A young mare, who was wearing a hat and her coat seemed to be coloured like honey, who's name was Applejack, was walking around her family's farm, also known as Sweet Apple Acres. she was busy, checking on every tree there was, jsut to make sure that all apples were in perfect condition for that year's 'Applebuck season', not only because they had to sell more apples than the last time, but there was also someone who would visit them, one of princess Celestia's 'special students' to make sure that every single thing was perfect.
"not sure why Ah gotta do this..." AJ walked over to one of the tallest trees, that was on top of a hill that had a view of the whole farm, and gently kicked it, to knock a little apple off it. "why would the princess send another pony to check on us? we're the best Apple farmers of Equestria after all..." she sniffed the apple a bit and stared at it. "guess this one's okay..."
she turned around, leaned a bit against the tree and gave the apple a little bite, she looked at the farm, her little sister, Applebloom and her older brother, Big Macintosh, who was wearing a yolk around his neck, were also checking on the orchard, her grandmother, Granny Smith was sitting on a chair, that was in fron of the barn, as she was way too frail and old to work.
someone hit the tree softly, just by her ear. she turned her head to the left and saw one of her friends from the town that was very close to the farm. "hey, Appleack, what's going on?" it was a mare that was about the same age as her, her coat was a soft pink and her eyes were blue. "why's everyone working so much?"
"Pinkie Pie? what'cha doing here?" AJ stepped back from the tree a bit.
"oh, I thought I'd just pay you a little visit and also to invite you over to this afternoon's party!" she pulled something out of her pocket, a little piece of paper, that had the words 'party at Sugar Cube Corner today, 4:30pm' written on it. "it's gonna be awesome!"
"ya sure I have to go Pinkie?" she said while looking back at the orchard. "an important guest of Princess Celestia's gonna come an' we need tah make sure that everything is top notch for that guy"
"oh. maybe I can get all of our friends to come and help you with it! and then you can come to the party!" Pinkie smiled at her.
"ah, sure. but you have to get 'em here licketty split. we must make sure that everything is done by the end of the day, before Celestia's guy gets here." she walked over to the farm again. "we gotta finish this before nightfall."
Pinkie Pie rushed over the town and around .04 seconds (what Applejack could count to), she had come back, carrying her friends on her back, still in pose as if they had been doing something when Pinkie dragged them to the farm. "they're all ready to go!"
"how the heck did we get here?" a little purple dragon, who's name was Spike, muttered in his sleep while poking his head from behind Pinkie.
"we're all here to help Applejack to get ready before one of Celestia's men gets here to check on the farm!" Pinkie giggled and patted the dragon's head.
"you could've at least told us that you were gonna take us here before you made me loose my progress in my studies, Pinkie" a young, purple coated unicorn mare, who's name was Twilight Sparkle, jumped off Pinkie's back, knocking her other three friends off the pink pony in the process.
"oops" Pinkie said with a very convincent sheepish smile, that was actually fake.
"Pinkie Pie, why did you bring ME, out of all other ponies, here?. first, I am not used to doing all that work and getting dirty... ugh..." saying those last words made her shiver a bit. "second, could you not see that I was very busy, making my last dress?" a white coated unicorn mare said while adjusting her mane to it's usual shape with a brush that seemingly came out of nowhere. "it was very unladylike of you to do that, you know?"
"yeah, yeah, right. you gonna help us or not?" Applejack said while fishing her apple and throwing the core away.
"ugh, I think I have no other choice, now do I?" the white coated unicorn said with a little groan. "just... get me some clothes that will help me keep clean while doing all those jobs."
"it's not really a matter of getting dirty." AJ kicked the tree again, and another apple fell down on her hand. "it's just a matter of checking quality and all that fancy mathematic-y stuff Twi and mah brother are so used to practice n' all..."
"h-hey, speaking about that. where's your big brother, AJ?" Twilight said with a little blush on her cheeks. "I'd like to se him..."
a young pegasus mare who's mane and tail were coloured like a rainbow, and her name was Rainbow Dash, chuckled a bit and put her shoulder on Twilight's arm. "hey, Twilight, since when did you start to have a crush on Big Macintosh~?"
the purple coated mare blushed even more and shook her head. "I... I don't have a crush on Big Mac!" she yelled at Rainbow Dash, who was laughing at her. "stop laughing!"
another pegasus mare, who's coat was a creamy yellow and her name was Fluttershy, walked over to Applejack and gently poked her shoulder. "uhm, Applejack, I hope you don't mind me asking, but, could you tell me who's that guy who's gonna come here to check on the farm?"
"Ah really dunno, sucarcube." AJ shrugged and tossed the second apple core away. "I was only told that it was one of Celestia's servants or somethin' like that."
after around two hours, Applejack and her friends had finished checking on each and every single tree. "there. now ah can go to the party." AJ turned her head to Pinkie Pie
"yay! I'll be waiting for you at Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack!" Pinkie giggled and ran off to Ponyville, taking her friends with her.
