Lunch when you feed mainly through dark energy focused through artifacts of Abyssal Trench magic: Hatred, resentment, bitterness, envy, anger, and emotional pain.

Lunch when you used to feed mainly through dark energy focused through artifacts of Abyssal Trench magic but now leave Adagio to do the cooking: Sandwiches, some manner of fruit or fruit juice, sometimes deep-fried stuff, and a snack, often a bowl of potato chips or something.

Lunch at Applejack's (Sonata had given up on nicknames) place? Apples, apples, apples, apples, apples, apples, apples, apples!!

Okay, sure, it was an apple farm, so they practically had the stuff growing on trees, but that was their whole arrangement; apple pies, apple fritters, apple slices, apple-this, or apple-that. Luckily, Sonata found she actually liked apples and their many mutilated incarnations! Some chips wouldn't have gone amiss, though.

Once again, Sonata found herself drafted into a work force following a free meal, but this time it was actually part of her plan, and thus not a hiccup! She'd offered to replace the apples she'd helped munch and crunch for lunch with the super-secret goal of swiping some apples for herself when nobody was looking. Loot was loot and hunger was painful. Rainbow, however, bailed, her real name never uncovered because even Applejack had referred to her by the alias!

That poor, rainbow-haired freak, doomed to walk the earth with nobody knowing her true identity. Like a super hero. Or a homeless person. Or a super homeless person.

So, out they went to the orchard, where lines and lines of short, bushy trees laden with delicious red orbs waited. Also, there were big ol' buckets in some places, like great big wash-tubs with strappy bag-things lying on the ground next to them.

"These here are pickin' baskets," she said while lifting one of the strappy bag-things, "usin' 'em is real simple." She held it out to show that there were two long straps that folded over each other like those of a bra and began to put it on with the bag-part resting over her stomach. "All ya have to do is cross it at the top, put yer arm in one side, then the other, then over yer head, then yer good to go!"

Sonata picked up another 'basket', which looked nothing like what she'd have called a basket, but poor, dumb, backward country people had all kinds of funny names for things, so she didn't say anything. "Just put your arm through it, cross on top, tie it around... No, wait, hold under, I, oop!"

Applejack watched in bemused silence as Sonata tangled herself up in the straps, wondering how many times she'd seen someone do that now. Sunset picked it up right quickly, but I suppose not everyone is that clever. Not that it was hard, but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. A few minutes later, she'd de-tangled Sonata and gotten the basket on properly, the two of them moving to begin harvesting.

"Ah really appreciate ya helpin' out here, Nata."

She delivered a big, practiced, happy grin. "No problem-o, Applejack!" And with this 'basket', swiping apples will be even easier! I wish the bags at the mall worked like this.

"The job's pretty straightforward," she said as they stopped by a tree that no kite would ever get stuck in to begin her demonstration, "just reach out, grab an apple, twist it a little to break the stem, put it in the basket, and keep goin'."

Sonata watched Applejack's arms move in an almost rhythmic fashion, like some of the slow, bedroom-eyes dance moves Adagio had her practice. Arm out, grab apple, bend inward close to chest to drop apple in basket while doing it again with the other arm. Apple-picking is kind of sexy...

She shook her head. That kind of thing would have to wait until she was living in a house with its own helicopter pad, right now she had swiping to do! And she'd do it in plain sight! Mimicking her mark, she grabbed an apple, pulled at it, and was met with resistance. Glancing at Applejack, she remembered the twisty part to break the stem's neck and steal its head, so she started doing that and glorious progress was made! Within a minute, Sonata had worked into a rhythm herself, picking apples! ALL the apples! At least until her 'basket' started to get full, which Applejack noticed before she could point out something really distracting and make off with her tasty loot.

"You full up too? Follow me."

They headed to one of the big ol' washtub things, Applejack positioning herself so that her 'basket' was just past the rim before pulling two little straps on the side of the 'basket', which triggered some kind of alien farmer technology to make the bottom of the 'basket' fall open, depositing all the apples into the big ol' washtub. The washtub was actually a super-basket!

Sonata followed the leader, so to speak, partly because knowing a quick way to drop loot would be handy in the future and partly because there was no making a clean getaway with Applejack standing right there. Pulling the little straps on her own 'basket', she released the apples into the washtub with the others. Presumably, there was some kind of apple-collection fairy that came and got all these apples to bring them to the pie-making elves. Yum.

Note to self; swipe your own apple-collection fairy and/or pie-making elves at some point.

Applejack showed Sonata how to tie her bag back up so the juicy loot wouldn't just fall right out of again and they walked back toward the short trees. Sonata moved to start picking from the closest tree, but Applejack pulled her away from it.

