Once upon a time, there was a place—a majestic place—untouched by no man. History would tell the youthful that the place was sought to be “Old West,” but to the creatures that lived there the land was ageless. It had no beginning and no end. No boundary between the earth and sky, like the wind in the Buffalo grass. The sun glimmers together with the late-spring breeze. The West was a gift from nature, but the mustangs that breathe true life into the land; as lively as their spirit, they gallop across the land, the fields, and the hills, nowhere in the world can they be freer.
A couple of rabbits hop across the grass, playing under the warming sun. As they argue over whose turn is it to jump over the other, they felt a sudden shake on the land. Then another. Then a rumble. Then a grounded thunder, bringing them both off balance as a herd of horses gallop through the field. It was a miracle in itself that the poor cotton tails survived from such an ordeal.
The herd was lead by a marvelous stallion, his coat as yellow as the morning sun, staining with an earthy brown to the legs and snout, and his mane flowing freely like the Buffalo grass to the breeze. His name was Spirit, named by a two-legged who (as the mustang later realized after meeting him) was living as free as his herd.
Riding right beside him was a sorrel mare with raindrop colored eyes and as beautiful as the fall season—Rain. Following close behind them was Spirit’s mother, an old, yet still beautiful palomino mare. She is the true leader of the herd, but given her son’s rambunctious nature, there was no harm in letting in lead. And finally, soaring high above the herd was Spirit’s closest companion, a majestic eagle, screeching high and jolly as he takes the lead, with Spirit racing up to his shadow.
And so is the life of the mighty mustang. Running forever free, in a land as ageless as the wind.
It has already plenty of moons after Spirit’s adventure with the two-legged, yet the energizing feeling of granted freedom still surged within him. As much as Spirit was happy returning home with Rain and reuniting with his mother, there was a certain pang in his heart he cannot seem to relieve. He should be contented with this. He has his mother, his herd, his flying companion, and perhaps most especially, Rain. His home stretches far out into the horizon, no two-legged in sight, and predators kept at bay. What could he possibly lack that has his heart longing for something he cannot fathom?
One day, as the sun rests at the edge of the horizon, Spirit trots around the herd to attend to his daily duties. He affirms the foals safe; they lay at the center the herd, tired from play, their mothers watching them in comfort. He sees the rest of the herd slowly giving in to fatigue, but nevertheless remain vigilant on lurking pumas and other predators. As soon as he assures that every stallion, mare and foal are accounted for Spirit lets out a snort of content, trotting back to where Rain and his mother lay in wait. But suddenly a glint from above catches his eye; a tiny star twinkling brighter than the others. Spirit loved the vast sea of stars and stargazes nearly every night before slumber, but a tingling feeling tells him that this star is different; as though it’s the very first time he sees such a fickle little thing. What’s more, its light shining a tinge of pink. The tingling feeling became a slight sense of alarm when Spirit sees the star erratically zip away like a firefly! Stars most definitely do not move like that, if not at all!
Spirit calls to his mother, telling her from a shake from his muzzle that there is something he needs to check. The matriarch nods in confirmation, but also in confusion, as she and Rain watch him quickly gallop away from the herd.
Spirit continues to follow the erratic star in curiosity, and as he notices that the zigzagging movement of the star seems to move a little faster, he adjusts his pace to keep up. The mustang snorts in annoyance as the star zipped faster and faster, and before he knew it, he was galloping at full speed, racing against the star as he does with his flying companion. The mustang’s breathing became more haggard, and he lost track of how long he’s been running, but he doesn’t care; it has been such a long time since he felt such adrenaline, and he is definitely not going to lose against a tiny star!
The race soon came to an end when Spirit’s sight on the star clouded into his vision. He halted in aggravation and disappointment—his race was stopped by stupid clouds in the sky! But as the mustang looks around his surroundings, it seems that the clouds are everywhere. He was in a fog. A really thick fog. He can’t even see the ground in his full height! Fogs only appear in the wake of dawn, has he been racing against the star the whole night? Perhaps if he waits it out, the fog will disperse. Spirit trotted slowly forwards, hoping he could somehow walk out of the fog for double measure. But after what seemed like hours, the fog was nowhere close to dispersing. Just as the mustang stomped the earth hard in annoyance, a familiar glint catches his eye from above—it’s the star!
