Riley Ree

"Mom! Mom! There's a pony who's gonna teach us all about being earth ponies!" I used my high-gear. So far, I'd learned walking and something I was told was called galloping—low and high gear. Rounding another corner, I found a hallway that wasn't empty (like the last five). "Mom!"

I froze. Mom wasn't alone. Beside my mommy was the most amazing princess I'd seen. "Princess Luna!" High-gear engaged! I galloped toward her, and it was only when she grabbed me off my hooves with her magic that I slowed down.

"We were just talking about you, Riley Ree." It was hard to pay attention to what Princess Luna was saying with her mane being all swooshy. It was so amazing I could have stared at it for hours. I might have missed the rest of what she said because of it.

"Well, howdy y'all. Ah hear some ponies need some help learnin' to pony?" The words snapped my attention back to the orange mare who'd apparently followed me. Standing at her side was another mare who looked younger—she had yellow fur, a red mane and tail, and had a pink bow tying her mane back from her face. She was also wearing a pair of bulging saddlebags. "This here's Apple Bloom, and Ah'm Applejack."

"Hiya!" Apple Bloom said.

Mom turned to look at Princess Luna. "Our teachers?"

"Ah bet yer wonderin' what you need earth pony training for. Well, the proof of that is easy to demonstrate with yer little-un." Applejack looked right at me. "Would ya come over here a mite?"

Hesitation filled me. I looked to Mom and, with her nod, gulped. Approaching Applejack, I looked between her and Apple Bloom. Something about them seemed familiar. "A-Are you related?"

"She's my big sister." Apple Bloom's enthusiasm was catching.

"Eeyup. And we got a brother back home, too. McIntosh, though everypony calls him Big Mac on account of him bein' the biggest galoot ya ever seen. Enough about him, though. Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked.

Reaching back, Apple Bloom pulled a flowerpot from her bags. When she set it down in front of me, I could see a little green sprout in the middle of some dark soil. "There ya go."

I looked down at the plant. "Uh. Thanks." My words were uncertain because I had no idea what was going on.

"Tell ya what, sugarcube, reach out and touch the pot for a bit," Applejack said.

Setting my hoof against the cool stone. Something tingled. "It tickles." The longer I held my hoof there, the more of the tingling I got.

"She's just a little apple seedling, but she wants to grow up. Can you feel it?"

The moment Applejack said "grow" I did feel it. There was a need within the little plant that I could feel through the soil and pot. I nodded.

"Well, why don'tcha give 'er a little push. Don't use your hoof, though, focus on that tingle an' push with that."

It sounded silly, it had to be silly, but it seemed to feel right. Focusing my attention on that tingle, I pushed.

"R-Riley?!" Mom's voice surprised me.

I hadn't realized I'd closed my eyes, but when I opened them and turned, there was a mass of leaves between me and Mom. My attention was focused on the much noisier plant, now. It was still super into wanting to grow, but it was also excited. It wanted more.

"Hold on there. She's had enough for today—needs a bigger pot now." Applejack nudged my hoof away from the pot. "But Ah think it was enough of a demonstration that ya get the idea?"

"How did you do that? That's astounding!" Mom said. She walked over and examined the sapling, then paused. "And here I am getting surprised at magic again. You know, I reassured Twilight I wouldn't do this, but it really is amazing."

"Well, persuadin' a seedling into growin' ain't exactly the hardest thing. Fluttershy's got a friend who says she can talk to plants, and she says they ain't thinkin' about nothin' but growing 'till they are at least as tall as a pony. Ah'll have to admit, yer filly there has a bit more of a knack fer this than most ponies."

"Sorry, Applejack. It's just there's a difference between knowing magic can be done, and seeing my little girl doing it. It would be wonderful to have some lessons." Mom looked really excited, probably about as much as I felt.

"Well, ya'all should come out to our family farm, Sweet Apple Acres. We can try you out for all kinds of earth pony stuff there. Riley, do you want to see how many plants you can grow at once?" Apple Bloom asked.

She had my full attention. Excitement buzzed in my hooves and head as I nodded vigorously. "Yes please!"

Mom's hoof rubbed my hair a bit. It was an old gesture from when Mom was trying to teach me to say please and thank you—a reward for having done so. Only, when she rubbed her hoof over one of my ears, I couldn't help but lean into the rubbing as my world went a little crooked.

I missed some of what happened next mostly because it felt really nice to have my ears rubbed, but when Mom stopped, I shook my head and looked at her. "Why'd you stop?"

"Because we're going. Come on." Beckoning, Mom walked off after Applejack and Apple Bloom.

Their names seemed a little strange, considering they had the same first name. Maybe it was like family names? I vowed to find out. Then I remembered what they'd said about their brother. Makin—I totally couldn't remember his name, but it wasn't Apple.

Mom caught up with Applejack, and Apple Bloom dropped back to walk beside me.

"That was real impressive fer a first try. If you want, we can practice with some harder plants when we get home," Apple Bloom said.

"Harder?" I asked.

"Well, yeah. Apple seedlings—'specially those from our orchard—are just about the most excited little things ever. They grow as much as you just did in a few weeks. Now, getting something to grow years worth really takes it out of you."

Apple Bloom talked about various kinds of plants out the door of the castle, all the way across town, down a road, and into a farm called Sweet Apple Acres. My brain was almost ready to explode with knowledge about seeds and seedlings. Saffron got like this sometimes, usually when talking about his nerd stuff.

"Wait, what about your brother?" I asked.

"Big Mac?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Yeah. Your sister is named Apple Jack, your name is Apple Bloom—I thought he'd be named Apple Something too." By Apple Bloom's expression, I knew I'd said something funny. "What?"

