//------------------------------//
// The Souring of Strawberries 
// Story: Apples and Strawberries 
// by Samuel L 
//------------------------------//

Applejack wiped off an apple until it was clean enough to see herself, before giving it to the mare in front of her.
“Thank you Applejack,” the pony said.
“Thank ya for ya business,” Applejack replied with a smile, however that smile quickly faded away as she saw a certain pony staring back. ‘There she is, doing it again,’ Applejack thought. Strawberry Sunrise, just across from Applejack’s stand in her own stand, was giving a glare in irritation as that was yet again one less customer for her.
“Lookin’ quite sour over there,” Applejack started, “sourness won’t attract anypony, ponies crave sweetness in their fruit and attitude.”
“Well last time I checked, apples aren't as sweet as you claim they are,” Sunrise replied, “pfffft, and you're supposed to be the Element of Honesty, aww.” Applejack took a moment to breathe.
‘Don’t let her get to you, don't let her get to you,’ she thought before saying, “Well how would a pony that hasn’t eaten an apple in years know that? Though if I’m to be honest, your right-”
“Ha!”
“Partially...”
“Errgh…”
“Ya see, ponies like you wouldn’t know that there are many different types of apples out there-”
“Here you go again.”
“There’s so many apples, that most ponies can find one they will like.” While continuing on with her speech, she served three more ponies. “And one thing I can say that apples have over strawberries is the variety, and based on most ponies' opinions through polls, apples have sweeter varieties compared to the one bitter strawberry type.” By the time Applejack had finished, she could see for herself that Sunrise was quite angered as she was pretty red in the face.
“Well-... ergh I mean- Ugh!” Sunrise then trotted off in anger, she really wanted to say something that would get under Applejack’s skin, but was too enraged. Not only was she right, but she even had other ponies backing her claim. She then entered her house before slamming the door behind her. She growled in anger as she slammed down her saddle bag on the ground.
“You’re home early… again,” a deep voice echoed from another room, “What happened this time?”
“That darn apple pony ticked me off… again.” Sunrise sighed.
“Again!?” The deep voice boomed. “Look, I understand some ponies, especially other sales ponies, especially the apple’s one in particular can be annoying, but you do realize that we still need to put dinner on the table right?”
“But we could just grow our own food, right?”
“That’s besides the point, the point is we need bits to stay afloat and keep a roof over our heads.”
“But-”
“Now if you can’t handle the simple job of selling our strawberries, I will do it myself and have you harvest them instead, do I make myself clear?”
“Yes dad…” she said with a groan as she sat in the middle of the floor with her head down, defeated. However, she then felt a small hoof touch her head and saw her little sister, a young light pink pegasus with dark pink eyes and a bright green mane.
“Strawberry? This one is very sweet,” the young filly said as she held out a large strawberry. Sunrise’s eyes beamed with happiness as she gladly took the offering.
“Ahh, thanks little sis!” Sunrise replied with a smile. “You sure know how to cheer me up anytime I need it.”
“Hehe, anything for you sis, even though we all know it only takes some tasty strawberries to cheer you up.” Sunrise then hugged her younger sister.
“You know me so well, and you know what,” she said as she stood up proudly, “as long as I have you and strawberries, I won’t let some apple pony get to me.”
“That’s the spirit big sister!” The filly said with a smile.
“You know, I could use some help with selling our strawberries, how would you feel about coming to the market with me tomorrow?”
 “Really!?”
“Sure! I wouldn’t mind having someone there I could talk with and to take on the market with.”
The little filly then squeed with happiness, only to realize that they still had yet to ask their dad if it was ok. “Dad! Can I go to the market with Sunrise tomorrow?” The filly said towards the hall loudly.
“I guess that’s ok… whatever it takes for her to sell those strawberries!” The two siblings smiled at each other before hoof bumping.



The next day, the two strawberry siblings made their way to the market as the sun was just rising.
“You always wake up this early to head out here?” the filly asked as she yawned.
“Yeah… it’s a way I get an advantage over other sales ponies, after all, the early bird gets the worm.” Sunrise replied as they reached their stand. “Welp, here she is, our strawberry stand. I designed it myself, isn’t she quite a beauty?”
“It’s… amazing!” Her sister said in awe. “How could any pony resist coming over here?”
“Ah, if only it was that simple sis. You see, ponies don’t just go based on looks, they seem to also go based on what they hear around town, which, unfortunately, is that the apple ponies have the best fruit in town…” She then gave a growl, before chuckling. “If it was based on looks, they would have no business at all,” she said as she pointed to the apple's simple stand. One thing that most ponies knew about the apples is that they were simple folks, yet they seemed to be the best out of all the sales ponies when it came to selling their goods.
The early part of the morning went by peacefully and decently as they served a few ponies, but the worst was yet to come as a certain orange pony along with a certain yellow filly walked behind the apple’s stand.
‘Looks like a certain pony copied my idea,’ Sunrise thought in irritation. She then watched as Applejack flipped the close sign to open, and how the flow of the market changed almost as instantly.
“Hey look, Applejack’s stand is open!”
“I must be first!”
