Applebloom began her solo walk back to Sweet Apple Acres, the town was as normal as ever. It seemed like another forgettable day for the filly and the townsponies of Ponyville. As the young farmhand passed an empty alleyway, a considerably loud sound caught her attention. The noise itself was odd, it sounded like the seams of a cloth ripping apart. What followed was the sound of three masculine voices shrieking and hitting the floor of the alley. Applebloom cautiously leaned her head around the corner to spy on the developing situation.
"Oh, man I feel weird. I can't feel my… where's my fingers?" One of the males say as all three of them look like newly born calves as their legs flop around uncoordinated.
"What the fuck… everything feels so wrong, I can't move… Why can't I move?!" says another of the trio.
"I… I think I get it?" says the last one as they stand up in a perfect posture.
"Ok, where are… is that you Dark?" says the donkey of the group, staring at the male unicorn next to him. "Alex? This can't be real… I mean you are a fucking donkey dude, like the actual animal fucking donkey." the unicorn replies "Oh yeah, well why do you have a… wait is that fucking cutie mark… oh no…" Alejandro's voice trails off as a realization dawns on him. "Ok… no ok… it's fine who put psychedelics in the food? You can tell me I won't be mad" the donkey says while laughing. "Dude, my 90 year old grandma made that food, there is zero chance in hell that she drugged that stuff" the earth pony of the three speaks up. "Grandma? Oh shit… Mort you ended up here too huh?" Dark responded. "Wait.. Mort, how are you able to stand?" Alejandro comments seeing him as the only one not on the alley floor. "I don't really know… it just kinda clicked for some reason." Mort says looking at the two still grounded.
The hidden Applebloom eavesdropped on the three stallions' conversation and their apparent struggle to stand up straight. There were some words that they used that confused her, almost like they didn't make sense or process properly in her mind. After what felt like hours, but in actuality was over ten minutes, the other two finally gained enough balance to stand up without falling back onto the floor. It was at that moment, Applebloom felt it was time to leave, now that they had a better chance to spot her spying, and she did so with a more hasty gallop than usual.
"The horn, the mark… it has to be… we're in Mlp right?" Dark deduced to the group. "Well if it's not drugs, then yeah. We're in… does the planet have a name?" Alejandro responds questioningly. "Mlp? Alex what the hell is he on about?" Mort demanded. "Mlp means My Little Pony... you know? The TV show for kids?" the donkey responded without missing a beat. Mort stood there for a second and did a double take on the nonchalant response. "We're certainly in Ponyville, I can see the treehouse from here… Treehouse?!" Dark cut in quickly. "Wait as in… Twilight's treehouse? Wait, that raises the question... if we know where we are, when we are is the other big question" the donkey says realizing the implications of their situation. "I can't say for certain, but it seems to be before Tirek at least. The only way to get a better idea is heading straight there." The unicorn said resolutely. "I'm sure that two grown stallions and a donkey who can't even stand up straight would look really normal going in there and- wait…" Alejandro stops for a moment as he sees Mort walking normally toward the end of the alley. "...How? Just how?" the donkey said to himself bewildered. Mort turned to them confidently and asked "What exactly am I looking for Dark?" it took a second for Dark before he could reply "We need to confirm if one of two creatures live in that building… A purple unicorn or a baby dragon." Mort nodded as he walked out of the alley and toward the treehouse.
"I guess we should try to figure out how to walk?" Alejandro suggests to Dark as they stared at Mort making his way toward the Treehouse. "Right… just don't laugh if I can't keep myself steady." Dark joked back to Alex. "Alright, here we go…" and upon taking his first step Alex trips over his ankles rolls onto his back "Yeah, what did I expect.." the donkey quipped. Although Mort's outside demeanor was completely normal, the stallion was mentally freaking out, this was certainly a lot to process. It didn't take too long to make it to the building, and made his way to peek inside the window. He could see a pony inside, but it wasn't the one described by Dark. Upon that discovery he slowly made his way back to the others. "Why. The fuck. Is this. So hard to do!" Dark said in rage of attempting to walk and failing over and over. "Ok wait… I think we're doing it wrong… I don't think it's like how we move our arms. I think it's one side first and then the next?" Alejandro suggests, not too sure himself. "Yeah that sounds better than everything we've tried so far." Dark agreed. Alejandro attempts to move his front right leg then his back left leg, but doing so threw off his balance. The donkey was barely able to catch himself before speaking aloud again "Ok, so it's not front then back… so maybe back to front?" he suggests once again. The new rhythm subconsciously begins to build up in the two friends' mind, slowly forming a chant over their first somewhat successful steps "back to front" the two say unsynchronized.
