//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12: Agricultural Affairs 
// Story: Professor Layton and the Equestrian Silence 
// by Crystal Blue 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 12: Agricultural Affairs

“Where to next, Professor?”
“I think it might be wise to visit Miss Applejack. Perhaps we can gather more information on the...” Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the professor and the boy were knocked clean off their feet by a blur of blonde and greyish blue. They picked themselves up, dusted off their clothes and turned to see the source of the impact, a pony with a barrel on his or her head.
“Who switched off the lights?!” A female voice.
“Hold steady, madam.” Layton slide the wooden barrel off the mare’s head. “There we go. You really should be more careful.”
“Oops. Sorry!” The mare replied honestly, if a little oddly. She had a blonde mane and tail, with golden eyes to match. Unfortunately, the direction of her pupils lacked any kind of uniformity. Her grey-blue body and wings were quite matt, and her flanks bore bubbles as a cutie mark. “I want to visit my friends!”
“Oh, there you are, Derpy!” Bon Bon, having stepped from a nearby shop, had espied the commotion her pegasus friend had caused. Lyra followed not long afterwards. “My goodness, you just keep crashing into everypony, don’t you? Oh, hello, Professor.”
“Good afternoon, Miss Bon Bon, Miss Heartstrings”, Layton replied, unfazed by the collision. “Please allow me to introduce Luke, a dear friend of mine.”
“How do you do?” Luke was still a little unnerved by the concept of talking ponies. Normally, only he could communicate with animals, yet everypony he met so far in this world could talk with the professor without a word out of place. His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the rapid approach of mint green hooves.
“Oh, wow!” a bouncing Lyra could barely communicate between breaths. “TWO humans! Best day EVER!” The jubilant unicorn was quickly deflated by a daggered glare from her fiancée. “Okay, maybe SECOND best day ever.” Bon Bon forgave her for the moment, before introducing the sky pony.
“Professor Layton, this is Miss Derpy Hooves.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Hooves,” Hershel tipped his hat.
“Hello!” Derpy responded cheerfully, waving her front right hoof frantically. Bon Bon continued.
“Derpy has been having a little bit of trouble lately. She has been a loyal employee of the Ponyville Postal Service for years. Sadly, it only took one complaint to have her placed on suspension.”
“We think it was Roseluck!” Lyra butted in, before Bon Bon cleared her throat.
“Yes, well, speculation aside, we have been trying to help her return to work. It has not been easy. We even wrote to Princess Celestia about it.”
“She gave me a job!” Derpy burst out. “I get to be a... a...”
“Scribe, dear.”
“Yeah! One of those!” This triggered off the professor’s memory.
“Ah, you were the pony who wrote my train station guide for Canterlot.”
“Sorry about the mess,” Derpy replied, looking guiltily at the ground.
“Ah, don’t worry yourself too much, Miss Hooves. It offered quite the mental challenge.” The pegasus perked up, her wings shooting from her sides.
“Yay! He liked it! But oh... I still want my mailmare job.”
“Maybe we can help!” Luke entered the conversation. “Tell us all about it.”

Puzzle 032

“I delivered mail to the same 40 ponies each day. The mail was sorted by house before I posted it, so I can’t mix up mail, and I never missed a mailbox. Only one pony has complained about getting the wrong mail. What’s the chance in, uh... percent of me getting one pony’s mail wrong?”

