Spike's Journal
Written by The39Ponies
Edited by cwiis
Applebuck Season
Dear Diary,
Well, for once something happened and I wasn't there. I was sitting around the library reading The Foal-Sitters Club (it's a good series, don't judge me) when Twilight told me I had to go to an award ceremony with her. Turns out it was for Applejack. Apparently there had been a huge stampede. I missed that too 'cuz I was busy getting my beauty sleep. Hey, a dragon has to have his priorities, right?
Thirty minutes and several interrupted speeches later, AJ finally arrived. Well, at least I think it was AJ. If I were nearsighted and didn't have glasses, I would have mistaken it for Granny Smith in orange paint with yellow hair dye (hey, it's never too early to celebrate Nightmare Night). I mean, I have never seen somepony so tired. Except maybe Twilight's mom. Wonder if AJ had foalsitted for a crying nine year-old with a fever lately?
Shortly after she arrived, she walked up onstage to start her speech. And by "start her speech", I mean shove Mayor Mare offstage, make funny faces into her trophy (accompanied by Pinkie Pie for some reason), and fall asleep briefly before dragging her trophy off. If I didn't know better, I'd guess she had too much celebratory apple cider.
Anyway, after the unorthodox ceremony, we headed home. I was doing some light reading (...okay, I was taking a nap) when somepony crashed onto our balcony. Ten seconds later, Twilight was marching out the door. All I know is that she mumbled something about "Applejack buck season". I just assumed she was trying her hand at free-form poetry again and went back to sleep.
Twilight returned about twenty minutes later. She explained that AJ was trying to harvest all the apples in the orchard herself (apparently her family calls it Applebuck Season). Normally she'd have help, but her brother hurt a rib or something and the rest of her family was either too young or too old to help out. Which means Applejack was overworking herself, but she refused all offers of help for some reason. The pony who crashed onto our balcony was Rainbow Dash, who had been exercising with AJ or something. And by exercising, I mean trying to launch herself off a see-saw. Unfortunately, sleepy pony plus see-saw equals crash.
Now, I don't know AJ that well, but I still went to bed a bit worried. After all, that's a LOT of apples. The next afternoon, I found myself helping in a clinic filled to the brim with ponies suffering from food poisoning resulting from bad muffins. Including Pinkie Pie. And here I thought she was immune to food poisoning. Well, the muffins were actually pretty good, so I have no idea what their problem was. Or why they called them "baked bads". Apparently AJ helped bake them, so that might help explain it. After all, pain can be contagious.
Twilight went to try to talk some sense into AJ again, who STILL didn't want to listen. Also, she was on her way to help Fluttershy round up some bunnies. Beethoofen's 5th Symphony, please.
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Unique Equine Facts #5:
This is another one dealing with situations where you have something important to do. If you're in the middle of something, your friends will pick that moment to ask for help, and chances are you won't be able to say no. This will usually lead to havoc for the whole town (and possibly nation).
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After enduring another stampede (this time with bunnies; I have no idea how she pulled that off), I'm pretty sure the whole town wanted to do something to Applejack that I wanted to do to Celestia the other day. Twilight went to visit her a third time (hopefully to smack some sense into her or something). And guess what? She'd finally harvested all the apples herself.
Not. Somepony had the clever idea to plant some apple trees a few miles from the main field, and AJ somehow hadn't noticed them until now. After a brief faint, she FINALLY gave up. Took her long enough if you ask me.
So, we all helped AJ buck the rest of the apples just in time. Well, the ponies did the bucking. I baked some muffins (AJ shared her recipe, and boy, was it a unique one). Unfortunately, nobody seemed to share my taste in muffins, 'cuz they all refused them. Or maybe it was because I joked that they were from the trash. Oh well, more for me.
Here's what I learned today: If your friend's friend is overworking, let your friend do all the work, and just kick back and eat some muffins. After all, muffins are delicious.
-Spike