//------------------------------//
// The First Huge Harvest 
// Story: The Price of Cider 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

Late in the afternoon Applejack looks off to the west and sees six pegasi flying in.  She looks harder and notices that they are bat ponies and that they are Luna's royal guardsponies.  Finally the six bat ponies landed in front of Applejack.  Applejack asked, "I take it that the six of you are Luna's royal guard?"

Purple Mane replied, "Yes ma'am.  Our Princess of the Night has sent us to help you with apple bucking since your orchard has grown so much."

Applejack said, "That is wonderful news.  I am Applejack.  What are your names?  I do think we should all at least know one another's names."

Purple Mane replied, "Agreed.  I am Purple Mane, next to me in the order they are standing are Gray Wings, Dark Forest, Yellow Eyes, Dark Moon and Purple Hooves."

Applejack motioned her head at her new help and said, "Come on over to the barn.  I want y'all to meet the rest of my family, well my family that lives here anyway."

They all headed over to the barn and were greeted by Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom.  Applejack said, "Alright guys, standing from left to right is Big Mac, Granny Smith and Apple Bloom."

Dark Forest said, "Hi everypony, we want you to know what a pleasure it is to meet you and that we will work hard to make sure that you get every single apple harvested."

Granny replied, "Well we sure hope so.  We have a lot more trees now!"

Purple Mane said, "Well guys, let's get out there and do some apple bucking!"

Applejack interrupted him and asked, "Wait Purple Mane.  I know you guys are ready and raring to go but let's wait until morning.  You don't have to be back in Canterlot tonight do you?"

Gray Wings replied, "Nope, we have been ordered to stay here until after all the apples have been harvested and all the cider has been produced."

Applejack led them over to the barn and said, "I'm sorry we don't have extra bedrooms or anything but y'all will have to stay in here.  I hope that is ok."

Purple Mane replied, "Of course it is fine!"

The night passed without anything out of the ordinary going on and the following morning the Lunar Royal Guard was ready to go out apple bucking.  After breakfast they met Applejack and Big Mac out in the south field.

Applejack said, "Alright guys, I don't know if any of you have done any apple bucking but I want to show you how to do it because if you don't buck just right, you could sprain a hoof and then you wouldn't be much of any use here on the farm."

Applejack and Big Mac started bucking apples and the lunar royal guard was standing there watching.  Applejack and Big Mac stopped.  Applejack said, "Alright, I saw you guys watching us.  Now you go give it a try."

The six started bucking apples, clearing each tree with one kick and cleared out the whole south field before noon since they could fly from tree to tree.  Applejack was stunned when she saw this.  She said, "Wow guys, that is amazing.  With the eight of us out here working, we should be able to harvest every single apple in just a couple of days."

Dark Moon replied, "That is great news, shall we get started?"

Applejack replied, "You six go ahead and get started.  Big Mac and I need to go to the train station and pick up all those barrels Luna is sending."

Applejack and Big Mac arrived at the train station and saw the freight train pulling into the station and ran into Luna, who was waiting for it as well. 

"Howdy your Majesty," said Applejack "I take it you are here to make sure that we get the barrels?"

Luna replied, "Yes dear Applejack, I am here to make sure you get them.  Transporting 5,000 barrels to your farm will not be easy so I am going to levitate them over there."

Big Mac said, "Well I....."

Applejack interrupted, "Thank you princess.  Big Mac is very strong but I do think that having you levitate them will be for the best, don't you think so Big Mac?"

Applejack glared at her brother and nudged him.  He then looked at Luna with a smile and said, "Eeyep."

The train arrived and Luna levitated all 5,000 barrels over to Sweet Apple Acres effortlessly.  Applejack said, "Wow princess, with as heavy as that is, I bet you could levitate anything."

Luna replied, "Well being a princess, I can levitate much heavier objects."

When they arrived back at Sweet Apple Acres Applejack was stunned to see how quickly Luna's royal guard was clearing the trees at an unprecedented pace.  Luna saw this and shouted, "You guys are doing great, come over here for a minute."

Her guardsponies flew over to Luna and Applejack.  Purple Mane asked, "Yes your Majesty?  What is it that you want to discuss?"

Luna replied, "Alright, I need you to help Applejack and Big Mac get all the apples harvested and get however much cider Applejack wants produced taken care of by Thursday."

Applejack asked, "Why Thursday?"

Luna replied, "That is when Juice Bottle will be arriving from Manehattan to buy the cider from you.  How much are you wanting to sell at this point?"

Applejack said, "Well I was thinking around a thousand barrels.  That way there will still be plenty left here for us to sell.  After all, we certainly don't want to disappoint any of the ponies here, especially Rainbow Dash."

Luna nodded her head and told Applejack that she will show up early on Thursday morning so that she could levitate the cider barrels to the freight train and also make sure that Juice Bottle did pay them market value for the cider.  After she told Applejack this she sped off towards Canterlot.  

Applejack looked at the lunar royal guard and said, "Alright, did y'all hear the princess, we need to have everything done by Wednesday night so we will be ready on Thursday.  It is Sunday right now, I want us to get all the apples harvested by the end of tomorrow.  With there being eight of us, we should be able to produce a thousand barrels by Wednesday night.  Think we can do this?"

Purple Mane replied, "Of course we can.  Come on guys, let's get back to work!"

The next three days were filled with frantic activity.  They were able to get all the apples harvested by Monday night and on Tuesday and Wednesday they produced the cider out of their harvest.  By Wednesday night everypony was exhausted but they had a thousand barrels of cider produced.  Applejack, Big Mac and the lunar royal guard gathered before they turned in for the night.

Applejack addressed them, "I want to thank y'all for helping us out with this.  We couldn't have done this without you.  We need to be up early tomorrow morning because Luna will be showing up early to make sure that the head of the juice bottling company doesn't try to swindle us."

Yellow Eyes replied, "Yes ma'am.  We will be up extra early!"

Applejack said, "You don't have to call me ma'am.  You can just address us by our names."

After eating supper they turned in for the night.  The Apple Family hoped that things would work out the way Luna told them it would.  Granny Smith said, "Well maybe after tomorrow we can go to that surgeon in Fillydelphia and get my hip replaced."

Applejack replied, "I hope so too!"