Melody for my Dear
Ch. 10
Within the three fillies’ sight, Big Macintosh and Fluttershy stood at a stall talking to an orange pony selling apples. “Hey look, it’s ma sis,” Applebloom spoke quietly.
“It is,” replied Sweetie Belle. “I wish we knew what they were saying.”
“Don’t worry, I got this. Scoot, could I ask you something?”
Disregarding what her friend said, Scootaloo asked, “Can I have somepony get this WASP OUT OF MY HAIR?!”
“Sure… Come here lil guy.” Bowing her head, the earth filly placed the end of her bow on Scootaloo’s head and the insect skittered onto Applebloom’s bow.
“So,” the orange pony said as she rustled her hair with an arm as if to make sure nothing else was in there. “What do you need?”
“Can you sit in the wagon,” Applebloom answered with a slight chuckle in her response.
“Umm, okay.”
Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this… Sweetie Belle thought to herself.
While the white unicorn kept her thoughts to herself, Scootaloo crawled into the four-wheeled carriage and sat down. “Now what?”
“Lie down and place the blanket over your head.”
Again, Scootaloo did as her friend told her. Underneath the blanket was dark and the very dark blue color of the cloth was not helping. On the outside of the blanket were yellow bright stars patched onto the dark blue fabric.
“Now hold on tight Scoot,” cried Applebloom.
“Wait, what are- WAHHH!!!”
A blunt buck of two hind legs hit the wagon and rocketed off toward Applejack’s stand.
“Umm, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle said in a concerned voice.
“What is i- WAHHH!!” A harsh tug pulled the yellow filly in the direction that the wagon was traveling.
“You forgot the rope that was tied around your waist and attached to the wagon,” the white unicorn spoke in vain as her friend was out of earshot.
When the velocity of the wagon slowed to a complete stop, Applebloom slowly staggered up and brushed off the dirt that attached to her.
“PSST,” hissed a harsh sound. “Get under the blanket.” A hole lumped upwards from the cloth, reviling the filly that hid underneath. Applebloom did not hesitate on getting in with her friend. It did take a bit of time for the two to get comfortable in the small space that was allowed.
“What the heck Applebloom,” Scootallo loudly whispered. “Why didn’t you warn me?!”
“Ah just figured if ah told you that you would have to get close to Big Macintosh and Fluttershy, you mighta hesitated.”
“Well that was a dumb assumption. Anyways, since we are close, let’s see what the three of them are up to.”
Lifting up one arm, Scootaloo made a small hole in the blanket and was able to see a small portion of Big Macintosh’s body and half of Fluttershy’s head.
“So what brings you two here to the market,” Applejack asked as she arranged some produce.
“Actually, I brought Angel with us, so that makes three. Anyways, we are here to get some groceries.” As the rabbit rested on top of Fluttershy’s head, it glared at the earth pony, angry he was not accounted for.
What’s his problem, Applejack thought as a burning expression came from Angel. She shook her head and tried to recollect what she was trying to say before being distracted. “S… so how come ya brought ma brother along?”
“I wanted some help in getting the best produce. You don’t mind helping right Big Macintosh?”
“Eeyup,” he replied with a nod.
“Okay, just making sure.”
Ah thought we made sure of that before we headed on down here, the stallion chuckled a bit in his head.
“Well lucky for you, ma brother knows howta get the best produce in town.”
“Eeeyup,” Big Macintosh replied holding his head higher than usual.
“You seem very confident Big Mac,” Fluttershy spoke as she looked up to the stallion. “You must know your produce.”
“Eeyup.”
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! A consecutive tapping suddenly interrupted Fluttershy’s conversation and the mare looked up to see what was trying to gather her attention. One familiar and angry face looked down into Fluttershy’s upper peripheral. “What is it Angel?” Pointing to the left, the rabbit directed the pegasus’ eyesight to the clock tower that rested in the distance, away from the marketplace. “Oh goodness, you are right.” Now looking to her friend at the stall, Fluttershy spoke in a slightly lower tone, “I’m really sorry, but we need to hurry along before all of the good produce in the market has been sold.”
“Well, ya better scoot yer caboose then.”
“Okay, goodbye Applejack.” With simple farewells, Big Macintosh and Fluttershy turned away from the apple merchant and began to head into the market.
Beneath the blanket, Applebloom spoke quietly, “Did ya get any interesting notes Scoot?”
“I would have had my notebook ready if you DIDN’T PUSH ME WITHOUT WARNING,” hissed the angry pegasus.
“Ah thought it was here in the wagon…”
“It- hehe… must have fallen- hehe- out when you- hehe… Okay, cut it out!”
“What?” Applebloom seemed confused on what her friend was saying.
“You know what you are do-“
“Nice to see the two of them gettin’ along,” spoke a voice from outside and caused the two fillies to go mute. Lifting an arm to see outside, Scootaloo made a hole to see what was going on outside. Only Applejack was seen and it appeared that she was by herself, but they heard her voice. Applebloom assumed a customer came along, but nopony was around her stall, nor did any of the apples move from their original place. Perhaps a pony came along to browse for a bit and then left. But it soon occurred who Applejack was talking to when she said, “Sure do hope they get some good food fer eatin’.” She was talking aloud to herself.
“Does your sister do that often,” Scootaloo questioned.
“Sometimes, but ah do it sometimes as well.”
“I wouldn’t disagree.”
Still looking outside at Applejack, she then said, “Ah just hope Fluttershy doesn’t get any ideas about ma brother…”
“WHAT DID SHE S-”
“SHH, be quiet Applebloom!”
“Mmmmmpphhh!”
