//------------------------------// // Part 1 - Chapter 9: Morning Glory // Story: Pony May Cry: Brotherhood is Magic // by Joey JoJo //------------------------------// The next morning came a lot earlier than Dante had anticipated. He was fast asleep in the barn, the sun just barely edging over the horizon that Princess Celestia had taken upon herself to raise every morning accordingly. The sun continued to inch up over the hills of Sweet Apple Acres, accompanied by a rooster’s crow, signaling the start of a new day. However, it was a crow that Dante chose to ignore as he grabbed his pillow and covered his head in frustration. “Goddamn birds.” he cursed from under his pillow. “Wish those things had snooze buttons. I’m trying to freaking sleep!” After a few minutes, the barn door burst open with a loud thud as result from AppleJack bucking open the door. “Rise and shine sleepin’ beauty!” she called out, trotting over to Dante, who at this particular moment, was still attempting to feign sleep. “Awww, snug as a bug in a rug.” cooed AppleJack. “But it's time to get to work!” She then yanked the blanket out from under the sleeping stallion, flipping him off the bale of hay as he hit the floor with an audible thud. “What the hell kind of wakeup call is that!?” he shouted. “That’d be the work bell.” AppleJack chuckled as she adjusted her hat. “I’d get to steppin if I were you, buck-o. Breakfast is ready and we’ve got just enough time to eat before we start the day.” “Why so early though?” Dante asked. “You’ve never really done farm work, huh?” “Can’t say that I have.” Dante muttered, picking himself off the floor and walking towards the coat rack. “Well, first time for everything then. Let’s get goin’. I gotta get AppleBloom ready for school anyhow.” AppleJack then left the barn and trotted her way back to the house. Walking over to the barn rack, Dante let out a sigh before snapping into action. “Alright then. Time to go to work!” Grabbing Rebellion, he then threw the sword into the air, letting it spin wildly as he nabbed his coat from the rack and proceeded to slip it on as quickly as possible. He then stood up onto his hind legs with his forehooves stretched out, just as his sword had finished its descent, landing perfectly into its holster on his back. “Yup.” he said with a smug grin. “It’s gonna be a good day.” His morning celebration was unfortunately cut short as the rooster outside let out another ear piercing crow. “Was, gonna be a good day.” Dante emphasized drearily as the effects of such an early awakening suddenly swept over him as a reminder that he had not gotten much sleep. “Better get something to eat at least.” he mumbled as he walked out of the barn, heading towards the Apple family house. Breakfast with the Apple family was relatively quiet and short. Dante was not one for conversation so early in the morning, so he kindly kept to himself during his meal, after which he was led out of the house by AppleJack and Big Mac as the three ponies made their way towards the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. “So what’s the job?” Dante yawned lazily. “Simple really.” AppleJack said. “What we’ll be doin’ here is apple buckin’.” “Come again?” “Apple bucking.” repeated AppleJack more clearly. “All ya need is a pair of good legs and yer good to go.” AppleJack then set a few empty bushels around the base of the tree. “And this is how you is apple buck!” she exclaimed as she reared her hind legs back and then kicked the tree with such tremendous force that, one by one, every single apple fell neatly into the bushels, leaving the tree barren of any fruit. “Got the gist of it?” she asked Dante. “That’s it?!” exclaimed Dante. “You guys are joking, right?” he asked, turning his attention to Big Macintosh. “Nope.” Big Mac replied bluntly. “Mah sis explained it clear as day. Just buck the trees and be sure not to miss a single apple.” “Think you can handle it Dante?” AppleJack asked, trotting up to the Demon Hunter. “Yeah yeah, kick the tree, get the apples, I got it.” Dante sighed almost disappointingly. “How hard can it be?” He then walked up to another tree littered with apples. In a matter of seconds Dante snapped around and bucked the apple tree with all of his might. This was followed by the sounds of soft pats on the ground, sending a wave of excitement through light yellow pony as he turned around to view his results. To his dismay, Dante had only managed to knock down about six apples while the rest hung perfectly intact from their branches. AppleJack let out a snicker at devil hunter’s display. “Well, Mr. Bounty Hunter. Seems as though yer a bit weak in the knees there.” “I’m just getting warmed up!” Dante snapped before turning around again to give the tree not one, but two bucks this time. Still, only a few more apples dropped, leaving Dante to pout at his results before looking down at his hoofs. What the hell is wrong with me? I’m way better than this. There’s no excuse I shouldn’t be able to kick this tree straight off the ground, he thought to himself as he looked over his body. “Don’t let it get to ya.” said Big Mac, placing a hoof on Dante’s shoulder. “Ya can’t always get every apple in one go.” He lightly brushed aside Big Mac’s hoof. “As if I’d let a tree get to me.” The next moment, Dante reached for his sword and in one powerful swing, he had chopped straight through the apple tree, leaving only a stump as it came crashing down. “Ha! Problem solved!” Dante gloated as he walked over to collect the apples that had fallen. Big Mac only looked on in disbelief, his jaw hanging open at the sight he just witnessed. AppleJack however, stepped in front of Dante with an enraged expression and burning green eyes that were focused solely on him. “Just what in the hay do you think yer doin’!?” she almost screamed at the confused pony. “What’s it look like!?” Dante snapped, wanting to get around AppleJack. “You said I needed to get the apples down and so I decided to use my brain…well mostly my sword, but still I got the job done. Now if I can