had gone still. The world stopped, only proceeding to draw out the inevitable.

"W-Why..."

Earth-Chan couldn't rightfully speak, her mouth had no motion. Her thoughts seemed to resonate instead, carrying a sound that transcended voice. It was her old method of speaking. This was the echo of creation. She was talking like a planet.

"Why is this happening now? Why won't it just end?"

There was nothing to expect. Earth-Chan figured this was a universal act of torture, to punish her for her displacement in this world. She was willing to accept that if only someone could give a definitive answer. But no, no one could possibly answer her. She would experience death for the second time in her cycle eventually.... at this point hopefully.

"H-Hello?"

"Hellllllo!!!!!!!"

The world stopped dead in its tracks, as it should have. Time was essentially frozen, leaving motion and progression to the wayside, instead giving the consciousness of two minds all the time they could need. This was connection done right. Flawless to the point that all negative repercussions had been drastically limited. Meaning longer sentences, meaning deeper topics, ultimately meaning the first substantial contact it had ever had with Earth-Chan. The Universe had made its presence known and with that filled the world with an echo of it's forbidden voice.

"Oh, look at you. Your mane is familiar, but look at all that blue~ I always did appreciate that color of yours. One could say it's my favorite, but... heh, I created color, so I find it hard to commit to that statement."

The pony could not move to speak back, instead, a glow emitted from her body, illuminating brightly and shrouding the fanged wood wolf in front of her in a bath of bright blue light. This light seemingly amplified her echo, giving it emotion and pitch. Something the pony hadn't realized she had lacked up til now. "W-What?"

"No, I agree, claiming the creation of color is a little pretentious. I guess one could argue that I established the possibility of color. Aaaah, but that is of little substance, let us start more formally and work from there! Hello, Earth. It is so good to finally meet you.""

The Universe was elated, trying its best not to babble. This was an important first contact, something referred to as 'Breaking the Ice'. A term coined by those dreadful humans, but appropriate all the same. It was vital that the Universe not blow this. First impressions were hard to change. It should know, it's first impression of her had left a stain on the fabric of it's very existence. Which had been as both wonderful as it had been self-destructive.

"Ahem, excuse me, manners are actually still fairly foreign to me. Let me introduce myself. I am....."

Well, this was inevitable. Self description was a necessity when making contact. Communication demanded some form of identity, yet here it was, lost on the right words to conjure. How embarrassing. Yet, at the same time, this couldn't be more exciting! Both emotions stacked against the Universe here. It had to skip all the self reflection and do the hardest thing of it's entire cycle. It had to choose a gender.

"Uuuum, think of me as... Your... Father! Yes, okay, lets go with that, but drop the obligation that comes with family. I would really rather not feel guilty over all my 'neglect' towards my other children, so let’s keep this 'father' title to the barest minimum that we can. For my stability and everyone else’s."

The pony's aura changed hue, moving down the spectrum until settling on a bright green ray of confusion. It was a delight to bear witness to the cuteness of Earth's echo. Her emotions so easily read for the first time. So tangible and real, it made the Universe flutter. A sense of mellow calmness and giddiness flowed across its entirety, spreading from galaxy to galaxy, encompassing everything in a feel-good vibe.

"F-Father?"

Oh the Universe loved that! He absolutely loved that! The way her echo caressed the word, glorifying it without probably intending to. Her inner voice was angelic, something that felt truly robbed given her new form. She probably couldn't use her echo outside of instances like these... meaning these voices were special between just the two of them. Another wave of flutters.

"I was not sure about it at first, but it has the perfect ring to it when you say it back to me! Yes, I am your father, Earth! I am your creator, your start and finish. The provider of every breath you breathe! But please, if that title is a little long and sudden for you just call me Unity!"

Unity had been a name created on the fly. Something made up in the stroke of the moment, but the more the Universe rolled the name in it's mind the more it seemed to click. He was everything. The first and last presence of consciousness this reality will ever know. It was the perfect name if he said so himself.

He. What an odd pronoun. Something so short yet decisive. Two letters forming an entire presence of identity. He liked the power in those letters. The pronunciation was perfectly sharp and concise. Nothing against She, but something about He stood out. If in fact He ever did grow tiresome he could always just switch to the other pronoun. Nothing stopped him from doing so. He created gender! Well, created the possibility for gender. There was no law he couldn't bend! The fascination of identity put to the side, Unity noticed a new hue change.

Earth-Chan seemed to be transitioning, albeit rather sporadically back and forth, from green to a rising presence of red. There was something universally (Pun intended) bad about that color and gave Unity a sense of worry. Could it have possibly been that Earth wanted a Mother instead? Was Unity not a nice enough name? Where had he messed up?

"You seem bothered, Earth. I sense.... tension."

"You... You...."

"Me."

"...Jerk!!"

"..."

"You disgusting, manipulative, piece of dust, jerk!!!"

Author's Note

I live! Hahahahaha, I missed this! Aaaaah, good to write again. So, mostly I want to once again thank TotallyNotABrony for his diligent work. I give him a chapter and it's done in practically seconds. It's impressive.

Can't wait for this season 8 of MLP to start. I'm hoping for a lot of inspiration while waiting week to week for my favorite show. Plus the surplus of fanfic material with each season never ceases to amaze. Welp, anyway, enjoy my one and only Meme Masterpiece! Cheers to Earth-Chan! May she be cute, stay cute, and do many cute things!

Spring: The Point

"Mmm, well... I do not think I follow. I can guess it has something to do with the name. Not going to lie, it is sad to hear that because I was really warming up to it."