"Woooah, nelly, don't wanna go near them trees, Nata. C'mon, this way." She led them toward a row in the opposite direction, but Sonata's brain was working!

Oooh, secret garden, huh? I bet that's where they keep the best apples!

Still, she couldn't make off with any of them with Applejack around, so once they'd started up the smooth arm motions again, she opted to bide her time and reinforce the Apple Clan's trust of her with small-talk. "So, you pick apples like this all day?"

"Not all day, but this is a lot of it. Tirin' work, so lemme know when you wanna call it quits."

Ohh, no you don't! I'll get that loot, and if I have to, I'll outlast you to do it! Sonata grinned her spunkiest grin. "Don't worry about me, I can go all day!"

Applejack let out a surprised chuckle. "Well, Ah'm glad to hear that, but I just don't wanna work ya to the bone, is all. Rarity told me what happened at the mall."

Ack, she knows! "Haha, h-heard about that, huh?"

The possible descendant of pie-making elves gave her an encouraging smile. "Hey, don't worry 'bout a thing. Way Ah hear it, you held up pretty darn good with all them bags, and ya can't go wrong with a can-do spirit."

"Even in going wrong?"

Applejack stopped picking for a second. "Uh, what?"

Sonata's face showed only earnest curiosity. "You said you can't go wrong with a can-do spirit, so what if you put that can-do spirit to going wrong? Does that mean you can't can-do anymore because the can-do can't-do wrong?"

Staring back at the siren in silence, Applejack puzzled for the better part of a minute before giving up and scratching her head. "Ah'm not real good with brain-teasers, Nata."

Sonata beamed. "That's okay, neither am I!"

Applejack felt like she was just stabbed in the brain with a hot poker. Ow... My poor cognition... Not even Pinkie normally got her that confused that fast. This had to register as some kind of weapon, Applejack was sure. Smiling nervously, she wanted to get back to work before things got worse. "What's say we keep cleanin' these trees, huh?"

Blink. "We're supposed to be cleaning them? I thought we were picking apples, I didn't bring soap or anything!"

Ohh, heavens, this is going to be one of those days, isn't it?

Yelling had not worked. At all. It was weird, because Adagio usually got so steamed when they had the gall to yell at her that she'd go into big-evil-bossy mode almost right away. Today, it only seemed to make her cry harder. Aria had listened at the door a few times since the last attempt, and while Adagio apparently wasn't water-logged, shouting at her while she wasn't crying sent her right back to it. It made Aria think of dealing with a little girl, which she didn't have tons of experience with. Still, she had a plan.

She approached Adagio's door with her new weapons in hand; a pair of paper dolls she'd drawn up and cut out to look like tiny, cartoony versions of Adagio and Sonata. They were puppets. Kids liked puppets, right? Sure they did, the stupid little runts liked anything that could keep their attention for five minutes. She knelt by the door, sliding the puppets most of the way under so that they'd be visible on the other side, but still easy to slide around with her fingertips.

"Oh, hi Adagio," she made the Sonata puppet say in a ludicrisly high, squeaky voice while wiggling it back and forth, as was standard puppet behavior, "can you come out to play?"

"No," Aria made the Adagio puppet answer in a low, depressed drone, "I'm busy staying in my room all day."

"Why are you doing that," asked squeaky-voiced PuppetNata, "do you have a split-end?"

"Yes," muttered PuppetDagio, "but the main reason is that I'm just too moody and miserable to do more than sit around on my ever-growing ass."

"That plan stinks, you should just snap out of it and go back to being your old self so we can get that whole be-great-and-conquer-the-world thing!"

"You know, I really should, because sitting in my room and crying my eyes out is starting to leave marks on my face."

"Gasp! So you'll come out now?!"

"Yes, you toothpaste-haired imbecile, I think I will!"

Aria made the puppets dance back and forth in unison.

"Yaaay!"

"Yaaay!"

Then she stopped the performance, listening in complete silence. Come on, don't tell me she slept through that. She pulled the puppets out from under the door, jumping with a start when she noticed some... changes had been made while they were poking into Adagio's room. The puppets had been scribbled on in pen to make it look like their eyes were gouged out, along with red marker to give the impression that they were both weeping blood. All done in surprisingly high detail.

Woah. Metal. Didn't know she could draw... Wonder if I could get her to do like, a big, spiky, bear on fire or something... She even got the blood to look like it was trickling at different angles on their bodies, not just straight down the paper. How did she do this without me noticing?

Well, that was a 'no dice' on this plan. Back to the drawing board. Perhaps literally.

Work was coming along well.

"...And then I thought, 'How can my feet smell if they don't have a nose?' You know what I mean, Applejack?"

