“How’s this for a heap of cherries?” asked Cherry Jubilee as she offered Braeburn a basket full of some big, red ones.
“These will make some fine cherry pies,” he replied taking one out to taste it. “Nice and fresh too. The buffalos will be happy when they see these.”
“So, when do you plan on heading back to Appleloosa?” asked Applejack.
“I wasn’t planning on come here till tomorrow,” answered Braeburn giving it a bit of thought. “So, since I’m a day ahead I guess I could spend the night and leave on the first train tomorrow.”
“Then I’ll get a room prepared for you to spend the night,” offered Jubilee.
“That’d be mighty kind if you would,” accepted Braeburn.
“And how about you, Applejack?” she asked. “Will you need a room as well?”
“It’s doubtful,” she answered. “I just need to find and fix a friendship problem then I’ll be off back to Ponyville. “I doubt it’d take me too long to find it.”
“I’ll get one ready just in case,” Jubilee told her and then started her way back to her home. “Oh, and if you happen to see that new hire of mine could you please tell him he doesn’t have to worry about coming back to work today. Tell him I’ve given him the rest of the day off to rest and relax. He’s more than earned it.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him,” Applejack nodded and made her way into town.
“Bout time I finally got focused on this friendship problem,” she said to herself. “Been too distracted for too long. Cherry Jubilee’s place seemed fine. Maybe I can ask around in the tavern and see if somepony can help me out there.”
Making her way into the tavern, it had that rustic western charm about it. Ponies had on ten gallon cowboy hats and were downing fresh apple cider like Rainbow Dash during cider season. There was a pony hoofwrestling at one of the tables with a sac of bits on the table that only got filled further with every victory he earned. With a Cutie Mark of hoof wrestling on his flank it looked likely his streak wasn’t going to be broken any time soon. There were some bulls at the counter enjoying a saltlick while the bartender on the other side was keeping to himself and wiping glasses clean with a rag.
Applejack took a seat at the bar and made eye contact with the bartender. “Howdy partner,” she told him.
“What be your preference, little lady?” he asked.
“Glass of cider if you would,” she replied.
“Been awhile since I recall seeing you in these parts,” he commented. “What brings you back?”
“A friendship problem,” she answered before taking a sip of her cider finding it to her liking. “Know anything about one?”
“None I can recall,” he answered. “Folks been quite neighborly as of late. Haven’t seen so much as a crooked game of cards. A bit of a shame. Doesn’t give me a whole lot to gossip about, but it’s better than having to fix the place up after a riot.”
“Well, if anything catches your attention, you let me know,” Applejack told him after downingthe rest of her cider. “I’ll be back.”
Getting up to leave, Applejack suddenly stopped when a musical tune caught her attention as well as that of everyone else in the tavern from sounding so out of place. It was very smooth and light like that of a gentle breeze. It seemed to relax everypony there, just leaving them silent as they listened. Even the stallion hoofwrestling paused to enjoy it. His opponent noticed this and attempted to beat him while he was distracted, but couldn’t even get him to budge even a little.
“Well, that certainly does,” the bartender told her. “Never heard a sound quite like that before. Seems to be coming from above.”
“I’ll go take a look,” offered Applejack already hurrying up the stairs to investigate. The music did indeed get louder, but as she checked the hall and all the rooms she still couldn’t find the source. “It’s definitely louder up here, but where is it?” She moved to the room the sound was the loudest in and kept following it best she could, but searching in furniture, the closet, and even under the rug there was nothing. “I don’t get it. By now I should see what’s making that sound. I’m pretty much on top of it now.” She listened to it even more intently and her head turned to the ceiling. “Or maybe I’m right under it.”
Peeking her head out the window, she could hear it even clearer, directly above, on the roof. “There you are,” she smiled and hurried back down the stairs to the main floor of the tavern.
“Did you find out what’s making that noise?” asked the bartender.
“I’m about to,” she answered hurrying outside.
“When you do could you tell me?” he requested. “I need a something interesting to gossip about.”
