Home is Where Your Heart Is

Wanderlust jerked out of his sleep dripping sweat. "Another nightmare..." He murmured as he looked around his improvised tree bed searching for any sign of the monsters that had been chasing him. Seeing nothing, he sighed in relief.

The dream had almost been exactly the same as his previous nightmare. Darkness, a green light, Fluttershy and her friends attacking him, and those same horrible teeth. The only difference had been that the dream had ended before those teeth had been able to tear him apart.

A soft wind blew through the tree, chilling the sweat on his body and making him shiver. He wrapped his arms around himself and tried to rub some warmth into his body. After a few minutes of this he felt sufficiently warm and started climbing out of the tree. He grabbed the bag that was hanging on a nearby branch and slung it across his body before getting too far down.

Stepping out from under the shadows of the tree, Wanderlust looked up towards the sky and couldn't help but wonder at how many stars made up the sky. As a young filly, he had foolishly tried to count them all but never made it any farther than ten before he would end up counting a star twice. In frustration he would always start over only to start counting the same couple stars again. He remembered his parents watching over him on one of those calm nights and he could feel a tear slide down his cheek at the thought of it.

He continued to watch the sky for at least an hour until the stars began to fade one by one. A dull glow appeared to the east and Wanderlust knew that sunrise wasn't far off. That meant he had to get to Sweet Apple Acres for his job.

He ate the rest of the food that was in the bag. Afterwards he took a quick stock of the contents of the bag. In it sat the two books from Twilight and the jar of painkiller. He sighed before slinging the bag back over his back.

He said a final goodbye to the stars and Princess Luna's moon before turning and trotting in the direction that he assumed would lead him to Sweet Apple Acres.

Fluttershy stood on her front lawn staring at the sky as Wanderlust had been. She stared into the void that was space and the glitter-like sparkles that were the stars. She had long since stopped crying but, despite that, sleep eluded her.

Her friends had seen her crying but only Rarity could really have guessed the reason for her sadness. After a short time her tears had dried up and she had sent her friends on their way, the party having ended at least an hour earlier when everypony realized that the guest of honor was gone. She had gone to bed, her house still a mess and with the nice food that Rarity had made for the dinner growing cold.

After a few hours of lying in her bed, she had come outside to watch the stars that floated high above her and maybe forget about her problems for a few minutes. Fluttershy sat down on the ground and just watched the stars as night began to turn into morning.

Finally, she tore her gaze away from the sky and looked at the dirt path in front of her cottage. She was shocked to see a gray pony trotting past her home. She instantly recognized it as Wanderlust and her throat grew tight. She felt happy at seeing her crush again but that happiness quickly turned to sorrow as she remembered what had happened last night. Despite this her eyes remained glued to the pony as he hurried on, not even noticing the sad mare watching him. At least that's what she thought.

Wanderlust was acutely aware of the fact that he was trotting in front of Fluttershy's cottage but he resisted the urge to look at it.

He soon left the cottage behind, much to Fluttershy's disappointment, and soon found himself surrounded on all sides by apple trees. He saw a red barn and a small faded red house next to it. "That must be it." He thought as he increased his pace.

He reached the door at the same time that Celestia's sun came up and the roosters started to crow. He knocked on the door a few times and then took a step back as he waited for somepony to answer the door. After a few moments the door opened and Wanderlust found himself not looking at a pony but a large pink bow. Blinking a few times, he looked down to see a young yellow filly looking back with a curious expression on her face.

"Uh, hello little one," Wanderlust started. "Uh is Applejack home?"

She gave a quick nod. "Uh huh! She's out bucking apples in the field." The filly answered with a cheerful voice. "Come on, I'll show ya." With that she started hopping towards the field while looking back at him. "So who are ya anyways?" She asked.

"I'm Wanderlust." He answered. "What's your name?"

"I'm Applebloom! Applejack is my big sis." She answered proudly.

"You look like her." He said with a small laugh.

"Really?!" She asked with her eyes sparkling.

"Really." He smiled. He turned his head when he heard a loud crack followed by a loud of smaller thumps.

