Living with Lyra

Chapter 4: Accent

"WEEEEEEEEEEE, SO MUCH FUN!" I yelled while rolling around on a rotating floor.

"Drag," came a voice from nowhere and then it repeated.

"What?" – I opened my eyes slowly – "...much fun rolling," I softly said.

"Good morning!" Lyra yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Haaaaaa" – I panicked and fell out of bed right there – "Lyra is that you? What are you doing?" I question, while in a bit of pain from falling out of my bed’s warm hug.

"I wanted to make sure you’re organized for today, and you were talking in you sleep like you were being scared to death because you were yelling softly," said Lyra with a smile on her face.

"Wait, organized?" I asked in confusion "Organized for what?".

'"Did I forget to tell you I saw a pony from Sweet Apple Acres and asked if she needed help on the farm, and that you wanted work? She was happy to ask you to come over to help on the farm," said Lyra.

"Well, Sweet Apple Acres was going to be a first choice for some kind of work to keep myself occupied for today, so thanks for making it less weird for me... better than just going up and asking if they need help anyway," I said while moving my wings to check if the fall out of bed injured them.

A little later I found myself in the massive apple orchard. And I wasn’t overstating massive. "I need to find a orange, earth pony named Applejack," I thought to myself.

"Howdy-do partner, you looking for somepony?" asked an orange pony who was sitting under an apple tree.

"Hi there, have you seen a pony named Applejack?" I asked.

"That’s me, partner... I've been waiting for you." Applejack gets up and walks to me, and then began to shake my hoof up and down so violently I thought it’d fall off. "So you’re Draga. Lyra told me you were looking for some work and you have worked on a barn before," said Applejack.

"I lived on a farm until I came to Ponyville. We grew many things, some fruits and vegetables, and apples were one of the things we grew so I have done apple bucking before,” I told Applejack.

"That’s good. Let’s go to the barn and I can tell you what to do", said Applejack as she started walking. I followed her inside the barn.

"Now partner, I'll need you to keep this here wagon near me while I buck the apples off the trees into the baskets, and then you'll take the baskets, put the apples into the wagon, and I'll get the baskets and buck the next tree and we’ll keep doing that until the wagon starts getting heavy. Then you can pull the wagon and then carefully tip the apples into the big storage bin over there," explained Applejack as she pointed her hoof at a very large wooden storage bin in the barn.

"Sure. I got you," I said, but then all of a sudden I see a large, red stallion walking across the Sweet Apple Acres entrance. He seemed terrifying to get into a quarrel with. To be sure, I asked, "Who’s that? Just in case we run into each other?"

"Oh, he's my big brother, Big Macintosh. But don't you worry none, he is working on the other side of the farm and...” Applejack trailed off.

“And... what?”

“I just remembered something,  sorry. Today is the last apple bucking day and by the end it gets harder than when we start because of working every day to get the apples down so when Lyra offered your help I thought it would be nice to finish off a bit easy this season," Applejack told me.I grinned. I knew the feeling. Without much more delay, we began to work.

"Okay that’s a another tree we done bucked... hey, Draga, since you said you came to Ponyville, when did you move to Ponyville, and how long have you been here?" asked Applejack.

"I’m currently staying with Lyra at her place. My place before Ponyville was over the sea in Australia, and I’ve been in Ponyville for 3 days including today," I answered.

"Only 3 days? You settled in quickly... and don't you Australians have a different accent?" asked Applejack.

"How did you know I was putting away my accent?" I asked.

"I've worked with Australians once," Applejack answered.

"Good onya for noticing my accent wasn't Australian," I said.

"Good onya?" Applejack said in confusion.

"Good for you for noticing my accent," I replied.

"Oh, well we should be finished soon and when we come back to the barn we can see if we did it before lunch," said Applejack.

Draga looks up at the sun. "It’s about 1 P.M., give or take 30 minutes," I told Applejack.

"Um, how did you take a guess from the sun?" Applejack asked.

"Just something I learnt back in Australia but being here not in Australia I can be off by half an hour," I replied.

"Well here’s a few bits so thanks for helping," said Applejack handing me a small bag.

"It was nothing." I took off my hat, put the bag in it and then put my hat back on. "So if you need help you can just ask me, and if I'm free I’ll be happy to help," I said.

"Hang on a sec partner, your hat...” She looked at her hat and then mine. "Your hat is the same as mine."

I looked back at Applejack’s hat. True, it was very, very similar. "Oh, it’s the same, but my hat originally had little corks on it, so we call it a 'cork hat'. The cork was used to ward off fly and insects like that," I explained.

"Well, thanks for helping so bye," said Applejack.

"Bye," I said back, leaving.

An hour later I walked through the front door to Lyra’s house.

"Oh, you're back already, Draga," said Lyra, lying on her back on a small mattress in the living room. Oh, why did she have to do that? Now I had to fight for control of my wings, forcing myself to keep them down. Celestia, was she cute.

I spoke in a fake accent. "Um, it was the last day of apple bucking season, and... what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm in a thinking zone for my own hobbies," answered Lyra.

"Okay then... I need to talk to you later. I'll be in my room," I said, doing a fast power walk to my room - I’d taken to calling it my room now - and closing the door behind me.

Somehow, I kept my accent on as I spoke to myself. I was confused now. "That was unexpected... to walk inside and see a mare laying down like that... and I can't believe myself - I actually needed to try not to get a wingboner."

I laid down on my bed, arguing with myself. I don’t know why, but I was flushing. "Yes, Draga, Lyra is very cute but you just met her 3 days ago man... Oh, hay, I just don't know what to think right now," I said to myself quietly. Sighing in frustration, I closed my eyes and let myself rest.

Sometime later - I don’t know what time - was it five? Five - thirty? - I headed out of my room, a bit of my confusion cleared up. In my fake accent I called out. "Hey, Lyra!"

"Yes, Draga," Lyra replied walking to me.

"You know how ponies have accents? Well, the accent I'm talking in right now is not my real accent,"I said, and then changed my voice, speaking normally. "This is my real accent," I said hesitantly.

"What? Why would you hide your real accent? I quite like it more, and it fits your look better," said Lyra.

"Oh, thanks,” I said, a little relieved.  “I did the made - up accent so everypony could understand me because I was told by somepony that some ponies here don't understand the Australian accent.”

"There might be a pony out there that can't, but I can and like I said, I like this one better," said Lyra in a way to make me feel better.

"You are so kind, Lyra... if only there were more ponies like you... but then you wouldn't be as awesome as you are now," I said.

End chapter 4