Life to the Foalest

The trees shook as the apples fell into the basket. Bismarck sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. This apple season seemed to be a bit more work than before. He wished he could take a break at some points, but knew he needed to finish what he started.

“Bismarck, git back to work! We need to get all these apples harvested before they rot.” Applejack said, working a few trees away.

“Just taking a breather ma.” Bismarck said as he got back to bucking the apples.

Bismarck bucked a few more trees before he realized he was dreaming. He got up and looked out the window. All the trees were freshly picked from the day before. Hew as glad it was only a dream, he thought he was going to pass out from exhaustion from all the trees still left. He got up and put his hat on before he walked down the stairs to the kitchen of the Apple family house.

“Mornin' sugarcube. How'd you sleep?” Applejack asked as she made some haycakes.

“Well, I had a dream it was a big apple season and only me an you were bucking the apples and we had only covered a small portion. In other words, not all that good.” Bismarck replied as he grabbed a fresh stack of the morning delicacy.

He gobbled them down and put his plate in the sink before he walked outside. It was a crisp fall day, and he could see Bucky running over to the clubhouse. Bismarck laughed to himself as he walked to Ponyville. Bucky was always so excited to see his friends, just like Bismarck was when he was a little colt.

“Bismarck? What are you doing here? I thought you had some apples to buck.” Flora said from her art stand.

“Nope. They're all done. We finished them yesterday, thank goodness.” Bismarck replied as he walked over to the art stand.

“Oh. Well, if it's okay with you, would you mind helping me with something?” Flora asked shyly.

“Yeah. I can help with anything you need me to.” Bismarck answered.

“I need your help with painting something that I want to make for my mom, but it kind of requires two ponies to make.” Flora said.

“I'll see what I can do to help with it.” Bismarck said, walking around to the back of the stand.

Bismarck took the instruction from Flora and followed her to the spot where she would make the painting as he read the directions. He realized this would be a bit more difficult than he thought it would, but knew he couldn't let Flora do this all by herself.

“Can you stand right there?” Flora asked Bismarck.

Bismarck stood right in front of the town hall like she said. He put on the pose and tried to hold it as long as possible.

“Bismarck, can you help me with something?” Bismarck heard from the clouds.

He looked up and saw Tempest hiding behind the roof of the old structure.

“Sure pal. What is it ya need?” Bismarck asked, still holding his pose.

“I need you to try and help me hide something.” Tempest replied.

Bismarck never liked to hide things from others, but he knew Tempest did too, so it must be important.

“What is it ya need hiding?” Bismarck asked.

Tempest came out from behind the building and Bismarck saw exactly what it was. Tempest's tail had been cut off from working with the lightning clouds. One must have gone off and struck his tail, burning it off.

“Sure thing bud, let me just finish this art fer Flora here.” Bismarck told Tempest as he still held the pose.

“Alright, finished. You can stop now Bismarck.” Flora told him as she turned the painting around to show him.

As always, Flora had made a beautiful piece of art and walked away to put it in her stand. Bismarck then turned around and told Tempest to get to the Everfree forest as soon as possible, giving him a piece of a branch and giving it blue dye.

“Thanks, see you there.” Tempest said as he flew to the forest entrance and holding the branch so it looked like a tail in the high speed flight.

Bismarck ran to the forest as fast as possible before he was stopped by Radiance.

“Bismarck, could you be a dear and help me with something?” The beautiful mare asked.

“Let me go to the forest and ah'll be right back.” Bismarck replied.

He got to the forest and told Tempest where he could find Zecora at this time so she could make a tail growing potion.

“Man am I glad you know all this. Thanks again Bismarck!” Tempest said as he walked into the dark forest.

Bismarck dashed over to the Carousel Boutique to find Radiance in a dress that sparkled like the sun.

“I'm going to need you to snap a few pictures of this please. Take some advice from my mother too since she knows a bit about photography.” Radiance instructed Bismarck as Rarity began to tell him beginner details about getting pictures.

After about 2 hours of photos, Bismarck left and headed on back home. He saw the trees were beginning to grow blooms again. He got to the house and saw something he would never expect, his mom sleeping on the couch.

“Mom? Are you sleeping?” Bismarck whispered.

Applejack half opened her green eyes and looked at him with exhaustion all over her body.

“Well, ah was before you came along.” AJ replied with a smile. “What have you been doing all this time?” She asked, stretching her arms as she got up.

“Ah've been helping everypony as much as possible. Ah'm so tired, but ah don't know what to do to relax.” Bismarck said as he followed his mom into the barn.

“Sometimes, you need to take a break from somethings.” Applejack said.

Bismarck got a great idea. He ran out of the barn, thanking his mom for the help, and ran over to the spa.

“Ah'd like a relaxing treatment please.” Bismarck told the receptionist.

She gave him a quizzical look, but called the other two and they brought him to the bench to give him a full treatment. Bismarck almost instantly fell asleep from the relaxing massage. Hew woke up a little while later and felt like a whole new pony. He thanked the spa workers for their expertise and walked out. He walked home and saw his mom in her usual 'I told you so' pose.

“What changed fer you today sugarcube?” She asked.

Bismarck called the chest. “Today, I learned about how it's great to help others out, but it can also be a great help to yourself and others when you have time to relax. This also leads to showing that some people that have gone through the same situation as you can give you some big help, especially when they are family.” Bismarck finished as he gave his mom a big hug as the chest disappeared.