By the time Apple Bloom made it back home to Sweet Apple Acres it was around noon, which meant that she had a good couple of hours before Applejack and Big Macintosh were done with their work in the orchard for the day, which in turn meant that she had a little time to figure out what she was going to say to them about bringing Goggles home. As the monkey on her back looked at his new surroundings, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but notice the look of wonder across his face, it would seem that he had never seen an apple orchard before, at least nothing like the Apple family had.
“Now y’all better be on yer best behaviour Goggles,” Apple Bloom said as she proceed to walk up to the front door. “Ah don’t want any reason for the family not to let ya stay here.”
Goggles smiled and gave a thumbs-up at this, showing that he understood Apple Bloom’s words. When they opened the front door of the house, Apple Bloom jumped back a little upon seeing something that gave her a shock, she had completely forgotten that this was around the time of day when Granny Smith took one of her naps in her rocking chair in the hall. Luckily she was still so deep into her sleep that she barely stirred when Apple Bloom yelped in surprise. Sighing with relief, Apple Bloom quietly closed the door behind her and proceeded to carry Goggles across the hallway and up the stairs, when she was halfway up she stopped upon hearing the clear sounds of her Granny’s awaking mumbles.
“Apple Bloom?” she said, her eyes barely open. “That, you honey?”
“Uh, yes granny,” Apple Bloom answered, desperately trying to keep Goggles from her Granny’s line of vision. “Just putting some things back into my room.”
“Oh, okay then,” Granny Smith responded as she got up out of her rocking chair and stretched her legs. “Just be down soon to help yer Granny in the kitchen, I got a big plan for supper tonight.”
“Uh sure thing Granny,” Apple Bloom responded quickly backing her way upstairs. “Ah’ll be down in a minute.”
And with that Apple Bloom disappeared from sight and ran upstairs.
“Y’all better stay in here until ah can figure out what ah’m gonna tell every pony,” she said as she took Goggles into her room and shut the door. “Think you’ll be okay until then?”
Goggles gave a cheerful nod at that as he hopped off of Apple Bloom’s back and jumped onto her bed.
“Okay then,” Apple Bloom said with a smile as she proceeded to leave the room. “Ah’ll be back as soon as ah can.”
As Apple Bloom closed the door behind her, all Goggles could do then was sit down on the bed, scratch his head and wait. However what Apple Bloom didn’t realise when she left, was that it was never a good idea to leave an animal like Goggles alone without anything to do, because a monkey will always find something to keep himself entertained, even if it meant breaking a few rules. Especially when that monkey was as smart as Goggles was. It may have taken him a only a few minutes but in Goggles’ case that was all it took for him to become bored, and unlike most animals who would usually just keep themselves entertained by playing with whatever is rolling across the floor, Goggles decided to keep busy by rummaging through Apple Bloom’s stuff, he may have known it was wrong of him but he was a curious creature and being as smart as he was, he wanted to learn more about the pony he was staying with. After several minutes of rummaging and cleaning up after himself, Apple Bloom’s room looked as though he had never touched it, in fact it looked cleaner than it did before he started. That was when he became bored again, and that was also when he noticed a small opening in Apple Bloom’s bedroom window. Before long Goggles found himself climbing out of Apple Bloom’s window and onto the roof of the house, he may have had an injured leg but that didn’t stop him from using his tail as an extra limb to keep himself balanced. Suddenly he heard a noise from down below, as curious as he was he leaned down over the edge of the roof, making sure he wasn’t seen by anyone who bothered to look up.
“Ah told you that the wagon couldn’t take all that weight didn’t ah?” Applejack said as she walked by the house with Big Macintosh, her face scowling at him as he held a broken piece of wood in his mouth. “But no, you just had to see how many extra apples we could carry back cause you thought you can take on all the weight yourself!”
Big Mac merely spat out the broken piece of wood, which supposedly was part of the broken wagon, and rolled his eyes.
“Now we gotta tell Granny that we can’t finish the Apple-bucking today cause someone broke the one wagon we had left!” Applejack continued. “It’s bad enough that we lost the last bunch of wagons after Discord had them beavers flood the place and not bother to fix em after he reversed the damage, but now we gotta spend the afternoon fixing our last one. You remember where ya put the tools right?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac responded as he pointed his head towards the barn.
“Well y’all better head back at bring back whatever’s left of the wagon,” Applejack instructed. “I’ll go get the tools and meet ya later.”
With that, Big Mac nodded and walked back into the orchard to bring back what was left of their broken wagon. As Goggles continued to watch the scene developing beneath him, his eyes began to study each and every event as though he were trying to spot something of significance. During the next hour, he watched as Big Mac heaved what was left of the wagon and placed it in front of the barn, and watched in wonder as he and Applejack began replacing the wheels. After a while both AJ and Big Mac stopped, exhausted from the work.
“Ah tell ya big brother,” Applejack said, wiping the sweat off her brow. “Apple-bucking is one thing but ah think I need a break before continuing with this wagon.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac responded as he heaved the frame of the wagon off his back, allowing three of the Wagon’s wheels to rest on the ground.
