An Applejack Year
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Howdy, how ya doin’? The name’s Applejack. Let me tell you, just because we’re called the Apple family and our main product is everythin’ apple under the sun, doesn’t mean that life don’t go on for us over here at Sweet Apple Acres when there ain’t nothin’ t’do involving apples. Now, lemme clear somethin’ up for ya’ – not all apples bloom at the same time of year. Not all applebucking happens in the fall. There are apples that get bucked in the summer, apples that need harvesting in the fall, apples that get picked in the winter, and even a few bear fruit late in the spring. It all depends on what kind apple you’re dealing with. Bet ya’ didn’t know that, did’nt ya’?
Pardon me, where’re my manners? You’re probably finding it mighty hard t’understand me, ain’t you? I’m-a tone down my rustic twang just a tad. Ah, isn’t this better, ‘innit? Now that we can properly understand each other, let me go on. You're wanting to hear about life here, right?
Life at Sweet Apple Acres is like a wagon wheel. It has its highs and its lows, but it always comes back around again.
I like to think that everything all starts in fall, ‘cuz that’s when there’s the big harvest that’ll make of break the whole year. Lemma tell ya’ll, there ain’t no feeling like seeing the bits come pouring in after selling off a huge load of apples following a real lean year. Bam, you just made yourself all of last year’s money in just a day or two. You ever gotten a big load of bits come for you either in person or when you’ve cashed the check at the bank? There’s nothing like seeing all of them all shiny piled up on your table, counting off the golden ones, the bronze twos, the silvery fives, the red tens, the green twenties, the pink fifties, the black hundreds, the white five hundreds, and best of them all, the purple one thousand pieces. I dunno why purple’s the color of the biggest money; Twilight once explained it to me as having to do with something that happened real long ago with some sorta snail or other, but I can’t for the life of me remember what exactly now. Thank Celestia for introducing different denominations, because it’s take days counting all the little pieces when everything was just bits. Anyway, when you got money sitting in front of you like that, it’s like looking at a feast. There’s just so much you can’t ever imagine ever running out and you just want to enjoy all of it you can while it’s there…
The next season to come is winter. It starts by us all wrapping up everything. Then it’s Hearthswarming. Remember how I told you how apples can still grow in the winter? Well, my family, we like to take a little rest, just relax, watch over the orchards, and do other things. Besides, working in the cold ain’t fun, not that there’s much to do with the trees all like skeletons without their leaves. Don’t bother trying to sell apples; nopony’s doing market business when they have to walk through a foot of snow to get there. Other than a bit of housekeeping, there’s not much that needs to be done. It’s just mostly going around, fixing things, making plans for when it gets warm again, and sometimes dealing with crooks and jackals looking to make off with stuff that ain’t theirs. And be careful with money, because we aren’t getting much more until the next applebuck season. Big Mac and I sometimes work odd jobs here and there at this time of year. I wish I could say it was just because we get sick of being all cooped up on the farm… Lemme tell you, you can only do so much with apples. Even I can’t make do with just them.
Then comes spring. We gotta undo everything that made winter, and that means a lot of work in slush that’s just warm enough to melt but still cold enough to chill you to the bone. Mud, especially cold mud of the spring rains with the thaw, gets everywhere and mucks up everything. Some days, only Big Mac bothers going out to work, because he’s the only pony who can get anythin’ done. Money’s getting’ real tight right around now, especially now that Granny Smith is getting older and Apple Bloom is starting to go to real school. We’d set up a college fund for her if there were any funds to set aside. We got four mouths to feed with just two of them even being able to do anything about it. But there ain’t no time for worrying when you’ve got orchards to tend to. The middle of spring might just have some of the best weather of the year. It’s not too hot, too cold, too dry, or too rainy. And with those apples swelling up more and more on the trees by the day, it gives you something to go on, because any week now, you’ll be getting that second big tide of cash to try and settle those niggling little bills that you never plan on or trying to get, like a storm taking out some windows, political stuff making your food get more expensive, needing to buy more textbooks they didn’t tell you about at the start of the year, some pegasus’s prank washing away your fertilizer…
Last is summer. Just as spring turns into summer, we get our second round of applebucking. It’s not fun like in the fall, even though we use that word pretty darn loosely around the orchard. It’s always hard work, but fall has tourists and foals who’ll pay to pick some apples themselves. They think they’re getting ‘em for cheap, and they are if they just look at what the store charges. The truth is that we’d rather have ponies buy right from us instead of going to the store, because we give a better apple for a lot less money. That and bulk buyers always find ways to take the lowest price and make it smaller. Ever since that farm subsidy died, they stopped letting us hedge prices in advance, and that business party got elected big time to Canterlot, tight times just keep squeezing tighter and tighter. If you don’t pick and sell your apples when they’re ripe, they’ll just rot and you’ll get nothing. At least we can all fit in skinny clothes, and mind you, if I do say so myself, I look mighty fine thanks to this mandatory life of strict diet and hard exercise, as plenty of stallions and many mares, too, will tell you… Sorry, I forgot where I was going with that. Anyway, summer’s hot and bright. The days are long and we’re working as hard as we can, even Apple Bloom pitches in thanks to school being out and all. It’s a lot, because we’re getting ready for the one thing that gets us financially through the year, praying that it doesn’t fall through like that year before last… And as summer goes on your hopes swell up, just like how you want the apples to. It’s the longest few months of the year, but it’s not all bad; plenty of time for friends and family and the good things in life. Ain’t nothing like a summer night with a special somepony when it’s just the two of you together under Luna’s moon lying awful close together…
And then comes the fall again and everything repeats but not quite the same. And that’s how a year goes at Sweet Apple Acres, sugar cube. It has its low points and its high points, but no matter what happens, we always make it together. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get calendars and almanacs for the new year.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading.
This story was inspired by an entry in The Descendant;s anthology, Fever Dreams, entitled Apples to Apples.
Just one last story to round out the year. I couldn't leave you hanging this month without something, now could I? Not when I've put out a least one fic a month for you guys. I honestly didn't know what to do for my last fic of the year and I honestly had no idea where I was going with any of this at any point. It's been great reading and writing with you guys in 2014 and I hope to get to do it again in 2015. :)
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