Goodlands and Applejack

It was a fine day, with a slow steady breeze. The sky was blue, and birds were flying overhead. A young stallion made his way to a new town. He was an odd stallion to say the least, having a palomino coat, with the front of his muzzle being a dark brown mud color. His dark, ocean blue eyes were hard to see under his old battered fedora, that he wore to cover his mane, which was a mixture of cloud white, and green (like that of the bottom side of a leaf). His tail was a mixture of dark green and bright red, and was sticking out of an old pair of overalls, that were patched and frayed. This stallion had walked a many miles, and was tired. He wanted to find a place to call his own, and settle down, and this place looked nice enough. Several ponies were walking about in casual greetings, saying hello to one another and enjoying the rather wonderful day they had.
Keeping his head down so as not to attract too much attention, the stallion worked his way through the town seeing how nice every pony was. Looking over his shoulder he noticed a young purple scaled dragon walking beside a talkative pony, with dark hair and pink stripe through it, they were discussing something, but were out of range to fully make out what their conversation was truly about. Before he had had time to face forward however, he walked face first into another pony.
"Sorry bout that." he said taking a step back. She quickly started to talk to him in rapid speech.
"HELLO THERE!" yelled the pink pony right in front of him. "who might you be? I've never seen you before, are you new here? Have you ever been here before? I don't remember you, so you must be new here!" she said in a very fast high pitched voice bouncing all over the place. "Whats your name?" she asked as she got only an inch from his face.
Grabbing his hat he said in an small voice "um I'm Goodlands."
"WELL HELLO GOODLANDS, I'M PINKIE PIE!" Goodlands took a small step back as she yelled at the top of her lungs once again. "So what brings you to Ponyville?" she asked mere inches away from his face yet again. She seemed nice enough, though a bit heavy on the energy..
"Oh, I, I was just looking for a place to stay." he spoke softly under the brim of his hat.
"Well you've come to the right place. Ponyville has a place for everyone, and meeting someone new means we get to have a PARTY!" this last word was shouted so loud he had to grab his hat again.
"Oh no, madam I'd rather not. I'm no good at parties ma'am." but before he could say more she zipped off in the opposite direction saying something about a party cannon. party canon? He thought. He quickly moved on before she could draw anymore attention to him.
Shortly thereafter Pinkie Pie arrived back at the center of town with her party cannon, but became sad as she found she couldn't discover the location of Goodlands.
"Hmm.. Perhaps he wants to settle in before he has his party. Oh well." she said setting off the party cannon in small celebration, few ponies paid this little attention.
Walking alone through Ponyville, he was stopped by another pony shortly thereafter, this time by a pegasus who was leading a group of little baby chicks.
"Oh excuse me." she said in a soft angelic voice, floating backwards "i need to get these little ones back to their mother." she smiled and continued on her way. "this way little ones, don't be scared."
He bowed to the pegasi as she worked her way through the main center which he noticed had a lovely fountain in the middle. After the last chick had made their way across his path, he gave a small smile and continued on until he heard a ground trembling crash..
"Big McIntosh! Are you alright?!" Came a southern voice from female pony a little ways up. Almost losing the stetson on her head, she rushed over to a bigger pony who was stuck under a wagon sporting several apple crates, and was now trying to dislodge himself from the the wreckage.
"Eeyup." gasped the bigger pony. Goodlands rushed over to the cart and lifted it as best he could using his back. The golden pony not missing a beat, pulled Big McIntosh out from under the cart. After he was a safe distance away from the cart Goodlands lowered it, and it sank deep into the ground.
"How bad is it?" asked the golden locks pony.
"I'll be fine." he had a deep voice, and Goodlands could tell he was hurting, and trying to hide it.
"Don't you be coy with me Big Mac, you're hurt, i can hear it in your voice." she said looking at him with a knowing eye. "You ain't foolin no one. Come on, we're taking you to the hospital."
"Nnope... We have more work to do at the farm, and you're going to need help. Remember the last time you did it ALL by yourself?" he asked as his back legs shook. He winced as he took a step.
"Prideful, stubborn fool.. Now you listen to me. I wont have you out there hurting yourself more then you already are simply because of your pride. Now come on, we're taking you to the hospital." she looked over at Goodlands and her eyes softened "would you mind helping me get Big McIntosh here to the hospital?"
