//------------------------------// // Memories: Applejack // Story: The Remaining Five // by ABagOVicodin //------------------------------// Applejack shifted around in her chair, the silence of the crowd echoing through the wind. It was a year ago, exactly a month after Chrysalis' defeat where her memory took place. Applejack was inside of her kitchen, moving back and forth between her own cooking materials. She was baking apple turnovers for the local hospital, as a thank you for taking care of her when she had broken her leg. She unfortunately exhausted herself too hard on the apple farm, and ended up accidentally kicking a large boulder instead of a tree, which ended up breaking her left leg, and fractured her right. She just exited the hospital a few days ago, and she was already back to work. Some would say that she was stubborn for risking another injury, but Applejack had to pay back the hospital, even though they were only doing their duties. She heard a knock at the back door, which pointed to the apple farm, and she moved over to the door, opening it with one of her hooves while she poured a small amount of sugar into the batter she was creating. Pinkie Pie hopped into the room, smiling as she already figured out what Applejack was doing. “Hey Applejack! What are you doing? Huh?” she asked, as she moved over to the oven to check the current turnovers. They had a little while and then they would be perfect. Applejack smiled and nodded her head. “Well Pinkie, remember when ah broke my leg?” she asked. Pinkie nodded her head, and she walked around the kitchen, taking in every detail so that she knew where to start off if she were to help Applejack with her baking. Applejack continued, “Well the doctors were so nice to me, and they treated me so well that ah wanted to thank them for what they did.” she said. Applejack placed the batter mix onto the table and started to mix it with a spoon, trying her best to make sure that the batter was a perfect white mixture. Pinkie remained nearby the refrigerator, since she wasn't sure if Applejack wanted help. “That's their job though, they are supposed to take care of you.” Pinkie replied. The orange mare started to pour more batter into tins, and she moved over to a bowl of fresh apples, that were cut up and thrown into another bowl of apple sauce. Slices of delicious apples, mixing into the sauce looked like a treat nirvana. Applejack usually didn't make treats like these for free, but when she did, she needed to make sure that she did it right. “Ah know that it is their job, but if ah wasn't able to buck any apples, then ah would have to leave it all to Big Macintosh. As nice as it is to take a little time off, if ah were to take any more time off then the week that it took for my legs to get better, Big Macintosh wouldn't be able to harvest the whole farm. He would get tired, and the apples would go bad. Ah couldn't have that happen. Ah have to show the doctors that my legs mean a lot to me, and the fact that they healed me quickly, made me very grateful.” Pinkie nodded her head again. “Oki doki loki!” she replied, placing her hands onto the bowl of combined applesauce so that she could make another batch of turnovers, just waiting to be placed into the oven and baked. However as Pinkie took a good look at Applejack, she noticed that the hard worker wasn't exactly running on a large amount of sleep. Much like the current Applejack, who was coming close to sleeping right in the funeral chair from exhaustion, the Applejack in her memory was baking perfectly, but only because she had all of her attention on her ingredients. She would probably die from embarrassment if she cooked burnt turnovers as a thank you. Pinkie placed her hooves onto Applejack's own hooves and smiled, as she pushed the hard worker away from the counter for a moment. “Do you need any help?” Applejack shook her head, probably a few more times then was needed to prove her point, and she moved back to the counter, walking around Pinkie so that the orange mare didn't end up pushing Pinkie into the counter. “Ah don't need any help. All ah need to do is cook another twelve batches, and then ah will be able to take them to the hospital to pass out among the staff and the patients. It is only fair that if ah give some of the turnovers to the staff, that ah also give some to the patients.” she responded. Pinkie realized that her friend's speech was becoming a little too circular, probably because Applejack would forget what she was saying halfway through her sentence, and then repeat it just in case she didn't know if she said it. The Cakes did that a lot as well, when they stayed up all night on a catering order with Pinkie's help. Pinkie smiled. “Well Applejack, wouldn't it take only an hour or two if we were able to cook all of these turnovers in the kitchen that Mr. and Mrs. Cake have?” she asked. Applejack was surprised. That would cut down the time of baking by at least sixty percent. She nodded her head, smiling. “Ah would love if we could do that, but ah don't think that ah should be using their kitchen just for something that ah am cooking for free. Ah can't pay them to use their kitchen, because ah'm already paying a lot of money to get these turnovers prepared.” “Don't you worry about any of that Applejack!” Pinkie Pie said, as she smiled and moved over to a large tray of turnovers. Apparently this was Applejack's system: the turnovers would be made, baked, and then placed on a tray. Judging by the temperature of a fraction of the turnovers on the upper left side of the tray, Pinkie was able to tell that Applejack was cooking four turnovers an hour. Her oven was small, probably because it was not used to creating large catering orders, only small orders and snacks for the family. “How many turnovers do you have to make?” Pinkie asked. Applejack placed her hoof underneath her chin as she thought this through. “Well... one turnover for each patient and doctor, with a third of the total for seconds was my plan. So... forty five if we count extras for us.” the mare replied. Pinkie's eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Oh no no no no, this simply will not do. If we want the turnovers to be hot and ready for the doctors, then we need to use the Cake's oven. Bring enough ingredients for forty five turnovers, I will make sure that the kitchen is ready!” Pinkie said, and she dashed out of the room, managing to open and close the door through her haste. