Starlight Glimmer could hardly believe her eyes.
She had heard from Twilight that Sweet Apple Acres was, "pretty big. Actually, bigger than big. It's hard to put into words, really. You'll just have to go see for yourself."
Starlight hadn't believed her.
Now she had just learned something new about herself: that seeing too much of one thing in one place actually scared her a little.
"So. Many. Apples," Starlight breathed, doing her best not to cower in the midst of all the trees around her.
"Yep, yep, yep," Applejack said, walking up behind her. "Apples far as the eye can can see." She pointed to various tree clusters around them. "That there's the Honeycrisp orchard, over there's one there's Gala, right next to 'em are Grand Galloping Gala, and the ones right round where we're standing are good ol' Red Delicious." She paused. "We're workin' on Fuji next, but talks with Neighpon are goin' a mite slow."
She walked over to a tree, nuzzling it while wearing a faraway smile. "Ain't they lovely, though? Sometimes I just lay down out here, look up, see 'em all, and I know I made the right choice." She walked back to Starlight. "But relaxin's for later. Thanks for volunteerin' to help out with the harvest, Starlight."
"You're welcome, Applejack. Anything to help out in any way I can." Starlight took a deep breath. "Goodness knows I need to."
Applejack blinked. "'Goodness'? That somepony I know?"
Starlight shifted from hoof to hoof, looking back and forth. Had she said something wrong? Something offensive? Was there really a pony named Goodness in this town? "Um... I, uh..."
Applejack winked. "That there was a joke, hon. Tryin' to get you to relax, 'cause, look, I'm just glad you're here." Applejack cocked her head to one side. "That bein' said, uh... have you harvested apples before? Twilight said you helpin' out would be a good way for us to get to know each other, but that's only if we survive the activity, y'know?"
Starlight nodded. "Back in my old town, I, um... sometimes helped pick tree branches for Sugar Belle to make her muffins with. Does that count?"
Applejack nodded. "Oh, alright, then. What fruit did you pick?"
Starlight shook her head. "There was never any fruit on them."
"Huh?" Applejack put her hoof to her chin. "Wait, that don't make no sense. Unless..." Applejack's eyes widened. "...you mean, those muffins Sugar Belle made us were..." Applejack looked mildly ill, and shuddered. "Sometimes Pinkie's the strongest out of any of us." She shook her head. "Anyway! Way we do things round here is with a round of good ol' apple buckin'. It's simple and quick, but you still need to have what it takes." Applejack primed her hind legs in front of one of the trees. "You just give the tree a good ol' whack in the right place with your back legs. Like so!"
With practiced strength, Applejack let loose her hooves at the base of the tree. Every single apple hanging on the branches shook loose and fell to the ground. "Whoo-whee! You can even make a game out of it sometimes. I'm the queen of perfect scores, though."
Starlight looked up at the apple tree in front of her, steeled herself, and turned her back to it. She kicked out as hard as she could. No dice.
"Just keep tryin'!" she heard Applejack say from some distance away. She then heard another impact of hooves against a tree, and more apples fall to the ground. "Didn't no one ever buck an orchard perfectly on the tenth try, let alone the first!"
Starlight frowned.
She glanced back at her high legs, which all of a sudden felt woefully inept. After a few seconds of thought, she murmured a spell she'd learned years ago.
Her horn glowed. Her hind legs followed suit. When she was done chanting, not only could she see the power, but she could feel it. No tree would stand in her way now.
Applejack walked back over just then. "Any luck, sugar—"
With a massive crack, Starlight's hind legs split the apple tree at the trunk. A few of the apples shook loose, but neither Starlight or Applejack paid them any mind—they were too busy staring, dumbstruck, at the falling column of heavy wood.
"Timber!" Applejack shouted, and that snapped Starlight awake and into action. Her horn glowed once more, and she teleported to Applejack. She grabbed onto Applejack with both forelegs, then blinked a safe distance away from the tree.
The last sound they heard was it falling onto the orchard's grounds with a massive thud.
"Applejack!" Starlight said between huffs. "I'm... I'm so sorry! Are you... are you alright?"
"It's... it's fine, sugarcube," Applejack replied through her own heavy breaths.. "N-nice save, though. You got a good head on ya." She looked over at the tree, which was now jagged and splintered at its base. "Good muscles an' reflexes, too. Those'll help ya out something fierce in this line of work."
