Tacky.
That was the first word that popped up in Natalya’s mind as she looked over the nearby structure from a cloud. The circular building was heavily decorated with large motifs over its round windows, thin pillars with spiral patterns lining the exterior, and pink, frilly awnings hung on the eaves. And that was just the first story of the building.
The second story had a pink and white checkered pattern on its exterior, but the main feature were sculptures of ponies suspended by vertical poles going straight through them. The arrangement reminded Natalya of some sort of amusement park ride that she could not quite place her talon on the name. To top it all off, the roof of the building had been fashioned to look like the tip of some artsy tower, complete with a small, triangular flag waving in the wind.
All in all, the building was probably supposed to be some stylish, fashionable place, but to Natalya, it was nothing more than an over-decorated dollhouse.
“So this is where your friend Rarity lives?” Natalya asked Rainbow and Pinkie, who were also standing on the cloud alongside Gilda.
“Yeppers!” Pinkie chirped back. “It’s her home and shop all rolled into one. She calls it Carousel Boutique, and she makes the best clothes in all of Ponyville, no wait, in all of Equestria!”
“So she lives here, and she’s all about fashion, huh? Let me guess. She’s some prissy pony that complains if she so much gets a speck of dirt on her.”
Rainbow let out a restrained laugh that sounded like a snort. “Yeah, that’s pretty spot on. She can get a bit annoying with all of her fancy-schmancy stuff. Don’t get me wrong though, she’s a great friend, and when things get serious, she isn’t afraid to get her hooves dirty if it means helping out.”
Natalya took another glance at the gaudy Carousel Boutique. “I’ll take your word for it about her. Regardless, while I still think this whole pranking spree we’re doing today is a waste of time, this Rarity pony sounds like too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
Pinkie rubbed her forehooves gleefully. “Yep, Rainbow and I get good reactions from her all the time when we prank her. Still think we should have warmed up with Twilight and Spike. They’re almost as loud as Rarity whenever we give them a nice surprise.”
“Well sorry for not wanting to prank the ones that are letting us stay at their place for free,” Gilda dryly remarked.
“Could we get a move on?” Rainbow’s slightly annoyed voice asked. “I really want to get Rarity, and we got loads more of pranks to do afterwards.”
“Then maybe you should tell us the plan,” Natalya pointed out.
“You’re going to like this awesome prank,” Pinkie assured, motioning them to look at one of Carousel Boutique’s second floor windows. “You see how Rarity is in her work room now?”
Through a slightly open window, Natalya saw that Rarity was a white unicorn with an elaborate, purple mane that probably took hours to set up. Rarity had her back to the window, her attention focused on running a strip of fabric through a sewing machine that could be heard even from their cloud. Multiple shelves lined the walls, all filled with mostly different types of fabric and other dressmaking materials. There were also a couple of ponyquins scattered around the room, some of them wearing a dress or some other article of clothing, and the floor was littered with cloth scraps and tools.
“Yeah, I see her. So?” Natalya asked, still focused on the unaware Rarity.
“Well you’re going to go and knock on her front door, but by the time she goes down to open it, you will have already flown away!”
Natalya’s head slowly turned so that she could give Pinkie a flat look. “Seriously? Ding Dong Ditch? That’s the awesome prank?”
“Duh, of course not!” Pinkie pushed over a small cardboard box from somewhere behind her. “You’re going to leave this box as well.”
Natalya opened the box and peered inside. “There’s nothing in here.” She looked back up at Pinkie with an annoyed frown. “This is turning out to be a very lame prank.”
“You’re just running distraction,” Rainbow explained. “I know Rarity, and once she sees the empty box, she’s going to waste some time figuring out what’s the deal with the empty box. While she’s busy, the rest of us are going to sneak into her workroom through the window. You just make sure to watch her so you can warn us when she starts going back upstairs.”
“So I’m stuck with lookout duty, huh? I’m fine with that. What are you three going to do while Rarity is away?”
Rainbow opened one of the saddlebags that they had brought along to show that it was filled with green wigs, a few paintbrushes, and several small jars of paint. “She’s going to scream when we’re done.”
