"W-w-w-w-what?"
I sighed. Fluttershy wasn't wearing her little saddlebags right now. They were set down near the barn until we needed them. The closest ready trees weren't that far helpfully. I shook my head.
"It ain't complicated. Just give it a big of a buck as y'all can."
"But I don't want to hurt it. Oh, I don't know how to do this right, I'm sure I'll be just awful and mess it all up. I'm sure I'll throw off some bark or…"
"I'm pretty sure that ain't possible. I'm guessing it never was, but ah'm sure as ah can be that you ain't going to do no harm to that there tree. In fact if you look on the other side you'll see ah already gave it a bit of hurt myself and it's still okay."
Fluttershy walked around to look on the marks that in retrospect were obviously where I bucked it. Then she moved back to the other side.
"Are you really sure. I mean maybe…"
"Look here now. Just give it your best buck. I'm really hoping to learn something from this. Don't know what ah'm expecting to see, but ah'm hopeful fer something."
"Maybe I can just ask nicely?"
I rolled my eyes. "Go ahead if you wanna. See what that gets ya."
"Uh, is that…" Fluttershy then shook her head and looked up "Never mind. Please Mr. tree, I don't want to hurt you. Can't you just drop your apples for me."
Then the apples fell out of the tree like it was the most perfect buck ever, not a single one remaining in the tree. I think a few landed on me but it felt like something much lighter. Somehow all the apples missed Fluttershy entirely. Fluttershy just smiled sweetly in response, looking at the tree. I was so distracted I let the wind pull my hat right off my head and had to chase it down for a spell. I then turned around and walked back over to a still smiling Fluttershy.
"Okay sugarcube. Two questions. First, did you know ah was being a might sarcastic, but then go ahead anyway? Second, did you know that would actually work?"
"Uh, well…" She looked away "I sorta did but uh…"
"Okay, well that could be mighty helpful, but only if you'd be willing to help me every time I need to harvest a tree."
"Oh, uh…"
"Now stop right there. Ah ain't willing to ask that a you. Try that one more time, and maybe ah can focus a bit more and see if ah can't learn something."
"Uh, okay." She walked to another tree. "You too Mr. Tree, it would be so helpful."
This time I noticed Fluttershy flapped her wings as she said it. I think her wings glowed green a bit but it was hard to say. Hmm, Twi would surely like to know about that, but it don't help me none, and probably won't help Fluttershy either. I nodded and Fluttershy smiled.
"So that helped?"
"Well I shoulda put the buckets under the trees it seems, but honestly, ah weren't expecting ya ta get much done. But ah still want you to buck a tree."
"But…"
"Look, Twi said Dash's probably right that my nature magic was protecting the trees, but it just ain't cutting it now. Ah'm pretty sure you got a good bit of it right now, just like ah got more than a taste of earth."
"Oh, so you think if you see me buck you can figure something out. Are you really sure you want me to buck my hardest."
I smiled. "Yea sugarcube, ah'm sure."
The result was even less impressive than I thought. Applebloom could at least get one apple to fall out of a tree if she gave it her all. Fluttershy's buck didn't even rustle the leaves. Though that ain't to say it did nothing. The second she touched it the whole tree glowed for a bit, then once it was gone not only did the dents in the bark go away, but the tree grew out right before my eyes, apple blooms showing up, then growing into full blown apples. Fluttershy looked at me and frowned.
"Oh no, it was too hard and I hurt it, didn't I?"
"Fluttershy, if you had hurt it much more ah'd have to worry about it crowding out the other trees. That was more impressive than a rainboom in my book."
Fluttershy gasped.
"Oh, er, don't go spreading that around okay? Dash would not be happy to hear that."
She nodded. "Okay, but what do you mean?"
"Ah mean you not only healed that there tree, but made it better than it was before."
"I did? I was so worried about hurting it. I mean I know trees are less fragile than all my little animals, but I still worried. I just wanted it to keep being healthy."
"Ah see. So that's what you were thinking when you gave it a kick? Okay, lets try something a little different, and I know just the tree to try it on."
"Uh, okay."
I then trotted off. I heard only a gentle flapping of wings. Compared to Dash's harsher beats it was like almost nothing at all. I think even Fluttershy talking could have drown out the sound entirely. After a bit of walking we came to a large gnarled old tree. It still had a few leaves left on here and there, but it was clearly on its way out, most of its branches bare, and not a single apple on the whole tree.
"Aww, it's so sad."
"Uh, sugarcube, do you mean you can somehow actually feel it's sadness or it just looks sad to you."
"Uh, maybe both. Sometimes I just get feelings. Lately it, well, seems to happen a bit more often. But I don't think I can help it. I want to but…"
"Well sugarcube, ah think you're the only one that can. Now go give Old Appleby a good hug and lets see if my guess is right."
"Uh, okay."
I sighed. I bet any other pony would have at least questioned why. I think Fluttershy even wanted to question me, but just didn't. So she awkwardly hugged the tree. It was pretty adorable. Then with a flutter of her wings the tree glowed for a second. Instantly the grey bark returned to brown, all the branches sprouted new green leaves, and the whole tree grew bigger and taller than it was before. It was still as gnarled as ever, but all the funny looking growths were gone. Apples even started to come in blooms rapidly becoming full fledged fruits just like before. She then let go and smiled brightly. Then Fluttershy blinked, took a step back and fell on her haunch.
