Applejack's Vacation
(Set just prior to The After Years)
Applejack while at Granny Smith's funeral ran into her Uncle and Aunt Orange. The citrus tycoon took the news of his mother's passing horribly. Mosely had hardly kept in contact with his Ponyville roots and as a result he never got to say good bye.
"Mama, Ah'm sorry!" The rich pony threw his posh accent out in favor of the one he had growing up and broke down into a state of heavy sobbing. He hadn't felt this horrible since the passing of his older brother.
Mandarin his wife tried her best to comfort the weeping stallion. "Darling, she wouldn't have wanted you to blame yourself."
"B-but--" The equally orange mare cut him off.
"But, nothing. You are Mosely Orange and your mother wouldn't have wanted you to beat yourself up over this."
Mosely knew his wife was right and wiped his tears with the sleeve of his jacket. "Ah just wish errr..." He cleared his throat and went back to his Manehattan elite accent."... I just wish I could make things right." He looked at the apple orchard and hatched an idea.
Applejack had witnessed her uncle's emotional breakdown and trotted up to him. "A-are ya okay?"
"It hurts, but I know how I can do right by my mother. I'd like to discuss marketing with you."
Applejack was taken aback by the jarring statement. "Marketin'?"
"My mother, your granny put so much of herself into this land, that I think it's time make things easier for future generations. I could make Sweet Apple Acres the biggest name in organic produce, right next to my own Mostly Orange Groves."
"Ah don't know..." She said skeptically.
"Tell you what, come down to Manehattan for a day, we'll talk, have lunch and if I can't convince you this is a good idea I'll buck apples for a month."
Applejack had nothing to lose plus with Granny Smith gone the finances of the farm needed help. "Okay, uncle ya got yourself a deal. Put 'er there." Applejack spit into her hoof and help it out towards her uncle.
He repeated the actions and bumped his hoof to hers. "Deal."
Mandarin whom had seen all this cringed at her husband's crass behavior and forgot that a long time ago, he used to be a farmer.
The next weekend Applejack made the trip to Manehattan, had lunch at the famous Marenegie Deli and make a long story short Mosely didn't end up bucking any apples. He, through the use of his fancy mathematics sold her on the idea of marketing and expanding the Sweet Apple Acres name. The money would be good, clean and the Apples would keep eighty percent of the profit with the rest going to marketing, farm equipment and workers (most being unpaid interns form the Canterlot College of Agriculture).
Applejack took another weekend trip to Manehattan to go over the final details as Mosely pointed to a huge upward inclining arrow on the chart he set up.
"...and is a final projection of where sales will be in eight years. "
Applejack simply nodded as she watched her uncle's presentation.
"The last item to discuss is, we have procured the designs for a cider press machine." Mosely pulled out a blue tube of rolled up paper, unfurled it and passed it the younger pony.
"The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000?! Did ya make a deal with them two con ponies?"
"Super Speedy Whatty?"
"That there cider machine. It looks like that contraption that those bamboozalin' Slim Jim brothers used to try and steal our farm."
"My researchers have been working on our own motorized juice press for years. This one runs on unicorn power or grain alcohol." The orange stallion explained in an indignant fashion slightly offended that with all his money that his niece didn't think his own R and D department could create a giant moving juicer with science!
"Ah'm sorry, if'n Ah offended ya.This whole "modernization" thing has got me acting a darn fool."
Mosely chuckled. "That quit alright. Now here is the paper work for the Canterlot College of Agriculture and that needs to be done is..."
After Applejack's discussion with her uncle, he suggested that she take a much needed vacation.
"Now that business has been squared away, I think you can afford to take some time off."
"Time off?!"
Without missing a beat Mosely continued his current train of thought completely ignoring the shocked and confused look on his niece's face. "I hear the west coast is nice this time of year, so why not Coltifornia?"
"Ah don' know..."
"I've already taken care of the necessary arrangements."
"What about Mac, Applebloom and all mah friends?"
"Already taken care of."
"Mah bags?"
"Packed."
"Winona?"
"Woof!" Applejack looked down and was shocked to see her dog already in the room with them as if transported by 'magic.'
