Chapter 40
Saturday, the weekend for many people. A day to kick back and not worry about work. A day where you can do anything you want, unless you're a farmer, then it’s just a day like any other.
“Come on... you annoying little... thing. Get... on, there! Finally,” grumbled Allen as he fought with his hay rake’s drive chain.
Wiping some sweat from his face with the back of his hand, he looked out across the messy windrows of drying hay and stretched his back to work some of the kinks out of it. He’d been bent over at an awkward angle for what felt like forever as he struggled to put the drive chain on.
Almost makes me wish I’d let dad talk me into buying that rotary rake last year, at least I wouldn’t have to mess with a greasy drive chain again. Thought Allen as he used a semi-clean rag to wipe the worst of the grease off his hands.
He was just about ready to start raking, as the last of the dew had burned off maybe thirty minutes ago, and with the temperature steadily climbing into the eighties, it promised to be a perfect day to bale hay, hot and dry. Taking a long swig of water from his water jug, Allen let loose a content sigh as the water chased away his thirst.
Putting the jug back up on the tractor, Allen looked around to see if anypony had shown up yet, but he was the only person around.
Looking down at his watch, he saw that it was nearly eleven o’clock.
“Well, they’ll get here when they get here, I’m not waiting any longer,” he muttered to himself. Climbing up on the tractor, Allen settled himself and put on his hearing protection; he'd managed to find a pair of over-the-ear hearing protectors that had an aux port built-in that would allow him to listen to music while he worked. Fiddling with his MP3 player, he hit shuffle and laughed out loud when the first song to come up in the rotation was International Harvester by Craig Morgan.
Firing up the tractor, he put her in gear and started singing along as he got to work.
~oOo~
Penny meanwhile was certainly not in the mood to sing as she paced back and forth in her, currently, spacious office. She would stop every couple of paces and look up at the clock on the wall, and each time she did, her frown would deepen.
Her mood was not helped by the fact that she was running on just a few hours of sleep as the last thirty-six hours had been jam-packed with meetings, paperwork, and running around trying to find workers. Which had turned out to be harder than she had anticipated. Turns out that late spring/early summer was a very busy time of the year for farmers, and as such farm help was hard to come by.
She had been severely disappointed in the amount of available help at the local DOTI office, even with Checklist helping out, they had struggled to find the needed workers, and the few that they had found had wanted more than she was happy paying, but she’d had little choice in the matter and so she’d bit the proverbial stick and paid up. However, it seems that her money and time was wasted as the help had yet to show.
“Where are they?!” she grumbled for the twentieth time.
“Maybe they got lost?” said Twilight from her spot on the office couch.
“Or forgot when they were supposed to meet with us?” piped up Lyra from her spot next to Twilight as she idly flipped through one of the magazines on the table.
“No,” said Penny with a shake of her head. “I gave them exact instructions on when and where to meet us!”
“I vouldn’t vorry, temp vorkers are always late,” said Zubchatoye knowingly.
“They said they would be here at ten! It’s now eleven-thirty!” growled Penny.
Zubchatoye shrugged, an unconcerned look on his face. “Zey probably sleep in, it happens.”
Penny snapped back irritably. “Not to me, it doesn’t!”
“Yet here ve is.”
“UGH!” screamed Penny in frustration as she threw her hooves up in the air.
The sudden jingle of a bell interrupted the irate mare's pacing. Whirling towards the door, she saw that three of the seven workers she had contracted to help Allen with his hay had shown up.
“Where have you been?!” she snapped, her patience having long since dissipated.
“Sorry, we got lost and had to ask around town if anypony knew where your office was,” replied the pony to open the door sheepishly.
“But I gave you detailed instructions on how to get here!”
The stallion shrugged helplessly. “Well the guy who had the instructions probably took them when he left town last night, so we had to make do.”
Penny felt one of her eyelids start to twitch. “What do you mean he ‘left town’? Where is the rest of the crew that I hired?”
The three ponies shifted uneasily. “Well,” began one, “they got a better offer in Appaloosa last night, and decided to go work there instead?” he finished with a nervous little grin.
The other eyelid was twitching now.
Seeing that Penny was not handling things too well, Zubchatoye stepped in and gently pushed the mare away from the visibly sweating stallion, angling her towards a nearby chair.
Getting up from her spot on the couch, Twilight walked over and asked, “So you three were the only ones to come then?”
The stallion nodded. “Yes ma’am, my brother, sister, and I always keep our word when it comes to stuff like this. We agreed to do the job, and we’ll do it, even if a better one pops up in the meantime.”
Twilight nodded. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Hello!” waved Lyra from her spot on the couch.
The stallion returned the wave with a nod of his head. “Nice to meet you all, my name is Clover Leaf, this is my brother, Rye Grass, and my sister Honeysuckle.” The other two quietly waved a hoof in greeting.
They were all earth ponies, Clover Leaf was the tallest and obviously the strongest judging by the bulging muscles that shifted under his greenish-white coat every time he moved. Which was impressive considering how shaggy and unkempt his coat looked, his dark brown mane and tail were also long and shaggy while his cutie mark was a four-leaf clover.
His brother was also large and well built, though not to the extent of Clover, and his light, golden brown coat reminded Twilight of ripened rye or wheat ready for harvest. Both his coat and dark green mane were likewise unkempt and shaggy, his cutie mark was a bundle of rye bundled together into a shock.
The mare of the group, Honeysuckle, looked like she had just gotten a coat and mane trim as her harvest gold-colored coat seemed to shine in the sunlight peeking through one of the office windows, and her umber colored mane was tied neatly up in a short bun. Her cutie mark was that of a flowering honeysuckle vine.
Looking between the three, Twilight asked, “So how long have you been in town for?”
Clover Leaf replied, “A couple of days. We’re working our way north following the yearly spring planting times.”
“I take it that work has been hard to find?”
Clover’s ears fell in slight embarrassment at the question. “Yeah, that and we lost most of our bits in Manehattan to a pair of unicorn stallions who promised they could double our money if we invested in a scheme of theirs.”
“Turns out they were a couple of grifters and skipped town the next morning with our bits, leaving us with barely enough money to survive,” said Honeysuckle, with a derisive snort. “The only reason I’m not as ragged looking as those two was because I managed to get my mane and coat done the day before we met them.”
