Applejack wasn't sure what to make of her current situation. A few days back, Pinkie came by her farm with her usual hurricane of energy. While she worked, Applejack spent a good sized chunk of her day listening to the pink mare go on about a strange creature living in the almost abandoned portion of Ponyville, just short of the town's border to the open surrounding fields. She could tell the mare wasn't lying, but she still had a hard time taking the mare's words to heart. The idea that something would choose to live in such a remote part of town was an alien concept for her. Sure, her other friend, Fluttershy, lived a similar distance from town, but did so to stay close to her animal friends. She was also still close enough to come to town to pick up whatever things she needed to live comfortably that far out.
In spite of that, she couldn't deny her curiosity of the matter.
This grew when the mare handed her a small slip of paper with detailed directions written on it. So, as soon as she found the time, she headed out to see if what her friend was going on about was true. The orange Earth Pony mare's emerald eyes scanned the offered directions, occasionally looking up to look for any landmarks as she came across them. Her light yellow mane and tail were long, straight, and tied back with a pair of small hair-ties at their tips. Her stray bangs peeked out form under her worn brown stetson in a semi-messy cluster that, combined with the freckles under her eyes, added to her rustic charms. A red plaided shirt and dirt-stained faded blue jean shorts put her strong build on full display, her body a careful balance of muscle and curve honed from countless years of hard grueling work. A pair of heavy boots completed the look, said accessories crunching dried leaves under them as their owner continued her march.
She grimaced at the abandoned homes, most of them claimed by nature to such a degree that only a trained eye would've known of their existences. A part of her was happy that the trees in the area were making use of the structures, while the rest of her made a mental note to try to remove the debris at some point in the future. That aside, the wild trail had a peaceful feel to it, the gentle rustle of leaves and rich smell of damp earth easing her heart and mind. All it needed was the scent of fresh apples and she would've felt as if she hadn't left the farm today.
"Ah hope this isn't one of Pinkie's pranks," she mumbled, a thick country accent coloring her tone as she stared down at the paper in her hand. "Ah mean, aside from Flutters, Ah can't think of anypony that'd want to live this far out of town."
She looked to her left towards one of the abandoned "houses" closest to the trail, said structure nothing but a pile of rotted wood with a large tree growing out of it.
"Ah didn't hear anything about somepony building a house out here neither," she frowned. "If there is some weird creature living out here, Ah hope they're not doing it in one of these."
***
Anon laid on his couch staring blankly at his ceiling, a stack of white-sleeved cards being shuffled against his bare chest. Since he woke up that morning, he again found himself trying to figure out what he was going to do with himself. Just like he had done the day before when he didn't have something to distract himself. Said distractions were quickly starting to become less effective as time ticked away. Even after spending an hour in his personal gym only kept his mind off of his problems for so long. A long shower later, he found himself staring shirtless at his ceiling, mindlessly shuffling one of his decks and hoping an answer would come to him.
"I really should've asked Rainbow Dash if she knew anyone that would hire me for something," he groaned, setting the deck down on his coffee table and massaging the bridge of his nose. "Not that I could be all that useful to anyone here. I mean, pretty much anything I could do would probably get done better by an Earth Pony. Assuming none of them want to send me off to Pony Area 51 to get propped or whatever."
Snorting at that, he dragged himself to his feet, picked up the deck, and made his way towards the dinning room. Still looking for a distraction, he plopped into his seat then decided to start making mock plays with his deck, drawing a hand of seven cards and seeing what kind of plays he could make with the cards he had. He grimaced at his cards the whole way, the style reminding him why he didn't like using white magic in the first place. After setting up an army for the thirtieth time, a loud knock at the door pulled him back to reality. Rolling his eyes with a huff, he got up to greet what he was quickly starting to see as a daily routine.
At least their not busting down the door, he thought, grabbing the doorknob.
Burying his frustration, he opened the door a crack and flatly asked, "Can I help you?"
The mare on the other side stared blankly at him, seemingly surprised by his presence. While he didn't show it, Anon was equally surprised, more so by the mare's outfit than anything else. The mare quickly shook off her shock, sporting a friendly, yet cautious smile as she introduced herself.
"Howdy, my name's Applejack."
"Anon," he human frowned. "And again, what can I do for you?"
Applejack's smile wilted a bit at his tone.
"Well, uh, Ah heard from a friend that there was-"
"Stop," he sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose as he let the door fall open. "Pinkie Pie told you about me, right?"
She nodded,
"And you thought she was pulling your leg so you came out here to see if I was real?"
"Y-Yeah," she nodded, looking a bit sheepish.
The two of them let that hang in the air for a few seconds, before Anon let out a sigh and stepped aside.
"Since you came all the way out here, the least I can do is offer you a drink or something."
"You don't need to do that," she said, giving the human a worried frown.
