[Fillydelphia] A Country Field Trip [PM for Invite]

[SilverSwirl]

Timid replied to Sweetie Belle, "Yeah, I'm doing fine! Thanks for asking! Oh! Of course I'm ready to help you!". He was grinning at her until she mentioned that it would be less dangerous than some of the other things they had tried, his grin vanished and the thoughts of what they had attempted gave him the shakes. Less dangerous? What does that mean?, he thought as he watched her struggles in bucking the tree yield one apple which had hit her in the head. This turn of events made him shake even more as he recalled his previous mishap with a food tray at an open house.

Still quaking with nervousness, he watched his other partner, Apple Bloom, approach the tree and get into position. Before she got to bucking the tree, she congratulated Sweetie Belle on her performance. My, they are very close friends. I wish I wasn't so timid sometimes, maybe I'd have friends like that too..., he thought while she bucked the tree so hard that she fell down! However, it brought down four apples, much to her delight.

He looked up at Caramel and listened to her insist that he try with pleading eyes. He nodded nervously and said quietly, "Okay....". He wasn't very strong to begin with as he approached a different tree. "This can't be much different than harvesting coconuts!", he exclaimed as he got into position, his mind fixated on the reward for most apples in one buck from Apple Bumpkin. Inhaling deeply, he focused on his positioning and gave a light test tap with one hind leg. Feeling his hoof impact with the bark and the light tick noise reaching his ears, smiled. "Here goes nothing!", he shouted as he bucked with all his might twice in quick succession, leaves raining down on him as the "THWACK" echoed in the orchard.

Looking up, he asked, "Why aren't any apples coming down?" He began to flush red with embarrassment, his weakness on full display to everyone. Then six apples dropped down, with 3 hitting him in the head, back and rump. "Ouch! I knew I would get hurt again! It's just always my bad luck!", he cried, knocked senseless as he tripped over a tree root and faceplanting.

[Imagination]

Ruby was excited to get started! She couldn't wait to tell her mom about this field trip! They learned about apple trees, got to take care of a bunny, and now they're gonna buck some apples! The only thing that would make this day perfect would be if Miss Bumpkin had apple pie for the class. But seeing as that was unlikely, maybe she'd be able to convince her mom to make one... Or she could try to bake one on her own! Maybe she'll get a baking cutie mark!

THERE WAS NO TIME TO LOSE!

"Good idea Reno! Maybe I can use my-" Wait, would using magic be cheating? "Maybe I can use my magic too..." she whispered past her hoof, as if it would keep the message from being heard by anypony but Reno. She went on to the closest tree, grinning from ear to ear. "C'mon, Haywire! Lets get us some apples!". With that, she threw her legs back in as hard a buck as the itty bitty filly could muster. a hard thud, but nothing else. But she was not discouraged! Pinchy stood there a moment, making shifty eyes left and right at her classmates before her horn started to softly glow. Maybe she could pull some down with magic! Throwing back another buck, just for show, she at least tried to pull the apples down...

Though all that was heard was about five loud -SPLAT- noises, chunks of apple and applesauce raining down on little Pinchy, who just sat back on her haunches and tried to lick it all up. "Mmm! Oh! Umm... My apples exploded, Miss Cheerilee... Does that count?" She asked her teacher, wearing the most adorable, innocent smile she could muster (which could possibly be considered lethal if one has a weak heart). Of course it was obvious what she had tried to do, but it seemed the filly was going to try and play it off regardless.

She bucked so hard the apples exploded. That's her story and she's stickin' to it.

[AlisonRose]

Looking on and grinning from ear to ear as Cheerilee kicked the tree and yielded no apples she herself held her breath not wanting the teacher pony to emberass herself in front of all the foals.

Seeing her second kick yielding an apple or two was a great relief and allowed Apple Bumpkin to let out a sigh of relief as she started to return to her huge grin and even cheered on Cheerilee.

"Woo! Go Cheerilee!" Was all she could muster before a strange blush came over her face and she hid behind her sister as Caramel raddled off all of the trees that the farm had on it. As she looked on the other foals and even some of the older ponies were taking turns at hitting the trees and trying to get apples down. It had quickly escalated into a way to produce a lot of apples in a short amount of time and then they would turn around and teach the foals how to make Apple Family Apple Juice out of it. This was making it very clear to Apple Bumpkin that as long as the foals were controlled and still learning she would have no problem keeping her time with Cheerilee. It wasn't so much that she was infatuated with the teacher pony quite yet, though she was a lovely pony and very fun company Apple Bumpkin still had a job to preform before she could even think about such things.

