//------------------------------//
// 24 Earth Drinker, Part Four 
// Story: Continuity Disrupted 
// by Doug Graves 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle watches the pegasus disappear back into the west section of the orchard, the empty cart dragging behind her. She groans, stamping her hoof at the stubborn display before walking into the barn. Dozens of open crates are stacked up along the walls next to long rows of rectangular boards. Several crates have lids already secured and labeled with a thick, blocky black script - she would have expected that style of writing from a unicorn, it doesn't look like anything done with mouth - though the vast majority are waiting to be filled and marked with their contents and destination. A small table is by the entrance with a pencil and two stacks of papers. 

Twilight Sparkle idly flips through the thicker stack, finding a checklist (she mentally cheers - yey!) and order forms for locations all over Equestria, though most go to Ponyville or Canterlot. Spike, meanwhile, curls up in a shady corner next to Winona and tries to go back to sleep. Twilight Sparkle turns to the couple of baskets of large red apples Doug and Granny Smith are sifting through, excitedly asking, "So, how do you sort the apples? Size? Type? Shininess?"

"Ah knew it! Ah knew you couldn't resist the apple's allure!" Applejack yells as she pulls her wagon into the barn. Doug stands, quickly counting the baskets Applejack unloads and marking onto the shorter stack of papers. Applejack does her best Twilight impersonation, "Don't you just kick the tree and the apples fall down?"

"She can't help herself!" Spike shouts from his corner, trying to plug his ears with his claws.

"He's right, I really can't," Twilight says, almost apologetically but not really. She motions to the baskets now spread out on the floor, "It's just so fascinating! There are so many tiny cogs and gears that I never knew existed! And it's so interesting how they all work together to build such a smooth running machine!"

"Eeyup!" Applejack says with a broad smile, the last of her full baskets unloaded. She loads her wagon with empty baskets, saying a bit louder, "Ah can't talk just yet, but Doug ain't gonna be busy." She winks at Doug, though he is too focused on sorting to notice. She adds, a mite louder, "Now, Doug, you be sure to treat Twilight to whatever she wants." She smiles at him when he glances up at her, quickly leaving at his short wave.

Doug stretches before he grabs yet another basket of apples. Now that Applejack has started, he and Granny Smith will be hard pressed to keep up with both farmponies. Actually, since it's Rainbow instead of Big Mac it won't be as bad at first. But the hours will be much longer, since Big Mac won't be in the barn to assist after his shift ends. And, since all the apples are still growing, they will still have about the same number of apples to go through, the volume just spread out later into the day. Maybe the fillies will get press-ganged into helping out - most of them are old enough, after all - but one of the adults will have to apologize to Miss Cheerilee for the late homework. Better make it Big Mac for that, it's his fault (sort of) it's like this in the first place.

"I'd love that!" says Twilight excitedly, levitating a quill and notepad; Doug slightly flinches, though she doesn't seem to notice. Twilight smiles as she starts jotting down notes. "What are those papers?"

"So," Doug begins, motioning to the stack of papers Twilight was rifling through, "The short stack is just keeping track of how many apples each of them have brought in. The other stack has the order forms for all the different customers and contracts we have. "

"Are they arranged in any kind of order?" Twilight asks as she levitates one of the red apples to inspect the different varieties. "They seem-"

"Oi!" Granny Smith shouts with considerably more force than necessary to be heard in the barn, "No magic on the apples, ya hear?!"

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Twilight says, her horn winking out and her quill and notes falling to the floor as well. She gathers them up with her hooves, eyes raising as she asks, "Why didn't you yell at me earlier?"

"Well, you were just writing before," Doug starts, contemplating how to explain the restriction, his hands shaking the apples he is holding, "With the apples, if you want the short, honest answer, it's too easy to cheat with magic."

"Cheat?" Twilight says, raising an eyebrow, affronted at the accusation. "How?"

Doug shrugs, closing his eyes, "Off the top of my head? Come to life spell on the wagon that makes it easier to drag around." 

