It was late at night and everypony was asleep except for a certain newcomer. He was at a work desk, observing the sword that he woke up with. It was a few days since the whole ticket incident, so he decided he would finally look at the sword, hoping it would give him some answers. Unfortunately, it didn't lead to much.
"I don't get it, where did this thing even come from, let alone it's creation? This thing has no evidence of welding, screws, nails or rivets, heck, not a single glue stain. Any yet this thing seems to hold up against anything! I don't get understand..."
As Xavier was thinking to himself, he began to feel off until...
When Xavier opened his eyes, he saw a pretty beat up room, with a single light focused on a similarly beat up desk. Looking closer, he saw that someone was there, working on something. A few moments later, the person raised it up to reveal that it was the sword that Xavier had. As the sword was raised, the figure spoke, but it was distorted and choppy like a radio with a bad signal.
"Fi__lly, I fi_ish_d __is t_ing, n_w tho__ thi__s __ve a__ther t_in_ co_in_ if th_y _ome for _e." The figure sighed as the world started to fade. "I wi_h I n_v_r __d t_ __y t___, ___ I____s-"
Xavier put a hand on his head from a major headache, but when he opened his eyes he saw that he was back at his desk like nothing happened, but he knew that something happened.
"Wha- what was that? Was that how the sword was made? What was that guy talking about?" Groaning, he looked at his sword, knowing that it held a lot more secrets then he originally thought.
The Next Day
As the sun rose over the sky, Xavier was asleep on the desk, passing out a while after the strange event happened. His slumber was interrupted as he felt a vibration on the ground, quite literally shaking him awake. Waking up, he quickly realized that trouble was afoot again, so he grabbed his sword and ran outside to find the trouble. When he did however, he quickly realized that he wouldn't be able to as the trouble came from a stampede of cows coming straight for town. Looking around, he saw his friends and the mayor in the front of town, so he ran over to ask what was happening.
"What's going on girls!"
Looking over, Twilight began to speak in a panicked way. "We don't know! All we can see is a bunch of cows coming at town and-"
"Look there!"
Their conversation was interrupted when Rainbow Dash told them to look at the stampede. When they looked, they saw Applejack running alongside the horde, to which everypony cheered for her while Xavier looked in awe. Watching, he saw Applejack managing to move the cows into a more thin line as she held a lasso. Throwing it, she tossed it onto the lead cow, pulling it away from town, getting the entire group to turn away from town. With the cows posing no threat to the town anymore, the entire town cheered her while Xavier stood there speechless.
"Wow, I know she's a cowgirl and everything, but that is impressive, even for her!."
"I know right!" Xavier jumped as Pinkie appeared next to him. "GAH, PINKIE! Where did you come from!"
"Over there silly." Pinkie pie giggled.
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!!"
"Ahem." Turning, he saw Mayor Mare looking like she wanted to say something, so the two quiet down. "Anyway, Applejack was just... just..."
"Appletastic!" Pinkie exclaimed in the air somehow. seeing this, Xavier looked next to him where Pinkie used to be only to realize that she wasn't there, confusing him even more as the others talked.
"Exactly, We must do something to thank Applejack for single-hoofedly saving the town."
"I know... A party." Pinkie Exclaimed. Hearing this everypony agreed to this, except for Xavier as he stood there staring at Pinkie Pie with eyes of confusion.
Throughout the week, the residents of Ponyville were busy getting town square ready for a celebration party for Applejack, and today was the big day. Twilight was making sure everything was ready.
"Are we all set?" Twilight asked Rarity.
"Just one last thing..." Rarity replied as she used her magic to levitate a large banner decorated with apples like Applejack's cutie mark up onto the balcony of town hall, being repaired from the... previous events that occurred there. "There, now we're ready."
Twilight nodded as she turned to Xavier who was fiddling with something. "How's the project coming along, Xavier?"
"It's going, I think?" Xavier said with uncertainty.
Everypony turned to him confused as Twilight spoke. "Huh, what do you mean 'I think'? I thought you said you were good with this stuff."
"Yeah, and you've been working on it all week, how are you not done yet?" Rainbow added.
