//------------------------------// // (1) Crisis in the Orchard // Story: From the Tree of Flames // by Falx_of_Lume //------------------------------// “Ya’ know Winona, ah know I haven’t exactly seen everythin’ the world has to offer in mah life… but ah have a feelin’ this is goin’ to be the weirdest thing ah’ll ever see.” Applejack said in bamboozlement to the puppy in her hooves. *Crank-Clank-angle-Clank!* “THE TIMBER WOLVES’RE A-HOWLIN’!!!”Cried Granny Smith while she ran with various pots and pans crashing about on her sides. *Crank-Clank-angle-Clank!* “THE TIMBER WOLVES’RE A-HOWLIN’!!!” *Jingle-Tink-Tangle-Jingle!* “THE ZAP APPLES ARE COMIN’!” *Jingle-Tink-Tangle-Jingle!* “THE ZAP APPLES ARE COMIN’!” And Applejack’s mother, Buttercup, was doing almost exactly the same thing as the Apple matriarch with her own collection of metal cookery, possibly with a few wind chimes thrown into the mix as well. A larger yellow hoof tousled the top of Applejack’s mane with a chuckle. “Now ah wouldn’t be goin’ and sayin’ that quite yet AJ. There’s plenty more time left in zap apple season to make you rethink that statement.” Bright Mac told his daughter mirthfully. Applejack looked up at him. “It gets weirder?” She asked with an arched brow. “The things that have to be done for the season might seem odd at first, but believe me when ah tell you that everything serves a purpose. And the best part is that yer granny is the one that figured all them reasons out through trial and error over the years. Though,” Bright Mac gave another chuckle. “she’d prolly talk yer ear off with the stories of her discoverin’ those reasons.” “AH KIN’ STILL HEAR YOU EVEN OVER ALL THE CANTANKERIN’ WE’RE MAKIN’ BRIGHT MAC! MAYBE YE’ SHOULD ACT LIKE THE STALLION OF THE FAMILY AND COME OUT AN HELP KEEP THE FRENZIED TIMBER WOLVES AWAY FROM MAULIN’ THE LOT OF US INSTEAD OF TALKIN’ SMACK ABOUT YER AGING MA!!” Granny hollered out at Bright Mac. Bright Mac winced from Granny’s snipe, and Applejack giggled at the face he made. “Well, I guess you heard the mare AJ, so jus’ wait here with yer siblings and watch.” He told her and gestured with his head at her older brother Macintosh sitting in Granny’s rocking chair, cradling their little sister Applebloom. Bright Mac started heading into the house to get his own set of pans when Winona started squirming in Applejack’s grip, yipping out into the direction of the orchard even as the timber wolves’ howls continued. “BRIGHT MAC!” Buttercup called out to him in alarm. He quickly turned around to see what was wrong. “FIRE!” She cried up to the homestead, pointing with a hoof in the direction of rising smoke in a distant section of the orchard. She dropped the metal across her back to run up towards him and the children. “Macintosh, get your sisters inside!” Bright Mac told his son. The red colt nodded and herded AJ into the house while carrying Applebloom inside on his back. Bright Mac followed them inside with Buttercup hot on his heels. “We need soaked blankets! And buckets of water!” Buttercup exclaimed upon entering the house with her husband. “Oh no ye’ don’t! Them timber wolves out there are extra ornery out there tonight on account-a zap apple season. Ye’ can’t go out there right now!” Granny Smith interjected, trailing inside last. “Granny, we need tah do something! The whole orchard could burn down with how dry the weather scheduling’s been this summer!” Buttercup protested. “She’s right ma’, we can’t afford tah do nothin’.” Bright Mac agreed with his wife. Granny Smith looked ready to protest, but screwed up her face in frustrated indecision. She let out an equine chuff of frustration before looking between the two of them. “Yer gonna’ need more than just buckets and blankets. Ah’ll go run to town to get the weather pegasi with some rainclouds. In the mean time, you two work on containin’ the fire, not puttin’ it out, ye’ hear? The less time ye’ spend out in the open fer the wolves te’ catch yer scent, the better. Ah’d rather lose a few more extra trees than lose family.” Granny tells them strictly. “You sure you can get to town ma’?” Bright Mac asked his mother. “Ah’m not too old to go fer a good run and talk teh’ some ponies in town ye’ big smart-aleck. Now go git them blankets and start soakin’ them! Hurry up!” Granny snapped at him, already galloping out the front door of the house again. “And the both of you be careful!” She added over her shoulder as she headed into Ponyville to get help with the fire. Bright Mac took a second to watch his mother disappear into the darkness of the night outside before he turned to go get the blankets that would be needed for fighting the fire. Buttercup stayed