Hijinks

Once Cherry was around the corner, he burst into laughter, running off toward his next target. he had such a hard time keeping it cool back there that he had to run off. It went about as well as he expected. He was almost afraid he'd be mistaken for a changeling or something, something he only realized after-the-fact, but it went incredibly well nonetheless. So well, in fact, he was ready for his next target.

He ran all through Ponyville, and toward Sweet Apple Acres. He hadn't put much thought into his prank on Applejack, but he had a basic idea. His goal was, ultimately, to vary it depending on the pony. Twilight's smart, so obviously to be matched, unexpectedly, by a young colt was bound to floor her.

The prank he had in mind for Applejack was to simply... weird her out. Make her nervous, maybe. Once Cherry arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, he walked through the gate and was quickly spotted by Applejack, who was nearby. "Hold up there, little fella!" Cherry wasn't prepared for this, he had expected to catch her at the front door. As quick as he could, he put on the widest smile he could and turned to look at her. She trotted up to him and spoke. "Ya' one of Applebloom's friends? Actually, shouldn' ya' be in school or somethin'?"

Cherry merely looked up at her with the wide smile. "I like apples." It turned into a wide grin.

"Ya do, huh..." Applejack seemed to get a bit uncomfortable, just like Cherry predicted, but she put on a smile and friendly demeanor nonetheless. "Well, uh... ya' come to the right place... would you... uh.. like one?" Cherry merely stared up at her for several seconds, before nodding silently. Applejack definitely looked weirded out. "Well, uh... come on over here then." Applejack led Cherry to a bucket of apples nearby and motioned with a hoof. "Where are your... uh... parents?"

Cherry didn't respond. He merely stared at the bucket of apples, attempting the most excited, mind-blown, happy expression he could possibly manage - to the point it nearly hurt. He slowly stepped toward the bucket, one hoof at a time, before stopping within reach of it's many apples. And tipped the entire bucket over.

"Hey - whoa, I said one!" Applejack was, at first, a little frustrated. She was prepared to scold the odd foal before her, until Cherry's next action began to baffle her. Cherry appeared to look through the apples with suspiciously detailed observation. He pretended to look for the absolutely perfect one. And then when he found it, he took it into his hooves, laid down on his belly, then gently rolled to his side and cuddled the apple as close as possible, curling up like a cat and closing his eyes with the most contented and happy smile he possibly could manage. To Cherry, the apple was a lot bigger than he anticipated, which made it all the easier to cuddle up to. Any mirth he felt inside he tried to repurpose for making his smile even wider than before.

Applejack was about to ask what this little colt was doing, but his unbelievable look of pure bliss confused her even more and made her leave it be... for a minute or two. She silently picked up the rest of the apples around Cherry, placing them back into the upright bucket and glancing nervously at him every few seconds. Soon enough, Cherry heard and felt heavy hoofsteps, and was tempted to open his eyes to see what was going on, but remained steadfast. "...What is he doing?"

It was Big Mac, Cherry knew that for sure. He hadn't interacted with him much or heard him speak much at all, and certainly never a full-on sentence like that. He silently congratulated himself on such a good prank that it even made Big Mac curious enough to ask about it. Applejack leaned toward him and whispered. "I don' know, he just... showed up. I offered him an apple, and he just started... layin' there. I think he's plum crazy..." There's that honesty Cherry knew Applejack was so capable of. He overheard the whole sentence in whisper. "Stay here with 'im, I'm gonna go ask Granny Smith what we should do about 'im." Cherry heard hoofsteps get quieter and quieter before hearing the creak of a door closing.

Cherry slowly opened one eye to see, and was startled at the sheer size of Big Mac. He was massive, bigger than any normal pony, and even bigger now that Cherry was looking from the perspective of a foal. Cherry jumped slightly, he knew he did, and now the joke was up. It was definitely time to move on.

Without missing a beat, Cherry jumped to his hooves, and looked up at Big Mac, forcing as serious a face as he could muster - which actually wasn't much now that he was face to face with such a massive pony - and said in a hushed voice, "You saw nothing." He quickly turned and ran down the path out of the farm, hearing a distant "Eenope" as he ran off.

That wasn't nearly as entertaining to watch as the prank against Twilight, but it was pretty hilarious to imagine - even moreso to enact. Though he did feel a bit dirty now that he had spent a good portion of time laying on the ground. Oh well, he thought to himself, it was time for his next target. And that would be- "Hey, who are you?"

Cherry stopped dead in his tracks. Up ahead of him was Applebloom, coming over the hill and bounding toward him. School must've let out already. Cherry did not need such a delay. Not right now. Applebloom stopped once she was beside you and - wow, she was even slightly bigger than you - but only slightly. "What were ya' doing at Sweet Apple Acres?" Cherry wasn't sure how to respond. Crud - if she saw his lack of a cutie mark, there would be serious problems. He knew that right-away.

...Which she immediately did. Jumping to the side to look, she suddenly appeared excited. "Did ya' come lookin' for the Cutie Mark Crusaders?! We can help ya!" She suddenly appeared quite eager, it was almost kinda cute to Cherry, but unfortunately he was still uncomfortable around foals. and, more important than that, did not have time for this. The potion wouldn't last forever.

"I... uh... uh..." Cherry locked up, unsure of how to respond. He was never good with foals, even AS a foal! What was he going to have to say in order to prevent himself from getting wrapped up in the CMCs for the rest of the day? If only he had a cutie mark about being unnoticeable... like an invisible one. He couldn't lie, that just wasn't in his nature. So far, his pranks were morso him pretending, not lying.

Wait, that it! Time to go back to pretending. But what would work...? Oh... he had an idea, alright, but it didn't really make him comfortable. Cherry felt he might actually have to apologize for this one later on. He put on a disgusted face and took a small jump back, away from Applebloom. "Ew, a filly! Stay away, don't touch me with your... filly germs!"

"Filly germs...?" Appleblook looked at Cherry with an odd mixture of confusion and offense. "You uh... know you're the one half-covered with dirt, don'tcha?" Cherry looked at his side. Oh right... the apple... the ground... right. He had to get out of here, quickly. "Get away from me!" In a half-second, he came up with, what he felt, was the most immature phrase he could think of. "Fillies are freaks and colts are cool!" With that, he turned and ran - as fast as he could, hoping she didn't decide to pursue him... for one reason or another. He didn't look back and didn't slow down until he made it all the way back to Ponyville.

That was an awkward situation, and it made him uncomfortable to act that way in the first place. That was too close to the way a normal colt might act, and he hated every second of it. It was colts like that that made him uncomfortable, even AS a colt. Once he was sure he was safe, he turned back to look, just to be sure, and ran into something soft, yet unrelenting as he fell backwards onto his back.

"Hiya! I haven't seen you around Ponyville before!"