"After Ya'll get done with the apple buckin we will get ta the juice makin!" She giggled to herself a bit as she looked on trying to guage which of the groups she would have to give the special gift that she had thought of, she was going to give them some Moonglow flowers which in moonlight shone brightly as the stars, but upon thinking it over she decided that some fresh apple pie was a more suitable option for them. It wasn't long before she was thinking about how to get all the apples to the distillery for the juice making process, but that would have to come as they went since there was still ponies trying to get apples down. It was at this point that Apple Bumpkin noticed that she could just give a slice of apple pie to everypony and call it fair and even should one pony not get any apples down. She looked over at Cheerilee and bit her lip as she had only gotten an apple or two down.

[Mojo]

Haywire heard the challenge and her mind began to work.

"Gotta think of a way to git the most apples outta them trees," the rust colored filly thought. Leaving the bunny aside, since the animal looked fine for the moment, Haywire approached a tree that was loaded with shiny apples. She then began to dig in her saddlebags for just the right 'equipment' for the job.

"I was gonna save these here firecrackers fer a special occassion, but I kin use'm now to knock apples outta this tree!" the blonde blank flank muttered as she set up four miniture rocket-type firecrackers and aimed them at the tree in front of her. Striking a match, she quickly lit the fuse of each one and then hid behind a rock, covering her ears as the four launched. Two flew straight into the air and exploded high in the sky above. One struck the trunk of the tree, bounced off and landed on top of the boulder she was hiding behind. The fourth hit the middle of the tree, shaking it slightly, but also setting some of the leaves on fire.

"Uh oh," Haywire said in stunned amazement. "This ain't what I was expectin' at all....."

[QuickLime]

(Some foals just want to watch the world burn..)

[Corsair]

Snips followed Snails and Remington over to one of the apple trees, eyeing it suspiciously. Seriously? They wanted them to buck apples out of the tree? The old tree towered over Snips' short, bulky frame. He thought he had about a foal's chance in Ghastly Gorge of actually kicking the tree hard enough to make it drop even one apple.

"Should we surround the tree and kick it or stack up on each other and kick, or what?" asked Snails.

"Maybe, " Snips answered, then added "But couldn't we, uh, use magic to pull them down or something?" His question was uncertain, because his control on his magic seemed to change from day to day, and he knew Snails was about the same. Remington was already kicking at the tree, however, but not making much progress.

Shrugging, Snips turned his tail to the tree. He reared up on his front legs and gave the tree a kick with one rear hoof. Nothing. He tensed, then readied a second kick with both hooves. As they made contact with the bark, Snips felt a shock go though his whole body. His front legs gave out, and he fell on his face. Grumbling and spitting our dirt, he got back to his hooves just as Remington zoomed in and gave the tree a kick on the run.

"Hehe, yeah! I got one!"

Snips watched in stunned confusion as an apple hit the red pegasus on the head. Snips ran over as the colt hit the ground, but then heard the snores. Remington had gone to sleep again. How this pony didn't have a cutie mark of a pillow or a bed or something Snips didn't know. "Do ya think we should wake him up?" he asked Snails.

Just then, something caught his eye. A couple of trees away, Haywire was pulling a bunch of fireworks out of her bags. Snips thought to himself, How does that filly slip so much stuff past Miss Cheerilee? All of his fireworks had been taken away! She was, like, a master mischief-maker or something. Still, it probably wasn't a good idea to set them off under a tree. Snips stepped toward the filly. "Haywire, I don't think that's such a good ide..." he began, but it was too late.

Two of the rockets shot through the tree top and went off with an adult-attracting bang. Snips didn't immediately see where the others had gone, but he did see that some of the leaves of the tree had caught fire. That wasn't good. Those farmer mares probably wouldn't be happy if somepony damaged one of their trees. He looked around for some water or some buckets or something, but didn't find anything nearby. Then, he got an idea. "Hold on!" he called out, "I've got an idea!" Snips was thinking of a candle. You put a candle out by blowing on it, right? You didn't need water to put out a candle. Maybe the same thing would work here?

The colt closed his eyes. He'd never tried anything like this before, but it was worth a shot. Focusing his magic into his horn, like he'd been taught, he imagined a big gust of wind. For a while, nothing happened. Sweat started to drip down his face as he concentrated. He was so focused, he couldn't hear anything going on around him. He was about to give up, when suddenly he felt a rush of air move past him toward the tree. He flopped to his belly, exhausted, but smiling. "I did it!" he said weakly. He opened his eyes, finally, looking to see if the fire had gone out. His eyes went wide when he saw that the fire hadn't gone out, it had gotten BIGGER! Uh oh...