"It's fine," he snorted. "My folks may have been shits, but that doesn't mean I have to be one too."
She raised a brow at that, but didn't openly react past that as she accepted his invitation.
She watched him lethargically close the door then make his way towards the kitchen. She followed at a reasonable distance, taking in her surroundings with open surprise. She remembered that Pinkie told her that the human's house had a "foresty" look to it, but it turned out that the pink mare had undersold that assessment. The home's interior reminded her of the old faery-tails she used to read to her little sister, Applebloom, before bed when she was real little. By the time they made it to the dining room, she was half expecting to see a giant black cauldron sitting in the kitchen, a glowing green brew bubbling away in it.
A soft smile graced her muzzle as she took a seat at the table while the human went to work in the kitchen. As she took in the faery charms of the house, it wasn't long before some cards on the table caught her attention. Curious, she leaned forward to get a better look at them. Each of them featured creatures similar to Anon dressed in shining silver, gold, or white armor or flowing cloaks of the same colors. Some were striking regal poses while others looked to be in the heat of battle against a foe outside of the image's line of sight. The robed figures did the same, only, instead of lashing out with blades or pole-arms, they threw orbs of light or fired golden beams from their hands or rods. One card in particular caught her attention. Like most of the other cards, it depicted an armored human, only this one had a more feminine build. Her head was the only part of her body not covered with ornate golden armor, her complexion almost as dark as her brown hair and fare. Said hair was tied back and seemingly shaved on the sides for reasons beyond Applejack's understanding. The weight of somberness on the woman's face as she stood at attention was doubled by the half-drawn sword she held before herself. The lighting from above and the cathedralesque look of her surroundings further added to the sacred feel of the image.
"Danitha Capshen, Paragon?" she quietly read, the card's name feeling just as odd on her tongue as it sounded with her accent.
"I'm guessing Pinkie didn't tell you not to touch my cards," Anon frowned, placing a pitcher of cranberry juice and two glasses onto an unoccupied part of the table, far from his cards.
Applejack flinched, sitting straight in her seat as she gave him a sheepish chuckle. Anon sighed, taking a seat across from her. He poured her a glass, then gathered the cards together and returned them to their deck box before doing the same for himself. The two sat in awkward silence, neither sure what they were going to do next.
Applejack looked around for something to talk about, but her eyes would always drift back towards the Human sitting across from her. With her thoughts left to wonder, she did vaguely remember Pinkie saying something about cards. Of course, she was ashamed to admit that she had been only half listening to her at the time while she was working. That fact took a back seat when she payed a bit more attention to her host.
Anon looked exhausted, but not purely in a physical sense.
The Human's posture was drooped, like his body was only managing to use the energy needed to keep him sitting upright or bring his glass to his lips. In spite of what he said earlier about providing hospitality, he seemed to be tolerating her as opposed trying to entertaining her. Adding to her concern was the distant look in his eyes, like his mind was running a few different directions and he couldn't decide which path he should take.
The silence stood for a few more minutes, before Applejack decided to voice her concerns.
"Is something wrong? Ya seem kind've out of it."
"I'm.....I'm fine," he sighed, staring into his half-empty glass. "I'm just trying to figure a few things out."
"Like what?" she asked, leaning a bit forward in her seat.
"Where do I even begin?" he snorted, taking a sip. "First off, I have no idea how I'm going to live around here. I mean, sure, I've got enough food to last me a few months and I could just go hunting if I get desperate, but what the hell am I going to do after that? I need a job, a way to get essentials, and something better than a knife and my own hands to keep myself safe."
Applejack blinked at the tail end of his rant, then aimed a hard glare at him.
"Has somepony been threatening ya?"
"There was an incident between Rainbow and I, but we worked that out," he sighed. "Let's just say, I'm not willing to bet that all Pony's are going to be as nice as all the other ones I've met so far."
Applejack was about to argue against that, but stopped herself at the last second. While Ponies were generally friendly in nature, there were always a few exceptions in every group. Her grandmother had taught her that much and she was always careful when working with Ponies she hadn't met before or seemed somewhat shady.
"Ah can understand that," she allowed. "Maybe Ah can help with some of that."
"I doubt it," he snorted.
"None of that now," she frowned. "Now, let's see if we can get you some work."
"Alright," he shrugged. "I mean, I guess that's as good a place to start as any."
Applejack nodded, expression hardening as she asked, "What kind of work have you done in the past?"
"Carpentry, mostly," he frowned, staring up at the ceiling in thought. "I've also done game hunting and camp work for a couple years. Aside from that, I've got a lot of experience in general construction, demolition, landscaping, and gardening work."
A bit of shock made it past her guarded expression, only for it to shift to a small smile a second later.
"Have you ever worked on a farm before?" she asked.
