//------------------------------//
// chapter 4 working and to ponyville 
// Story: From a pony to a changeling 
// by skittle strike 
//------------------------------//

Following behind Braeburn, Skittles couldn't help but feel happier now that he can try to move on from what had happened yesterday and try to have more fun.

Just ahead Skittles could see rows upon rows of apple trees, walking past them he could see some ponies putting some pies onto a table, being curios Skittles can't help but ask. "Hey Braeburn, so what are we gonna be eating, because all I've eaten recently were just some berries."

Turning his head Breaburn says "Just some apple pie, apple fritters and other apple treats, then after we're done eating we'll be going to our small orchard to start your work, but since it will be a bit later in the day we'll only be out there for a few hours, and then I'll be showing you where you'll be bunking for the night." Braeburn said with a smile.

Smiling back they head towards the table picking up a slice of apple pie, apple fritter and apple juice. Then moving to a unoccupied table to eat at, now seated striking up a conversation Braeburn asks. " so after you have some bits where are ya'll planning on going next seeing as your not planning on staying."

shrugging Skittles just states "not sure really just looking for somewhere I can relax, work and have fun, so anywhere really."

Putting a hoof to his chin. " well mah cousin lives over in Ponyville she runs her own apple orchard, I'll be going to see her in a couple of days. Depending on how you do here ah could recommend you to work there, so you don't have to worry about searching for a job there what do ya say."

"Yeah that sound like a good idea, but why are you helping me so much, don't get me wrong I'm happy your helping me, but you barely know me?"

Raising an eyebrow at the stallion Braeburn replies. "Well you seem like a decent stallion and I like to think I can tell who I can trust to who I can't, and you look like you could use a friend right now, that's why I got no better reason than to help somepony who needs it" he states confidently.

Smiling from Braeburns kind words Skittles just says a simple thank you and goes back to eating his delicious pie.

After finishing their food, they head towards the rows of apple trees to start applebucking, leading Skittles to a row of apple trees Braeburn turns around at the end of the row. "Now your gonna start from here and go buck down every apples of the tree, and I don't wanna see you flying, just buck the tree then move on to the next got that?" Braeburn said.

"Yeah, no flying, got it." nodding his head Skittles watched as Braeburn went of to his own row of apple trees to get started on.

Now on his own he turns to his own tree, making sure the baskets were underneath the tree he turns around bracing his front hooves, he bucks straight into the tree with a thud. Feeling good with his first hit he turns his head to see how many fell of, but he only notices about five apples fell into the baskets below, frowning to himself he bucks the tree again this time getting eight more apples to fall.

Looking over to Braeburn he notices he's already on his second tree while another pony is moving the barrels from the now empty tree. Turning back to his own tree he takes another three more hits to empty his first tree, moving onto the second, doing the same as the first tree takes four hits to empty the second tree.

Continuing throughout the rest of the day Skittles was able to get another twenty four trees done before Braeburn came to tell him that the day was over. Finally over Skittles stretches out on the floor to rest his aching legs from the strenuous work he was doing, which brings a chuckle from Braeburn.

"don't ya worry you'll get better the more ya do it, here's some water, you look like ya could use it." hoofing him the glass of water Skittles gulps it down. "well when your ready I'll show ya to my place I got a spare room for guests for ya to use."

After relaxing for a while Skittles finally gets the energy to follow Braeburn over to his house, which looks like a small barn from the outside on the inside he had a small fireplace, a couch directly opposite it and photos of family members on top of the fireplace.

Braeburn took skittles upstairs where there were three doors, two were on the left hand side of the hallway while the third was on the right hand side. "now the first door on the left is my room, the room next to that will be your room for the few days you'll be staying here." then pointing his hoof to the third door. "and the door on the right is the bathroom, now we'll be waking up at 6:00 In the morning so I expect to see you bright and early and make sure to get a good nights rest we got a lot of work to do, so get some rest and I'll see ya in the morning."

And with that Braeburn went into his room leaving Skittles on his own, making his way into his room, the room only had a bed and a bed side table. Going over to the bed Skittles flops down onto the bed and goes to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Waking up in the morning Skittles could still feel his muscles aching, looking around the room Braeburn had let him sleep in he took notice of a clock just above the door squinting to see it in the dark he could see it was 5:40 sighing to himself he decided to get up and go take a shower to wake himself up easier.

Getting into the shower he now starts to realize just how much he needed one, not bathing in anyway for two days after being able to move can make your fur feel horrible. His wings felt like they had a bit of extra weight from not getting mud and dust off, and the majority of his feathers were out of place so a good preening was in order.

