//------------------------------// // Applebuck Season // Story: Flash Sentry, Defender of the Peace S1 // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// We find Flash flying above the streets of Ponyville. As he continued to fly, his patrol almost ending, he heard something below him. Looking down, he saw the ground had began to shake, but what he didn't know was why. Rainbow Dash appeared next to him, "What the heck is going on?!" he asked. "You really did grow up in the city, didn't you?" she said as she looked at the horizon. Flash followed her gaze and saw a large dust cloud. "STAMPEDE!!!" Rainbow screamed. "Seriously?" Flash asked. Maybe living in a small town wouldn't be as uneventful as he had originally thought. He looked down to see everypony scurrying around. "Everypony, calm down!" he heard the mayor say. "There is no need to panic." "But mayor," Rarity said as she walked up. "Whatever shall we do?" "Look!" Rainbow called out, pointing to the dust cloud. Flash turned and saw Applejack was with the herd of cows, trying to stop it somehow. "She needs help!" Flash said, shooting forwards and was soon flying overhead. "Well howdy Flash!" Applejack said in a joyful tone. "Up for a little cattle rustling?" "How do we stop this?!" "We find the one leadin the charge and move 'em away!" "On it!" Flash flew higher and zoomed to the front, keeping an eye out for the one that Applejack had described. "There!" Flash said, seeing one at the very front, "AJ!" he called, signalling her. "On it." Applejack replied, "Winona!" she called as a brown and white dog suddenly showed up. "Put 'em up!" Winona barked and then began jumping from one cow to the next as Applejack pulled out a pair of lassos. She spun them around before letting them rip. The ropes landed around the lead's neck, allowing her to pull it to the side, leading the rest of the stampede away from town in the nick of time. Another second and the herd would have been too close to turn away, but instead, they just missed the first few buildings. The group watching all cheered as they watched Applejack toss Flash one of the ropes as they pulled the lead cow to a stop along with the rest of the herd. "Woowee! Now, what was that all about?" She asked the cow. "I'd like to know too!" Flash said, landing. "Moo..." the cow went before coughing "Oh my!" she said, "begging your pardon my dears, but Mooriella here" she pointed at a brown and white cow, "Saw one of those horrid snakes.” The rest of them all came to attention at that sound, "And it just gave us all the willies, don't you know.” "I completely understand." Applejack said. "Just try and keep clear of Ponyville next time!" Flash said in a deadpan tone. "Oh, we most certainly will." the cow said as they began heading off. "Thank you again my dears, so long Winona!" the border collie barked in response. Once they were gone, Flash turned to Applejack, "Nice work there AJ." "Aw shucks." Applejack replied, "Just doin my duty as a citizen of Ponyville." "Still, you gotta teach me how to do that thing with the lasso." Flash replied as he flexed his wings. "That could come in handy sometime later." "Sure thing." Applejack said "Now, if you don't need me for anything else, I got work to do" and with that, Applejack took off back in the direction of her farm. Flash flew over to his friends who were all talking about what they had just watched. "That was amazing Flash." Twilight exclaimed. "As much as I'd love to take the credit." Flash replied, "Applejack's the one who deserves the praise today." "Indeed" Mayor Mare said, "Applejack was just, just..." "APPLE-TASTIC!" Pinkie Pie screamed. "Exactly." Mayor Mare said, "We must do something to thank Applejack for single-hoofedly saving the town." "I know!" Pinkie butted in, "A PARTY!" "A PARTY!" she exclaimed again a few days later. "Why'd you yell that out loud again?" Flash asked as he covered his ears. "I don't know." Everything was ready for the celebration where Applejack was the guest of honour. Mayor Mare had even decided to award her the Prize Pony Award. "Are we all ready?" Twilight asked Rarity as she finished tying a bow around a tree. "Just one last thing." Rarity replied before using her magic to raise an apple banner up above the entrance of the town hall. "Now we're ready." "Awesome." Flash said as he looked around. "The place looks amazing." "Thank you darling." Rarity replied with a slight nod. "Is Applejack all set?" "Actually, I haven't seen her all week," Rainbow said as she landed next to them. "Not since the stampede." Pinkie told them. "Me neither." Flash replied, "But farm work is a very taxing and time consuming