Blood Red Apples

After Twilight's small visit, Applejack and Big Mac got to work, investigating the blooming trees. "How the hay did this happen?", Applejack asked.

"I dunno, it looks like some sort of magic to me", her brother replied. "Wait", Applejack mumbled. She started walked down the pathway to where the incident happened yesterday. "Did you take this way back when I got injured?", Applejack shouted. Her brother, still at the other end of the path replied: "Yeah. Why? Do you think this has to do anything with this?" He pointed at the trees. "Maybe", Applejack answered.

She continued investigating. The mare looked back at the rotten log that she cut herself on, and was suprised: In the cracks and cuts of its wood, colorful flowers and plants were sprouting, filling the air with a soft and wonderful smell. As she stared at it, she saw small drips of blood that ran down the log and stained it.

"Wha...? Macintosh! Ya might wanna look at this...", the mare exlaimed. Shortly after her message, Big Mac trotted towards her. When he arrived at the log, he was perplexed. "What the hell?", he said. "I know right? Funky", his sister replied. "Wait, wasn't this the log that you hit yer head on?", Big Mac wondered. Applejack nodded in embarassment. "That's... odd", he said, "Wouldn't the blood be dry by now? The tree would have obsorbed it too." Applejack didn't reply. She tried to think. Why did this happen? And most importantly, how did this happen?

Big Macintosh flinged his ax at one of the decaying trees, hacking through half of the log. Then, he grabbed it once more, and flinging at it again, chopping through it entirely, letting the rotten piece of wood fall over, onto the grassy, hard, ground. Applejack repeated his work. She was silent: Her eyes were cloudy and dull. Her brother decided to be still too. Besides, he didn't know how to cheer his little sister up, and it was best if they focused on their work. Applejack sighed, and started hacking down the next tree.

***

Applejack and her brother trotted back to their barn, to eat some lunch. They trotted to their comfy country house, warmed up some pies they had, and sat down at the apple wood table. While they were sitting at the table and munching their lunch, Big Mac broke their peaceful silence: "Hey, I, I gotta keep working on the barn. So... uh, if ya don't mind, you'll be working on your own for the rest of the day. I'm sorry, but I really need to finish repairing the barn before winter. And there's still a lot to do. I... I hope ya understand. I just wanted to help ya a little bit before I resumed my work, and so you'd get a small headstart on the woodwork."

His sister responded with a simple nod and a quiet "Okay".

After their little lunch break, Applejack and her brother split ways, him going to the broken down barn, and her heading to the orchard. Big Mac immediately focused on his work, but Applejack didn't even touch her ax. She continued investigating the blooming trees.

Her gaze went back to the rotten log on the ground. The flowers seemed to calm her, the soft light shining on the beautiful plants, making them look... magical.  But why did this happen? She had to find out. Why were the flowers located where yesterday had been a bloody incident? Is there a connection to all this? Why only those trees, not all? Suddenly, an answer popped into her head. She wasn't sure if it was right though, just and idea. Almost like in a trance, Applejack walked to her ax, staring at it the whole time. Slowly, she picked it up...

"Hey AJ! Whatcha doing?"

Applejack jumped at the sentence, and turned around, suddenly seeing a blue mare flying above her, curiously staring into her eyes.

"R-Rainbow Dash! What are you doing here?", she asked. She immediately dropped the ax. Rainbow Dash replied: "Oh, Twi and I are going to the new bar in Ponyville that just opened up a few days ago. Wanna join? I heard it's really awesome and the mayor is supposed to come too and-" Applejack cut her off.

"You know, I need to finish my work before I can go anywhere, really." "Dude, I was able to see you from a mile away, you were staring at that dumb log.", Dash exclaimed, pointing her hoof at the flower-covered, dead log. "It ain't dumb! And I ain't going nowhere.", AJ said.

Rainbow Dash frowned. "C'mon AJ! Just go there with us, and if you don't like it, you can just, y'know, leave, right? They also sell Apple cider there!" The orange mare's ears perked up. "What 'kind' of apple cider?", she asked. "Oh you know, the usual, alcoholic ciders: ciders with vodka, whiskey, tequila, rum..." AJ's mouth started to water. Alcoholic ciders were her weakness, and Rainbow knew this. And she hasn't had one ever since the last family reunion. She looked down. "Ugh, fine, if it means you'll leave me alone", Applejack snorted. Rainbow clapped. "Sweet! C'mon! It's right downtown!"

When the two friends arrived at the new local bar, it was jam-packed. They weren't even in ten feet, and a drunk stallion had already slapped AJ's ass. She didn't know where it came from, so she just moved on, rubbing her hindquarters. The orange farm mare could easily spot Twilight Sparkle in the crowd. She was sitting at a table for three, patiently waiting for them arrive.

When they were  in her area of sight, Applejack waved at her, signaling that she and Rainbow Dash had arrived. Twilight instantly waved back. When Rainbow Dash and AJ finally sat down at their reserved spots, Twilight tried to strike up a conversation. "Oh hi, Applejack! I'm happy you decided to come, there's a lot of really cool drinks here! I've tried two so far, only because Rainbow Dash payed for them... Anyways, how was your day so far? Was there any pain after I completed the healing spell? Any side-effects? Any twitching? Itching? Sudden urges to... Nevermind. It said something like that in the spell book I used for that spell..." Applejack started to space out. Since when has she been so talkative?

Her gaze went to Twilight Sparkles neck. She had a blue–ish, red spot on her left side. Was that a hickey? She quickly looked away, before Twilight had noticed. The bar had taken her mind off the apple tree problem for a while, but then Rainbow Dash broke Applejack out of her trance. "Hey, uhm, AJ? I'm heading to the bartender to get some drinks. Is there anything you want?", she asked. "I–I'm fine right now, thank you.", Applejack replied. Rainbow shrugged and said: "Okay!", and the flew off. While Rainbow Dash was off getting drinks, Applejack had the time to look around the newly opened bar.

The establishment was mostly filled with young, to middle–aged stallions and mares, and maybe two or three fillies that snuck into the bar. Thankfully she didn't spot Applebloom or her friends here. Applejack kept looking around. She spotted Rainbow Dash waiting for the bartender to handover the drinks she had ordered. The blue mare finally received her drinks and had started her walk back to their table. When Rainbow arrived once more, she placed the drinks on the table.

"I know you said you didn't want a drink, but I got you one anyways", Dash exclaimed, "I ordered a whiskey apple cider. I hope that's okay with you." Applejack just sighed and picked up her drink.

The mare took a small sip of the alcoholic cider. It tasted fantastic! Quickly, she guzzled it all down, lowering her massive glass after she finished. "That tasted absolutely amazing! How much was It?", Applejack shouted. Her rainbow-haired friend chuckled. "Knew you'd like it. And to answer your question, it was three bits." Only three bits? , Applejack thought to herself.

I need to get some more of that cider!