“APPLES!”
Before they realized it, most of the ponies within the market area were in line to buy some apples.
“Ergh… that darn pony just about took all the business in the area!” Sunrise growled.
“Maybe we could try to feed off of this though,” her little sister replied with a grin. ”I could advertise to the ponies stuck in line.”
“Good idea little sis!” Sunrise then looked around the line. “And it seems that they're too busy serving the ponies in the front to watch over the rest of the line.”
“I will make my move then,” she replied as she grabbed a sample tray of strawberries before walking towards the line. However, just when she was about to get the attention of one stallion.
“Strawberry Shortcake?” She froze in place with an expression of shock as she heard a painfully familiar voice. “Whatcha doing with that sample platter? Trying to advertise and drive our customers to your stand?” Applebloom said with a glare of disappointment. “I would think that you wouldn’t go that low, pretty sure you wouldn’t like if we did that to the few customers you have…”
“Ha ha, you're very ‘funny’, I don’t think you realize that you basically have done the same thing... Just without having to put an effort into driving the customers over,” Shortcake replied in a taunting way
“Well what can we say? Ponies just love our apples.” Suddenly however, Shortcake maneuvered her way around Applebloom.
“Yeah, yeah, well sometimes you gotta play dirty to be successful,” Shortcake replied before flying to a different part of the line. “Hey you! Are you tired of standing in line just to get a bite? Well come over to the strawberry stand! Where you don’t have to wait ten minutes just for some tasty fruit.” Short cake said with a smile to a trio of mares in the line, “Best part of all, they taste better than apples.” She finished off with a wink as each one of the mares tried a strawberry for themselves. She knew that they would agree as she purposely picked out the best ones for the sample tray.
“Mmm,” said one of the mares as they licked their lips, “that is good!”
“I agree!”
“What are we still waiting here for?” The three mares then trotted out of the line and towards the Strawberry stand, as Applebloom saw this, she gave a gasp before galloping towards the apple stand to warn Applejack.
“Applejack! Shortcake is going through our line and is driving away our customers!” Applebloom yelled.
“What the?” Applejack said in surprise as she looked around the pony directly in front of her to see for herself, she then saw the little pegasus, as she drove another duo of ponies from their line to the strawberry line. She knew she needed to act fast, and after a second of thinking she then gave Applebloom a saddle bag filled with bottles of apple juice. “Here, take this. Hand it out to everypony in this here line.” Applebloom nodded as she put the saddle bag on before starting to hand out bottles.
“Hey everypony!” Applebloom started, “we know waiting in this line must be frustrating, so we’re giving out free apple juice for your much appreciated patience!”
“Oooh.”
“Ahh,” ponies went throughout the line. Even Shortcake noticed but decided to try to drive more customers away anyway.
“Hey you! Don’t waste your time in this line, come to the strawberry stand and have better fruit for less time!” Shortcake said to a stallion.
“Nah, I’m good, I really could go for some apple juice right now. The stallion replied.
“You sure? I think you would change your mind if you try one of these lovely strawberries.”
“Nah, no thanks, I really have a taste for apples, and would love to get a free bottle of apple juice.” As he said this, he grabbed his own free bottle from Applebloom. Instead of another customer, she received a smug grin from Applebloom. She growled in irritation as she flew over to another pony.
“Want a taste that you will never forget, come over to the strawberry stand!”
“Umm… no thanks. And you’re right, the taste was… unforgettable...” The mare replied, shuddering.
“My point exactly.”  Shortcake said as she threw a strawberry into the pony’s mouth
“Mmnngh- Bleh!” The mare went as she spat out the strawberry. “I meant unforgettable being absolutely disgusting!” Shortcake was speechless as Applebloom came up and gave the pony a bottle. “Much appreciated!” The mare said happily.
“No problem miss, and thank ya for your patience.” Shortcake then gave Applebloom a glare in irritation. “Maybe you shouldn’t force ponies to take what you're selling. Trust me, I learned this the hard way when I was younger,” Applebloom replied with a chuckle before walking on to the next pony in line. Shortcake gave a louder growl in irritation before she caught something in the corner of her eye she was hoping that she was imagining. Unfortunately for her, her eyes saw what was before her when she flew over; her friends from school were standing in line as well, eagerly waiting for apples.
“Flora Shine and April Showers! What are you doing here?” Shortcake asked, unpleasantly surprised.
“We were hungry,” Flora replied, “So we came here.”
“But why here of all places? Why wait for something so tasteless when you could get something better at the strawberry stand? And being that you two are my friends, I would think you would come over to the strawberry stand anyway.”
“Well one, we had a taste for apples, and two, it’s not so cool of you to think that just because we are friends,  you get to control what we do.” April said with a look of disapproval.
“Well-”
“And you say it like we have never gone over to your stand before, even though we have gone over there the most out of all stands just for your sake…” Flora added.
“So if you don’t mind us, we would like to try something different for a change.” April finished off with before the two fillies grabbed their own free bottles from Applebloom. All Applebloom did once she gave the two filles their drinks was to shake her head at Shortcake in disappointment. However, this only proved to be the last straw for Shortcake as she slammed the sample tray to the ground in anger which caused a dozen heads to turn to her before she walked back to the strawberry stand.
