Chapter 12 apple trees and shifting shadows
-just outside of Ponyville-
As the search raged on, Twilight felt it best to follow her teacher's advice and just head back to Ponyville. She was beginning to feel slightly home sick as well as worried about all of her fiends who lived there. If anything was going to happen, she wanted to be there to help prevent it.
As she flew over head she looked down to see a familiar face belonging to somepony she hadn't seen since she moved to Ponyville. She flew down to the trail just outside of Ponyville and greeted the stallion. "Hey Alister" she then noticed a frantic looking earth pony standing beside him. "Who's your friend."
Alister bowed when Twilight landed. "Greetings, your majesty." He then turned to his... Traveling companion, he would say. Not so much his 'friend'. "His name is Dash O'Lime, a farming friend to a miss Golden Delicious. He was on his way to Ponyville to help with the apple harvest when he got lost along the way."
"P-please, your majesty " the brown earth pony pleased. "I really need to get to sweet apple acres right away! Otherwise we'll lose half of the harvest!"
Twilight put on a determined smirk, then turned to Alister. "If you want, I can fly him there. I was on my way anyway. And I'd e glad to help."
"Are you sure, your highness?" The grey unicorn guard asked.
"It would be my pleasure. Applejack is one of my best friends, and I would hate for anything to happen to her harvest." Twilight explained, then flew over to the brown and green earth pony. Lifting him up tot her front hooves, and taking to the air. But before she was out of ear shot, she called back to the royal guard. "Besides, I think you have something bigger to deal with!"
Once they were out of listening range, Alister sighed. "Indeed... And now I have go back to start without collecting 200 bits..."
-Sweet Apple Acres-
Sunny had risen when he heard a rooster crow. He hopped out of bed, put his Stetson hat back on that he hung on the edge of the bed frame, and grasped when he saw the wonderful sight that lay just beyond the guest room window.
The sun was just raisin over the horizon, coating the entire orchard with a golden light. The dew on the leaves and the apples themselves sparkled like diamonds! The smell! Oh the smell, Sunny thought. It was fresh, clean, as if this was how Equestria was thousands of years ago before stone walls were built. This was how ponies originated. Everything built up from here. And yet, he thought, 'I bet no pony has time to look out and appreciate the simplicity, the complexity, and the wonder of such a place. Where a pony can live their entire lives, work hard, learn well, and exist in piece.'
"Breath taking, ain't it?" Sunny turned around, hoping to see Applejack at the door. But the voice was too deep.
"Oh, ugh, yes it is, Big Mac" Sunny smiled at the big red stallion. Who took a spot next to him and look out the window.
"Ah love it" Big Mac said with an honest grin. Saying more in that moment then he had in all the time Sunny had been there. In spoken words at least. Sunny was beginning to see that the stallion spoke more with his actions and motions, then with words. And there isn't anything wrong with that. "We better get started with th' chores."
"Oh, right!" Sunny tipped his hat. "Better earn our keep, right?"
"Eh'yep" Big Mac answered as he walked with Sunny out of the guest room, down the stairs and into the barn.
The two working Stallions made their way to the barn, where Big Mac gave Sunny the option to either plow the field or to clear the debris from the east orchard. "We're gunna harvest from that one next. Not right away, but we need to have it cleared and ready for when we go down there ta work."
Sunny offered to clear the debris, not because it sounded like less work, but because he was eager to go into the orchard and see more of it, especially after the sight he saw of it this morning. Big Mac then showed him the wagon they use for collecting the debris and told him were to dump the stuff after it was full. There were a few dumpsters behind the main barn were they dumped the debris, and twice a week a few earth ponies went around Ponyville to collect such discarded material, and break it down into mulch. The mulch is then distributed back to farms.
"So nothing is put to waste. That's amazing" Sunny commented as he harnessed the wagon up to himself. Big Mac also gave the yellow stallion a few tools to use incase he needed to break a broken branch off a tree, or needed to scoop up piles of rotten apples. With that, Sunny set out to the orchard Big Mac pointed out to him.
"Breakfast should be ready in about an hour or so!" The muscular red Stallion called out to Sunny, who waved back and smiled.
Sunny went right to work as soon as he arrived at the east orchard, he saw what Big Mac was talking about. There were branches broken from storms most likely, piles of leaves, and molded apples everywhere. Sunny didn't hesitate. He smiled, grabbed the biggest branch, and snapped it into smaller pieces. He scooped up the leaves and rotting apples and leaves with a shovel, plopping them into the wagon, and hummed a happy tune during the whole thing.
But all the wile, something lay hidden in the shadows, watching the yellow stallion who knew not that he was a unicorn playing the part of a farm, earth pony. From the darkest shadow in a hole in an apple tree, watching the young colt was an eye. A single green and red eye emitting a purple flame at it's corner.