WHAM
“AAAAGH!!”
...That was the very first noise that could be heard all across the Sweet Apple Acres, as soon as the sun rose from the horizon, bathing the landscape with the warmth of its light.
“H-Huh? W-What? What the hay?!”
Applejack jumped out of her bed in panic as soon as the shrieking yell of piercing pain rattled her eardrums, throwing glances of surprise in all directions, expecting the roof to fall or crumble around her at any second... but nothing of the sort happened.
“What are you doing here, huh? Are you trying to get lucky, runt? Are you? ARE YOU?”
Instead, a very familiar voice came from outside, just as soon as Applejack realized she was now awake. She gave a quick jump towards her window and bashed it open with her hooves, and her eyes fell upon that what was considered by many one of the rarest sights in all of Ponyville.
Rainbow Dash was awake that soon in the morning.
The cyan, rainbow-maned Pegasus was now engaged in a one-sided headlock with Sillabus the wolf, who was desperately trying to escape the grasp of the junior speedster. His face writhed in pain in its purest form, he clawed the grass as he tried his best to get away from his assailant, but it proved to be a complete waste of time. She opened a cocky smile as she tightened her arms even further, pulling him slightly closer to her head in the process.
“So, what's the big idea? Trying to see if you could get easy food, were you?”
“*WHEEZE*”
“That's not answering my question! Do I have to be more persuasive? Do you want me to get serious? Because I can get serious if I want!”
“W-What? I don't even know what's going on!” he pleaded in a desperate tone as Rainbow Dash kept tightening her grasp, making him try even harder to escape. “Who are you? Let me go! Please let me go!”
“Oh. Well, since you asked so nicely, I guess it's OK in letting you go.”
“...R-Really?” he slowly commented as his head was pulled back yet again, making him whimper in shock once again from Rainbow Dash's assault. “URGH!”
“OF COURSE NOT! Do you think I'm stupid?” she asked with a fierce, demanding tone as the wolf kept trying to kick his way out of the Pegasus' weight. “I'm not asking you again! What were you doing here? Huh?”
“I have permission to be here! The Earth Pony and her family that lives here let me be here! There, are you happy now? Let me go already!”
His answer made Rainbow Dash lighten up her headlock only so slightly so he could get back to breathing properly again.
“Applejack did?”
“Yes! She let me be here, now let me-- KKGHH!” The cyan Pegasus cut him off with her headlock yet again, this time pulling him in even tighter than she was before, making him claw the grass with so much strength he was digging a small hole in the process.
“Why would Applejack let a wolf be around her farm? You're not a very good liar, you runt!”
“Maybe that's because he's tellin' the truth?”
And then Rainbow Dash threw a quick, surprised look at Applejack, who was now standing by them with a look that was mixed with both amusement and scorn, as far as the Pegasus could tell. The Earth Pony opened a smile as she then said something she never thought she would:
“Good mornin', RD. Ah'll be damned, that's gotta be a first.”
“Hey AJ! Look what I caught, snoozing around without a single care in the...”
And then she stopped talking for a good ten seconds. Almost as if she was just now registering previously heard information.
“...You said he is telling the truth?”
“THAT'S RATHER SHOCKING, ISN'T IT? LET ME GO ALREADY!”
“Let him go, Rainbow. It's OK,” the Earth Pony chuckled as her friend sighed and released her steel grip from the wolf's neck, allowing him to limp away from the Pegasus and whine in silence, rubbing his back in extreme doses of hurt.
“...Yeah. What's up with that, Applejack? I'm not gonna tell you what you should or should not do, but a wolf? Seriously?”
“Uuh... It's a lot less complicated than it looks like,” Applejack said as she threw a small glance at Sillabus, who was now whimpering loudly in pain, looking rather cross at the fact his alarm clock was a Pegasus to the face. “Long story short, ah removed a tree from his back, and he said he's thankful. He says he wants to repay me for saving him.”
“Just like that?” the Pegasus asked with an intense glare of doubt in her eyes. “Really? Do you really expect me to buy that he's trying to repay you for getting a branch off his fur? Don't make me laugh...”
