How to make good cider

by TAPEt

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 2587

A new cider season is coming and Applejack has some supporters to make enough amount of cider for every pony in ponyville.

The Applejack had some bad memory about machinery for cider season but this time, one of her best friend makes an effort for her own good. She knows why her friend is doing this but she is worried how other family think about this.

Well, she will do as she always did; be honest and kind.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-12 17:40:05 UTC

Chapter 1

“Are ya gonna meet your coltfriend, aren’t ya?” Applebloom said with smiling at her elder sister, who is piling apples on the wagon to deliver it.

“Applebloom,” She sighed, “How many times did Ah tell ya, he is not my coltfriend.”

“Have he become mare all of a sudden?”

“No,” She answered her sister’s dumb question.

“Or is he not your friend actually?”

“He is...ma friend,” She cannot deny for that.

“…Then how come he’s not your coltfriend again?” Now her sister is looking her as a dumb.

“He’s ma friend and sexually he’s a colt, but not my coltfriend. It is an entirely different stuff.”

“How come?” Applebloom is seemed so innocent but her question made her elder sister in trouble.

“Well, there’s your brother. He is also my brother and good friend as well. But that doesn’t make him ma coltfriend, neither yours.” Well this would be nice excuse, she thought…at least.

“But Big Mac is our family.......oh wait, does he gonna be our family?”

Oh, darn. It gets worse. “Ah…Ah gotta go now. Be nice at home with your brother, sugarcube.” She harnessed herself to the wagon and started to pull it before her pure, innocent little sister gave her more test of devil.

“Have a nice with your coltfriend.”

“AH SAID HE ISN’T!” She exploded right after hearing sister’s voice behind her back.

=========================

During the way delivering apples, Applejack was surely upset about her sister. He is not my coltfriend. She thought. Of course not, he was nice pony but not strong as her brother-Big Mac- or herself. He was not earthpony. He was a unicorn, and even weak one. He is the weakest colt she has ever met. He barely controlled his power so that he couldn’t lift up a barrel of apple. How can he become an apple family, he could barely do nothing…why do I even think about this? It’s all because Applebloom said silly thing. She was such a little discord. Applejack knew that her sister was teasing her but in fact, her sister actually thought like that. He was very friendly with the crusaders so that he made some gimmicks for them. They liked it, so do him.

She was approaching her destination—Y’s house. Why(she and her friends called him Y); that was his name he told her and her friends when he first came to the Equestria. He was found at everfree forest years ago and lived with her for months while his house was on construction. He fixed her farm’s old plow and wagon. That was nice. He said he wanted to reward her family’s kindness. Oh, and that massage chair for Granny Smith. She looked like in heaven when she was on the chair.

Ya know, he did many things for our family in fact. When AJ come to this thought, she shook her head. But that doesn’t mean he become mah coltfriend.

The wagon stopped in front of barn of Y’s house. He said it was a lab but it’s a barn for her anyway. Ah mean, it’s a barn. That barn made of wood colored in red is just like the one at her farm.

She knocked on the barn, which was closed. It usually did. “Y? Are ya there? Ah brings apples as ya ask for.”

Then suddenly, there was a loud noise which seemed like something collapsed.

“AAGH!!” Screaming.

“Y!” Applejack took down her wagon and crash into the barn. "Y! Where are ya!”

“Heeere…”

She could see a pile of stuffs and the voice is being leaked out from there. She rushed into the pile and starts to get rid of the stuffs desperately. After she took out some boxes, she found his face.

“Oh….” His face was frowned and he moaned with pain.

“Can ya get out of there?” AJ sighed with relief and ask him.

“I…I can’t feel my legs.”

“Ya mean hooves? Ya can’t move your hooves?”

“Yeah, hooves…I mean No, I can’t feel my hooves.”

She sighed again, but not because she felt relieved, but dumbfounded. “Y, these boxes on you are almost empty,” She saw him pitiful. “Surely ya can get rid of ya self.”

“Oh….” Now he looked her with silly smile. “You looked pretty more than usual.”

“Aw, shucks.” Applejack smiled bitterly put down her hooves from the piles.

