The sun rose it's usual time. The morning ritual came through one more time. Fluttershy ignored Angel Bunny's temper and swept over to her boudoir. There she brushed through her mane carefully before clipping a cute blue flower accessory into it. After she felt satisfied, she walked casually over to her door.
It had become something she expected and, admittedly, something she looked forward to. The small gift box was wrapped in yellow today. The wrapping paper was decorative and cute, and the little white polka-dots that covered the sheen was inviting. As she picked it up, she returned back to her bed to sit on its comfortable warmth and pulled the paper off of the box gently.
Instead of a nicknack or a cute hair accessory, inside was a folding piece of paper. Fluttershy was not disappointed as much as she was purely surprised.
“I wonder what this is.” She muttered aloud, bumping the box with her hoof. Angel glared up at her impatiently, flopping his ears against the sides of his head, only to lift them high again. His desperate attempt to grasp at Fluttershy's attention was in vain as her eyes were plastered to the neatly folded paper. An odd aroma drifted from the box. Not exactly unpleasant but bitter. It was strong enough to singe at her nostrils but familiar enough for her not to notice.
The paper unfolded almost on it's own.
Fluttershy,
I'm more of a stallion of few words, so I'll try to make this brief...
Angel's impatience has hit its peak. The small fuzzy creature sprung forward, his long feet thrusting him from his stationary stance on the ground. His ears whipped behind him in his speed, and he took hold of the paper from Fluttershy. Taking of towards the door, he slammed his foot down multiple times, pointing towards the ground.
“Angel!” Fluttershy scolded. She firmly approached her little pet. However, she was defeated when Angel pointed accusingly at the wall clock. She was, in fact, late for her date with Applejack and the others. She weighed her consequences, glancing back and forth between Angel and the clock.
Forgetting briefly about the mysterious note, Fluttershy scattered out the door.
-----
Yes, a manticore. Twilight remembered that thing.
Erinyes? Those sound terrifying.
Oh my, how long do they live?
That also sounds terrifying.
BONK!
When the apple smashed into the top of Twilight's head, she was left dazed until two more followed shortly afterwards.
BONK, BONK!
Her Rare Creatures of Equestria book flopped on the ground as her levitation gave way. The shock of impact brought Twilight down to her knees, and left her eyes spinning in a haze. She rattled her head in an attempt to set her eyesight straight and then looked around her.
She was walking by the apple trees at Sweet Apple Acres. She looked back down at her open book as it lay spread upon the soil. Pouting, she used her magic to pick it up and set it back down properly.
She refused to learn her lesson about reading while walking to places.
“I'm sorry! Hey, you alright?” A voice called out to Twilight as she gathered her awareness.
“What? Oh, yes, I'm absolutely fine.” She responded promptly. A hoof was held out to her, and she took hold of it without looking at the face behind it. As she was pulled to a stance, she lifted her book into the air and slipped it into her saddle-bag. She's was already at the farm. No more time to read.
“Oh good. I can buck the tree pretty hard sometimes.”
As Twilight looked, she recognized the face of the stallion in which she was conversing. He had familiar light brown eyes. His blue mane and fur were slightly variant in shade and his cutie mark was graced with backwards musical notes. Eighth notes to be exact.
The blue earth pony gathered the three apples that had interrupted Twilight's peaceful reading and flung them over into a barrel. Afterwords, he smiled and looked over to the victim of his applebucking. “Twilight Sparkle, was it?”
“Yes, that's correct. And your name is Noteworthy, right?”
“Yes, ma'am. That's me.” He answered, not making eye contact but instead examine the branches of the tree, counting the apples that remain.
“Here, let me help you with that.”
With a thrust of magic, Twilight shot a levitation spell from the base of her horn. The apples remaining on the tree and the apples on the tree next to it plucked from the branches and leaves. Motioning her magic with the movement of her head, she led the apples up into the air, and then downwards. They drifted delicately, floating down in unison. They rested in two separate barrels without bruising, and Twilight let go of her grip on them.
