//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Apple-anche! // Story: A Book of Ponies // by Scripture //------------------------------// “Ugh… well… this is highly annoying…” Scripture mumbled as he guided the bucket with his head. Finally, after a few more minutes of wobbling around with the giant bucket of apples, they made it into the kitchen. Releasing their cargo, they let it hit the ground with a loud THUMP. Wiping a single sweat from his head, Scripture allowed himself a good look at this Rainbow Dash and Applejack behind the bin. On his left, Applejack was a downright pretty country mare. One look at her though and Scripture could tell that the orange colored pony was definitely a hard worker, more than likely something to do with apples for several reasons around her. She dusted off her hat with a hoof and put it back on her head, all smiles now. Looking at Rainbow Dash, she put on a smug expression and crossed her forehooves, leaning against the wall. “Well, we got it here, safe an’ sound... See? Whad I tell ya Rainbow?” A light blue pegasi with rainbow colored hair, surprising Scripture, hovered slightly above the floor, stretching her wings slightly. “Well, it was OBVIOUSLY only because of my awesome strength and skills that it got here safe and sound!” Noticing Scripture, she smiled meekly and added, “Although this guy helped us out near the end...” Rubbing the back of his head with his hoof in embarrassment, the stallion chuckled. “Oh, it was nothing... I just did what I need to!” He chuckled again and realized, once again, he was short on telling his name. “Oh, yes, I forgot to mention... My name is Scripture, and I assume you are Applejack and Rainbow Dash?” Applejack nodded. “Yep, that would be us!” Twilight and Spike then walked over, curious as to what was happening, and the country mare indicated them with her hoof. “This’n be Twilight and her assistant-” “Spike. Yeah, we met earlier today as I checked out the library... Unfortunately, I wasn’t informed that it had some residents!” Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at him and shy her head away a bit. Spike, on the other hand, looked like he might gag at any moment. “Ooooo! Apples apples APPLES! I want some apples!” Suddenly, a grey pony whizzed on into the room, immediately going for the apple bin, an expression of complete bliss on her face. Each pony in the room looked fairly concerned about this new pegasi entering the room but only shuffled in place nervously. Scripture, totally confused, looked at the blonde maned pony and noticed she had something wrong with her eyes as if one was lazy. Her tongue stuck out, her eyes gleaming in hunger fancy. Applejack was the first to speak up however and put a hoof on the mares back. “Uhm... Derpy Hooves... Please, only take one and-” With a squawk of glee, Derpy immediately grabbed a rather shiny apple in front of her. Hugging the sweet apple tenderly, she didn’t notice the small avalanche of apples coming down upon everyone in the kitchen, herself being swept up by them. Honestly, it wasn’t something you would readily expect after all. Scripture shouted out and was similarly caught in the tidal wave of red and green, even though it was only a mere few seconds. A few groans escaped the flooded ponies, Scripture popping his head up to see how everyone fared. Only Derpy seemed untouched by everything and a sheepish grin played across her mouth, her hooves placing the apple tentatively behind her back. Applejack popped her head up soon after along with the others in various places amongst the kitchen’s newest messy work. The country mare glared at Derpy but sighed and muttered, “And please don’t be takin’ them bottom apples...” As if expecting it, nobody else scolded the pony while she brooded over the apple, not feeling particularly hungry anymore. The stallion wanted to help out the poor pony and had opened his jaw to say something when Pinkie Pie interjected, bouncing about the place like her usual self. “WHEEEE! That was SO fun Derpy! I might have to come up with a prank like that in the future! Heehee!” Cheered up by the pink pony, Derpy smiled a bit and extended her wings. “R-really?” Pinkie Pie pshed and laughed a bit. “Of course silly mare! Everyone was all like, ‘WHOA!’ And Applejack was all like, ‘THE APPLES!’ Twilight made a face like this-” she smushed her face in with two hooves, making everyone giggle and laugh in response. However, an attention grabbing gasp was heard right outside the door, making most of the group look over in its direction. Scripture’s eyes befell probably the most regal looking unicorn Scripture had ever laid eyes on. She was pure white, like him, but had curled purple hair and a sense of style and flair about her. The mare, however, uglied her face with a frown as she beheld the apple-filled scene before her. “Oh, hey there Rarity! We just had an accident with all these apples and-” started Twilight but was cut off by Rarity, her voice lisping with displeasure. “My word! What a terrible mess this all is! This will not do, this will simply not do at all!” Rarity then, with a glow of her horn, lifted every apple off from the floor while righting over the bucket in the corner of the room. Derpy could be seen trying to gain her apple back but Rarity didn’t notice the pegasi reaching for the apple. Luckily, she was able to fetch it right in time, quickly munching on its sweetness before she could mess something up again. In no time flat, the bucket was back to where it belonged and the apples stacked in a neat cone shape. Sighing in relief, Rarity finished her work and smiled. “All right then, who needed this flour?” Pinkie Pie immediately leapt up in the air, waving her hoof around erratically. “Ooo! Ooo! Me! Me! Me! It’s me, pick me!” Rarity sighed and shook her head, using her magic to deposit the sacks of flour from her saddle bags on the cooking table. She stuck her tongue out in disgust as they passed her and waved away the small flour dust clouds. “Yuck! Do you know how much this will dry my skin out? It was dreadful, going through that