"There ya are!" Apple Bloom was at the top of the ramp that led to her clubhouse. She had spotted Dry coming back from the town. "Ah was wonderin' where ya done ran off to. Everythin' alright?"
He had failed to get back in time before she got there, but she didn't seem at all upset. "I got it." He shook as he ascended, causing the camera on its strap to jostle about. "I will be able to make images today while we work."
"Good job. We should get..." She trailed off as she moved go past him, noticing something. "On the other hoof, ya sit down right there."
"Is something wrong?" He had seen the way she tensed. He sat as instructed.
"Nothin' what can't be fixed." Apple Bloom moved to seat herself a small distance away. "Now, ah'm gonna cast a spell. Well, sorta? Alchemists do magic different." She began drawing things out and mixing and mashing and hurriedly producing a fresh bottle of... something.
"Now put the camera down." She tapped at the wood of the ramp. "An' step away. We don't wanna get it wet."
Wet?! Dry set down the camera as told, edging away from it. "What's going on?" But he did trust her, so he got free of the camera, watching her and wondering.
"Close yer eyes." The moment he did, she upended the bottle over his head, allowing the soapy shampoo to splatter all across his head. She began to work it in, at first working his mane and head, but soon working downwards across his form in a cleansing he hadn't asked for. "Already better!"
His cheeks went a bright red, but he remained still for the act. Only when a fresh wave of water ran over him did he squeak and open his eyes. She was pouring fresh water over him, rinsing the soap away. "I didn't do anything that dirty..."
"Tha's a perfectly colt thing ta say." She went inside the clubhouse to return with a fluffy towel. "Go ahead and dry up. Don't that feel better?"
Dry began to roll against the towel, working the water off and returning the fluffy wispiness to his mane and tail. "Is this important for applebucking?"
"Vital." Apple Bloom bobbed her head. "If we didn't wash every day, we'd stink, which you did. Ah fixed it." Buckin's hard work! Builds up a good sweat. Sweat's fine an' all, but then ya stink. An' stinky ponies have a harder time with friends." She grabbed the abandoned camera and soon had it strapped back around Dry's neck. "There ya go."
Dry jumped forward, delivering a warm hug to Apple Bloom. "You are too nice."
Apple Bloom gently pushed him back with a laugh. "Yer welcome. Ready?"
"Ready!" He turned and started down the ramp. "I will buck more apples, and capture mirror images. Today will be great!"
With a cheer of solidarity, Apple Bloom joined him in advancing on the orchard. It was afternoon when the other girls stopped by. Scootaloo's laughing cheer gave her away. "Did you see that?!"
"I certainly did." Sweetie was tilting her head at the spectacle. "When did Dry become an applebucker?"
Apple Bloom burst into giggles, gesturing at Dry and his baskets that had roughly half a dozen apples each. "He's gettin' better at it!"
With a sudden click, Dry captured an image of the two fillies propped up on the fence. "Hello! I am helping Apple Bloom and her family harvest their apples."
Sweetie squealed at the sudden picture. "Warn a filly before you do that." But she was laughing with no lingering ill feelings. "You're doing an amazing job."
The two slid down the fence towards the working two and joined in the effort without prompting. Sweetie and Scootaloo did not even try to buck. They eagerly pushed baskets around, much like Dry had done much of the day before. With each try, Dry got just a little better. It wasn't by leaps and bounds by any measure, but he was quite proud he could get as many as he did. Sure, he has to whop a tree a number of times to get all the apples free of it, but he was doing it.
It was still magical how Apple Bloom could get them all to rain free with one strike. So magic he captured several pictures of the event. He got one at just the instant her hoof touched the bark of the tree. "Perfect!" Timing was such an important part, he was discovering. "If you didn't know better, you might think she was just resting." He showed the pictures to the others.
It was true, the way her hooves were just in contact with the tree, there was no motion easily seen. She could have been leaning against the tree in an odd way. Apple Bloom burst into giggles. "That don't look like no comfy position to stay in. Yer silly." She bopped Dry with a laugh and got back to work.
With all four foals on the job, they about matched the apple harvesting potential of one of the adults. A fact Applejack noticed as the barrels of picked apples stacked high. "Ya doin' mighty good." She nodded at the two fillies that had joined at some point. "Hey, Scoots, Sweetie. Thanks fer lendin' a hoof. Shouldn't you two be at school?"
Sweetie waved a hoof over the orchard. "We asked permission to come help."
Scootaloo bobbed her head. "Cherilee said we could, but she was going to ask you to make sure we did. We're allowed to 'learn about farming.'"
Applejack let out a little ah, understanding dawning. "Well then. If that's what yer here for, time to get learnin'." She would not let the foals escape from their schooling without some learning going on. "Apple Bloom, ya already know this, so get back to it. Dry? Wanna learn about what yer kickin'?"
Dry's ears quivered. "Please?"
