The Business District is a ring of shops and stores surrounding the Town Square, and likewise surrounded by the Residential District.  The Business District holds all the forces of trade and economy for Ponyville.  Here Ponies ply their trade, buy groceries, and otherwise maintain their financial lives.  Besides the established shops like Sugarcube Corner, there are also a variety of temporary stands and stalls that come and go as supply is available.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Sat 14 Apr 2012.

Entering from Summer Song Cafe

Fung Shui always liked these morning runs.  The view was great, of course, but that wasn't all he enjoyed about it.  Up in the sky, where the wind blew unrestrained, Fung felt more at home.  It was one of the first things he discovered about Ponyville: the wind might smell different, but it felt just the same as the wind in Neighpon.  He was so exhilarated by each fresh gust that he actually started practicing his stunts, performing graceful twirls and spins in time with the wind.  He wasn't up here to practice his routines though, so after those first ones he knuckled down and put some oomph in his trot.

As he picked up speed over the district, he could see what looked like some kind of commotion picking up around Sugarcube Corner.  He wasn't surprised, that place was always busy.  Didn't have much of a taste for it himself, most of the sweets they stocked were a little too rich for his taste.  His focus shifted to a small downdraft he felt approaching, and he rolled into it, picking up more speed as he 'surfed the wake', as Storm Skaters called it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:17, Wed 18 Apr 2012.

_{--> From Sweet Apple Acres}

Wandering in at a casual trot, Big Macintosh sweeps from side to side as he heads down the rows of the market looking for Applejack. He's figuring that if she wasn't just working from the cart that she'll have a makeshift stall set up. When he doesn't spot her right out, he just keeps looking for the time being; asking the odd ponies if they've seen her around.

< From the Town Square >

 Ace arrives with a casual gait. He looks around for some solution to his current homelessness problem. It's not that he doesn't care about the whole apple cart business, it's just he hasn't seen nothin' so what are you gonna do? He figures if the cart was stolen at best it's some two-bit thief who will caught in a few minutes or there is going to be some underground black market apple selling, which is kinda silly when you think about it.

---> From Town Square

Rainbow Dash cruised over the business district, looking below and diving down to weave in between the buildings. Stopping in the centre of the district, she hovered and narrowed her eyes as she concentrated hard on looking for any sort of clue.

The downdraft turned out to be a bit bigger than Fung had expected, and was starting to build up intensity as he moved closer to the Town Square.  Since he wasn't trying to go for a race, Fung had to drop some altitude to get out of the brunt before it caused a problem.  However, as Fung dropped down into the weaker wind closer to ground level, he was suddenly distracted by a streak of rainbow colors above him.  He hadn't seen many rainbows form in Equestria since his arrival, so it was rather distracting.  Distracting enough that he didn't realize there was a pony at the front of it, until she plowed through that downdraft he had been avoiding.

The sudden clash of wind dispersed the downdraft with a whooshing sound that also happened to throw off Fung's coordination.  Fung tried to recover by switching directions and following the stronger wind, but he was too close the ground, and he ended up eating it when one of his hooves clipped a large stone.  It wasn't a bad crash, but it was enough to get him riled up.  He'd gotten used to how Pegasi flew in Equestria, but flying at speeds like that was just reckless.  It didn't take long to see who had caused it, as a short distance away his eye caught the same rainbow color in a pegasus' mane.  He stomped his way towards her, keeping an even expression despite his irritation.
"Pardon me miss, but you may wish to watch your flying in the future.  Reckless speed like that could injure someone if they weren't prepared for it."

 Ace sees this is another dead end and decides to take this to whoever runs this jerkwater berg. Surely the Mayor could help him out with this housing crisis. He heads back to the Town square in particularly the Town Hall to try to talk to the Mayor.

