Applejack Learns To Rock Smash

by BleedingRaindrops

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Applejack, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Pinkie Pie
Length: 5508

Applejack and Pinkie Pie learn about smashing rocks from Maud

When Pinkie Pie seems troubled by her inability to pulverize boulders into dust, Applejack suggests a visit to the Pie Family farm to learn from the best. She tags along, of course. After all, she's always wanted to learn.

Published 2015-12-03 03:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-03 03:00:02 UTC

Why can't I smash it?

Eyes narrowed, haunches set, lips pressed tightly together, sweat dripping from her forehead, ears closed to any outside disturbances, Pinkie Pie squared up to her target. The wind whistled through the nearby trees, tickling her coat, and rolling a lone tumbleweed between the two. The scent of fear rose up from the dust covered ground. It was the perfect scene.

Tightening up the springs in her legs, Pinkie sized up her target. A high leap would probably be best. More force to the center, spider-webbing out in a devastating cascade effect. Or maybe she should aim low. Take out the base and the rest would come crumbling down as she laid blow after blow. Pinkie licked her lips, swallowing her nerves. It would not do to show her true feelings here.

Having made her calculations, Pinkie’s tail twitch was the only warning her adversary would get as she sprang at it with the force of a cannon.

“Ha!”

Imagining her hoof going straight through, like she’d been taught, Pinkie turned the hardened point of her hoof dead ahead, and thrust her foreleg forward, straight into the rock. It collided with the boulder dead center height, sending a few specks flying, then ricocheted off with a dull thunk. With her hoof out of the way, Pinkie’s momentum carried the rest of her face first into the massive rock.

“Huh?”

*SMACK!*

Pinkie slid off the massive rock, landing hard on her backside. She got up, rubbing her sore rump, and squinted up at what should have been a pile of rubble. In its place was the same boulder that had previously been there, with not a scratch on it.

“That’s not supposed to happen.”

She got up, and threw herself at it again, this time hammering blow after blow into the stubborn rock face. The result sounded much like an industrial jackhammer, and threw up a lot of dust. After a full minute, Pinkie let off, standing back to catch her breath and wipe the sweat off her forehead. She stood tall with a smile as the wind carried the dust cloud away…

… To reveal the boulder standing just where it had been, its surface still as smooth as it had been a minute ago.

“What?! Oh come on!”

This time, Pinkie swirled around the rock, hitting it from nearly every angle all at once. Laying blow after blow into it’s surface, even occasionally using her rear legs to kick. No effect.

“Pinkie Pie, what in tarnation are you doing?”

Applejack’s voice cut her concentration like a knife. Pinkie face-planted into the rock and slid slowly down the side.

“I’m trying to smash this stupid rock. What does it look like I’m doing?” Pinkie growled through clenched teeth. She snorted angrily at the rock and laid one last defiant blow into it. The rock didn’t budge.

“I mean, what in tarnation are you doin’ out in the middle of our orchard makin’ such a ruckus over nothin’?”

Pinkie didn’t move. Applejack waited a for her response, her heart tensing more with each second. A small shiver visibly passed through Pinkie, but there was no further response from the usually restless mare. When the silence had dragged on for too long, Applejack let out the breath she'd been holding trotted over to her friend.

“Are you okay, Pinkie Pie? You’ve been up here for some time now. Have you got some sort of grudge match with this here boulder or somethin’?

Pinkie Pie’s head turned to face Applejack, but the rest of her remained solidly in place. There were tears in her eyes.

“Yes! I’m just trying to smash this giant rock I found in your fields but it’s being difficult with me!”

She turned back and laid several weak blows into the surface of the rock, applying less and less force with each one. Eventually she was just scraping her hooves over the surface. She let out a whine as she finally slid back down onto her hooves, one hoof resting on the rock face.

Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Are ya sure you’re alright, Pinkie? You seem kinda upset about somethin’.”

Pinkie Pie turned and put her other hoof down, kicking a few pebbles aside as she stared at the ground. “It’s no use. I’ve come too far.”

