Sweat, Iron and Literature.

by WolfmanWhite

Lightning in the Sun

Sweet Apple Acres was an hour out of town, up a hard worn trail through the sun-beaten plains. It toed the fringe of a small, dry forest that more closely resembled a thicket than a wild overgrowth. A large chunk of the forest jutted out from the rest, having been cultivated and organized into an apple orchard. The branches on the trees were even now bearing sweet, ripening fruit. By Twilight’s uneducated guess, they’d be ready for harvesting soon.

The ranch itself was easily twice as large as the fancy estate on the edge of town. It consisted of several smaller buildings around two big ones: A big red barn and a large house that looked to belong to the owner and its family. While the estate in the town was brightly painted and well maintained, it was clear this house had been around for a very long time.

Twilight and Spike walked through the large, inviting wooden gate that served as the entrance to the ranch. Several ranch-hands were bustling around the various bunkhouses and stores, carrying lengths of rope and wood in addition to sacks of feed for the various animals that made up the livestock. A pack of pigs oinked happily as their troughs were filled with slop and chickens clucked and got irritatingly underfoot, almost sending Twilight head over hooves again.

A little giggle attracted her attention, and she glared around to spot the pony who was laughing at her. In the shadow of the big house, there was a short young foal. The filly had a pastel yellow coat and a big pink bow sat neatly atop her long, red mane. Judging from her height, big brown eyes and lack of a cutie mark, Twilight put her at school age.

“Ya ain’t been on a ranch before, ma’am?” The foal asked with a heavy rural accent, a far cry from the “proper” Canterlot pronunciation. It took Twilight a few seconds to mentally switch gears to comprehend what she was being asked.

“I’m uhm... here to talk to the owner?” Twilight began. Talking to a foal should be easy enough, right? “I’ve come all the way from Canterlot for a study and--”

“Ya’ll come all the way from Canterlot?! Oh golly!” The foal’s already large eyes had grown larger still, almost the size of pie plates.

“We’ve never got anyone from that far visit us before!” She trilled, bouncing happily around the outsider. She stopped to beam at Twilight. “Ah’m Apple Bloom! Ya’ll be wantin’ my sister, Applejack. She’s just checkin’ our fences! She’ll be back real soon, I promise. How about ya’ll sit in the shade with me for a while?”

“Oh boy, I don’t know, I mean, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us and...”

Apple Bloom looked like she’d just lost her best friend. Her eyes welled up and shimmered with tears. “She’ll be back real soon! Come an’ have some lemonade! Pleaaaase?”

It took all of two seconds for Twilight to relent. It seemed rude not to wait and Spike complained about walking all that way back again, so they both decided to stay for a while. Both agreed the lemonade was very good. Apple Bloom promised them their cider was a dozen times better than any paltry lemon based beverage they could create.

Apple Bloom was an excitable sort, eager to hear all about Twilight and Spike’s past and journey. Descriptions of the Capital seemed to be her favourite and it soon became clear that she was trying to imagine how it must look in her head. The topic had then quite naturally shifted over into books. Apple Bloom had just started school this year and was learning to read. It was a slow process since school only took place once a week, but Applejack and the rest of the family were encouraging and helping her whenever they could.

Apple Bloom was in the middle of a spirited explanation of how chickens worked by the time her sister returned. Applejack was a tough-looking orange pony with a mane of straw. A large comma leather hat rested upon her brow and kept the sun well and firmly out of her eyes. The shade served to highlight the sunburn and freckles that dotted her cheeks.

She ambled across the yard with an easy gait that Twilight mentally labeled as a “mosey”. As she walked, she waved off the giant of a big red stallion who had been her companion as he slowly eked his way across the courtyard, pulling a mighty cart laden down with wood and wire.

Applejack had a very muscular body. Not the kind that the circus bodybuilders had back in Canterlot, but more of the sort of body one would reasonably get for hard work over the course of several years. It was a very natural look that she wore well. It also seemed that smiles came to her as easily as hard work.

“Howdy ma’am! I’m Applejack and I run this here establishment. Ya’ll must be them hoighty-toighty types we were expectin’ from up Canterlot way.”

She seemed to have noticed Apple Bloom for the first time.

“An’ what’s this mite doin’ slackin’ off instead of tendin’ to the chickens? She ain’t been no trouble now, has she?”

Apple Bloom began to defend herself, but before she was able, Twilight got a rare social cue that made her speak up... and by social cue, it was a nudge from Spike.

“Oh not at all! She’s been very helpful with my studies. She’s been telling me how seriously she treats her chores and her chickens. It’s all been very, very fascinating!” Twilight trilled, seeking to soothe the elder sister’s suspicions.

“Well, if’n ya say so... I’ve been a terrible host, out in the fields all day while ya’ll’ve been sittin’ here sippin’ LEMONADE?! Apple Bloom! Why didn’t ya get our guests some of our cider insteada that filth?”

“Oh no! No, it was nice, very nice. Really!” Spike spoke up.

“Ah, ah, ah! Ya’ll sit right here. Ya’ll stayin’ fer lunch now ta make up fer our terrible manners.”

Twilight began to protest. “I, uhm, we really can’t, I mean we’re just so... so... busy! Lots of work to do, we still need to--”

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“Twi.... Twilight... I can barely move.” Spike groaned.

Twilight sighed and hoisted Spike onto her back. After that meal, she wasn’t feeling up to the trek back either.

“Pies, tarts, fritters and dumplings.... all.... all filled with apples....” Spike rambled. Twilight was worried he was experiencing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the sight of the small hill of food they were both expected to devour with grinning faces.

“They sure know how to treat guests, that’s for sure.” Twilight was also afraid she was about to explode in a mass of half-digested apple and pastry slurry. The thought was almost enough for her to retch it all back up.