profession. Maybe she's busy the entire time." "She'll be here for sure." Rainbow said confidently with a cocky grin. "Applejack is never late." Not long after, a crowd gathered outside the hall as Twilight stepped up to the podium. She took out a pile of note cards that had her speech written on them. The speech would have been three times longer without Flash helping her trim the fat. And making sure she didn't write down five scrolls worth of knowledge about farming. She then began to speak. "Welcome everypony. Today we are here to honour a pony we can always count on to help us in matters great and small." She took the next card off the pile, but just as she was about to start again, Rainbow Dash butted in. "Did you see Applejack's slick moves out there?" she asked with a fanmare face, "What an athlete! This week she's going to help me with my new flying trick and I know it's going to be so awesome!" She probably would have continued, but Flash had gotten on stage and had gently started pushing her away from the podium and off the stage as Twilight continued. "Exactly..." Twilight said once he'd fully removed her, "and-" "This week!" Pinkie exclaimed, appearing out of nowhere, "I get to run Sugarcube Corner for the first time!" "What does that have to do with Applejack?" Twilight asked in confusion. "Oh..." Pinkie replied. "Applejack, one of the best bakers ever, is gonna help me! Applejack makes everything great so, FREE SAMPLES FOR EVERYPONY!" The crowd cheered for this until Flash arrived, grabbed her by the tail, and dragged her off stage. "BYE!" she said with a wave as she was pulled along. "Yeah. That's great," Twilight said once she was gone. "Now, if I could just make a point without being inter-" "Twilight?" Fluttershy said, trying to look as small as possible. "-rupted" the unicorn dropped her cards and moved aside for the Pegasus. "I'm so sorry." Fluttershy apologised, "But I just wanted to mention that Applejack is also helping me this week with the official bunny season. It's where we count up all the new baby bunnies that were born this season. She's going to help gather them this season, using her wonderful herding skills." "Anypony else?" Twilight asked as Flash moved Fluttershy off stage using his wings to create a small breeze that pushed the timid pony away. "Anypony?!" nopony said anything, not with Flash guarding the stage, "No? Well then, as I was saying..." Twilight grabbed her cards, only for Mare Mayor to show up smiling, meaning it was time to give the award. Twilight frowned and threw her cards in the air in frustration as she walked off the stage, "Never mind." "Better luck next time." Flash chuckled. "Some bouncer you are." Twilight replied, standing next to him with a scowl on her face. "And so, with no further ado, it is my privilege to give the Prize Pony of Ponyville Award to our beloved guest of honour. A pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability and integrity. Ponyville's most dependable friend...Applejack!" She pointed to a curtain as it was opened, but it revealed that nopony was behind it. After a quick cheer session, everypony realised they weren't cheering anypony and grew confused. "Awkward..." Spike said with shifting eyes. "Did somepony forget to invite her?" Flash asked. “I honestly wouldn't be surprised at this point.” "I'm here." everypony turned to see Applejack arrive, "I'm here." She finally stepped out of the crowd with two baskets of apples strapped to her sides. "Sorry I'm late..." she said, stepping up on stage, "Miss Mayor." she greeted the politician as she stepped up to the podium. "Thank you kindly for this here...award...thingy," she seemed to be struggling to make a coherent sentence, "It's so bright and shiny." She saw her own reflection and began to laugh before playing around with it. "Okay...that's different." Flash said, confused like the rest of the town, especially when Pinkie got in on it. "Well...thank you, Applejack" Twilight said while glancing at Flash with an expression of 'What is going on?!', "For saving us from that scary stampede and always being there for everypony." Applejack let out a yawn, "Yeah. I like helping the pony folks aaannnddd stuff" she said with another yawn, before somehow falling asleep on her feet. "Okay, that's not normal" Flash said as he watched her start to slump over. "Or is it?" Pinkie replied with a cheeky grin, causing Flash to facehoof. Applejack woke up with a startle before saying. "Thanks," she grabbed the award by the handles and dragged it off stage, back into the crowd and out of sight. "Did something seem different about Applejack?" Twilight asked as she walked up