//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Apples, Pies, and Everything Shy Pt. 2 // Story: I Can Count On You // by Ekhidna //------------------------------// Apples, Pies, and Everything Shy part 2 Spike was lying on his bed, catching up a proper rest after a hot shower. Another day of training with three of his best friends had come to an end; another day with little progress on his part despite his effort. “At least I can take down eleven apples at a time and I haven’t splintered nor damaged a tree in two days, so that’s something. Good grief, tree bucking is way more exhausting and difficult than I thought! Good exercise, on the other hand,” Spike chuckled to himself. Placing his hands behind his head, Spike hummed. “Pinkie’s training is another thing entirely, though. Gotta give it to her and her family, they must be geniuses to come up with a practical way to use their stamina at their will. But I guess I’m getting the hang of it,” he sighed, a smile appearing on his features. “Bless Luna for Fluttershy. Without her special kind of training, I would be completely lost with Pinkie’s methods and practices,” his smile faltered, replaced by a serious expression now. “I do wonder, however, how long will it take me to adapt to their training? And after I’m done with the training, what comes next? Who comes next? Everypony so far has taught me something unique they are good at, but Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are going further than that. Everything before this point was mostly learning about my own body… but this is different, in a good way.” Spike hummed closing his eyes. “I better get some shut-eye for Applejack tomorrow.” ****************************************----------------------------------------------- “Damn it all!” Spike cursed. “I hate this bucking horseapple bullsh--” Spike sighed in frustration as he glared at yet one more chopped down apple tree. That was enough to make him angry, but what drove him over the edge was that the vast majority of the apples were still hanging from the tree. “They make it look so easy! How do they do it?” Spike muttered to himself in the lonely field. Applejack was on another area of the orchard doing her daywork. She was kind enough to teach him and give him pointers, but in the end, she was neither a real teacher nor the best pony at explaining how to do something she knew by heart. And she certainly didn’t have the time to stand by, peering over his shoulders and watching him make an utter fool of himself. He had tried to apply Fluttershy’s training, but something felt off; as if something was missing or not connecting properly to his two other training programs. During his free time, he applied it to what he had already learned and found it incredibly useful. “So what is wrong?” Spike asked out loud while picking up the tree and updating the amount of bits he owned Applejack so far. “You ain’t bucking properly, Spike.” Spike turned around to see his tall, muscular, overly buffed close friend, Big Macintosh, carrying five barrels full of apples over his head as if they were pillows. “Big Mac!” Spike called dropping the tree and running to meet his friend. “Are you bringing those barrels to the barn?” “Eeyup!” Big Mac replied proudly before gently putting the barrels down with a single hand. “Ah see you having some problems bucking them trees, eh Spike?” Spike sighed. “You don’t know half of it, Mac. I don’t understand how you do it, honestly. You Apples make Apple Bucking look so trivial and easy! But this is hard…” Spike sighed once more. “...I already owe Applejack twenty trees. Twenty! There goes my entire monthly stipend.” Big Mac smiled putting a hand on his dragon friend's shoulder. “Apple Bucking takes time to get used to, Spike. No need to feel embarrassed over it.” “Easy for you to say, Mac. You can buck apple trees in your sleep,” Spike grumbled. “Want some help?” Big Mac asked sincerely. “You sure Applejack will be okay with that? You know how she can get about others helping her with her work,” Spike looked up at Mac with a disheveled expression. “Good thing this ain’t work, then,” Big Mac smiled widely before stepping back. “Go on, show me the proper Apple Bucking stance.” Spike nodded and took the stance Applejack had taught him. He remained still as Big Mac walked around him, touching him a few times and humming while his eyes analyzed him with painstaking detail. “Good muscle control you got there, Spike. Now then…,” Big Mac looked around searching for something. “Aha!” He let out before grabbing Spike by the neck and lifting him. Spike remained silent and entirely focused on maintaining his stance until Big Mac put him on the ground