Applejack woke up with a stretch, raising her hooves above her head and gave out a quick yawn. Slipping out of the bed, she walked away from the mattress and pushed aside her covers for the moment. With a few quick shakes of her head, she made her way to the calendar and looked it up. Tracing her hoof across the dates, she passed by all of the x’s until she reached today’s date. She let out a deep sigh as she read it again, “Better put in a lot of extra work today.” Turning her head to the nearby coat rack, she grabbed her favorite stetson and walked down to the stair case.
Chore 1: 7:00 Am. Make everypony breakfast. If Ah can finish in enough time, do the dishes as well.
When her hooves reached the bottom step, she reeled back in shock when she saw a yellow colt slipping out an apple waffle from the cooker, “B-Breaburn? What in tarnation are you doing?”
“Why, making waffles, what does it look like, cous?” Braeburn said with a chuckle.
“No, not that, Ah can see that,” Applejack said with a groan as as facehoofed and shook her head. “What ah mean, is what ya doing here? Don’t ya have things to do back in Appleloosa?” she asked, even doing her cousin’s usual movements when he mentioned his hometown.
“Nothing that Ah can’t put off for a day, cous,” Breaburn said, smiling. “Besides, you are lucky, you get the last batch of the day.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow at this, “What ya’ll mean, ‘last batch’? What about the others?”
“They all got up hours ago. It’s 9:30,” Braeburn said, putting the plate of waffles down.
“WHAT?!” Applejack shouted, running to the window. Sure enough she could see the clock at the side of the kitchen window and on the outside of the window, she caught sight of Apple Bloom tending to the chickens while Big Mac began to plow the fields. “No, no, no, this is wrong. Ah have to go out there an-Ooof!”
Braeburn had a coy smile on his lips as he pulled Applejack back to the kitchen table with a rope, “Now now, Big Mac promised that he would use my stomach as a rope if Ah let you out of here without eating breakfast.”
As Applejack found herself being forced into her seat by her older cousin, she let out a whine of protest,” But Braeburn, Ah’ve got a lot to do today and Ah can’t be stuck here. Ah’ve got-”
“-Stuff that can wait until after you have eaten your cousin’s Apple-chocolate chip-and cinnamon waffles,” Braeburn said, smiling at Applejack as he planted the plate right in front of her.
Applejack let out a growl of frustration as she looked at the plate of baked breakfast items and sighed in defeat, “Fine, but after this, it’s right to work.”
“Sure cous,” Braeburn said with a shak of his head while Applejack began to eat her breakfast.
Chore 1: 7:00 Am. Make everypony breakfast. If Ah can finish in enough time, do the dishes as well.
Chore 2: 7:30: clean the dishes
Chore 3: 8:00 Clean the pens
Chore 4: 9:00 feed the chickens
Chore 5:: 9:30 feed plow a new row
Chore 6: 10:00 Make jam.
“Stupid cousin trying to force me to eat breakfast and relax. Doesn’t he know what today is? Ah can’t waste time messing around with stupid distractions!!!” Applejack grumbled as she walked to a large tub. Stomping her hoof onto the ground she bellowed, “Life is just too complicated to be wasting time with the silly stuff.” Growing, Applejack said to herself, “Well, at least Ah can spend some time using my hooves to make-”
“Geronimo!” Dash shouted, diving hoof first into the tub full of strawberries. The impact caused a splash of strawberry juice to hit Applejack in the face.
After wiping some of the jam away from her face, Applejack’s emerald eyes glared up at the magenta eyes of her pegasus friend, “Rainbow Dash, what are y’all doing.”
Rainbow Dash popped her head over the side of the tub, her grin covered by red jam. Letting out a chuckle, she wiped some of the juice off from her face, “Making jam! You never said how fun it could be!”
“And why are ya making jam?” Applejack asked.
“Because I wanted to. It looked fun and I wanted to try,” Dash chuckled as she began to stomp the strawberries.
Applejack then facehoofed, “And don’t you have some Wonderbolts practice to be getting to?”
“Nope,” Dash said, popping out after squishing some of the berries. “Free for the rest of the week.”
“And who is managing the other bucket?” Applejack asked only to hear,
“Geronimo!!!” Shouted Scootaloo as she and another filly leapt into an adjacent bucket. “See, and that is why you would be great at jam making,” Scootaloo said with a smile.
` “Yay!” the filly cheered.
“And what Ah’m supposed to do then? Ah have two hours to kill!” Applejack growled.
Dash shrugged, “I dunno, sleep? Your left orchard has a really kickin place to nap.”