to Flash. "Oh, I don't know." Flash said sarcastically. "Besides the lack of balance, half baked sentences and incapability to concentrate, she seemed perfectly normal." he finished, getting a glare from Twilight. "You're right, she did seem a bit-" "Tired?" Rainbow asked. "Dizzy?" Fluttershy continued. "Messy?" Rarity put in, getting a stare in response, "Well, did you see her mane?" "I know I said farm life was a taxing profession," Flash said while rubbing his head, "But I didn't think it was that bad." Flash and Twilight had decided to visit Sweet Apple Acres. It was there that they found Applejack trying to buck thin air. "What is she doing?" Twilight asked. "She can't have been applebucking all this time..." Flash asked with a shrug, "Can she?" Twilight didn't know, but she was determined to find out. "Hey Applejack." she called, but the orange earth pony seemed to have fallen asleep again. After a few more tries, Twilight warped the two of them in front of her and they both yelled. "APPLEJACK!!!" She woke up with a startle. "Oh howdy Twilight, Flash." "What is all this?" Twilight asked. "It's Applebuck Season" was her reply. "Apple-which season?" Flash asked. "It's what the Apple family calls Harvesting Time. We gather all the apples from the trees so we can sell them." "Makes sense." "But why are you doing it all alone?" Twilight asked, concern starting to fill her face. "Because Big Macintosh hurt himself." she said, referring to her older brother who Flash had met from time to time, but wasn't much of a conversationalist. "What about all those relatives we met when we first came to Ponyville?” "Family reunion I'm guessing?" Flash said. "Yeap" Applejack said, "They actually live all over Equestria and are busy harvesting their own orchards. So I'm on my own." "Maybe we could lend a hoof?" "Help?" Applejack exclaimed, looking offended, "No way, no how." "But there's no way you can do it all on your own." Twilight replied. "Is that a challenge?" Applejack asked, planting her face next to hers. "No, it's a fact." Flash said while pointing at her legs, "You can barely keep yourself upright." "I'm fine." Applejack said, gritting her teeth. "Really?!" Flash said, wanting to facehoof, "Prove it." He pointed to an unbucked apple tree, "how many apples are in that tree right now?" Applejack started counting out loud, but after three, she seemed to lose track and started spouting gibberish. Finally, she just walked over to the tree and bucked the apples off, "Zero." "Touché." Flash replied. "Now, if you excuse me, I've got apples to buck." And with that, she walked away, leaving her friends to sigh. "This will not end well." Flash said, "Not...at...all." Later that day, Twilight and Flash were relaxing on the balcony of the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight was reading while Flash was sitting on the ledge, busying himself with one of his favourite down times, playing guitar. It was something that he had been doing since receiving the instrument as a one year anniversary gift of being the apprentice of Grand Hoof. Currently, Flash was playing a soft, gentle song he knew Twilight loved to listen to when she was casually reading. Suddenly, a loud crashing noise broke their concentration, making them look up to see Rainbow Dash had just landed onto their deck. "Can we help you?" Twilight asked. "I think somepony else needs your help." Rainbow said, still looking dizzy. "Let me guess." Flash said, putting down his guitar, "Applejack?" "Yep...ow." Rainbow grunted before closing her eyes, taking a break to recover. Twilight and Flash glanced at each other and nodded. They knew where they were going next. They finally found Applejack in the middle of her orchid and she was not looking good. "Applejack, can we talk?" "Can bees squawk?" she repeated, obviously not properly hearing her, "I don't think so." "No...she said, can we talk?" Flash repeated. "Twenty storks." Applejack said with a little giggle, "Bean or celery?" "No." Twilight said. But, before she could say anything again, Flash stopped her. "Together." he said turning back to Applejack, and with one big breath, they yelled. "WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU!" "Oh!" Applejack said, finally getting it, "Why didn't you just say so? What you wanna talk about?" "Rainbow Dash dropped into see us today." Twilight said, trying to be loud enough to be heard. "Well, that's quite neighbourly of her." Applejack replied with a small grin. "Except by dropping by, she means Rainbow crashed landed onto our deck after you launched her into the air." Flash deadpanned. "Oh..." she said, "Yeah, I wasn't feeling quite