Haybales walked along the dirt path pulling her wooden cart behind her. The rectangular lumps within which gave her her name were becoming increasingly heavy as the heat of the day wore on. "Why wasn't I born a unicorn?" she thought to herself, "Then i could just magic the feed to Ponyville." But alas, she was a pegasus, and a beautiful one as well, with her pink coat, which was perfectly groomed earlier but was now caked with dirt and dust, her blonde mane and tail, her large blue eyes and thick lashes, her pink wings, tucked at her sides as she pulled the cart behind her, and of course her cutie mark. The three alfalfa blossoms upon her flank. One blue, one purple and one pink, with green stems. As she walked along in the hot sun, she thought about her cutie mark. It had been quite a while since she earned it, almost 10 years! At age 8, just a young filly, she had brought in the farm's largest crop of alfalfa, ever! She stopped for a drink from the water pouch she carried, checked her map to make sure she was going the right way, and carried on.

She was slightly concerned about getting lost. She hadn't been in Ponyville in a while. Usually her brother, Deere, made deliveries, but Fluttershy distinctly asked for her this time. She wasn't going to argue, she'd wanted to go to Ponyville for quite some time. She needed to buy a few things, and kept her bits safely stored under a mound of straw to keep it safe. She trotted for about a half hour before coming to a sign proclaiming, "Welcome to Ponyville: Home of the Elements of Harmony and the Best Young Flyer Champion 2010". Seemed like a nice enough town. She walked in the direction the sign pointed and eventually wound up in the middle of the town. She looked at the clock on town hall. "12:38... Damnit!" She galloped to the cafe named 'the Tea Garden', un-hitched her cart and stepped inside. She was breathing heavily, and was very extremely dirty. a voice cried out, "OH DEAREST ME!" in a British accent, and a white coated purple maned unicorn fled the scene with a disapproving glance. She looked to the ground sheepishly, which is a good trick for a pony, and then looked up, scanning the room for a certain pink maned pegasi. "Fluttershy!" she called, upon seeing her meek cousin. "Haybales..." she heard, in what could only be described as intense excitement for Fluttershy. They embraced briefly before sitting down to cold tea and biscuits. Haybales dug into the biscuits hungrily, as she hadn't eaten since 6 am that morning. "I'm so sorry they're cold, cousin," whispered Fluttershy, "its just that you were, you know, late..." Haybales looked to her cousin and wiped the crumbs from her chin. "So sorry 'Shy, I came as quick as i could." " Oh, its ok, its no trouble, I'm sorry I doubted you Haybales." The pegasus smiled and tousled the younger's hair. "No Fluttershy, its my fault." They finished their meager lunch and left the cafe. After Fluttershy insisted on pulling the cart, seeing as how she'd already traveled across Equestria already, they were off.

Rarity stormed into the carousel boutique. She was completely disgusted by the way some ponies could act. Come into a civilized, sanitary place of business and germ it up with dust and dirt and sweat. The nerve. She trotted up the stairs to take a relaxing bath. Maybe that could help her forget about the dirty pegasus...

Haybales and Fluttershy rounded the last corner before the cottage, and started to unload the hay, straw oats and of course, alfalfa, the ranch's main export. fluttershy threw the bag of bits into Haybales's suitcase and put it in the house, before returning to the cart and making their way to Sweet Apple Acres, the site of the next delivery. Somepony named 'Applebloom' ordered some straw bales for "unconventional reasons", whatever that meant. They pulled up to the farm, and Fluttershy started going on about her friends, one of which lived here. Haybales went off in search of this Applebloom pony, or anypony at all really. She found an elderly green mare sitting in a rocking chair near the house, peeling apples. "Excuse me ma'am," the mare looked up, "but do you know of anyone named Applebloom who lives or works here?" The mare just pointed towards the barn, where a series of small explosions sounded. The pony walked towards the barn door, unsure of what would be found inside...

She opened the doors to find a group of fillies working on small engines, and a large red stallion instructing him. She walked towards the stallion, thinking he was the one the order had come for.
"Excuse me?" she questioned, and was met by half-closed eyes of the most sparkling green she had ever seen. she was suddenly at a loss for words. the sleepy eyes opened to fully awake and stared at her.
"Yup?", the stallion responded.
"Umm... Are you," she checked her list, "Applebloom?" The stallion chuckled. "Oh celestia what was i thinking!", she thought, "Applebloom is a FILLIE'S name!"
"Nope." answered the stallion. "I'm Big Mac.", he nodded towards a yellow filly underneath the only running engine. "She's Applebloom."

After commencing with the delivery of the straw bales, which turned out to be for archery practice, and hearing a cheer as she walked away, "Cutie Mark Crusaders, ARCHERS!!!", she thought about the stallion as she and Fluttershy walked to the farm house. Fluttershy's friend, Applejack, who happened to be Big Macintosh and Applebloom's sister, invited them to stay for dinner. Haybales was self-concious, but that all went out the window at the discovery that she wasn't the grubbiest pony at the table. The three fillies were covered in grease, dirt and motor oil.the only parts of them that were clean were their front hooves, their mouthes, and strangly their flanks. She dug into the delicious dinner of apple soup, apple bread and for dessert, apple crisp, all washed down with, you guessed it, grape juice. "Wait, what?", asked Haybales increduously. Big Mac chuckled. "One gets tired of apples after eating nothing but apples for their entire lives." he explained quietly. Fluttershy's friend, the orange mare, looked at him in something between shock and wonder. "Mac, you never speak in full sentences! Whatsa matter with ya?", she asked, somewhat rudely. Mac looked annoyed. "Well sister, sometimes one wishes to use proper grammar when in the company of a beautiful mare." He looked to Haybales, who blushed, which is difficult to do when you're pink to begin with. They laughed together and ate of the apple meal, and drank grape juice.

Rarity left the house after a few hours of dressing up and primping herself. Although she was a pony of high society, she did have responsibilities, such as picking up her sister from Applejack's place. She certainly wasn't looking forward to the half-mile walk, but it was a sacrifice she would have to make. Oh well. She set out, and immediately started thinking about all the stallions who could substitute for a wealthy prince, provided that Prince Blueblood remained spoken for by some stallion in Canterlot. She complained out loud. " What stallion would want another stallion, when he could have the lovely Rarity Belle?", and immediately crashed into a sweaty, smelly, dirty ball of wings and pink and yellow fur. "EEEEEEEK!!!!" she shrieked, right into the things delicate ears. "OOOOOOOOOW!!!" the thing exclaimed. A silent yell came from Fluttershy, who thought some sort of monster was attacking her beloved cousin. Rarity untangled herself from the pony and greeted fluttershy. She was dimly aware that this was the same pony who had burst into the cafe that afternoon. With a haughty sniff, she bid Fluttershy farewell, and continued on her way, not questioning the smell of apples and grapes on them.

Author's Note

My first fan-fic. Don't laugh! Featuring my OC and some other ponies. This story will also feature some mares acting seriously bitchy. Who would've thought ponies could be bitches?