“That’s horrible!” exclaimed Twilight, “Are you telling me that you don’t have any bits at all?”
Rye shook his head. “No, we do, just not enough to spend on getting a coat brushing and mane cut is all. We weren’t completely stupid, and kept enough money back to afford things like food and cheap lodging. But with the loss of most of our savings, things have been tight lately.”
Nodding, Clover chimed in, “That’s why we took this job in the first place. The pay was good and the cost of living around here is low.”
“Well, we’re glad that you decided to stay. Allen is going to need a lot of help to put his hay away in a timely manner,” replied Twilight with a grateful smile.
Clover opened his mouth to ask who this ‘Allen’ person was, as the name sounded odd to his ears, however, the return of Penny prevented him from asking.
Taking a deep breath, the recently calmed mare stated, “While I am still upset at recent events, I am grateful that you three decided to stay. As such, I will give each of you a bonus upon completion of the job. Additionally, depending on how well you three do, I will also offer to extend your initial contract to work for Mr. Ross for the remainder of the haying season. He has big plans, and will need plenty of workers to see those plans through,” she held up a hoof when she saw Clover open his mouth to reply. “I don’t need an answer right away, just think on the offer while you three are working for us, and when the task is complete, we can hash out the details then.”
The three earth ponies looked between themselves, before turning their attention back to Penny and nodding in agreement. “Alright,” said Clover Leaf, “that sounds good to us.”
Smiling Penny replied, “Wonderful, now,” she glanced up at the clock on the way and blanched at seeing that it was nearly noon, “we need to get going. Twilight,” she pointed at the studious unicorn, “I need to go and find some extra help on short notice, can you take everypony over to Allen’s and introduce them?”
Nodding, Twilight replied happily, “Sure! Come on everypony, let’s go.”
Following everypony out of her office, Penny turned around and shut the door, locking it behind her and flipping the sign from Open to Closed. Heading in the opposite direction, she set course for the DOTI office, a determined look on her face.
I might have suffered a minor setback, but I am not going to let that stop me. Let’s see what I can find for help today.
~oOo~
Wiping some sweat from his brow, Allen took a long swig of water from his water bottle. He’d finished raking and had just dropped off the rake out in front of the machine shed. He’d noticed that a couple of the metal fingers had snapped off, so he needed to grab some spares to put on later. For now, though, he was taking a short break before he went out to start baling.
Looking around he sighed, Still no Penny or help. I hope she was able to find someone, otherwise, this is gonna suck.
Setting his water bottle on the tractor's footplate, Allen decided to give the baler one more check before he hooked it up to a hay basket and headed out to the field. The day was turning out to be perfect weather for hay. High temperatures, low humidity, and light winds all combined to dry out his fields in record time.
Humming a random song to himself, he set about giving everything a final look over. His work however was soon interrupted by the sound of approaching hooves. Looking up from the twine ball compartment, Allen looked up the driveway and spotted Twilight, Lyra, and Zubchatoye heading his way, followed by a trio of earth ponies that he didn’t recognize.
Shutting the lid, Allen gave a friendly wave. “Hey Twilight, Lyra, Zubchatoye. Glad to see you all finally made it,” he paused and looked around confused at the absence of Penny. “Where’s Penny?”
Twilight returned Allen’s greeting with a wave of her own and said, “She’s trying to find some additional help. It seems that four out of the seven she had contracted to work for us decided to leave town yesterday for better-paying work elsewhere. These three,” she pointed at the earth pony trio, “were the only ones to stay.”
Pulling his leather glove off, Allen gave the three a welcoming smile and said, “Well thanks for sticking with us, and welcome aboard, my name is Allen Ross, but you can just call me Allen. I’m the owner of this farm.”
The three newcomers seemed unsure of what to make of Allen at first, but the tallest, and shaggiest, of the bunch, stepped forward and took Allen’s proffered hand and gave it a firm shake.
“I’m Clover Leaf, and these are my siblings, Rye Grass, and Honeysuckle,” he pointed a hoof at each indicated pony. “We’re migrant workers heading north following the planting line.”
“I see,” nodded Allen, “well I’m glad you were willing to come and help me then. I’ve got ten acres of hay down and I need to put it up in that loft up there,” he pointed up at an opening to the left of the main doors that was big enough to allow a hay bale to pass through with some extra room to spare.
“And how were you planning on getting it up there? I don’t see a ramp or hay claw to lift it up there,” asked Clover Leaf, a confused look on his face.
Turning around, Allen pointed to a strange-looking contraption next to the barn. It was a long construct made up of metal tubing with a long chain running up the middle with spikes spaced evenly along its length and it was set on a two-wheeled axle.
“We’ll be using my hay elevator there,” replied Allen as he walked up to the device. Patting it, he said, “It shouldn’t give you guys any issues, since I put a new chain on it last year and tightened a few things up. She’s all oiled and I tested the motor this morning, so she’s good to go. All we have to do is move her into position and raise her up and we should be good to go.”
“Did you want to move it now?” asked Clover Leaf.
Allen nodded. “Might as well, let me raise it up first, and then we can swing it into position.”
Walking over to the axle, Allen grabbed a crank handle that was connected to a wire pulley system and with a grunt, began to turn the crank. Slowly, and with a couple of groans of rusty metal on metal, the elevator began to rise higher into the sky. Coming to a stop, Allen secured the crank handle to keep it from unwinding and crashing down while they were working. Turning to the three ponies, he motioned for them to take up a position around the elevator, Rye Grass, Honeysuckle, and Clover Leaf took spots on either side next to the wheels and made ready to push, while Allen went to the front and grabbed the tongue lifting it into the air with a grunt.
Through gritted teeth, he said, “Alright, start pushing!”
Putting their forelegs on the elevator, the three earth ponies began to push, the elevator slowly moving as Allen carefully guided the awkward machine until it was lined up with the upper door to the loft.
“Okay, hold it!” he called out again as he dug his feet in to slow the elevator’s forward momentum. The three ponies scrambled to help stop the hay elevator. “Okay, now let’s slowly push it up to the barn, and get ready to stop it so that it doesn’t hit anything. Ready? Push!”
