Applejack shook her head, lifting her hoof to wipe the sweat from her brow. Squinting, she looked out across the orchard. "Only two more rows to go," she said, grinning to herself as she pushed her hat back down, retrieving three buckets from her cart to set down under the next apple tree. As she turned around to buck the tree, she caught sight of a pink mane between the trees. Grunting, she reared up on her front legs to deliver a powerful blow to the apple tree behind her, the fruit raining down into her buckets before she returned her rear hooves to the ground so she could wave to her friend. "Howdy there, Fluttershy! What brings you here today?"
Fluttershy jerked her head to the side at the sound of her name, the shy pony trotting off the road and making her way between the apple trees. Applejack blinked at the pony's downcast expression, her own ears falling back at the sight of Fluttershy's lowered ears and watery eyes. "Ohhh, I don't know what happened! I can't find them anywhere!"
The farmer grimaced; she should have known this was coming. "Who are ya lookin' for?" she asked, eyes flickering away from her friend; it was hard to look a pony in the eye and lie.
"The vampire fruit bats! I went to visit their sanctuary, but there weren't any there! I must have searched for hours!"
Applejack sighed. "That's cause they're gone, sugarcube." She lowered her head to grab the handle of one of the buckets in her mouth, lifting it from the ground to set in the back of her cart, its precious cargo of apples gleaming in the afternoon sun. "They left their sanctuary and started eatin' all the apples again."
"They did? Oh my goodness! I thought they would stay there. They seemed so happy there." Fluttershy looked around. "But these trees look alright, and they're pretty close to the sanctuary."
"You didn't notice all the trees on the outside of the sanctuary that looked sucked dry?" Applejack asked, struggling to keep her voice level as she trotted over to her second bucket, picking it up and setting it in the back of the cart. "They left as soon as they'd sucked 'em all dry."
Fluttershy's wings sank against her back, her tail tucking itself in close behind her rump. "Oh no! Why didn't you ask us for help again?"
Applejack dropped the second bucket into the back of her cart with a loud thump. "Cause it didn't work the first time," Applejack growled, before lowering her voice at the sight of her friend shrinking away. "It ain't your fault, sugarcube. Those bats were just real bad apples; they aren’t like your animal friends, they don't listen to or care about anypony."
"But your orchard!"
Applejack sighed. "We lost about a quarter of our trees before Granny Smith finally took care of 'em. Things are gonna be tight, but we'll make it. It'll be tough though, but on the bright side, at least we're almost done buckin'." Applejack nodded her head towards the trees. "These here are the last two rows; all the apples on the other side of that road are no good anymore, so at least we're gonna get done on time and won't have any spoil on the tree."
Fluttershy glanced back over her shoulder at the trees beyond, red fruit hanging from their boughs, still glistening in the afternoon sun. "But they LOOK okay. I mean, I saw a FEW trees that looked like they weren't doing very well, but most of them looked alright."
"They're all bad apples now; anything that the fruit bats had at are nothin' but mush, and you know the sayin', one bad apple spoils the barrel? It's true." She jerked her head as she stepped back over to retrieve the last bucket, setting it into the back of the cart as Fluttershy watched.
"Couldn't you just throw them away though?" Fluttershy tilted her head. "That's a lot of apples."
"Well, t'ain't the only thing that's wrong with 'em.” Applejack leaned over the back of the cart to push the three full buckets together, securing them in place. “Granny Smith treated 'em with somethin' to make sure the bats wouldn't eat any more of 'em, but they ain't fit for pony consumption, either. We're just gonna toss them away, so there ain't no urgency to buckin' em."
"But they tasted okay," Fluttershy said quietly, turning her head to the side. "Oh, I hope you don't mind, but I took a couple apples when I was on my way over here. They just smelled so good, I couldn't help myself."
Applejack smiled. "That's fine. I don't mind if I lose a couple apples to my friends. Just don't make too much of a habit out of it." Applejack stepped over to the front of the cart, starting to put herself into the harness, before pausing. "Wait, you said you ate apples from over there?"
Fluttershy nodded. "I'm sorry. I just got so hungry after searching for the bats, I just..."
Applejack felt the bottom falling out of her stomach, her eyes widening in horror.
"What's wrong? Oh, you ARE upset! Stupid Fluttershy, you shouldn't have—"
"Get in the cart."
"What?"
"I said, get in the cart!"
"But—"
Applejack's vision swam before she clenched her eyes shut, the trapped tears leaking down her cheeks. "Damnit, Fluttershy! Those apples were poisoned!"
"P-p-p-poisoned?"
Applejack opened her eyes to look at her friend; Fluttershy had dropped to the ground, her hooves crossed across her chest as she trembled violently. "Yes, poisoned! That's how Granny Smith got rid of the bats. Now get in the cart."
The pegasus only pulled her legs all the more tightly around herself, drawing her wings and legs in, her head bowed. "But, if you did it to get rid of the bats, how did the bats know it was poisoned?"
"Fluttershy, I ain't arguin' with you. Get in the cart!"
"Applejack—eep!"
Fluttershy squeaked as Applejack wrapped her hooves around the barrel of the pegasus, hefting her off the ground before clumsily staggering over and depositing her into the cart.
"Fluttershy! I'm not lettin' one of my friends die because she ate some bad apples!" Applejack rushed back to the front of the cart, quickly wrapping the harness across her chest and over her back before taking off at full speed, the cart rattling loudly as it bounced down the side of the hill.
"Applejack, what happened to the bats?"
Applejack didn't look back over her shoulder; she couldn't meet her friend's gaze, no matter how scared she sounded, she just couldn't do it.
"Applejack? Please, tell me what happened to the bats. Please tell me that they're alright."
Applejack bit the inside of her cheek.
"Please—"
"Don't worry, Fluttershy. You'll be right as rain, you'll see. We'll just give you some—"
"Applejack!" Fluttershy shouted, before her voice dropped once more to a quiet, pleading tone; Applejack knew if she looked back, her friend would be crying. She had to keep it together, for Fluttershy's sake at least.
"Please, just tell me what happened to—"
As the cart burst out of the orchard onto the main road leading to the farmhouse, Fluttershy fell silent. Beside the road a large section of one of the fallow fields had been recently disturbed, the grass replaced with a large mound of freshly-dug dirt.
Not another word was spoken until they reached the Apple family home.
Author's Note
TheLostNarrator did a great reading of this story, complete with voice acting for each of the three characters.