But wait; something’s off. Actually, scratch that, a lot of things are off. For one, the star seems to be hovering right above him, inside the fog. For another, it seems to be growing bigger and bigger, but retaining its same brightness as before. The mustang can only tilt his head to the side as something even weirder than the two-leggeds is floating right in front of him. The star forms into a more solid shape, having six points on all sides and what seems to be six smaller white stars surrounding it. It’s the size of a large bird now, nudging a little backwards as though it’s telling the confused mustang to follow it. Spirit could only comply with a nod; it could lead him out of this weird fog. With no warning at all, the star zoomed away, prompting the mustang to sprint at full speed. Spirit smirks in excitement—the race is back on!
*********
Mornings in Ponyville are never peaceful. From magical creatures popping up and making a mess to Pinkie Pie’s rise-and-shine-everypony-it’s-time-to-celebrate-a-brand-new-day parties to Discord’s ‘morning runs’, there always seem to be something crazy to rouse everypony’s morning. But this morning in particular is unexpectedly tranquil. Not a single monster in sight. Everypony was cautious at first—some even bothered to look up from outside their window to check if a rainbow-haired pegasus was flying too fast or if a bubbly pinky pony was literally bouncing off their roofs singing the next earworm of the week. But once they were sure that nothing in particular is happening that could potentially ruin Equestria or cause property damage, they went along to enjoy their once-in-a-long-while-peaceful morning.
The rainbow-haired pegasus and bubbly pink pony in question are actually inside Twilight’s castle, together with all of their best friends, enjoying scrumptious pancakes.
“These pancakes are delicious, Pinkie Pie!” said Applejack, as she adjusted her Stetson hat before delving into her apple-flavored pancake, the apples of course are courtesy to Sweet Apple Acres.
Pinkie Pie’s portion was more whip-cream than pancake, and she made extra effort to add sprinkles on top.
“No problem! It actually just dawned on me a couple of days ago that we didn’t have a pancake-morning session for the last 3 seasons! And this time Twilight is fully awake to enjoy it!”
Twilight gave her an assuring nod as she took a bite of her perfectly-circular pancake, topped with exactly 4 raspberries and 6 banana slices.
“Thanks for setting this up again Pinkie Pie. And I’m sorry for last time.”
“It was in the past, darling. Besides, the castle has gotten a fabulous upgrade after that!” said Rarity. She gestured her hoof around the room as if to show-off the furniture that she herself arranged for Twilight’s dining room, giving itself a sparkle every now and then. She then turned to Pinkie, cutting away her pancake which is the most aesthetic looking pastry in the room, by the way (although all of the pancakes taste equally amazing, Pinkie Pie made sure of that).
“But Pinkie dear, what could you possibly mean by ‘the last 3 seasons’? I don’t remember us celebrating this kind of breakfast last winter.”
“I’m not talking about those kinds of seasons, silly!” Pinkie Pie replied, making a wink towards an open space, to nopony in particular. Everypony mentally agreed that this is just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, so it’s best to just leave her be.
“Oh, but she’s definitely right that it’s been a long time since we had such a peaceful breakfast.” Fluttershy said. Her blueberry-topped pancake is being shared with her pet Angel bunny, but Angel’s definition of ‘sharing’ is leaving one-fourths of the pancake to Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash nodded beside her, her face stuffed with pancakes and syrup.
“Mmm-mmmf! Now that the School of Friendship is on semester break and the students returned home, we finally have some relaxing down time with just the six of us!”
Indeed it was. Every creature of Twilight’s School of Friendship was either at home with their families or enjoying a trip with their best friends (six creatures in peculiar). Cozy Glow, a young, innocent-looking Pegasus turned out to be not-so-innocent looking at all, and is now spending her days with her pen pal, Tirek, in Tartarus. The Pillars are of doing their own things all throughout Equestria, some going even beyond its border. Starlight was on another road trip with her best friend, Trixie, and this time joining them are Maud Pie and Sunburst, but that’s another adventure.
“Yupperoony!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“There is absolutely no way that something new and mysterious would wound up here in Equestria accidentally, only for the six of us to investigate and help that particular mysterious thingy to do whatever plot-driven narrative we’re meant to do!”
The other six could only stare at her, some mouths still stuffed with pancakes. Some could only sigh. Again, just Pinkie being Pinkie.
“Hey Dashie, stop hogging all the syrup! Can you pass some to me—e-e-e-e-e-e!!!“
All of a sudden Pinkie Pie’s whole body was fidgeting on her chair. Her mane was spiking at every direction, and her tail seems to be shortening and elongating like an accordion (which Pinkie did attempt before at a music festival, and succeeded). She was riveting on her seat like an alarm clock, which, quite expectedly, alarmed everypony.
