All things considered the rest of the day went by rather smoothly. Matt and Twilight finished up at the café before heading back to the library. The proceeding hours were spent with Twilight questioning Matt about human culture and technology. Much to her annoyance most of Matt's answerers were either 'I don't know' or 'I never really paid attention in that class', an academic Matt was not.

Before long night fell on the land, made clear by Luna's moon hanging high in the sky. Matt still had a hard time accepting that the celestial bodies were controlled by two princesses, but, with many things here, he decided not to argue. Twilight made sure to set up the guest bed this time, and before long everypony, and dragon, in the house was asleep.

The next morning Twilight was the first one awake, eager to get a start on the day. One of the first thing that came up in Matt and Twilight's conversation was money, which lead to Matt getting a job, which lead to going to see Applejack and seeing if Matt could help out on the farm. They both stepped out of the library, leaving spike in charge once again, and set off down the path to Sweet apple acres.

Twilight had finally convinced Matt that wearing clothes all the time would only draw more attention to him, and he should go ‘natural’ as she put it. That and wearing ski clothes all the time, in what Matt quickly learned was the middle of summer, was not the most practical thing to do.

“So who was it we were going to see again?” Matt asked, more in an attempted to strike up a conversation than anything else.

“We’re going to see my friend Applejack. She runs Sweet apple acres along with her family. I'm sure she will have something you can do for a few bits.” Twilight answered as they came up on a vast field off apple trees.

Matt was awestruck, he had flown over a few apple groves in his time back on earth but this was something else. Trees stretched far out to the horizon, each adorned by succulent apples, coloured with many hues of red and green. Twilight gave a small giggle as see looked over at Matt's face his eyes wide and his jaw lose.

“As fun as it is to watch you gawk at the farm we really should get going.” Twilight said snapping Matt out of his trance. He gave an embarrassed smile as he followed behind Twilight who was walking up to the main entrance to the farm.

As they walked onto the farm Matt looked over to the barn to see the most normal coloured pony he had seen since arriving. She was a soft shade of orange with a blond mane and tail, three red apples adorning her flank. It suddenly occurred to Matt that he had no idea what image adorned his flank. Twilight had explained the concept of 'cutie marks' they need a better name but between refusing to take his clothes off, and just not thinking about it, Matt had never see his.

A quick turn of his head let Matt gaze down on his flank. To be honest he was not expecting what he saw but then again it came as no real surprise. Printed on his flank was the image of an old film real winding it was through a just as equally old film camera. Matt’s attention was drawn back to the head cam he had strapped round his skull. Over the years since Andrew's death setting up and using the head cam had become second nature to him. The memories of Andrew hit him like a knife but he quickly shook it off and made a small dash to catch up to Twilight.

The orange pony gave a wave as Twilight trotted over to her, Matt following quickly behind.

“Well howdy Twilight, what brings you out here?” She asked looking first at Twilight then over to Matt. “And who's this fella you got with you?”

“Hi Applejack, this is Matt, we were hoping you would have some work for him here on the farm since he's new in town.” Twilight explained. Applejack walked over gave him a scrutinising glare, as if she was picking out the race horse she was going to place her money on. Matt instantly felt very small under her gaze, even though he was bigger than her, she gave off a very powerful aura. But just as quickly as she started her inspection, she stopped. Looking over to Matt with a warm smile she spoke.

“Well sure, I don’t really think I will have much use for a camera pony round here, but you can sure give apple buckin’ a try. I was just about to head on out and start some harvest, if ya’ll want to tag along your more than welcome, an extra set of hooves never hurt.” Applejack said in a cheerful tone. With that said Matt felt a wave of relief flood over him.

Dam, that girl can be real intimidating when she needs to be

The three of them headed off into the apple grove.

It was not even mid day yet and the sun was already bearing down on Matt with all its force. He could only imagine how much worse the heat would be if he had been too stubborn to take off his ski gear. Before long they reached their destination. It was surprising how Applejack had managed to navigate her way here since everything looked the same the moment they entered the tree line. Matt took a good look around, he had no clue what ‘buckin’ apples’ entailed and was just that little bit eager to find out. Around the base of each tree were wooden buckets, three to a tree, and what must have been over a hundred trees set up like this.

“Whelp, here we are” Applejack announced, with just a hint of pride in her voice. “Feel free to start wherever you like.”

“Um, ok” Matt said as he walked over to one of the trees examining the buckets intensely. Luckily Twilight was there as Matt’s male pride prevented him from asking for instructions.

“Applejack I think he might need a demonstration.” Twilight pointed out pointing a hoof in Matt’s direction, as he was attempting to scale the tree. Applejack gave a good hearty laugh as she walked over to Matt. He quickly descended the tree and gave Applejack an embarrassed look.

“I’m betting ya’ll never bucked an apple before, right?”

“Well it never really came up before” He said giving a small laugh. Applejack just smiled at this before lining herself up with the tree.

*THUD*

The tree shook under the force of her kick sending an avalanche of apples down into the buckets below. Matt just gawked at her.

Note to self: don’t get on Applejacks bad side

“And that’s all there is to it, now you give her a shot” Applejack invited as she pointed a hoof at the next tree up. Matt quickly lined himself up with the tree, pressing his weight down on his hind legs, glancing back at his target.

Whelp here goes nothing

*clunk*

As the force of Matt’s hooves met the wood of the tree the sheer pressure caused the leaves to shake slightly. Now Applejacks bedside manner had never been all that great, as evident by her busting into a fit of laughter at Matt’s less than amazing kick.

“Whooo wee, ya’ll gona have to kick a might bit harder than that to get them apple down.” Finally coming to the end of her laughing fit “But for a first try that wasn’t too bad.” Matt knew she was just trying, not overly hard, to spare his feelings. With his pride on the line now he lined up and made another attempt. And another, and another, and another, and another. Each time only managing to successfully shake free a few leaves. Out of the corner of his eye Matt could see Applejack and twilight both trying to hold back laughter. That was the last straw, he was going to get these apples out of this tree, and he knew just how to do it.

Just add a little telekinetic power to my kick and those apples will be dropping like flies

Matt lined up once more and eyed up his target like a manticore eyeing up its prey. Focusing his mental energy at the bases of his hooves he gave the tree one last kick.

*BOOM*

Without warning the trunk of the tree exploded, a shower of splintered wood flying off in all directions. Applejack reacted fast grabbing Twilight and diving to the ground to minimise her exposure to the flying shrapnel. Luckily for Matt his Telekinetic kick had kept him firmly planted on the ground. Not so lucky was the fact that this caused him to get an ass full of weaponized woodchip.

“Ow” Matt whimpered meekly before collapsing to the ground. Applejack just stared wide eyed at him as she got back on her hooves.

“How?” this was the only word she could find in her brain at the time. Matt gave a guilty smile.

“Err......I think I might have weakened it a bit”

Author's Note

Authors notes: Sorry about the late and short chapter, university work has been piling up lately. Hopefully after new years the work will die down a bit and I can put a bit more time into writing this story, thanks.