“And the names. So... many... names.....”

That was true too. Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith were only the first. Each of the ranch-hands stepped up and took a bow as they were called, and each with an apple-related name. The last name that was mentioned was cousin “Braeburn”, who was apparently not a farm-hand, but a deputy in Appleoosa. Twilight was instructed to make herself known to him so she would get “special treatment”... along with a conspicuous wink from the rest of the family. From what she gathered, this “special treatment” boiled down to him dropping off a pie from the ranch every couple of days or so.

The Apples were a strange bunch, she decided.

“Okay Spike, where to next?”

“Urgh...” Spike burped while consulting the list. “Awww maaan, the owner of the gem mines... I spoiled my appetite...”

“It’s fine.” Twilight replied, making the arduous journey back to town.

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It was really quite interesting to see all the different people who were attracted here thanks to frontier culture, Twilight thought to herself.

“It really is pretty cool all the different people this town attracts!” Spike observed from Twilight’s back.

“...yes Spike.”

There were people from all walks of life. There were salesponies and hucksters trying to offload everything you could ever need and a lot of things you didn’t. Those ponies really stood out, hollering through megaphones on the back of their stagecoaches dressed in loud, vibrant suits. There were entertainers promising to reveal strange treasures from far off lands and con-men looking to lighten an unsuspecting pony’s purse with marked cards and fixed dice. Princess Celestia had made Twilight promise to hold no truck with those sorts of people and, after reading about them extensively, Twilight agreed wholeheartedly.

All these people did not stick around for long in the sun, however, and eventually all milled off to various taverns, saloons and places of ill repute. Some unlucky people even decided to return to work rather than risk the heat. They had all left the main promenade in quite a mess, mostly bottles and grease-paper from the local butchers.

Well, all except one. A pony as blue as the summer sky, dressed in a cloth cap and a loose fitting vest, was content in basking in the sun on a rickety looking chair that had belonged to one of the nearby saloons. Judging by the small pile of bottles next to it, they had as well. Twilight felt uncomfortable around this individual, who seemed to emit a sense of recklessness. No sane person would be out in the sun in this weather, least of all sitting in it.

Perhaps they had passed out? Oh! What if they were suffering from heat stroke right now?!

Twilight edged closer to the seated figure and the piles of bottles, trying to observe any form of life. It was only until she got a few feet away did she notice that the bottles were all clearly labeled “Sarsaparilla”.

The sky blue pony moved with blinding speed, tossing one of the bottles up in the air. It was a good throw of at least 20 feet of air at its apex before the bottle was shattered with a loud “KRIK-ow” sound that left Twilight temporarily deaf.

The sky blue pony screeched at her, revolver drawn underneath one of her feathery wings.

“Excuse me?!” Twilight replied somewhat loudly, shaking her head with one of her hooves. It wasn’t until the ringing had left her ears did she realise that the blue pony was not asking her a question, but was in the middle of laughing at her. Upon realising her deafness, the blue pony responded by laughing even harder.

“What’s the matter? You act like you’ve never been around a gun before!” The blue pegasus snorted out between chuckles, her bright, multicolored hair slipping down her back from her cap.

“Well, uh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m acting like that because I HAVEN’T.” Twilight exasperatedly replied.

“Whaaaaat? Naah, you’re kidding. When did you get into town?”

“This. Morning.”

“....oh.” She chuckled a little again, but at least had the good grace to look apologetic about it. “Sorry about that then, I guess. Where ya from? Nervous wreck like you could only have come from one place.”

“Canterlot.” They said simultaneously. The pegasus started laughing again. Twilight wanted to be very far away from this pony, but the pegasus seemed to follow her as she was walking.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Nah, not really. I’m supposed to have this whole street cleaned by the end of the day.”

“Well then,” Twilight replied testily. “Maybe you should do that then.”

“Are you KIDDING me?! I could clean this ENTIRE street in TEN. SECONDS. FLAT.”

“Ten seconds flat? No waaaay.” Spike said dismissively.

“Hah! Just watch me, kid.” she boasted, sliding her two revolvers back out from underneath her wings.

“One.”

A lone bottle stood on a table across the street, or did, before it exploded into glass shards. A bottle on the floor of the table next to it also exploded in a similar manner.

A marquee displaying some miracle cure was left half tied up in the wind, flapping obnoxiously. Its irritating life was soon cut short as its last remaining tie had been severed and the entire banner went sailing into the wind, lodging itself on a lamp-post a few meters down the road.

An empty pie tin was coasting gently down the road and suddenly found its quiet life ruined by a new hole and a rapid airward trajectory.

Two balloons tied onto a stall selling ties and ammunition were suddenly brutally murdered, their deflated, limp corpses wafting gently in the wind.

“Ten! How did I do?” The blue pony smugly asked.

“Well, uh...?”

“Dash. Rainbow Dash.”

“Well, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight began, sweetly. “YOU MADE A BIGGER MESS.”

“Eh, I’ll clean it later.” Dash replied, shrugging it off.

To that, Twilight could only respond with an indignant “urgh” and stormed off, followed by a frightened and deaf Spike chasing after her.

Author's Note:

I'm hoping to name each of these chapters after old Western movies.

Chapter 1 was taken from The Kid From Texas.
Chapter 2 was taken from Thunder in the Sun.

Comments

[ShadowWing09]

Huh, I am intrigued

Definitely the first episode but with a Western

Yes, I shakk be following this

[sopchoppy]

mildly intrigued, but I think you need to change things a bit more to make it interesting - right now it's basically laying out like the show but with slightly different scenery - Things should be Different, ponies attitudes subtly shifted by circumstance, meetings between twilight and the mane 6 turning in new directions.