"I... I guess?" Starlight said as the two stood back up. "I'm not sure what could have gone wrong, though. Usually I have better control over that strength spell—"
"'Strength spell'?" Applejack grimaced. "Well, now, I think I can piece together exactly what went wrong, missy. Kindly do me a favor, and never do that again?"
"I-I'm really sorry." Starlight gazed at the ground. "Based on my studies of earth pony culture, and that one story Twilight told me about Winter Wrap-Up traditions, I really should have known better. I promise to never—"
"Oh, for... it ain't about tradition or nothin'!" Applejack blurted.
Starlight clamped up, now absolutely petrified. She turned her back to Applejack, fully ready to go back to Twilight's castle and call today's friendship introduction a bust.
Applejack sighed. "Land sakes, you magic-types. Even Twi always got the wrong idea about that, and now she's pushin' it on you."
Slowly, Starlight turned back around. "Wh-... what do you mean?"
Applejack walked next to Starlight, put one foreleg around her, and gestured towards the fallen tree with the her other.
"You see that tree there? That tree is where easy answers lead. All the time, without question. But ponies look for easy answers all the time, 'cause they're not sure they're up to the task ahead of them if they do things on the up and up.
"Here at Sweet Apple Acres, though? We've made a career out of doin' everything on the up and up, no matter how hard the job looks, no matter if people say different. Because it's knowing that you have it in you. Even if you're set up for somethin' else, y'all can still learn new things."
Starlight didn't reply.
Applejack continued. "I may be set up as a farmhoof. My cutie mark may even say my life is apples, apples, apples. And truth be told, I won't argue with neither. I feel right at home here.
"But I've also fought supervillains. I've been an ambassador. I'm a chef, I'm a businessmare, and I'm a sister who does more than her fair share of motherin'. And who knows what else I'll be goin' on down the line?"
Starlight shook her head. "Applejack, everything you're saying sounds nice, really it does. But—"
"But nothin', missy." Applejack stamped a hoof. "I heard your story from Twilight. When your friend got his cutie mark, and probably when you did too... it sounded like you thought it was the end. And you know what? I don't really blame ya'.
Starlight blinked. "Wait... wait, you.. you don't?"
"Well, the whole messin' with time and people's brains don't sit right with me, sure." Applejack turned Starlight to face her. "But my little sister, Apple Bloom? Spent years chasin' her own cutie mark. Pulling all sorts of crazy, risky, life-threatenin' stunts. Figured when she got it, everything about her life would be fine and solved and whatnot. Well, she just got her mark not too long ago... meanin' only now does she get what I've been trying to tell her all these years."
Applejack smiled into Starlight's eyes.
"It's never the end, sugarcube. It's a new beginning. Just like the one you're startin' on now. Who knows what else you'll achieve? I ain't got that answer, but I do know y'all can harvest these apples, Starlight. And I know you can do it right. And then I know you can go on to do more."
Starlight walked over to another tree, sizing it up.
Applejack believes in me.
She concentrated.
"I see that horn glowin', Starlight!"
Well, sort of.
"Trust me!" The glow of Starlight's magic moved from her horn to over her eyes, tinting her view with a light blue hue. She looked up and down the tree, looking for just the right spot...
There! A line running down from the branches!
She trotted around the tree, and with a bracing yell, she bucked with both legs. Apples rained down by the dozens. Once Starlight was done dodging them, she looked up. She beamed with pride as she saw the tree was still intact.
Applejack walked up to her. "Hey, that's not bad at all for your first time! And you'll only get better." She walked to the tree, held a hoof to where Starlight had bucked, and tapped a few times. "Right in the weak spot. That's how I started out. Smart approach, even with magic."
Starlight breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks."
"No problem. Now we just have to do it to two hundred more of these."
Starlight's jaw dropped. "Two... hundred?"
"Relax," Applejack said. "We don't break our new folk, we just break 'em in. I'll do one hundred seventy five. You just do twenty five and we'll call it square."
Starlight looked over the orchard, then turned to Applejack with a challenging smile. "Fifty."
Applejack smiled back. "You'll go far here, girl."
When Starlight awoke, it was on the softest bed she'd ever felt.
She took a breath, and was treated to the sweetest aroma she'd ever smelled.
She'd expected neither of these things. Her mind raced, trying to figure out where she was.