“I can’t take it anymore!” Yelled Shortcake, “Can we please just go home?”
Sunrise gave a sigh before replying. “Alright… but I don’t think dad will be too happy.” She then gave Applejack a glare from her stand, while Applejack replied to this with a shrug, before the two strawberry siblings walked off.
Once again the front door of the strawberry house opened earlier than usual, but this time with Shortcake storming into the house with a concerned Sunrise not too far behind.
“Please just tell me you're just coming back for some more strawberries, cause you sold out,” their dad said from another room.
Sunrise then gave a sigh before saying, “No… we came home early again…”
“THOSE APPLE PONIES ARE ANNOYING!!!” Yelled Shortcake in anger.
“Ugh… How do you expect us to keep a roof over our heads when you keep fleeing the market early and making no profit?” Their dad questioned, “Look, I better just take over from here, before we end up having to be at our stand day and night, homeless…” The sisters then looked at each other before moving on to do their own thing for the rest of the day.



The next morning, their dad was preparing to head to the market, just like he said he would from yesterday.
“Aww, do I really have to harvest too?” Shortcake asked.
“Of course you do. I have done it myself many times, but as for you two, I want to make sure you get it done,” their dad replied.
“Are you sure you won’t need more help yourself dealing with those Apples?” Sunrise asked.
“What did you think I would do before you were old enough to do so yourself? Nevermind that, I gotta get going, just have all the strawberries that are ripe harvested before I get back home.” He then grabbed his saddle bag before he made his way through the door.
“Well good luck then,” Sunrise said to herself, “you're going to need it.”
A little later, their dad made it to the market. As he came to their stand, he couldn’t help but to be impressed with how good it looked. ‘My, my, my, Sunrise has quite outdone herself,’ he thought to himself as he looked around the market at the other stands to compare. ‘How could anypony resist coming over to our five star looking stand.’
Just like yesterday the early morning went by perfectly fine, making quite a few sales, but more importantly, no reason for anger was presented either… Well, at least until a certain large red stallion and old green mare came behind their stand.
“The Apple stand is now open for business!” Granny Smith shouted.
“Eeyup!” Big Mac added.
Just like yesterday, everypony got excited and started to crowd around the apple stand.
He tried to remain calm and not end up falling into the same trap as his two daughters, but it was easier to think about than to actually do as he knew that they needed to go ahead and get back on track with their sales. Despite remaining calm and staying at the market for the full time it was open, from sunrise to early evening, however, he still wasn’t too satisfied with the profits. He then left hiding his real emotions with a pretty obvious, fake smile.
Once he made it home, he slammed down his saddle bag before grunting in anger.
“Is everything okay dad?” Sunrise asked as she and Shortcake entered the room.
“Uhh... I think his expression on his face can answer that.” Shortcake replied. Just when they thought they were going to get a booming loud reply from their dad, he took a deep breath before sighing and calming down, before walking up to his two daughters.
“You two were right…” He started to admit in defeat, “Even staying out there the whole time didn’t change anything… It’s like the Apple’s are… umm… pony magnets!” He then sat down on the ground.
“So what are we going to do?” Sunrise asked as she sat besides her dad. To both her surprise and horror a little, a very smug expression grew across her dad’s face.
“Well, since they’re so good at selling those apples, what if we took those apples away from them somehow?”
“You're not suggesting we take those nasty worm filled things and resell them at our own stand, are you?” Sunrise asked with a cringe.
“Oh no no no no no… I would have to get bucked in the face to think that way. I have a much better and original plan,” he replied as he rubbed his hooves together in a menacing way. “Come you two, it’s time we get down to some serious business.” They then went into their basement to discuss their mischievous plan…
The dark basement lit up entirely with the flick of a switch, revealing a board with what seemed to be a large chart of a plan of somesort. The two strawberry siblings then took a seat.
“A month in the making... I present to you, Operation Apple Rot!” Their dad said as he pointed to the board.
“Wow, that’s a lot of… things on there,” Shortcake said.
“They’re much more than just things, Shortcake,” her dad replied, “they’re things that will finally bring the Apple Family to their knees! Let me explain... we’re going to make a poison that no tree could ever survive, they will go bankrupt for sure. All we got to do is make a gallon of this stuff, and inject it throughout the orchard.
“Um… You su-”
“YES!! Perfect! If the source is compromised, we can say goodbye to those edible worm homes!” Sunrise cutted in, cutting off Shortcake.
“EXACTLY!! And it's happening tonight, so let’s get to work!” Their dad and Sunrise got straight to work, while Shortcake, more or less helped.
“Come on Shortcake! Think about it. If the Apples are out of the question, the other stands will have no chance against us.” Shortcake then thought about it more. On one hoof, she knew it was wrong, possibly very wrong, but on the other, she knew that, financially, their family was struggling due to the Apples themselves, and getting annoyed by them at the same time. Finally, she made up her mind.
“I will go through with it.”
“Great!” Both her dad and Sunrise said at the same time, before they all got to work to finish the poison.