My Family and Other Equestrians

by Blade Star

Chapter 24 - Cider Season

I was up and working early on, even by Applejack’s standards, the next morning. With the moon setting behind us, we hauled out the cider press and the hundreds of apple bushels for cider making. The idea was that we would make the first batch this morning, fresh for the customers, and then keep going all through Cider Season to keep up with demand. Even as me and Big Mac strained at the cider press, we could see and hear the first ponies stirring from the many tents set up along the fence line.

The system of making the cider was the same as I was familiar with. Granny Smith acted as quality control, inspecting every single apple to ensure it was suitable for cider, discarding it if it was not, and throwing it into the press if it was. Applejack and Applebloom would work together in a rally to bring new bushels of apples out each time the current one was exhausted. As for the two males of the Apple household, I and Big Mac would run on the treadmill of the press, certainly good training for the race.

We hauled the cider press into position near the barn; Big Mac had spent the last few days reassembling the contraption. Despite his apparently simple nature, Big Mac was apparently quite intelligent. If you could convince him to open up. It wasn’t that he didn’t like to talk, just that for most of the time, he preferred to listen. He was actually quite a complex character.

“Alright you two unhitch yerselves and get ready to start runnin’,” called Applejack as she brought out the first load of apples. We both disentangled ourselves from the harnesses and stepped onto the treadmill.

“Okay,” I said, mainly to myself. “If we start slow and ease our way up to a high speed, we should be able to churn out enough cider for everypony.” Starting at a run was almost impossible anyway, and a smoother pace was needed to create the best cider.

“Eeyup. Just take ‘er nice an’ steady,” said the red stallion next to me. And with that, we braced ourselves on the treadmill. We let Granny Smith sort through the first bushel and Applejack bring the second before we started a slow walk.

The cider press, considering Equestria had the beginnings of computers, was remarkably basic. I stood on the treadmill, which via pulleys and ropes moved a great circular stone which would press the apples, the juice then went into barrels which would ferment for a few hours before being sold as cider. Naturally, this didn’t fit with my own knowledge, but then again, this was Equestria and I was a previously fictional equine.

By the time the sun began to break the horizon, marking the hoofover of power between the two princesses, we had about a dozen barrels happily waiting. This first spate of production would slow as Applejack and her younger sister invariably broke off to serve the cider and take in the Bits.

As the many ponies that had spent the night camped out in front of the acres emerged, we had over thirty barrels ready and waiting.

“Oh come on! Again?!” Came the distraught cry from poor RD, as she found herself far back in the queue. However, with Applejack’s agreement, I had taken measures to see that this time, the Pegasus had no trouble in getting at least one mug.

Big Mac and myself kept up a steady pace on the press as new bushels were steadily sent in. Further back by Granny Smith I could hear her continuous commentary on apples, consisting of ‘good un’ and ‘bad un’ depending on the quality. This was really more like a day’s worth of training for me, three days running on this press would improve my already good stamina no end. I called out to Applejack who had just left the stall.

“Ya know it’s mighty strange, AJ. Before ah came here, I was the laziest feller you’d ever see. You and yer family have made a new pony out of me. Hay, I wonder if y’all’d even recognise me if I was still human.” This drew a smile from Applejack.

“You were lazy, Blade Star? Really? Cos ah’ve known ya fer a couple weeks now, and Ah say yer one the most hardworkin’ ponies ah’ve ever met,” Applejack answered, surprised. “Besides, ya said yerself, yer a new pony now.”

I suppose it had only recently begun to dawn on me properly. I was a new pony. I wondered how much of the ‘me’ that had first crossed dimensions, the ‘me’ that was human, was left. Running on a cider press for a few hours will make anypony philosophical and wistful, regardless of their species.

As the sun rose higher, the temperature inevitably increased. Luckily, to ensure we didn’t sweat ourselves away, AJ called a halt to our work at midday. Both me and Big Mac went back to the farmhouse to have a quick drink and rest up. So once again, I was to have a conversation with the ever talkative Big Macintosh.

“So,” I began. My slightly improved social skills weren’t going to be of much help here.

“Eeyup?” Big Mac replied.

“How many Cider Seasons have you seen then?” A fair enough question, considering the pointlessness of discussing the weather.

“Getting’ on fer two dozen ah s’pose,” he replied. “Bin at it every year since sis got back from Manehatten.” I remembered that little story. It still made me smile, the idea of the Applejack I knew mixing with some high class city slickers. For some reason though, it also made me uneasy.

