Celestia’s sun was starting to sink in the west, causing the sky to turn a mixture of all the colors of the spectrum. While the gorgeous sky was above had many admirers throughout Ponyville, there was one orange filly trotting home who paid no mind. It wasn’t that she did enjoy the beauty in nature. Far from it actually, she had just recently learned that she belonged in this town, where her family had been all this time. But that didn’t matter right now, instead she was on her way back to the family farm to continue her many chores.
This was her life. Waking up when bright moon still lit up the sky, tended to the cows, bathe the pigs, collect the eggs from the chickens, clear the fallen leaves from the grove of trees, care for her younger sister, go off to school, help her grandmother with the apple cart in the market, return home to help her brother with bucking the apples and barrel them all before dinner, her homework, and bed. Then she would wake up and do it all over again tomorrow. She didn’t hate it, but it really exhausted Applejack.
As the farm came into view, the orange pony adjusted the slightly large hat on her head. She wasn’t looking forward to the task she had ahead of her, but Applejack knew it had to be done. With a sigh, she headed to the barn.
“Welcome home, Applejack,” the red stallion greeted her sister.
“Thanks, Big Mac,” the young pony tipped her hat to her kin, “Do ah got buckin’ duty today?”
Big Mac nodded, “Eeyup. Granny should be back soon, an’ ah’ll call ya fer dinner.”
Applejack silently acknowledged the statement before she slowly made her way out to the grove of trees.
It was early fall, but the trees were already yielding plenty of apples to the family. It was a good season. But as Applejack trotted through the trees, her disposition failed to improve. Her life, as much as she loved her family, was dominated to her duty to them. After all, it was just Granny Smith, her brother Big Mac, and now the little Applebloom to look after the entire farm. She would never say it aloud, but Applejack was begging for help.
Reaching the location of the first bucket that was waiting to be filled, Applejack prepared herself and took a swift kick at the trunk of the tree. A few apples fell in. She looked up to see a few stubborn apples remained. She kicked harder. A few more fell into the bucket but there were some that still persisted to stay in the branches.
Applejack glared and spoke to the fruit, “Come on, ya apples. Why ain’t ya fallin’?”
“Maybe they like the view of the sunset!”
The bubbly voice started the orange filly. It caused her jump, causing the large hat to fall down and cover her eyes.
Lifting the hat back to its previous position, she looked around to find the source of the voice, “Who said that?”
The voice returned, “Yoo-hoo! Up here!”
Applejack looked up but still didn’t see the pony who spoke to her, “Where?”
Instead of hearing the voice again, Applejack saw an apple roll on the ground. Another apple hit the ground and rolled from behind the pony and into her line of sight. Applejack turned and looked up to see an earth pony happily sitting on a large tree branch. Her pink coat made her stick out amongst the canopy, even as the sky slowly became darker. As for her mane, it was just as pink and looked as if she had stood in the middle of a windy storm to style it. Her large blue eyes looked directly at Applejack as she held an apple in her hooves.
“Hiya!” the pink filly beamed, “I’m glad I got your attention before I accidently hit you with an apple!”
Applejack was bewildered, “Who are ya? An’ what are ya doin’ up in mah tree?”
“I was watching the beautiful sunset! I love watching Celestia’s sun slowly disappear and watching the sky turn so many colors! Don’t you just love it?” the pink filly looked up at the multi-colored sky as she took a bite of the apple in her hooves.
“Hey, ya can’t eat that apple! It’s mah family’s property!” Applejack pointed in protest.
“Oh, sorry,” the filly stuck her tongue out and made a few noises to stop chewing what was in her month. The chewed up food came out of her mouth and landed on her hoof. She then tried to place it back on the apple, “Is this better?”
Applejack was disgusted by this act, “Uh, ya know what, it’s on the house.”
“Aww, thank you!” the pink pony took a bite of the apple again, the same place where she had previously took a bite.
Trying to move on, Applejack repeated, “So, uh….who are ya an’ why are ya here?”
From her seated position, the strange pony answered, “I’m Pinkamina Pie! And I came over here because I thought ya might need some help!”
“Wait, don’t we go ta school together? And help me with what?”
“Yup and I dunno!” the pony hopped down from the tree to the ground. Taking another bite of the apple, she continued, “I came here because my tail was all ‘twitch-a-twitch’!”
“’Twitch-a-twitch’? What does that even mean, Pinkama- Pinkenma- Pika-….can I just call ya Pinkie or somethin’?” Applejack asked.
“Pinkie? Pinkie? I absolutely love it!” the pony exclaimed, “From this day forward, I shall be known as PINKIE PIE! I will shout it from the mountains tops! I! AM! PINKIE PIE!”
Applejack seemed both confused and concerned with the pony’s action. “Uh….sure, whatever. You were sayin’ ‘bout that tail of yers?”
“Oh, right! My tail goes all twitchy when something is about to happen or when I am needed. It’s like a super-duper power!” Pinkie stated.
With a rolling of her eyes, the orange pony added, “And what’s this power of yers sayin’?”
“I have no idea!” Pinkie answered with a smile on her face.
