//------------------------------//
// ...Break 
// Story: Applejack of All Trades 
// by TundraStanza 
//------------------------------//

---{31d 17h 28m 14s.  96.6}

She rested on the ground on her side.  Her breaths were quick and loud.  She was certain that she had never sweated so much before.  Her wings weren't aching, but the rest of shoulder area was.  At the moment, her eyes were closed as she tried to recover.

"Heh, if this is enough to wipe you, you really need to work out more," said her rival.

Sometimes, she really wished that pony would shut her trap.

"Applejack, are you going to be okay?"

She turned her head slightly and cracked open one eye.  She saw who she thought had spoken.

"Y-Yeah," she managed to say between breaths. "I'll be... fine.  Just... give me a minute, Rarity."

"Oh, no," said the voice before turning to her friends. "Girls, she's going blind!"

"Hang on!" said another voice.

One second, Applejack was wondering what was going on.  The next, she was suddenly drenched in something cool.  She let out a yelp and hopped onto her hooves.  She shook wildly and sent the water droplets flying.  Blinking a little, she finally got a good look at the nearest drenched pony and the dragon with an empty bottle.

"Sorry about that, Fluttershy," apologized Applejack.

"Oh, it's okay," insisted Fluttershy, "I've seen a few fillies and colts temporarily lose sight after intense flight fatigue."  She wrung out a section of her mane between her hooves.

AJ turned to look at Spike. "Thanks."

"No problem. That's what friends do," he replied with a smile and a nod.

"So, what happened?" asked Applejack as she slowly looked at everyone present. "I guess Rainbow won that race, right?"

Rainbow landed with a grunt, and idly kicked some dirt.

"There's something you'll probably want to see," commented Rarity, giving Twilight a knowing glance.

With that cue, Twilight turned and charged up her horn.  Within seconds, a grid-pad of light was floating in midair.  Then within that, another screen showed up similar to that of a movie projection.  It showed a first-person perspective of Twilight watching the two pegasi zoom away toward Canterlot.  The visual turned at a munching sound.  The projection depicted Pinkie Pie holding a bunch of snacks and waving two pennants, one with a rainbow lightning bolt and one with a trio of apples.

"Pinkie Pie, is that really nece-?  You know what, never mind," said a muffled copy of Twilight's voice.

The visual shook a little side-to-side before turning back to see the returning fliers.  The trail of orange touched down upon the ground just a fraction of a second before the multicolored trail.  Even after Twilight's spell faded, Applejack's eyes were wide open and staring at that spot.

"Just so you know, I was taking it easy," remarked Rainbow, "I could have totally gone faster."

"Wait, but you told us that you couldn't believe you lost because you were going the fastest that you could possibly go," chattered Pinkie with her head tilted and her brow raised.

Rainbow flinched and turned toward Pinkie. "Well, yeah, but that's how fast I can go without setting the world on fire due to sheer air resistance."

"Nice save, Dash," muttered Spike.

"So, yeah... congratulations, Applejack," said Rainbow reluctantly.

Applejack continued to stare at the spot. "I won?"

"Simply marvelous!"

Several party favors went off in an unseen space as Discord himself popped in with open limbs.  The shower of confetti snapped AJ out of her stupor as she looked at him in disbelief.  Discord, however, seemed quite pleased with the situation.  He even conjured a wireless microphone with his face on the head of it.

"So, after besting one of the best in the sky, what's next for Applejack?" he asked with a wry smile. "Wait! Don't tell me.  I can fathom a guess."

He snapped a couple of times, removing his celebratory goodies out of the picnic stuff.  The other flash seemed to occur just above Applejack's line of sight.  Concerned, she started rubbing her head with a hoof.  There was a heavy, crown-like weight on the tip top, and a firm weight upon her forehead.

She deadpanned and flatly stated, "Not in a million years."

She reached her hoof for the Stetson that was still laying downside-up.  As she pointed a hoof at herself, all the extra weight and limbs were removed.  The fully restored earth pony plopped her hat on, briefly glancing at the red ninety-five point six.

---{6d 15h 33m 00s.  95.6}

"You know, it's not a genie contract," commented Discord. "You can go beyond three wishes."

"I know," replied Applejack.

"It's been a whole month."

"I know."

---{4d 18h 22m 05s.  95.6}

"Pleeeeeeeease?" Pinkie Pie pouted with her best imitation of Winona's begging face.

Applejack sighed, reluctantly holding her hat down to reach in. "Fine, but you're only getting it for the next five days."

A couple shakes brought forth two clouds.  One started precipitating a familiar chocolate substance.  The other released slowly falling dollops of fluffy, whipped cream.  Pinkie's tongue was going crazy catching the unique rain and snow.  She then stepped out of the sweet goodness and gave Applejack a big hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She squealed in delight before bouncing along.  The clouds somehow knew to follow her.