Standing about a dozen feet from them stood Applejack, hat in hoof with several baskets filled with apples sitting a few feet behind her. She shook some sweat off of her face and put her hat back on before looking at Wanderlust and Applebloom. "Howdy Wanderlust." She said as she walked up to her sister and her new worker. "Get bucking."

Wanderlust blinked a few times and looked at a nearby tree with several baskets sitting underneath it. Shrugging, he faced the tree and dug his hooves into the ground. He let out a grunt as he pushed off his back legs and galloped towards the tree. At the last second he turned sharply and kicked the tree with all his might. A loud crack sounded throughout the field and Wanderlust waited for the apples to fall.

He watched as a single red apple fell from the tree and landed in one of the baskets with an unsatisfying thud. He waited for more to fall but it soon became obvious that no other apples were going to fall. He looked back at the two ponies watching him.

Applejack covered her face with her hat and shook her head while Applebloom bit her lip in an attempt not to laugh.

Wanderlust felt his ears droop at how horrible that had been as he turned back to the basket and looked inside it but found it empty. He was unsure what to think of this until he heard a loud crunch coming from his right.

Looking over he saw a humongous red stallion with a short orange mane chewing loudly on the red apple. The red pony was one of the biggest stallions he had ever seen with not a single ounce of flab anywhere on his body, just pure muscle. He watched as the huge stallion swallowed the rest of the apple and looked at him with pair of bored looking green eyes.

Wanderlust's eyes were wide and for some unknown reason, he found himself absolutely terrified of the huge stallion and he wasn't at all relieved when Applejack came over and draped one of her arms across his broad shoulders. "This is Big Macintosh." She said with pride. "Big Mac, this is Wanderlust. He's gonna be working with us for a while."

Big Macintosh just nodded and turned to the tree that Wanderlust had kicked a few moments earlier. With hardly any wind-up he bucked the tree and sent dozens of apples falling from it's branches. Wanderlust just sat there with his mouth open as every apple fell into the baskets, without a single one touching the ground.

"Yeehaw!" Applejack yelled and patted Big Macintosh on the back. "Good job Big Mac." She said with a smile.

"Eeeyup." He responded with pride.

For a few hours after this, Applejack and Big Macintosh bucked the trees in the field while Wanderlust, seeing as he could barely buck a single apple out of a tree, carried the apple-filled baskets to the barn.

They stopped a little after noon for a lunch break. Applejack told Wanderlust he had about an hour to eat something and get back here.

Having already eaten all of the food that Fluttershy had given him, Wanderlust wasn't exactly in a big rush to spend all of his bits. Despite his grumbling stomach, he decided to just skip eating lunch. Instead he chose to sit under one of the countless apple trees and read one of the books that Twilight had given him. He pulled both of the books out of the saddlebag and looked at them.

"Changelings or Elements of Harmony..." He muttered in thought. After a few moments, he slid the book on changelings back into the bag and opened Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.

He sat in a thoughtful silence reading about the mystical objects known as the Elements of Harmony.

It wasn't a very long book and in only twenty minutes he had come to the last few pages.

With a yawn, Wanderlust turned the page and was surprised to see that the next two pages looked newer than the rest of the book. The words on these pages looked like they had been hoofwritten and a photograph was sitting on one of the pages.

Looking at the photograph, Wanderlust was surprised to see the six mares that he met in Ponyville. Applejack, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were all huddled together in this picture with nothing but joy on their faces. They were all obviously friends from their smiles and friendly dispositions.

It made Wanderlust's heart constrict in sadness at never having such close friends as these ponies obviously had.

A noise came from behind Wanderlust making him jerk his head to the side and he was surprised to see Applejack. She stood a foot away from him and she wasn't looking at Wanderlust, but at the picture.

"Good times..." She said to herself before sitting down with her back against the tree. She didn't say anything else and just sat against the tree watching the peacefulness of the Apple fields.

Although she didn't say anything else, Wanderlust was all too aware of her presence and turning his attention back to the book seemed difficult. After a few minutes of attempted reading, he decided to just put the book away and finish the last few pages later. As he slipped the book back into the saddlebag, he heard Applejack ask him something.

"Why did ya come here?" Applejack asked out of the blue.