behind to speak with their children. “Macintosh, keep your sisters safe and inside the house. We’ll be back as soon as we can, and Granny Smith should be back even sooner. Listen to her when she does.” She told the red colt while grabbing a rope and slinging it over her side. Macintosh nodded in understanding right as Bright Mac returned with a full bucket of water in his teeth and several soaked blankets draped across his back, dripping onto the floorboards. “Ready?” He asked Buttercup through the metal handle. She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.” She said. And the paired farmers bolted out the front of the house and into the dark to fight the force of nature that threatened their livelihood. Pear “Buttercup” Butter wordlessly galloped between the trees of the apple orchard with her husband. Despite the night’s darkness shrouding her path from her vision, she pressed on at full speed between the wooden boughs, having lived on the land long enough to be familiar with the crests and dips in the earth beneath her hooves even without needing to see them. Bright Mac managed to keep pace with her even despite the weight of the blankets and bucket, a testament to his own physical strength. She took a moment to look up to find the smoke in the distance again. By the placement of the smoke that she could see wafting up into the night sky, it looked like the fire was in one of the older and farther sections of the orchard. If they ran out of water and the blanket dried out, it would take a while to get back to the house to get more water to continue the fight against the blaze. Time that might allow it to grow bigger than it was in their first attempt to fight it, so they’ll have to make every drop of moisture they’ve got count. Granny Smith’s idea to contain the fire instead was probably the wiser option in this situation now that Pear Butter thought about it. Although, considering the timber wolves’ howls were getting louder from the two ponies closing the distance between them, Pear Butter was starting to understand that there really wasn’t much to consider wise about running to fight an orchard fire during zap apple season. Nothing for it though, they can’t let the orchard burn down! Their family depended upon these trees, and so they’ll protect them no matter what. The two earth ponies ground to a halt when they encountered the first of the fire earlier than they expected. “What in the world?” Bright Mac exclaimed. It was surprisingly underwhelming. Only a few small flickers of flame danced upon the ground as it burned on the tips of grasses that had managed to grow between the apple trees. Other than that, there was only smoldering cinders that stained the ground black. Some small coals glowed orange among the soot, but from what the two of them could see, the trees themselves were unharmed. “So… do ya think Granny wants us to splash the trees around this to contain it, or just leave it be since it don’t look like it’ll spread?” Bright Mac wondered aloud. Buttercup bumped his side with her hip in admonishment, but couldn’t help smirking at his joke. “Nah, ah’m pretty sure we can just put this all out. Don’t worry about usin’ the water for this though. Just kick some dirt over it an’ stamp it out. We need to move on past this.” She instructed Bright Mac, moving to do exactly that to the pitiful fire. It didn’t take them long to extinguish the lingering remnants of the blaze, but… why was it so small in the first place? “What exactly happened here?” Buttercup asked aloud. “Ah don’t know… but there’s still some more burnin’ elsewhere. Let’s go.” Bright Mac answered. The two of them proceeded through the orchard. There were three more lingering cinders in the same state as the first that they put out, but they couldn’t find any hints to what caused them. Or at the very least, none that were visible to their pony eyes in the darkness of night. However, the two earth ponies didn’t come out into the orchard to fight small fires. “Ah think we’re comin’ up on what’s causin’ all the smoke.” Buttercup told Bright Mac, who nodded in acknowledgement. There was an orange glow just ahead of them that indicated a larger blaze than what they’d been putting out for the past few minutes. It didn’t take them long to emerge from the orchard proper. And what they found was a tree that was fully engulfed in flame. The sight of the burning apple tree saddened Buttercup, but at the same time relieved her. The tree may have been burning, but it stood alone and away from the other trees that they had emerged from, so there was very little danger of the fire spreading. The tree was a part of the Old Orchard, a part of