Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. Now I get to write about my favorite pony: Applejack!

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When they arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, Tammy was amazed at how many apple trees there were. There must have been ten times more than there were at her aunts' farm! She was even more amazed when they reached an orchard filled with multi-colored apples.

"What kind of apples are those?" she asked, pointing.

"Zap apples," Rainbow explained. "You'll love 'em!"

"Applejack looks like she could use some help," Twilight noted. "We should go ask."

The three flyers drifted to the ground, landing in front of the southern pony kicking an apple tree.

"Howdy, y'all," Applejack greeted. "I'd like to chat, but we gotta buck all these here zap apples before they disappear."

"Yup," a red stallion nodded.

"Can we help?" Rainbow Dash offered.

"Sure thing," Applejack agreed. "We can show Tammy—Taffy how it's done around here."

"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed. "I just remembered! I still haven't finished that book on myths and legends the princess asked me to read! I'd hate to leave, but…"

"It's okay, Twilight. Yerr studies come first."

The alicorn smiled and flew off. Tammy looked up at the rainbow fruit.

"I've never seen apples like this before."

Applejack chuckled. "I'm guessin' y'all don't grow zap apples back at yerr farm. Wouldn't be surprised. They're magic."

Tammy noted the rainbow colors and nodded.

"Let me introduce ya to my family here. This here's my brother, Big Macintosh, and this little filly here's my sis, Apple Bloom. Big Mac, Apple Bloom, this here's Taffy. She's new around these parts."

She was met with the big red stallion and a small yellow pony with a pink bow tied in her red hair. The latter held out her hoof.

"Howdy do, Taffy? Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!"

Tammy tried to contain her squeal as she shook the little yellow hoof. She's so freaking adorable!

"Taffy here is gonna help us with the harvest," Applejack announced.

"That's great!" Apple Bloom cheered, jumping up. "We're gonna need all the help we can get!"

"Yup," Big Macintosh agreed.

The green pegasus looked up at the trees. "How are we supposed to pick those if we don't have any fingers?"

Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom wrinkled their noses in confusion. Applejack just laughed.

"Like this."

She demonstrated by kicking her back legs against a tree. The force of her kick shook all the zap apples out of the tree and into the baskets set underneath. The pony proudly crossed her front hooves.

"It's a lot o' hard work, but it really pays off."

I like her, Tammy decided.

"Now you try."

She nodded and went over to an unpicked tree. She looked over at her back legs and hoped those karate lessons would pay off. Closing her eyes, she kicked her hooves out at the tree and as a force of habit, cried, "Hi-ya!"

She opened her eyes to see half the apples fall into the barrels.

"You'll get used to it," Applejack assured her. "Once we're done, we'll make some jam out of them zap apples."

Tammy's stomach growled again at the mention of food, but she did not want to be rude and so did not ask for a snack. Instead, she and Rainbow Dash helped the Apples buck the trees.

"So where are you from?" Apple Bloom asked the newcomer.

"Um, it was…" Tammy tried to remember the name. "Manehattan!"

The little filly's amber eyes widened. "Manehattan?! That's where my cousin Babs lives! Have you met her? Babs Seed?"

"It's a…big island."

"You mean city."

"Right! City! Exactly what I meant!"

"I reckon this all must be new to a city pony like you."

"Actually, my aunts own an apple farm."

"Really? Huh. I thought we were the only apple growing family in Equestria."

It was then that Tammy finally noticed her blank flank. "Hey, how come you don't have a…?" She could not remember the word, but Apple Bloom knew what she was going to say.

"A cutie mark?" She hung her head. "I don't have one yet. I still need to find my special talent."

"Oh." Tammy glanced around at the orchard. "It's not in apple farming?"

"I know, right?! My whole family is in the apple business! Well, except for my Aunt and Uncle Orange, but they're from my ma's side of the family."

"Well, you're young and there's plenty of time to know what you're good at."

"But every pony else in my class has a cutie mark! Every pony but me and my friends. They laugh at us because of it."

Tammy then understood. Earning a cutie mark was a rite of passage, a sign of growing up, like losing your first baby tooth. Then Apple Bloom glanced over at Tammy's mark.

"Hey, how did you earn your cutie mark?"

"Oh, um…" Tammy wanted to tell her she had only just received it today, but quickly decided to tell her how she had chosen to be a country star. "You see, I love country music and have always been a fan of Taylor Swift…"

"Who?" Apple Bloom questioned.

"You've never heard of…?" Then she remembered where she was. "She's a famous singer back where I'm from. Anyway, I wanted to be just like her, so I begged my dad to let me take guitar lessons. I turned out to be pretty good and started to write a few songs of my own. I guess somewhere along the way, this thing appeared."

The filly smiled, signaling that her story was satisfying enough. "That's great. It's like you knew what your special talent was right away."

"Not really. When I was little, I wanted to be an astronaut. Then I wanted to be a dancer, and then a doctor. It took a while before I found my calling."

