It was a bright and sunny morning in the little town of Ponyville. Every pony was out doing their business to keep food on their tables and a roof over their heads. The bright and sunny morning had a huge effect on all the ponies in Ponyville. Every pony was happily walking and singing with joy. Saying hello to all their friends. Every pony was truly in a bright and happy mood today.
Well, almost every pony.
Today was not a good day for a certain orange coated blonde-maned mare who lived on a famous landmarked spot in Ponyville called Sweet Apple Acres. On this farm lived the Apple family. Comprising of a muscular red coated orange-maned stallion named Big Macintosh who didn't speak all that often, only usually saying "Eeyup" or "Eenope", an elderly green coated mare named Emily Smith, or Granny Smith as she was now often called, with her being the grandmother of the household, a border-collie named Winona, a pale coated bright-red maned filly with a bow on her head named Apple Bloom, and finally the most well known of the Apple family, the orange coated blonde-maned mare mention above who was named Applejack.
The family was waiting outside facing the front gate of Sweet Apple Acres. Why were they waiting? Because as of today, Sweet Apple Acres has a new hire. Meaning that some pony was going to be working on the farm, making minimum wage, with the Apple family. Granny Smith and Apple Bloom were very much looking forward to meeting this new farmhoof. Big Macintosh was the most looking forward, because this was all his idea to have this pony work on the farm with him and his family. He met this pony at a bar and became good friends with said pony. They talked, drank, hit on mares, played pool, and all things many stallions would do at a bar. And apparently this stallion needed a little more money on the side. So Big Macintosh offered him a job at Sweet Apple Acres and the pony accepted. However, the one pony who was not too thrilled about all of this was his younger sister Applejack. She felt like this whole thing was just a waste of time.
"I don't see why we need a farmhoof Big Mac. We can handle anything here on the farm. Even if we have to work more and more, we really don't need this." Applejack exclaimed.
"Well I'm sorry sis, but the deal is done. Not to sound rude, but you'll just have to deal with it." Big Mac said.
"Fine! Just don't expect me to be nice to this pony. Cause I wanna see if this pony is good enough for the job." Applejack said.
"Wether he's good enough for the job is not up to you Applejack. It's up to Me or Granny Smith. You may run the farm, but we decide what stays or goes on the farm. So whether you think he's good enough or not, and I'm sorry for using this language, doesn't mean shit." Big Mac said.
"Big Mac!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, surprised at her big brothers unusual use of harsh language.
"That's enough!" Granny Smith said. "I will not have my grand-children argue over something that is already a done-deal. Big Mac, you know better than to use language like that, especially around Apple Bloom. And you Applejack, this is something you may have to get used to. So stop complaining about if it isn't going to get you anywhere. Give it a chance, and you may make a new friend when our guest arrives."
"Speak of the devil." Big Mac said as the entire Apple family looked toward the gate. Standing there was a muscular brown-coated black-maned stallion walking toward the Apple family.
And when Applejack saw this stallion, she immediately forgot about all the thoughts she had earlier about the new farmhoof. She couldn't stop staring at him. There was something about him that just made her stare at him in silence.
"Hey Big Mac. How ya doing?" The earth pony asked as he bumped hooves with Big Mac.
"I'm doing good. Every pony, this is Alicester. The new farmhoof. Alicester this is my grand-mother Granny Smith, our dog Winona, and my two little sisters Apple Bloom and Applejack." Big Mac said introducing his friend to his family.
"Hey everyone, nice to meet ya'll. Hope we can get along pretty good." Alicester said.
Apple Bloom then ran up to Alicester and starting jumping up and down all excited like.
"Your gonna love it here Mr. Alicester. We can do so many things together. Like buck apples, feed cows, talk about cutie marks...." Apple Bloom continued until Applejack came in.
"Now now Apple Bloom don't get to excited. He just got here. Lets let him settle in before he gets to work." Applejack said.
Apple Bloom then looked at her big sister and said "I thought you were gonna work him to see if he was good enough for the job Applejack."
This caused Applejack to panic because her little sister just threw her under the bus in front of the stallion whom she just met.
"What?" Alicester said.
"Nothing Alicester. Don't worry about it." Big Mac said as he looked at Apple Bloom with a scowl on his face, while Apple Bloom had a guilty looking blush on her face.
"Okay. So where do I start?" Alicester asked.
"You can actually start by bucking some apples with me. I'll teach ya the proper way how we Apples buck trees." Big Mac said.
"All right. Let's go boss." Alicester said as he and Big Mac went into the orchard to buck apples.
As they left, Applejack watched her big brother and Alicester. But mainly Alicester. She, for some reason, couldn't get him out of her head. She actually felt jealous that she wasn't put him on his first day for some reason. She didn't understand. At first, she didn't want a farmhoof. Now, for some strange reason, she couldn't wait until she got the chance to talk to him.
"Ohhhhh. Some pony's got a crush on the new guy." Apple Bloom cooed.
This caused Applejack to awaken from her space staring and blush and say "Wha-Wha-uh....NO. No I don't." Applejack exclaimed.
"Oh, I think AB is right. I think your smitten with the new guy. Love at first sight. Just like how me and your grand-papi met. Oh Celestia rest his soul." Granny Smith said remembering her late husband.
"This ain't love at first sight. I don't have a crush on this guy. I just now realized I can't judge some pony before I meet him or her."
Applejack said.
"Whatever you say sis, whatever you say. Any way, I'm gonna go to the clubhouse. I gotta crusader meeting to attend to. See ya later." Apple Bloom said as she ran off to the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse.
"Well, I'm gonna go take a nap. Wake me up in about 4 hours." Granny Smith said going into the house.
This now left Applejack alone in her thoughts. Did she find this new stallion she just met and didn't know anything about, other than the fact that he was now working on her farmland..."attractive"? Did she have a crush on this stallion?
She didn't know. Maybe some apple bucking in the other orchard would take her mind off of it. So that's what she did. She went into the other orchard to buck some apples, hoping she would forget about this whole day.
Little did she know that this was something that was going to be on her mind for a long period of time.
