WAY Out of place

I stood just out side Sweet Apple Acres, looking on at the farm. Exactly the same as it was yesterday, nothing was at all different. I looked up at the sign thinking back to yesterday. Seeing Kian have something close to a smile was a first. For the entire week I'd known him he'd never smiled. He always had that same calm and bored expression, never any falter in it. He looked like he'd just about given up on things and just went with everything that happened. And to think this morning he had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on anyone. All of us need this, Kian needs to have some fun and be happy, Twilight needs to be with her friends and family, and I...I...need to just forget about things. I'm not ruining anyone else's time with my problems. They're mine to face and I'll face them alone. I'm here now and none of it matters anymore, I'm free from all that shit.

I pushed that back and tried to remember more of the happy times from yesterday, the smile me and Twilight shared, the kiss, the apple...man that was a good apple. I should probably see if I could get some today. I sighed and wore a lighthearted smile, thinking about last night fondly too. I should send a thank you letter to Celestia for the wine, she didn't have to send it, but she did. I made the mental notes and walked up the pathway to the house, the soft soil under my hooves. I looked on at all the apple trees, hundreds of them, as far as the eye could see. Quite a few had baskets under some already, no doubt Applejack and her family were already at work. I could see a large red Earth pony carrying a few baskets back toward the barn. He looked toward my direction, unblinkingly, the wheat in the corner of his mouth shifting to the side. His orange-brown mane hung down at the side of his neck, likely damp with sweat. He nodded at me and continued on carrying the baskets toward the barn.

I looked in the direction he came from to see Applejack walk from behind a few trees. She wiped a hoof a long her forehead and spotted me, waving it. I smiled and left the path, walking toward her.

"Glad to see you took me up on that offer." She smiled, looking back toward the apple trees. "We started not too long ago so pick a tree and get started."

"Alright, which trees have you--wait...yesterday when I tried bucking a tree I got my world rocked." I said thinking back a little further. "Mind giving some advice so I don't end up with an annoying ass jitter and an apple stuck on my horn again?"

"If that's what happened then maybe you were off the center," She suggested. "that can happen sometimes, if'n you do that."

"Okay, I guess." I said walking uncertainly over to a tree full of apples. I reared to it and adjusted where I's assumed I'd hit to the center. "Like this?" I asked looking over my shoulder at the trunk of it.

"Yep." She said nodding.

I took a deep breath and focused, leaning forward and standing on my front legs. I kicked my legs out bucking the tree and shaking it. A few apples fell and landed in the baskets.

"Like that, but a little harder. I could tell you was holdin' back." She said continuing the advice.

I steadied myself and aimed again, looking over my shoulder. I leaned onto my forelegs and bucked again, this time with all effort. The tree shook more violently and more apples dropped, filling the basket.

"There ya go!" She said hurrying to a tree. "Just like that. Keep it up, we'll make an apple bucker outta you yet!" She said kicking at the tree and knocking apples from it into the baskets below.

I made my way over to another tree and gave it a strong buck at the base, the tree shaking and dropping it's payload. A smirk came to my face as I saw the basket's fill up with the sweet red, green, and yellow, jackpot. I moved from tree to tree like clockwork; turn around, buck, watch in satisfaction. I moved faster, pushing myself. I made a first impression that was honestly the ponciest ever, it seemed about right to buff that out and prove my worth. I set that to be my new goal: buck until I couldn't buck anymore.

I hurried between them, making them drop all they had. Something made me turn to Applejack with a satisfied grin, though it was wiped off when I saw her progress. She was at least three trees ahead of me, she'd run to it, buck, and run off, with all it's apples dropping. She made it look easy and I was putting all I had into my kicks, still not even knocking down as many apple as her. I snapped out of my distraction and furrowed my brow, focusing. It was a sort of pride thing I had, no matter what it was, something old, new, I could've just found out about it and I's already try my hardest to beat someone at it.

I heightened my pace and hurried to each tree, delivering swift bucks and running off to the next. We worked our way through the field, stripping each tree of what it had, never stopping. I kicked with all the strength I could muster and felt the rush of it. There's just some zen like appeal to it, kicking a tree as hard as possible and having all it's contents drop. We each must of bucked twenty trees by now, hell I'd lost count after I saw how fast she was. I didn't care, I was gonna go as far as she could, buck as hard as she could, move as fast as she could.

I could feel the sweat run down my forehead, it's salty taste in the corner of my mouth. I couldn't even look to see how far Applejack was, I just couldn't look. I ran between the trees, making what short work of them I could. I ran to a tree and bucked, but something was weird about it this time. It felt there was...another kick?

I turned around to it and peak around it to see a confused Applejack scratching the back of her head with a hoof. "Oh, that's why." she said noticing me. "I coulda swore somepony was bucking the same tree." She looked back at our progress and grinned at it. I followed her line of sight to see that most of the trees were cleared of apples and had baskets filled with them. "Looks like we've got this here field wrapped up, time ta bring 'em in." she said picking up up a basket and moving it to her back.

I nodded and grabbed the edge of the basket with my teeth, picking it up. Holy shit was it heavy though, I felt like my jaw would break from it. I hastily moved it to my back and followed Applejack through the field of trees back to the path where I came from.

"Here's good, Big Mac'll pick 'em up from here and we can just bring more." She said trotting back. I shrugged, dropping the basket beside hers and following back. And after a horrendously boring time with that we carried back the last of of the baskets to see the big red guy carrying the last of them back. "We're already here so let's bring these to the barn ourselves."

I sighed and followed back to the barn with her, very much wishing the ass load of apples on my back was lighter. The dirt under my hooves was packed flat from all the walking and I could swear I had a whole fucking centimeter of dirt caked to the bottom of my hooves.

"Ya did good fer yer first day." Applejack said looking over her shoulder at me. "We got the whole east field done in no time. How would you like to make this a permanent job?" She offered. "We can always use another set'a hooves 'round here."

"Eeyup." Big Mac nodded, looking at me out of the corner of his.

"I'll uh...keep an open book." I panted.

"You okay?" Applejack asked raising a brow.

"Running and gunning...is my usual deal...Carrying shit, whole nother ball game."

"Okay." Applejack said slowly.

Big Mac pushed the door to the barn open and we set down the rest of them by the enormous wall of stacked baskets.

"Ya'know, I don't think it's very safe to have all the baskets stacked like that." I said looking at it nervously.

"Never been a problem before." Applejack said confidently.

"It just doesn't look all that safe to me." I shrugged, walking up to the baskets. I placed a hoof on it and looked along it for someway it actually managed to stand. A single apple dropped down and fell to the ground. I could see the baskets start to lean in my direction with rising speed. My brow furrowed at that "Oh fuck my ass."