It was morning in Ponyville and the sun was shining, the birds were singing. In a matter of facts everything was normal in Ponyville, that was for the moment.
In the Friendship castle/library Twilight was just starting to wake up when she suddenly heard her bedroom door slam shut, she then heard her door being locked. A very worried and terrified Spike stood at the front of the door, stopping anything to get out of the room, or in it. She sat up in her bed curious as to why Spike was looking so panicked.
"Spike, what’s the problem?" she asked while rubbing her eyes.
The baby dragon was biting his claws in a very stressful manner, still protecting the door. Twilight got out of her bed and walked over to her door and tried to get pass him. He wasn’t budging.
"No Twilight please don’t go out there!!!" he said starting to clutch the door handle.
"Spike what is it ?"
"I can’t tell you…" he said while averting eye contact.
Twilight knew very well that he wasn’t going to let her out. A magic aura suddenly surrounded Spike and he reluctantly started to float away from the door , Twilight then opened her door. She frozed on her spot, and a look of true horror started to appear on her face. After a second she started running around the castles library.
"This… this isn’t possible… " She whispered
"Where are all the books?" She yelled.
Spike followed in, still bitting his nails.
"I don’t know… There were all there last night"
She was continuing to run looking for some kind solution as to why there were no books. Twilight then saw a note on a bookshelf in the « D » section of the library. She ran over to it and read it.
Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
I am now guessing that you have found out what I have done, and no, I am not insane.
To retrieve your precious belongings I shall only ask you to do 6 things under 24 hours. Here is a list of these tasks:
1– Learn to buck apples like Applejack.
2– Sew a dress like Rarity.
3- Look after critters whith caring hooves like Fluttershy.
4-Clear the sky in 20% less time than Rainbow Dash.
5-Throw a party like Pinkie Pie (not an egghead party).
6- Meet me at the lake for further instructions.
I am being cruel to you so you can embrace the special talents of your friends, like they have embraced yours multiple times. We shall see if you can survive for one day without a book.
There is only one rule:
NO MAGIC.
Now bye bye for now good luck.
The mysterious living being...!
She read the letter ten times to make shure she wasn't dreaming. She slowly pulled her eyes away from the letter and started to search for some quills and parchment paper to make notes of what she had to do and in how much time.
" Spike where are the quills and the parchment I ordered yesterday ?" she asked.
"Disappeared to" he replied
"WHAT???"
"Um... shouldn't we get going ?"
"Yes... yes I should..." she said her voice trailing off.
"Well let's go ?"
Spike was really scared of this situation with Twilight, for he didn't know if she was going to blow or not. Twilight levitated the letter and folded it neatly and put it in her saddle bag Rarity made for her, she then put some extra "IN CASE OF A PROBLEM" stuff in her saddle bag and she was leaving her palace.
"Do you want me to come Twilight ?" Spike asked.
"No Spike I need you to stay here in case if anything else happens" she calmly replied.
She left without any other words. Her first task was to buck apples, how on earth was she supposed to do that !!! She didn't think she read a book about that, guess she would just have to ask Applejack.
Twilight Sparkle trotted through Ponyville observing what her fellow ponies were making of their day. She stopped at Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.... that was for the moment. She entered the pastry shop and she still couldn't see Pinkie. She walked up to the counter wher Mrs Cake was.
"Hello Mrs Cake, may I have a cookie and a chocolate milkshake please?" she asked.
"Hello Twilight, of course it's coming right up" she replied in a bubbly manner.
As she waited for her order, she went to a nearby table and sat down to think of how she had to spread her time between her friends today. Seconds later Mrs Cake came back in with a little paper bag on her back. Twilight went up to the counter and payd her bits, and she put the bag into her saddle bag.
"Thank you and bye" Twilight said.
" Your welcome dearie, come back whenever you can" Mrs Cake replied smiling at Twilight.
"I will"
And Twilight was off. The road to Sweet Apple Acres was actually a dirt track and was very rarely used, only by the Apple family, her and her friends, and some random rich salesponies. She opened her saddle bag and took out the little paper bag Mrs Cake gave her. She opened it and started eating her cookie and sometimes dunking it in her chocolate milkshake.
Half an hour later she arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. She couldn't see anyone so far but she was certain today was a harvesting day. She headed off to the red barn to see if anypony was there. Not a soul was in there.
"What ya doing here Twilight" a little filly's voice spoke.