Applejack looked directly at the pink filly. While she wanted to just tell her to leave her alone, she didn’t have the heart to do so. “Alright then, well, ah gotta buck these apples before dinner starts, an’ chattin’ with ya has already set me back quite a bit. So, if ya could lemme get ta work….”
Pinkie interrupted, “Oh, of course! I don’t wanna stop you from doing her super-duper important job! And I know it’s important because I work at Sugarcube Corner with the Cakes when I’m not at school and stuff and I totally know that they use a lot of apples, and this is obviously where all of the apples come from, the apple farm! So I know that this is a super important job and I want to personally thank you for doing this job before you get back to work, so thank you!”
“Thanks, I think,” Applejack gave a small smile as a token of gratitude to Pinkie for both showing gratitude to her, and not passing out on her during that long statement.
“I saw a smile!” Pinkie pointed her hoof at Applejack, the tip of which stopped right in front of Applejack’s mouth.
Looking at the hoof that was less than an inch away from her mouth, the orange filly spoke, “Yeah, ah guess ah did. What of it?” She used her own hoof to move Pinkie’s back down to the ground.
“I just love seeing ponies smile! And I feel even better knowing that I helped create the smile in some way!” Pinkie mused as she seemed dance around Applejack, “And to think I made a new friend today!”
“Friend?” Applejack echoed. The word seemed a bit alien to her as she said it.
“Of course! I see you as a brand new friend, and I always want to help out my friends!” the pink pony said with strong conviction.
Carefully choosing her words, Applejack slowly spoke, “Well, not ta be rude or nothin’, but ya mind if ya help me out-“
“Yes?” Pinkie’s eyes were wide as she leaned in to listen.
“-by leavin’ me ta do mah work? I still have ta get some buckin’ done with these here trees.”
“Oh, okay….” Pinkie’s enthusiasm seemed to drop along with her ears.
“It’s not that ah didn’t like havin’ ya here or anythin’. It’s jus’….ah got a lot of responsibilities ‘round the farm here an’ what not….” Applejack meekly added.
A silence between the two was formed. It made both of them awkward, neither of them knowing what to say. Both fillies seemed happy to hear a noise in the distance.
It was Granny Smith banging on a triangle, calling out to Applejack to return home for dinner.
“That’s mah granny. Ah gotta head ta dinner,” Applejack was relived that there was something that could allow her to leave, “But….uh….it was nice meetin’ ya, Pinkie Pie.”
With that statement, Applejack galloped quickly home.
The next morning, Applejack started her daily routine.
Up before the rising of Celestia’s sun.
Tending the cows.
Bathing the pigs (her least favorite part).
Collecting chicken eggs.
By this time, Celestia’s sun peaked over the mountains in the distance. With this light, Applejack trotted toward the groves to begin clearing out the leaves. Something was different, and the pink filly waiting for her was an obvious sign about this.
Applejack rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, “Pinkie Pie?”
“Good morning!” she chimed back happily. She seemed to be even more unkempt than the night before.
“Mornin’. Um, what can ah help ya with?” the orange filly trotted closer.
With the bright smile that seemed like a permanent fixture to her face, she answered, “Nothing! In fact, I’m here to help you!”
“Help me?”
“Well, rather that I already helped you. So, in this case it’s a surprise!” Pinkie flailed her arms out at the last statement.
Applejack was still puzzled, “Ah’m afraid ah don’t follow.”
Pinkie took a trot to the side and presented the trees behind her, “Ta-da!”
The orange pony looked at the grove. The morning light showed the grove of trees was not only clear of leaves and other clutter in the rows, but the apples were all off the trees and in the bucket. Applejack trotted forward to see that each and every tree was attended to. Each bucket only had the freshest apples within.
“How….How did ya do this?” Applejack was speechless at the feat.
“Well, I know not to pick apples that aren’t ready yet! And the rotten apples, I set those aside for the piggies to enjoy! And the cleaning isn’t really that hard when you have a positive state of mind. The real challenge of it was doing all of this in the dark, I only had one flashlight!” Pinkie giggled at the statement.
“But….why did ya do all of this?” the orange filly asked yet another question.
“To make you smile!”
“Beg pardon?”
Pinkie smiled, “I always want to make ponies happy, no matter what! It means so much to me when I can make others smile!”
“You did all of that….just to make me smile?”
“Yup yup yup! I love doing small random acts of kindness!”
“This is no small act….”
“Sure it is!”
“Th-Thank ya, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack smiled to the pink pony.
Seeing Applejack’s smile, Pinkie’s energy exploded, “That’s what I was looking for! A bright, sunny smile!”
Pinkie’s reaction caused Applejack to softly laugh.
“You’d be surprised what amazing things a simple smile gives! And that’s why I am determined to make ponies smile, to make magic happen and make brand new friends!” Pinkie proclaimed, “Also, it gives me the warm fuzzies, another form of magic!”
“An’ ah guess ya really did make some magic,” Applejack gave a hug to her new friend, “Thank ya so much, Pinkie.”
“Always happy to help! So, shall we go to school?”
Applejack and Pinkie shared a smiled as they trotted towards Ponyville, school, and their new friendship.
END