The wolf coughed loudly and aggressively as both Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at him, watching him limp towards them and facing the Pegasus like one faces his enemy. She rose an eyebrow to him as he lowered his head slightly, still feeling sharp bolts of pain in every muscle of his body.
“A branch?” he painfully hissed as he tried his best to keep eye contact with her. “She removed a massive tree from top of me!”
“Whatever. So you want to repay her for that, did I hear that right?”
“If you think that this isn't good enough, then I suggest you go kick clouds or whatever is it you Pegasi do. I won't dishonor my Clan by not repaying a blood debt, no matter who the one I owe it to is!”
The Pegasus scowled fiercely at the Wolf as he didn't make a pleasant face towards her, either.
“What are you giving me that look for?!”
“Oh, no reason. Maybe it's because you almost broke my back, again. Thanks for that, I'll remember you fondly from now on for the rest of my life! A most intimate and dear memory of mine, this is!” Sillabus growled with extreme displeasure towards the Pegasus who intimidatingly patted the ground with her hoof, almost getting ready for another charge at the Wolf. Applejack quickly sighed to herself, realizing that if she didn't do anything, they would just keep at it until it got worse.
“So you plan on getting' into a fight? What about you doing what you told me last night? Aren't you gonna work for me, Sillabus?”
“...!”
It worked. He immediately stopped looking cross at the cyan Pegasus, backing away from both ponies a few steps before sighing in defeat, lowering his head towards Applejack in an apologetic manner.
“S-Sure. Whatever you say, Applejack.”
“That's better.” The Earth Pony nodded as she gave her friend a long gaze, who replied with a massive pout of her own. “Rainbow?”
“Whatever, I still don't like this!” she complained loudly as she kicked the ground and into the air, flapping her wings furiously to keep herself at hover. “Do whatever you want, but I'll do whatever I want, too!”
And with that, Rainbow Dash took flight to the skies, diving into a patch of clouds right above the Sweet Apple Acres, making Applejack shake her head slowly in defeat.
“HEY! Just don't cause trouble no more, Rainbow! ...And ah'm supposed to be the stubborn one...” she whispered to herself as she turned around and faced the wolf, who was now giving full attention to the orange pony before him. “You alright? You got hit pretty hard, didn't ya?”
“It wasn't enough to put me out of my misery yet,” he jokingly said as the Earth Pony opened a smile to him without being entirely sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not, giving her back to the wolf and motioning for him to follow.
“Then you'll go slow today. Better make use of the fact ah'm already awake, right?”
“What? Oh, r-right,” he agreed as he proceeded to follow her back to the house in small, careful steps. “You're not usually awake at this time, then?”
“Ah am. Though today was kind of one of those days ah guess. The kind of day you don't expect to wake up to Rainbow Dash wrestling with a half-dead Wolf.”
“...Not a common treat around these parts, I'd wager,” he tiredly huffed as he took another really quick glance upwards, spotting Rainbow Dash's bright colors resting atop a cloud in a very inconspicuous manner. “I don't usually wrestle with Ponies around my Clan either. What a wonderful lifetime experience this was! Truly, a thrill for the ages.”
The Earth Pony chuckled as they finally reached the back of the house, opening a small deposit-like area that the Wolf did not see there the first time he looked. As quickly as one used to their job would, she picked up a bunch of baskets and piled them neatly on top of each other, making carrying all of them an extremely easy task. The Wolf blinked at the surprise at how quickly she was already carrying all of them to what would apparently be Sillabus' workplace for a while and proceeded to follow her posthaste. As quickly as his wounds would allow him, that is. Not very quickly.
The silence that followed was rather strange. Applejack didn't think that she would run out of things to say, but this was ridiculous. Feeling slightly annoyed at herself, she flopped her ears as she finally remembered something that she heard from him.
Better than not saying anything, ah guess.
“By the way, there's somethin' you mentioned today that you did last night, too. What didja call it? A Clan?”
Sillabus rose his eyes to meet the Earth Pony's back as Rainbow Dash popped her head out of the cloud in slight curiosity.