“Beggin’ yer pardon? What are you on about, Pinkie?”

Pinkie’s face was less than an inch from Applejack’s in the next instant, with her hooves holding Applejack’s head in place. “Applejack. I can’t smash rocks!”

Applejack took a step back and shook her head as Pinkie let her go. “Neither can I, Pinkie. Most ponies can’t. The only pony I’ve ever seen do that is yer sister Maud.”

“But I’m supposed to! My entire family can. How do you think we farmed the rocks? Every member of the Pie family learned the secret rock smashing technique when we were a little filly, and we’ve been passing the secret down for generation after generation. You’ve met my family. Remember how we made our Hearth’s Warming dolls?”

Applejack nodded silently.

“Exactly! How am I supposed to call myself a Pie if I can’t break a stupid giant rock into little tiny smithereens?”

Applejack shook her head again. “But, you seemed to smash out that Hearth’s Warming doll just fine. You didn’t have any trouble with it then. What happened?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes “I was using a pick tool for that. Makes it easier to hit the rock precisely and actually find the doll inside. I’m supposed to be able to smash it with my hooves if I want but for some reason I just... can’t”

Pinkie weakly threw a hoof against the rock, all the energy in her voice gone.

Applejack was silent for a moment. How was she supposed to respond to that. Then she smiled. “Well, shucks, Pinkie. Is that all this was about?”

Pinkie blinked and turned her head. “Huh? Of course that’s what this was about. You didn’t think I came out here to buck apples did you?”

Applejack drew her lips back for a brief moment as she remembered Pinkie trying to run the farm. “No, of course not. What I’m sayin’ is, if your whole family is so good at this, why don’t you just pay ‘em a visit? I’m sure they could help you relearn a few things if yer honest about what’s buggin’ ya. Heck, I might even tag along. Goodness knows I loved meetin’ your family, an’ I’ve always been curious how Maud actually pulled that off. Let’s take a trip out to see ‘em.”

Pinkie Pie squinted at Applejack for a long minute. Applejack stared back, not sure if she should say something. It was Pinkie, after all. Then Pinkie's eyes widened and her hair seemed to explode outward.

“That’s a great idea! Of course! We’ll go visit my family and catch up, and then both of us will learn how to smash rocks. APPLE PIE ROCK SMASH ROAD TRIP!”

The two hugged and cheered, already picturing their newest escapade. Then the full weight of what Applejack had just suggested dawned on her. She blinked. “Wait. Huh?!”

~ ~ ~

Applejack trotted alongside Pinkie through the barren field. Her hooves made a gravelly sound in the coarse dirt, kicking up dust clouds that were swiftly whisked away in the soft breeze.

“So um, Pinkie. I’m mighty glad we’re gettin’ to meet your sisters again and all that, but do you really think I’ll be able to learn this rock smashin’ technique of yours?”

Pinkie Pie pronked along beside her, creating a springy ringing that really shouldn’t be there. “Of course, silly. You’re related to the Pie family after all, and you’re an earth pony. If we can do it, you can do it.”

“That… sounds nice an’ all, Pinkie, but I don’t think that just ‘cos I’m an earth pony means I can smash rocks. Frankly, I wouldn’t believe it was possible if I hadn’t seen your sister do it.”

Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing.

“Come on, Applejack. You’ve got the toughest hooves I know from bucking apples all day. And Maud is the best rock smashing teacher I know. She’ll have you smashing rocks by the end of the day, I just know it.”

A low rumble shook the ground beneath their hooves. Both ponies turned and gazed across the open field to the nearby cliffs. A cloud of dust had been kicked up into the air and was rising steadily out of an opening near the base of the cliffs.

“Ooh, that’s probably her now. Come on.”

Pinkie grabbed Applejack and pulled her along as she skirted over to the source of the commotion, where a veritable rock slide was rolling out of the cave near the base. The pile of boulders came to a rest, filling up the cave entrance.

