Horsing Around

by HermitBunny

Sweet AppleSauce Acres

At Applejack’s farm. It was a calm, sunny morning, perfect for a day of selling apples at the Ponyville market. Applejack just saw Applebloom off to school, and with Big Macintosh and Granny Smith handling a delivery out of town, she will be the only one holding down the fort. Hitching the cart onto her barrel, Applejack trots off to the marketplace, everything checked and accounted for. Well… Almost everything.

The roof of the red barn flew up before coming down rambunctiously, followed by explosions of wood being broken, shaking the barn to its foundation. A small, brown mouse managed to slip through a mousehole in the wood before an even bigger hole blew open in a shower of splinters by a blue cat in hot pursuit of the mouse.

Scurrying on its two tiny legs, Jerry, the mouse, ran for the vegetable fields, going underneath the fence posts that sectioned off the plot of land. Tom, the cat, simply hopped over the fence, and with no hesitation, continued to stomp after Jerry, kicking up wet soil and root vegetables in the process.

Jerry’s a pretty fast little rodent, Tom will give him that. He's not going to catch him like this anytime soon. Skidding to a halt, Tom pulled out a bundle of carrots. Hopping back on one paw, he winds up and let loose a barrage of fat and juicy carrots of death. Looking back, Jerry jumped in fright at the oncoming projectiles. Jerry doubles his speed, zigzagging and weaving past the torrents of carrots raining down like warheads, either embedding themselves deep into the soil or decimating innocent vegetables into shreds. Thinking fast, Jerry took up arms as well, pulling out a beautiful stalk of celery from his section of the garden to wield as a baseball bat, root side up. Winding up, he discerns a perfect carrot, coming straight for him.

TWACK!!!

Tom, too busy, gathering another cluster of carrots, didn’t notice the return fire whistling towards him. He winds up once more to let Jerry have it when- *BANG!*-the carrot clocked him straight in the muzzle, shattering into juicy carrot bits in the process. Tom fell over rigidly but sprang back up, finding Jerry running for another section of the garden. He chases after him, more agitated and even faster than before.

Tom was quick to catch up to the little rodent, following Jerry to the family’s old plow. Jerry disappears behind the plow and Tom comes to a quick halt behind it to find him again. And the mouse is gone. Unbeknownst to Tom, Jerry circled around the plow and now just out of Tom’s line of sight, he quickly ties the old ropes attach to the plow around Tom’s ankles which still went unnoticed by the vigilant cat. Satisfied, Jerry gave his foot a playful wind-up before punting Tom straight up into the air.

As soon as Tom landed back on earth, Jerry was already on the run. Tom was in immediate hot pursuit, ignoring the extra drag he was obliviously carrying. Leading Tom, Jerry intentionally ran around the rest of the garden, glancing back with a wide grin as Tom obliviously plowed, pummeled, and pulverized the Apples’ vegetables. With the garden thoroughly ruined now by the deep grooves in the soil and the squashed remains of the vegetables, Jerry ran out to the far end of the garden, past the fence. Hopping over the fence, Tom followed, undeterred even by the plow being caught in between the gaps in the fence. The rope finally slowed Tom down while testing the fences’ very foundation. The cat looked back, now noticing the troublesome rope tethering him to the fence. Instead of taking the time to untie the rope, Tom, fueled by frustration, pulled on it harder, flexing his powerful cat-calves he cultivated over the years of chasing Jerry. The fence creaked and lurched from the pressure but he marched forward, inch by inch, almost uprooting the fences’ from their concrete foundation, until the old ropes finally snapped.

Now freed, Tom shot forward, giving chase once more to where he last saw Jerry run behind the Apple family homestead. He turned the corner to the back and ran by a window, where a particular mouse popped up from behind a freshly baked pie resting on the windowsill.

Jerry loudly whistles when Tom past him. Tom skidded to a halt, surprised how he missed the mouse. He ran up to the windowsill, staring down at the little rat in irritation. Jerry only held his smile and presented him with the steamy pie. Tom wasn’t a cat that disliked pies, but after having gotten a taste of the Granny Smith’s delectable apple pies, he can’t say no to that; the apple filling inside tasting much more delicious than any apple he’s had before. Tom, excited for such a treat did not notice Jerry sneakily tuck his hands underneath the pie tin.