“A nice glass of apple juice sounds good right about now don’t ya think?”
“Eeyup,”
On that note, both Earth Ponies left their unfinished wagon and went inside the house for a drink. As Goggles sat there on the roof, watching Applejack and Big Mac do their work, a smile appeared across his face, he may have been a monkey but that didn’t make him any less interested in what was going on. Suddenly his smile widened and the orb at the end of his tail once again glowed.
#
By the time Apple Bloom made it back to her room an hour and a half had passed since she left Goggles on his own, as she rushed through the door and closed it behind her she couldn’t help but sigh with relief.
“Ah’m so sorry ah took so long Goggles,” she said turning toward the bed. “But Granny and I…”
But when she looked towards her room there was no sign of the blue monkey anywhere,.
“Goggles?” Apple Bloom said worryingly as she looked under the bed. “This ain’t really a good time for Hide and Seek, Goggles?”
But no matter where she looked, Goggles was nowhere to be found, now she was REALLY starting to get worried.
“Aw pony-feathers, where in tarnation did he go?” she said.
“APPLE BLOOM!” Applejack’s voice called out suddenly, that can’t be a good sign.
“Uh oh,” Apple Bloom gasped, dreading that what she was thinking at that moment was in fact, reality.
As Apple Bloom walked back down the stairs and headed outside, towards the barn, the only thing going through her head was the sheer panic of whether or not Goggles had been spotted before she got a chance to tell her family about him. However when she got to the barn, the only expression on Applejack’s face was confusion.
“You called me, Applejack?” Apple Bloom said, greeting her sister.
“Yeah, uh did ya do anything to this wagon while we were in the house?” Applejack asked, pointing towards the wagon she and Big Mac had been fixing.
Apple Bloom never got a chance to look at the wagon in the state Applejack and Big mac had left it in when they went inside a short while ago, but if she did, she would have seen a massive difference. While before the wagon had only three wheels attached and the wood was still splintered in certain places, now all four wheels were bolted one and every wooden frame was whole, sanded and in certain areas polished. Basically, the wagon looked as though it were brand new.
“No, why’d you ask?” Apple Bloom answered, giving off a shrug, and glad that Applejack seemed to have not seen Goggles yet.
“Oh nothing, just thought I’d ask,” Applejack replied, scratching her head. “Funny, I could have sworn it wasn’t like this a while ago. I mean it ain’t like it just got up and fixed itself.”
“Nnope,” Big Mac added.
It certainly was suspicious how the wagon was fixed, however Apple Bloom secretly had her own theory that she hoped was just something going on in her head. Not wanted to draw any more attention to the matter, she tried to change the subject.
“Uh… maybe we should just be glad it’s fixed on move on,” she said. “Why don’t we head on up to the house, I hear Granny’s fixing up a snazzy lunch.”
“Well, I suppose it don’t matter since the wagon’s fixed,” Applejack said with a shrug. “I suppose we could have some lunch before we head back on to the orchard.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac added.
Glad to have convinced her big sister to drop the subject, Apple Bloom sighed with relief and led Applejack and Big Mac back up to the house. As all three ponies sat themselves down in the kitchen, all Apple Bloom could think of was where Goggles could have possibly went, not only that, but did he really fix that wagon? Was he even smart enough to do such a thing in such a short period of time? Then again, stranger things have happened in Ponyville. Suddenly Granny Smith came in with a concerned look on her face.
“Have any of you youngins ate the last batch of raisins?” she asked as she carried an empty box and placed in on the kitchen counter. “We seem to have ran out.”
“Not me Granny,” Applejack answered. “Big Mac?”
“Nnope,” Big Mac responded.
Apple Bloom merely shook her head.
“Well that’s strange, I could’ve sworn we had a whole box this morning,” Granny Smith said as she turned towards the door. “Ah better head out to the market before they close for the day, do we need anything else?”
At those words, Applejack rose from her seat and made her way towards the cupboards and opening each one to see what was there so she could give her Granny a shopping list.
“Well, let’s see, we have three packs of brown sugar, two jars of apple jam, four tins of baked beans, one monkey, two boxes of…”
Suddenly Applejack froze in her tracks, in fact everyone who was within earshot froze, especially Apple Bloom, who knew full well what was happening at that moment.
“Uh…what was the last one again?” Granny Smith asked as she walked towards the last cupboard Applejack opened.
Apple Bloom tried to intervene but she tripped over her hooves before she could reach the two ponies opening up the cupboard, sure enough her worst fears were suddenly realised.
“AHHHHHH!!!!!! Applejack! A wild critter’s got into the house again!”
Yes it was true, as clear as the day itself, there sat Goggles in the cupboard, staring in fear with a mouth full of raisins, at the two ponies looking back at him in shock. In a matter of moments Goggles had quickly began to panic, spat the contents of his mouth into Applejack’s face and made a dash for the kitchen door.
“Get that Varmint!!!” Granny Smith screamed as Big Mac and Applejack gave chase.
“No wait he’s…” Apple Bloom began, only to be ignored by her older siblings and passed by as they ran after Goggles. “Aw pony-feathers!”