“Oh, come on!” came a gruff shout from the far side of the wall of granite. A large impact sounded from the other side, rattling every pebble nearby. Then came another, and another. each time the enormous pile of rocks shifted slightly. This kept up for a few seconds, until another pony strode into view from the side.

“Oh. Hi, Maud!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Maud strode up to the mountain of rocks and began pummeling the largest one with her forehooves. Chunks of rock came flying off as her hooves imitated the sound of a jackhammer, and after a few seconds of hammering the rock was nothing but a pile of smaller rocks. Without missing a beat, she moved on to the next one, smashing it to bits in a few seconds. The process went on for several minutes, along with the slow, powerful impacts coming from the other end, until finally the rockalanche was reduced to a pile of rubble, with Maud and Limestone Pie standing triumphantly on top. They bumped hooves and turned to greet the newcomers.

“Hi, Pinkie Pie,” Maud said with a blank face. She hopped down, followed quickly by Limestone.

“What are you two doing here?” Limestone asked, quizzically.

“Aww, I missed you too, silly.” Pinkie reached out and hugged both of her sisters tightly.

Applejack cleared her throat. “Um, Pinkie, I think what she meant was more along the lines of the nature of our visit.”

Pinkie let go of her sisters and stepped back. “Oh, heehee. That makes sense.”

She turned to Maud. “Applejack here was really curious about how you smashed that giant rock when you came to visit me and how you broke all those other rocks in the entrance to the mine just now and I figured since she’s an earth pony there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be able to do it especially since she’s got really strong hooves from kicking apple trees all day and since we’re practically family now I thought it would be a really fun idea to show her how it’s done.”

In true Pinkie fashion, she got it all out in one breath and wasn’t even breathing heavy at the end. There was a long silence, during which Limestone glared skeptically at Pinkie. Applejack gulped once, and Pinkie just held her smile until something happened. Finally, Maud spoke.

“Sure,” she deadpanned, and started walking away. Another long silence followed as she disappeared around a ridge in the cliff face.

Limestone’s gruff voice broke the silence. “Uh, If you want her to teach you to smash rocks, you should probably follow her or something.”

Applejack had been watching Maud go, and looked up at Limestone’s voice. “Huh? What? Oh, right.” She hurried off after Maud.

Limestone turned back toward the mine entrance. Pinkie followed her.

“So, um, Lime. I was wondering…”

“You forgot how to smash rocks with your hooves, didn’t you?” Her sister stared back at her blankly, as though she didn’t really care about the answer.

Pinkie clapped her front hooves together nervously. “I, um… yeah.” She hung her head, staring at the ground between them.

“And you want us to show you how to do it again?”

“Uhuh,” Pinkie Pie said without looking up.

Her sister let out a sigh, and started walking back out toward the entrance.

“Come on,” Limestone called. “Maud’s busy with your friend—”

“Cousin”

“—Whatever, so I guess I’ll have to fix you. But we can’t do this here. I’m not having my mine shaft collapse again.”

“Yay, thanks.” Pinkie hugged her sister, who continued to walk forward undeterred.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”

~ ~ ~

“So, I just kick it? Like this?” Applejack held a hoof up tentatively toward the rock Maud had placed in front of her.

“To start with. You’ll need to punch through it eventually, but this is a good start.”

“Uh, okay. If you say so.” Applejack drew her hoof back and thrust it forward. It collided with the rock with a dull thunk, but accomplished nothing more than knocking it off the pedestal.

Applejack shook her hoof as she recoiled from the impact. “Hoo, boy, that sure is one tough rock. You sure I’m gonna be able to do this?” She looked over at Maud, but was met with the same blank expression the gray mare always wore.

“Yes,” Maud said simply, and walked over to the rock. “But you need to follow through.” She walked over and picked up the rock, then put it back on the rock table they were using. “Don’t punch the rock. Punch through the rock.”

She thrust her hoof forward so fast Applejack never actually saw it move. Applejack shielded her eyes as the rock exploded, sending little tiny bits of rubble everywhere. She shook the dust out of her hair, then looked back at Maud’s hoof, which was resting directly in the center of where the rock had been.

