Consequences
Chapter 2
After a hot shower and a very thorough rinsing Applejack felt a little bit better. The Cakes had been kind enough to let the farm pony use their shower, and with no Pinkie in sight the whole ordeal had been relatively painless. Applejack slowly made her way down the stairs to the kitchen with a bath towel around her head, her body still aching from her little joyride just hours earlier. The rain had eventually slowed down to a trickle, and Applejack couldn’t wait to get back home and slump into a couch. The whole day had been a mess, and even though they had made their delivery, Applejack still wanted this whole thing to end and not have to repeat it ever again.
She stepped into the kitchen where the Cakes were busy slicing up the apples, and along the walls stood several buckets filled to the brim with cake mix just waiting to be made into muffins. She smiled halfheartedly and looked around.
“Say, have ya’ll seen Applebloom anywhere?”
Mrs. Cake looked up and smiled at Applejack. “She’s upstairs with the foals” she said happily, slicing up another apple. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little longer? You took quite a beating there, Applejack.”
Applejack just shook her head. “Nah, thank ya kindly, but ah’ really jus’ wanna get home right ‘bout now. This whole day has been Tartarus on me” she answered with a weak smile as she turned back to the stairs to go and get Applebloom. “B’sides, we gotta make a few more stops before we head home” she added, trotting up the stairs. She left the towel in the bathroom and headed for the foals' room. As she got closer she heard somepony groaning, and when she opened the door Applebloom bolted right out, followed closely by a stuffed animal, which hit her in the back of the head. Applejack chuckled.
Applebloom slowly got up of the floor and rubbed her flank. “Sis, ah’m never havin’ kids,” she said between heavy panting. “Ah don’t care what anypony says, those things in there are nuthin’ but trouble.”
“Oh come on now AB, they’re just little foals, you’re overreactin’.”
“They’re teethin’…” Applebloom said with a groan and rubbed her other flank where a bright red mark had appeared in the shape of a set of foal’s teeth. Applejack just laughed heartily at this, annoying Applebloom, who put on a sour face and made her way towards the stairs.
Applejack followed her grumpy little sister down to the bakery, smiling as she went. As they started putting their coats back on Applejack made sure to thank the Cakes once more, and soon they both stepped back outside. The air was still chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining sheets. While they were gone some ponies had taken it upon themselves to fill up the long ditch made by Applejack earlier, but so far they weren’t faring so well, and one or two actually shot her some rather annoyed looks. Applejack just ignored them and went over to the cart that stood parked next to Sugarcube Corner. She winced a bit as she strapped herself back into the cold metal harness, her body still in pain. She worked through it though, and soon enough she and Applebloom were heading home.
“So” Applebloom began “anywhere else we need ta go?”
Applejack just glanced at her sister. “We’re droppin’ off the rest ‘a these apples at the convenience store. Ah just hope Sunrise takes ‘em all after what they’ve been through.” She looked at the few apples still in the cart. It wasn’t much, probably just enough to last four days or less. On top of that, many of the apples were bruised and a little dirty from lying on the ground, though they would still be useable if washed. Applejack sighed and kept walking, Applebloom trotting in front of her seemingly enjoying herself. Soon they reached the Ponyville convenience store. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a two story building with a shop at the bottom floor and an apartment on the second. Applebloom trotted up to the door and walked in, a bell chiming as she did. She came back out after a minute and walked back over to Applejack.
“He says to come ‘round back an’ unload there” she said in a neutral tone. Applejack groaned a bit from the aching in her back and slowly made her way around the building.
Coming around the back she was greeted by an orange earth pony with a lime green mane named Sunrise. His cutie mark held no relation to his name, consisting of five gold coins placed in a star formation, as his talent was business related. He was known around Ponyville as one of the best hagglers the town had ever seen, and he had his ways of running a business. He greeted Applejack with a warm smile, though the farm pony was too tired to give anything but a small nod.
