//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two - Trial by Apples 
// Story: Interdimensional Destination 
// by ArizonAnon 
//------------------------------//


You are currently leaping from rooftop to rooftop, all while avoiding enemy gunfire. Your peripheral vision catching redcoats climbing up to meet your elevation. Clearly you've spent too much time up top. You're gonna have to try and find a new route. Hmmm. Looking down an alley, you see a lone guard. He's reloading his musket. What an easy target he just made himself. 

Leaping from the rooftop, you land on him, while jamming your hidden blade into his heart cavity. Soon, he goes silent. You dislodge your blade, and use his coat to wipe it clean. You quickly make your way down the alley. Three Hessians appear from around the corner, and move to block the exit. You turn around and you see two more blocking your last hope for escape. Damn. You draw your left blade out into your hand, unsheathe your tomahawk, and face them. They ready their own weapons, rush you, and the battle ensues.

Block, disarm, and strike. It wasn't a kill, but know they know you mean to finish this. Another Hessian makes his move. Block, strike, miss, Take a sword slash to the gut. Fuck! You gotta remember: Aside from the hidden blades, an Assassin must have a clear mind, and calm heart.

As you ready to block another attack. The ground violently shakes. All of you are knocked off of your feet. Before you or your enemies can question anything, the ground shakes again. this time more violently. Soon, everything eventually goes black.


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"Hey, Anon. *snicker* Ya gotta get up."

"Wha? Who?"

You awaken from your slumber to find a blurry orange form. The form reaches out and shakes you. All you can do is stare. Hopefully this orange fuzzy is a peaceful entity.

"Anon. Heh. When I said ya needed ta get good rest I didn't mean -that- good."

You wipe the sleepiness from your eyes and see that it's Applejack who has awaken you. You sort of panic internally, but then you finally realize that, yes... You're still in pony land. A dream within a dream. Not literally. This is your home now. You just still haven't quite grasped it yet.

"What do you mean."

"Heh. You was whimperin' while kickin' yer arms an' legs like a little puppy."

Strange. You definitely weren't having a puppy dream. But It could've been worse.
"At least you didn't catch me doing anything else..."

"Hmm? Like what."

It's WAY too early for this, better end it here.
"Er, nothing.  Don't worry about it."
You expect to see sunshine in the shed, but... it's still pitch black.
"Applejack?," You look out the only window in the shed. "It's not even morning yet. What the heck did you wake me up for."

"Oh, c'mon know, don't be such a baby. We got plenty of work ta go around. We jus' need ta find out what yer good at. So, might as well get an early start."

"'We', or do you mean, 'You'."

"Me. Wait... Look. It don't matter none. Let's get ya washed up first. Follow me."

You follow Applejack out of the shed, and within a stones throw, you arrive at her barn house. The only reason you knew that, is because she just told you, like right now. While you were still coping with this early hour. Just look, The sky is barely lighting up from the impending sunrise. It's pretty, sure. But, damn. You can barely hear any birds tweeting.

"So, here's the bathroom. Wash up, an' meet me at the front door."

"Mmhmm. Will do."

Time to get naked, and wet. Unfortunately you don't mean sex. Ugh... must stop mentioning things this early, especially in pony world. But would ya look at this tub? It's so tiny.
"How tiny?"
The spout barely reaches your waist. Well. Time to get your dick wet... Ugh. Stop it already.
"*sigh* At least the hot water works..."

Heh. Applejack was right. You kind of are a crybaby. Gotta work on that. You're on trial status here. Anyways. After your thorough washing with shin-height water, you look for a towel, and... You forgot to ask Applejack about acquiring one. Hmmm. You see three towels on a rack. Maybe... uh, maybe you shouldn't use any of them. But, you can't put your clothes on while you're dripping wet. No puns, dammit!! You roll your internal three-sided die, and pick one towel. It's kinda small, but it'll get the job done.

"Hey, Applejack. I'm clean, an' stuff."

She jumps a little and looks back at you.
"Huh? Oh. Good. Heh, I thought you were gonna take a longer bath than that."

"... Why would you think that."

"Well. Jus' look at ya! yer huge!"

Your mind is out of the gutter. However, you can't help but smirk at that comment.
"You'll soon learn that I'm full of surprises. Very few positive ones though. Short bathing times? That's one."

"Well, I hope a good work ethic is one of 'em. Cus yer gonna need it. Fer starters, Mr. Full-of-Surprises. Yer gonna help me buck trees."

She leads you to the nearest  apple tree, and bucks it with such force that all of the apples fall neatly into bushels that have been set under said tree. How does that even....? Ugh, Pony land! You could probably fly if you fuckin' tried hard enough!

"Your turn, pard'."

"Oh, goodie."

You approach the next tree, your nemesis. He taunts you, with his leafy ways. The apples hold shit eating grins. You can't have that. So, you muster all the early morning strength you have, and give it a powerful half-assed kick. You stand there for a couple of seconds, and then the pain hits you. You grab your foot, fall on your butt, and writhe in pain.

"Oh, Fuckin' shit butt! That hurt! Why?! Applejack, why did you talk me into doing that? ... Applejack?"

She's too busy rolling around, laughing like a damn hyena.
"Ahehehehe! Hoo boy! I-I'm- Ahahahahaha! I'm sorry, Anon. I- Hahahaha!"

That kind of pisses you off. But, you replay the scene in your head. Wow. You must've looked like a dumbass. Heh. Yeah that was actually pretty funny. Earning a good chuckle from you.

Applejack's laughter finally subsides.
"I'm sorry Anon. But, that was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a while."

"Eh. No worries, Applejack. I should have known that was gonna happen."
You really should have. In your defense, the sun is barely peaking up over the horizon. So yes, it's still too early for your brain to be functioning properly.

