The sun was beating down hard on Sweet Apple Acres, and the vast orchards of apple trees were green, lush and utterly laden with their titular fruit. The land's owner, the Apples, were hard at work collecting their trade from every tree they could lay their eyes on, carefully climbing up ladders to pick them from the branches before laying them in the baskets below. Applejack especially was giving it her all, going from tree-to-tree, never stopping, never slowing down, and most of all, never doing her work without a smile upon her face. This was her life, what she loved, and was work she put her heart into with every moment of the day.

However, as the hours rolled on by, she stopped for a moment, looking around for a while before laying her sight on someone on the other side of the orchard. For some reason, she narrowed her eyes, and climbed down her ladder before marching off in their direction. It took a few moments, but Applejack finally made it to that person; Big Macintosh, her brother. She stood there in silence for a few moments, raising one eyebrow and folding her arms while tapping her foot, and after a while, Mac stopped his own work before finally noticing her. An uncomfortable silence fell between the two siblings, with Mac's eyes darting from left-to-right, all while his face bore the unmistakeable signs of someone guilty. After this unbearable silence had gone on for as long as humanly possible, Mac finally relented.

"Um...eyup?"

Unfolding her arms, Applejack instead placed her hands on her hips before speaking to her brother.

"Mac...ain't this the part of the orchard we asked Aria ta help us with?"

Yet again, Mac seemed uncomfortable in answering his sister, yet her piercing gaze effectively forced him to do so.

"...Eyup."

Applejack frowned.

"And yet ah see y'all bein the one ta do it?"

"...Eyup?"

Applejack's frown deepened.

"..She convinced y'all ta do it for her, didn't she?"

At that, Mac looked down with a degree of shame.

"...Eyup."

Applejack slapped her forehead and let out a grunt of frustration.

"Ugh! Alright! Where is she?"

Mac said nothing, instead raising one hand and pointing over to the other side of the orchards. Applejack turned in that direction, knowing full well in her mind where their visitor would be, and so, without giving her brother another word, began to storm off in that direction, leaving Mac quite relieved she wasn't glaring at him anymore. Applejack marched onwards with purpose in her expression, passing tree after tree in search of her quarry. And soon enough, her journey yielded fruit, as she finally caught sight of her. Aria, one of the three Sirens of Equestria that had caused Applejack and her friends a great deal of trouble in the past.

Currently, the purple-haired girl was sitting beside a scenic-looking pond, resting on the grass while leaning her back against a nearby apple tree. Her hands were resting behind her head, her face bore a look of contentment about it, and, to complete this "relaxed" image, she had put her boots to one side, leaving her feet bare as she rested. Applejack, frowning at this inactive image, walked right up to her and folded her arms yet again. Aria, at first, didn't notice her arrival, until Applejack stood between her in the sunlight, casting a shadow upon her face. Now frowning herself, Aria cracked one eye open, upon which she saw a rather irritated-looking Applejack looking down on her. However, the Siren seemed unconcerned with this, and instead began to speak in that dismissive tone she always had.

"Would ya mind stepping aside, farm girl? You're kinda in my light."

At that, Applejack's frown deepened.

"Y'all are supposed ta be helpin out with the orchards! Not layin here doin nothin!"

Aria scoffed at that.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not doing nothing. I'm relaxing! That's something!"

Applejack slapped her forehead again before speaking up.

"That's...ugh! Why did y'all volunteer ta help out if yer just gonna ignore yer job?"

Like Applejack, Aria gained a deep frown of her own with those words.

"As I keep telling you, I didn't volunteer! Adagio, in her infinite wisdom, just put my name forward for this herself!"

But Applejack just waved that reasoning off.

"Well, yer here, and if yer here, then there's gonna be work. End of story!"

Aria chuckled at that.

"That big brother of yours has it covered, Apples. Real nice guy too. Pretty sweet of him to take on a whole other job like that when he heard I hurt my arm and all that."

At that, Applejack's sight drifted down to both of Aria's arms, neither of which seemed to have any sign of bruising or injury to them, which, naturally, only caused her to look even more annoyed.

