Chapter One
Pinkie Pie's the-last-mug-of-cider-is-sold party was in full swing, and Sugarcube Corner practically bounced on its foundations from the force of the celebration within. I shied away from a fresh party cannon blast which sent an improbably-huge swarm of balloons sailing for the ceiling while curly-cue ribbons and rainbow-colored confetti rained down on us all. I took a moment to remove my Stetson and knock the confetti off, only to find Pinkie had slapped an enormous sheriff-star sticker on the hat at some point. It read 'best cider slinger' in a typeface I think I recognized from saloon signs. A slight smile tugged at my lips, while I resettled the hat.
"Applejack! Have you tried the punch yet?" The party-mare herself popped up not an inch in front of my nose.
"Uhh,"
"It's no Sweet Apple Acres cider, but it's not half bad! Or even one-quarter bad! Really, that's a pretty mean way to describe things, 'cuz even if it's one-thirtieth bad that still means somepony thinks there's something bad in there somewhere!" Pinkie stopped trying to push punch on me and reclined onto her tail, the fluffy mass somehow supporting all her weight and creaking like a spring. One bounce, two bounces, three bounces, before the town's resident party-pony gave up her reflecting to respond to a cry for more cookies in a distant corner of the shop.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding in and moseyed my way toward a quieter corner populated with ponies who, at a glance, I didn't know well. I had a better shot at laying low there than with my friends; conversation really wasn't high on my wish-list tonight.
Halfway to the oasis of potential peace and quiet, I was intercepted by a pair of unicorns. Well, one was actually an alicorn these days, I had to keep reminding myself. Rarity and Twilight approached, grinning, Rarity dabbing at her chin with one of her many hankies.
"Applejack! Have you done any apple-bobbing yet? Twilight and I just finished up over there."
"No Gummy this time," Twilight smiled. "I just found a nice apple, no complaints there, but Rarity came up with a cute little gift basket. Who knows what else is in the tub?"
I nodded and grinned, slowly changing course towards the apple-bobbing tub. It was one of the major hubs of activity at the moment. "Well, I guess I'll give 'er a go then. Congrats on your find, Rarity!"
The two let me go, probably off to open up Rarity's prize and gush over its contents. My hoofsteps grew slower the closer I drew to the tub, but I still reached its edge eventually. Two of the cutie mark crusaders were there, Scootaloo balancing on Sweetie Belle's back in order to reach a spot closer to the middle of the tub.
Scootaloo's wings flared as her balance failed; I stretched out a foreleg in time to prevent a dunking. "Careful there, Scoots. Yer a prize, no two ways about it, but just the same I don't fancy pulling you out of there with my teeth."
Embarrassed, but dry, the two fillies scurried off to find more sugar. I leaned down over the edge of the tub, and caught my reflection in the water. What are you even doing here, AJ? You haven't had a lick of fun at the last dozen parties Pinkie has thrown. Oh, right. You show up so no one comes knocking on your door, asking what's wrong. Especially Pinkie... Attending these parties was draining enough. Being the focus of one would be much worse, and turning up the fake cheer until she was satisfied would take everything I had.
The Applejack in the water let her smile slip a moment. It was startling how fast the corners of my mouth crashed down, how the sparkle fled from my eyes, leaving a stressed and tired mare gazing up at me. I dunked my head right through her, eyes shut against the cool water, and snatched the first thing my teeth found. Setting the object down by my hooves, I raised a foreleg to swipe water from my eyes.
"Ooooh, you got a pineapple, AJ!" Pinkie, abruptly beside me, bounced in place while pointing at my prize. "Are they related to apples? Do you have any pineapple relatives?"
"Not hardly. And not that I know of," I chuckled, forcing up the laughter before a genuine yawn stretched my jaws. "Oh my, I think I'm plum tuckered out. Hope y'all don't mind if I go on home and hit the hay."
"Nah, go for it! I'll put some cake in the fridge for you to pick up tomorrow. I'm sure there'll be lots left! See ya then, Applejack!" Pinkie wrapped me up in a breath-stealing hug, then bounced back into the midst of the party.
I tossed the pineapple onto my back and trotted towards the door, nodding to ponies on my way out. Outside the shop, on the dark deserted streets of Ponyville, I felt no more alone than I had inside. Crossing pavement splashed with the glow from Sugarcube Corner's windows, I slipped beyond that pool of cheerful light into darkness, making my way back to the farm.
Most of my troubles lay with the farm, but I didn't resent the fields, the animal pens, the barn, and certainly not the farmhouse. Sweet Apple Acres was like a member of the family, though at the moment, an ailing one who needed extra tending.
"How many barrels did we sell this year...?" I totaled the sales in my head as I trotted along the road out of town. It was frustrating how many apples it took to produce a single barrel of cider. Each held about eight gallons, and it took nearly three hundred apples to fill each barrel. It took quite a bit of labor to make the sweet drink, but at least the overhead had always been manageable. Cider season and the zap apple harvest were the two most profitable points of the year for the farm.
"More like the only profitable points," I muttered, kicking a rock from the path into a ditch as I trotted along. Selling apples in the market and to Sugarcube Corner was enough to keep the farm operating, and the occasional bit of apple wood to carpenters or chefs for smoking brought in a few more bits. The animals represented a bit more income, but represented costs too. Numbers and deadlines swirled in my head, and none of them made me feel good about next year.