right in front of an apple tree. The dragon watched in silence as the big red stallion looked the trunk up and down for a few seconds. Then, Big Mac pointed at a spot in the trunk just below its midsection. “Kick there,” Big Mac ordered. “You sure?” Spike asked not too sure of himself. “Kick there,” Big Mac repeated. Spike nodded. He took a deep, long breath just like Fluttershy had taught him and exhaled slowly. Spike felt his muscles, his pulse, and his entire body become at ease immediately after. Opening his eyes, Spike’s stare turned fierce and focused, and with a short exhale of steamy hot breath he delivered a kick to the spot Mac told him to kick. Spike missed by a few inches, but the tree nonetheless shook violently for a mere two seconds. The tree then stopped shaking and twenty-seven of its thirty-two apples fell to the ground. “...What…” Spike muttered in disbelief. He dropped to his knees immediately after his initial shock wore off. Spike inspected the trunk and found nothing wrong with it. The bark was immaculate, the trunk was fine, there wasn’t even a single scratch made by his scales. The tree was in perfect condition as if it had never been kicked in the first place. “H-How… Every time I bucked a tree… how!?” Spike looked up at Big Mac with big, wide, imploring eyes. “Mmmmm,” Big Mac rubbed his chin for several seconds. “It is as I told yah, Spike. It takes a lot of time to get used to. But Ah guess you can say I can tell where to hit the tree. It’s like ah ‘feel’ where to hit the tree without hurting it, you know?” “Of course I don’t know! That doesn’t even make sense!” Spike sighed in defeat. “Don’t tell her I said this, but Applejack is awful at giving instructions. You’d think she’d be better after the whole List of Useless Instructions and Steps she had about her daily chores. Apparently I am wrong. All I got from her were random instructions on how to buck the tree and that, and I quote, “Feel in your heart of hearts the heart of the tree yer about to buck. You gotta know the tree as you know yourself.” end quote.” Big Mac chuckled loudly. “Darn right toothin’ she is! Now, Spike, I think I can help you out here, give you a hand, ya know?” “Yes please, I’ll take anything that gets me close to this,” Spike implored pointing at the recently bucked tree. Big Mac nodded. “Righty then, pardner. Yer kick was good, but still off the mark by quite a bit. Let’s see ‘ere,” Big Mac looked to the sky and turned to the sun for a glance. “‘Bout nine and a half. Here’s what you’ll do, Spike. Yer gonna stay still for three hours, that’s until the Sun is over yer head, doing the Apple Bucking stance. After that, you’ll start bucking at the tree without hitting it right in the spot I told you to hit for about two hours. Then you can leave for yer training with Pinkie.” Without any further adieu, Big Mac turned around, went to pick up the barrels he was carrying, and left Spike by his lonesome once more. Spike watched Big Mac leaving; eyes wide open and jaw hanging open at the sheer ridiculousness of the stallion’s order. Once Big Mac was gone, Spike let out a long, drawn-out, exhausted, and defeated sigh before doing as he was told to do. “It’s going to be a long day, isn’t it?” ****************************************----------------------------------------------- “For three entire hours?” Pinkie asked tilting her head to the side. “Three. Bucking. Hours.” Spike spat each word. “During my training with Shining Armor, I got a taste of standing still for hours on end, and while bad and boring, these three hours blow standing still out of the water any day. Who knew standing still and staying still doing a stance or pose for so long could be that different and difficult? I swear I have a few cramped muscles I didn’t even know I had!” Spike puffed out a cloud of ashen-smoke. “And don’t even get me started on the two hours I spent not bucking the tree, Pinkie…” “That sounds like no fun at all! But you did it in the end, didn’t cha?” Pinkie asked offering Spike a gem-encrusted cookie. “I had to after Big Mac was nice enough to give me some advice and kinda show me how it’s done,” Spike wrapped his tongue around the cookie and ate it. “Pony feathers, your cookies are the best, Pinkie,” Spike moaned contently. Pinkie giggled in response as she sat on top of the large boulder Spike was lifting. The party mare grabbed another cookie with her mane and offered to Spike, who in turn accepted it with delight. The two of them were near the Ghastly Gorge performing Spike’s stamina control training. The Gorge was the perfect place for them to do so as it was secluded, away from prying eyes, and no shortage of rocks, boulders, granite, and other