"His full name is McIntosh Apple. We're all part of the Apple family, and we got kin all over Equestria who are named like apples too. Then there's the pear side of things, but when Mom and Dad got hitched, they drifted more to the Apple side of things on account of Grand Pear sayin' something really not nice."

I didn't really follow what she was talking about, but it seemed to make sense that they were all named for something to do with apples. "So why is your sister Apple Jack? Is a jack some kind of apple?"

Something I said was funny, apparently. Apple Bloom started laughing her head off.

A little overwhelmed, I trotted up to walk beside Mom. "I don't know what I said, but she started laughing a lot."

Mom turned to look from me to Apple Bloom. "What did you say, dear?"

"I asked her about Apple Jack's name. She said all their family's names were about apples, but I couldn't work out what a jack had to do with them," I said.

"Ah guess a filly wouldn't really know that word 'less she's workin' around here. Applejack is strong drink made from apple cider. Maybe in another thirty or so your ma'll let you have a drop." Applejack winked at me, but somehow I thought it was meant for Mom more.

"Thirty?" I asked.

"Years. Yer a mite young for the stuff yet."

"I'll say," Mom said. "Thirty years—When she gets back home, she'd be able to have alcohol in about nine years. If she's been good, of course."

Applejack wrinkled her nose at something, but didn't reply. A little further along she pointed at one of the big buildings. The farm had two really big, wooden buildings. One looked like a house, but built up more than out, and the other looked like a barn. Both were bright red. "C'mon inside. Big Mac was going to set you up a stand to kick against. Doin' it inside means less chance of hurting somepony."

I dropped back from Applejack and Mom to walk with Apple Bloom again—now that she'd stopped laughing so much she couldn't talk. The farm seemed just like what TV had led me to expect: cows, pigs, big wooden buildings, country folk, and all bright and exciting.

"Are we going in there too?" I asked Apple Bloom.

"Nah. We're gonna take turns. Besides, I think your mom's friends will want to split up too," Apple Bloom said.

Her words surprised me enough to turn around. Two of the soldiers—earth ponies like me and Mom—were walking along. They were bigger than me, like pretty much everyone here, and when I looked at them they just nodded and split up just like Apple Bloom had said.

"That way we can teach them, too." Apple Bloom led the way behind the big barn to a glass-covered building. It looked a little strange at first, but I recognized what it was. "This here's my glasshouse. I got a little more talent with growing plants than Applejack or Big Mac, so they let me take care of the little saplings. Please be careful, I have a lot of other plants in here too."

Apple Bloom turned to the soldier who was with us. "I don't mean to be rude, but what's your name?"

"David Roberto, Ma'am. Are you really going to show me how to grow stuff with my hoof?" I was surprised at how eager he sounded, and when I really looked at him, I could almost see excitement bubbling from him. I decided I liked Mr. Roberto.

"It alright if I call you David? I normally go by Bloom, myself," Apple Bloom said. When she got a nod from David, she smiled. "Great. Well, David, Riley, the most important thing to know when doing this is, it uses energy. Ya ain't—You're not going to get something for nothing. Ponies eat, make magic, and use magic.

"Since you already had a try, Riley, why not let David try now?"

I looked at David. He was bigger than me, but smaller than Apple Bloom. He had a really purple mane and tail that looked really pretty. His coat, when I could stop looking at his hair, was a soft gray color.

"So what do I do?" David asked.

Pushing a little flowerpot with a green sprout in it across to David, Apple Bloom gestured at it. "Touch it."

She went through the same description Applejack did with me. She made him feel out for the plant's feelings, and had him push into it. When the seedling shot up about a third as far as the one I'd done, Apple Bloom cheered. "Well done! That's really good for a first try."

"It wasn't as good as mine!" I said.

"A young foal tends to have bursts of magic and powers greater than a more developed colt or filly. In your case, you might have had a small surge. It has to do—Moon Dancer says—with the metabolism." Smiling at David, Bloom reached behind her—to her saddlebags again—and produce a pair of cupcakes. "Here you go. Eat this and tell me how it makes you feel."

I reached out and grabbed up my cupcake with a hoof, lifted it to my mouth and took a big bite. The taste was amazing: the cake part tasted like apples, and the icing was sweet and cinnamony. But when I swallowed, it got even better. A draining I didn't know I had seemed to stop, and a burst of energy filled me back out and made me want to run and bounce and jump and sing! "Wow!"

"What—the heck—did you put in that?" David asked. He seemed to stumble on some words that made me think he was going to swear, then didn't.

"Apple spongecake, some custard stuffing, and iced with sweet cinnamon icing. Everything a pony needs to replace energy spent—I dunno—makin' plants grow really fast." A tight, lop-sided smile graced Bloom's face. "There's a reason, or so Moon Dancer says, that most pony foods are really high in energy. We burn it up doin' the least little thing. But it's nothing another hit of sugar doesn't fix. Right?"

I was barely listening. I shoved the rest of the cupcake in my mouth and savored the flavor for long enough to chew it up and swallow it. Somehow, it was better than the first bit. "Mmm!"

"Yer having some trouble with that, David?" Bloom asked.

David nodded. "Can't work out how you hold things with your hooves."

"Ah. Nopony thought to teach you the trick of that. Okay, bonus lesson. Catch!" Bloom tossed another cupcake to David.

I watched his eyes widen, his foreleg instinctively reach out, and he caught the cake on his hoof just like I'd seen everyone—everypony—do. Then it hit me. It was what I'd done a few seconds ago when I ate the cupcake!