Outside there were other ponies who were just as curious about the music that was playing and had gathered around the building. Circling around to the back of the tavern, Applejack found a ladder leading to the roof and started to climb it. At the top she finally got to lay eyes upon what was causing it and to her surprise, it was the fiery-headed pony that Cherry Jubilee had hired. In his hooves he had a flute that he was playing while he stared up at the sky. As Applejack came into view his playing suddenly went off key before the music came to a complete stop.
“Uh… hi,” he replied a bit nervously. “You were at the farm with Ms. Jubilee, right?”
“Yeah,” nodded Applejack. “Oh, that reminds me. Ms. Jubilee wanted me to tell you not to worry about hurrying back to the farm.”
“She said what?” he asked sitting up looking paler yellow.
“That you can take the whole day off,” she confirmed. “So you can just keep doing what you were and might I add that was some of the nicest flute playing that I ever did hear.”
“This is terrible,” he cried getting up and making his way down the later. “I need to hurry back to the farm right away.”
“But I just told you that you didn’t have to go back right now,” Applejack reminded him. “You were given the day off.”
“But she wouldn’t just tell me to take a lunch break and then just decide to give me the rest of the day off for no reason. She’s not satisfied with my work. She wants somepony better. She probably has found somepony better. They’re probably doing my work while I’ve just been lazing about.”
“What are you going on about?” cried Applejack hurrying down the ladder after him. “You aren’t making a lick of sense.”
“I have to get back to the farm and work twice as hard,” he answered back dashing off. “No! At least three times as hard! Oh, I can’t lose this job.”
“You aren’t losing anything,” argued Applejack grabbing a lasso and roping him to keep him in place. Reeling him in, Applejack managed to finally get close enough to him to talk. “Nopony is coming in to replace you. Ms. Jubilee just wanted you to take the day off on account of how hard you’ve been working. Now I understand the value of hard work as well as anypony could, but I’ve never seen anypony become as panicked about it as you seem to be. How about you settle down a bit and tell me what’s gotten into you? Uh, but before that how about telling me your name since we haven’t been properly introduced yet. I’m Applejack.”
“Fire Wheel,” he answered. “Um, that’s my name. I’m from Manehatten and I guess that’s about it.”
“That’s something else I’ve been wondering about,” added Applejack. “Why would a city pony come all the way down here to work on a cherry farm? Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but what made you want to and apparently very badly?”
“Cause I’m a hard worker and I just love cherries,” he answered. “Cherries are the best. What could be a better job for me, right?”
“So you’re telling me that cherries are better than apples?” she questioned him with a stern look in her eyes. You wanna say that again?”
“Um, well, I guess cherries are kinda like apples but tinier,” he answered meekly and gave a timid laugh. “Uh, maybe cherries aren’t so great.”
“Hearing this I can assume either one of two things,” she concluded. “Either you’re a yellow belly…” Applejack paused noting the yellow hue to his coat. “Uh, in the figurative sense I mean for backing down so easily. The other option is that you aren’t interested in cherry farming at all. Between the two, I’d say you’re probably the later. Now, how about fessing up and no more lies cause honesty is kinda my thing.”
“Well, you see, the thing about that, is, uh, well,” Fire Wheel stuttered trying to think of something, anything to tell her, but the glare Applejack had as she waited for him to say something coherent was so focused it was like she was looking right through him. With a sigh, he finally admitted the truth. “No. I was never interested in cherry farming or any type of farming at all. I just came out here because I didn’t want my friends to worry.”
“Why would they worry?” she asked.
“Cause I’m a yellow belly figuratively as well as literally,” he confessed. “I can’t stand up for myself. That’s how I’ve been all my life. I’d go along with what anypony would say just to avoid a confrontation and work twice as hard as anypony else too. That was how it always was for me, till I met my friends and they gave me some confidence just by being there for me. But when Gale said she wanted to go to Los Pegasus and Rocky decided to head to Canterlot that just left me and April. We had a big party to wish them both luck, but I could tell that they were all worried that I’d lose all my confidence again if they all left. I didn’t want them leaving thinking that and I didn’t want April to feel like I was holding her back so I made my own announcement that I was going to pursue my own dream as well with my music.”
