Magical Radiance

by Prixy05

Applebuck Season

It was the beginning of another apple bucking season at Sweet Apple Acres, and two ponies stood at the top of a hill, surveying the work that lay before them. Hundreds of trees all full of fresh, ripe apples spread out across the farm.

"Boy howdy!" Applejack said, "I got my work cut out for me. That there is the biggest bumper crop of apples I ever laid eyes on."

"Eyup," replied Big Mac, "Too big for you to handle on your own." The large red stallion had his midsection bandaged up, having been injured in a farming incident two days prior.

Applejack scoffed, "Come on, big brother! You need to rest up and get yourself better. I haven't met an apple orchard yet that I can't handle," she playfully punched her brother on the shoulder, forgetting his injury, "Oops, sorry, I'll take a bite out of this job by day's end."

Big Mac wore a flat expression, "Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of."

Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises my legs can't keep?"

Big Mac nodded, "Eyup."

At the remark, Applejack sniffed, "Why- This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?"

"But still only one pony, and one pony plus hundreds of apple trees just don't add up to..."

She straightened her hat with a stern expression, "Don't you use your fancy mathematics to muddy the issue! I said I could handle this harvest and I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna get every last apple out of those trees this applebuck season all by myself."

Big Mac shook his head and began to walk away, knowing there was no arguing with the orange mare once her mind was made up.

Applejack turned back to the apple orchards and sighed. She had a lot of work cut out for her.

---

With a mighty buck, the apple tree shuddered and dropped its arrangement of apples. Applejack wiped her brow with her hat, yet another tree taken care of. She looked around at the reaping of her labor, she had already done who knows how many trees and it wasn't even noon! Yep, she would get this done in a jiffy.

Then, Applejack heard a familiar bouncing noise. Pinkie Pie, the pink party pony had hopped on over to Applejack. "Wow AJ! That's sure a lot of apples!"

"Shucks Pinkie," Applejack replied, "I haven't even gotten started!" She turned and spread her back legs to buck two evenly spread trees, causing a rain of apples in the buckets below.

"Wowee zowie! You must have done-" Pinkie Pie paused and silently counted the empty trees, poking her hoof out, "A bajillion trees already!"

"I appreciate yer praise an' all," Applejack modestly answered, "But why exactly are you here Pinkie?"

"Huh?" The pink pony bore an expression of confusion before one of realization clicked on her face, "Oh yeah! AJ AJ AJ! "We need you right away! It's super-duper important!"

"What issit?" Applejack asked in alarm, but Pinkie Pie ignored her, frantically dashing away as Applejack followed.

---

With a hop and a skip, Pinkie Pie snapped to a stop. Applejack did the same, panting as she looked around. She was in Ponyville by the train station. The train station? That's when Applejack realized what she had forgot.

Pinkie playfully saluted to the ponies at the station, "Applejack retrieved as requested!"

Standing at the platform was all of her friends, including Rarity who bore an expression of annoyance. Rarity did not like it when a pony was late. "You're late Applejack."

Embarrassed, Applejack rubbed the back of her head, "I'm sorry y'all, I was busy with apple bucking season and all, and I guess I forgot."

"Apple bucking season?"

Applejack sniffed, "It's what the Apple family calls harvestin' time. We gather all the apples from the trees so we can sell 'em."

"And you're doing it alone? What about all those relatives I've met when I first came to Ponyville? Can't they help?"

"They were just here for the Apple family reunion. They actually live all over Equestria and are busy harvestin' their own orchards. An' Big Mac hurt himself, so I'm on my own."

With the explanation for Applejack's lateness, Rarity's expression softened immediately, "Well, your excuse is valid darling, though I did specifically tell you all at what precise time to come to the station."

"Well, I'm here now," Applejack said. She blinked, "For... for what exactly?"

Rarity gasped, "Honestly Applejack! Have forgotten that today is the day your friend Twilight Sparkle returns to Ponyville?"

Applejacks eyes popped open, "Oh, oh yeah!" She chuckled nervously, "I was jus' kiddin', I didn't forget about nothin'!"

She looked over and saw Twilight, standing beside a luggage cart and watching their conversation. Twilight's number of cases was noticeably smaller than Rarity's when she first arrived in Ponyville.

"May I begin?" Twilight asked.

Rarity turned her head, "Oh, of course darling!"

Twilight nodded and cleared her throat, "So, I told you all that I'm visiting Ponyville, but I may have asked a few favors and pulled a few strings, and..." She crouched down in anticipation and jumped up, "I'm moving to Ponyville!"

Her friends cheered and clapped their hooves in response.