The hues of Earth-Chan were mixing in a collage of green and red, mistakenly festive if judged by an amateur. But, Unity was a step above. If there was anything he prided himself in lately it was his ability to learn the emotions of the one he held so dear. Her colors told him he was wrong, but even his understanding had it's limits. Why was red so predominant? It was clear that he wasn't quite as skilled at reading her as he wanted to be, but that could and would change. He did all this for that very purpose. As all knowing as he undoubtedly was, even the Universe had to humble itself in it's knowledge. This moment was impossible, therefore nothing could prepare him. There was no predictions to go on. No past to draw from. He was going at this blind. And it thrilled him to no end.

"On second thought, guessing games are just as foreign as manners. Maybe if I could get a small hint I cou-"

"That's just it! Nothing about this is a game!!! You just keep rambling... You haven't even noticed!"

"Noticed..."

What an odd claim. Those particular words never crossed him. The accusation in of itself was confusing. He was the definition of omnipotent, yet here this planet turned pony dared to challenge everything Unity was. As amazing as the anomaly presented itself to be, it fundamentally bothered Unity in a way that he couldn't quite describe. What was this feeling? Nothing stood out yet, but he couldn't shake something brewing in his very being. Just a small bubbling sensation of... of anger? No, too tame and unimposing. Maybe thinking wasn't the answer here. He needed to feel this out, play along, and try listening to what his creation meant. Quite the heavy accusation to start with, but this was all a part of the discovery, he had to keep an open mind.

Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity before Earth-Chan glowed a golden sheen of exasperation and let out a scoff.

"Really? Look! Look at me! Look at what's happening!!"

Look at her, and tell what was happening? Well nothing, he'd stopped time for this. She knew that, meaning clearly this meant something more subtle, right? Maybe... her appearance? He had created her body in a moment of passion hoping to fit his image of her into a condensed pony form, but with the lack of time and the amount of strain he'd been under during the process he figured the final result was admirable yet rushed. She had an honest, slender shape with just the right amount of muscle to complement her independence and audaciousness. Maybe he'd fluffed her up a bit too much, but what was the point of making her a pony if not to fluff her? Plus, earth pony. Earth-Chan. The race picked fit like a glove!

He simply refused to believe she had any bodily insecurities, but at the same time, that wasn't very open minded. If he was wrong then he was ignoring a simple problem and leaving it to stew. If he wasn't, he'd bring focus to her appearance just by mentioning it which might lead into an insecurity out of the blue.

This was so punishing! Everything felt like a wrong direction. It'd been so easy to be neglectful, but now taking someone else into consideration like this. It almost made too much sense as to why he'd secluded himself from the other creations. The implications of every wrong move were torturous! But, this was different. This was Earth. This was worth the struggle. He had already made that decision.

Choosing to Ignore the eternal loop of body shaming for now, Unity tried a different angle. If not her body then maybe her predicament had the answers. There was more than one way to cue in on subtleties, the Universe was no fool. The scratches Earth-Chan had gotten from the other critters were regrettable, but at the same time, it was all a misunderstanding. One Unity was sure would fix itself with enough time. If not, he could always tweak the charm he left on the Earth. It's strength had seemingly risen in the first few days, but it was a work in progress, just like everything else about this situation.

So, with that unfortunate pain in mind, one had to acknowledge what was actually physically happening. The scene: His beautiful Earth was off alone from any ponies or small critters having just played a fun, albeit aggressive, game of chase as was her usual tendency. She was slumped against a tree to catch a breath after having finally given her friends the slip. Before she could continue her new game of hide and seek a few local pups had come to greet her. All of them seemingly entranced by Earth's charm. The biggest of the pack had taken first dibs as was pack mentality, and was now going in for a hug.

"..."

Where was the issue? He'd broken it down to its most basic level, and still this situation seemed cheerful if not a little tiring. It could probably be the animal cuts, and he lamented the effect they might have on her stamina, but once again, those were products of a misunderstanding. The critters had merely snuggled the wrong way. He was sure their comprehension would improve quite soon.

Last he had checked, every animal on Equis had an above average sense of intelligence. Mixed with the charm he'd used there should just be a small learning curve before things ironed themselves out. The charm hadn't been of his own creation, instead borrowed from a quick clairvoyance of the knowledge accumulated from Equis itself , although indeed added upon he was sure he had casted the spell precisely as instructed. Magic wasn't something he manipulated all that often, it's mere practice coming far too close to breaking his own laws of physics. Still, with creation came a realm of impossibility that was constantly challenged and expanded on. His connection with Earth delved into that very realm, so frankly he had no reason to hesitate anymore. Even with that new open-minded view his knowledge of the subject was limited. Another strike to his overall pride as an omnipresent being, but one he had to accept if he held any chance of amending the spell in the future.

A few more adjustments to some finer details were in order, but for all his worth, Unity couldn't find the issue and that bothered him greatly. His emotion from earlier beginning to rise more predominantly. There had to be a title to this emotion. If only he could pin it down. He'd spent an immeasurable minute thinking though, perhaps a question was appropriate.

"What is it that I am looking for, Earth?"

Another fluctuation of color. The primary color, of course, red. Unity had gotten it wrong again. It stung, but not as much as the sudden lash of disapproval that followed.

"A clue! How about that! You didn't even notice the pain, the danger, all the tears, Nothing! You call yourself a father?!!"

What were tears?

"Y-You don't even care! Not even a shred of guilt! All that you've done... You jerk..."

~You don't even care~

~You don't care~

~Care~

CARE!!!!!

Oh... the emotion. That's right. It did have a title.

Frustration.

That was not a word she should be using against him. Not now, not ever. She had no idea. How could she, he had no intention of telling her. Yet, he felt smacked dead in the face with such an accusation. Such a heinous, disgusting accusation. If she could have felt the fear, the uncertainty of it all. The pain of giving up some cycle just to gain the displacement big enough to edit the very reality he'd created. It took lives to do this... it took blood. It took enough to stain his own conscious. Enough to taint the stability he'd kept for all these billions... Trillions of years!

"Pardon, I do not care?"