"You going to magic that mess off?" wondered Discord.

"Nope." Applejack smirked as she trotted toward her house. "I'm going to take a bath."

Discord literally twisted his head every which way that he could.  Why was she insisting on doing things the hard way when it came to herself?

---{2d 17h 00m 00s.  93.6}

"My big blue sapphire!" screamed Rarity.

The diamond dogs chuckled as they made their getaway.

"Give that back, you thieving varmints!" hollered Applejack.

Said varmints were quite surprised when they were suddenly no more than fifty feet away from their starting point.  They were also wondering how they had gotten tangled up by a rope of all things.  As if that wasn't a large enough surprise, the spoils of their raid were quickly snatched from their grasp.

"Much obliged," said Applejack with a knowing gaze. "Now, would you kindly get lost?"

A swish of her neck and a flick of the lasso was enough to send the ruffians flying all the way back home.  Once that was taken care of, she positioned the quarry just so on her back before trotting up to the victim.

"You okay, Rare?" she asked.

"Oh, no need to worry about me," insisted Rarity as she magically took hold of her sapphire. "But thank you for stopping by and helping out."

"No problem." AJ smiled.

"Although, now that you're here," said Rarity thoughtfully, "there is one teeny little thing I'd like to ask."

"What's that?" Applejack wondered.

"Would you mind using that temporary gift of yours to fix that gaping hole in the window?" Rarity pointed to the shattered remains of one side of her boutique.  There were even a few pieces of glass still dangling to the top of the frame. "My usual specialist is out of town this month, and I'm not sure my clients will be able to stand the sight for that long."

Applejack hummed. "You do realize that I'm never going to be able to do this kind of thing again, right?"

"I understand." Rarity nodded assuredly.

Applejack decided to go for a little theatrical approach.  She waved her hoof over her upside-down hat before reaching inside.

"Window repair-o!"

*Poof!*

---{92.6.  Time's up.}

She galloped back and forth, one row after the other.  The new plow seemed more than willing to follow her lead.  When she got to the last row, somebody popped in just at the edge of the field.

"What is it, Discord?" asked Applejack, looking genuinely interested.

"Six," he said more to himself than anyone else, "I seem to be running into that number a lot lately.  Coincidence?"  He shrugged. "Probably."

AJ shook her head dismissively as she unhooked herself from the plow.  She was a busy mare.  She didn't have time to figure out Discord's self-reflections.  Of course, that didn't stop him from appearing in a flash as a smaller version of himself.  He floated along next to her ear.

"I just don't get it," he admitted. "You had all that power available to you.  You could have done... well, anything."  He conjured a miniature slide projector and pressed a remote. "An all-expense-paid vacation, a journey through time and space, a living monster movie, a cross-country adventure with a pony that you'd inevitably fall in love with, ... The possibilities were unlimited.  Heck, you could have even defied gravity for a time."  The extra pictures faded. "So out of all that, why did you settle for an accident, two body alterations, and three favors for a couple of friends?"

"What can I say?" she asked rhetorically. "I didn't really need to do anything else."

Discord's body slithered around into the shape of a question mark. "You know, I used to think you were the most straightforward one of the group.  But right now, I can't read you."

"Well, your math was a bit off too," she commented.

"Excuse me?" He took the shape of an 'X'.

"I actually did favors for three of my friends with those powers," she explained. "You didn't think the wings were just for my benefit, did you?  They were for Rainbow Dash."  She picked up a couple of buckets of apples that hung on either side. "She wanted a challenging race on her terms.  I gave her just that."

"So you just happened to win?" he asked skeptically.

"She may have been her usual Rainbow self when she said it, but I could tell that she was holding something back.  In a way, she's got a bigger heart for her home than I do.  I admire that."

He grew back to his regular size and walked backwards as she continued to trot.

"Rarity has her own business appearance to maintain," she kept speaking, "If it were any other day, she would have seen to the external beauty herself.  As for Pinkie Pie, well... I'll chalk it up to wanting some extra energy to help raise the spirits of her fellow ponies quicker."

"So basically at the end of the month plus one week, you're saying that...?" Discord prompted, not entirely sure if he was getting this.

"I saw the temptations you have on a regular basis, but I just don't see the appeal for me," said Applejack with finality. "So, thanks but no thanks, big guy.  As for right now, I got to get to the market."

For a long time, Discord just stood there with wide eyes, watching her trot away.

...

"As I learn more and more what it means to be pony," he said thoughtfully, "I am more convinced that I would never make a good one."
---