Chapter 4
Braeburn opened his eyes to see he was standing in- wait a second, eyes? Braeburn took a quick look at his front legs, seeing only his own yellow coat. He was so happy to be free from that dreaded robotic body that he almost felt like dancing, but something stopped him from doing so. In the distance he heard what sounded like a bell. Not just any bell, but the one from the Appleloosa clock tower. Braeburn gulped as it stopped suddenly, only to be replaced a few seconds later by the sound of hooves trampling the ground and ponies screaming. Braeburn turned around slowly to see something that made his eyes widen. A twenty foot tall, black as night buffalo coming right at him. Braeburn’s mind told him to run, like he did with that Cactus Coyote, but he just stood there as a giant cloven hoof was about come down upon him. Braeburn closed his eyes waiting for agonizing pain, but when it didn’t come he opened them again to see that the dessert he was standing in the middle of suddenly went from day to night. What was stranger he saw what looked like a pony standing in the distance, but he couldn’t tell who it was.
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That’s when Braeburn’s vision turned itself back on as he snapped awake.
‘Just another dream.’ Braeburn thought to himself as he rolled out of bed, he tried crack his neck only to remember he was unable to. Braeburn sighed and said, “Buck you, Valiant.”
He left the guestroom and walked down the hallway and past the kitchen.
“Hey ain’t you gonna eat?” he heard Cherry ask from the kitchen.
“Huh?” Braeburn responded, walking back to see Miss Jubilee by her stove, and making some pancakes, while wearing a light pink apron. ‘She really seems to like that color.’ Braeburn walked in and said, “Pancakes?”
“Yeah, since it’s your first day of work and also that whole incident with that Cactus Coyote last night, I figured that I’d make us some pancakes. You like pancakes right?”
“Who doesn’t?”
Cherry giggled a bit and said, “True. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring them out when they’re ready.”
“You don’t want any help?”
“No, it’s fine.”
So Braeburn sat down for a few minutes before Cherry Jubilee came out with breakfast. They just sat there and ate quietly, until Braeburn decided to say something, “Excuse me Cherry, but can I ask you something?”
“Of course. What is it?” She responded.
“Why is it that you’re being so nice to me? I’m not complaining or anything, it’s just that in Ponyville not many ponies outside mah family really treated me well. Yet, you are taking me in, giving me a job, making me breakfast. You don’t really seem to mind that I’m more machine than pony now. In Ponyville they all hightailed it out of there when they first saw me, and that was before ah got the armor.”
Cherry gave a warm smile and said, “Because nopony should be treated like that. Besides Applejack asked me to take you in so you’d be less stressed from those nightmares she told me about that been having. Also it’d be awful if you left there only to be treated the same here.”
“Oh I see, you’re only doing this because Applejack asked you to.”
“Oh no, you misunderstand what I mean by that.” She stops for a few seconds, thinking about what to say, “Braeburn, even though you look like a machine, you’re not.”
“Three of mah legs and a good chunk mah face are.”
“That’s not the point. What I’m saying that under this metal, is a pony who just wants a normal life. Or at least that’s what I’m guessing. Am I right about that?”
“Ah guess so.”
“Great, now let’s finish eating and then get to work.”
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In the cherry orchard, the baskets were set for cherries to drop into them.
“Okay Braeburn, you worked on Applejack’s farm, so I assume you know how to buck a tree, but as Applejack learned when she worked here that cherries are lighter than apples, so it may be harder to knock them off the trees. You think you can manage?” Cherry Jubilee asked.
Braeburn remembering a little trick he made to get apples down quicker, he smiled and said, “Yeah, ah think ah can.”
Braeburn then ran right forward, bucking the first tree, not that hard, but with his enhanced strength from his robotic legs, they still came down. He then ran at the next one and did the same. He repeated this with tree after tree. This was what he called the “buck and run” technique. He came up with it after seeing Applejack’s friend Rainbow Dash do something similar to with clouds on one of the few times she was actually doing her job as weather manager.
Anyways after a few seconds Braeburn stopped after he kicked the last tree in that section of the orchard. When he turned around he saw Cherry Jubilee walking up to him with her mouth agape.
