//------------------------------//
// The 525 Crackervac 
// Story: Equestria Girls: It's Showtime--Wallace and Gromit: Cracking Contraptions 
// by PlymouthFury58 
//------------------------------//

Weekends are meant to be the time of the week when folks regain their senses, pull themselves together from all of the hard stress of work or school, and just all around have a few days of rest.

Well, that is what Apple Bloom had hoped would happen, although once again it was falsely hoped for.

Her weekends were all the same: rest up from Friday evening, wake up, have breakfast, be given the daily chore, tirelessly work those daily chores, have lunch, continue tirelessly working the chores, have dinner, and go to sleep. Sundays were different: they would go to sermon, come home, work on more chores, rinse and repeat, and before she knew it, it was time to yet again go to school.

Today, she was left inside the farmhouse sweeping up the crumbs from the hallway carpet. Outside was near sweltering, and the air conditioner was just barely doing its job inside. She had just finished up the kitchen and was left with the front room after the hallway.

"'Clean yer room, Apple Bloom,'" she grumbled. "'Sweep the kitchen, Apple Bloom.  Feed the piggies, Apple Bloom. Paint the fence, the barn, the farmhouse, the mailbox. Hey, Apple Bloom, you missed a spot.' UGH!"

She got up and angrily threw down the broom and dustpan.

"It's the same stuff every single weekend: all work and no play. Ah should be hangin' out with Sweetie and Scoots instead of doin' the same damn chores every weekend! Ah don' even git enough tahme to finish mah homework!"

She huffed and stomped over to the stool by the front door where it assists in removing shoes to be placed on the mat nearby. She sighed, placing her head on her hand. "Whah couldn' we git a vacuum? Whah do we have to be stuck in the days before technology was even a thang? Sure would be nahce to have somethin' mechanical romin' about the place."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, startling Apple Bloom. Winona would have yipped and barked madly at the door, but she remembered it was Applejack's turn to walk her, and that Big Mac was out delivering in the truck.

She opened the door with a "Hello, can Ah help you?"

"Oh, yes, uh, is this the um...Apple residence perchance?"

She looked up to see a man with a bald head with large ears and a bulbous nose. He was wearing a white shirt and read tie underneath a green sweater vest, brown trousers, and black shoes. Standing behind him was a dog.  By all accounts, he stood out in the environment of a farm, let alone an apple farm.

"Yea, this is the Apple residence," Apple Bloom replied, recomposing herself. "Sorry, where are mah manners? Ah'm Apple Bloom, and welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, mister!" she greeted in her biggest and friendliest smile she could muster.

"Charming, Miss Bloom," the man smiled back. "I'm Wallace, and this is my dog, Gromit. We should be expected."

"Well, rahght now it's only me, and just Apple Bloom, please. Ah don' want any of this 'miss' business with me. Not tah sound rude er nothin', but ya sound funny."

To her surprise, Wallace laughed. "Hehehehe! That's because Gromit and me just moved here in Canterlot from Wigan, Lancashire."

Apple Bloom cocked her head in confusion.

"Um, in England."

"Oh," she realized, "so how come you don' sound posh-lahke?"

Wallace was about to answer, when the question stopped his train of thought. "Huh. I don't know, really. I suppose it's because I was never raised in a posh manner." He shook his head clear, clapping his hands. "Anyway, now that the formalities are in order, I've come to deliver to this home my latest invention in house cleaning."

That caught her attention, and his friendly demeanor and personality eventually won her over. "Alrigh' then. Come inside. Don' ferget to wipe yer feet, you two."

Wallace and Gromit did just that before entering into the parlor.  "Ah'm sorry abou' th'mess," she apologized. "Ah didn' expect any visitors t'day."

"It's quite alright, Apple Bloom," Wallace beamed.

What was there to smile about a messy house? Apple Bloom thought.

"It's the perfect environment to test out my invention."

Gromit emerged from behind Wallace, placing a strange-looking contraption on the floor. It was in the shape of what Apple Bloom assumed to be a small giraffe. Its main body was cylindrical, with a handle on top and a nameplate that read, "525 Crackervac", it rolled around on what she thought were training wheels, and had a actual vacuum shaped head that was connected with a tube acting as the neck. It also had a feather-duster attached as a tail.

Immediately after Gromit placed it on the floor, it beeped to life. It sprang into action, moving over to where it sensed food crumbs in the vicinity, before placing its mouth to neatly suck them up and out of sight.

To say Apple Bloom was impressed right out of the gate was an understatement.

"EEEEEHH!! This is so cool, Mr. Wallace!" she congratulated, jumping up and down like a hyperactive pogo-stick. "This beats sweeping th'floor any day!"

"Well, I'm glad you like it," Wallace replied.

"How does it work?"