"A couple times," he chuckled. "My uncle used to own one when I was little. I used to help him with most of the work before he passed. Taught me enough to be able to build this house and all of the furniture in it."
Applejack's smile grew a bit at that.
"Would you be willing to do that kind of work for me?" she asked.
"Maybe," he allowed, his posture tensing.
"Just a thought," she reassured, hands up in a placating manner.
He stared her down for a few more seconds, then let out a sigh and said, "I'll think about it."
"That's good enough for me," she nodded. "You should be able to see my farm from here. It's the giant orchard north of town."
He did remember seeing a large collection of trees in that direction. While he would need to give the view a second look to know for sure, there were a couple of routs he could think of that could let him get there without having to pass through the town. Mentally agreeing to do that later, he nodded to his guest and took another swig of his drink.
Applejack did the same, then grimaced before she put her glass down. When she did so, the deck box caught her eye again. Anon noticed and let out a light chuckle as he set his glass down and reached for the container.
"If Pinkie sent you, then she probably mentioned these, right?" he asked, taking the cards out and shuffling them.
Applejack nodded.
"She said something about a game, but Ah...um....wasn't paying too much attention at the time," she said, chuckling sheepishly.
He shrugged, then started sifting through his cards.
"I guess it would be kind've hard to listen to her and do farm work at the same time."
Applejack didn't answer, already mentally kicking herself for being so rude to her friend. Silently promising to make it up to her friend, the farmer tried to jump into the new topic. Something, she noted, Anon greatly appreciated as he set out some cards onto the table.
"So," he started. "What do you know about the game?"
Applejack took a second, wracking her brain to try and pull back some of the things Pinkie told her.
"Uh...well...Ah think Ah remember Pinkie saying something about colors and philosophy," she frowned, scratching her head.
"I guess that's a good place to start then," he nodded, looking down at the cards he set. "In Magic: the Gathering, there are five colors or 'schools' of magic. Each have their own way of doing things and play styles based on these colors. Sense this is a Mono White deck, it uses White magic exclusively."
"What does that mean?" Applejack asked.
"White, in a nutshell, is the color of law and order," he continued. "For White, nothing matters more than protecting others and maintaining a strong and healthy society. To do this, White will use a wide array of tactics and moral codes to eliminate any and all threats to those it is trying to protect. Because of this, White typically has some of the best protection cards in the game. On the offensive side of things, White generally relies of coordinated attacks to bring down its foes or powerful destruction spells."
As he said that, he pointed to a card that showed some sort of lion creature being turned into dust.
"It's largely because of White's desire to help and protect others that it also has the most healing spells in the game with some of its creatures getting some kind of benefit from it."
He pointed at another card featuring a lion man, only this one was walking through a forest dressed in tribal attire and carrying a sword.
"Over all, this ultimately makes White the defensively strongest color in the game with a wide array of potential ways to deal with a large number of threats from multiple directions."
"Sounds like White's got everything it needs then," Applejack smiled.
"Not surprised you would say that," he shrugged. "On the surface, White looks pretty solid, but when you take a good hard look at it, you can see just how frail it is."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"In a lot of ways, White's greatest strengths are its greatest weaknesses. While White can create some powerful walls against threats, it takes time for it to set them up. That means that faster offensive strategies can easily knock White over before it has a chance to make any strong plays. On top of that, most of its creatures are pretty offensively weak, so if something breaks up its formations or it loses a key creature, it becomes really easy pick off White's creatures. Sure, White can fix this with artifacts and enchantments, but the fact that it relies so heavily on them just adds to its problems if something goes wrong. This all reflects White's refusal to break from established traditions, bone-headed stubbornness, excessive internal paranoia, and heavily controlling nature."
"That...does sound pretty bad," she said feeling a bit sad for the knight.
"It's just how it is," he sighed. "All of the colors have their good and bad qualities. For White, you either get a hero who is willing to charge into battle to protect everyone he loves or an overbearing tyrant that thinks his moral high ground gives him the power to tell people how to live their lives."
"Right," she frowned, giving that some serious thought as she continued to stare down at Danitha. "Like my Granny aways says; The path to Tartarus is paved with good intentions, right?"
"Something like that," he chuckled, then gave her a knowing smirk as he pointed at her glass and added, "Now, how's about you tell me what you like to drink so I don't let that cranberry juice go to waste."
She flinched, then grimaced down at her abandoned glass. Shaking her head, she picked it up and brought it up to her lips. With visible discomfort, she chugged the glass down to the last drop, forcing a cocky smile onto her muzzle as she set the empty glass back down onto the table.
"Never waste hospitality," she smirked. "That's what my Granny taught me."
He stared blankly at her for a second, then with a small snort and smirk of his own said, "I can respect that. Now, what do you want to wash it down with?"
"You got apple juice?" she asked with a chuckle.
With a nod, he got up, took the pitcher, and made his way back towards the kitchen.