It was quite hot spring in Equestria, with just the right amount of rain and sun for the early trees to have plentiful of apples. Actually, it was one of the most fruitful years for the Sweet Apple Acres. And even more for Appleoosa, which is why Big Macintosh went over to help Braeburn with harvesting the orchards.
Anyway, this left the whole Sweet Apple Acres for Applejack and Applebloom. Actually, the latter one was too small to buck trees and would rather stick up with Cutie Mark Crusaders than gather apples.
"This gonna be a lot of buckin', alright" Applejack said to herself, as she was looking at the Acres from a hill. It didn't bother her, tough, as she liked working at the farm. It kept her busy, and it offered a simple goal - to keep the business running.
"If ah'll manage mah time properly, the harvestin' will be done within a month." She remembered well that trying to do it all in just a week wasn't a good idea. She hoped that with a right pace she could do this without overworking herself. Then she saw a rainbow-maned pegasus zipping through the morning sky.
"Howdy, Rainbow!" she waved her hoof.
"Hey there, Applejack" Rainbow Dash landed next to her friend. "I've got a proposition for you!"
"Really? Is it a bet or a contest that you wanna win?" Applejack knew well that Rainbow Dash is a show-off that liked to win, no matter what.
"A contest! But don't think it will be me showing you who's awesome. It will be me showing the whole Cloudsdale who is AWESOME!" she posed herself like on a starting line. "The city is organising a race, and my undoubtful fame oblige me to take part in it and win!"
"Okay, but what does it have to do with me...?" asked the earth pony, uncertain of her role in this race.
"You, my dear Applejack, will be my supporter! And I hope you're better at it than Fluttershy..."
"Sure thing, sugarcube, but how am I supposed to accompany you to Cloudsdale? Ah don't have wings, as far as I'm concerned."
"Oh, right. And as Twilight's sick, we won’t get her help with it..."
"What are ya talking 'bout? Twi's sick?"
"Yeah. I've been at her place this morning, since she can make that spell to walk on the clouds. And she wasn't feeling well. Sneezing like a madpony, not in shape to do magic. That's why I came here."
"Well ah'm sorry ah can't help you, RD, but thanks for letting me know 'bout Twilight. Now if ya'll excuse me, I've got work to do..."
"Sure. See you around then!" Rainbow said her goodbye and flew away.
Applejack on the contrary did not make a move. At first she wanted to proceed to apple bucking, but she thought about Twilight. If she would postpone her work till noon, she could come over and check up on the sick pony. Maybe she could help somehow.
Deciding that friends are more important than any work, she ran back to the house. Quickly she packed a few small apple fritters and a big slice of Granny Smith's pie, and took off to the library.
Knock-knock-knock.
"Come in!" Spike yelled. The doors opened and the earth pony stepped inside.
"Hey Spike. May I come in?"
"Sure, you're always welcome. But what brings you here?"
"Ah just wanted to check on Twilight. Is she alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine." A loud sneeze came from upstairs, followed by hard coughing. "Apart from that flu. I don't even get how she fell ill. I mean, come on, it's warm already, right?"
"Can I talk to her?"
"Sure. I was going to the grocery's, so I won't be disturbing you two." Then Applejack realized that the dragon was holding a basket in his hand. She gave way to him, and as he left the library, she went upstairs.
"Hey Twilight. How are ya doin'?" The unicorn lay in her bed, with a number of napkins by her side.
"Hello, Applejack *cough* Good to see you. And Spike is already taking care of me, thank you. I'll have my rest and I'll be back on my hooves in no tim- A-Chooo!" Twilight sneezed, and as she did not wanted to sneeze on her guest, she turned her head to the nightstand. It ended up with sending all the napkins to the floor.
"Ah'm sure you'll gonna be alright, looks like it's just not the time yet." Said Applejack, gathering the napkins from the floor. Most of them were soaked, so she threw them away to the trashes.
"Sorry, AJ" Twilight said.
"Don't you be sorry, sugarcube. I'm glad to help. By the way, ah wasn't sure whether Spike is a good cook or not, so ah brought you these" said Applejack, unbuckling her saddlebags. Twilights eyes widened as she saw apple pastry.
"Is he a good cook or not, your cakes are always delicious!"
They have spent the next hour or so on eating and talking. When it was about noon, Applejack excused herself and left the library. This meeting brought her spirits up, and she could feel the energy for the rest of the day.
When she got back to the farm, she wasted no time and went on bucking the trees. The work was going pretty well, apple carts filling one after another. The sun was gently warming the ground, a light breeze in her mane... She truly felt to be in the right place. She felt... good. A feeling that wasn't coming to the orange earth pony too often. The day passed very quickly, and although Applejack could work much longer, she stopped by the nightfall. After coming home she ate a proper supper, took a well-deserved bath and fell fast asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.
The following days were quite alike each other. In the morning she would go over to Twilight, as the unicorn was slowly recuperating, and then buck as many apples as she could till dusk. This pattern kept for a whole week, and would probably last longer, but eventually they both had to agree that Twilight just isn't sick anymore. She had a week-long gap in her studying to catch up on, and Applejack was staying behind her apple-bucking plans. In another words, the two mares couldn't afford any more time for their meetings in the days to come.
