Choices and Responsiblilties

The next day I felt like crap. Every muscle in my body felt as if they were on fire. I woke up at same time I always did, there was no way you could sleep through that obnoxiously loud rooster that served as a alarm clock. If there was one thing I didn’t like about living on the farm, it was that stupid bird.

I planned on sleeping in late today, but applejack already figured out my plan and decided to come visit me. Just as I was moving from out of my bed, a knock came from my door, I already knew who it was and so therefore I groaned and told her to come it.

She slowly opened the door to see if I was decent, which I was. The only thing that was wrong with me was my mane, which of course was a mess. I usually left it the way that it was, and allowed the wind to do the job for me while I was flying. “Hey there Solar, glad that yer awake. Saves me tha trouble of telling ya’ll to wake up. How ya feelin?” She said walking over to my window and opening up the curtains allowing light from the sunrise to peer into the room. I rubbed my eyes and shook my head, as my eyes adjusted to the light.

“Like crap.” I said while making up my bed, since it was a total mess.

She giggled as she turned around to face me. “Well, no offense, but ya look like crap too.” She said now walking over to me. She tilted her head and began to fix my mane, so I don’t look like a total tool.

“Thanks. So what’s the work plan for today?” I said purposely messing up my mane.

She tilted he head again looking as if she was thinking about something. “Well, Applebloom and Granny need help with picking the corn and carrots, ah need help with applebucking the leftover trees from yesterday and Big Mac will probably need help with moving all the apples.”

“So basically it’s just usual.” I said jokingly.

“Pretty much. Oh yeah, Ah forgot one major thing. Yer going over to Rainbow Dashs and yer going to give her ya’ll honest decision about what ya’ll think about joining the Wonderbolts.” She said looking pretty serious about me confronting Rainbow Dash.

“Urgg, yes ma’am. Now lets go break our backs with these mundane tasks.” I said shaking my head.

“Good, now let’s get to work.” She said while signaling me to help her first, with the apple bucking.

The pre-dawn sky hung over the two of us as Applejack led me deeper into one of their many apple orchards. I wasn't quite sure which path to follow back, despite applejack telling me to follow many paths that we had taken. I tried to remember witch path to take back but it was all just one big blur. Despite the small talk I had with Applejack I felt my drowsiness slowly creep up, but when I noticed that she had stopped walking I snapped out of it.

“Alright, Solar,” Applejack said, turning to him as she stood beside a tree, “we can start here.”

I looked at the luscious apples that clung to the branches of the trees. They looked like they tantalizing all who were to see them like they always did, which made me smile. At the base of the tree, several wooden baskets sat, like open mouths waiting to devour anything that fell into it.

“Do you remember how to applebuck?” She asked me looking completely serious.

I scoffed at her question before replying to her. “What? Of Course I don’t.” I said half-joking.

She rolled her eyes and began to approach a tree. She turned her back to it, leaning forward; the mare lifted herself up to balance perfectly on her front legs, allowing her to raise her hind ones higher up. Bending the back limbs close toward her body, only a short grunt of exertion was uttered as she suddenly kicked out. The very bottom of her hooves struck the tree with a heavy thud, not damaging the bark in the slightest but causing the trunk to shake.

The shuddering vibration traveled up the trunk and shook the branches. Only a few leaves were disturbed by the action, the weakest of them which fell from their limbs and floated to the ground. The apples, in response, all released their hold on the branches, and dropped straight down into the baskets.

“There ya go,” Applejack said, admiring her work, proud to see not a single apple out of place.

“Impressive,” I replied, with my voice dripping with sarcasm as I brought my forehooves together and lightly applauded her. Applejack snorted in a mild lapse of indignation, but her mood quickly lightened as she extended a hoof toward another nearby tree, gesturing for me to take my turn.

I sighed and did what I was told. I found it funny that during the entire walk here my body wasn’t hurting, but as soon as I was about to do some work, the pain from yesterday’s workout and applebucking all came flooding back. I thought about telling Applejack that I was in to much pain to help her today, but I knew that my plea was going to fall on deaf ears. So I decided to just suck it up and deal with it.

I approached the tree and turned his back to it, following the same motions I had seen Applejack perform moments ago. I leaned forward and balanced myself on my forelegs. There was a noticeable sway in my body as I kinda failed to hold myself perfectly still, I ignored it however, and bent my back legs closer towards my chest.

Without waiting a second longer, I kicked out, with the edges of my hooves striking the tree. It was a weak blow of course. So weak I almost failed to rattle the tree, my kick instead pushed me forward, causing me to stumble, lose what little balance I had entirely, and forcing my face to slam directly into the ground. Only a subtle, insignificant tremble was shown on the tree, looking more like it was laughing at my futile attempt to buck it more than anything else. The sound of Applejacks laughing didn’t really help either.

“You've gotta find the right amount of force to put into yer buck,” Applejack explained, calming down from her fit of enjoyment. “Too much and you might damage the tree, or yourself. Too little...and well you know.” She said still chuckling as she replayed the scene in her mind over and over again.

Looking back at the tree, my eyes fixed onto the trunk with a pure look of disdain. Ready to conquer the oversized splinter and claim its apples for my own, I returned to my position in front of it. It’s been a long time since I had last bucked a tree. I usually just help Applebloom, Big Mac and Granny with their work and tried the best I could to avoid bucking as much as I could. I remember a similar event like this had happen; Rainbow Dash was here along with the entire Apple family. I tried to buck a tree but without any experience I ended up kneeing myself in the chin, causing everyone there to laugh. They didn’t let me let that epic failure go until an entire month went by.