move on to the rest of those trees, I’ll have this whole farm harvested in no time.” “Oh, no you won’t!” AppleJack said as she tried to snatch Dante’s sword from him. “This here ain’t no lumber yard. No, here we try and keep our trees intact. That way we can harvest year-round, ya dork.” “Hey, who’re you calling a dork?” “You!” AppleJack said, poking Dante in the chest chest with her hoof. “Now, are you gonna buck apples the right way or am ah’ gonna have to take yer lil’ toy from ya?” Dante simply rolled his eyes as he holstered his sword onto his back. “Much better,” AppleJack smiled. “Now can Big Mac and I trust you to start bucking these trees without making a mess?” “Whatever.” Dante groaned, walking over to the fallen tree and picking up the apples one by one. “Well, Big Mac and I will be over on the other side harvesting the rest of the apples. Have fun, Dante!” “Yeah, because kicking trees all day is just sooo invigorating,” Dante muttered sarcastically to himself. “Jesus, I’m already starting to miss the constant demon infestations. At least those were exciting!” he complained as he repeatedly bucked a tree out of frustration. To his amazement, he noticed that he had cleared at least half of the apples on that particular tree with just a few kicks. “Well, that's an improvement.” he smiled before continuing to kick away. “That Dante feller sure is a strange one, huh, sis?” Big Mac asked as he and AppleJack walked off towards the far side of Sweet Apple Acres. “He sure is, but I figure he means well. Poor guy’s just lost is all. Not used to how we handle things in Ponyville.” “Ya think we can really trust him with handling the farm work, though?” Big Mac asked. “’Course we can, Big Mac,” AppleJack replied. “After all, if he wants to stay with us for awhile, he might as well earn his keep.” She said with a smirk. Fluttershy had woken up to the sound of her alarm clock ringing wildly. In a matter of seconds she had slightly fumbled with the device before finally silencing it. She then let out a small yawn as she checked the time, sitting up in her bed. The hands read 8:16 AM. “Guess I better get ready and wake Vergil up.” she said as she got out of bed and began walking downstairs to the bathroom. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she noticed to her surprise that Vergil was nowhere to be seen. All that was left on the couch was his blue coat folded up neatly. Even Vergil’s sword seemed to be missing. Angel Bunny then hopped into the living room where Fluttershy was standing. “Good morning, Angel.” Fluttershy said sweetly patting the rabbit's head. “You wouldn’t happen to know where Vergil went, would you?” Angel only managed to gesture a few movements that seemed to imitate walking in place and pointed towards the door. “He went for a walk?” Fluttershy asked. Angel then nodded in response to let her know she had guessed correctly. “I hope he gets back soon.” she said worriedly. “After all, I need to get ready to take him on his tour.” Fluttershy then trotted back towards the bathroom to get washed up as Angel made a gagging gesture at her comment. Meanwhile at the edge of the Everfree Forest, numerous grunts could be heard echoing through the trees accompanied by the splintering and shattering of wood. The source of this commotion was Vergil in a small clearing of trees, slicing almost effortlessly through chunks of wood he had kicked up into the air with accurate and deadly precision, making sure not to miss one single target. The few splinters of wood left over fell lightly to the ground surrounding him. He then sheathed his blade, his cutie mark beginning to glow as he then positioned himself into his Judgment Cut stance directly in front of a thick and sturdy oak tree; its trunk approximately four feet in diameter. In an instant, Vergil vanished in a blue blur as he streaked past the tree, only to reappear behind it, his blade, Yamato, held out in one hoof and his sheath held firmly to his side. He then spun his sword and held his sheath out to holster his blade. Just as Vergil clicked the sheath to the very base of his sword, a shimmering flurry of slices broke out all across the tree, practically cutting it into chunks of lumber. Vergil’s hair had fallen down above his eyes as a bead of sweat trickled down his brow. “Not good enough.” he huffed as he started to pat his face with the necktie puffing out from his vest. He then turned and began to walk back towards Fluttershy’s cottage, tapping a tree adjacent to the rubble as he trotted off. The trunk suddenly slid off the base of the stump, revealing a clean cut from the aftermath of his attack as it tipped over. On a positive note, at least I’m obtaining a feel for this body, Vergil thought to himself, emerging from the forest. He then lightly trotted the rest of the way back to Fluttershy’s only to be greeted by Angel at the front door, who was tapping his foot in a somewhat impatient manner. “What is it, you long eared rodent?” Vergil asked the small white rabbit. Angel simply replied with him pointing to his wrist, indicating that Vergil was late. However, Vergil had no time for such trivial matters and proceeded to knock on the cottage door, ignoring Angel’s pantomiming. After about a few seconds, the door opened to reveal Fluttershy whose hair was wrapped up neatly in a towel. “Oh, good morning, Vergil!” she said surprised. “I was wondering where you went. You left your coat here, but from what Angel said, you went for a walk?” “You could say that.” The light grey stallion replied calmly. “I was simply clearing my thoughts.” “You look exhausted.” Fluttershy said, noticing his hair had fallen from its prepped up style, and that there were still a few trickles of sweat sliding down his brow. “It was a very enthusiastic walk.” he stated as he stepped inside the house. “I see. Well you might want to go wash off. After all, you’ll want to look your best when we visit Ponyville today.” Fluttershy replied happily. “Duly noted.” Vergil said as he proceeded to shut the bathroom door behind him.