< To Town Square >

Trotting in from the Sugarcube

Applejack led the charge toward the Business district, hot on the trail of her apple cart. Her mood was improved, thanks to Twilight's sensitivity and rationality.  She had a job to do now, and they'd be able to make some progress. She caught sight of Rainbow's streak across the sky with a grin. She was on course too! She called to her with a whistle. "Hay, Rainbow, Tracks are goin' this way!"

Lifting his head high from his search when Big Mac hears his sister's voice, he turns quickly over to try and spot her. He blinks at watching her dart past, then picks up to a trot again to try and catch up. He'll bend his course from side to side until he gets on her trail, then pick up the pace to try and keep up. He's pretty sure he'll see what she's up to when they get where they're going.

Rainbow Dash seemed taken off guard by Fung Shui's words and she gave him an odd look. "Excuse me? Watch my flying? I'm Rainbow Dash! There's no kind of speed I can't handle! You should have seen me flying in the Best Young Flyer Competition!" She grinned, crossing her front legs as she hovered above him. "And then there's--" She was cut off as she heard Applejack calling out to her. "Hey, Applejack! Wait up!" she dashed off, following the Earth pony and the cart trail.

[From Sugarcube Corner, and trying to compensate for the stuff after the exit tag I posted... XD]

"If this is how you want to play it..." Blue Shield had said as he accepted Applejack's "kind of" call for help. So to follow tracks would lead right to the business district, and he made sure that Applejack would keep up while they moved. Essentially, that meant no flying.

"I'm sorry if you felt I was taking things too far. You've been here a good long while. Honestly... I think Ponyville doesn't really need me." Blue explained to the pony he'd dragged around town following clues. "So, I guess I was just a bit excited. The lack of crime is good and all, but, especially with you and your friends... It's easy to see weeks go by without so much as lifting a hoof to do any work."

As they made their way in, there was Rainbow Dash. There was a dossier in his office filled with "Rainbow Crash" incidents. Nothing illegal, just... A hazard to look out for.

"Okay... From here, what businesses do you stop off at on your normal route? If the one in possession of your cart is going along your route, then that'd be the most likely path to follow.""

From Games and Tables--->

Despite slow business, it was a pretty nice day, Rook decided. The road through the district was fairly crowded. He spotted a small cadre of ponies making their way down the street opposite of him. He recognized one as Applejack, the owner of Sweet Apple Acres and Rainbow Dash, the town's head weather pony. He didn't recognized the third pony. An unusually tall pegasus, the colt was dressed as a police officer. They seemed to be talking to one another about something.

He shrugged. It wasn't his prerogative to nose in on official business. He continued down the road.

Exit to Summer Song Cafe --->
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Thu 19 Apr 2012.

".. Come ta' think of it, ah was goin' to make a stop at the Cakes..." she said. "And...." Applejack paused. "Ah wasn't really stoppin' anywhere else in particular.  Ah was gonna set up and sell to everypony here after that." she chimed.

At his Apology, AJ just put a hoof on his shoulder.  "Its awright. Ah know you were eager to help. Ah appreciate that. Let's just... find out what's goin' on and take care of it." she paused... she had felt uncomfortable about the open question for clues... it felt like she was being called out for losing it in the first place... but.... that was her pride, still stinging at the situation. Resolving it was more important.....
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:58, Fri 20 Apr 2012.

Fung looked surprised by Rainbow Dash's response, and had been about to deliver a rather scathing response when a high pitched whistle cut the air and sent Dash flying off towards another pony with apples on her flank.
"Wha- hey!  Hold on one...moment."
By the time he had turned, they were already out of earshot, going as fast as they were.  Considering the presence of an officer, there was obviously some kind of incident going on, but that didn't mean Fung was just going to let the Rainbow pony get away.  He took a few steps to get airborne, but as he did, he felt a sudden pain in the foot which had thrown him off that rock.