“Hmmm...” Luke was about to reach for his notepad, when the answer he needed struck him like a bolt of lightning. “Of course!” He pronounced with a chuckle. “I’ll explain it to you.” Meanwhile, as Luke explained to Derpy his answer, the professor made conversation with the earth pony and the unicorn.
“Would either of you have seen anything out of the ordinary recently?”
“Apart from humans?” Bon Bon blurted out, still smarting from earlier.
“Honey, manners!” the unicorn was quick to jump in. “Sorry, Professor. Now that you mention it, the weather has been strangely hot. As much as we love to laze outside and catch a tan, we could do with a break.”
“Most interesting... One more thing. Would you happen to know what 12-He-1003 could mean?” The pair of ponies exchanged expressions, both blank.
“...I’m afraid you’ve got us there,” the beige mare answered. “Maybe Twilight would know?”
“Thank you, Miss Bon Bon. You’ve been very helpful. Come along, Luke.”
“Coming, Professor!” The young boy turned to the mailmare again. “That should help you get your job back.”
“Oooooh... Thanks, Luke! That’ll help a lot!” The wall-eyed pegasus rejoined her friends, and the two groups parted ways, with Layton and Luke headed west.
The smell of leaves wafted up the bipeds’ nostrils, a deeply pleasant scent that reminded them of London’s grand parks, where they would wander during Hershel’s downtime.
“It’s been too long, hasn’t it, Professor?”
“What do you mean, my boy?”
“I missed you, Professor. We used to go on adventures like this, but... since I moved away... I don’t get to do this anymore.”
“Luke... Just because life doesn’t seem as interesting as our investigations do, it doesn’t make it any less so.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you ever wonder how I became so proficient with puzzles?” Layton’s gaze remained on their intended path. “I link them with whatever I can find. I research puzzles and create my own, based on my experiences, every detail from birthdays to everyday objects. To find inspiration in the most seemingly uninteresting points of life... That in itself is as exciting as any investigation.” The professor finished his explanation.
“Cor!” Luke beamed, basking in his mentor’s familiar wisdom. “You’re right, Professor. Thanks. I never would have thought it possible, but we are surrounded by talking ponies!”
“Yes, indeed we are, and there’s no need to thank me, Luke. Think of it as an answer to a question I once asked myself.” The farmhouse was within a stone’s throw at that point, the glorious midday sun blazing across the glorious green canopy. Four familiar ponies were arranging buckets by trees, looking ready to catch apples.
“Good afternoon, Miss Apple Bloom.”
“Howdy, Mr. Big Hat!” The filly dashed up to the pair. “Who’s yer friend?”
“I’m Luke. It’s great to meet you, Apple Bloom.” The young mare blushed slightly, but their reverie was soon interrupted by Applejack and Granny Smith.
“Howdy, Prof. Hi, Luke!” The orange mare was in high spirits, but nothing like the elderly green pony.
“Hey, howdy, Mr Professor! Why, ah’ve gotta thank y’all for bringin’ back mah girl ta me!”
“Oh, no, it was the least I could do, Mrs Smith. I thought I’d come by and see if I could gain more knowledge for the investigation. Tell me, Miss Applejack. What can you remember from before we found you?” Big Macintosh, overhearing the conversation, distanced himself considerably without being noticed.
“Well, ah remember gittin’ ta the main entry gate. Ah felt a huge pain on the back a’ mah head. Next thing ah knew, ah was buried up to mah neck in sand! There’s one thing, though. Ah found this tangled in mah mane. Any ideas, Prof?” The mare lifted her Stetson, retrieving an object from the top of her head, before passing it to Layton. It was a rounded piece of tinted glass.
“This could be of great use to the investigation. Thank you,” Layton smiled, yet stronger ideas formulated in his mind.
“No problem. Ah was hopin’ you could help me with somethin’ else.”
“I will assist in any way I can.”
“Well, every so often we get an appearance of magical fruit in one a’ our fields. The biggest problem is time.”
“How so?”
“If’n these apples aren’t harvested within one day of bein’ ripe, they disappear. We got a couple a’ farmhands to help, but they’re differen’ in size an’ strength. Ah asked Big Macintosh, but he jus’ gave me a map a’ the field with some numbers on it, sayin’ I needed nothin’ but four sides each.”
“May I take a look?” Hershel asked. Applejack handed over a scroll, and the archaeologist unravelled it.



Puzzle 033

“I would say that each farmhand’s harvesting area needs to be four-sided: a square or rectangle. The numbers that Macintosh wrote are clues as to the area sizes for each farmhand. It is simple enough to answer once you know where to start. What do you think, Miss Applejack?”

“Ah think he should stop takin’ lessons from Twilight on confusin’ ponies,” Applejack wore a look of perplexity, “an’ you need ta stop callin’ me Miss. Ah’m startin’ to feel high-fallutin’.”
“Ah, my apologies, Applejack. It is a habit. With the map, I suggest you look at this number first...”
As Layton work with the tangerine mare regarding her brother’s puzzle, Luke tracked down the stallion himself, inside one of the barns.
“Uh... hello, Mr. Macintosh,” the child nervously started. The red pony cast a silent glance before returning to tending to his project. “Have you, um... ever seen a human before?”
“...Nnnope.”
“Did you need a hand there?”
“...”
“Okay, then. I’ll leave you to it.” Luke made his way to the door.
“Wait,” The silent stallion breathed a heavy sigh, before finally speaking up. “Eeyup. Ah need some help, Mr Luke.”
“That’s good. Let’s see, now...” They stared at Big Mac’s project, a machine of some sort.
“Winter’s comin,’” Mac’s southern drawl was tinged with worry. “Last one was harsh. This here machine’ll keep the family warm and the animals fed.”
“Oh! This is a generator!”
“Eeyup.”
“Everything seems to be in place, so what’s the problem?”



