The protocol went unsaid as always: doors were slammed, windows were jammed and ponies were crammed into the nearest available building. The cacophony of it all coalesced into Ponyville’s own signature alarm system that let Apple Bloom know that something was going on, but she still wanted to know what that something was, so she took cover under some dense greenery in Ponyville’s market square.
A cloaked figure trotted closer. Behind her, leaves shuffled as yellow hooves pushed them aside so that amber eyes could get a better look.
The stranger wore a cloak of ebony and had eyes of pure sunlight. Thick golden rings draped along her outstretched grayscale hoof as it rapped against ground. And this wasn’t first time she was in town, wandering about and surveying the newly deserted area. She’s up to something, Apple Bloom told herself. And I’m going to find out what.
Sensing nopony, the stranger moved on, inspecting the next shop. Silent hoofsteps followed her against the dull whistle of the breeze, and leaves shuffled again.
Apple Bloom knew what her sister would say. At this point in her life, she knew Applejack’s response better than she knew her own. Applejack was Ponyville’s most dependable pony and Sweet Apple Acre’s head apple bucker. Apple Bloom was proud -- and grateful to have her sister there to give her the facts. But after all, until that last summer sun celebration, Applejack had only been on one adventure.
It wasn’t something that was mentioned often. Granny Smith had once told her about Applejack’s trip to Manehattan to meet her Aunt and Uncle Orange, about how she got lost in that big city and found her way home and earned her cutie mark doing so, but she didn’t recall speaking to her sister about it. Probably just another delivery trip, Apple Bloom thought. Like the ones she takes these days to all over.
Being an Apple meant honesty, and talking about somepony’s mistakes behind that pony’s back, especially about a fellow Apple, wasn’t the honest thing to do. It wasn’t something that was mentioned often and there didn’t seem to be much to it, but getting lost in a big city sounded like the closest thing to an adventure – a real adventure – that she ever heard Applejack get herself into before Twilight moved here.
The cloaked figure approached Sugarcube Corner’s neat garden while her young and distant investigator followed suite behind the local carrot stand.
Apple Bloom was told that the stranger lived in the Everfree Forest, and didn’t think that was too strange. After all, Aunt and Uncle Orange lived in the city, and there aren’t any open spaces or farms there, so what was so strange about living in the Everfree Forest anyway? Not everypony in Ponyville lived on a farm, and Twilight lived in a tree! Applejack voice in her mind seemed quiet now, almost startled. Apple Bloom continued, life isn’t hard to imagine without all the farmland, and what if she likes it in the forest, like how Aunt and Uncle Orange like living in the city?
Sugarcube Corner’s swinging door smashed against the wall opposite to it, and before Apple Bloom heard the gallop of her sister’s sprint towards her, she was already inside the confectionery shop.

---

Hearing Twilight’s explanation confirmed Apple Bloom’s doubts about her sister’s judgment. Applejack was always there to let her know when she was misled, confused or when it was time for big ponies to talk. Honesty doesn’t mean holding up in here and going on and on about somepony out there…
This was her chance, her only chance to show them that she knew there was more to life than living on a farm and more to her than listening to her sister. I have to risk it all on a zebra to do it, Apple Bloom thought. Now that sounds like an adventure!
Apple Bloom donned a grin and eyed the door to Sugarcube Corner’s exit, “Well, I'm brave enough; I'm gonna find out myself.”