After all that had been done? The worst possible accusation... How could she come to such a horrid conclusion. It broke his heart just as clearly as it broke his restraint.

"I do not Care?!"

For the second time in all of his cycle, a sense of injustice washed over Unity, spreading throughout all of his galaxies in a wave of unbalance. It was alien to have emotions take control, even as forethought was abandoned for a mere few seconds. Something equivalent to a cry of betrayal festered up and lashed out in the form of an all mighty echo.

"How could you possibly... I did this because I care! You were in pain, I healed it. I did everything possible and fixed it!"

"You call bringing back the dead fixing it?! You robbed me of my peace, for what?" Earth-Chan's own echo rising in brightness, her red coloring shined brighter by the second as she finally gave her inner anguish a voice... and it was loud.

But so was his.

"For a second chance! If nothing were done, you would have disappeared and..."

"And what if that's what I wanted?!"

The very possibility mortified Unity. He'd ignored this outcome for the sole purpose that it trembled him. To want death meant the sacrifice he'd made was pointless. The cycle compromised for nothing. Even just the thought that he'd watched his Child, so sweet and innocent, turn down a self-destructive path while doing nothing to stop it... implying the notion that he'd been too late to save her. Absolutely not.

Besides, that wasn't the Earth he knew. His Earth was just an unfortunate ball of blue riddled with misunderstandings, robbed of friendship for no explicable reason. She was naive, filled with hope, but still terribly sad. She was sweet, kind, and gentle, acting with only the best intentions. Unity's Earth was just upset. For all it's worth, she deserved to be upset. Those humans tortured her very mind and soul. She still needed to heal. Earth didn't understand what she had said, she was angry, everyone says things they don't mean when they're angry.

Explaining it properly like that helped Unity relax, regaining what little restraint he could to soften his echo back to a normal volume, albeit shaky given the uncomfortable subject.

"You do not know what you want."

"...But, neither do I honestly. Is that not crazy?"

"Of course it is! Y-You... where do you get off telling me what I know! You don't even know me!"

"Oh, Earth...Earth Earth Earth. At this point, all I know is you. All I want to know is you. I am trying so hard to learn."

"Then maybe you should listen for once."

He'd been listening in on every word spoken, it was obvious context had flown over his head, but he would likely never discover where or when. He couldn't get caught up on past mistakes, he had to keep moving through this, bumbling along until he figured out what he could do to help this planet. His planet.

"I mean, sure.... whatever you have to say, I am more than willing to hear, Earth."

"Then I'll be clear."

"I...hate you."

"..."

Earth-Chan let out a startled yelp as a massive force of wood came crashing against her and knocked her down to the ground, just barely smashing against the tree behind her and somehow missing an oblong root that had exposed itself from the forest floor. As close of a call as that might have been, she immediately found herself pinned.

It was abrupt, but made sense given her predicament. Unity, the celestial consciousness, had doomed her to this fate. She had said her part though. There was a bitterness left over from such harsh words, yet she had no regrets. She knew why now. A selfish vision of justice from a being that just couldn't get it. Fine, let it end again. She was ready, just like last time. What could being eaten alive bring to the table that burning alive didn't? She was dead either way... and really wasn't that what she deserved in the first place?

The canine above her leaned in for his first bite.

And took a taste instead.

"Blegh." The darn wolf had managed to slobber her, some of it getting in Earth-Chan's mouth. "ehegh, r-really? What the heck?"

The pony was quickly shushed with another lick or two. They were so rapid and distracting it was really a bother just keeping count. Soon what was one or two quick laps turned into a saliva bath as the alpha wolf began to groom her face with affection.

This was so different from the other critters it was surreal. What was arguably a much more lethal environment, one would assume death was knocking, instead seemed to add up to a cuddle hunt. In comparison she'd been attacked by the other critters in what she had thought was a favorable situation surrounded by helpful ponies and friends.

So, why? What was different? Species maybe? But, these were carnivores. The herbivores had been a much bigger threat! What’s more, how the heck did a giant moving slab of wood have a tongue?!!

Another few seconds of constant licks followed before Earth-Chan worked the courage to try and push away. The wolf, for once, showed some mercy and pulled away, still pinning her to the ground, but at least giving her room to breath. Even with such a new discovery of peacefulness something felt wrong about having her belly and throat still fully exposed to a predator. Being a creature of prey meant there was an inherent feeling of fear logged deep in her gut screaming for her to scamper. She probably would if she could.

Once given the space she needed she got a second look at her captor. Along with her new perspective she couldn't help but gain a little bit of an infatuation with the animal above her. So powerful and threatening, yet docile enough to respect her wishes to not be licked. He was cute, if you were willing to overlook those fangs and claws. To top it off, there was the subtle flicker behind him, which after careful watch reveal to be his tail wagging. The big lug was starting to resemble a dog more than a menacing wolf.

"Um... eheh, would you mind letting me up?"

The wolf tilted it's head in acknowledgement that at least heard her, but other than that he didn't budge. The gap in understanding would not be crossed in just a few seconds, which was unfortunate because this big guy was heavy.

"P-Please? I think my legs are numbing. It's kind of new one for me, and really quite concerning..."

With a bark, the wooden canine tilted his head the other direction. It was adorable, but not helpful in the slightest. Leaving no room for communication, the pony opted to try and wiggle. With a small shimmy of her hips, she began slightly rocking herself beneath his weight. Not so much moving, but relaying a clear desire to move instead.

Suddenly, as if finally coming to some kind of understanding, the wolf got the hint and released his hold on Earth, getting up and backing away to give her even more space. The term 'good boy' came to mind now that all sense of threat was abolished. Even her instincts to flee were starting to quell as she noted that none of the pack surrounding so much as budged from their spots, instead deciding to sit in place and watch the interaction.