Wanderlust turned and looked at her but she was still gazing out at the fields. He answered hesitantly. "You said I could work here."

"No, ah meant why did ya come to Ponyville and why did ya disappeared for a week and why do ya look like somepony ran ya over with a cart." (Author Note: I apologize for the horrible Applejack accent.)

Wanderlust took a deep breath from answering. "I have no real reason for coming to Ponyville. To me it's just another town that I would pass through."

Applejack turned to look at Wanderlust but saw that he was now looking down at the ground.

He continued. "This town didn't look like anything special and still it doesn't seem like it's a place that's really worth visiting. As for why I look like I'm half-dead and why I disappeared," He paused for a moment. "I just got hurt." He said after a few moments not wanting to blame Rainbowdash for his current condition. He looked up from the ground at Applejack. "That answer your questions?"

"One more." She answered in her slow drawl. "Why did ya'll come to Sweet Apple back then."

"It's quite simple really." He answered slowly. "I was hungry."

"So ya decided to steal." She finished for him.

Wanderlust looked at her in anger. "What would you have done? I was half-starved and I didn't have any money. I didn't have a whole lot of options!"

Applejack stayed calm and spoke calmly. "Ya could've asked, not just taken."

This made Wanderlust bark out a bitter laugh. "I'm not a charity case." He said with bitterness in his voice.

"So ya would rather be a thief?" When he didn't answer she asked one more question. "Why did you want to work here?"

Although Wanderlust was still annoyed with Applejack's questions, he decided it wouldn't be of much use to lie. "I owe Fluttershy my life. She saved my life when I got hurt and disappeared for a week. She spent her time and energy trying to keep me alive and the only thing I have done is break her house and eat her food, so I can at least try to pay her back for what she's done."

Applejack didn't say anything to Wanderlust after he finished. After a few minutes of tense silence she stood up and left. Wanderlust looked after he when she left and looked down at the ground after she was gone from sight. He was surprised to see three red apples sitting on the ground next to him.

He smiled a sad smile as he thought, 'I guess I can be a charity case every once in a while.' He picked up one of the apples and took a bite out of it. He felt his smile grow as the sweet taste filled his mouth.

After he had finished the apples he walked back towards the small house and looked around trying to find any members of the Apple family. After finding nopony, he decided to just knock on the door.

Applejack opened the door. "Yes?"

"Are we still going to work?" Wanderlust asked.

Applejack shook her head. "We were gonna keep working but it's gonna rain." She said pointing a hoof towards a group of pegasi pulling clouds across the sky.

Wanderlust recognized the rainbow colored mane of Rainbowdash as she pulled a big mass of clouds behind her. He turned back to Applejack and was surprised to see her gone. The door was still open so he poked his head in. He didn't see her in the room and was still deciding about whether to go in the house or not when she came back with a small bag hanging from her mouth.

She placed the bag at Wanderlust's feet and Wanderlust looked at her in confusion. "Your pay for today." She said simply and pushed the bag forward with a hoof.

"Oh." Was all he said as he picked it up and opened the bag to look at the money. Sitting in the small bag was seven small coins and Wanderlust felt his spirits drop. 'All that work for seven bits.' He thought hopelessly. 'At this rate I will be here for an entire month just to fix the hole in Fluttershy's roof!' (Author's Note: I am assuming that a single bit is worth about one and a half U.S. dollars. So he just made about seventeen dollars.)

"O' course, that's for only half a day." Applejack said. "But, if ya worked a full day you would make twice that much."

When she said that, Wanderlust breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at the orange pony. "Thank you so much Applejack."

She brushed off his thank you. "Honest pay for honest work. No thanks needed."

With that Wanderlust took the small bag and put it into his saddle bag. He smiled one more time at Applejack and she said. "From now on, let's pretend that this is the first time ya'll have been to Sweet Apple Acres." She winked and shut the door.

Wanderlust felt his smile grow at how wonderful that pony was. Not only did she give him a job but she also was willing to forgive him for trying to steal from her. 'Today couldn't get much better.' He thought as he walked away from the farm. He heard the low rumble of thunder and looked up at the sky, which was now covered in dark clouds. "But it could get a whole lot worse." He muttered as he started trotting towards the town."