"The secret is there is no secret. Don't think about it. Everypony has a little bit of their magic work like this. Nopony knows how to teach it, but foals pick it up a mite too quickly. I figure all it takes is a surprise situation and something you don't want to drop." Bloom turned her attention back to me. "Now, Riley, let's try you on a row of seedlings."

Bloom led me to the row where I could barely see little green shoots. She gestured to the whole row with a wave of a hoof. "Give 'em a try."

Lifting my hoof to the soil, I tried to do what Applejack told me last time. I felt for the seedlings, felt a tingle of their hunger, and then I pushed!

Nothing happened.

I pushed again.

More nothing.

One last time, and this one I really shoved!

A little green seedling trembled a moment, then it popped out one leaf. "Oh, come on!"

"Hey. Calm down." David walked over to stand beside me. "Here. Let's give it a try together."

I looked up from where his hoof rested in the soil beside mine, and tried to detect any hint of humoring or him looking down on me. He wasn't so big that he could look down on me! But he wasn't. David was bigger than Saffron, but he gave me the same kind of vibe as my big booger of a brother. "O-Okay."

He stood beside me, close enough that our shoulders were together, and then I felt him do magic. It took me a few seconds to realize I was supposed to be doing it too, and when I pushed the magic started coming from me too!

All the little seedlings squirmed and writhed, then shot out leaves and jumped upward. I couldn't help but giggle—I could feel them growing! They were excited and super-happy to grow so fast and so big I giggled more.

"Holy sh—gosh!" David looked at me quickly. I knew he was going to say a swear word, but it wasn't like I hadn't heard that one before. "That's really somethin' ma'am. And I can feel them growing still. How big can one pony grow things here?"

"When we was gonna be short a few trees one year, after a big meanie set fire to half the town, Big Mac grew nearly twenty trees from just seeds to flowering." Bloom looked really proud. "He's so clever."

"It actually feels kinda good to do it, too. What about you?" David asked and looked down at me.

I thought about it, and how happy it made the plants, and nodded. "It's good to help people. I didn't know plants were people before, but I guess they count if they can feel so happy like that."

"Careful with that kinda talk. Next thing Ah know you'll be talkin' with Tree Hugger, and staging a Veganism is Murder rally. Mind you, she was the only pony that protested that," Bloom said.

"Wait." David narrowed his eyes at Bloom. "Veganism is murder? What did she want you to eat instead?"

Grinning, Bloom produced two more cupcakes. "Unfertilized chicken eggs, milk, fish, and basically anythin' else that comes from a critter. Got really vocal about it, too."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, turns out she was getting a little malnourished. Surprise-surprise, ponies need their greens. Anyway, she was doing real fine until she ate a bad egg. Applejack said she was practically rocket-powered all the way to the hospital." Grinning wider and wider, Bloom was laughing by the end of her story, and so was David and I.

"Hey Bloom! Applejack said—!" A monster had opened the door at the end of the glasshouse. It was huge, red, and sounded like a boy! "Ah, yer in here. Time to swap."

Turning to the monster, Bloom unleashed a smile to end all smiles. I doubted she could have looked happier. "Thanks, Big Mac!"

The giant red pony started to turn, but kicked off and ran after him. He was huge, but when I reached him and ran under his legs he stopped walking. "E-Excuse me?" I asked.

"Eeyup?"

"Is your name McIntosh?"

"Eeyup!"

I liked how relaxed he seemed, even if he was huuuuge. "And they're a kind of apple?"

"Eeyup!"

"Do you have any here?" I asked.

I didn't get another "Eeyup" before a giant hoof plucked me off the ground. McIntosh put me on his back. "Eeyup," he said finally.

I squealed in surprise and then excitement. When he started to walk, I had to grab on for all I was worth. I didn't realize until he was about ten feet away from the glasshouse that my hooves were actually grabbing on. It just worked just like Bloom said! I let out a whoop of excitement, and now that I was stable I started looking around.

In the distance I could see Mom and the other soldier pony kicking at a tree, and some apples fell out of it. "Are those McIntosh apples?"

"Nnope." McIntosh didn't approach Mom or the others, instead wandering to a different part of the orchard. These trees looked different to the ones Mom had been in, much more bushy and wide. McIntosh walked right up to one of the trees and lifted his hoof up to the trunk.

I wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but I could feel a tingle inside like when I'd made the sprouts grow. It seemed important to keep quiet, but when he lifted his hoof back and then tapped the tree, I gasped. My little burst of magic had felt like a hose running. David's had been like a fire-hose. What McIntosh did was like a—well, it was like a tidal wave! But only in one little bump.

Quick as a shot I grabbed at something that fell before my eyes. The apple in my hoof was almost as big as my leg, and I looked down to see McIntosh had one of the huge apples too. Red and green, it looked amazing.

When McIntosh bit into his, I bit into mine. Juice went everywhere. I groaned a little at how sweet and good it was. If apples back home were like this, no one would let kids eat them—it was like candy!

I didn't care that there was still juice dribbling down my chin, that it was making a mess of my fur, these apples were amazing.

"Ah think Ah'd say yer little 'un has found a friend. How's the apples today, Big Mac? Good?" Applejack asked.

I turned my head to see Applejack, Mom, Bloom, and both soldiers approaching. David and the other man were talking between themselves, quietly, but I could tell they were both excited about something.

"Eeyup!"

"We made a whole bunch of plants grow!" I said. "Mom! What did you do?"

"Well, we got to talk with some trees, and we asked them what they wanted." Mom looked both smug and excited.

