1st of 1st Summer
On the night before the first summer month, I dreamt of you Ma. I remember the day when you were on your last legs. Granny smith had to drag me out of the orchards as I kept myself distracted with piles and piles of chores. I did everything I could, just so I wouldn't have to think about you being gone.
Maybe even at the time I had this delusional belief that if I worked real hard and did my best towards what you always wanted me to be, you'd suddenly get all better and be so proud of me.
At the time I didn't want to be stuck in this farm. I didn't want to water crops, buck apples and plow the fields day in day out. I wanted to be anything except a farmer. Like a royal guard saving mares in distress or an adventurer pony restoring magical artifacts into equestria's hooves. I wanted to travel Equestria spreading out my name and going into legend like so many heroes before me.
But then, on your last day I finally came to you sweating from the summer sun, stinking of apples and dirt. You smiled while you cried, tears going down your cheek like a river would be born from them.
You looked so proud. Your last words never leaving me.
Mah lil' apple's turned into a real Big mac
Pa was a great apple farmer. The best in Equestria. He lived for his family and worked his hooves to the bone everyday so I could dream the dreams I had. He lived happily making others have the means to find their happiness. And you wanted me to be just like him. Right, from birth. Even naming me after him. I didn't want to follow in his hoof steps, but it was what you wanted. Your last wish, your final plea, because I was the only pony that could do it.
I was the only pony that could make my family so happy. Just like you were, on your very last day.
Because of that dream, I decided to start a journal. I don't know if you can read this but, I like to think so. I'm thinking from now on I'm going to tell you everything that's been happening on the farm. And if someday some smarty pants unicorn works out how to send letters to heaven. I'll be figuring you'll be wanting to hear news about the farm.
So I'm going to write it all down for you so I don't forget and so that you don't miss a beat.
The apple family is doing fine, Ma. I worked real hard and it was tough at first but I did it somehow. I finished my schoolin' and became the pony that kept the family business going. Who knew that these fancy mathematics could be so useful for farming.
I watered the crops, harvest the apples, tended the fields and sold the good to Filthy Rich who picked up the goods everyday and paid the bits he promised everyday without fail. I even go to market day everyday to get me some good deals on food and seeds and bits.
Recently I've been thinking about expanding the farm and growing other crops. So I plowed some land last winter wrap up and prepared a field. The farm's also got a pig sty now, Applejack joined one of the rodeos a few years back and joined in one of the junior competitions. She won first prize and won us a prized piglet. She's also gotten real good with winona and she's trained the girl to be a real sheep dog.
I'm going to be spending a few days in town hiring some cows and sheep to join the farm. Ain't nothin' to it really. Just go to town hall and do them a few favours. If you do them real good, they visit you one morning and suddenly you got yourself some sheep and cows.
6th of 1st Summer
Today I learned a really good system for tending apples. See, apples sprout every three days and you only need to water them once every two days. So if I water half the trees one day and the other half the next day. I only need to harvest half the apples for two days and get a free day to do other things. Unlike the old way where you gotta water all the plants one day and harvest them all one day.
I don't know how Pa managed to do that all on his own, but I know I'm not even half the stallion he is to manage that.
I just don't have the stamina for it.
Yet.
7th of 1st Summer
Granny Smith just sent out all the letters across Equestria for the Apple reunion. I haven't seen cousin Braeburn in years and it's really been galling me. But this time, I'm not going to lose to him on the midnight cider drinking.
I'm going to show everypony that the Sweet Apple Acres Apples are the best drinkers in Equestria. Just like how Pa was.
8th of 1st Summer
Big news! Ponyville is going to be the host of this year's summer sun celebration.
I hope I get my chores done on time on the day to make it. I always wanted to see Princess Celestia. I hear she's real pretty.
Maybe I could be like Old Papa Smith and kiss her hoof like a real gentlecolt.
10th of 1st Summer
Mayor Mare assigned Sweet Apple Acres for the catering! We have to prepare all the food for the summer banquet after the celebration. I don't know why the cakes couldn't do it but I guess you don't look a gift pony in the mouth. This is a chance to show Equestria how the Apple family does things.
It's a good thing the Apple family reunion is on the way. We're going to need all the Apples we can get our hooves on.
17th of 1st Summer
All the nearby Apple family finally got together. Except for Braeburn, apparently he's gone out with his family to travel or something. Nopony has heard from him since, but everyone's got a pretty good inkling that he'll be fine.
I do hope he's alright. I don't want to lose contact with him before I beat him at cider drinking.
The few days have been hard but the farm has been managing preparing all the apples and the getting all the flour and eggs. I've been running circles around Ponyville for days and for awhile I thought none of the family would come to help out, making all my work pointless.
But I should of known to never doubt an Apple. Family takes care of its own.
We have three days to have enough food to feed a whole town. Usually I'd think that was impossible. But I'm surrounded by good and capable Apples. And when Apples are together, we can't be beat.
