Part Two
Chapter Nine: Horns and Harvests
Many thanks to Silver Wrench for Co-Authoring, again, and for helping me understand how nasty MREs can be…. (Yes, before you ask, it is the same pony in the story…..)
WARNING: Slightly adult themed topics in chapter.
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Something had been bugging Silver for a bit, and it was the slight feeling from his head. Something wasn’t quite right there. “Hey, um, Applejack, how far is the field you’re working on?” Silver was very confused, and very lost. He had no idea what he’d been thinking when he’d agreed to help her. He had no Idea what to do on a farm.
“It’s not too far, sugarcube. Past the pond and over that hill.” Applejack grinned. Sometimes it was easy to forget how large the fields were on Sweet Apple Acres. No matter how many trees they moved to other farms, the fields seemed to get larger every year. She might not know this pony so well, but she sure was glad for the help. Besides he seemed alright to her, and her intuition hadn’t often led her astray.
They were passing by the small pond and Silver took a moment to try and see his new face in the water. It was definitely a pony face, and his eyes were purple, and his mane a grey streaked blue that was just slightly darker than his body color. And there sticking out of his mane was a bluish horn. That horn, that simple, singular unicorn horn was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Oh my god, my dick is on my forehead! With a small and poorly stifled scream he lost his tentative grip on sanity.
Applejack turned back as she heard the scream. She didn’t know what had happened and so she was preparing to deal with something horrible like a manticore, or maybe even a cockatrice. “What’s wrong?!” She half shouted the question until she realized that Silver was staring in the water.
“Head…. Dick……. Face….. What….. No…” Silver’s mind had broken somewhat, and so he couldn’t even form a coherent sentence. He sort of gestured with one hoof, pointing directly at his head. Being a pony he could deal with, and he could deal with being in a whole other world. Neither of them were that different from being shipped out, but he couldn’t deal with the horn.
Applejack had no Idea what was going on, and tried to put the pieces together. Silver was freaking out about something and whatever it was, it had to do with his head. It was a little more than she could figure out without getting inside his head. Maybe Fluttershy would know what was wrong. Suddenly all the pieces came together.
Fluttershy’s Coltfriend Phantom was from another world, and had turned into a pony when he got here. According to Fluttershy, Phantom had gone through a freak out of his own. Silver couldn’t be from another world; although that would make sense. It would explain why he seemed so awkward when they first met. So she guessed that if he was from another world, he might flip out when he saw his face. For once, Applejack had no idea what to do.
While Applejack was figuring out how to calm him down, Silver was trying to get a grip on the situation. He was still alive, and that wasn’t about to stop. That was a sobering thought and it helped him calm down a bit. It wasn’t enough for him to calm down completely, but it was enough for him to form a slightly more coherent sentence. “My head…thing on face…. Not supposed to be there.”
Applejack listened and realized that Silver was pointing at his horn. “What that?, That’s your horn sugarcube? Didn’t cha know that you were a unicorn?” The thought that Silver was from another world was starting to make more and more sense.
Silver shook his head. A pony he could understand, and with Applejack being a pony herself it made it a little easier to understand, but a unicorn? This was a little more than he’d thought. “A…a… Unicorn?” He’d started to hyperventilate and so his words came out ragged and fast.
“Yes sugarcube, a unicorn.” Silver had to be from another world, his disbelief that he was a unicorn proved it. There was no way that he could have grown up so far, even gotten his cutie mark, and not known that he was a unicorn.
Silver took a deep breath, steadying himself a little more. He got ready to try and figure things out. So there were Unicorns in this world too. Now that was just a little strange. He shakily stepped back from the waters, trying his best not to think about it. He walked over towards Applejack, his motions unsteady, as if the realization that he had a horn had somehow weakened him.
Applejack just stared at him, wondering if he was going to be okay. They held a few moments in silence until she asked, “You ready to go on sugarcube?”
Silver nodded, and together the two of them headed off deeper into the orchard, where Applejack had her work planned out.
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Silver Wrench had followed Applejack over the hill towards the section of the orchard that she’d been working on. The baskets arrayed neatly under the trees intrigued him, as did the slightly filled apple cart off to the side. He’d never been on a farm before, and what little he did know about them came from the occasional Discovery channel special, so this was also a wonderful learning experience for him.
Applejack turned to him, a rather odd look on her face. He couldn’t place it, but if he had had to, he would have said somewhere between concentration and consternation. “So are you ready to learn how to buck apples?” Applejack asked him.
“Yep. I don’t think I could be more ready if I had come here just for this.” It was an unintentional dig that he was new here, and it wasn’t meant to be mean. It was just a shining example of how thoughtless Silver could be in his speech. Being a marine on a tour of duty meant his speech was unguarded and he hadn’t yet gotten used to the fact that he was around civilians. “So let’s buck.” Internally he registered how naughty that sounded, outwardly, nothing.
Applejack laughed at Silver’s little verbal apropos, deciding once again not to comment. She’d have to talk to that stallion about his language, especially if Apple Bloom or her friends came around, but for now it was fine. “Well it’s easier ta show you how it’s done.” Applejack moved into position and started her run.
Silver watched intently as Applejack ran towards the tree and at the last possible minute swung around and bucked with her back legs, the legs landing squarely against the trunk of the tree. With a crack and a swish, the apples fell into the baskets, piled high above their rims. Applejack turned back to Silver and smiled. “That’s all there is to it.”