Two days, one long train ride later and a Miss Apple Jaceline Apple was standing in the lobby of The Valvaner beach side resort.
"Can I help you ma'am?" A griffin called out from the front desk.
"Yeah, Ah'm suppos' ta check in this here hotel."
"Name?"
"Applejack Apple. Ah, think it might be under Mosely Orange."
"Let me, check." The desk clerk pulled out the keyboard of his monochromatic Pear II computer, grateful that with the recent invention of smaller PC's that he wouldn’t have to fiddle with a large log book.
"Yes, it seems that you've been booked into one of our beach side villas." He handed her, her room key before directing his attention to a bell hop.
"Failed Dreams, please escort Miss Apple and her bags to villa 4A."
"Yesh shir...ya overshtuffed pigeon..."
"What was that?"
"I shaid your beak looksh rather shiny today...moron..." The Coltish stallion mumbled once again at the end of his speech albeit this time at a much lower volume.
"Y'all don't need ta do that for me, Ah can carry mah own bags and find mah room.”
"Nonsense, you are a paying guest here and Failed Dreams would be happy to carry your bags and see you to your room."
The orange mare glanced at the bell hop who gave a smile so fake you'd almost swear that it was made out of plastic. "We'll... alright."
After a few minutes of trotting, the made it to the little villa where applejack would be spending the next two weeks and what a villa it was with its bungalow style construction of teak and palm with tropical island decor.
"Your villa ma'am." the stallion opened the door and placed Applejack's luggage on a nearby table.
"Well, shoot, Ah'd like to give you somethin' for taken mah my bags up here." Applejack reached into her bags and Failed Dreams expected a nice tip. However, what he got instead was an apple, a fuji apple to be exact. "Here ya go sugar cube."
The door shut leaving a very bewildered stallion standing in front of villa 4A with a very nice looking piece of red fruit in his left hoof. Considering what his parents named him and the life he has lived so far, it could be a worse tip, like no tip at all. Still it was it near lunch and the apple looked fantastic and with a swift motion he bit into his soon to before meal and he was assaulted by flavor.
It had been several hours and the farm pony was bored out of her mind, it's not like she always had to work, but she was usually doing something active whether it was harvesting her family's namesake or going on adventures with her friends. Finally she couldn't take any more relaxing and went back to the front desk. Oddly enough as she walked out of her villa, she noticed Failed Dreams licking the ground muttering something about, 'moar apples.'
"Is everything okay ma'am?" The Desk clerk called out to Applejack.
"This room is nice and all, but what is there to do around these parts?"
"Quit a lot, there is the famous Santhay Marenica pier, the quirky Stag beach with its performance artists and finally there is Mai Tai Shores if you're looking for some surf and sand."
"Which would y'all recommend?"
The griffin eyed the earth pony briefly. "Hmmm... for you? With your build, I'd go with Mai Tai Shores."
"My build?" Applejack asked almost offended by the desk clerk's answer.
"You you strike me as an active mare and with how accurate the pegasi have been, the weather has been purrrfect for anyone with a more active lifestyle."
(10 Minutes and a pleasant walk later)
The clerk had been right; the beach of Mai Tai shores was absolutely breath taking. The white sand that gave way to bright teal water, the bluish grey cobble stone roads, and the palm tree canopied coast and the dozens of salmon and terracotta colored buildings that surrounded area.
Applejack wandered towards the water and breathed in the slightly salty air mixed with a slight scent of hibiscus flowers.
'Maybe Uncle Orange was right maybe ah do need a bre--' The farm mare was absolutely enthralled by her surroundings that she failed to notice a long board torpedoing towards her.
"Watch Out!!!" A voice yelled out interrupting her from her thoughts and with barely a second to spare she jumped out of the way as the board sailed past her and buried its way into the ground and nailing a coconut palm.
Almost directly following the impact a blue earth-pony stallion with a two tone orange mane jumped up, stood wobbly and shook the sand off of him. "It's okay, I'm alright, I'm --"
Fun fact: more folk are injured by falling coconuts every year than sharks.
