//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - The Fruits of Life // Story: Ultimate Three // by idk12345678910 //------------------------------// Everything had gone just as pinkie had said it would. U-3 provided the horse power, and Pinkie Pie provided surprisingly good directions. While they had occasionally been stopped by shouts of 'Pinkie, what are you doing?' , Pinkie had always been happy to reply 'Driving a box, silly! What does it look like I'm doing?' and for whatever reason that was always enough for whoever was curious. While things had been a little cramped at first, at U-3's suggestion that Twilight and spike ride on his back (which was accompanied by some giggles from Twilight and Spike), things had gotten a little more roomy. "... and there's another theory that says that dragons don't actually breathe fire, but instead, make a spark that ignites flammable gas that they carry inside of their bodies." I finished up. "No offense, U-3, but I've already read all about what you said, and your knowledge is pretty out-dated." Spike said. "Wait, what?" I said, confused. "Pretty much everything that you've said are all theories about dragons that are dated back to before Equestria was on good terms with dragons. Not to mention some of them are out-right wrong, like that last theory on their ability to breathe fire." Twilight clarified. "Oh really? Then how DO they breathe fire?" I asked. "Magic." Twilight replied. Of course. "Everypony out! We're here!" Pinkie Pie announced loudly. The sound of fabric moving across a surface could be heard, which was followed by blinding sunlight as pinkie flipped the box off of them. "Agh! Pinkie, a little more warning next time!" I said, squinting my eyes. We were now in the middle of what looked to be an field of apple trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. Strangely, all of them had at least four baskets under them. "Sorry!" Pinkie quipped before running off in a seemingly random direction. "I'll go get Applejack. Don't wonder off!" Now that Pinkie was gone, I turned to Twilight. "Do you have any idea where we are?" "I think we're in Applejack's apple field, although I don't know what part." Twilight responded. After that sentence, for some reason I felt the strong urge to stretch. I started off with the usual "raise your arms as high as you can" stretch, which lead to me stretching my upper back out, which lead to me stretch my lower back out , which lead to me stretching my legs out, which-- "U-3, what are you doing?" Twilight interrupted. I looked at myself as I realized I was currently in some strange, front-half-lowered, back-half-raised position. I quickly stood resumed my normal posture. "Stretching." I said casually. "That is the weirdest stretching that I've ever seen. It looked like something a cat would do." Twilight said off-handedly. "Well..." I said before pointed down towards my lion paws. "I am part lion, so I guess it only makes sense." "Hey guys, I think I see Applejack and Pinkie Pie coming!" Spike said, pointing in a direction with his claw. I and Twilight looked over to see a pink blob and an orange blob coming closer from the distance. As they closed the gap between us, the blobs began to take shape, and turned into two ponies: Pinkie, and another earth pony that I hadn't seen before. Said earth pony looked decidedly nervous, but she decided to speak up. "So you're the alien everyone's been talkin' about, huh?" She gave me a thorough once-over. "Yeah, I can see why Princess Celestia might want to keep you outta sight until she's ready. My name's Applejack." She offered her hoof out to me. It took me a second to realize that she wanted a hand-shake. I leaned down, and grabbed her hoof with my hand. Before I could even start shaking, she vigorously shook her hoof up and down, taking my arm along for the ride. "That's a mighty fine hoof-shake you got there!" Applejack said as she let go of my hand. "Likewise." I said, my arm still shaking a bit. I noticed that her expression had cleared up into a more friendly one after the hand-shake. "Applejack, why did you send Pinkie Pie to come and get U-3?" Twilight asked. "Well, when I heard that Princess Celestia was in town, I decided to pay her a friendly visit. She explained the whole situation to me, and I offered to let U-3 stay at my farm until she could get everything ready. She liked the idea, and I wanted to take a look at you with my own two eyes, anyway. I can pick out the unfriendly type mighty quick." Applejack finished up. "Well, thanks Applejack! Now I can focus on helping Princess Celestia get everything ready for U-3!" Twilight exclaimed. "Aw, it's nothin', Twi'. You know I'd do this kind of thing any day!" "Alright, well Spike and I are going to head back to Ponyville. Hopefully we can help Princess Celestia get everything ready by today!" Twilight said. "And I've got to get back to work at Sugercube Corner! So many muffins, so little time!" Pinkie exlaimed. "Alright, we'll I'll see ya'll when I see ya'll." Applejack said. "Bye Applejack! Bye U-3!" Twilight said as she walked away