Author's Note
Hey, guys!
The recent episode, Going to Seed inspired this little flash story, so I thought I'd whip it out for you. Enjoy!
Blessing
Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville’s oldest icon and landmark. For countless moons has its fertile soils produced great bounties of luscious apples that sustained both life and love in the rural hamlet. The proud family running it have all been hailed as heroes in their own right, life givers even, to say nothing of the oldest sister being an Element.
However, even heroes run out of luck eventually, and the most fertile grounds run dry. For the past few weeks, the orchard has consistently born less and less fruit, and the trees themselves were starting to wither away. As diligently as they investigated the gradual drought, the Apples couldn’t discern the cause, even Twilight, Zecora, and Starlight were at a loss; both were heartbroken that they couldn’t help their dear friend in such time of need.
Less produce meant less money, and less money meant certain uncertainty. Granny Smith put a sizable chunk of her old savings into buying fertilizer, but it only did so little. Big Mac and Applejack decided to do odd jobs around town for extra cash, which their neighbors were more than happy to pay them for, but it only added to the exhaustion.
But the one affected the most was Applebloom. Being so young, she could only do so much apart from going to school, where she could sense her classmates’ pity of her. They all offered to help, but no amount of extra working hooves would fertilize the soil and she knew that. She could tell that her older siblings were putting on a brave face for her, but not long ago, she overheard them talking about eventually having to auction off the entire farmland to whatever company bid the highest. Where would that leave them? Where would they go? They had plenty of relatives across Equestria that would likely be happy to take them in, but their hearts were here in Ponyville; this was their home, and she couldn’t stand the thought of Flim and Flam potentially getting their filthy hooves on it even if they did somehow manage to legitimately purchase the land.
That same thought rendered her unable to sleep one night. She crawled out of her bed and went outside to just… walk. The moon was a waning crescent trying to hide from the stars, casting little light onto the land below. The ground beneath her hooves was dusty and weak; the wind bullied the pitiful soil all around the drying oasis and into the poor filly’s eyes. She brushed it off as she looked out towards her expansive home.
Barely visible in one of the higher trees was the perch she and her older sister used to look out for the Great Seedling on a fully moonlit night roughly four months before their trouble started. A sleepwalking Big Mac turning out to be the mythical creature during that chaotic time still made for a fun time, this was a good time for it to be real. But what if it was? Had she offended the creature by trying so vigorously to catch it the first time and is now being punished? It was the Seedling’s own challenge, wasn’t it? She knew that at this point, her whole family would give anything for its blessing of bounty.
However, attempting to catch it would be time flushed down the drain, assuming it was indeed real; but she had to try something. She noticed and approached a tree lucky enough to have a decent amount of fruit decorating its crown. She knew that she’d get into deep trouble for this, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and she bucked the whole bounty down. She then collected the pile of apples and neatly assorted them in a patch of dirt nearby. She sat down and closed her eyes.
“G-Great Seedlin’… sir… or ma’am, Ah dunno…” Her voice was cracking under the pressure of her sorrow. “If… If y’all can hear me… please come…” She began to sound more raspy as tears welled up in her eyes. “Ah’m sorry if Ah did somethin’ to ya, truly! Just… please come and make our land fertile again. Please!” Her prayer was interrupted by a short sobbing spell; her desperate tears pelted the ground like rainwater. “H-Here. Ah left a big bunch o’ apples for ya, no tricks ‘r traps. Take ‘em… Heck, take whatever ya want from us! Take ME away instead if it pleases ya! Just let mah family be happy again! Ah beg of you…”
Her excessive crying had worn her out, and she decided to return to bed. She had thankfully not waken up anyone, so she was able to slip back into her bed and cry herself to sleep…
Not realizing that the moon was suddenly in full bloom…
The Following Morning...
“APPLEBLOOM! APPLEBLOOM, WAKE UP!!”
The little filly was being shaken violently whilst hearing a familiar voice screaming excitedly at her. “H-Huh?” She opened her eyes to find Applejack standing above her with the biggest smile she’d ever seen her wear. “What is it, sis?”
“The orchard! It’s… IT’S A MIRACLE! GET OUT HERE N’ SEE FOR YERSELF!!” Applejack jumped up and down like a filly on her birthday as her little sister groggily crawled out of bed.
“Ah’m coming, Ah’m coming!” Applebloom said, following her older sister, who giddily lead her downstairs and out the front door. The shock of what she saw completely woke her body. “Applejack… am Ah seein’ things!?”
The once withering farmland was more bountiful than it was even all those four months prior, as if it somehow rose from its soily ashes from the night before. Granny Smith’s aged body was too excited to sit still, and she jumped around jubilantly with more vigor than an old mare probably should; Big Mac, wide awake with joy, giddily went to work with more energy than Applebloom thought possible in an already mighty powerhouse like him.
“C’mon, Sugarcube! Yer outta school fer the day, so let’s get to work!” Applejack said with the same energy as their brother.
“Absolutely!” Applebloom followed her big sister until she stopped at one tree in particular.
“Well how come this one don’t have any fruit?” Applejack said.
Applebloom noticed that it was the same tree from which she gathered her offering to the Great Seedling. She gasped when wonder struck her mind, so she looked and aw that the dirt patch, now filled with lush green grass, had only one of the apples she left. Curious, she walked over to it and saw that all of the apples had been laid out into a trail. “Could it be?” She followed the trail, which lead to a river on the edge of their property and the woods beyond where the last apple sat at the bank. “Well now…” She then felt a twitch in her tail, prompting her to look up. “”
Standing on a rock across the river was a creature unlike anything she’d ever seen. It was mysterious stag, taller than she knew they could grow whose appearance was so angelic that it was otherworldly. The upper half of its body was a deep blue like the ocean and had four antlers like tree branches jutting out from either side of its head. The antlers had different colored jewels embedded in them that created its own sort of rainbow. Its lower half was all black and had a fluffy tail, but its legs were ivory-colored linings decorating them.
So regal was its presence that Applebloom wanted to bow, but her awestruck gaze was affixed on the being until she finally mustered the ability to speak. “Are… Are you the Great Seedlin’?” she asked.
It made no sound and only responded with two soft blinks of its eyes. However, the gems in its antlers suddenly started glowing, and a bed of flowers suddenly sprang up on the earthy riverbank below it.
It was then that she knew. This had to be it. It looked a lot different than she’d imagined, but before was most certainly the answer to her prayers. “OH, THANK YOU, GREAT SEEDLIN’!! THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH!!” Tears of joy showered from her eyes.
The Great Seedling blinked at her once more. It then looked to the sky and let out an angelic moan, summoning a gentle blanket of mist that enveloped it. When the mist faded, the Great Seedling had disappeared with it.
“Applebloom?” Applejack’s voice was distant, but her little sister heard her.
“Sis!! SIS!!!”
Applejack rushed over to her. “What’s wrong, Sugarcube?”
“AH SAW IT! THE GREAT SEEDLIN’! IT MADE OUR FARM HEALTHY AGAIN LIKE AH ASKED IT!!” Applebloom exclaimed. She pointed to the rock where it once stood. “It was standin’ right there lookin’ at me! It was BEAUTIFUL!!”
Applebloom saw only disbelief in her big sister’s face, not that it mattered. They had their farm, their very lives back, and she made a solemn vow to one day find a way to thank the majestic creature that had listened to her plight.
