Mule: The Untold Story

Chapter 2: Winter Wrap Up

A cold morning breeze seeped past the thin walls, awakening Mule. His sweet dreamless sleep abruptly broken. With a pained yawn, he climbed out of bed. Stretching one limb, then another, and another, and another. Mules’ neck could've been mistaken for an old wooden floor, as he twisted it left, then right. Looking around, there wasn’t anything else needed to prep for the day, given that his house was mostly barren and he only needed his own body for the day. Without much more than a simple sigh, Mule made his way out of the house.

The day was warmer than usual, even it was the segway day between winter and spring. It turned out that the whole town was up an hour earlier getting cleanup started. It turns out, the pegasi ponies cleared up the sky, so there was more sunlight heating the area.  It’s not surprising he wasn’t notified, he wasn’t exactly a big part of the effort. However, he still felt that a duty still needed to be attended to. Mule had to see Applejack and. . .

“Oh horseapples, Applejack!” Mule said remembering the job he was late for.

Bucking off the ground, the mule ran towards his destination. Adrenaline pumping in his body made sure that any morning aches were ignored. While he knew that he wasn’t essential to Winter-Wrap Up, that didn’t mean he wanted to slack. Mule verbally kicked himself in the flank for being so stupid. He just got done with saying that he was worthy of being treated like an equal, and then show up late to a job.

‘Great, just freaking great!’

It took about ten minutes for Mule to get over to the Apple farm, given the fact he lives on the opposite end of town. He was relieved to find out that the farm seemed to be largely uncleared. At least he could still do most of the work he was suppose to. The only problem now was finding Applejack. Finding her should have been easy, since she’s an orange mare, contrasted against an either green or white background. Today though she apparently wanted to play elusive, as she was nowhere in sight.

After about five minutes of searching around the farm, the task became daunting very quickly. The most confusing aspect was the fact that the stallions seemed to be clearing out the field with no direction. It was then, through strained eyes, that Mule spotted a small yellow figure jumping up and down on a stallion. He figured that it was the closest thing that could provide an answer, so he wasted no time in approaching it.

“Mush, mush, I said mush!” The little ball commanded.

“Um, excuse me?” The ball continued yelling, ignoring Mule.

“I said, excuse me.” Mule reiterated, with a louder voice.

“Mush!”

“Excuse me.”

“Mush!”

“EXCUSE ME!” Mule roared, silencing filly and the rest of the ponies. “Um, I would like to know where Applejack is, or what I can do to help here.”

“Oh, that’s right, Mule was suppose to help us today.” Apple Bloom muttered to herself.

Apple Bloom looked on at Mule with a thoughtful gaze. He grew concerned about the gaze, it seemed like she was trance. The silence drew itself out over the scene like a light breeze over a plain. It grew more and more uncomfortable, as Mule couldn’t figure out exactly what to do without coming across as rude. He did take a few steps closer, maybe the movement would shake her out of it.

The stallion she stood on seemed to be lost in thought, and Apple Bloom didn’t change her position one bit. Mule grew cautious about the lack of movement, but like a strike of lightning, Apple Bloom changed her facial expression. She leaned herself back with a mouth shaped like an “O”, quirked eyebrows, and then she moved in close to Mule’s face.

“WE. NEED. YOU. TO. HELP. CLEAR. THE. SNOW.” Apple Bloom spoke slowly and clearly.

“Yeah, I know. What specifically do you want me to do?”

“APPLEJACK. CAN. SHOW. YOU.”

“I was just asking for. . . Never mind, where can I find her?” Mule inquired, wondering about Apple Blooms antiques in the back of his mind.

‘If I didn’t know any better, I would say she thinks I’m an idiot.’

“SHE’S. IN. THE. BARN. . . BAAAAAARN.”

‘She thinks I’m an idiot.’

“THANK. YOU. I. UNDERSTAND. NOW.” Mule said mimicking the pony.

“GLAD. TO. HELP. . HEEEEELP.”

Before he could smack his head against a solid object, Mule left for the barn, just to save his sanity; Apple Bloom went back to “mushing” the stallion. Mule began musing to himself. Could he really be percieved as so stupid? It has to be a prank the filly was playing. Yeah, little fillies love joking around, and annoying people. That has to be it.

‘I hope.’

