Love on the Orchard

        My name is Rio Earthstrider and it’s been approximately three months since I arrived in Equestria from earth. Even after three months my heart is still hurting from the fact that my father Rio is no longer around. He had to stay on earth and I couldn’t stay with him. That’s what my mom or Luna told me.

I miss him more then anypony could ever hope to imagine. I continue to bury it within me not matter how much it hurts I must keep it buried down as far as I can. So in order to help keep that pain hidden I have kept myself busy. Luna let me stay with her in Canterlot while I was there but after a short while I decided to go out on my own and live on my own.

Granted it didn’t go well at all. I was spending the nights outside in the cold looking for either a grassy place or a tree to sleep in. Needless to say I never truly got enough sleep only because I needed to stay awake enough to know whether or not I was going to be attacked by timber wolves. I could easily just go back to Canterlot and be safe and warm with my Mother but I just felt as though I should be able to be on my own by now.

I love my Mom and I know she loves me too so I didn’t leave Canterlot because I was mad at her or anything. I just needed to be alone for a while. The next morning the sun hit me hard in the eyes when I awoke but my blue coat of fur had absorbed a lot of the Sun’s rays to the point of being a very toasty blanket.

I had decided that since it was morning and that there was no need to worry about timber wolves I could sleep in for a while. Near in the afternoon I awoke once more and made my way into PonyVille’s town center. I noticed a foal of purple body and blonde mane and tail playing with their ball. seeing the smile on her adorable little face brought a slight smile to my muzzle.

I never thought I would smile even slightly ever again. I was thankful that I was wrong about my prediction and could feel some spring to my step again. My ears perked up when I heard a splash and the smile on the foal’s muzzle changed to that of a tear filled frown.

Without even thinking about it I dove into the stream and grabbed the ball between my teeth and let myself float back to the surface. I shook off as much water from my fur as a could and gave the little filly back her brightly coloured ball.

“Here you are little one. careful not to lose it again okay?”

“Thank you mister.”

My smile remained and with the good deed I committed to this little filly I felt some joy from it. I knew my father would be proud and oddly enough even though I was smiling tears began to stream down my face. Thankfully my face was still pretty wet from my recent dive into the stream so I was able to play it off as my face still being drenched.

I continued to make my way into the city centre and noticed the town hall was damaged so I went inside and noticed that the construction ponies had most of it sealed off. I offered my aid to them and they were a slightly taken back by my offer. I knew I was strong enough to help out so instead of waiting for a response I simply walked past the barriers and began working without hesitation.

the tasks that lay before me were simple and quick to accomplish. Stacking planks and palates upon the ground and sawing the planks into shape and leaving them upon the palates took me no time and afterword the workers were thankful yet still shocked that I volunteered without them asking for help.

One of the ponies spoke up with question.

“Wait hold on… why did you help us like that out of the blue?”

I responded with an odd answer but a truthful one.

“My father taught me kindness without hesitation and as such I wished only to do my part in spreading kindness to all. It’s what he would have wanted and it’s what I love to do.”

“Th…thank you mister?”

“Rio. Always happy to help out whenever I’m needed.”

“Thank you mister Rio. We appreciate it.”

I shook his hoof and left the building. I found myself drifting from one end of the town to the next without so much as a thought crossing my mind. No matter where I went I would help any and everypony out of the blue to show them kindness and to make my father back on earth happy and proud.

Eventually I found myself at an orchard and hearing sounds of apple trees being rocked but not softly. They sounded as if they were being impacted by a strong force in order to shake the apples from them. I ventured further into the orchard to see this unknown force for myself.