Sweet Apple Acres nearly always plays host to herds of cows, pigs and/or sheep which are in transit. They have been ever since Ponyville began to take shape in Granny Smith’s time. And boy does she have some stories about that. A lot of cows and pigs and sheep found it undignified to stay somewhere so… incomplete, as some pigs once said. After a while, Granny Smith gave up trying to fathom why creatures that spend the majority of their time covered in mud were being so judgemental, and instead trained herself to ignore their rude comments and give them a firm prod to keep them in line and get them in their pens. The Smith family had invested in a dog to help with the herding, but he was no longer around. Now the orchard had Winona, and she had Applejack and Big McIntosh to give her instructions when chasing visiting herds into one of the pens.
“Over to the left, Winona!” barked Applejack one morning as she and Big Mac were showing a large group of sheep to their temporary quarters.
A large white cloud was sprinting past the golden delicious trees towards the sheep pen. Applejack was driving it on the left, Winona was on the right, and Big Mac was bringing up the rear.
“Don’t stop runnin’, keep movin’!” Applejack shouted.
“What’s the hurry?!” panted a sheep running alongside her. “You late for a lunch date or something?!”
“Keep it quiet, buddy!” snapped Applejack.
The open door of the pen awaited the galloping sheep, and once they were all surrounded by the wooden fences, Big Mac shut the gate.
“Woo-wee!” sighed Applejack, wiping some sweat off her forehead. “This has gotta be the biggest buncha sheep we’ve ever had here.”
“Eeeyup,” agreed Big Mac, sitting himself down next to the pen.
“Still, I guess it don’t matter the size of the herd,” Applejack went on. “Granny Smith’s shepherding techniques never fail.”
“Uh, excuse me?” came a voice inside the pen.
“Yeah, what is it?” asked Applejack.
A head poked up from above the flock of sheep. Applejack’s eyes popped. Winona woofed energetically.
“Silver Shill?!”
“Nice to see you again, Applejack,” waved the unexpected visitor.
“What the blue, blank blazes are you doing here?” asked Applejack.
“I came on the same train as these sheep,” replied Silver Shill. “Guess I got caught up in the run from the station.”
Applejack and Big Mac watched as Silver Shill attempted to make his way to the gate.
“Excuse me,” he said as he approached a sheep who was in his way.
It was difficult for the sheep to clear a path for him. There was barely enough room in the pen for all of them.
“Just a minute,” said Big McIntosh.
He grabbed a shepherd’s staff and reached into the pen with it. Silver Shill grabbed the free end. With the wooden pole clenched between his teeth, Big Mac lifted Silver Shill out from the crowd of sheep, being careful to keep him away from the low-hanging branch from the tree next to the pen. He then set him down next to Winona, who ran around the visitor and barked excitedly.
“So, we ain’t seen you in a while,” said Applejack. “What brings ya here?”
“Well, I came across a newspaper from last winter,” Silver Shill said.
He showed the two farmers a clipping he’d brought with him.
“It says there was a hail storm and two yearlings nearly got caught up in it but were saved by two fillies,” he said.
“Eeeyup. That happened,” Big Mac nodded when he saw the page.
There in the photograph under the headline was Diamond Tiara with Pound Cake standing on her head, and Silver Spoon with Pumpkin Cake standing on hers.
“It says that one of those fillies is named Silver Spoon,” said Silver Shill.
“Yeah. We know her,” Applejack nodded.
“And it also says that one of the pegasi involved with the hail storm is named Silverspeed,” Silver Shill continued.
“I think I see were you’re goin’ with this,” said Applejack.
“You do, huh?” grinned Silver Shill. “You too?”
Big McIntosh shook his head. “Nnnnope.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t know much about my family line,” explained Silver Shill. “I thought maybe I might be related to Silver Spoon or Silverspeed in some way.”
“So that’s what ya came here for?” asked Applejack.
“I mentioned it to my boss and he said it might be a good idea to find out,” said Silver Shill.
“Oh, hey, ya got a new job!” beamed Applejack. “Glad to hear that, partner.”
“Thanks,” Silver Shill smiled. “I should start soon, but since my boss said he doesn’t mind if I ask around about Silver Spoon and Silverspeed, I guess I’ll do that first.”
“Huh. OK. Uh, Big Mac,” said Applejack, “do ya think you could handle the applebuckin’ by yourself for a little while?”
“Eeeyup,” nodded Big Mac.
“OK, then. I can take ya around town,” Applejack said to Silver Shill.
“Thanks very much,” said Silver Shill.
As Applejack led Silver Shill out of the orchard and into Ponyville, she expected they were meet Silverspeed first as she might have been in the sky with the rest of the weather team adjusting the level of sunshine coming into town. But Silver Spoon cropped up first. She was feeding some squirrels with her dad, who was the first to spot Applejack and Silver Shill.
“Look, it’s one of those soft drink sellers!” he exclaimed.
He sauntered away from his perplexed daughter and approached Silver Shill.
“You still in that business, sir?” he asked.
“Uh, I’m sorry?” Silver Shill gave a puzzled smile.
“That beverage you and your unicorn mates were selling. I forget the name of it. The Flim Flam Miracle Curi… Something Something. Oh, it was really tasty.”
Silver Spoon face-palmed.
“Uh, I’m afraid I’m not in that business anymore,” shrugged Silver Shill. “And that, uh, beverage has been discontinued.”
“Oh, pity. Oh, well. Uh, my name’s Silver Tuna by the way,” Silver Spoon’s dad shook Silver Shill’s hoof. “And that little filly is my daughter, Silver Spoon.”