SPLOOSH! - AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!

Jerry flipped the pie over, giving Tom a nice faceful of steamy hot pie crust and filling. Tom’s reaction was the typical response: scream in agony as the spiced, apple filling melted his face. While he wiped the goop off his snout, Jerry hopped off the windowsill and ran for the farm’s toolshed. Face cleaned of the offending filling, Tom locked onto Jerry again and followed him to the tool shed near the apple orchard and the barn. Just smaller than a room in the homestead, the tool shed is where the Apple family kept their older tools used for maintenance and gardening as well as some spare crude buckets for apple harvesting.

Jerry made it into the tool shed first with enough time to shut the door on Tom, who, thinking he can make it in time, ran face first into the door and was knocked onto his back. Tom raised his head to glare at the door. Springing up, Tom wrenched the door open and barged into the shed-

BANG!

Only to have the handle of a hoe smack him right in the face. In his stupor, Tom caught a glimpse of Jerry escaping below him. Shaking his head, he noticed a rusty old lawnmower from among the gardening tools. With a nasty look upon his face, he brought it out and spots Jerry running for the apple orchards. Tom goes into a full sprint, keeping the lawnmower firmly in front of him, its rusty blade only grazing the grass below. However, as Tom picked up speed, the dull blades spiraled faster and faster and finally cleaved a clear-cut path in front of Tom. The squeaky hinges imitated the sound of a thousand Tom’s on a chalkboard, a cry of the death from what once was a useless antique. Tom’s coming for that mouse.

The diabolical cat caught up to Jerry in the apple orchard, forcing Jerry to pick up the pace to outrun death chasing him. At first, he was weaving around the precious apple trees, trying to juke Tom between its uniform rows. But, Tom followed closely behind in hot pursuit.

It was only shortly after Tom passed the entryway to the orchard, but already the Apple’s most sacred sanctuary was sacked. Bulldozed by an antique lawnmower, the fertile soil was cleared away, picked up and spewed out by the whirling blades. Cleaning up this mess may be simple, but the rate Tom and Jerry were running, up and down and all around the acres of apple land, it will clearly be a toiling task. Well, at the least the Apple’s prized (and profitable apples) were untouched… until now.

Tom’s adrenaline-fueled stamina still held strong, but Jerry’s was quickly waning. Desperate, he finally ran for the trees to try to wear out Tom. Kicking forward, Jerry propelled himself up the damn-near vertical bark into the crown. And just like the valuable jewels upon Celestia’s crown, this apple tree was about to get its apple-jewels shredded off it. Tom, undeterred, thrust forward into the tree, the exposed roots below acting as an impromptu ramp. The whirling blades of the lawnmower, also undeterred, sliced the tree bark clean off the wood like a vegetable peeler. Jerry disappeared into the crown, but Tom shaved his way into it, blitzing unfortunate apples into chunky apple puree that covered Tom’s destructive path.

Dozens of more apple trees became victims as Tom and Jerry continue their game of cat and mouse, covering almost all of the Apples’ orchard under an hour, the speed of which would have put the endurance of any Apple to shame.

Jerry, not losing Tom any time soon, switched gears, making a beeline for the exit: a gap between the fences. Jerry slipped through while Tom burst through the fence, sending wood chips flying. The two were back by the Apple homestead. Tom followed Jerry past the house and towards the gated entrance of Sweet Apple (Sauce) Acres on the account of miles of apple sauce the two left behind.

The distance between Jerry and the lawnmower closes in, the blades cool and slick from the juicy apple remains but red hot at the rusty hinges from the friction of the monstrous rotations. Tom’s tongue hangs out in sweet anticipation. So close… The blades closed in about to catch the rat by the tip of his tail.

Only for Jerry to disappear underneath a pony and the lawnmower to stop dead by a single orange hoof. Tom lurches forward from the sudden stop, his momentum sending him snout to muzzle with a very angry and very red Applejack. She looked down at the broken lawnmower, the blades caved inward at where her steely hooves stopped it. She looks towards the gardens, wrecked and ravaged of their harvest, then at the orchard further back, clearly destroyed and draped in apple sauce.