Natalya shrugged. “Whatever you say. Anything else, or can we get things moving?”
Rainbow glanced at Pinkie and Gilda, receiving nods in return, before looking back to Natalya. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Natalya wordlessly scooped up the decoy box and then lazily glided down to the boutique. Dropping the box right in front of the door, she glanced up to check on the others. Seeing two nodding, grinning ponies and getting a thumbs up from Gilda, Natalya went ahead and knocked on the door. She promptly flew to the side of Canterlot Boutique, propping her back against the wall.
Leaning over so that only a part of her head could be seen from the door, she watched and waited for Rarity to come out. However, after about a minute passed with no sign of Rarity, it became obvious that the unicorn was not coming down. Either Rarity was the type of pony who loses themselves in their work or the noisy sewing machine drowned out Natalya’s door knocks.
Letting out an annoyed huff, Natalya marched back to the front of the building and this time, loudly pounded the door with her fist.
There was an audible yelp, followed by a quiet “My goodness” from inside. After a few seconds, a posh voice clearly called out “I’ll be right down!”
Natalya swiftly retreated back to her hiding place at the side of Canterlot Boutique. Looking up, she saw that the second floor window was now wide open, and there was no sign of the others. When she heard the front door open, she moved over to begin her watch.
“Hello, anypony there?” Rarity called out.
Natalya ducked back into cover as Rarity started swiveling her head around to look for her mystery visitor. A moment later, she resumed her lookout duty when she heard Rarity utter “What’s this?”
Looking down, Rarity opened the box with her teal magic, a perplexed frown forming on her face when she gazed inside. “Empty?” The box was wrapped in Rarity’s magic and was raised up to the unicorn’s eyes. Slowly rotating the box and scrutinizing it, she mumbled, “No label, no markings, no anything. Did somepony drop this, or perhaps this is just a prank from Rainbow and Pinkie? No, this is subpar, even for them.”
Rarity continued to inspect the box for a few more moments before shrugging and turning around, taking the box inside with her.
As soon as the door closed, Natalya flew up to warn the others. Arriving at the workroom window and seeing the others all holding paintbrushes, she immediately hissed, “She’s coming back now. Move it!”
As Rainbow, Pinkie, and Gilda scrambled to pack away their tools, Natalya was able to get a quick look at their work, and she had to admit that the trio worked fast. There were at least six ponyquins in the room, and they all were donning green wigs of various shapes and sizes. The ponyquins also had been covered with paint in various ways from a simple face paint to a bizzare mix of polka dots and stripes covering the entire body. One of them was even painted to look like a clown, complete with a round, red nose. Natalya only needed one guess to know who did that last one.
“Go, go, go!” Rainbow whispered urgently after they had gathered everything. She and Gilda promptly grabbed Pinkie and flew out of the window, Natalya following right behind them.
The four of them retreated back to the same cloud, and they had time for a collective sigh of relief before a shrill scream rang through the air, louder than anything Natalya had ever heard before and even made her ears ring. They all leaned forward over the edge of the cloud to get a good view of the action.
“What… What in Equestria happened?!” Rarity screamed. Her chest was visibly heaving for air as her pinprick eyes darted around the room. ”Such garish colors and awful designs! What ruffians did this?! My workspace has been tainted!”
Natalya found herself snickering along with the others as Rarity trotted to the center of the room, turning slowly and letting out a frightened yelp or a sputter every second. Eventually, Rarity’s horn glowed with magic, and a red fainting couch suddenly slid up right beside her. Rarity got up on her hind legs and dramatically flopped backwards onto the couch, a foreleg draped across her forehead.
Rainbow and Pinkie fell onto their backs and started rolling with laughter.
“Oh man, we got her good!” Rainbow cheered.
“Yeah, did you see her face?! It was all like Ahhhhh!” Pinkie added, doing a poor imitation of Rarity’s screaming.
“Can’t believe we actually got her to faint!” Gilda replied, a proud smirk upon her face.
“Actually…” Rainbow paused to let out a few more chuckles. “Actually, she does that fainting thing all the time, even though half the time she’s just doing it for show. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was still awake and—”
“Rainbow Dash! Pinkie! You ingrates!”