"Rainbow Dash, I'm going to need your help." Twilight said to the cyan pegasus, who was warming up on the ground.
"With what? I'm quite busy right now" Rainbow replied.
"Oh, I just want to repay a favour to Applejack. You know how hard work she has with harvesting all those apples, right? And I've got a plan that we could carry out tomorrow morning."
"Sorry, but tomorrow morning I have a race to win. And this afternoon I'm trying to do something with Fluttershy's cheering."
Twilight frowned. "Hmm... I wanted it to be also a surprise... could you spare a little time before dawn? I know it's a bit early, but it will wake you up before the race. So what do you say?"
"Well, if you put things like that, then aright. What's your big plan then?"
"As I said, it's going to be a surprise..."
In the very early morning, two mares arrived at the Sweet Apple Acres' gate before daylight. The night's gentle chill was still in the air, but you could feel that the day was about to begin. The two mares, unicorn and pegasus, crossed the gate, but hadn't directed to the house. Instead, the both of them went into the orchards.
"Alright, we're in the right spot." said Twilight, stopping. "Now I'm going to put all these apples into the air, and..." she looked expectantly on Rainbow Dash.
"And I'm going to amass them and push into that barn-magazine over there." She pointed her hoof in direction of one of the buildings. "Easy-peasy! But I still don't understand why you can't do it yourself? It wasn't a problem for you the last season."
"Because I'm about to put ALL these apples into the air. It requires much more magic! Alone, doing it in small steps, this would take me at least few hours." Twilight explained.
"I see. Then let's get going with it!" the cyan pegasus took off into the air. Twilight focused, her horn started to glow, and the apples started floating just above the treetops. Rainbow Dash looked around, flied to the farthest end and started pushing the apples toward the centre. She have done the same with all directions, and the apples ended up as a great ball hovering over the ground. The pegasus then pushed its side, making it slowly to the barn. Inside, she placed it over large crates, one of which was almost full, and gave a mark to Twilight. The magic disappeared and the enormous ball scattered, over-filling the crates.
"Great job, Rainbow!" Twilight beamed.
"Thanks! It wasn't too hard really. But now I need to get going if I don't want to miss the race. See you later!" still in air, the pegasus waved her hoof and sped away, in direction of Cloudsdale.
Twilight looked at the horizon. The sun was about to rise, and it was the time Applejack woke up. She decided to wait by the barn for her.
The first beams of sunlight crept through the window and laid down on Applejack's face. Slowly, she opened her eyes. It was time to wake up! Resisting the urge to sleep just a little longer, the young mare stood up. She stretched her legs, cracked her neck and yawned. She quickly finished her morning toilet and went down for breakfast. After that, she took her hat and stepped outside.
The sun just finished emerging from the far horizon, still a little red in its shine. Applejack took in the view and looked around, thinking where to start the next part of her apple-bucking quest.
But...
There were no apples around.
She ran a few meters among the trees. They were all... empty.
"What happened?" she muttered in disbelief. Then Twilight stepped from around the barn's corner.
"There you are, Applejack! Well... Surprise!"
"What?" the earth pony inquired, still not facing the unicorn but looking dumbfounded at the trees around. "What?" she repeated.
"I just wanted to help you a little, you know, for that you were coming to visit me while I was ill. I know that apple bucking is a hard work, but it wasn't such a big deal for me..." she interrupted as Applejack finally faced her. She didn't look happy. Actually, Twilight could see clearly as she was changing her expression from disoriented to angry.
"You. Did. WHAT." she fixed her eyes on Twilight, the unicorn felt like she was shrinking under this look.
"erm... Helped...?" she stammered, not so confident now.
"Are you telling me ah wouldn't been able to take care of my OWN apples?! That is why you've done MY work? Harvestin' MAH apples!" a fire of fury started to rose in the earth pony's eyes.
"Applejack..." Twilight tried to stop the orange pony's tirade.
"Ah'm not sick! Ah needed no help! Why did you do this? Am I a cripple to you?! Just because ah can't do magic? Ah would manage well by my own! And ah tell you somethin'! You treated me like a cripple! What you've done wasn't help! 'Cause ah needed no help! That was an INSULT!" she was already yelling.
"Applejack!" Twilight screamed, quite scared by the other mare's unexpected outburst. Applejack stopped yelling.
"Get the hay out of mah farm before I'll buck you in the face for all those trees. Now!" she snarled through clenched teeth.
That... That was nothing like this conversation should go! Twilight wasn't able to think of anything better at the moment, so she just turned around and ran away.
Applejack was left to herself.
"ARGHHH!!!" she screamed. She was literally overloaded with fury. To unload it, she just kicked the nearest tree. Only few leaves fell down... She kicked again. And again. And again, as hard as she could. She could hear a crack and turned around. There were two hoofs imprinted deeply in the tree's trunk. Suddenly, Applejack felt guilty for harming the innocent tree. She felt guilty for treating Twilight the way she did. She sat next to the tree, leaned her head against its trunk and started crying quietly.