The sun slowly peeks out over the hills of ponyville, its life giving light cascading into the darkened room of Golden Oaks library as it met my sleeping form, my eyes flutter open and I greet the day as any ex-gaurdian of the world would...

"...I decided...I'm gonna blow up the sun...I don't care if I freeze..."

I roll myself out of bed with a grunt, It is six-o-clock in the morning, I feel like death, and I have to work...oh well, I need money for food.

I do my morning routine, brush my teeth, wash my face and the like. As I start to braid my hair into a long, tight tail so it wouldn't get in the way of my work I looked in the mirror to assess just how amazing I am when I noticed something off, my eyes are glowing, it's dim but it's there, strange, have to look into that later, but right now I need to leave, it's around seven and i need to get going, my grandma always told me:

"When your early your on time, if your on time your late" then she'd yell at me for being in the kitchen eating her food...then the wooden spoon came out...then sadness...

I walk out of the bathroom to see Twilight and Spike still sleeping soundly in their beds, better not wake them up, I make sure to walk as quietly as possible making me a ghost, completely undetectable.

I make it out of the house and head towards the big farm out on the hill, better run it'll at least warm me up.

Ten minutes later I arrive at Sweet Apple Acres, the sign really helped.

"Ok, now where's AJ?"

I look over the fields and fields of apple trees and notice a small house and large barn further up the path I was on, I trek up the path towards the house when I see a pony rocking in a chair on the porch of the house. She was a light green, with a white main and tail in loose buns with a few stray hairs, she wore a orange neckerchief with red apples on it. She was currently snoozing on her chair her head slightly turned at, what appeared to be, a very uncomfortable angle, I looked down and notice a small embroidered pillow on the floor. I reached down, fluffed it and placed back behind her head with a dexterity honed through years of practice, even when rusty I was able to get her head in place without waking her up.

I turn away from her and notice that no one seemed to be up yet, judging by the sun I can tell it was around fifteen after seven I still got some time to burn, I look around for anything to keep me busy then I see a hill and an apple tree that was illuminated just right by the sun to appear radiating with a soft green and golden glow, just the place I like to sit. I walk away from the older mare but I turn and give my goodbyes

"Cuali tlaneci cihtli (Good morning grand mother)"

I take a seat on the hill, lean my back on the tree and look out over the land, the sight was breathtaking, reminds me of home, before all the pain, before I got overly emotional with my nostalgia I hear a noise , I turn and see an orange pony exiting her house followed by a larger red pony, well time to get to work. I stand up and descend the hill.

I wave to Applejack to get her attention, I didn't yell so as to not wake up the sleeping elder pony on the porch, thankfully she sees me and waves me over, she looked a bit surprised.

"Hey Applejack, I'm ready to work" I say to her, I turn my head to look at the big red stallion standing beside her, he was looking at me with tired eyes but I can see the movement, quickly scanning and analyzing me, like a bodyguard would, my bets on older brother

"Oh yeah, this is mah older brother Big Macintosh, say hi Big Mac" he just continues to stare at me, as do I, after about a minute of silence between us I nod my head and he nods back with a small smile, good to see we understand each other.

I turn back to Applejack, " so what is it that you needed me to do?" I ask

"Ah gotta say sugar cube I really wasn't expectin' to see you here this early, really thought you were gonna be late" my hand shot to my upper back, the pain of many wooden spoon strikes came flashing back to my mind

"I will never be late for anything ever..."

"Well that's great to hear! Always a plus" She says completely oblivious to my childhood pain, I look over to Big Mac and he slowly nods his head, could it be? Does he know my pain? He turns and I see on his cutie mark was a green apple with, what appeared to be, faint red marks in the shape of a wooden spoon...he knows...

I follow after them and we end up stopping at the edge of the western apple orchard

"Ok ya'll, today we gotta pick this orchard dry of apples, then we gotta move the barn animals out to the pasture, then water the fields, then set up the stand and after that, whatever the day brings"

"Sounds easy enough, let's get started" I say, walking towards the trees

"Ah like your attitude Mark" she takes a running start at one of the trees and bucks it shaking the tree and all the apples off into a waiting wooden bucket, as are the case with all the other trees, what are the odds of that happening? What are the odds of the bucket catching all of them? This place, these people, fuck it I got work to do, there is no need for logic here, obviously.

I single out a tree with a healthy bunch of apples hanging from its branches, I run at a decent speed and I tense up, ready to deliver the kick an- WOOOOOHWOOOHWOOH HOLD UP!!!! I dig my heels into the ground to slow myself stopping inches from colliding with the tree trunk, what the hell was I thinking? I'm gonna break my leg!

"What's the matter Mark?" I turn to see Applejack and Big Mac staring at me with raised eyebrows

I scratch the back of my head in embarrassment, "Yeah, funny thing is, I try kick any of these trees, imma gonna break my leg in half"

"Well what can you do?" this came from Big Mac, fuck his voice is deep, I gotta remind myself to ask him to say some words, I just wanna hear him say some John Wayne lines

"Well..." I look around and notice the basket, heavy with apples resting on Applejacks back "I can carry the baskets for you, wherever you need them I'll take them" I say quickly taking the basket off her back

"Oh, thanks, ya'll can put'em in the back of the barn" AJ replies

"Ok, just leave the baskets on the ground and I'll get to them" I say running off towards the barn

About an four hours has passed, I've been running back and forth between the barn and the orchard carrying bucket after bucket filled to the brim with apples without dropping a single one, that's right! I got skills YO!

