The tree shook once, twice, then with a third shake relinquished its hold on its apples, which promptly fell into the buckets below.
Applejack wiped a hoof across her brow to get rid of the sweat that was threatening to run down into her eyes before loading the buckets into her cart and beginning the trek back to the barn.
A few minutes later, she arrived at the barn and wasted no time in putting the apples with the rest of their apple brethren.
“Rainbow Dash!” She called once she had finished, looking around for her friend, but she saw neither hide nor hair of her prismatic helper.
She sighed and started heading back to the orchard to find her ‘assistant’.
It wasn’t difficult at all to find her, especially once she started hearing Rainbow Dash’s tree shaking snores. At last she found a tree with a rather obvious tuft of rainbow colored tail sticking out of it. Smiling to herself, Applejack turned around and gave the tree a mighty buck.
“What the- ahhh!” Cried Rainbow Dash as she slipped of the branch she had been napping on and fell rather ungracefully onto her plot in front of Applejack.
“Oh, heh heh, hi Applejack! Long time no see?” Said Rainbow Dash as she got to her hooves and brushed dirt off herself.
“Rainbow Dash! You were supposed to be helpin’ me finish buckin’ these apples!” Said Applejack angrily. “Have you been nappin’ all this time?”
“Well no, I… I did finish some trees” mumbled Rainbow Dash, very carefully not looking at Applejack.
“How many trees did you finish?” Asked Applejack, not believing a word of it.
Rainbow Dash waved a hoof vaguely in the direction of a tree and mumbled “Three.”
Applejack stamped her hoof in frustration. “Rainbow Dash! I was countin’ on you! I need to finish these trees by tomorrow, or the apples will start going rotten! How am I supposed to finish if my helper spends all day nappin’!”
“Well it’s not my fault! There was a weather emergency last night, and they needed me there to make sure nothing got worse!”
“Needed you there to nap and not do yer job, ya mean.” Applejack grumbled
` “Hey! I totally do my job!” Shouted Rainbow indignantly. “”Besides, weather work is waaay harder than applebucking. If I wanted to, I could buck all these apples in 10 seconds flat. I’d like to see you try doing my job!”
Applejack snorted sarcastically and replied “Oh, ya mean just nap and pretend like I’m doing something? Yeah, weather work sounds real hard.”
For a moment, the two ponies glared at each other before they both realized what this meant.
“Alright Miss ‘I could buck these apples in 10 seconds flat’. Tomorrow, you come buck all the rest of the apples-“
“And you can come do some weather work.” Finished Rainbow Dash with a grin. She held out a hoof. “Agreed?”
Applejack bumped her hoof. “Agreed.”
The two of them smiled before walking back to the barn, confident that they could easily prove the other wrong.
“RISE ‘N SHINE RAINBOW DASH!”
With a cry of surprise, Rainbow Dash rolled out of her bed and hit the cloud floor of her house.
Grumbling to herself about inconsiderate mares, she walked outside and looked over the edge of her cloud house. “What’d ya want?” She called angrily, rubbing her eyes to get a clear view of whoever had woken her at this uncelestial hour.
“It’s time to get applebuckin’!”
Rainbow Dash groaned as she realized who it was. “Applejack, Celestia hasn’t even raised the sun yet! I was trying to sleep!”
“You need to get up early for applebuckin’!” She called back.
Rainbow Dash grumbled under her breath about where Applejack could stick her apples before flying down to the ground.
“Mornin’ sunshine!” Said Applejack, throwing a hoof around Rainbow Dash’s shoulder while trying (and failing) to keep a straight face. “Ready to go buck the apples in 10 seconds flat?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged out from under Applejack’s hoof. “Course I am.”
“Well good, because I’ll be nappin’ for a few more hours before goin’ to do some weather work. Have fun with your apples!”
Rainbow Dash muttered angrily about nothing in particular as Applejack walked off, leaving Rainbow Dash to fly towards Sweet Apple Acres in the thing most opposite of a flash.
Rainbow Dash looked up at the apple tree. Clearly visible all over the tree were delicious red apples.
This can’t be that hard. Thought Rainbow Dash to herself as she pulled back her rear hooves.
She bucked out and hit the tree with a solid ‘thunk’.
She smiled to herself and stood back, waiting for the apples to fall.
A moment later, she looked up and her smile faltered when not a single one fell.
That’s alright, it’s not that hard. She thought, bucking the tree again.
Then a third time.
Then a fourth.
Buck. This might be harder than I thought.
A few hours later, a smiling Applejack was strolling out of the weather office, her job for the day in hoof.
It had been a little odd explaining the situation to the weather coordinator, but Applejack had finally managed to get Rainbow Dash’s orders for the day.
She unrolled the parchment and scanned it. Apparently, she needed to get some clouds from the Everfree forest and get them in position over the market square for tonight’s rainstorm.
Well that shouldn’t be too hard. She thought to herself. Checking to make sure she had her lasso in her saddlebag, she set out towards the Everfree forest.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was doing her best to buck an apple tree.
This ought to do it. She thought with a smile as she put a helmet on and flew a couple feet back from the tree.
With a battle cry, she flew as fast as she could towards the apple tree and slammed into it with her helmeted head.
Dazed, she staggered around for a moment before falling on her plot.
Why is this so difficult? She thought angrily.
Bonk
Rainbow Dash’s eye twitched as she looked up at the tree she had been trying to buck for the past several hours.
It had had the gall to let loose one single apple to fall on her head.
With a roar, she prepared to unleash a whirlwind of chops and kicks onto the tree in an attempt to fell her opponent when a small cough interrupted her.
She turned around to see an Applejack- covered in scratches, soaking wet, and with a tangled mane and tail that had small twigs and leaves sticking out of them.
“Oh, uh, hey Applejack” said Rainbow Dash, hoping Applejack hadn’t seen her about to attack one of her precious trees.
“Hey Rainbow Dash”
For a moment, the two of them stood in an awkward silence, deliberately not looking at each other.
“I reckon I should get back to buckin’ apples.” Said Applejack finally.
Rainbow Dash quickly nodded her agreement. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
Applejack held out the weather orders, which Rainbow Dash was quick to take and zip off, more than ready to do a job that didn’t involve apple trees with a twisted sense of humor.
Applejack watched her go before all but collapsing at the base of the tree and curling up into a ball. Maybe Dash was onto something about this nap thing. She thought to herself as she closed her eyes and began snoring.
