Twilight Keen

by Foal Star

Chapter 4: Sweet Apple Corner

Applejack was groggily trying to sell apples on her stand one sunny afternoon and was having little success. She was laying on a bench, watching ponies walk by without even giving her stand a tiny glance.

“Get ya apples! Fresh apples here!” She called out to the town, in a last-ditch attempt, but that too bore no fruits.

She groaned, watching a group of ponies stare for a few seconds, then walk away What a terrible day for sales... I wonder why nopony wants apples?

Before she could say anything else, Twilight Sparkle bounced up to her and vaulted over the stand of apples. “Hey, Applejack! How ya doin’!?” She proclaimed, making Applejack topple onto her flanks.

Applejack eyed the purple coated unicorn and asked, “What are ya doin here, Twilight? Looking to buy some apples?”

Twilight laughed and threw her a few bits, swiftly swiping away one of Applejack’s apples. She bit a huge chunk out and nodded. “It’s good… but not sweet enough. Maybe we should dip it in caramel.”

“Well, I’m sure ya can do that yerself, Twilight.” Applejack nodded. “And if ya can’t, Granny Smith wouldn’t mind makin’ ya somthin’.”

“It’s okay. I brought my own jar!” Twilight then pulled one full of caramel out of her mane and dipped the apple in it, before eating the entire thing whole. “Mmm… Delicious!”

“Oookay?” Applejack just stood there watching as Twilight continued to use her mane to wipe her face up. “So, what are ya doing here, Twilight?”

“Oh, just trying to liven things up a little,” she smiled nonchalantly. “Say. How about instead of selling boring old apples, why not sell caramel apples! Candy apples! Apple fritters! You’d make loads!”

Applejack just rolled her eyes. ”Well, we just sell our apples as they are. Ya can do whatever ya like with them, but only after you buy them.”

Twilight, mind brimming with possibilities, shot a blast of magic that turned the cart into a little carnival hut with a red and white striped tent. A deep fryer materialized, and then all the apples turned into apple pies, apple fritters, and some were now covered in caramel or a sweet red candy coating.

“Twilight?! What in the hay are ya doing?!” Applejack snarled. “Change it back!”

But Twilight wasn’t paying attention and instead tapped a hoof to her chin. “Now we need to attract some customers....”

Applejack started pawing the ground with her face glowing red. Steam billowed out of her nose. “You need to turn everything back to normal right now, Twilight! This isn’t funny!”

Twilight pouted, crossing her forelegs. “I’m just trying to help. You should be more appreciative of what I’m doing. I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

The scents of the carnival-esque stand finally caught the attention of Bonbon, who slowly came up and asked, “Applejack? You’re selling caramel apples now?”

Applejack wanted to argue, but Twilight just sat there and gave her large puppy-dog eyes. ”I guess…”

Applejack slowly got behind her stand and sold Bonbon a few of them, with other ponies slowly starting to come by, following the scents of sweets and fried food. Twilight smirked, seeing Applejack now busy with all her new customers, then turned to Big Mac bringing in another load of apples on a wagon.

Twilight got a devilish look. Excellent timing, Big Mac. We definitely need more apples now that we’ve got all these customers... Twilight then bounced by the red coated stallion and asked, “Hey, Big Mac! Are you helping to sell the harvest today?”

Big Mac gave a nod and a simple, “Eeyup.”

Twilight turned to the apples and lit her horn Big Mac squeaked at the large blast of magic turned all the apples into pastries and sweets. His mouth dropped and he whimpered, “wh..what did you do?”

“Oh, just got them ready to order, Big Mac!” She lit her horn and teleported the barrels of sweet apples to Applejack’s tent. “Now let’s get you outfitted for you new job!”She lit her horn and dressed him in a white and red pinstripe suit with a red bow tie, complete with a straw hat and cane.

Before he could say or do anything else, his legs were magically manipulated into dancing through Twilight’s magic. He wanted to try and resist, but her magic was far too strong for him.