"And there'll be no more spec-u-late-in' and con-spire-in on how to!" Granny Smith commands in her high voice, none of the usual warble or trepidation the elderly mare normally has. "We gots us a job to do!"

"Yup!" Doug replies with a somewhat forced smile, returning to sorting and inspecting the apples. "Haven't put a lot of thought there." He leans towards Twilight Sparkle, whispering, "Maybe another time. Or place."

"Okay," Twilight Sparkle whispers back conspiratorially, winking at Doug. "Maybe when this is all over you can come over to my place." She ambles over to the basket Doug is rapidly picking apples from, a blur of motion as he grabs, spins, then casts the apple to one of three crates or to a growing pile she quickly comes to realize is the 'reject' pile, based on the bruising or worm holes. She reaches into the basket to grab an apple, lightly blushing when his hand slides against her hoof as Doug continues working at his rapid pace. "Oops! Sorry!"

"No problem," Doug says as he finishes the basket off, sliding another one in front of Granny Smith before getting another for himself. He motions to the crates and baskets, "So, Rainbow has been bringing in Red Delicious apples, so we've got the crates for those orders ready to be filled all lined up." He motions to the baskets Applejack brought in, "Once we get to the Golden Delicious, well, some of the orders need both varieties. Other orders call for just one kind or another."

Twilight nods, "So, you can't just fill each crate with whatever kind of apple you want to then, huh?"

Doug stops moving, apprehensively looking over at Granny Smith. Fortunately for Twilight Sparkle the only perceptible change in the elderly mare is one eye squints shut briefly, though the rest of her muscles clench and it looks like there might be a throbbing vein in her forehead getting larger. "No," Doug patiently explains as he shakes his head; she's asking out of ignorance, of course, not trying to belittle or insult them. He quickly gets back to sorting, "just like you use different apples for cooking versus eating fresh. Different apples make different tasting jams, or butters, or pies. Most every pony has a personal preference for what kind of apple they like to eat, and the same is true for shops and restaurants."

"Wow, there is so much to learn about this!" Twilight Sparkle says, replacing the apple she took earlier. "I have to admit, I don't do a lot of cooking myself. Often times I'll go to a restaurant or café, or Spike will make me something if it's more complicated than toast. I really like the daffodil sandwiches I've had!"

Doug smiles, "Well, I do a lot of the cooking around here, at least for the stuff we eat. Or it's Applejack, or Granny Smith; they do a lot of what we sell. Sometimes Apple Bloom will help out." He leans closer, saying, "But if it's Sweetie Belle, make sure she doesn't use any magic." Doug leans back and says, "Actually, Twilight, there is something I wanted to ask you."

"Oh?" Twilight says, raising an eyebrow. "About apples? Cooking?" She whispers a little quieter, "Magic?"

"Organization, actually. Meringue was telling me about you organizing the library." Doug grabs another basket as Applejack returns with a new wagon load of apples. "I was thinking about asking her to come up with a plan to better organize this venture, and maybe you could help her do that, if she has any questions."

"She's been a big help, and I'd love to!" Twilight Sparkle replies, moving over to help Applejack, immediately rebuffed by the orange farmpony. Twilight Sparkle huffs as she backs up, frowning at the refusal.

Applejack apologetically smiles, "Sorry, Twi, but Ah gotta unload all the baskets on my own. Rules are rules." She grabs another set of empty baskets, hurrying out the door with her cart.

"Seems pretty unnecessary to me," Twilight Sparkle says with a frown. "I'm just helping her unload the apples!"

Doug nods, getting up and sliding the baskets so they are out of the way. "Well, sure, but it's a slippery slope once you go down that path. Pretty soon you're dragging the wagon back and forth for her, and then you're putting the baskets under the trees, and then you're just helping buck the apples that didn't come down the first time. During other times of the year there are other competitions. For example, you might have a team of four that harvests as much as they can, but it's just eight hours of one day instead of a week long competition." Doug pauses for a second, a glance to a frowning, slightly teary eyed Granny Smith. "I wouldn't ask Applejack about why they don't do that one, though."