With a grunt, the three ponies and lone human carefully guided the elevator into place. As they got closer, Allen slowly lowered the tongue to the ground, and when the elevator was only a foot or two from the barn wall, he dropped the tongue to the ground and yelled, “Okay, that’s good enough!”
Backing off, the three earth ponies watched as the elevator came to a quick halt in front of them. Walking past them, Allen looked up and saw that the elevator wasn’t quite high enough to clear the floor of the loft, so he grabbed the crank handle and gave it a few more turns. Seeing it would clear now, he indicated for the ponies to resume pushing, and with a couple of steps, the elevator was in position and ready for its first load of hay.
“And that’ll do it,” said Allen as he waved them off. “Nice job.”
Trading smiles, the three siblings gave each other hoof bumps.
“So now what?” asked Honeysuckle.
Unspooling an orange-colored power cord, Allen replied, “A quick safety lesson and then we’ll go over where to put you three.”
Grabbing the wire coming out of the little electric motor mounted to the side of the hay elevator, Allen said, “Alright, this is the electric motor that runs this thing, and this,” he pointed to a small box to the left of the motor, “is the lever that turns it off and on.”
Connecting the power cord to the motor, Allen flipped the switch up and with a rattle, the elevator sprang to life.
Pointing to the various moving parts, Allen said, “I feel it should be obvious, but just for the record, you do not want to let your tails or any other part of you get caught in these belts and chains. They will get ripped off if you’re not careful, and I’d rather not find out that you got hurt, okay? I can see that you two have pretty long tails, we’ll either need to cut them short or tie them up so that they don’t get in the way. I’ve got some hair ties and clippers if you need them.”
Both Clover and Rye looked behind them and gave their long tails a flick. A slightly embarrassed look on each of their faces.
Honeysuckle also looked back at her tail and gave it an experimental swish. It wasn’t as long as her brothers, which were dragging the ground, but it did come down to about the midway point between her hock and fetlock. Looking back at the belt that connected the electric motor to the drive wheel on the elevator, she grimaced at the thought of her tail getting caught in that while it was running.
Honeysuckle looked at her two shaggy brothers and nodded. “Yeah, I think we’re gonna need those clippers and mane ties.”
Smiling, Allen replied, “Alright, I’ll be right back.”
Both Clover and Rye gave their sister an uncertain look. “Uh, sis? You remember what happened the last time we cut each other’s mane and tails?”
Honeysuckle rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a foal, Clover. We’ll just cut a little off the ends so that our tails won’t get caught in anything. After, that we can go to the barber and get them done properly. It’ll be easy. Besides, we’re not foals anymore, cutting our tails shorter should be a piece of cake.”
Her two brothers didn’t share her confidence.
~oOo~
Opening the door to the local DOTI office with a bit more force than needed. Penny stomped inside.
The receptionist behind the counter looked up from her magazine, an unconcerned expression on her face as she watched Penny stalk up to the counter.
Casually flipping to the next page she asked in a bored tone, “Welcome to the Ponyville DOTI office, how may I assist you?”
Taking a deep breath, Penny’s horn lit up and snatched the magazine out of the mare’s hooves, and fixed her with a glare that could melt steel.
“Why did four of the workers that I hired yesterday leave town?”
The mare, unperturbed by Penny, blinked, her expression radiating apathy. “Which four workers would that be?” she finally asked.
Pulling several papers out of her saddlebags, Penny all but slammed them down on the counter. “These ones!”
Glancing down at the papers, the receptionist calmly collected the abused pieces of paper and looked them over, nodding as she did so.
“Oh yes, these four. Well, they got a better offer yesterday, after you left, for a job in Appleloosa working for one of the fruit orchards out there. Turns out they’re planning to expand their fields this year and need extra hooves to plant all the trees on time.”
“And you just let them go?!” exclaimed Penny in disbelief.
The receptionist shrugged. “What did you want me to do? Have the local guard arrest them and make them work for you?”
“They signed a contract to work for us!”
“They did,” nodded the mare in agreement, “and they paid the fee for breaking the contract. Which reminds me,” she reached under the desk and opened a small safe, pulling out a small bag of bits and setting it on the desk. “This is your portion of the breakage fee. I am sorry that these ponies did not stay true to their contract, but there is little that I can do if they pay their fees and leave.”
“But-”
“I can assure you that this incident will be notated in our records for future consideration. The DOTI does take a dim view of those that renege on their commitments. However, as I told you and them yesterday, the contract can be canceled by either party for any reason before any work actually takes place, unless otherwise stipulated in the original contract. So long as the party breaking the contract pays the associated fees, there is little that can be done.”
“Ugh, that still doesn’t help me!” complained Penny. “I need those workers more than I need the bits!”
The receptionist sighed and replied, “Unfortunately, I don’t have any additional workers waiting for jobs at the moment. Sorry.”
Slumping in defeat, Penny grabbed the bag of bits, put it in her saddlebags, turned, and left the DOTI office feeling defeated.
Trudging outside, she let the door swing shut behind her. Head hung low, she began walking towards Allen’s farm.
What am I going to do? We need more workers in order for things to run smoothly. Looking up, she looked around the marketplace as the locals went about their business. Maybe I can find somepony who would be willing to work for just today? There must be somepony around here who would be willing to work for a few hours in exchange for some extra bits.
With a goal in mind, Penny gave a resolute nod and set off into the market in search of potential workers. For the next half hour, she searched, maneuvering around market stalls and dodging ponies as they hurried on their way. Sadly, she didn’t find anypony that looked like they needed work. She was just about to give up and head back to Allen’s farm when she noticed a board covered in flyers and notes, and a couple of ponies gathered around it. Her curiosity piqued, she changed direction and approached the board.
Drawing closer, she realized that this was the local community board, where ponies would put up wanted ads, lost pet bulletins, and various announcements that they wanted to share with the community. Walking up next to a tall, red-coated stallion, Penny scanned the board and noticed that there were several ‘help wanted’ ads up, and the stallion next to her was reading one of them.
“Are you looking for work?” blurted Penny before she could stop herself, her desperate nerves getting the better of her.
The hulking red stallion turned away from the board and looked down at her and replied, “Eeyup.”