Pinkie raised a hood, "But how? Why? Who?"

Twilight smiled, "Back in Canterlot, it was no secret that I was kind of withdrawn. So, after the whole Nightmare Moon affair, I personally requested to Celestia to move to long-term arrangements in Ponyville and she agreed!"

Pinkie Pie happily danced around, "Yippee! Now all my bestest friends are in Ponyville and we can hang out forever!"

"The Princess set me up with a living arrangement in the Golden Oak Library," Twilight continued, "it was the perfect choice cause I'm kind of a book pony."

Rainbow Dash flew overhead, reaching the luggage cart and beginning to push it, "Don'tcha worry Twilight! I'll have your stuff in the library in a flash!"

The ponies left the station to the library, before Applejack paused mid-step.

"What's the matter Applejack?" Rarity asked, "Aren't you going to come help Twilight unpack?"

"Sorry girls, but I can't. I have apple bucking to do and I've already spent enough time away from the orchard as is."

"Why don't you let us help you? Then you could have more free time to spend with your friends."

"No! I mean, I won't let ya. I'm a capable earth pony," she firmly stated, accentuating each word with a stamp of her hoof, "And I'm not gonna let any pony down!"

Rarity reluctantly turned tail and joined the rest of her friends. Applejack yelled after her, "And I'm not going to forget anything else this week!"

---

With grunt, another tree shuddered, and its apples fell. It was midday through day two of apple bucking season, and Applejack and hadn't stopped since she returned from the train station.

"An' that's tree number seventy-eleven somethin'..." she murmured. She had actually lost track of the number the day prior; but that didn't matter as her brain was becoming cloudy from sleep deprivation.

Tiredly, she pushed another barrel of apples to the cart. "Another cart, another barrel..." she said in sleepy whisper, her head bowing and her eyes closing.

Applejack suddenly jumped awake as her chin hit the wood of the cart, "Rainbow Dash! Rainbow needed me for something!"

---

"There you are!" Rainbow Dash called out as Applejack slowly walked over.

"I'm a mite sorry, Rainbow. I was busy applebuckin' and I guess ah, I closed my eyes for a second and, when I woke up, I was late. Now, what's this new trick a' yours?" She looked up, the pegasus was standing on the end of wooden catpault-like contraption with a platform looming overhead.

"Woah AJ, you don't look so good," Rainbow asked with concern upon noticing the orange pony's condition, "You sure you want to do this?"

Applejack nodded, "Of course Dash! Anything for a friend."

Rainbow Dash broke her gaze at the pony. "Well, if you say so," she motioned to the catapult she was standing on, "I'm gonna stand on one end, then you're gonna jump down from that platform, launching me into the air faster than I can take off on my own. Once I'm in the air, I'm gonna do some brand-new flips and spins that are sure to impress the Wonderbolts. You got that?"

"Yep. Sure. Jump off the platform." Applejack climbed up the ladder to the platform above.

"Ready AJ? One, two, three!"

With a splat, Applejack pancaked on the ground, missing her side of the see-saw entirely.

Rainbow Dash grimaced, "Woah! Now I know even that wasn't okay."

Standing up with one hoof at a time, Applejack peeled herself off the ground and turned back to the ladder, waving off the pegasi's remark, "Naw! I'm a dependable earth pony, I can handle whatever y'all dish at me!" She grunted as she ascended the ladder again.

"But I don't want to dish out anything!" Rainbow Dash yelled up, "I don't want you to get hurt!"

Applejack walked to the edge of the platform again. Strangely, everything looked blurry to her. "Ready Dash? I'm a gonna jump!" She ran up to the edge of the platform before her knees buckled, making her fall flat on her stomach.

"Okay that's it!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she began to climb off the catapult, "I'm not going to let you hurt yourself like this!"

"I'm okay. Just watch!"

Applejack leapt off the platform, catching the pegasus below off guard. Before Rainbow Dash could do anything, the orange mare had landed on the other side of the see-saw, catapulting the unprepared Rainbow high into the sky.

"Wait, Applejaaaaack!"

"You're welcome!" Applejack called after her. Another successful job done.

---

At the Carousel Boutique, Rarity stood in front of her full-body mirror and happily hummed to herself as she straightened the hem of her robe. Indeed, it was that bi-weekly time again, magic practice time, and Applejack had already volunteered to help. She needed the most capable and fastest mare she knew for the job, and Rainbow claimed she had something else to do at the time.

Spike in the meanwhile, toddled by pushing another mirror, they needed plenty of mirrors for today's exercise, and luckily the boutique had plenty of them lying around. "Ready to start Rarity?" Spike asked.

