Author's Note

Let me know if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions :)

Making Amends

Two Days Later…

The early morning heat beat down against your back as you walked alongside Apple toward her family orchard. A gnawing sense of dread began to crawl down your spine as you mulled over the hours ahead. Agreeing to help Apple around the orchard had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, you were beginning to have second thoughts.

You had left Violet’s tree library wearing all your layers of clothing, and you were beginning to worry that you were not going to last through the entire day. The heat right now made you want to find a nice patch of shade and lay in it for some time, but you could only imagine how bad it would get once mid-afternoon rolled around. Best case scenario, you somehow manage to make it through most of the day. Worst case scenario, you pass out from dehydration, and maybe a bit of hunger.

Coming to a stop in front of the property, you took a moment to glance at the apple orchard and saw just how expansive it was. It stretched on and on, past the multitude of hills you could see and maybe even farther than that. You groaned, maybe this was a mistake.

“Hey, now, don’t start acting all fussy. This was gonna happen sooner or later whether you liked it or not,” Apple said.

You grunted in response, not bothering to try to piece together her speech's tone and meaning.

As you entered the property, you followed Apple toward the large red barn, eventually stopping in front of its doors. When Apple walked inside, you tried to follow, but she quickly stopped you with a gesture, indicating for you to wait outside. You shrugged, figuring she probably didn’t want you messing with anything inside. You didn’t hold it against her; you’d probably do the same if the roles were reversed.

As you waited, muffled commotion drifted from inside the barn, accompanied by the occasional unintelligible word from Apple. Judging by the sounds, she seemed to be searching for something. The occasional frustrated snort echoing from within made it clear she wasn’t having much luck finding whatever it was she was looking for.

The sound of crunching dirt and rolling wood sounded behind you, signaling someone’s approach. The sounds were then followed by a low-pitched voice.

“Hello, you must be the creature Applejack was tellin’ me about,” they said.

Curious as to who was behind you, you turned around to say hello. As soon as you turned around the sight of one of them filled your vision, causing you to scream and stumbled backward, collapsing to the floor in terror. They screamed too, startled, hopping in place and causing several apples to tumble from the cart they were hauling. With your heart pounding, you squeezed your eyes shut and wrapped your arms tightly around yourself in preparation for the moment they would rip away your protective clothing and expose you to the sun’s hellish rays.

“What in tarnation is going on out here!?” Apple’s voice shouted as she burst through the barn doors.

Hearing Apple’s voice, you hesitated before slowly opening your eyes. To your surprise, she was perfectly fine. She wasn’t melting, or screaming in fear. Instead, she just had a perplexed and concerned look on her face as her gaze scanned over you. Then her eyes shifted to something in front of you, and you followed her line of sight. A cart lay overturned on its side, apples scattered in every direction. Hitched to the cart was a large, redhorse, its wide, startled eyes locked on you.

You blinked once. Twice. Three times. But the red horse remained. A shaky sigh of relief escaped your lips as you pushed yourself to your feet, though your hands still trembled from the lingering waves of fear that had gripped you just moments ago.

“Big Mac, what happened? And how’d you spill all them apples?” Apple said.

“I, uh, I don’t know. I was just coming to drop off these apples when I saw him.” The red horse pointed at you, “I walked up to him and greeted him, but when he turned around, he screamed at me, and I, uh, got a bit startled.”

The red horse, whose deep voice led you to assume he was male, slowly lowered his left hooves to the ground. With a steady push, he heaved himself upright, bringing the cart back into position with him.

Apple glanced back at you, noticing your shaking hands, before turning back to the red horse, “Well, I suppose you probably caught him by surprise. You can be pretty quiet when you want to be,” Apple said with a chuckle.

“Anywho,” Apple said, turning to you and gesturing toward the red horse. “Goggles, this is Big Macintosh,” she then turned to the red horse and motioned toward you, “Big Macintosh, this is Goggles. He’ll be helping us out today.”

The red horse smiled at you and you felt a sense of cringe wash over you as flashes of their smiling faces passed through your mind. The red horse then took a step forward before holding his hoof out.

“It’s nice to meet ya, Goggles. I hope you’re ready for a long day today,” he said.

You hesitated, a fleeting wave of terror holding you back from lowering yourself to such a vulnerable position. Despite being larger than Apple, it still required you to at least bend down or take a knee to properly shake his hoof. With a deep gulp, you forced yourself to kneel in front of the red horse, reaching out to grip his hoof with a trembling hand. You gave it a firm shake, your voice unsteady as you began to speak.

“Name… is… G-Goggles,” you said slowly, carefully feeling out the foreign words on your tongue.