Not too long after, Mort finally makes it back to see the other two making slight progress in walking in their new form. "Alright guys, I headed over to look into what you needed and there was no sign off those two, that's not a problem right?" the earth pony reported. "There's no need to worry Mort, if Twilight doesn't live there then it can only mean one thing… We've arrived before the events of Nightmare Moon." Dark concluded. "Ok… so that means we have some time to prepare for when that does happen, and more importantly where do we sleep!" Alejandro says in a very serious tone. "I… I'm not sure, I mean it's not like Ponyville has a hotel or anything and we don't have any bits in the first place." the unicorn replied. "Ok, so we need to find a job and a place to sleep. Do we know anyone that might let us crash with them?" the donkey asks the others. "Well the easiest would probably be-" he shuddered at the thought "Pinkie…" Dark said. Alejandro blinked a few times before attempting to slap Dark… but it only ended grazing his chest. "... I'm going to act like you didn't say what you just said." the donkey replied with a straight face. "I feel like I'm missing out on something…" Mort remarked confused. The other two males turn toward Mort before calmly saying "Stay out of this Mort" in unison. "Look, thinking about it a bit… I can't see Applejack turning us away. As long as we're up front with her about having no where else to go and show that we are willing to work… I feel like we might be able to convince her…" Alejandro reasons to Dark. "Yeah your right, it's probably far enough that we can stay out of everyone's radar as well." Dark added. "The only downside is us exposing ourselves to Applejack, but I think she would probably be the least likely to pry into our business" the Donkey adds, "Alright let's head over there… and hopefully avoid Pinkie…"
While the group was trying to find their way to their destination, and making sure to avoid Sugarcube Corner, they found a public map of Ponyville at the town hall. "Alright, so if we were nearby the Library, then avoided Sugarcube Corner, and we're finally at the town hall… the farm should be West of where we're standing" Alejandro deciphered while looking at the map. "Maybe we can loop around the back of the town hall onto the street connected with Carousel Boutique? Then we'll avoid the main roads." Dark suggested. "...I'll do it but I hate being anywhere near fucking Rarity" the donkey grumbled as he follows Dark's lead.
Dark would take the lead towards the apple farm, only did the trio know they did not belong here, but to onlookers the three would look like ordinary travelers. In the lead of the group was Dark a dark grey unicorn, he had a messy orange and black hair covering his head and a tail to match, the white of his eyes were not so much as white as they were completely black in color with large searing white pupils, but last and most intriguing feature was his odd cutie mark… A black star with a red outline which seemed to be surrounded by two large purple tendrils which wrapped around the star, not even he was sure what it meant, but let's move on shall we? Alejandro had a brown top color with a cream colored underbelly, the top of his head had a black fohawk haircut that left a few bangs on his face and his expression seemed to have a near permanent scowl stuck to it. His coat itself was unkempt and had messy curls with an overall extremely fluffy visage. His body was more muscular than the average pony although as payment he was a bit shorter than most. Staying relatively in the back of the group was Mort a yellowish earth pony with a silvered grey color to both his tail and mane, the hair was well kept and always covered one of his green eyes, Mort also beared a cutie mark which can be described as a shadowed head of a stallion.