Through the rock.

“I think I get it. I just gotta hit the center instead of just the outside.”

Maud nodded.

“Heh, it’s kinda like Apple Buckin’, ‘cept I use my front hooves instead of my back. Okay,” Applejack said, her eyes narrowed and her lips set. “Get me another rock.”

~ ~

Somewhere else on the farm, Pinkie was attempting to smash a rock, while Limestone shouted out her version of instructions.

“Come on, harder!”

“I’m trying!”

“Try harder!”

“I’m trying as hard as I can.”

“Well you’ve got to hit it harder than that! The rock isn’t just gonna break because you ask it to. You’ve got to make it!”

The rock exploded under Pinkie’s hoof, but she hadn’t broken it. She looked up to see her sister standing behind it. Limestone had a hard set expression, as unyielding as the rock she’d broken.

Pinkie hung her head, mane sagging slightly. “I just don’t understand what’s wrong. I’m hitting it as hard as I can—just like I used to, but it’s not smashing.” She hit one of the smaller rocks a few times, to no effect.

Limestone glared down at her as though she might pummel her at any moment—even though Pinkie knew she would never do that—then softened her gaze and rolled her eyes.
“Ugh, fine. Try again, but don’t fly around everywhere this time. I want to see what your technique looks like.”

~ ~

Applejack’s hoof flew forward with immense speed and force. She made contact with the rock directly in the center and kept pressing, fixing her focus on where the center of the rock should be. The rock launched off of her hoof and smashed into the cliff face several yards away, exploding on impact. Applejack flinched as a few pieces flew past her.

“Aw, shoot.” Applejack threw her hat down and hung her head. “I still just ain’t got it.” She looked back up at the stone they’d been using as a base. She was sure she’d done it right that time. Well, the Pies did seem to have extra strong bodies as compared to most ponies. Maybe this wasn’t something that could be taught to just anypony.

Applejack sighed.“Thanks for tryin’, Maud, but I don’t think I’m cut out for this.” She picked up her hat and turned to leave. But she didn’t make it far before Maud cut her off.

“You’re ready for step two.”

Applejack stopped mid step, turning her head to stare wide eyed at Maud. “Step two?” She backed up, tracking Maud with her eyes the whole way, and retraced her steps. “What’s step two?”

“Learning to break the rock.”

Applejack blinked twice. “Wait, you mean to tell me that isn’t what I’ve been learnin’?” Applejack pointed at what was left of her rock.

“No,” Maud said, walking over to a large rock pile. She hopped up and began sifting through it, tossing rocks left and right.

“Then what in tarnation have we been doin’ out here punchin’ rocks for?”

“You needed better technique. If we’d started with step two you would have cracked a hoof.”

Applejack looked down at one of her hooves, then stared blankly up at Maud as she pulled a rock out of the pile and carried it over.

“Oh. Well uh, shucks.”

Maud set the rock down where the other one had been. Applejack noticed this one was much lighter in color than the others. Nearly white.

“This is marble.” Maud said, indicating Applejack’s new training dummy. “It should break easier than granite.”

Applejack squinted from behind her pointed hoof at the new rock. “Is, uh, granite, what I’ve been kickin’ around for the last hour?”

“Yes.”

Applejack was silent for a moment, then took a step toward the hunk of marble. “Well, uh, I guess we should get started then.”

“Yes,” Maud repeated. “This time, don’t punch with your whole hoof. Just use the tip.”

Applejack took a moment to ponder what Maud had just said. ‘The tip of her hoof’. She looked down at it, realizing she’d never really examined her hooves this closely before. There had never been a need to. She knew how they were built, and they’d served her well over the years. The center was soft so she could hold things with it, and the outer part was hardened to withstand impact with the ground, and other things.

Wait a minute.

In Apple Bucking, she always kept her hooves flat, to maximize the amount of energy transferred into the tree, translating into vibration of the tree, and falling of the apples. But if she concentrated on just one point…

Applejack curled her hoof slightly toward herself, leaving the front center of it at the very top but maintaining a straight line with her leg and hoof.

