"Twi, no offense or nothing, but I think you should quit while you're ahead." Applejack watched as Twilight had failed to catch any of the apples falling from the tree she had been trying to buck for the past three hours.
"I got this Applejack, just because it took me so long to successfully buck a tree doesn't mean I won't be able to get the next step." Twilight reared up to buck the tree once more and try for the 39th time at harvesting apples. "Oh, and none taken."
"Twi please just admit you can't do it without your magic. There ain't no shame in admitting when you're wrong. I would think that you of all ponies would know that considering your views on friendship before coming here."
Twilight ignored the comment and bucked the tree, she immediately got the basket ready to catch any of the fruit lodged free by the shockwaves and was reward by catching one of them. "See, I told you I could do it even if it took a while." She smiled excitedly with a newfound confidence in her farming abilities.
"Well, I gotta say that I didn't expect much and I can safely say that you've at least surprised me by catching anything. I'm glad that you're at least having fun Twi, but if you could just focus more on spending time together than work I'd appreciate it."
AJ had moved from watching Twilight to grabbing hold of one of the free baskets and placing it under the same tree. With a motion that told of years of practice and precision, she bucked the tree, and the apples fell perfectly into the basket she had set. She hauled the delectable morsels onto the carriage she had brought and returned to a very unamused Twilight.
"You didn't have to do that you know, I could have done it myself." She pouted as AJ returned from her task.
"I know you could have Twi. Unfortunately, I can't stick around to watch you do so for what I think would be the whole week. Now if you're ready, we can head inside for dinner and after that, you can listen to some of Granny Smith's stories before we rest for the night."
"Ok, but I'm still going to help out in some way. I don't want to just stand around doing nothing while you work. If I can lessen your workload even just a tiny bit, then I'll be happy."
"Thanks, Twi, while I don't rightly know what you could do to help right now, I appreciate it all the same."
They gathered the baskets that AJ had filled while Twilight had tried her luck at bucking. It was more than Twilight thought was possible for one lone mare to harvest, and while it was impressive, she couldn't help and feel as if AJ was pushing herself more than usual. It was as if she was forcing herself to do more than usual.
"No, that's silly." Twilight said as she pushed the thought away.
They brought the cart to the barn and unloaded the basket setting them aside to be sorted through after dinner. As Twilight set the last of the baskets down in order by number of apples inside and color, she joined AJ on the walk back. It was a walk of relative silence, only breaking when Twilight asked the about the organizational techniques used for separating each apple into the proper group for distribution.
To which, AJ just answered, "We pick out the good ones, and use the bad ones for compost and pig feed."
"There has to be more to it than that. Surely, you don't expect me to believe that you just pick ones without more thought."
"Twi, Don't worry so much about it. We know what we're doing here, all of the Apple family have been taught the particulars by Granny Smith and she was taught by our Great Grandpa Gravenstein when they first settled here. I understand if it seems different from what you're used to doing, but we've been doing this since before you came to Ponyville."
"Sorry Applejack, I guess I'm just a bit too eager to help here. I also seem to be saying sorry a lot lately. Though, I can't say that being sorry about things wouldn't be far from the truth after staying isolated for so long."
A.J stopped and looked back at Twilight. She gave Twilight a concerned look and sighed. "Twi, you have to stop saying you're sorry. You've already apologized to all of us, and we forgave you. I mean, sure it wasn't exactly an easy thing considering how much we tried only to be outdone by a single letter from the princess…" A slight hint of venom was in her voice at the mention of the princess, but it was so quick and subtle that Twilight just missed it. "Regardless, what I'm trying to say Twi is that you need to stop apologizing and focus on the now. It's not every day we spend time together let alone a week so let's make the most of it without feeling sorry for ourselves ok?"
"Ok Applejack, I understand." Giving A.J a slight smile she pulled her into a quick hug and then continued to walk towards the house. A.J was slowly coming up behind her with a rather neutral facial expression.
They got arrived and inside were greeted by Granny Smith wearing an annoyed frown because of them being a bit late. Big Mac and Applebloom were already seated and waited for them impatiently to sit so they could start eating. It was for good reason as Granny had outdone herself after finding out Twilight would be staying with them. Hospitality had no limits towards a guest of the Apple family. There were dishes even the siblings rarely saw unless it was a reunion and even then they were rare.