Apple Bloom sighed as her pink bow drooped. "I wish I could find mine."

"Well what are you good at?"

"Nothing! I've tried hang gliding, scuba diving, cupcake making, dancing, journalism, zip lining, chicken herding…"

"Whoa, okay then! I see you've tried a lot of things. That's good. My mom used to sign me up for all kinds of activities: ballet, choir, soccer, karate. It drove me crazy, but after a few years I realized that she only signed me up for so much so I could find what I was interested in. Singing seemed to stick, and karate I only continued to take care of the bullies at school."

"Already tried karate and kung fu! Didn't work."

"Just find what interests you and you'll find your talent."

A few minutes later, Tammy met up with Applejack.

"How ya doing?" she asked as she bucked another tree.

The green pegasus wiped the sweat from her brow. "This is a lot harder than what we do at my aunts' farm."

"How exactly do you harvest apples there?"

"We get a ladder and we pick them with our hands."

Applejack whistled. "That must take forever!"

"It does! It's fun, though."

"Why don't ya try buckin' 'em?"

"Our legs aren't really designed for this. Besides, we have arms and hands, remember?"

"Oh, right. Well, I suppose if y'all have hands, y'all gotta use 'em for somethin'."

"By the way, your little sister there's adorable!"

The cowgirl laughed. "Isn't she? I wish she'd see just how special she is, but until she gets her cutie mark…"

"Yeah, she told me about that. This whole cutie mark thing, does that mean whatever you do with your life must reflect the picture on your butt?"

"Usually, but not always. For instance, Pinkie's talent is throwing parties and making others smile, but she also makes yummy baked goods at Sugar Cube Corner."

"But what if you change your mind? What if you decide to make a career change?"

"Trust me, I tried that. I switched to cherries instead of apples, and that didn't turn out so well. Based on yerr cutie mark, I reckon ya wanna be a country singer."

Tammy nodded. "It's my dream."

"Well, according to that picture on yerr flank, it's yerr destiny."

This made the human excited. Then Applejack let out a chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I was just rememberin' when Twilight accidentally cast that spell that switched all our cutie marks and changed our destinies. Rarity was controllin' the weather, Rainbow was takin' care of animals…"

"And almost eaten by them!" the pegasus shouted from afar.

"Fluttershy was tryin' to make ponies laugh, Pinkie was buckin' apples, and…" Applejack fell to the ground. "I was makin' dresses!"

Tammy burst out laughing. "You? Making dresses?!"

"I know! And I was horrible at it!"

She clutched her gut and joined the pony in the grass. "Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, it's just…you…at a sewing machine…making a dress…I can't see that happening!"

"Ya know what else?" Applejack said, rolling to her side. "Rarity's diamonds weren't even my color!"

The two started crying tears of joy.

"You say Rainbow Dash had Fluttershy's cutie mark?"

"Yep."

"That hard core pony with butterflies on her butt and taking care of animals? What did you call her? Flutterdash?"

"How about…Rainbowshy?"

"Or Flutter Rainbow?"

"Or Dash Shy?"

"How about my hoof in your face?!"

They opened their eyes to see an angry pegasus standing over them. Instead of being intimidated, they just laughed again.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny. You wouldn't be laughing if you were the one tied up in a pot surrounded by cannibal rodents!"

The two could hardly breathe. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Aren't we supposed to be working here?"

Tammy stopped when she heard her stomach growl. "Gee, I forgot that the reason we came here was because I was hungry."

Applejack wiped away her tears and sat up. "Why don't we take a break? It's around lunchtime, anyway."

She whistled for her siblings and they all followed her into the barn.

"We should still have some fritters," she said, searching the kitchen cupboards. "Ah, here we are. Help yourselves."

They were the best apple fritters Tammy had ever tasted, even better than her Aunt Molly's.

"If we had to choose," Rainbow said with her mouth full, "I'd much rather have switched cutie marks with you, AJ, instead of Fluttershy."

"Me too," Tammy commented. "Farming sure has its rewards."

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Apple Bloom volunteered.

She returned a few seconds later with two fillies her age. One was an orange pegasus with a purple pixie cut and the other was a white unicorn with a curly pink and purple mane. Tammy felt like she was going to die from their cuteness.

"Hey, Scoots," Rainbow waved.

The little pegasus jumped up excitedly. "Rainbow Dash! I didn't know you were gonna be here!"

"I'm helping AJ with the Zap Apple Harvest. You come to help too?" She playfully rubbed the filly's mane.

"Yeah, Sweetie Belle and I wanted to see if farming was our special talent."

"You're not still obsessing over your cutie mark, are you? I told you kid. You wanna get your cutie mark, find an awesome talent!"

"Ahem," Applejack coughed.

"No offense, AJ. I just don't think Scootaloo here is apple material."

The unicorn then noticed Tammy. "Who's this?"

"This is Taffy," Apple Bloom introduced. "She's from Manehattan like Babs. These are my best friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle."