“Now you go on and advertise!” Twilight gleefully whisked him out to the streets, still commanding his every move. Applejack’s gonna be so happy. She’ll be rolling in bits by the time we’re done here. Actually, what’s it like to roll on bits? Maybe I should go to the bank and find out...

---

Back at Sugarcube Corner, Spike—who was still wearing his ridiculous clown costume—was climbing up on Pinkie Pie’s back.

“Pinkie! We’ve gotta get going!” Spike tugged her neck as Pinkie was finishing cleaning up after the party. “If we can’t stop Twilight, who knows what could happen?”

“Well, if I know me, and I think I do know me, then Twi-Pie’ll wanna do whatever it is that I usually do on a regular Sunday like this.” Pinkie grinned. “Try and help Applejack out with her stall.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Spike sat atop Pinkie and held on tight. “Yah, Pinkie! Yah!” He kicked her back, prompting Pinkie to make a horse noise before dashing out.

Angel sat at a table with a cup of tea and small pastries surrounding him. “What’s their rush anyways?” He caught a glimpse of Pinkie and Spike dashing out before he went back to his drink. He sipped his tea and then spat it out. “Mr. Cake, this tea was atrocious! Fetch me another cup, posthaste!”

“Uh, right away, sir.” Mr. Cake slinked back into the kitchen.

---

Twilight was hopping back from town square to see the line stretching far from Applejack’s little hu. The workload was so much that she even had Caramel assisting with handling orders. Twilight came over to Applejack, who was sweating buckets from frying apples and chirped, “How’s it going, Applejack?”

Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow and grumbled. “Busy, Twilight! But I sure am happy we are getting loads of customers!” She dunked another load of apples into the fryer. “My family’s gonna sleep well tonight!” She then slammed a plate full of apple fritters to a customer. ”There! Ten apple fritters!”

The stallion took the plate, blushing as he quickly ran off with his treat.

“Hmm…” Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. “Business is going well, but… I think that you need a better look and personality for this job.”

Applejack didn’t even turn back towards her. “Twilight, I thank ya for helpin’ me sell my stuff but I’m fine. I don’t need your magic anymore. Heck, I don’t understand what’s gotten into ya!”

The unicorn lit her horn up anyways, and Applejack began growing pudgier and now bore a resemblance to Mrs. Cake, complete with a pink apron tied around her belly and a small pink bonnet tied around her head. She tried to fight against it, but all that came out of her mouth was, “Here you go, sweetheart. One apple pie.” She shuffled her apron, adjusting it blushing, “What the heck happened to me?”

Twilight squealed, clopping her hooves together, “See, Applejack? That’s how it’s done! Soon you’ll be able to have enough bits for rebuilding the farm. And maybe even getting a new hip for Granny Smith!”

“Twilight…” Applejack’s teeth seemed to grind. “I’m REALLY not comfortable like this.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh, this’ll only be for a little bit. So enjoy yourself! Have fun! Make yourself something to and enjoy the fruits of your labor! Literally!” Twilight threw confetti out of her hooves. “Heck, you and Big Mac bucked all those apples. I just transformed them!”

“Yeah, but magic ain’t really our style…” Applejack felt like she had been forced into the situation and that there was no way out. “What is wrong with you today? Ya’ll definitely ain’t yourself today…”

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with me, Applejack.” Twilight gave her a big, goofy grin. “I’m still the loveable-huggable, partyable Pinkie Pie! I mean, Twilight! I mean, Pinkie Twi! No! I mean—”

“Alright. Now I’m convinced something’s wrong with you.” Applejack trotted over and held Twilight down. “What’s. Going. On?”

“Was it something I said?” Twilight gave a little blush as Applejack stood over her.

---

Pinkie Pie and Spike came galloping fmo Sugarcube Corner towards the Apple Family’s stand in Ponyville. What they weren’t expecting was a massive crowd, gathering around to taste the confections.

Pinkie Pie saw the line and let out a huge gasp. “Twilight made another Sugarcube Corner!” If there was any other super-awesome-licious day like today, Pinkie didn’t know about it yet. “I’m so proud of my student…” Tears began to form in her eye. “In just one day, the student has become the master!”