formations for them to use as they wished. When Spike began this training, he was completely lost. If he thought Applejack had been vague with her teaching methods, Pinkie was exactly the same just ten times more confusing. I refuse to believe that’s not a family quirk of theirs or something, Spike thought letting out another puff of ashen-smoke from the effort alone. To Pinkie’s credit, she did her absolute best to explain what she was doing, how, and the way she learned to do it. But her explanations were very graphical, noisy without details, and were closer to a game of charades than actual instructions. Which, to him, was ten times more frustrating since he was a Charade Champion, and he still couldn’t figure out much aside from ‘lift this, move there, break that’. But at least her training methods, even if he still had no clue how to control the flow of his energy and strength at the same time, were enjoyable and he got a nice exercise out of it. Not to mention the tasty, tasty gems and treats Pinkie fed him constantly. “And that’s one hundred, Spike!” Pinkie cheered jumping off the boulder and landing perfectly in front of Spike. Spike dropped the boulder, a rock almost as large as him and weighing just shy of two tons, making a small dust cloud. “Let’s seeeeeeee~… Pick the boulder, check. Run for ten laps around the Gorge while carrying it, check. Do one hundred push-ups with the boulder on your back, check. Do one hundred lift-ups, check. Next up is breaking the boulder in a single punch!” “A single punch?” Spike repeated whilst eyeing the boulder. “Pinkie, this… in a single punch? I can’t even do it in the usual three tries.” “Of course silly! All you need to do is go ‘Ahhhhhhh!’ and then ‘Owuuuuuuu!’ and then ‘Blaaaaaammmm!’” Pinkie explained as she did various poses like she was powering up, like in the Power Ponies comics, and doing over the top punches. Spike stared silently without a single clue as to how to actually manage that. He knew what she meant, he had seen her punching and kicking rocks into dust before… but he didn't know how to do it himself or even how she did it in the first place. “C’mon, Spikey! You can do it, I believe in you! Channel your inner Saitama!” Pinkie cheered. “Thank you, Pinkie. I’ll do my-- Excuse me, channel my what?” Spike asked confused. “What?” Pinkie stared at him innocently. “...” “...” “...Right… I’m gonna try breaking the boulder now,” Spike turned to the boulder and began breathing just like Fluttershy had taught him. After a few repetitions, Spike adopted a mid-guard position using his left arm for defense and for aiming. Meanwhile preparing his right arm to deliver a powerful punch; his fist already clenched and slightly shaking under the pressure of his strength. Spike took one last deep breath before letting out a loud roar and, with it, delivered his punch. The impact upon the boulder was powerful and the resulting impact echoed all around the Gorge. But the boulder itself, while cracked in several places and even a few chunks of it dropped to the ground, it remained unshattered. “Hey, look at that, that’s way better than I’ve done so far!” Spike said excitedly. “Way to go, Spikeeeeyyyy!” Pinkie latched onto him, giving the dragon a gigantic and tight bear hug. Spike hugged her back and even spun her around a few times making the pink mare laugh and giggle. When their little celebration ended, Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out another cookie and gave it to Spike. “What’s next~? Break the boulder in a single punch, kinda check. Call in Maud for help is next!” “Wait, Mau--” “MAUUUUUUD!” Pinkie hollered. “No need to shout, Pinkie, I’m already here,” Maud said with her ever-present, non-emotional tone as she stepped out of a nearby cave entrance. Spike could only stare at the stoic big sister of Pinkie, Maud, making her way to them wearing her trademark dull grey dress; contrasting Pinkie’s training outfit. Pinkie wasted no time in greeting her adored big sister with a great hug. After the greeting, Maud continued walking towards the now smiling dragon. “Oh, hello, Maud. I didn’t know you were coming to help us out today,” Spike greeted offering a hand, which Maud took and shook softly. “A pleasure as always to see you, Spike,” Maud nodded at the dragon. Then, she shifted her attention to the boulder. “Did you do this?” “Yeah, pretty neat, right? I only punched it once!” Spike let out a short-lived victory laugh. “Though I know it’s nowhere near what you can do, Maud.” “Hmmm,” Maud hummed in reply while she inspected the boulder for a few seconds. She then tapped it a few times near the spot Spike had punched the boulder. “Lucky hit, Spike. You almost got it