Aiding Hearts

by BloomBoy06

Prologue: Victory & Success

Apples. As if Applejack and Big Macintosh would be working on anything else. Today, they were riding their truck, a rackety brown flatbed which had been passed down the family for many years. Despite its feeble appearance, it still carried the five full baskets of apples into town. Both knew their load would hold; Big Mac had driven a load of ten for the days leading to the Summer Harvest parade. This time, it was Applejack’s turn to drive the truck into the Ponyville marketplace, but she noticed once again, Macintosh had a cell phone at the ready.

This seemed to perplex the applebucking pony, “Why in Equestria would you need that out now?”

The brother heard, but decided not to respond, instead, turning on the radio to 99.8, which Applejack recognized featured The Vinyl Scratch, syndicated in the mid-morning hours. Although its fare ran the gamut, it tended to be associated with deep bass beats, typically constructed by the host herself, Vinyl Scratch.

“I don’t really see the appeal in this show,” Applejack admitted.

“Me neither,” agreed Macintosh.

“I mean, the music doesn’t really – wait a moment, then why are you listening?”

This prompted a quick hush as the song was starting to trail off, which led a familiar cohost, more civil and sophisticated in demeanor , to pick up, “Well, that was ‘Epic Rave and Failed Call’ from the pony who couldn’t tell time if you glued a watch to her wrist.”

With that, the sound of the door opening to the recording room could be lightly heard over the airwaves, and the more energetic pony graced her voice, “Sorry, I had a bit of a problem finding an open restroom.”

“Ten minutes for the one down the hall?”

“It was locked.”

“Try pulling on it at all?”

For some reason, the pause on the other end was all any listener needed to know to understand that Vinyl messed up, “That would explain why there was a handle.”

“Do we need to send you back to magic kindergarten just to understand the basics of life?” Octavia flamed.

“I suppose at least then, I could take a nap without being woken up by co-workers,” she replied in jest.

Applejack lost any interest she had in the program with that first monologue, “Ya know, I fail to see how bathroom humor is supposed to make a quality show.”

“Glad we agree,” and Big Mac continued listening.

“Then why are you listening?” inquired the sister, “if the quality is so poor, why are you listening at all?”

“Braeburn told me there’d be a call-in contest,” he confessed, “and it’s one that I would be interested in.”

“Which is…”

But the egging of Applejack would be cut short by an ending note to the previous conversation, with Vinyl asking, “So, what did the audience think of my song?”

Octavia gave a matter-of-fact reply, “well, it was your song, I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

“Glad to see it was swell,” she gleefully replied, and went on with the broadcast, “Hey listeners, remember what this-” a brief vocal pause was given to provide a quaking duck from a button behind the scenes, “little beat is supposed to mean?”

“Glad to see you admit you’re a quack,” Octavia barked.

“L-O-L,” Vinyl deadpanned, “Actually, that is our Tuesday Trivia Tone here on The Vinyl Scratch. This week we have tickets, and no, for once they’re not to either one of our concerts.” Vinyl took a brief pause, no doubt to see how Octavia would reply to it. Nopony who was listening knew the reason for the pause, and the DJ sought to keep it that way, “That’s right, the Equestrian Diamond League is beginning this season with two new expansion teams for this upcoming season. One of them happens to be the Ponyville Nationals, and they’ve offered ten tickets for their first game this Friday if anypony can answer this trivia tidbit.”

Applejack had arrived at the market, with a halt of the truck that seemed more abrupt than usual, “Should we get started Big Mac?” she asked once exiting on her own.

“I’ll join you in a moment, I need to answer this first,” Applejack would have shut off the radio, but figured it best to keep the radio on for now, especially curious as to what he would have to answer.

“Just remember,” Vinyl soothed, “when you have the answer, just dial 4 and you have a chance to score.”

“Stick to those wubs, you haven’t always been great with lyrics,” her co-host mentioned.

“Well, I’m much better than you think,”

“But your rhyming is falling down the sink.”

“Maybe I should sign you up for one of those ‘rap battles’, you’d have a shot against Trixie,” after what must have been a pause of disgust, Vinyl continued with the promotion, “Anyway, since today’s tickets are for a baseball game, today’s theme will revolve around baseball.”

“How does anypony play baseball anyway? Never played it myself,” Octavia admitted.

“Magic Guards.”

“Huh?”

“To make sure that: one, the pegasai can’t fly too high to swipe the ball; two, so the unicorns can’t teleport a home run back to their glove; and three, to act as the umpires, though that’s a separate set of ponies all together. But don’t worry, listeners, this question will be based upon stats.”

Well, there goes my ability to help Macintosh, Applejack mused to herself.

“Okay, here we go!” Vinyl spoke, energized more by finally being able to ask the question, “Grand Slam may have hit 39 home runs last season, leading the Cloudsdale Freight – by the way, we actually got him on the Nationals for this season – with 8 carrying his namesake, but what was his batting average last season?”

A quick press of the fourth key was all Macintosh needed to do, but Applejack could have sworn he had to cut the red wire with two seconds remaining. She could see how determined he was, staring out forward into the windshield’s void. All Applejack could notice in front of him was Sugarcube Corner, but Mac’s mind must have been running faster than a sugar rush. Figuring he would need some time to reset himself, she wandered over to the carrot cart, where a neighbor of hers also worked.

“Howdy, Golden Harvest,” Appejack greeted.

The counterpart replied to the greeting, “Hey there, Applejack, how are things going?”

“Good I suppose. Can’t complain too much, but Big Mac’s listening to that Trivia…whatever.”

“Oh, the Tuesday Trivia on The Vinyl Scratch?”

