It was night when the train finally made its stop in Ponyville. As Silent stepped out of the car he had been riding in, he couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. He looked up into the nighttime sky at Luna’s beautiful moon and let out a sigh as he began to walk. He looked back down and began to think about his new life.
I can’t believe I’m being sent back here again. I don’t even know why Celestia chose me. I mean, I’m the head of Homeland Security, but this task seems like something I would assign one of my subordinates… if I had any. Of course, that is probably what Luna will do in my absence; begin recruiting for her new Task Force.
Silent arrived at the workshop that he had been given on his last assignment and took the “Temporarily Out of Town” sign off his front door using his magic. He then proceeded to go up the stairs to his room to get some sleep.
Silent woke up to a knocking at his door. As he began to walk down the stairs, his horn began to glow blue as he enveloped himself in his magical aura. By the time he reached the front door, he had changed from a navy blue unicorn to a tan Earth Pony with three horseshoes as a cutie mark. He opened his door to a red Earth Pony with a yellow mane and a yoke around his neck.
“Howdy Caramel. Ah reckon yer here to stay fer a while?” Silent said nothing, instead smiling and gesturing his new guest into the workshop.
“That’s correct, Mac. I have been assigned to Ponyville again, this time for a good long time. What’s going on?”
“Well, Ah don’ reckon you’d know anythin’ about it, but Applebuck Season is comin’ up and our carts could use some fixin’ up again. Ah don’ know how they’re always bein’ messed up, maybe they’re jus’ gettin’ old,” Big Mac said as he looked around the shop. He turned to look at Silent who was still smiling.
“It would be my honor to help you out, Mac. Do you need me to come on over to Sweet Apple Acres to fix them?”
“Ah reckon that’d be a good idea,” Big Mac said as he scratched his chin. Silent nodded and the two left Silent’s workshop.
When the two stallions arrived at the doors of the barn, Silent sat down in disbelief as he saw that all the carts had been nearly destroyed. Big Mac looked at the stunned stallion out of the corner of his eye and let out a soft chuckle. When Silent turned to look at him, Big Mac started to explain.
“Well, Silent, ya see, while back Apple Bloom was lookin’ fer somethin’ to do, so Ah showed her to an apple cart that was needin’ some care. Ah went out to work on the South Orchard, and when Ah came back, she’d made the cart worse an’ tried to touch up a couple of other carts as well. Sweet lil’ thing honestly tried to do somethin’ out of the kindness of her heart, but that didn’t stop AJ from scoldin’ her on account of ruinin’ five good carts. Ah think it was a bit harsh of AJ fer doin’ that, but Ah wasn’t in the position to tell her to back down. As soon as she had sent Apple Bloom up, she turned on me. Said Ah was dumb as a bale of hay fer lettin’ a lil’ filly work on some carts. We sorted it out, but Apple Bloom hasn’t gotten over that yet.” Silent looked back at the barely recognizable scraps and saw one cart that had seemingly been untouched.
“What is that cart right there for? It doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with it,” Silent said as Big Mac nodded and let out another chuckle.
“That was the work of Apple Bloom, who was so upset that she messed up, she went back out here at night an’ worked the night away at fixin’ what she broke. When Ah came out to get mah cart, I found her sleepin’ in the cart she’d fixed. Ah took her back into the house an’ came back out to inspect her work. As ya’ll can probably see, she did a great job at fixin’ it. This all happened a couple days ago, but if AJ found out that Apple Bloom fixed it, she’d get after me again. Ah reckon ya’ll can fix up these carts by the start of Applebuck Season?”
“Yeah, I can definitely get it done. It’ll probably take me all today and half of tomorrow to repair them all. It shouldn’t be too hard, and I’d say it’d normally take a day, but half today will probably be spent getting used to working without magic again.” Silent looked over at Big Mac who returned Silent’s look and nodded silently in acknowledgement.
As Big Mac turned to leave, Silent stood up to get to work on his new project. What a way to catch up on lost time. Applebuck Season is fast approaching, and I’ve got to get all these done without using magic. Now, let’s take a closer look at this cart that Apple Bloom fixed. Silent leaned over to inspect each feature of the cart. From what he gathered, Apple Bloom had taken parts from a whole bunch of carts to actually make one from scratch. Silent smiled at her ingenuity for making things and began to sort out the different parts to begin his repairs.
The next day, Silent had just finished putting the finishing touches on the last cart when he heard the barn door open. He turned around to see Big Mac standing in the doorway.
“Well Ah’ll be. Ya’ll said you’d get this done in a day and a half, and ya’ll delivered precisely that. Ah stopped by to ask if you think you could help me with a couple dead Apple trees out in the Orchards,” Big Mac said, looking over Silent’s repair work.
“Yeah, I think I could manage that. I’ve finished up all the carts and they’ll be good to go. I’d go as far to say they’re strong enough now to hold a full-grown pony up without so much as breaking, though I doubt that’ll ever happen. Where are these trees you’re talking about?” Big Mac gestured for Silent to follow him, and the two made their way out to the Orchards.
They had been walking for about two minutes when Silent saw a dead Apple tree just standing out among the fruit-bearing trees. Well, it’s not too big, but it’s not exactly small either. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be to Mac, but I’m sure he has his reasons for bringing me out here.
“Alright, Silent, here’s the plan. Take this saw an’ start weakening the base of the tree while I tie this rope around one of the stronger branches. Then, when ya’ll feel it’s weak enough, Ah’ll give it a tug an’ see if Ah can’t bring it down. The stumps can go ahead an’ stay ‘til after Applebuck season.”