right.” Spike’s smile fell and transformed into confusion. “What do you mean ‘lucky hit’? I punched it as hard as I could…” “And that was your mistake. You wasted your strength,” Maud explained before pulling out a piece of chalk out of her dress and used it to mark an X about half a meter below and a few inches to the right from where Spike’s punch mark was. “Try punching it there,” Maud said stepping aside. “You’re the boss mare,” Spike began repeating the process he used to punch it the first time and by the time his fist started to shake, Maud spoke up. “What are you doing?” She asked. “Uhmmm, preparing myself to punch the boulder, as you said?” Spike replied with another question. “Are you trying to punch it or buck it?” Maud asked dryly, blinking once. “...Oh, Tartarus… you’re right…” Spike let out. I’ve been using the Apple Bucking stance without me noticing… how? How didn’t I notice that until now? I’ve been mixing a mid-guard stance for my upper half and the Apple Bucking stance for my lower half… how did I miss this? Spike thought. “You can buck rocks, too. But punching and bucking are different. It won’t be as useful if you mix them up and you’ll end up wasting more energy that way,” Maud explained now standing next to Spike. “Pinkie told me everything. All you need to do is reach deep down inside you. Breath, exhale. Feel your muscles contort, expand, and contract. Find your balance and mold it as your own. That way you will use less energy and get better results.” “...How do you know all of this?” Spike asked, amazed at the simplicity of the explanation. “We grew up in a Rock Farm. If you waste too much energy you’ll be exhausted quickly,” Maud explained as if it were the most natural thing in the world for them to know. “So, what do I do? How do I ‘reach deep down’?” Spike asked. “You already know how to do that, you just need to mold your energy properly. Do you notice how your fist shakes? You’re putting too much strength behind it and it makes you unbalanced; you waste your energy and with that, your stamina drops down and you’ll tire yourself out easily. Here,” Maud took a solid yet relaxed stance barely parting her legs. Spike imitated her, even though he didn’t quite understand what she meant by ‘molding’ his energy. Maud raised a fist to her shoulder level, her breathing was focused, controlled, relaxed, and tranquil. It was a form of breathing, an example of control over one’s self honed over years of rigorous training and work. Spike mimicked her movements and did his best to emulate her breathing, ever minding and avoiding focusing too much strength into his fist. He was partially successful as his fist barely shook, though it took him a constant effort to control himself. “Now, punch the mark,” Maud ordered. Spike obeyed without complaint; his fist flying true and directly at the mark, missing by a mere inch to the side, but the effect was instantaneous. The boulder shattered completely and utterly into, scattering thousands of tiny rocks and pebbles everywhere around them. “...You have got to be kidding me…” Spike turned his trembling head at Maud. “I-I-I I didn’t even put half the effort as I did the first time…” “Told you soooooo~” Pinkie called from behind them… lifting a boulder twice the size Spike had been using so far with surprising ease, even for an Earth Pony. You didn’t tell me jack! Spike shouted in his mind. Maud nodded. “But that’s only half of what you need. Even if you know how to control your energy, strength, and stamina, it’s all pointless if you don’t know how to use it,” Maud said as she picked up a rock the size of a normal pony’s head. “Where to apply it.” Spike had a sudden flashback of his first session with Fluttershy. How she shoved him on his ass without him feeling her putting any strength behind it at all. Limiting oneself and knowing how to control one’s strength isn’t the same thing, Spike thought what Fluttershy had told him before. Spike watched as Maud touched the rock a few times, moved it around, and then with a flicker of her middle finger near the top of the rock… it cracked and moments later fell apart as mere pebbles and gravel. Maud turned to face Spike. “Do you understand now, Spike?” “I… I think I do, Maud. I think I do,” Spike looked down at his hands and clenched them. “Thank you, Maud.” Maud shook her head. “Don’t thank me, Spike. Thank Pinkie, she is the most adept in our family and she even learned to control her body at will,” Maud smiled a little as she saw her pink sister drill a hole through the boulder she was playing with… with her mane. ****************************************----------------------------------------------- Spike walked breathing and exhaling