White fences outlining the vast farmland and the apple trees they protect is the first thing that comes into view of the group as the sun starts closing in on the horizon. Dark squints surveying the distance for the recognizable barn "Everything is still so damn bright even when the sun is setting, it's hard to even tell if we are any closer yet." Alejandro nods his head as he tries to close an eye to limit bright colors "Yeah, I didn't realize how colorful the universe would be, but now I wonder how these people can live like this." The talking died down as they made it to the wooden archway of the farm, finally getting a clear view at the red barn itself. "So, I'm guessing I'll do the talking for us?" the donkey asked the Unicorn. "That would probably be best for now, but if you ever need me to back you up let me know." he replied. "I think I got this one, but I'll keep that in mind" the donkey says before taking the lead now. The Apple family was starting their dinner consisting of beans, dumplings, and cornbread. Just as the entire family finally gets seated, they hear a knock at the door. The family looks to each other for a moment before Applejack gets up to check who it is. The farm pony opens the top half of the door to be faced with a group consisting of two stallions and one donkey before she breaks the silence "Can I help y'all?". The donkey of the group clears their throat as they speak up "Hello, my name is Alejandro and I take it that you're Applejack?" Applejack knits her brow before answering "Yeah? Did y'all need somethin' from me?" "Oh, unfortunately yes. I know it's a lot to ask but… me and my friends are new around here… and there doesn't really seem to be a place to stay, and we don't really have the money to buy or build a house. Would it be too much to ask if we can stay here for a little while? I promise we're willing to work and find jobs as soon as possible. But we don't really have anywhere else to go. Right guys?" Alejandro gestures to the others. Mort and Dark quickly nods in agreement to the statement "You'd really be helping us out, but we won't push it either if it's too much trouble." Dark adds. Applejack thinks hard on the situation, and as she does so Granny Smith slowly makes her way to the door. "What's taking so long Applejack, the food's getting cold" the old pony says to the orange earth pony. Applejack turns back to the group before speaking "Can y'all wait out here while I talk this over with my folks?" almost instantly the donkey replied "Oh, of course. We didn't mean to intrude on anything. We'll wait right here." With that Applejack closes the top half of the door and walks back in to speak with the rest of the Apple Family.
"Alright guys, let's hope we got lucky and caught them in a good mood." Alejandro says to the others as he sits down. "I'm not sure what options we have left after this, it's to fate now I guess." Dark says. The donkey sighs as he looks up to the now darkened sky before speaking aloud to the others "I've never thought something like this would happen. This is literally like one of those fu- I mean… one of those animes where the main character comes from a normal world. But unlike them we don't have plot armor or a bunch of overpowered people to carry us through the story." "I just hope we can all continue making progress toward keeping ourselves alive." the earth pony says grimly. "All we have to do is wait for the main six to get together and maybe we won't have to worry so much." the unicorn said to ease the tension. "Hm… Yeah I guess you're right. For the most part this series has happy endings" Alejandro replies with a sigh of relief. "We'll probably have to fill in Mort on some basics tonight but first we have to see if this plan works or not." Dark says anxiously. The donkey simply nods before the top door of the barn opens back up with Applejack commenting "Y'all sure are chatty huh?" and almost instantly both Alejandro and Dark have a face of dread before the donkey responded "Haha, yeah I guess we tend to talk a lot… sorry about that." Applejack gives an amused smirk before speaking "Alright, here's the situation. We've decided we could use some help around the farm, but here's the catch. If I see one of yous three slackin' off, We'll run you out faster than a cat on a mouse!" "Yes ma'am!" the three say in unison. "You'll be staying in one of the other barns around the farm. I'll show y'all to it after we finish dinner" Applejack states before heading back to her family.
"Jesus that was close, we need to watch what we say" Alejandro says to Dark. "Looks like we'll have to keep these conversations for when we are certain no is around." he replies. Alejandro nods before changing the subject. "Ok, so we have a place to stay for now and some work to be doing… but we need other jobs at some point. It's not harvest time 24/7 you know? What kind of jobs are feasible for us?" Dark thinking aloud saying "Well the best place to start would be the town hall, from there we should be able to register ourselves as citizens for hire in the town." he pauses but quickly continues "The main problem would be the questions they ask us though." The donkey thinks for a moment "Hm… well we actually know a lot about Canterlot and we are considerably well educated compared to most other people here… maybe we try to pass as coming from there?" Listening to the suggestion Dark gives a small nod before speaking "Canterlot sounds the most believable, it's not too far from here and it doesn't have as large of a stereotype as something like Manehatten, I'm definitely not doing an accent for the rest of my life." Alejandro nods in agreement "Alright then… I guess the only downside would be… ugh Rarity… let's hope that doesn't catch wind." Dark gets a shiver down his spine "I don't even want to imagine that." After the group does some trivial chatting Applejack comes back outside and shows the group to a vacant shed. "Alright, here's where y'all will be sleeping, make sure to wake up bright and earlier now" Applejack says authoritatively to the group "Absolutely, no question about that!" Alejandro says with nervousness in his voice. Applejack takes another glance at the group before nodding her head and heading back to the barn.
As the trio finally lay down in the empty shed, they find the time to talk to Mort about what is happening. They explain some of the basics of the world such as the different types of ponies, the Mane 6, and the major threats they thwart to save the world. After making sure the party had covered most of the important information, they settled down in preparation of the work ahead of them. They finally drift asleep, dreaming of their past life as humans one last time.