"Well, let's see... Ya can't buck trees. Ooh! I got it! How 'bout ya just help me carry these bushels as I fill 'em up."

"That sounds safe. I mean... Good. It sounds good."

"Alright! Let's get started."

During your bushel carrying duty, you an Applejack have bouts of small talk. It's mainly based around you. Like, about your family, friends, and such. She was pretty interested in your grocery job. You can only imagine why... Though, as the day went on, she seemed to open up a bit more. If only for a couple of bits of info, but hey, Bright side? You're not dead! 

It's getting on into the evening now, you're loading up the final bushel of apples, and you are feeling pretty good. Tired, but good. You were already pretty fit, as you have tight stringy muscles that helped with manual labor. Though, you feel like this kind of work will take you to another level of strength.

"Hey, Anon?"

"Yes, Applejack?"

"I need ta talk to ya 'bout somethin'."

Oh great. Are you getting fired? Or maybe, now that you are too tired to run, she's going to kill you. Well, you had a good run... No you didn't. Damn.
"A-alright. What's up."

"Umm. About what happened with mah sister-"

"Look. I told you I'm sorry an-"

"No. I know you said yer sorry to -me-. Ya jus' need ta tell -her-. I didn't tell Apple Bloom anything about what had happened. I really wasn't sure how. But now that yer here, an' I got ta know ya a bit better. I know yer not a bad person. Ya just got a lick of bad luck is all."

"Heh. Story of my life right there. Anyways. I think I can see where this is going. I'd love to have the opportunity to apologize to her."

"Great! I'm gonna go an' get her. Go ahead an' wait in the house."

Finally you're gonna be able make amends for this huge misunderstanding. Maybe everything will turn out alright after all. If you're gonna be stuck in pony land, you're gonna have to play by the rules. Not that peeing on people was ever a problem for you, but how would the ponies know that. Time to better yourself by getting rid of your 'not-problems'.

As you step inside the house, you see Granny Smith, who greets you with a smile. And Big Macintosh, who just has that same look on his face... He's still really intimidating. Especially when they both know the real truth. Poor little Apple Bloom did not. But now, she will.
Ah! Speak of the devil, Applejack and Apple Bloom walk in. You can see the her cowering behind Applejacks legs.

"Now, now, Apple Bloom. I told ya, he's here to apologize. Yer gonna be jus' fine."

"A-a-alright. if ya say so."

Apple Bloom walks up to you and sits on her haunches. Time to lay it all on the line. You wish you had a speech written up. Luckily though, the truth settled, and you told her that you were transported here by Twilight Sparkle, and that you were not evil, or a monster.

"So that means that water you poured on me wasn't evil?"

"... No. It wasn't but it was actuall-"

"So... Can ya do it again? 'cus, to be honest, it felt really good. It was all warm an stuff... An'... Why're y'all lookin' at me like that."

You, nor anyone else in the room can properly respond to that. Not at this very moment. All of you just shared glances that ranged from 'extremely confused', to straight up 'what the fuck?'. Looks like it's up to you to be the hero that the Apple family needs right now.

"Apple Bloom... That wasn't just 'water'. It was... How do I put this lightly... *sigh* Look. It was pee."

"Ya mean... you peed on me?"

"Yes. I did."

"... Oh."

"Look, I'm truly very sorry. I want you to know it will never happen again."

"I forgive ya... I jus' need ta... Um. I jus' need ta go to my room."

Apple Bloom slowly makes her way upstairs. She accepted your apology, but... You still can't get that weird thought out of your head. Applejack breaks the deafening silence.
"Well, that settles that. Apology accepted. Everything's right as rain, am I right?"

Big Macintosh just nods, still visibly trying to make heads or tails with what he just heard. 

Granny smith slowly gets off her rocking chair.
"Well I think that's plenty of excitement fer one day. See y'all in the mornin'."

"G'night, Granny! Um. Hey, Anon? Can I see ya outside fer a bit?"

"Sure thing, Applejack."
You follow her just outside the house.

"Look. I'm gonna be honest. I'm really glad that mah sister accepted yer apology."

"In a way that I'll never be forgetting. That's for damn sure."

"Heh! You said it. But, like I was tellin' ya. I'm glad all is well now. Just one day of workin' with ya, I could already tell that yer a good pony, er, uh..."

"Person."

"Right. an' I hope I get ta work with ya again. Yer a pretty good worker. Though, we still gotta find out what yer really good at."

"'We?' Or 'You'."

She jabs your side with her hoof
"Oh, hardy har, Mr. full-of-surprises."

"Oh, I'm just teasing you, Miss Applejack."

"C'mon, Anon. No need fer formalities anymore. Call me AJ."

"Noted."

"Hey you two!"
Twilight trots over to meet you. She's looking kinda tired. Maybe she was working on that rotation journal or whatever.

"Howdy, Twi."

"Hi, Applejack. I'm just here to pick up Anon."

"Well, it's nice of you to make me sound like a child or something."

"Heheh. Sorry. Not my intention. Anyways, let's get going, mister. We got a lot of things to do."
Twilight Sparkle trots along the path back to... Ponyville? Yeah, that's what it was called.

"Well, Anon. This is where we part ways. Y'all come back now ya hear? That's not just a saying. I really mean it. Yer always welcome here."

"Thanks, AJ. I'll be back. I promise."

"I'm holdin' ya to that, partner."

"Heh. Well, Goodnight, AJ."

"Goodnight, Anon!"

You follow Twilight back to Ponyville, fully relieved that you made up with the Apple family. Because as you thought, Applejack... No. 'AJ', is a really cool pony. Completely chill, down to earth, and all that good stuff. Hopefully you will be able to work with her again. Now, however, it's time to wonder what kind of plans Twilight Sparkle has for you.


[End Chapter Two]