Chapter 8: Applebuck Season Part 1, Stampede!

Chapter 8: Applebuck Season Part 1, Stampede!

================================

=== A boring uneventful day later... ===

Morning rolls around for the residents of the Royal Oak Library. Twilight is reading books like it’s going out of style, Spike is cooking a delicious breakfast for 3, and Michael is exercising in his room. Spike finishes making his french toast with a sunny side up egg breakfast and calls the others to the table, “Breakfast is done, come and get it!” Twilight looks up from her book fort and smiles,

“Thanks, Spike, I was getting hungry,” She stands up and places all of her books back on the shelf correctly with magic, “You always make the best breakfast anypony could ask for,” Spike smiles and places the 3 meals on the table. After a few minutes, Michael doesn’t come down the stairs. “Huh, did he not hear you?” after a few seconds a door can be heard opening upstairs.

Michael quickly gets downstairs, “Sorry I’m late, I was in the middle of doing some pushups, couldn’t stop at a hundred and forty,” He walks over to the table and sits down, “Thanks for the food Spike,” Everypony digs in, after a few minutes the ground starts shaking, causing Twilight and Michael to get up and walk over to the window.

“Stampede!” they hear somepony shout outside, prompting them to run outside to do whatever they can to help as rushing music started to play. Most of the towns ponies are running around trying to get out of the way, Twilight goes to check on her friends and Michael Pulls out the [Ocarina of Time] and plays Epona’s song after the song ends Epona appears galloping toward Michael,

“Come on Epona, let’s see if we can help,” He hops on and they ride toward the stampede, as they get closer to the stampede he starts to hear a familiar voice.

“Yeehaw!” Applejack is riding a ranch horse at high speeds keeping up with a stampede of cows, “Come on Winona, let’s steer these steer away from Ponyville,” As she gets closer to the front, Winona keeps the left side from breaking up, Applejack tosses her lasso at the head cow and pulls to the right. “Come on now, turn!” She pulls with all her might and manages to make the stampede avoid running through Ponyville.

Michael rides up to her and Winona after they stop the cows, “That was some fine herding AJ, and yer dog ain’t half bad either,” Winona barks proudly as Applejack hops off her horse,

“Well, thank ya kindly Link, now,” She turns to one of the lead cows, “What was that all about?” The cow moos then clears its throat revealing that cows can speak perfectly, surprising Michael,

“Begging your pardon Applejack but, Mooriella here saw one of those nasty snakes,” The other cows all gasp at the word snake, “And it gave us all the willies doncha know,” Applejack nods,

“Ah completely understand, just next time, try and Steer clear of Ponyville,” The cow nods and they all start walking back where they came from,

“We certainly will, applejack, so long Winona!” Winona barks happily, and Applejack climbs back onto her horse, before she can ride back to the farm Michael stops her,

“What’s the rush, something wrong at the farm?” Michael asks, Applejack shakes her head,

“Nothing’s wrong I just gotta get back to the orchard, It’s applebuck season,” She explains, “This time of year there are tons of apples ready to be harvested, and with Big Mac hurt, I got a lot to do this year,” Michael nods.

“I understand and If you ever need help you can just ask me, I’ll help anytime, no questions asked,” She nods and rides off with Winona running behind leaving Michael and Epona to ride back into Ponyville. As he reenters Ponyville he spots the girls talking with the Mayor, “Hey girls, did I miss something?” He stops Epona near the girls and hops off. Pinkie Speaks up,

“We’re gonna throw a party for Applejack since she saved the town.” Pinkie smiles and hops in place as the Mayor speaks up next,

“Applejack did such a heroic deed, we have to thank her properly,” Everypony smiles and nods, “I have some important meetings to get to so we can discuss this later, Goodbye,” She turns and walks toward town hall leaving the group to their party planning.

“Just leave the party planning to me, I’ll only need your help setting the decorations up,” Pinkie pulls a pen and paper out of her hair and starts writing ideas down, “I’ll be at sugar cube corner if anypony needs me,” She hops away somehow still writing on the paper.

“Welp, knowing her this party is going to be amazing, I’m gonna head home Twilight, I have some training to catch up on,” Michael remounts Epona, “If you girls need me you know where I’ll be, and Fluttershy,” Fluttershy looks up at Michael nervously, “I’m gonna drop Epona off at your cottage okay?” Fluttershy nods but before Michael can leave she gets his attention by flying up to sit on Epona, Bridal style.

“I need to check on the animals back home anyway so I’ll come with, that is... If you don’t mind...” She blushes as she realizes what she just did but relax when Michael chuckles.

“I don’t mind one bit Fluttershy, I’ll have Epona go easy but still you might want to hold on,” He then rides off towards Fluttershy’s cottage,

==========================

=== A Short Horse ride later ===

As they ride across the small bridge over a stream Michael hops off Epona and a question pops into his mind, “Hey Fluttershy,” She floats off of Epona and pets her,

“Yes, Link?” They finish walking to the entrance to Fluttershy’s cottage while Epona canters to the back yard with the other animals.