An intense feeling of hope surged up within Penny and she said, “Great! Because I’m looking for some workers after some of the ones I contracted last night left for Appleloosa. Would you be interested perchance?”
The stallion calmly chewed on the stalk of orchard grass in his mouth as he thought. After a minute, he said, “Maybe, what do ya need done?”
“Oh well, I need somepony to help my friend put his hay away this afternoon. He only cut enough for an afternoon’s worth of work, but I’m willing to pay well for your time,” replied Penny as she hit him with her best ‘please say yes because I’m cute and desperate,” smile.
Adjusting his wooden yoke with an unshorn hoof, the stallion again thought over her proposal and asked, “How much?”
“Uh, well I was going to pay the other ponies fifty bits for the day, along with a bonus at the end, but I can bump that up to seventy-five bits for you seeing as how this is such short notice. We should be done before sunset, so it shouldn’t take very long.”
Chewing thoughtfully on his stalk of grass, the stallion was silent for a moment, and Penny was worried that he would say no, but after a few more moments, he simply nodded his head and said, “Sure, Ah can spare a few hours. Where do you need me to go?”
Her face lighting up in a relieved, happy smile, Penny motioned for him to follow her. “This way, he lives out by Sweet Apple Acres, by the way, my name is Penny, what is yours?”
“Big McIntosh, and Ah think Ah know where ya need me to go now. Yer friend wouldn't happen to be that human feller would it?”
The question and realization that she was speaking to one of the Apples caught Penny off guard and she hesitantly replied, “Yes? Is that going to be a problem?”
Big Mac shook his head. “Eenope, just so long as Ah’m done before dinner, it should be fine. Lead the way.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Penny said, “Phew, alright then, follow me,” and with that said, she turned and quickly headed for Allen’s farm, Big Mac quietly following along behind her.
Their trip out to the farm was a quiet one, as Big Mac didn’t seem to be that much of a conversationalist. As the couple of times that Penny had tried to start up a conversation, Big Mac’s lack of responses beyond ‘Eeyup’ and ‘Nope’ had quickly smothered any potential dialogue in awkward silence before it could take off.
However, eventually, Allen’s farm came into view and Penny was pleased to see that the formerly messy carpet of drying hay had been gathered into neat little windrows, ready for baling. In fact, as the two approached the gate that led out into the field, she could see Twilight, Lyra, and Zubchatoye standing by the entrance casually watching something out in the field. Trotting over, she asked, “What’s going on?”
“Oh Penny, you’re back,” replied Twilight as she turned to greet the newly arrived unicorn. Noticing the large earth pony stallion next to her, she smiled and said, “Oh, hey Big Mac, what brings you out this way?”
“Work,” he replied simply.
Noticing Twilight’s quizzical look, Penny explained, “The DOTI didn’t have anypony else available to work, and he was the only pony I could find in time to come help.”
“Ah, I see,” replied Twilight with a look of understanding. “Does Applejack know you’re here?”
Big Mac shook his head. “Nope.”
“Huh, I kind of figured she’d need your help with Sweet Apple Acres right now.”
“Nope, spring clean-up is done, and we don’t have anything to sell at the market yet,” replied Big Mac.
“Okay, well I think Allen is about done with the first load of hay. He started about forty-five minutes ago, and we should have everything ready back at the barn to start the unloading process,” replied Twilight.
Penny looked around at the small group of workers and chewed on her bottom lip in worry. “I don’t think we’ll have enough workers to both unload and transport the hay, as Allen wanted.”
Twilight hummed thoughtfully to herself as she puzzled over the problem. While she was thinking, Penny looked out across the field and spotted what looked like the top of one of Allen’s hay baskets slowly moving across the field.
I guess baling is a little bit slower than the rest of the process.
“Hmm, I think I might have a solution,” said Twilight, interrupting Penny’s thoughts.
“What solution would that be?” asked Penny, a tinge of hopefulness coloring her tone.
“Well, Allen said that he would need two ponies to pull the basket, one to put the hay on the elevator, one to take it off, and two or three to stack, correct?”
Penny nodded. “Yeah, that sounds about right, why?”
“Well, seeing as we now have Big Mac here to help us, I don’t see why he couldn’t pull the basket by himself. I’ve seen him pull heavy boulders out of the fields without the use of anything other than some strong rope, and it is not very far from this field to the barn, plus it's pretty flat ground so the going shouldn’t be that difficult.”
Looking up at the massive red stallion, Penny asked, “Do you think you can pull that much weight? Allen says that he can get around a hundred or so forty to fifty-pound bales of hay in it, and by my estimation, I would say the basket itself weighs at least fifteen hundred pounds, maybe more. That’s a lot of weight for one pony to pull by themselves, even over a short distance.”
Big Mac thoughtfully tapped his chin with a hoof as he gazed off into the distance, his mind quickly crunching the numbers. Assuming that the average bale weight was fifty pounds and there was one hundred in the basket, and the basket weighed fifteen hundred pounds by itself, Big Mac figured he’d be pulling nearly fifty-five hundred pounds each trip. Which was a lot, granted. However, he was pretty strong, stronger than most earth ponies in fact, and while he did pull heavy boulders out of the fields, they usually didn’t weigh more than a few hundred pounds each, and he usually didn’t pull them very far very fast. However, wheels did make even the heaviest loads fairly easy to pull around, so in the end, it really came down to how easy it would be for him to pull these so-called ‘hay baskets’.
Putting his hoof back down, Big Mac turned to Penny and replied with a nod, “Ah should be able to pull it, so long as it's not awkward to pull.”
Penny chewed her lip. Okay, so if Big Mac can actually pull the baskets by himself, that removes one pony from the equation, but we still potentially need another two ponies.
“Perhaps one of you three could help?” suggested Zubchatoye, “If only for today at least.”
The three unicorns looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to Zubchatoye with equal looks of uncertainty on their faces.
“Uh, Zubchatoye?” began Twilight cautiously, “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re,” she used her hoof to point amongst the three of them, “not really up to doing farm work. We don’t really have the stamina.”
Zubchatoye nodded, acknowledging her point. “True, zat is true, but zere are three of you, and you don’t need to do much I zink. Just pick up ze bales in your magic and place them on ze elevator, simple. Ze other three ponies in ze loft will take care of ze rest, and if you get tired, just switch.”