He lifted the foot gingerly and glared at it.
"Hay Bales!  I must have wrenched it when I crashed."
Wiggling the two halves of his cloven hoof, it didn't seem hurt, and when he put weight on it it didn't hurt too bad, but he was still moving with a limp.
"Well, so much for my morning run.  I'll have to walk back to my studio now."
Moving swiftly, but still with a slight limp, Fung made his way towards the Town Square, where he could go the swiftest route home.

-->Exit to Ponyville Town Square-->
This message was last edited by the player at 23:37, Thu 19 Apr 2012.

Following the tracks of the cart wasn't easy after a while.  At first it was clear where the wheels led since there was only a single given direction possible for the cart to have traveled through -- the other ways were too narrow for it to have fit.  But when the searching Ponies got to the Business District, that's when things got confusing.

There were tracks all over!

The Business District was just that -- a busy, full market of stalls, street carts, carriages, and ponies going about their daily shopping.  Any hope of following the apple cart's particular trail was dashed since it vanished amid the skids and dirt tracks of other almost identical carts along the road.

Blue Shield quickly found that his trail had grown cold. Or rather too muddled to follow. It definitely would have been a great time to have a K-9 unit. Biting his lip some in thought, he tried to think of where the cart would go. Between himself, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, there were plenty of hooves on the case.

"Okay! I got a plan..." Blue Shield surveyed the area real quickly while he talked. "Rainbow, you and I are going to do an aerial search pattern. That cart could not get into any really tight areas, so it should be visible form the sky. Don't rush the search. Careful over quick. Applejack, talk to some of the other merchants, see if they've seen a sign. The ponies walking around won't have been here long enough. But the merchants would have been here early, so they'd be the mot likely to see something."

"Sound good to everypony?"

"Sounds good to me! Let's hit it! I'll find your cart for you, AJ!" She flew high above, stopping herself from going TOO fast as she circled around to look for the missing cart of apples.

"Awright." Applejack nodded. Wings were really better suited to this sort of thing, so she'd let the Pegasi do what they were best at. After considering who to speak to first, Applejack headed for the nearest merchant to the tracks course, around the middle of the district. He had a fairly wide range of view, maybe he could help.

As the two Pegasi took to the air, they'd get a much better look at the entire market from their new vantage point.  The problem became actually finding the right cart from there though.  There were lots of carts on the road being pulled by their owners, and many were empty after having dropped off their cargo.  Even worse was that many of the carts were virtually identical and could only be differentiated by a paint job or a name printed on the back frame.

Meanwhile, down below, Applejack would have a little more luck than her airborne friends.  While most of the merchants were too busy with their customers to chat or simply hadn't taken notice of any apple cart in particular, she hit pay dirt when she came across the stall belonging to her neighbor, Golden Harvest (more casually nicknamed Carrot Top for her vibrant mane and Cutie Mark).

"Your cart?  Well, of course I saw it!  I didn't see who was pulling it though, so I just thought it was one of you Apples since you're always here in the market this time of day." Golden Harvest seemed scandalized at the thought of a theft and nearly dropped a bushel of carrots at the idea.  "I noticed it just a few minutes ago, I think.  It was headed off to the south-east."

The south-eastern route led out of the Business District and had a main road that wove itself right out of town, though notable locations on the way were the School House and Sweet Apple Acres itself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:32, Sat 21 Apr 2012.

"Aww, thanks fer' keepin an eye open." Aplejack put a hoof out to steady the fumbled carrots. "Ah'll be fine. If ya' see mah cart, though, lemme' know." She turned to rush after it, giving a sharp whistle, and pointing a hoof high in the direction of the cart, hoping to draw at least Rainbow's attention, and she could redirect the officer. Faced with the schoolhouse or heading home, Applejack decided she'd check the schoolhouse, and have Rainbow Dash fly on toward home. "Hay, Rainbow!" she called, hoping to catch her ear. "Fly on past to Sweet Apple Acres an' see if anypony there noticed it! It only vanished after ah' left this mornin'! Then meet me at the Schoolhouse!"