Chapter 1: A Horse With No Name
It was a warm afternoon at Sweet Apple Acres. While most of the ponies on the farm finished their work up in the early afternoon, there was one orange mare that was still pulling more than her fair share of work on the farm. Applejack knew that she had already did more than enough work on the farm for one day, but she figured that she should start on the next day's work since she was already in her working groove.
As the mare worked in sun, she found that she bit off more of the apple than she could chew. It wasn't the first time, and anypony would bet that it wouldn't be the last. She still had one last grove of trees that needed to be bucked and barreled, but she noticed that her body was losing the vigor that she had when she started her project.
"Whew, maybe ah should think things through next time," Applejack said to her self as she trotted into the groove with the cart for the apples behind her, "but ah gotta finished what ah started, that's what Granny Smith always said."
As she began bucking, she thought of anypony who could help her. While she was a bit proud and not one to ask for help from anypony, she knew that if she didn't ask for help and she would be working until the early evening or later.
'Lemme see here,' she began to think, 'Rainbow Dash is busy with her day with the Wonderbolt, Rarity isn't really the kind of pony for this work, I rather not bother Fluttershy with this, Pinkie Pie is….well, Pinkie. And Twi is working with Big Mac on his learnin'. And ah'm sure no pony is left here on the far-'
Applejack was cut off by the slightly nervous voice of a stallion, "Applejack?"
The mare turned her head to see a tan pony with a chocolate colored mane and tail. Upon his flank, there were three horseshoes and on his back was a saddlebag.
"Oh, hey there," Applejack replied. She recognized the pony, he worked on the farm along with a few others to help the Apple family. For the life of her, however, she could not remember his name.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked tilting his head to one side.
"Ah, well, ah figured ah should get started on tomorra's work since Big Mac is goin' to Twilight's to do some learinin'," Applejack tried to brush off the entire issue as nothing, "Not a problem here."
The stallion looked at the mare and knew that while she was trying to make her work seem like nothing, she was having some trouble, "Well, it seems like you could use an extra set of hooves, would you like some help?" he offered.
"Oh, well, ya really don't have ta do that," Applejack felt a little weird when he asked if she needed help. Normally it was the other way around.
"Nonsense, I'll be glad to help you out," the colt gave a warm smile to Applejack as he took his saddlebags off to place it down by a tree. He trotted over to the mare, "if you do the bucking of the trees, I can do the gathering and we'll get done in no time."
Applejack's cheeks gave off a very slight pink tint, "Well, if ya really wanna, partner. Ya sure though, ah mean, it is mah work in all," Applejack unhooked the cart that was behind her from her body.
The tan colt smiled, "It's not a problem! Just as long as I don't buck the trees, it's one of the many things I'm not that great at," he gave a small laugh at himself as he got the cart attached to him.
Time flew quickly for the mare and the colt as they bucked all the ripe apples in the grove and placed them in the cart. The two managed to finish bucking the orchid by the time that Celestia's sun was setting in the west. The two took the cart back to the barn.
"Thanks very much, sugarcube, ya made things a whole lot easier for this mare," Applejack admitted, "Ah can take it from here with the barrelin'."
The colt nodded, "It wasn't a problem, Applejack! I was more than happy to help you," he carefully parked the cart inside and unhooked himself.
"Well, it certainly was nice ta work with ya," Applejack admitting, trying to hide the pink tint that appeared again on her cheeks.
"Same to you Applejack. Well, I should head home," the colt said as he dug his saddlebag out of the cart and placed it upon his back, "I'll see you tomorrow!"
Applejack waved good-bye to the tan colt, "See ya'll tomorra!" she informally said.
As he walked away, she trotted to get a barrel to get started working on the easier part of her task. "Well, that was really nice of him ta do fer me," Applejack quietly said to herself as she began to carefully place apples in the barrel, "He sure was a gentlecolt to help me out like that." She thought about it for a bit as she continued her work until she froze and then said aloud, "Wait an apple-picking minute, ah don't even know his name!"