myself this morning." "Because you're working to hard." "Have you even had a wink of sleep since you started doing this?" Flash asked, concern obviously on both of their faces. "Of course." Applejack said, "before I went to help Rainbow Dash, I slept for two or three..." "Hours?" Flash asked, hoping that was her answer. "Minutes." Applejack replied, her grin growing. "Seriously?!" Flash said, cocking his eyebrow. "Applejack.” Twilight stepped in, "If you keep doing this, you're going to end up collapsing from exhaustion. You need help." "Kelp?" Applejack replied, "I don't need kelp...I don't even like seaweed." "HELP!" the two shouted, "YOU NEED HELP!!!" "Nothin doin you two" Applejack said. "I'm gonna prove to you, to everypony, that I can do this on my own." and with that, she went to walk off, only to slam into a low branch. "OW!" she screamed, but still tried to look like she was okay, "Now if you'll excuse me...I gotta go help Pinkie Pie." And with that, she was gone. Twilight let out a frustrated growl, "That pony is as stubborn as a mule." only for a loud neigh to catch her attention. They turned to see a mule standing next to them, "No offence." "None taken." the mule replied. "What are you even doing here?" Flash asked, "This is private property." "Just out for my daily stroll." the mule said before walking off, leaving Flash and Twilight very confused. Later on, Flash was flying over town, making sure nothing was happening. He then suddenly caught sight of a familiar orange filly zipping through town on a scooter. Since meeting her, Flash had seen Scootaloo scooting around Ponyville on her scooter and had decided to keep an eye on her. "Hey Scoots." Flash said, flying low so she could see him while riding. "Hey Flash." Scootaloo replied, "You wanna go to Sugarcube Corner? I heard they're having a muffin giveaway!" "Sure. I could use a snack." "Awesome!" Scootaloo cheered, "Maybe Rainbow Dash will be there." "Actually, I think Rainbow Dash might be in bed for the rest of the day.” "Why?" "Let's just say she had an...accident during one of her stunts." "Oh." Scootaloo shrugged and returned her attention to the road as they arrived at Sugarcube Corner. That is, till they saw a very different sight. "What the-" Flash said, finding chaos outside the bakery as ponies were being stretchered away looking green around the gills. "What happened?" Scootaloo asked as they went to inspect the ponies. "Pinkie?" Flash spotted the party pony sitting on a bed looking even worse than anypony else. "Flash...hi there." she said weakly, turning her head to him. "Pinkie!" he exclaimed as he sat next to her, "What happened to you?!" "It was a mishap with some of the baked goods." a nearby medical pony named Nurse Redheart said. "No..." Pinkie moaned out, "Not baked goods...baked bads." "Pinkie? You okay?" "Flash." Pinkie moaned again, her face turning into a slightly lighter green. "I'm here Pinkie.” "Flash...avenge me," and with that, she seemed to conk out. "PINKIE!" Flash yelled, believing she was gone. "She's fine." Nurse Redheart deadpanned, "It's just food poisoning. Some rest and maybe a stomach pump and she'll be right as rain." Flash glared back at Pinkie Pie as she opened an eye and chuckled nervously. "I'll deal with you later." he said, turning back to Scootaloo, "Go tell Twilight at the library what's happening. Maybe she has a spell that can help them." "Sure." Scootaloo nodded, "But what are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna sort this mess out before it gets any worse" Flash said, turning to the direction of Sweet Apple Acres before flying off. “Here we go...” Flash found Applejack hauling a cart of apples across a field, her expression showing one of absolute exhaustion. He crashed into the ground in front of her, making sure to get her attention while giving her a large frown. "Howdy Flash!" Applejack said in a cheerful tone, not noticing Flash's frown. "Applejack." Flash said, gritting his teeth. "Do you know where Pinkie Pie is right now?" "I'd guess she's still handing out the muffin samples. Why?” "Wrong." Flash replied, his voice almost hissing. "She's getting her stomach pumped after eating the snacks you helped make." "What?!" Applejack exclaimed before she shrugged her shoulder. "Well maybe she should get a better recipe book. I mean, what kind of pony uses soda and earth worms?" "Soda and earth worms?" Flash asked while shaking his head, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you were so tired and disorientated that you misheard her. Do you really think Pinkie would use soda and earth worms?" "Well..." Applejack replied with a look of 'Pinkie