My Little Pony: The Guardians of Harmony

by The Eternal Dragon

Treebuckers

“Zack, Zack,” A voice rang out, “Zack wake up.” It was Andrew as he tried to wake his sleeping buddy.

“Ugh,” He groggily responded, “Why are you waking me up so early for?”

“C’mon man, you know you promised Applejack you’d help buck apples for her.”

“But it’s like five in the morning”

“Hey, I don’t make the rules. Now get up, I need to wake Timmy up too.” He went over to the other sleeping member, while Zack got up.

“Now that I think of it, I never volunteered for anything.” He stretched out his body, leaving out a big yawn. “Why are you up so early? You don’t have to help her.”

“Get up Timmy.” He shook his brother. “I’m up because if I don’t wake you guys, you get to the farm. And you right, you never volunteered, Timmy did. He just wanted to make sure you got some bonding time with Applejack since you don’t seem to be trying.” Frustrated that his had not woken yet, Andrew kicked him off the bed.

“Ow,” Timmy cried out in pain. “What was that for?”

“Wake up.” He told him. “You know you’re heading to the apple farm or whatever.”

“Right,” Timmy got up, dusting himself off. “Here Zack when you’re ready let’s grab some breakfast at that diner first.” The two got ready for the day and left the house. After a nice breakfast they walked all the way to the Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack waiting for them in front of the barn.

“Well.” She said, “It took y’all long enough to get here.”

“Well we would have been here sooner if Timmy didn’t everything on the menu.” Zack tiredly refuted.

“To be honest, I’m not seeing why we had to be here so early,” he said with a yawn. “The sun’s not even up yet.”

“That’s the best part” With a gleam in her eye. “Bucking apple trees when the sun’s just rising.” She could barely contain her excitement. The other two didn’t exactly share her enthusiasm.

“Yea, yay.” Zack very lethargically responded. “So how do we exactly buck trees anyway? I’ve never heard of such a thing, where we come from you generally pick them.”

“Just wait one moment, I’ll show ya.” As if on cue, the sun began to peek over the horizon. Just as it came over to illuminate the entire orchard she ran out and bucked one of the trees with her hind legs. That caused all of the apples to fall into the baskets that had been set up the day prior. “That’s how.”

“What?!” The display caused Zack to fully wake from his tired state. “That shouldn’t at all! There are so many thing with this that it blows my mind.”

“It’s actually not that bad. I mean, sure logically it doesn’t make sense to me either, but it looks a lot easier that picking each individual apple.” Timmy walked up to one of the trees and gave it a good punch at the base. The force was enough to knock some of the apples off the branches. “See, it’s certainly a lot faster, just got to put some elbow grease in that all.”

Yea, sure elbow grease.” Zack himself tried bucking down the apples. He set up for the punch and swung as hard as he could. Unfortunately, that attempt was unable to knock down a single apple.

“Well sugarcube, maybe not that easy.” Applejack was having a hard time suppressing her laughter at his weak try at apple bucking.

“Hold on, I wasn’t ready yet.” He tried again pushing himself even harder, and again nothing happened. “Let me try this again.” This time he took some steps back and charged right at the tree. He tackle it head on, this time his efforts managed to produce one apple to fall.

“Ya gonna have to better than that, if we’re gonna buck all these apples.” The three continued all day bucking the trees where both AJ and Timmy were able to clear out a good amount of trees. Zack on the other hand was only able to just take care of the one tree he started with. “Ooh wee,” Applejack wiped the sweat off her mane. “That’s some fine work today.” The other guys were extremely exhausted from the long day’s work.

“Man that was quite a work out.” Timmy said flexing his arm. “Gotta stay strong for when we go home, the team will be counting on me.” Zack was so tired he could barely stand up straight.

“Man, we going to have to do this for the rest of the week too?”

“Eeyup.” The voice spooked Zack a little until he looked behind him to find a big tall red pony.

“Oh, you must be Big Mac.” Timmy walked up to him extending his arm. Big Mac met him halfway and gave a firm shake. “I’m Timmy and this is Zack, you sister’s guardian.” Big Mac looked him in the eye, before nodding his head.

“Eeyup.”

“So is that a good thing?” Zack asked, puzzled by the lack of a reaction.

“Yep, that’s just how he expresses himself, that’s all.” Applejack answered for her brother. “Now y’all best be heading home, got another long day of work tomorrow.”

“Wait, why isn’t he helping?”

“Oh, Applebloom needs his help on some school project and that’s gonna take all week. Now sugarcube just head on home now.” The guys began their journey home, sore but mostly satisfied.

“Man that sucked.” Zack struck up the conversation. “All that work for the rest of the week is going kill me.”

