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[Galloping Glade] Weekend with the Apples [Closed]


Hippo

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Macintosh couldn't help but watch Applebloom with a small chuckle - she was so eagerly enjoying her food and being around kin and friends that it was mighty adorable to enjoy. Still, he couldn't let his own food get cold, and thus he continued gettin' right on that - well, at least until AJ gave back a little of her own playful banter at his expense:  "You know, Big Mac, if what you're saying is you didn't sleep well last night because you were all alone in your tent, we could always asked Purple and Apple Bloom to share a tent with you tonight."

 

Macintosh held up a hoof and olitely shook his head - the suggestion meant that he'd only wind up havin' to keep two hyperactive fillies occupied or at least under some kinda rulin' about not getting carried away when it got to sleepin' time...and Mac wasn't about to make himself some kinda lawmaker for the pair on a holiday that allowed for them to at least engage in all the freedoms that bein' a young pony in the wilderness would allow 'em. He had no intention on being a damper on the moods of a pair of playful pair of young ponies out on a trip under the stars if he could actively help it!

 

" Eeeeenope, that's fine - Ah'll be plenty okay, dontcha go worryin' about me none, sis'! " he says with an amused laugh. " 'sides, I'm used to havin' space to mahself at nights - they're welcome to come visit the tent durin' the day though! " 

It wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with his silly l'il sister and her friend, nope, but it just felt like it was the easier solution for the time being.

 

Conversation turned towards what to do for the day - the question of whether or not to engage on a hike arose, and Mac wasn't sure what he particularly felt about doing that so soon after settin' up previously...it seemed a l'il bit awkward to just unhitch everything to go relocate elsewhere without a real plan. Fortunately, Carrot had the better idea of a scavenger hunt - this at least had a much more sensible flow of an idea to it, and the Apple Stallion gave a nod of approval...it seemed like the kinda thing a campout group could get up to with little problem. 

 

" Eeeeyup, Ah think that sounds like a mighty good idea... " Macintosh says, looking around at the rest. " Sure as hay beats relocatin' outta the blue, anyway! "

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They sure did make lots of sense. Apple Bloom was always about trying to go that extra step, that extra mile to give everypony a good time. Part of that when you were out and about was getting a good sweat in. Maybe she overdid it by wanting to go ahead and make camp after they hiked again. Now that she thought about it harder, it seemed like it'd be an awful lot of effort for a little bit of fun. Well, maybe not even fun. It just meant less time hiking and playing. But everypony did like the hiking idea! She loved herself a nice hike. The natural world was such a wonder after all. She loved all manner of high adventure and big activities, but sometimes she just loved the idea of walking and talking with friends and family and taking in all that the world.

Of course they could also make it into a competition. Apple Bloom was definitely not afraid of that! But then again, those teams seemed awfully lopsided. Applejack was perfect and all that, but Big Mac could run in a swamp wearing Granny's finest if he really wanted to win. Combined with the numerical superiority of two Apples and a Carrot to one Apple, one Carrot, and it seemed a mite unfair. Then again, all solutions would be imbalanced. It would all be unfair. So with that in mind, Apple Bloom jumped up. “Ah think that's a great idea, But maybe tha teams can be decided randomly. Get five sticks, cut two'm real short like. Big Mac holds, we pick, short sticks stick together. And there we go, teams! Whatcha think?” She asked, excited to the point of looking around and picking up various sticks.
 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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Applejack nodded politely at everypony's focused ideas and opinions. It seemed everyone was willing to fan some fun, and the scavenger idea had some merit. "Alright. Let's do the scavenger hunt! But what are we hunting? Apple Bloom, while you look for sticks, lets all make a list of things we should try to find." Applejack pulled out a small bag out of her bigger bag of supplies. Inside the small bag was a notebook and a pencil. She opened the book, tore a page off, and put the pencil in her mouth.

Her voice was muffled as she spoke, her lips rotating to move the pencil to make shapes.
"OK, a wild apple. Pine cone. A fern leaf. A blue flower. A red flower. A yellow flower. A green flower. A purple flower. A wild apple. A bear claw. A mushroom. A caterpillar. A feather. A spider. And, a wild apple." Applejack spit her pencil out for the moment. "How's that sound. What else?"