"Oh, um yes ma'am." he said and got on the other side of Big McIntosh to help steady him.
"I'm fine." he said as he tried to take a step only to wobble and lean heavily on Goodlands.
"FINE my putootie. You're going nowhere fast, and the only place you ARE going is the hospital." their was such a finality in her voice he couldn't give any more objections. His head drooped a bit as the golden pony and Goodlands slowly walked Big McIntosh to the hospital, where the nurse took over, and took him to the back. Waiting by the door, Goodlands watched as the golden pony went with her into the back. Shortly afterwards she returned and they walked outside together.
"Thanks stranger for all yer help. Names Applejack that there is my big brother Big McIntosh. The doctor says he'll be fine, but he needs some rest and stay off his hooves a bit." she said looking back at the hospital doors. "he's as stubborn as a mule, that one." she growled and immediately noticed a mule walking rather close she quickly amended. "No offense."
"None taken.. That seems to happen all the time." he said as he carried on his way.
"Ain't seen you around here before partner, you new here?" she asked as the mule sidled away.
"Oh, well yes ma'am, my names Goodlands, Nice to meet ya." he responded with a small bow of the head. He noticed her green eyes, shinning bright in the morning light. He gave a small smile.
She scowled at the ma'am bit but said in a kind voice "Well Goodlands, thank you kindly. He's too stubborn for his own good. Now if you'll excuse me i need to go and figure out what happened to our cart." she nodded, shifted her hat and headed toward her cart.
"Um madam, if you'd like.." but he was cut off by her before he could finish his sentence.
"Madam? I ain't used to being called madam. If its all the same to you, we'll be having a little less of that there fancy talk, and just stick to good old Applejack. Feels weird being called "Madam"."
"Alright, old Applejack. May i?"
"OLD?! I'm not that old." she scowled and looked at him, to which he smiled.
"Sorry Ma'am. My apologies" he said with another small smile, "I was only meaning to offer my help." he said with a small bow of his head.
"Oh that's alright, no need for madam or ma'am. I wont turn down good help though, especially as my brother's currently getting all patched up."
"Yes ma'am." he responded and started heading toward the cart. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, she rolled hers as he responded with a ma'am, he gave a small smile. He did feel a bit bad for the big fellow named McIntosh though.
Upon arriving at the cart, she walked over to the front right side of the cart, moved several of the crates with Goodlands help and looked at the now busted up wagon wheel.
"Well, this is not good. The wagons' wheel is broken. Not sure how that happened." she puzzled looking over the broken front wheel. "shoot now how am i going to get this to the market?" she asked to the wagon itself, looking at the pit the wagon had made.
"I think i can help you there, ma'am." Goodlands said walking over and lifting the peg off the ground with his back. Holding it there he looked knowingly at Applejack as she looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed a bit.
"What did i say about the ma'am? Its Applejack, and are you sure you can hold that?" she asked looking at him with her eyebrows raised. "Its bound to be heavy." A lot of strength was put into the lift, the wagon weighed a ton. It was stacked with nine full barrels of apples and two crates of apple cider, and several other boxes he didn't have a clue to what they contained.
"I believe i can ma'am." he responded with his chest slightly puffed out, not bad for a pony holding up one fourth of a rather heavy wagon. Perhaps he had bitten off more then he could chew on this one, but for some reason the sight of this ponies face as she smiled, made the extremely heavy wagon feel like nothing to him. He was going to pay for this later, that much he knew.
"Well alright, follow me and we'll find something to prop it up over there so i can start selling my wares for today." she led the cart as he worked his way out of the small pit the wagon had created when it crashed. It took some time, but he worked his way into the town proper where she found a rather large rock and propped up the wagon to began setting up shop. "Thank you kindly once again Goodlands, I truly appreciate it." she said sweeping her hat off to him. He swept his brow but kept his own hat on his head.
"Not at all ma'am, happy to be of help." he said with a wide smile to cover his aches. That wagon was truly heavy, but his pride would not allow him to say as much. He got out of her way as she started her sales pitch, and headed over to a small building.