The four pranksters turned their attention back to the window where Rarity was now sticking her head out of the window, glaring straight at them. While Rarity’s fearsome scowl was terrifying enough to make even the most stoic ponies quake in fear, her ominously glowing horn was more worrisome.
“You four have sullied my home!” Rarity bellowed. “Come down here before I make you all come down!”
“Retreat! Retreat!” Pinkie yelped, and she jumped off the opposite side of the cloud. “Oh wait, catch me! Catch me!”
Natalya rolled her eyes while Rainbow and Gilda shared a groan before leaping after the dropping Pinkie. Once Pinkie was safe in Rainbow and Gilda’s grip, they all beat a hasty retreat away from the yelling Rarity.
It only took a few moments of frantic flying before the four realized there was no laser-shooting unicorn chasing them. Landing near one of the small bridges that were built over a stream that ran through town, the two griffons and two ponies stopped to take a breather and recollect their latest conquest.
“Did you see the look on her face?” Rainbow cackled. “Priceless!”
Gilda chuckled and nodded. “I never heard a pony scream so loud.”
“Yeah, I got to say that was pretty funny watching her lose it,” Natalya admitted with a faint grin. “I guess I can see why you guys like pranking.”
Pinkie swiftly rushed right in front of Natalya, an eager grin across her face. “So does this mean you had fun?!”
Natalya gently pushed Pinkie out of her personal space. “I don’t know about fun, but I will say that I was certainly amused.”
“Close enough!” Pinkie cheered with a hoof pump, eliciting an eye roll from Natalya.
“So just curious, your friend Rarity won’t be out to get us or anything, right?” Gilda asked. “As hilarious as her reaction was, she did look pretty mad when we ran away.”
“Oh, don’t worry about her,” Rainbow replied. “You saw how dramatic she is. It’s all just for show. Pinkie and I have pranked her plenty of times, and she calms down by the next time we see each other… usually…”
Pinkie nodded. “It helps that I give her a box of double chocolate-swirl cupcakes that she pretends that she doesn’t want but does end up taking it anyway which she ends up eating all in one go when she thinks nopony is looking. She might be scary sometimes, but she would never hurt OH MY GOSH, YOU’RE BLEEDING, GILDA!”
“I am?!” Gilda whipped her head to her left side where Pinkie was pointing to a large splotch of red staining her fur. She gingerly patted the spot, some red smearing onto her claw. She let out a sigh of relief when she brought her claw close to her face. “It’s just some paint that must’ve got on me.” She paused for a second as she rubbed her reddened talons together, a frown slowly forming. “Please tell me that this comes off easily.”
“If it doesn’t, you could just cover the rest of you red,” Natalya said with a smirk. “I think you would look better.”
Gilda deadpanned. “Yeah, no thanks. Seriously, this stuff comes off, right?”
“Yep, it comes right off with some water. Easy peasy!” Pinkie informed.
As Gilda went to clean up in the nearby stream, Natalya pointed out, “Just some water, huh? So that means Rarity would only need a few minutes to clean up the paint job you all did. That kind of sucks.”
“We just wanted her to freak out. It would be mean if we used more permanent paint and forced her to spend the rest of the day trying to scrub them off. We just wanted to have some fun with her and have a good story to tell for later, not to make her all sad and angry. I don’t think I have enough chocolate to calm her down if that happens.”
“Pinkie’s great at planning out the pranks so that nopony gets hurt or anything like that,” said Rainbow. “Helps keep the angry mob to a minimum.”
Natalya thought about it for a second and slowly nodded. “Fair point.”
Gilda rejoined the group, her fur free of red again. “Alright, I’m back. We ready to continue? There’s a whole town of ponies that need pranking.”
“Yep, Pinkie and I got loads of stuff in mind! Come on!” Rainbow ordered, already starting to fly down the road.
Their pranking spree continued throughout the day. Using monster costumes to scare a few ponies, giving away flowers with sneezing powder in them, and tricking ponies with creative applications of paint were just some of the pranks they pulled off on others.
Eventually, as it was starting to get late into the afternoon, the group mutually decided to stop at a nearby park for a break.