20th of 1st Summer
Today was the Summer Sun Celebration. And for the longest day it was had an awful lot of night to it. Right at the crack of supposed dawn, the sun never came. I tended the fields with the family, thinking maybe Celestia had a bit too much to drink at last night's party or something. We joked like that all day while we tended the farm, but worry was clear in our smiling faces.
At around the middle of the morning, Applejack past the farm and had a bunch of mares from around town with her. She didn't have much time to talk seeing as she was in a big hurry. I wouldn't have thought much of it. Maybe just a few girls going off to have some fun around the place, maybe on the way to Fluttershy's or something.
But they were clearly heading towards the Everfree forest.
I headed into town and the place was in a real panic. The place was in martial law, with guards keeping everyone in and anyone outside out. I couldn't get past the first bridge due to the guards keeping me away. I asked them about what was happening but they refused to talk.
I didn't like the look of how uncertain they were.
At around the middle of the afternoon, the sun returned. And Applejack came back home after real night fell, apparently Pinkie Pie was having one of her parties and this one covered the whole town proper. I hope the princess didn't mind.
When AJ explained everything it was too much to handle. It was so epic to hear. It's too much for me to write down right now. But maybe when I've come to accept it properly. I'll be able to tell you the story.
Or maybe I'll ask AJ herself to tell you all about it.
Long story short, Applejack became a real hero. An element of harmony. Somepony that I didn't even dream to be possible. I'm so proud Ma. And I think you would be too.
I need to work real hard. I might not be a hero, but I'll do my best so that whenever my little sister goes off saving the world. She'll always have a place to call home.
24th of 1st Summer
It's so strange how things go back to normal so quickly. Just four whole days ago, the world was being threatened with eternal night. My sister became a defender of Equestria and we got a second princess four days ago... You'd think historic times like that would keep people amazed for longer but it didn't. It just goes to show that Ponyville ponies are made of stern stuff, and Apples aren't going to be any less.
Though, on the subject that's more important. I found some fresh Apples dropped in the middle of the road this morning while I was returning from town. Applejack was harvesting today with some help from her new friend Twilight and Spike, so I know who was to blame for it.
But not only that, in the afternoon, the commissioned apple pastries the Cakes wanted vanished cart and all. I later found out that Applejack took them to town and abandoned them. Because I found the cart in the middle of town and she wasn't there tending it.
Applebloom was in school, Granny smith was napping all day. So it comes to reason that it was Applejack again.
She confessed about it when she came home, so I couldn't be too hard on her. She was all panicked that the pastries were stolen while she was busy trying to nab tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. I gave her a good talking to about treating our apples right. They're as much family to us all as each other. They help us with our lives and keeps us going.
She seemed to understand it all too well as I told her. She had the family in mind the whole time, wanting the tickets so she could make a good profit selling the apple treats we make at the Gala.
Her heart was in the right place. She's grown up to be a good little pony.
Suffice to say I took the cart and gave the Cakes their delivery, caught them on a busy lunch rush and they were just running out of Apples pastries. I got a nice little bonus for my good timing.
2nd month of summer Year 1
1st of 2nd Summer
Today marks the first day of Applebucking season. A time of year when the Apple family works for a full week harvesting apples ready for cider making later in the year. The galas are the only apples that would do, but the seeds I got from winning the annual reunion cider drinking contest won't be coming along to sprout the galas until next year.
Mcintoshes aren't really ideal for anything but pie and a quick snack, but they will have to do. Nopony in Ponyville ever really notices the differences in apples anyway. Any cider we make is the best in town no matter what.
Unfortunately, due to a terrible barn dance accident Applejack's the only pony to really do all the harvesting. A certain somepony got a little overexcited back at the reunion and broke my ribs showing off her bucking-bronco style dance moves. The doctor says it's just a minor fracture and it should heal within a week if I keep up a healthy diet. I'm guessing the Doc just means eat more apples.
Nothing keeps the doctor away than a good apple. That's what Granny Smith likes to say. Tripped and hurt your leg? If I ate my apples I'd be watching where I was going because of all the sugar coming to my brain. Broke some bones or gotten ill? If I ate my apples I'd have shrug that off like it was just a small trip on the road.
She'd go on like that for hours.
2nd of 2nd Summer
Today AJ took up her word and came out to the orchards to buck the trees without so much as me even asking her. Her work didn't last past an afternoon though, because come noon she comes chasing after a herd of stampeding cows. She was amazing. A real cow pony, just like Pa taught her to be.
She saved the town from the panicked cows and Mayor Mare was so impressed that she was going to hold an award for her later in the week. AJ was getting real uppity about her reputation as the most reliable and dependable of ponies. And now she's going to be officially awarded for it.
I really hope this doesn't give her any funny ideas.