Sweet Apple Acres that had been there since Granny Smith’s family first settled there and planted their namesakes. But as it stood presently, it only consisted of only a hoof-full of old trees that no longer bore any fruit, and several stumps scattered between them. Even thought they were trees, they were still a loved part of the farm, so neither Granny, nor any others of the Apple family could bring themselves to cut any of them down when they stopped being useful. They were allowed to live until nature deemed it was their time to pass on, just like any other creature. A time that it seemed had come for yet another giant of the orchard, with flames that greedily consumed its branches. “Not really much needed to contain it, is there?” Buttercup asked Bright Mac. The yellow stallion squinted up at the blaze for a moment before responding. “Ah reckon it could still cause a bigger fire if the wind blows in the wrong direction. We’re gonna have to put it out.” He told her. Buttercup looked up at the tree, and then nodded. She then unslung the rope she’d grabbed from off her back and swung it up at one of the lower hanging branches and gave a sharp tug. The already-frail and elderly tree branch was made brittle from the flames consuming all of its moisture, and so it snapped off easily with a spray of sparks and landed a little in front of the two earth ponies. Bright Mac immediately dropped the soaked blanket on top of the burning branch and put the flame out. All that was left when he lifted up the blanket was a small stretch of charcoal. With a single nod, Buttercup swung the rope back up into the boughs of the burning tree once again to bring another one down. They repeated this process several times, until there were only a few flickering orange veins glowing from within the blackened trunk of the tree itself. The rest had been extinguished. Buttercup wiped her brow with a hoof before coiling the rope back up. “Good job Mac, ah reckon that should be enough to contain it till the weather pegasi get here with the rain.” She said. She frowned at the heavily singed end of the rope when she reached it. She’s going to need a new one. Bright Mac placed the unused bucket of water on the ground and wiped his brow with a hoof. He took a moment before answering Buttercup. “I suppose…” He slowly answered. She gave a questioning look. “What is it?” “… Somethin’ don’t feel right.” He said, looking up at the less-furiously burning tree. Buttercup blinked in surprise and looked at the tree as well. She supposed it was strange that this fire started so suddenly. Not to mention that they still had no clue what started it in the first place. But the glowing veins under the blackened bark provided no more answers than the black smudges they encountered on the way. It just kept on burning through the quiet of the night. … through the quiet of the night? “What happened to the howling?” She asked Bright Mac suddenly. A low growl was the only warning she got before Bright Mac shoved her to the side and bucked in the direction her back was facing. His hooves slammed through the throat of a leaping timber wolf and shattered it to splinters. Buttercup had only a moment to stand still in shock before she saw another wolf leap at her husband. She whipped the rope off her back for the second time that night, and sent it sailing to loop around the timber wolf’s widened maw. She pulled it taught, slamming its jaw shut, and sent the weed-laden canine careening into the burning trunk of the tree behind her, shattering it in a shower of sparks and matchsticks. “We need to get out of here!” She exclaimed to Mac. Both wolves were quickly re-forming, the burning tree wasn’t a big enough threat to the wolves now that they’d beaten the conflagration down. “That… might be a tad difficult.” He answered, backing up to stand flank-to-flank with her, his eyes darting to look around the both of them. Buttercup looked around as well, and her heart skipped a beat. Three more timber wolves had encircled them and the burning tree, each of them were in perfect positions to intercept them if they ran in any direction. The two formerly broken wolves finally put themselves back together again while the two earth ponies were frozen with indecision. The two wolves snarled at them, but Bright Mac managed to make them back off with a couple of powerful bucks to the air. Still though, they only backed up far enough to match the distance of their other three pack-mates, bringing the number of wolves surrounding Bright Mac and Pear Butter up to five. They were trapped. And with a sinking heart Buttercup realized that wasn’t going to change. The timber wolves closed in.