//------------------------------// // Past pursuits the present at high speeds through the curves of time. // Story: The Apples of Ponyville // by primeoetgrunn //------------------------------// It was a nice Saturday morning at Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack decided it was a good day to fix and clean up the old barn. "Mornin', Applebloom! Rise and shine!" Applejacks voice could be heard from the doorstep to Appleblooms bedroom. "Urgh! It's too early!" Applebloom grunted with her face buried in her pillow. "No time ta waste. We gotta fix up the old barn today. Get outta bed and get sumtin' ta eat." Applejack said with a stern voice. " 'Sides, maybe you will find some interesting old things on the floor while sweeping. Ya'll could get a Cutiemark for finding ancient stuff." Applejack said. Hearing the magic word, Applebloom directly got out of bed and ran to the kitchen as fast as her little hooves could do. When she got in the kitchen, Big mac and Granny Smith already started on a pie (well, Granny was SLEEPING in her chair, instead of eating). "Mornin'." Big Macintosh said. "Mornin', Big Mac!" the little yellow filly greeted her brother. "Yer in a hurry." Mac commented while his youngest sister got a piece of apple pie. "This excited ta help fixin' up tha barn?" "Now, why would you want ta have a barn on that exact spoooooooo..." Granny Smith said in her sleep, before snoring again. "Ahm gonna get mah Cutiemark today!" Applebloom said with a smile on her muzzle. "In what? Cleanin' up?" Mac said laughing at his little sister. "Nope, findin' old stuff! And the old barn is a great spot." Applejack cut in while walking off the stairs. "Ah, archeology." Big Mac said while chewing on a piece of his pie. "Say what now?" Applebloom and her big sister said simultaniously. "Just a fancy word ah picked up from them smart unicorns while in Canterlot, a few years back." The two sisters started eating their pieces of apple pie, and soon they were ready to fix up the barn. Big Mac was pulling a cart filled with tools, paint, nails and planks to replace the old, rotten walls. Applebloom was walking around with a broom like a small dog walking with a way too large stick. And Applejack had her saddlebags filled with paintbrushes and buckets of red paint. When they reached the old barn, it looked like it could collapse with the smallest nudge: almost all of the paint had chipped off; the roof was filled with so much holes, it was almost non-existant and the walls looked like they had not been repaired since it was build 84 years ago. "Well, we better get started." Applejack said looking at the doors, wich were filled with termite holes from the plague of 956. "Eeeeeyup." Big Mac agreed. Applebloom was already inside, sweeping the floor. She was a little bit too enthousastic and started digging through the old planks with the broom. Her two elder siblings were repairing holes in the walls and roof, stabilized the wooden skelleton and re-painting the outside. When Applejack came inside to have a look at her little sisters work, she could only find a deep hole in the middle of the barn. The orange mare decided to have a look inside the deep crater in the floor, only to find Applebloom gently brushing something deep down. "Applejack! Look what ah found!" the little filly yelled up. "What did ya find?" Applejack was smiling at her little sister. "Some kind of metal plate, and its painted!" "Ah didn't expect to be actually sumtin' down there. Ah think Twilight would want to take a look at it." Applejack said to the yellow filly. "But first, we need ta get you out fer dinner." After pulling Applebloom out with a rope, Granny already made dinner and sat at the kitchen table. "Granny! Ya'll wouldn't believe what ah found under the old barn!" Applebloom ran into the kitchen. "What did ya find?" the old mare asked. "Ah found a large piece of painted metal." "Metal, underneath the barn?" Granny Smith asked with wide eyes. "Yeah! waaaaay down. Like, twenty hooves!" the little filly answered while strarting to eat. "Twenty hooves down? Oh, mah goodness!" Granny was shocked with the news. "Thah Princess needs ta know this! This must be why that barn had to be made on that spot." Applejack and Big Mac got inside too and heard their grandmothers reaction. "After dinner ah'll contact Twilight, she is the princess's personal student after all." Applejack said. "That won't be nescesarry." the shape of princess Celestia could be seen just outside the door to the new barn. "When I heard of your discovery, I left the castle as fast as I could. May I see it?" "Follow me, yer highness." Applejack said after bowing her head to the alicorn. When they got to the hole in the centre of the fixed-up barn, Celestia didn't waste time and pulled the large orange piece of metal out of the ground. This action caused the inside of the barn to be covered in dirt and sand. "What is that thang?" Applejack said in bewilderment. "This, my little pony, is part of a long lost culture and part of your family's past." If you, the reader, are familiar to The Dukes of Hazzard, you already know what this is. Celestia put the wreck down on the ground and opened the trunk of the car, reveiling bottles filled with a water-like substance. "Applejack, would you kindly open one of these bottles?" the sun goddess asked. Applejack complied by getting one out of the car and opening it. "I know about your hard cider, now, meet the roots of that cider: uncle Jesse's moonshine." Celestia took a sip of the alcoholic beverage. "Phew, this stuff is still *hic* good after more than five *hic* billion years. Thanks for the tip, grandmother! *hic*" After that, Celestia fell on the ground, unconcious.