Drew's Tragic Story

Having left his house for his second day of job hunting, he finds help wanted posters at the City Hall, and one caught his eye. Critter rangling at Sweet Apple Acres. With his skill in Levitation, this would be a breeze. He went up and grabbed the poster, and walked down to Sweet Apple Acres determined to get a job.

Once he arrived, he smiled at how peaceful it seemed out here at Sweet Apple Acres. He looked around for somepony to talk to, but only spotted a rather large red stallion plowing the fields. He began to trot over to the stallion and once there, he smiles with a slight pant. "Hello there, my names Drew, are you the pony in charge here?"

The large stallion shook his head. "Eeenope!" Was all he said, and Drew blinked. "Could you direct me to who is then?" He asked and the large red stallion nodded. "Eeeyup!" He said and pointed to the barn. "Her name's Applejack" he said and went back to work quietly.

Drew nodded and began to head back to the barn affer thanking the shy giant. He knocked on the door to the barn, and awaited a reply. He was surprised when a filly came to reply. "Yes? What do you need stranger? Did you need some zap apple jam, or cider?" The young filly asked.

Drew chuckled and shook his head, showing the filly the flier that her big sister had put up. "Nope, here for the critter wrangling. Saw the poster, and figured I could help out."

The filly nodded. "Then my big sister is who you should talk to, but she just stepped out to buy more food for the pigs and chickens. My names Applebloom by the way, nice to meet ya!"

Drew nodded at this. "The names Drew, nice to meet you too Applebloom. How long does she usually take?" He asked the filly who thought for a moment. "Around an hour." Applebloom stated.

Drew nods once again and groaned "Am I welcome to stay and wait?" He asked, and the filly nodded. "I don't see why not."

Drew waited around, and Applejack walked up the beaten path, carrying the feed for the pigs and chickens. Drew walked to intercept her and took them from her with his magic, carrying them for her. "I got these. My name's Drew, here for the critter wrangling job!"

Applejack blinked, a faint blush on her face from his act of kindness. She wished more stallions were like this. It was nice to have somepony helping her that wasn't a mare, or family. "Oh sure, the name's Applejack, though you already knew that I bet! Yes, the critter in mind is bats, they've been eating our apples again. They're such a pain in the flank.."

Drew listened and nodded, already figuring out a strategy for their safe capture. "I have a few idea's already, depending on how clever they are."

It didn't take Drew all that long to set up hidden net traps before he trained his horn to the sky, and fired off a glowing ball of light a few dozen feet above the trees, then made it explode loudly, startling the bats severely. In their panic, they started to scatter, and that was exactly what he was counting on. He sprang the traps and caught quite a load of the bats, but this was only a portion of them. It took him all evening to catch just three more trees of the bats, and once it got dark, he no longer had the advantage.

Drew turned in for the night, knocking on the barns door. "I'll be back in the morning for the rest of them." He called out as he placed the netted bats into a vented crate, and sealed it.

"You sure sugar? I mean you can spend the night here, if you'd like to, it would make gettin back to work in the mornin much easier!" Said Applejack, coming from the house. She noticed Drew was a bit sweaty, and his coat almost had a shine to it, if the sun was still up to let it shine. Applejack blushed a bit at seeing this, and hadn't noticed it before, but Drew was rather muscular for a unicorn.

Drew simply turned his head to Applejack and shook his head. "It's quite alright ma'am, the walk here isn't anything compared to my ten mile morning run. But thank you for the offer." Said Drew, trying to be as polite as he could with turning down her offer.

He turned, and began to walk away, only looking back to give a farewell wave as he left.

Drew returned the following morning, seeming like he had barely slept, yet was otherwise fine. He went to Applejack to let her know he was getting to work now and to watch her steps. Applejack simply nodded and went to her usual rounds of work for the day, as did Drew.

Drew repeated the same process of the day before, and only caught the first net launch out of the next four. It seemed the bats were faster learners than he had thought. He rubbed his chin and thought for a few minutes. After a little while, he got another idea. He began to set up smoke bombs in the branches of the trees, and began to set them off, intending to use his levitation magic to catch them as they fled from the smoke.

That seemed to work rather well, so he repeated this process for the rest of the day. This different tactic worked so well, he was finished up by the end of that day, and crated the rest of the bats to be relocated.

Drew set the crates into a large wagon that Big Macintosh was latched to. He turned to Applejack and accepted another four hundred bits from her before thanking her. He turned to leave but was interrupted by the farm pony speaking. "Come back sometime will ya? Maybe we can have dinner one day, whenever you'd like!" Said Applejack with another blush.

Drew looked back again and gave a chuckle with a nod. "Sounds nice. Have a good bat-free night Applejack!"

"You can call me AJ sugar, all my friends do!" Applejack said as Drew nodded once more before leaving.

Drew decided he'd treat himself to some delicious salad after working most of the day. He sat at a seemingly random place, and ate his meal happily. "This place seems pretty damn nice." Drew thought to himself.

He smiled once he finished his food, and left a somewhat generous tip for the good food before leaving. He headed home and once more decided to head right to sleep.

(To be continued)