A dark ominous tree had sprouted up at the edge of the orchard in the dead of night. To say it stood out from the rest of Sweet Apple Ackers would be an understatement. The lush and healthy orchard could put even the most troubled souls at ease with its uniform radiance of bounty. It was no wonder why Applejack worked so hard to keep it pristine. Hard work that was made slightly harder by the ever infuriating Trixie and her insistence on spontaneous whims.

Whipping sweat from her brow, she refocused her attention, Celestia help her, back to Trixie, "Trixie, I appreciate you tryin' to turn over a new leaf but," Applejack paused to look over how much bucking was left to do and internally winced, "ya' know what? Theirs some trees over there we can't get around to too often."

Trixie paused, thank the stars, before continuing again, "Oh, I uh, I don't really do bucking," She finished with a meek grin and Applejack took notice at how she spoke in the first person.

"Didn't you work on a rock farm?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought we would leave the past behind us!" Trixie snapped before calming down, "Ahem, the rock farm had tools for their employees. I used my magic to do the heavy lifting."

"Oh, then you can just use your magic to pick the apples. Anyway, it's more walking then bucking. There aren't a lot of trees out there and the ones there aren't too close to each other."

Trixie's first picks were a little violent. She was used to heavily gripping tools with her magic, resulting in her crushing her first picks. Some time into the work, she noticed a tree with black apples hanging from it. Not about to judged however many years of tradition the apple family has, she got up to the tree and reached for an apple with her magic only for it to fizzle out. This would have been where Trixie put an end to her task and asked Applejack about it, but she noticed that all the dark apples were close to the ground. Perhaps this was a prank to see how badly Trixie could get herself frustrated trying to use her magic. Little did Applejack know just how thoroughly you learn to rely on your hooves when you're on the road.

Trixie crouched lowly under an apple and lept to catch one between her hooves. She made contact and expected her weight to rip the fruit from its stem. She waited to drop but never did. The apple was hanging on strong and barely dipped under her weight. Trixie didn't know whether to be flattered at her slimness or frustrated at the tree's defiance. She let go of the apple, hoping to see if Applejack had any idea what to do, but it was just her luck that her hooves still held onto the apple, no the apple was the one holding on. The branch holding the apple began to resend into the tree, taking her with it. She looked at the trunk and saw that the bark was shedding rapidly revealing a deep black interior with a harsh shine that reminded her of an old puddle on the side of a road.

Seeing her fate fast approaching, she started screaming hysterically and tugging madly trying to free a hoof. Unfortunately, the orchard was vast and Applejack didn't have the patience to talk anymore with Trixie, so she purposefully chose for her and to work as far away from her and her brother as possible.

It took almost an hour for the screaming to stop, but stop it did.

Author's Note

My first try with smut. Wanted to start somewhere familiar so no sexy times this chapter. Only fear.