“Yes, I did. Why?”
“It's that ah never heard of that before. What is one of those Clan doohickeys? Is that your family or something?”
The Wolf opened his mouth in pure, complete incredulity as Applejack tilted her head slightly in confusion to his response, wondering if she said something wrong. It took him a few seconds, but he finally snapped out of her question, almost as if he just remembered something completely obvious.
“Oh! Of course you wouldn't know... Urgh. Sorry about that.”
He sniffed the air with interest as he pondered upon her question in silence for a small while. Applejack and Rainbow Dash traded looks of both interest and wonder at this reaction as he finally let go a small cough, looking at the orange pony as if he wasn't entirely sure the would be helpful.
“Hm. Perhaps the most common term you would be using for it would be a 'pack'... But even that isn't entirely correct. Wolves from the same Clan don't always stay in the same pack.”
“So it's like a family?” Applejack asked again. Sillabus denied it with a slight head shake.
“No. We're not always blood-related either. Just like how Earth Ponies and Pegasi aren't always related, nor the same...” He said with a glance of disapproval towards Rainbow's cloud, who clacked her tongue in irritation, going back to hiding poorly inside it.
“...It's kinda like a group, then?” Applejack asked again, making him inhale loudly in denial.
“We are also not made like that. One becomes one of the Clan - it's not the Clan that tells someone who should be in it or not. It's about the individual, not the group itself.”
Applejack rose an eyebrow in confusion. That wasn't making any sense at all.
“That don't make much sense to me. How does that even work?”
“...What does this have to do with me repaying my debt? Can't we just go straight to picking apples?” Sillabus said with a glint of miff in his voice, and Applejack opened her eyes in surprise. They were already at the orchard!
Well, at the very least the trip was made shorter via the power of dialogue! ...Now it was time to get to work, Applejack style.
The Pony happily shone as she was now within her own element. Brightening up like a light bulb, she placed basket after basked beneath the Apple Trees in a speed that could only be described as blurry. The Wolf watched as she placed all of the baskets so fast he didn't even have proper time to ask if he could do something about it, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Applejack patted the ground with pride and claimed loudly:
“Time to get to work!”
“Oh! Uuuuh...” Sillabus opened his eyes in pure shock as he patted the ground nervously, looking left and right without a hint of direction. “S-Sure! Ah... W-What do I do?”
“What do you mean, what do you do? What do you do while pickin' apples?”
“...You pick them?”
“Exactly!” Applejack said with gusto as she gave her back to the nearest Apple Tree, preparing her frontal hooves immediately after, throwing her weight backwards in a powerful buck and bashing the tree with enough strength to make it shake violently, dropping the apples above with an uncanny accuracy inside all of the baskets around it.
...Not missing even a single one.
Sillabus watched the scene with an expression that bordered the uncanny valley of frowns and admiration. He rolled his tongue inside his mouth for a few seconds, his mind processing the information he had just been fed over and over again, almost as if his brain could not accept nor comprehend what he just saw.
But it didn't last long. He pointed at the tree with one of his eyes half-closed, his head hurting from the war going on inside of his head.
“You just bucked a tree,” he begun to repeat out loud to Applejack, who was now looking at him as if he just said the obvious. “...And the tree dropped all of its apples accurately inside the baskets around it.”
“What, did ya see me sing a song to it?” The Earth Pony mockingly said as he looked at her with a mix of fear and admiration. “Now it's yer turn! Get to it, partner!”
“Eh? Oh... S-Sure. Just... Just kick a tree and watch apples fall. Of course.”
The Wolf sighed in defeat as he approached an Apple Tree with a look that translated directly to this is not going to work at all. He touched it. Sniffed it. Coughed and looked nervously at Applejack, who motioned with her hoof for him to go for it. And he nervously nodded at that.
He gave his back to the tree, preparing himself to... Kick it. He touched the tree a few times with his back feet, getting a feel for the motion. He did it once, twice, three times... And then walked away from it, growling in annoyance at the situation he was in with a bad taste in his mouth.
“This isn't going to work.”
“What? But ya didn't even try!”