“Well, Ah could exercise for a bit or check on the apples in the west orchard,” Applejack began.
“Apples are fine and near ripe,” Rainbow Dash said with a cocky smirk, “Big Mac helped me to identify the ripe ones.”
“Fine!” Applejack shouted, walking away. “I guess I’ll just slack off for two hours!!!”
As Applejack walked away, she continued to grumble to herself and only stopped when she bumped into Apple Bloom, “Hey big sis!”
“Apple Bloom? What in the hay are ya doing here? Ah thought you were doing your chores?” Applejack asked.
“Well, Ah was, but then ah thought about taking a swim with my big sis,” The yellow Filly said with a smile as she slipped away and towards the path to 5he lake.
Giving a slight shrug, she said, “Why not, it’s not like Ah had anything else planned.” with a smile she followed her little sister.
Chore 7:Lunch time
Applejack took a step back as she saw the spread before her. Her green eyes took in baked goods in front of her. At the head of the table was Pinkie in a waiter outfit, “Pinkie, please explain.”
“It's your lunch silly,” Pinkie smiled. “I couldn't really decide on what to make you. So, I decided to give you a variety! How did you like it?”
“It’s nice and all, Pinkie, but Ah can't possibly eat it all,” Applejack said sitting down at the table.
“Sure you can! It's not you have anything to do in the next hour or so,” Pinkie said.
“AH got to harvest apples!” Applejack yelled.
Pinkie giggled at that,” Already taken care of.”
At the sound of a horn igniting, Applejack turned to see a light pink unicorn making a bunch of apples glow and pulling them diwk, “Starlight? Why are you harvesting apples.”
“Oh!” blushed Starlight as she paused in her work, “Twilight heard about my tendency to go and overdo it when it comes to magic. So she sent me out here to work on my self control.”
“Well, Ah suppose that’s ok. Gives me a chance to work on the fence,’ Applejack said.
it’s kind of a bit too much and I have work to do in the field,” Applejack said.
“Oh, you mean harvesting apples for market? Taken care of,” Pinkie said, point to a pink unicorn coming out from behind a tree, sweat running down her head.
“Starlight?” Applejack shouted.
Blushing, Starlight Glimmer nodded, “Oh Hi Applejack. Twilight kind of heard about how I kept over doing it with my magic. So, she told me to pracice on my focusing and harnessing. She told me that usng magic on one tree at a time at sweet Apple Acres would work.”
“So, you’ve been bucking apples, for how long?” Applejack asked.
“For the next five hours, and Twilight told me to tell you to not help me,” Starlight said, going back to work.
“Well, that killed about a couple of hours of my schedule, at least I can pick some corn,” Applejack began to say.
Pinkie followed it up with, “Did that.”
“You what?” Applejack deadpanned.
“I picked some of the corn and shucked it. Wich, while the word is hilarious, the work was harder than it sounded,” Pinkie frowned.
“Well, there is a door hinge on the barn that need-”
“Took care of it,” Pinkie said, her smile returning, “IT was easy, I just did what Limey always did to the barn door.”
“Painting the side of the barn-”
“Painted it, complete with a big smiley face that says, ‘Buy an apple and smile!” Pinkie said.
“Grapes that need-”
“Graped it hard” Pinkie then put a hoof to her chin, “Oh, that sounded dirty.”
“Files that need-”
“Filed away,” Pinkie nodded.
“Papers that I need to-”
“Signed, sealed, and delivered,” the pink mare then hugged Applejack tightly, “I’m yours!”
“Winona needs,”
“Fluttershy is playing with her and introducing her to some nice male collies,” Pinkie giggled.
“And Ah need to,” before Pinkie could reply, Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie’s mouth. “Now there is no way you could say that you are on it because even you can’t be two places at once.”
“Nope, Rarity is doing it. Her and Sweetie Belle. They ook so cute doing it together,’ Pinkie smiled.
Applejack took a bite of her sandwich and threw her hooves up into the air, “Then what am Ah supposed to do? Ah ain't got nothing to do for five hours!”
‘Dunnno,” Pinkie shrugged. “Maybe you could go and check out that new movie they have in theaters about our first adventure together?”
“Well, I could, but Ah don’t thin-” Applejack paused when she looked down at the movie ticket that Pinkie slid to her. “That’s a movie ticket.”
“That’s a movie ticket,” Pinkie giggled.
“To the movie you want me to check out,” Applejack said.
“To the movie I want you to check out,” Pinkie nodded.
“And now Ah have the entire afternoon free to watch the movie,” Applejack said.
