The ground gave a satisfying thump as Rarity landed on the far edge of a puddle. Some mud splashed up onto her tall yellow rain boots, but none so much as graced her precious white coat. That is, her body. Not her matching yellow raincoat that was currently covering her back and neck. That was to be expected to get dirty. Not to say she didn't care for the rain coat; she found it quaint and charming. It came with a matching yellow hat, which she also wore. It was very cute.
In her mouth was a bouquet of flowers. Daises, specifically. They were wrapped together with some parchment paper and had a little ribbon tied around the stems.
Rarity continued down the dirt path to Sweet Apple Acres. She smiled to herself as she listened to the sound of the rain landing on apple trees. As she approached the farm, she spotted the mare she was looking for.
Applejack stood in her tomato garden. She had a weed-removing tool in her mouth, and was bent over trying to pry up some unwanted plant. Rarity watched as Applejack let out a loud sneeze, launching the garden tool out of her mouth and into the mud. AJ then shook her head and grumbled to herself before picking it back up. She continued to work for a moment and then sneezed again. This repeated several times. Rarity sped up her brisk walk to a jog, Applejack looking up as she heard hoof steps.
Applejack smiled upon seeing her favorite unicorn. Her expression was warm, despite looking extremely under the weather. Her nose was red and her eyes baggy. She left her tool in the dirt and approached Rarity.
"Hey sugarcube," she said, "sure is nice to see such a pretty face on such a crummy day."
Rarity blushed and giggled. Applejack looked down at the bouquet.
"Oh my, are those for me?"
Rarity nodded her head, then handed them to AJ.
"Thank you so much sweetie," said Applejack, a tender smile on her face as she looked over the flowers. "I really do love daises. Almost as much as I lo-"
Applejack turned and sneezed, making sure to keep her flowers out of harm's way.
"Oh darling, you sound dreadful," said Rarity. She pulled a front hoof out of it's boot and held it up to AJ's forehead.
"You're burning up, love," she stated, "you should really be inside resting!"
"I know, I know," said Applejack, "but I've still got chores left, and everyone else is out for the day on a trip."
Rarity looked over at the weeding tool sticking up from the muck, then back at Applejack.
"What exactly are the chores?" she asked.
"Pardon?"
"What all do you have left?" Rarity clarified.
"Ah. Well, I've gotta weed my tomater garden here as you can see. Then I'm off to feed the pigs, and after that I gotta prune a line of trees in the south orchard."
A grin grew over Rarity's face as her horn began to glow. Applejack watched as her weed removing tool floated over to Rarity.
Applejack shook her head.
"I know what you're thinking, but the answer is NO."
Rarity deployed puppy dog eyes.
"Come on Rare," AJ pleaded, "I can't have you come all the way here in the rain to bring me flowers, then have you do my work for me. I should be doing something for you!"
Rarity placed her hoof on AJ's nose and shushed her gently, giving her a happy look.
"I insist, darling," she said. "I just want to help, and all I want from you is for you to go inside and rest."
She then lowered her hoof back into it's boot. Applejack closed her eyes and sighed, then smiled.
"Okay. Thank you hun."
Applejack briefly explained how to perform each task, and where Rarity would need to get tools and supplies from. Rarity listened attentively and took down a mental note of everything stated.
"You can count on me, love," Rarity chirped.
Applejack reached out a hoof toward her but then flinched and pulled back.
"I'd love to give you a kiss or at least a hug," said Applejack, "buuut I don't wanna give you whatever I have."
Rarity's horn glowed softly once again as Applejack felt an invisible force push her forward. She slid closer to Rarity, who then pushed her hat up with her nose and planted a light peck on her forehead. Applejack blushed and laughed, lifting up a hoof and pushing Rarity away playfully. Rarity used her magic to quickly adjust AJ's hat, then let her horn rest.
"Go inside and rest, dear," said Rarity. "I'll take care of things out here."
Applejack nodded and began walking back to the house. Rarity watched as she made if about halfway, then turned around to look at her. Rarity made a shooing motion with her hoof, urging Applejack to continue. Applejack lifted her hoof up and dramatically blew Rarity a kiss. Rarity motioned as if she was catching it, then placed her hoof on her lips. She then dramatically threw a hoof to her forehead and swooned. Even from a distance she could see Applejack crack a smile.