"Oh my."
"Yea, it is a bit more obvious how much you did, ain't it?"
"But, how?" She was breathing quickly, speeding towards hyperventilating. "I just did like you said and was thinking about how much I wanted to help Appleby, but I didn't do anything else."
"Well, maybe that's all it takes then. A lot oh what Twi said 'bout magic goes in one ear and out the other, but certain types of magic being different is one thing ah got clear enough. Ah guess nature is easy enough."
"But there aren't nature ponies, are there?"
"Ah dun know. Seems to me like there is at least one. Though, now that ah think about it Dash said somthin' about emotion and pegasus magic, so maybe it works the same as fer the casting, even if it ain't air magic." Then I sighed.
"What?"
"Oh, all this magic stuff. It's just way too complicated. Twi understands it but it just ain't me. I'm just a simple farm pony."
"Uh, maybe…" Fluttershy looked away. "Oh Fluttershy, that's such a silly idea."
"What?"
"Oh, I shouldn't say, it's just so silly."
"Look, let me tell you whether it be silly or not."
"Maybe, just possibly, Twilight is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Earth magic is something unicorns can do, but it isn't something they're good at right?"
"I think so, though it seems like Rarity's gem finding spell is earth magic to me."
"Oh, you're right. It must be. Oh, I'm such a silly filly."
"Now hold on. Just keep saying what you were anyway. I do remember Twi saying all pony magic ain't entirely all separate, so maybe we're just missing some little thing we can't quite figure out."
"Well, it's earth pony magic, right? So it should work in some way that makes sense to earth ponies. She said you cast with your hooves, right?"
"Yea, but ah'm trying stop it from working quite so much."
"Oh, sorry."
I stood there for a bit. All magic was connected, and she said earth ponies have a good bit of nature magic too, just like unicorns have more than a bit of arcane. So that means while Fluttershy seemed to get a heaping helping of nature, I should be able to at least stop hurting my trees. Though ah gotta admit it would be mighty helpful to be able to just ask a tree nicely to give up its apples. Ah would feel mighty lazy doing it, but it still might be nice. Then an idea hit me.
"Wait a tick, now that whole thing about it being me, that is a might important, ain't it? Most unicorns can only do what their cutie marks say, right."
"Yea, so…" Fluttershy smiled. "You must have some sort of magic for apples, it's probably just not…" She blinked. "…ready yet? That doesn’t sound right."
"Ah get your meaning sugarcube." I blinked. "Ah think. Hmm, well you been a big help so far, but I haven't done much of anything to help you."
"Oh no, really, I'm, fine."
"Uh uh missy. Even if you won't admit it's a problem, if a tree grows every time you touch it, there won't be any room for ponies in Ponyville soon enough."
"Oh my, I nearly forgot."
"Hmm, now let me think. What can we do to help you?"
I had a dozen other things I could think of that would help me and the farm. There were saplings to plant, who knows how many trees with a bit of sickness of some sort, and not a single tree that couldn't use a little of Fluttershy's magic enhanced kindness. But none of that could help her, not even to understand anything else.
"Fluttershy, are you sure you don't want to tell Twi nothing? Ah know ah'm in way over my head here."
"I, guess you could talk to her about some thing, but I really would rather no one else knows. I, just…"
"Ah get it. Still, ah got a question. Do you still want it to go away, or do seem to be enjoying helping plants nearly as much as animals?"
She smiled. "Oh I am. I mean I love animals like nothing else, but everything on the ground is just so magical. Flowers, trees, bushes, it's all just so lovely."
"Then why did you say…"
She looked away. "That isn't what I wanted to go away."
"Oh. Sorry. So then why can't you tell Twi about…"
"Because she'll need to see what's under the hat, I'm sure. Please just…"
"Fine. But ah don't got no ideas more than this. Ah think ah proved my hunch well enough, but ah was hoping we would see where to go from here. Ah don't think ah can really help you with much of anythin'."
"Oh, it's alright." She smiled. "It seemed like just coming here and helping you helped me some. Like it's easier to control a little bit for some reason."
"Oh consarn it."
I then kicked at the ground. It was so obvious. Can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. If you're bad at something, there is only one way to get better, and why wouldn’t it be the same for magic, even if you want less magic.
"Wait, does it make sense to practice magic to get less magic."
"Uh, Twilight said she used to have trouble controlling her power, but she doesn’t seem to have any trouble now."
"Okay, so ah guess ah really was missing the obvious. We just go practice. It's what Dash and Pinkie been doing, and it's worked for them."
"To get more magic."
"Hmm, okay, maybe it ain't that obvious then. In that case, we got some saplings to plant. Oh, and let me go get the list of trees with infestations, see if you can do something about that. We ain't got nothing left that other trees can catch, but there be a few things that we can't do much about, but not worth major fretting either."
"Oh, maybe, I can think of something."
I nodded, then galloped off. I felt a lot better suddenly. Had a way forward, and one that involved a bunch of hard work. Even if nothing came of this at least I was trying, and having Fluttershy with me was nice.