calmly as he made his way to Fluttershy’s cottage. The lessons and teachings learned were mixing inside his head with ideas and thoughts and questions. While he still had many doubts so much had been answered thanks to the unexpected help of Big Macintosh and Maud; both had showered light upon many of his questions, and while he still didn’t quite understand how to do what they were capable of doing, he at least got a basic idea of it. “But one thing still bugs me… limiting myself isn’t the same as controlling my strength. I thought I was advancing the most with Fluttershy and her training, but I think that’s the one I’ve been the most lost. I haven’t even begun to try to restrain my strength until Maud told and showed me how to…” Spike crossed his arms. “But what Maud said about how to apply it sounded eerily similar to what Fluttershy does… and… and…!” Spike’s eyes went wide. “And what Applejack and Big Mac do when Apple Bucking!” Spike smiled widely. “Maud and Pinkie can sense where a rock is most vulnerable and know how to use their strength and stamina with deadly efficiency. Applejack and Big Mac know how to employ their strength and they know how to restrain it. More than that, they know where to hit the tree without harming it. But unlike Maud and Pinkie, they never touch the trees; they ‘feel’ them with their hearts… they know where to buck it just by looking at it,” his smile furthered. “And Fluttershy is a master when controlling her strength, energy, and how to apply it… of course! She is a pegasus and way weaker than me! Ugghhhh!” Spike slapped his forehead as he broke into a fit of laughter. “I’m so stupid! I’ve been trying to limit myself like I always do from the very start instead of letting it flow through me evenly…” Spike looked down the road to find he was already meters away from the cottage. Seeing the door open, Spike broke into a run and as he entered the house he heard the gentle humming of his shy friend coming from her garden. He made his way there and found Fluttershy watering a few plants. Fluttershy turned just in time to see a blotch of purple scales tackle her before she began spinning around. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Spike chanted over and over again while Fluttershy, while surprised at first, once she noticed he was the one hugging and spinning her around, she started to giggle. ****************************************----------------------------------------------- It had been three grueling weeks of arduous training after Spike realized what he had been doing wrong. Ever since that moment, his efforts only intensified with matching results. While it had been incredibly difficult at first to recognize when he was limiting himself rather than restraining his strength, after some time he learned how to separate them and ultimately disregard his limiting tendency in favor of restraint. How could he not when restraining his strength wielded the same benefits without the drawbacks of limiting himself? With Fluttershy’s help, he even began to properly control the flow of his energy after asking her dear friend, Tree Hugger, for some advice in that area. With that knowledge and his newfound focused and perceptive mind, Spike had thrown himself into Pinkie’s and Applejack’s training regimes individually. And while he made great strides on each, the moment he thought about combining both lessons, finding a vulnerable spot and feeling where it laid, he found himself amazed at how easy it was to, more or less, identify where said vulnerable spot was. “Apple Bucking Kick,” Spike muttered as he delivered a seemingly powerful kick on an apple tree’s trunk. The tree shook from the hit for only a moment before it stopped, and then twenty-four out of twenty-six apples fell to the baskets below. “I can’t believe it really works…” Spike said with a little blush adorning his cheeks as he knelt next to the tree’s trunk. He inspected the spot he had kicked and smiled. The bark was intact, the truck was undamaged, and not a single mark left by his scales could be seen. It had been a true and proper Apple Bucking Buck. Spike fell back under the tree’s shadow and grabbing an apple from the basket with the use of his tail. The dragon ate the apple whole and let out a loud, proud belch after he swallowed it. A warm smile adorned his face as a fresh breeze blew around him. With a deep breath, Spike exhaled a cloud of green fire and a moment later a scroll appeared alongside a quill and a small inkwell. “Let’s see,” he said unfolding the scroll. “With this tree that makes… five hundred out of five hundred, and before noon!” Spike smiled widely. “Applejack is sooooo gonna throw a fit!” Chapter 4 End.