“And now you have the entire afternoon free to watch the movie,” Pinkie Pie nodded. “Oooh, that was fun! What do you want to play next?”
“Pinkie, what is this all about? Why are you doing all of this?” Applejack asked, only to quickly back up when Pinkie Pie came face-to-face to her.
“IT’s a secret!” Pinkie said as she skipped away.
Looking down at the feast before her, Applejack sighed and shrugged, “Well, why not? Free lunch and a movie.”
Chor 8: 12:30 Harvesting Apples for market.
Chore 9-10: 2:30- Various household chores and market
Chore 10: 5:00-Kill best friends for making me miss almost a whole day of work.
Chore 11: 5:30- Drink some hard cider while on a train out of Equestria to hide in Zebrica for crime of killing said best friends.
Applejack grinned as she walked away from the movie theater, half eaten bag of popcorn in hoof. The movie was on at three, so she had time to hoof wrestle Big Mac, do some jogging, and a few other activities that she hadn’t had a chance to do the previous few days. There was a smile on her face, enjoying the feel she had from watching the movie, however, equinecidal thoughts were still flowing through her head. There was a shirt huff of air as she made way from the movie theater to her farm that showed how she was trying to calm down,”At the very least Ah can make the family a good supp-oh what the hay!!#”
Applejack looked dumbfounded as she stared at her family sitting at a table with her friends, all eating a big meal, “Applejack!” Twilight said with a smile, “Glad you can join us!”
“Twilight what the buck is going on here?” Applejack asked, looking at the purple alicorn with a scowl.
“OH, I made you and the girls a big dinner. I wanted to try something new today and, well,” Twilight blushed, “I don’t think I did all that well. I can make a good breakfast, but I still need a little work on actual dinner.”
“No, Ah mean,” Applejack shook her head, “What has been going on with y’all today. You have been stopping me from doing my work, letting me sleep in, and stopping me from doing my job. Don’t you know what day is today?”
While Starlight shook her head, Pinkie Pie jumped up, “Yeah, it’s your birthday today!!!”
“Yeah and Ah-”
“Like to work constantly throughout the day and not even let us celebrate it for you. You don’t even let Granny make you a cake,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Yeah, because me and my birthday kind of don’t get along. Ah have to work harder today than usual, so Ah can get done today,” Applejack said, sighing and looking away. “Ah can’t stand the idea that today is another birthday that I can’t celebrate without my parents. No Ma to wake me up with something special, no Pa to give presents for me, it’s just...”
Rarity walked up to Applejack and placed a hoof onto her friend’s shoulder, “We know how you feel about your birthday Applejack. It’s why we did this and gave you a day off.”
“What?” Applejack asked.
Twilight smiled as she ran her hoof through her mane, “I know I haven’t been here as long as everypony else, but I have seen you spend you last few birthdays working yourself to exhaustion. Every time your birthday comes around, you work yourself near to death just to escape your own pain, well...it’s time to stop. That’s why I arranged for everypony here to help you and give you a day off. Think of it as my birthday present for you..”
“You, did all of this for me?” Applejack asked, smiling a little.
“Apple waffles, just like how Ma would make you in the morning,” Applebloom said, smiling.
FLuttershy smiled softly, “While making sure you can have the entire day to yourself.”
“And to end the day off with a big supper followed by a cake and presents,” Twilight said,, a warm smile came to her lips as she stood next to the table.
“But, Ah don’t see any,” Applejack began but then saw a wall-eyed pegasus flying in wiht a bunch of bags, some of which were carried by a little unicorn filly.
“Here we go, one present from all of the Bearers of the Elements for each birthday you missed,” Ditzy said, dropping the packages off and then picking up her daughter to fly off.
Applejack smiled warmly, “Girls, ah... Ah... thanks, for this. Ah mean it.”
“And now, maybe you can look forward to your birthday again?” Pinkie asked, offering a slice of cake.
“Remember this as a day off that my friends gave me? Oh course Ah will,” Applejack said, smiling.
Friendship can’t bring back the dead, but it can do something that time can’t. It can help make the pain a little less and make a bad day seem a little brighter.
Author's Note
Thanks to Zolt for the edits.
I think I should start off by saying, i did not hate the episode. Actually, it was fun and more of a middle of the road type of eppie. It's just I made the mistake of coming in with high expectations and came back with nothing. I guess because it was because it sounded like an episode I wrote, but I didn't get it. So, this is kind of what went through my mind of what the episode was going to be.
Yes, I am a sucker for moments like this.