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails crossed his eyes in thought as snips suggested using magic. "Ummm, maybe we could try that t'gether as Plan B. Ah aint sure ah got th' reach in m' magic just yet. Maybe t'gether?"

Just then Remington started kicking so Snails joined in, hoping to add to Remington's kick power.

Snails blinked when an apple dropped on Remington, knocking him back to sleep "Wow! He sure is easy to get ta sleep. Think his foalsitters got an easy job?"

Suddenly Snails felt a tingle of magic as one of the other foals used her magic and some apples exploded.above Pinchy. "Maybe we should make magic plan C?"

Haywire got into the act by launching fireworks into the tree she was applebucking, startling Snails into an extra-hard kick.

Snails looked at Haywire and the tree she was bucking, moments before a few apples from the startle-kick rained down on his head

The unicorn foal's eyes went wide as he saw the apples that had come down on him, and turned to thank Haywire for scaring him, and suddenly noticed some of the leaves in her tree caught fire.

He called out "Dont worry Haywire!" as he saw his Best Bud working to use his horn power to do something.

Suddenly a magically powered wind blew through and made the fire bigger "Okay, Ah totally didnt see that coming... How about water?"

Snails concentrated hard, sparks sputtering from his horn as he made a bucket rise. it shook and wobbled so he kinda, sorta threw it at the fire. Unfortunately it came down short and dumped all over Haywire.

"Errr, Sorry Haywire, Lemme try again, eh?"

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee felt pretty good after her attempt at apple bucking, even blushing a little at the cheer from their gracious host! She hadn't excepted anything more that giggles from her amused students. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom took their turns with clumsy results, but instead of being discouraged by their less than stellar attempts, the two best friends each were ecstatic at the apples they managed to free from the trees. Their positive excitement was almost infectious, she couldn't help but have a warm smile, it was just another reminder why she loved what she did for a living. And though Snails seemed to be having problems, nothign had gone wrong. Despite past experience, perhaps everything was going to run smoothly this time.

Cheerilee started towards Snails to give some helpful advice when she saw a cry from Timid Star drew her attention. He looked more scared than hurt, but she had to make sure. "Oh, Timid! Are you all-" Remington, nearby, suddenly collapsed, as an apple hit his head. "Remington! Oh my, this isn't-" a sudden loud snore from him settled her nerves, but she still wanted to help him wake up. That effort, though, was interrupted as more and more foals tried their hooves at unorthodox methods of apple bucking.

The shower of applesauce certainly got her attention - little Ruby Pinch half-covered in apple goo and trying to look innocent, while nearby foals all let out 'ewwww' noises to wipe at themselves. Cheerilee sighed - she'd have to keep further experimentation from happening so nopony got hurt before tending to Remington. "Now, Ruby, we're supposed to use our legs, not our-"

She winced and ducked as the noise of bottle rockets let out their retort through the orchard. One went whizzing past the edge of her mane, making her jump in alarm. oh no…. Before she could speak, there were colorful explosions everywhere. Cheerilee looked first for hurt students, but everypony seemed all right - who, then - "Oh Celestia!!" One of the trees was on fire! Cheerilee looked around in horror for a trough or a barrel of water, there had to be something!! Ah, there! She made a dash for the bucket, but it lifted up before she could reach it, wobbling through the air dizzily. "Wait! No mag-", too late, it fell, spilling water all over Haywire. Cheerilee quickly grabbed it with her teeth, and gave a look of both profound panic and profound guilt at the no doubt horrified farmers, hoping for some direction as the flames grew larger, threatening the nearby trees. All she could do was repeat herself as best she could, as loud as she could, "no magic!!" She could only hope the foals listened! This really was going to be one of those days after all.

[Hippo]

Remington gain consciousness in his slumber and sniffed the air around him. The sky was blue and the trees clapped in the wind. Birds were tweeting song fragments to each other in harmony. The smell of freshly picked apples made Remington swoon, as he picked himself up and looked around, admiring all of the scenery that was to be in front of him. And then, he started hearing the slight sound of a wood cut, like a soft patter against the trunk of a tree. He looked around and he saw ponies with axes in their mouths swinging their heads at the trees cutting them down. One patter soon became countless as he saw that every tree around him in this oasis was being cut down by ponies with axes in mouth. "Wh- why are you all cutting the trees down? Stop!" But they didn't stop, they just got louder and louder and louder, each swing of the ax more powerful and forcible than the one before it. "I don't understand!" Remington started crying.

