//------------------------------// // Apples To // Story: Soft Soil, Bab Seed // by ILurvTrixie //------------------------------// A few hours earlier... Applejack had just pulled the cart back into the barn and was unhooking herself when she spotted the bushels of apples. The surprisingly large bushels of early season apples that Big Mac was busy handling the storage of. With a rather uncharacteristic frown on his big face. "Hey Mac, what's been goin' on here?" Mac turned to his sister with the barest of smiles before frowning at the bushels of apples again. "You remember how Princess Twilight asked to test somethin' on some of our trees?" "You know she hates when you call her princess." Applejack teased. "She couldn't get all the supplies for it before I left. So I guess she came by and did her thing?" "Eee-yup." "So what's the trouble?" Big Mac shook his head, picking up one of the apples from the bushel and offering it to Applejack. She eyed it with a curious look. Looked nice and juicy. She sniffed it. Nothing wrong with that. But the discomfort on Big Mac's face revealed that something about this little apple was wrong. She finally took the offending fruit in hoof, and gasped at the sensation. While most ponies probably wouldn't notice, there was a subtle buzz of energy in the fruit. Something the Apple Family had prided themselves on not needing to produce the best fruit in Equestria (by most standards, anyway.) Magic. "How- I thought- Twilight said-" Applejack's thoughts stumbled over each other in a desperate attempt to clear a path for themselves. "She said it probably wouldn't have any kind of effect, and most certainly not magical." Big Mac nodded. "And it looked like it wasn't. Until earlier today when the trees she treated all started filling up with apples as soon as the sun rose." "And Twi'?" "She had to head off for her meeting with Cadence-" "All the way up in the Crystal Empiiiire." Applejack groaned in frustration. "Okay, fine, we'll collect all the apples, can't sell them until we're sure they're safe anyway. Have you had Rarity stop by and take a look?" "Eeee-yup. Said there wasn't anything obviously wrong with it, but could tell it was magical. Left right after. Busy with her own orders. And since it is Twilight-" "Most ponies have the good sense not to just try it and hope it doesn't do something crazy." Applejack rolled her eyes. She appreciated Twilight most of the time, but she did have a little trouble with over-thinking things. Or over-doing in this case. She sighed, nodding to Big Mac. "Any other surprises?" "Twilight only treated three trees. Currently four of them are dropping apples." "Say what?" "It might be spreadin'." A cold horror sunk into Applejack's stomach at the idea of generations of farming being laid low by one Alicorn's mistake. She grit her teeth in grim determination. "Not on my watch." *** One hour later... Contact. All it took was one of the- the- infected apples to touch another tree and that tree would start showing the same signs. Rapid fruit growth. Rapid Development. Fruit falling from ripeness. And New Fruit growing in. They'd lost 3 more trees before they figured that out, and were running out of places to store the apples in the barn. "We're gonna need some back-up. Mac! Get into town and see who you can rustle up!" "Right." "Gonna need some more fences, and maybe start digging some holes." "But the roots-" "I know. I know." She was unwilling to damage the trees, hoping that Twilight would be able to undo whatever it was that she had done. They had already set up all the fencing they could, and that was holding the tide at bay, but they were running out of places to store the apples. The tide was threatening to overflow the fencing, and there wasn't anything they could do about it. Applejack ground her teeth in frustration. "I'll see who I can find." Big Mac took off at a gallop into town, Applejack glaring at the traitorous fruits growing in number by the minute. *** One hour later... Bottles of cider were being passed around. A wave of clouds had appeared overhead and the tide had slowed to a crawl. All the neighbors in Ponyville had been dragged in to help, and nearly every scrap of available fencing had been used. As well as every single unattended cart, trailer, can, bucket, box, barrel, and anything else that could be even vaguely termed as a container. They had spares for the moment, but filling the containers had slacked off as the pace of the apples had. A cool breeze had been blowing in, nice and dry, cutting through the warm humidity of the day timeless moments ago. Applejack downed a gulp of cider with a satisfied smile. The crisis was handled. A breeze tugged playfully at her hat, which she held onto with a free hoof, smiling. The breeze became insistent. The sky above going from a calm grey to a dangerous black, rain starting to scatter. This wasn't a controlled pegasus storm. This was something out of the Everfree. Applejack spotted the familiar white cone in the distance, as well as the weather pegasi working to keep the twister under control. Rainbow was out there leading the charge. As another massive gust almost knocked her off her feet, Applejack decided to seek cover until the storm was controlled once again. -- Rainbow Dash knew she shouldn't love the work as much as she did, but there was always a thrill in managing to contain and fight the Everfree. Fluttershy could handle any of the animals from there, but for the weather, Dash was still one of the best. The pony lead the weather pony team around the slow moving funnel, breaking up the warm and cold air it needed to maintain itself. A lot of hoofbumps and congratulations followed. "Ha! Nothing to it!" As a tree launched itself through the air from an unhandled twister, Dash's eyes widened. There were almost a dozen smaller twisters, and each had a chance of becoming something larger. With a glare, she snapped her wings up. "On my mark! We're not going to get beaten by the Everfree. Not now. Not ever. Not Everfree." She lead the pegasi into the storm front valiantly, dodging the larger debris being sucked up into the cones. The job wasn't hard, but it was going to be time consuming. Especially with even more tornadoes forming. -- The tree, unhindered in its flightpath, collided with the fencing tearing a massive gap into the secured barrier, through which poured the innumerable hoards of Infected Fruit. Applejack gaped ineffectively at the damage as the sun began to peek out from the now tattered cloudline. The apples began to fall again. *** Now Applejack had just about yelled herself hoarse. They'd finally, finally managed to get a new perimeter dug, nothing more than an earthen wall acting as a fence against the growing swarm of apples. They'd lost over a quarter of the farm today. And it was going to keep happening. An unknown number of the thrice cursed fruits had already been lost in transit; if anyone came across it and tried to eat a 'free' Sweet Apple Acre apple and instead got sick, or worse, put under some kind of spell- Applejack shuddered. "Hi Sis!" "Applebloom?" Applejack barely managed to croak out the word before coughing. The crusaders had indeed managed to sneak up on the farmer. "What happened?" Scootaloo looked around the farm in surprise. "Too. Many. Apples." Came the strained reply. Babs stared at the windows of the now full of apples Apple Family Homestead. "So, I guess dinner and bed are both pretty unlikely right now, huh?" Applejack facehooved with all her remaining might, falling over.