marketplace, trying to find the perfect bags of flour for those Mintylock Muffins and-” The white mare finally seemed to notice the white stallion in the room and contemplated him for a bit. She squinted her eyes at him, as if thinking him familiar, and asked questioningly, “Have I seen you somewhere before?” Scripture shrugged his shoulders and nervously looked around. Could she have known he was from Canterlot? He didn’t remember her being there... Although he had to write that autobiography for a client... The book gave him the brilliant idea of coming here too! That was the whole reason he had come here after all, to- “This is Scripture and book writing, smart thinking, uber imagination, and friend to all is his game!” Pinkie Pie joyfully said, much to Scripture’s displeasure. How she was able to remember his exact words like that was a mystery to him, but he wasn’t very pleased obviously. Rarity raised an eyebrow in interest, along with some of the other ponies. “Oh really now? You write books? I’m surprised that Twilight hasn’t-” Scripture’s eyes got wide and he nodded slowly, shifting his eyes repeatedly towards Twilight as an indicator for the others. Even though he had been around her for a little bit, it’s like he could feel her staring at him at times… Like now, who could be seen staring admiringly at the stallion with a slightly hazy expression on her face. This elicited some giggles from the rest of group, making Twilight blush in embarrassment. “Uhm... Excuse me but... Rarity, could you move, please? That is, if you can... These eggs are quite heavy and I would like to put them down, if that is alright with everyone...” Scripture turned his head back over to Rarity, but behind her this time. Rarity smiled and shook her head, but moved to allow the yellow pegasi gain access into the kitchen. “Really darling you don’t need to ask me... you could have simply flown over me you know!” The pink maned pegasi blushed a little bit and moved into the kitchen, putting her saddle bags full of eggs next to the flour. Derpy, now next to her, put her forehooves and head on the counter, watching one egg slowly roll out of the bag. A smile on her face, her hooves began playing around with it, her curiosity like that of a child. “Awww cool eggs Fluttershy! Are they from your chickens?” Fluttershy nodded and seemed genuinely proud. “Yes, they are, and Elizabeak had been generous enough to give us extra eggs to use. Hopefully we should have enough to-” The soft spoken pegasi’s eyes had finally wandered over to Scripture. Caught off guard the black maned pony chuckled nervously and waved a hoof at her. “Uh... hi there?” With a sudden burstful “Eep!” Fluttershy flipped over, stiff as a log and hooves straight up in the air. Even her hair seemed to be rigid as she laid on the ground! Rainbow Dash zoomed over to her friend and laughed awkwardly. “Eh... sorry about that… Fluttershy isn’t exactly the most social of ponies and she can be very shy like this... Get on up Fluttershy! He’s a cool dude!” Finally, after a few seconds of verbal poking and prodding from Rainbow, the yellow pegasi regained her senses enough to stand back up, although now she had her head hung a bit lower and her eyes shifted a bit more often. Scripture smiled wide now and looked across the kitchen at the assembly of ponies before him. He hadn’t realized how big his job was and how hard some of it was going to be compared to others! He huffed a bit and shook his head, making some of the others wonder what he was thinking. Before anyone could say anything though, Derpy suddenly shot up in the air and a sharp dinging sound could be heard right afterwards. Everyone watched as the pegasi went over to the oven and fished out a few trays of sparkling green dot littered muffins, her face splayed with a silly but ecstatic smile. “My perfectly made, ultra-y yummy, super fantastical Mintylock Muffins! All right!” Suddenly Rarity shouted out with a loud, “WHAT?!” Prancing up to Derpy on the other side of the table, she glared at her. “You made me go into a stinky and, not to mention, filthy marketplace at the other end of town for two heavy sacks of flour for the muffins you ALREADY MADE?!” Spike, whooshing next to Rarity, stuck up his chest even though his head couldn’t go above the table top. “Yeah, how could you subject that to such a lovely female like Rarity?” Derpy, looking confused, backed away from the table and hit the counter under the sink. “I-I’m sorry! I asked Octavia to tell you all but I guess she got wrapped up in things... I’m sorry...” Before anything could happen, Scripture immediately went over to the table, smelling the baked but minty scent of the muffins, genuinely happy with the results. “I would have to say great work Derpy! These look and smell delicious!” This brought a slight smile to Derpy’s face. Rarity seemed nearly about to say something when Scripture took out a hoof-full of money and gave the small pile to Rarity, who was quite shocked at the money. “This is for getting the flour to my muffin order, thank you. Hopefully this will pay for everything, right?” Rarity was shocked at first but eventually had to smile at the stallions essentially benevolent behavior, much to Spike’s displeasure. “Why... thank you very much! That was awfully kind of you...” After putting the money away, she turned her head over to Derpy and sighed deeply. “I’m sorry Derpy... Can you forgive me at all darling?” Derpy couldn’t help but chuckle and bring herself up in the air, giving a silly salute. “Of absoluteliness!” Everyone had a small laugh then and went into the eating section of the bakery, ready to taste some of the awesome muffins Scripture had ordered. A small rumble hit Scripture's stomach. "Yeah... I need a muffin..." -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Author's Note: Hello again~ Yeah, the Author's Note will be a chapter-like thing for me... just so I can interact with the viewers and such! That is NUMERO UNO for this guy! Anyways, questions are always accepted and such, so please, comment away underneath! Always happy to answer! :)