After saying goodbye to her two crushes, and the shy pegasus, Speda flew towards the local apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres. She wanted to get a job, so she'd have bits to use for other things, and she wanted to keep in shape.

She arrived at the farm, and saw three ponies out in the fields, and one elderly pony at the house near the farm. She approached the Elderly mare first, and used her magic to take a drink from her canteen she got as one of her gifts from her last birthday, from her Aunt Celestia.

"Hello, miss? I wanted to apply for a day job here, if that's alright?", Speda asked, and the Elderly Mare looked at her, like she was looking at her very soul, and after a while, she smiled.

"You seem to have a good heart. Of course you can. Think you can arrive here early in the morning? You'll have enough time to get breakfast of course, and you'll be able to leave at lunch. As long as that's okay with your schedule, Miss Hooves, I presume?", The Elderly Mare said, and while Speda was surprised that she knew her name, she was indeed able to fit that into her schedule, considering her school just sent her books to study, and specific magics to practice.

"Yes, of course! But may I ask how you know my name? I never said.", She spoke to the elderly mare, and said elderly mare just gave her a kind smile.

"I recognized you from town, you usually pass our shop all the time heading towards that Sugar Cube Corner place in the mornings. And my grand-daughter's friends, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash talk about you quite alot. Ah to be young and in love again~", The elderly mare swooned, embarrassing Speda further, and this further made the elderly mare grin.

"My name is Granny Apple Smith, and you can start working today if yer up for it", Granny said, and Speda, now knowing her name, shook her head yes, clearly ready to start anyways.

"Yes, ma'am-", Speda was was about to say, but Granny interrupted her, putting up a hoof to her mouth, and gave her a stern, but kind look.

"Now there won't be any of this ma'am business either, you work here, you're family, got that? From now on, just call me Granny", Granny said, and Speda listened, smiling at the fact that she'd be treated like a family member, even if she wasn't.

"Yes, Granny. I'll do my best, and I'll not let you down!", Speda said, with a small salute, and that made Granny giggle a bit.

"Good! Now to introduce you to the family! APPLE JACK, BIG MACINTOSH, APPLEBLOOM, GET OVER HERE!", Yelled the elderly pony, and Speda had to cover her ears a bit from how loud the frail, but strong pony could be, and soon the ponies from earlier appeared shortly.

The first pony was an orange colored earth pony mare, with a blonde mane, she donned a cowgirl hat, and on her face were freckles just like Speda's own, and on her flanks were a triangular formation of apples as her cutie-mark.

The second pony was an earth pony stallion, who was red in color, with a bright orange mane, cut short, and on his flanks were the cutie-mark of a big green apple, showing the inside.

The third, and last pony was an earth pony filly, who was darker beige colored, with a bright red mane, and a magenta colored bow. On her flanks however there was no cutie-mark, because the filly just hadn't earned it yet.

"I would like you all to meet Miss Hooves here, who will be joining us from now on in the mornings. I do hope you treat her like you would family, cuz as you all know-", the Elderly mare began, being interrupted by the orange mare.

"Anypony who works at the Apple family farm, is family, no exceptions. Of course we know Granny. Would you like me to show her around the farm so she can get started?", Apple Jack asked.

As Granny was about to speak, Applebloom spoke of in a loud, squeaky voice. Speda winced a bit at the noise before the speech, but the pain went away slowly.

"Woah, your eyes are so pretty! Are they always supposed to glow like that? What's your cutie-mark? Is it cool? Is it a secret? Why are you wearing clothes like that? Are you-", Applebloom was about to continue her millions of questions, when Granny put a hoof up to her mouth.

"Now, I think she'd love to answer your questions Applebloom, but she's got work to get started on, and so do the rest of you. Applejack, after you show her around the farm, take her with you to buck some apples as her first job.", Granny said in an authoritive manner, which made them all straighten up, and head back to finish what they were doing aside from Applejack.

"I hope you'll excuse Applebloom for her personal questions, but you can't blame her for being curious, heck, I'm curious about you too, from what Rainbow and Pinkie have been saying all about ya", Applejack said as they said their goodbye's for a few hours to Granny, and started walking around the farm. It took no less than five minutes to get to the middle of it, finding the reddest most juiciest looking apples, and Applejack turned to put some baskets underneath them.

