It was early morning and the sun was barely peeking over the horizon, but the heatwave had already struck. Down in the orchards, Applejack was sweltering, diving under a tree for some form of shade. Beads of sweat visibly ran down her coat as she fanned herself with her Stetson casually. She let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes as she lay back against the hard, wooden trunk. She momentarily looked up to see Big Macintosh staring down at her slowly shaking his head. She groaned slightly, closing her eyes.
"Come on, Big Mac!" She protested. "Can't I just rest for a 'lil bit?"
His calm eyes just kept staring at her disapprovingly. "Eenope." He said, turning his back on her to focus on the tree he was bucking.
"But Pa said that we could take a break." Applejack whined, offering up the best puppy eyes she could. "Just a few minutes?"
Big Mac didn't even turn to her this time, ignoring her pleads. He'd already had this problem before and knew that it was the puppy eyes stage of the conversation. He wasn't falling for that one again. "Eenope." He repeated again, striking his powerful hooves against an apple tree, nodding appreciatively as the fruits fell and landed perfectly in the baskets beneath.
Applejack finally gave in, peeking out from her shelter. "Fine. Where'd you want me to start?" She scanned the surroundings. Most of the apple trees had already been bucked the day before. "Have we done the west orchard yet?" She asked hopefully.
"Eeyup."
"How about the east one?" She could see a few splashes of red in the sea of green trees in that direction.
"Eenope."
She smiled and lifted herself to her hooves. She fiddled a bit with her Stetson, making sure it was comfortably atop her head. "I'll start there then. See ya later, big brother!" And with that, she began the short trek to the east orchard, groaning again as the heat of the day started beating down on her. In a glistening sweaty mess, she finally reached the trees, eyeing up all of the apples ripe for bucking. "Well, I better get started." She said to herself, bounding over to the nearest apple tree. She carefully aimed her two hindlegs at the trunk, bucking it with enough force to shake out all of the apples at once. Grinning as she watched the apples fall, she began to move on to the next tree. However, she was stopped abruptly when a rather large apple landed on top of her, knocking her to the ground. She grunted, holding her head in pain.
"Oh gosh! Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!" A small voice quickly squeaked above her. Applejack rubbed her head again. Was it just her or did the apple just talk? She slowly opened her eyes, looking up into the eyes of a cute little pegasus. Applejack glared at her, prompting a nervous laugh from the mare. "Hehe. Y'know...you're trees make great places to sleep."
"What are you doin' on our farm?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who even are you? Don't think I've seen you round these parts before."
The mare seemed momentarily surprised. She flew up high and performed a series of flips and spins in the air before striking a pose. "Haven't heard of me? I'm THE Rainbow Dash!" She winked and gave the apple farmer a big smile. "Just moved from Cloudsdale to work as your friendly, local weather pony. You can thank me for the fine weather we're having right at this moment, in fact."
Applejack was still unimpressed. "Yeah, that's wonderful sugarcube." She dismissed Rainbow with a hoof. "Now if you'll excuse me, I got trees to buck."
Rainbow gasped as she looked at the orchard as a whole for the first time. "You...buck all of these trees?" She asked, amazed.
"Eeyup!" Applejack said with a bit of pride in her voice. "Our family is the main food supplier for Ponyville so we're kept pretty busy." She hung her head, letting out a small sigh. "Which is why I really need to get back to work. I don't wanna miss the runnin' of the leaves again..." Before she could continue, the pegasus was suddenly in front of her hopping around excitedly.
"You're taking part too?" She giggled, flying back up into the air. "Awesome!"
"Fancy yerself a bit of an athlete then, hm?" Applejack smirked, raising an eyebrow.
Rainbow looked over her body with a cocky smile on her face. "Please, with a body this amazing, I make a pretty good sportspony. It's not just any pegasus who can top all of her classes in flight school."
And with an ego to boot... Applejack thought, rolling her eyes. "Well, it'll be nice havin' some competition then." She grinned devilishly at the other mare. "But I'm pretty sure all that fancy flyin' ain't gonna do no good in a runnin' race."
"Oh it is on, apple farmer." The pegasus laughed and then spread her wings, but stopped before lifting off. "I never did catch your name." She remembered, turning to the orange mare.
Applejack paused before offering a small smile. "Applejack. The name's Applejack."
Rainbow smiled back. "Well then. I'll catch you later, AJ." And with that, Rainbow disappeared into the sky, a faint rainbow contrail behind her. Applejack continued to stare for a while before finally returning to the trees.
As more apples flew past her vision, she found herself momentarily distracted by the sudden encounter. It'll be nice to see her again at the race. Sure seems alright, if a little obnoxious. She thought, trotting deeper into the orchard. Plus, if she is all she claims to be, could be nice to actually be challenged fer once. Realising how distracted she was, Applejack quickly shook the thoughts out of her head and focused back on the task at hand.