"Not at all darling, Applejack still needs to arrive," Rarity said not looking away from her mirror, "Besides, I have more preparations to make on my practice robe." Whenever Rarity wore one of her elaborate magic robes, she always took extra care in looking perfect, which in the end delayed magical practice half of the time.

SMACK!

A loud sound came from the nearby window. Rarity and Spike turned to see a familiar cyan pegasus flattened against the glass. With a whining sound, Rainbow Dash slid off the glass and to the ground below.

Rarity opened the window and poked her head outside, "Rainbow Dash? What in Equestria are you doing out here?" Rarity asked, making sure her practice hat wasn't getting wrinkled.

The pegasus sprawled below on the ground barely opened her eyes and whimpered, "Ughhhh"

Rarity furrowed her brow at the lack of a response, instead turning her gaze forward to see Applejack hurriedly trotting over in the distance. "Oh! Applejack's here!"

After two uneven knocks, Rarity opened the door for Applejack, who nearly tripped over her hooves while entering. Rarity's eyes widened; the pony looked awful. Her knees were wobbly, there was dark bags under her eyes, and worse of all, her mane was all frazzled!

"Sorry ah'm late," Applejack tiredly said upon entering.

"Actually darling," Rarity said to the exhausted pony, "You're fifteen minutes early."

Applejack's eyes closed with her attempting to put on a grin, "See Rarity, I can be early," she turned her head to Rarity's practice robe, "And I like that there rodeo clown outfit."

Rarity clutched her chest, "Rodeo clown? I'll have you know this is my self-made, hoof-crafted specialized magical practice gown-er robe!"

"One of five," Spike added, plodding down the stairs.

"Oh, is it?" Applejack replied while squinting her already narrow eyes, "I'm sorry, things have been a bit blurry for me lately," she shrugged, "No clue why."

"I might have an answer," Spike offered before being shushed by Rarity.

"Anyways Applejack," Rarity said correspondingly, "Let's proceed with practice upstairs, shall we?"

The orange pony sleepily nodded, "Of course."

Rarity led Applejack upstairs to her practice room, which at the moment was full of mirrors. Applejack continuously flitted in and out of consciousness, the lack of sleep must have been taking a toll, but that's not anything she couldn't handle.

"-And don't forget Applejack, do not turn them at an acute angle. I repeat, an acute angle," Rarity finished, "Got that Applejack?"

Applejack looked up, "Hmm? Oh, oh yeah. Of course! Angle! Got it."

The two ponies walked into the center of the room. They were surrounded by twelve mirrors arranged in a circular pattern. "Okay, I'll begin, get the mirrors ready Applejack."

Applejack nodded absentmindingly, what was she supposed to do? The room darkened as Rarity powered up her horn. The air began to build up, billowing everyponies mane in the wind. Applejack simply stood still and watched the spectacle. She looked over to see Spike, wearing a frying pan on his head. He returned the look motioned his head to a shelf on the right side of the room.

Applejack didn't understand what that meant until Rarity responded. Hers eyes clenched shut, Rarity yelled out loud, "The mirrors, Applejack! The mirrors!"

With burst of realization, Applejack remembered what she was supposed to do. With the speed of a rampaging herd, Applejack dashed about the room, rotating and turning each mirror to face Rarity, making sure each mirror was at an acute angle.

She had barely finished when twelve beams shot out in each direction from Rarity's horn. The beams spread out, hitting each mirror. The mirrors of course, weren't in the right position, causing the beams to bounce off randomly. Rarity screamed and ducked as a beam flew right over her head, turning the nearest wall from light pink to a shade of pecan. Spike ducked as a beam hit the pan on his head, turning it cobalt blue. This continued until two beams collided mid-air in the center of the room, creating an explosion of color.

When the magical dust settled, Applejack, her coat now light gray in color, looked around, "Was the spell supposed to do that."

Spike sighed, the changeling a shade of red, "It was supposed to make a rainbow orb, and I guess we check off Mistmane's Spell of Rejuvenating Color as a failure."

"I suppose that spell might have been too advanced for me," Rarity said, failing to hide her frustration as her coat, mane, and robe had been turned a sickly shade of chartreuse.

---

Applejack grunted as she hit another tree.

Another day, another tree, another buck, another barrel. This was the third day straight she had been working on the apple bucking harvest. The incidents the day prior slowed her progress some, but she had to, her friends took equal priority to her farm work.

However, this tree wasn't offering its apples for some reason, so she hit it again.

Rarity had come by earlier, despite her, irritation, at being turned the color of throwup, she offered her and her friends to help the earth pony with her harvest. Again, Applejack had refused, explaining that it was her duty, and she didn't need help.