Twilight detached her eyes from the barn and turned around to see Apple Bloom, Applejack's little sister standing at the step of the barn.
"Oh, hello Apple Bloom I was wondering were your sister was?" she asked.
"Probably out bucking apples, why?"she asked wondering what Twilight would want from her sister.
"Long story" Twilight said as she ran towards the barn doors.
She ran out of the barn and set of to the skys in a very wobbly manner. She scanned each single tree with an expert eye but couldn't see Applejack yet. She flew for several minutes until Twilight flew right into a white puffy cloud by accident. Unfortunately some cloud stuck to her mane and blocked her sigh, in a matter of facts she couldn't see a blind thing. She screamed as she started falling towards the ground at high speed. She crashed right on an apple tree, leeving the tree with only a couple of leaves and apple on it. Thank goodness she wasn't flying to high overwise she probably would have injured herself very badly. She jumped out of the tree and shook off the extra pieces of leaves and branches that were attached to her coat and mane. There was a little cut on the left side of here neck. She had read books about wounds and bruise, this one wasn't a deep one so it would heel in time. She didn't think of bringing plasters...
"What in tarnation... Twilight what ya doing here?"
Applejack came in view as she walked towards the tree that Twilight crashed into. As Twilight saw her she ran directly at her.
"Applejack teach me to buck apple trees!" she said energetically.
"What?" the farm pony was confused at the sight that lay before her eyes. An apple tree was broken in two and Twilight had a long cut on her neck.
"Teach me to buck apple trees" she repeated.
"I mean, what happened here?"
"I crashed, can you teach me to buck apple trees please?" Twilight asked again.
"Why would I teach ya to buck apple trees?"
Twilight explained the story of how she woke up to find that no books were left in her library, and she showed her the letter of the list of tasks that she had to do.
"... Do ya have any idea who took ya books?" Applejack asked.
"'No, and I only have a short time to learn all of these different tasks" Twilight said as she let herself fall to the ground.
"Well I can help ya but it aint gonna be perfect perfect" She said trying to comfort her friend.
"I know and I will do my best" Twilight said, still miffed off about her misadventure of the the morning.
"Follow me"
Twilight stood up and followed Applejack. She walked to a nearby apple tree where there was multiple baskets and a cart, all filled with apples.
"Who picks up all the basket's?" Twilight asked.
"Big Mac he goes around after harvesting and picks them all up, for the apple bucking just watch me, I'm not a good teacher sorry"
Twilight watched Applejack, her new teacher, starting to buck an apple tree. She was standing away from the tree, far enough so she could kick the tree but close enough to be able to actually hit it. She then gave a powerfull kick to the tree and all the apples fell to the floor. Twilight watched her do the same thing a couple of times before she thought of trying it herself. She trotted to a tree, very confident about what she was going to do. She positioned herself like Applejack did, she did a couple a test kicks. When she though she was ready she readied herself and kicked as hard as she could on the tree trunk. The leaves of the tree shook a bit, but not a single apple fell. She done it again except this time an apple fell on her horn. With that result, apple juice trickled down her face. She took the apple of her horn and whipped the apple juice off of her face before she tried again. After a couple more failures the tree still had all of it's apples on it. On the other hand Applejack only had to kick the tree two times until no apples were left on the tree. Twilight watched at how easy Applejack was making it look. She grunted in frustration and went ot try out some apple bucking on an other tree. She tried again and again. An hour had passed since Twilight started on her first tree. The time was ticking very fast. She was getting no where with this and she was getting really annoyed with it. She just couldn't buck apple tree's she tried and she couldn't do it. She would never get her books back and her her annoyance was reaching breaking point. She positionned herself in front of the tree readied her legs and kicked the tree. Nothing budged. All of her anger was directed towards one apple tree, how ridiculous was that! She glared at the tree that lay before her eyes. She angrily kicked the tree trunk with full force. The leaves shook a little, and all the apples fell to the floor. A look of surprise then joy was plastered on her face.
'I... I... I DID IT!!!" she screamed of joy and jumped around the apple tree she just harvested.
She galloped, searching Applejack. She found her bucking some tree's nearby.
"Thank you Applejack, thank you very much" she said shaking her hoof.
"Ya still here" she asked surprised to see Twilight still in the orchard.
"Bye, see you soon"
"Bye..."Applejack's voice trailed looked at her painfull hoof.
Twilight was out of the apple famiy's territory in less then a minute.