“What’s goin’ on, sugarcube? Is this another Pinkie Sense shindig?”
“I dunno! This is different than the other combos! The last time I felt something like this was when Twilight didn’t believe in my Pinkie Sense!”
Everyone then looked at Twilight. This made her slightly fidget in place.
“What? I still do believe in the Pinkie Sense!” Twilight defended herself with a huff.
“Well, um, anyway,” she continued, “can you tell where it’s coming from, Pinkie?” she asked, remembering the previous incident clearly.
“Uh-h-h-h i-i-it’s coming from….Sweet Apple Acres!”
Applejack immediately jumped right of her seat and headed straight outside.
“What?! My family could be in danger! C’mon, ya’ll! Let’s hightail over there!”
Everypony nodded in unison, dropped whatever pancake they were eating (except Pinkie, who gobbled up her plate of pancakes, plate included), and ran after Applejack.
Just a minute later, another door slightly opened. Spike peered out yawning, a small blanket in one claw and a cute plushie of a certain white unicorn in the other.
“Mornin guys. Am I late for pancake-morning again?”
He looked around to see the now empty room, with half-eaten pancakes left on the table.
“Hey, where’d everypony go? And is somepony gonna finish those pancakes?”
Author's Note
This story is actually the first of the fimfiction ideas I have in my head. If I end up in a writer's block for this story, I'll be writing on another story. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this one. Please let me know your opinions of it in the comments. :)
Back in Sweet Apple Acres, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were having another meeting in their clubhouse. Apple Bloom overlooked her two best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle on the pedestal.
“Hear ye, hear ye. The Cutie Mark Crusaders will now officially begin this here meetin’. All rise to sing our Crusader anthem!”
“Uhhh, Apple Bloom? We don’t have an anthem,” said Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Yeah Apple Bloom, since when did we have an anthem?”
“But I just said we don’t have one.”
“Yeah, but Apple Bloom said we do, so you could be wrong.”
“Could not.”
“Could too.”
“Could not.”
“Could too.”
Apple Bloom watched the usual bickering from the two and pounded her small hammer on the pedestal with a thud thud.
“Order! Order! Actually, Sweetie Belle’s right; we don’t have one.”
“Aha!” the white unicorn pointed her hoof triumphantly at her pegasus friend, much to her irritation.
“Which brin's us to our current agenda of today’s meetin’—gettin’ our very own CMC anthem!” Apple Bloom exclaimed excitedly.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo naturally joined in the excitement.
“Awesome! Let’s do it!”
“Yeah, this is going to be the best song ever!”
All three fillies grinned at each other with glee and hoofbumped.
“So got any ideas of a tune, Crusaders?” asked Apple Bloom.
She and Scootaloo then turned to Sweetie Belle, who in retrospect would naturally be the one with the best ideas in terms of music.
“Hmm. Ooh, how about we use the song we sang when we got our cutie marks! Sounds symbolic don’t ya think?” with a tap on the floor from her hoof, Sweetie Belle hummed a melodic tune, and then sang out a memorable line from the song:
We started out just three
Crusaders driven to see
What we find in our hearts
Discover our destiny
The two fillies watched her in joy, remembering the many events that lead them to that fateful day. Before they realized it, they were singing along as well:
And here we are, best friends
About to start it again
An adventure that never will end!!
All three were singing out loud now, twirling together with their front hoofs hooked to each other:
WE’LL MAKE OUR MARK!!
HELPING FILLIES MOST IN NEED
WE’LL MAKE OUR MARK!!
SO EACH ONE OF THEM SUCCEEDS
‘CAUSE THE ULTIMATE REWARD
IS A CUTIE MARK!!!!!
The three fillies collapse their backs on the floor, filling the room now with laughter, giggles, and all of the fun memories they’ve had together.
“Wow, that song really is symbolic!” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom then rose to her hooves.
“Eeexactly! So all in favor for having that song as the honorary Cutie Mark Crusaders Anthem, say I!”
“Yeah, definitely!”
“Of course we should have this as our anthem! It’s like it’s meant for us!”
“That’s because it is meant for us!”
The two fillies giggled in approval. Apple Bloom sunk her head slightly without them noticing;
“…None of you said ‘I’.”
But immediately after that she was joining the other two in giggles.
With an exciting hop, Sweetie Belle grinned at the other two. “Now I’m in the mood for some more singing!”
“Yeah, me too!”