The tree shuddered as it was bucked again.

"Why... won't... this... tree..." Applejack grunted before looking up. She blinked, seeing that the tree was very clearly dead and bare. "Ah... I suppose that works."

Applejack began to walk away before her legs gave way and planted her on the ground. Standing had been getting more difficult for her.

She leaned against the wooden cart, which had been placed askew in a rut. Applejack's eye shut and she dozed off momentarily before waking up again. She slapped her face with a hoof, "C'mon AJ, you can do this," she told herself, "You just have one extra thing t'do. I just need to help Fluttershy with one thing. Shoot! And one thing for Twilight!"

---

Twilight settled down in her chair with a happy sigh. The bookshelves were full, the fireplace was lit, and her schedule was planned out. And what could be better than spending some time catching up on her reading?

She had moved over to Ponyville two days prior; for "long-term friendship arrangements" as the Princess had put it in her official letter on matter. Of course, Twilight had spent a good portion of her time in the Golden Oak Library, having a Canterlot official move somewhere else did create a lot of paperwork, and Twilight still had her duties to attend to.

But for now, Twilight was content for a bit of light reading. She opened up her copy A Brief History of Cutie Marks when her owl hooted overhead. This owl, Owlowiscious as he was named, had come with Twilight to Ponyville. Fluttershy of course had adored the little bird.

Twilight looked up to the owl, who had spun his head to the door, "Hoo!"

As if on command, the door slammed open, and Applejack stumbled in. The orange mare was looking more haggard than ever, barely even managing to keep her eyes open.

"Don'chya worry Twilight," Applejack mumbled, "I didn't forget to help ya!"

"Forget what?" Twilight leaned over her chair, gasping at the sight of Applejack, "Applejack! You look awful!"

"Why," Applejack blurredly grinned, "To help ya move in to Ponyville, 'member? Earlier today at the train station."

"Applejack, that was two days ago."

"Wuzzit?" Applejack puzzledly questioned, "I've just been so busy with apple bucking season."

Twilight stood up and approached Applejack, who had tiredly collided with a bookshelf several times, "I think you need some help Applejack, doing all that work alone must be exhausting."

Applejack jumped out, "No no no! That's jus' what everypony says, but I don't need help!" She began to back away to the door, "Now, if y'all don't need my help, I'm gonna go help Fluttershy." The earth pony turned up her nose and exited the library, after colliding with the door several times.

Twilight sighed, there was no way this was going to end well.

---

"Oh Applejack! Thank you so much for offering your herding skills for the annual rabbit roundup," Fluttershy happily said.

Applejack stood still and yawned, "Yeah yeah, that's why I'm here, to help! Why are we doing this again?" She was at Fluttershy's cottage, and anypony could easily see the abundance of bunnies hopping about the premises.

"Well, lots of new baby bunnies have been born," Spike answered. He had come over to help as well, the changeling taking his gray bunny form. Right now, Spike hopped nearby Winona, Applejack's dog that she had luckily remembered to bring with her, practicing little bunny jumping jacks.

"It's my job to get a count of all the new families," Fluttershy stated, "but remember, these are bunnies we're dealing with, not cows. They're a timid bunch and need to be treated gently."

"Please Fluttershy," Applejack said after stretching her back, "I do not need any direction on corrallin' critters. Right, Winona?"

Winona stopped her sniffing of Spike and barked in agreement.

"That's right! Let's get this started!" Spike announced after finishing his stretching exercises.

"Okay, little bunnies! I need you to all gather here in the middle," Fluttershy did her best to announce.

"That's right! Let's go, bunnies," intercut Applejack. She and Winona ran at the bunnies, scattering them eastward. The pony chased the bunnies from behind while Winona barked at them from the side to keep them on route.

"In the center. Hop to it! Put 'em up, Winona!" The dog made a sharp left turn, closing off the route for the bunnies with a dust cloud. In a moment's notice, the terrified bunnies had all gathered into a quivering mass of fur.

Fluttershy flew up to the crowd of bunnies, "Applejack! Winona! Stop! You're scaring them!"

Applejack rolled her tired eyes, "We know what we're doin' Fluttershy. Get along, little bunnies!" She stomped her hooves, causing the bunnies to squeak in terror. A second later, the bunnies fled in between the earth pony's hooves, rushing away from Applejack. Winona chased after the cutesy stampede, her barks doing nothing to heed the swarm of fur.

Bunny Spike jogged up to the bewildered Fluttershy, out of breath from the running, "What happened?"