Granny Smith had made Greek yogurt caramel fruit dip, slow-cooker daisy and tomato sandwiches with apple bbq sauce; warm winter rose sangria, Dutch apple pie, apple glazed kale and spinach with a mix of nuts, smoky apple cider, and caramelized apples with onions. All of which had even Twilight slightly regretting that she would only be here for a week.
They ate in relative silence, not due to having no topic, but because the food was so good nopony could get a moment without stuffing themselves. The only real thought anypony had at the table was the wish that Twilight would stay over more often. Granny Smith just had a look of pride at everypony enjoying her food.
After dinner, Twilight followed A.J back to the barn to sort through the previously harvested apples. It was a rather slow journey as they had eaten more than they thought was possible for either of them. Even if it was a pretty bad choice on their part, they regretted nothing about it. At least not until they had to sit down and sort the apples, the smell of which made them a bit nauseous.
"Ok, Twi, what we need to do is go through each of these baskets and separate any apples that might contain worms or bruises. If you find ones with worms just set them to the side, and as for the ones with injuries use an empty basket for them. We'll use those as feed for the other animals and compost for the damaged ones."
"Alright, I got it Applejack. Are you sure that I can't help with improving the system a bit, though? I mean it just seems a little tedious if you have to sort through all of them like that and I know that if I use magic, I'll be able to search through them a lot quicker."
"Twi, what did I say about using magic?"
"I know, I know, but I'm sure if you just gave it a shot it would help reduce the amount of time you spend doing something like this and open up more time for us to do some more bonding."
"No thanks Twi, even if it would go faster, it takes time to look through each and every apple with a discerning eye. If there is even one bad apple, it could ruin the whole bunch. It would be safer to give each apple the attention they deserve."
Spending the next hour sorting through the apples was mundane, to say the least. It was easy enough for Applejack as she was used to such work, but Twilight seemed to be having a unique reaction to it. She sat there only using her magic to float an apple to her and placing it in the necessary pile. She was beginning to understand how Spike felt whenever she wished to reshelve the books back in Canterlot. Making a mental note to let baby dragon have the next shelf day off, she looked over to A.J to find her humming a rather odd tune.
It was one she had heard somewhere before, but couldn't remember where for the life of her. It was one of those songs that you might have heard in passing, and remember hearing it only after hearing it slightly. It was a song that was on the tip of her tongue, and yet she couldn't place it.
"What are you humming Applejack?" she finally asked
"Huh?! Oh, sorry Twi. Guess I just a bit too focused on the work. I completely forgot you were here and started humming." She blushed as if somepony had caught her in the middle of something extremely embarrassing.
"I take it that you hum that song a lot when you do this type of work?"
"Yea, it… the song is something my mom used to sing to me whenever I had a bad day. Of course, she also sang it as a lullaby, but it's been so long that I forgot the words to it. I was only a filly back then, only slightly younger than Applebloom is now. I… I should have paid more attention to it back then, but what did I know? I was still only a foal." She took off her hat and looked at something on the inside. Twilight wasn't able to see what she was looking at but from the look on A.J it had to be something of critical importance.
"Applejack… What happened to your parents?" curious as to why she had never met them before, and thinking they were on a possible trip, it started to make sense, but Twilight asked the one question that she should have left alone.
Looking up at Twilight A.J put the hat back on and turned back to the baskets. "Sorry Twi, I… I just don't want to talk about it, let's just get back to work." She started to sort through the apples once more only to stop as she felt a hoof on her shoulder.
"Applejack, are you sure you don't want to talk about it? I can tell that this is something that's bothering you quite a bit. Maybe..."
"Drop it Twi! I said that I didn't want to talk about so just stop!" she stomped her hoof with a resounding crash that echoed through the barn. It was surprising enough that she had yelled at Twilight, but the combined force of her shout and the stomp had caught Twilight off guard. She stepped away from A.J with her ears folded and regretting having pushed the subject.
A.J seemed to be shaking a bit, whether it was from anger or from realizing what she had done Twilight didn't know. Without another word she walked out of the barn and slammed the door leaving a worried and confused Twilight behind to think of what she had just done.