"I never said that I was good, I just said it was my hobby!" Xavier said as he turned over to them. "You girls just assumed that I was an expert at this sort of stuff and decided to get me to make an automated curtain system. And I may have been working on this for a week but there are so many things that can go wrong like jammed gears, a bolt falling off, the activation not working..." Xavier began to list things as he turned back around to continue work on the project, as the girls looked at him with sweat-drops.
"Oookay then... Is Applejack ready?" Twilight decided to ask to change the topic. Rainbow then gave a bit of a uncertain look.
"Actually, I haven't seen her all week."
"Not since the stampede." Pinkie added.
"But she will be here for sure, Applejack is never late." Rainbow said confidently.
"I hope so, this ceremony would be for nothing if the main guest doesn't come." Xavier spoke as he finally got up from fiddle with the gears he was installing. "Okay gang, I think it should be good, maybe. If not, there is always the old-fashioned rope pull." Everypony nodded to him as they began to wait for the ceremony.
A little while later, a crowd of ponies was looking at town hall, awaiting the start of the ceremony as Twilight walked up to the podium. Pulling out a stack of flash cards, she began to speak.
"Welcome, everypony! Today we are here to honor a pony we can always count on to help in matters great and small. A pony whose contributions to-"
"Did you see Applejack's slick moves out there?" Rainbow exclaimed as she pushed Twilight out of the way to talk "What an athlete. This week she's gonna help me with my new flying trick, and I know it's gonna be so awesome."
Deciding to help out, Xavier dragged Rainbow off the podium, allowing Twilight to continue. "Thanks Xavier, now then-"
"And this week, I get to run Sugarcube Corner for the first time." Pinkie interrupted as she popped out from behind the podium, getting another confused stare from Xavier, wondering where she came from.
"What does that have to do with Applejack?" Twilight asked.
After looking at her, Pinkie answered. "Oh. Applejack, one of the best bakers ever, is gonna help me. Applejack makes everything great, so free samples for everypony!"
The crowd cheered in response to Pinkie's offer of free muffins as Twilight pushed her out of the way. Slightly irritated, she gathered up her cards to continue. "Okay, that's great. Now if I could just make a point without being inter-"
"Twilight?"
"-Rupted."Twilight groaned as she turned to the voice, seeing Fluttershy looking like she had something to say, to which she did. "Twilight, I'm so sorry, but I just wanted to mention that Applejack is also helping me this week with the official bunny census, where we count up all the new baby bunnies that were born this season. She's gonna help gather them using her wonderful herding skills." That's when she noticed Twilight's annoyed face as Xavier walked up to Fluttershy.
"Um, Fluttershy? I don't mean to be rude, but maybe you should get off the podium for now." Xavier calmly told her, to which she obliged.
"Anyone else? Anyone?" Twilight asked clearly irritated as everypony stood in silence. Hearing none of them willing to speak, Twilight decided that it was finally time to speak. "No? Well then, as I was trying to say..." That's when she noticed the mayor smiling at her. "UGH! Never mind!" Twilight yelled in frustration, throwing her flash cards everywhere as she left. The mayor walked up to the podium and began to speak.
"Ah-ahem. And so, with no further ado, it is my privilege to give the prize, Pony of Ponyville Award, to our beloved guest of honor, a pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity. Ponyville's most capable and dependable friend: Applejack!" With that, Xavier pushed a button to activate the curtains (to which to his relief they worked) to reveal an empty stage. The crowd gasped as their cheering came to a halt as they all wondered where she was in silence until it was broken by the pony in question trying to get through the crowd. Turning to Applejack, they all saw that she was caring two baskets filled with apples and that she seemed a bit clumsy as she bumped and stepped on ponies. She finally came out of the crowd and onto the stage, revealing bags under her eyes as she moved to the podium.
"Sorry I'm late everypony." Applejack yawned, earning concerned looks from her friends as she talked tiredly. "Thank you kindly for this here... award thingy. It's so bright and shiny and, heh," She began to laugh deliriously, "heh heh, I sure do look funny heh." She then started waving her head around while "woo"ing, with Pinkie joining for some reason, earning another look of confusion from Xavier. Twilight, while also looking confused, began to speak.