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack let out a grunt of exhaustion as she finally pulled a cart full of ingredients to the Cake's house. She released the circle strap on the cart, and opened the Cake's door so that she could start to bring the ingredients in. She trotted into the kitchen with all of the flour bags, and gasped as she realized Pinkie's work. The pink mare had heated up all of the ovens so that they were at the perfect temperature for baking, along with placing additional racks so that more turnovers could be cooked within the allotted time. Pinkie was rushing around the kitchen, but stopped when she saw Applejack. “Hey Applejack!” She said, a smile on her face as she moved over to the Western pony, and helped her place the flour sacks on the large counter that in the future, would hold the funeral cake. Both mares walked back and forth between the cart, emptying the ingredients until there were no more, and Applejack placed the wagon in the back of the house. She moved back into the kitchen and smiled. “Thank you Pinkie for your help... you are saving me,” her talking was paused by a yawn, "So much time. The sooner I can deliver all of these, the sooner I can get to sleep and continue apple bucking.” Pinkie smiled and placed her arm around Applejack. “Don't you worry at all Applejack! We can cook all forty five turnovers in one hour with this oven!” she said. She pointed to the trusty oven, one that had survived through the largest catering orders, and the smallest ones that required the most detail on heat and time. With a few racks added and a simple change on the time, the turnovers would be made quickly. Pinkie moved over to the counter and brought out a large variety of bowls, one large one that could be made for all of the turnover batter, and another smaller one that could be used for the apple filling. “Okay, I'll make the apple filling and you can make the batter okay?” she asked. Applejack was still stunned at the fact that her best friend had just managed to turn a 6 hour baking session, into a hour. “Thank you Pinkie.” Applejack said, as she started to mix up the batter with water and the rest of the ingredients. Pinkie finished up the apple filling, and the two collaborated to create the turnovers as quickly as they could, once Applejack finished with her part of the job. Applejack looked over to the pink mare, and she thought that it would be a good time to make some small talk for an hour or so, while they were more or less completing “busy work” to get to the turnovers. “So Pinkie, how are you doing?” she asked. Blue eyes stared back at Applejack, and she smiled while they created a tray full of uncooked turnovers. “Oh I am doing just fine Applejack! Thank you for asking!” she said, as she opened the oven, slid in the tray, and then gently closed the lid. The cooking began on the turnovers, and she moved back to their main counter, where they began to fill up another tray. “I am so happy that we are going to be able to give all of these turnovers to the hospital. Imagine how happy they are going to be when they take that first bite!” she said, as she bounced around the counter, and added a few more sliced apples to the filling. Applejack smiled and let out a small laugh, nodding her head while she placed another perfectly crafted turnover on the tray. One specific question popped into her head, as she looked at the clock and realized that Pinkie had already spent a whole hour making sure that Applejack would be able to cook these treats efficiently and quickly. Didn't she have other things to do? It was a week day, Monday to be exact. Usually others were the most busy on Mondays, Applejack included. That was why she intended on going to bed when she finished this order. “Pinkie,” she started, The pink mare turned towards Applejack, a wide smile on her face while she ate a raw turnover just to examine the taste. “Why are you doing all of this?” Applejack asked. “Isn't this a little too out of your way?” Pinkie giggled, and she shook her head. “Of course not, Silly! I love helping everypony! You know that. Even if our treats only give me one smile, all of this will be worth it.” she responded. Applejack almost couldn't believe it, and a small flood of guilt moved through her body. She remembered the last party Pinkie threw, in celebration of Berry Punch's birthday. Applejack was unable to attend, because she had to pick the whole Apple farm during that time or risk an infestation. Applejack had not done anything to make up for the fact that she missed Berry Punch's birthday, other then show up at Berry Punch's house with a present and an apology. Maybe if she had worked harder, she would have been able to attend the party. Pinkie had not missed out on a single plan that she arranged ahead of time, no matter what extenuating circumstances held her back. Applejack on the other hand, was the complete opposite. She had a lot of work, but was it really more then Pinkie's? Was it harder to help every single pony in Ponyville, every day, than to harvest an apple farm? This question buried deep into Applejack's head, while the two mares finished up their baking. “Pinkie, ah promise that ah will pay you back for all that you are doing for me.” Applejack said. “Oh Applejack, you are so silly! I don't need you to pay me back! I didn't have any extra plans, and I still will be able to help out the people that need it!” “Are you sure?” “Of course. But I do have to leave when I finish baking these. You can borrow our cart for the turnovers. Mr. and Mrs. Cake will be back when you are done, and you can give it to them! Okay?” “Pinkie, you are only giving me more reasons to want to make it up to you. Ah've never had someone help me this much in one sitting, especially only one pony.” Applejack replied. The Applebuck Season came to mind, but that didn't count, since Applejack didn't accept any help until the last minute. Pinkie practically came into her house, and started to help after she knew what Applejack was doing. “Ah Pinkie Promise.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack opened her eyes after feeling that memory finally reach the end. The turnovers they created were delicious, and it struck up more business with the farm. Many of the patients told her that they were going to come back to the farm when they were healed, and most of them remained true to her word. Applejack however, did not. She covered her face with her hoof, and wiped away a few tears, “Thank you Pinkie, for everything.”