Violet Reflections

by Derpator

Applebuck Season

A tree rustled as the fruit it contained on its branches, apples, fell straight down and into the many wooden buckets waiting for them around the base of the trunk. A few leaves snapped off from the tree, getting dragged along through the air.

The apples collected in each of the many buckets, before getting hoisted up onto the nearby carriage, the transportation dipping slightly from the extra weight. The worker of the farm, the mare everypony knew as Applejack, wiped her forehead with her hoof, before turning back towards her work.

“That’s all of ‘em for here,” she proclaimed to her big brother, taking another look at the small orchard. Row after row of trees were present and in order, but none of them contained any apples, having been harvested already.

“Eeyup,” the older stallion replied, nodding his head, before heading off with the carriage carrying the apples attached behind him. He got further away by each second, the sounds of the wheels travelling across the farm getting quieter.

Applejack sighed, rearranging her stetson as Big Mac walked away with a few good hours load of apples. It was apple bucking season, and it kept the family mighty busy. The morning all gone by, and not even half of the farm had been harvested. They really had their work cut out for them.

She needed a little rest from her hard work, lounging herself in front of a tree. Just when she was about to lower her hat over her eyes to catch some shut-eye, a figure appeared in the far distance. She put her hoof on her forehead, narrowing her eyes to see the figure more properly.

It was purple and moving, certainly a pony. On further inspection, as well as the figure getting nearer, she could easily make it out as Twilight Sparkle. With a smile, she got back up on her hooves, ready to listen to whatever Twilight came around to say, or even proposition her with.

“Afternoon Twilight,” she pleasingly welcomed the princess, “What can I do ya for?”

Twilight happily trotted up to the cowpony, basking at the sight of the empty trees to her side. “Hey Applejack. Pinkie and I were wondering if you wanted to come bake with us.”

“Baking? That’s mighty kind of you to offer Twilight, but if you haven’t noticed, I’m rather busy.” Applejack pointed to her side, where trees far back as the eye could see weren’t bucked. “It’s apple bucking season.”

“Oh,” the alicorn responded, having checked out the huge plantation, “Well, come take a break anyway.”

The cowpony chuckled, shaking her head. “Again, nice of you to offer Twi, but I’m going to be busy all day.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked, frowning.

“Yeah,” Applejack confirmed, heading over towards a tree full of apples, tapping it with her hoof, “Me and Big Mac are gonna be out here all day.”

“Hmm,” Twilight pondered, “Perhaps I could assist? Maybe speed up your progress?”

Applejack almost broke into laughter, knowing that Twilight wasn’t a tree bucker, never even attempting it. She backed away from the open tree, a grin upon her, ready for the princess to show her stuff, a little cocky. “Go ahead. Knock yourself out.”

Twilight had an inkling Applejack was tempting her, but she already had a way around it. With a simple activation of her horn, several surrounding auras formed around the apples, before they were all taken off their stems and lowered into the buckets.

Applejack scoffed, furrowing her brow. “Hey! That’s cheatin’!”

Twilight leaned her head forward a bit, her eyelids dropped. “You didn’t tell me how I could get the apples down.”

“I didn’t think I’d need to,” the cowpony replied, an eyebrow raised. She looked down at the ground and sighed. “Well, this was kind Twilight, but I think you’d best be-“

When Applejack raised her head, her jaw dropped rapidly. Pink auras were arranged all around her trees, or more specifically, her apples. Every single one was slowly picked from the branches, lowered into the awaiting baskets. The wooden objects were next to succumb to the magic of Twilight, getting raised into the air and carried and piled into the many carriages off to the side, ready to be taken away.

All of Applejack’s day chores for the entire season. Gone. In a mere matter of seconds. She had just spent hours bucking a small portion of her entire farm, and Twilight just came along with her magic and...

“Twilight!” she shouted, not hiding the sudden venom in her voice, “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Just helping out,” Twilight proclaimed happily, still smiling, “You can’t overwork yourself Applejack.”

“Work myself!?” She shook her head many times, “Why all the! Twilight!”

Twilight was stunned at Applejack’s sudden negativity, and was even starting to get a little worried when the earth pony started to walk towards her. She started to back up, half of her concentration on what was behind her, the other on the mare with sudden rage.

“Here on my farm, we believe in a little something called tradition!” she started, not at all happy.

“Tra-Tradition?” Twilight stammered, already regretting her overall visit. She wanted Pinkie Pie by her side right now.

Applejack nodded her head once. “That’s right. That means no wings.” She pointed to the large alicorn horn. “And no fancy magic either!”

Twilight awkwardly continued to inch backwards, Applejack always following her. “You uh... didn’t tell me that last time.”

Applejack knew it well, but that was an exception. Sleep deprivation, no Big Mac. She practically cracked. “That was different.”

Twilight remembered it well too. Applejack got so cocky and determined that she refused help, even the simplest amount, resulting in a handful of mistakes. Rainbow Dash got lodged into her balcony, the town got sick from bad muffins, and somehow, a rabbit stampede got the town spooked.

But Applejack learnt her lesson, accepting the generous help in the end. Twilight deemed that she likely did the most work at that point. Though she didn't want to brag.

“Well you know...” Twilight staggered, nervously chuckling, “It could always go faster if there were some... unicorns around here.”

The sound of a twig snapped. Twilight had backed up over a small twig, breaking it in the process.