Applejack continued to the house and went inside. Content, Rarity turned her attention to the tomato garden.
"Alright weeds," she said, her horn flaring to life once again. The gardening tool levitated up next to her and twirled around stylishly.
"It's time to meet your maker, and her name is...RARITY!"
She magically plunged the tool toward the base of a large dandelion. The tool made an unpleasant squish sound as it slid into the ground crooked. The dandelion was unaffected.
Rarity looked over the garden as it dawned on her that most of the dirt was currently soupy mud.
"Oh."
She turned and found a different weed poking up out of the muck. As she focused on it, the tool drew itself out of the mud and stuck into the base of the offending weed.
The same thing happened.
Rarity pouted. She brought the tool back and poked repeatedly, but it simply ended up chopping the weed up. The roots were still in the ground.
Rarity frowned, setting the tool on the ground.
"Well, maybe I should come back to this chore," she thought. Feeding the pigs was simple. She could do that then come back to the garden later. Maybe the blasted rain would stop and the ground could have some time to firm back up.
The path to the barn was muddy as well, and Rarity had to be careful of some big puddles. She pulled open the barn door and walked inside.
There was a metal bucket close to the door. Applejack had explained that this was the pig slop that she already had ready to go. On the wall across from it was a pair of tree loppers, which AJ had also told her about.
Rarity looked back at the side of her raincoat. It had a pocket on each side, and they looked to be large enough to stick the loppers in. She magicked them off the wall and placed them in her right side pocket.
Rarity grimaced as she looked over the bucket of pig feed. It was just this greenish-orange mix of food stuff. She thanked her lucky stars she was born a pony and not swine as she levitated the bucket up next to her.
Exiting the barn, she trotted a little farther down the dirt path to a pig pen. She lifted her front hooves up out of their boots and rested them on the top of the fence, looking in at the pigs. There were three of them: they were all laying in a puddle of mud and seemed to be asleep.
Rarity looked down to see a metal trough on the other side of the fence from her. She levitated the bucket over top of it and poured out it's contents. She then set the bucket face down on the ground next to the trough.
"Come and get ittttt," she said in a sing-song voice.
The pigs remained still. Rarity cleared her throat.
"Time to eat darlings!"
One of the pigs let out a sleepy oink. None of them moved.
Rarity felt her mouth scrunch up with frustration. She levitated the bucket back up and slammed it into the trough.
"FOOD," she yelled.
The pigs all jumped up at this. They shook the sleep out of their eyes, then waddled up to the through together.
They all stared at the food, then up at Rarity.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
One of the pigs sniffed the trough. It then stepped back.
"I'm sorry it isn't a five-star meal," said Rarity, groaning, "but you all must eat!"
It was no use. All the pigs waddled back over to their mud hole and went back to sleep.
Rarity stewed in frustration for a moment. After a healthy dose of internal complaining, she took a breath and magically drew the loppers from her coat pocket.
She had to walk a ways out to the south field. She trudged along the grass with her loppers floating steadily beside her. Her eye twitched as she homed in on the first tree, speeding up to reach it.
An offending branch caught her attention. With a tilt of her head, the floating loppers positioned themselves to cut. The blades came together hard against the branch.
The tool immediately broke apart. One half fell to the ground while it's sister floated in place.
Rarity's eye twitched again. The remaining floating blade fell as her horn ceased glowing.
She simply stood for a moment, looking down at the broken loppers. She used her magic to move them aside.
A few slow hoof steps put her directly in front of the tree.
The trunk of the tree shook as Rarity slammed her head into it.
"AHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG"
She yelled and scoffed and pouted and begged and yelled some more.
After a lengthy tirade, she found herself resting on a hill in the orchard. The hill sat just behind the farm house, and she could see Applejack through a back window.
Applejack had a blanket wrapped around her, but was moving about the house. She would walk by the window every so often.
"I told you to rest," Rarity mumbled to herself. She expected to see her up and about though; AJ was a stubborn pony. They both were.
Rarity leaned back against and apple tree. She looked up at the mess of wet leaves and branches.
