My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Family Appreciation Day
A/N: I'm back, MLP fans, and I had hoped to get some writing done during the weekend, but due to Thanksgiving, work at the movie theater, and celebrating one of my nephew's birthdays, I didn't have a lot of free time. So, if you were hoping for another Season 2 deleted scene, I'm bouncing that ball to Roleplayer48 since my brain is still a bit fried from the hectic weekend.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from My Little Pony: Magic is Friendship. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER FOUR: GRANNY SMITH'S STORY
Disappointed that their plan had failed, the Cutie Mark Crusaders watched as Granny Smith and Sunrise Blossom painted pink polkadots on the walls of the kitchen.
"I can't believe she woke up from her nap," Apple Bloom complained, her voice was muffled since she had her face buried in the rug. "She never wakes up from her nap! I wish I could just run off and hide!"
"Well, you can't run off…" Sweetie Belle said thoughtfully, "but maybe somepony else can!"
When Monday morning came around, the wind started blowing once again and the clouds returned, lightning cracking across the sky and the magical electricity was crackling across the trees. A rainbow appeared in the sky and then shot down, merging with one of the zap apples. It became colorful and then a rainbow beam shot out, hitting the other apples, and they all became colorful and apple-shaped.
"Yee-haw!" Granny Smith cheered, jumping into the air.
"The zap apple harvest has begun!" Applejack declared happily, Sunrise Blossom agreed, and they both winced when the old pony landed with a loud thud.
Granny Smith picked herself up and dusted herself off. "And tomorrow we will be makin' up some zap apple jam!" she announced and turned to go back to the house, almost running into Scootaloo.
"Miss Granny Smith?" the orange pegasus asked in a deep voice while wearing a blue uniform and holding a piece of paper. "Telegram."
Granny Smith took the paper and Scootaloo zoomed off as she read it to herself. "Well, bust my buttons," she remarked. "Uncle Apple Strudel wants me to pay him a visit."
"And you can just make the 8AM train," Apple Bloom said quickly, planting blue saddlebags on her grandmother's back. "I already packed you a bag!"
"Well, that was considerate," the old pony remarked. "But don't you worry, flibbertigibbet! I'll be back in time to make that jam!" she promised and headed off.
Apple Bloom joined her friends in the barn and she sighed with relief. "That train ride takes all day. I'm safe. Hah."
"Safe from what?" Sunrise Blossom asked, startling the three fillies. "You girls mind telling me why you've been trying to stop Granny Smith from going to Family Appreciation Day?" she asked and sighed when they gave her innocent looks. "Look, I've noticed your attempts to pick the zap apples before they were ripe and trying to pretend to be Granny Smith when Cheerilee was here yesterday. So, fess up."
"Um, well," said Apple Bloom and pointed at something behind the orange unicorn. "What's that?!"
Sunrise Blossom looked behind her, but when she couldn't see anything, she turned back and sighed when she realized that she'd fallen for a familiar trick since the three fillies had disappeared. "Great, just great."
Later at the school, the class was in session and Cheerilee spoke to her students. "For today's Family Appreciation Day, we are pleased to welcome Granny Smith," she announced and looked to the doorway, but when the old pony didn't disappeared, she frowned. "Um… Apple Bloom? Is Granny Smith here?" she asked, looking at the orange filly.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Cheerilee," Apple Bloom apologized, "but she got called out of town on account of a family emergency-"
"Well, howdy, my little ponies!" said Granny Smith, entering the classroom and stopped next to the teacher's desk. "Howdy, y'all! I'm as happy as a pig in a fresh mudpile to be here!"
Alarmed, Apple Bloom ran up to her grandmother. "Whuh- what are you doing here?" she asked in a low voice. "Did you miss the train?"
"Er, no, it came," Granny Smith replied and smiled as another old pony, a male, entered behind her. "And Uncle Apple Strudel was on it."
Apple Strudel smiled and noogied his niece on her head. "Ooooooh, noogie-noogie-noggie!"
Diamond Tiara snickered as the orange filly returned to her seat. "I can't wait to hear Granny Smith's presentation," she whispered to Silver Spoon, who was also snickering. "If she can remember any of it." And they both giggled.
Granny Smith sat down on a chair provided by Apple Strudel and presented them with an old map of Equestria. "Long ago, when I was a little pony, things were very different here in Ponyville, 'cause there was no Ponyville!" she began.
`"That's right, my little ponies. Me and my family were pilgrim pony folk, back when I was a little filly. Oh, we ventured far and wide, collecting new seeds and sellin' the old. But my pa was the finest seed collector in all of Equestria."`
A young Granny Smith and her family traveled throughout the land with their covered wagon, and as they traveled, they collected all kinds of seeds from the various plants they came across.
`"Then, one day, the Smith family found themselves in the most brilliant, most grand, most magnificent of all cities. A place called… Canterlot. Well, I bet your hooves to hindquarters I had never seen anything like it before nor since. And as if the beauty of that city wasn't enough, suddenly, she appeared. Princess Celestia, the most regal of all ponies. When lo and behold, she stopped to look at my pa's seed collection."`
The Smith family entered Canterlot, explored the market, and set up a booth in front of their wagon to sell their seeds. Granny Smith was admiring the castle when a chariot that was being pulled by members of the royal guard came up, and seated on it was Princess Celestia. The Smith family immediately bowed as the Princess exited the chariot and came over to them to look at their seeds collection.