Noteworthy was clearly impressed. He laughed proudly as she started eyeing the other trees.
“No wonder Applejack didn't think she needed us!” He made his way to another tree. Luckily, Applejack did the liberty of arranging barrels around the farm so he didn't have to grab any himself. He looked carefully at the trunk and readied to kick. “But I don't think anything can beat nice – hard – BUCK!” Kicking back during each pause, he thrust his back legs as hard as he could against the bark covered trunk on the last word.
“Not so fast!” Twilight joked, sending another wave of magic. As his hooves smashed against the bark, not only did his bragging ways cause him to tense up last minute causing his hooves to scrape against the bark and slip, but Twilight's magic swept through and caught any apples that managed to fall.
He grinned sheepishly, raising his eyebrows modestly. Twilight chuckled and dropped all of the apples into a barrel besides one, which she plopped on Noteworthy's head hard enough to thud yet delicate enough not to bruise the apple. Pulling a foreleg up in front of her mouth, she hid her laugh in vain.
“I'm going to go find Applejack now. Nice talking to you, Noteworthy.” Twilight said, still finishing her laughter before finishing her sentence.
Picking the apple off the ground, the blue earth pony looked at his company leave. He pouted pridefully, plopping the apple on top of a stack of apples in the nearest barrel.
-----
“Thas right, Caramel, just like that. Now, don't go forgettin' anythin', ya hear?” Applejack snipped at the light brown earth pony known as Caramel as he traced the trunks of the apple trees around him carefully.
“Applejack! I'm sorry that I'm late!” The sound of Fluttershy's voice called softly, hard to hear through the beating of her wings as she appeared over the treetops.
“Oh there ya are! Nah, don't worry 'bout it too much. It ain't nothin' big.”
The timing seemed to fall together perfectly. As Fluttershy hovered down onto the ground, Applejack managed to catch sight of Twilight galloping steadily towards her. The three ponies met in the middle, resulting in both Applejack and Twilight meeting where Fluttershy landed.
After some small talk, a light bouncing sound arose from behind the trees. As the heads turned towards the sound, the distinct mane style and color of Pinkie Pie started to hop in and out of view. The three sets of eyes watched carefully as Pinkie frolicked carelessly into the scene.
“Okie Dokie Lokie Applejack! I'm here for some working-ness!”
“Well, it looks like that's everypony. Do ya'll need introducin'?” Applejack asked after a brief laugh from Pinkie's entrance. She motioned towards Caramel as he bucked unaware of their attention.
All of them shook their head and smiled, pleased to be there to help their dear friend.
“Alright, everypony. Let's meet back here in two hours!”
-----
It was difficult to explain to an earth pony or a pegasus how magic could feel tiring. It was subtle; like a constant buzzing in your ear that kept you wondering when the sound was going to eventually get overbearing. It was tingly, and felt a little warm. However, it felt multiplied by double digits when used in mass. The weight of 30 apples is much more than somepony would expect, and the heaving mass felt like too much to handle at times. In one fluid motion, Twilight lifted a few trees worth of red and green apples. They drifted as if they were weightless.
As she split them up accordingly and slipped them all into barrels, she sat back, letting a few drips of sweat drip from her nose.
“You alright there, Miss Show-off?”
As Twilight's head followed the source of the sound, her eyes laid on Noteworthy again. A sly smile slid across her lips and she nodded to him.
“I'm fine. Are you sure you're okay? Had any unfortunate slips?”
“Not enough to matter.”
The last comment had a slur of sarcasm in it, but still sounded silly enough to laugh at. Noteworthy joined her in her laughter and took a seat next to her.
The sun had drifted farther in the sky, signaling that Twilight had been working for an hour straight. A rest wasn't out of the question.
As she glanced over to the earth pony next to her, she noticed he was tapping his hoof ever so slightly. She watched carefully. Tap, tap, tap-a-tap, tap. It was clearly a rhythm in his head. He repeated the pattern again, looping it seamlessly and flawlessly.