But Applejack seemed to react metaphorically the same to the small piece of wood. “What was that?” she sternly asked, narrowing her eyes.

Twilight looked left and right, hoping for some freedom or escape from her impending doom. She had worked up Applejack too much, something that was always a bad choice.

“You think,” Applejack continued, “That you can come here on my farm and tell me how to harvest my own apples, after years and years of my family doing it by their own hooves?”

Twilight presented her awkward grin, swiping the back of her head. “Maybe?” she responded, not really sure herself, fairly certain it was an incorrect answer.

Applejack took in a large inhale after an unhealthy growl, Twilight’s eyes already enlarging straight away.

***

A groan came from the alicorn as she slouched her way into Sugarcube Corner, desperately wanting to be back in close proximity with her marefriend. Her hooves could only carry her body so much after what she had just been through. And it wasn’t pretty for her either.

The frisky pink mare appeared almost instantaneously at the sudden sound of boredom, knowing full fact it came from the bestest mare she knew in the whole wide world. Her cute figure appeared in front of Twilight in no time; muzzles pressed together, her grin present.

She kept silent, before dragging Twilight into the kitchen, ready to carry on their baking session. Twilight didn’t complain, though the sudden speed burst was a little disjointing. “Soo, how’d it go?” Pinkie Pie asked, leaning her head on her hooves placed on the counter, waiting in anticipation.

Twilight could only remember the horrible scowling she received from Applejack, the memory not exactly pleasant. She scrunched up some of her face. “Uh... not that well.”

Pinkie Pie lost her highly anticipated mood, dropping her hooves from the counter. “Aww, what happened?”

Twilight sighed. “Let’s just say that apparently I’m not the only ‘lecturer’ around here, as Rainbow Dash would say.”

“So she’s not coming?”

Twilight shook her head, putting in little effort. “I’m afraid not. I might have said something that ticked her off. Well, as well as doing something that started it.”

“What did you do?” Pinkie Pie asked, starting to look the same as the irritated Applejack.

“I might have... harvested all of her apples for her,” Twilight sheepishly admitted, trying to pass off a smile afterwards.

Pinkie Pie gasped, covering her mouth with a hoof. “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Twilight blurted out, trying to defend herself, “I was only making a point.”

“And what was that?” Pinkie Pie asked, quirking her eyebrow suspiciously.

“If unicorns were apple farmers, harvesting the apples would take almost no time whatsoever.”

Pinkie Pie was about to argue against the point, but raised her hoof to her chin. She thinked it over for a minute, before something came to her in a flash. She was prepared to speak out again, but didn’t, retracting the point away, lowering her hoof once more.

It was a perfectly valid point, though not the best choice to mention it to the earth pony farmer herself.

“I don’t think I’ll be going to Sweet Apple Acres for a while,” Twilight jokingly said, finishing off with a tiny chuckle, “Did you know it was apple bucking season?”

Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight like the question itself was daft to ask. “Of course.”

“Maybe the town should give me the Pony of Ponyville Award,” Twilight claimed, rising a hoof up to her chest, "For my extremely quick harvesting session."

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes, followed by a short giggle. “You’re a princess Twilight, you don’t need it." She formed a more relaxed position. "Besides, you’re my Pony of Ponyville.”

Twilight blushed when Pinkie Pie placed her pink hooves on her cheeks, before pulling her in. It was a quick kiss, before Pinkie Pie broke away with gusto. “Now come on, let’s bake!”

Comments

[dream1990]

oh my this story is going to be a long one because they are currently 4 season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic right now

[Derpator]

4556013 85 chapters not including EQG.

Better haul in for the long ride.

[dream1990]

4556068 yeah and also not including the second EQG movie when that comes out

[Pink Rocket]

Awesome fic
I love how the 2nd chapter was more or less a softcore clopfic.
The third chapter made Applejack come of as a real douche. Applebucking season was about AJ wanting to be independent, it had nothing to do with her being anti-magic (if telekinesis can be considered magic).

I'm curious if you gonna reference behind the bush in feeling Pinkie keen :3
-"Hey, Twilight! Remember that time you tried to figure out how my Pinkie Sense worked?"
-"Yes!"
-"And how you watched me masturbate in public?"
-"Let's not talk about that!"

[Derpator]

4556078 I still don't know if I actually want to put EQG in here. I could always put a bonus chapter for it, but that might prove difficult given Flash Sentry and humans. As for when Season 5 and Rainbow Rocks comes out, well this will pretty much lose its canon (whatever canon it has), unless the writers put Twilight and Pinkie in a relationship, which I don't see happening, but would love so much.

4559564 I always see the Apple family of one of traditional earth pony farming, no magic or wings, given they've been around for generations. The magic Twilight used at the end of Applebuck Season to help out was likely a one-off, given how hard Applejack had worked herself. But this time, Applejack knew how to handle it, given Big mac was there, but Twilight decided to come along and pretty much do the job for her when she spent hours just doing a bit of it. I think anyone in that situation would be rather mad and lash out.

As for Behind the Bush, I really hadn't thought about it. Looking back, I could do it, the idea passable, but then we'd all be accepting that they did something, even friendshipping, long before they got together. I suppose its believable, given that they most likely kept quiet about the entire experience, but I guess we'll see.

[dream1990]

4559648 ok