Mystery's Mark

"I don't know Twilight," an orange pony with a cowboy hat on her head said to the purple unicorn. Together, the two of them stood nearby watching Mystery eye one of Sweet Apple Farm's apple trees curiously. "You darn know well what he did to our friends- and to us! Why are you trying to help him out?"

"Celestia is telling me to forgive and forget," Twilight explained to Applejack. "I don't get why either. If the princess can do it though, then I can try too." Twilight still found it difficult to think of Mystery as any sort of friend. "I mean…he hasn't tried to harm any pony." though she spoke as if she were trying to comfort herself more than Applejack.

"If you say so Twilight," Applejack said with a sigh. "You already told me what he did with Pinkie and Rarity. It sounds like he at least has the best intentions so I'm willing to give it a try. One screw up though and I'll hog tie him up faster than you can say 'Equestria.'"

Twilight nodded with a frown on her face. "Okay. I have to write up a report to the princess about what we've been doing so far, but I'll be back shortly." Twilight turned and left the farm and let Applejack and Mystery together.

Applejack approached Mystery, who was looking at an apple in his hoof. "Alright Mystery, you're working under MY hoof now!" Applejack suddenly called out from behind the pony.

Mystery jumped in fright. The apple fell from his hoof and he spun to face Applejack with his front lowered, and his eyes in a leer before he realized it was only Applejack. "Right." he regained his composure just as quickly as he had lost it. “What am I doing here? Cleaning out the stables?" he asked, mockingly.

"If you WANT to clean out the cow stables then you can. I'm sure Big Mac won't mind having the extra help." Applejack suddenly shot back teasingly.

Mystery was astounded someone was able to make a comeback right at him for once. "I'll pass. What did you have in mind for me instead of stable work?"

"Well, you look like a strong pony." Applejack walked over to a different tree across from Mystery. "One main thing we do here is collect apples. You just give a tree a good kick." She demonstrated by raising her rear legs up in the air horizontally. She moved them back and suddenly rushed her hooves forward and slammed into the tree. The tree shook for a moment before suddenly every single apple on top plummeted to the waiting baskets on the ground. "And down come the apples. Think you can do it?" She looked down at her work before back up at Mystery with a smile on her face.

"Looks easier than baking and tailoring," Mystery commented as he watched the earth pony. He did indeed think it was easy, though he couldn't keep underestimating the jobs he was being given. "So just a good kick…" The pony raised his rear legs and kicked the nearby tree with all of his might.

The tree shook slightly before suddenly all of the leaves on it came crashing down on top of Mystery. Not a single apple dropped from its branches- merely every single one of its leaves, covering Mystery completely in the greenery.
He raised his head above the leaves with a glare on his face. The only thing that left his mouth when he opened it was a pile of leaves.

Applejack watched with her eyes wide, unable to help but break a smile after seeing Mystery's very serious tone with the tree. "Try it again, kick it differently this time," Applejack instructed Mystery. "And take it easier too! It's not a terrible thing if this isn't your calling after all."

"Pardon me for thinking that kicking a tree wouldn't make me look like a bush." Mystery shook his body rapidly which sent the leaves flying in a variety of directions. Then he looked at the same tree he kicked, now clear of any signs of green on it. "At least leaves won't fall off of it this time." He grumbled and kicked the tree with his hind legs again. This time, the tree simply shook, not dropping even a single apple.

"Kick it harder," Applejack shouted. "Don't be afraid to really put your muscle behind it!"

Mystery didn't acknowledge her comment. The next kick though was, indeed harder. Not enough to bring any apples down though.

"Faster!" Applejack shouted.

With another swift, hard kick from Mystery, still the apples stuck on the trees firmly. It was as if they were glued onto the branches they stuck on.

"Stronger!"

Stronger? How the hay…I guess I could try THAT spell. Mystery thought to himself. His horn glowed briefly as his rear legs suddenly beefed up in muscle mass; growing to at least one and a half times their normal size and filled with nothing but muscle. He raised his muscle-bound legs and kicked the tree as hard, and as fast, as he possibly could. It looked like nothing had happened even after doing that!
Mystery's legs returned to normal right after the kick. He sighed as he walked beside Applejack. "Did it as best as I-" he paused as both ponies felt the ground begin to tremble.