“Whew, we must have gone through more than half the town today,” Rainbow stated, sprawling herself on the grass. “I’m beat.”
“Yeah, we got so many ponies!” Pinkie cheered. She was hopping in place and the only one in the group that still seemed to be full of energy. “We got them good!”
“Yeah, I haven’t done that much pranking in one day,” Gilda agreed. “That’s an accomplishment right there that I’m proud of. So what about you, Natalya? Still think today was just a waste of time?”
“Eh…” Natalya glanced away from the others. “I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
“Coming from you, that’s pretty much a yes,” Rainbow translated with a grin.
Rainbow actually was right. Truth be told, Natalya actually did have a good time. While she still saw pranking as silly and juvenile, she had to admit that the merriment the others had whenever they got somepony was infectious. She might even dare to say that she found the company of the others bearable, maybe even likeable.
“Whatever,” Natalya mumbled. “Just don’t expect me to give up another day of training anytime soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” Rainbow shrugged noncommittally, but she wore a knowing grin.
“So are we done for the day?”
“I’m not!” Pinkie replied. “I could go all night!”
Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah well, not all of us have Pinkie levels of energy. I think I got one left in me before calling it quits.”
“I’m the same as Rainbow,” Gilda added. “Pranking sure does take a lot of you.”
“Aww…” Pinkie deflated slightly, but she perked right back up a second later with an understanding smile. “That’s fine. We had tons of fun today. Let’s make this last prank a good one!”
Natalya took a look around and saw three earth pony mares looking at some flowers not too far away. One had a white-yellow coat with a mane containing two shades of red, and another pony had a pink coat, although not as pink as Pinkie, with a green mane. The last one was pale-pink with an amber mane, and she was wearing a violet wide rim hat on her head.
“What about those three?” Natalya pointed at the mares with a talon. “They’re right there, so we can get this over with right away.”
Rainbow followed Natalya’s gaze and deadpanned. “Oh, that’s Roseluck, Daisy, and Lily. I wouldn’t bother with them.”
“Why? They too hard to prank?”
“Nope, too easy.”
“Too easy?”
Rainbow nodded. “They pretty much faint at the drop of a hat.”
A strong gust of wind suddenly swept over the park and blew the hat off the amber-maned mare’s head. All three earth pony mares stared wide-eyed at the hat as it landed on the grass a few inches away from them. They then broke into screams before they made three thuds as they all fainted.
Natalya blinked. “Did they really just—”
“Wait for it,” Rainbow interrupted, holding up a hoof.
“The horror! The horror!” one of the three supposedly knocked-out mares bellowed before returning to unconsciousness.
“Yeah, when I said they faint at the drop of a hat, I meant that literally,” Rainbow dryly said, staring at the three unconscious mares with a bored look.
“Ponies are weird.”
“Hey, every town has their weirdos.” Rainbow paused. “Ponyville just happens to have more of them.”
“Like you two?” Natalya pointed at Rainbow and Pinkie.
“Hey, I’m awesome! As for Pinkie…” Rainbow glanced at Pinkie who cheerfully waved back. “Well, you’ve seen how she is. Weird doesn’t quite fit her. Pinkie is just Pinkie.”
“Whatever you say,” Natalya replied with a faint chuckle. “Anyway, now what? I’m guessing you all still want to squeeze in that last prank.”
“Oh, oh, oh! Applejack! We should do Applejack!” Pinkie suggested, bouncing up and down with excitement.
“I take it you have something in mind, Pinkie?” Gilda asked.
Pinkie zipped behind a nearby tree and emerged from the other side, pushing a crate about half her size.
Knowing that it was better not knowing where the crate came from, Natalya peered into the container when Pinkie pried it open. “Uh, are those—”
“Oh man,” Rainbow uttered, rubbing her forehooves together menacingly. “This should be interesting!”
“So how do you know Applejack is going to come down this way?” Natalya asked, fidgeting on a branch in one of Sweet Apple Acres’ apple trees.
“Oh, don’t worry, she will!” Pinkie loudly replied from the next tree over. “Twilight’s not the only one who keeps a detailed schedule of her friends!”