with Pinkie beside her. "Yeah! bye!" Pinkie said. I waved them off, and Applejack spoke up beside me. "Well, now that that's taken care of, seeing as how you'll be staying here a while, you mind helping me with my apple orchard?" She asked. "Not at all. I actually used to work on a farm when I was younger, although it didn't grow apples." I neglected to mention that the same farm bred horses and raised livestock. "Perfect! Then we can get started right away!" She said, walking over to a tree. I walked over to a separate tree and picked up a basket with my human arm, which I then put at rest on my tentacle arm. Luckily I was tall enough that I wouldn't need a ladder to reach the apples. I reached my human arm up to pick the apple from the tree and-- "Hey! What are ya' doin'?" Applejack exclaimed. What? I looked over to Applejack. "Erm, picking apples?" I said confused. "I don't know how you aliens do it on your planet, but that's not how we do it here. Watch and learn." Applejack said. She then ran straight at another tree. I was worried she was going to crash into it, but moments before she hit the tree, she swiveled on her front hooves, did a 180 on the spot, and bucked the tree. Amazingly, every single apple on the tree fell off and landed inside one of the baskets, some even piling up to be twice as tall as the baskets themselves. If I could have, I would have had a stunned look on my face. "And that's all there is to it. Now you try." Applejack said, motioning to another tree. In disbelief , I pointed a finger at myself, as if to say 'me?' Applejack rolled her eyes. "Yes, you. Now come on, we're wastin' day light!" Slowly, I made my way over. Alright, just hit it as hard as you can. It's going to work, and not fail horribly like it should. As I stood in front of the tree, I looked it over and tried to find the best way to approach hitting the tree. Finding the perfect spot to land my attack, I pulled my arm back, and swung it as hard as I could at the tree. To my chagrin, all that fell from the apple tree was a couple of leaves. "Uh, ya' gotta buck it, partner." Applejack said. "One problem with that." I said slowly "What?" "I don't know how to buck." I said flatly. "Wait, you're tellin me that your whole life, you've walked around on them four legs, and you've never learned how to buck?" Applejack said disbelievingly. "Well, to be fair, I haven't always walked around on four legs. They're kind of new to me." I said. Yeah, the only reason I can even move about as well as I can in the first place is because of some subconcious instincts left over from my time as a mindless monster. Applejack shook her head. "You aliens sure are weird, you know that?" I shrugged. "So can you teach me?" "I sure can! I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I've got a pretty mean buck." Applejack said. "Oh, learning from the best, am I?" I said in a teasing voice. Applejack blushed. "Aw shucks, I'm sure there a plenty ah' ponies who can buck harder than me. I'm pretty sure my brother Mac can buck WAY harder than me." That sounds vaguely dirty. "Alright, so let's get started." I said. "Alright, well since you're just starting out, let's forget the running start, and just have you buck while standin' still." Applejack said. "Alright." I said in confirmation. I turned around to have my back to the tree. Alright just like Applejack did. balance yourself on your front legs, raise your back half, and then kick out, all in one fluid motion. I pushed against the ground with my back legs a little too hard, and ended up nearly losing my balance. Luckily I managed to get all four feet back on the ground. "That was just a fluke." I said off-handedly. "I'll get it this time." "Take your time." Applejack said with an observant eye. "Don't rush into it." I nodded at her. Take things slowly. This time I was more cautious, and lifted my back half off of the ground a small distance a couple of time to get a feel for it. I noticed that every time I raised my back half, my human top half would lower as well. Eventually, I raised my back half up confidently, and kicked out with my back legs as hard as I could. The buck landed with a satisfying *CRACK*, which was unfortunately, followed by the sound of something large hitting the ground. I turned around to find a jagged stump where Applejack's tree had previously stood. My eyes flicked past the stump to find the rest of the tree laying on the ground beside it. Oh crap. Cautiously, I looked over to Applejack, whose face seemed to be a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and anger. For the longest time, neither of us moved, and simply stared at each other. Eventually, to my surprise, the anger slowly melted away from Applejack's face. " 'S okay. I know you didn't mean to do it." Phew. "But you still owe me an apple tree." Applejack said. "You gotta make up for your mistakes." "Yeah, no problem. I know how to plant seeds." I said. "Well hold on there, first you gotta uproot the stump." Applejack said. Well, that should be easy. "Let me go get the harness." Applejack said, walking away. Wait, what?