The pride and joy of Sweet Apple Acres was -as the name would imply- the sweet acres of apples. Bushels and bushels of unpicked apples as far as the eye could see. And what better place to look at those acres of beautiful red fruits than from the Apple Family house's front porch. Occupying the porch for now was Applejack tipping a rod of barley between her lips as she rested her body over the wood railing. She looked out over the orchard, pride welling inside her for each piece of fruit -every green leaf- that filled the family acres. The rod of barley bobbed with a wobble as Applejack swerved it upward, tapping the bristled top against her freckled cheek.
The summer air blew small billows at the cuffs of Applejack's short sleeved shirt and shorts as she looked off into the beautiful range of her family orchard. Nothing was more beautiful in her mind than the fruits of family labor; literal and figurative. It may have been overly involved with herself, but Applejack just really enjoyed getting a feel of the land every day. The barley between her lips snapped in half as Applejack clipped her front teeth at the end of the reed, spitting what was left of the piece out towards the dirt ground in front of the porch. She brushed a hand against her clothes once and went off towards the orchard, grabbing a bucket laying next to the stairs on her way.
Entering the thick of the orchard, Applejack looked to the tree tops while she kept walking on. "Sure as hay can't beat the way they grow," she said to herself, pulling the bucket she picked up close to her chest.
Applejack came to stop short before a grand apple tree blooming with firm, red apples. The red of the apples upon the tree before her made the trees throughout the orchard look dull and listless; making it for Applejack's pride and joy of the orchard. "Well, howdy," Applejack plunked the bucket to the grass and placed her palm against the park of the three, "How're y'all doin' today?"
Talking to the trees... Yeah, it was a little childish. But wasn't that just the fun of it? Applejack gave the tree a pat and moved to standing on one of its loose roots to get at the bounty of fruit it was holding. As she reached up, she received a surprise that made her lose her balance and thump against the dirt ground. "I've been better..."
The tree just talked! Applejack staggered her hands about against the grassy tufts under her, dumbfound by an actual answer. If she had known the trees could talk she would've had some choice words with the trees in acre "D". Slacking trees... Letting that go for now, Applejack scrambled to get back to her feet and get the dirt off her rear before looking back to the talking tree. "Uh... S-Sorry 'bout pickin' your apples without askin'," Applejack really couldn't believe what she was saying... Then again, she couldn't believe the tree just spoke... and sounded really familiar at that. "I should've asked y--wait..."
Reason, logic, clues... All of these things came back to Applejack as she looked around the tree. When she looked behind the tree, she was relieved to see the source of the 'tree's voice' was a familiar face; Spike. That is, she was relieved up until she got a better look at the little boy. His arm was bent upward and looped over his head, his legs disheveled and sprawled out in two different ways, and his face a torched red mixed with splotches of mud over his blushed face. To wrap it all up in a nice bow, Spike himself seemed to be wrapped up in a nice bow; albeit a bow made of rope. Applejack felt both shocked, sad, and worried for Spike... Although laughter overcame all of them and Applejack slapped her knee as she bent over into a great laugh.
As a rodeo girl herself, she could tell a hogtie from anything. That included the knowledge of telling when someone tied themselves up by accident. And just by the disorder of the knots and ties, the loose ends and tight ends, Applejack could tell Spike did this to himself. Spike looked up at Applejack, his chin kicking up at the dirt he was laying in while he scowled. "This isn't funny!"
"It's kinda funny," Applejack shot back, wiping a single tear from her eye.
Spike squirmed and wormed with all his might, burning his wrists and ankles against the ties each time. "Yeah -ugh!- great. Real funny! RUGH! Can you get me out of this?" Spike's frustration only got his accidental knots tighter with each forceful yank he tried.
Applejack looked down at him now and cooed softly to herself. Looking at him now? Why... He looked like a friendly jack-rabbit caught in the brier. She couldn't let the little guy keep struggling like that she thought. Taking a switchblade out from her pocket, Applejack knelt down next to the caught 'critter' and took hold of one of the lead ties. "Hold still now. Won't want a cut, would ya?" Spike instantly made like a plank of wood and stiffened to a still, letting Applejack work her magic.
It took a fast minute for Applejack to saw her way through the rope, subsequently giving Spike enough slack to finally free himself with a quick stretch. Applejack offered Spike a hand, getting him back to his feet after who knows how long of laying in the dirt. The moment he got on his feet, Spike rubbed at his rope-burnt wrists and hissed a bit at twisting pain. Still, Applejack smiled at the little guy and popped her cowboy hat up once as she gave Spike a tilted look. Spike met her look and continued to rub his raw wrists. "What?"
"Y'all ever gonna tell me how an' why you got yourself tied up in my family orchard?" Applejack both seriously and playfully asked.
Spike's face, in spite of how much globs of mud were against it, still showed the embarrassing blush the question brought to him. "Uh... The -uh-... The whys and hows about it don't really matter, you know?" Applejack didn't buy that answer for a second, folding her arms in front of her chest but still gave Spike a playful look, "Whatever. So, thanks for helping me! But -uh- I think Twilight's gonna want me to get back home to run the store. Bye!" Spike didn't wait for a response from Applejack to take his chance at running off down the orchard's yards in the direction of home.
Applejack watched the little boy scamper off as fast as his legs would go while she herself grabbed a fallen apple laying against the grass. She rubbed it off against her blouse until it shined before biting down into the first juicy piece. Chewing it over, she thought about the nice little ordeal she just had to deal with. "Tied up in another person's yard? Hmm... That'll be an interesting thing to remember later..." she thought to herself.
Back alone in the cool, sweet smelling orchard, Applejack went back to picking apples from her favorite tree. If anything was to be gained from this interesting find, it was the little notion that Spike owed Applejack a little favor. Or, maybe they were even. After all, Spike caught Applejack in a compromising situation once too a while back. What was it? Well...
It's better if you don't ask.