“I was wondering, what kind of wolves do you know about?” The question makes Fluttershy tilt her head in confusion, “Sorry if my question is a little strange,” He rubs the back of his head nervously,

“Well, the only ‘wolves’ I know are Timberwolves, they live exclusively in the Everfree forest and are entirely made of wood, why?” Fluttershy opens the door to her cottage, and Angel, her pet bunny, hops out and takes a scrutinizing look at Michael, “Oh hello Angel,” Angel looks at Fluttershy and rubs his stomach, “Oh that’s right, it’s feeding time,” she turns to Michael, “Link, could you help me feed my animals, I mean if you don’t mind...” Michael smiles and nods.

“Sure, I’ll help you, I happen to like animals,” Fluttershy smiles and floats into her cottage, Michael starts heading to the door when Angel stops him, hops up to eye level, points 2 ‘Fingers’ at his eyes then Michael’s with a mean look on his face, and lands back on the ground, “You got it, Angel,” He nervously responds and the bunny begrudgingly allows Michael entry into the cottage and watches him like a hawk.

Inside Fluttershy’s Cottage there are a lot of animal hoes around the place, not too many, but enough to use up a fair size of the room in the house. Fluttershy walks out of the kitchen carrying multiple bags of animal food ranging from birdseed to catfood to small cheese slices for the Mice.

Fluttershy spots Michael and angel by the door, “Link, there’s a large fish in the fridge, can you grab some and head out back to feed Harry the bear?” She fills some bird feeders next to some hanging birdhouses. “I’ll grab the other carnivore animal’s meals and meet you out there,” She begins to pour the cat’s food into some bowls.

“On it, you can count on me,” Michael heads into the kitchen and opens the Fridge, in a drawer at the bottom of the fridge there’s a 15-pound Largemouth Bass, just the sight of it makes his mouth water, “Jesus, that bear is lucky, Might as well get this out to him.” He picks up the Fish and carries it outside and outback. “Now where the heck is that bear...” Michael doesn’t notice that Harry has snuck up behind him the second he smelled the fish.

Standing on his hind legs, Harry 8 Feet tall towers over Michael’s 5’11” Harry waits for the most opportune moment to strike. Michael stops looking around when he feels hot breath running down his neck, Frozen in fear Michael whispers to Tael,

“Tael, for the love of all that is holy, please tell me that the bear isn’t directly behind me...” Tael hidden from sight as she usually is looks behind them to see Harry standing ready to pounce, she panics and starts her healing spell immediately.

“You need to move carefully, cause you are in kill range, and he’s ready to pounce,” Michael’s eyes widen in fear, he gets ready for the impending killing blow. Michael starts to move into a frontal dodge roll but Harry is too fast and lands a swipe at Michael launching him away and making him drop the fish.

Michael Screams in pain as he lands, rolls, and hits his back on a tree far away from the bear, The hit from Harry dealt 2 full hearts of damage and the tree dealt half a heart, Michael holds his side in pain as he searches for any cuts, There’s surprisingly no blood or cuts just a big bruise. In the distance, Harry is peacefully chowing down on the fish with a big smile on his face.

“Master, You’re in critical condition, I’ll heal you as best I can but it will take a while,” Michael sits up and looks back toward Harry, still eating the fish, He grunts and shakily gets back on his feet using the tree as leverage.

“That was too close...” He coughs and clutches his side, “maybe it was a bad idea to just walk out in the open carrying a big fish with a bear nearby,” He starts walking back toward the cottage but due to the large amount of damage he’s taken Michael is slightly limping holding his side. Fluttershy walks into the backyard and spots Harry enjoying his meal, she then spots Michael limping back to the cottage and gasps,

“Link!” She flies over to his at Rainbow dash speed, “What happened, where are you hurt!” She starts checking him for injuries. He coughs and falls to one knee clutching his side again,

“Harry snuck up on me and sent me flying into a tree to take his meal from me,” Fluttershy helps him back up, “I’ll just write it up to him not knowing me and smelling the fish I was carrying,” Fluttershy Helps him over to a picnic table and sits him down, “He punched me real hard in the side, it hurts like hell, pardon my french,” Fluttershy lifts up his shirt to check for any cuts or bruises. Fluttershy is being unusually quiet after Michael explained what happened.

After Fluttershy assesses the damage, she stands up with an angry look on her face and marches over to Harry, who has finished his meal and is now picking his teeth with a claw, “Harry!” The bear jumps to his feet and stands full attention looking straight at her with fear in his eyes, “You are going to apologize to my friend for hurting him,” Harry hesitates then whines something unintelligible, “Good, now, march!” Harry slowly marches over to Michael, whines an apology then hugs him softly. Michael wraps his arms around the bear and hugs back.

“You’ve got some mad strength, Harry, good hit,” They break off the hug, and harry retreats into the woods feeling full from his meal. “Thanks, Fluttershy, how about we get back to feeding your animals,” He stands up feeling a little better thanks to Tael’s healing ability, Fluttershy walks back over to him.

“Are you sure, you just took a full-force attack from Harry, you should be resting,” Michael Chuckles the shakes his head,

“Tael has a healing ability and she’s been helping me deal with the pain, I already feel tons better,” Michael shows he’s feeling better by stretching, not showing any more signs of the injury Fluttershy smiles.

“Alright then, let’s go,” She walks off to where she dropped the other bags of various carnivorous foods with Michael following close behind.

End of Chapter!