Remembering the seedlings, I wondered what adult trees wanted. "What did they want?"

Mom walked up to me and reached up to lift me down. "You'll have to ask them, dear."

At first, I didn't want to, but it wasn't hard to realize that McIntosh had work to do—besides, I wanted to ask the trees! Reaching for Mom's hoof, I grabbed it with both my front hooves and swung away from McIntosh.

"You've learned some tricks. How're you holding on like that?" Mom asked.

"Magic. Bloom taught me." I swung back and forth, then realized I'd left my apple on McIntosh's back. Holding with just one hoof, I reached up and across and grabbed my prize.

Mom lowered me to the ground and turned to Bloom. "How do I do that?"

"It's just a knack. Ah can show you while we work on some seedlings," Bloom said.

Mom, the other soldier, and Bloom walked off together, which left me, David, and Applejack. Oh! And McIntosh.

I turned to look for the nice mountain-pony (I decided he was a mountain-pony because he was as big as one), but he was walking away… like ninja-quiet! "Thanks McIntosh!"

McIntosh stopped and looked back. He had a lop-sided smile that made me smile wider. He just nodded to me, turned, and kept walking. I guess he doesn't talk so much, which is kinda okay since he doesn't need to say much.

"Y'all ready to get to work?" Applejack asked.

Directing my attention to her, I nodded. When she started walking back to where she and Mom had been, I followed.

"How're you walking like that?" David surprised me—I'd completely forgotten about him. "I mean, you're holding that apple and walking, shouldn't you—uh—fall?"

"Haven't really thought about it. Should I?" I asked. To prove my point, I took a big bite from the apple. It tasted amazing still. If I had a choice between the best cupcake from back home and this apple, I'd pick this apple in a heartbeat.

David rolled his eyes. "Probably best if you don't. Excuse me, Miss Applejack—ma'am?" He trotted forward a few steps to catch up with Applejack. "Your sister said talking to plants was, uh…"

"Hey, look, just askin' a tree if it wants shit, water, or some bugs removed ain't no nevermind. It's when you have deep 'n meaningful conversations with 'em your head'll start to go a bit soft," Applejack said.

"Bloom mentioned a pony named Tree Hugger, said she—" David said.

"Tree's not all that bad. She just thinks sideways to everypony else. Really saved our bacon one time in Canterlot. She was a hoot when those eggs turned on her, though. Never seen her look so surprised—even Discord couldn't make that filly look shocked." Applejack led the way right up to the tree Mom had been at when I'd seen her doing whatever this was. Then she stopped. "Okay. Now this here apple tree is the oldest in the whole orchard. She speaks the clearest, so Ah guess it's best to start with 'er.

"Lift a hoof and press it to the bark. Try to find the youngest bark—she gets a lil muffled otherwise."

With another bite of my apple, I walked to the tree and looked up at it. The conundrum of how to do this and not put my apple down was solved when I realized I could just sit. Parking my butt, I held onto my apple with my right forehoof and pressed the other against the bark of the tree.

The world seemed to drain away. I couldn't hear Applejack or David, but I could hear the nice tree. "What do you want?" I asked it.

"Sunlight. Warm soil. A little water would be nice. Is that an apple you're eating?"

"Yup! McIntosh got it for me, though everyone calls him Big Mac—and I guess I see why after meeting him—anyway, he got it from another tree that he had to do something to. I think he was asking nicely, and giving the tree something to help it," I said. "Do you make apples?"

"The best. Would you like one?"

I nodded, but when I realized nodding didn't seem to work, said, "Yes please."

"Such a well-spoken filly. Of course you can have an apple if you give me a little magic."

It seemed like the easiest thing in the world. I pushed a little magic to the tree, just like I had for the seedlings.

"The apple is made, but you are going to have to free it yourself. Just give me a little filly-sized kick just to the right of where your hoof is, and get ready to catch it."

I grinned and nodded, then remembered that it couldn't see me nod. "Okay!"

The world seemed to rush back in around me. The sound of birds in the trees was the first to make my ears twitch, and then Applejack's voice explaining what we are supposed to do.

"… just against the wood, like Riley did," Applejack said.

But I wasn't going to do that—I'd already done that. I lifted a hoof to thump the tree where it told me, but it felt wrong. Turning around, I set my apple on the ground after one last bite and aimed my butt at the tree.

There was a lot of muscles back there that I normally didn't think about. Right now, however, I had to think about them. I leaned forward, shifting my weight onto my front hooves, then squeezed up my back legs, pointed myself at the spot, and kicked!

First my left, then right back legs connected with the tree. I didn't hear the voice of it again, but I felt approval sing through it. There was something I was forgetting, though. I pulled my legs back from the tree and heard the sound of whistling—something falling. The apple!

Diving to the side with all the grace of a kitten, I managed to grab the apple with one outstretched hoof.

"Good work!" Applejack said. "Yer got the knack for—Wait! Holy smokes! A zap-apple at this time o' year?!" Her voice got louder and louder the more she said. At last Applejack made an excited whooping noise and swung her hat around. "Hot dang, she made a zap-apple for ya!"

I looked at the apple I'd caught and stared in wonder. There was something really magical about it. For a start it was rainbow colored—starting with blue at the bottom, and turning red by the top. The apple also seemed a little shiny, and as I turned it a little, a shimmer of light seemed to pass over it. "Whoa…"

Applejack helped me up so I could stand, but when I offered to pass the apple to her, she waved it off. "Well, go on, eat it. The tree made it all fer ya."