She looks back at Tom dead in the eye. “Clean it up. Now.” Tom obeyed, fearful of the farm pony ran to the barn and homestead, picking up gardening and cleaning supplies, getting right to work on cleaning up the mess.

“Ah swear, Ah’mma wring that cat thru the dryer press…” Applejack said, massaging her forehead, her thoughts fixated on how to pay off this month’s expenses after this fiasco. She was interrupted though by the squeaky laughs from below, which reminds her… She looks down, one eyebrow raised, at the other half of the troublesome pair: Jerry who was casually leaning on one of Applejack’s hindleg, amused by Tom getting his just desserts. But of course, this dessert should be shared.

“And as for you.” Jerry immediately stood at attention at Applejack’s chastising. “Ah know yer often the one to keep eggin’ him on! Sometimes I’ve seen yer pesterin’ HIM when he’s only doin’ his chores.” Applejack nudged him forwards. “Now get cleanin’ as well. An’ you tell ‘em, too: No dinner before you finish cleanin’ up this mess.”

“Now Ah’ hafta’ leave again. A friend of mine is watchin’ the stand and Ah gotta get back. Ah only came back to you two were doin’ alright alone.” She gave Jerry a death glare. “Seems Ah was right to check up on you two.”

Jerry, feeling a guilt ripple throughout his small mouse body, jogged to the garden where Tom was. He matched Tom’s work-pace right away, picking up the destroyed vegetables and placing them into a green bin in a quick manner; no time for any brooding or arguing. Applejack watched them work, the garden being cleaned, plowed, and seeded once again faster than any Apples could achieve. Swear to Celestia, they make a better team than even her family. Seeing how they’re not slacking off any time soon, she trots back to the Ponyville Market, ignoring the migraine coming on.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Eyup, that's about what would happen. Nice story.

[karnazom]

Oh yes, this is nostalgic lemme tell you That!

[Dusk Star Shine]

OH Man, Classic Tom and Jerry, I do hope you make a sequel to this where some of the other animal characters from Tom and Jerry show up on the farm, either having arrived in Equestria due to magic or something.

[Comickook]

REALLY good job on this. Quite true to the style of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Not just from the chase and rough-housing, but also from how surprisingly well they can work as a team when they choose to. And, yeah, I like the fact that Jerry DIDN'T get off scot free from HIS part in that mess.

Actually, I can easily see a possible sequel idea that has Tom trying to court Opalescence (as Tom has also been known to have a weakness for female cats).

Or Winnoa trying to help Applejack watch over a sick Apple Bloom and warning Tom and Jerry (translated from "dog") that if she catches them bothering Apple Bloom, there was going to be trouble (in other words, Winnoa and Apple Bloom would be in the roles of Spike and Tyke.

Or Discord basically trying to have a little fun, Tom and Jerry end up getting blamed for HIS antics and team up to teach Discord a lesson.

Or Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle both working on their singing with Tom joining in on piano (as Tom actually IS a pretty talented musician, especially on the piano). Of course, Jerry gets bored and/or annoyed because the music practice takes place while he was trying to sleep and things escalate from there.

In other words, LOTS of sequel potential.

But, I will respect that it is entirely up to you and will also respect that real world concerns need to take top priority.

[SeventhBrony]

Faved just for the cat and mouse thumbs up for the story

[Dalektron911]

Holly shit if it ain't my favorite childhood comedy duos TOM AND JERRY. I can't believe I found this. Great story and I wish there were more like this. Also, a funny thing that I think could have been added is "In applejacks mind, I'm gonna kill those fucking two"

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

This was amazing reading. I could totally picture the antics of the chase, so very true to the cartoon! Nice touch adding in Tom's scream, that was great.

And also, Applejack at the end. Glad that she doesn't let Jerry off the hook.

Outstanding work all around!

[Gamel_Lightshow]

I couldn't help but smile the entire time while reading 😊

[Skyblazer9]

Reading this story took me back to my childhood of watching classic Tom and Jerry cartoons.