Just the tip.

She turned back to Maud. “So what you’re sayin’ is, instead of usin’ a flat, broad surface like a hammer to smash the rock, what we’re actually doin’ is using a sharp, narrow surface like a pick to break the rock apart.”

“Right.”

Applejack almost thought she saw a smile.

“Well, alrighty then. Let’s get to it.” She turned to face the rock.

~ ~ ~

“More pointy!”

“I am more pointy!”

“More jabby!”

“I am being jabby!”

Pinkie laid blow after blow into the boulder in front of her, jabbing perfectly with her hoof, but nothing was happening.

“Attack the rock! Move through it!”

“I’m trying!”

“You call that trying? A mole attacks with more ferocity than that. You’ve got to be stronger than the rock!”

“But—”

“Stronger than the rock!”

Pinkie Pie put all of her exertion into the next few blows, but it yielded no new results.

“Well... I’m not!” Pinkie threw one last hoof at the rock, with even more pitiful results than before, if that was possible. She slumped to the ground, dragging her hoof along the boulder’s surface.

Limestone stomped up to her. “Well— Ugh, forget it!” She smashed the boulder they’d been working with and stormed off. “You’re hopeless. I’ve got rocks to mine. Go find Maud.”

“But…Limey!” Pinkie reached out after her sister. She let out a small whine and let it down.

Limestone stopped, turned and let out a long sigh. She spoke with a softer tone, but not one that was entirely kind. “Look, maybe you should just stick to that bakery you love so much. You’re really good at it. If you wanted to smash rocks for a living, you should have just stayed here.”

When Pinkie didn’t respond, Limestone turned and left.

Pinkie picked up a few of the pieces from the boulder Limey had smashed, and prodded them with a hoof. Limey was only telling her things she already knew. It wasn’t her technique. She was the problem.

“I’ll never be a Pie.”

Pinkie kicked aside some bits of the rock she’d been trying to break and sulked off in the other direction. Maybe she’d go see how Applejack was doing.

Actually, that was a great idea. Seeing Applejack would be fun, and then maybe Applejack could explain to her what she’d learned and it would be like learning it all over again. Perfect. Pinkie Pie took off around the corner to where she knew Maud would be. Sure enough, there was Maud, watching Applejack size up a pretty good boulder.

Applejack reared back on her hind legs, and plunged her hoof into the rock. And it broke. Pinkie Pie nearly tumbled over herself in mid stride as she took in what she was looking at. A few pieces of the boulder had broken off when the first hoof had landed. This was amazing. She’d made so much progress in just an hour!.

But Applejack wasn’t done. She threw another hoof at the rock and broke off a few more chunks. She was on a roll. Blow after blow landed on the rock, picking up speed until she was actually drilling through it the way Maud always did.

Pinkie’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Nopony ever learned rock smashing that fast.

Applejack kicked up a huge cloud around herself as she pulverized the huge boulder into dust. When it cleared, there was nothing left except Applejack, staring down at her hooves in amazement.

“Well, I’ll be. I didn’t know I had it in me. Did ya see that, Maud? I did it!” She pointed energetically at the pile of rubble she’d created.

“Yes,” came the deadpan reply.

Applejack’s breath caught in her throat for a moment. “Eh-hehe. Guess I should have expected that.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Guess I’ll have to go find Pinkie and tell her the good news.”

Applejack took off in Pinkie Pie's direction, who swiftly and skillfully hid herself behind some rocks just as her friend ran by.

After Applejack had gone, Pinkie slid back into view, and trotted slowly over to her sister. Maud looked up at her approach, then stood still, waiting.

“Hi, Maud,” Pinkie said, coming to a stop a few feet away.

She looked up at her sister, unsure of what to say. Maud wouldn’t hate her, would she? Pinkie had forgotten one of their family’s special secrets, and one that Maud had always excelled at. She had been the one to teach this to Pinkie the first time, after all. Would she be mad that Pinkie had managed to forget her lessons? Pinkie looked away. Would she disown Pinkie for being a bad sister?