I held the apple up and brought it to my mouth. It almost seemed wrong to bite into its perfection, but then my nose caught its scent. My eyes fluttered closed like one of Mom's books talked about (that I managed to read right up until it was about to get rude before Mom took it away). The apple smelled of a warm spring day, grass and fields, trees and soft ground. I don't even know all the ways I could describe it, but it smelled amazing.

The taste was even better. It was like if there was the best fruit in the world on Earth, and everyone wanted it, and it cost like a million billion dollars, this would be better than that. It was crisp, and full of juice, and I drowned in the flavor of it as everything just felt better.

Mom always said I had bad impulse control, like I'd try to do something before knowing what it meant. That was probably true, but I managed to pull my little snout away from the fruit before I devoured all of it. "Shit," I said.

"Would your mom want you talking like that?" David asked.

Without a word, I passed him my apple. "Take a bite—just one."

The sound of teeth working through apple, and a little groan after it, told me David had taken a bite. "Well?" I asked.

"Shit." David was staring at the apple in disbelief. "I want to eat it all." I didn't hold it against him, I wanted to eat it all too, but I definitely appreciated when he passed the apple back.

"Cussin' aside, that was a mighty nice thing ya did, Riley. I know a few ponies who would have devoured a zap-apple whole before they'd let somepony else take a bite o' it."

I looked up at Applejack, smiled, and took another bite of the apple. Each bite, it seemed, would be better than the previous. I wanted to take another, but Dad would have tanned my hide if I didn't offer. "Would you like a bite?" I asked, holding the apple up to Applejack.

It was totally worth losing a bite of the amazing apple to see a pony so happy. Applejack took a slow bite of the apple, and looked even happier still. She was just like a princess!

When she passed the apple back, though, I quickly took my second bite.

"That is the best food I've ever had. Bar none. Ever. Holy—" David looked down at the regular apple in his hoof, and I could see how he was comparing it to the special apple. A rustle, seemed to steal his attention, and he looked up into the tree beside us. "Yeah," he said, then started eating his own apple.

I got to eat the rest of the apple and it was better with every bite. Not that anyone—hee, anypony—said anything, not with apples to eat.

"I feel more revitalized by that than it took energy to make. Uh, the tree did take enough from me to make the apple, right?" David asked.

Applejack nodded to David. "The tree's not stupid. It took enough and then some. Trees're honest like that. They may want payment, but ya always know they'll take a lil extra."

"So if it gives back more than it takes—? I'm no egg-head or nothing, just a grunt, but I know that kinda thing can't work." As David spoke, he took a few moments to nibble around the core of his apple.

"Ya know ya can eat that, right? Sure the fancy folk in Canterlot might eat around a core, but us simple folk can just eat it all up." Applejack's eyes strayed from David to me. "An what yer not accountin' for is the tree preparin' for it. It only grows so many blossoms each year, and they take work. It would have been makin' an apple itself anyway, so gettin' you t' pay fer it works out as a boon. Plus a little extra. Gotta remember they like a bit extra."

"So we're just finishing the apple off?" I asked.

"Eeyup, as my brother'd say. Was a surprise to get a zap-apple off'a her. Old thing probably's gone a bit batty, gettin' airs or somethin'." Gesturing to an old stump in a cleared bit of the orchard, Applejack made sure she had our attention. "C'mon this way, we'll test out how good those bucks are."

"Bucks?" I asked, finishing off the very last of the apple by gobbling up the core.

"Yeah. When yer kicking with both back legs, that's a buck." Applejack demonstrated on empty air. "Don't go buckin' just any tree, mind, unless you need it gone. Apple family apple trees're grown just right to take a good buck or two each season. This-here old stump was the biggest apple tree we ever grew."

The stump, when we reached it, looked to be as big around as Applejack was long. I walked up to it and as one must, I jumped up onto it (after a lot of effort climbing the old bark). "Isn't there something special about rings in a tree?" I asked.

"Yeah," David said. "Each ring works out to be a growing seas—Holy shit."

I tucked my ears down at the swear word. "One, two, three, four, five… there's a lot of rings." I hadn't even gotten a hoof-width from the middle.

"Granny Smith planted this when she first moved to Ponyville. One of the first apple trees in the region. That was—goodness—a long time ago." Applejack watched David with a wry smile. "How long do you make it?"

"I just got to about three hundred. Do ponies really live this long?" David asked.

"Yeah. Granny won't tell us fer sure, but Ah heard one of her friends say she was around four-hundred and sixty. Part of me's worried, as that's a ripe old age for an Apple, but Ah just can't see her ever stoppin'."

Comparing the stump, and getting an idea how big around it was, I walked back to the big apple tree that had given me the special apple. It was almost as big as the stump. "Thank you for the apple. It was delicious."

The tree didn't respond because I didn't have my hoof on it, but I didn't need it to.

"So, you wanna learn how hard you can kick, don'tcha?"

I turned away from the tree and trotted (without even meaning to!) back to the stump.

Saffron Ree

Alright. I had to admit that getting all my feathers straightened, and actually scrubbing up and washing the wings felt good.

"Now try to stretch that wing out." Fluttershy had started talking a little more—I think it was because I was so pathetic at being a pony. She liked animals, I'd learned, which didn't include ponies—ponies are people here.

Laying down, with my forelegs folded under me, I focused on my wings and how they felt. They were my arms. I could feel the limbs bend a little differently, of course, but I had an elbow and a wrist, and if I closed my eyes I could feel fingers.

Stretching my wings out slowly, I could feel my legs try to move as well, but not as much as they had been.

"You're doing good, Saffron, just a little more."

