“You’re doing it wrong, you can’t just pluck all the apples off the tree with magic! That aint the Apple family way, you hear?”
Starlight groaned and rolled her eyes as she was once more reprimanded by the precocious filly Applejack while Spike chuckled and smugly grinned at her. The three of them were before one of the many, many, apple trees on the farm in the early morning, Applejack attempting to teach them how to do the work properly but Starlight staying stubbornly annoyed at how Applejack stubbornly forced her to do everything without the help of her magic. With another frustrated grunt the light from Starlight’s horn disappeared and the magic she was about to use to pull off all the apples vanished as well.
“But my way’s faster!” Starlight said as she glared at the filly.
“That don’t matter one bit! It’s not the right way and that’s what’s important!” Little Applejack stomped a hoof on the ground to punctuate her words.
Starlight ground her teeth together but finally relented. “Fine.” She started to walk up to the tree before a mischievous idea snuck itself into her head. “Say, Applejack, since you know this work so well would you mind giving me a demonstration or two on how to properly buck apples?”
Applejack’s face lit up in delight that Starlight was seemingly taking this seriously and even wanted her help. Spike however was onto Starlight’s game and frowned at the scheming unicorn, tapping his clawed toe on the ground.
“Starlight...” He warned.
She shushed him and turned her attention back to Applejack. “Okay, so how do you do it?”
“I’ll show ya!” Applejack confidently walked up to the tree before turning her back to it. “It’s just like this!” She said and bucked back hard against a specific spot on the tree.
The apples shook slightly but none fell from their branches. Applejack was smiling proudly as Starlight innocently tilted her head at the young filly.
“But none of the apples came down?” She said to Applejack.
Applejack’s smile fell and she rubbed her head in embarrassment and obvious confusion as Starlight brought this up. “Uh, well, yeah? I ain’t strong enough yet to get the apples to actually fall off their branches yet.”
A devious glint appeared in Starlight’s eye as she grinned at her future friend. “Really? I think you can definitely do it, I mean just look at how you were able to make them shake right now. You clearly know what you’re doing, with a little more practice and a few more kicks you’ll be bucking down apples in no time!”
The little apple farmer’s face lit up in delight at Starlight’s praise. “You really think so?”
“Absolutely!” Starlight said. “Why don’t you get right to it?”
Applejack was more than happy to oblige as she continued to buck the apple tree, getting in as much practice as possible while Starlight stood to the side, grinning the whole time. At least until Spike came up and elbowed her in the ribs.
“Don’t you feel a little bad about tricking her into doing your work?’ Spike whispered into her ear.
“Not one bit!” Starlight instantly answered while giving an annoying smile to Spike. “Besides, we both know how Applejack is. She loves it.” Starlight pointed to the happily bucking filly.
Spike just sighed and shook his head. “You should apologize...”
“Oh come on, we both know the only thing that would happen if I tried bucking trees would be getting a broken hoof or two.” Starlight said, wagging a hoof around for emphasis. “I’m not made for this kind of stuff. And there’s still plenty of other work around here I can help with.”
“Can? Or will?” Spike narrowed his eyes at her.
“Will.” Starlight quickly shot back. “The Apple family is really helping us out, I’m not just gonna ignore that hospitality, Spike. Give me some credit.”
Spike just plainly looked at her again. “If you would for once give me reason to have some faith in you then I would.”
“How’s it looking? The apples are about ready to fall, right?” Applejack’s voice cut between them, the two time-travelers looking to see a sweating Applejack continuing to buck the tree, each hit making the apples shake but not look any closer to actually falling.
“Uh, yeah!” Starlight called out. “I think just one more kick oughta do it!” Her horn glew almost imperceptibly.
Spike’s eyes narrowed. “What are you-”
With an eager smile Applejack gave the tree one final buck, at the same moment her back hooves connected Starlight plucked the apples with her magic and they all perfectly fell into the waiting buckets. The little filly hooted and cheered at her success while Spike just glanced up at Starlight again.
“I don’t know if what you just did was bad or good but it annoys me either way.”
“Just consider it a good thing so we’ll all feel better?”
The dragon groaned and once more buried his face in his claws.
Applejack finished up her celebrating and trotted over to the two of them. “There, you see that? I really did it! And everything fell right into the buckets too.” Applejack grinned as she looked over her work. Satisfied and oblivious to Starlight’s machinations.
“Yep, good job!” Starlight said to the filly.
Spike was unable to tell if she was being genuine or condescending.