Trotting up to the barn, Mule knocked on the door. When no response was heard, he repeated himself. Again, the same silence was reigning over the environment. With a huff, Mule beat on the door, yelling for the orange mare. Still there was no response. Exasperation kicked in at this point. There was no way she didn’t hear him, so she had to be ignoring him.

“Let’s see you ignore this.” Mule mumbled to himself as he turned around.

Mule positioned himself at the dead center of the double door barn. Tensing the muscles in his hind legs, Mule sent said legs flying at the door. Just then, they opened before he could make contact.

“What do ya wa-- AH!” Applejack yelled as her snout was smashed in by two hooves.

“Oh no! Applejack, I’m so sorry!” Mule said bending over the prone figure of AJ.

Her hooves remained in front of her face, but it was obvious what she was hiding, as a crimson river began to flow. Without a seconds hesitation, the mule moved AJ’s hooves away from face. Much to Applejack’s resistance, he inspected her snout to see if it was broken. Coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t, Mule made his way outside of the barn, seeming as though he left.

Applejack sat up dazed and confused. Her nose was still in poor condition, so she leaned forward and tried to hold it shut. Seeing as she was just kicked in the face, this task proved difficult since she couldn’t locate her nose. Applejack didn’t have to deal with the conundrum for long though, as her assailant came back with a mouthful of snow.

Before Applejack could speak, Mule pressed the snow up against her injured nose, and then closed the bleeding passageway himself. Minutes of silence went by, as the two sat perfectly still. Every so often he would release the grip to check on the bleeding. At first it was still bleeding profusely, however, after several checks over even more minutes, the bleeding had finally stopped. Mule backed away from Applejack, a blush on his face. He left the barn for a moment, an attempt at trying to cool his face with cool spring air. Mule walked back into the room awaited by Applejack just staring blankly at him.

“I’m so sorry for the booting you in the head thing, I honestly didn’t know you were behind me! Um, I guess that doesn’t make it any better does it? Well, all I can say is sorry, and at least you’re okay now right?” Mule hastily spoke. Applejack continued to stare, concerning Mule.

“If this is about me being late, I really didn’t mean to be. I just overslept, but I ran over here as quick as I could! I just want-- Applejack are you even there.”

Applejack continued to stare into space, as Mule stewed in the silence. Although something about this was seeming incredibly familiar. It was then that Applejack started to make an “O” shape with her mouth.

‘No.’

Applejack then leaned back, quirking her eybrows.

‘Don’t do it.’

She then leaned forward and was about to speak.

‘Don’t even think about it!’

“THANK. YOU. FOR. THE. HELP.”

‘Damnit.’

The work operation went off without much problem. Though it took some time for the Apples to explain the equipment, Mule still got his work and supplementary work done on the farm. It was about one hour of nonstop plowing of snow; Mule didn’t care though, he was use to the work. It was a little bit difficult, given that a certain purple unicorn wanted to help, but ended up creating a plow pile-up.

It finally came time to end of his shift, and it was welcomed.  Granted there was still a lot to do on the farm, but Mule had completed a hard days work of plowing, and he really didn’t want to stick around ponies who thought he was lobotomized. Taking off the plow, Mule left waving a hoof at the Apples. They responded with a strained, perfectly enunciated, goodbye. Mule shook his head, but decided against retorting.

Mule’s path home was still covered in snow. An untainted white path into the woods. Every step crunched the snow under his hoof. The difficulty walking was very bothersome at first, but in the quiet a sound could be heard. The steps had formed into a rough musical pattern. Curious about what other sounds could be made, Mule began dancing in the snow, putting his hoofs down in a patterned beat.

A large smile made it’s way onto Mule’s face. Like a carefree child, all the worries and problems melted off of his body, and out of his mind. The sound of birds returning home, singing of their arrival, only served to lighten the mood further. A stiff breeze found itself pushing into the woods that Mule occupied. The half melted snow on the tree branches were no match for the breeze, as they fell down directly on top of Mule.

Who proceeded to laugh joyously.

The surrounding forest acted as added percussion. The trees, like drums, echoed a beat across all of the woods. Simple, yet elegant, the beat caught on to the woodland animals. Bears, beavers, badgers, and even bobcats got in on the act. It was then that a pegasus had to intervene at the ludicrous situation.

“What do you think you’re exactly?”

Looking up, Mule saw a rainbow colored mane and what appeared to be a chicken with a purple mane riding on the larger ones back? Oh, wait no, that was also a pegasus.