“Ah’ve heard a fair bit about that place, kinda like a city back on Earth, New York. Looks the same, has the same type of folks. Same problems.” This seemed to peak Mac’s interests.

---

Half an hour later, Applejack came to fetch us to relieve her at the stall. Big Mac would go back to the press, while she and Apple Bloom would continue bringing in fresh apples. What she found was her brother and me chatting openly. I must say, when you get Big Mac talking, he knows his cookies. We chatted about Manehatten, city life and our mutual distaste for it, as well as dipping into politics, something I had not expected of him. This also, I suppose marked an increase in his acceptance of me. He had never had any sort of problem with me, but he was just a little overprotective of his siblings. I chalked that up to whatever had happened to their parents, and I didn’t intend to open that can of worms.

“Well, as much as I hate to break up you two country hens, it’s time to get back to work,” Applejack said as we halted our conversation.

“Alright AJ, we’re goin’, we’re goin’., I said good naturedly. “I’m on the tap right?”

“Yep, two bits a mug. Try not to let Pinkie buy the entire stock. Big Mac, you up fer another hour or so on the press?”

“Eeyup,” he replied.

So we all trotted back out. The line for cider, if anything, seemed to have grown as the day wore on. Undoubtedly, some ponies would be spending a second night out here.

Compared to working the press, actually serving the stuff was far more taxing. Not on my muscles, but on my patience. You would think that it’d be a case of taking the bits and drawing a couple mugs. Oh no, you had ponies come up demanding two dozen mugs, ponies that would inevitably try to haggle a bulk price and all the time you had ponies trying to get to the front of the queue, sure in the knowledge that it was their turn next.

The result of this near riot over cider eventually forced my hoof, or rather my horn. Several times, I blasted off magic into the air to mimic a gunshot. This usually caused any unruly parties involved to calm down, or gallop off into the distance. All that was missing from the scene sometimes was the classic western piano music in the background. I wouldn’t have minded, but this stuff wasn’t even alcoholic.

I personally had yet to try any of the cider. That had all been accounted for in my plans to help Rainbow. While I knew it was undoubtedly good, the lengths to which the inhabitants of Ponyville would go to get just a sip were astonishing. More than once, Big Mac or AJ had to come and help out, just to prevent the stall from being overrun.

Eventually though, the queue’s length began to diminish and the ponies became quieter as their desire for cider was satisfied. Apple Bloom told me that the first day of Cider Season was always like this and that by the end, things were much more relaxed. Big Mac eased up on the press and the number of barrels began to diminish. Inevitably, I saw a certain rainbow-maned Pegasus nearing the front of the queue. She reached me just as the last barrel emptied. The look on her face was a strange cross between rage, unbridled anger and resignation.

“Oh come on, Rainbow Dash,” I said, smiling. “Do you really think I’d leave you ciderless, given how well I know you?” I produced the barrel that I had set aside for RD, me and the Apples. Rainbow’s eyes lit up like a filly’s on Hearth’s Warming. Hooking the barrel up to the tap, I drew us each a mug each. Her reaction was to utter the phrase ‘Oh my gosh’ around half a dozen times at an incredible speed.

“Well, cheers everypony,” I said raising my own mug.

Right up to that moment, I wasn’t much of a fan of cider. But as soon as I got a drop of that stuff. Well, let’s just say I now understand why the ponies around me were so desperate.

By evening, we all adjourned to the farmhouse. Big Mac and I hauled the press back into the barn and packed away the stall. Once again Applejack had promised to do her best to increase production. It wasn’t that we were short on apples. But we couldn’t just divert everything into cider. Of the apples we had harvested, the majority would be sold as is, not just in Ponyville, but across Equestria. Then you had a share for the production of apple juice. Finally, there was the good stuff; Applejack had a small number of the apples go into the family’s Hard Cider. This year’s production wouldn’t be ready for another few years.

However, the hard cider from eight years ago was more than ready for drinking. Thus I found myself with Big Mac and AJ, enjoy a couple glasses of the stuff. Like the last time I had had a drink with anypony, it was quiet and civilised. With the notable exception of Berry Punch, alcoholism and binge drinking seemed non-existent. If you had a drink, you might get a bit tipsy, or drunk, but it wasn’t a social activity in and of itself.

