The day was bright and sunny, much like every other day here on Sweet Apple Acres. The apple family worked hard to bring their tasty treats to the citizens of Ponyville and other surrounding towns. Quite honestly, the hard work was part of the ingredients that went into their tasty treats. Their magnificent apple pies would be moot at best if not for Big Macintosh’s delicate tending to the trees. Without Applejack’s harsh bucking of the trees, all the just ripe apples wouldn’t fall from the tree and would go bad. And of course who could forget Granny Smith’s eye for perfection, not allowing a single bruised apple into any of the finished products. With all the love and care put into the treats, it was no surprise that they could be not surpassed. ‘If only there wasn’t so much work’ Applebloom thought to herself as she pulled another cart of apples from the south field to the barn.
Sweat dripping off of her magenta mane, it was quite interesting how one little filly such as herself could possibly pull such a thing. The big cart alone weighed about 15-20 pounds, and on top of that the full apple buckets were about 10 pounds apiece. Luckily, she had a smaller cart of her own that only carried two buckets at a time. The only problem with this was that she had to make more trips back and forth between the fields and the barn. After dumping the apples into a larger bin close to the back door, Applebloom re-hitched her cart and slouched back toward the south field where her brother and sister were bucking. Their working forms seemed small from afar, but up close they were pretty big to little Applebloom.
As she got closer to her siblings, she craned her neck from underneath the leather harness she wore and cried to her sister, “Applejaaack, Ah wanna go play nayyyooowww! Can’t Ah just skip this part and do it later?” Applejack slowly turned her head, which was also covered in a sheet of sweat, and looked at her baby sister sympathetically “C’mon Applebloom, ya know if we don’t get these here apples in the barn by midday we’ll lose a lot of money cuz of rotten apples. Big Macintosh and Ah are almost done with buckin, so we can help ya in just a bit” Applejack reassured her sister as she continued to buck the last of the trees left. Applebloom groaned disdainfully and then proceeded to gather two full baskets of apples to put in her cart.
Applejack and Big Macintosh stopped momentarily to watch as Applebloom sulked back to the barn and smiled with pride. “Ya know Big Mac, Ah’m proud of Applebloom, she works so hard here on the farm, and on top of that she goes to school.” “Eeyup…” Big Macintosh responded. Applejack smiled in acknowledgment and continued to buck the apple trees. Big Macintosh however, stared off into the sunset and contemplated on his thoughts.
It had been a while since he had any kind of thoughts to himself. It felt nice to think. Big Macintosh was always a stallion of few words, his responses generally consisting of ‘eeyups’ and ‘nopes’. His thoughts, however, roamed free like the cotton fluffs blowing in the wind after being untimely ripped from their stems. He began to think about the adventures he had seen his little sister take on, somehow stopping on that one day when the girls got him to fall in love with Cheerilee. As much fun as it had been that day to make the girls to do his work as punishment for causing such madness between the two of them, he never really thought of Ms. Cheerilee that way. “big macintosh…” Thinking more on the matter, he never really thought of anypony that way. Sure there were many beautiful mares available in Ponyville, he just never had a true spark with any of them. “Big Macintosh” He wondered if maybe his soul mare was not going to be from Ponyville, maybe he had to travel great distances to find her. Currently it didn’t matter, he has work to finish and to help Granny get lunch set up. “BIG MACINTOSH!”
He was jolted awake from his thoughts by Applejack screaming his name. “We still got a heck of a lot of work ta do. Get to it iffin you want to be done by lunch time!” Big Mac just stared at his sister, nodded in approval and continued his work. He had no time to think about the process of finding a mare-friend, he had too much work do and there was just too much at stake with the farm bein low on cash and all. “Oh well…” he whispered to himself as he prepared himself to buck the next tree full of green apples.
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“Ms. Mosstalon, do you really think that this is the correct procedure to fix my strawberry plants?” An orange pony asked in concern as she watched a grayish lavender pony pluck fruits off her strawberry patch that were small and white. It had been months since she had seen beautiful big strawberries grow in her patch, and she figured having the best plant healer in the country would help her in some fashion.
The lavender pony stopped momentarily, whipping her mane around in circles to get the dirt and sweat out of her eyes and face, then turned to the orange pony, “Mrs. Jam, I appreciate that you are concerned, but please allow me to do my job. I promise you that what I am doing will guarantee future success in your strawberry patch, these smaller fruits are not ripe yet, and you mentioned they have been this way for quite some time. This means that they are not growing at all and in order for fuller plants to grow in, these ones must first be taken out.” Mosstalon reassured her. The orange pony only looked on with more concern in her eyes, her attempt to shrug off her worry a pitiful display of ‘hmphs’ followed by her walking away.
The day had been much like any other day here near the marshlands. The shrouds of trees covering almost every inch of ground near the water, blocking a majority of the sunshine from reaching the plant life that inhabited the area. Mosstalon, upon finishing her job, looked towards the tree bank with content in her bones. Above her there was a patch of tree missing to allow for the sun to reach the plant. The freshly removed tree branches scattered about her made the ground look like a small prickle bush.
Carefully she cleaned her mess and walked up to the door to notify Mr. and Mrs. Jam that she finished. “This job wasn’t as easy as normal; I actually had to climb that tree to give their plants light. My poor hooves are going to be sore for days. Oh well, when a job calls, I answer.” Upon knocking on the door she was greeted by Mr. Jam, who grumbled about the way his strawberry patch looked, handed her a bag of bits, and shut the door.