But then, Maud had always been the most reasonable. The most understanding. She was so solid that the world moved around her. She understood Pinkie better than anypony else. Maybe, just maybe she’d listen. But what to say?

She was a Pie. Shouldn’t that mean she could do what any Pie could do? Was it because she was the only one not named after a rock? But then, even Applejack had figured it out. And she was only partly related, too. Well, that was it, wasn’t it? That was what she wanted to ask? Pinkie Pie swallowed hard, and took a deep breath.

“Why can’t I do it, Maud?” Pinkie looked back up at her sister through the locks that fell past her face. “Am I not a Pie?”

Maud frowned even further, and gave the slightest tilt of her head. Pinkie took the cue, and hugged her without hesitation, crying into her shoulder.

“Who am I? How can I call myself a Pie if I can’t break a silly little rock?”

Maud didn’t say anything for several minutes, letting Pinkie’s tears pour over her back until they dried up. Only when Pinkie herself released the hug did Maud speak.

“Better?”

“A little.” Pinkie rubbed her eyes.

“You asked Grandpa Feldspar the same thing when you were a filly, before you got your cutie mark. Do you remember what he said?”

Pinkie blew some of her mane away from her face. “He said you have to be stronger than the rock, but I’m not, and I don’t know how to be.”

Maud shook her head. “He said that the strength you need to break the rock is more than just physical. It comes from within. The rock knows who and what it is and what it’s supposed to do. It’s always been there and always will be. It has no reason to doubt itself. You need to be stronger than the rock. Stronger in who you are, and what you’re supposed to do.

“That’s why you couldn’t do it before you had your cutie mark. You didn’t know who you were then. But now you do, you just don’t trust yourself.” Maud put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “You were so happy the day you left, and you’ve been happy ever since. Be strong in who you are, and don’t doubt yourself. If you’re stronger than the rock, it will break.”

Pinkie looked up. “But… what if I can’t? You said it yourself. I’m much happier with the Cakes than farming rocks. What if I’m not really a Pie?” Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at her sister’s blank expression.

“Well, that’s just silly.” Both Pinkie and Maud looked up at Applejack’s voice. She trotted up to them and pulled Pinkie into a hug. When they let go, she held onto Pinkie’s shoulder.

“Now listen here, Pinkie. We didn’t need any physical evidence to say you were an Apple, and besides the fact that you were definitely born into this family, we certainly don’t need it to prove that you’re a Pie. You understand your family better than anypony else. You were able to tell us what your sister Marble was thinkin’ even when she wouldn’t say it herself. You can tell what Maud here is feelin’ even when the rest of us can’t, and you all share some uncanny ability to guzzle down foods that I’ve never seen anypony else stomach quietly. It don’t matter if you can smash rocks or not. What’s important is that you share a family bond that nopony can ever take away. An’ if you ask me, you seem a lot happier baking cupcakes than smashin’ rocks anyway.”

Pinkie couldn’t tell if Applejack was about to cry or if she just had dust in her eyes. She looked over at the rock pile Applejack had made. It had been so easy for her. Maud was a great teacher, but even Pinkie hadn’t learned it that fast. A lot had changed since she’d moved to Ponyville. And Applejack did have a point. She still shared a bond with her family despite not living on the farm.

Pinkie turned and silently trotted over to the rock pile, selecting the biggest piece she could find and squaring up with it.

Of course she was a Pie. How silly to think otherwise. Even though she was happier baking all of those treats for her friends. Rock soup was great, but mom could really work on her cooking. It just made sense. Pinkie Pie the peppy pink party planner sounded better than Pinkamena Diane the igneous harvester, and she sure loved making her friends smile.

Pinkie set her stance, stared down her target, drew back her hoof… and laughed.

Her pink mane snapped back to it’s usual volume, and she fell over on her back, cackling with giggles.

“Hahahaha. I’m so silly. I don’t need to smash a rock to know I love planning parties. Gummy could have told me that. I should have just asked him.”