"Oh no, I don't mind really. She couldn't have known that it was personal, so no harm, no foul. If I may be curious for a second, what DID they say about me to you?", Speda asked a little nervously, as she saw Applejack rear up on her front legs, and kick out at the tree with her hind legs, making all the apples fall neatly into the baskets, impressing her beyond all belief.

"Well, I can't lie and say they didn't say anything provocative, but I won't tell you what it was, yer going to have to work fer that. Either that, or they tell you themselves, it's not my place to say. Now why don't you try what I did, but with none of your magic, that'd be cheating", Applejack said, and at this, Speda chuckled.

"Oh I know, I won't. Don't think I'm precise enough with my magic to do so anyways, I'd probably just rip the whole tree out, and I don't want that to happen. So, like this?", Speda said as after all the baskets were placed, she backpedaled toward the tree, and readied up.

"Yes, exactly like that, but loosen your posture up, or you'll break something. There ya go, now tighten up those flanks of yours, and strike as hard as you can!", Applejack said in encouragement, as Speda reared up, and striked the tree as hard as she could, and about half of the apples fell from the tree. Which made Applejack whistle.

"Whooooweee! Not bad, I nearly broke my hind leg when I first hit an apple tree! Great job!", Applejack smiled at Speda, and kicked the tree on the other side, knocking the rest of the apples off. Speda was surprised at the fact she did pretty well. But not good enough.

"Well, that's something I can work on right? How many trees do we do a day, by the way?", Speda asked, and Applejack, who had already emptied the contents in the baskets to a carriage behind them, was already getting ready for the next tree.

"About two hundred trees a day! Then we gotta get working on the fields, and after that, the house will be cleaned so we can have a nice lunch! After that, I'm sure you'll be able to continue your training with Rainbow. Let's get back to it!", Applejack pronounced as Speda's jaw nearly hit the floor, but she asked for it, so she'll do it.

"Uhm, do you have any bandages for legs? I'm gonna take off the clothes so they aren't messed up by the end of the day.", Speda asked nervously.

"What's wrong with your legs?", Applejack asked as she turned around, and nearly shrieked seeing so many scars on Speda's front hooves, as Speda took off her jacket, letting it lay on her back. "R... Right! I'll be right back, why don't you get started on some trees!", Applejack said as she sped off toward the house, and Granny.

Speda did just that as her pants now lay on her bare back, and as she reared up to buck another tree, she heard a chirp that sounded bird-like, but more angelic than anything she's ever heard of before. She spotted the birds that made the sounds, and saw they were Phoenixes, quite beautiful in their orange flare.

She went to a different tree, and bucked that one since it didn't have any animals in it, and again, half the apples fell. She went to buck again, but heard a soft cough, turned around and saw Granny, and Applejack, with two large bandages on hoof, and Speda saw the pained look on Granny's muzzle.

"Sweetheart are you.... Okay? Do they hurt ya still? How did you get them?', Granny asked her, and Speda felt touched, so she smiled.

"It's okay, Granny. I've had these since I was young. Something happened, and for several years of my life I was trapped, but I'm okay now. Nothing else to it. Can you stand back while I wrap these? I don't want the kid to see these.", Speda said, as she used her magic to wrap her legs all at the same time, and soon they were covered completely till it reached underneath her cutie-mark.

The two apple relatives still thought about the pain Speda must've went through at such a young age to have her legs like that, so Granny pulled her into a hug, which felt nice for Speda.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about me, I'm fine! Now can we get back to bucking apples? Be careful with that tree though, there are a family of Phoenixes, I don't want them to get hurt.", Speda said as she walked off, her clothes now on a fence. Applejack smiled, and followed Speda, ready to help if she needs it.
~

It was at lunch when Speda finally saw Applebloom and Big Macintosh again, her muscles spasming a bit, and with her clothes on her back.

Applebloom was the first see Speda coming, and noticing her cutie-mark, Applebloom gasped loudly, making Big Macintosh flinch for a second.

"Oh my gosh, your cutie-mark is so cool! How'd you get it? Did you practice demonic magic, is that how your eyes are glowing, are you-", Applebloom was about to continue with her rant of questions again, when Granny appeared out of the house with a look that silenced the filly.

"Are you alright dear, your hooves must be aching from all that work. Come inside, we'll fix you up a feast.", Granny spoke, and Speda, smiling, followed, as did the rest inside.

Author's Note

If there are any questions, comment below. Also, it seems things are turning out okay for our pegasus protagonist, I hope you all liked the chapter, as much as I did writing it hehe.