It was lunch time in the marshlands, and everyone was eager to get some food. Many small restaurants had been built in the marsh so that ponies could enjoy the pleasure of each others company and a great home meal as well. It might be a good thing to mention that most of the ponies were not really food growers. The general type of pony walking down the hoof-stricken paths were unicorns, utilizing their magic to create light in the darkness since they were constantly covered by shrouds of trees. Another pony you may find inside the marsh or maybe above the marsh were pegasi. They helped to keep the weather pretty stable. Since they all lived in a marsh, it was very easy for homes to be destroyed due to flooding or falling tree branches. There was however one pony, one which did not use magic or have the ability to fly; one pony that made growing food conceivable here in the marshlands to the north of Equestria.
Mosstalon made her way down the main path of the marsh town known as Witherknawl, glancing ever so often to the stores on the sides of the path, and greeting the many friends she had seen on her way to a small restaurant on the corner. The restaurant, called The Living End, was a quaint place; every corner filled with vines and adorned with golden encrusted water lilies. The building itself was made from the strongest of chestnut trees found in the local area. The outside covered in all sorts of marsh creature figurines, such as alligators, swamp snakes, dragonflies, and on each end of the entrance a figurine of a pegasus and a unicorn.
As Mosstalon made her way into the restaurant she was greeted by a screaming from the far end of the room. “Mosstalon! Come over here! I found us a spot!” a lavender pony with a curly, yellow mane and tail awaited her arrival. Her cutie mark glistening in the warm magic light that was powered by the unicorn employees. Her pink eyes huge and smiling for her friend nearly bounced out of their sockets as Mosstalon got ever closer to her table. “Kana Loa, could you please not make such a ruckus? We are in a restaurant…” Mosstalon replied as she sat down in one of the hoof-stitched wooden chairs that sat on both ends of the table. “I just can’t help it, I never get to see you anymore, you are always working!”
“Well it’s not like I can just not work Loa, you know how the economy is nowadays.”
“Aw please, Moss you practically are royalty here. First of all you’re the chief’s daughter AND you are the only earth pony that lives here. I bet you could make a lot of dough just by stepping on someone’s grass and charging them 50 bits for your energy to be transferred into the grass!”
“I prefer to work hard for my bit thank you; I am not some silly cloud dreamer like you. I have morals and values that allow me to be the best pony I can be, and that is how I tell ponies to grow their crops; to allow them to utilize their natural surroundings to the best of their abilities an-“
“Excuse me ma’am, may I take your order?” A waitress pony asked Mosstalon out of nowhere. It seemed like every day she was faced with too many ponies striving for her attention, and Kana Loa was no exception. Mosstalon quickly looked over the menu and spoke “Just get me the usual, a dandelion salad with feta cheese bread to side it.” Mosstalon handed the menu back to the pony as she proceeded to ask Kana Loa what she wanted. Mosstalon resumed her thoughts, for she knew that Loa took forever ordering.
As sad and true as it was, she didn’t have time to hang with her friends anymore. She was constantly working, constantly telling unicorn ponies how to grow plants with ease, and constantly ordering pegasi to removes patches of the tree line to enable sunlight to shine through. This was her job, to make sure that the citizens of Witherknawl and of other marsh counties had food to eat. As she glanced over to Loa as she was still gazing over the menu she noticed a couple in the other corner of the restaurant just tables away from hers. They were an older couple and looked at each other with pure love in their eyes. She noticed how they never spoke a word, just kept eating, looking at each other, smiling, and then returning to their meals. ‘I wonder if I will ever find a stallion that makes me that happy’ Mosstalon thought to herself as she finally broke her concentrated stare and resumed to wait on her friend to finish ordering.
“Ok yea, I am allergic to brome hay and I seriously cannot stand the way that milo tatses….so I guess I will have the molasses seed sandwich with the berry crisp to go with it. Thanks!” Loa finally gave the waitress her order and resumed talking with Mosstalon “So how have you been lately? I hear you have a lot of time on your hands once the crops start to grow.” Loa started the conversation; Mosstalon had a bad feeling about where this was going. “Loa…what are you thinking?”
“Nothing, just trying to talk casual….like”
“You wouldn’t happen to be trying to talk me into finding a long hobby that will take my time until crop season starts again would you?”
“No way girl, I was just thinking. Well…you see…I saw this stallion flying around the other day. OH man you should have seen him, his shoulders were huge! And the way the sweat was dripping off of him…oh I thought I was gonna have to take a break after seeing that hunk. I thought that maybe when you have time we can double-“
“No, absolutely not.” Mosstalon sternly replied, her light orange eyes searing heat into her friends coat. Loa instantly jeered away and gave her a pouty face that could match any misbehaving toddler. “But why nooooot?”
“Because, I am not interested in such things, and you know it.”
“You big liar, I saw you eyeing that couple over there, the way you were watching them you started turning green with envy. Pretty soon you will wind up becoming a green eyed monster.” Loa smirked as she noticed Mosstalon widen her eyes and giggled. Moss then tossed paper wad at her friend and the two continued to talk after receiving their food.
Pretty soon it was time for work again, and the friends parted in front of the restaurant. Mosstalon did feel slightly guilty for not having enough time for her best friend forever. Kana Loa was the first pony to ever be her friend when other fillies and colts thought she was so odd. She was also the only pony to play with her even when there was work to be done. And she has stood by her side through some pretty rough times, like when they ventured too far into the Forest of Souls and got chased by an angry Ursa Minor.
“She has always been a good friend, and I owe her a lot. Maybe I should hang out with her more in my spare time.” Mosstalon said to herself as she trotted down the path to her next line of work.