The Striped Apples

Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Rockstar stood on a small hill that overlooked acre upon acre of trees bearing the ripe, red fruit that his cousins made their living off of.  "I should really think about what I'm about to offer before I open my big fat mouth," Rockstar said quietly.  It wouldn't take an expert to tell him that he had a long day ahead of him.

"C'mon, ya'll, we'd better get ta work," Applejack said.  With a nod, Big Macintosh silently walked off to start the day's work.  "Here, Rockstar, you can help me today."  Rockstar followed Applejack in the opposite direction in which Big Mac had walked.

"Would ya mind if I listened to my music while I worked?", Rockstar asked.

"Sure, just keep one ear open fer if ya can hear me," Applejack answered.  Rockstar then pulled out his music player from his saddlebags and put in one ear bud, being greeted by Foalbeat's song, Still Counting.  While he was readying his music player, Applejack positioned herself to face away from an apple tree and bucked it as hard as she could, causing a rain of apples to fall into a few well placed buckets.

'Alright, looks easy enough,'  Rockstar though as he readied himself to buck the closest tree to him.  He put all the power he could in his hind legs, bucking the tree as hard as he possibly could.  Rockstar turned, expecting to see the buckets full of apples, only to find that he had done little more than make a few of the branches shake.  "Oh, tough guy, huh?," Rockstar said, not realizing that he was talking to a tree.  He turned around once more and bucked the tree harder than the last time, then turning to see the same results.  Rockstar turned around again, now very annoyed by his new wooden foe, and began furiously bucking the tree with his hind legs.  Panting, he turned around expecting to see at least a few apples to be in the buckets now.  His hope were soon crushed as he saw that the buckets were still devoid of the cursed red fruit.  Rockstar groaned loudly in annoyance, banging his head against the tree once.  As if it were the punchline of a joke the tree had with it's other leafy friends, an apple feel off of it's branch and bounced off of Rockstars head.  As if to add insult to injury, he turned to see his orange cousin, who had apparently been watching the entire time, laughing her flank off.    Rockstar was about to let loose with a string of curses at both the tree and his laughing cousin, but was cut off by streak of rainbow color that sent a powerful gust of wind through the apple orchard.  "What in the name of Celestia was that!?", Rockstar asked, picking himself up after the the gust had knocked him on his flank.  He was answered by the sound of a crash.

"Rainbow Dash!", Applejack yelled, running in the direction that the speeding blur had crashed.

"Rainbow what?", Rockstar asked, running alongside his cousin.

They reached the scene of the crash, which was the old barn that now had a hole in the roof.  "Rainbow Dash, my show off pegasus friend," Applejack explained.  "Rainbow, you alright?", she yelled into the barn.

"She crashed at like a hundred miles an hour, she can't possibly be.." Rockstar began.

"Fine," came a voice from the inside of the barn. "I'm alright."  After a moment, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored main and tail came stumbling dizzily out of the barn, covered in dirt, hay, and a few bruises.

'Oh, hellooo,' Rockstar though, trying to keep his eyes from popping out of his head.  He quickly shook the thought away and asked the mare, "You sure you're okay, not many ponies can take a crash like that and walk away."

"You kiddin', she crashes like that at least three times a week,"  Applejack said, going up to help dust off her friend.

"Yeah, no big deal," Rainbow Dash said.  "Who are you, anyways?"

"This here's my cousin Rockstar," Applejack answered for him.  "Came to Ponyville ta visit."  Rockstar and Rainbow Dash hoof bumped.

"So you're new in town, huh?", Rainbow asked

"Naw, Ah used to live here for a little while, but my family moved around a lot,"  Rockstar answered.  "Just revisiting old times."

"Well then we should throw you a welcome back party!", a pink mare with a poofy pink cotton candy mane exclaimed as she popped out of a barrel.  Rainbow Dash jumped in surprise at the mare's sudden materialization behind her.

"Pinkie, stop sneaking up on me like that!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Why was she in that barrel?", Rockstar asked.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm friends with everypony in town but you're new around here and that means that I'm not you're friend yet but we're gonna be bestest friends really soon. Ooh, now I have to go organize your party, bye!", the pink mare had said this in one rapid, run-on breath and disappeared just as quick back into the barrel, leaving Rockstar dazed and still processing the rapid fire stream of information that had just been shot at him.

"Well, we'd better get back ta havestin' them apples, Rockstar," Applejack said as he was inspecting the barn for any sign of the strange pink mare.  "See ya later, Rainbow Dash."

"Later AJ, later Rockstar," Rainbow said as she flew off in the general direction of town.

"Need help fixin' the barn later?", Rockstar asked as he walked out of the barn and began to retrieve his music player.

"Naw, nothin' that Big Mac can't patch up in a few minutes," Applejack answered.  In a few moments, they were back to the spot that they came from.  Rockstar could see that the sudden blast of wind that Rainbow Dash had created had done a better job at removing the apples from their trees than he had.  He looked at his wings and sparked an idea.

"I... am.... dying!" Rockstar moaned dramatically as he laid on his stomach, wings spread out and sore.  He was never the strongest flier and he rarely used his wings for anything more than gliding from place to place.  The sun was beginning to set on Sweet Apple Acres, and around Rockstar and Applejack, buckets upon buckets were full of the cursed red fruit.  "I will never eat another apple again," Rockstar said from his position on the ground as he switched the song on his music player to Marilyn Maneson's The Beautiful Ponies.  'Or until the next time you do,' his brain told him.

'Shut up, Brain, no pony asked you.'

"Ya did good today, Rockstar," Applejack said as she began pulling the 'dying' stallion to the farmhouse by his tail.