Slowly but surely, Earth-Chan got back to her hooves. Her coat had suffered a few new splotches of dust and dirt, but besides that and the still plentiful scratches she'd gotten from earlier she was fine.

With more freedom to move came with some confidence in the situation. Something she hadn't had in a while. Now that she could walk, it was her decision not to. Earth decided she wanted to return some affection and approached. Her step was still careful, not wanting to push her luck too much. Even so, she reached out with her head and gave the wooden wolf a nuzzle, muzzles coming cheek to cheek with each other. In return, the wolf nuzzled back, even adding another lick to the fray flicking her ear with his green muscle.

"Heh, well Mr. Wolf... I'd say this is one of the better first impressions today." Moving her head back she gave the wolf a small smile. "Any idea where I'm at?"

The wolf barked cheerfully in answer. Just as Earth-Chan's heart began to melt, a cataclysmic beam shot from the side and engulfed the wooden wolf in his entirety. There was neigh a coherent yelp before the beam of energy quickly subsided leaving nothing in its wake. The only things left of the once friendly alpha in front of her was nothing but a set of wooden paws, smoldering at where the wolf's ankles use to be.

Earth-Chan kept her smile for a second, not really registering at all what had just happened. It was too fast to acknowledge. Before she could even blink away the initial shock, two more powerful beams shot from the side of her vision. Suddenly a loud bark of fear was emitted, sparking Earth-Chan from her stupor, only to come to a heavy realization that she was now alone in the clearing. Nothing but the smell of burnt wood and chard remains were left. Slowly turning her head towards the source of the beams she was met with a tall purple figure, frowning at her.

The pony couldn't find her words, just staring off in horror at what had happened.

"Look, thank me later. But, that won't keep them down long believe it or not. We gotta go..."

Still, the pony could do nothing but stare in shock, her mouth agape with both fear and surprise. It took her all too long to realize the figure emerging from the woods was another pony. A pegasus it seemed, her wings tucked to her sides. One addition threw Earth off just as much as the display of brutality though, that being that this pegasus had a horn atop her head, budding out from beneath her purple multi-hued mane. She was a slightly taller size, giving herself a sleek elegance that contrasted heavily with her deadly prowess. She was pretty, imposing, and currently staring at Earth-Chan with quite the glare.

"You're going to just stand there, aren't you?" With a scoff the pegasus' horn began to glow a color that resembled an echo in essence. It encompassed her appendage and lead to a lot of nothing happening for a short few seconds. Then, without warning, Earth-Chan was lifted into the air. Feeling scared as she was once again pulled away from her bug-eyed stare, the pony began to frantically squirm, trying to get out of the grasp of whatever was picking her up.... only there was no resistance. There was no presence. Nothing but the faintest of glows, one resembling the exact same glow coming from the pegasus' horn. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together. That's right. She was being abducted.

"Starlight! I found her, lets head back to the others!" The slender mare called over her shoulder before looking back to Earth for a split second. "Let's go straighten this out, hmmm?" Still in some kind of hurry she quickly spun around and began galloping back into the woods, a floating Earth-Chan following her closely in tow.

Author's Note

My editor took longer than an hour to respond and I got impatient. Don't tell him that I went ahead and published... I'll likely edit when he finishes looking over the google doc, but I'm too hasty. So hasty. Flawed and hasty. But mostly hasty. Don't worry too much though. I'm reading a book on how to make friends and influence people, so I should get better here in a couple more chapters. It's guaranteed or my money back! :rainbowkiss:

Spring: Judgement

The delicate tweet of song birds filled the room, along with the skitter of paws, flutter of wings, and the occasional muttering of animal noises. It was all a little overwhelming, but manageable this time around. The animals had just as quickly found and swarmed Earth-Chan once she'd been abducted. This time seemed to be a lot more amicable given the severe lack of threat. These little critters, cluttering the rather lavish castle gathering room, seemed to perch and cling, nuzzle and cuddle, all feverishly worshipping the little blue mare in some form or manner. Those who weren't fawning over her seemed to stay within respectable distance, guarding in a sense looking out for danger. Earth was rather elated with the turn of events, but a certain purple horned pegasus still kept a bit of her ire.

It'd been apparent to her that this pony knew nothing of the situation, and to be honest she didn't blame her. The death beams had been overkill though! Sure, she'd been on the verge of accepting death. Sure, she looked scratched and bruised, battered and defeated. Sure she'd been surrounded by what were essentially Apex predators securing their kill... You know, maybe the death beams hadn't been an over reaction at first, but the situation had changed! If she'd just given her a chance to talk before committing mass murder, maybe she'd have her wooden friends! Did five seconds of licking and nuzzles constitute as friendship?

"Okay, so elephant in the room. Why in the hay are you walking around with a 'Want it, Need it' spell on you?" This purple punisher seemed brash, irritated. Ready to yell, but she kept her cool and honestly, Earth-Chan envied that level of control and poise.

Gasps resonated around the room as a council of color seemed surprised by this sudden revelation come to light, every eye on Earth swollen with shock and, wow traces of pity. Pinkie Pie seemed the most over exasperated, floating in the air lightly to emphasize her level of disbelief.

"That's why? Holy moly, that makes so much sense! You hear that fluttershy? Your animals weren't being nasty at all, they were being emotionally manipulated by forms of dark magic!" The pony beamed with joyous relief for her friend, but received a mixture of reactions from her conclave of friends.

"P-Pinkie, yer acting ah touch tone death with that one sugarcube. Y'all know Flutters don't wanna hear that, not to mention ya just gone accused yer new friend of dark magic." The cowpony of the hour seemed rather calm in the presence of Earth, and it bothered her. Fast forgiveness wasn't real, it took time to truly forgive. Well, by her experience it did. As vast as her anthropology was, these equines threw a wrench in a lot of her common sense.

"R-Right, sorry. I didn't mean for that to come out like that... I meant it as a good thing though! It means there's nothing wrong with her animals!"

