I went to visit Mac at Fluttershy's house, then to the orchard to talk to Applejack. I haven't seen her very much lately. She can get pretty busy when there's a lot of work to be done on the farm (which is nearly always). I respect her work ethic, and I think it's what we have most in common.

She seemed a bit antsy yesterday at the train station, but I didn't quite connect the dots until I went back to the library and thought it over. Today I told her she looked a bit nervous yesterday, and asked her what was on her mind. Applejack says that a few trees of the Autumn harvest variety are missing all of their apples, and she doesn't know which "critters" (her term) are responsible. It's pretty weird. Those apples are small and green, and this time of year animals are much more likely to eat the ripe apples from the Spring harvest which mature through the Winter. She has no idea how long they've been missing, because their absence is easy to overlook (small and green, like all the leaves in the background).

AJ certainly knows more about apples than I do, so she might be on to something. But in any event, it's only a few trees. The orchard loses a significant share of the crop to nature every year. It's part of the cost of being an "organic" farmer. That's what Rarity called it when I shared the story with her, but that sounds almost like Flim-Flam to me. Isn't every tree organic?