Orange Picker ran through the trees, one wrong step away from tripping on the sea of broken sticks and wet leaves on the ground below. The view in front of her was that of a black wall, as the dim moonlight couldn’t penetrate the many layers of treetops. A bear chased after her, and by the sound of its growls, was only a few steps away.
She jumped into a dense pocket of trees. They were only a foot or two away from each other, too close for the bear, but doable for her. Her hooves were still in pain from her activities that morning, but the she kept her mind on the mission at hoof and blocked it out. She contorted her body through every open space, and made it through. The bear’s growl receded. It was probably either stuck between two trees or trying to go around the pocket. She kept her speed the same and made sure not to speed up, as the hilly terrain meant that one slip up would send her rolling down hundreds of feet.
The pocket of trees ended, and OP found herself in the closest thing to a field her region of Equestria would allow for. The moonlight illuminated the path in front of her. The rocky bottom of a cliff stood ahead. Orange Picker had found her weapon.
A growl shot out from behind her. She turned around. The bear was only a few feet away, and gaining ground fast. Its teeth were each sharp and strong enough to pierce through rock and its open mouth was already dripping with drool. Orange Picker kept her heart rate down and did her best to let her adrenaline and state of panic die down. To her using those to increase performance was the same as cheating, and if she was going to do this she was going to do it right, with every disadvantage possible.
She sprinted to the cliff, giving it all she had, and climbed up. The bear stood at the bottom and growled. The sound of its roar shook the cliff. Orange Picker continued climbing and ignored the noises. The bear rammed the cliff, but her grip was too secured to give out from such a pathetic attack. She climbed higher, until she could see the tops of most of the smaller trees in the area. The bear climbed up too, and although its progress was slow, there was no doubt that it was would reach her.
OP locked onto the bear’s skull. She tensed her hooves and threw herself off the cliff. The bear growled and kept its mouth opened. As she fell she tensed her bottom hooves like a spring and kept her gaze focused on the top of the bear’s head. The bear was now less than a foot away. She extended her hooves as hard as she could and kickstomped its skull. A cracking noise louder than any growl rippled out, and the bear collapsed to the ground.
Orange Picker exhaled and caught her breath. The mission was over, but any chance of her patting herself on the back or even smiling had long since passed. She growled and kicked the dirt. “Twelve seconds longer than last night. Really? How can I still suck at this?” She clenched her jaw and nearly cried from her sense of failure.
------------------------------------------
Orange Picker walked through the woods, still growling. She looked around at the myriad of bushes around her. “Do they really have to look the same? Not even my fault if I can’t find it.” True to her word the bushes had no difference between them, down to the leaf, and even if they did there was no way to see it in the darkness.
She went to each one and kicked it. Every bush presented her with failure, and by the twenty somethingith one she was still empty hoofed. She growled and went to another one. “At least fighting bears was kinda fun.” She kicked it, but stopped halfway in. There was something hard inside. She pulled it out and dragged it onto the ground. It was her book, the one she had read that morning.
Orange Picker smiled and opened it. There was a pen on the inside and a list of to-dos on the pages opened to. The first line read Fight and beat bear. On the same page were other items like Learn how to draw a perfect map of Equestria, Wrestle a manticore, Learn Changeling, Do a thousand pushups, Perfect my singing voice, and Fight and beat Daring Doo. On the other page was only one item, written as large as the page as circled over a dozen times—Build a set of wings and horn.
OP picked up the pen but couldn’t get her eyes off the first line. “I did beat a bear, but it wasn’t a record. So does it count?” She stared at it for another few seconds. “What a retarded question.” She spit out the pen. “I sucked today. No doubt about it.” A burst of anger shot through her and she kicked a nearby rock until it shattered. She snorted and stood erect, looking for other objects to impose her suffering on.
A few seconds passed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Ugh. I gotta stop getting so pissed. I’m obviously gonna beat it tomorrow.”
Orange Picker turned back to her book. “So what’s next?” She read down the list and paused. “Memorizing the map it is.” She looked up at the sky. The moon was fully up and every star was visible. “Guess I gotta skip sleep again, but whatever.” OP closed her book and put it on her back. Her stomach rumbled. “And now for the worst part of the day, going home.” She exhaled and began to walk away. “Let's see what orange based dish I get today.”
The sound of leaves rustling and sticks breaking came from the woods, behind Orange Picker. She froze. The noise could’ve just been a bunny or something, but making an assumption like that was just plain stupid. After all, that bear did have friends. She kicked her book into a nearby bush and got into a fighting stance. Every muscle was loaded and ready to fire. She closed her eyes and propped up her ears.
The sound came again. OP launched herself towards it and extended her hoof to form a flying kick. All of her force was concentrated on the tip of her hoof.
A scream shot out from the source of the sound. It was a filly’s. Nectar stood in front of Orange Picker, right in the path of her skull cracking kick.
OP tilted herself mid-flight and impacted a tree. Her hoof impaled it and made its way inside. Nectar dropped to the ground and continued to scream with her hooves over her face. Orange Picker sighed with relief and took her hoof out of the tree. She turned to Nectar. “Nectar,” she said. The filly in question continued to scream, still on the floor. “Nectar,” Orange Picker screamed.
