trans_9 | Doing the Dirty Work [Open!]

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Doing the Dirty Work [Open!]

How did Applejack stand working so hard around the farm? Her secret was simple: combining work and play. She'd brought the same styl to Hydroponics, where she'd sectioned off a small patch of the ground to be a place for some of the animals to play. The grass was dug up and seeds were planted elsewhere, water was poured, and Applejack herself was pounding her legs into the dirt. Making mud! Her bright orange coat was now coated in brown, and the longer she worked, the further she sank.

But this wasn't very fun. Back home, she'd done---yeah, that was what was missing! She hopped out of her little mud pit, tracked dirt across the grass, and set off at a fast trot. "Yee-haw!"

If anypony happened to be hanging about, they'd be splattered when the large pony came crashing down, rolling in her little pit of dirt. Her hat sat some distance to the side, miraculously untouched by the splattering of mud. Surely most would know to stay away from such a display.

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"Sure thing, sugar!" Just like that, Applejack hopped out of the mud and craned her neckk upward. "Where're we off to?"

Sugar? So weird, like she was someone's mom or something. Well, whatever.

She took a look at the Hydroponics bay. "Ok, lets go from this tree to the beer making tree all the way down there. First one there wins!"

"You're on!" Applejack threw her hat back over her head, whooped, and looked over at Mindy. "Ready?"

Mindy was loosened up, stretching. "Ready! Let's do this!"

"Yee-haw!"

Applejack tore off across the field, curious to see how Mindy would do. She was strong for a little human girl.

Oh, she could have a start: Mindy had gotten herself good and stretched, and then she took off, finding herself in hot pursuit with the pony.

She hadn't jumped into her extraordinary speed yet: no, she wanted to beat Applejack fair and square, and that involved her using all the muscles she had. Soon she was neck and neck with the pony, moving with all her body at work.

Applejack looked surprised. "Working hard, aren'tcha?" She kicked up to her full speed, straining hard, but that Mindy sure was something. She was still winning.

"I always do!" Mindy said, straining just as hard. Sure, she could possibly have kicked it into her supernatural speed, but she didn't want to do that: she wanted to win fair and square, and if she didn't, well, she wanted to normally be as fast as Applejack if she could help it.

"How did you get this fast," she called out.

"Herding!" Applejack hollered, sprinting the last bit to see how Mindy would keep up. She was amazing, honestly.

"Can't chase after runaway critters if you can't keep up!"

Mindy was not about to slwo, even if her legs were definitely working overtime and killing her, even if she was working up a sweat.

"I run a lot!" She said, hoping Applejack wouldn't ask for details. Running and shooting and killing was not how she wanted to9 describe her repertoire.

They finally came to a stop, Applejack bent over her front hooves to catch her breath.

"On some kind of track team?"

"Something like that," Mindy huffed, once they were done. It had been a good race, and though it had been close, Apple Jack had finally earned the win.

"What I do requires me to be pretty fast. Good race, AJ. I guess I'm going to have to work pretty hard to beat you next time."

"But not too hard, y'hear? Gotta have time for all that other stuff," she breathed, grinning over at the girl.

"A lot of people keep telling me that," Mindy said, shaking her head. "I dunno, I sorta figured evil aliens that could attack at any minute might be more important than fun."

That was a lie, mostly: she had fun just like anyone else. But she was curious about what Applejack would reply to that.

"Yeah, and I gotta get this ready to feed y'all too. But life doesn't have to be awful."

She tossed her mane again and grinned. "When you don't have time to have work and play, you make the work fun!"

Mindy shrugged. "I never said like was awful, just that its tough. Any life is when you have to adjust to it, right? But part of the fun is finding ways to gt stronger."

At least she thought so. "I guess I could do that. I don't usually think of work and fun going hand in hand, but I'm sure I can manage that, right?"

"Sure thing! You could play games with your excercise, couldn't you?"

She did! "Over the barrels! Outrun the sheep?"

"Yeah, probably," Mindy said, thinking it was hardly likely. If she was going to play any games, they were usually going to be with Ruffnut, and they were usually going to involve somebody crashing into something, usually Ruffnut.

Mindy laughed. "Sorry, I'm from Manhattan, I'm definitely not used to doing anything involving barrels or livestock."

"Manehattan?" Applejack knew where that was! "Big city place, right? My Aunt and Uncle Orange lived there. Went to all kinds of fancy dinner parties."

And she hadn't liked them at all, but she wouldn't mention it.

"It might be a little different, yours and mine," she said, although for all she knew, maybe it was just the pony thing that made it different. "Where I'm from, there's skyscrapers and business districts, but I live in the poorer neighborhoods. We just have an apartment. Still, no livestock in places like that. You have to go Upstate for that."

Assuming that even existed in...Equestria, was it?

"Sounds a bit rough n' tumble to me," she observed. "Did you ever see those bigger spaces, way past all those big buildings?"

"Well, we had parks and stuff," Mindy said. "I had plenty of fun going there."

That had to be, without a doubt, the biggest pile of bullshit coming out of Mindy's mouth, and that was saying something. Whether it was junkyards, abandoned alleys, Mindy had PLENTY of ways to get exercise. If Applejack looked, she'd see that the girl had more muscles than girls her age ought to have.

"Oh, the park!" Applejack loved parks! Nice open spaces that she didn't have to fuss over, other ponies took care of it. "I used to play fetch with Winona all the time."

Yes, a pony has a pet.

"Play fetch?" This was not computing. She was a pony. How did ponies have pets?

"You mean, with a dog? Does it talk too?"

"Yup! Winona's my herding dog. I miss her---wonder if she made it," she thought sadly. "Nah, she can't talk. The other animals on the farm can't either."

She did not seem to think that there was anything strange about this.

Doing the Dirty Work [Open!]

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