Letters To Celestia

by silverthorn

Letter 4 - The Applejack Incident

Dear Princess Celestia

As I said in my last letter I had just spent my first night in the barn at Sweet Apple Acres. I had been visited by Big Mac, who seemed to be nice, if a little quiet most of the time, and Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be a complete animal waste-head, if you pardon my language. I woke up at a unholy hour as Applejack roused me from my rest by literally banging a pan to wake me up.

The first problem I had was trying to work out why I was sleeping on my belly, it's generally unwise when it's a good idea to be able to see more if someone is sneaking up on you. I may have used some bad language at Applejack but I managed to get up then winced as I felt the pain in my lower back which has been my curse most days since I arrived in Ponyville. The straps which keep my injured wing from moving, well, the buckle is at the small of my back and after a night with the rig on it leaves a dull ache in the small of my back.

Anyway, Applejack pointed out that breakfast would be ready in ten minutes and that she would bring it up to me since she still didn't want me in the main house in case I emptied it and left town. She then said that after I had finished she would work out what possible use I could be to them with Big Mac.

Breakfast at Sweet Apple Acres turns out to be as filling as most proper meals I'd eaten. The thought occurred to me that I might not even be able to take off by the time my wing was healed up. After breakfast I was taken to the east meadow by Applejack and Big Mac where Applejack decided to see if I could buck. I barely bit back a reply which might have left me in the tender care of the Guard but watched as she kicked a tree wth both of her rear hooves and most of the apples fell out of the tree.

I just looked at Applejack as the thought occurred to me that I'm a Pegasus, I'm built for speed, not kicking trees so hard that apples fall out of them. At that point Applejack said the three words I didn't want to hear. “Now, you try”.

I walked up to a tree and managed to kick the tree with both of my back legs. No apples fell out off the tree but I managed to fall, muzzle first onto the ground. My embarrasment was bolstered by the peels of laughter from Applejack, even Big Mac was smiling. “I told you she wouldn't be able to do it”.

“Eeyup!”.

I managed to get up, trying to preserve some degree of self-respect as I stood up, covered in dirt. “I meant to do that”.

“Nope”.

After Applejack had stopped rolling on the ground laughing her hat off it was decided that I was not suitable for apple-bucking. I was sent to muck out the barn. After the apple-bucking incident I was expecting to be given the smalled shovel possible for the task. I was wrong but still it was pretty stomach-turning. It took me most of the afternoon to clean out the barn and by the time I was finished I probably stunk worse than the barn had in the first place.

Granny Smith had watched me for most of the afternoon, suggesting ways to make the job easier. By the time the whole thing was over and done with I was exhausted, sweaty and covered with excrement. My mane and tail were covered in excerment and I was wondering if I'd ever get the smell out of my nose. All in all, I really wanted a wash and hopefully a little privacy. At that point three fillies ran into the barnyard.

“Eeewww!”. This came from all three of them when they saw me, then smelled me.

“Granny, you made her muck out the barn. On a day like this”. I glared at Granny, then walked towards them, guessing the one who had asked the question must be Applebloom. They backed away as I started lunging a little closer, causing them to shriek and back away. As much as I hate to admit it, I was enjoying myself.

Until a big orange something tackled me from the side. I tucked into a ball as agony shot through my bad wing as the muck covering made me slide a fair distance across the yard, causing more pain. I looked up, trying to bite back the urge to cry or run. Twilight told me there's something called a 'Fight or Flight response', I was erring towards the flight part of the equation. All I could think about was protecting my wing as Applejack walked closer. The look on her face was pretty murderous. “What.. do.. you.. think.. you are doing.. with my sister?”.

Of course, I'm an idiot. Now I realize that if a thief was living on your property and you heard your little sister shrieking then you'd stop who or whatever was doing it. At the time all I could think to do was run. Mystical whammy or no mystical whammy. So I ran, somehow getting past Applejack and pulling a hard left past Big Mac then into the trees.

If I had been in my right mind at the time I might have considered the possibility that they could track me by smell with no difficulty whatsoever but all I knew was I had to get away from them. Normally I'd just fly somewhere to get away but that was out of the question. I had been running for who knows how long when I tripped over something and fell over again. This time I couldn't get up. A mix of pain, exhaustion and more pain made it so that I could barely make it to a tree where I sat with my back to it and risked looking at my bad wing. It didn't look any worse than before but I was just too exhausted to move. I really just wanted to sleep.

My plan for going to sleep was ruined by Applejack who looked like quite a lot of the gunk covering me had been transferred to her. She also looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up. At that moment I shared that wish. “Ah'm sorry. Ah over-reacted”.

I looked at her as I tried to get up. “I was having fun, playing with them. I wasn't even going to touch them”.

Applejack took off her hat and held it, fidgeting with it. “I don't know what happened to me”.

Having managed to pretty much stand up, I walked a little closer. “You've got a complete stranger living next door with a less than reputable reputation and you hear your little sister screaming like the pony from the black lagoon was chasing after her”. I smiled. “If I had a sister I probably would have come running”. I looked at her, she was marginally less muck-covered than I was and grinned. “Besides, I'm guessing the three of them wouldn't come within ten foot of you after I left”.

Applejack laughed. “I came to find you since we both need to wash all this off before we head back to the farm”. She pointed behind me to a pool I could just see through the trees. “Ah'm so sorry. Did ah hurt you”.

“No, my wing hurts most of the time anyway”. I lied because I could tell she was torn up inside over what had happened and there was some things I was starting to like about her, other than the food.

We ended up in the pool for about two hours, spending half of the time washing off as much muck as we could and the rest of the time horsing about, for lack of a better term. Applejack told me about her family and friends and I told her some of my story. She said that Big Mac had told her that I had said that I travelled light. She seemed more concerned about the fat that the doctors at the hospital had been worried about my weight when I went into hospital. I was going to tell her that she didn't need to worry about me but the thought occurred to me that Applejack was not the kind of pony to not worry about other ponies. She asked me about why I didn't have a cutie-mark at my age (although she's all of a year or so older than I am), I told her that I never thought that sort of thing was important.

By the time we made it back to the barn it was a long way past nightfall. I was actually invited into the house for supper. Again it was filling and tasty, which is all you can ask for from food.

While eating dinner I was told that I would be helping Granny Smith in the house from then on as well as running errands since they had been impressed at how fast I could run when I left the barn after the 'Applejack incident'. As it turned out there was a message they needed delivering in Ponyville proper.

I'll explain about that misadventure next letter,

Your loyal subject

Wandering Star

Comments

[SadisticRainbows]

I'm so happy you posted twice in one day!

[silverthorn]

The fourth letter took less time to hammer out than I expected.