“Then how much longer do we have to wait?”
“Any minute now!”
Natalya sighed. Turning her head to Rainbow, who was occupying a branch in the same tree as her, she asked, “So do you think this prank on Applejack will really work? Seems like a weird thing for her to be scared of.”
Rainbow shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not completely sure. I do know that she doesn’t like those things, but I’ve never actually seen her interact with one. Pinkie said it should work though.”
Natalya’s eyes narrowed. “So we might have done all this work for nothing?”
“Quiet over there! I see her coming!” Gilda said in a hushed tone from Pinkie’s tree, causing the rest of the pranksters to go silent and make sure they stayed hidden in the trees.
Applejack came into view, pulling a wagon that she was harnessed to and contained several tall stacks of empty baskets. She stopped a fair distance away from where the others were hiding and unbuckled herself from the wagon.
Whistling nonchalantly, Applejack proceeded to grab a couple of baskets from the wagon and then place them in a rough circle around a nearby tree. Once the baskets were set up, Applejack trotted back up to the tree and turned around. While glancing backwards, she lifted one of her hind legs and began moving it back and forth, as though she was aiming a kick.
“What is she doing?” Natalya whispered.
“Applebucking,” Rainbow replied simply.
Before Natalya could ask what applebucking was, she saw Applejack suddenly rear up and then lash out with both of her hind legs, hitting the tree with a resounding thump. Her eyes widened when a shower of apples rained down, every single apple landing into one of the awaiting baskets.
“She just harvested an entire tree with just one kick…” Natalya uttered, her beak still slightly agape in shock.
Rainbow chuckled. “Yep, that’s applebucking. Applejack and her family are pros at it. It’s one of the reasons the Apple Family are the best apple farmers in all of Equestria.”
“Gotta say that was a bit impressive. Must take a lot of strength to pull that off.”
“Sure does. As much as I hate to admit it, Applejack definitely got me beat there. She can get all the apples down in one buck without breaking a sweat, while I need two… if I’m lucky.”
Natalya looked back to Rainbow. “Wait, you can applebuck too?”
“Would you two be quiet over there?!” Gilda hissed from the other tree. “You’re going to give us away and ruin everything!”
Natalya let out an irritated huff, but she complied with the order and quietly set her gaze back on their victim.
After the first tree, Applejack had picked up her pace. She would set up baskets around several trees at a time before running back to buck them all in quick succession. Applejack continued to whistle a carefree tune while she steadily worked her way closer to the pranksters, blissfully unaware of the trap that was set up for her.
Finally, Applejack made it to one of the trees that had been rigged with their surprise. As Applejack raised her legs for a mighty buck, Natalya could see Rainbow hold her breath with anticipation, and she found herself eagerly leaning forward as well.
Applejack’s hooves hit the tree, but instead of the usual deluge of red that came from her earlier applebucking, green rained down into the baskets.
“What in tarnation?!” Applejack hastily flipped around and stared at the not-apples, her mouth hung wide open in shock.
Natalya heard Rainbow’s stifled laughter, and she let out a few quiet snickers of her own.
Applejack cautiously moved closer to one of the baskets and slowly extended a forehoof. As soon as the tip of her hoof touched one of the green objects, she retracted it immediately and fell backwards onto her butt, as though she were burned. Hastily scooting herself backwards until her back hit a tree, she wailed, “They… They’re… pears! It can’t be! No, no, no! NOOOOO!”
Applejack’s cries echoed through the whole orchard for a good minute before they died down, leaving behind the cackles of the pranksters.
“Huh? What?” Applejack scrambled onto her hooves, quickly zeroing in on the pranksters’ hiding place and scowling. “You dang varmints! Rainbow! Pinkie!”
“Wowee, Applejack!” Pinkie cheered with a huge grin as she and the others got out of the trees. “I don’t think I ever heard you scream like that before! You were almost as loud as Rarity when we got her earlier.”
“Yeah, I knew you didn’t like pears, but I didn’t know it would make you do that,” Rainbow remarked, her grin growing more smug.
“Ah just don’t like them. There certainly wasn’t any traumatizin’, pear-related incident in my past,” Applejack replied, her face scrunching up while her eyes rapidly looked everywhere but the others or the pears.
