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// Chapter 6 
// Story: Dark Mistakes 
// by NakedSpaceMan 
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        The train ride to Ponyville was somewhat of a hectic time for Armon. Shortly after getting on the train, Pinkie Pie took it upon herself to throw a “Welcome back to our World” party in the dining cart. It was the most fun that Armon had for as long as he could remember. But eventually all the sugar and other foods he wasn’t yet used to made him spend the night in the bathroom. He was used to eating rotten food of his species usual diet and meat from whatever he could find.

Finally the train arrived in Ponyville. All the ponies here fascinated Armon. There was a pony with strange eyes flying around, a strange pony with a blue colored mane and purple glasses and a particularly interesting pony sitting it a strange way on a bench at the station. Of course, he hadn’t seen so many ponies in such a long time he had forgotten how interesting they could be.

It was decided that Armon would live at Twilight’s place since she was the only one with extra space, her basement. After bidding her friends farewell, Armon and Twilight made their way to her treehouse library. After walking their way through town seeing more ponies along the way, they finally made their way to the front door. Stepping inside, they find Spike dusting the shelves.

“Spike, we have a visitor.” said Twilight. Spike stepped down off the ladder he was on to dust the high shelves to greet his lifelong friend. “Hey Twilight. Who’s this?” asked Spike as he gestered to Armon. “Spike, this is Armon. Armon, this is Spike. He’s my little brother.” said Twilight. Armon wondered how a dragon could possibly be related to a pony, but he decided to ask later. Armon held out his hoof for a hoofshake. Spike took his hoof and gave a strong handshake.

Armon noticed a smell coming off of Spike and started to sniff. He could smell Rarity’s sent all over him. “So this is the dragon I was smelling.” thought Armon. Spike was extremely weirded out by Armon’s sudden need to sniff him. “Uh, Armon. What are you doing?” asked Spike.

Armon realized what he was doing and quickly reeled back. “Oh, sorry.” Armon said as he blushed. Twilight laughed at Armon’s embarrassment and turned back to Spike. “Spike, Armon’s going to be staying with us for a while. Can you go downstairs and set up a bed for him?” asked Twilight. “Sure Twilight.” said Spike. Spike led Armon downstairs to the basement. After some moving, they cleared a space for Armon to sleep and pulled out a folding bed for him to use. When everything was done Armon took a seat on the bed. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but it was better than sleeping on rocks like he had for so long.

“Spike, I must ask. What is Rarity to you?” asked Armon. Spike was taken aback at Armon’s question. There was no way he could've figured it out so quickly! “Wh, what do you mean?” spike asked nervously. “Well I can smell Rarity’s sent all over you. The only other sent on you that’s strong is Twilight’s but that’s obvious. Is there a reason why you spend so much time with her?” asked Armon. Spike was getting even more nervous. He knew Armon for only an hour and already he knew his deepest darkest secret. “Well, I go over to her boutique a lot. Yeah, that’s it! I help out there a lot for jewels!” said Spike. Armon was amused by Spike’s answer. It was pretty obvious as to why he was doing it, but he decided to humor him since it was obvious that Spike wasn’t ready yet. He may had not seen the seeds of love in a really long time, but he wasn’t stupid.

After setting up his bed and getting his sleeping area ready, Armon and Spike made their way upstairs into the library. Twilight was sitting at her regular reading spot, nose deep in a book about the early equestrian life. She was dead set on asking Armon as many questions as possible and she needed to gather as many as she could from these books.

Armon was glad to have a place to sleep but now he needed something to occupy his time. A thousand years of constantly trying to stay alive kept his mind busy but now he has nothing to do. Since he was a celery farmer before everything with Mortem happened, he thought Applejack’s farm would the the perfect place to ask for a job. After telling Twilight and Spike where he was going, he bid them farewell and set off to try to find Applejack’s farm on his own.

Finding the farm was in itself a nightmare for Armon. Ponyville wasn’t the largest town in Equestria but it was certainly big. He didn’t have a clue as to where Applejack’s farm could be. He spent the day trying to find it but after a few hours he finally managed to find some apple trees. “Oh thank God!” thought Armon.

