//------------------------------// // 23 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// The next day… Tress looked up to the sky from the window; it was almost way too early in the morning to be awake at this hour. A job was a job though, no matter the time you needed to wake up for it. Twilight has yet to be hired out to deal with mane care. She was already talking deals with shampoo and some of her products with Rarity and things were looking up. Zecora was even close to finishing Twilight’s pet project, a project that even she had a hoof in and couldn’t finish. What Tress did was tighten up the formulas composition and potency if it did indeed work as intended. “Twilight rise and shine, it’s time to go and assist in the request we got from the Apple family.” Looking at the zonked out unicorn, Tress decided a bit of strategy would wake her friend up. She closed her eyes and said her next statement in a sing song voice. “They might give us honeyed cider at half price if we make a good effort in helping them.” Grapes may be Twilight’s favorite fruit, but it wasn’t her favorite drink. Her favorite drink was another thing entirely. Which is why Smart, Zecora, Barb and even Tress suddenly found themselves in the living room dazed and confused with a peppy looking Twilight bouncing from hoof to hoof. “Well come on then Tress what are you waiting around for slowpoke, we can take baths in the evening we’re going to be doing dirty work all day anyway. Here Barb you can use this to get yourself something nice for lunch today. Zecora sorry for pulling you out of bed but we’re going to the Sweet Apple Acres farm if you need us for anything. Smart make sure Barb doesn’t use any destructive spells and try to teach her to send me letters with her magic. Good? Okay let’s go!” A giddy Twilight was out the door levitating a confused Tress along with her. “Say Twilight, can I make some quick requests before we get there?” The purple unicorn paused and they were already three fourths of the way there, Tress slowly rolled her eyes. “My first one is that you please put me down and second that you help me tie my mane into a ponytail so that I can keep my hair out my face while I work.” After a moment Twilight blinked and then her face took on a sheepish grin, she placed her friend down. Tress had a slightly bored look on her face as she was set down standing on her four hooves. Twilight magically lifted Tress’s mane gave it a small tug to pull it taut and wrapped a band around it so that it was held in place and out of her face. “Thank you.” Tress continued on towards Sweet Apple Acres with Twilight in tow. “So who was it that approached you about needing help this time?” “A stallion named Big Mac, apparently they are getting something called a zap apple harvest in and they needed some extra help. Our job is just simply to do a hard day’s work, nothing bad could possibly happen to either of us.” After a moment Twilight thought she should let the other horseshoe drop. “I also can’t use my magic to pick these apples so we’re going to need to do it the earth pony way, which isn’t a problem for you since you’re already physically fit. Just don’t say anything about rabbits; you know the tree that fell on that rabbit that Fluttershy had yesterday might have been from this farm.” “So are you completely sure that nothing can go horribly wrong today.” It wasn’t like Tress was trying to call her friend into question, but she was a walking magical incident waiting to happen. “Well nothing is ever truly set in stone Tress, so when and where did you meet Fleur again?” Noticing her friends’ wince, Twilight had a devious smirk. Had Tress truly thought she had forgotten that? She doesn’t forget things easily, even when they were worried about Fluttershy and the rabbit that had gotten into an accident. “You’re just going to keep coming back to that all day aren’t you? We’ve even barely gotten started and already my dear sweet friend is asking me to meet with my other dear friend because she has a crush on their mane.” Tress raised the back of her right hoof to her head and leaned her neck back slightly. “Is it really so hard for you to give me an answer without all the dramatics Tress?” Twilight said flatly as she tapped a hoof in the dirt when they stopped at a gate. On the other side of the gate a big red stallion with an orange mane and tail named Big Mac moseyed up to them and gave a soft smile. Well the Trouble Takers were here and they were quite early, earlier then he would have expected of city ponies anyway. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to hire them after all. “Depends, is this the guy that needed the extra hooves?” Tress pointed a hoof at Big Mac. “Yep that’s him. Hello again sir, you said you needed us to help you with something?” This seemed like an easy if long and arduous job with little danger to their very lives and Twilight didn’t mind that one bit. Now it was just the idea of working themselves to exhaustion that was a little hard to swallow. Twilight wouldn’t bother worrying about it, so she couldn’t magic the apples; no pony said she couldn’t magic the things around the apples. “Yup, we just needed a few extra hooves.” He wasn’t particularly talkative, he thought the purple mare was cute and the pink one with the blue mane was quite beautiful. He was a gentle stallion and would never do anything untoward, even then he was pretty smart for a farm worker despite his general appearance and personality would belie. “Right we’re ready to help in any way we can. This looks like a really good plantation; I’m guessing your biggest production here is apples?” For her trouble Twilight only received a nod from the stallion, she looked around the orchard and couldn’t believe how vast it was. Tress trotted alongside Twilight looking at the odd rainbow colored apples in the trees that looked like they were teeming with energy, she had never seen apples like those before. She has heard of zap apple jam, but never really a zap apple harvest until Twilight told her. Seeing the size of the fields and the endless amount of trees the task before them was appearing quite