As he tapped, his head swayed back and forth slightly and his eyes were in a daze. He was clearly singing along in his mind.
As Twilight watched, she was captivated by the sheer simplicity of the pattern, but the mesmerizing beauty of the look in his eyes. As she looked at him carefully, she noticed the shagged fur, coated with sweat. His mane looked messy and his hooves chapped. Considering he was here before Twilight arrived, how much longer than her had he worked?
Tap, tap, tap-a-tap, tap.
The pattern looped once more. How many times has it been? It was melodic in its own way, even though it lacked the melody line itself. She looked away, leaning back into a more comfortable position. She swayed her head with the beat, taking in the rhythm. Subtly, she began to hum the first song that matched that she could think of.
She couldn't see it, but she could feel his eyes burn into her once she hummed along. She dared not look, lest she embarrass herself. She enjoyed music and all it brought to her. If she knew Noteworthy better, she'd probably sing. She wasn't ashamed of singing.
They continued their unplanned muse. Noteworthy began to hum with her, laughing lightly every now and then, as if he didn't know why he was feeding into it. As about 5 minutes passed, the song seemed to reach its end. Twilight almost found herself tempted to start humming again, as if she were sad it had ended.
After their song ended, there was silence. Neither party was brave enough to look at each other after the event drew to a close. Slowly, however, the silence ebbed into Noteworthy's humble laugh. The warm sound felt unexpected, drawing Twilight's attention.
“What?” She yelped, feeling her face become hot with blush.
“Nothing!” Noteworthy answered, laughing steadily. He looked in Twilight's direction and nudged at her. “It was just a fun way to pass time. But we probably should get back to work.”
“Oh, right.” Twilight agreed, smiling before taking a stand. “We've almost cleared this whole side of the farm though. We'll be done soon.”
“Hey, Twilight Sparkle?” Noteworthy asked. Twilight looked at him wordlessly, still a little embarrassed. As she didn't vocally respond, Noteworthy looked nervous. “Th-that is your name right?”
Twilight let out a small laugh. “Yeah, but you can just call me Twilight. What did you need?”
“Well, I didn't need anything. But I was thinking, maybe we can keep each other company as we finish. It would make it go by a lot faster.”
With a small smile, Twilight nodded.
-----
“Good job, everypony!” Applejack yelled over her friends. They all looked back with beaming grins. “We finished with enough time 'til the market to do a more in depth quality check!” She stomped a hoof down triumphantly. The friends talked amongst themselves and took a seat to rest, leaving Applejack to walk back to her home in order to gather some celebratory apple juice.
“Um...” Fluttershy approached her friend slowly, her head low. “Applejack?”
Applejack looked back at the yellow pegasus and paused in her steps. “Yeah, sugarcube?”
“Um, if you don't mind... I was wondering if I could come in with you and check on Big Mac's wounds. Oh, uh, if that's okay with you.”
“'Course! If you hadn't come last time he gone and hurt himself, we wouldn't have learned how to get him better faster.”
“Oh wonderful. Because, you know, I saw him limping before and I thought I could give him a few hints on how to recover.”
“Thas right, I've been meanin' to ask.” Applejack said, almost as if she were disconnected to Fluttershy's last statement. “That there flower in your mane. Where did ya get it?”
“Oh this?”
Putting a hoof up to the flower in her pink mane, she had almost forgot she was wearing it. “It was a gift. I didn't see who gave it to me... but it was on my doorstep. There's been this pony, somepony I haven't seen. They've been leaving gifts at my door every morning.”
“Oh?” Applejack said, suddenly growing a sleek smirk. “I see. Well then, ya'll better get in there and talk to Big Mac. I think that you should mention that to him while you're at it. He's real interested in stuff like that.”
“He is? I don't think he's the kind of pony – ”
“Just trust me. I think ya will be awfully surprised about what he says when you do.”
With that, the two ponies entered Applejack's home, taking different turns at the front door.