"But, there's something wrong with the pony instead. Sugarcoat it if you want, but the fact of the matter is, we've got a ruffian among us." White fur, purple mane. Drop dead gorgeous in every since of the word and yet here she was, getting on Earth-Chan's bad side quicker than most. With a disgruntled huff, the pony in prosecution crossed her critter covered arms across her chest as she sat in her royal over sized crystal chair. Pouty wasn't her strong suite and being dwarfed by her seat didn't make her come across very serious, at least by her own critique.

"Rarity!"

A choir of disapproval radiated from the bunch as a clear social line had been crossed. Honestly, given her repertoire of curses, she thought little of the word ruffian. It was her tone. And the insistence that something was wrong with her. She already knew that, why'd she have to just go and say it like that?

"I would normally take back such a brash thrashing of etiquette, but I think we've sat here long enough without addressing the elephant in the room."

A loud trumpet blast disoriented the room as the powerful toot of one gray bush elephant came on cue as if waiting for it's chance to shine. It was rather deafening to say the least, leaving multiple dazed and holding their ears and rubbing for relief. Said elephant tooted again a little sheepishly this time as it noticed all eyes on itself. Bashfully, it ducked back behind the ground, keeping close to Earth-Chan surely, but doing it's best to get outta the spot light.

"...Rarity's right, we might as well start with the obvious crimes at hoof." The multi-appendaged purple leader seemed to want to cut straight to the point.

"I didn't steal his soap!" Raising her voice, Earth seemed intent on making this all very clear, starting with what she thought was her biggest offense.

"No no, we didn't all come here just to talk about soap. We came to talk about, in no particular order, Theft, destruction of property, running from authorities, and disrupting the peace with dark magic." Reading from a small file she seemed to have on the subject at hand, the purple one threw the vanilla folder to the middle of the table with a bemused look before letting out a sigh. "Luckily for you, you've got a few ponies here vouching for you so I feel like the real conversation lies with stealing the blanket and the whole magic charm you've had up."

She seemed to resituated herself in her own seat, probably just as uncomfortable with these oversized chairs as she was. Without much to go on, Earth-Chan muddled over the memory of what this pony's name was before letting out a breath. She couldn't remember. Had it really ever been told to her in the first place? Her memory was short. She was feeling a little short. Everything was short, blast these forsaken chairs!

"I would really like to um.... apologize about the blanket. I think it was cozy, and given how new I was to everything when I received it, I kind of clung to it for comfort."

"While you were running away? And obviously you weren't too attached because I don't think I saw it on you in the woods."

"The whole bail routine was kind of by impulse too. I'm not going to lie, I've been running on impulse since I got here. I don't know where I dropped it, but when we're done here I'll go look for it." She had to admit it, nothing seemed planned out. She wasn't necessarily old enough in this new body to really bother with plans yet, but if anything was for certain, her own knowledge and wisdom had escaped her in all this excitement. "I shouldn't have ran like that, but... it was complicated. I didn't have all the answers to... to... Brighty? I didn't have the answers to all of the officers questions, but he kept asking them."

Quirking a brow at that, purple addressed back. "Well, it's his job. Honestly, I'm glad you at least regret it, but you should really apologize and talk it over with him. Those are some bad terms that you really need to mend yourself. That said, the topic of unanswered questions segues back into my first question quite nicely." With a stern look, she honed in on the critter clattered pony with a seriousness unparalleled by any pony Earth had met yet. "Who are you, where did you come from, and who put that spell on you?"

Wincing, Earth looked around. Each pony had different levels of intrigue, from naïve and curious to distraught and mistrusting, she seemed to have a collective hold on everyone's attention. She met eyes with Pinkie and pondered what she should say. Where she should start. Running the scenario in her head a thousand times, she couldn't think of a way to explain it. What she had to tell them was the truth, she was bad at lying anyway. But, if the whole truth seemed like a lie, what was the point of even talking?

Staring at Pinkie Pie for what felt like eons, Earth breathed a sigh as she began to accept the choice she was going to make. "It's a little... difficult." That was true. So far so good.

"The whole story usually is, but it's what we need to move forward, so..." The purple royal nodded her head in an indication to keep going. The blue mare was a little intimidated by that consistent gaze everyone had trained on her, but some soft nuzzles from one of the squirrels gave her a bit of strength to get the ball rolling eventually.

"Okay, we'll go in order I guess. My name is..." Smirking over to Pinkie the two shared a moment of amusement as she introduced herself with her temporary name.

"What?" Quite a few heads tilted at the mention of her name.

"I said my name is..."

"Who?" An unnamed owl seemed keen on interrupting at such an odd time, was she really going to have to say it again?

"My name is Earth-Chan!" Feeling a little flustered as she yelled that last part out, she took a second to collect herself a bit before continuing. "And I'm a um... Okay... look. You have to understand something. What I'm about to say is going to be hard to digest. Seriously, I expect you to think I'm crazy after hearing this."

Clearing her throat, Twilight pierced her wavering resolve with a simple monotoned retort. "Earth-Chan, let me be quite frank, we've dealt with personality switches, cloning pools of water, the god of chaos himself destroying reality, an all out wedding war, a magic sucking centaur fight to the death, and literal communism. Then we have our introduction to you being a random pony who came out of nowhere, committed enough crimes in the course of one day to have a pony hunt set out for her, and all while walking around with a rather powerful charm spell stuck to her like glue. Try me."

Earth nodded along with her lists and began to develop a sense of ease as all the wackiness piled up enough to make it all feel a little mundane at this point. Maybe what she was about to say would be taken well. These girls seemed to have their share of experiences, what's one more.