But as he put his hooves over his eyes, he heard a stop to the pattering. There were no shouts for falling trees nor were there the sound of axing ponies around. He looked up to see all of them had vanished, and the scars on the tree trunks removed, almost like they had never even been struck. Looking up, Remington saw the sky turn red. With every shade of red getting brighter, he saw a faint image coming from high above the tallest clouds, and it fell with what seemed to be a fiery force. As it neared, he could see it was something like a burning meteorite, falling straight for the trees. The meteorite struck the ground and everything turned to flames. Trees were being knocked down by the gust of fire and wind, and Remington dove underneath burning pieces of trees and fell softly onto newly layered ash. It was an apple orchard apocalypse.

[AlisonRose]

The thoughts racing through her head as she looked onto the tree that was on fire, the flames were scary yes but Bumpkin wasn't mad or upset with anypony it was as if they intentionally set the tree on fire. She raced over to the Cheerilee who was busy panicking and grabbed a hold of her hooves and pulled her close and took a deep breath.

"Cheerilee, you need to calm down, if'n ya'll don't then what'r the foals gunna do?" She tried to grin at Cheerilee as she thought about how in the world they were going to put the fire out, then it hit her.

"Hey everypony we should form a big line going back to my garden and get some buckets, fill 'em with water and throw 'em onto the fire!" She nodded her head a few times and then put a hoof to her chin.

"Caramel, ya'll should show the foals where to get the buckets of water at and then they can rush them to Cheerilee and myself and we can fix this tiny little fire!" She was still trying her best to smile even though it was clear to her that Cheerilee didn't feel that this was a situation worth smiling over. She wasn't going to let the stressed out teacher out of her sight as it might be more hazerdous to have her out and trying to organize the foals instead of staying here and trying to steady her breathing and working herself to be calm. She looked over to the foals and attempted to get their attention with a wave and then a loud whistle.

"All ya'll need ta follow Caramel, she will show ya where ta get some buckets of water ta bring to your astute teacher an mahself to put the fire out." She nodded her head a few more times before she swished her tail and then turned away from the crowed so she could fidget with her hoofkerchief a bit and a touch of blush struck her face as she let her thoughts race.

[Bramble Rose]

Sweetie Belle stared in awe at all the insane hijinks that were going on all around them. What were they *doing*? That wasn't how you bucked apple trees! She hardly ever did any apple bucking, and even she knew that! Well, that wasn't her problem, she was teamed up with Apple Bloom and Timid Star! And Timid had just ...

"WOW!" she said eagerly, hurrying forward to help Timid Star back to his feet. "That was *awe*some!" she squeaked. "You got six whole apples, that's just amazing! What a great job! Way to *go*!"

She was all ready to enthuse some more - and maybe take another try herself - when her attention was drawn away. "Fire?!" She cried! "You're not supposed to cook the apples while they're *on* the tree!" She grabbed Apple Bloom and Timid Star and cried, "Come on!"

If there was anyfoal who knew how to deal with fire-based emergencies, it was *certainly* Sweetie Belle! She was already moving as she heard Apple Bumpkin start to give the other foals directions. She opened door after door, zipping through them as fast as she could till she found the buckets, then let out a cheer as she rushed over to the garden and started to fill them up. "Get these over there!" she proclaimed!

[SteelEagle]

A mare may have many reactions to any given event. It was the power of the pony, oddly enough, that they could adapt to almost any circumstance. Caramel was different than others in this regard. Give Caramel lemons and she'd make caramel apples. Give her pears and she'd make caramel apples. Give her caramel apples and she'd make better caramel apples. She often joked to herself- no one else thought she was funny so she denied them the privilege of hearing her jokes- that if you gave her wood, cement, forks and a cart, she'd make caramel apples out of those things too. She enjoyed being uniform, and her uniform reaction to stress was a calm and orderly pattern of responses to de-escalate the situation and own it. That's why she was in charge; she was good at stress. That was why this response came as a shock.

She saw the apple tree on fire and as an apple farmer it was already a horrifying sight. As an apple farmer with a snout deep into the financial logbook, however, what she saw was something entirely different. Bits were burning. beautiful, lovely, always helpful bits were on fire in front of her. Every apple that was destroyed was a small drop in the bucket of family finances and every limb that went was a fence that would go unrepaired. They say bits didn't go on trees but apples sure did and to her the difference was academic. How could using inexperienced foals as free labor go so wrong so quickly? Smart money had turned into bad money which had turned into burning money. Her brain couldn't compute it.

"Sweet Celestia's Hammock!" Caramel shouted out in abject horror and her hooves planted on her face, her eyes reflecting the flames that licked her bit apple tree like a sinister lollipop. She then promptly fell face forward into an empty basket, blissfully unconscious.