Fluttershy was the strangest person I'd ever spoken to. When she spoke, her voice was always so soft that if there was any other sound nearby, it would drown her out. She literally couldn't talk over a buzzing fly. As a result—and because she actually had good advice—I kept my trap shut most of the time.

So I sat in relative silence, felt the air blowing slowly over my wings, and listened to the softest-spoken person I'd ever met. Her encouragement had to be magical. Dad had magic, my wings had magic, and some ponies had so much magic they could jump between worlds, but I could swear that Fluttershy's voice was magic.

"There you are. They're all the way out and your feathers are neat and proud. Well done!" Fluttershy said.

When she clopped her hooves together in applause, I almost died. It was obvious she shouted the last bit, but her shout was at a level barely above the sound of the wind.

The wind.

I closed my eyes and felt the air moving over my wings, and for the first time since I got here they didn't feel like arms. Each feather felt different, and each change of the wind made them move in different ways.

There was a stronger gust that took me by surprise. I opened my eyes and saw that Fluttershy had moved one of her own wings. "I felt that."

"Of course you did. Your feathers feel the air, and anything in the air that's upstream of them will leave a ripple. Another pegasus makes a lot of ripples." Fluttershy demonstrated by stretching her left wing and giving it a little flap.

The feel of air moving over my wings wasn't a surprise this time, but I did start to get little hints of things—direction, intensity, even the angle of Fluttershy's wing. When she began repeating the motion, and walking around, I started to get a better idea of how to read the wind.

Fluttershy's smiles were constant, at least when I started shutting up, and it seemed to add weight to the magic in her voice. "Why don't you try standing up?" She must have seen my worried look. "Slowly, and don't try doing anything with your wings."

Figuring I'd start with my forelegs, since there wouldn't be so far to fall that way, I carefully pulled one up, straightened it, and pushed down. The muscles in my right wing—the side that matched my extended leg—twitched and wanted to move, but I managed to keep my wing to only smaller jerks.

It wasn't a huge victory yet—I wasn't standing.

"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah." My voice sounded loud and booming compared to Fluttershy's. "Trying not to fall over and look like an ass."

"Oh. Um. Asses are nice people. If you looked like one, it wouldn't be bad at all, but then you wouldn't be a pegasus."

"Asses? What—?" My brain struggled to make the connection.

"A donkey. Though, we normally don't call them ass. What were you talking about?"

"I-I meant I don't want to look like an idiot by falling over. This is really hard." Bracing my other foreleg, I pushed it too, and both my wings dipped as a result. My wings started to wobble, and my knees too in sympathy, but then I felt more air blowing over my wings and it felt different enough to break the wobbles. When I lifted my head, I saw Fluttershy still flapping her wings at me.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"Rainbow Dash is smart when it comes to training ponies, but I've taught hundreds of chicks how to fly." Fluttershy's smile should have been alien and strange, but I liked seeing it so much I didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize it. "You could say I've had some practice. Try standing all the way up."

No one could tell her no. Not when she sounded so supportive. Gritting my teeth, I shifted to one side and pushed one back leg down, then the other. Standing wasn't complicated, but operating a six-limbed body when I was used to four was, and then there was my tail (though I left that alone for now).

"Now take a step, Saffron."

Anyone—anypony—else, and I'd have snarked. I couldn't snark at Fluttershy. Instead of letting my emotions turn negative, I took a step. My right wing moved along with my right leg, then both wobbled, but when Fluttershy flapped her wings my brain had the sensation difference between wing and leg to work with, and the shaking stopped.

"Excellent! Another!"

Her voice was so soft, but more encouraging than a million PE teachers. I lifted my left leg, and with another little gust of wind from Fluttershy's wings, my left wing remained still!

"There! You've got it!"

Despite everything Fluttershy was doing, and my progress, I couldn't help myself. "All I need is for someone to walk around flapping their wings at me for the rest of my life."

"Maybe for a few days it would help, but after that you need to start adapting to not having it." It seemed like Fluttershy was immune to my sarcasm—it was devastating. "Now left-rear leg. Then right-rear leg. See, that part's easy."

"That's because they are my legs. My wings feel like my hands, and my forelegs are just completely fu—" I cut short my tirade and looked down at the ground.

A yellow hoof reached under my chin and tilted my head up until I was looking at Fluttershy's face. "You can swear if you like, but only if there is nopony else around to hear it and it helps you feel better."

This was worse than not swearing. "I-I'll be alright. Language is different here, though, isn't it?"

"Most ponies would be mortified if a foal your size used that word. They wouldn't understand that you were already an adult where you come from. Besides, it's no worse than what birds say in spring."

Curiosity might kill cats, but damned if I didn't want to know now. "What do they say in spring?"

"I c-can't say. It's too much," Fluttershy said while shaking her head.

I had to know. It would eat away at me. "Please? It's only us here. No one else will hear." My words obviously failed to convince her. "And I promise to never tell anyone else."

"Pinkie Promise?" Fluttershy asked.

I'd heard of pinky swearing from my parents, but without fingers I had no clue what she meant. "What's pinky promise?"

"It's a promise you can never, ever break. You do a little thing like this. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Fluttershy wound up with her hoof shove toward her eye at the end.

"I don't get why you'd say 'hope to fly'. Don't you fly every day?"

"Pinkie is an earth pony, she doesn't fly." Now Fluttershy looked as confused as I felt.

I took another few steps, slowly trying to get the hang of walking with wings and not falling, while getting my head around the concept.

"Pinkie Pie is a pony. She's an earth pony, and doesn't fly much," Fluttershy said.

"But she still flies?"

