Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck.
With the amount of bucking Applebee was doing, you'd think she was turning into a chicken. Her big sister Applejack was having her work in the orchard all day, and the filly was growing tired of it. She had filled hundreds of buckets full of Sweet Apple Acres' finest produce, but she still had nearly a third of the plain left. She sighed heavily and moved on to the next tree, deep in thought as she did so. Applebee was thinking about how much fun her friend Lightning must be having in Cloudsdale. The city, from what she'd seen, was incredibly beautiful and full of fabulous pegasus ponies who all seemed to be having a truly dandy time. Of course, Applebee would never see the real city for herself, as she wasn't a pegasus, but she could dream.
Applebee could see her brother Big McIntosh trundling along the low valley of the Apple family's farm, inspecting the work of the dozens of ponies around the site. She admired her big brother, he never said much, but what he did was usually admirable. That was the problem with Applebee, she was very headstrong. She knew what she wanted and always went searching for it, whatever the consequences.
Applebee kicked her hind legs at the final tree, the apples shuddered in fright from her fierce jab and then fell into the buckets she had left underneath the huge tree, dropping in perfect formation. She was tired now, but had a few more errands to run in Ponyville, so she finished up her work and headed out.
As she neared the town, she saw a delightfully pink figure, who she assumed to be the bizzare Pinkie Pie, bouncing along the main square chanting some kind of song to herself as she did so. Applebee realised that nopony was looking at the dancing magenta pony, but then, everypony must be used to the crazy antics of Pinkie Pie by now. Applebee plodded softly over to the market, grabbed the things she needed and began heading back towards her home on the outskirts of Ponyville. She turned around and noticed her sister Apple Bloom skipping towards her, grinning.
"Hey Bee!" Apple Bloom said, skidding to a halt in front of the stationary cyan pony.
"Hey Bloom, what's up? How was school today?" she replied, eyeing the bag of books hung around her little sisters flank before returning the grin.
"Nothing much and school was, uh, boring, as always. Nothing unusual happened, no sir, completely normal. Anyway, uhm, uhm... did you see Pinkie Pie just now? She was singing some strange song at the Everfree Forest and mystical creatures. I think she might have lost it." Apple Bloom retorted, her grin switching to a look of confusion.
"I think Pinkie lost it a long time ago, Bloom." The elder pony said calmly, her brain still trying to process the school deflection.
"True...well, bye Bee, see you at home!" Apple Bloom said, before continuing her skipping procession down the long road back to Sweet Apple Acres.
Mystical creatures and the Everfree Forest seemed to be two things that went hand in hand in Equestria, you could never have a conversation about one before it turned into the other. But what was the school thing about? Apple Bloom loved school but today she said it was boring, which Applebee had never heard her say before, something had gone on during the day, but she needed to figure out what.
Applebee entered her home and was greeted by the smell of apple pie, apple fritters and every other apple treat you could think of. It appeared Granny Smith was hard at work preparing for the next big market that always attracted hundreds of potential customers from around Equestria. It was also the time when the annual Bucking Trials were held in Sweet Apple Acres, where the pony who could buck the most apples in ten minutes won a special secret prize. Unfortunately, Applebee wasn't allowed to enter, but she knew someone who was.