“Mngh..!” Y tried to get out of the piles badly. He concentrated his mind on his horn to remove the boxes over his back. Soon empty box were levitated and slowly lay down beside of the piles. Finally her silly foal revealed himself downside up.

Apple Jack rolled her eyes and helped him to stand rightly.

“Thanks.” The unicorn with crimson red skin and brown mane appealed his full body. “Are you alright?” He asked her.

“Ah’m fine. Why?” Applejack answered with confusion. Shouldn’t I ask HIM in this situation?

“I don’t know. It is just you looks upset.” He said anxiously. “You fight your sister again, didn’t you?”

How come he knew?! “No,” She said shortly. “And Ah have no idea why ya thought like that.” Now that was very honest saying.

“Just the hunch,” He chuckled. That’s what he does when something works just like he expected.

“No, Ah mean…never mind. Ah brought what ya asked anyway,” Applejack pointed out the wagon outside. “But Ah am really not sure why ya need ten full barrels of apples alone.”

“I need it for a test.” He said with stretching his body. “And I need your help, too.”

“For what?” She said reluctantly. “Ah mean, Ah loved to help, but Ah have some chores to do at farm.” Lie again. There were no more chores at farm today. She simply expected he asked for her favor so she has done all the chores for today; only for spending more time with him. It was just from kindness…at least she thought. It was just usual helping pony jobs before her sister said some weird things to make her confused.

“Is it? Well, actually it will take some time…pretty much time…but if you said you are busy then…,”

“Ah said Ah have things to do,” AJ cut his word. If she let him keep saying he probably make her go back and do it all by himself. “Not saying any time to help ya.”

“Thanks. I could help you after this. Actually, I hope my current project could help you.” Y said gently.

“What do ya mean, your current project?” She asked and instead answering with words, Y walked into more inside of the barn and show her some piles veiled. When Applejack looked at it curiously, Y removed the veil and then she could see a huge machine(at least she guess or she can only say it is a pile of scrap).

“When ponies showed their stuff someone, they say ‘Behold,’ and some then saying name seemed like it is very amazing and magnificent but I’m not good at naming things so I just show you. It is prototype actually so it is not a big deal.” He said like it is nothing special but when she looked at his eyes, he seemed like pretty proud of what he’s showing her. “So, how do you think?”

“Ah don’t know,” AJ, who is not actually impressed as Y expected said, “What exactly this pile of…..steel does?” she came close to calling it a pile of junk, and considering her element…it was a pile of junk so it was a lie again.

“Oh, I’d better show you.” His horn started to shimmer and some apples on wagon of outside float into the barn. After he controlled those apples to get into the top of the machine and he pulled down the lever in front of him with his hoof. Soon the machine started to make a noise. Inside the machine, they could hear the apples were being smashed and squeezed. After few minutes later, a green light has turned on the next to the lever. He pulled another lever next to the one he already pulled, and he walked on to the back of the machine. There’s a barrel with a tap on the bottom. As He set a cup under the tap and opened the tap, the yellow liquid came out of the barrel.

“Is that…is that a cider?” Applejack asked.

“If you ask, right now, the answer is No,” Y drank up what is in the cup. “Right now, it is just an apple juice, a bad one. Too sweet, just like Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes…don’t tell her I said it.” He added.

AJ was confused. In fact, it will be another cider season in a month. Does he prepare it for our cider season? Ah can’t believe this! “Is this another invention thingy for Filthy Rich?” AJ said with anger. “Ah can’t believe he actually expand the apple business without telling us.”

“What? Oh, no, no, no, of course not. How come you thought this is for Rich? He knows that if he did that Granny Smith tear him apart and make an ingredient of apple dumpling.”

It sounds creepy but it could be true if Granny is 20 years younger, She thought. And no pony eats it.

“Well, looks like I have to explain from the beginning.” Y stopped the machine and explained her why he was trying to build cider machine. “Do you remember those fraud bros. selling tonic made of apples and leaves?”

“How could I forget about that” AJ made a frown with embarrassing. “It was one of the most shameful happening in my life.”

“Also one of the most honest decisions you had.” He smiled. “Anyway, that’s not my point. The point is before they become completely fraud they had come to Apple Acre with cider machine.”