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
Carrot Fields had one small addendum to the rules.  "Oi dinnae think we need tae get ALL th' scavenger items... but each missed item adds a half hour to when ye get there.  So it's a race... do yeh think ye kin get more items, or do ye think ye need tae get there faster?"

 

Then, at Apple Bloom's objection, he grinned at her. "Ach, well, Oi think me an' AJ will be a'ight.  No need tae be fashin' yerself o'er that.  Less ye're fearin' wot we'll be able tae beat all three a ye too quickly if we work taegether."  He grinned at Apple Bloom teasingly, then gave a wink to AJ.  He knew that sort of competitiveness got Purple all fired up - he figured Apple Bloom couldn't be too different.

 

"I think that list is pretty slanted towards Purple an' me... though we're on different teams, so that's OK.  Our ma, she's an orchard pony, wi' a tendency towards flowers, so Purple an' I, we know how tae find all sorts a different flowers... could nae live in our house wi' our ma wi'out bein' able tae do that.  "Carrot!" she'd call, "Go hie off an' get me a couple red flowers from th' woods fer me arrangements!"  Sometimes they'd even use her arrangements in th' McCloud Castle.  Let's add a few more items, then.  A smooth river stone.  A lodestone.  An' a piece of flint.  Useful things fer wilderness survival.  Sound a'ight?"

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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"AAaaaapple Bloooooom" Purple dragged out, giving a little bit of a glare, "Oi think that Applejack an' me big brae make a great team." She made significant, meaningful little gestures of her head and eyes, obviously trying to signal ... *something* ... secret to Apple Bloom. "See? E'en me big brae kin see that!"

She pulled out a sheet of paper and started drawing her own little symbols for the items for the hunt. Somewhere along the line she paused. "Um ... so do we gotta hie off an' fetch one wild apple? Or two ah 'em? Does th' apple count as double points 'r somethin?"

As the listing and the rules were all settled up, Purple tried to reassure Apple Bloom again. "If yer still worried bout us outnumberin' 'em, remember they got longer legs 'n us. We gotta cover twice th' distance t'get jes' as far! So it's fair! Ye cannae expect us lil' fillies tae keep up wi' them wi' speed!"

An hour later, Purple was happily moving along, brushing branches casually out of the way as they swung back at her, expounding upon the principles of a scavenger hunt. "Lotsa ponies, see, Apple Bloom," she said to the pony laying on her back next to her, "think th' secret tae a hunt's tae hurry off an' find alla ye kin. But it's all 'bout takin' it slow an' steady, an' out-thinkin' em." Big Mac's back really did make a cozy hammock as the two fillies watched either side of him for signs of the needed items.

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  • 3 weeks later...
With plans underway, it was good to see the group looking so very motivated with regards to their next activities...and all the deciding on groups was certainly proving to be entertaining watching, and Applebloom and Purple Haze had a small moment of discourse regarding the idea about how to arrange teams, which seemed to result in an interesting turnaround in camp Appleblooms way of thinking, or at least so Big Mac figured.

 

Once things had gotten going and the plans gave way to the start of the event itself, it seemed that the scavenger hunt seemed to be an idea going well enough and he was alright with taking part in it...as purple haze pointed out, it wasn't really about being in a rush as much as it was playing smart in your own pace - there was little point losing your head in searching for the listed items, otherwise you could easily miss them in the outdoors, and Macintosh had no intention of getting into a frenzied last minute dash for something that was meant to be intended for relaxation and fun, especially when there was just absolutely no good point in doing so.

 

He didn't mind being perched on by the fillies as they were both relatively light and behaving okay - his eyes taking in the surroundings and listening to the pair as they chatted...for now, as far as Mac saw things, it was just keep calm and carry on!
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Apple Bloom sometimes took a little while to catch on to the meanings of others when they weren't being all direct like. It was one of the major problems with living a pony as honest as Applejack and direct as Big Mac. “But Ah wanna-” the gestures and flailing and MASSIVE HINTING finally caught her attention. Oh. Ohhhhh. That's what they were going for. Okay then! Hehehe, now what was all that about the perfect stallion for Miss Cheerilee again? Seemed to work much better here. “Oh. Yeah. Oh yeah, that sounds like such a great team right thar Purple Haze, yup. Why, Ah think that there is a brilliant idea, what with Applejack an' Carrot on one team, an' us an' Big Mac on tha other. Good thinkin', Purple,” Apple Bloom said withput even the singlest most subtlest hint of secretness ever, none at all, nope.