Silent grabbed the saw from the cart that Big Mac had pulled and began working away at the base. It took him a good three minutes of sawing before he felt the tree begin to lean. He called to Big Mac who fastened the ropes onto his yoke. With a big pull, Silent heard a crack and watched in awe as the tree fell to the ground.
“Good work, Silent. Now, we still have about four more trees to go before we’re all done. Hopefully now that you have the hang of usin’ yer mouth for handlin’ the saw, it’ll take less time to fell the trees.” Silent nodded as the two progressed on to the next tree.
The next two trees went by like a flash, and before Silent knew it, he was standing before the second-to-last tree. Well that seemed easy. I bet these next two will just be a breeze. This one doesn’t even look big at all.
Silent began his work on the saw while Big Mac tied the rope around the largest branch he could find. No sooner had Big Mac finished; Silent heard a small crack and jumped back as the tree began to give sooner than he had anticipated. He had just started to yell at Big Mac to watch out when the tree fell. Right on top of Big Macintosh.
“Oh, for the love of Luna… Mac, are you okay?! Talk to me, buddy!” Silent rushed over to Big Mac, who was now on the ground with a tree on top of him. Big Mac grunted and opened his eyes.
“Well, that was sure unfortunate. Silent, ya’ll wouldn't mind helpin’ me get this thing off of me, would ya?” Silent nodded in relief as he grabbed the ropes and pulled with all his strength. After a couple of seconds, the tree was off of Big Mac and he inhaled deeply before coughing. When he stood up, Silent noticed that his side was bleeding.
“Oh, hay, we oughta get you back to the house, Mac. Your side isn’t looking very good. Can you walk okay, or do you need some help?”
“Well, Ah reckon Ah can walk jus’ fine. Good thing, too. Ah don’t think we’d have enough time to find somepony strong enough to carry me back. Even on a cart Ah’m not that easy to carry.” Silent looked at Big Mac with hurt eyes as Big Mac looked back at Silent, giving Silent a mix between a grimace and a smirk.
Silent waited patiently in the dining room of the Apple residence when he saw Granny Smith walk in, smiling.
“Don’t you worry yer little head about Macintosh. He’ll be good to go in a couple weeks. He’s got a couple of broken ribs, but nothin’ too dangerous. Stuff like this happens all the time ‘round here. ‘Specially since Applejack is off sellin’ apples, leavin’ Macintosh to tend the Orchards. Though Ah reckon she’ll be left now to harvest all those apples durin’ Applebuck Season. Hopefully the poor filly will see fit to ask a couple of her friends fer help. Silent, don’t you worry ‘bout a thing. It ain’t yer fault that happened. It was just an accident.” Silent smiled at Granny’s kind words, as well as her random chatter in between.
“Thank you, Granny. I shall take my leave then. It’s getting late, and I need to be well rested to help you all out tomorrow,” Silent said as Granny nodded, showing him to the door. As Silent walked back, he couldn’t help but feel bad about the events, and hoped Applejack would be humble enough to accept the fact that she couldn’t hope to harvest the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres by herself.
Before the sun was even up the next day, Silent was already at Sweet Apple Acres, talking to Applejack about what he was going to do to help out.
“Listen, Caramel. All you gotta do is plant the seeds for our new Orchard. Big Mac has already plowed the ground for you, now ya’ll jus’ have to spread them out. The seeds are out in the barn,” Applejack explained as Silent nodded and began to walk away.
This will be easy. All I’ve got to do is put the seeds in the spreader and pull it around the field. It will be as easy as-
“Hi there! My name’s Pinkie Pie and I haven’t seen you around before and if I haven’t seen you around before it means you’re new and if you’re new that means you don’t have very many friends here and not having very many friends makes ponies sad and I don’t like knowing my friends are sad and you’re my new friend! What’s your name?!”
Pie. “Hello, my name’s Caramel and I am-”
“OOH! Caramel?! I LOOVE Caramel! Especially Caramel apples! They’re so good! What brings you to Ponyville, Caramel?!”
“I’m a mechanic, and right now I’m working for the Apples since Big Mac got injured. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you out here?” Silent was astounded as Pinkie actually paused for a couple of seconds before answering.
“I don’t know, actually. I just felt like my name was called out here, or that I was going to be needed. In any case, it doesn’t matter why because it happened and now I got to meet a new friend and that’s awesome!” Silent watched in awe as the pink Earth pony bounced away, humming some sort of tune. As soon as she was out of sight, he turned to walk to the barn to pick up the seeds for his task. When he got into the barn, he took out the seed bag and placed it in the seed spreading cart to take it out to the field.
After what seemed like hours of pulling and tugging, Silent finally made it to the area that Applejack had told him about. It was on a hill overlooking the river that cut through Sweet Apple Acres. Silent undid the harness around him and sat down to give himself a break. Wow… that cart is heavier than it looks. All those seeds really add up. I’ll just take a bit of a break here before I start working. Not too long of one, though, just enough to catch my breath.
While Silent was catching his breath, he observed the thousands of apple trees that had been planted over the years. He was too busy taking in all the scenery to notice that the seed cart had started to roll down the hill. By the time he turned around to begin his work, the cart was already rolling down the hill and careening toward the river. Silent ran as fast as he could down the hill, but it was useless. Silent watched helplessly as the seeds crashed into the river, forever lost.
Celestia have mercy, Applejack is going to kill me.