The red horse frowned and tilted his head before glancing over to Apple with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Goggles doesn’t understand Equestrian, but Twilight’s beginning to teach him. Don’t worry though, I’ll make sure to show him what needs to be done before we start,” Apple said.

The red horse nodded to whatever Apple had said before turning his attention back to the countless spilled apples all over the floor. Yeah, you should probably help pick all those up.

Despite the rocky introduction, Big Red seemed like a kind horse. He didn’t hold a grudge over the spilled apples and readily accepted your apology for accidentally startling him. Together, you and Apple helped him unload the apples from the cart and sort them into separate buckets. Once the work was done, Big Red gave a polite nod before heading back to the orchard.

Thank God.

You know it’s wrong to blame or push away someone for something they were born with. But you didn’t know how much longer you could stand next to him before you began to freak out again. He was just so… red. You hated it, you hated it so much. You felt like every time you glanced at him there was a chance he was gonna suddenly turn into one of them. Like it was all some sort of elaborate fucking disguise to get you while your guard was down.

You grunted as you heaved a large bucket of apples onto your back, the makeshift ropes attached to it making it work similarly to a backpack. Once the large bucket was comfortably on your back, you slowly leaned down and picked up two more buckets with your hands. With all three buckets in tow, you made your way to the barn to drop off the apples.

Your arms and shoulders ached with pain as you trudged the long distance to the barn. Your heavy cargo slowing you down and forcing you to take one or two breaks before continuing.

After ten to fifteen minutes of walking, you finally arrived at the barn. Using your right leg, you gently pushed open the heavy doors and stepped inside. Once inside, you approached one of the many wooden carts lined up and unloaded all the apples you were carrying into it. With the load off your back, you turned and headed back outside to start the process all over again.

It was very grueling. And boring. And it had you staring at red almost constantly.

However, despite the negatives, at least you didn’t have to worry about passing out from dehydration. Near the orchard, an old well provided you with a great supply of water. You wondered if it drew water from an underground reservoir or if it was pumped from a nearby source. Either way, it worked great at refilling your flask whenever you ran out of water.

And so on you went, picking, walking, and depositing. Over and over again until sunset. You barely saw Apple or Big Red either, only catching rare glimpses of them leaving the barn after dropping off a cart full of apples.

By the time it reached midday, your arms, shoulders, legs, and feet were aching with unbearable pain. Your muscles burned and contracted painfully, your head felt lightheaded, and it was getting slightly harder to breathe. But you pushed forward despite the pain.

You've been through this before, after all. This was just under different circumstances.

As you approached the next tree, you raised your hand and gently began plucking apples from its branches. From a distance, the trees appeared deceptively large, but up close, they were far more manageable. You wondered if it was a natural occurrence or if the smaller size was more magical in origin. Naturally, their smaller size made picking apples easy, though you occasionally had to stretch onto the tips of your toes to reach the higher ones.

Your pace has slowed tremendously since the start of the day. What once took you two to three minutes to pick a tree clean now stretched to at least ten minutes per tree.

How Apple and Big Red managed to, presumably, complete this Sisyphean task all by themselves left you at a loss for words. Surely they hired some form of help to get the job done, right?

But if that were the case then where was said help? As far as you knew, you were the only help that was present in the orchard.

Suddenly, from the corner of your eye, you spotted movement. Whipping your head in the direction, your gaze landed on a well-maintained tree house—an actual tree house this time, not Violet’s tree library. Like all things in this place, the house was small. It was small enough to make you question if you would need to be hunched over to fit inside.

The movement you’d seen must have been the curtains swaying over the windows. You grew curious and wondered what was inside. Putting down the buckets of apples you were carrying, you walked up to the stairs that led to the tree house and experimented putting your weight on them. To your surprise, it held firm under your full weight. Emboldened by the discovery, you tiredly walked up the stairs until you stood in front of the door.

Reaching for the doorknob, you firmly grasped it and attempted to open the door. Your attempt was met with resistance and some rattling of the knob’s latch. Suddenly, you heard movement coming from inside. Was someone in there? You tried a couple more times before you concluded that the door was, in fact, locked.

Normally, you would’ve broken down the door to get in once you made sure the area was clear, but you couldn’t do that in this case. So instead, you circled around to the side of the house, hoping to catch a glimpse inside through one of the windows. But the thick curtains hanging over the glass obscured your view.

You held your breath for a few seconds, straining to catch any sound from inside., but you exhaled once you heard nothing. You shrugged, maybe you were just hearing things?

“Woof woof woof!”

You jumped and let out a startled shout at the sound of barking coming from below you. Looking over the railing of the platform, you spotted a small, brown and white dog barking and growling at you from the foot of the stairs.

