A Whole New World

I had the same dream again that night. I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong, but my family still looked at like I was a freak of nature. All I could do was be held in place as my family disappeared into the wind again.

I heard a rooster calling in the distance, and it was enough to wake me up; I didn't want to go back to sleep. I almost yelled out, however, as I saw a large orange face staring down at me. Applejack moved out of the way as I sat up, a look of concern on her face.

"You alright Dutch? Ya had cold sweats goin' on and you were mumblin' in yer sleep."

"I'm fine Applejack. Just a bad dream." I didn't want to discuss the issue.

"Well, Ah'm not surprised. The floor ain't built fer sleepin' on. Yer welcome to lie on the couch until we get the guest room cleared. Then ya can sleep there, and hopefully have a better night."

I was surprised at this. They were going to let me sleep in their home properly already? "Are you sure AJ? I wouldn't want to impose--"

Applejack cut me off, "Ah'm sure sugarcube. You seem civil enough. Big Mac wanted you to sleep in the barn but Ah wasn't havin' any of it."

Wow. She really meant it. I'd have to find some way to repay them later.

"Anyway, Ah was wonderin' if ya wanted me to give ya a tour around our farm. Ah've got a day off today, and Ah want to learn more about ya."

I was interested in learning more about ponies too, so I accepted her offer, and we both left the house, wandering down the path towards the farm. I had a question that had been bugging me since we had left, so I decided to speak up, "Applejack, can I ask you something?"

"Sure Dutch, what's on yer mind?"

"Why are you helping me so much? If a human found me they would either chase me off their property, or make sure I was ok, then chase me off their property. But you're offering me shelter and food until I find a way home. I've never met someone offering so much hospitality so quickly."

Applejack looked at me with astonishment. She hadn't expected something so polite to come from a species that sounded so mean. "We found ya injured in our barn, and it wouldn't have been decent to leave ya out there to freeze. We saw it as our responsibility to help ya." She gave me a soft smile.

"Well, regardless, I can't thank you enough for everything you've already done. I wish there was someway I could repay you, but I don't have anything to offer you."

"That's alright Dutch. Ya don't have to repay us."

I was shocked. Her family had saved me from certain death, and she asked for nothing in return? I paused for a moment, but decided I wasn't going to take no for an answer. "I want to repay you though. I would feel so guilty if I just walked away."

Applejack looked me in the eyes, and rubbed her chin. Eventually she said, "Well, if ya really wanna help, we could always use some extra work around the farm. There's crops that need harvestin', and apple trees to be bucked. It's good if yer lookin' fer money too."

Excellent. I always enjoyed manual labour, I seemed to be able to find some sort of freedom in it. "That sounds great. But you don't have to pay me. After all, I owe you."

"Well, if yer sure about it. Oh, we're here."

I looked forward, and found myself in the orchard where I had met Applejack yesterday. This must have been the largest part of the farm, because they wouldn't have named their farm after apples for any other reason.

"This here's our orchard, and one of the largest in Equestria if Ah say so mahself," Applejack said, her face filled with pride. She pointed over to a few patches of trees, with several dozen in each group. "We harvest those throughout the year to keep our farm runnin'. Of course, when Applebuck Season comes along, we take those trees over there." She pointed in a different direction, where there must have been hundreds of apple trees, all standing in perfect lines until they reached the horizon. I couldn't get my mind round how they would manage to harvest so many trees in one period of the year.

We kept walking, and eventually reached the edge of a forest. I almost wasn't aware of it, but I stopped in my path when I realised that this was the forest I had come out of. It looked completely different in the daylight, but that didn't stop me remembering the wolves.

"Applejack, do you know what this place is?"

"Yeah, it's the Everfree Forest. Almost everpony avoids that place. It just ain't natural compared to the rest of Equestria." Applejack shuddered when she mentioned its name.

"I remember coming out of here before I found your farm." I said, peering in through the trees. They were still as bleak as they had been. Applejack looked at me with surprise, "So it was you! Ah was wonderin' what had made the wolves so uptight. They were howlin' somethin' awful the other night." I didn't reply, and I certainly wasn't going to mention that I had killed one of them. I don't think that would've worked in my favour.

We continued with the tour, and as we came over the crest of a hill, I saw a town in the distance. It was small, but I hadn't seen or heard any vehicles, so I assumed the towns and cities would be slightly smaller to accomodate the lack of fast transport. Applejack came over the hill and saw the town too.