“I don’t know, I thought that was a great workout for these guns.”-Flexing out his biceps-“You’re just complaining because all you got was one tree.”

“I won’t deny you there, but there got to be a better way to get all those apples down.” A look flashed on his face as he found his answer. “And I think I got my idea.” With the guys sitting down at dinner, Zack finished heading into the lone empty room that they had yet to find a use for.

“What’s he doing in there?” Will asked.

“Well considering how much he struggled bucking trees I presume he building something that can help him with that.” Timmy responded.

“How?”

“Well this is that same guy that fixed my TV with nothing but paperclips and floss.”

“Yea, and he fixed my home power system in less than ten minutes” Kendall added.

“Well guys, I’ve got another long day ahead of me tomorrow so I’m hitting the hay.” Timmy headed to bed, while the others finished up to turn in for the night.

The next morning Andrew got up early to wake Timmy and Zack. However he was surprised to see Zack up so early.

“Huh? Zack I’ve never seen up so early before.” He could see something hidden behind the guy. “What’s that?”

“This is my answer to the “bucking” dilemma.” He took off the towel on top off it to reveal a backpack looking like thing with a hose attached.

“Whoa, now this looks interesting.” Andrew walked up to it to get a closer look. While it seemed shoddily put together, he could tell that it certainly would not easily break apart. The pack have gears and pistons on the back with a comfortable rest for the user. The hose’s material was simple rubber with a flexible steel encasement to avoid damage. “I just have to ask, how did you make this?”

“It pretty simple, actually. Here”-pointing to the main pack-“this is powered with a unique mechanical operating system that allows it to create its own energy once you get it started.” Picking up the hose end and pointed right at Andrew, “The hose uses the rubber for easy navigation while the steel casing on the outside protect it from harm. Inside there is a fabric that I got from Rarity that can take quite the beating.”

“Man, if you put this much effort into your school work, you wouldn’t have straight C’s on your report card.”

“Yea I don’t think that’ll matter too much now.” He put the pack on and began to charge it up. “Want me to demonstrate?”

“Go right ahead.” Zack aimed the hose right at a book laying on the ground and activated it. The backpack began to whirl and sputter, then it started to suck in air pulling the book into the hose where it went through the entire way. The pack processed the item and shot it out of its top, landing safely into Zack’s hands.

“Impressed?”

“Very!” The noise had awoken the other four guys and they ran into the room wondering what had happened. When they saw the contraption, they were amazed at the spectacle.

“Wow Zack, what is this?” Timmy asked.

“I call the apple sucker.” He proudly said. “While Applejack may be fine with bucking trees, I’ll be sucking for apple.”

“Can’t wait till we show her this, she’ll love it.”

“Then let’s get ready.” After breakfast the two made their way back to Sweet Apple Acres meeting Applejack at the front of the barn again. She greeted them and that is where she saw the apple sucker.

“Where’d ya get that doohickey?” She asked with a confused look on her face.

“Nowhere, I made this myself.”

“What’s it do?”

“Here, let me demonstrate.” Looking out at the horizon he could see the sun rising up. A smile on his face he charged up the machine again. Aiming it at a tree he flicked the switch on and it began to suck in all the apple. The processing unit checked each apple and shot it up, causing them to land in baskets. “You like?” A look of shock seemed to be on AJ’s face.

“Oh no.” she broke her silence. “We ain’t gonna have that on my farm.”

“What?” Timmy had a looked at her. “This seems like something you would like. I mean this could clear out an entire field in under a day.”

“I may allow magic, but I have to draw the line here. My farm is not the place for some crazy machinery like that.”

“Whoa, what?! How else do you expect me to get these apples?” He defended himself.

“The right way, by bucking them off!”

“That’s not fair, this is easily a faster process why wouldn’t you want this.”

“Cause ‘round here we respect the value of hard work.”

“What you don’t think I worked hard on this! I spent all night building this.”

“Well I’m sorry but we don’t use machines here.”

“Fine! Then I just leave then.” Zack stormed off the field.

“Yea then who needs ya anyway?” Timmy was surprised at the events that just occurred in front of him.

“I’m sorry, but what’s exactly wrong with machines?” He asked.

“Like I said, we like hard work on this farm.”

“Look I love hard work and all,” He paused, he could sense there was more to this out lash then just simple pride. “But I can’t help but feel there’s more to this story then what you letting on.”

“Sorry.” She let out a hard sigh. “I guess I should tell you the story about two particular ponies.”

-----------------------------------

“Argh!” Zack was angrily stomping his way back to the house. “I can’t believe all that talk about hark work. Why wouldn’t someone want extra help, it’s easy to see how many trees are there so why waste time. He got into the house slamming the door on the way in. This caught Andrew’s attention, who was the only person inside at the moment.