Wow, you didn’t think you’d ever see a dog again. You felt a sense of giddiness emanate from your chest and you had a sudden urge to pet and cuddle the dog. But, as much as you wanted to, it probably wasn’t a good idea. From the way it was barking and baring its teeth at you, it would most likely attack you before it allowed you to shower it with affection.

With a sigh, you began to descend the stairs slowly. As you descended, the dog began to back away from you, its growls grew more incessant. By the time you reached the bottom of the stairs, the poor dog was whimpering up a storm with its tail tightly tucked between its legs. You were a bit dumbstruck by the sudden change in behavior before you realized that you were probably the first human being it's ever seen. It would make perfect sense for it to be scared of you if that was the case.

Deciding that the best course of action would be to simply leave it alone, you carefully slung the large bucket of apples on your back and picked up the two smaller buckets before leaving.

Apple Bloom watched from the window of the clubhouse as the… the monster walked away. Her body shook with fear as she closed the curtains and silently crept up to the door. Unlocking the door, Apple Bloom slowly peeked her head out.

“Winona! Come here, girl!” she loudly whispered.

The sound of multiple feet scurrying up the stairs reached Apple Bloom’s ears as Winona dashed up the stairs and appeared in front of the door. Apple Bloom opened the door a little wider and Winona rushed inside. Apple Bloom then shut the door and locked it again before retreating to a corner away from any of the windows.

There, both Apple Bloom and Winona cuddled up against each other and fearfully waited for either Applejack or Big Mac to come looking for them.

Ah, the ground tasted wonderful this time of year, didn’t it? You didn’t know what happened. One moment you were walking back to the barn, and the next you were waking up on the ground. You tried to get your arms under you and push yourself up, but they gave out immediately.

You groaned in pain as your body’s aching and soreness suddenly hit you at full force, the agonizing sensations preventing you from moving in any significant way. With a pained effort, you shifted your head to the side and gazed up at the sky. It was dark—not nighttime yet, but the shadows creeping in told you it would be soon.

Pushing through the pain, you forced yourself to stand up, only to immediately collapse again. You let out a cry once you hit the ground, the impact sending waves of suffering throughout your body. Any further attempts to get back to your feet yielded similar results.

With a defeated sigh, you opted to lay there and wait for someone to find you. If they find you.

As night fully descended, waves of anxiety began clawing at the edges of your consciousness. The realization of just how vulnerable you were sank deep into your mind, urging you to find a safer place to hide. Your breathing grew heavier and your heartbeat thundered in your chest as you stayed rooted to the spot.

You felt tears begin to spill out of your eyes as your panic began to overwhelm you. You needed to move, to find a safe place before they got you. Get up, get up, get up! Why couldn’t you get up!? You needed to hide!

“I found him!” you heard something shout above you.

Glancing up one more time, you saw something circling above you in the air. Said thing then began to slowly descend toward you and your eyes widened in recognition.

It was Skittles.

She touched down next to you and looked over you with wide, worried eyes, “Goggles? Are you okay?” she said before gently kicking your stomach.

You winced and groaned at the sudden contact, your soreness making the sudden pain ten times worse.

Skittles flinched back, her ears splaying against her head, “Woah, sorry, big guy. I didn’t mean to hurt or scare you.”

You let out a grunt in response, simply happy that you weren’t alone again.

Suddenly, the sound of multiple hooves galloping toward you reached your ears and brought a sense of warmth to your chest, so they were looking for you. You shifted your gaze to the multiple hooves getting closer to you, and once they stopped right beside you, you looked up to see who they belonged to.

The sight of a worried Violet, Apple, Butter, and Big Red filled your sight.

“Oh, no! Is he hurt?” Violet said before glancing at Skittles.

“I think so? I gently, er, kicked his stomach to see if he was awake when I saw him. He didn’t seem to take it too well,” Skittles replied.

“Rainbow! How could you think that’s a good idea?”

“I-I don’t know! I was just worried, okay!”

“So you thought kicking him, even if you were gentle, was a good idea!?”

“Can you two shut up?” you blearily said, causing both of them to silence immediately, “Thank you.”

Butter then stepped forward and began to very gently press down on your arms and body. The actions made you groan and moan in pain, but you trusted what she was doing due to her having some medical experience.

“I think Goggles is suffering from overexerting himself,” Butter said, “His muscles are really stiff and tight, and I can feel them twitch and spasm in some areas. I don’t think he’s injured, but it wouldn’t hurt to check once we get him indoors.”

With that said, everyone tried, and failed, multiple times, to get you in the cart Big Red was hauling. Once you had been successfully deposited inside said cart, Big Red began trotting down the path to the barn with you being lulled to sleep from the gentle rumble of the cart.