Then she tried to move, and as soon as she felt the pain in her legs, she remembered.
Fifty trees.
What had she been thinking? Between the mental strain of magically finding weak points in trees, and the physical strain of bucking each tree multiple times to get all of their apples—to say nothing of helping Applejack haul everything back to her farm afterwards—it was no wonder she ended up completely exhausted.
Fortunately, Applejack had seen all of it coming, and had a guest room ready, as well as a shower. After the latter, Starlight had crawled into bed.
Now it was nighttime, and she was already high on the heady smell of apples, sugar and cinnamon. It energized her enough to ignore her soreness. She got out of bed, straightened her mane and face, and went downstairs.
As she descended, she could see Applejack in the room below. "Ah, there you are," Applejack said. "You're just in time!"
"Huh? Just in time for what?" Starlight reached the bottom of the steps. She took a closer look at the room, and her eyes widened. All manner of dishes and desserts adorned a huge dining room table. From the strong scent—and abundance of the colors red and beige—a good amount of them looked to be apple-based. Cakes, pies, muffins, hay-and-apple sandwiches... Starlight clamped her mouth shut to avoid visibly drooling.
Still, she pledged to be courteous. "Do you want me to help set up?" she asked.
Applejack shook her head. "Absolutely not! You're a guest."
Starlight chuckled. "I hope I'm not the only guest. I mean, there's a total feast here!"
Applejack laughed. "Hon, all this here is maybe one tree. The rest go towards a bunch of other products that we sell, to say nothing of just apples on their own. Sweet Apple Acres's nearly an empire at this point!" She winked. "So we can afford to throw a feast for a single new friend."
Starlight did a double-take. "Wait. This is because of—"
Applejack's smile was lopsided. "Figured I'd beat Pinkie to it for once. Now quit gawkin' hon, and give 'em a try. Whatever you don't eat, well, Twi's got an icebox at the castle, right?"
Starlight nodded, then grabbed levitated a spoon from the table. she does. she does the cobbler. the cupcakes. the apple bran muffins. The cider. the...
Realizing where this was going, she quickly fixed a glass of water and grabbed several nuts from a nearby bowl. No sense in going into sugar shock after Applejack had gone through all of this trouble.
Applejack nodded approvingly as she watched Starlight stuff her face with dessert and nuts.
"I had to," Starlight replied. "This... Applejack, this is the best stuff."
A tint of pink flashed on Applejack's cheeks as she smiled lopsidedly. "The best, huh?"
Starlight flushed, wondering why she was so bad at communicating these days. "W-well, I-I mean—"
Applejack laughed. "Seriously, y'all're wound up more than a music box! Don't worry, I appreciate the compliment. Besides, ain't like there's anything wrong with quality, or even lack of it, long as you know you put all o' yourself in it." She pointed to a pastry on one side of the table. "Like, see, my cake recipe ain't so great. I mean it's all right, but loses its taste after not too long. But y'all should see Apple Bloom's apple icing. Came up with the recipe all by herself! Makes me jealous as all get out."
"I'll have to try it sometime. But everything right here and now is absolutely wonderful." She looked up at the orange pony, her voice shifting to earnest tones. "Thank you, Applejack."
This time Applejack really did blush. "Shucks, sugarcube. T'ain't nothing, seriously."
Starlight shook her head. "It is something, though. A lot of things." Her expression went somber as she gazed at the feast on the table. "Back when I ran the old town, I was holding so many ponies back from... from finding themselves. And not because I wanted to be the most special, either—but because I didn't think I was special."
She held up an apple bran muffin, took a bite, and lay back in gastric jubilance. "I knew a few pony chefs who probably could have made something like this if I hadn't spent so much time convincing them that trying to was a bad thing." She looked at the ground as Applejack walked over to her. "I have so much time to make up for. For me, and for them. And not only will it not be easy... I have no idea where to start."
"I think you're starting at the right place already. The Starlight Glimmer I met back in that old town never woulda said somethin' like that, or did anything I saw her do today."
Starlight didn't see the embrace coming, but she didn't stop it either.
"I think you'll be just fine," Applejack finished.
Starlight hugged back. "Thanks, Applejack. I'll do my best to prove you right."
"Don't do it for me, girl. Do it for you."
Starlight nodded, warmth filling her body.
"Now come on," Applejack said. "I'll call the rest of the family in. Let's all pig out already."
And they all did just that.