3rd of 2nd Summer
Okay, at first I thought AJ could really handle all this harvesting with that gusto she showed me the other day. But she's really not helping anypony working nonstop like that. Watching her out there in the fields with bags in her eyes and her bucks getting slowly clumsier and clumsier... it really makes me mad at myself for letting me get like this.
She really is just like Pa. Keeper of her word. Honest right down to her Apple core. But that's what got him. With Ma being weak as she was, he just kept working and working. For years he said he was fine. He was fit as a fiddle, dandy as can be. But one Applebucking season, come sun down, he never came back home.
Me and AJ just came home from school and waited for him. We all thought that he was just out late in the fields again, squeezing those last few moments in the sun in before he comes home tired and smiling his stubborn smile. Like the world, for another day couldn't bring him down.
When the full moon came we went looking for him...
4th of 2nd Summer
Applejack came out in the morning to her award ceremony having literally just come from a night of bucking trees right to the early morning. She barely had an hour's sleep and still she insists on going to her ceremony. I offered to take her place and take it in her honour while she rested. But she insisted.
I was too worried to just leave things at that. I couldn't stop her, but at the very least I could keep an eye on her. I know as I am I can't do much, but I'm sure I can at least do something.
As AJ's friends talk about AJ I can't help but realise just how much she'd loaded herself with. Taking on Applebuck season alone is one thing, but to do all these favours on top? She's gotta listen to me and get some rest. The cider can wait, apples can be bucked later. We might lose out on some important funds, but that doesn't matter. It's pointless if I don't have the family to spend it on.
It seems, her unicorn friend was just as concerned so she visited the farm later in the day just when I'd been done begging her all day to stop working. I was hoping she'd listen to her friend. I mean family can easily be taken for granted, and in those times, friends tend to speak to a pony more. I was hoping that was the case with AJ. But I guess not.
5th of 2nd Summer
I was mad. Very angry with concern. So I thought I'd knock some sense into that thick head of hers and get her some sleep. Luckily I didn't have to. When I came to her early in the morning, she was asleep by one of the trees still standing up doing lazy bucks to the air behind her.
I thought I'd gently take her to bed. I don't know if my ribs are strong enough to support her weight on my back, but I had to risk it. And then the damn rooster crows and she remembers that she needs to go to town to meet Rainbow Dash for some stupid trick.
This time I couldn't chase after her. I couldn't do any heavy lifting, but I could still do a bit of light work. With AJ only ever bucking trees day in, day out none of the other chores have been done. If I didn't water the crops they would all die and we'd be out of pocket. I harvested what I could from the apples that just fell to the ground.
Hopefully that's at least enough money from Filthy to last us long enough for me to recover and put in some overtime later. In other news I got a random visit from one of the stampeding cows. She looked really interested in the field I had fenced, ready for animals. She was interested but I guess I wasn't really selling myself enough to appeal to her as an employer.
I really should work some part time jobs to earn a bit of extra cash. Mooerella the cow says there are some cows in Ponyville that are needing some help. And should I do a good enough job, they might visit the farm to live on the fields. Milk is really valuable around these parts. If I had cows on the farm, I would be able to afford some improvements around the farm.
6th of 2nd Summer
AJ came home all battered and bruised. I needed to do some errands that day around Ponyville so I decided to drag her to the local clinic for a check up. Apparently AJ's been eating her apples because from what she told the doctor about falling from a great height several times in a row, she should be a cast. But the doctor gave her a perfect bill of health besides a few minor injuries.
After the morning we went our separate ways. She had something to do down at the cakes with Pinkie Pie. I wanted to look after her but she's a big pony. She's only making apple pie. Thing's should be fine. At least I hope so, but even if that wasn't the case I have to get some work done and earn some money.
As I went about my day the streets of Ponyville became less and less busy. Come lunch time, no pony was on the streets at all. No idea what happened there, but it's not all that important. I needed to get back to the farm. I got a few chores to deal with before dark.
7th of 2nd Summer
Applejack left the farm late in the morning, dashing towards the Everfree forest in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. So long as she doesn't pull off an epidemic as bad as the baked bads incident everything should be fine.
I'm still hurting a little, but I seem to be able to buck again. Picking up some slack but all the while taking it easy and steady I harvested a good bunch of apples. I left for town to buy some supplies for the farm and found everything in ruins. It was something about a great bunny stampede... I dunno. I just went about my business and went back home.
I came back with the whole farm Applebucked. With the help of a few farm hooves the work was done and I caught AJ and her friends getting a little high off our supply. Though a bottle of cider each doesn't cost us as much as actually farm labour wages. So I guess I can't complain.
I just wish Applejack didn't give away my break time cider that I hid inside the apple juice bottles that day. I was really looking forward to those things.
To be updated later.
Author's Note
Different date format to the first chapter name just to help people out who might be confused in its meaning, by 1st and 2nd "season."
Each seasons has 2 months.