Once again, it was the incident AJ didn’t want to remind. After fighting with those brothers, eventually she won due to being helped by her friends, Big Mac struggled for muscle ache for three days and Granny’s shoulder discomfort got worse. It was the era that Y was living at the apple farm as a family.

“They were irritating fraud but the machine was the real stuff. I actually pretty impressed when I saw that.”

Well, Ah can’t deny that, either. However, they were darn frauds and she proved that she was right what she did.

“Now, I know how you are unpleased with using machinery for working but the fact is you can’t supply enough an amount of cider that every pony in ponyville satisfied. I haven’t drunk a single drop of cider last year,” He smiled bitterly. “So in this year, I try to make this for Apple farm.”

When there was the competition with Flim & Flam bros., Y could barely help because he was really not good at such physical labor. Even Rarity helped Granny to classify apples and Y didn’t do anything but AJ didn’t blame him. She didn’t even count on his help in the competition.

And of course for Y, it was very distressful truth that he couldn’t help her. She knew that.

While he was good at making some useful item for farm or fixing old and shabby stuff but most of tasks at farm needed muscles, so he wasn’t very helpful as a family member. Honestly, she could not tell which pony was more helpful for farm; Y or Applebloom.

Now she knew why he built this scrap heap and how desperately he wanted to help Apple farm but she was still not sure. “I don’t know Y, but it seems like your….machine is not good enough compared with the machine that those Flim & Flam bros. had.”

“Because it is prototype as I told you.” He showed no anger at all even though she said some cruel word about his effort.

“I know there’s a pile of thing to improve but what I am trying to do now is making sure that I understand the process and I can make it work. After I confirmed this prototype is working properly, I could shrink it this pile of junk into a quarter-size.”

He actually said it is a pile of junk himself!! She was just trying not to use the word even in her thought and he just said it.

“So, what are you going to say? Could you help me finish this project?” Y was asking her help. Plus, he was asking her permission for using his machine on the cider season when it comes in a month.

“How can Ah exactly help ya?” She asked.

“Well, at first I am trying to build a protocol to make machine itself can separate apples to good one and bad one but the fact is I am not sure which one is good apple to make a high quality of cider.”

“Well, only the best of best apples could be used for cider.” She said. In fact she can’t classify the apples as good as Granny can; she can’t tell how Rarity could do that. “So you want me to distinguish between good and bad?”

“And tasting, too. If the best apple farmer says it is good cider, no one can doubt it.” He smiled at her with excitement. “Thanks for your help.”

“Well, don’t jump into the conclusion, Y.” She had to make sure this one thing. “Ah will help ya make this cider machine but that doesn’t mean Ah allow ya to use this for Apple farm. As ya know that our family has made this cider all by ourselves. Using machine could move down our effort to nothing. And Ah don’t appreciate if ya do things like that.”

“I appreciate your effort for the farm and also your family’s. I just want to help the Apple farm.” Y said. “After all, this is what I’m good at and the only way I can help you….r farm.”

She could see he felt sorry about her. Why on the Equestria he feels sorry about me? He tried to help our family not try to cheat like those fraud!? “What I was meant to say, Y,” now she had to make him cheer up. “Ah can’t decide it alone, I should hear all Apples’ opinion. I will persuade them I can allow you to use it.”

“You’re…really going to do it for me?” He said, a little bit uncertainly.

“Not just for you but for Apples.” She said. “And of course you have to come with me when they give permission to you. So you’d better make this machine properly before the season starts.”

“Oh, sure.” Now he shows some usual confidence. “I will do my best. And you know what? If you were here, I can make it double.” Maybe too confident.

“Well, there’s no time to lose. There’s only one month left.” She said.

“Right. Of course. Now first thing we have to do….”

“Ah think we should put that wagon into the barn first.” She point out the wagon with barrels of apples still under the sun.

“Oh, right. I’ll get it.” He seemed to try to show his masculinity to her but AJ knew it won’t work.

“Ah know Ya can’t bring it on your own. Stay here Ah’ll bring it in.” And then she walked out to the barn.

It seemed like it was going to take much more time than she thought and honestly she did not know whether she felt it stressful or delightful.