"Sometimes using a hot-air balloon, or even other silly machines. I never really thought about it before, I guess. Maybe I should ask her what it means?"

As distractions went, the conversation had done a great job of sidetracking me from my question about birds. I needed to fix that. "So if I Pinkie promise that I won't tell anyone, you will tell me what birds say in spring?"

Fluttershy's snout screwed up and got scrunchy for a moment. If she'd said no right then and there I would have dropped it. "Yes."

I cleared my throat and stopped walking. "Cross my," an odd tingling started to spread through me, like pins-and-needles, "heart and hope to fly." The strange feeling seemed to intensify without growing painful. "Stick a cupcake in. My. Eye!" Somehow, those words just needed to be spoken more firmly. It was like magic. I wobbled a little from having to balance on one foreleg.

Waiting a few moments, Fluttershy stepped close and lifted her snout so that it tickled the edge of my ear. "Fuck me," she said in the softest whisper yet.

It took my (formerly) teenage mind a few seconds to realize what she was saying was not an invitation. "They really say f—" I covered my mouth with a hoof, and giggled.

"It's spring, and for birds that's all they talk about then. All they want to do, too. I even had an eagle proposition me once and—" Her words devolved into a giggle that was super-contagious.

We laughed together for so long I forgot what we were even supposed to be doing in favor of just feeling happy. It was so messed up and short-circuited my teenage brain, but there it is—I enjoy being happy now.

"Oh!" Even her surprised exclamations were soft. "It's time to make lunch for my little friends. Would you like to help, Saffron?"

Of course not, most adorable and innocent person I have ever met. I realized I'd have to ditch the innocent part. Apparently Fluttershy knew a lot more about what birds and bees got up to than anyone on Earth did. "Sure!"

Walking to Fluttershy's house still wasn't easy. I managed about one step in ten myself, but needed Fluttershy's little flaps to keep my brain separating my legs from my wings—and she wouldn't let me fold my wings and walk normally.

Having someone so focused on helping me was just really weird. I mean, teachers and stuff said they wanted to help, but when the bell rang you had to leave class and they weren't going to stop you just because your grades weren't all that.

If Fluttershy thought you needed help, she did what was needed to help you, it seemed. I was pretty sure Mom wasn't paying her, or any of the ponies, yet they just wanted to help. It was both bizarre and awesome.

I froze as what was apparently Fluttershy's house came into sight. There was a host of really annoyed looking creatures ranging from a freakin' bear all the way down to a rabbit, and everything in between. I wasn't concerned about the bear—I was pretty sure I could outrun it—but what surprised me was that every single animal had a little food bowl. "Th-They're your friends? They don't all look little…"

"Harry, you mean? He's the biggest softy. There's a spot behind his left ear that puts him right to sleep. Come on." Fluttershy trotted forward in the best display of absolute serenity I'd ever seen.

I tucked my wings down and sped up to catch Fluttershy. Among the animals was a sense of them completely ignoring me—like I wasn't even there—and it was obvious why. I watched Fluttershy trot inside her house and call them all in.

It should have been a stampede. These looked like wild animals, but each was extremely polite—I even watched a fox bow to the rabbit and let them go first.

"Now now everyone, no pushing." Despite Fluttershy's words, there was no pushing going on. It was an orderly line.

I slipped in behind the last little family of animals (some mice I'd missed seeing earlier because they were so tiny) and walked around the queue. "Is it always like this?"

"Oh no!" Fluttershy filled a bowl with nuts for a squirrel. "They're normally much better behaved."

I saw more squirrels in the queue, and located the bag that Fluttershy had pulled the nuts from. "Do you need some help? I could do the squirrels."

There was some excited chittering (from the squirrels) that almost drowned out Fluttershy's reply. "Would you? No more than three nuts for Howard, he's on a diet, but the rest can have five."

"Which one's Howard?" I asked and looked at the excited squirrels now milling around me.

Four squirrels pointed to a fifth, while that fifth one pointed at one of the others. Howard, it was easy to tell, had been living the high-life, and it had given him a pudgy belly.

Then it hit me what had just happened. Among all this crazy, cutesy world, these animals had just understood a question I'd asked and responded to it in human ways. Either I was nuts or Fluttershy had some kind of magic about her. It was probably both.

"I'm pretty sure that Howard's going to start eating my hooves if I don't get you all something to eat, so why don't we do this the way that gets everyone something right away?" Focusing on keeping my legs steady, I reached out a wing to grab the bag of nuts Fluttershy had used to feed the squirrel earlier. "Bowls down."

All five squirrels put their bowls on the floor, Howard was the first. I put the bag down and measured out five nuts, and starting with Howard's bowl, dropped one into each.

"I never thought of doing it like that," Fluttershy said.

"This way they are all happily eating while—" I cut short because Howard had somehow torn his nut apart and eaten it before the others had even decided where to start biting. "If you keep eating that fast, you're going to get really disappointed by the time I get to the fourth round of nuts."

"You're really good with them. Can you understand them too?"

I shook my head. "Not hard to figure out what they want if you just pay attention to—" I stopped at Fluttershy's giggles. "What?"

"Nopony ever does that."

"Well, they should. All these critters can understand what I'm saying, or at least they can understand my tone or somethin'." I put the fourth lot of nuts out, but not for Howard.

The saddest expression I'd ever seen hit me right in the eyeballs. Howard's eyes were huge, and he wrung his little paws in supplication. What worked against him was he had bits of nut still stuck between his big teeth, had an obvious nut in one cheek, and his belly was just a little bigger than when we started.

"No, Howard."

His expression dropped to mere disappointment, and he kicked an imaginary stone and snapped the finger-like digits of his paw in a sign of surrender.