“I... I know. B-But I'm not a pony! Do you expect me to kick the tree? I'm gonna break every bone in my legs if I try this!”
Applejack rose her hoof as she prepared to counter his point, but it was a valid one so she put it back down immediately after. Sillabus whined in defeat as Rainbow Dash could be heard above, laughing out loud at that what she just saw.
“Hahahahaha! That's what you call helping? You're such a massive flip-flop! Hahahaha!”
“Hey, Rainbow! That's not very nice!” The Earth Pony complained as her voice was completely ignored by her friend who kept laughing from the bottom of her heart rolling on the cloud like a child on her bed, the Wolf growling in irritation as her mocking voice ringed on his ears.
“Oh, Celestia! This is rich! This is too rich~! Hahahaha! Why don't you try digging a hole? Maybe you'll find some apples you can pick!”
“Stop mocking me, you annoying loud-mouthed donkey!” Sillabus finally turned his face upwards and waved his fist in Rainbow Dash's general direction. “I don't see YOU trying to do anything useful other than pissing me off!”
“Come ON, I can pick these apples in my sleep!” she claimed boldly as she kicked the cloud she was in, taking flight back to the ground and landing with her usual grace. “Unlike you, Rainbow Danger Dash here is a straight up, grade A package of awesome!”
“I didn't mention anything about you picking apples. Why did you think I said anything about you picking apples?”
“Because that's what you're obviously terrible at! Come on, you don't seriously expect me not to make fun of that, do you?”
“Oh, so you can only make fun of that what others are bad at. That might explain why you're not doing anything useful yourself.”
Rainbow Dash's face closed immediately as she spread her wings in a menacing manner at Sillabus, who lowered his head in a similar aggressive way, growling fiercely at the Pegasus...
And then both of them were instantly pushed aside by Applejack, who was now displaying a scowl of her own, glaring fiercely at the two before her who were looking back at her, surprised.
“Enough! This ain't the time and not even the place for this kind of attitude, y'all! If yer gonna get into a fight, then do it where it doesn't get in the way of Applebuckin'!”
“But--” Rainbow Dash resumed talking, but was cut off immediately by Applejack's stern authoritative tone.
“No! If yer jus' gonna get in the way, then please go away! Both of you! Ah don't need you to cause problems where problems ain't wanted!”
And that was that.
The Wolf's face contorted in shame as he stepped back at what he just heard. Him, getting in the way? Annoying her with the fact he was getting into a scrape with her friend?
T-This is... The complete damn opposite of helping! ...What the hell am I doing?
The Earth Pony's gaze turned him away with extreme displeasure. He lowered his face to the ground, giving his back to both ponies behind him as Rainbow Dash grunted and opened her wings in defeat, preparing herself to fly away again... And then he looked one last time at the closest apple tree, opening his eyes in realization and shock.
...He just had an epiphany.
He rose his head immediately as he approached it, making both ponies look at him, curious. Sillabus took a glance at the leaves, at the branches above... Stepped backwards a few times, lowering the whole front of his body...
And then kicked the grass, jumping up at the tree and climbing uncannily quickly.
“Whoa Nelly!” Applejack exclaimed in surprise as the tree branches begun to rattle and shake, the rustling sound of his movements in it getting louder and louder as the apples finally begun to fall down. Some missing the baskets, some of them not... but all of them unmistakeably falling from it, successfully harvested.
Sillabus let go a triumphant cheer to his own stupidity as his head and torso popped from the leaves of the tree, swinging his arm and punching the last apple from a branch down to the baskets below, looking at his own handiwork with both pride and shame.
“Yes, try kicking the tree, Sillabus!” he mockingly taunted himself as he couldn't believe how simple that was. “It's not like you can climb it or anything! ...What an idiot! Hahahaha!”
“Would you look at that, it worked!” Applejack complimented him with surprise as he jumped down from the tree, landing on the grass and making a face that was filled with pain from the effort he just displayed. “Oh. Don't do that! Yer still hurt!”
“Urgh! Yes, I realized it. Oooowwowow...!”
