Before I begin, I would like to say that this story is highly inspired by Graveman's 'The Ballad of Twilight', and will contain similar elements (such as the fact that they drink and the Applejack x Rainbow Dash shipping.) No plagiarism though, I just wanted to say that I find Graveman's writing amazingly inspirational.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all of the 'mane cast' are © to Hasbro.
Chapter One: Pest Control
It was a few weeks after the annual Summer Sun Celebration, which had gone pleasantly well this year after the disaster of last year's interruption by Luna. Luckily, there were no more powerful ponies trying to take over the land, so all the ponies in Equestria had been given the pleasure of relaxing afterwards. Though of course, not all ponies enjoyed using their free time to relax…
"Where where where is it…?" Inside the tree library of Ponyville, the lavender unicorn was racing around frantically among the shelves, tilting her head in all directions, horn aglow with magic. Twilight Sparkle was searching for a book that would help her fix a problem that had befallen her friend Applejack. Earlier that week, Applejack had approached Twilight at Sugar Cube Corner with a request, which was unusual for the mare. She generally preferred to take care of her own problems.
"We've been havin' a pest problem with the apple trees down on the farm, and Ah can't for the life of me figure out how to get rid of them pesky critters. Little bugs eatin' the apples before they ripen. So Ah was wonderin' if you could check your books for any information on apple bugs?" Of course Twilight had agreed, and had spent the last few days looking.
"Ugh. Spike, have you found anything yet?" Twilight called out to the young dragon, shaking her head with annoyance at the multitude of books that floated around her head. She knew that there would be something here that could help, it was just a matter of finding it.
"Nope. Y'know Twilight, maybe you should slow down a bit. I'm sure it's not so urgent that you can't take a break from looking?"
"Well considering that those apples are their livelihood, I'd say it's pretty important."
"Yeah I guess so." Spike agreed, picking up a shiny red apple from the table next to him and spinning it on his claw. They'd been searching through all the shelves trying to find something that would tell them how to get rid of crop pests, though nothing so far had yielded any result. Then came a yell of triumph, and the dragon chucked the apple in his mouth and dashed around the corner, narrowly avoiding knocking the table over. He found Twilight standing, a glowing book hovering in front of her while she turned the pages. It was labelled 'The Farmer's Guide to Protecting Crops'.
"Hah. This looks like it has what Applejack needs. Brilliant, let's go give her the book, Spike." The mare headed for the stairs, leaving Spike to run after her and jump up on her back. Together, they headed out the door and started down the road towards the Apple Family farm.
Out to the South-West of Ponyville, amongst the trees of Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack could be found hurrying between the trees, collecting the ones that were ripe before they could be contaminated by the spreading pests.
"Gosh darn it, why'd this have't happen so close to Applebuck season?" She panted, turning and kicking what felt like her thousandth tree for that day. The Acres were many times the size of Ponyville itself, and while Big Macintosh was somewhere out there helping, it still felt a very lonely and difficult task. Not that she was about to complain, Applejack had earned the title of being the most resilient of her friends, and she wasn't about to let a few bugs change that. Crouching, she crawled under the pole that connected the filled baskets and picked them up over her back, setting off at a steady speed towards the cellar by the farm. If they could store enough of them in there, then hopefully they'd at least be able to earn enough bits till next season.
"Ah sure as sugar hope that Twilight managed to find someth'n for me…"
As the pony opened the cellar and trotted down the steps, the corner of her eye caught a rainbow in the distance. Rainbow Dash racing again, no doubt, while here Applejack was working. Not really any different than usual though, the cyan pegasus never seemed to do much other than kick clouds about and race. Applejack shrugged and emptied the apples out of the baskets, turning and heading back up the steps. It was then that she saw the direction of the rainbow had changed and was heading her way. The orange mare stopped for a moment, watching till she could see her rainbow-maned friend angling towards her. The rainbow stopped abruptly however as it vanished into the trees, and Applejack began galloping in that direction.
"Now what is she doin'? Better not be sleepin' in my trees again." The area was in an unharvested section of trees, so she could pick the apples while she was there.
"Rainbow! Where're ya hidin'?" The earth pony called out to her friend, keeping eyes peeled on the trees around her. It would be just like the pegasus to be hiding in one of them, waiting to jump out and try and frighten Applejack.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't till Applejack had gone a fair way into the trees that she spotted Rainbow Dash, up on her hind hooves with her head against the tree.
"What in tarnation... Rainbow, what're ya doin' out here?" Applejack asked loudly, trotting up to the pony.
"Ow! Hey not so loud, I got this headache that's driving me… ugh." Rainbow Dash replied, then proceeded to smack her head against the tree in annoyance, causing Applejack to wince.
"Well shoot, that ain't gonna help! And it ain't too good for the tree either. C'mon, Ah've got a special mix of apple juice that cures headaches. How did ya get it anyway?"
"Uh.. I'm not sure." Rainbow replied with a shrug, backing up and falling away from the tree. She turned to follow Applejack who was heading for the farmhouse again. "Lack of water or something..."
"Have you been drinkin' again?" The orange mare asked suddenly, looking at Rainbow with one raised eyebrow. She kept walking though, avoiding the trees that she knew were in her path.
"No! Well maybe. A bit. That's it though." Rainbow Dash replied with a huff, stripy tail flicking. "What's it to ya?"
"Well ya know that makes your head hurt. Just go a bit easier on the drink, that's all."
"Ahh whadda you know? You never drink with us! You should totally join in some time."
"Now Rainbow, you know Ah got a lot of work to do around here. Ah can't risk bein' hung over."
Rainbow Dash snorted, shrugging, and began climbing the hill that the Farmhouse rested on. "Oh come on. Just once? Pinkie's gonna throw a party for the five of us tomorrow night, you gotta come then, and you can have some with us. Ouch, my head..."
Applejack rolled her green eyes, but thought about this while they climbed. She kept silent till they'd reached the door, and she opened it for Rainbow. "Huh. We'll see. No promises though, y'hear?" She said, trotting in after her friend and shutting the door.
Moments later, Applejack heard a hoof on the door, and she left Rainbow at the table with a glass of the juice she had promised. It was one of Granny Smith's recipes for curing headaches, and it was a really good one too.
I'll bet Twilight doesn't have that in any of her books. She thought smugly, and reached out to open the door with her teeth. To her surprise, there stood Twilight.
"Ohey sugar cube, hey Spike. What d'ya need?"
"I found what you asked for, a way to get rid of those bugs!" Twilight said excitedly, and the glowing book floated forward into one of Applejack's apple baskets.
"Gee, thanks hon. Ah'll get right on reading this. Yer a star."
"No problem. Oh by the way, will you be joining us tomorrow at Pinkie Pie's place?" The lavender unicorn asked brightly as she turned to leave. From behind Applejack, Rainbow's snorting laugh could be heard, followed by an 'ow'.
"For the love of… Oh all right. Ah guess if everypony is gonna ask me that, Ah might as well." Applejack said with a resigned sigh, but smiling all the same.
"Excellent, I'll let Pinkie know on my way home." Twilight beamed. "See you then!" And she turned and cantered off, Spike bouncing on her back.
"Applejack didn't seem too excited about the party." Spike said observantly to Twilight as they made their way home. The little dragon wasn't alone in having noticed her less than enthusiastic approach though.
"Yeah I saw… Wonder why. Well she'll enjoy herself. I always said that pony works too hard, she needs to let go sometimes."
"She's not the only one." Spike muttered, thinking back to his earlier words to Twilight.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."