Give A Tasty Prompt, Buy Some Apples
Applejack settled down under the shade of an apple tree, a stalk of wheat in her teeth. It had been a long day of chores and bucking apples, but now she could take a rest and watch the clouds drift by in the afternoon sky.
Just as she was shutting her eyes, fixing to have herself a nap, an odor most strange wafted past her muzzle. She took a few cautious sniffs, smelling a mixture of sweetness, unmistakable apple tang, and the faintest hints of soot.
Wait. Soot?
Applejack’s eyes shot open and she jumped to her hooves, wheat discarded. A faint trail of smoke wafted out across the fields, trailing from an open window in what Applejack realized was the kitchen. Holding onto her hat with one hoof, she raced into the house.
She all but kicked down the door and was nearly floored by the overpowering odor she had smelled from outside. Apparently that wasn’t even a fraction of the strength it had at its source.
Her little sister was seated in front of the oven, watching through the glass as something cooked inside, a bandana around her muzzle to block out the smell. All around her were various cooking utensils, numerous vials and bottles containing liquids of all colors, and an overwhelming presence of flour – both in bags and scattered about haphazardly. There were also numerous scorched items that appeared, at surface value, to have been bread at some point.
“Apple Bloom!” Applejack barked, immediately coughing. She reached over to the counter, grabbed a kitchen towel, and held it over her mouth and nose. “What in tarnation are you cookin’ in here?”
“Oh, hey Applejack,” Apple Bloom said casually, glancing at her with what appeared to be a beaming smile underneath her bandana. “I’m just fixin’ some bread.” She returned to watching the oven, squinting as if to focus on it.
“’Fixin’ some bread?’” Applejack repeated. She nudged one of the bottles with her hoof and it bubbled like agitated soda. She shied a step away from it. “Why, pray tell, are you makin’ bread?”
“Well, Zecora told me I should start practicin’ on my own. One of her suggestions was baking, ya know, since you need specific ingredients and specific cooking times and stuff like that. Then I got to thinkin’: why not bread? Why not fruity bread?”
“Shouldn’t you be hangin’ out with your friends?”
“Well, Scootaloo is hanging out with Rainbow Dash, again. And Sweetie Belle is over at Sugarcube Corner, taking robotics lessons from Pinkie Pie. I think Twilight’s with them too. So until they’re done, I’m just killing time doing my own thing.”
“Huh?” Applejack shook her head, not wanting to get distracted. “Apple Bloom, our family makes every kind of apple pastry there is using every kind of apple there is.”
“Yeah, but we don’t make bread. Have you ever seen anyone at the family reunion bring apple bread? Or any kind of bread, for that matter?” Apple Bloom pointed a hoof at her while keeping an eye on the oven.
Applejack tapped her chin in thought. “Well, aside from pastries… no, can’t say that I have. We got a relative named Apple Bread, but other than him, the only kind of fruity bread I’ve heard of is banana bread.”
“Exactly! I’m trying to make some fruity bread. So far, nothing has really worked. I stayed away from banana and pumpkin,” Apple Bloom explained. Just then, the oven dinged and she picked up an oven mitt with her mouth.
“So… what sort of fruity bread have you been tryin’ to make?” Applejack asked, looking between the burnt failures.
Apple Bloom dragged the latest bread out of the oven and set it on a metal rack on the counter to cool off. Spitting out the oven mitt, she switched on an electric fan on the counter, pointed towards the bread.
“Well, let’s see here,” Apple Bloom pondered. “I tried… cherry, peach, pear, orange, coconut, mango, lemon…”
“And what’s that ya got coolin’ off now?” Applejack asked, pointing to it. She’d question where she got all those fruits later.
“Well, after so many failed attempts, I decided to go with apple, with a dash of cinnamon,” Apple Bloom said. After waiting a few more minutes, she switched off the fan, leaned up, and took a bite off the top of the bread.
Applejack watched as she stiffened up, and fell on her back with a glazed expression in her eyes and an amazed look on her face. “You alright, sugarcube?” she asked frantically, rushing to her side.
“You need to try it,” Apple Bloom droned, still seemingly dazed.
“What? After what it just did to you?”
“Seriously. Applejack. Try it.”
“Well… if you say so,” Applejack said hesitantly. She kept a wary eye on Apple Bloom as she craned over and took a bite right next to where Apple Bloom had. She chewed on it warily, before a warmth flooded through her.
There was that cozy feeling of being home in bed, warmth of the blankets included, the overwhelming jot of having accomplished something amazing or done someone proud, the contentment after a hard day’s work… all rolled into apple bread with a dash of cinnamon.
Applejack wound up on her back right next to her sister, her expression mirroring Apple Bloom’s.
“Applejack?”
“Yeah?”
“You feelin’ what I’m feelin’?”
“Eyep.”
“I think this is the first success I’ve had with these breads.”
“Sugarcube, I don’t think success is a strong enough word.”
Big Mac stampeded into the kitchen. Apparently he had smelled the same scent that had drawn Applejack in, but had only just now caught it. His worry only deepened when he saw his younger sisters sprawled out in a daze.
“Applejack! Apple Bloom! Are ya alright?” he asked worriedly.
“Big Mac! You gotta try this bread Apple Bloom made!” Applejack exclaimed, pointing to the loaf with her hoof.
Big Mac wrinkled his muzzle. “Bread?”
“I was tryin’ out different kinds of fruity bread, and I think I got me a winner,” Apple Bloom briefly explained.
“Winner is stronger, but it still ain’t quite there,” Applejack pointed out, glancing back up at Big Mac. “Go ahead and try it Big Mac. It’s something else, I tell you what.”
With a grimace of hesitation, Big Mac stepped around Applejack and took a bite out of the loaf next to hers. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment before he stiffened, as if struck in the head by a hammer.
The entire floor–and all the contents scattered around on it–shook as Big Mac fell over on his back, a look of stupefied amazement on his face. His younger sisters both looked to him, grinning.
“That sure is something,” he said with wonder.
“Just you wait for that Apple Family Reunion,” Apple Bloom said with a proud smirk. “I bet you one of them’ll have something to say about my apple bread with a dash of cinnamon.”
“Might have to lay down some pillows and mattresses first,” Applejack remarked with a chuckle.
Author's Note
Date of Creation (D.o.C.): 02/22/20
Can I be completely transparent here? At the time of writing this, I didn't know apple bread was actually a thing. In my defense, it was late and I was thinking of something silly for my story. Then everyone started commenting about baking and apple bread. So not as random as "Potato Dog," but I thought it was.
I personally love pumpkin bread myself.
There was an Animal Crossing reference in there, but I cut some of it: the fruit list Apple Bloom listed off is the current list of foods--sans apples, bananas, durians, lychees, persimmons, and bamboo shoots not on the list--that you can grow as of Animal Crossing New Leaf.
The song I listened to for this one, after much struggling, was "Forest of Hope," the 8-bit cover by Bulby. Don't know why, but it just seemed to work.
-yours truly,
The Legendary Bill Cipher