He complained from the pain, but at least he felt like he accomplished something. A slight feeling of happiness filled his chest as Applejack looked at him with approval, but Rainbow Dash chuckled a little, pointing at the tree with a slightly mocking glint on her voice as she spoke.
“Well done, you did get ONE tree. Anyone can get ONE tree!” she taunted once again, making the golden-maned pony shake her head in censure. “What? It's true!”
“Indeed it is, isn't it? But at least I did it. One tree! How many have YOU picked, Pegasus?”
And then Rainbow Dash finally snapped.
She opened her wings fiercely, flying towards him and shoving her head really close to his face, his irritatingly mocking grin spread all over his face as her eyes sparked with the fury of competition.
“I CAN GET WAY MORE THAN YOU EVER COULD!”
“Oh, really? I'm one apple tree ahead of you,” he sang while scrubbing Rainbow Dash's mane in a patronizing manner, making Applejack rise an eyebrow in confusion as to what the hay he was doing. “But that's OK, you don't have to get annoyed over it. Leave it to the professionals, go back to kicking clouds or whatever is it you do.”
That was the last straw. She spread her wings and arms at the same time, pointing at the orchard as fiercely as she could, almost as if she was pointing at her worst enemy.
“NOW YOU'VE DONE IT! YOU AND ME AND APPLE TREES! Who picks the most is the winner!”
“Oh, you want a competition now? I'm not sure, it's not my place to agree! What do you think, Applejack?” Sillabus sang to her while keeping the same cocky grin slapped on his face. The pony looked at them with interest, raising an eyebrow as she nodded in response.
“That's fine, but don't fight anymore! If Rainbow wants to pick apples, then that's what ah wanna see. Is that clear?”
“Crystal clear, AJ!” the Pegasus cheered as she literally dashed to position, motioning the Wolf to do the same by her side. “Come on! Get ready to eat my dust, buster!”
“I'm shaking, I'm shaking,” the wolf cackled as he walked to position, patting the grass, imitating the mare's competitive position as best as he could...
And it didn't take long for the Earth Pony to whoop behind them, signaling for Rainbow Dash to kick the ground with violence, propelling her towards the trees allowing her to buck them, making apples fall at a significantly slower rate than Applejack did and filling the baskets below. Sillabus did the same in a rather slow, wounded and somewhat relaxed manner – climbing trees, shaking the branches, making the apples fall and then climbing down.
And finally, they started doing what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. Picking apples.
The competition spanned the duration of hours. Applejack, Sillabus and Rainbow Dash were all making apples fall rather effectively. The Pegasus' lack of stamina made her stop a few times during the competition to catch her breath while the Earth Pony's strength and constitution allowed her to just keep on doing what she did best at top speed at all times. The wolf's wounds didn't allow him to work too quickly and he knew it, so he worked at his own pace: slowly, carefully and steadily.
And at the end of the morning, at the start of the afternoon, when the sun was high and mighty in the skies and everyone's bellies bellowed, begging for baked goods... Rainbow Dash was dancing in victory over the wolf, the clearly defeated one by a few dozen trees at least.
“Yeeees!” she exclaimed in superiority as she kept on dancing over her victory against her competition. “How many apple trees did I pick? How many? That's right, thirty trees! Thirty! How many did YOU pick? Oh, what was that? Seven? Ooooh, what a shame! Just SEVEN? I feel so sorry for you! Hahahahaha!”
She was enjoying herself way too much, puffing off her chest and patting it with her hoof in a pompous manner. Applejack merely chuckled as Sillabus made a dramatic pose of defeat, covering his face with his paw as he sang along the Pegasus' streak of superiority, his grin never getting any smaller.
“Oh, truly... I've been soundly defeated! Truth be told, Pegasus – I'm no match for your skill and speed!”
“You can say that again!” she cackled as her wings flapped happily on her back, making her hover slightly above the ground as she kept on smiling and laughing. “Now who's the professional one? Maybe this will teach you to respect Rainbow Dash, you mangy mutt!”
“Oh, my respect has soared sky high, there is no doubt about that. You truly are the champion at Apple Bucking. All of my respect has been taken.”
