Apple Bucking Lessons

The next day, Nick went into to town with Granny Smith to pick up a couple of groceries, Applejack, Big Mac, and Applebloom went to buck trees, and Ananasrenette was helping Octavia in the house. While Octavia was washing, and Ananasrenette was drying and putting them away, Ananasrenette asked,

"Octavia, do you hate me?"

"Oh my dear, no! Of course not! Why would you ask such a question?", she replied, putting her hoof on Ananasrenette's shoulder.

"Because,...I'm some other mare's daughter, not yours.", Ananasrenette said sadly, trying not to look at her.

"Ana, your father loves me, and would never leave me for another mare. Your mother was the love of his life before we even started dating. And even if you're not my daughter, I still love you like one. So please, call me Mom.", Octavia smiled, kissing her forehead.

At that moment, Nick and Granny walked in with a bunch of bags.

"Honey! I'm home!", he grinned, kissing his wife.

"I love you too, Bravey.", she smiled.

"Dad!", Ananasrenette cheered, charging him with a hug, "You promised to teach me more about apple bucking when you got home, can we start?"

"Now hang on a minute, let me put away the groceries and we'll get started okay?", Nick smiled, rubbing her head.

"Now, Bravey, me and Granny have this, go on and finish teaching her about apple bucking, she surely didn't get her cutie mark just by eating an apple!", Octavia smiled, pointing to the basket full of yellow green speckled ananasrenette apples on Ananasrenette's flank.

"Actually, that's a true story!", Ananasrenette piped up, "I swallowed an apple one day, and got my cutie mark!"

"But still, the young one needs to learn. So go on, me and Octavia can finish this up.", Granny smiled.

So Nick took Ananasrenette to a part of the orchard where Applejack was working.

"Hey, Nick! Ananasrenette! What brings you here?", she asked, bucking a tree, causing 4 apples to drop.

"Auntie AJ! Dad's gonna teach me how to buck apples!", Ananasrenette smiled.

"Ahh! Perfect!", Nick exclaimed, standing between some trees, "Over here Ana!"

"Isn't she a bit young to learn how to apple buck? We're just now teaching Applebloom, and she turned 10 last month!.", Applejack said with concern.

"Oh come on, AJ! I taught you how to buck apples when you were 5! My Little Ananasrenette here is 8! I think she can handle it!", Nick scoffed.

"When do we start?", Ananasrenette asked excitedly.

"Okay, so basically all you do is turn your back to the tree and give it a good kick! Or, if you were really good, tap it.", Nick said, putting his ear against a tree, before tapping a small knob and making all the apples fall in the buckets.

"Wow! That was awesome! Let me try!", Ananasrenette exclaimed, turning around and lightly tapping the tree with her back hooves. Every single apple in that tree fell in the bucket when she tapped it so lightly.

"You've got your father's touch! Now work on them 10 trees over there, I'll be working on these 10 over here if you need help!", Nick smiled, kissing her head.

And they spent the rest of the day bucking apples!