"Okay. Well, thank you Applejack for saving us from that scary stampede, and always being there for everypony."
Snapping out of it for a second, Applejack looked towards her, though a little off, and yawned. "Yeah. I like helping the ponyfolks and and stuff." As she was speaking, her voice began to drift as her eyes were drooping. Soon enough, she was asleep, snoring loudly until Xavier clapped, waking her up with a start. "Huh, oh, um, thanks." With that, she grabbed the trophy and began to drag the trophy across the field as everyone looked at her with concern in silence until Twilight asked a question.
"Was it just me, or did Applejack seem a little-"
"Tired?" Rainbow said as she cut her off.
"Dizzy?" Fluttershy added.
"Loopy?" Xavier added as well.
"Messy?" Everyone looked at Rarity. "Well, did you see her main?"
"She seemed fine to me!" Pinkie said as she proceeded to woo again. Xavier wanted to question her, but he was more worried about Applejack, so he turned to Twilight to talk to her.
"Hey Twilight, I think we should check on her. I have a bad feeling about this." Thinking for a moment, she nodded to him. Smiling a bit, Xavier and Twilight headed to Sweet Apple Acres.
Arriving at Sweet Apple Acres, the pair saw Applejack bucking trees, getting apple to fall out of them into buckets she placed, though she was having trouble concentrating on them, sometimes missing the tree or dozing off. Wondering what she was doing, Twilight called out to her while Xavier walked up to her.
"Hey Applejack, Applejack!" Even though She called out, Applejack didn't budge. Looking closer, the two noticed that she was asleep again, Xavier decided to run up to her as Twilight teleported, startling Xavier. "APPLEJACK." This woke her up as she realized that the two were there.
"Oh, howdy Twilight, Xavier."
"What are you doing AJ?" Xavier asked, confused as to what she was doing.
"It's applebuck season." Applejack answered as she walked away, prompting Xavier to follow her and Twilight to teleport in front of her.
"Applewhat season?" Xavier asked as he caught up.
"It's what the Apple family calls harvesting time. We gather up all the apples from the trees so we can sell them." Applejack explained as she continued to buck trees. This got Twilight confused.
"But why are you doing this all alone? What about the rest of your family that was here?" Twilight asked as she followed Applejack.
"Well Big McIntosh hurt himself, so he's resting, Applebloom is to young to help, and Granny Smith is too old. As for the rest of my family, they were only here for the annual family reunion and the Summer Sun Celebration. They all actually live all over Equestria with orchards of their own, harvesting them right now. So I'm on my on right now."
"Don't you have parents that can help out AJ?" Xavier asked, earning a pained look from her. Twilight was confused to the reaction, but Xavier knew that look too well, so he didn't press anymore. "Erm, well, maybe we can help out?"
"No thanks you two, I'd rather do this on my own, thank you." Applejack responded with a bit of a snarky tone as she walked ahead, prompting Twilight to teleport in front of her again.
"But there is no way that you can do this on your own. Let us help and-"
"NO!" Applejack cut Twilight off. "I told you I can do this on my own, so I don't need no help from you two! Now leave and don't come back, you hear!" Sighing, the two left the farm with concern. When they left, Xavier spoke.
"What are we going to do Twilight? Applejack won't back down and she definitely won't be able to harvest the entire farm."
Twilight sighed as she responded. "I don't know, but I guess that we should let her realize this is to much for her." Xavier didn't have a better answer so he agreed to it with a nod as they went home for the day.
The Next Day
Xavier was heading over to Twilight's home for something. What he was going over there for was a complete mystery though. All he knew was that he was sent a message from Spike and he had nothing better to do, so he headed to the library. Now in front of the door, he went to knock, but the door already opened for him, revealing Twilight.
"Oh, Xavier! You're here."
"Yep, I am." Xavier said awkwardly. "So... why did you bring me here?" Twilight gestured for him to follow her, so he did. When they stopped, they were on a balcony as Twilight began to speak.
"I asked you to come here for a few reasons actually. One is to get to know you a bit more, another is to get more information about your species for both me and Princess Celestia."
Xavier looked at her with shock. "G-get to know me an my species?!"
