Vice and Enzo headed down the stairs towards the assorted sounds emitting from a room. As they neared the source, they were greeted with an odd smell. The scent drifted from multiple directions as Vice and Enzo entered the aromatic room. Their expectation of the kitchen was quite the opposite of what they had thought. The whole place was filled with random food scraps. Half-cleaned plated littered a battered, wooden table. Vice grimaced as he felt slippery squishiness below him. Enzo shrugged the feeling off, trying to keep a straight face.
“Glad y’all finally made it!” shouted Applejack from an unknown location. There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Both stallions turned their attention towards an approaching Applejack. She was holding a platter piled with some sort of flat food. Its pleasant scent easily penetrated the odd smell from earlier. Vice’s mouth instantly started to water while Enzo tried to suppress a stomach growl. Applejack set the meal onto the messy wooden table, trying to clear away assortments of food.
“Big Mac is already outside workin’. Eat up n’ meet me out there when y’all are done. You boys’ll be learnin’ the ropes on how to buck trees. So, I suggest not gorging yourselves full.” Applejack was trying to be as straightforward as possible.
“Wait, we’re gonna what trees?” Vice said breaking his gaze from the food.
“Buck,” Applejack said pronouncing the B explicitly. “Not-“
“Ahh…”
“Right, just be ready to work when you’re settled,” Applejack said walking out the door which temporarily unleashed the sunshine in. There was a quiet interval in which neither Vice nor Enzo moved. They simply stared at the strange food they had never seen before.
“…ah dammit, I forgot to ask what the heck these things were,” Vice said in disappointment.
“Well, let’s not let it go to waste,” Enzo said optimistically.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Yo, Applejack!” Vice shouted as he and Enzo stepped outside the barn. “What are those things called that we just ate?”
“Uh, pancakes,” Applejack said giving Vice an awkward glance. “I’m surprised you didn’t know what they were.”
“Um, so what are we going to help you with?” Enzo said trying to allude from the pancake problem.
“Like I said earlier, y’all will be bucking trees.” Applejack motioned the duo to come over to her. She stood next to a towering apple tree. The apples shined bright red in Celestia’s sun. Most of them seemed to be in perfect condition from Vice and Enzo’s view. This was just one tree, tens and hundreds were spotted off in the distance. Faint cracks could be heard through the still air which lightly startled Enzo.
“That’s just mah brother doin’ what you’re ‘bout tah do.” Applejack analyzed a tall tree for a quick second before bringing her hind legs up and forcefully kicking the tree. Balancing on her forehooves, she, along with the duo, watched as several apples fell onto the ground. Vice’s jaw almost broke off while Enzo simply nodded approvingly.
“Hey, hey! Wow, wow there,” Vice quickly stuttered. “What the...hay was that?”
“Called apple bucking, partner,” Applejack firmly stated. “Just get on your forehooves, balance yourself out and let that tree have it.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Enzo said slightly grinning. ‘I guess kicking stuff isn’t bad,’ he thought.
“Yeah, for you, Mister kick boxer,” Vice said with worry for himself. He knew Enzo was better at this stuff than he was.
“You kickbox?” Applejack said raising a brow.
“No,” Enzo said looking away.
“Okay, well, why don’tcha try at a tree, Mister…”
“Enzo.” After the connection, Enzo walked towards a tree with multiple red apples. He secured his forehooves on the ground and prepared to kick. Time seemed to slow down as Enzo brought full focus into his legs and unleashed his buck. The energy from his legs exploded with power as he landed the strike. The tree was bare of its fruit; only one or two lucky apples remained from Enzo’s hit. This time Applejack’s jaw almost fell off. She stared in complete disbelief at what she had witnessed.
“Show-off,” Vice simply said unnerved by the unreal kick.
“How did you do…that?” Applejack asked still astonished by the blow.
“I-I really don’t know,” said Enzo scratching his head. Vice subtly rolled his eyes in the most dramatic way possible, but Applejack caught him in the act.
“What about you?” Applejack said coming back to her senses. “Why don’t you show us what you can do.”
“Wah-uh, yeah. Alright fine,” Vice said pumping himself up. He did a few hops and threw a few punches at the air, making exhaling noises with each swing. Cracking his neck, he stood beside another tree and took a deep breath.
“Aren’t yah gonna take that thing off first?” Applejack said pointing to Vice’s trench coat.