“Yeah. Hi,” Silver Spoon waved half-heartedly.
“Hello. I’m Silver Shill.”
At last, Silver Spoon was interested.
“Are we related somehow?” she asked, walking up to join her dad.
“I don’t recall anyone with that name in our family, but that’s just me,” Silver Tuna scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Let’s see. Um, everyone in our family has had Silver in their name for about five generations. So it’s a fairly recent prefix of ours. How long has your family had Silver in its name?”
“Oh, well my family’s name suffix has always been Shill,” replied Silver Shill. “My dad’s name is Shiny Shill. And…”
“Wait a minute?” interrupted Applejack. “You knew your own family goes by Shill, but you still thought it was a good idea to come all the way here to talk to Silver Spoon’s family?”
Silver Shill shrugged. “My boss thought there was no harm in asking.”
“Well now, he didn’t know our family has gone by Silver for a long time until I told him,” said Silver Tuna.
“Sound kinda dumb to me,” said Silver Spoon.
“There’s nothing dumb about getting information straight from the horse’s mouth, young mare,” Silver Tuna said firmly.
By this point, Applejack knew that Silver Spoon wasn’t very pleasant. All the same, she had to agree with her that Silver Shill might not have put a lot of thought into this caper.
Silver Shill looked up. “There she is!”
Applejack looked up and saw the other pony Silver Shill had come to see. Silverspeed was flying alongside Thunderlane, the two of them chattering about something.
“Hey Silverspeed, you got a minute?!” called Applejack.
“Yeah, hang on!” replied Silverspeed. “I’ll talk to you later, Thunder.”
Thunderlane waved and flew away, and Silverspeed joined the discussion Applejack was taking part in.
“So you’re Silverspeed,” said Silver Shill, shaking the pegasus’ hoof. “The news article said you’d been suspended without pay. Nice to see you’re back at work now.”
“Thanks a lot,” Silverspeed smiled weakly. “It’s good to be back. So who are you?”
“I’m Silver Shill.”
“Huh. Is that all one word?” asked Silverspeed.
“No, it’s two,” answered Silver Shill.
“Oh. I thought for a second we might be related,” chuckled Silverspeed. “But my whole family’s always had one word names.”
Applejack frowned. “Can I see that news clippin’?”
Silver Shill passed it to her, and she quickly found Silverspeed’s name. She’d been hoping that the pony who’d written the article had made a typo and spelled it “Silver Speed”. But sure enough, it was all one word in this article.
“Again, you knew this, but you still came to ask?” Applejack demanded.
“Are you unhappy having Silver Shill around or something Applejack?” inquired Silver Tuna. “Does he rub you the wrong way?”
“No, I just think he jumped into this idea too quick-like,” said Applejack.
Speaking of jumping into things really quick…
“What’s going on over here?!” bellowed Pinkie Pie, excitement etched into her face. “You gathering a buncha grey ponies for some kinda grey themed party, AJ?”
“No, that ain’t it,” Applejack replied. “Silver Shill here wanted to find out if he’s related to any of these ponies.”
She indicated Silver Spoon and Silverspeed.
“Cool! More genealogy!” spluttered Pinkie Pie. “Let’s go to Twilight’s! She told me some of her records survived Tirek’s attack! Maybe we’ll get lucky and find one of their lists!”
“Do we have to?” asked Silver Spoon.
Silver Tuna sniffed. “You can sit this out if you like, but you did play a part in bringing Silver Shill to town. Aren’t you curious to find out if his theory is right or not?”
I’d hardly call it a theory, thought Applejack.
Silver Spoon had to admit she was interested, so she went along as Pinkie Pie led the way to Ponyville Castle bouncing merrily.
“This isn’t a clubhouse, Spike,” Twilight Sparkle remarked as she watched her trusty assistant pull six bottles of cider out of their mini fridge.
“I’m just being a good host,” said Spike, passing the bottles around to their visitors while he spoke. “You had your hooves full with the family records, so who else was gonna offer ‘em drinks?”
“Find anything?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Yes, I have the records of Silver Spoon’s family,” answered Twilight.
She laid the scroll out for her six guests to have a look at.
“There’s me,” Silver Spoon quickly found her own name on the long page. “And look! My cutie mark’s next to it.”
“Oh. We all have our cutie marks drawn next to our names,” remarked Silver Tuna. “This’ll make it much easier to find Silver Shill or Silverspeed on this list.”
At first, this didn’t appear to be the case. The four Silvers looked over the sheet several times over and there was no sign of any illustrations of a pair of coins or a bow and arrow.
“I guess this means these two aren’t part of our family,” Silver Spoon said at last.
“That appears to be the case,” agreed Silver Tuna.
Silverspeed nodded and turned to Silver Shill. “That’s too bad. You came all this way for nothing.”
“Oh well.” shrugged Silver Shill.
Applejack twitched. This revelation didn’t seem to faze Silver Shill at all.
“You gonna be heading back to work now?” she asked.
“Not much else I can do, I guess,” said Silver Shill. “But I want to thank you all for going through the trouble to help me find the information.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” Silver Tuna, raising his cider bottle. “Here. To the name Silver.”
“To the name Silver,” repeated Silver Shill, Silver Spoon, Silverspeed and Pinkie Pie.
All but Applejack’s bottles were drained. It seemed to her like every step in this genealogical adventure had been a step backwards. It wasn’t like the time the Apple Family took Pinkie Pie to Goldie Delicious’ cottage. Pinkie Pie was very passionate about the subject, but Silver Shill didn’t seem nearly as invested. Did this whole escapade come out of a mere suggestion?