Applejack blushed in happy embarrassment, rubbing the back of her head before speaking up to Starlight. “Well it’s your turn now, Ms. Starlight. We’ve still got a lot of trees to go, I’m sure you can do it too.” Applejack looked down the long row of trees in the orchard.
The air deflated out of Starlight like a dying balloon as Spike snickered. No more talking her way out of work. “Y-Yeah...”
“I really wanted to thank you again for helping out around the farm and taking care of Applejack too. I know she can be a hoofful at times.” Pear Butter said to Starlight and Spike as they all loaded up buckets of apples onto a large wagon.
It had taken quite a few hours for them to finish up all their work. Not just bucking apples but feeding the farm animals, plowing the fields, mending fences that were falling apart and so much more. There was a lot to do on the farm. Luckily for Spike at least Applejack had allowed him to simply fly up and pull off apples by himself. Spike had managed to convince her that it was okay that way since he wasn’t using magic, much to Starlight’s annoyance. And he wasn’t exactly built for bucking either.
“You don’t need to thank us for anything, besides, we had a lot of fun.” Starlight said through a strained smile, her mane and tail matted with sweat. “And you’re the ones who are really helping us out here.”
“Apple family hospitality just like I told you.” Pear Butter smiled at Starlight as she loaded up the last bucket of apples onto the wagon. “All done back here, Mac!” She called out to her husband .
Bright Mac, who was tied to the front of the wagon, winked back at her. “Okay!” He started pulling the wagon along to the barn.
It was easy for Starlight to see where Big Mac got his size and strength from. Big Mac at the moment wasn’t even as big as Starlight right now but he was still more than strong for his age. The big red colt currently was off on the other side of the farm using a heavy plow to cut furrows into the ground. Earlier Starlight had to use her magic to even get the thing to move (another thing Applejack had acquiesced to upon realizing the difficulty of the task) but Big Mac could already pull it all by himself.
“So what are we doing with the apples now?” Starlight asked as she walked alongside Bright Mac and Pear Butter, Spike picking up the rear.
“These ones here are going straight to stomping!” Pear Butter said. “We’ll take em to the big vat in the barn and turn em into juice and applesauce. You and Spike can help out with that real easy.”
Starlight wasn’t thrilled to hear that she’d be standing knee-high in a huge tub of apples and smashing them down with her bare hooves but she owed the Apple’s far too much to complain. Bright Mac brought the wagon into the barn and they all started unloading the apples that they had just earlier put on there in the first place. Dozens, hundreds, of apples poured into the large circular wooden vat, the pipes and nozzle on the bottom ready to pour the soon to be created juice into multiple glass jars. Granny Smith sat beside it, ready to collect the juice while the others did the dirty work. Granny Smith was still rather old looking to Starlight but she had more of a shine to her and a few less wrinkles, her tongue and wits were never dull but she had more energy about her back here than either Starlight or Spike could say she did in the present.
After all the apples were in Starlight stepped up a step-ladder leading to the vat while Spike just flapped his wings a few times and the two of them hopped on top of the many apples.
“Alright, get er’ started!” Granny Smith said from below them.
Spike enjoyed himself a lot more than Starlight did, grinning and laughing while he eagerly jumped up and down on the apples. Starlight on the other hoof just winced any time a spray of juice or piece of apple got higher than her knees and was stepping much more daintily on the apples.
“Come on, put your backs into it! It aint getting enough out!” Granny Smith called out from below them.
“Yes Granny Smith.” Starlight reluctantly replied and started smashing harder. Leaning down she whispered into Spike’s ear. “Could you ever see Rarity doing this?”
“Heh.” Spike gave a short laugh. “It’d be a lot of fun to stomp these apples with her.”
The work continued for a while longer until all the jars that had been set up were filled. Starlight and Spike had both stomped themselves to exhaustion, Starlight throwing herself over the side of the vat to hold herself up while her legs wobbled beneath her. It was a lot more physical activity than she was used to and it showed.
“I don’t think I’m cut out for farm work.” Spike tiredly said as he lied down in the pulpy remains of the apples at the bottom of the vat.
“Nonsense! The two of you did a great job.” Pear Butter said from below them, Granny Smith and Bright Mac boxing up the jars.
Starlight smiled while her frayed mane fell over her face. “Well it was a nice change of pace at least.”
“You can come on down from there and get cleaned up, then we’ll head inside for dinner.” Bright Mac told them.
Now that was something both Starlight and Spike were very happy to hear.
Being a guest of the Apple family was nice and eating dinner with them at their big dining room table was even nicer. Starlight and Spike sat with each other at one of the ends while Granny Smith sat at the head of the table and the others down the sides. Applejack and Big Macintosh were both arguing about something while Pear Butter tried to break them up, Starlight and Spike quietly chewing their food through the whole affair. It was quite interesting to see the normally reticent Big Mac so talkative and Applejack being such a… kid.