Nectar stopped screaming. She looked at her muddy but still intact hooves and chuckled. “Sorry.”
“What’s wrong with you? You wanna end up like that tree there or what?” Orange Picker said.
Nectar got up. “I said I’m sorry.”
Orange Picker growled and walked to her. “What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be doing homework or playing with your friends or something?”
“I was going to…” Nectar put her head down. “But my parents sent me here to get the juice out of some flowers for the family medicine business. But when I saw you I...kinda...followed you. You know, to see what you were doing.” She kept her head down but looked up at the filly in front of her.
Orange Picker was unsure of how to feel. She felt like calling Nectar out for the stalker that she was, but at the same time also felt weird out, and not from being followed. There was another, more important, issue at hoof. “Wait. How much did you see?”
Nectar picked up her head and smiled. “Everything,” she screamed. “I saw the whole thing. You totally destroyed that bear. I’ve never seen anything that cool in my life.”
OP looked away and blushed. “Thanks. “ She frowned. “About time somepony thought so. Wish you’d seen me another day though. I sucked today.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t think anypony in the village can take on a bear like you did, especially without wings or magic,” Nectar said.
Orange Picker smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time anypony had complimented her, that is, if anypony ever had. She paused and basked in the foreign sensation. “Wait…” The sensation disappeared. “Whatever happened to screaming like a pussy like you did this morning? Huh? I know the rest of you think I’m crazy. Not that I care, but still.”
“Well yeah I thought you were crazy before. No offense of course.” Nectar chuckled. “But after seeing what you can do I don’t care what you are.” She dropped her head and frowned. ‘I wish I could fight bears or do something that cool.”
OP stepped closer to Nectar and lifted her head. “Of course you can. You just think you can’t. Not like that’s your fault though.” She paused and smiled. “I can show you how to do it. It’s hard, but that’s why it feels so good when you actually do it.”
Nectar kept her head down. “No…it’s okay,” she said in her usual soft voice. “There’s no way I can ever do stuff like that. And I’m happy not being bear food.” She chuckled.
Orange Picker put her hoof around Nectar and reeled her in. “Stop doubting yourself. Seriously, that what’s wrong with the rest of you. Of course you can never do it if you don’t even try.” She let her go and stepped away. “And stop being such a whiner.” She glared at her. You’re nowhere near as bad as I was when I started.”
“Really?”
OP looked up at the moon and smiled. “You have no idea. I used to be the biggest disgrace I’ve ever met.” She chuckled. “To give you an idea of just how much I sucked, I couldn’t even walk to school without almost passing out. That’s why I’d always come in so sweaty.” She turned to Nectar. “And just in case that wasn’t pathetic enough, I was so shy I couldn’t even look Ms. B in the eye. Miss B.”
Nectar looked on but didn’t respond. Her mouth was open, like she was about to say something, but nothing came out. “So stop acting like you can’t do shit. There’s no reason you can’t be better than me. I want you to be. All of you,” Orange Picker said. Nectar still seemed unsure. She looked away and kept her mouth open. “So come on. You down?” Orange Picker paused. “And don’t worry. I’m obviously not gonna make you fight a bear on day one. It’ll be gradual. We’ll start with rabbits or something.”
“Now that’s what I was waiting for,” Nectar said, laughing. “Sure. I guess I’m…down. It’ll definitely be more fun than milking flowers, that’s for sure.” She and Orange Picker shared a chuckle. “You promise to go easy in the beginning though?”
“What’d I tell you about me and lying?” OP smiled so hard that her cheeks turned red. The redness was visible in the pitch blackness. “Cool. We’ll start tomorrow morning then. Right here.”
“But I have class then.”
Orange Picker’s smile came crashing down. She growled. “Seriously? You still wanna go after today’s horseshit? Please tell me you’re joking.”
“About that…” Nectar paused. “Why did you get so mad? Cutie marks are a good thing. They make us all special.”
Orange Picker put her hoof around Nectar. “Yeah, but some more special than others. You’ll get what I mean soon. Trust me. Just wait until you beat your first bear." Nectar stood confused and silent. OP ran to a nearby bush and grabbed her book. “I’m going home now. You know, gotta eat and stuff. See ya tomorrow.” She began to run away.”
“Okay…Bye,” Nectar said.
Orange Picker stopped. “Oh, and one more thing.” She smiled at Nectar. “Thanks.”
Orange Picker ran off deeper into the woods and towards the hills that surrounded the town. She danced as she ran, so much so that the book fell off her back multiple times. She couldn’t remember the last she was this happy; even if she had beaten a hundred bears it still wouldn’t have been close. It wasn’t that fact that she’d just made her first friend—if Nectar could even count as one—but that a pony had finally joined her cause. To her, that more than made up for any failures of the night.
As the forest ended Orange Picker found herself running on a series of hills that led to Las Pegasus, which was now the brightest thing in view, even compared to the moon. The hills all had farms and farmhouses, each catered to a different fruit. She ran to the one with an orange farm, which consisted of endless rows of orange trees and buckets beside them. The farmhouse, her house, was lit from the inside and leaked out chatter.
Orange Picker opened the door, still dancing. Her parents waited on the other side, pissed.