Spike rubbed his eyes at the crowd outside of Applejack’s tent. “There’s so many ponies! We could never get through all of them!”

“Applejack… Let’s just talk about this, okay?”

Both Pinkie Pie and Spike watched as Twilight and her transformed Applejack came out of it. Twilight was backing up while the pudgy pink Applejack stepped forward, with a fire in her eyes that spelt trouble for the pony who’d crossed her.

“Ah can agree with the business and the sales and all of the other stuff. But you wanna turn me into a giant pink pony and then call yourself Pinkie Pie, then I start to snap.” Applejack punched her front hooves together. “Ya’ll have a few seconds before I get the others on you.”

“Well… My senpie’s in Sugarcube Corner with Spikey-Wikey, Fluttershy’s a mouse, and I haven’t seen Rarity or Rainbow Dash today yet, but it’s totally on my to-do list.” Twilight quickly listed off, then had to use teleportation magic to avoid Applejack tackling her to the ground. “By the way, thanks for reminding me, Applejack!” Once she rematerialized, she bolted off down another road.”

“Applejack!” Spike quickly ran over, but tripped over his massive shoes and landed underneath her chest. “What did she do to you?”

“I could say the same for you, Spike…” Applejack couldn’t take her eyes off of the clown attire. “Why are ya dressed up as a rodeo clown?”

“Ugh! It’s not like I like this kinda stuff, alright?!” Spike furiously breathed fire on the clothes, evaporating them in seconds. “Anyway, Twilight’s going crazier and crazier since she cast that spell on herself. We wanna try and catch her, but I don’t know how we’re gonna be able to catch her!”

“Yeah! She’s like me, only she can teleport all over the place!” Pinkie Pie trotted over as well. “As much as I’d love a super-duper teleporting trick like that, this joke about Twilight being a copypony is really starting to get old…”

“Copypony?” Applejack lifted a brow, but it felt less serious given the form she had been roped into.

“I’ll explain on the way. For now, we’ve gotta stop her!” Spike turned his gaze towards the road Twilight had run down. “If we don’t, she’ll turn all of Ponyville into one giant playground!”

“Which, although it would be a fun-tacular place, wouldn’t really be the best for some ponies…” Pinkie pulled Spike onto her back again. “Come on, Applejack! Let’s catch me!”

“Hear, hear!” Applejack threw off the apron and tried to limber herself up. “Ah’m not spending the rest of the day like this!”

Together, the group of free darted down the road, leaving Big Mac and Applebloom to handle the stall together. They didn’t even notice that they were gone, as their full attention was being commanded by the customers at the stand, who were shovelling buckets of bits in their face for the candied treats on display.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Where did you get the picture?

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Poor Applejack! I can't even begin to imagine what will be in store for Rarity and Rainbow Dash in the next chapters...

Also, it's good to see that Pinkie, while impressed by Twilight's party prowess, is still aware that these antics are going too far. Nice reminder that the party pony is more than just a generator of silliness.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

I cracked up at the image of Applejack turning into Mrs. Cake and talking like her. That is kind of what I'd expect Twilight to do if she had Pinkie's mentality, but her own powers.

[DavisSentoV5]

Oh... My God, AJ getting turned into a copy of Mrs. Cake is something I never thought could happen, but by God that is hilarious!

[Yosh-E-O]

I almost forgot just how many stories you have going on right now. My compliments for how you are able to keep them all going at once. It shows great talent if you can keep so many projects active without missing a beat on any of them. :)

You do very well in recalling moments from the show that may have gone by as just banter for the sake of the moment. I believe 'Granny's new hip' was just in "The Best Night Ever". Nicely done to bring back such a memory from, unbelievably, nearly 7 years ago.

Definitely all easy to visualize. Seeing Big Mac caught up in a spell as Apple Bloom struggles to keep sales going certainly would be a great place for a 'commercial break' before the next scene.

[StarzGecko]

Amazing chapter and poor Applejack. At least they’ll get enough bits to payoff many things

[Mix-up]

Cute

[Zubric]

Wait when did shy become a mouse ?