We spent the evening discussing and reminiscing amongst ourselves. I’ll admit the cider did loosen my tongue somewhat, but I didn’t let slip anything embarrassing. If anything, it served to reinforce the existing strong camaraderie between us all. After three glasses each though, we decided to pack in, the stuff packed a wallop, not as much as Moonshine, but it was still strong.

Tomorrow, we would do it all again. It might have been tiring, but according to Big Mac, the farms profit over these three days increased tenfold over the norm. And since that money consequently went into my pay, it was not something to sniff at.

Author's Note:

Here's the new chapter and the long awaited cover art.

This arc will keep going for a few more chapters culminating in the Running of the Leaves.

You know the drill by now. comment, criticise, like and favourite.

Comments

[Vailen]

Are we going to see Blades family pop in to have a taste of cider?

[Blade Star]

3806503 Next chapter, plus a little bit of action.

[Hereward]

I will say this for ya, you really got some snappy chapter titles.

[Blade Star]

3807121 I spend way too much time trying to think of them. Glad you approve of my incredible wit.

[bluemoon1996]

I really like your cover art; the looks like he'd be doing what my brothers would do in that situation

[damnaion]

wow dam good chapter

[Blade Star]

3809438 Thank Wadusher0, they did the excellent cover art. Reasonable fees too.

[Hereward]

3807287 You're telling me. I often come up with the chapter title when I'm on the home stretch of writing it and even then they often seem rather corny in retrospect.

[Blade Star]

3811540 Oh, I come up with these right before I publish. Just needs a little thought. Though I have an idea for the next chapter. 'Justice on Sweet Apple Acres'. You know your video games if you spot the reference.

[Blade Star]

3823745 Cheesy by my standard of writing. That and I'm not particularly good at writing feels chapters.

And MLP, while not uber serious isn't cheesy that often, one of the reasons I watch it.

[buster_Bro]

So is there goin' to be a appleblade romance

[Swordslash2899]

"Big Mac was apparently quite intelligent. If you could convince him to open up. It wasn’t that he didn’t like to talk, just that for most of the time, he preferred to listen. He was actually quite a complex character." I agree with you.

[Swordslash2899]

3846487 I hope not, I've read enough shipfics to choke a parasprite.

[RealityCheck]

Cider season drives the armchair economist inside me right up a WALL.

Chronic shortages due to underpricing the product. They could solve the problem INSTANTLY by either raising the price to match it's demand, or partially solve it by restricting customers to 1-2 mugs per purchase. But the Apples are a perfect example of the saying by the Canadian Mounties: "Tradition is a guide to the wise, and a rule to fools."

[Ryan Martin]

4979608 Did you not hear that Big Mac has a degree in economics.

[Meep the Changeling]

considering Equestria had the beginnings of computers,

This is blatantly incorrect. They have computers on par with 1980's systems at the worst. This is proven by many different pieces of technology seen in the show, most notably the EKG machines at hospitals. Additionally in Manehatten you can see a modern style observatory. That sort of telescope is almost entirely computer controlled. Also Twilight used a 70's era computer mainframe in the episode where the pinkie sense was introduced.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Well, in a lot of fandom stories, they do have a few bits of advanced technology, like tanks and firearms, but the majority of the stories have mostly crossbows, wagons and very rudimentary computers

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

I grew up in apple country. You have apple juice, ordinary cider (sort of the difference between orange drink and orange juice) and hard (fermented) cider. IDK the alcohol content, it was all homemade.

You take hard cider & let the gunk freeze out. Remove the gunk & repeat until the alcohol content is high enough it quits freezing. This homemade whiskey is called Applejack. Freezing changes the flavor less than regular distillation. Again, IDK the alcohol content. I suppose it depends on how cold the Winter is.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

You know, if they were smart, they'd set up a token system. They'd have day 1, day 2, & day 3 tokens. They know they make X barrels a day & each barrel has Z mugs in it. So, you sell XZ tokens for each day. Come the cider fest, you show up with 12 tokens, you get 12 mugs. 1 token, 1 mug. 0 tokens & you don't have to wait in line all day & go home dry. Plus, no arguments with customers over who gets how much or bulk discounts & the line should move faster because they aren't having to make change.

It's an expense to make the tokens but they should be reuseable

[Blade Star]

8993573 Thanks for pointing out my little mistakes. That's three years of university education for you. I'll be sure to get to them this weekend.

[Luckyfanisaac]

Running on a cider press for a few hours will make anypony philosophical and wistful, regardless of their species.

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