As the falling fruit fell, they made an oddly familiar tune.*shave and a hair cut, two bits*
*THUNK*
*THUNK, THUNK*
*THUNK*
*THUNK*
.....
*THUNK, THUNK*
When it was over the unknown stallion was knocked unconscious. Applejack was about to go get help, when to her surprise the pony got back up albeit a lot slower than last time.
"Ey, didsh anypony get the license plate of the chariot that hit meh?"
"Um, sugar cube are you are alright?"
Recovering quickly the blue pony looked towards the source of the concerned southern accented voice and noticed the fair amount of sand covering an otherwise attractive mare and the scene of the tail end of his board sticking out of the base of the palm like a spear.
"I-I'm alright, it happens all the time."
"Gettin' almost killed by coconuts or almost crashin' into mares?" She said with the slightest hint of sarcasm.
"A bit of column A and a bit of column B."
As soon as his nearly automatic replied left his mouth, he soon realized that he had been kind of a dick to the orange mare.
"Oh, by the way, sorry about nearly harpooning you with my surf board." He stuck his hoof out as a gesture of good will. "Apex, by the way."
"Applejack and no harm done." She returned his hoofshake.
It got a bit awkward as Applejack had been lost in the serenity of her location before her encounter with Apex and Apex well...thanks to his thick skull, he had avoided severe brain damage once again and the fact that it was his day off, felt like he had nothing else to do that day.
"Ey, I still feel a bit bad for almost clobbering you. How about I show you around Mai Tai, my treat?"
There was a brief pause as her green eyes met his turquoise ones.
He was about to accept an answer of "no" as Apex asummed the delay meant the mare was apprehensive to the whole idea. After all he was a stranger and she was obviously a tourist, for all she knew he could be a deranged psychopath and...
"Okay, lead the way sugar cube."
"Huh?"
"Ah said, Ah'd go on this here tour with ya."
"Just like that?"
"Eeyup." Applejack responded in her best Big Macintosh impression. What her guest didn't know, was that she was a living polygraph machine and that she could buck a hoofball damn near into orbit, so in other words she was safer of him than he was of her.
"Um, okay then... this'll be great. I know this beach like the back of my hoof."
With that the two earth-ponies wandered down the shoreline.
After a little bit of scenery admiration Apex decided to get better acquainted with the pony he had almost injured earlier. "So...I gotta ask, where are you from, don't hear too my accents like that 'round here."
"Ponyville, born an' raised."
"That's a tiny land locked town just outside of Canterlot, right?"
"Yeah, you’ve been there?"
"Nah, my boss's daughter won't stop talking about how it sucks, it's full of dweebs and that it should be leveled, yadda, yadda, yadda. I'm sure it's a nice place if, you like land locked towns with nothing to do."
Applejack only smirked as if she was part of some kind of cosmic in-joke. "Ya have no idea, sugar cube."
"Oh, really? Well, how about we hit this little dive I know and maybe we can grab a drink and a light lunch and talk about it?"
The farm pony followed the surfer towards a little terracotta roofed shack, further down the beach.
Once inside, the seemingly small pub was fairly standard fair with nautical related paraphernalia covering the wood paneled walls and a bar in the center of the room.
"Patches, let me get a glass with a third whiskey cream, a third crème de mint, and a third crème de cocoa. Get my friend here whatever she wants and put it on my tab." The bartender shook his head at Apex's mixed drink as he went to work preparing the beverages.
"No, offense, but that drink seems like something a filly would order."
"Maybe, but it taste exactly like chocolate mint cookies in liquid form, oddly I still don't have a name for it."
"Here, take a sip."
A farm pony popped the straw in her mouth and sipped the frou frou drink. "Yer, right, that is pretty good, but a bit too sweet for mah taste. Hey, Mister Patches, was it?" The bartender nodded. "Let me get a glass of applejack."
Apex smirked at his companion's drink order.
"Ey, Wrong Choices." The surfer called out to a miserable looking waitress. "Let me get a platter of deep fried pickles, extra salt."
Applejack was enjoying her namesake when she heard her new friend place an order for a snack that made her visibly cringe.
"Don't knock it, till you try it."