The same could not be said for Applejack's sanity. They'd replaced the apples consumed for lunch today ten times over by now, (give or take, Applejack wasn't great with math) but she couldn't help feeling she was losing that many brain cells listening to Sonata talk. It was like Pinkie Pie when she was talking about abstract concepts or whatever it was. Thankfully, Applejack's phone eventually buzzed at her with a text, which she answered eagerly.

About blasted time!

"Ah gotta head out, but I'll be back in a jiffy, think you'll be okay on yer own fer a bit?"

Grinning, Sonata nodded. "Sure thing!" The grin stayed as she watched Applejack go over to the apple-fairy washtub, dump her loot, and drop the bag before jogging off. Then it got wider.

Too. Easy.

At least Aria put up a fight when Sonata annoyed her into leaving, usually to claim the remote to the TV. She wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, though.

Anyway. Apples. Loot. Time to get swiping.

She headed toward that little area Applejack had steered her away from earlier, because if the Apple Munchkins themselves stayed out of that particular magic forest, they'd never notice if something went missing there! It was genius, she was sure Adagio would pat her on the head and-

Sonata stopped where she stood, grabbed her own head in both hands, and shook it furiously. It was out.

There actually weren't all that many apples in the secret area, not in gonna-need-a-dump-truck proportions, anyway, so she went deeper. And deeper. As she wasn't actually sure how deep this untapped treasure trove of fruity loot actually went, she started wandering around at random. This might not have actually been the area Applejack tried to keep her out of, but she was sure she'd find those special apples some time!

Maybe they were big, golden apples that tasted like being rich! Or even better, actual golden apples! I've heard money doesn't grow on trees, but nobody said anything about gold! That would be even better than like, a billion apples! Food was great and all, but with real shiny stuff, she could buy all kinds of food! And that penthouse! The one she'd fly to every day in a helicopter while people ate out of her trash! That was probably what they were hiding here; the apple-collection fairies and pie-making elves were in cahoots with the leprechauns, and possibly some other kind of short, magical people that gathered valuables! She'd rob 'em all blind!

Skulking around like a master hunter, a master hunter with a big ol' apple-picking 'basket' on hanging over her stomach, Sonata carefully scanned the area. Many little trees, many little leaves, and some apples. She skulked yet further, not stopping to ponder about what the word 'skulk' meant, because she had important gold-hunting to do! Before long, she heard a tiny, gone-in-a-blink little noise, whipping her head in that direction only to find...

Nothing!

Leprechauns!

Trying to imagine she was still wearing her jedi helmet, Sonata focused, honing her senses to... sense stuff. She continued to skulk, wishing she had a survival knife or a machete or something to hold out in front of her, but there was no time for pointy things! She heard the noise, some kind of buzzy sound, but she didn't risk scaring it away by rapidly turning her head again. Instead, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the sound, turning to face away from it. She slowly took a few steps backward, hearing the leprechaun buzz get just a little louder.

Grinning deviously, she continued the backwards advance, knowing that leprechauns only disappeared if you saw them and looked away, and that with her eyes closed, they'd never suspect her! With more steps back, she was sure she was getting closer as the buzzy hum droned a little louder, she'd have that gold in no time fla-

Her behind bumped into something flat and hard. Before she could ponder whether or not leprechauns built little fortresses, the buzzing grew much louder and she felt a few little stabs of pain in her rear.

"OWOWOWOWOWOW!!"

The leprechauns were attacking! She opened her eyes, whipped around, and saw a big, white box thing. Surrounded by bees. Angry bees, which, according to that documentary she had to sit through one day when there was nothing else on, had probably marked her as 'Kill this' now that their pheromones had been released by those first few stings.

So leprechauns are secretly bees and the gold is honey? Who knew?

That in mind, she ran like the wind as the swarm descended on her.

Stepping out of the house, Applejack smiled. Despite the little headache with Sonata, she had a good feeling about today, and all she had to do to help was bake a pie! It was in the oven now, so she jogged out to find Sonata and bring her inside to rest.

I do hope she didn't lose her way out here, she seems like quite the city-girl and I know this place can be confusing for some people. Or worse, perhaps she wandered into the area in which we host the bees for making Zap Apple Ja-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Applejack facepalmed.

Author's Notes:

Personal headcanon: in the human world, Zap Apple Jam is just a sweetened product.

Another one: Applejack doesn't twang in her own head. In fact, I like to imagine the voice in her thoughts sounds very posh and elegant, Cutie Mark Chronicles style, but it's a secret she'll take to her grave.

Also, this chapter comes with a teeny bit of research.

Arm yourself with knowledge! Or make Twilight cry, that's fine too.