“What other songs do we got?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Hmmmmm….” Sweetie Belle pondered hard about this. From what the other two could observe, it seems that Sweetie Belle doesn’t want to stop with just one more song.
It was Scootaloo this time who spoke up.
“Ooh! How about that one song we did on the day we performed in the Crystal Empire?”
“Ooh! Ooh! I loved that one! The beat was so catchy!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“Me too! But uhh, how does the chorus again?” Apple Bloom asked with a little blush.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and with her hoof tapping on the floor, she began to sing in a marching tune:
We’ve got hearts
As strong as ho—w-woah!
Her singing was cut short by a sudden quake shaking the tree house. Fortunately, the tree house was built sturdy, so there were no signs of anything breaking apart such as the ceiling or flooring, but the same cannot be said about furniture inside. Picture frames fall off from the wall, a flower pot topples over and spills out its contents and the table and chairs fall over, giving the fillies a frightened scream.
“W-what’s goin’on?!”
“I-I d-don’t know!”
The three ran around the clubhouse in a panic. Scootaloo stopped mid-panic as she suddenly remembered the earthquake-safety class she learned the other week.
Remember class, she remembered Cherilee say, in the event of an earthquake, it’s important to stay low and most importantly, together.
“Q-quick! Stay together!” shouted Scootaloo. And as quickly as she said that, the other two panicking fillies huddled together with her; their heads lowered and front hooves covering each other. They had their eyes sealed shut and only waited for the shaking to stop, and after about two minutes, it did.
The Crusaders looked around and saw the mess the quake made with the room.
“Gosh, what was that? That was like Big Mac rushin’ down the stairs once he gets a whiff of his favorite apple pie.” Apple Blood said.
“Where is your brother, anyway? Gasp! Do you think he’s okay?” Sweetie Belle asked in a worried face.
“He probably is. I think he’s with Sugar Belle in her village today.”
“What about Granny Smith?” asked Scootaloo.
“At this hour, she’s likely takin’ her nap.” Apple Bloom giggled in relief to that. “And I’m pretty sure a quake like this’un won’t wake her up.”
“So what do you think caused it?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Do you think it’s another monster in Ponyville?” said Apple Bloom, giving the trio more thoughts.
“Ooh! Maybe it’s a giant monster pony?” suggested Scootaloo. The other two just stared at her with confused looks.
“What?”
Just then they heard a loud, hard neigh by the orchard. Startled, the trio rushed up to the window.
“What in tarnation was that?” asked Apple Bloom.
“I don’t know, I don’t see anything,” said Scootaloo.
“Uhh girls, I think I know what caused the quake just now,” said Sweetie Belle, as she pointed towards a large shadow not too far from their clubhouse. It was difficult to see with the apple trees blocking the way, but from the shape of its silhouette it looks what seems to be large, oddly-shaped pony.
Apple Bloom turned deadpanned to the orange pegasus. “You had to ask.”
“What should we do?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom replied, “Only one thing we can do—check it out. It could be a lost pony or somethin’.”
“Or maybe a misunderstood pony like Troubleshoes!” exclaimed Scootaloo.
“So what are we waitin’ for Crusaders?! Let’s go!” said the yellow filly, running out of the tree house with the other two following her.
As the three ran to the large silhouette, Apple Bloom shouted to get its attention. “Excuse me! Are you lost?! Or maybe ya got a cutie mark problem?! Because the Cutie Mark Crusaders are here to….” She could only trail off as she and the other Crusaders stopped and craned their necks to look up at the large creature.
The creature in question is what appears to be a Saddle Arabian stallion, although the three rarely see one in Ponyville. He isn’t wearing any clothes, and he has a wild, unkempt mane and well-developed muscles glisten all over his body. More importantly, however, was that this pony was huge, even slightly bigger than Troubleshoes; and that’s saying something. In fact, he was so tall that they watched him stand on his hind legs and eat an apple that was still hanging on the tree, and nopony—not even Troubleshoes—could reach that high!
“Woah…” was what the Crusaders said in unison as they continue to watch the giant pony eat the apples off Sweet Apple Acres’ orchard. Apple Bloom is not as disciplined as her siblings, but she does know when somepony is taking something that is not theirs and is showing no means of paying for it.
Snapping out of trance, she interrupted the giant stallion’s eating. “Hey! Those apples belong to Sweet Apple Acres! You can’t just take ‘em straight from the trees!”
