My Country Pride

"I don't wanna hear 'bout a story of a stranger in my barn! You WILL go out there and you WILL feed them horses!" my uncle screamed.

"But the last time I was in there, I-"

"Not another word!" He interrupted, shoving a large bucket of oats into my hands. "You'd better get out there fore I start reconsiderin' bringin' you here!" He pointed his finger towards the front door and I shuddered only slightly. Then I walked outside and towards the barn.

"Is that why he brought me here?" I asked myself out loud. "Did he bring me here to work?" I kicked a pebble on the ground and watched it go tumbling down a little hill and I sighed. "Well, it's better than living in an orphanage and getting to do nothing,"

I opened the barn door and looked inside. The horses all stuck their heads out to see who had entered, but they instantly whinnied in rage and slammed their hooves into their stall doors.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up!" I muttered as I dumped oats in Big Brown's bin. He snorted in anger and tried to bite me more than once. "If you do that, I'll be personally responsible for making sure that you're turned into GLUE!" I tossed the oats randomly into his stall and instantly he forgot about me and nosed around for his meal. I grumbled once more under my breath as I continued to feed the stupid horses.

By the time I got to Lucky Lady's stall, my arm had grown weary and I could barely lift the scoop for the oats anymore. I sighed in exhaustion and lazily dropped the food into Lucky Lady's bucket, not even noticing that I was giving her more than she could have. I shrugged my shoulders as she scarfed down the meal.

"What's the problem? She's pregnant anyway so she needs the extra calories!" I put the scoop back in the oats bucket and placed it near the hay in the back corner.

Then I heard a stall door creak open.

I slowly turned around and found my gaze resting upon the vacant stall. Perspiration began forming on my brow, but I wiped it quickly away. I then looked around for something to protect me and I found a dull, but large, pitchfork leaning on a bale of hay. I snatched it up and held it out in front of me. The tip of the pitchfork shook uncontrollably, but only because my hands were violently shaking as well.

I tip-toed towards the stall, aiming the edges towards the stranger.

"If there's somebody in that stall, then you'd better leave now!" I threatened, though I could hear my voice wavering from the fear of the moment. I forced another gulp down my tightened throat as I placed my free hand on the stall door. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of anticipation.

I put one foot inside.

Then the other.

I readied the pitchfork.

I opened my eyes.

"What the-?"

"I'm Applejack. More apple fritter?" it spoke. The small orange pony with a blonde mane and tail... spoke. Freckles covered its face and its deep black eyes lit up at the sight of me. It extended its front hooves as if trying to embrace me. Then it laughed.

I lowered my pitchfork and stared at the strange sight. She giggled loudly and rolled over onto her back, entangling her mane with straw and random bits of dirt. At one point, she even tried to eat some of the hay, but immediately gagged and started to cry.

"Oh, no!" I muttered, quickly walking over to the small pony. She continued to shriek, tears (literally) leaping out of her eyes and beginning to form puddles in the straw.

I didn't know what to do!

So... I picked her up. She squirmed in my grasp and gurgled in protest, but I continued to lift her until I brought her to my chest. Her eyes looked up into mine and I gently rocked her back and forth. Eventually, she sighed contently and dozed off into a light sleep in my arms. I took my spare hand and slowly stroked her mane that felt like flannel and pondered.

"Who are you, little one?"