"Why I asked." She led three of the four foals away. It was like magic that she ended up with four foals when she arrived at a sapling in the ground. "Bloom? Whatcha doin' here? Thought you were headin' back out to harvest."
Apple Bloom waved at her friends. "Ya really 'xpect me to go back to it with them right here?"
Applejack raised a single brow high. "Points fer honesty, ah suppose... Now..." And she began to explain what it took to get an apple tree to grow, from a seed on up. "Now, as ya can see, this one ain't no seed no more." She patted the ground beside the sapling. "Once a tree gets this big, the first phase is done. On some levels, the hard part's done. A tree this big wants to grow big and tall!" She waved up high in a dramatic motion. "It's our job to let 'em, and keep things away that'd stop 'em."
Dry craned his neck up to the sky, pointing at the sun he couldn't look at for long. "The sun is involved. How?"
This caught Applejack by surprise. "Oh. Most plants need the sun. It's what they eat, sugar cube. An' we eat the plants. It's a cycle like that." She looped her hooves over each other. "And animals feed the plants, eventual-like."
Sweetie burst into giggles. "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. We all didn't know that before. I just never got to see someone learn it besides with me."
Scootaloo threw a leg over Dry, hugging with one arm. "They say every day you should learn something. You got yours covered. Grats."
Dry looked back at the plant, which was not consuming the sun in any visible way. "How?" He slipped away from Scootaloo to circle the young apple tree. "Does it... When does it eat?" He gasped with a sharp raising of his front. "I want to see that." He nudged at his camera. "I'm ready."
Applejack let out a soft hrm. "Well, see how it has those green leaves?" She pointed at the green leaves of the sapling, spreading wide. "So long as they're all lit and warm from the sun, they're eatin'. Little tree's eatin' right now! Yum yum yum! It's a nice day out, bet it's right happy. Now, they can't talk to us none, so we gotta learn other signs to know when our trees are happy or not."
And so the lesson progressed, with what a happy and healthy tree looked like, how to care for them, and all the other parts that went into Applejack's job. Apple Bloom was quite happy to chime in on things she knew well, the sisters proudly giving their lecture on the wonder that was that young apple tree.
Applejack set a hoof on the topmost leaf of the sapling. "Now, see, this here tree, just like one of you." She looked at each of the four foals. "Even you, Bloom. Just tall enough to want to reach higher. Tall enough to stand on yer own. Tall enough to fight a little wind, and growin' bigger every day! But it ain't done, and neither are any of you."
Apple Bloom smirked at the comparison. "That's a right funny way of tellin' us what yer tellin'."
"Ah get it." Applejack withdrew her hoof. "Ya got a job. Ya got magic. Ya know how to fight. Ah'm proud, really. Ah'm real proud." She offered a hoof and soon Apple Bloom was in her grasp to be hugged warmly. "Of all of ya! But yer still mah saplin', and jus' like this one here." she pointed to the actual sapling. "I'm gonna fuss and try to keep ya safe. It's what big sisters do. It's what farmers do."
Apple Bloom thrust out her tongue at Applejack, though she was held without resistance. "I'll be yer little saplin' when ah'm feedin' you oat meal."
Applejack colored at the conjured mental image. "That ain't for some time yet... but you know that's true. Like Granny don't look at me like a little saplin' herself. You think ah'm annoyin', well, ah'm a grown pony." She released Apple Bloom with a soft laugh. "So take that feelin' an' double it. Now, don't get me wrong. Right appreciate the Apple clan sticking by one another. She cares fer me, but we care fer her, now don't we?"
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom thrusted a hoof high in agreement. "We just annoy each other sometimes."
"Sometimes," agreed Applejack mid-laugh. "Ya get it. Now, y'all been right good students. Think it's high time fer some lunch!"
With a communal cheer, the foals ran off in a hurry to get some vittles. Sweetie leaned in closer to the other girls. "I thought today would be mostly a day off from schooling."
Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. "I knew Cheerilee said yes way too easily. I bet she and Applejack planned this."
Dry looked back over his shoulder. "I didn't think there'd be any school, besides... the hard kind." He took a moment to stamp in place. "But I like this kind of school better. Who is Cheerilee?"
Apple Bloom gestured at herself and the other girls. "She's our teacher." She pointed the way. "At our school. Where we learn all kinda stuff."
"Usually boring stuff." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "We're almost done with it."
"Almost, but not quite." Sweetie inclined her head. "We could probably ask to be excused. We have our cutie marks."
"And a job," agreed Apple Bloom, but she kept on forward. "Not sure ah'm... ready fer that."
Scootaloo shook her head quickly. "Wow. We went from the last to get their mark to now we have a chance to graduate first. This is a bit of a mind blow right there."
Dry inclined an ear as his eyes wandered. It was not good to be looking behind oneself as one ambled alone, which he discovered as he ran right into the door of the house. "Oof!" He slid back to his haunches, blushing in shame. "What mark did you get?" They didn't seem to have any tribal tattoos that he could see!