Twilight gave a calm look. "Don't worry, I won't get personal or anything, just some general information. Besides, this is for Princess Celestia too, so you are ok with me asking you some questions?" Hesitantly, Xavier nodded at her, allowing her to start the questioning.
Some Time Later
Xavier and Twilight were sitting on the floor, With Xavier talking to her about a historic event while Twilight was writing it down on a scroll.
"And that is how America, my home country, got it's independence."
"How could those people do that? Make taxes and life harder just because they wanted to live in peace?"
"I wish I could say that that wasn't a theme, but there are so many things that have happened over stupid stuff in my world." Xavier sighed, finally glad to get that off his chest. When Twilight calmed down she looked at him.
"Well, in any case, thank you for this information. I'm sure that Princess Celestia will be happy I got this-"
*THUNK*
Jumping, the duo looked at where the noise came from to see Rainbow Dash hanging from the railing of the balcony, with a slightly dazed look.
"Oh my god, Rainbow! Are you ok?!" Xavier asked in a panic as Rainbow groaned.
"I think somepony else needs help."
"Applejack?" Twilight deadpanned, to which Rainbow nodded. Twilight groaned as she turned to Xavier. "Xavier, can you take Rainbow to the doctor's office to see if she is hurt? I'm going to Applejack's to talk to her and try to convince her to get help."
Looking at the two, Xavier nodded. "Um, yeah, sure. I can do that, but I will need help getting there."
"I'll guide you" Rainbow offered to which Xavier shook his head. "No can do, you need to not strain yourself right now. Maybe I can carry you and you can tell me directions." Rainbow looked hesitant at the thought of someone carrying her, but she reluctantly agreed. So picking Rainbow up and putting her on his back, him and Twilight went to their destinations. On the way, Xavier began to question Rainbow. "So Rainbow... how did you end up landing on Twilight's balcony in the first place? I don't mean to offend you, but I thought you said that you were the best flier in Ponyville?"
"And I am!" Rainbow exclaimed. "It's just that there were other things that happened. You see, I made this catapult and platform, where I would stand on one end and Applejack would jump off the platform and land on the other end, With the quick lift off, I would be able to pull off this one trick I wanted to show the Wonderbolts. But she kept missing and fell on the ground! Then, she thought just pushing it down as a joke would help, and when she let go, I fell down, unprepared for the takeoff. She finally lands on it, and I was flung up into the air, losing all control... and I think you know what happened next."
Looking behind him, Xavier gave a confused look. "You built a catapult? Didn't know you were able to make that."
"You impressed by my skills, engineer?" Groaning, Xavier continued to take Rainbow to the doctors. When they arrived, a nurse was looking around franticly until they saw the two.
"Hey ma'am," Xavier started. "You have any time to look over my friend here?"
"We can, but not right now. There is a big problem right now!" The nurse exclaimed as she opened a curtain reveling dozens of ponies on beds, groaning and sick. Seeing this, Xavier and Rainbow was surprised.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Rainbow asked. The nurse began to explain. "It seems to be a mishap with some of the baked goods."
"No, not baked goods..." As Rainbow and Xavier turned towards the voice, they were both surprised to see Pinkie face down on a bed as well, not looking any better than anypony else. "Baked bads..." Pinkie groaned as she turned to a bucket, to which Xavier pieced things together.
"Rainbow, can you wait here? I need to get to Applejack!" Seeing Xavier with a serious face, Rainbow nodded and was put on an available bed. With Rainbow off his back, Xavier ran to Sweet Apple Acres, hoping to catch up Twilight and Applejack. When he arrived, he was relieved to see the two arguing, well one was arguing, one was just trying to talk. He want down to join in. "Hey girls!"
Hearing his voice, Twilight was confused. "Hey Xavier, I thought you were taking Rainbow to the doctor-"
"I was," Xavier interrupted. "but something else is going on. When the two of us got there, we saw dozens of ponies in there, all sick to the stomach."
Hearing this, Twilight was instantly worried. "What? Why?" Xavier responded by pointing to the other pony in the conversation. "I think it was Applejack and her sleep deprived head that did this. She was suppose to bake with Pinkie, so she may have misheard Pinkie and put in things that made the muffins terrible and sickly." Hearing the accusation, Applejack became even more mad then before.