“I uh, just was having some fun?” The mule unsure about the accusation.

“It looks like you’re messing up the coordination effort for waking up the animals.”

Mule looked around and saw that while some of the animals were having fun with the instrumental, some looked perturbed at the sudden awakening.He looked down at the ground embarrassed by his sporadic actions.

“Sorry for that, I don’t know what I was doing.”

“Well that just figures doesn’t it.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“It means that we aren’t surprised that you’re messing everything up!” Scootaloo chimed in from Rainbow Dashes back.

“I never knew chickens could talk.”

“Why you--” Scootaloo began to charge before she forgot that she couldn’t fly.

“It’s okay, I got this.” Rainbow Dash said cracking her neck, looking like she had a devious plan. “I was going to keep this a secret but if you’re going to make fun of my sister. . .”

Mule quirked an eyebrow, and Scootaloo eyes glimmered with joyful tears at the title.

“We know exactly what kind of animal you are, and we know you're not worth the time of day.”

“That’s not--”

“Yes, it is true! You know why they didn’t accept your bill at the last meeting? Everypony knows that you just want to be lazy and leech off of the rest of us. I mean, what do you even do? What have you ever done to help anypony else, nothing, that's what. If you want to do something useful, just go away!” Rainbow Dash accused Mule, pointing at him and never wavering from direct eye contact.

Mule’s knees grew week. His breath began to shudder. His brain began to rush with many of years . Was everything she said true? How could this be the true feelings of everypony he’s ever known? What did he do to deserve all of this disdain, all he ever wanted was to do was prove himself. He could believe that he wasn’t liked, hay it was believable that they thought less of him then other ponies. But the sheer amount of vitriol he could feel, was enough to break any spirit.

Dejected, Mule lowered his head and continued his walk home, a conquered equine. Rainbow Dash watched as Mule trudged on. Her confident smirk  faded by the second as her words finally sunk in. After only a few seconds Rainbows eyes were opened in dismay; she already guessed the repercussions of her words, and she didn’t like them one bit.  Before she could call out to Mule, Scootaloo began smothering her older “sister”.

“Aw, I love you too sis, you’re so cool! No one ever stands up for me like that! Rainbow Dash is the coolest pony ever! Um, you didn’t mean that thing about cutie marks though, right?”

“No! I mean, you’re just a little filly, you not having your cutie mark isn’t weird.”

“Tell that to Diamond Tiara.” Scootaloo muttered under her breath, but it was still heard by Rainbow Dash.

“Who’s that?”

“Just some jerk at school that makes fun of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and me about our blank flanks everyday. She even got the rest of our class in on making fun of us.” Scootaloo said with a depressed sigh.

Rainbow looked at the filly stunned. She wasn’t aware of any of that. Sure, it would come natural that there would be some mean fillies, but the entire class? That was enough to push Rainbow over the edge. Looking back to the spot where Mule was, she noticed that he was gone, only his footprints left behind.

‘One at a time Dash, one at a time.’

Dash looked over at her passenger, who was still upset by her own revelation. With a quick buck of the body, Rainbow shook Scootaloo out of her daze. A simple smile was the only warning the little filly got before both, her and her sister, went shooting off in the distance.

A beat severely slowed from it’s original form, encompassed the forest. Mules thoughts tossed around his emotions like paper in a tornado. He should hate them. What reason had they given him not to? Everyday, every kind gesture, was the biggest sham that Ponyville had ever seen. And Mule was the jackass in the middle. It was then that an angel started to sing.

“Piece, by piece, putting it together,” A melodic voice sang from far away.

She was enough to distract Mule from the pain heart, for the time being. Like a puppet, the mule obeyed the vocal strings of the puppeteer. He began to stray from the path back home. With every step the voice grew louder and louder. Soon single, deliberate steps became a quick and clumsy sprint. The sun’s rays became more intense as he neared the exit. He eventually broke through the barrier of wood, but the awaited sight wasn’t there.

Mule used his flexible ears to pinpoint the exact location. It was coming from the edge of town. Without restraint, Mule charged towards the sound, completely unforgiving to anything that was in his path. Several little piles of snow were completely demolished, and some ponies had to dive out of the way. It wasn’t long before Mules ears directed him to a certain boutique.

“Hm hmm hm hmm hm.” a beautiful hum replaced the signing.