Applejack chuckled behind her. “Guess this means you’re feelin’ better. I’ll bet you could smash that rock to pieces now if you wanted.”

Pinkie sprung to her hooves, still laughing. “No, silly. Weren’t you listening? Limey was right. Maud too. I’m not a rock smasher, I’m a party planner, and I’d much rather throw a party for my friends than smash rocks any day. Thanks for the lesson, Maud. It was nice seeing you.” She waved back at her sister, who had begun sifting through the rock pile, and then bounced away.

“Likewise,” came the reply.

Applejack galloped to keep up.

Limestone walked quietly around the corner and leaned up against the cliff. She waited to see that Applejack and Pinkie Pie were out of earshot before she spoke. "Do you think we should tell her?"

Maud picked up a piece of obsidian and studied it closely. "She doesn't need to know."

Limestone ground her teeth. "But she's family!"

Maud set the obsidian back where she'd found it. "Exactly."

~ ~ ~

“I still don’t understand how you just left like that.” Applejack said as the two made their way through the fields back at Sweet Apple Acres. “Didn’t you want to at least try to smash it?”

Pinkie giggled as she hopped along beside her friend. “No, silly. You really weren’t paying attention, were you?”

Applejack rolled her eyes with a smile. “Throw me a bone.”

Pinkie frowned. “But wouldn’t you rather eat an apple?”

Applejack let out a hearty chuckle. “I mean just explain anyway.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so? See, if I’d tried to smash the rock, it would mean I was still worried about whether or not I could, and whether or not I really was a Pie. But by walking away I identified that I already knew I liked party planning more, and that's who I am.”

Applejack blinked. “Wow that’s... really mature of you, Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie stopped bouncing for a moment. “Well, that and Marble really needs the practice. My baby sister is softer than Fluttershy when it comes to putting your hoof down. I figure she’s got more rocks to smash now. And besides, this means I get to try it out on the one we found this morning.”

She wiggled her rump and took off bouncing again, although a bit faster this time. Applejack had to gallop to catch up.

“Wait, so you were gonna—”

“WHAT?!” Pinkie Pie shrieked from up ahead. She had stopped bouncing, and was standing stock still, staring silently at something just over the hill. Applejack put on a burst of speed and rushed up to join Pinkie at the summit. Pinkie pointed at a pile of rubble on the next hill. At first, Applejack didn’t understand what was so upsetting about it, but then she realized where it was located. It was the boulder Pinkie had tried to smash earlier.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Pinkie Pie fell to her knees and threw her front hooves up melodramatically. “Why? Who would do such a thing to a poor defenseless rock?”

Just then, Big Macintosh strode up out of the valley between the two hills. Applejack stared wide eyed, slack jawed as he walked past, stopping for a brief nod as their eyes met. Pinkie’s jaw might have actually hit the ground. She curled up her tongue to avoid it getting stepped on.

Applejack recovered first. “Hey, wait, Big Macintosh. Did you just get done smashin that big boulder over yonder?”

He stopped, turned around, gazed past her at the pile of rubble, smiled, then nodded. “Eeyup.”

“You know how to smash rocks?”

“Eeyup.”

“Well why in tarnation haven’t I ever seen you do it before?”

He shrugged, then continued back toward the farmhouse while Applejack fought to stay on her hooves. She quickly lost, and both her and Pinkie sat staring in stunned silence.

Pinkie was the first to recover. “So, Applejack. I was thinking maybe you could show me how to buck apples.”

Applejack shook her head to clear it. “Huh? Now why in tarnation would you wanna learn that?”

“Well, I figure since I’m an earth pony there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it especially since I’ve got really strong hooves from bouncing around all day and since we’re practically family now I thought it would be a really fun idea for you to show me how it’s done!” Pinkie squeed.

Applejack chuckled. “Hehe, I reckon so. Come on.” She got up and trotted over to one of the nearby apple trees. “It’s a lot like breakin’ rocks, ‘cept you use your back legs instead of your front.”