daunting. Well nothing in life was ever said to be easy. “Land sakes Big Mac, who are these two?” A blonde mare with her mane and tail tied back wearing a rather fetching Stetson came up to them right quick, her coat was orange and she had three apples for a cutie mark. “We’re here about helping you with the zap apple harvest, we’re some extra hooves and I’d like to believe we work well with others. I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is my best friend Tress Ravel.” Twilight introduced herself and then her slightly taller friend while shaking hooves with the mare. Her mane smelled of cinnamon and Twilight really liked that. “Well I’m Applejack. You’re them Trouble Takers fellers from the newspaper huh? Well if you can put in a good days hard work around here without complaint, I might actually have reason to hire you again. From what I’m seeing, it looks like you’re just like Rarity when it comes to being prissy Tress, no offense meant as I don’t rightly know you too well. As for you Twilight, you do know that I’ll ask you to not use magic on our apples and that it isn’t a good idea to do so especially on zap apples right?” Applejack saw determination in both their eyes within moments. “Oh no, I’ll like, get covered in mud and junk, then chip a hoof. Oh why am I even here in the first place working for a brutal stallion of a mare.” The surprisingly sarcastic reprisal finally ended with a smile, Tress was ready to finish her statement off. “Do your worst, I can handle a hard day of work. Pain and suffering is nothing new to me. Especially after that incident I had with a fruitcake.” “You’re never going to let that demonic fruitcake thing go are you Tress? Anyway I assure you I’ve read up on zap apples and I know better than to use magic directly on them; however this does not mean I can’t indirectly affect things around them. If you need me to move heavy basket loads or just doing simple chores I can live with that. I’m not just going to stand around and watch my friend toil away all day when we both came here to do work.” Apparently what Twilight said seemed to earn some respect from this Applejack character. Her blonde mane was still quite nice despite being a bit rustic in style and slightly dusty. “Now that’s what I like to hear! Come on; let me tell you what you’ll be doing here.” Leading the two ponies over to a wagon and some baskets, Applejack started talking about how they needed to move the zap apples back to the house and quickly. The process with which the zap apples form is a bit of a magical mystery, but the zap apples last only for a short while and needed to be picked quickly. Tress and Twilight had to help set up baskets below as many of the zap apple trees as they could. A part of their job would require Tress to get a crash course in bucking, which is if she could even buck hard enough to get the apples to fall correctly. There was a snag when it came to Applejack mentioning Twilight and cooking though. “Twilight can you assist Granny Smith in making the jam?” Noticing the unicorn giving her a fearful look, Applejack was rightfully confused by her apprehension. “That’s not a good idea Applejack, Twilight is so horrible at cooking she could destroy Sweet Apple Acres even being near someone who is a good cook by trying to assist them. So that’s probably not a good idea, we’ll have her move the wagon and the baskets around. She’d be able to do that for long periods of time using magic. With her constantly going back and forth we can focus more on getting the apples.” Tress’s mind started clicking several ideas into place. “We’ll start with the zap apple trees furthest from the home and work our way towards it. That way our return trips get shorter as we go along, we won’t have to go as far out to get the closer zap apples. When we’re tired that will help a lot for finishing things up.” “Sounds like a right good simple plan there sugar cube, never would of thought of that myself. I guess Apple Bloom can help Granny Smith here after she’s done with her chores. Come on every pony let’s get to bucking them tree’s.” Applejack reared up and let out a yell as she went to the wagon to load it up with baskets. Twilight quickly aided in loading up the wagon while Applejack gave them directions about moving around the farm as they prepped for the long day ahead. Applejack even showed Tress how to buck a regular apple tree and then asked Tress to try it herself. The result matched Applejacks causing her to be a bit flabbergasted by the sight. “A pegasus would supposedly be a master of intent, a unicorn supposedly a master of focus, but if there is one thing we earth ponies have in our magical abilities, its raw natural pony power.” That and Tress worked her internal magic every once in a while to control her mane or tail. It really helped her balance her kick and the force she could put into it. She could easily match Applejacks impressive feat only because she was paying attention to how much force the farm pony was putting out. She guessed she would have to adjust for every tree she came across, but it couldn’t have been that hard right? “I think I may have spoken too soon Tress. That was pretty impressive for a first timer prissy city girl, but can you do that again and many more times in a row? You both have to go the entire day you know and honestly, I don’t really think you two will be as much help as you think you can be.” Applejack knew she just sounded so smug, it seemed like Tress had a competitive edge to her and she liked that in a mare. “We’ll see how proud you are after you have bucked at least fifteen trees with as much force.” “Oh this is going to be fun.” Sardonically it may be said, but Tress thought it no less true. “Yup.” Big Mac said as he walked by. “Come on Tress, these are good friendly ponies. Besides, I still need to ask Applejack if they sell that kind of cider.” Her tongue slid its way out of her mouth with a bit of drool, it was as if Twilight couldn’t help but imagine that tasty cider. “It’s good to see you have your priorities straight Radiance.” Sighing the soft pink coated mare started out towards the field of apple trees.