"It's very simple: it works as a regular vacuum, only it has a built-in cracker sensor. Come and have look."

He led Apple Bloom into the parlor, where he took out a cracker and threw it across the room. The Crackervac came rolling in beeping, looked around, then made its way over to where the crumbs were, and in no time flat were gone.

"Wow!" she watched, amazed.

"See? You won't have to fuss any longer with a broom and dustpan. Just simply bring out the Crackervac. No trouble, and no fussing around," Wallace proudly stated.

Just then, the Crackervac looked up and beeped its sensor, eyeing the set of unopened crackers placed on the tea tray. It immediately went right for it.

"Hey!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "Those're Granny's crackers! It can't have those!"

"Oi!" Wallace exclaimed as well. "You're not allowed to have perfectly good crackers, only the crumbs on the floor! Put those down!" He grabbed the crackers, tearing them free of the suction. "Geroff!"

As soon as he did, the eyes turned blood red and the Crackervac began chomping its metal and jagged teeth at Wallace, who nervously walked away from the barring mechanized vacuum, scared for his life that one of his machines was after blood. "Go away!" he cried.

Gromit protected Apple Bloom as the Crackervac pushed Wallace to ducked behind the armchair.  "Help, Gromit! It's gone crackers!" he cried again.

Apple Bloom cowered behind Gromit, scared out of her wits for Wallace and of the mechanized vacuum cleaner. Those metal teeth looked like they could seamlessly bite through muscle and bone, and she felt her legs beginning to shake.

She looked up to see her daddy's prized lasso above the mantlepiece, and the a light bulb went off. She turned to Gromit, and whispered, "Gromit, Ah know this sounds crazy but Ah got a plan."

Gromit went into shock, fearing what she was actually thinking.

"Just follow mah lead and do as I say. Wait here."

Gromit could only helplessly watched as the youngest matron of the Apple family move across the room, directly in the vision of the Crackervac, which was still gnawing for the crackers.

"Hey, Wallace!" she shouted. "Toss me the crackers!"

"Have you gone crackers?!" he cried.

"Trust me, just do it!"

Wallace swallowed as he tossed the crackers across the room, where Apple Bloom caught them with ease. He then watched as the Crackervac got into a position where it stared down the little girl with murder in its eyes.

Apple Bloom, being an apple, was stubborn beyond belief and was not one to easily back down from a fight. She narrowed her eyes in concentration, right back at the machine. She then took out a single cracker, letting it roll through her fingers.

"Now when Ah say 'now', Gromit, Ah want you ta throw me the lasso attached to the wall, alrigh'?"

Gromit meekly nodded, stiffly climbing up to gently remove it from its attachments.

Apple Bloom held up the cracker. "You want this, don't cha?"

The Crackervac peered back at her, eye the cracker in her fingers.

"Well, yer gonna have ta go'n git it."

Then everything happened at once.

Apple Bloom tossed the cracker into the air, catching the Crackervac's attention long enough her to shout, "NOW!". Gromit tossed her the lasso, where she prepared it with a few swings. "Come on, papa, don' fail me now." She then threw the lasso noose forward, catching the Crackervac by the neck, which pulled her right onto its body as she rode it out like a bucking bronco around the entire room.

And she enjoyed it. "YEEHAW!! RIDE'EM COWBOY!!" she hollered.

"Ride him, Apple Bloom!" Wallace cheered. "You're doing a smashing job! Ooh!" he ducked in time for the Crackervac to miss crashing into him from behind the armchair.

Apple Bloom rode the vacuum around the room, until the rope lost its hold and she slid off, holding onto its neck but pushing against it from biting and sucking on her face. "Gromit! A little help over here!"

Gromit suddenly tackled the Crackervac, grab its neck, and then neatly tied a hard not right in the middle of its sucking tube. The Crackervac immediately went limp.

Apple Bloom sighed in relief, wiping the sweat off her brow. "Phew! Now tha' was hard work. Who knew hard work could be fun, righ' Gromit?"

Gromit shook his shocked head in silence, before noticing that the Crackervac was violently shaking like a quake.

Wallace then emerged from behind the chair. "Haha, we did it!" he cheered.

Suddenly, the force from the blockage caused the backend of the Crackervac to blow out, splaying the wall, the armchair, several picture frames, and a small table with all of the dust, dirt, and grime it accumulated in it's short lifespan, and Wallace with the wall, giving him a potted cactus for a hat, and leaving his figure to block off the dirt from some parts of the wall.

Wallace was left feeling a little dazed.  He wiped his mouth clean with the clean sides of his hands. "Ohh, Gromit, uuurgh," he grimaced. "I think you better get the dustpan and broom."

Apple Bloom buried her face in her hands. "Applejack's gonna kill me."