"Well, thanks. That actually helped a lot. Okay, so I'm an entire planet converted into a single life form. I was going through a bit of a heavy fall out with the inhabitants of my surface and was chosen for... revival. All against my will, I was flung from my orbit in another galaxy all the way here and shrunken down and shaped into what you see me as now. Only recently have I learned that the only reason all of this happened is because my creator, the Universe itself, has some kind of conscious, took a liking to me specifically, and decided to resurrect my corpse for no specified reason. The spell could be a lot of things, and have a lot of power to it, but I'm not really sure what it is, what it does, or why it's bad. But, if I had to name a culprit, his name would be Unity."

She'd gone in feeling rather confident. She left a bunch out expecting some follow up questions to really jump start this conversation. It felt great to let this out of the bag. Lying, secrets, they simply weren't her thing. She'd felt sheepish at first, but by the time she was half way done, she'd gotten giddy with the relief all this came with. That said, the conversation she'd been hoping for was delayed.

One second, two. No one was talking. They were all just staring. Mouths hanging. Silent.

Three second, four. With a tilt of her head, she'd started feeling a little self conscious if the comfort of fuzzy critters weren't there to keep her going.

"..."

Letting out a sigh, she'd take a beaver and placed it in front of herself as she began to dote on it with a steady stream of hooved pets. "You said try you...."

That seemed to stir some of them and with a shake of her head, Rainbow of all ponies was the first to speak. "So wait, you really expect us to believe... like, any of that?"

"Well, ya!"

The breath-taking Rarity was next to regain her senses, wriggling her head a bit as if she'd been stunned. "We all surely didn't meet like this to hear the ravings of a loon, right?"

Puffing out her cheeks, the pets Earth gave Mr. Beaver were given a rather rough tinge to them as she frowned deeply at the name calling and cried her rebuke in earnest. "I told you it would sound crazy! Look, it's true, every word. I swear, no, Pinkie Promise! I'm not lying!"

Fluttershy was next to gasp from her trance, looking to Pinkie pie for any read on how to take this. The pinkest of ponies gave no hint herself, still in the throes of shock. The yellow cup of feathers had a desperation to her, almost like she wanted to say something, but had no words to make. Rainbow seemed to come to her rescue as she took a stance where none would. "Ponyfeathers! And I'll prove it too. We knew you might pull something like this, but tough luck. Our girl AJ is the Element of Honesty! She's basically got lie detection down to a tee, she'll tell us how it really is, right AppleJack?"

Both pegasus' turned to gauge their friend, only to be sucked into another fit of surprise as said apple mare continued to wear a face of shock.

Finally, yellow found her words. "A-AJ?"

Flickering her ears lightly, Applejack quickly waggled her head, assuming the same wet dog motion everyone else seemed to be resorting to. She cleared enough static to speak, but she still seemed a dazed by the mental sandwich she'd just been force fed. "Ah-Ah can't r-really tell ya'll. Everything ah have to work with jus kinda tells me she at least believes everything she's saying, down to her core. But, it just... can't be, right?"

"Well why not? Anything and Everything is possible you know." With a small sip of tea, the lord of chaos made himself known to the conversation in no special way besides presence alone. Not there one second, then there the next he'd finishing his sip and pull the cup away before dropping it to the floor, letting it shatter with little respite, only because the mess never ended up existing in the first place. "All of the time."

Author's Note

Sup guys, thought I'd take a trip down memory lane and start posting again. Here's to opening new doors with old hobbies! What's everybody been up to?

Spring: Things Are Getting Flippin' Crazy!

Brisk had always been an enemy. Fast had always been a fantasy. Frankly, Bright Star preferred a leisured canter. Sadly, his recent endeavor left him running after some blanket stealing thief meaning leisure just wasn't in the cards for him today. His breath was completely out of sorts having lost his prime a few decades ago. Still the old stallion managed to pick up his pace with a huff, galloping along after that pesky blue mare.

She'd been gone the second he'd returned with a glass for her, as well as a promising cup of coco. He'd taken the time to give her some choices, setting everything up on nice silver tray for easier balance as he trotted on three hooves just to bring it to her. All a waste of time. He'd just missed her leave and the crime scene was blatant. Her bed of pillows and comforters was left sprawled across the ground in a makeshift bread crumb trail, leading straight to the Jail House exit. The only article not visible from the mess was one of his own personal small blankets that he'd given out of kindness to the poor, cold filly he'd met last night. It wasn't much really, but it was warm as all get, and happened to be one of his favorites. He'd brought it from home to wrap up in when he had to stay some long nights up at the station.

It was criminal what she had pulled on him. And it just so happened to be his duty to wrangle in ponies just like her. Bright Star ran with a jumbled expression on his muzzle though, even as his face contorted during his rampant attempts to keep air moving through his lungs. He couldn't shake the betrayal and hurt, but it felt rather hard to stay completely angry at the little miss. She was a lithe young thing, probably close to her mid-twenties. From what he gathered from their conversations, and that wasn't a lot, he could tell this pony didn't have a plan. It wasn't the first time he'd seen something like this. Ponies got lost all the time in plenty of different ways. Equis was a harsh world full of pain, sorrows, and misdirection.

Too many nights of escorting drunk mares and stallions home flashed through his head, but the memories that counted were the nights without all the alcoholic breath. When he took the time to talk to some folk who had chosen to wonder the streets for more reasons than just a good time.

When he found her at the fountain, he'd kept quiet for a while. His duty was to keep watch and to guard the streets. It was no business of his to bother a mare on her own for no reason. But, eventually he got the picture that this wasn't just a simple walk out in the evening stars. She'd shown all the signs of a pony looking for reason. He'd felt a pang in his heart the moment he spoke, because the face she made when she turned around told him he'd interrupted something heavy. Something serious. It'd been no real sacrifice to offer up his Police uniform to keep her warm. It'd been his pleasure to escort her to the Station. It felt nice to keep her comfortable in her time of need.