“Heh! At least you admit it!” she patted the ground with confidence as she pointed at him with a victorious pose. “So you can shut that grin in your face! Go to your corner and sulk!”
“Why? I've done what has been asked of me – I've no reason to sulk.”
“...What?”
“Applejack asked me to pick apples, and that's exactly what I did. Thanks for the help, by the way. You proved to be most helpful.”
“...”
It took a whole scene for Rainbow Dash to finally get what he meant. ...And when she did, she opened her mouth in shock, the wolf's smile getting even larger as he stood on his back legs and started to dance mockingly, his tongue hanging from his mouth as he laughed from the bottom of his heart at her reaction.
“Y-YOU...! You made a fool of me!” she furiously growled at him as he kept on dancing, gradually getting away from her as he did it. “NOT FAIR! Come back here! I ought to grind you into smartass cider!”
“Heh heh heh heh heh! Come on, Rainbow Dash! Where is your sporty behavior?” he sang from the bottom of his heart as she huffed and puffed from being made a fool of. “You still picked more apples than I did, didn't you?”
Applejack let go a heavy sigh as she watched Sillabus and Rainbow Dash going back at it, annoying each other almost as if they secretly were enjoying every second of it. She threw a glance at the work they all did however... And simply shrugged in defeat. She couldn't say that they didn't do their job, could she?
“...Oh, Nelly. Well, at least they actually worked! That's good enough for me, ah guess.”
Now... To bring those apples back to the farm. ...This is gonna take a while, ain't it?
“Well, then! This' the last one!” Applejack whooped as she placed the Apples on their designated place, closing the door of the storage room with a slight kick as she finally saw the working day's end. “Thanks for the help, y'all.”
“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh nodded gladly as Rainbow Dash clacked her tongue in irritation.
“Sure, whatever.”
“This is much harder work than I thought it would be,” Sillabus said as he rubbed his back yet again, feeling like he was much older than he actually was. “But I guess it's gotta be done, huh...”
“No kidding! You didn't do even half of it, you dimwit.”
“Rainbow, we've been through this already,” Applejack pointed out as her friend slumped her shoulders in defeat. “But thanks for the help. You did a lot today, even if you didn't have to.”
“Heh. It's cool, AJ. Helping friends is what Rainbow Dash does,” she nodded as she threw another glance at Sillabus, who rose an eye to meet with hers. “...And you! I'm still going to keep an eye on you! I'm watching you like a hawk!”
“...Why? Can't you watch me like a Pegasus?”
She immediately blew him a raspberry as she spread her wings and took flight back to the skies and towards Ponyville, finally leaving the general area of Sweet Apple Acres behind her. The Earth Ponies both laughed in unison as Applejack gave the wolf a slight pat on the back for a job well done... For as much of it that was actually his.
Getting Rainbow Dash to work was sort of ingenious, though. She had to give him credit for that.
“Don't mind her. RD's a bit thick-headed, but she's a nice gal.”
“Yeah, I can tell. Good people tend to attract good friends, or... so I'm told.”
“Heheh! Well, then! Ah guess we earned a bit of a grub, didn't we?” the orange pony sang to herself as both ponies begun to make way towards the house, Applejack motioning for Sillabus to follow them, making him raise both eyes in surprise. “Sillabus? Come on! What are ya waitin' for?”
“W-What? Uuuh...”
“Come on! What's up with ya, now? You think we're leavin' you to feed for yerself out here? Don't be ridiculous.”
“Are you serious? ...I mean...” Sillabus wondered for a moment as Applejack chuckled in surprise at his response, making him open an awkward smile of his own.
“Those that work, get fed! That's the way it works down here at the farm!”
...Sillabus then dropped the resistance, opening a genuine smile of his own as he followed the ponies back to the house, where the thick, strong scent of apples could be felt from all across the fields.
He wasn't sure exactly if that what he was doing was working. He wasn't sure if he was repaying what he owed the ponies properly. But at that time, he was simply glad he finally got to start with something.
As far as I have something to work with... Then I can make my time worthwhile. And that's where things matter the most in the end, isn't it?