"ah can't understand how the hay she manages to do that..." the orange muttered to herself as she went to her home so that she could clean herself up a bit before going to Pinkie's party. "if I don't get 'fancy' or somethin' like that before I go to Pinkie's party, Rarity's gonna whoop my flank..." she giggled to herself as she entered the bathroom.
Half an hour after Pinkie Pie's party started, a train arrived at the Ponyville station. in there was only one passenger. it was a tall stallion, who's coat was dark blue, just like his mane and tail, his eyes, similar to those of a Snake's eyes, were a golden yellow and he had a small mark on the underside of his arm which seemed to be four red gemstones. "ah, Ponyville... I missed this place so much" he chuckled to himself as he walked out of the train, his only luggage seemed to be a small backpack that he carried on his back.
as the stallion made his way towards wherever he was headed, almost everyone turned their heads to him and waved, or smiply said something like. "hello!"
he waved back at everyone, even the ones who just seemed to ignore him or didn't know him at all. "hey, guys. how's everyone doin'?" his voice was deeper than an average stallion's voice, most mares swooned whenever he walked by them, or playfully winked an eye at them and some stallions jeallously glared at him.
as he walked, the background around him changed, it slowly turned from a little town to a bunch of little sand trails, one of them guided him to what seemed to be a little farm, the Apple family farm. "ah. home sweet home..." he breathed the farm's air deeply and closed his eyes for a second, he seemed to have lived in that town before.
when he stepped in, he looked around, wondering where would have everyone gone to, as there was nobody to be seen there. "strange. I thought there'd be people workin' around here..." he took a little clipboard, that had a lot of papers in it, out of his backpack and marked a little square with a big and red 'X'. "hate to do this to my family... but, it's my job." he whispered as he walked towards the orchard, as if that was his home.
A couple hours later Applejack, her brother and her sister came back from Ponyville all of them chuckling a bit. Applejack's hat was hanging from the tip of her muzzle. Big Macintosh had a lampshade on top of his head and he didn't have his yolk on. Applebloom was wearing her big brother's yolk and also had a little party hat on her head.
"that, was one heckuva party!" Applejack chuckled while adjusting her hat so that it wouldn't fall off her muzzle.
"Eeyup." Big Mac nodded, slowly took the lampshade off his head, and then tossed it away. "pretty darn fun."
Applebloom giggled a bit and tossed the party hat away while trying to give Big Mac his yolk. "maybe partying like crazy my special talent!" she pulled her sleeve up a bit so that she could look at her shoulder but then sighed. "still nothing!" she pulled her pants up again and walked back to her siblings. "dangnabbit..." she mumbled.
Applejack then noticed something strange, a dark blue coated stallion was walking around the orchard, examinating each and every single detail that had anything to do with the trees. "what the hay? who's that guy?" she sprinted over to the stallion and pounced him, thinking that he was a thief.
the stallion turned his head to her, but instead of being terrified or anything he caught AJ in mid air, hugged her tightly and softly kissed her forehead "Cousin!" he chuckled and playfully nibbled on her shoulder
Applejack stood still for a second, a small blush on her cheeks, she didn't know what was going on so she started to break it all down in her mind so that she could try to give it an order or something. "okay, lemme think of it for a sec... this guy was checking on our apples... he could be rather a thief or Celestia's guy... on the other side, he told me 'cousin'... do I know him? I didn't really have a look at his face. his voice sounds familiar, though... maybe..." she looked up to him and squinted her eyes a bit, trying to find a single detail on that stallion's face that told her something about him.
"Don't ya recognize me AJ?" the stallion said with a chuckle while putting his hand into his shirt. "it's me, Jay." as he spoke he slowly pulled a golden locket, that was hanging from a little silver chain and showed it to AJ. "remember?"
Applejack took the locket from the stallion's hands and opened it, it had two little photos in it. the photo showed two young colts, one who seemed a bit than the other one, looked a lot like the one in front of her and the other one, who seemed younger, and looked like Big Mac, both staring at a little foal that looked a lot like herself. she gasped a bit and then looked up at him "I... you... me... that's... the day I was born..."
he smiled and motioned her to look down at the other photo. "look at the other one."
AJ looked down at the other photo, it was a photo of a ten year old version of the older colt, hugging a six year old version of the filly in the photo. "I... I remember that day... it was a week after I got my cutiemark. my cousin Jay threw a party for me..."
he smiled at her and put his hand on her shoulder. "you missed me, Kimosabe?" he chuckled a bit and snatched the locket from her hand.
Applejack pounced him and hugged him tightly, everything about that stallion suddenly rushed into her mind. "Jay! I can't believe you came back!" both of them fell to the ground, giggling a bit, Big Mac ran over to them, and Applebloom just stared at them with her head tilted to the side.