“How would you…”

The question needn’t be answered up front, a small, portable radio was playing near the front of the cart, the eccentric host speaking next, “And it looks like we have our first calling attempt. Care to tell us your name brave soldier?”

The first caller must have had minimal sleep, because when she spoke, the words seemed to take longer to say than a typical conversation, “Well…he-hello there. I’m…Berry Punch,” she added with a hearty yawn.

“Miss Punch,” Octavia welcomed, “do you have the answer to the question?”

A murmuring pause intensified the otherwise silent nature of the guess. Though unsure of the real answer, she figured some number would suffice, “Seven?”

Stiffling a laugh, Vinyl responded, “So sorry, not the right one.”

“Next time I guess,” the guest managed to irk out, “now if you don’t mind, Pinkie’s party ran late, and I didn’t bother to sleep last night.” With that, the phone was hung up before Vinyl could bid farewell.

“Well if that’s the case,” Harvest intervened during a minor ‘pause’ in the action, “Pinkie Pie has a party problem. She needs to know when to stop the party.”

“Which sounds to me like she has more of a timing problem,” Applejack offered, “She knows when to end a party, but she needs to learn when others need to leave.”

“I suppose that’s true; I always feel a mix of guilt and pride whenever I sneak out away from one of her parties. How have you managed it this long, AJ?”

Applejack was almost hesitant to bring up the point, “I suppose it comes with the territory of being friends I suppose. I don’t mind it as much as others do I guess, it’s just…”

The pause may have been to collect her thoughts, but they were thrust back to sea when the next caller went on to take a whip at the trivia question. The voice seemed to know what she was doing; must have prepared for this appearance because the first words Applejack’s ears caught was “Good morning, my name is-”

“Hold it there, princess,” Vinyl interrupted, “No need for formalities here, this is morning talk shows, we ain’t very dignified here.”

“My apologies,” the caller insisted, “I just wanted to see how life in Equestria was.”

Somehow, as if recollecting the lyrics of a lost song, Vinyl asked in surprise, “Wait, is this Princess Twilight Sparkle on the other line?”

“I suppose,” she answered, “at least since the coronation.”

“AWESOME!” as the screech almost broke the microphone via feedback, “Hey ‘Tavi! We got the first interview since her coronation!”

“You forgot The Fourth Wall.”

“’Tavi, I break it all the time when I address my listeners.”

“No, no, no, it’s a program where some character called ‘miss usa’ or something like that interviewed her the day after the coronation.”

“No matters,” the main DJ cooled, “she’s probably on the line to answer the trivia question anyway.”

Off the airwaves, Applejack pondered, “No offence to Twi, but I didn’t think princesses could…”

“…enter these things?” Golden Harvest finished, “I heard from my dad that Cadence tried before, but had to forfeit her prize because-”

The situation began to unfold with Octavia’s skepticism of her own, “Wait, Vinyl, can princesses even enter these things?”

The other host took an inhale as if to answer, but the breath retracted back out, “Dunno. Never had one call in before?”

The door to the recording room had been opened, and the steps of what must have been the manager of the station entered. Minor whispering was all the audience could grasp, but the end result was all too clear as Octavia broke the rules to the public, “Sorry, Miss Sparkle, apparently one of the clauses disallows princess entries.”

“Yet somehow, element of harmony holders can win an item once every thousand years. Must mean once a lifetime, a thousand years must be brutal.”

“It will be,” Twilight solemnly admitted, “But thanks for talking anyway.”

“I DIDN’T MEAN LIKE THAT!” she rushed to reverse, “I meant that’s a long time to live. Wait I mean…”

“Quit before you fall even further behind,” Octavia chuckled.

A deep sigh preceded the conversation’s final words, “Thanks for calling, Princess Twilight.”

“Any idea what the batting average would be?” Applejack had been too caught up in hearing Twilight’s unenthused state at the end of the radio call, and wasn’t paying attention to Harvest’s inquiry.

“Huh?” she managed to squeak out, buying her a second or two to form her reply, “I dunno, never really followed sports as much as Big Mac has.”

“There’s at least one in every family.”

“I s’ppose,” AJ admitted, “I just didn’t think he was this interested in the contest.”

“Everypony’s interested in these trivia questions, it’s just a matter of whether they offer something you want that week. Almost won a weekend for two to Manehatten, but I hadn’t remembered what Sapphire Shore’s first hit single was.”

“Remember what it was?”

“Nah, I think I kept it out of my mind since I got it wrong. I guessed it was ‘Silver Hound’, but that was a relatively recent hit.”

“I thought it was a while ago,” Applejack pondered alongside her friend, “but I guess not as long ago as the self-titled single.”

At the sudden realization, Harvest clunked herself upon the head, “No wonder I forgot the answer, it was too obvious, wasn’t it?”

“Eeeyup.”

The third voice had come from two different locations, humble yet eager in tone. Applejack’s eyes transfixed forward, viewing her brother who must have been deep in conversation with whoever was on the other line; her ears transfixed backward, listening in on who the conversation entailed:

“Alright Mr. Macintosh,” the peppy DJ began, “I see you’re ready to answer the question, but just as a reminder: Grand Slam may have hit 39 home runs last season, leading the Cloudsdale Freight (and hopefully our team this year), with eight carrying his namesake, but what was his batting average last season?”

Making sure the sentence ended Big Mac pounced while he could, “.298,” he rattled off in a single swoop.

“Wow,” Golden Harvest rattled off to her friend, “He knew that off the top of his head?”

“Of course not,” Applejack whispered, “he’s got a sportscard collection larger than an applecart. Gotta had it to him, though, he sure knows when to pull out those fancy mathematics when it’s in his favor.”

Comments

[Skarner]

Great work! I look forward to more