*********

Apple Bloom had been all manner of pleased with Timid's score. Why, he had all the makings of a proper orchard pony when he grew, somepony that Applejack might take a shining to. Of course, Apple Bloom's issue with the colt lay in his very name- she wasn't a big fan of timid ponies, but she liked Fluttershy a whole lot so maybe she'd find a place in her hearth for a pony like Timid, too. As long as he bucked well and didn't allow his timidness to be too big an obstacle. She went to go give him a high-hoof when she was pulled away by Sweetie Belle.

There was a fire. On an apple tree. In an orchard. That was bad enough to see, knowing how flammable trees tended to be and how apples weren't as good roasted as they were fresh and juicy when plucked from their warm homes. The homes couldn't get too warm though, or they'd be crispy and decidedly unjuciy. And everypony knew unjuicy apples weren't good apples! Apple Bumpkin tried to get Caramel's help in getting the situation under control but of all the times for Caramel to take an unwarranted nap, it was hard to imagine a worse time for her to have picked. She almost literally took a dirt nap, saved by the basket from that single indignity. Luckily, Bumpkin didn't speak a foreign language and Apple Bloom knew what to do.

She followed Sweetie Belle who seemed to be a single hoof faster than the farm filly- maybe she should cut down on the amount of apples she ate? Nah, that was crazy talk- as they found the buckets. Apple Bloom was a strong filly and as she followed Sweetie Belle, she knew her role here. Buckets of water could be heavy, heavy, heavy! And judging from the other foals, she doubted most could handle. Hey, all that exercise was about to pay off!

"Y'all fill'm up, then Ah'll take tha buckets to tha tree!" Apple Bloom added, nervousness and excitement breeding a crackling energy in her voice. After three buckets were filled, she put one on her back, held one in her mouth, and put another on her back. The pressure and weight felt tremendous, but hey, somepony had to do it! She did her best Big Mac impersonation as she tried and at times succeeded to power through it all and get the buckets to the trees. She didn't know how long it had taken as she placed hoof over hoof with as much speed as she could handle, placing all three buckets down and then galloping back for more.

"We'can do it!"

[Mojo]

Still distraught with what she had accidentally done, Haywire quickly trotted into line with the rest of the foals to help start the water bucket brigade.

"C'mon everypony! We jist gotta save that thar tree!" the rust colored filly shouted, quickly grabbing a full bucket of water and passing it on down the line. "HURRY Y'ALL! THAR AIN'T NO TIME TO WASTE!"

Poor Haywire was eager to do ANYTHING to help save that tree as well as the whole orchard. The blank flank foal held back her tears as she continued working.

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee was rather frantic - there had to be water somewhere! She'd expected their gracious hosts to be upset at what just happened, so she was quite surprised when Apple Bumpkin decided to calm her down and comfort her. Cheerilee stared for a moment at the red maned Apple mare, then took a deep breath and found herself settling down thanks to her kindness. “I am awfully, awfully sorry about this! We'll make sure any damage is repaid!” then turned to her class with an anxious smile of concern on her lips, “You heard her, students, form a line back to the well pump by the garden! Let’s show our hosts we can do this, hurry now!”

Unfortunately, Caramel didn’t take things so well - instead of collecting the buckets, she fainted! Cheerilee was stunned and felt a little numb and guilt-ridden before snapping out of it. She'd check on Caramel later. Fortunately, Sweetie Belle had found some buckets, herself, as if she were a regular fire pony! “Good work, Sweetie Belle! Quickly, everypony, form a line from Sweetie Belle to Miss Bumpkin, and pass the buckets along!"

Cheerilee smiled proudly to Apple Bloom, impressed with how well her class was already coming together, “you’re a chip right off the ol’ Apple block, Applebloom!” She gave the tree a mental sizing up as picked up the first bucket, steadied it with one hoof, and then heaved it up towards the branches, dampening the lower branches before the fire could spread. It wasn’t a great shot, but with Bumpkin and Zecora making up the slack, it would be out in no time.. Hopefully.

[QuickLime]

Reno normally was a brave colt, he boldly tread where most foals would cower in fear and cry for Mommy and Daddy! In fact he was a brash little fellow who had no fear in charging into caves, walking through a dark forest, or even standing up to a bully! However something in that burning fire ignited a long buried memory in the foals mind.

