Starting Off

by Basmati

Chapter 2

"Raise and shine, everypony! We got apples to pick!" Applejack burst into the room. Two earth pony mares lay in separate beds, groaning at being woken up so early.

Applejack rolled her eyes at the two of them, and walked over to the closest bed. Grabbing the quilt with her teeth, she pulled it off the bed, exposing the dark blue-coated forest green-maned mare to the air.

"I'm up," she said, getting out of bed as Applejack walked over to her friend's bed.

"If you pull this quilt off me, I promise you I will never get out of this bed," the mare still occupying the bed said, hidden under the quilt.

"Ok," Applejack said. She turned towards the door and shouted, "Applebloom! Bring in the bucket!"

The red maned mare's head popped out from under the quilt. "What bucket?"

Applejack's younger sister, Applebloom, walked in carrying a bucket in her mouth. As she walked, drops of water fell out of it. At the sight of this, the mare jumped out of bed, and galloped out of the room.

Applejack and the blue mare laughed, and walked out of the room, Applebloom following. When they reached downstairs, Applejack said to the purple mare, "Oh, Garnet. Here at Sweet Apple Acres, it's early risin fer early pickin. I remember the first time Granny Smith used the bucket on me. Why, I've been the first up ever since."

Garnet looked daggers at the honest earth pony - she was starting to wish that she had decided to stay at the library with Twilight and Sophie. She walked over to the table and started eating.

"Oh, Garnet, stop being so uptight. We're just having fun," her friend said, sitting down next to her.

"Well, I would appreicate it if people didn't threaten to dump water on me while I'm in bed, Heidi," she retorted, giving her friend a look and the end.

Heidi sighed. Garnet was the one out of her friends that she knew the least about; it didn't stop her from liking her though. Garnet was into the same things she was - books, films, programmes. She knew that Garnet loved art, and was hoping to be an artist. But that was it really. Garnet had never taken the time to tell Heidi more about herself. And that was the problem - it's as if Garnet didn't want her to know anything about her at all.

Heidi began to eat the porridge in front of her as she made her mind up. She would find out more about Garnet today - even if it was just one fact.

"Well, looky here. Looks like we got ourselves some visitors," Applejack said, looking out of the window. Garnet and Heidi stopped eating and walked over to where Applejack was standing to see the visitors themselves.

"It's Adara!" Garnet shouted, her first smile of the day finally appeared on her face.

The two new earth ponies ran out of the door, galloping toward their friend.

"Hey, guys!" Adara said, running up to greet them. "Sleep well?"

"Great. I just didn't like the way I woke up," Garnet answered. Heidi smiled and whispered, "It seems Applejack has a bucket."

The two friends laughed as Twilight and Applejack reached them.

"Good morning Applejack. I hope you don't mind - I thought Adara might want to see the farm," Twilight greeted her friend.
"Of course I don't mind. The more, the merrier. Now, hows about we start bucking them apples?"

The five of them began walking towards the South Field, each of them carrying baskets. Adara, as the only one who had actually seen apple bucking before, was extremely excited, unable to stop smiling.

"Calm down, Adara, or you're going to pull a face muscle," Heidi said, laughing at her friend.

"Umm...Adara?" Garnet spoke. "Where's Sophie? Isn't she meant to be staying with you?"

"Oh yeah. See, I got up really early, on account of not getting to sleep, on account of my being WAY to excited, due to the fact that I am in EQUESTRIA! And Twilight was up when I came down, but Sophie was still asleep. Twilight asked if I wanted to come here, and I said yes. Then she said that Applejack should be up at this time and if we want to catch her before she starts work on the farm, we should probably leave soon. So I said that was fine, but we should probably leave Sophie a note, as she was still asleep and then we wro-"

"Ok. We understand. She is asleep," Garnet said. "A simple 'she's in bed' would have done."

"Oh, Garnet...I am WAY too happy for just 'she's in bed'!"

Garnet shook her head laughing at her friend - as much as she hated her friend's choices in programmes, she had to love how random Adara was, and how she was always there for her.

Eventually, they had reached the South Field. Applejack told everyone to put the apple baskets down and stood in front of them.

"Ok, everypony. Let's get buckin'!"