The phrase bewildered Applebloom. Why would her own flesh and blood be against one of Equestria’s kindest and shyest pony? Maybe she is against Big Macintosh having a marefriend? If she had her notepad, the filly would be scratching down notes so hard that the pencil would scratch right through the paper.
“Now what’s this,” Applejack spoke and looked in the direction of the girls. Gasping, both fillies looked at each other in shock and fear.
“We have been found out,” Scootaloo whispered quickly.
“What do we do, Scootaloo?”
“I think… we surrender and reveal ourselves,” the pegasus said in a very low and defeated whisper.
But just as soon as they were just about to give up and reveal themselves, Applejack spoke again, “Whaddia like to buy?”
Peaking back outside, there were two earth ponies that stood at the apple stand. One of the ponies had a pear for a cutie mark, with a yellowish skin tone, light green hair, and a large ten gallon hat rested on his head. The other had almost the same features, except his cutie mark had a slice taken out of the pear, and instead of a hat, was a bit of a curly hair due.
“Well howdy-do to you miss,” smiled the one with the curly hair due. A hoof quickly shot out at Applejack and almost caught her off guard. She does like a good conversation, but would rather have other ponies buy from her stall then a bit of chitchat.
“Umm, howdy?”
“Oh, pardon my rudeness miss… ah don’t think we have been acquainted.”
“Ugh, okay?” Aside from the girls that hid in the wagon, Applejack was bewildered on what was going on. Try as she might, she had no idea who the two ponies where.
“Ma name is Par, an’ this is my bro, Peal! We are the new stall in town. Didn’tcha hear?”
Then it clicked. “Oh, that’s right! Mayor Mare said a few new merchants will be comin’ in this week an’ ah am assumin’ you two are one of them.”
“Correct-o-mundo!”
“Ah am Applejack.” The mare held out her hoof and was greeted by Par happily shaking her hoof.
“You goch-yoself a mean shake miss fer a lovely mare.”
“Oh, don’t flatter me, huh…” Applejack blatantly looked in the opposite direction, trying not to blush, but unfortunately fell victim to a few red streaks. Moving her arm to Peal, the mare spoke, “Nice of you to come by an’ greet yourself.”
But silence was the only thing that Applejack received from the quiet stallion. Peal’s eyes were half shielded by his hat, causing his eyes to have this mean glare come from him. The pony didn’t even acknowledge Applejack by looking at her in the eyes. All he was fixated on doing was looking at the apples.
After a long silent note, the ten gallon hat tilted up, and the colt spoke, “This all ya got?”
“Ugh, yeah… sure do.” Applejack’s arm retreated back to the ground to help maintain her balance.
“Heh…,” Peal spoke again, and this time, his hat flopped down in front of his eyes, only leaving a small smile visible. Sound was void as the stallion spoke. No reply could be made from his responses because of how vague he was being. Then he spoke, “Ya call that produce?” Without any warning, Peal snatched a bright red apple. The color was so clean and smooth, a reflection could be made. A wide mouth then took a large chunk out of the lovely fruit and quickly spat the piece right back out. He then lightly tossed the apple back onto the stand, and as it rolled, knocking over several apples that the fruit came in contact with.
Something inside of Applejack broke that made her confused look writhe into a mean one. Even Applebloom was furious on what the stallion had to say. Before any reaction could be made by the mare at the stand, Peal turned away with a smirk still on his face.
“Hey, ya got somethin’ to say to me?" But he kept on walking, never to turn back. Nothing has angered Applejack this bad since the last time the gophers invaded the farm, a year before this one. The further Peal got away from the stall, the angrier the pony became. If she clenched her teeth any harder, the mare would bite right through her jaw.
Wanting to charge at the cocky stallion, Applejack’s hooves stomped with every step as she rounded her stall; however, the brother was not asking for a fight. “Now now, ah know he can be a bit of a pain but-”
“A pain?! That was one of ma best apples and your BROTHER just took a bite and… AND…” No amount of anger could fathom what the mare was feeling.
“Look, al tell ya what: here.” Par, being the one to end all troubles, pulled out a good amount of bits and handed it over to Applejack. “Why don’t we jus’ forget about this ol’ troublesome quarrel and just go about our day? Sound like a dealio?”
Instead of thinking too hard, Applejack easily accepted the offer and took the money. “Thanks partner,” the mare spoke without smiling.
“An to yerself madam. Now you have yourself a good dailyo!”
Still, the mare could not find herself smiling back at Par. Just seeing him made her think of his rotten brother. “Just keep your brother out of trouble.”
“Heh, that’s gonna be a tough one but I’ll do what I can.” There were no goodbyes in this departing because both knew that they wanted to get back to the rest of their day.
“Umm… Applebloom,” Scootaloo asked her friend. “Are you- hehe… okay?”
She was not. Her face was almost as red as her own hair. “Did ya see how that mean ol’… jerk face was to ma sister?!”
“Not too- hehe… loud.”
“An why are you laughin’ at a time like this?”
“Because- hehe… you keep tickling me- hehe.”
“But that ain’t me.”
“Then who is?”
“The wasp, crawlin’ on your back.”
A quick glance from Scootaloo faintly saw the wasp with little light she had slowly walking up her neck. In terror, she gasped and stood up to try and get it off of her. That was her down fall, literally. The weight of the filly caused the wagon to tip to her side and Scootaloo, Applebloom, and the wasp fell over, along with the four wheeled carriage making a large crashing sound. Lucky for the fillies, the blanket still enshrouded them, making a bit of a soft landing.
“What in tarnation,” spoke a familiar voice.
“WE ARE SPOTTED,” Applebloom whispered loudly.
Both girls heard hoof steps quickly approach as Scootaloo and Applebloom waited beneath their dark blue veil.