"I remember seeing you on a day just like this," she thought. "You were stubborn then too. We both were. Twilight was having her first sleepover, and neither of us wanted to cooperate with the other. But neither of us could leave. We couldn't disappoint Twilight...no, we just didn't want to let the other one win. Haha. You almost destroyed the library when you pulled that huge tree in through the window. But luckily I was there to break it apart..."
"...with my magic," she said aloud, her eyes widening.
It had been quite a while since she used that spell, but she could recall it. Her eyes traveled around the foliage above her until they came to rest on a dead branch.
Rarity's horn glowed brightly as she pictured the desired result of the spell. With a short flash, the branch vanished. A small wooden figure in the shape of a pony fell down into her lap.
A knowing grin grew over Rarity's face as she stood up. She levitated her new wooden figurine into her coat pocket and took off back toward the trees she still needed to prune.
She landed on all four hooves with a muddy splash, sliding slightly as she eyed the row of trees. Eyes closed tightly, she raised her chin up and concentrated solely on her magic. Tiny sparks of light blue energy jumped from her horn as she prepared to cast her topiary spell en mass.
She pictured the trees in front of her. In her mind the messy branches sticking way out from the trees pulled themselves off. It was just like cutting a pattern out of fabric. Once her mental image showed the entire row completely trimmed and tidy, she released the spell with a grunt.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she opened her eyes. She had to take a second to catch her breath; the spell had been much more intense than most of her day-to-day magic usage. She was no Twilight. Looking up, however, she found that she was an effective tree pruner.
Scattered all around the base of each tree were dozens of tiny wooden figurines. The trees were all trimmed back just as Applejack had intended.
Rarity gave a gleeful yelp. She used her magic to round up the figurines into somewhat of a pile under the first tree in the row.
Satisfied with her accomplishment, she then used her magic to pluck a juicy looking apple off of the tree closest to her. A sweet melody of flavor danced across her tongue as she took a hearty bite. She hummed in contentment. Then, looking at the delectable fruit floating in front of her, she had another idea.
She whistled a gentle tune as she walked back to the pigpen while six apples floated around her gently.
The pigs were still sleeping in their mud hole. One of them had flopped onto it's back, but that was about it. All three snouts perked up as a line of apples floated mysteriously around them. The pigs stood up and began to follow the trail of apples.
The airborne fruits glided slowly over to the trough while the pigs followed close behind. As the swine stepped up to their trough, all the apples submerged themselves in the goopy slop. Eager to get a bite of the good looking apples, all three pigs began to messily eat away at the food.
Rarity's horn ceased glowing as she let out a triumphant chuckle. Her front legs were once again out of their boots and propped up on the pen fence.
After making sure the pigs each ate their fair share, Rarity swung her forelegs around and back into their boots. She tried to walk away, but one of her front hooves popped out of its corresponding boot.
Rarity kept her hoof in the air and looked down at her boot. It was stuck in the mud. A blue aura surrounded it as she telepathically pulled it back out of the mud with and audible "pop". Slipping the boot back into place, Rarity took off back to the tomato garden. She knew just how to wrap up these chores.
A dandelion stood defiantly next to a tomato plant. The weed began to glow a light blue and popped itself out of the ground, roots and all. The offending plant floated over to a pile of other weeds and came to rest on top of it.
The front door to the Apple's farmhouse creaked open. Rarity walked in and shut the door behind her. She hopped out of her boots, leaving them on the door mat. She then levitated her coat and hat on to a coat peg beside the door frame.
She adjusted her hat-hair, then turned around to see a smiling Applejack
AJ had a polka dot blanket wrapped around her, and held another one in her hoof.
Over on the stove, Rarity could see a pot with a ladle in it. She looked to the other side of AJ and saw that the kitchen table was set with soup bowls for two.
Applejack took the blanket from her hooves and threw it over Rarity's shoulders.
"Thank you," said Applejack. She moved over slightly and hugged Rarity from the side, resting her head on her back.
Rarity sighed contently. After AJ released her side, she telepathically wrapped the blanket around her and walked over to the table. Applejack cut in front of her and pulled a chair out, bowing gracefully afterward.
Rarity magicked AJ's hat off and smooched her on the forehead again before sitting down.
Author's Note
Today's lesson is:
Work smarter, not harder!
Thanks for reading!