"They don't look hurt ta me."

Aria rolled her eyes.

"They were getting tired. That's basically the same as getting hurt for real, right?"

Applejack raised an eyebrow, prompting Aria to let out a huff.

"Ugh! Fine! So I told a bit of a lie. Big deal! What's the problem? The work's still getting done, isn't it?"

If Applejack was merely annoyed before, she was positively furious now, as she glared angrily at the Siren below.

"Y'all lied ta mah brother! Ya didn't even hesitate ta do it!"

But Aria seemed unconcerned with that, looking to Applejack with her usual dismissive attitude.

"So? It's not hurting anyone, right? Besides, I hear tell that old Rainbow shirks the work you give her whenever she comes over, so why should I get this kind of treatment?"

Unfortunately for Aria, Applejack already had an answer for that.

"Rainbow takes a while ta get going, and yeah, she grumbles all the way, ah grant ya that. But she still does it! Besides..."

Her eyes narrowed.

"...she never did anything bad that she needed ta make up fer!"

At that, Aria gave Applejack her full attention, finally starting to get up from her spot. Once she was up on her feet, she gave Applejack an equally-angry glare.

"Oh no, Apples. You don't wanna go there. We're having such a nice chat here, so I doubt you wanna go and ruin that by bringing up bad memories, now do you?"

Applejack narrowed her eyes further.

"Get back to work like yer supposed ta do, and ah won't."

Both girls had their faces about an inch from one another now, and the tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. But Aria, standing her ground on this matter, raised one hand, brought it close to Applejack's beloved Stetson, and gained a look of utter cockiness.

"Make me!"

And with that, the Siren casually flicked her fingers, knocking Applejack's hat clean off her head. The farm girl watched as her Stetson slowly dropped to the ground, and when it finally reached the grass below, she turned to Aria with fire in her eyes. Both girls knew what was going to happen now, and neither hesitated to just get on with it, as they ferociously lunged at each other. Applejack's efforts were effective at the start, knocking Aria back into the tree she'd been sitting by, before the latter began to quickly recover and shoved her off, before charging at her, with the impact knocking her to the ground. Both girls rolled around in the grass for some time, each trying to get the upper hand in this fight, and both were becoming covered in stray bits of grass with every roll they made. This went on for several minutes, until finally, they rolled once too much, and soon found themselves going right into the nearby pond, sinking beneath the surface as a result.

However, even here, they continued to struggle, shaking each other and even getting a few blows to their respective opponent's stomachs every once in a while. Unfortunately, one can only fight underwater for so long, and sure enough, both of them began to stop fighting, instead clutching at their throats with a lack of air. A look passed between them at this point, and though no words were spoken, the message was nevertheless clear; truce. They swam as fast as possible back to the surface, letting out a massive gasp for air as they clambered for the edge of the pond. After climbing out, with their clothes utterly sodden, they both turned over and collapsed onto their backs, both trying to catch their breath for a few moments, all while Aria looked more than a little annoyed.

"A Siren...unable...to breathe...underwater. How...humiliating!" she said, while still panting.

Applejack turned to her, and, in spite of everything that had just happened between them, spoke in a far calmer way than she had before.

"Well...ah gotta say...y'all don't...go down easy."

Aria turned to her, raising an eyebrow as she did so.

"Yeah? Well...you're pretty tough too, Apples."

Turning from each other, both girls instead looked up at the sunny sky, still catching their breath. Then, much to Aria's confusion, she actually started to hear Applejack, of all things, laugh. She turned, bearing a look of confusion as the farm girl continued to chuckle away, and soon afterwards, despite not really knowing why, Aria herself joined in. And so, the two girls laid there, tired, soaking, yet still laughing together, if for no other reason than their mutual knowledge of how ridiculous this whole situation was. When the laughter finally died down, Applejack, having caught her breath at last, slowly got up to her feet and, in a move that surprised Aria to no end, actually offer her a hand.

"So...cider?"

Looking from Applejack's face to her hand and then back again, Aria gained a sly smile before chuckling again, taking the hand and holding it tight.

"Oh Faust, Yes!"