“Like what you were playing up on the roof,” recalled Applejack. “That did sound very nice.”
“Thanks,” he blushed. “I am actually really good at playing a number of instruments and record each part separate to combine them together. Some of my music is actually really good. During the party, I even gave a copy of one of the best pieces I recorded to my friends as my memento to them. I even was so bold to proclaim that my music will be so big that they’ll play it on the streets of every big city for all to enjoy. It wasn’t long after that that I ended up in Dodge Junction.”
“But from what I’ve heard you’ve been working almost nonstop at the cherry farm since you got here,” Applejack stated.
“It might take some time before my music can make it big,” he replied. “And I’ll need some bits to live on, after all.”
“But have you actually been trying at all or have you just been spending all your time working so you could avoid it?” Applejack pointed out. “You said before that you were good and I just heard you myself, so I know that’s true.”
“Like I said before,” he sighed. “I’m too afraid to play in front of anypony without my friends with me, but I don’t want them to worry believing that they have to always be there to give me confidence. So long as they think I’m doing well and I am not a burden to them then that’s all that matters to me.”
“Do you think your friends would be happy to see you like this?” Applejack argued. “You may have said all that because you didn’t want them to worry, but I’d bet every last apple on Sweet Apple Acres that they truly believe what you told them. They know you have talent with music. How would they feel knowing that you said all that stuff and didn’t even try to make good on it. If anything, I’d say that was the worst lie I’ve ever heard. You aren’t just lying to them. You’re lying to yourself as well.”
“What do you expect me to do then?” Fire Wheel asked her. “Why do you even care?”
“Cause it is my mission to do so and I think that’s the reason that I’m here,” Applejack explained. “But I can only do that if you’re willing to let me help. So, tell me, what do we have to do?”
“Well, first we have to go back to the cherry farm,” he told her getting a stern look from Applejack. “I’m serious. Everything I need is in my room over there.”
“Then lead the way,” Applejack smiled glad to finally be on the track of her friendship mission.
“You weren’t kidding about playing a lot of instruments,” commented Applejack looking at what he had. “You got your flute, a harp, heh even a triangle.”
“Eight in total,” he commented with a little laugh. “I’d record the different parts of the instruments separately and then I’d put them together so they all play together. I bet you’ve never seen one pony play eight instruments at once.”
“Uh, not eight,” admitted Applejack immediately thinking of Pinkie Pie. “But how were you expecting to have ponies listen to your music if you can’t play the music yourself?”
“Like I said, I have it all recorded,” he explained showing her a music cd. “I got the different musics I’ve made on these. I just put them in this boombox over here and it’ll play them.”
“So they’re even making records fancier nowadays,” said Applejack looking at the cd’s shiny side and seeing her reflection in it. “How about playing it so I can hear it?”
“Okay, if you insist,” he stuttered a little, but followed through in popping the cd into the boombox and was about to hit the ‘Play’ button, but stopped and quickly moved to the door and to see if anypony else was close enough to hear it. Once he was satisfied, he then closed the door and sat down to start the music.
Right away, the music started with the tune of the flute similar to what Fire Wheel had been playing earlier. The harp was soon added in along with some piano soon after. One by one, the instruments were added until all eight were playing together and added more energy to all the music as a whole.
“Wow, this really is incredible,” praised Applejack. “I can’t imagine anypony not enjoying listening to it.”
“You really think so?” he asked. “You aren’t just saying that to be nice?”
“I wouldn’t say anything if it wasn’t the honest to god truth,” she told him. “And if that still isn’t good enough then we’ll simply have to let as many ponies hear it till you finally do believe. And we can start right here with the cherry farm, tonight.”
“You want everypony here to listen?” Fire Wheel asked. “But I don’t even have anything set up. Just this one boombox. There’s no way I could get something big ready by tonight.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Applejack assured him. “I think we can make due with what you have right here.”