Trailblazer's New Life

by Trailblazer Rocker

Your New Good Samaritan

As promised, Trailblazer got to Sweet Apple Acres the next day. He walked up to the farm, only to see a big red pony and a yellow filly with a bow tie on her head. The big one was in a field of dirt, plowing the soil, while the filly was just watching.

"Excuse me," Trailblazer said to the two. "Is AppleJack around?"

"Eeeeup," the big pony said back.

"Okay, do you know where she is then?"

"Nope," replied the big one again.

"Oh, Ah do!" the filly spoke up. "She's out in the orchard, bucking some more apples. It shouldn't be too hard to find her. Just look for the trees with dropped apples and listen for the sound of rustling trees."

"Good to know. Thank you."

Trailblazer began to walk away, when the filly spoke again.

"Hey, are you that Trailblazer stallion she's been talking about when she got home?"

"Why, yes I am."

"She seems to like you a lot."

Trailblazer chuckled. "Oh, you fillies... Anyway, I'm going to look for her now." He walked away again and into the orchard, looking for AppleJack. A few grunts was all he need to hear to find her.

"Oh, you made it! Thank you!" AppleJack said as she spotted Trailblazer.

"Hey, AppleJack," Trailblazer said. He looked around to see several trees without any apples on them. "How long have you been at this?"

"Ah've been working in this orchard for just two days."

"Looks like you have your work cut out for you," Trailblazer mentioned. AppleJack stopped working for just a second to see all the trees that still had to be picked. There were hundreds of them.

"Yeah, it's definetly Applebuck Season," AppleJack said, recalling a bad memory. "It's the busiest time of the year, where the Apple family gathers the apples from each and every tree on the farm so they can get sent to market."

"You aren't planning on doing it yourself, are you?"

"Well, since Ah'm the only bucker here, that really doesn't give me a choice..."

Trailblazer thought for a second. "Maybe you could use my help?"

"Well, Ah guess you could. But Ah don't want you to hurt yourself or anythin'."

"Pfft, oh, please, how hard could it be?" Trailblazer walked over to a tree with some baskets already underneath the branches and kicked them. All the apples fell down in just that one kick.

"Boy, howdy! It's like having two if me workin' here! Go ahead and help out!"

The two of them worked in the orchard for about three hours straight, until sunset struck, and they decided to call it a day.

"Well, I think we got a lot accomplished," Trailblazer said as the two of them were standing on a hill to look at all the cleared trees they worked on.

"Yes, quite a lot, boy," AppleJack replied.

Trailblazer looked to the left to see much more apple trees to buck. "But I guess we still have a lot more to take care of."

"We can take care of that tommorow," AppleJack said. "Why don't we take a gander at these apples and see what we can bake out of them?"

"That'd be great. I haven't eaten since noon."

Both of them brought some apples in to prepare for a dessert. Inside the barn was the rest of the apple family.

"Say, Trailblazer, have you met mah family yet?"

"Um, just two of them, right when I first got here," he replied.

"Well, Ah'm here for that. This here is mah big brother, Big Macintosh..."

"Howdy, partner," Big Mac said after his introduction.

"...Over here is mah little sister, Applebloom..."

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Trailblazer!" Applebloom said after AppleJack finished her.

"...And last but not least, Granny Smith."

"Why, hello, dear..." Granny Smith wheezed.

"Good to know you all," Trailblazer said to the rest of the Apple family.

"Hey, AppleJack, do you know what we're having tonight?" Applebloom asked.

"Hmmm... Well..." AppleJack started.

"I know of something we can have," Trailblazer spoke up. "Provided that you have the right ingredients."

"Oh, really, now?" AppleJack blabbed.

"Sure. Do you have any oats?"

"Up in this pantry," AppleJack pointed. Trailblazer reached the cabinet and pulled out a container of oats.

"Now, do we have some brown sugar?"

"Right behind those marshmallows."

"Great. Now all I need is a pan to put all this stuff in..."

"Here you go," AppleJack said as she put a baking pan on the counter.

"Perfect." Once he gathered all the items, he chopped up the apples and placed them in the pan, then he took some brown sugar and sprinkled it over the apples, and sprinkled the oats onto those as well. After he did all that, he placed it in the oven and let it get heat up.

"Say, what is it that you just made there anyway?" AppleJack asked.

"It's a dessert that my grandmother taught me how to bake when I was a filly: apple crisp."

Once enough time passed with the apple crisp in the oven, he pulled it out and cut it into 3x3 squares.

"Go ahead, give it a try." he insisted.

Each one of them took a bite out if their piece, and all of them looked like they enjoyed it a lot.

"Why, of all the sweetest apples Ah've ever picked, this stuff is delicious!" AppleJack exclaimed.

"I love this apple crisp!" Applebloom said as well.

"That's quite the dessert you made there!" Big Macintosh agreed.

"Heh, it never fails. No one has ever disliked this dessert," Trailblazer said.

"Oh, Ah definetly want that recipe for this!" AppleJack said.

"Well, when I get the time, I'll write it down for you."

"Oh, thanks, sugarcube!"

"You can keep the apple crisp I made there. I should get going back home to get some sleep."

"Yeah, it's really late right now," AppleJack agreed.

"So, will I see you again tommorow?"

"You bet, Trailblazer."

"Okay. Good night, everyone!" With that, Trailblazer left.

Trailblazer went back to the farm the next day to find AppleJack in the orchard by herself. However, she didn't seem to be doing as well as yesterday's bucking. She looked rather exhausted.