“Hmm, well you seem to be fine bucking trees with that hat on. Enzo seems fine bucking trees with his scarf on. I don’t see the difference here,” Vice said half ignoring Applejack’s comment. Applejack shook her head in disapproval while sighing. “Aight then.” Vice tried to copy what Enzo did. He stood on his forehooves, but wobbled as he tried to maintain balance. Enzo gave out a faint giggle while Applejack observed the pony comically.
“Haahh!” Vice let out a battle cry when he went in for the kick. The tree shook and a single apple clunked him on the head. Enzo was trying to suppress his inevitable chuckles while Applejack just stood and watched pitifully. “Well, I got one,” Vice said picking up the shining apple.
“One outta thirty or so I reckon,” Applejack said.
“Well baby steps should always be taken when doing new things, eh?” Vice said trying to justify the fact that he couldn’t kick.
“Anyway, just keep doin’ this until I call y’all over. Shouldn’t be too much of a hassle now and I’ll be watchin’ your progress from afar. That means don’t slack off,” Applejack said particularly looking at Vice. With that being said, she started walking towards another tree.
“Maybe you could lend me a leg, Enzo.” Vice half hoped that his partner would comply.
“Try not to break your own,” Enzo said. He proceeded to continue bucking trees while Vice was hesitant to finish his own. By the time Vice had gotten into position, the stallion had already kicked another tree bare and was moving to the next.
‘C’mon, Vice, pull yourself together! You’re making a fool of yourself,’ Vice thought with annoyance. He released his kick, this time without a cry. He counted three more apples gone and triumphantly looked at Enzo who was moving to yet another tree. ‘Ohh, this is gonna be a long ass day,’ Vice thought dreadfully as he continued to unleash havoc on his first tree.
~~~~~~~~~
“Soup’s on, everypony!” Applejack called out. The mare and Big Mac already stood next to a table covered with a plain red and white checkered cloth. Enzo quietly emerged from the apple forest. He hesitantly approached his new boss without any signs of fatigue whatsoever.
“Um.” Enzo was still slowly nearing Applejack and Bic Mac.
“It’s okay, don’t be shy. We’re jus’ takin’ a breather as all,” Applejack said as welcomingly as possible. “Say where’s your friend at?”
“Vice? Oh, I don’t-“
“Right…here,” Vice had appeared before the crowd, limping his way toward everypony. Sweat coated his face and his teeth were gritted tightly together. The jet black mane of his had all three tufts messed up, some strands matted to his forehead. A wry smile was still attached to his face.
“Somepony’s been workin’ hard.” Big Mac said half-heartedly.
“You could say that again!” Vice said with a tired tone.
“Well if I do recall,” Applejack started saying. “Enzo, yah bucked a total of ‘bout thirty-four trees this morning.
“It that a lot?” Enzo said humbly and innocently.
“Hel-damn right that’s a lot!” Vice spat with mixed amazement and anger.
“And you, uh.” Applejack pointed at Vice, but realized that she never asked or knew his name.
“Who, me? Well, it’s Vicer or Vice for sho-“
“Yah got about four trees.”
“Well…that’s a record in my book,” said Vice trying to divert the embarrassment off of him.
“Gosh, I reckon even Apple Bloom could buck more th’n this guy,” Big Mac said genuinely to Applejack. Vice gave a distasteful face, but decided not to mess with the bigger stallion.
“Be nice, not everypony bucks as hard as the Apple family,” Applejack said with some hint of pride. This only added insult to injury as Vice misconstrued Applejack’s words. He had insults of his own to fire back, but he held them back as Applejack awkwardly motioned the group to drink the soup. Enzo gingerly picked up his bowl. It was a simple, wooden bowl with varying splotches of brown. Within it, there lay a mixture of a bright, golden liquid with specks of red and green dots scattered about. Enzo brought the soup to his lips, but was rudely interrupted before getting a taste.
“Ooohh myy!” said Vice raising his head from the half-filled bowl.
“Are you gonna comment on everything you eat?” Enzo asked with a subtle giggle.
“Try it yaself, bud,” Vice said finishing up his bowl. Enzo took a sip and was greeted with a tangy type of taste. The soup itself was slightly viscous, but Enzo disregarded that as he continued to drink the sweet soup.
“Well, everypony back to work,” Applejack said. Big Mac’s bowl as well as her own was already clean empty. Vice literally choked on his soup as he swallowed a nervous gulp. Spitting the contents all over the table, he gave out an extended 'yo'.
“You know what, forget it, I give up. Let’s get to work,” he finished saying as his body drooped into exhaustion.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Nuuurse! I need more pills!” Blitz yelped desperately. The blue stallion flailed about in his bed. His face was twisted in a look of agony, his eyes held craziness under them.