Half an hour went by and to Applejack's surprise they were enjoyed the basket of deep fried dill pickle slices. Applejack told his about her farm, her family, her friends and the recent events that took place in the last few months.
By the time she was finished he was really impressed with the mare that he had been growing fonder of these last few hours.
Then it was time for him to share his own back-story.
"... I like woke up one day and I looked in the mirror and decided I couldn't take it anymore. I hated being accountant."
"So ya just quit?"
"Eh heh, heh..." Apex blushed. "Um... more like I had a nervous breakdown and rode a dumpster from atop a steep hill and into the bank, before whipping out a megaphone telling the head of the bank where he could shove his bits."
"..."
"Yeah, I got two months in the clink and 6 months of community service for it."
"..." Applejack was trying to keep a stern face during his tale of property destruction, but part of her couldn't keep but laugh at the whole situation.
When she finally wiped the tears of laughter from her face, she looked back to her companion who had been waiting patiently for her to stop as the glances from other patrons who had been curious over what was so funny.
"Now, that's done with I gotta ask, what y'all do for money?"
"Believe it or not, I get by giving surfing lessons to the tourists, sometimes act a tour guide and in the off season I work at a griffin fish market. Oh and I'll enter the occasional surf contest."
Applejack shook her head and smiled. "Ah'm impressed and 'ere Ah though ya were more talk than gallop."
"You gotta love what you do and I love the surf and the sand. This is probably why I was a blank flank till I was twenty two."
"Speakin' about the surf Sugar cube, Ah gotta ask how'd you get that scar on yer back leg?" She pointed to the semi-circle mark.
"My father was a --"
"Come on, be serious." The orange mare protested not liking the use of an overused movie quote.
Apex rolled his eyes and gave a light chuckle. "Not too many things in the ocean leave this kind of a mark." He patted the scar. "I was in a surf competition in the Griffon city of Gull Feather. Won first place if you were curious, but anyway after the contest me and my former competition went out to celebrate at a local bar. To cut a long story short, a griffiness got sick on me, I tried to clean myself in a proper restroom, but they were packed so I used the next best thing: the ocean. This in retrospect was a terrible idea because I smelled like macerated fish, because not more than fifteen seconds later, a tiger shark nailed my back leg. All I can say is thank Faust for earth pony strength and stitches, lots of stitches and Vicodin."
Applejack let out an almost uncharacteristic giggle before she raised her glass slightly. "To earth pony strength."
Clanging his frou frou drink with hers, the surfer smiled. "I'll drink to that. To earth pony strength and may it always be there whether it's bucking apple trees or sharks."
That's how the rest of the day continued as the two new friends swapped stories, drank and played the occasional game of pool.
The pair eventually left the tavern albeit a tad tanked just as the sun was setting.
"Ey, you *hick* wanna me to walk ya to yer place?"
"...Yeah, ah can use the hoovess..." Applejack blinked trying to get her bearings as she fumbled over her misguided legs. "Whoooah nelly, who moved that there sidewalk?"
"I do-*hick* don't think either are in a position to walk nowheres." Apex slumped down to the ground beneath him, but not before he a made a mental note to do the responsible thing: get a cab.
"EY CABBY!!! CAB 'N' CRUNCH!!! HEY CAB!!!!!!" The now obnoxious and surly blue pony called out to the yellow carriage across the street.
(10 Minutes Later)
They were at Applejack's private villa at the Valvaner Resort. The pair had sobered up a little in the ride to the hotel.
"Thanksss sugar cube for the great day."
"It was the least I could do almost nailing you with my board. Besides I had fun too."
"How about we do it again tommorah?"
"Sorry, I've got work." Apex took note of the slight disappointed sigh from the mare across from him. "Why don't you join me?"
"Come again?"
"Tomorrow I'm giving surf lessons down across from Snow Job's Ice Cream Emporium, why don't you swing by and rent a board; it'll be fun."
The athletic orange mare smiled at the prospect of trying a new sport, if anything else she'd at least get to spend another day in this coastal paradise with her new friend. "That sounds like a plan partner."
"Well, I guess I should be heading home. Good night Applejack."
"Night Apex." She gave the stallion a hug as they parted ways.
The End
