Applejack walked down the stairs from her room, and entered the kitchen.
At the table, she found Granny Smith and Big Mac, eating breakfast.
“Mornin’”, she said, yawning loudly.
“Where’s Applebloom? Still sleeping, or already gone?”
Big Mac answered.
“She said something about the clubhouse, and ran off.”
“Well, I suppose she’s meeting Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle there.
They probably have some plans to get their cutiemarks, as usual.” Applejack said,
while sitting down and preparing a cup of tea and some toast.
Big Mac just smiled. “eeyup.”
Granny was mumbling to herself, her face buried deep in the daily newspaper.
“Any news worth sharin’, Granny?” Applejack asked.
“Nuttin’ special, jus’ the usual boring politics and some wannabe bank robber
in Manehattan. Local news is just the usual too, nothin’ much ever happens here.”
“Well, a lot does happen here, Granny. You just manage to not be there
When stuff happens since you’re mostly hangin’ around here at home.”
“Shut yer piehole, missy. If I say nuttin’ happens, nuttin’ happens!”
“Fine, have it your way.” Applejack said, snickering.
“Anyway, I better get goin’, I have a lot of apples to buck today.”
And with that, Applejack finished her breakfast and got up from the table, and went outside. The sun was already high in the sky, shining brightly. A few small clouds could
Be seen further away, but above the farm the skies weer clear.
Applejack looked around for a bit, trying to decide where to start.
The farm was quite large after all. She decided that the best way would probably
Be to do it “the Twilight way”, and do it systematically. Imagine a grid system,
And take the trees one area at a time. She imagined in her head, a dividing line
Between some of the trees, and then got her baskets from the barn.
“Here goes! Applebuckin’ Time!”
She trotted away along one of her imagined lines, planning to work from the far end
and buck her way toward the farm itself. That way, her trips would be shorter each time
she needed to empty the baskets. She reached the far end, and set up her baskets
underneath the trees. She started bucking, and watched as the apples fell, almost all
of the straight in to the baskets, with only a couple missing. And even those that did,
only did so with a small margin, or even just bouncing off the baskets edge.
She kept bucking until all baskets were filled above the brim, and then started carrying
them back one by one to the barn, where she emptied them in large containers.
After that was done, she set the baskets up under the next row of trees, and repeated the process over and over, row by row. A few hours went by, and she decided to take a break.
Lunch would probably be ready any minute now anyway, so she started walking back toward the house, leaving the baskets half-filled under the trees. She would continue
where she left off after the lunch break.
“I’m back”, she said, as she walked in to the house again.
From the kitchen she could hear a sizzling sound, and smell the aroma of pancakes
being made. She walked in to the kitchen to see Granny standing at the stove.
“Lunch is almost ready, Applejack. Be a dear and take the strawberry jam out from
the fridge while I fry the last pancakes, would you? and get something to drink too.
Should be some lemonade left from yesterday.” Granny said when she noticed Applejack.
“Sure thing!” Applejack answered, and went over to the fridge. She brought up te requested items and put them on the table, and sat down.
Shortly after, Big Mac came in with Applebloom riding on his head.
Applejack looked over at Applebloom.
“Remember, you promised to take care of Winona after lunch.”
“I know.” Applebloom responded, smiling. “I’ll just take her with me when I go back to
the clubhouse, me and Sweetie and Scoot can play with her. Scoot can race her,
me and Sweetie Belle can play fetch with her, we can play tug-of-war with a piece of
rope or a stick...”
“Yeah yeah, I know. You have lots of ideas. Just remember to take her with you when you leave, both me and Big Mac have too much to do today to look after her, and Granny
is too old to play with her.”
They all sat down, just as Granny finished the last pancake and put them on the table.
They ate and talked, laughing and enjoying the food, like they usually did.
* * *
After lunch, Applejack returned to her applebucking.
Big Mac went into town to get supplies to repair the old gazebo... again.
That old gazebo seemed to need a repair every other year or so.
He had been seriously considering just tearing the whole thing down
and rebuild from the ground up instead of just doing patchwork and touch-ups
all the time. However, not this year. But maybe the next.
“eeeyup, that would be for the best.” He thought to himself as he walked.
Meanwhile, Applebloom had as promised taken Winona with her to the clubhouse.
The dog was always very energetic, and always excited to play.
Scootaloo was also a very energetic filly, most of the time.
Thus, as soon as Winona saw scoot and caught her scent, She ran over and jumped
into Scootaloos now opened hoofs.
“Winona!” Scoot said as she caught the jumping dog. In response Winona barked once
and started licking Scootaloos face. “Wanna play, Winona?” Scootaloo asked.
Winona barked some more and her tail started wiggling rapidly.
“Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo said in a raised voice.
From the club house above, they could hear some noise and then Sweetie Belles head
stuck out the window.