Silver smiled back. “Mind if I try?” It didn’t look all that hard. Run, turn, and kick the tree. He could do something simple like that. When Applejack nodded, he started running towards one of the trees with empty buckets underneath. He went to swing at the last possible moment and as it turned out he misjudged, and instead of being able to buck the tree, his legs slammed into the side of a basket. “Yeow!!!” He let loose an exclamation of pain. It felt like he had just fractured his legs. He walked wobbly away from the tree once he’d regained his footing.
Applejack smothered her laughter and tried to console the stallion. “Not bad sugarcube. But ah think ya might just want ta stick ta moving the apple buckets.” Silver nodded, not wanting to try bucking again until his legs stopped throbbing. “Well if yer gonna be moving apple buckets, ya might want this,” Applejack said, picking up a small pony shaped harness with her mouth. She walked over and placed it on Silver’s back.
“What do I do with this,” Silver asked, confused. It wasn’t a piece of equipment that he could regcognize at all.
“You pick up and hold the buckets with this.” Applejack demonstrated briefly, using the device to lift and hold two buckets at once. “From there yah just put ‘em in that there apple cart. “
Silver looked at the apple cart, and then let his gaze drift off around the orchard, and the staggering number of un-harvested trees. It was a little unnerving. What had he just gotten himself into? First a whole new world, whose strangeness was starting to get to him, and as usual, without thinking, he’d agreed to help someone he barely knew without finding out exactly what there was to do. Sometimes his mouth got him in all kinds of trouble. “I guess I could do that…” Silver was not sure that he could do this.
Applejack giggled at Silver’s expression. From the way his mouth was hanging open she guessed that he’d just figured out how large this job was. If their orchard had been smaller, Applejack could possibly have done it alone, but with size of it, every little bit of help went a long way. She’d learned that two years ago, and wasn’t eager to overwork herself like that again. Applejack walked over to him and smiled. “Yep, it’s a lot of work, but with some help, it can be done.”
Silver realized he’d been sitting there with his jaw hanging open, and as he closed it blushed sheepishly. “So I guess we should get started.” The size of the job still boggled his mind, and he was just thinking of ways to make it easier. From the few documentaries he’d seen, they used a lot of mechanical equipment, and was wondering why Applejack didn’t do the same. It would make the job easier, but he guessed she had her reasons.
Applejack grinned a little wider. “Sure, sounds like a plan pardner.” And so applejack started off to buck the trees, and Silver followed behind her, picking up the full buckets and taking them to the cart. After a bit he started to put the empty buckets under un-bucked trees, and he did so without being told. It just seemed to be the best course of action for him.
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Twilight trotted through the gates of Sweet Apple Acres, Spike on her back, and a mission in her mind. The more she researched on the spell, the more she learned. There was more to it than she’d originally thought. She’d found a few articles in other books that referenced the book the spell had come from. She never thought that a spell could become as complicated as this. Apparently this spell pre-dated even Starswirl the Bearded, the greatest pony magician in history. She walked around the barn and up to the main house, not knowing where Applejack was. Nopony in town had seen her today, so Twilight assumed that she had to be at home still.
The door swung open, and Twilight was greeted by Big Mac. His foreleg in a sling, and a bandage around his waist, it was evident that he still hadn’t healed from the accident. “Is Applejack home?” Twilight tried not to look at the bandages, feeling bad that she hadn’t been around to help when the roof of Town Hall had collapsed.
“Nope, she’s out workin’ the orchards.” Big Mac’s powerful and steady voice belied no part of the pain that must have still been going through him. He always seemed indestructible.
“Oh, is it Applebuck season again?” Twilight had in her excitement forgotten that it was the time of year for an apple harvest. Sometimes she got a little caught up in her studies, and didn’t think about other things. She should have remembered, especially after the time Applejack had worked herself into a state of utter exhaustion.
“Eeyup. She said she’s gonna work the south field today if you need to see her.” Big Mac smiled gently.
“Thank you Big Mac. Tell Granny Smith and Apple Bloom I said hello,” Twilight called back over her shoulder as she headed off to the south field to try and find Applejack.
“Why is it so Important that you talk to Applejack anyways,” Spike called from his perch upon her back.
“Spike, you see, we all cast a spell a while ago, and I found out some information about it that changes what we thought would happen.”
A look of confusion washed over Spike’s face. “What kind of spell?” This was the first time he’d heard anything about a spell.
Twilight blushed, glad that Spike couldn’t see it from where he was on her back. “It was nothing, just a spell.”
Spike didn’t say anything, but he was sure that it had to be something. Twilight only hid information from him when she was embarrassed about it. Spike decided that instead of dwelling on this mystery spell he would make himself useful now and keep an eye out for Applejack. As it was it wasn’t his eyes that let him find her, it was his ears. He heard the sound of hooves striking an apple tree off to their right. “Hey Twilight, Over there.”
Twilight turned, having heard it too, and started off. She crested the small little hill and saw Applejack bucking yet another tree. “Hey Applejack!”
Applejack hit the tree hard, her back hooves nearly shattering the tough bark of the tree. He concentration had been broken by somepony shouting for her, and she was about to be really irritated when she turned and saw Twilight, she calmed down immediately. No matter what happened, she didn’t have it in her to stay angry or even irritated with her friends. Well, maybe Rarity when she was being prissy, or Rainbow Dash when she was being overly competitive, or… Okay so maybe she did get angry and irritated with her friends, but not with Twilight. “Hey sugarcube, what can ah do for you?”
Twilight looked at the hoofprints on the tree.”Sorry if I disturbed you, I just needed to talk to you.” That was when Twilight saw Silver coming from behind the applecart with two empty baskets. She looked from the purplish blue unicorn to her friend and motioned off to the side. “Alone, It’s important.”
Applejack nodded and yelling off to Silver, went for a short walk with Twilight, curious as to what could be so important.