“What’s going on in here?” He walked into the main hall seeing the angry Zack. “Something go wrong?”

“Applejack hated my pack.”

“What? But it’s so efficient.”

“Yea, well apparently too efficient.” He took off the device and placed it on the table. “She would rather take the long way of getting those apples down. Man she is just so stubborn.”

“While I agree that is certainly outrageous, did you really get her side of the story?”

“What side would that be? Someone who’s trying to deny the growth of technology?”

“No, I mean think, is there anybody that might have antagonized her?”

“Well.” Zack began to think hard on his new found memories. “I’m getting two names, a Flim and a Flam.”

“Wait a second.” Andrew went to go pick up the book he was reading.

“What’s that?”

“This is a compilation of letters that the ponies had written to Princess Celestia before we came here.”

“What are you looking for?”

“There’s an entry I believe may be related to that, oh here it is.” He began reading the opening sentence. “Dear Princess Celestia, I didn’t learn anything.”

“Seems likely.” Zack remarked on what he believed to be a dumb statement.

“Hang on.” He skimmed down further and found a description that Twilight left to explain the events leading to the letter. “Here we go, it says here that a pair of ponies who called themselves the Flim-Flam brothers attempted to take over Applejack’s farm.”

“How?”

“Well they had this special machine called Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. It seems that it was able to produce apple cider at twice the rate against the traditional style, even with help from Twilight and the others.” Andrew pondered a little at the events that had transpired there. “It seems to me that she was worried that you might have tried doing the same.”

“What, I would never do that. That’s just wrong, taking away someone’s livelihood is one of the worst things a person could do.”

“I know that, but she doesn’t know you that well”

“Oh man, but I can’t buck the trees without help, but I don’t want to anything like this.” Looking at the apple sucker, he got another idea. “Wait I got another idea.”

“Are you sure this time?” Andrew asked with a worrying look on his face.

“Just trust me I got this.” He went back to the single room and began work. Meanwhile back at the farm Applejack finished her story for Timmy.

“Wow, I can’t believe you almost lost your home.” He responded to the tale told to him.

“Yeah, I’m about blowing up on your friend. I should have kept my cool.”

“It’s fine, I know him he can handle himself. Maybe you want to buck some trees to take you mind off things?”

“No.” She looked down on the ground disappointingly. “You should just head back home.”

“Ok then.” He didn’t want to leave, he could see how sad she was, but he felt the best way to fix this problem was to get Zack. When he got back to the house he was greeted by his brother. He asks “Hey have you seen Zack?”

Yea, he just in that room.” Pointing toward the room he spent all night in.

“Alright, hey where’s everyone else?”

“Oh there just helping Pinkie out on some party.”

“Ok, um why didn’t you go?”

“Eh.” He responded with a shrug. “They only needed three people so I was the odd man out.” Then the door opened with Zack walking out with a strange looking glove on his right hand.

“Oh hey Timmy.”

“Hey, what’s that?”

“This is what I call the Treebuster.” Showing it off it seemed to be a normal glove. However upon closer inspection one could see some type of wiring. “This glove has the ability to amplify a punch I send out making any attack stronger.”

“Wow that does sound cool and all, but I don’t know if more gadgets are going to help your situation.” Timmy inquired.

“Just trust me, I think this will get a much better response out of her.” Zack made his way out, and upon opening the door he said, “Timmy you don’t need to come I think you deserve some rest.” With that he made his way back to the farm, reaching it at around sunset. He knocked on the front door and got Applejack to answer.

“What do ya want?” She tried to sound tough but he could see through her wall.

“Look, first I want to say I’m sorry. I never knew what almost happened to your farm.”

“Doesn’t seem that way,” looking at the glove he was wearing.

“I think you need to understand that I can’t buck these trees like you do. Remember yesterday when I barely got one tree cleared out, I need help.”

“I understand and I want to apologize for snapping at ya. It’s just that I…”

“Don’t worry, I know all about those guys.”

“Ya do?”

“Yea, and I want you to know I would never try to take your home or job away from you.”

“I trust ya, but I don’t think we can buck those trees, it almost night.”

“Well I didn’t get any work done, and it seems you and Timmy didn’t do anything either.”

“I suppose my family wouldn’t appreciate us falling behind.” With a newfound excitement she ran out past Zack and headed to the trees.

“Hey! Don’t leave me behind.” He ran down to join her. He punched one of the trees and with the help of the Treebuster was able to knock all the apples down. Applejack, not ready to be beaten at her own game yelled.

“Bet ya can’t buck more apples than I can.” Applejack began to start a friendly competition.

“You’re on!” And they spent the entire night bucking trees.