“Rough morning I take it, Applejack?” he said with a slight chuckle. Applejack didn’t respond at first as she maneuvered the cart into place. “Ya’ll heard ‘bout it, huh?” she said rather dryly.
“It’s the talk of the town right now, I wouldn’t worry about it though, by sundown they’ll have forgotten about it.”
“Ah ain’t worried ‘bout nuthin,” the farm pony said in the same dry tone as she undid the harness around her body and moved around to the back of the cart, “now are ya’ll gonna take a look at them apples here ‘r not?”
“Straight to business then.” Sunrise said happily and trotted up to the cart to inspect the contents. Applejack just stood there while the stallion did his thing, her thoughts starting to wander about what she would do once she got back to the farm. Probably grab herself a bottle of cider and sink into a hot bath. She could almost feel it now, the warm water enveloping her body and driving the pain out, followed by some hard, ice cold cider to ease the burning in her throat. She was snapped out of her daydreaming as Sunrise stepped down and approached her.
“Well Applejack, seeing as how many of the apples in here are either bruised or partially applesauce already I can only offer you 120 bits for them.” Sunrise said, smiling as he did. Applejack knew very well that he was offering her a lousy deal and that the apples were worth at least twice as much, but the last thing she wanted right now was to engage in haggle with the storeowner. She just nodded, accepting the deal.
“Fine Sunny, jes’ take ‘em of mah hooves” she muttered. Sunrise just kept smiling and went into the store. He came back out after about a minute carrying a sack of bits in his teeth and a few crates on his back. He handed Applejack the money and they both started unloading the apples into the crates and carrying them into the store. The whole process took about 20 minutes, but it felt like an eternity for Applejack, her body feeling like it might fall apart any second. Finally the last crate was hauled into the store and Applejack said her farewells to Sunrise, strapping herself back into the harness. The cart didn’t feel as heavy as before, but it still strained on her.
“Come on, Applebloom!” she shouted, the yellow filly trotting out of the bushes where she’d been hiding while the adults did their business.
“Coming, sis!” she said, joining her sister as they departed from the store and back out onto the main street.
Applejack finally started to relax again. As long as they just kept on walking and not making any detours, things would be fine. Right? Her thoughts were interrupted as the cart suddenly shook, one of the wheels passing over a rather large rock. She didn’t think much of it at first, but soon the whole thing started creaking, and the one thing that just wasn’t allowed to happen was about to unfold behind her.
The whole thing broke down. The wheels dislocated and fell to the ground like dominoes, followed by the cart itself slamming into the ground with an audible crunching sound from the wood and metal.
Applejack didn’t watch. She didn’t want to see it. Her teeth were grinding hard enough to crush stone, her pupils shrinking into tiny black dots, and one could almost see the streams of smoke pouring out of her ears as she started fuming. Her entire face was becoming crimson red, beads of sweat forming. For a moment she almost went cross eyed out of sheer fury as she desperately tried to contain herself, but it was impossible, the dam was about to burst, the volcano about to erupt, the bomb about to blow. Basically she wouldn’t be able to suppress this one.
“ASS!” Applejack’s scream echoed through the streets of Ponyville, making ponies turn their heads in surprise, mothers covering their children’s young, unspoiled ears from the utter horror that echoed through the small town. Applejack paid no attention to any of them and just clenched her eyes shut, stomping on the ground in rage. She felt she could just kick somepony, be they stallion or foal, anything to just let all the fury out of her system. She didn’t notice Applebloom quietly trotting up beside her.
“Hey Applejack, what does ‘ass’ mean?” she asked in that typical innocence that only a child could muster.
