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// Applebloom 
// Story: The Cutie Mark Crusaders: Down the Road 
// by ScrimpyMule 
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	It was a cool autumn afternoon in Ponyville and a young Earth mare was working in her shop. She was beginning work on the stage that would be used in the Nightmare Night festival, which would take place in six weeks time. She wanted to get an early start on this project, as she always had orders to fill and she wanted to make sure she had ample time to finish the stage. She could wait until one day prior to the festival to even begin if she wasn’t so bogged down with orders all the time, she was that good.  The popularity of AppleWood: Improvement and Repair in Equestria kept her busy.
The stage would be too big to complete construction in her shop. She would have to build the frame in pieces, then move outside to assemble it and build the stage around it. She completed the first frame piece and wiped the sweat off her brow. She picked up her pink bow, which had fallen off at some point, and placed it back on her head. It was a fashion accessory that she had never outgrown.
Applebloom was about to start on the second frame piece when she heard the bell at the front desk. Upon entering the main office of her shop she found Zecora. The day before, Zecora had dropped off a table that needed repair because the screws that held the legs to it had been removed and refastened so many times that the screw holes were too big and overused for the screws to fasten securely. 
Applebloom led Zecora to the back of the shop where she was keeping the finished table. She explained that she had removed the screw system and replaced it with a new system where the newly threaded legs could simply be inserted and into the table and fastened. She had also stripped the chipping paint, sanded, and applied a brand new coat of paint. The result was a piece of furniture that could have been passed off as brand new.
Applebloom’s work far exceeded what Zecora had originally asked for, which was simply repairing the screw holes. They spent the next several minutes negotiating payment, eventually agreeing on forty bits. This was less than one-half what Applebloom normally would have charged for the task Zecora had requested in the first place. Applebloom would have done the job free of charge, but Zecora wouldn’t hear of it. It was one of the ways Applebloom thought she could repay the mare to whom she credited the discovery of her cutie mark.
Ten years earlier it was not uncommon for Zecora to ask Applebloom to come to her home in the Everfree Forest to fix a piece of furniture that had conveniently broken. Applebloom, who at this point was unaware of her talent, was always happy to help even though she always thought she could see sighs of deliberate sabotage. She remained oblivious to her talent for improvement, repair, and minor construction until Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle pointed out what Zecora was doing. One day, while Applebloom   was on her way home after fixing one of Zecora’s cabinets she discovered a hammer, screwdriver, and a wrench had at some point appeared on her flank.
Zecora and Applebloom loaded the table into Zecora’s wagon and Zecora departed with a rhyme of gratitude. Applebloom returned to her work on the stage, reflecting back on the first project she had ever undertaken after discovering her talent. For years the Apple Family had been trying to raise money to replace Big Macintosh’s plow, which had long been in disarray. Applebloom eliminated the need for such a thing by fixing and improving it. By the time she was done the eighty year-old farm implement looked like it was new. In fact it even worked better than it did when it WAS new. Applebloom fixed up a number of things on Sweet Apple Acres and she even helped Big Macintosh build a new house on the land after he and Cheerilee were married. (See The Personal Journal of Big Macintosh)
Over the years Applebloom made a name for herself in Ponyville. It wasn’t until she became known across Equestria after the Canterlot Tallent Show that she thought about starting a business. Eventually AppleWood was born and it took off almost immediately. 
Applebloom was half way done with the second frame piece when she looked up at the clock on her wall. It was five o’clock, which meant she had one hour until the reunion. She quit for the day, put her tools away, closed up shop, and went home to start getting ready.