Twilight was finishing the checklist for her next meeting with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. As always she would not go through it during their weekly learning session, the fillies’ Twilight Time they all cherished, not after they unambiguously showed how boring they thought going through the checklist was, but she still had to make the list anyway; how else could she plan their meetings?
She looked at the parchment, memories coming back; the girls had advanced so much already, she could barely remember their lack of confidence during the first few meetings. Thinking about Sweetie Belle fumbling her magic, Scootaloo nearly destroying the small machines she attempted to assemble, or Apple Bloom with her mane fizzled after her potion exploded already required an effort, least the image of the fillies succeeding surfaced.
Things are certainly alright, thought Twilight, smiling, as she rolled the checklist and started to hum a happy tune. She stored the checklist inside a drawer and asked Spike, “What is next?”
“You have —”
The little dragon was interrupted by an impatient knock on the door. Alicorn and dragon exchanged a look, and Spike raced down the stairs. “Coming!”
Spike reached the door as Twilight got to the top of the stairs. “How may I help?” started Spike as he opened the door, only to have an orange blur slip past, leaving him spinning in place.
"Twilight!"
Applejack looked around, nostrils flaring, and completed a lap around the horse head statue in the center of the library floor before she noticed Twilight. She set off after Twilight like Derpy racing after a muffin, intercepting Twilight in the middle of the stairs that went to the upper floor.
"Twilight! Did ya use that confounded transformation spell of yours in my farm?” Applejack had her forehooves around Twilight’s shoulders, vigorously shaking her.
Twilight opened her mouth, a rude retort coming to mind, when she noticed Applejack’s eyes. Even Twilight, as inexperienced as she was with reading expressions, could see that they weren’t angry; rather, Applejack was scared.
Twilight’s horn glowed, gently enveloping the orange earth pony with her telekinetic field and bringing her down to the library floor, as she descended the stairs herself. “Applejack, calm down. I didn’t even visit Sweet Apple Acres the last few days. What in Equestria are you talking about?”
Applejack blushed a bit, tilting her hat forward as if to cover her eyes. “It’s one of our trees. An important tree. It’s …”
Applejack looked at a loss for words, and while she was visibly calming, she was still as uneasy as Rainbow Dash in a spa. Twilight put a wing over the still overexcited mare, hoping it would help her calm down, and, remembering Applejack’s previous words, called out to her assistant.
“Spike, find a book. Traditional Transformations. And get my saddlebags too.”
“Gotcha!”
Twilight turned to Applejack. “Can you show me what is wrong? Perhaps I can help.”
Applejack seemed to come out of a trance, finally noticing the wing over her, and took a step back, her face becoming the color of her apples for a moment.
“Sure. I would be mighty grateful,” said her, looking to the side and rubbing her neck.
Soon the two mares emerged from the library, racing towards Sweet Apple Acres.
“You don’t have to apologize, Applejack.”
“But I was wrong, accusin’ you like that. I should have known you wouldn’t do it.”
Twilight looked at the orange mare; her face told Twilight that she was truly sorry. Twilight almost laughed as the thought crossed her mind; Applejack was so used to only telling the truth that she might get face cramps from the unfamiliar expression if she attempted to lie.
Instead, she said, “Apology accepted, then, and let’s forget it even happened. Now, where is that tree you need help with?”
“There.” Applejack pointed at a nearby grove, most of its trees old-looking and full of very red apples, contrasting with the younger-looking and recently bucked trees of the rest of the farm. “Those are the trees planted during the Apple Family Reunion, whenever any of us apples go to a new town.”
“And they are very important to you, right?” asked Twilight with a smile.
“Sure as sugar,” answered Applejack, with a shy smile. While not much as far as smiles go, it was the first one since the mare barged into the library, bringing some measure of joy to Twilight’s heart.
The two mares circled the grove, and Twilight could see the issue before Applejack even had a chance to point the specific tree. It looked stronger than the other ones, a bit less gnarled, and was covered in unharvested apples.
Except for one branch, easily identifiable due to its bird nest. A branch where a lone orange hanged.
Twilight looked between the branch and Applejack, and the mare nodded. Focusing again on the branch, Twilight started to analyze it, looking for any clues.
The branch as a whole looked alien in the tree. It’s leaves were a different shade of green, more yellowish, with smoother borders than the ones of the nearby apple-loaded branches; the wood itself looked different, lighter. Twilight followed the branch back to where it joined the tree; she had read somewhere that a branch from one tree could be grafted onto another, even without magic, but there was no mark to suggest that this had taken place.
Applejack seemed to read her mind. “It’s not a graft; already looked for that. Is it magic?”
Twilight levitated her book out of her saddlebag, shuffled through it, and looked at a page in the middle; nodding to herself, she closed the book and alighted her horn, eyes closed in concentration.