`"Then Princess Celestia saw that we were plumb-tuckered and hankerin' to find our forever home. And bein' a royal Princess and all, she knew exactly the place for us to lay down our stakes. My pa gave the Princess a mighty thanks."`
Princess Celestia invited them to her palace and when they reached one of the towers, she pointed out a piece of land that wasn't far from the Everfree Forest, and Pa Smith thanked her by kissing one of her hooves, and Ma Smith frowned at him.
`"We quickly found that land near the Everfree Forest, and we built our first home. Next, we planted our first orchards. But an orchard don't grow overnight, and we were getting mighty short on food. Now mind you, we were cautioned about the forest, and we knew that it was not fit to enter."`
Reaching the land, the Smith family cut down some trees to build their home and Pa Smith planted apple seeds. He went inside the house to join his family as Ma Smith served up some peas, but it was clear that they didn't have enough food to last the upcoming winter. That night, while the family was sleeping, Granny Smith left the house to enter the Everfree Forest, and she paused when she heard several timberwolves howl in the distance.
`"But I knew there was critters livin' there. There must be somethin' to eat. It was dark and musty, and I won't lie, it was scary. But every inch was covered in plant life, and before I knew it, wasn't I standin' in front of the most incredible apple trees! I had never seen anything that bore this kind of colorful fruit! Oh I started picking apples quick as a whip!"`
Pulling herself together, Granny Smith entered the forest, exploring the plant life as she went, and when she reached a clearing, her jaw dropped in amazement when she saw a cluster of trees covered with rainbow-colored apples! She went straight to the trees and began harvesting the apples, loading up her saddlebags so that they were bugling, and she paused when she heard howling and growling around her.
`"I turned, and there before me stood the timberwolves! I've never run so fast in my life. I did the only thing I could think of."`
Granny Smith turned and saw that there were a dozen timberwolves standing behind her, and she fled. The timberwolves gave chase as she ran through the forest until she reached the house. Grabbing a pan off the table, she began banging frantically on the cauldron, and the timberwolves retreated back into the forest as her family came out to see what was going on, having been woken up.
`"My pa and I planted those special apple seeds, and before our eyes they grew like wildfire. Why, we had full grown trees faster than you could say 'lickety split'."`
Harvesting the seeds from the zap apples, Pa Smith and Granny Smith worked on planting them in the ground. Seconds later, magically electricity shot out of the ground, blinding them, and when the light show ended, Pa Smith was surrounded by full grown zap apple trees, and Granny Smith found herself on top of one of the trees and she laughed.
`"Then each year, I paid close attention to the signs of the zap apples' special harvesting times. How the weather affects the Everfree Forest, how the timberwolves howl when the zap apples first start growing, and how they zapped away if you didn't pick 'em all in one day!"`
Granny Smith hid in her bed, listening to the howls of the timberwolves, watched the changes in the weather, and when the family was picking the apples, filling up baskets, there was a flash of light and the zap apples they hadn't picked, disappeared from the trees the day after they had become ripe.
`"And the fruits of our labor were the best fruit we ever tasted. Soon enough I was mixing up batches of zap apple jam. Just like harvestin' the zap apples had its special rules, so did makin' zap apple jam. I learned that you gotta be extra friendly with the bees, otherwise their honey won't taste rightly sweet to mix in with the zap apples. Who'd'a thought that glass jars needed talkin' to? Or that zap apples like pink polka dots? But magic is as magic does. Just funny that way. Then ponies started comin' to our farm from far and wide just to get a taste of my zap apple jam. Some of them decided to stay, like Stinkin' Rich, Diamond Tiara's great grandfather. Matter of fact, the first thing he ever sold was my zap apple jam."`
Each year, the Smith family harvested the zap apples and made them into various types of baked goods. Granny Smith stirred a cauldron filled with zap apple jam, tasted it, and she worked on improving it, by adding the sweetest honey she could get from the bees, lectured the jars, and painted the pink polkadots on the walls of the kitchen. Doing all of this, her zap apple jam was now brightly colored and she began selling the jam to the ponies that came from all over Equestria.
Stinking Rich remained in the area and began selling the zap apple jam, prompting other ponies to stay, including the Star family, and they began building up the town that eventually became Ponyville.
"And before we knew it, we had ourselves a nice little town, bustling with all kinds of ponies. And that is how Ponyville was founded," Granny Smith concluded and the entire class began clapping their hooves together, except for Diamond Tiara, who was staring with a stunned expression. "Oh, thank you kindly, little ponies. Oh, now now, let's settle down."
Scootaloo raised a hoof eagerly and Cheerilee nodded at her. "So if it weren't for you and the zap apples, Ponyville wouldn't even exist?!" she asked eagerly.
"Darn tootin', little filly!" Granny Smith confirmed, standing up and wandered over to the chalkboard that had some math problems written on it.
"If it weren't for my Granny Smith, your daddy wouldn't have Barnyard Bargains," Apple Bloom added, grinning at Diamond Tiara and their class fully agreed.
Diamond Tiara stammered, trying to regain control of the situation since her plan had backfired with that story. "But-" she stammered as the old pony licked some chalk off the board. "But she's just a… kooky old lady!" And the class gasped while the school teacher frowned with disapproval.
Apple Bloom jumped to her grandmother's defense. "She is not a kooky old lady!" she declared and hugged Granny Smith. "She is the most amazing pony in all of Ponyville!"
A/N: And that is how Ponyville came to be, all thanks to the amazing Granny Smith and her zap apple jam! See you all on Thursday! R&R everyone!