“Well, I guess that could work, but,” began Lyra hesitantly, as she carefully formed her reply, “We were kind of wanting to take notes on what Allen is doing, and we can’t do that if we are working.”
Again, Zubchatoye nodded. “Also true, but Allen will make more hay in ze future , correct?” When Twilight and Lyra nodded, he continued, “Zen you can take notes zen, and help a friend now. Zink how happy and grateful he would be to find out zat you helped him when he needed it.”
Looking at the two studious mares, Penny could sense that their resistance was breaking and jumped in to deliver the coup de grace. “Zubchatoye is right, and don’t worry, while I might not be as strong as you two magically, I can still pitch in to help, giving you a chance to rest and compile your thoughts into research notes. Besides, this will give you some first hoof experience in the methods of baling hay the human way. Think of all the potential improvements that could be made to Equestrian agricultural practices.”
That did it, as both Twilight and Lyra looked at each other, and with a simple nod, both turned and said, “Okay we’ll do it.”
“I can go first, and when I get tired, I’ll switch out with Twilight,” said Lyra, “that way she can observe Allen for a little bit longer. I may not be an Upper-Level Beta like Twilight here, but us Gamma’s can still do some heavy lifting when needed.”
“Zen I zink we have everypony we need for zis project, vat do you zink, Ms. Farthing?” asked Zubchatoye with a happy smile.
Penny, nodded with her own smile, happy that her first time managing a project in the field like this wasn’t going to go up in metaphorical flames, replied, “Thank you Lyra, Twilight, this means a lot to me, and I’m sure it will mean a lot to Allen. Of course,” she paused for a moment as her mind changed gears, “you will need to be compensated for your time. How does seventy-five bits for the day sound? Seeing as this is on such short notice and you won’t be able to do the observations that you wanted to do.”
Both Lyra and Twilight looked at each other, Lyra gave a slight jerk of her head, and the two unicorns stepped away from the group a couple of paces to discuss the offer. After a minute, the two returned and shook Penny’s hoof and replied, “That sounds fair to me.”
Smiling from ear to ear, Penny readily took Twilight’s and then Lyra’s hooves and shook them in turn. “Perfect, as soon as Allen is finished with this first load, I’ll let him know, and he can show you what to do.”
The roar of Allen’s tractor paused further conversation as Allen came around the final turn, and spotting the group of ponies, came to a halt next to them. The engine quieted down enough that the ponies could hear the rhythmic metallic thumping of Allen’s baler as it gobbled up hay to turn into bales. To Penny, it sounded almost like a large heartbeat, and as she watched, she could see it and the tractor rocking backwards and forwards with each large thump it made. Zubchatoye had a large giddy smile on his face, like a foal on Hearth’s Warming Day who had just opened up a present and found an amazing prize inside.
Turning around in his seat, Allen disengaged the PTO and the baler slowly ground to a halt, its thumping growing slower and slower. It made Penny think of a heart that was dying, as each thump came later and later until finally the machine had run out of inertia and only the large flywheel spun around, making a loud ticking sound as it spun before it too came to a halt.
Turning the tractor off, Allen jumped down and approached the group.
“So, what do you guys think?” he asked as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder at his baler.
Zubchatoye was the first to respond. “Amazing, it is like mechanical poetry in motion!”
Chuckling, Allen replied, “Well I wouldn’t go that far, but it is pretty slick.”
“So how is everything working Allen?” asked Penny, a hint of anxiousness in her voice. Which was understandable considering the morning she had.
“Pretty good, the hay’s dried down well and the bales are behaving themselves. So that’s good,” looking up, he spotted Big Mac, and cocking his head he asked, “Aren’t you Applejack’s brother?”
“Eeyup.”
Allen gave Penny a questioning look. Biting her lip nervously, she said, “Four of the seven workers didn’t show up this morning, apparently, they got a better offer in Appleloosa and took off last night. I had to scramble to find somepony to fill in and Big Mac here was the only pony I could find in town. He says that he thinks he can pull a fully loaded hay basket by himself.”
“I see,” replied Allen with a nod. “Ah well, those things happen, at least you were able to find us a fourth pony on short notice, so good job there. Though it looks like we’re gonna be a bit slower with only three at the barn full time to load and stack hay.”
“Actually, Twilight and Lyra are willing to help us as well,” replied Penny, a pleased smile on her face.
“Really?” asked Allen, a skeptical look on his face. “Are you two sure you can do it?” he asked them.
Both Twilight and Lyra looked at each other for a moment before then turning back to face Allen. “We’ll do our best,” said Twilight, a determined look on her face.
“Yeah, and when one of us gets tired, the other will take over,” added Lyra.
Shrugging, Allen said, “Alright, well welcome aboard then. Let me go ahead and get the hay basket unhooked from the baler and get Big Mac hitched to it.”
“Uh, Allen? How are you going to do that? Big Mac doesn’t have a harness with him,” asked Penny quietly.
Glancing back at the big earth pony, Allen replied, “Yeah, I know, that’s why I brought one that I had laying around. It might be a bit loose on him, but it should fit well enough for what we’re doing today,” raising his voice, he asked, “You ready to get hitched up big guy?”
Big Mac silently nodded and followed Allen as he went and grabbed a mess of leather straps from off the metal gate. Though he left the leather collar behind on the gate, since Big Mac had his own collar, Allen didn’t need to use it. Fiddling with the straps for a minute, Allen set about getting Big Mac harnessed up. However, he quickly ran into a problem.
“Damn, just as I thought, you’re just a bit too small for this harness,” grumbled Allen as he stared at the cause of his current frustration. “I’m going to need to punch an extra hole in these straps so that we can get them snug. Let me grab my toolbox real quick and see what I’ve got that will work.”
Leaving Big Mac in his drooping harness, Allen trotted back over to the tractor and opened the toolbox he had bolted to the frame. Opening it up, he fished around inside looking for something he could use to pierce the leather. Unfortunately, all he could find that might work were a pair of screwdrivers and a dull awl at the bottom of the toolbox. Grabbing the awl and one of the screwdrivers, he closed the lid and returned to where he had left Big Mac.
