Chapter 1: The Thief
"Incoming!" came a loud yell quickly followed by a loud crack as hoof met bark. Dozens of apples rained down as a young pony scrambled to catch them with the basket balanced on her back with only three apples actually hitting the ground.
"I almost got all of them that time!" the young pony squeaked with delight and gave a little hop. The other pony just smiled and picked up the three fallen apples and tossed them onto the basket.
"Thanks again for helping me with this Applebloom," the older pony said as she lifted the basket of apples off of her sister's back. "There's a big storm scheduled for tonight and I don't want any of the apples to get ruined."
"No problem Applejack," Applebloom sighed in relief after having such a heavy burdon taken off her back. "That's what sisters are for."
Smiling Applejack placed the basket on her back and started walking back towards the house. "No really Applebloom I appreciate all of your help..." And with that said she launched into a speech about how much she truly appreciated Applebloom's help with everything.
Applebloom stopped walking and looked at the basket on Applejack's back in a confused manner. "Uh Applejack..." Applebloom said uncertainly. "I think there's something wrong with the apples."
"Oh hush Applebloom. There's nothing wrong with the..." Applejack stood dumbfounded as she watched a dozen of the apples float out of her basket and silently float away. Without another word Applejack placed the basket on the ground and dashed after the rogue apples.
Applebloom simply shrugged and began dragging the rest of the apples back towards the house.
In only a few seconds Applejack had caught up with the awol apples and quickly tried to snatch them out of the air only to have them float higher into the air just out of her reach.
"What in tarnation is going on?" Applejack demanded as she jumped and caught one of the apples between her front hooves. Instead of the apple being pulled towards the ground, Applejack instead found herself being pulled higher into the air.
That's when she noticed the small black sparkles floating around the apple. "That's magic! Someone is stealing my apples with magic!" Applejack looked down for the first time and immediately wished she hadn't. She was now floating so high the apple trees looked like green toothpicks stuck into the dirt.
Applejack suddenly felt herself jerk to a halt. Looking straight ahead she found herself looking straight into the eyes of a rather surprised looking pony. The surprised expression on the pony's face quickly turned to one of annoyance.
Applejack quickly made her face as emotionless as possible in an attempt to hide her obvious fear despite hanging onto an apple for dear life while floating so high off the ground...'wait!' She quickly thought. 'How is this pony so high up?'
Applejack looked closely at the pony and quickly noticed that the pony had a horn in the center of his forehead which was currently glowing a soft black color. 'Well that would explain the magic but what about the floating?' She thought until she noticed the small feathered wings that were gently folded against his sides and the small black cloud under the pony's hooves. She noticed for the first time that it was indeed a male pony. His eyes were a blue so bright they almost matched the sky behind him and in contrast his light gray coat looked almost like a sad rain cloud. Slung over his back was a small satchel that she noticed was filled with apples. Her apples!
"Didn't you know that stealing is wrong?" She said in a low voice that was was in no way friendly.
This simply made the pony laugh. "Is it really wise to pick a fight with the only pony keeping you alive?" He said pointing to the apple.
Applejack felt her blood run cold and her face must have shown it as his laugh quickly died out and he sighed. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna let you get hurt." He said as his horn glowed a little brighter and a small white cloud appeared beneath Applejack and she was quickly enveloped in a black glow.
The next thing she knew she was sitting on the cloud which was slowly floating towards the ground. Looking up she saw the small black cloud shrinking as she got farther away from it.
Moments later she found herself sitting on the ground as the cloud she had been on mysteriously vanished. Looking up again she noticed that she could no longer see the small black cloud. Standing up she noticed that a dozen apples stood before her in a small pile. After a quick count she saw that these were all of the apples that he had taken. Shrugging Applejack gathered up all of the apples and carried them back to the house still watching the sky for any sign of the mysterious cloud.
Sighing deeply, the pony watched the clouds drift past him as his stomach growled sadly. "I should have at least kept one..." He mumbled to himself before falling asleep.
Well there is chapter 1. Not much else to say. Leave me your reviews and comments and hopefully I will have chapter 2 up soon.
PS: this will be a Fluttershy story despite her not being mentioned in this chapter at all.