After a few minutes of walking at the edge of the orchard, Armon finally saw the barnhouse in the distance. After trekking across a field he found Applejack sitting on her house’s front porch with an elderly pony that he learned would be Granny Smith.

“Howdy there Armon. Didn’t expect you to come round here? What can I do ya for?” asked Applejack. Armon explained how he needed something to occupy his time now that he was going to be a resident of Ponyville. Applejack at first said no since they could barely afford keeping the land and paying for home expenses let alone a worker. But Armon offered to work for free. He didn’t need money, he just needed something to occupy his time. Applejack at first didn’t want to accept Armon’s offer, but Granny Smith offered to instead give Armon a free lunch every                 day to pay for his work. They all agreed and Armon got his job.

After a quick introduction of Armon to Granny Smith on where he came from and what happened since he came back, Applejack and Armon went out to the orchard to teach Armon how to properly applebuck.

“Alright Armon, the key to good applebuckin is to first shift yer’ weight to your front hooves,” said Applejack as she put her weight in her front hooves and readied her back hooves to strike the tree, “then ya just shift all yer’ weight into your back hooves.” At that Applejack delivered a hard hit on the tree trunk, knocking lots of apples into baskets laid under the tree.

Armon followed her advice, but his first attempt accidently put a dent into the tree’s trunk. “Oh, sorry. I guess that was too much.” said Armon. Applejack was surprised, the only pony she’s seen to ever make a dent like that was her big brother Big Mac. But he’s twice the size of Armon! “Uh that’s okay Armon. Say do you think you could hit that thicker trunk over there?” asked Applejack. Armon turned to where Applejack was pointing to only to see a huge apple tree. It was thirty feet tall and held hundreds of apples. It was the largest tree in the orchard, it was also the hardest to buck. Only Big Mac could get them down but it took him at least half an hour to do it.

Armon strolled to the tree and readied for an apple buck. Following Applejacks advice he kicked the tree as hard as he could. He delivered a mighty kick to the tree trunk that shook the entire tree. While it didn’t leave a dent like last time, almost a quarter of the apples dropped out of the tree. In just one hit, he did what would take Big Mac over ten minutes to do. “Sweet Celestia, just how strong is he?” thought Applejack.

After bucking the big tree and having Armon learn how to control his bucking, Applejack and Armon moved swiftly through the Orchard. They were getting more done in a day than what was possible before in a week. Applejack had to take breaks every now and then but Armon just kept going. It was like he had unlimited strength and stamina.

Applejack tried to slow him down a little by placing him in a separate part of the orchard to buck so she could get them lunch. But when she came back with the daffodil sandwiches and lemonade, he had already bucked a quarter of the orchard section she left him in. 

Armon was on a rush that he didn’t want to stop. He hadn’t done something as this fun since the last time he tended to his own farm. He kept bucking as fast and as hard as he could. He was told to clear the section of the orchard Applejack showed him and he was going to try. He didn’t even notice that Applejack had already returned with their lunch.

Finally relaxing, Applejack and Armon took a longer lunch that she normally would of since they were so far ahead. “Ya know Armon I gotta ask, how are ya so crazy strong? Ya managed to do a weeks worth of work in just a few minutes.” said Applejack. Armon took a look at the orchard. She was right. He did so much in so little time, but he hadn’t even noticed. He was having so much fun doing what he loved he hadn't noticed the sheer number of trees he bucked.

“Well I guess that’s from my time in Tartarus. You don’t stay there for a long time without building some muscle.” said Armon. Applejack was somewhat convinced but something was off. Big Mac is huge and in some places bulging with muscles. Armon however just looked like an average pony and yet he’s stronger. But beggars can’t be choosers so Applejack just took her good fortune in Armon.

Deciding that the day was pretty much done since they bucked half of the entire orchard, Applejack bid Armon a farewell. Armon walked back to the library, had dinner with Twilight and Spike and went to his first night of sleep in his new life.

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Deep in the vault of Canterlot, the darkness inside Twilights element consumed the jewel. It was a much darker color than normal. As it finished the last bright spot on the piece, it slowly started to seep into Applejacks element. The process started again and the element started to turn it’s color.