Grabbing the belly strap, he pulled it tight and asked, “How’s that feel?”
“Tight,” wheezed Big Mac.
“Too tight?” queried Allen.
“Eeyup,” nodded Big Mac.
Allen let the strap loosen a touch and said, “Let me know when it’s good and I’ll stop.” Big Mac simply nodded, and let Allen keep slowly loosening the strap.
Finally, he said, “That’s good.”
Stopping, Allen used his thumb to mark the rough position and let the strap come loose. Grabbing his awl, he slowly worked it into the leather until it punched through. Inspecting his handiwork, he said, “Well, it ain’t the cleanest hole, but it’ll do for now. Let’s see how it fits now.”
Grabbing the hanging part of the strap, he once again pulled it tight and fed the buckle’s prong through the hole. It was a tight fit, but after a little wiggling, it went through. Securing the hanging bit of strap, Allen asked, “How does that fit?”
“Good,” replied Big Mac with a nod.
“Alright, let’s get the rest of the straps done. and then we’ll see about getting you hitched up to the basket,” said Allen with a nod before he set to work. All in all, it took Allen nearly a half hour to get everything adjusted properly, and for the most part. it went pretty smoothly, at least until he got to the straps that went around Big Mac’s rump. That’s when Allen learned that ponies were just as susceptible to wedgies as anyone else.
The first sign that anything had gone wrong was when Big Mac suddenly let out a pained, “Urk!”
Pausing his work, Allen looked over at Big Mac and asked, “You okay?”
Big Mac’s left eye was twitching, and his whole body was tensed up as if someone had kicked him somewhere uncomfortable. Teeth set, he slowly turned his head and gave Allen an unhappy look.
“Yer pulling on mah overwear, Allen,” he replied, “Please stop.”
Allen blinked in confusion. Overwear? What the heck is he talking about? I’m just adjusting these breeching and back straps.
“Uh, Allen? I think you might have grabbed onto Big Mac’s overwear by accident when you were adjusting one of the straps, and it’s kinda... riding up if you get my meaning,” said Twilight with an uncomfortable wince as she watched the embarrassing situation unfold before her.
Letting go of the straps, Allen turned around and shot Twilight a confused look. “What are you guys talking about? I’m just adjusting these breeching straps here and...” his voice trailed off as he turned around, pointed at the harness draped over Big Mac’s flanks, and saw what everyone was talking about.
What he had at first thought was just fur had turned out to be some kind of shorts that covered Big Mac’s private areas, thus preserving his modesty, though now they weren’t doing as good a job as before now that Allen had accidentally given Big Mac the biggest wedgie of his life.
“Oh...” he replied upon seeing the results of his actions. “Um... my bad?” he said sheepishly.
Big Mac just glared at him and nodded his head in the direction of his rump. Allen understood the meaning loud and clear. ‘Fix it now or else.’
Jumping forward, he carefully undid the accidental wedgie and smoothed things out as best he could while trying to keep from making it worse. He figured he was on the right track when he felt Big Mac’s body relax and the glare slowly leave the red stallion’s face. Though understandably, he still looked a tad peeved at the incident.
With Big Mac’s unmentionables more or less fixed, Allen carefully finished getting Big Mac’s harness buckled up.
Stepping back, Allen gave the harness a once-over and awkwardly asked, “So... how’s everything fit?”
Big Mac trotted around in a circle and did several stretches with the harness on, satisfied with his range of movement, the big stallion replied, “It’ll do, but next time, Ah’m bringing mah own harness.”
Rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, Allen said, “Ah yeah, I’m really sorry about... what happened just now, I... didn’t know you guys had that... kind of thing.”
“What, you just thought we walked around naked all the time?” asked Twilight incredulously.
Feeling the tips of his ears burning red, Allen looked up in the sky and replied, “Maybe? I mean, I didn’t try to look or anything... that would be weird, and since I didn’t see any obvious clothes on anyone, I just kind of... assumed, you know?”
All the ponies looked at each other and either sighed or facehooved at Allen’s ignorance and their forgetfulness in explaining basic Equestrian norms and customs to him.
It seems I’m going to have to set aside some time soon to rectify that little oversight. Thought Penny to herself. And judging by the look on Lyra and Twilight's faces I can only assume they are thinking the same thing.
Still looking up at the sky, Allen said, “I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say that we should probably keep this little incident between ourselves?”
A chorus of, ‘yeses, agreeds, and yeps,’ followed as everypony nodded in agreement.
His ears still tinged red in embarrassment, Allen cleared his throat and said, “Welp, then let’s just move past this little faux pas and get Big Mac here hitched up to the basket.”
Another round of agreement swept the group and everypony moved aside as Allen and Big Mac approached the fully loaded hay basket.
Walking ahead of Big Mac, Allen reached under the baler’s hay chute and pulled out the pin connecting the basket to the baler. Clambering up on the tractor, he restarted it and pulled it away, the hay basket’s tongue impacting the ground with a loud clank.
Maneuvering the tractor through the gate, Allen drove onto the road and idled the throttle after putting the tractor in neutral. Hopping down, he grabbed a long pole that he had laying by the fence, along with another smaller pole with several metal rings attached to it, one on either end and one in the middle. Jogging over to where Big Mac was waiting next to the fully loaded hay basket, Allen dropped the pole next to Big Mac and said, “I’m not sure how well this is going to work, because you’re all by yourself. Ideally, I would have two of you guys working side by side with this wagon pole attached in between you, but I don’t so it’s gonna be a pain because I don’t have a single ho-pony hitch.”
“Why is that gonna be a problem?” asked Lyra curiously.
Allen made to reply, but Big Mac beat him to it. “Because Ah’ll have less control over the load since Ah’m offset ta one side instead of being in the middle with the shafts to either side of me.”
“What he said,” added Allen as he set to work hitching everything together. “I’ve never really messed much with horse teams back home, my mother did for a bit, but we had to get rid of them a while ago, Reuben is the only horse left on the farm, all the others were sold off to better homes.”
Grunting, he attached the long pole to the hay basket’s tongue and slotted a metal pin through the holes, connecting the two together. “This wagon pole here is really meant for two or more horses, or in this case ponies, working side by side as they would be able to evenly pull the load together. Big Mac is gonna struggle because he’s offset to one side, like he said, so it’s gonna be really awkward for him. If I had a single horse hitch, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t or at least if I do, I couldn’t find it.”
