Applejack woke up in the morning. Her head was hurting. It was one of these days. She sighed. Ever since she was a filly, her head began to hurt on this very day.
It was the fault of the woodpeckers. Ever since she could think, a swarm of woodpeckers came into the orchards once a year and started to peck against the trees. Except that it didn't sound like pecking. The big swarm caused it that the pecking sounded more like ponies were flailing against the apple trees with giant hammers. The sounds of all these woodpeckers just added up.
Sometimes, Applejack wondered why she had so much bad luck with animals. Beavers were building their dams and flooding the orchards, vampire fruit bats ate up all her apples and threatened the harvest and woodpeckers tormented the ears of her and her family once in a year.
Not to mention a big moth that had somehow latched onto her and could not let her live in peace. It was stealing her hat or just sitting on her face, blocking her sight. At least that nuisance wasn't here today.
In some way, Applejack was the complete opposite of Fluttershy. Fluttershy was loved by all animals, but Applejack? Applejack seemed to be hated by them. By all of them. All animals living in Equestria seemed to have formed an alliance against Applejack. She did not understand why. But it was the case. It was her personal curse.
While the collective sound of the woodpecker swarm continued to let her eardrums vibrate so strong that she feared they could rip, she proceeded towards the mirror and tried to sort her mane. It was completely ruffled. Applejack was throwing herself around in bed last night quite often. The woodpeckers arrived exactly at midnight, as every year, and this was disturbing her peaceful sleep.
As she was somewhat satisfied with the look of her mane, she walked outside of her room and downstairs. There were still streaks of hair stucking out in all directions, but that didn't matter today. Today, she would tear her mane very often anyway. As she came into the kitchen, her family was already sitting at the table, busy with breakfast.
“Good Morning, Y'all!”, Applejack greeted them.
Her family members just nodded tiredly. At their own ruffled manes and the dark circles under their eyes Applejack could see that they haven't slept well either. At least Granny Smith and Apple Bloom were better off than her and Big McIntosh. Apple Bloom had school today and could at least spend half of the day in town, far away enough to not hear the annoying and headache-inducing sounds, and Granny Smith was too old to work on the farm anyway, so she could also just went to town for the day to avoid them. But she and Big McIntosh had to stay here. The harvest was waiting and they needed to get it done.
She looked over to Big McIntosh and with the way he responded her glance, Applejack could see that he was thinking the same. Both of them sighed together.
Applejack reached over to the table for a piece of bread and spread some butter on it. Then she reached for the teapot and poured some tea into a cup in front of her.
Her hooves shaked while she was doing that. A good amount of the tea was spilled by her on the table cloth, but she didn't care. Today, things like that were just to expect. She gave some sugar into her cup and then began to drink her tea. Alternating between drinking from her cup and biting off of her bread, she pondered about the reason why those birds always came here once a year.
It began when she was a little filly, back then as Apple Bloom wasn't born yet. They just came one day and stayed. And on the next day they were gone again. And they did nothing else than pecking away on the trees. It did not hurt the trees, but it created a massive clamor. They never found out what these birds wanted here. Even Fluttershy couldn't help her. The pegasus with the huge animal knowledge did not understand it either. She named her several possible reasons for it, like that they maybe just stopped by on their way back from the south or that their other food ressources were destroyed in some way. But not a single one of these theories could explain the events.
If they just stopped by when coming back from the south after the long and harsh winter, then why did they stop in her orchards? Why not in the surrounding woods?
And if their usual food sources were destroyed, why did they only come once a year and only for a day? Why did they not stay permanently, if their natural habitat was destroyed? Not that Applejack would want that. One day was already painful enough. But it didn't make sense. And aside from that, Applejack never saw them eating something. They always just pecked against the trees, the whole day long, without a break. This was another question that Fluttershy couldn't answer. Why were they pecking at the trees? Usually, woodpeckers peck the worms out of the trees to eat them, which would have made them at least a little useful, but this was no the case with those woodpeckers. After they left at the end of the day, the holes they had picked into the trees were not deep enough to get through to the first worm. They did not do it to eat, that was sure. It was a complete mystery.
The theory that she was under a curse that made all animals hate her became more likely for her. Maybe she should talk to Twilight about that some day. If the curse was detectable, she could maybe do something against it. But for now, she had to live with it. Doing the harvest today did not leave her time to talk to the magically skilled Alicorn and the harvest couldn't wait.