Twilight rolls her eyes, "Fine, fine. Why can you sort the apples, then? Isn't that helping?"

"Only kind of; Applejack could just dump all the apples into one big pile, and then sort them when her eight hours is over. Or just sell them unsorted, which is how some ponies sort their produce when they go to market. Or when they only grow one variety."

"Not around this farm they don't," adds Granny Smith, Doug returning a nod. "We make sure we sell only the finest apples here at Sweet Apple Acres!"

Doug says, "The rest make applesauce, or the family eats them. Or they feed the pigs and other animals."

"Okay, so, why eight hours? I would think you can work longer than that in one day." Twilight looks out of the barn at the rows of trees laden with apple blossoms, "I thought Applejack and Big Mac worked most of the day. Sunrise to moonrise."

Doug nods, "They do, but not all of that time is spent harvesting apples. They spend a good deal of time on other crops, whether it's getting the wheat fields planted, or clearing new ones. Or it's infrastructure, like building a new barn, or maintenance on fences. Feeding the animals. Paperwork, like keeping track of who wants to buy what, or what deliveries have been made." He shrugs, "If they were allowed to harvest as much as they could for a whole week? It'd be an arms race of who can work the most hours, instead of a marathon harvesting session. The rest of the farm would suffer, especially since they're almost all single herd farms. They'd probably kill themselves overworking."

"Doug!" Twilight exclaims, a look of horror on her face, "You shouldn't joke about that!"

Doug raises an eyebrow, "Um, it's a figure of speech, not so much a joke since it can literally happen as well. Maybe it's just a human expression. But you're right, I wouldn't want anypony to do that to themselves."

Twilight Sparkle's expression morphs from indignant anger to puzzlement, "But, why would you do that to yourself?" Twilight Sparkle shakes her head, "What could be that important?"

Doug motions outside, "Well, a contest like this can drive somepony really hard. You'll still see Applejack push herself to the brink of exhaustion, not because she has to, but because she wants to prove herself. And compare how much she can do versus the other farmers out there." Doug looks to Twilight Sparkle, "I'm sure there are aspects of your life that you find drive you to those extremes."

"Um," Twilight Sparkle says, pausing as she taps her hoof on her chin twice, looking up at the ceiling.

"Seriously?" Spike says from his corner, "You can't think of anything? Maybe if I tested you on it, you'd remember."

Twilight Sparkle rolls her eyes, "Come on, Spike, the tests for Princess Celestia are extremely important!" She turns from Spike to look at the apples, "These are just apples we are talking about! It's not like their performance will determine the course of the rest of their lives or anything!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Spike says; Granny Smith grits her teeth, though Doug at least seems neutral. Spike motions to the brown-hatted pony pulling a cart full of apples inside, "This is obviously really important to Applejack!"

"Still Rainbow Dash over here," deadpans the pegasus, pulling basket after basket full of apples out of the wagon. Her legs at least seem to be doing better than before, her movements slow but purposeful, her eyes full of spirit. Her breathing is a little ragged, as if she pushed herself faster than she had to pulling the wagon.

Spike continues regardless, "Or she wouldn't have asked you to come help her with it. And she wouldn't be putting this much effort into-" Spike breaks off as the ground underneath them begins to shake.

Doug drops the apples he is holding, eyes flitting from one pony to another. "Is this an earthquake?"

"I don't think we had any scheduled, way too early for the lightning storm next month," Rainbow Dash says as she zips in the air outside, the others following close behind. Rainbow Dash gasps, bolting towards Ponyville and shouting at the top of her lungs, "STAMPEDE!!"

Applejack bursts out of the orchard, grabbing the rope hanging on a nearby tree in her mouth as Winona races to catch up. They both trail close behind the stampeding cattle, quickly maneuvering to intercept the cows charging directly towards Ponyville.