With the wagon pole attached, Allen grabbed the smaller pole with the metal circles and attached them to the back of the wagon pole. With that done, he waved Big Mac over and the draft pony easily slotted himself next to the long pole and waited as Allen finished hooking him up. With the hookup finished, he stepped back and gave it all another look over before nodding in approval.
“Alright, I think that should do it, go ahead and see if you can pull that.”
With a nod of his own Big Mac leaned into his harness with a heavy grunt and slowly put one hoof in front of the other. At first, it didn’t seem as though he would move it, but with another determined grunt, the hay basket started to move. Though Allen could see that Big Mac was straining a bit.
Walking along beside him, Allen asked, “You doing okay there?”
“Eeyup, pretty heavy and awkward though,” grunted Big Mac.
Allen nodded and said, “Yeah, I can see that, guess I’ll have to reduce the amount of hay I put in each basket a bit. The bale counter says I have about a hundred in there right now. I’ll drop it down to about eighty and we’ll see if that will pull better for you.”
Big Mac just grunted in acknowledgment and kept pulling. Getting as much speed as he could, he pulled the heavy basket of hay through the gate and onto the road, the rest of the ponies following along behind, while Allen clambered up into his tractor seat and followed slowly along behind them.
As he followed along behind, Allen took note that when he was on a straightaway, Big Mac seemed to do alright, but when he went to make the turn into his driveway, he noticed the big red pony struggling to keep the momentum up. However, Big Mac trudged on, and eventually, the basket arrived at the unloading point. Coming to a stop, Big Mac panted as he tried to catch his breath, the uneven pull having worn on him more than he had thought it would.
Allen meanwhile had driven around the stopped earth pony stallion and was in the process of hooking up to the second hay basket over by the machine shed.
“Are you okay, Big Mac?” asked Penny in concern.
Taking deep breaths of air, Big Mac replied, “Ah’ll be alright, just gotta catch mah breath fer a second is all.”
“Okay, if you’re sure. I wasn’t expecting this to be so difficult for you,” she replied.
“Normally it wouldn’t be, but because Ah ain’t centered, it’s harder ta pull. Ah think if Allen lightens the load a bit, it’ll be manageable.”
“Okay, well if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask, okay?”
Big Mac gave her a thankful smile and nodded.
By this point, Allen had finished hooking up and after turning the tractor off, he came over.
“Alright,” he began, “let’s get this thing dumped and then I’ll show you guys what I want done alright?” a round of nods from the ponies answered his question, though he noticed that two ponies were missing. “Hey, where’s Rye and Clover?”
“Hiding in the barn,” replied Honeysuckle with a roll of her eyes as she trotted over from the barn. “They think I did a bad job on their mane and tail cuts, but I think they’re just being melodramatic.”
“You did do a bad job!” yelled Clover from the barn, though from the angle that he was at, Allen could only see the tip of his muzzle.
“It’s not that bad!” his sister yelled back, “now you two stop acting like a pair of little foals and get out here!”
“No!”
Groaning in annoyance, Honeysuckle squared her shoulders and marched up to the barn. Turning the corner, she was soon lost from view, however, a calamitous racket soon started up as Honeysuckle fought to pull her two brothers out into the light. After about a minute or so, first one, then the other brother were unceremoniously kicked out of the barn and came tumbling head over tail down the ramp before coming to a stop at Allen’s feet.
Looking down at the pair of groaning stallions, Allen could see why they didn’t want to be seen. Both their manes and tails looked like a four-year-old on a sugar bender had attacked them with a weed wacker. What was worse is that it looked like said four year old had missed a couple of times and had shaved several patches of fur off in random spots on their coats in the process. All in all, the two looked ridiculous, and Allen winced in sympathy at their plight.
Lyra on the other hoof thought it was hilarious and broke out into uproarious laughter.
“BWAHAHA! You two looked ridiculous!” she wheezed as she fell back on her flanks and held her stomach from laughing so hard.
“Lyra! That’s not very nice!” scolded Twilight, though Allen could see that she was fighting to hold back her own chuckles as well.
Penny just looked tired, while Big Mac and Zubchatoye also tried to hide their amusement at the pair's predicament.
“See, what did I tell you? It doesn’t look that bad,” said Honeysuckle as she trotted over.
Rye spun around and spat back. “‘It doesn’t look bad?!’ Sis, we look like we’ve been attacked by parasprites that got addicted to eating hair!”
“Actually if that was the case then you two would be furless,” pointed out Twilight, “we had an infestation last year and they nearly ate the town clean of food.”
“They nearly ate the town,” added Lyra between giggles.
Clover and Rye paused and looked at each other before Rye said, “I’m sure there is a story behind that line.”
Lyra grinned as Twilight groaned. “Well, Twilight here thought it would be a good idea to cast a spell on them that would keep them from eating food. The trouble was that when she did so, it made them eat everything else.”
Everyone winced at the mental picture of the kind of devastation that would cause.
“I think we’re getting off-topic here,” cut in Allen in an attempt to move the conversation back on track.
“Right, let’s get back to the matter at hoof, which is the fact that my brother and I look like some demented pony with clippers attacked us. Oh, wait! They did, and they’re standing right here next to us telling everypony that everything is fine!” complained Clover as he pointed an accusatory hoof at his sister.
Honeysuckle just shook her head and rolled her eyes. “It’s not my fault those clippers weren’t designed for hooves.”
Seeing that the conversation was about to descend into further sibling bickering, Allen stepped in and said, “Okay, that’s enough,” pointing to Honeysuckle he asked, “Go get my clippers from wherever you put them, and you two,” he pointed at Clover and Rye, “go sit by the outlet over there and I’ll try to fix your manes so they look less like a disaster, okay? Everyone good with that?” Seeing some reluctant nods, he said, “Okay, good, now get moving, we’re burning daylight here.”
Twenty minutes later both Rye and Clover looked... better, though both their manes and tails were now very short, and they still had a couple of spots that were noticeably shorter than the rest of their coats, but it would have to do.