The wide-eyed pegasus simply pointed to the dust cloud shrinking in the direction of central Ponyville.

The event that followed could only be described as a disaster. There had been stampedes in Ponyville before, but usually Applejack was on hoof to prevent any damage. That wasn't the case this time as a stampede of raging bunnies swarmed through Ponyville. Ponies fled in terror, some fainted, others barricaded themselves indoors as the provoked puffballs descended upon the gardens of Ponyville.

When the bunnies eventually calmed down, most of the gardens in Ponyville had been destroyed. All of the flower stand's wares had been devoured. And bunnies had scattered across all four corners of the town. Fluttershy flew about, attempting to control the situation in vain.

Meanwhile, Applejack had already turned tail back to the apple orchards.

---

Applejack tiredly bucked another tree. Yes, it had been a bit bumpy along the way, but she was almost finished! Only a few more apple trees to buck!

"C'mon... almost... finished," she gasped in between bucks.

Some ponies approached her. It was Twilight flanked by Big Mac, so another one of her friends coming to offer help, not that it mattered any more.

"Applejack-" Twilight began, before the orange pony interjected.

"Did Rarity send you this time?"

"What? No. I came on my own accord Applejack," she had a look of concern on her face, "I'm worried about you. We're all worried about you. Your applebucking hasn't just caused you problems, it's over-propelled pegasus', it's turned a unicorn's coat chartreuse, and terrorized bushels of brand-new bouncing baby bunnies. I don't care what you say, you need help."

Applejack didn't answer at first, weakly bucking one more apple tree. As the apples fell below and were collected, Applejack laughed, "No I don't! Look, I did it," she pointed out the acres of bare apple trees behind her, "I harvested the entire Sweet Apple Acres without your help. How d'ya like them apples?"

Big Mac, his expression unchanging, lifted a hoof, "Um, how do you like them apples?"

Walking to the crest of the hill, Applejack gasped. Acres of apple trees, hundreds of more trees to be harvested. She had barely done a third of the apples. Applejack mumbled incoherently to herself before fainting from exhaustion.

---

Applejack awoke on the ground to somepony calling her name.

"Wha... Huh?"

She slowly opened her eyes to see that Twilight was still there, but she had joined by the rest of her friends.

"Applejack."

It was Rarity, who had brought her a face a bit too close to Applejack's.

"Rare- Rarity?"

Rarity smiled, "Oh good darling, when Twilight told us you fainted, we just had to get on over right away! Now Applejack, I completely respect your family ways. You're always there to help anypony in need, and that is something I agree with. But you should also let us do the same, so maybe you can put a little of your stubborn pride aside and allow your friends to help you."

Applejack nodded, "Okay."

Rarity continued, "This time, I am not taking no for an answer-- wait did you say okay?"

Applejack meekly nodded, "Yeah. Rarity, Twilight, all of you... I could really use your help."

Applejack, with the help of her friends, were able to finish the apple bucking harvest within the afternoon. The unicorns were of heavy help, plucking out the apples with their magic. As were the pegasi, who were able to swoop around in the air harvesting the apples directly from the trees. Even Pinkie Pie was of surprising help, her manic energy making her surprisingly capable of bucking down the apples. Applejack continued to do what she did best, bucking trees and carrying apples.

By harvest's end, all the ponies were thoroughly exhausted, and had gathered at the Sweet Apple Acres barn for some refreshments. As the girls sat around, drinking the freshly squeezed apple-juice, Applejack clinked her glass to get their attention.

Applejack stood up and gave her announcement, "Girls, I can't thank you enough for this help. I was acting a bit stubborn."

Twilight smirked, "A bit stubborn?"

Applejack blushed and shrugged, "Okay. A mite stubborn, and I'm awful sorry. But y'all stood with me no matter how stubborn I was and taught me a lesson. Though being a friend is about giving of yerself to anypony in need, it's also about accepting our friends when we need help, and you five have been a real doggone help."

She raised her glass of juice in a toast, "To friendship, and all the help a friend can give and receive!"

The other glasses clinked, "To friendship!"

Comments

[MatTheBook]

Rarity gasped, "Honestly Applejack! Have forgotten that today is the day your friend Twilight Sparkle returns to Ponyville?"

Im guessing she'll be gone alot?

[MatTheBook]

Twilight nodded and cleared her throat, "So, I told you all that I'm visiting Ponyville, but I may have asked a few favors and pulled a few strings, and..." She crouched down in anticipation and jumped up, "I'm moving to Ponyville!"

NVM🎉🎉🎉🎉

[MatTheBook]

So Rarity does fashion but also magic studies.