"That's Ponyville," she said, "That's were most of mah friends live, and were I go locally to sell our apples."

The town would mean more ponies, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to meet more of them just yet. Three was already more than enough, "Uh Applejack, is it ok if we don't go there yet. I'm just not sure how everybody... everypony will react." It felt wierd saying it like they did, but it wasn't something I wouldn't get used to.

"Don't worry about it Dutch. Most of 'em would probably be pretty darn scared of ya. You can stay at the farm until yer ready."

After a few hours, the tour was complete, and we had returned to the farm. We were sitting in the shade of the barn, eating some apples Applejack had offered. We sat in silence, until she decided to break it.

"Dutch, Ah've been meanin' to ask ya. Ya mentioned that yer kind was distrustful, but Ah was wonderin'. What was your life like?"

I hadn't been expecting this, and I almost chocked on the piece of apple in my mouth. I wasn't scared of telling her though, so I got comfortable, and started what was going to be a long talk.

"Well, if you want to know about me, I guess I should start at the beginning. I had a pretty normal life until several months ago. I lived with my mum, dad and an older brother in a nice house in the countryside. I could never really get used to living in a large city. All the noise and bustling of people didn't seem appealing to me. I lived in rural areas for all my life, but that didn't mean I could get away from the world's problems.

"Just as I was becoming a teenager, hormones kicked in. My temper dropped to almost non-existant. I hated everything and everyone because of how badly we told ourselves we were doing as a species. It wasn't helped by the news. It was the papers, the radio, they made it so easy to get bad news. There was so much of it that I just stopped caring.

"It was only a few years ago that I realised how wrong that was. After hearing more stuff in the news one afternoon, I just thought to myself "What's the point in listening to all of this if you're not going to do anything about it." I felt guilty that I was doing nothing while the world tore itself apart."

Applejack's face was covered in a mixture of emotions: confusion, surprise, but sadness was the most noticable. She took this pause in my talk to ask, "What did ya do?"

I continued, "I decided I wanted to become a soldier." Applejack looked surprised at this, and I knew why. "The country I lived in was a peaceful one, and we weren't all about fighting wars. Our soldiers did their best to help people who needed it.

"I started seeing recruitment posters for the Army, and hearing reports; good people doing good things in bad places. Making sure to be in the right place at the right time to help those who needed it. I figured all I had to do was follow orders, and I would be helping these people too. I immediately started working on my fitness, training myself so that I could stand with these men, and be there for someone. My parents thought it was a great idea, and supported me. But I could see, they were always worried that if I went away, I might not come back. We may have been helping people, but our kind still waged war."

Applejack was looking sympathetic now, and I think she was getting a little emotional. "Ya haven't mentioned yer family much. What were they like?"

Part of me was telling me to stop, but I wanted to go on. It felt good to let out this burden to someone.

"I loved my family, I still do. They treated me with the love and kindness that any parent should give their children. They never gave up on me, and were always there when I needed them."

"Why are ya sayin' this in the past tense?"

I sighed to myself, and I could feel a lump forming in my throat. "It all started about five months ago. I thought it was going to be just another day. But then, my mum got sick. Really sick. There was nothing we could do for her, her illness was already too much to be treated. I think she passed away peacefully, but life only seemed to go downhill from there." I felt a tear rolling down my cheek.

"Without mum, my dad fell apart. He lost his job, started drinking, and eventually became aggressive towards me and my brother. One day, about a week ago, it went too far, and I decided to leave. I only planned to be gone for a few days, just to clear my head, but I got lost and had to find somewhere to shelter myself. I found a forest, fell asleep, woke up somewhere else, and made my way here," I looked over at Applejack, "I suppose you know the rest."

Applejack was on the verge of tears now, and she moved closer and leaned on my shoulder to comfort me. She looked up at me, and stared straight into my eyes as she spoke, "Ah'm so sorry Dutch. If Ah had known, Ah would never have asked ya about it."

I rested my head on hers, letting the tears flow freely now, "It's ok AJ. It feels good to let the weight off your shoulders sometimes, you know? I'm glad I could say it to someone, and I'm happy you understand. Thank you."

I know what you're thinking: "Lockbox, are you going to put in a human/pony relationship?" In truth, I'm still thinking about it. I'm veering towards doing it, but it might still be some time.