Author's Note

An idea from before the CMC got their marks. Belle was going to be the bartender, Scootaloo would get a mark in distilling.

Hard Cider

Applebloom wrinkled her nose. Berry Punch’s winery smelt funny. She wouldn’t say it smelt bad, just strange. Then again she’d never been inside a winery before; she had no idea what one was supposed to smell like.

“Hello,” she called, looking around for Berry Punch. She knew the mare in passing but had never really spoken to her.

“Back here,” a voice answered from somewhere in the maze of wooden vats.

Closing the door behind her, Applebloom ventured into the building. It was about the same size as their barn, but with the feel of a kitchen. Barrels of all sizes filled the space. Hundreds of hogsheads were stacked along the wall, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Along the center of the room, a dozen wagon-sized barrels divided the space. It was beside one of these behemoths that Applebloom found her substitute teacher.

“Hey Applebloom,” Berry said, watching some little thing float in a beaker of purple liquid. “Just you?”

“Yea, Twilight found us separate tutors for while she’s gone.”

Berry nodded her head and sat the beaker down. Taking up a pen and notebook, she made a little note. “You’ve been studying alchemy, right?”

“Yep. But I don’t get what wine has to do with alchemy.”

“Plenty!” Berry smiled at Applebloom. Setting the notebook down, she motioned her to come closer. “See that,” she said pointing to the thing she had been holding earlier.

“Looks like a thermometer floating in grape juice.”

“You’re close. It’s called a hydrometer, and that’s wine; or at least fermented grape juice. I’m not quite ready to call it wine.”

Applebloom was actually familiar with a hydrometer. Twilight had taught her how to use one in the lab to measure density changes in potions. While Twilight’s hydrometer looked different, now that she knew what it was, Berry’s looked familiar enough. “Why do you need to know the wine’s density?”

Berry blinked at the question, surprised that the young mare knew what the instrument measured. “Well, I measure it before I add the yeast. As the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol, the density lowers. Taking measurements tells me how that process it going: how much sugar I started with, how much is left, and how strong the wine will be. Knowing those numbers is the only way I can recreate a batch of wine later.”

“Oh, that’s kinda cool.” Picking up the little notebook, she scanned the column of numbers. Again, she found it to be roughly familiar, but still strange.

Berry Punch spent the next few hours showing Applebloom the shop. She took great pride in explaining her craft to the young mare, showing her how she blended art and science into a prized drink.

“So, can you make wine out of something besides grapes?” Applebloom asked, looking over one of Berry’s recipe books.

“Sure! Most any fruit or berry can be fermented. Heck, great uncle Applejack was famous for his hard cider; which is really just apple wine.”

Applebloom’s head jerked up for the book in her hooves. “What! Really?”

Berry hummed and hawed for a moment. “Well... you can technically call hard cider and apple wine separate things. But really you kinda have to be a connoisseur to care about the difference.”

“No.” Applebloom shook her head. I was asking about you having an uncle named Applejack.”

“Oh.” Berry smiled. “You didn’t know? We’re cousins. My great grandfather and yours were brothers.”