Applejack asked Granny Smith and Apple Bloom what they wanted to do today to avoid the hammering sounds. Granny Smith had indeed planned to head into the town. She was going to spend the day at the market, to buy some things the farm needed anyway, and wanted to kill the evening with some of her friends in a restaurant. Apple Bloom wanted to head to Sweetie Belle's place after school. Like every year on Woodpecker Day since she got to know them, they made a slumber party so that Apple Bloom could spend the end of the day at a place where her sleep would not get interrupted by annoying birds. It was also useful for her to catch up on some sleep that she already didn't get last night because of the woodpeckers. Applejack and Big McIntosh wished that they could also afford to do that, but their work made it impossible.
The Apples finished their breakfast and then Apple Bloom and Granny Smith made their way into town and Applejack and Big McIntosh went to work. It was a rather uneventful day. Except the constant eardrum-ripping sounds, of course. The two siblings did their chores like every day and at evening, they tried to distract themselves from the horrific sounds with music. A few hours later, at midnight as usual, the sounds subsided and the woodpeckers flew away, finally leaving the farm after 24 hours. Relieved that the horror was over, they fell into their beds, dead-tired and with a throbbing headache. With their last thoughts they decided to sleep in tomorrow.
At the next day, the first thing Applejack did after breakfast, was what she thought on yesterday:
She went to Twilight for help.
The situation couldn't go on like this. She did not wanted to endure this for another year and so she had to find a solution. It was early afternoon as she knocked at her door. Spike was opening her and she went in. Twilight was busy with some studying as always and Applejack had to call her a few times, before she snapped out of her studies and listened to her. She carefully listened to Applejack's explanation of her problem, occasionally nodding to confirm that she listened. As Applejack had ended, she put a hoof to her chin.
“I never heard of something like this before, but curses can do a lot of things”, she said.
“Can ya use your magic to find out if I'm actually cursed with getting annoyed by animals for mah whole life?”
Twilight nodded. “I can, I have a spell to detect evil curses. But first, I need to find out what curse it is exactly to know what I must focus on.” She used her magic and lifted a thick book out of one of the shelves. From the short look Applejack could take at it before Twilight opened it she could see that it was an encyclopedia of all sorts of evil magic.
Their research took them a long time. They read in the book the whole afternoon long and even the following night to find the right curse. Fifteen hours and lots of coffee later, the sun was already raised again, they finally found it. It was indeed a curse that led to it that animals were attracted by a pony that was cursed by it, although not in a positive way. Once a pony was cursed with it, every animal in a radius of fifty miles started to develop a hate against that pony. She put the book back into the shelf and then activated her magic.
Twilight concentrated on the magical traces of the spell that were described in the book and searched for their presence in Applejack's body. After half an hour of intense searching she was successful and made a find. The traces matched exactly. Applejack was really enchanted with that curse!
Applejack could not explain herself who could have cursed her that way and how she should deserve that, but it didn't matter anyway. Twilight assured her that she could do something against it and that was the only thing that was important. Using her magic again to lift out another book of one of the library's shelves, she prepared herself for the spell that was necessary to break Applejack's curse. She scrolled through the book and got herself ready as she found the right spell. It was an easy to cast one and just some minutes later, she had used it on Applejack.
And apparently, it was successful. After having used the spell, a green stream of magical energy left Applejack's body and vanished into thin air. Twilight smiled satisfied and put the book back into the shelf.
“Are ya sure that it is over now? Is the curse really gone?”, Applejack asked her warily.
It was something Twilight could assure her; according to her, the spell was really gone. Applejack, though, decided to make sure. She returned to Sweet Apple Acres and paid a visit to the beavers who already caused her a lot of problems in the past. They were much more friendly to her than usual and what was the most surprising thing was, that they have relocated their dams to ensure that Sweet Apple Acres would never be flooded again.
At the evening of this day, as they all sat together at dinner for the first time since Woodpecker Day, Applejack reported excitedly about it.
“So this means we're never have to deal with flooded orchards and rampaging birds?”, Apple Bloom asked her.
“Nope!”, Applejack answered happily. “These times are over. The curse is gone, so we will never get harassed by any darn critters ever again!”
As she had ended her sentence and reached out for an apple, her sight was suddenly blocked before she could bite into it. Something was covering her eyes. It was the moth that she knew so long by now and yet still annoyed her. Applejack groaned.