“It’s not magic. If anything nearby was affected by transformation magic —”
Twilight’s horn started to glow furiously, with a corresponding glow appearing around a blue bird that was gliding down towards the nest. Startled, the bird started to fly away, only to be enveloped by a different purple magic aura.
“Sorry, just hang a minute,” said Twilight to the bird as she brought it down to her sight level, as gently as she could.
Applejack approached. “Isn’t it a Bluejay? Why did your magic find it?”
“Because she turned that bird into an orange! Hey, you turned an apple tree into an orange tree? No fair, I asked to be turned into an orange first!”
Twilight and Applejack took a step back, stumbling, while the bluejay, released from the magic, flew away. They looked, stunned, at the source of the voice, a pink pony that had her forehooves locked around a different tree branch.
Applejack recovered first. “Pinkie! What the hay are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know, just hanging around.” Giggling at her own joke, Pinkie dropped to the ground. “Hey, Twilight, why did you transform the tree? I asked to be transformed first!”
Twilight stood, shaking her head in disbelief. “Like I was telling Applejack, I didn’t turn the tree. There is no magic involved, as unlikely as it sounds.”
Applejack looked at Twilight, raising an eyebrow. “And what about the bird? If you turned it into an orange, and it made its nest on that tree, wouldn’t the magic, I don’t know, sap from the bird to the tree?”
Twilight took a hoof to her chin. After a few moments, she started to speak, slowly, thinking about each word. “It might — and I mean might — be possible for the magic to slowly drain into the tree in a way that the detection spell can’t tell. But it would be really hard for it to happen on its own, it would be easier for the tree to just sprout wings and fly.”
Pinkie stopped hopping after the orange for a moment and looked at the other two mares. “And what about magic?”
Twilight put a hoof over her face. “Pinkie, it’s what I was saying, this is not magic.”
“No, not unicorn magic, silly.” Pinkie grinned like a cat preparing to pounce. ”I mean earth pony magic.”
Twilight blinked a few times. “Earth… Pinkie, do you know something we don’t?”
“Not really. But Granny Pie used to tell stories about earth pony magic.”
Applejack was muzzle to muzzle with Pinkie before she even finished the phrase, an eager look in her face. “And did she tell how to change a tree back?”
Pinkie’s smile deflated a bit. “Well, not exactly. But Granny Pie used to tell a story that told how to change a boulder to crystal and back.”
Applejack started to back, a disappointed look on her face, when her eyes suddenly went wide. “Land sakes!” And then she was off, galloping to the barn.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked at each other and ran after their friend.
Twilight almost banged her hoof on her forehead when she saw who Applejack was looking for. Of course, if anypony knew about earth pony magic in Ponyville, it would be the oldest pony in town, the pony that in a way saw the seeds of the town be planted.
Instead, she found herself looking expectantly at Granny smith, as the old green mare stood there thinking, making an inquisitive sound from time to time.
After a minute Granny Smith lowered her hoof and looked at Applejack. “Sorry, don’t know any story about changing apples to oranges. And just why are you askin’ for one?”
Applejack started to explain, with Pinkie interrupting from time to time. Twilight let those two explain things while she looked around. Big Mac was visible from a kitchen window, tending to a nearby field and making the plow look like a light cart; Twilight gave a low whistle in admiration as her own misadventures with a snow plow came to the fore of her mind. Apple Bloom was nowhere to be seen, apparently out with her Crusader friends since early morning, after already spending most of yesterday afternoon with them.
Twilight looked back to the other three mares; Pinkie Pie was jumping around and flapping her forelegs, apparently imitating a fleeing bluejay. Granny Smith, looking at Applejack, was nodding.
“Mm… I see. Nope, never heard anything like that.”
“Well, it was worth a try.” Applejack started to turn towards the door. “Th-”
“Now wait, young’un, quit your bellyachin’. I do know a thing or two about earth pony magic.” Granny Smith eyed the other three. “Where was that confounded tree again?”
Twilight was smiling as she looked at the old green mare. She couldn’t help it; Granny Smith’s smile was so wide it was contagious, and Pinkie Pie grinning at her side brought the concentration of smiles per —
Twilight stopped thinking about it. Applying scientific principles to smiles wasn’t worth it, she just wanted to keep smiling.
“This is magic, sure as applesauce! Y’all sure this isn’t that fancy unicorn magic?” Granny smith was still circling around the tree and tapping it with her hooves.
“I’m sure,” said Twilight. Her eyes were sparkling at the prospect of learning something new. “Do you know how it happened?”
“Or how to undo it?” added Applejack.
"I don't know. But see here,” said the old mare, her smile barely reducing as she pointed at the crown of the tree. "It set this old baby straight as rain, it did. I don't know what did it, but it sure helped.”
Applejack looked exasperated. "But our trees are supposed to be apple trees, for the Apple family; not orange trees!”
At that Granny Smith was on the ground, rolling and holding her sides.