“Right…” Rainbow replied, stifling another laugh along with the others.
Applejack calmed down and rolled her eyes at the griffons and ponies that were still either grinning or snickering at her. A small smile crossed her face, and she let out a quiet chuckle of her own. “Alright, alright, you got me, you chuckleheads. Ah guess Ah must’ve looked a bit silly. Now, what did you do with the missin’ apples?”
“We hid them a little ways back there,” Gilda replied, using a talon to point behind her.
“Good, and are there any other trees that you lot tampered with?”
“Maybe…” Rainbow answered with a coy grin.
Applejack narrowed her eyes and moved forward so that she was face to face with Rainbow. “If Ah end up buckin’ anymore pears today, so help me Rainbow Dash, Ah will make sure you won’t be able to get even a single drop when cider season comes around.”
Rainbow’s eyes shrunk into pinpricks, and she immediately backed off. “That one and that one,” she hastily blurted out, pointing to two other nearby trees.
Applejack grinned. “That’s what Ah thought.”
“Wow, way to keep it together, Rainbow,” Gilda dryly remarked.
“Dude, it’s Sweet Apple Acres Cider!” Rainbow defended. “It’s the best!”
“Well, Ah don’t like to brag, but yes. Yes, it is,” Applejack said, her grin now full of smugness. She then turned to Pinkie and Gilda. “Now, you two mind bringin’ back those apples?”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie saluted and promptly pronked away. “Come on, Gilda!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Gilda unenthusiastically replied as she lazily flew after Pinkie.
Applejack faced the remaining two pranksters. “As for you two, Ah need you two to clean out all of the…” Her face contorted into a grimace. “pears …”
“Why don’t you just buck them out?” Rainbow asked.
“Ah’m not gettin’ anywhere near those things.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll do it, but seriously, Applejack, you got problems.”
“Says the pony addicted to cider,” Applejack immediately shot back.
“Yeah, yeah. Natalya, can you help me set up the baskets and then pick up the pears that don’t make it in?”
“Do I have to?” Natalya asked.
Rainbow shot a flat look at the griffon. “You helped set this up, and I know you got a kick out of it as well, so you are sharing the blame. Come on, I’ve done a ton of stuff for you.”
Natalya sighed. “If I must.”
Natalya and Rainbow flew over to Applejack’s wagon and grabbed a bunch of baskets. Once the baskets were set up around the two pear-filled trees, Natalya backed off to let Rainbow do her applebucking.
Just like Applejack, Rainbow trotted up to a tree, turned around, and then reared up on her hind legs. When Rainbow’s hooves hit the tree, a shower of pears dropped down, along with some of the apples they had left on the tree that were on the outermost branches.
“Not a bad buck, Rainbow,” Applejack remarked. “You almost got all of them from the looks of it. Of course, most of those were pears that you probably just stuffed into the tree.”
“Gee, thanks for the compliment,” Rainbow’s reply came, laced with sarcasm. She had to buck the tree a couple more times before she finally got all the pears and apples down and then moved onto the next tree.
“Just curious, Rainbow,” Natalya spoke up as Rainbow finished bucking the second tree. “Do you applebuck often?”
Rainbow stared at Natalya and shrugged. “Er, sort of? I sometimes help out Applejack when she needs it. Other times are when I have to make it up to her for a prank… like now.”
“And you have been doing it for a while?”
Rainbow shrugged again. “I guess over the last couple of years.”
“So before your Sonic Rainboom in Cloudsdale?”
Rainbow cocked her head. “Uh, yeah. So what’s with all the questions?”
“I’m beginning to wonder if all that applebucking built up your strength to help pull off your Sonic Rainboom.”
“Um, I guess that might be possible? But then how did I do it when I was a filly? I hadn’t even seen an apple tree back then.”
“I don’t know. Maybe because you didn’t need any strength because you were just a shrimp when you were a filly?”
“Hey!”
“The point is,” Natalya continued, ignoring Rainbow’s indignant cry. “I have no idea how it works, and you don’t either. It’s why I have to try and figure it out for myself. I’m feeling like I’m getting nothing done with the stuff you gave me.”