Memories of certain bath time misadventures shook him from his own reminiscing, and he frowned. Add four bars of soap to that list of burglary and that chalked up to one hefty ticket. One he'd enjoy giving, as well as a piece of his mind. Being sad didn't make you invulnerable to the law!

With a snort, the Officer picked up pace. His maroon hooves clicking sharply against the stone road, his silver-ish gray mane began to whip past his ears as he pushed himself faster. A dark blue vest with a proud yellow stare hugged tightly to his body, showcasing his status. His duty. His reputation on the line. If he wanted that star to keep meaning what it meant, then he needed to fight through the burn and catch that quick little mare.

Time for some answers!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How could such a bad idea be so rewarding? Here Earth-Chan was, stolen blanket draped around her body like a cloak, tied to her neck like a cape, drinking from a fountain like a desert withered mule. Water was bliss! Sweet heavens, she'd struck it rich. Each gulp giving her the nourishment she needed to quell her dry, demanding throat. It wasn't enough, not even close to enough! She pushed her face into the pool and began savagely drinking. The cold, pure embrace of fountain water against her face made quite the contrast to her bath last night. This chilled her in wonderful ways, all misgivings forgiven and forgotten. She loved the fountain! She couldn't see her life without it.

Another splash next to her made it apparent that others shared in her opinion. Earth-Chan slowly opened her eyes underneath the water's surface, finding it difficult, but not impossible. In fact, it got easier the longer she stayed under. Getting use to the blurry vision of watery depth, the silly mare took a glance over to see who had joined her.

Pink.

An equally silly pink pony looked back at her. Eyes just as blue as Earth-Chan's fur. She gave the biggest grin she'd seen a horse make, which was a revolutionary new experience in of itself. Before she could even blink the pink pony opened her mouth and began to gurgle a slew of bubbles into her face. Earth-Chan was forced to to squint and wince away from the barrage. Her view of the pink pony completely obscured.

"Guuuuuh!" She gasped out loud as she drew up for breath. Sweet heavens, she'd nearly forgotten about air! She needed air! Sweet, sweet air! Oh, it was one extreme to the next. This was intense! If this was what micro-managing was like, she was going to have a bit of a learning curb. But, gosh was it worth it!

Giving her head a little shake, she dried up quickly and regained her floofy complexion. Once she found a bit of her baring she looked to where the pink pony was and ended up frowning.

"Huh." She hummed curiously as there was no sign of her anywhere. The pink pony had up and left.

Well, that was disappointing.

Having gotten enough to drink she figured it was time to split before the heat caught up to her. It was probably bad to keep the blanket, but it had to be the best, cuddly piece of fabric she'd ever felt! It'd made an impression on her and she wanted to keep it with her. Surely that police pony could understand. She only wanted its warmth. It just so happened to be his when she found it. If he looked at it differently he would realize that he didn't necessarily need it right now and she did. This was charity and frankly Earth-Chan thanked him for his donation with all her heart.

"Hey, you! Stop right there!" The warning before the tackle had been nice. It really gave her time to look and meet 'Gruffy McGruffin' eye to eye. That split second of recognition followed by the unsure smile of acceptance as one realizes that this is about to hurt. Oh my gosh, his eyes matched his mane, that was so pretty!

Crash! The two went sprawling across the floor, tumbling together in a ball of embrace before spilling away from each other, the officer flipping over her and careening away from Earth-Chan. The stallion took a few more rolls more than she did, his own momentum propelling him well past his target before he stopped with a grunt. A plethora of disgruntled groans could be heard once both ponies came to a stop and laid in their own respective heaps. The blanket had come undone from Earth-Chan's neck during the incident. Now left draped on the cold, dirty stone floor.

Suffice to say, the commotion had caught the attention of a few passers by. A few came to look and see if everything was alright. The scene was clear, there was only one possibility having seen such an impressive flip from such an old stallion. A guilty looking blue mare began to stir while one of the town's senior police officers laid panting and extinguished. A collective frown spread across the crowd as it began to form.

"What's going on here?" A caramel coated towns folk asked aloud. A bunch of chatter started to wave across the audience, each one just as ticked off as the last.

"That mare knocked over Bright Star!"

"It's true, I saw it happen, she threw him to the ground!"

Earth-Chan finally started to sit up, her movements slow so not to sway her head too much. She held her forehead, caressing a spot just above her eye. Brain damage was becoming a viable symptom by this point. The poor mare seemed to have a knack for crashing. With her head still ringing, the last thing she needed was all this yelling right now. Looking to the crowd and perking her ears she could only tilt her head in confusion. Wait, what was all this? Were they blaming it all on her? Albeit their assumptions were well warranted, those details were more than a little stretched though! "H-Huh?"

"You flipped one of our Police Ponies!"

Earth-Chan blinked at the accusation, deeply confused at first before she looked from 'Mr. Gruffly' back to the crowd. "Wait, wha- He hit me! And he flipped himself!"

"He was probably trying to stop you, and you flipped him to get him off your tail!"

The blue mare gave a huff as she got to her hooves. "He crashed into me at full sprint! I had nothing to do with the flip!"

"So you admit he was trying to stop you!"

There was a silence for a while, all those glares really starting to give Earth-Chan the nervous shivers. She'd begun to back away out of discomfort. The towns people saw and started to slowly step closer after her.

"I didn't admit to anything! Look, me and the Gruff pony had had a um... a disagreement!"

"You flipped him over some small argument?!"

"Okay, can we drop the flip? I had nothing to do with the flip."

An out-crier from the back chimed in. "Lies! He wouldn't have flipped had it not been for you! You had EVERYTHING to do with the flip!"

Earth-Chan had kept backing up the entire time. Slowly scooting away from the fountain and towards her escape route. She'd noticed an alley just down the street. She didn't know where to go from there, but things were getting to hot to handle here.