"AppleJack?" he asked.

"Oh... Howdy, Trailblazer." AppleJack coughed.

"Um... Are you okay right now?"

"Just, dandy." She walked over to another tree, but her kick missed and she almost fell down.

"Um, it just doesn't look like it..."

"Oh, it's no biggie. Ah've handled an entire orchard myself before." AppleJack walked up to a basket thinking it was a tree, and ended up kicking that instead. "Dag-nabbit dang it!"

"Aw, didn't you learn anything from your last applebuck season?"

"Wha... How do you know about m' last applebuck season...?"

"Twilight told me about it when I passed her yesterday as I was making my way home."

"Oh..." She yawned. "Sometimes, she has a way of exaggeratin' things, and Ah have a feelin' that this is one of them." She kicked another tree while Trailblazer walked along with her.

"I think you need my help," Trailblazer said.

AppleJack scoffed. "Ah'll be fine. See? I can do this even faster if Ah wanted to!" She started running from tree to tree, kicking all the trees and knocking all the apples down from each one. But on the sixth one, she stopped and had to catch her breath.

"Um, I don't want to sound rude, but I really think you should stop this," Trailblazer suggested.

"Nah, Ah'll be fine!" AppleJack said back. "Ah've been workin' on this orchard since 6 in the morning."

"Okay, that's just going too far. And another thing..." Trailblazer paused to think if it was okay to finish what he was about to say. "I hate to see you suffering like this."

"Aw, come on, now. Ah'll be just fine!" she put some baskets on her so she could catch them. She kicked her next tree and caught the apples from that tree, but the weight of them was too much to handle in her sleep-deprived state, and she collapsed.

"Oh my God! Are you all right?" Trailblazer shouted as she fell and he ran to her side.

AppleJack panted some more before responding. "Well, shucks. It looks like Ah can't work right now after all..."

"Yeah, I thought so."

"But these apples won't shake themselves down, that's for sure."

"Hey, how about I buck them today for you?"

"You would? That'd be great."

"But first, let's get you back inside. You need some rest."

Trailblazer got down and started to nudge his head under AppleJack's belly. While he was still down on the ground, he kept forcing his head and body forward so she would end up lying on his back. He stood back up and carried her back into the barn. He went into her room and laid her down on her bed.

"Trailblazer, Ah really appreciate what yer doin' for me," said AppleJack as she was dozing off.

"Oh, I'm always here to help. Now get some rest. I'll take care of the apples."

"Ah will... Thank you..." AppleJack fell asleep after that. As an affectionate gesture, Trailblazer took her sheet, tucked her in, and gave her a small hug before going back outside.

Right as he got started on the trees, Twilight Sparkle showed up to see what the two were up to, only to see Trailblazer bucking apples instead if AppleJack.

"Trailblazer?" Twilight said.

"Oh. Hi, Twilight." Trailblazer replied. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I just wanted to see if AppleJack learned her lesson from last applebuck season. Last time, she tried bucking this entire orchard by herself and didn't accept any help until I asked to help for the fourth time."

"Was she tired, weakened, and dizzy?"

Twilight immediately got the hint. "She tried doing it again, didn't she?"

"Yeah."

"Or, for... Pfft, when will she get the hint that many hooves make light work?!"

"Well, maybe she will someday. But let's leave her alone right now."

"Why?"

"When I got here when AppleJack was working on her own, she tried working even harder then what you told me about yesterday night. Then, she tried catching some apples, fell down, and that's when she saw that she couldn't work like that. So, I brought her to her room in the barn and got her into bed, so she's sleeping now."

Twilight was starting to see a pattern. "This is starting to get real strange..."

"What is?" Trailblazer asked. Since he only got her a few days ago, he had no clue as to what she was referring to.

"She's been stubborn to the rest if us at times, but with you, she hasn't been stuck on her opinion. She's been listening to you a lot more than to us."

"...Huh," he thought. "She DID think she was feeling fine when I saw her today, but it only took one time to tell her that she just wasn't fit for apple bucking. And back at the party, AppleJack felt bad until I told her that I liked those who work with apples."

"Oh, yeah, she definetly listens to you more than to us," Twilight repeated.

"Well, I think I should get working on these trees," Trailblazer said as he started to resume his work.

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Twilight said. "I can handle this orchard in just a couple of seconds."

Trailblazer laughed. "Kind of boastful, huh?"

"No, watch."

Twilight Sparkle's horn started to glow, and all the apples in all the trees glowed in the same purple color of her coat. All those apples were plucked from those trees and placed in their baskets. Trailblazer's jaw dropped at the sight of that.

"You really DID take care of them all in a matter of seconds!" he exclaimed.

"With Princess Celestia as my teacher, I can use all kinds of spells." giggled Twilight.

"I have no idea why AppleJack rejected your help in the first place."

"Oh, don't worry about it."

"Well, technically, the work is done now. I guess I wouldn't mind hanging out in Ponyville now."

"Be my guest."

Comments

[shadowmage]

"It's a dessert that my grandmother taught me how to bake when I was a filly: apple crisp."

Filly should be foal, filly is a young girl.

Great story so far btw.

[Brony of Truth]

I bet I have a better apple recipe! Apple slices with apple cider and cinnamon baked under a thick layer cake batter. It's called, Apple Crunch
Applejack would be proud! *sigh* She WOULD be proud, if she could taste it.