“Yeah?” She asked.
“Can you throw down a ball or something, Applebloom brought Winona!”
“Oh! Yes, I’ll find a ball, just wait a second!” she said with an excited voice,
as her head disappeared back in to the clubhouse. A few moments later a yellow ball
came flying out the window and bounced next to Winona.
She immediately jumped and caught the ball in her jaws before it could
bounce a second time. It just barely fit in her mouth, but that did not stop her.
Scoot grabbed it while Winona still held it between her teeth and started pulling.
Winonas grip tightened around the rubber ball and she let out a playful growling sound.
Scoot took a tighter grip as well and pulled harder.
The tug-of-war had begun. Pony versus dog. Scootaloo and Winona was very
evenly matched in strength and grip, and they were both very stubborn
once they got started on something, so this would last for a while.
Applebloom looked at them for a few moments and then said to scootaloo,
“I’m going inside the clubhouse to see what Sweetie Belle is doing.”
“Okay, I’ll stay here with Winona. Can’t let her win!” Scootaloo said.
Applebloom went up the stairs and inside the clubhouse, where she found
Sweetie Belle with her face burried in a couple of scrolls.
“What’cha reading?” She asked.
“Oh, this? It’s a coupe of basic spells, Twilight said these are the two simplest
to learn so they’re perfect for a beginner unicorn like me.”
“Which spells?”
“Levitation and the one that makes the horn shine like a lamp.”
“And how is it going?”
“So far, I can lift small stuff like papers, Winonas ball, pens...
And I can ALMOST get the horn shining. I can get the shine to start,
but I can only make it remain lit for a couple of seconds...
I need more practice.”
“Well, at least you’re getting somewhere!” Applebloom said with a large smile.
From outside they could still hear Winona and Scootaloo battling for the rubber ball.
Half an hour passed.
Sweetie Belle was still studying, Applebloom was reading comics and Scootaloo
was lying on the grass outside with Winona lying beside her, both of them looking at
the clouds above. Scootaloo stood up, and raised her voice so Sweetie Belle and Applebloom could hear her.
“Hey guys. Whadda ya say we take Winona with us and go for a walk?
I’m starting to feel restless, and I think Winona does too.”
“I can’t.” Sweetie Belle said. “I need to keep practicing my spells.”
Applebloom added, “I’ll come with you.
That way, Sweetie Belle can get some more peace and quiet
so she can study easier, and then she can meet up with us
somewhere later.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Scootaloo said.
Applebloom came down and started walking.
Scootaloo and Winona walked up alongside her.
They increased their speed, and soon they all ran between the trees.
On the way they passed near Applejack.
“Where are ya’ll going?” She asked as the fillies and the dog ran past her.
Without stopping, Applebloom answered with just two words.
“Just running!”
Winona barked once.
Applejack kept bucking the apples.
* * *
After a little while, Winona suddenly stopped and started sniffing around.
She looked as if she was searching for something.
“What are you sniffing for, Winona? Did you pick up the scent of some animal
or something?” Scootaloo asked. Winona barked once in response and kept sniffing.
She dug her nose into a nearby shrubbery but did not seem to find what she was looking
for in it, so she kept on sniffing around it. Then she moved on a few decimeters
and started sniffing a small patch of tiny black flowers.
“I’ve never seen flowers like those before...” Applebloom said with a curious tone.
“Neither have I.” Scootaloo said.
Winona started digging where the flowers were. She kept digging for a little while,
and then suddenly stopped. She backed away a few steps and sat down.
She barked once, pointed a paw at the newly made hole and looked proud of her
achievement. Applebloom walked closer and looked into the small hole.
“There’s something down there. It looks like a black glass ball.”
“That’s weird.” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah...”
“I wonder what it is? Maybe it’s a magical thingy, or maybe it’s
just a fancy paper weight?”
“Well... We could bring it home and ask Applejack if she knows anything,
or if she can help us find out. And if it’s magical, maybe Twilight or Rarity can
help us figure out what it does, since they’re unicorns.”
“Good idea!”
Scootaloo started digging to widen the hole, so they could get the black glass
ball out from there. It was roughly the size of a tennis ball and very shiny,
but not see-through at all. They finally got it out from the hole.
“It’s heavier than it looks.” Scootaloo said as she lifted it.
“I don’t think it’s hollow, it’s too heavy to be. Maybe it’s not glass either,
but some kind of black crystal.”
“Are there black crystals?” Applebloom asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I know there are all sorts of different ones,
so there might be.”
They started walking back toward the house, Applebloom carrying the black ball.
On the way back they met Sweetie Belle.
“Hi guys.” She said. “What’s that?”
Scootaloo answered.
“We’re not sure. Some kind of black glass or crystal ball, Winona dug it up.
She found it in the ground. We’re taking it to Applejack.”