With the five squirrels all fed, I put the nuts back beside Fluttershy. "What next?"

I helped Fluttershy with more animals—preparing bowls of salad for most of the herbivores, some eggs and berries for the fox, and two big fish for Harry.

"How are your wings?" Fluttershy asked.

The question seemed innocent to me, and I started off with, "They're fine, wh—" But then it hit me. I'd been working with my wings while standing, and I hadn't had a single moment of almost-falling. "That was really sneaky!"

"You were a big help. That normally takes much longer. I'm so sorry for them being so rowdy." Putting the bags away in a closet, Fluttershy looked particularly capable with using her wings. I watched as she curled her feathers in ways that shouldn't be possible given what they were, but it was equally apparent that I'd done similar things when I'd fed the animals. I'd just thought of those feathers as fingers.

"All it takes is just wanting to do it, right? Don't think, just move?"

"If you were an adult who'd lived your whole life as a pony. But you're not. You need to build muscle memories." Fluttershy moved from putting the food away and into her kitchen. "Why don't I give you a test?"

Despite being with the nicest teacher I'd ever met in my whole life, just the word was enough to set my teeth on edge. I walked to the kitchen door and looked in. "Test?"

"We'll have some tea."

In short order I was holding a tray with teacups, teapot, sugar jar, a little cup of lemon wedges, and a plate of cookies on it. I took slow, careful steps while carrying the tray with my wings. For all I was a little jealous of Dad having magic, wings seemed a million times more useful for little things.

"It's easier," I said. "But I think it helps giving them all something to do. My wings can feel the weight of the tray, while my legs are moving just like they have been. They're not the same limbs."

I put the tray on the coffee table in the living room, and we both sat down on the couch facing it. A silence started to build, the kind that destroys lives and crushes conversations whole.

"You can pour," Fluttershy said. It took about two minutes of my staring at the tea set before she asked, "Do you know how to pour tea?"

I felt dumb, but at the same time indignant. We'd fought a war so we didn't have to pour tea, or some shit. I shook my head as anger boiled higher.

"Well, first you ask the other person how they take their tea. I think you're a sugar and pinch of lemon type." As she spoke, Fluttershy lifted the teapot with her wing and tipped it until one of the cups was about three quarters full of the dark liquid. Next she added a squeeze of a lemon wedge and used the little metal tongs to lift two cubes into the cup. A little spoon went in and stirred it all. "Now it's your turn. I take mine with only one sugar cube."

"L-Lemon?"

"Yes please!" Fluttershy smiled as if I'd just asked her to marry me. She smiled like the sun was returning after a year of being gone. When the absolute hell did I get so much into poetry?

I mimicked her actions. First tipping some tea into her cup. I managed to stop before getting too much in. My wings worked just like arms, only my fingers (feathers) were longer than normal—none of that mattered to my brain, these were arms and they had fingers! Positioning the lemon between two fingers and squeezing earned me a lemon-scented wing. I tried again, then swapped wings.

So it turns out you can be right or left winged, and I was a southpaw (southflap? Southfeather?) as a pony just like a human. I got enough lemon in her cup and then carefully used the tongs to add a sugar cube. By the time I came to stirring I was really getting the hang of it.

"Left-winged. You should have said earlier," Fluttershy said.

"I didn't think it'd matter." I looked at the seemingly tiny teacup and reached my left (that is, the non-lemon wing) out and carefully lifted it to my lips. The first sip of the hot drink made me instantly addicted to the stuff. The bitter taste of lemon combined with a ton of sweetness and something else (probably the tea) that really agreed with me. I sipped a little more.

"Your wings—you said—are like your arms. So if you were left-handed before of course you are left-winged now." She lifted her own teacup and sniffed it. Again the sunshine of Fluttershy's smile broke over me, and I watched her take a sip. "Left or right, you make wonderful tea."

Her praise mattered, it felt good. It was nuts (and not the kind I'd fed to the squirrels), but I really liked making her happy. The tea, when I tasted more, was as good as the first time, and if it weren't for being so hot I'd have gulped it all down. "This is really good."

Fluttershy fluffed her wings in what I assumed was a little embarrassment at my compliment. I couldn't blame her, I was embarrassed at giving it. "I'm glad you like it. Why don't we do more practice tomorrow?"

"Sure!" I replied way too fast for it to be anything but actual enthusiasm. We finished the tea and talked about animals. Fluttershy, I found out, could talk forever about animals. After pouring another cup of tea each, we kept talking about them.

By the time I was walking out of Fluttershy's house, I felt like I'd had a biology lesson. The insanity was I remembered it all. Fluttershy's way to speaking—that rolled you into her enthusiasm—was way too effective.

"Tomorrow we'll talk about flying, Saffron." Her words had my full attention. Flying was just about the best thing I could look forward to in all this. "I'll see you then!"

I stretched my wings out and started walking back. "Okay. Bye, Fluttershy." I struggled not to row with my wings as I walked, but without Fluttershy's careful use of little flickers of air I got messed up working out which limb was which. I was a moment from snarling something angry and folding them when I remembered Fluttershy's encouragement.

Author's Note

Clair: Any thoughts/plans for meeting your counterpart from the other human world?

"I admit I am curious about them, but finding out their portal doesn't allow any goods to traverse has significantly decreased their priority. The other important thing to consider here is that if I make a bad impression with Equestria, there's no point cozying up to this other group." Clair let out a sigh, rifling through the paperwork just existing in Equestria created. "Then there's the most important reason I won't be specifically seeking out their companionship—that's not my job."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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