Applejacks face went pale as a sheet, an eerie silence draping over the scene. She had not just done what she thought she’d done, had she? Normally this wouldn’t have been an issue, as both she and Big Macintosh were no strangers to foul language. Heck, around her friends she was considered the raunchiest one, with the exception of maybe Rainbow Dash. But she’d made it a point to never use that kind of language whenever Applebloom was around, simply because she didn’t want the little filly to go around spewing profanity among her friends, and, Celestia forbid, teach them some of it. Now her mind was racing as she desperately tried to figure the best course of action without seeming suspicious to the filly. Oh if only she hadn’t been the Element of Honesty maybe things would’ve been easier. Going against everything she held dear she decided to do exactly what she had to do.
“Ehhhh, it means ‘cart’,” she lied. “Yup, that’s what it means.” Applejack’s eyes flickered from side to side, her mouth scrunched up as she tried to prevent herself from telling the truth. Lying wasn’t an easy thing for her, never had been, and her element didn’t help in the least. Not that she never lied, it was just very hard for her to do, plus she totally sucked at it and most ponies could easily tell, but despite all this, lying to her sister of all ponies just made her feel horrible.
Applebloom just eyed her sister for a bit. There was something of about Applejack’s behavior. She just stood there, her face all weird and scrunched up, and Applebloom couldn’t really figure out what was going on. After what seemed like an eternity for Applejack, Applebloom finally seemed to accept her sister’s lie.
“Oh, okay. But why would ya’ll scream ‘cart’ when the cart broke down like that?”
Applejack mentally facehoofed. Lying to her sister to avoid having to tell the truth had just put her in an even more awkward position than before, forcing her to think up another lie to cover this one.
“Well, ah’ was just statin’ that the cart broke down, ya know,” Applejack was growing more nervous by the minute “it’s a grownup thing, Applebloom, don’tcha worry ‘bout it.”
Applebloom stuck her head up towards Applejack’s, closely examining her sister with great suspicion. Applejack felt beads of sweat running down the back of her head; this was becoming eerily similar to that one time when she’d had to lie to Pinkie Pie about some construction work in order to prevent the pink mare from walking in on a surprise party. She forced a smile for Applebloom, every fiber in her body fighting to keep the whole charade from crumbling like a house of cards.
“Okay,” Applebloom said slowly and withdrew. Applejack sighed in relief and turned to look over the wrecked cart. It wasn’t pretty. The wheels all lay around the body, and the wood seemed to have taken some beating. Applebloom joined her sister as they both observed the mess before them.
“So what’re we gunna do ‘bout this then?” the filly asked. Applejack just sighed deeply, but didn’t turn to face her sister.
“Guess we’ll just hafta ask somepony ta help us out wi’ this, cause you ‘n ah’ ain’t gonna be able ta pull this off ourselves” she said in a downbeat tone. “Tell ya what, go find Caramel ‘n that other earth pony that calls himself ‘doctor’ and tell ‘em to bring some-“
Applejacks words were interrupted as the cart started creaking again, and with another mighty thud the whole thing fell apart completely, with bolts and pieces of wood scattering everywhere.
“COCK!” Applejack screamed, but silenced almost as fast as she realized she’d just swore in front of Applebloom again. And this wasn’t just any swear either, but one of the big C’s. It didn’t take long for the unavoidable to happen again.
“What’s cock?” Applebloom asked curiously.
“Hammer.” Applejack almost spat out. “It means hammer, we’ll need hammers to fix this up. And some nails. Ah just wanted to point that out.” Applejack lied again, trying to sound natural.
“Oh okay,” Applebloom responded, “I’ll go get Caramel and Mr. Whooves then” she said as she started trotting happily down the street towards Caramels house. Applejack stood silent for a moment, realizing she’d almost stopped breathing during the past few minutes. Her heart was racing faster than a fired up Rainbow Dash, but at the same time she felt unfathomable relief and patted herself on the back for a job well done. Despite feeling bad for lying to her sister she’d avoided a minor catastrophe, and for that she was proud. Looking over the wreck again and starting to pick up the pieces, Applejack didn’t realize just what was about to unfold on the streets of Ponyville.