I passed through the gate to the farm, and as I drew near the barn a big silhouette resolved from the darkness by the pump. A wagon full of barrels was parked nearby.
"McIntosh! Don't tell me you skipped the party to do clean-up here?"
The silhouette raised his head from the barrel he was rinsing out. "Eeeyup." Splashing cold water over the cider-coated wood, he gave it a thorough scrubbing with a rag, another rinse, then tossed it into the wagon.
"We could've done that together in the mornin'. You earned a night off and a few treats, for pity's sake!" I sighed, tugging the rag away from him and shifting into position to help.
"Keg Tapper rents 'em by the day, and his rates went up this year. If these're back in his yard by mornin', we'll save fifty bits."
My stomach felt like it dropped onto the ground. "Fifty?! A day? No..." I ran the figures in my head again, and swayed on my hooves. I couldn't be sure without the books all in front of me, but I was almost sure that hike in overhead meant our true profits this year from cider season all but disappeared. The money was all earmarked to a point for absolute necessities, but we'd passed that point by a small margin this year. I'd had big plans for that small pile of bits, but they'd just evaporated before my eyes.
Mac pointed a soaked barrel my way, and I mechanically wiped it out, the sweet scent of cider and wet grass teasing my nose. I didn't realize I was crying until the hot salt reached my lips. One angry sniff and a swipe from my foreleg fixed that. If McIntosh saw in the dim moonlight, he pretended not to notice, shifting and sluicing the barrels one by one.
We finished within thirty minutes, and Mac waved off my offer to accompany him back to town. "Apple Bloom needs a talkin' to. I can see to this."
I watched him pull the huge cart with the massive stack of barrels out of sight, then gave myself a quick wash-up at the pump, the freezing water shocking the fatigue right out of me for the moment. I took it slow to the house anyways, not in any hurry to deal with whatever my little sister had done this time.
Inside, Apple Bloom sat in the time-out corner. As I entered, I caught her sneaking a glance back at an apparently-sleeping Granny Smith in her rocker. The flame-haired filly whipped her head back around to stare at the walls as I clomped inside and shut the door against the autumn chill.
"Well Granny, what's my sis gotten up to this time?"
Granny seemed to exert herself as much prying her eyes open as I would sprinting across town. "This young filly-dilly here decided her cutie mark might be as a royal guard, and with her two little friends, they tried to break into the guard post to try on armor or somesuch. On the way, they met—"
I cradled my face with a hoof and sighed. "Ah'm a mite tired, Granny. What's the upshot here? Who got hurt, or what was busted?"
Granny blinked with speed a slug would have found lethargic. "They crushed a guard air-chariot."
I sucked breath through my teeth.
"The three Crusaders are splittin' the cost of the damage, but our share still comes to 120 bits."
I hated the expression, it was so cliché, but it gets used a lot for a reason. My blood felt like it had turned to ice water, and my quickened breathing sounded loud in my ears. I felt the urge to run, but though a bill sitting on a table wouldn't chase me, it didn't have to.
"Apple Bloom. Ah'm very disappointed in you! Go to bed. You're grounded 'til I say otherwise. Granny will take you to school in the mornings, and I'll pick ya up. You're not to go anywhere else, ya got it?"
"Yes'm." The pout was plain in her voice, but I could tell she knew she'd messed up. Just the fact she had the gall to pout though pushed my mouth into motion again.
"No lip! Don't give me that look either! We all work real hard around here to earn those bits, you should know that! Remember how tired Mac and I look at the end of the day next time you three start thinkin' about another stunt!"
For one cruel second I wanted her to know just how badly she'd hurt us all. I wanted her to know she'd be lucky to get the books she needed for school next term, never mind new school supplies. Granny's hip was a pipe-dream, the new plow as out of reach now as ever. Instead I just ground my jaw and clammed up, heading for the kitchen while Apple Bloom's hooves thump-thump-thumped up the stairs.
After downing a glass of water, I slipped back into the living room, and planted a kiss on Granny's cheek on my way to the stairs.
"Night night Granny. Thanks for staying up with her."
"That was more of an earful than you usually give the lil apple dumpling. Is everything okay, Applejack?" Granny patted my cheek. "You seem stretched pretty thin lately."
If Granny noticed, I definitely wasn't keeping my mask up well enough at home. I grinned, and knocked my hat back a bit with one hoof. "Nothin' I can't handle, Granny. If I can deal with rampagin' goddesses, chaos lords, changeling queens and tyrannical sorcerer kings, I think I can balance the budget and keep us fed."
I wanted to wince at every word. I was an accessory at best on those epic adventures. Anypony honest enough could have worn the fancy necklace and channeled that bizarre rainbow-magic. Twilight was the real hero in those tales. She was the one who 'handled' the real villains. Meanwhile, I couldn't even balance a farm's budget. All the red ink waiting for me upstairs was proof enough of that.
Granny smiled at me broadly enough that her eyes disappeared into her wrinkles, and fell promptly asleep in her chair. After tugging a blanket up and over her, I retreated upstairs to my room.
I barely glanced at the ledgers and books on my desk, but it was enough to confirm the numbers I thought I'd remembered. Without even bothering to remove my ribbons or hat, I collapsed into bed, and tried to hide from the world in sleep.