“Where do you want these?” Gilda’s voice interrupted. She and Pinkie were moving towards them, each carrying a basket of apples.
“Anywhere around here,” Applejack answered, pointing at a spot nearby. “Big Mac should be able to see them when he comes along to pick up all the filled baskets later on. Actually now that Ah think about it, are any of you free tomorrow?”
“Sorry, Applejack,” Pinkie apologized as she and Gilda set down their baskets. “The Cakes got a big order to fill, so I need to help them out.”
“Oh, so I guess no baking lessons then tomorrow, huh?” Gilda asked.
“Of course there is! You’re getting really good! I just have to change things a little bit so that the stuff you’re going to learn how to make tomorrow is also going to help fill the order.”
Gilda chuckled. “I see how it is. Getting free labor out of me. Yeah, that’s fine with me since I owe you.”
“That’s two down,” Applejack stated. Looking to Natalya and Rainbow, she asked, “What about you two?”
“Well, I do have a day off from the weather team tomorrow…” Rainbow said slowly. “Why are you asking?”
“Big Mac has been busy plowin’ some new fields, so we’re gettin’ a bit behind in the applebuckin’. Havin’ you help out, even for just one day, would help put us back on schedule.”
Rainbow groaned. “But I was planning to catch up on my naps…”
A sigh of amusement escaped Applejack. The kind of sigh one uses when they already knew the response they would get and had something up their sleeve. “Oh, Ah forgot to mention, Granny and Ah were also plannin’ to do a bit of a test run of a new cider recipe tomorrow, and we might need a bit of help tastin’—”
“I’m free to help all day tomorrow!” Rainbow blurted out.
“Gee, I didn’t see that coming,” Natalya dryly quipped.
Again, Applejack had a smug grin. “Thank you kindly, Rainbow. What about you, Natalya? You feel like helpin’ out?”
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say she’s going to go train instead,” Rainbow answered.
“Actually, I would like to try some applebucking tomorrow,” Natalya declared.
“What?” Rainbow, Applejack, and Gilda all uttered.
“What?” Pinkie said a moment later. When everyone stared at her, she shrugged and added, “I didn’t want to be left out.”
“Ah got to say that Ah’m a bit surprised, but Ah appreciate it all the same, Natalya,” said Applejack. “Thanks.”
“Yeah well, I’m doing this because I think applebucking might help build up my strength so that I could do the Sonic Rainboom,” Natalya explained.
“Yep, that sounds more like the Natalya I know,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.
“Well, she’s helpin’ out regardless, so Ah’m not complainin’,” Applejack stated. “Now if you all don’t mind, Ah need to get back to work, so please make sure to sort out all those… ugh… pears and take them with you… preferably somewhere far away. Rainbow and Natalya, Ah’ll see you both tomorrow mornin’.”
Applejack went back to her wagon, hitching herself into it, and then nodding and smiling a farewell to them as she proceeded further into the orchard.
“Well, I guess we should hurry up with these before we head out,” Rainbow said, staring at the baskets mixed with apples and pears.
“What are we going to do with all these pears anyway?” Gilda asked, sitting down next to one of the baskets and chucking pears into an empty basket.
“Oh that’s easy,” Pinkie chirped. “We just have to get them back to Sugarcube Corner before the Cakes notice they don’t have enough pears for that big order tomorrow.”
Natalya, Gilda, and Rainbow all stared at Pinkie again, sharing a collective eye roll before they resumed sorting through the pears. It did not take too long before all the pears were separated. Gilda wanted to leave a few pears, just to mess with Applejack, but Rainbow adamantly refused, reiterating Applejack’s earlier threat of her cider ban.
After helping Pinkie take back the pears to Sugarcube Corner, Natalya and Gilda went back to Twilight’s castle.
Later that night, as Natalya got ready for bed, she wondered if tomorrow’s applebucking was really going to help her. All she was going to do was kick trees. Nonetheless, Rainbow had been doing it for a long time, so she might as well give it a shot and see if it did anything for her. At the very least, she was going to experience something new tomorrow.