might do that', and Flash had to kind of agree. "Point taken" Flash replied as he rubbed the back of his head, "But that's besides the point. You're gonna get some rest and let somepony else finish this work." Applejack frowned at this, "I said, no way." "Yes way." Flash barked back, "I'm this town's defender, meaning I need to deal with any problem." "And I'm being a problem?" "You've catapulted a pegasus into the air and poisoned half the town. I don't wanna guess what you're gonna end up doing next unless you get some rest." "I don't have time for rest." Applejack said as she turned around, "I still got a ton of work to do." "Then get somepony to help!" Flash was very close to yelling. "I said no." Applejack then trotted over to a nearby tree, "I'll prove that this Apple can handle these apples." She started bucking the tree and collected the apples in her cart. Flash began to pant in frustration. "Fine. But if one more thing goes wrong because of you, I will personally drag your sorry flank home and lock you in your bedroom until you're back to being your old self." "Fine." Applejack said as she reversed the cart to tip the apples into a nearby bucket, only to forget that she was attached to it and it was then thrown upside down. Flash rolled his eyes and turned to walk off, only for the sound of snoring to make him look back and see Applejack had fallen asleep while still stood up. After his argument with Applejack, Flash had returned to the Library to cool off. Unfortunately, no matter what he did, he couldn't get his mind off the feeling of dread he got from what Applejack had said. Finally, he managed to get semi-distracted by reading a copy of his favourite comic series: Flashfire the Dragonic Hero. That is, till his focus was broken by an opening and slamming of the front door. Heading out of his room, he found a thoroughly exhausted Twilight stepping in, followed by Spike who was munching on one of the muffins he had seen at the medi-tent. "Rough day?" he asked. "Yep" Twilight replied, "I managed to find a spell to help with the food poisoning, but I had to cast it on over a dozen ponies." "Sounds exhausting." "It was." Twilight groaned, heading up the stairs to her room. "I just want to take a hot bubble bath, then get into my bed and sleep for a decade or two." "Sounds great," Flash said, tempted to do the same. "I just hope nothing bad happens for the rest of the day." That hope was quickly dashed when they felt the ground shaking beneath them. "Me and my big mouth." They rushed outside and Flash took to the skies, where he found a fully recovered Rainbow looking over the horizon. Shaking off the Déjà vu, he flew to her height and looked in her sight line to see a dust cloud. "Don't tell me." "STAMPEDE!" Rainbow yelled, causing everypony to go into a panic. Flash zoomed towards the dust cloud expecting cows, but was surprised when he found it was actually a horde of rabbits. He flew back and told Rainbow. "What do we do?" she asked him. Flash looked back at the approaching cloud and saw their route consisted of a river with a single bridge leading into town. Suddenly an idea popped into his head and he turned to Rainbow and asked, "How much control do you have at high speed?" Rainbow just gave him a quizzical look. "Just follow my lead." Flash and Rainbow zipped down and flew at high speed along the river bank, before doing a U turn and flew along the opposite bank. They repeated this process and had soon formed a vacuum strong enough to pull the river water up into a tornado. The stampede finally reached the town, but were soon thwarted by Flash's plan. The tornado had become so strong that it created a solid wall of wind and water. Due to this, the rabbits simply bounced off and soon, they had all been stopped in their tracks. Seeing that the threat was over, Flash and Rainbow slowly came to a stop, making the tornado safely disperse and the river returned to normal. "Oh dear." they heard Fluttershy's voice as she slowly flew towards them. She looked over the pail of rabbits which were all laying dazed, "Are they alright?" "They're fine," Flash reassured her, "They basically ran into a pillow." "A very wet and windy pillow." Rainbow agreed. "Flash!" they turned to see Twilight, Spike and Rarity rushing up to them. "Is everything alright?" "They're fine now." "Though I'd hate to see what would have happened if we hadn't stopped those raging rabbits," Rainbow said, looking over the bunny pail. "It's not their fault," Fluttershy told her friends. "They just got scared and let their instincts take over." "Let me guess." Flash said drily, "Applejack?" Seeing Fluttershy timidly nod