There was only a slight hesitation as I knew Applejack’s gaze was more focused now. Taking a deep breath to ready myself, Trader balanced his body on my forelimbs and bent my legs back. Determined to do it correctly this time, successfully bucked the tree causing most if not all of the apples to fall into the buckets. Applejack whistled as she saw that I was capable of helping her now. Feeling pretty proud of myself looked at my accomplished work with glee.

“That was great. Now all ya gotta do is just help buck all the rest of the trees and we’ll be finished.” Applejack said killing my mood as I realized how much work this was going to be. Without a say in the matter I immediately got to work.

There’s an old saying that I often hear. Time flies by when you’re working hard and having fun. Well, I am working hard, and I’m…somewhat having fun, but the time, was no way near flying by. So who ever said that saying was an idiot.

My applebucking pace was slow and sloppy but after I started to get the hang of it, my speed began to increase. Applejack however, truly showed how long she had been an apple bucker. She was swift and strong, finishing off one tree and moving onto another before I even could blink. When taking a quick rest I was often just watch her from afar. The glances would never last very long since she too would stop and look at my direction to see if I was taking a nap or if I was still working.

Though I knew there wasn't a chance  in the world that I would ever match Applejack, it didn’t stop me from being determined to prove my worth to her and to not disappoint the family who had taken me when I had no other place to go. At that moment I recognized something. When working on the farm I don’t work with half the intensity as I do when I’m getting paid with the other jobs, and with that I realized how ungrateful I was. This motivated me even more I quickly got back to bucking those trees.

I didn’t finish my side until an hour after Applejack was done. She insisted on helping me with my share, but I politely refused her offer. This was my punishment for all the times I had ditched the family to go out and earn some money when I should have been working with everyone else.

When I finally finished I laid on the grass feeling pretty wiped out. It felt as if ever muscle of my body could barely even work anymore. Taking note of how tired I was Applejack decided to allow me to skip helping Big Mac with moving the Apples, giving me a few hours of relaxation so I could rest my muscles. I was glad that Big Mac didn’t really mind, but I made sure to repay him.

I decided to sleep on a cloud that was just over the farm, so I could hear Applejack when she called for me. I haven’t slept in a cloud in so long; I even forgot how soft they were. As soon as I laid down and closed my eyes I passed out. Time seemed to fly by real fast as I rested, it felt like as soon as I closed my eyes it was already time to get back to work.

“Hey Solar, It’s time to help Applebloom and Granny with the crops!” She yelled from down below. I didn’t hear her the first time but when she said it again I jolted wake and began to groan. Three hours of sleep was not nearly enough time for me to rest. I began to stretch as I quickly leaped off of the cloud and flew towards the crop, right in front of applebloom and Granny.

“Hey Solar, are ya here to help us pick the carrots and corn?” Applebloom asked with a smile on her face.

“Sure am. Picking corn and carrots is a lot easier than applebucking. So watch as a pro do his work.” I said while flying off into to air so I could get some distance. While suspended in the air for a few seconds I swooped back down, grabbed a basket and began to quickly pick as many vegetables as I could, before reaching the other side of the field. Upon reaching the other side I would grab another basket and do same thing over again.

The vegetable field wasn’t as large as the apple orchard is, so this made it an easier and far quicker job to do since applejack actually allowed me to use my wings to pick them. She told me to only applebuck the trees and to not pick the apples by using my wings. Since I would be moving around at full speed, I couldn’t be careful with apples and would most likely damage the branches if I ever did. So I just stuck to picking the vegetables this way.

It doesn’t take long for me to finish, fifteen minutes at least, but I often double check to see if I had gotten all of the crops, so that usually another fifteen minutes right there, so this is usually just a thirty minute job by itself. When I was finished I flew back down towards Applebloom who was jumping around happily as I did all of the work for them. All that was needed to do now was just move the crops closer to the barn. Granny nodded her head in approval as if she knew exactly what I wanted…to go back to sleep.

I took flight again as I watched Applebloom and Granny grab a few baskets. Getting ready to fly back to my room I was stopped by Applejack who knew exactly what I was about to do. “Hey, Where do ya think yer going?” She said catching me off guard. I slowly dropped back towards the ground and began to face her.

“I was going to-”

“Rainbow Dash’s right? To tell her about what ya think right?” She said raising an eyebrow at me.

“…Yeah, I’m about to go right now.” I said with an unenthusiastic tone to my voice. I took flight again and this time headed towards Rainbow’s House.

She lives in a white cloud-house hanging low to the ground just outside Ponyville. It features classical columns and rainbow-colored streams and waterfalls. I flew up to the front door and began to knock on the door. Luckily she was home because I did not want to go around looking for her. She opened up the door, with a sad frown on her face as she already knew who was at the door.

“Hey Solar, Look I’m sorry for getting mad at you yesterday. If you don’t wanna join the Wonderbolts with me, then I get it.” She said not giving a chance to speak first. This was a now or never decision. Just speak from your heart and the words will just pour out right?

“I do…wanna join the wonderbolts with you Rainbow Dash. I actually do think that we would actually make a good team.” I said speaking what was partially on my heart. I wanted to tell her how I really felt about her, but the image of applejack appeared into my mind, keeping me from saying anything.

Responding to me agreeing to join the Wonderbolts Rainbow Dash hugged me as she began to state that together we’ll be accepted in no time. I gave her a light hug as I wondered if the decision I made would turn out to be the right one.