“Mister Blitz, you’ve already had your seventh pill. I’m sorry, but I simply cannot give you any more,” Nurse Redheart said with concern.
“I know, but I gotta have more. The pain is too intense!” Blitz added so much drama into his voice that Nurse Redheart had a hard time separating truth and lies.
“Listen, I’ll give you another in a few hours. How’s that sound?” The nurse tried to sound as sincere as possible.
“But that’s such a looong time.”
“Just please hold out.” Nurse Redheart said as she scurried out the room. “Always have to be the nice one,” she muttered under her breath.
~~~~~~~~~~
“…Vice,” Enzo stopped his bucking and focused his attention on his lounging friend. “What are you doing?” Vice had found himself the perfect spot to relax within the apple forest. He lay on his back, taking in the sunlight from the small clearing through the trees.
“’sup, just hangin’ around. Nothing too special,” Vice said nonchalantly.
“So you can’t buck as good as everyone else. You can’t just-“
“Well seeing as everypony here is apparently built like a freakin’ tank, I don’t think I’m much help. So, why bother,” said Vice still retaining his carefree voice. Enzo had nothing to say. “I think I’ll take my leave,” Vice said leaping up onto all fours. “If ya need me, I’ll be over there…somewhere.” Vice pointed vaguely toward an opening in the forest. He started to make his way, trotting rigidly.
“Wait, you’re just gonna leave? After we’ve gotten somewhere to stay and li-“
“Wowhoho there, brother. I don’t think I’m settling down anywhere anytime soon. Food was nice, I’ll admit…but this kind of life ain’t really my style. Know what I’m sayin’?” Vice said raising his hoofs to the air.
“But, I thought you said we were ‘living the life’,” Enzo said as a last attempt to keep Vice from leaving.
“That was before I was dropped into manual labor, buddy.” With that being said, Vice left Enzo in the apple forest, making his way out of sight.
~~~~~~~~~~
‘God dammit,’ Vice thought with his head hot with furious embarrassment. ‘How can they smash those trees so well while I can’t even do damage. Enzo makes sense since his legs are built like guns, but those other ponies, I don’t understand. Must be them trees, jacked up on steroids or some shi-‘ Vice froze mid thought as a whirling figure swooped through the sky. A rainbow-like trail followed behind it. He found himself in the open field that Enzo, Clyde and him had traversed the other night. The grassy plain was still as barren, but calming as last night to Vice. That was, until the flying figure interrupted Vice’s wandering stroll through the plain.
‘…I must be so high right now. Either that or I’m tripping on whatever that Applejack girl fed me.’ Vice thought comically. ‘What in the world flies and leaves a rainbow sparkle behind it?’ With burning curiosity, Vice went full sprint towards the figure’s direction. Vice charted its direction and followed wherever it was headed. Flowers crushed under his steps as he hunted the fast flier down.
A town-like appearance came into view and Vice assumed it was Ponyville. He realized his mane was still muffled up from the work earlier and cursed himself for it. Following where he had last seen the rainbow trail, he entered what looked to be some sort of town square. Various houses surrounded a centered area where a group of ponies were gathering about. Vice hesitantly walked toward the circle not knowing what to expect.
“Wow, that was so cool!” a voice said.
“How do you do that?” said another voice.
‘If this is what I think it is then I’m gonna have some trouble,’ Vice thought worryingly. He squeezed through the crowd, lightly moving ponies aside. After several pushes and shoves, he had found what he had been searching for.
“Thank you, thank you. I know I’m awesome, no need to tell me again…unless you want to.” The cyan blue pegasus in the middle was taking in the crowd. She was basking in the glory, giving nodding approvals and brohoofs to various ponies. Her rainbow colored mane flashed in Celestia’s sun. Her rainbow tail also flashed vibrantly as it wagged excitedly back and forth. She outstretched her wings, showing them off to the cheering crowd.
‘Yep.’ Vice shouted over the crowd. “Were you the one flying?” The blue mare didn’t take notice of him. “Heeey!” Vice shouted louder, but the cheer of the crowd drowned him out. He stared at the pegasus with rising fury as she celebrated and egged the crowd on. “YO, I challenge you to a race!” Vice blurted out of pure frustration. The minute the words left his mouth he felt regret that couldn’t be cured.
A hush fell upon the crowd. The cyan mare looked for the source of the challenge and locked eyesight with Vice. Her magenta eyes penetrated his spirit. “A race? With that thing on?” She pointed at Vice’s trench coat. “...bwahahaha, yeah right. Are you even a pegasus?”