We were about half way finished with the harvesting, I had a nice sweat going on, didn't seem like it on account of my orange cryo suite, I really hope that I get those new clothes soon I'm getting tired of wearing this. I place the bucket I was carrying on the floor of the barn and look at my handiwork, a mountain of apple filled buckets sitting in the barn and also loaded on a cart that I know Applejack's gonna use to take the apples to her stand, might as well do something I'm gonna do anyways, I start to tie down the apple baskets in the cart when I hear Applejack from the orchard

"There! All done!"

I walk out of the barn, pulling the cart with me and setting it outside in the shade of a tree and run towards where I had last seen the two equestrians. When I see Applejack I can see a film of sweat making her coat shine a bright gold in the sun, I am taking in a lot of details, why am I doing that? I look over at Big Mac, nothing, no heavy breathing, no sweat, no facial change since the last time I saw him, impressive work horse, impressive work...

"Ok, let me just grab these" I lean down and grab both baskets setting them on my hips, "Oh and AJ!" I yell back over my shoulder at her

"Yeah Sugar Cube?"

"I loaded up your cart, it's waiting for you under the tree outside the barn"

"You already loaded up the cart? When did yah do that?" Asked Applejack

"Just now" I say without looking back

I place the last of the baskets in the barn, walk out and close the door behind me to see AJ saddling up and start to pull the cart out to town with Big Mac walking back towards the barn, probably to check on my work. I begin to follow AJ to ask if there was anything else she needed from me when I feel a big hoof gently stop me from progressing any further.

"Yeah Big Mac?" I turn to look at him

"Here's your pay"

I look down in his hoof and I see a bag with what must be bits, I take it from his hands and hear the delicious sound coins rustling in the bag

"um...for a days work?"

"Well, AJ told me 'bout your predicament, and you did good work today, ah think no one will mind if I give ya'll ya pay a little early, it's about fifty bits"

My man...My huge, deep voiced, crimson mother fucker...I had no words to express my gratefulness...

"Don't thank me, just make sure that you keep doin' good work and there'll be more where that came from" He said as he checked my work in the barn

I just stand there unable to speak, such generosity, in my life i've almost never seen generosity for another being such as this, the inhabitants of this nation truly seem to embody just the virtues that I wanted to instill in my world and was until...well that's not important now, what matters is that I need to show them that I can and will repay the kindness i've been shown. I walk down the road out of the farm and into town, I soon see AJ's stand.

"Hey AJ!" I run over to her stand

"Oh hey, didn't Big Mac tell ya? You were done for the day" she asked

"hmmm...yeah, he did but I thought that maybe I could help you out anyway." I say

"Sure, ah'd really appreciate it, thank yah kindly"

Four hours pass, within the first half-hour I had unpacked the cart, set up the stall, arranged the apples in an eye catching display, and took the cart back to barn, brought it back full of new baked goods and fresh produce ready for sale and for the other three and a half I had been helping AJ sell her apples, at first some ponies were hesitant but eventually more and more started to show up and bought apples and apple pastries

"uh hey, Mark?" AJ said

"Yeah AJ, Thanks have a nice day! wassup?"

"I uh, can ya'll handle the stand for a bit, I gotta use the...umm" aww, she's blushing, she's embarrassed

"AJ, it's cool, I got this"

"Thank ya, I really appreciate it, be back in a second" she runs off to the closest bathroom she could find

I go through a few customers, easy as pie, this goes on for another five minutes until there were no customers waiting, so I decide to restock some of the items on display. I walk behind the cart and look through some of the bags of apple treats when I hear a voice come from the stand.

"Hello? AJ you there?"

"Hold on ma'am! AJ's out, but I'll be with you in a second!" I answer

"Oh! Ok! When did AJ get a new worker?"

"Just started today actually thanks for asking" these people are so polite!

"What's your name?"

"Mark!"

"That's a strange name, are you foreign?"

I stand up from the cart my hands filled with apple pastries

" you could say that" I say walking around, when I do I see an sea foam green unicorn standing in front of the cart, what was strange though is that her eyes are pin pricks and her mouth dropped wide open, maybe she hadn't heard of me from the townsfolk yet

"yeah, so, like I said my name's Mark and I'm a-"

"A-a-a h-h-uman b-b-being" ...what...

"A real live human being! I knew you were real! I knew those stories my grandpa used to read to me were true!" Immediately I froze, she knows about humans? She knows my story?! But I thought only Celestia and her family had access to that knowledge...

"What am I doing?! I have to tell everybody!" wait what she say?!

"HEY EVERYONE!!! GUESS WHAT!!! I GOOTTA TE-MMMPFFF!!!!????" I slap my hand over her mouth and run off with her right before hanging an 'on break' sign on the stand

I take off away from the crowded main streets, I gotta get some answers...

Author's Note

I am so sorry for the wait!! I feel awful, please forgive me:rarity despair: been dealing with a lot of family issues and school, but i've finally found some stability and while i won't promise anything, I will try to make it as regular as possible, again corrections and constructive criticisms are always welcome Tlazocamatli.