9/7/2015
10:02 AM
Chapter 9 Clearing the apples
Applejack was happy to see her cousin Braeburn again, she just wished that it was under better circumstances. She spoke with him and the sherif about what had happened involving the comet and about the possible threat coming there. The sheriff promised her that they would be on guard and if they saw anything or had any leads, they would send a message to her right away.
Applejack said her goodbyes to her cousin and the sheriff, then hopped on the next train heading back to Ponyville, worried that her family back home had not yet pulled in all of the needed harvest. She knew she would have to hit the ground running. "As soon as I get to Ponyville and let Twilight and the others know about Appaloosa, I need to get back to the farm. Maybe we can still get the work done if I work till sun fall."
It only took the train about an hour to get back to Ponyville. Applejack enjoyed a nice little nap on the way back, hoping to be well rested for the long work day ahead. As the train pulled in, Applejack jumped off the train and was about to bolt to Twilight's castle when she saw the happy sight of her friends waiting at the station for her. Well, most of them anyway. It seemed that Twilight and Rarity had not made it back from Canterlot or Los Pegusus. 'Lord knows that sending Rarity to a big city like Los Pegasus, was probably a bad idea.' But Pinkie Pie, Flitttershy, Rainbow Dash along with her little sister and the rest of the cutie mark crusades had met her at the station.
"Welcome back AJ! Did you have fun at Appaloosa?!" Pinkie Pie asked as she ran up and gave the orange farm pony a big, lung crushing bear hug.
Applejack spoke as well as she could threw the gasps of air that escaped her lungs from Pinkie's tight grip. "T-thank ya... Pinkie"The pink earth pony then let Applejack go, and she fell half to the ground, grasping for air.
"About time you got back, what took you so long?" Rainbow Dash commented with a smirk on her face. Chances were she made it to Cloudsdale, informed them on the events, personally checked every square inch around the city as well as the ground be with it, and was back by lunch time.
"Snack time actually. A little later then lunch, but still yummy!" Pinkie Pie answered, looking directly at the reader with her signature innocent smile that stretched from ear to ear. Of course, to the reader this made since. After rereading this paragraph over again a few times. Hey. What do you want from me? I had to break the 4th wall her once. Pinkie pie's friends just started at their odd friend with a great since of confusion.
"Ugh Pinkie" Fluttershy spoke up. "Who are you talking to?"
"Don't worry about it" Pinkie said, now turning back to her friends and made a squeak as she smiled at them.
"Anywho...." Applejack began. "Ah checked in with th' sheriff and Braeburn . They han't seen anythin' like what I described to them. We searched all over with the Sheriff's posse, but found nothin. If they find anythin', they said they'd send ah message."
"Well I guess we can relax a little then" Fluttershy said with a slight smile. "Ponyville already checked out ok."
"Glad to hear it" Applejack commented then turned to the little filly with a big pink bow on her head. "But sis, we need to get back to the farm and pull in th' harvest! We are -"
"Already done, sis" Apple Bloom said with a huge smile.
Before Applejack could do more then look completely confused, Pinkie Pie answered her question. "You remember your cousin, Golden Delicious? Well she sent help a while ago when she heard from Red Delicious, who spoke with Granny Smith about the harvest, and being afraid that you might not be able to bring in the harvest and get everything ready on time. Sooooooo, Golden Delicious send somepony to go and help out. He's a yellow earth pony with an orange mane named Sunny, Sunny what though, I have no idea, he didn't say. But anyway he and Big Mac brought the last of the harvest in the other day!"
Applejack stood there with her other friends, jaw half dropped, still trying to let her mind catch up with everything Pinkie just shot at her at a million miles per hour.
"It's true" Fluttershy cooed in, breaking the silance. "And he seems really nice."
"Ya have ta meet him sis! He's amazin'!" Apple Bloom said jumping around her older sister.
All togeather, the girls walked calmly over to the Apple farm. Applebloom and her friends talking about what kind of things they've done to try and earn their cutie marks, making Applejack feel more at home already. When they arrived at the arch that stood in front of Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack looked over and was shocked to see that the orchard that needed to be worked on was now clear of all its apples.
The small group migrated into the kitchen were Sunny and Granny were working in the kitchen. Big Mac had gone into town to run the apple goods stand. When Granny had seen her older granddaughter enter the house, her face lit up.
"Welcome back, Sweetie!" Granny took off her apron and hugged the orange earth pony. "Ah hope things went well."
"Eh'yep" Applejack was the one to quoted her big brother now. "And Braeburn wanted me to say he misses y'all a lot too an' ta come down and visit sometime."
"Who's Braeburn?" A yellow stallion with a Stetson hat on popped out from behind the table, half covered in flower and dough.
"He's our cousin" Apple Bloom answered, running up to the stallion. "You'd like him, Sunny! He lives in Appalosa, and has his own apple farm down there!"
The stallion just tipped his hat a little and smiled at the little yellow filly. "Well I'll have to go see him some time."
"Oh! We can make it a day trip!" Pinkie added with glee in her voice. "And we can see the buffalo tribes too! And eat apple pies, apple cobblers, apple fritters and drink lots and lots of Appaloosa Apple Cider!"
"I'm totally down with that!" Rainbow added. Then flew over to Sunny and began looking him over. "So Flutterst told me you might be as strong as Big Mac. How fast are you?"
Sunny just looked a little sheepish with a nervous and forced smile. "W-well I not know. But Big Mac is still a lot stronger then I am."
Applejack happily trotted over to the new arrival and held out her hoof. "Doesn't really matter now. Ah'm just glad that ya came. Ya really helped us out."
Sunny smiled and shook her hoof, and smiled as he looked into her emerald colored eyes. Then something hit him. "Wait! Your Applejack, right? 'The Applejack'?"
"Ugh, well yeah, why?" Applejack began to look concerned.
"Great!" Sunny's face exploded with joy. "Goldie Delicious told me to find you!"
"Wait" Applejack hesitates. " did ah 'Goldie Delicious' and older mare tell you to find me, or 'Golden Delicious' a younger mare send you here?"
"Goldie, she was a really nice older mare. She gave me this hat and a canteen and told me to find you so you can help me. You see, I've lost my memory and she told me you were the one who could help me."