The tree Mystery kicked didn't lose its apples, instead the entire tree itself separated from the ground and tilted to the side, taking its roots with it. The tree then fell completely over onto another tree to cause a chain reaction just like dominoes of tree after tree knocking each other down. Applejack's and Mystery's eyes both watched in unison as, one by one, the trees on the farm fell. The trees tilted left or right seemingly on their own to cause the closest one to fall, even going behind the two ponies to obliterate the trees!
By the time the trees had finally stopped falling, at least half of the trees on Sweet Apple's Farm had fallen over right to the ground with their roots pulled up with them.

Applejack just stared blankly afterwards. Her eyes were huge and her mouth was dropped agape. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. This…pony had single hoofedly destroyed half of the farm!

Mystery though, looked uncaring. He walked over to the nearest tree and plucked the apple by the top and put it on one of his front hooves, walking back to Applejack with the apple in hoof. "Got the apples down," He said casually.

Applejack's pupils were the only things that moved to see the apple Mystery had plucked. She stared at it momentarily before clenching her teeth and shifting her pupils to Mystery. Her face turned beet red and steam literally came out of her ears.

"I'm telling you Twilight, that guy can't be good for Ponyville!" Spike spoke up to Twilight as he rode on her back. "If he did something so terrible it would make Rarity move out; then, I don't want him living here!"

Twilight was on her way back to Applejack to see what was going on. "Rarity was overreacting, Spike." Twilight paused. "Well…" she started walking again. "For the most part. The problem is taken care of though and she's staying here. Besides, it's not like Mystery TRIED to make such a terrible thing."

"The way you described it though with so many legs…" Spike looked where Twilight was traveling. His eyes squinted. "Isn't that him?" he asked with a point of his claw.

Sure enough, Mystery was running right to Twilight. Not only did he run to her, he ran PAST her. As he was running, multiple apples were being thrown in his direction and aiming right for the gray pony, zooming past Twilight fast enough to cause her mane to blow in the direction the apple traveled.

"Dangknabbit you bucktoothed fish faced coward! When I get a hold of you, I'm going to stuff an apple in you where the sun don't shine!" an angry voice cried out from beyond the hill. Applejack suddenly appeared with a basket full of apples in one hoof. Her eyes were focused on Mystery as she reached in the basket with another hoof and tossed more apples aimed right at him.

"Applejack!" Twilight ran over to her and placed her hooves on top of Applejack's own to stop her from tossing apples. "What happened?!"

"That darn skin-livered son of an upside down bunny destroyed half our crop!" It was difficult to understand what most of what the orange pony was even saying, but at least it made enough sense for Twilight.

"He WHAT?" Twilight shot a glance at the gray pony that was nearly out of sight by now. "How did he do THAT?"

"Some confounded magic I suppose," Applejack said with a huff. "Twilight, I don't know nothing about magic, but I know that you can't grow trees in a day! Especially how many he ended up knocking down! He needs to come back and help out!"

Twilight nodded. "I can talk to him about it. I must know though, do you think he really did this on purpose?" Twilight recalled Pinkie's shop and Rarity's situation. Both of them were bad in a sense, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with time.

"I…" Applejack sighed and looked down at her rear hooves. "Don't think so. I told him to kick it harder and he knocked one tree down and it started this whole darn chain. I suppose I overreacted a mite…" she paused. "He's STILL going to help me though if he likes it or not!"

The purple pony nodded again. "I'd stick around to help you AJ, but I should find him before he causes more trouble somehow." She did feel bad for her, but she had someone to help out. "Spike, help her out please," She said, dashing off after Mystery before Spike could even say a word.

"Hey! I don't get a say in this?" Spike shouted as he turned to see Twilight already leaving. With a frustrated sigh, he turned to Applejack. "Alright, where do I start?"