The stallion’s ears flick in notice to the young farmer filly’s shouting, and turned to the fillies. They flinched as they realized how big his head is. His eyes seemed exhausted, as though he ran a hundred marathons, and given his size, the fillies would believe so. He tilts his head slightly as he looked at Apple Bloom with a strange, confused look. When he turned his attention to the white unicorn and orange pegasus, he reared his head back so quickly that the three fillies toppled back in shock. He then gave the three fillies a snort and neigh, and stomped the ground with a hoof, which to the fillies gave another, yet smaller, quake.
“U-um, is there something wrong with the apples, sir?” Sweetie Belle asked in concern.
Apple Bloom turned to her friend in shock. “What?! Our apples are the best apples in Equestria!”
“Then why is he looking at us like that?” asked Scootaloo.
“I dunno, maybe he’s shocked that he has to pay for the apples.”
“But of course he does!”
“But what if you don’t where he comes from?”
“Well, he ain’t where he’s from now; he’s here in Sweet Apple Acres, and he’s gotta pay up!”
To their bickering, it seems that the three fillies have calmed down over the sight of the huge stallion. However, the stallion was staring curiously at the three bickering fillies. He reached his neck down and sniffed at Apple Bloom’s bow, which certainly surprised the yellow filly.
“H-hey! What was that for!” she cried. The stallion was looking at her intently, and after another sniff from her mane, he chortled at her with a breath from his nostrils.
“Eeew! And what was that for?!”
The stallion’s flick once more as a voice suddenly boomed over the orchard. “Apple Bloom!”
The three fillies looked over behind them, towards the source of the voice.
“Applejack!” the Crusaders cried.
To the sound of the voice, however, the giant stallion reared back up with a neigh, stomping his forehooves back down another quake. He flicked his head to the three fillies, as though gesturing them to follow him.
“H-huh? What are you trying to say, mister?” asked the orange pegasus. The other two also gave him credulous stares.
Seeing their confused looks, the stallion shook his head, and then with a final, loud neigh to the three, he reared back up again and galloped off to the opposite direction to Applejack’s voice, running down the orchard and sending the earth a mighty shake with each gallop.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were surprised by the stallion’s sudden run, coughing at the sudden burst of track-dust. They tried to keep their hoofing on balance from the earthquake, and by the time they were able to get their bearings and the dust cloud cleared, the giant stallion was gone.
Applejack and her friends arrived just moments after the dust cleared. Rarity embraced her little sister and Rainbow Dash placed her wing over Scootaloo, both of them relieved that they’re all right. Applejack seemed the most relieved as scooped up her little sister and embraced her tight.
“Oh Apple Bloom! Thank Celestia you’re alright!!”
“Applejack…need…air…” Apple Bloom breathed out her plea, and Applejack put her sister down after seeing her sister’s cheeks turn blue.
“Sorry about that sugarcube. But what in the hay just happened?”
“Yes, what was in the heavens was that horrible earthquake?” Rarity asked. Rainbow Dash flew a little higher, spotting a large silhouette galloping far down the orchard, its strong gallops still audible and leaving a large trail of dust on its wake.
“Yeah, and what is that thing? Even from here it looks bigger than Big Mac!” she told the fillies.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders turned to each other with concerned expressions, then at the group. Apple Bloom was the first to speak.
“We were startin’ our CMC meetin’ and we talked about getting’ our own anthem,”
“Then we sang the song that we sang when we got our cutie marks, we agreed it would be perfect for that to be our anthem,” continued Sweetie Belle. Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack looked at the three warmly as they briefly remembered that special event.
Scootaloo explained further, “and then we were in the mood for more singing but then an earthquake messed up the clubhouse.” This gave everypony a gasp and look of concern.
“And then we checked outside and we found a huuuuge pony—“
“—Even bigger than Troubleshoes!” Sweetie Belle interrupted.
“—and he looked like a Saddle Arabian but we’re not really sure since so don’t always see one.” Scootaloo interrupted further.
“—And we caught him eating the apples right off the trees!” Apple Bloom finished.
Applejack retaliated in shock “HE WHAT?! Nopony goes away scott-free after eatin’ our precious Sweet Apple Acre apples without a rough-housing! And right off the trees to boot!”
With an angry stomp, she turned to Twilight, who had a pretty good feeling where this is going.
“Twilight, get me my rope.”
Author's Note
Finally done with another chapter! To be honest I'm more invested in this story than the other one (although I hope you give it a read as well!) Whenever I'm in a bind, I turn to work on the other one, and vice versa. In other words, I'm working at two stories at tandem. hehe
I'll do my best to update this story and the other one while my head is still fresh with ideas. Wish me luck!
