Baldwin rose up out of bed and brushed his teeth. His red coat was a mess and his dark gray mane was a mess. He couldn’t help but sigh when he saw his reflection… "All I see is just another “dirt poor” earth pony, with half an apple for a cutie mark." thought Baldwin ruefully.
Sure, Baldwin had a good apple crop and had a decent amount of land to grow his apple crop on, but as much as he hated to admit it to himself… life on the farm was boring now. His family had moved on: either slowly becoming a part of the soil under their favorite tree, or they had left looking for new grounds to set their roots in. The town was small and with the new train system being switched from private luxury transport to carrying pure cargo…
Baldwin sighed, as it seemed to him like this little town might end up going under after the trains began to go full steam. "I'm already having to figure out how to make it through the coming winter as it is...", thought Baldwin.
Like most members of the extended Apple family, Baldwin possessed an almost "sixth sense" for detecting problems on his farm; maybe it was his gifted connection with the land as an Earth Pony, or maybe it was experience from his years of living on the farm. Whatever the case, Baldwin could always tell when something was messing with his apple trees.
Baldwin rushed outside groggily, already preparing to shout at whichever stupid Pegasus was currently trying to sleep in one of his apple trees; he had no idea where this annoying trend had started but refused to allow this possible disruption of his apple crop. To Baldwin's surprise he saw a rather large griffin in one of his apple trees, noticing as a few rather sharp knives fell to the ground.
Grandpa Cider would have called him insane for not running back to the house and bolting the door after seeing a rather large griffin with equally large weapons resting in one of his apple trees, but for Baldwin to encounter one here…
"It's probably one of those traveling ponies…", Baldwin thought, "Even if she is a rather large griffin."
Baldwin shouted at the griffin, “Get out of the tree you stupid bird!”
To Baldwin's surprise, instead of hearing a rather loud insult before watching the griffin fly away, he only saw the tree shake a little. Baldwin slowly inched around the tree and saw… Baldwin stopped and rubbed his eyes even as he saw how the griffin was stuck into the tree. The griffin's back legs were currently trying to push herself out, as Baldwin noticed the top half of her body was stuck inside the trunk exactly like a scene from some foal’s picture book.
Baldwin could hear the griffin’s muffled voice throwing a few dozen choice swears, or so he was judging from the inflections of the griffin's voice as he couldn't make out any of her words. Baldwin watched as a few of the branches were kicked away by the griffin's feet only to suddenly swung back with a willow-like *snap*; he could hear her shout in pain as they each hit her flank.
Baldwin had been around these apple trees for quite some time, yet he had never before seen any of them possess the newly imbued elasticity this particular apple tree seemed to have now. He sighed as he went over to the trapped griffin in question, weathering the beatings of the apple tree branches as they clearly expressed just as much “love” for the griffin's flank as her own flailing feet expressed for the apple tree.
“Just hold still for one moment.” Baldwin shouted as the griffin kept struggling. “Hold still and I can pull you out!”
Baldwin heard the griffin mutter something incomprehensible, and Baldwin sighed. "Ponies who think Earth Ponies are hard headed must have never encountered a griffin before," Baldwin thought, "They make even the most stubborn earth pony seem tame in comparison."
He wrapped his fore hooves around her waist and planted his legs at the base of the trunk as he waited for the branches to stop whipping about. With one deep breath Baldwin pushed off with his legs, pulling the griffin out of the trunk until he had exposed her arms, where the trunk still kept hold of her.
The griffin started to struggle until Baldwin shouted, “One moment! Left arm up, right arm down! Follow my lead!”
Baldwin moved to re-position the griffin's main body so that she could pry her left arm free and then finally slip her right arm out. Baldwin sighed in relief, as the griffin had been removed from his apple tree without harming the tree too much. It might have seemed silly to care more about the tree's welfare than the griffin in question, but Baldwin wasn’t earning enough bits to afford losing another tree before winter arrived.
Baldwin paused to consider his situation: If the tree could continue bearing apples than he could try to keep his farm going… or he could simply assume it was too damaged and chop it up now to sell it as fire wood during the coming winter; something which Baldwin wasn’t exactly looking forward to doing.
The griffin quickly picked up her daggers and shoved them back into their various pouches; she didn't even pause to thank him.
Baldwin just took a glance up at the sky, trying to see if another griffin was going to come plummeting down to the ground to hit another one of his trees. Unlike ponies, griffins had little respect for doing their aerial stunts or fights above farm land.
The griffin frowned as she started flapping her wings as Baldwin was shouting, “I wouldn’t advise doing that unless you want to sprain your wing.”
The griffin snapped back, “Why don’t you put a sock in-” Baldwin closed his eyes and steeled himself when he heard a snap. “AAAGGHRRRrrssssc-c-c-c!!!”
Baldwin sighed as he heard a limp wing hit the ground. Baldwin had noticed how the griffin nearly dislocated her wing trying to get out of the tree on her own before he had arrived, yet unfortunately for the griffin her body had yet to recover from the added pressure of his rescue effort; she clearly had just fully dislocated her wing or snapped something. Now he was stuck with an injured griffin with a temper on his farm.
Baldwin shook his head, “I warned you…”
******
Baldwin had learned three things about the griffin now. Her name was Verrat. She had a fowl temper, and had also ended up twisting her ankle shortly after dislocating her wing, leaving Baldwin with an excessively handicapped griffin on his couch.
Verrat grumbled as Baldwin wrapped her foot up. “Just keep off your foot and it should be good enough for you to find someplace to rest by the end of the day.”, said Baldwin.
Verrat glared at him and bitterly replied, “What, you’re not going to sit here and watch me?!”
Baldwin rolled his eyes. “There isn’t anything in this house worth stealing.”, said Baldwin.
