//------------------------------// // Learning the Ropes // Story: A Wish That Could Be // by Faithful Brony //------------------------------// “Your Ancestors Called it Magic, but You Call it Science. I Come From a Land Where They Are One and the Same.” ― Thor Odinson_ Thor the Movie It was six o’clock in the morning and Applejack woke up bright and early at Sweet Apple Acres to get started on bucking the apple trees. She went to the barn and opened the door; she proceeded inside and went over to a big pile of hay. There on top sleeping peacefully was the human that she just met last night. Applejack replayed the event of last night back in her mind. “Hello there,” she said hesitantly shaking the creatures hand then turned to twilight confused about all of this. “Alright, Twi I'll bite what’s this all about,” this whole thing had now peaked Applejack's interest. Well, Applejack this creature right here is called a human, his name is Rob and he is in quite a predicament. Twilight continued the conversation telling her the whole situation starting with the first meeting, sending the letter to Celestia and her coming to the library, the conversation that they all had, what they had learned, and finally ending it with how they can never go back. After Twilight was finished she waited for her friend to respond. Applejack spoke after a long silence. “Well Twi I have to say some the stuff you just said didn’t make any sense but I got the gist of it.” “So Celestia wants me to take this one in on my farm’” Applejack got a confirming nod. “I don’t know Twi, I have to run it by family and I don’t know how they will react” plus Applejack didn’t know if she could trust them at all. “Applejack please look at it from their point of view, they are far away from everything they ever loved or cared about and are more than likely never going to see them again.” ”they didn’t want to put any trouble on us, in fact, they probably didn’t mean for all of this to happen.” “We are the Elements of Harmony, it’s our job to help those in need out, and if they can’t turn to us for help who can they turn to.” Twilight looked at her with pleading eyes. Applejack lowered her head in with a sigh; she knew all too well the feeling of being away from loved ones. She remembered the day she left home and went to Manehatten to find her special talent and how homesick she felt during her time away from granny smith and Big Macintosh. “Alright Twilight I’ll let him stay but I still have to run it by Granny Smith.” Twilight jumped for joy knowing that she was helping them out. “But Rob is going to have to work on the farm in order to earn his keep.” Rob finally decided to enter the conversation he was quite the talker he just didn’t talk until he had something worth saying. “That won’t be a problem; my grandpa owned a farm when I was a child, I use to work on it all the time.” “Well we will see how well you do in the morning, I got some things you could do now let head to the farm you’ll need your sleep.” The two headed out the door and back to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack shook her head to get out of her thought bubble and went over to the pile of hay to wake Rob up. She shook him several times but to her surprise, he didn’t get up. she shook him again and this time more aggressively but with no response. She took a bell and rung it over his head however still had no luck, she finally decided to Tartarus with it and buck the entire hay pile sending Rob flying. She then proceeded over to him and she was shocked to see he was still asleep. Applejack started to get worried but was relieved when she saw Rob stir in his sleep and finally get up. Rob felt a little groggy but looked down to see Applejack standing there he smiled then said. “Did you have fun trying to wake me up” he snickered at the look she was giving him and said, “my grandpa had the same problem. you see no matter what he did, he could not wake me up." "Trust me he tried everything in the book my grandpa finally learned I don’t wake up until I've slept the appropriate amount of time.” “My internal clock is weird like that.” “Ookaayy well Rob we should be getting started. I have a few jobs I want you to try, let’s see if we can find you something to do.” Rob followed her out to the apple orchard and they got started. “Rob I want you to buck this here tree and Knock the apples down.” “You got to be joking, I can’t do that I have no way to.” “You got a strong pair of legs kick it.” Just to do something funny he went over to the tree and jab kicked it. He looked back to Applejack who had a serious look on her face. “Now that ain’t kicking, quit messing around and kick the darn tree.” “You obviously don’t know this Applejack but human legs aren’t built like ponies are. Humans don’t buck trees, and all the apples magically fall off and land perfectly into barrels. We usually have to pick the apples off the trees one at a time or get a machine to do it. See, on Earth, most labors like that are completed using some sort of machines to do all the heavy lifting. Granted there are still jobs and projects that require humans intervention, but for the most part, machines do all the work. We haven’t done anything like your suggesting in over a hundred years.” Applejack just stood there stunned, processing the foreign concepts about the daily work style of humans. “Alright we’ll try something else, let’s see if you can plow the fields for new trees to be planted with Big Mackintosh if that ain’t too hard.” They headed over to the new field that had been cleared for new trees to be planted. There over on side Big Mackintosh was getting his yolk hooked up to the plow he was going to use for the day. “Hi there Big Mac I need your help showing this guy how to get set up and doing this job. “I know how, it’s been a few years since I last visited my grandpa to help him out plus your stuff isn’t exactly built for human use.” She stared at him for a second but realized he was right. “Ok, ok, I get what you mean we’ll have a yolk built for you later if you can handle this but for right now you can use that one,” she pointed to another yolk that was lying next to the barn. Big Mac can you help him get up and get started I need to get back to bucking apples. “Eeyup” he then proceeded to get the yolk hooked up to the plow and told Rob to slip in. it was a little uncomfortable but he could handle it, he started to push but it didn’t budge at first so he pushed harder his muscles now bulging it slowly started to move. After that Big Mac got himself set up in another plow and went to work. After a few hours, they were done, Rob got unhooked breathing somewhat heavily then looked at the work they had just completed. He gave a victory grin and said “I’ve still got it.” Applejack came over to check on the progress, she was amazed to see it was done. She just stood there