When he had been just a little foal (even littler than he was today) His daddy and he had been sleeping in a barn one night at the kindness of a farmer since they were passing through the area. Reno didn’t remember why but a fire had started and the barn had been FULL of fresh dry hay and it was quickly ablaze! He remembered being so scared as his father pulled him out of the barn and helped the farmer put out the flames before it caused serious damage to the livestock and the barn itself…He had been terrified of those flames…

And here was another fire! His heart in his chest went thumpity thumpity! His mouth went dry and his knees bent together in fear and he bolted! He bolted away from the fire taking the bunny with him as he did so! Diving into a nearby haystack and burrowing in it he covered his face with his hooves and shook like a leaf! “A..agh put it out put it out..” He muttered to no-one, He didn’t have many fears but fast spreading fire was one of them.

Zecora was quick to hop in and assist the line, grabbing a bucket with her mouth she quickly scooped it full of water and bolted back to the fire and splashed it on the burning leaves, only to do this task again and again to help put out the flames. She spotted poor Carmel fainted away on the ground and she felt herself rolling her eyes and shaking her head, tipping the bucket so that a icy shower of cold water splashed lightly on the Pony’s face to rise her from her slumber “Carmel These are the facts, this is not the time for sleeping acts!” She exclaimed before going back to helping deal with the fire.

She had to admire Bumpkins calm demeanor and level head, but she figured a fire in the apple orchard was nothing new to the earth pony, in fact they were nothing new to Zecora either, where she was from when a fire started the whole village worked very much like this group of foals to douse the flames before they got too high.

Out of the cornor of her eye she spotted a blur of white and green bolt away from the fire and straight to the large haystack…poor little thing had looked terrified to death…

[Corsair]

Snips looks upward at the rising flames in horror. This wasn't supposed to happen, he'd been trying to help!! He tried to struggle to his hooves, but the magical exertion from the unfamiliar spell had drained him, and he flopped back to his belly. Snails had seen what was happening, and tried to levitate a bucket of water, but ended up missing, hitting Haywire. The poor filly that had started this looked like she was in shock as well.

Finally, Miss Cheerilee and one of their hosts ran in, and started setting up a line to throw water on the fire. Since Snips was lying close to the burning tree, he ended up getting drenched from the falling water. That, finally, gave him the the motivation to struggle to his hooves and get back out of the way. He looked up into the tree again, seeing blackened branches and withered apples, still smoking. The colt slumped to the ground again, tired, wet, and with tears forming in his eyes. Even without Miss Cheerilee's calls for 'no magic,' Snips had no desire to use any magic right now. He loved magic, but this was enough to make him regret even being a unicorn. Darnit, he'd only been trying to help...

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails ulped and blushed as he belatedly realized he had grabbed the bucket that Miz Cheerilee was going for. He felt like crawling under a rock as she declared NO MAGIC right after that. "Ah'm sorry Miz. Cherrilee!"

Suddenly Sweetie Belle started rallying the students into fighting the fire after Caramel yelled out instructions.

Snails looked at his friend Snips, laying by the tree until the water got him up "Hay Snips! we kin still help. We just gotta try!"

Spotting the tree where Remington lay sleeping, too close to the burning tree for his tastes, Snails realized he had something to do! "Ah'll join th' bucket line after ah gets Remington awake or away from th' fire."

Snails trotted over and pulled Remington onto his back and ran over to the hay stack Reno disappeared into, then rolled him off gently onto the hay. "Wow! Ah didnt know Pegasuses..umm -sai were so light! Hay, Remington! Wake up! Its a fire! We need yer help!"

[Imagination]

Use her legs? Against an apple tree? Well, she supposed it would be worth a shot, but she knew it was rude to walk away and try again while the teacher was still talking to her. Though with Cheerilee speaking to her about it, there was no way she could hide her responcibility for the goo all over her unfortunate classmates. Ruby looked to her teacher with that false innocence still, but it seemed her stern talking-to was being cut off by something more interesting. What could be more interesting than exploding apples?

Oh...

Oh!

Apple trees on fire. Yeah, that would do it. She didn't want Miss Bumpkin's trees to be on fire! She was too nice for her trees to be on fire! Rather than stand around and gawk, Pinchy wanted to help! While she wasn't nearly foolish enough to try and put the fire out with magic, she heard Miss Cheerilee and others prompting a bucket line. That might just be crazy enough to work! "I'll help!" she happily called out. "C'mon Reno! Lets go put the fire out!" she called out to her coltfriend... But he was nowhere in sight! "Reno...?" she looked toward the line, but he wasn't there! She had to find him! She didn't want to try to put the fire out without him! They both needed to help with the buckets! Teamwork!