“What…oh uh, yeah, I got wings to prove it.” Vice reconsidered his proposition for a moment. ‘Damn, I can’t show these off to the crowd it’d be a disaster for me and Enzo. We’ll be forced to bail this town just like last time.’ Vice tried desperately to ponder up a witty plan to escape his situation, but his mind raced as dozens of eyes peered into his skull.
“Well let’s see ‘em,” the blue mare said as she flapped her own wings. They gave off a wave of elegance as Vice stared in awe.
“Wow there, no need to be hasty. Let’s, uh, go somewhere less crowded. Not at my full potential when under pressure.” Vice tried to sound as snobby as possible.
“Really, there’s only like six ponies here. But, if you insist…” The blue pegasus gestured Vice to follow.
‘Me and my ego…’ Vice thought. ‘Then again, no one’s faster than me.’ The two eventually ventured out of sight from the crowd and found themselves in the outskirts of town. A familiar forest was nearby, but Vice assumed he was as far away from the farm as possible.
“You better not be whining when you lose.” Vice said with an air of confidence.
“You’re talking to the best flier in all of Equestria, Rainbow-hey!” Before the blue pony could finish, Vice had taken off. He was in a mad dash to get distance between him and his opponent.
‘Maybe she really won’t notice,’ Vice thought gaining speed. When he no longer felt her presence, Vice extended his wings through cut slits in his trench coat. He kept his steady gallop before taking off. Vice could feel his coat flapping behind him, his mane rustling against the wind.
“Haven’t used these beauts in a while,” Vice said flapping each wing with full force. He looked back at his wings and acknowledged that they weren’t normal in the slightest. Both wings were tipped with dark gold metallic material, forming an outline on his wings. Each connected to one another until disappearing under the trench coat through the slit. Vice heard subtle clinking with each flap as he slowly enjoyed his released wings.
“Guess this wasn’t such a bad idea after all,” said Vice with rising joy as he felt the rushing gale breeze past him. The pegasus looked back for the blue pegasus, but disregarded her existence and resumed his flight. He was low enough on the ground to see the land and its beauty although he didn’t know where he even was. All he cared for was winning and he knew he had the race won already. His mindset was shattered once he heard a faint noise. He instantly became paranoid of his wings, but couldn’t even react fast enough as a rainbow bullet whizzed past him.
“You gotta do better than that,” the rainbow mare hollered back. A wave of determination swept through Vice cleaning up his paranoia. He reared his body back, prepped his metallic-tipped wings, and shot forward with a burst of speed. "Can't get rid of me that...easily." Vice lost his sense of confidence as he actually lost sight of the rainbow mare. "What in the name of nuts?"
The pegasus picked up his speed considerably and exerted all his strength into his wings. He managed to catch a glimpse of a rainbow figure, but it disappeared as soon as it came. "Holy hell, how the hell-what the jizz!" Vice groaned in frustration as he pushed himself further. Seconds turned into minutes as he struggled to catch up with Rainbow Dash. A moment finally came when he saw the mare in full. She seemed to be resting on a cloud which put more anger into Vice. "Here I come!"
The mare eyed him with amusement and quickly popped downwards through the cloud layer. Vice grunted and followed with regained confidence. As he zoomed through the clouds, the Equestrian earth revealed itself. He closed his eyes and cursed to himself as he flew straight through a tree. Unknown branches and leaves scratched and slapped at Vice, causing him to lose balance. He escaped the green hellhole only to find himself headed for the ground.
"Fuuudge!" Vice dropped his hooves and let them break his fall. He regretted the decision and felt his legs being crushed upon impact. The pain was intense, but was soon lifted and filled with another pain.
"And that's why you don't mess with Rainbow Dash. Oh, and I was getting bored too, so I thought I'd let you down as softly as I could," Rainbow Dash taunted from above. Vice avoided eye contact and huffed at the ground. Once the mare had vanished, he sat down and moped.
‘Least she didn’t notice the wings,’ Vice thought with distasteful relief.
“Cockiness at its finest,” a voice said. Vice sprang up in terror and deftly retracted his wings back into his trench coat. Turning around, he came face to face with a white stallion.
“Clyde?”
“Don’t forget your friend,” Clyde said sidestepping to reveal Enzo. Vice let his body fall down in the grass due to extreme exhaustion.
“You’ve got some explaining to do, Mister,” Clyde said as he dragged Vice away.