"What!? What do you mean I did it? I was following Pinkie's instructions!"
"Yes, but you didn't hear her correctly I bet. It wouldn't have happened if you just let us help-"
"NO!" Applejack was fuming at this point as she glared at the two. "What do you two not get! I don't need no help from nopony!" Applejack turned around and went back to work, receiving a groan from Twilight and a sigh from Xavier as he turned to her.
"Sorry Twilight for my intrusion. I tried to help but it looks like I made things worse..." Twilight raised her hoof and spoke. "No, it's ok, I'm just worried about what else could happen to her." Looking down, Xavier decided to go home and rest, so him and Twilight left the orchard in hopes that they can eventually convince her.
The Next Day
Xavier was in his house at his desk. He decided to work on his hobby and tinker with a bunch of metal scraps that he found lying around town. It was hard though, not because the scrap didn't fit, he could usually work around that, it was because he had no tools to use. Without tools, he didn't have the means to connect the pieces together, so he was just kind of arranging them in a way that made them look attached. It wasn't until he heard something outside that made him look up. Getting up, he went outside to investigate, only to find himself in front of dozens of rabbits eating everything in sight. Even worse was that Fluttershy was trying to stop them to no avail, showing that they wouldn't stop. Realizing this, Xavier glared and ran to the orchard for the third time. Looking around the orchard, he finally saw his target, bucking a tree with a very weak kick on top of a hill. He walked up to her and looked at her with a serious look.
"Alright Applejack, that's enough! Normally I'm ok with letting others do their own thing, but not when it effects others, and you've done a great deal of damage to the town! You've launched Rainbow into a balcony, given dozens of ponies a bad case of stomach issues, and now you've destroyed every single plant in town from your attempts at rounding baby bunnies up. I don't care anymore, I'm going to help you, whether you like it or not!"
With a final kick to the tree, Applejack smirked at him. "Good luck with that, cause look. I harvested the entire Sweet Apple Acres all by myself. HA, how do you like them apples?"
With an unimpressed look, Xavier simply pointed at the other side, revealing that she only harvested half of the orchard. Applejack looked at it in shock, mumbled something, and then promptly fainted. Xavier ran up to her to try to wake her up. "Applejack, Applejack! Wake up!" She opened her eyes and looked to the side of her, looking over all of the apple trees. Looking back up, she began to plead.
"Help me, please. I really can't do this by myself. Please help me!"
Sighing, Xavier gave a warm smile. "There, that was a lot easier than doing all this by yourself, now was it."
When Xavier agreed to help out, he first took Applejack to the barn to rest, then he went to get the others. Fortunately, Rainbow wasn't extremely hurt and Pinkie recovered from yesterday. All six of them managed to get most of the apples out of the trees and into crates for selling. It was a few hours when Applejack came over with a cart with glasses.
"How about y'all take a little break?" Applejack exclaimed, getting them to come over. "Gang, I can't thank you enough for this help. I was acting a bit stubborn."
"A bit?" Twilight said a bit cheekily
"Okay. A mite stubborn, and I'm awful sorry. Now, I know the town gave me the Prized Pony award, but the real award is having you six as my friends." Smiling, all of them took a drink from their glasses.
"Huh, who knew that applebucking was so tiresome." Rarity sighed.
"I know, right..." Xavier said as he took of his hoodie and tying it over his waist. When he did this, he revealed that he was wearing a red T-shirt with a white stripe going vertical on his right side and a rainbow bandanna around his neck. Seeing the bandanna, the girls looked at him with curiosity.
"My, what a beautiful bandanna Xavier." Rarity complimented, as Xavier realized that it was there and blushed.
"Erm, thanks, I guess."
"Where did you get it?" Rarity asked, but everypony looked at him to see that his head was down with a very sad frown on his face.
"I-I'd rather not say..." Xavier mumbled as he turned to walk away.
"W-wait, darling! I didn't mean to-"
"It's ok, Rarity, just brings up memories. Besides, I'm tired, all the problems from this week has drained me, you know. I'm heading home, see ya." Xavier said as he walked away, getting worried looks from his friends.