The entranced equine turned the corner of the boutique, and froze, realizing who the voice belonged to. Rarity, the resident fashionista, was not exactly a good friend of Mule. The two have had a few run ins in the past, none of them ending well. While he couldn’t deny her gorgeous singing voice, he didn’t much care to be around her. If could just walk back, nice and slow. . .

“Who’s there?”

‘Horseapples.’

Mule knew he was caught, but he was confused because the voice came from behind him

“Why are you spying on my big sister?” Sweetie Belle asked out of genuine curiosity.

“Oh, I uh, well actually. . . You see, a funny story that--”

“Sweetie Belle, who are you talking to.” Rarity called out.

“One of those DSM’s you told me about!”

‘What in the world is a--’

In the blink of an eye Rarity was on the two. Without a single line of explanation, Rarity lifted her little sister with her magic, and demanded that she go and bathe. With just the two of them left, Rarity looked at Mule with anger and disgust.

“What do you want?”

“I-I-I’m sorry I just heard somepony singing and--”

“You wanted to see who was singing? I’m assuming because you liked it?”

“Actually yes, I thought it was really good.”

“Maybe I should see Fluttershy about some singing help.” Rarity said to herself quietly. “Now I think it’s time for you to leave. I wouldn’t want you to muddy up anymore of my boutique. I think that I should also wash up after coming in contact with a ‘Dirty Stinking Mule’.” Rarity mumbled the last line to herself. She never took into consideration Mule’s hearing skill.

“You know what, you are the dirty one!” Mule yelled at Rarity, who gawked at the accusation. “You and the other ponies are the dirty ones, treating somepony who you don’t know like crap!" Mule yelled storming away without so much as a look back.

It was the final straw. No more taking the abuse lying down. With reinvigorated bravado in his step, Mule marched into the town hall, ready to confront Mayor Mare on everything he has dealt with. Passing by the secretary who was trimming her hooves, Mule pushed open the double doors to the office.

Lucky for the mayor, she was out at that time monitoring Winter Wrap Up. The room was decorated head to toe with warm, and elegant decor. But there was one thing that stood out amongst everything in the whole room. A single folder sitting on the mayors desk, it read “Ponyville Finances”.  A devious smile crept it’s way unto Mule’s face. Looking around to make sure that nopony else was around, Mule quickly slipped into the office.

Moving behind the desk, Mule sat in the mayor's chair and opened the folder. Inside contained all the economic decisions for the town of Ponyville, and the intricacies of every business, over the past couple years, and a few decisions yet to be implemented. And Mule was. . . Unimpressed. Allocation of assets seemed to all go away from the citizens, and to Canterlot businesses.  However he couldn’t blame Mayor Mare for the poor decisions. From the records, it seems like Ponyville has been in debt to several Canterlot corporations since before she was in office. It’s more than likely she had to deal with more troubles than most ponies.

Not only that but it seemed that some of the businesses in town were less than couth, when it came to their money. It was on record that some of them received certain tax breaks, because of the threats of moving their businesses to competing towns. Also a lot of employee's had been unfairly paid, with varying wages based on arbitrary reasoning. But all of this could be fixed with a few brash edits. Thinking again of what Mayor Mare must put with, Mule felt a different kind of anger.

‘They can’t even let me be mad at them.’

With an exhausted sigh, Mule picked up a pen with his mouth, and began editing.

The rest of the day went on with a dull drag. The ponies had finished cleaning for spring, and Mule made his way home without anymore incidents. He merely went home, and read another one of his books, this  being an economics textbook that he’s read a hundred times before. A dull reading was what lulled Mule off into sleep.

In the morning, the warm spring air awoke the inhabitant of the small house. Like every other morning he got out of bed and stretched. The creeks echoing throughout the establishment, but there was another sound that accompanied it, a knock at the door.

Perplexed by the foreign noise, Mule hesitantly moved towards his door. The slow movement only caused more anxiety, as the knocks grew louder and louder. Finally he made his way to the, attempting to open it slowly. This attempt failed however, because as the door was tentatively being opened, the outdoor party pushed it open the rest of the way. The bright light of the outdoors blurred his vision, but only partially. Mule knew who was at the door.

With a quick rush, the visitor wrapped her hooves around Mule, pulling him into a deep hug. Her words were mumbled against his neck, but he could tell what she was saying.

“Thank you.”