After finishing his shower which took twenty minutes, time now being a few minutes after 6:00, and feeling much better, now that he was clean he headed downstairs smelling the sweet smell of pancakes.

Heading  into the kitchen he can see Braeburn cooking another plate of pancakes.

yawning to himself. "Morning braeburn, thanks for letting me stay here and for letting me work with you."

"No problem, I'm glad your up, not many ponies would find it easy to get up at this time, would you like some coffee to go with your pancakes?" Braeburn replied.

"Yes please, and I just woke up and saw the clock above the door saying it was nearly six, so I decided to have a shower to help wake myself up." Skittles answered.

"Well I'm nearly done with the last load of pancakes and after we're done eating we'll head over to the orchard to get everything ready for the day, since we'll be going to ponyville the day after tomorrow, I'll be seeing how much work you'll be doing today and tomorrow to see if you'll be any use to mah cousin, her orchard is much bigger than ours so there is a lot more to do."

Starting on their breakfast of pancakes and coffee, while eating Braeburn told Skittles what they would be doing throughout the day for their workloads and what time they would be breaking for lunch.

After finishing they headed out to the barn in the middle of the orchards, getting a couple of wagons filled with buckets they started putting them all underneath the trees they would be working for the day. With the buckets under the trees they started bucking the trees.

Finally getting a better idea from Braeburn in where to buck the tree to get more apples to fall down to get more trees done, Skittles found himself being able to buck a single tree down in three hits, while it wasn't as quick as Braeburn, being able to buck a tree in one go he felt he was doing much better with the exercise from using his legs.

After a few hours getting a good amount done they broke for lunch, going over to the same place they had done the day before with their apple pies, Braeburn decided to strike up a conversation seeing that Skittles was too tired to start one.

"So Skittles where did you live, before deciding to start travelling around?" Braeburn asked.

"Well I lived in dodge city, I guess I just wanted to see what other places in Equestria are like so I decided to go travelling." Skittles replied.

"If you don't mind me asking what did you like to do in dodge?" Braeburn asked.

Smiling to himself. "As you can see from my cutie mark, I liked bowling, no matter what, I would always make sure to go to the local bowling alley to have fun and relax. Which reminds me do you happen to know if Ponyville has a bowling alley over there?"

Thinking to himself. "hmm I think they do but I've never really been much of a bowler so I never really tried looking, you might need to ask somepony when we get there if there's one over there or not." Braeburn said.

After finishing their food they went straight back to work, Skittles struggling to keep up with everypony else not being as strong as an earth pony.

A few hours later Braeburn trots up to skittles. "Hey Skittles I know your not used to doing this, so if you like you can have another break so you can stretch your wings a bit."

Looking over to the stallion Skittles thinks about stretching his wings. "Yeah I think I'll do that, thanks Braeburn I'll see you back here right?"

"Nah I'll see ya back at my place, it's getting a bit later in the afternoon so I think you can just spend the rest of the day doing whatever you like, so go get some rest or have a walk around town." Braeburn replied smiling.

"Alright, well then, I'll see ya later then, I'm gonna fly around for a while." So Skittles flapped his wings and started flying off towards Appaloosa.

Flying around town Skittles can see some clouds above the town, flying up to one he puffs up the cloud to relax on. "Ahh I haven't slept on a cloud in so long." Lounging on the cloud he can see all the way to the apple orchards all the way to the other side of Appaloosa, seeing everypony going about their business he just puts his head back down onto the pillow to rest after bucking so many trees and flying around after so long.

After sleeping for a few hours he opens his eyes to see the sun is setting and the moon is taking its place in the sky. Jumping of the cloud to head back to Braeburns house, he can see it in the distance with a light on in the living room, so he floats down to the door.

Opening the door and trotting in. "hey Braeburn I'm back!" Skittles called out.

"Welcome back, what did you do with your afternoon?" Braeburn asked.

"Oh nothing much just flew around for a while, then went to sleep on a cloud, forgot how comfy they were." Skittles said smiling to himself.

"Well glad you got to relax today, because tomorrow you'll be working all day long with me, since you seem to be getting better at it. Then the day after you'll get some bits for the work you've done, then we'll be going to ponyville." Braeburn told Skittles.

Nodding his head to show he understood. Sitting down at the table for their food which is apple based products, which is still as delicious as ever.