[AlisonRose]

She still had not gotten her mind of calming down Cheerilee even though she was now functioning as a proper teacher and trying to get the kids to all help with the fire issue. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to her it was only one three that was actually on fire. Bumpkin couldn't help but smile at the small filly who was calling out for Reno, she thought that the ponies name was Pinchy but she couldn't be sure at the current moment as per all that was running in her mind was: Cheerilee, Fire, Foals, Sister being mad...

"Come on youngins lets help out yer teacher and get this'n here fire out quick, fast, and in a hurry!" She grinned at the end of her words and looked on at all of the ponies scrambling to get water to throw on the fire, but she also noticed that Cheerilee was still too stressed out and missing her tosses with the water. Bumpkin nudged Cheerilee in the side lightly and nodded down to a large bucket of water.

"Care ta help me throw it?" She grinned and blushed slightly at the gorgeous teacher but still attempted to keep her mind straight and in line with the task at hand. She grabbed onto half of the handle and waited patiently for the teacher to grab the other half, their throw would be a glorious one.

[brianblackberry]

All things considered this whole ordeal with the fire could have been a lot worse. The class' reaction was decidedly mixed between frightened panic, confusion, and helpful, which was to be honest, a bit better than she had expected. They were all just young foals after all, with no experience in dealing with this kind of a situation with except maybe little Applebloom. Still the majority manage to create the line to supply buckets of water. Sadly Cheerilee was making a rather poor showing as an earth pony when it came to tossing the water up, "nuts and shoes!"

Cheerilee felt a nudge to her side and was surprised it was Apple Bumpkin - she had expected one the foals instead with a question, not the all too kind owner of the farm. She blushed, still feeling embarrassed by the whole situation, but bewildered by Bumpkin's kindness and calmness during this accident. It was quickly obvious what the farmer pony's idea was and Cherrilee stood on her hind legs as she grabbed onto the bucket along with Bumpkin and, with a shy yet bright smile, she helped toss the bucket up. This time the water hit its mark spot on, putting out the small flames.

"Glad that's over ... I am so, so very sorry! I will personally make sure that any damage is paid for!" Now she just had to get the field trip back on track. All she had to do is check up on one narcoleptic pegasus, one panicked earth pony, make sure the other owner didn't hurt themselves fainting, and find out which pony even caused this to happen! No problem ... right?

Cherilee grabbed one of the rags nearby with her teeth and dipped it in one of the leftover buckets of water, then trotted over to Caramel, placing the cold, wet rag on her forehead. She wasn't sure what else to do at the moment, but had an idea who did. "Zecora, could you make sure Miss Caramel is alright? I gotta check on the foals!"

One way or another, she was going to end this trip on a high note; she promised apple juice and by Celestia they were going to make some!

[QuickLime]

"But ofcourse Miss Cheerilee, leave the poor Mare's care to me" Zecora assured her, putting her hoof in the others head gently and wiped her brow, "Come now dear, the fire is out, no need to fear" She cooed in a soothing voice to the fainted Mare. She could see why Carmel would faint since she probably saw bits on fire and losing all of that must have been like a punch to the gut to poor Carmel! Though Zecora was relived that the fire was out and done with, some foals running around scared, one was asleep...and Ruby was calling out for Reno to boot! It was enough to make ones heart break since she knew the small earth foal was hiding out of pure fear...

Reno stayed hidden under the hay, the bunny curled up at his side, feeling the colts body tremble against it's own, through the hay Reno could hear Ruby calling for him but he couldn't come out! There was a fire and what if it spread and burnt down the entire field and nobody got out and they all got really hurt!? He'd never forgive himself if he wasn't able to help! He whined moving to force himself out of the hay, swallowing in relif seeing the fire was out, but he was rather trembly still "I...I'm over here Ruby..." He felt ashamed now for running like a big sissy pants...Sweet Celestias hamhocks she was going to never wanna be by him again!

[Mojo]

Haywire breathed a sigh of relief that the fire was out and was very thankful it didn't spread. The rust colored filly felt great sadness over what had happened, but she also realized she still had a responsibility to care for the bunny she had hurt earlier. As she galloped over towards where Reno was huddled, she spotted Remmington, who was still asleep,

"HAY REM, WAKE UP!" she shouted as she passed by on her way to Reno.

"Reno?" Haywire calmly asked, "how's the patient?"