“I did so buck down some apples all on my own!” Applejack said to her brother.
“Yer just lying again just like you always do.” Big Mac dismissively snorted away her claims.
“I am not! I did it for reals!” Applejack angrily fought back against her brother.
“Blah, blah, blah. Hearing nothing but hot air from you.” He said.
Spike leaned in and whispered to Starlight while the siblings argument went on. “This is kind of your fault you know.”
“I know.” Starlight whispered back, still chewing on her food and finding it difficult to care that much.
“Sorry about the kids.” Bright Mac suddenly said to the two guests, offering up an embarrassed smile.
“It’s no problem, kids’ll be kids after all.” Starlight said while Spike glared at her out of the corner of his eye.
Eventually Pear Butter got her two kids to stop arguing with each other and the dinner returned to normal. Aside from Applejack and Big Mac silently giving each other the stink eye through the rest of it. But the Apple family wasn’t known for their hospitality for nothing and Pear Butter quickly tried to strike up a new conversation with her two guests.
“So I never got the chance to ask this before but where are the two of you from originally?”
Starlight almost choked on her food as she and Spike shared a brief look. Coughing and clearing her throat Starlight decided that the “truth” was the best way to go. “Well I’m from Sire’s Hollow originally and Spike is from Canterlot. I’ve kind of been all over Equestria though, called more than one place my home.”
“Yeah we’ve both been around.” Spike said as he leaned back in his chair and rudely and obliviously kicked his feet up on the table.
To neither of their notices, Applejack was staring at them in wide-eyed wonder.
“It’s always interesting to meet ponies who have traveled so much.” Pear Butter said. “There’s no place like home but having the farm does make us miss out on the rest of Equestria.”
“Aw, you ain’t missing much.” Granny Smith grumbled. “Ponyville’s just about the best place in the world.”
Pear Butter chuckled. “I wouldn’t trade Sweet Apple Acre’s for the world of course but sometimes I still think I’d like to visit somewhere else, even for just a short vacation.”
“Actually we have relatives in Manehatten.” Bright Mac suddenly cut in. “So we were considering going there on a trip at some point in the future and see the big city but that wouldn’t be for a long ways off still.”
“I was also thinking Las Pegasus might be nice, I’ve heard so many amazing things about it.” Pear Butter said.
Starlight perked up. “Las Pegasus huh? I’ve never been there myself but some of my friends really loved it. Sounds like a fun place perfect for little vacations.”
After Starlight said that Pear Butter smiled and looked at Bright Mac, who have her a happy nod. “Well maybe we’ll go there, and if we see you again we can tell you all about it! It’d be funny to have the simple apple farmers telling you all about someplace wouldn’t it?”
Starlight and Spike couldn’t answer. For the moment those words left Pear Butter’s mouth the world went white. Another fierce trembling crawling down to their bones overtook their bodies, the chairs disappeared out from beneath them as they floated into a white void. Feelings of vertigo somehow tore through them even though they couldn’t actually feel their bodies at all. With a ringing like an alarm clock buzzing through their ears the white started to fade back into reality.
“Starlight? Spike?”
A few blinks made the last bits of reality blur together and both of the time-travelers saw that they were still sitting at the Apple family dining table, it looked as if nothing had changed aside from all of the farmers staring at them, wondering why they had suddenly gone silent.
“Uh, sorry, but can you excuse the two of us for a second?” Starlight said and without waiting for a reply levitated Spike out of his chair and zoomed into the next room with him.
“What was that?! Why did that happen just now?” Starlight asked him.
“How should I know? We were just talking.” Spike shrugged, at a loss just as much as Starlight was.
Starlight sighed. “Well I hope that whatever just changed it was something for the better.”
Spike shifted about nervously, something clearly on his mind after the latest incident.
“What is it?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Uhh… I know you didn’t want to do this and all but if we’re changing the past just by having innocent conversations… maybe we should just go see Celestia already? I think it might be for the best.”
She really didn’t want to, considering the huge can of worms that could open, but it might be their best bet to keep things safe. And in Canterlot with Celestia there were certainly going to be mountains of opportunities for Starlight to make the good and intentional changes that she’d always wanted to. But Spike didn’t need to know that part. And more altruistically the Canterlot Archives with their collection of Starswirl’s works and writings might just be the key they need to figure out this time travel farce all together.
“Alright, guess we can take the earliest train tomorrow.”