Mercury's Misadventures In Author Land

by Mercury Zero

Apple Carrying

Apple Bloom leaped gleefully through the air, a few strides in front of Big Mac. She bounded from side to side shouting chatty questions. “What do you think of me being a weather pony? A meteorology cutie mark would look pretty nifty!”

Big Mac focused on his chores. He stalwartly eyed the trees in front of him, and kept a leisurely but undaunted pace.

“Oo, maybe I should try being a mail pony? I bet a mail pony cutie mark would look pretty great too, I bet it’d be all fast, like a flying envelope or something, because I’d be the best mail pony in all of Equestria.”

Mac’s first tree of the day was waiting for him at the outside edge of the orchard, nearest the barn. He approached it with a completely casual disposition, sauntering over to it and setting up his baskets with the same practiced and mundane motions he had done every autumn morning for years.

Apple Bloom sprung up from behind one of the baskets excitedly. “Maybe I should try apple carrying! I wonder what an apple carrier cutie mark would look like.

Carrying apples isn’t really a special talent, and Big Mac was about to tell Apple Bloom as much, but he paused with the words on the tip of his tongue, then shrugged and gently set one of his smallest apple baskets on Apple Bloom’s back.

Apple Bloom fidgeted excitedly when Big Mac seems to read her mind.

Big Mac was careful to make sure that the straps aren’t too tight on Apple Bloom as he fixed them in place.

“How many apples do you think I can carry? A billion? A quizzilion? A googleplex?”

Big Mac’s brow raised to half-express a look of incredulity, but he reigned in his thought. “Yeeup.”

Apple Bloom’s gasp of delight managed to scare a flock of birds from a nearby tree.

“Eyaay!”

It might be best to buck with just one leg, Big Mac thought. He wouldn't want to bury Apple Bloom under a mountain of fresh apples. With a vibrating crash, he hammered one of his hind hooves into the tree, sprinkling a conveniently exact number of apples into Apple Bloom’s basket. Each one hit its mark flawlessly and the accumulated pile of apples heaped exactly enough to completely fill the basket.

Apple Bloom whipped around, nearly spilling the precisely deposited apples, and looked at her flank.

Nothing.

“Aw.”