Some ponies could see she was trying to inch away though, catching on quick they moved to cut her off and slowly closed in around her . This left the poor pony with nowhere to go, slowly backing her into a door way to a house. The frame of the door could be seen in her peripherals, making her feel more and more closed in. She couldn't see past the crowd. They all looked rightly miffed at her. They were calling her hateful things like, Thief and Blueberry. Blueberry hurt most of all. Being degraded to nothing more than a fruit in the eyes of the people? It brought tears to her eyes, and yet ponies continued to close in.

"Hey! Now where do you all get off scaring my suspect!" The gruff, soothing voice chimed in from behind the crowd, cutting through the rabble and shouts like butter. "I thought that was still MY job."

The shouting died quickly as everyone looked to the voice. Plenty of happy voices and noises could be heard as the Police pony stood to his hooves looking to the crowd with a quirked brow. The crowd was pleased to see him well and unhurt by what was possibly the biggest and most influential flip of the year. A collection of foals broke from the group to go and greet old stallion.

"Mister Star!" An orange colt with a purple mane and tail cheered his name, clearly very happy to see him. The way the children and adults reacted it seemed like this officer in particular was highly revered. Which made this all the more clearer as to why Earth-Chan had been prosecuted like this.

"We saw her flip you, and we wanted to help catch her for you!" Well, she wouldn't say caught, but I guess that silver filly could say whatever made her happy.

"Y-Yeah, she shouldn't mess with a hero!" One white and brown spotted colt chimed in meekly, seemingly unsure of everything but his confidence in the stallion before him.

That made 'Gruffopolous' scoff and reach a hoof down to tussle the last colt's mane. "Aaah, don't be goin' throwing words like that all willy-nilly. I'm just an old police pony."

The colt frowned, looking indignant at having his compliment shot down. The officer saw his face right quick though and put a stop to it.

"Buuut, hehe, I guess it's okay to call me that. Just, keep it sparse. Don't need to grow a big head. An old cop with an ego is a nightmare." With that he gave the colt a pat and began to walk over to the crowd. The children in tow.

That was the last Earth-Chan saw before she noticed the door opening behind her. She started to look behind her, but before she could two pink pony hooves reached out and grabbed her around the croup, pulling her rump and the rest of her into the darkness of the building before shutting the door quickly and quietly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As he walked towards the crowd he remembered something important and simply turned to the orange colt from earlier and asked him to go pick up his blanket for him. The colt was all to happy to accept and went trotting over to the fountain to go find it. Bright Star then addressed the filly walking next to him.

"And I'll have you know, Miss Spoon, that filly couldn't have possibly 'flipped' me, she could barely keep herself from shivering with a wet hoof, let alone lift a big ol' stallion like me." He shook his head at the thought and chuckled. "Aaaah, when you get my age, it's hard to keep up. I ran a little too hard like a silly pony trying to prove something, and it got to the point where I couldn't stop in time. Hehe, I reckon I flipped over that poor filly on my own accord. Gave her a nasty spill too." He looked to the crowd, noting a few smiling faces that he recognized. They respected him passing and shuffled out of his way.

"That said, miss, I'm terribly sorry for the crash back there. It was a really uncalled for." He let out a sigh before looking to the door way. "I just couldn't let you get off with m-" He stopped short of what he was saying and gawked at what was now a completely empty door way.

Everyone's attention honed in on his reaction and all collectively gasped at the sight of a missing pony. Multiple heads swiveled around, trying to find where the green and blue haired trouble maker had gone. Muttering began to rise as everyone started asking questions. It was hard to believe that no one had thought to keep an eye on her. It wasn't long before embarrassment started to sweep across the crowd.

Bright Star was given plenty of apologies that he didn't need right now. Too distracting. It couldn't be helped. His suspect was gone, he had his blanket back, case closed right?

A small smile slowly crept over the stallions muzzle. He let out a small chuckle before shaking his head. This pony had given him a lot of trouble today. And this little disappearing act wasn't going to dissuade him from getting a little revenge. Letting out a sigh he walked in front of the crowd and turned to address them, standing just in front of where the peculiar blue mare had just stood herself.

"Well everyone, it's a shame. She got away."

Multiple ponies hung their heads, their cheeks bright with shame.

"But, it's okay... because I have a proposition for ya."

Everyone looked up, giving him their rapt attention. Looking for anyway to make it up to the stallion they prized and respected.

"Now, there's nothing worse than an old stallion left to comb the streets looking for this little mare. I'd say it'd be fairly appreciated to have a little help" His own smile grew into a malicious smirk. "So, I propose a pony hunt! Who ever can catch and bring that mare to me by six a'clock this afternoon will be rewarded handsomely with a tub of my daughter's homemade icecream!" Several stomping hooves and happy cheers rang from the audience. " Hehe, now, do I have any volunteers?!"

The crowd lit up with excitement and approval, everyone shouting their acceptance of the challenge, now brimming with energy as they all waited for his signal.

"Well alrighty! Keep it clean, keep it light-hearted, no getting hurt! You all know the drill, ready, set, go!"

And they were off!

Author's Note

I always publish these things first, then remember that I need to write a note or two. Hehe, well. On with things. We have reached a new chapter and I'm excited for what I have planned for this. Mainly because it's a simple concept that I can keep track of and something that seems to keep you guys invested. I'll have a lot of ironing out to do with how on track I keep things, but for the most part I should be okay. Still looking for some kind of DM about proof reading. I can't tell you how much I want help. I know there are errors in these chapters. I've seen people correcting them in the comments. But, once I publish I feel hard pressed to change too much now that I've committed to it. Could really use somebody whose good with grammar to skim it over before I press the publish button. If not, I guess we'll just keep stumbling together. Seems to work out alright!

Anyway, hope you all like the chapter. Looking forward to writing the next one! Keep the comments coming! Love reading y'alls guesses as to how this will turn out. ^.^