“Granny?” Applejack peered closer.
She was met by a blast of laughter. “Ha! Don’t you remember who planted this tree, Applejack?”
Applejack looked back, confusion in her eyes. “No, this tree has been here for as long as I can remember.”
Granny Smith got up, swiping a tear of laughter from her eye. “It was my niece from Manehattan. Your Aunt Orange. Back when she was just a wee blank flank, before she left for Manehattan.”
Applejack went slack jawed, until Pinkie passed by her side and closed her mouth with a giggle. Twilight peered the tree closer and turned to Granny Smith, but was interrupted as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Mail!”
The four ponies looked up, at an approaching gray pegasus with bubbles for a cutie mark. She carelessly dropped a letter — which unerringly floated to Applejack’s raised hoof — and then left with a silent salute.
“Whatcha got?” Pinkie was bounding behind applejack, who sighed and started opening the letter.
“It’s an invitation.” She turned around the fancy paper, the drawing of an apple and an orange prominently displayed on both sides. ”It’s from Manehattan. One of my cousins, Aunt Orange’s niece, just got her cutie mark, and they are inviting the whole family for a cute-ceañera.”
Twilight took the envelope in her telekinetic aura and started to read it. “Express delivery; it was sent today. Applejack, does it say when she got her cutie mark?”
Applejack skimmed the invitation. “No, but knowin’ my aunt, I reckon she sent the invitations as soon as possible. Why, do you think…”
“That the niece of the pony who planted the tree getting an orange cutie mark turned that branch into an orange tree branch? No. But nopony really understands the magic of how cutie marks appear, so it’s more likely than the tree sprouting wings, at least.” Pinkie started rolling on the ground with laughter, while Granny Smith looked utterly confused, so Twilight added, “Inside joke.”
Applejack looked back at the tree. “And nopony usually comes here. It could have happened last week for all we know. What do you think happened, Twilight?”
“I have no idea!” said Twilight, with the look of a foal that just got a new toy. “It could be anything! Perhaps even everything! But I will find it out. Do you mind if I take a few leaves from the orange branch and a few more from the rest of the tree?”
“All yours, partner.”
The sun was already low on the horizon when three fillies approached the secluded grove, rushing from bush to bush like Pinkie Pie when she got a twitchy tail. The frontmost one, a yellow filly with red mane and a pink bow, looked out of the bush, scanning the horizon. Not seeing anypony else, she inhaled.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
An amber pegasus filly with pink mane jumped out of a nearby bush and rushed towards the first filly. “Hey, we agreed to not use that as our signal.”
The yellow filly inclined her head. “Why?”
“Because!” said the pegasus, puffing her cheeks.
“Hey, you two! Stop!” A white unicorn with light purple mane rushed out of another bush, picking twigs out of her mane with her magic. She looked towards the yellow filly. “Apple Bloom, didn’t you want to this without our sisters knowing?”
Apple Bloom’s cheeks became the color of her mane for a moment. She looked towards the pegasus. “Sorry for teasing you, Scootaloo.”
“Shesh, don’t sweat it.” Scootaloo looked at the unicorn. “Sweetie Belle, did you bring the sprayer?”
“Here,” Sweetie Belle said, levitating a small sprayer with a bright red liquid inside. “Let’s do it, Crusaders!”
The three fillies assembled in an impromptu tower under the odd apple tree — the one with an orange tree branch — with Apple Bloom on top, scaring a bluejay out of its nest; the earth pony filly sprayed the contents of her sprayer on the strange branch, specially on the large orange, and sighed in relief as the leaves started to change shape to the familiar apple tree leaf shape and the fruit turned back into an apple.
“Now,” said Sweetie Belle after the three fillies were back on the ground, and not covered in tree sap for a change, “why did you even try to turn that tree into an orange tree?”
“Well…” Apple Bloom was pawning the ground in circles. “That one is Babs tree. Well, the tree for all the Apple Family members in Manehattan, actually.”
“So you wanted to turn it into an orange tree?” Sweetie Belle inclined her head in confusion.
“No! It was an accident! It’s just, the tree was looking weak, you know, so I tried to make a potion to make it stronger! How should I know that adding earth pony hairs to a potion to make plants grow strong would turn them into orange trees?”
“You added your hairs to the potion?” said Sweetie Belle. “What for?”
“Earth pony magic makes them strong, I figured adding earth pony hair would make the tree stronger!”
“Uh…” All eyes turned towards Scootaloo. “I might have dropped my orange juice on the table when Apple Bloom left the potion on it. I cleaned everything, but maybe a little juice fell inside the potion.”
“You what? And you didn’t tell me?”
The three fillies started to run around, Apple Bloom running after Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle running after the other two. In a minute or two they were already laughing, any conflict forgotten, even as a large red stallion, hidden behind some trees, said softly: “Eeyup.”