Verrat's head feathers stood on end as her entire body puffed out. “What!” exclaimed Verrat, even as Baldwin left Verrat alone on the couch. “Hey get back here and face me!”, yelled Verrat.
******
Baldwin didn’t have time to deal with her antics. He walked about his farm, focused on repairing whatever damage her aerial stunt had caused. Baldwin did his best not to swear when he reached the same tree from earlier, noticing the many scratches riddled the trunk of the tree that he had missed in the dimness of the twilight from earlier that morning.
As Baldwin continued his walk around the area he was surprised that the damage wasn’t as bad it should have been. None of the apples had been bruised, and the branches didn’t seem to have suffered any damage when they had whipped against him and the now-couch-ridden griffin.
Baldwin sighed as he sensed something land in the tree just as he turned around. Another one of the local pegasi was now perched on one of the tree branches, watching Baldwin. The pegasus simply tracked Baldwin's face with wide, guileless eyes; as if pretending that, if he stood still enough, than Baldwin wouldn’t spot him.
Baldwin sucked in a deep breath and then screamed, “Get off my apple tree!”
The Pegasus took off to the skies. Baldwin sighed, taking a few steps before stepping into something sticky. Baldwin groaned as the sticky substance adhered to his hoof.He muttered to himself in annoyance as he tried to remove the sap from his hoof.
“And now I have to move my bee hive before I end up with an angry swarm from one of my own trees.” Baldwin muttered in frustration.
Like any farmer, Baldwin knew the benefits of bees, but more importantly Baldwin knew the hassle of dealing with a surprise beehive in a tree he usually bucked. Nothing spelled joy like breaking a wild bee hive after bucking a few apples down from a tree. Somepony had once asked him if he would be angry if someone just destroyed his home... but that didn't make the bee stings feel any better.
Hopefully one of the ponies in town could help Baldwin with the bee problem before they made a new hive in the hole the griffin left.
******
Verrat was still on the couch when Baldwin got back, but the griffin wasn’t doing any better. "Oh, noooo~, of course not!", thought Baldwin, his internal voice dripping with venomous sarcasm, "Instead of staying still to let herself heal, that stupid bird must have tried to get up, and somehow made this massive mess around the entire couch!" Baldwin sighed with exasperated defeat, as he figured he should be grateful that she hadn’t completely torn his couch apart trying to crawl back up onto it.
Verrat growled as she said “You're back.”
Baldwin rolled his eyes in response. “And you tried walking on your sprained foot. Maybe now you will listen to me… you stupid bird.” He muttered under his breath.
Verrat muttered something incomprehensible in reply only for her body to suddenly slip from the couch, landing her face-first onto the hardwood floor. Baldwin sighed as he went to prepare to clean up the blood stains, while the crazy griffin held her bleeding... something with one hand, all the while still mumbling coarse epitaphs underneath her breath.
When Baldwin brought an ice pack over, Verrat muttered softly to him, “So why are you helping me?”
Baldwin started to bandage her arm that was bleeding. “Because my mother didn’t raise a stallion who didn’t help mares in need.”, said Baldwin.
Verrat's body seemed to relax for just a moment after that, so Baldwin guessed she was one of those griffins who only thought others would steal from them. "She must have grown up in Griffin-Stone.", thought Baldwin.
“Besides, it wouldn’t sit right with me for me to berate you when you’re injured. Once your foot is better, I will freely complain about you crashing into my apple trees.” Baldwin replied as the griffin gave him a strange look.
Instead of arguing with him, Verrat sighed and dug a claw into her saddle bags “How many apples did you lose from my crash?” Baldwin shook his head in reply, only for Verrat to glare at him. “I’m not broke, and I know that a farm selling just one crop can be hard to work on, especially by yourself!”, scolded Verrat.
Baldwin chuckled, “What makes you think I work the farm by myself?”
Verrat rolled her eyes as she replied, “Its nine o’clock and the farm animals out there have yet to be fed. There is only one set of dishes in the sink and after having worked on my grandfather’s farm I know there should be a lot more farm hands on a place this large… and I highly doubt you just let your customers come to the farm to pick their own apples and pay you for the privilege!”
Baldwin shook his head as he replied, with a hint of irritation in his voice, “And what does a griffin know about farming?”
Verrat shot him a glare… not one of those prideful angry glares Baldwin expected to see from a griffin's face, but an expression that promised immediate and painful retribution for some perceived insult against her ancestors... if she had been capable of walking far enough to dispense her fury, as Baldwin was thankfully out of her immediate range. Whatever he said was obviously a sore spot for Verrat.
Baldwin lowered his head and apologized saying, “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
Verrat simply blinked as she stared at him in surprise. “You’re sorry?”, said Verrat.
Baldwin shrugged. “It’s bad manners for one struggling farmer to insult another one…”, said Baldwin as Verrat frowned. “I take it your family isn’t helping him out with his farm?”, asked Baldwin.
Verrat seemed to deflate as she said, “No… you just can’t make good money anymore, as most small farms are run out of business by the bigger groups.”
Baldwin sighed in reply, as he knew what that felt like right now. He just hoped the rest of the extended Apple family was doing better than him right now. The griffin curled into a ball on the couch, the action briefly inspiring Baldwin to see Verrat as more of an upset child than a scary mercenary.
“Did you... Happen to see anything? While you were out there?” Verrat slowly replied.
Baldwin shook his head. “I just saw a griffin who asked for my help, and was not anywhere near my apple trees.”, said Baldwin.
Verrat cracked a small smile as Baldwin left; he was not going to push his luck with the griffin's good mood. "Besides,", thought Baldwin, "I've got my farm to take care of."
Baldwin was certain she would still be around when he got back.