Inspecting their manes with a small mirror that Allen had pulled out of the bag that the clippers came in, they nodded their heads.
“I guess it’ll do,” said Clover.
“Yeah, it’s not great, but it’s better than what we had before, so thank you,” added Rye with a nod of thanks in Allen’s direction.
Taking the mirror from them and putting it away along with the clippers, Allen replied, “You’re welcome, and sorry I couldn't make it better, but your sister didn’t leave me with much to work with, so I did the best that I could. On the positive side, we won’t have to worry about either of you getting your mane or tails caught in the elevator now.”
Zipping up the bag, Allen set it aside and motioned for the three earth ponies to follow him up into the loft. Climbing the stairs, Allen flicked a light switch, the lights in the loft flickering to life as he did so.
“Okay,” he began, “here’s how this is gonna work. One of you is going to stand next to the elevator here,” he pointed at a spot next to the door that the elevator was poking through. “When a bale comes up, it will fall off the end here. There is no rush to catch it, as these,” he pointed at a pair of curved metal bars that extended out past the elevator track, “will keep the bale from getting caught in the elevator chain that brought it up. So all you have to do is just grab the bale and pull it away from the elevator. Probably the best way to do that is by using one of these hay hooks here,” he grabbed one of the aforementioned implements from off the wall and showed it to his new employees. It was a red metal hook with a large wooden handhold on one end that looked big enough that a pony could grab with their mouths, though it didn’t look very comfortable.
“Unfortunately, this is all I have at the moment, so you guys are going to have to figure out how to use this to move the hay around while you are up here.”
“Allen and I are working on getting some better tools, but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find anything that fits our needs at the moment. So we’re kind of stuck using these and hoof power until we can cook up something better,” added Penny, who had followed the four of them up.
Allen nodded and continued, “We’ve got a couple of ideas, but if any of you come up with something while you’re working, let us know and we will compensate you for your idea. In the meantime, you’re just going to have to get creative I’m afraid.”
Setting the hook down, Allen pointed towards the south-eastern corner of the loft. “That is where I want you to start stacking the hay first. Stack it as high as you safely can,” leaning out the door, he called down to Twilight and Lyra below, “Hey, send up about twelve bales of hay please, I need to show them how I want it stacked.”
Waving that they heard him, Lyra flipped the power switch and the hay elevator clattered to life. The well-oiled chain made a soft rattling sound as the links traveled up the track. Twilight meanwhile had grabbed several bales of hay in her magic and floated them over, ready to put them on the elevator. Giving her the signal that he was ready, Allen watched as Twilight carefully set a bale on and watched as it was slowly pulled upwards towards its new temporary home. As the first bale reached the door, Twilight put another bale on and repeated the process. Seeing that she had the hang of it, Allen stood up and waited as the first bale dropped off the end of the elevator with a solid thump.
As each bale came up the elevator, Allen would grab it and toss it towards the back of the loft, uncaring of how far or where they landed. All he cared about was that they were out of his way. When the last bale reached the end of the elevator, Allen motioned for Lyra to cut the power, before turning around and addressing his ‘students’ as the elevator suddenly quit running behind him.
“Alright, each of you grab a bale and get it over in that back corner over there,” he pointed to where he wanted them to go with a finger, before reaching down and picking up a bale in each hand by the strings and waddling over to the aforementioned corner.
Setting the two bales down, he waited for the other three to bring their bales over. Honeysuckle had elected to push her bale with her forehead, and thanks to the smooth wooden floor, the bale slid effortlessly to its destination. Rye had opted to grab the hay hook with his mouth and thrust it into his chosen bale before dragging it along like a dog would a large branch. Clover, on the other hand, had decided to go with the old adage of ‘working smarter, not harder,’ and had decided that since he’d been blessed with two sturdy hind legs, he would kick the hay bale where he wanted it to go. The result was that with one solid kick, Clover managed to send his hay bale sailing across the loft and right into an unsuspecting Allen’s legs. This meant that Allen ended up on his back with no idea how he had gone from standing to lying down in the span of a second.
Groaning, Allen levered himself up and asked, “Did anyone get the number of the bus that hit me?”
“Oh, Sweet Celestia! Are you okay Allen?” gasped Honeysuckle as she rushed to give aid to the fallen human.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” hissed Allen as he shakily stood back up. Looking around, he spotted a very sheepish-looking Clover standing over by the hay elevator waving at him. Turning back to Honeysuckle, he asked, “What happened? One second I’m standing, and the next it felt like I just got hit by a pissed-off ram.”
Honeysuckle shot Clover an unamused look. “My brother apparently decided to use his legs rather than his brain to solve the problem of moving hay around up here.”
“Is it too late to say sorry?” asked Clover remorsefully.
Rubbing his sore back, Allen asked, “You mean to tell me that your brother just kicked one of my hay bales over here?”
Honeysuckle nodded. “Yeah, he did, I’m really sorry about that Allen, I hope you’re not mad. Please say you’re not mad, we really need this job,” she begged.
Allen shook his head. “I’m not mad, and I need you guys just as much as you need me,” he turned to Clover and said, “Just... be careful where you send those bales flying, someone could get hurt.”
Clover hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think that I kicked it that hard.”
“Yeah, well... just... tone it down about fifty percent for the next kick okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” replied Clover with a relieved nod.
Seeing that he wasn’t going to be taken out anytime soon by another rogue hay bale, Allen waved everyone over and quickly explained how he wanted the hay stacked. While this task wasn’t super critical in the loft, it would increase the stability of the overall haystack as it got taller. The general idea was to make sure that the bales weren’t all stacked the same way, such as when you started a new layer, you rotated the bales ninety degrees and moved them over a bale space so that way they sort of ‘tied’ the stack together and decreased the likelihood that part of the stack would collapse under you when you were on it. Which is not a fun experience.
“Alright, I’ll hang around for a bit and watch you guys work to make sure you got it, after that, I’ll get back to baling, sound good?” said Allen as he finished explaining what he wanted done.
With a chorus of ‘yeses’ in reply, Allen nodded and strode over to the loft door and called down, “Okay, we’re ready, fire her up!”
Giving a wave in reply, Lyra flipped the power switch on, bringing the hay elevator to life, and signaling the official start of haying season.