The list of stuff they were trying to find blossomed tremendously, and it caught her all nice and steep. It was a pretty Applejack list. Nice flowers and a collection of apples. She could see how this whole shebang would be pretty simple for her and Purple if they cared at all, but from the team makeup she guessed they weren't going after victory. “Well, that'd be three apples an' of course thar'll only one point each. But you gotta get 'em wild apples outta here so that if they have any sorta special properties, we can study 'em and see if we can create new types of apples!” Apple Bloom said earnestly. And she was sure that they were going to try really really really hard to...

 

...relax. Relaxing was the operative word an hour in, as she lay curled up on her brother's back and listened to Purple Haze while keeping a lookout for elements of the scavenger hunt. It had been a fun ride on Big mac but even then Apple Bloom wasn't entirely thinking to throw in the towel, and neither was Purple. They were just biding their time. Apple Bloom leaned over the side and quickly snapped up a red flower- yep, they were totally gonna win. “Yer right 'bout tha outthinkin' part. Why, it was a real stroke'a genius puttin' 'em together! Thar gonna be too busy kissin' an' such ta really focus on tha scavenger hunt, ain't they?” Apple Bloom said as she placed the flower in the small bag she had brought.

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  • 3 months later...

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Applejack added things to the list as more suggestions came in.  Although she wasn't sure what to think about the multiple apples rule, that her mistakenly duplicate wild apples item created.  "Ah don't think you want to make this an apple-findin' game, otherwise Carrot and I would surely win that bet.  Big Mac can sniff an apple out just fine, but no one hauls as much of an apple crop as I do!"

Not much of a delay and the teams were split.  Applejack and Carrot were paired up and Applejack decided to walk along the river that cut the glade in two.  "Let's see if we can find a smooth stone.  Should be the easiest one, right?"

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Purple Haze gave a great big grin at Apple Bloom's comments.  "Aye, yer on it, Abby!" she said happily, her tail dropping down to scoop up a stone from the forest floor.  It was kinda smooth, but not really smooth enough.  She tossed it off into the forest again.  "They'll be snoggin' half th' day, all *muamuamuamua*!"  She made little kissy faces towards Apple Bloom, playfully.  "Oye!  Big Mac!  Y'think those big fungus thingies on th' trunk a that tree o'er there counts as a mushroom?"  Her tail dipped down to snap off half a fern.  Yup, that was an easy one.  Into the pack!  "And Abby, you gotta jar or somethin' tae keep a spider or a caterpillar in?"

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Carrot Fields could easily be called a competitive pony in most circumstances, and a scavenger hunt wasn't normally an exception to this rule.  This time, though, he wasn't nearly as concerned about winning.  One part of this was because he was a pushover when it came to young ponies.  While he was quite happy to stomp Purple Haze as part of their sibling rivalry, he was a bit more lenient on letting Applebloom win.  Just not by much.  The other reason he was a bit less focused on the game was the distraction in the form of Applejack.

Finding the first item she suggested was easy enough - just as Applejack finished mentioning it, Carrot stepped into the shallow river bed and scooped a smooth stone out with one forehoof.  "Definitely th' easiest one! Mah friends an' Ah used tae sit aroond efter school as colts, skippin' stones alang th' loch tae see who coods flin' them th' farthest while we chatted abit fillies an' their- Er, umm, while we chatted abit stuff."

Carrot dropped the smooth, rounded stone into his saddlebag, "sae umm, how are you enjoyin' th' campin' trip sae far? Ah hope ye enjoyed yerself lest nicht wi' me."  Carrot suddenly looked awkward and not a little blushed over what he just said, "er ... Ah mean when we waur stargazin'! Lookin' at th' stars! yeah, stars.  Ye umm, hud fin, reit?"

 

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