Puzzle 034

“Ah’ve got the rest of this machine set up. Touchin’ wheels go different ways. The last belt is mah big dilemma. Ah want the green wheel to turn the same way as the red one does, or it ain’t gonna work. That there belt’s too short to twist. Which wheel do ah hitch the other end a’ the belt to?”

“Hmmm...” Luke took a long look at the mechanism. “If this wheel turns that way... Got it! We need to connect the belt there... If you switch on the generator and the belt’s on the wrong wheel, what happens?”
“Dunno.” Mac was unmoved by the possibility that the machine could self-destruct in a most spectacular fashion. The boy in blue, however, gulped audibly as he reached for the power switch.
“Well... Here goes nothing.” The switch threw in a smooth movement, bringing the generator to life. Mac poked his head out of the barn, noticing the nearby indoor pig sty filling with food. 
“Is it working, Mr Macintosh?” Luke asked, unsure of why the hulking stallion was looking out the door. Mac pulled his head back into the structure, smiling.
“Eeyup!”
“Luke! It’s time to go,” the professor’s prim voice rang from the field.
“Coming, Professor! ...Hold on a second.” A particularly fruity smell struck his nostrils, a scent he couldn’t quite place. “Mr Macintosh, do you smell that?” The stallion sniffed the air in his relaxed fashion.
“Eeyup,” he answered. “Smells like apples.”
“Uh, I don’t think so...” At that point, Hershel popped his head through the ajar doorway.
“Ah, there you are, Luke... What’s that smell?”
“So you can smell it too!”
“Yes. I can’t seem to place what that it is, though. Hmmm... Anyway, we must continue our investigation. Come along.”
“Right away, Professor.” Luke bolted out of the doorway after his mentor, standing to attention at Layton’s side.
“I have just one more question, Applejack,” the man in the top hat resumed.
“Shoot, Prof.”
“Have you painted any of your barns recently?”
“Hmmm... Nah, can’t say ah have. Why’d ya ask?” The professor pointed to a patch of ground about three feet to his left. Sitting there, well-hidden in the grass, were a few tell-tale splodges of half-dried maroon paint.
“Well, ah’ll be darned! How’d that git there?!”
“I’m not certain as of yet, but it’s not beyond possibility that somepony has been here recently.”
“R-really, Professor?” Luke was taken aback by this turn in events.
“Where are Mrs Smith and Miss Apple Bloom at the moment?”
“They’re headed to town to pick up supplies for the harvest.”
“Good. I suggest you gather your brother and stay in your home. There may be a chance that whomever left this paint has not left the area.” A fearful grimace crossed the normally fearless earth pony’s face.
“H-how will ah know when it’s safe ta come out?” As if on cue, a brief flash of light occurred, revealing a familiar form.
“Professor!” Twilight was breathless, to say the least. “I just got word from Fluttershy. She sounded really upset! You’ve gotta come right away!” Layton nodded.
“Luke, come with us! Applejack, as soon as I know it is safe to come out, I will send Miss Sparkle to fetch you.”
“Righ’, good plan.” The professor turned to Twilight.
“Let us head to Fluttershy’s residence.”
“Right. Teleporting will get us there faster,” Twilight was brimming with confidence.
“What? Are you sure it’s safe?” Luke couldn’t restrain himself from expressing his concerns.
“I’ve got teleporting down to a fine art, Luke. Hold tight!” Luke closed his eyes tightly, while Layton stood calm and resolute. The purple unicorn’s horn glowed brightly, the sphere of light rapidly engulfing the three of them. Within moments, they vanished from sight, a slight crackling of raw magic left in their wake. The only remaining pony, Applejack headed to the barns to escort her brother to safety from this unknown enemy.