dumbfounded, Applejack thought Rob would fail but he had done the job with success. “Told you I could do it and you doubted my abilities.” She turned away shamed that she had doubted this human and made a quick assumption about Rob. She felt bad about those thoughts but quickly shook them aside and came out of her daze. “Well now that you're done with that I need you to feed the animals, I will show you where all the feed is. Once we have done that then Granny Smith wants to see ya. They headed over to the barn grabbed the animal feed and gave each of the animals their respective foods. After completing that task they went inside the house. “Hey Granny Smith, I brought Rob in what did you want to see him about.” “Well howdy do kids so this is the creature you mentioned Applejack, he is rather tall looking feller.” They turned around to find Granny Smith coming out of the kitchen.” “Why hello there sonny, what is your name?” “My names Rob, short for Robert, did you want to see me about something.” “Darn tootin, as a matter-of-fact I did. I need you to help me with an old apple family recipe for my cinnamon apple soup.” “Well, that sounds rather odd hearing those words together in a sentence. I’ve never heard of someone ever using apples in a soup, but yea, I’ll try anything at least once.” “Well Rob today's your lucky day, you’re going to try the best apple soup in the whole world.” They headed into the kitchen granny put the final touches on her soup, grabbed a bowl, put some of the soup in there and gave it to Rob. He proceeds to take a bite. The flavor hit him immediately; it tasted exactly like apples and cinnamon the flavor was sweet, sour but at the same time good and soothing to the throat. He sat there letting the taste linger a bit more before finally swallowing he looked to Granny Smith and said, “Wow this tastes great, kind of like apple pie except more soup-like.” He took another bite letting the taste overwhelm him. Applejack sat down with a look of relief glad to know Granny Smith can impress anypony, even a human with her apple recipes. Well, thanks Rob, that is mighty kind of ya to say. we have great friends but it’s nice to know someone new who can give a positive view of our apple recipes. After a few minutes Rob finished the soup and put the bowl in the sink, he then proceeded to thank Granny Smith for the great meal then headed out of the house with Applejack to do more chores. When the day was done and all the chores completed Rob let out a relaxing sigh. It felt good to work on a farm again. He went to sit down on the grass enjoying the sunset and night sky becoming visible but his thought brought him elsewhere, thinking of how Jesse was faring on his first day in Equestria. His mind brought up other thought, wondering what Russel was doing and how he was faring on his first day here too. His thoughts were disturbed however when Applejack came over to where he was currently sitting. “I reckon it’s getting late you should probably get some shut eye cause tomorrow I got some new jobs I want you to try” but all she received as a response was silence. “Is there something bothering you Rob you look like you got a lot on your mind. Rob didn’t know what to say just like Jesse he wasn’t going to say anything about Russel being here in Equestria so he decided to tell her something that would answer her question. “Well I’ve been thinking about how this whole thing happened with the whole rainbow bring us to Equestria and I can’t help but wonder if fate meant for this to happen.” “I ain’t following ya what do ya mean.” “Well I am one of those types of people that watch the universe in motion, taking in every detail, looking for unexpected signs and I think somehow fate meant for us to come to your world.” “I believe everything happens for a reason so what if fate decided to send us here for a reason, a purpose cause to me, this is too big of a coincidence for the wish to have been made at the exact moment Rainbow Dash pulled of her new Astro Rainboom stunt.” “You got a point there Rob it sounds too weird to have been a lucky accident, although I’m not equipped to even understand the subject.” ‘I’m sure if Twilight or Princess Celestia find out anything that could help in your return to earth they will surely try to get you back.” “See that’s the thing, I don’t know if they will ever be able to find anything because there certainly has never been a spell created for a situation like this and there no other magical item I know of that could possibly mimic the effect either.” “As far as I can tell Jesse and I are going to probably spend the rest of our lives here on Equis that’s not a bad thing in a lot of ways but it was also unexpected for me.” “Look, Rob, I don’t know hardly anything about you. I probably will never be able to fully understand you or Jesse either, but I understand what you’re going through. Rob, I’m going to tell you a story that not a lot of ponies know about me and hopefully, this will help you with your problem. When I was a filly, I didn’t have my cutie mark when the others did. I wanted it so badly that I left the farm and went to Manehatten to live with my aunt and uncle. They were part of the fancy lifestyle, attending dinner parties and high-end events. One day I got really homesick after figuring I would never fit in. I was torn up inside from missing my family but I thought that if I left I might not ever find my special talent. Then something happened that changed my life. Do you want to know what that was?” Rob knew this story from the show but he nodded anyways. This was actually making feel a little less stressed out and a little more calm inside. "Go ahead" “I was looking out of my bedroom window trying to think hard about what I should do when I saw an explosion of color. Then I saw a rainbow appear over Ponyville and somehow I knew that my place was with my family on the apple farm.” “Shortly after that I got my cutie mark and I knew my place. From then on my special talent was farming and harvesting apples. So you see, when you dwell on the past or the future, you miss where your home is in the present. Right now your life may have changed but that doesn't mean you cant find your place or even a home in it. “Thanks Applejack, that made me feel less worried and calmer about my situation. You really help me out with that.” “Think nothing of it and if you do have to live here the rest of your life, I hope this story will remind you to keep your chin up and find your special talent in it.” Applejack let out a loud yawn, “Well that’s me, I’m going to catch some shut-eye. Don’t stay up too late, I need ya to wake up early,” and with that, the farm pony went inside the house to sleep. Rob too let out a yawn and decided to go to sleep, “thanks Applejack and I hope I do too.” Rob headed into the barn and plopped down on a pile of hay, within seconds silence filled the air.