was all he needed. "THAT'S IT!" he yelled, "Twilight you're with me. The rest of you, help Shy gather up her little friends and then meet us at Sweet Apple Acres." "What are we gonna do there?" Rarity asked. "What Applejack should have asked us to do from the start." And with that, he took to the skies and flew towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Must...keep...bucking," Applejack said, barely having the strength to speak. Suddenly, she felt something grab her by the tail and lift her into the air. "What in tarnation?!" she exclaimed, trying to not lose her hat. Looking up she saw Flash carrying her by the tail. "FLASH!" she yelled, struggling, "What in the name of Sam Hill are you doing?!" "I'm doing what I warned you I'd do," Flash said. He flew her to an area of the orchard where Twilight and Big Mac were waiting with a cart, which Flash dropped her onto before Twilight used her magic to levitate some rope and tied it around Applejack. Once it was good and tight, they looked over their handy work as the orange Earth Pony tried to struggle out of the ropes that now covered everything but her head. "You let me go right now!" Applejack yelled, still struggling. "No Applejack," Twilight said angrily, "Your Applebucking hasn't just caused you problems. It's over-propelled pegasi, practically poisoned plenty of ponies and terrorised bushels of brand new bouncing baby bunnies. I don't care what you say, YOU NEED HELP!" "No I don't!" Applejack argued, "I'm almost done anyways!" The three unbound Ponies each shared a look and all nodded before pulling the cart to the highest hill in the orchard. "Why'd you bring me here for?" Applejack asked, only for Big Mac to help her sit up and look over the orchard. There, see saw that over half of it still remained unbucked and apple full. "Bu-bu-bu-but," Applejack couldn't seem to make any words and resorted to simply falling back and going unconscious. "Did anypony else totally see that coming?" Flash asked. "Eeyup." Big Mac replied. Twilight rolled her eyes and walked up to Applejack, trying to wake her up. Finally, the southern pony's eyes fluttered open and Twilight sighed in relief. "Oh good, you're all right." she said before getting serious. "Now Applejack, I completely respect the Apple Family ways. You're always there to help anypony in need, so maybe you can put a little of your stubborn pride aside and let your friends help you." As she heard this, Applejack looked over at the many trees that she still had to do alone, before finally sighing and said. "Okay Twilight." "We are not taking no for an answer," Twilight said before realising what was just said. "Wait...what?!" "Yes. Twilight, Flash, please. I could really use your help." Flash and Twilight smiled, seeing her finally give in and helped untie her. With the help of her friends, Applejack finally managed to get the harvest complete, along with getting a good night's sleep. By the next day, the trees of Sweet Apple Acres were appleless and the earth pony was back to her good old self. As Flash and Fluttershy finished their last tree, they walked over to Twilight. She was using her magic to levitate hundreds of apples into large buckets while speaking out loud about what she had learned about friendship to Spike who wrote it down. Applejack walked up to them, pushing a trolley full of apple juice. "How about y'all take a little break? I got some fine apple juice waiting for ya." Everypony smiled hearing this, and rushed over. "I can't thank you all enough for this help" Applejack told them with a slight blush. "I was acting a bit stubborn." "A bit?" Twilight asked with a cocked eyebrow. "Try a lot." Flash deadpanned. "Okay, okay." Applejack said with a chuckle. "But I'm really sorry." "It's fine Applejack" Flash said, "Everypony has trouble asking for help sometimes. I know I used to think that I could do anything on my own. That is, until someponies showed me the way." "Got that right." Applejack replied with a nod. "Now, I know the town gave me the Prize Pony Award, but the real award is having friends like you seven." Everyone smiled as they took a drink. "Phew," Rainbow groaned, "That Applebucking sure made me hungry." "And I've got the perfect treat," Spike said, holding up a plate of very familiar muffins. "EW!" Pinkie said, flinching away, "Spike I threw them away! Where did you get them?" "From the trash," Spike replied with chewing on a muffin. Everypony moaned and walked away. "Just a little nibble?" Spike asked, following them, "Come on!" "We're gonna need to have a serious talk later bud," Flash said as he yanked them away and threw them into a bin. "Buzz kill."