[Hippo]

Shortly after Remington's deep sleep experience, he woke up to another foal shouting at him to wake up. Remington received the earshot and it transfered shock into all muscles in his body. He woke up startled. Seeing as a short little filly was the only one over him, and seeing as the sky was mostly blue, he figured he had just dreamed his nightmare. It was so surreal to him. "Oh gosh!" Remington wasn't really completely coherent yet, but he knew enough that he was asleep. "I just had the worst dream. All the trees caught on fire and ponies were chopping down the trees too and.," the more Remington thought about his sleeping experience the more he lost sight of what it was he remembered, "somethin' about a giant apple pony, or something. I forget." Remington got up and looked the filly in the eye. "Did I miss the free cider yet?"

[SteelEagle]

Was reality reality or was it some fictitious, malicious plot by some otherworldly force to torture it's creations? The malignancy of bad luck that constantly shattered her perfect world could not be anything less than the improper actions of a force much greater than her. That was the only way to explain how a plan of such perfect unity and clarity could turn into such an epic disaster. No, it was perfect a plan. Free foal labor for the day coupled with an excellent harvest season equaled heightened profits. Oh, Celestia, why did there have to a fire ruining everything? How she wished for the simplicity of the basic plan. Her sleep was thus heavily disturbed and as she was roused from her fitful sleep by a zebra's lilting tongue, she was no better than she was before.

She raised one trembling, spasming hoof up.

"No, not the leaves the bits the apples the...one plus...ahhh....apple is four..." She mouthed nearly wordlessly, limbs spasming for an extra moment or seven as she very slowly and haphazardly got up. Once up, she examined the damage slowly. It wasn't awful, but every bit mattered. Caramel allowed her head to tap the tree gently before letting out a sigh and turning to her sister, her mane frizzled and panicked. She coughed to clear her throat and give the vague appearance of control.

"Well, that was anything other than fun, no? I believe I have to go shuffle some paperwork and find the bits to repair old Jimmy Jangle here. Have fun, class and Bumpkin?" She more or less stuffed her mouth into her sister's ear for maximum effect as she whispered, "If you see that one try to start a second fire, buck him right in the face."

She pulled back and gave a swift if courteous bow to both Cheerilee and Zecora before trotting back to the house. Well, it started at a trot and ended up in a full gallop- foals were crazy!

(Caramel Exit)

------------------------------

Apple Bloom had done her best to help stop the fire, her little filly back anything other than weak as years of farm labor spoke up in her defense. She brought bucket after bucket and soon the effective use of water brought low the fire that sought to end the tree's brief existence. It was certainly something that despite her calm exterior troubled Apple Bloom tremendously, Just recently she had a scare at Sweet Apple Acres that threatened the lives of many trees, but few things could top the immediacy and fear of a fire consuming a tree. Then again, the solution to a small fire was far easier than the solution to a vast infestation of caterpillars as water was more available in such small quantities.

After a while, all was calm and congratulations were in order and while there were various fillies and colts finalizing their silly conversations, Apple Bloom's focus was unwavering. She was here with family and by Celestia's grace there was going to be juice.

"Well, Ah'm happeh we saved Jimmy Jangle," She began as Caramel ran off like a bat out of Tartarus, "But Ah reckon we got ourselves 'nough apples ta make some juice anyway," Apple Bloom offered to push the group along, pushing herself to the front next to Bumpkin as her eyes spoke that she had very quickly moved on.

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee felt a bit better when Zecora took over caring for the unconscious blue earth pony. Even with the knowledgeable zebra at her side, she still felt profoundly uneasy over the whole situation. Of all of the field trips she'd ever had, and all the crazy antics her students had caused during them, never had she ever had a pony actually faint because of it; definitely one for the diary. "Thanks, Zecora; I'll leave her in your much more capable hooves; I need to check on the rest of the class and hope to Celestia poor Caramel here doesn't want us bucked off of her farm as soon as she awakes."

She trotted over towards the pile of hay where the shaking little green tail of Reno was sticking up. He must have hid in the hay out of fright; an odd place to hide with a fire, but no doubt the little colt didn't think that far into it when he sought shelter from his fears. Poor little guy, he just needed reassurance that it would be alright. Cheerilee spoke in her most cheerful, reassuring voice, smiling. "Reno? It's Miss Cheerile. You can come on out, now, the fire is gone. It was only the one tree and we got it all out! There is no fire left, I promise." It couldn’t hurt to appeal to his colt pride also, “plus I do need you to watch our little long eared friend for me. I know you can do it..”

Remington was awake, which was one less concern for Cheerilee. All the other foals, including Timid Star and his historic bad luck, were not any worse for wear; in fact, they all seemed ready to make apple juice. Even Caramel managed to awaken; thank Celestia for Zecora. Maybe things would work out after all. Only question really remaining was who started the fire in the first place! Once Reno is coxed out of the hay, she’d have to find out.