"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Scootaloo proclaimed proudly.

"Oh yeah," Tammy said. "Apple Bloom said you didn't know your talents yet."

"You said your name was Taffy, right?" Sweetie Belle asked. "My sister mentioned you! She said something about your 'horrid coiffure,' but I think your mane looks fine."

"You're Rarity's sister?" She could see the family resemblance.

"She didn't tell you about me, huh? Figures."

"No, I think she mentioned your name once, but I didn't know she was talking about her sister."

Sweetie Belle looked at the green pony's cutie mark. "Ooh, you play guitar?"

"Sure."

"Could you play a song for us?"

"I guess, but I didn't bring my guitar with me."

"We have a guitar in the attic!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "It belonged to our pa!"

Applejack's face fell. "Apple Bloom…"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Nope," their brother agreed.

The little pony raced upstairs and came back with an acoustic guitar in her mouth. She handed it to Tammy and then led her to the couch in the living room. The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat on either side of her while the older ponies settled on the floor.

The human turned pegasus gazed down at the guitar in her hooves. Hooves! How was she supposed to play without any fingers? She saw the eager smiles on the young fillies' faces. She just couldn't disappoint those adorable dears. So she closed her eyes, bit her lip and strummed a chord. The instrument was very out of tune and dusty, as if it hadn't been played in years. So after tuning it, she played the song she had started writing the other day. The guitar must have been designed for hooves, for it was not that difficult.

"Somewhere
There's a land of magic
There's a land of wishes
A land where sunshine
Always reigns

Sometimes
I wish I could be there
I wish I could see there
That land where nothing
Is ever the same."

"I've never heard this song before," Sweetie Belle said when she stopped.

"That's because I wrote it," Tammy explained.

"Really?! Not only do you play music but you write it?!"

"Yeah, but I've been getting writer's block recently. This is all I've managed to write in the past couple of weeks."

"Well, can I make a suggestion?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

"How about for the chorus, you sing:

"Anything can happen
If you close your eyes and dream
You could find out that the world
Is much more than it seems."

Tammy was quite impressed by the unicorn's voice. "Wow! That's amazing!"

Sweetie Belle blushed. "Oh, it's nothing."

"Nothing? That was incredible! Mind if I use that?"

"Go ahead, it's okay."

"I'm telling you girl, you've got a gift."

"We keep telling her she has an awesome voice," Apple Bloom pointed out. "She doesn't believe us."

"You're not so bad yourself," Scootaloo said. "Hey, can you teach us how to play that thing? We could be guitar players!"

The three fillies screamed at a volume that would rival Godzilla's howl. "YAY! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER GUITAR PLAYERS!"

Tammy rubbed her ears. "Yeah, okay. But I warn you that it takes times to learn guitar. Besides, I don't think Sweetie Belle needs a music lesson."

"Really?" the unicorn asked.

"Really. Have you ever thought your special talent might be singing?"

She put her hoof to her chin. "Hmm, I do like to sing…"

They were interrupted by an elderly cry. A green aging pony slowly entered the room, her eyes half asleep.

"W-what's this here racket?" she demanded in a grandma voice. "I was takin' a nap and…"

She then hung her head and snored. Applejack chuckled.

"This here's our Granny Smith," she said to Tammy.

One of the strings of the guitar snapped as the name rang in the disguised human's ears. "Did you say…Granny Smith? Like the brand name?"

"I don't know about any brand, but yes, my granny's name is Smith."

She stared at the elderly pony in disbelief. She had heard that name before, not just from the produce isle, but from her aunts. One of the ponies they had mentioned in their stories was one called Granny Smith.

"She wasn't really a grandma," Megan had explained. "Her kids weren't even married yet. She was just so old that everyone called her Granny."

"Her family ran an apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres," Molly had said. "They had the best apples around and Granny Smith made the most delicious apple pies!"

She remembered now, and could not believe it. All those years she had called those stories nonsense, and here was one of the characters, living and breathing…sort of. What were the odds that she would run into her? She wondered if the old pony even recalled her aunts. She certainly would not be able to tell if Tammy was their niece, as she did not look like herself at the moment.

Then Granny Smith opened her eyes and gasped. "By golly! Is that you, Pease Blossom? Ya gone and turned green!"

Tammy glanced around and then pointed to herself. "Are you talking to me?"

"You'll have to forgive her," Applejack said. "She gets a little confused in her old age. Granny, this here's Taffy."

The pony rubbed her head. "I could've sworn… Oh, nuggets. These eyes must be playing tricks on me. How're the zap apples coming along?"

"We have plenty for you to start makin' the jam. That reminds me. We better get back to work!"

Granny Smith watched as the green pegasus followed the others out. "It's uncanny. Maybe…nah, it couldn't be."

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No, Twilight was not trying to get out of work, I just wanted her out of the scene. THE CMC ARE ADORABLE! Who agrees with me?