After eating Braeburn headed up to shower before heading to sleep while Skittles headed up to sleep for the night since he prefers to shower in the morning when he wakes up.

Waking up in the morning around the same time as the day before, Skittles went to have a shower again to prep himself for the long day ahead of him, after washing his mane and tail, then preening his wings since a couple of his feathers were out of place, he headed downstairs for some pancakes and apple juice.

When they started, Braeburn was bucking the trees while Skittles would pick up the baskets putting them in the wagon, when the wagon was full of buckets of apples, he would take them over to the barn to store them and bring back empty buckets to put underneath the next load of trees.

After they went to have their lunch break, they swapped jobs so Skittles was bucking trees while Braeburn took the wagon full of apples to the barn and back throughout the afternoon.

After finishing for the day, Braeburn and Skittles went back to his house to relax before they go to ponyville.

" Well you got your bits for working for the three days you've been here, which was eighty bits, since we won't be working tomorrow, since we'll be going to see my cousin, I think you've earned some of my apple cider!" so Braeburn went over to his fridge and brought out some mugs of fresh apple cider, getting one for himself he handed another one over to Skittles.

Taking the mug of apple cider from Braeburn, Skittles took a swig of his cider and sighed as the delicious cider went down.

"Been a while since I had apple cider as good as this, thanks for this Braeburn, thanks for everything your doing for me." Skittles said with the biggest smile he could muster.

"Well, no problem there Skittles, just doing what anypony would do, besides, I'm sure if my cousin found out I left somepony I could have helped, she'd be giving me a right talking to." Braeburn said with a chuckle at the end.

"Oh ya that reminds me, I've been wondering for a while now who your cousin is? you haven't said your cousins name yet." Skittles asked, wondering who he might be working for.

"Oh ah haven't? well sorry about that, anyway her name is Applejack she owns sweet apple acres along with her granny, big brother and little sister." Braeburn said while taking a swig from his mug of cider.

After hearing who his cousin was, Skittles could only gape in shock. "Wait as in Applejack the element of honesty?"

"Yep that's her, and let me tell ya, nothing can get past her, she can tell if somepony is lying, not sure how though?" Shrugging Braeburn just continues to drink his cider till he finished his mug, then starts to fill it up again.

Seeing Braeburn finishing of his first mug Skittles decides to do the same.

"Well I know how I get when I have to much, so I'll probably go to sleep early tonight, before I forget, what time is the train we'll be getting tomorrow for ponyville?" Skittles asked as he put his mug in the sink in the kitchen.

Remembering what time the train is leaving at. "The train for ponyville will be leaving at 10:30, and it will take about an hour to get there so we can rest on the train." Braeburn said as he finished filling up his second mug.

Skittles headed upstairs with a, "see you in the morning." and left Braeburn to enjoy his drink, getting into his room after taking care of his business he went to sleep to be ready for the journey to ponyville.

After going up the stairs towards his room, and getting into his bed he finds sleep relatively easy.

Waking up in the morning he can see the sun is high in the sky already, figuring he slept a while longer than he usually does he gets up and stretches his body out. Walking up to the door, reaching his hoof up to the door he can see a black hoof in it's place, looking to the rest of himself, he can see he must have changed to his changeling form in the middle of the night.

Remembering how to change his form, he closes his eyes and thinks on the way he usually looks.

Orange flames moving over his form, he looks at his hoof seeing his amber coat covering him again, reaching for the door knob he opens the door and moves outside his room.

Only to stop seeing Braeburn standing on the other side looking at him.

Raising an eyebrow at the stallion in front of him. "hey Braeburn you alright?" Skittles inquired.

Coming out of his stupor, Braeburn just shakes his head. "sorry I must still be a bit tipsy from the cider, I could have sworn I saw something flash inside your room."

Freezing himself Skittles just looks off to the side, thinking he could have been caught, looking back at Braeburn, Skittles tries to respond as he usually does. "yeah, you might be, because, um, I don't have anything that might make a flash, anyway I'm gonna go have a wash up now so, I'll see you downstairs for breakfast, ok, yeah see ya down there."

Skittles then rushed towards the bathroom to wash up to get ready for the day.

The morning went about the same as the rest, with the two stallions eating breakfast and idle chit chat. After that they just relaxed and then waited until the train would arrive.

After a couple of hours waiting the time was now 10:00, so they started their trek towards the train station, where they bought their tickets for ponyville, after about ten minutes the train arrived into the station. And then they boarded the train for ponyville, where they both decided to get some sleep on the trip.