“Y-You did about an hours worth of work in about 30 seconds. I don’t know what to say to that?” She stated.
“Is that a problem?” Braeburn asked.
“Problem? That’s the opposite of a problem! If you work like that then I can get every single cherry down before they go bad! I’d have enough to meet demand!”
“The ponies in this town like cherries that much?”
“I sell my cherries to all of Equestria, no just Dodge Junction. Also with the green cherries coming soon and Hearth’s Warming Eve coming up, that means ponies will want chocolate covered cherries before too long. Oh, I’m going to make so much money!” she exclaimed, and Braeburn swore that her eyes looked like two shiny bits, but he thought that he was most likely imaging that.
“Um... Okay. So uh, anything else that needs to be done? Like that hole that let that Cactus Coyote in, maybe?”
Cherry Jubilee facehoofed. “How the hay did I forget about that? How about you take care of it while I grab the cart?”
“Well, you’re the boss so ah can’t really say no without getting fired, now can ah.”
Cherry chuckles and says, “I guess not, but after what you just did, I have no plans to do that anytime soon.” She gave him a wink.
Braeburn felt his face get slightly warmer, ‘Must be the sun. Y-Yeah the sun’s just getting to me.’ He told himself in his head.
Filling the hole and getting the buckets of cherries was pretty much uneventful, but then Braeburn was brought into that room with the stone wheel that Braeburn saw yesterday.
“Okay, so one of us will have to walk in the wheel while the other sorts the cherries into these boxes.” She pointed to two boxes on the floor, “Red into red, and yellow into yellow, and when they come in, there will be a third box for green. Simple enough. So which one do you want to do? Unless you can pull something like you did outside and do both at once.”
Braeburn shrugged as to say ‘why not’ before he went up to the wheel, stood up on his back legs, and put his front ones against it. He then pulled down, making it spin around. He rushed to the conveyor belt as cherries of both red and yellow came out quickly. Braeburn did as Cherry told, by pushing the cherries into the right boxes as the stone wheel slowly came to a stop. Braeburn was about to go back to the wheel to spin it again when he heard a thud. He looked in the direction it came from to see Cherry Jubilee on the ground with a huge grin on her face.
Braeburn was shocked and rushed right over to her. “Miss Jubilee, are you okay? Is something wrong?” He quickly asked hoping of a response.
Her eyes slowly open and the first thing she said was, “Oh by Celestia’s mane, Braeburn, you are amazing!”
“Ummmmmmm....” Braeburn heard from the doorway. He looked to see that it was coming from a brown pegasus with a off white mane, orange eyes and a glass mug for a cutie mark. What stood out the most was that his left wing was normal, but he didn’t seem to have a right one. Instead it was replaced by a fake on made out of wood and paper. “Did I come over at a bad time, because that didn’t sound so right.”
Cherry got up, blushing a little bit, realizing how what she just said could be misunderstood. “No, it’s fine Root, nothing was going on. Just doing some work with my new employee, Braeburn.” She stated pointing at the cyborg stallion.
The pegasus walked up to Braeburn and brought out his hoof, “Uhh... Hi. I’m Root Beer. I run the local bar with my wife, Cream Soda, and our son Birch Beer.”
“My name, as Miss Jubilee said, is Braeburn, and ah heard of you. You’re that pony who puts blood in their drinks.” Braeburn said with a slight tone of disgust.
Root Beer picked up on this and said, “Well it’s more like cactus water than blood. Like how Timberwolves apparently have tree sap of blood. So it’s not that bad.”
“Ah guess you can see it that way, but to me it still came from another creature.”
“So does milk and eggs.”
Braeburn chuckled a little and said, “Okay, you have me there.”
Root then took a look at Braeburn’s metal parts and asked, “So what’s with the armor?”
“It’s not a fashion choice, ah was terribly hurt and had to get many parts of my body amputated.”
“I see. I know what that’s like.” Root Beer said, extending his fake wing.
“So Root, what did you stop by for?” Cherry asked.
“Oh, I came to pick up my order.”
“Oh of course. Follow me.”
They both started to leave, when Root Beer turned around and said, “Hey Braeburn, maybe you can come on down to my bar sometime and talk some more?”
Braeburn nodded and said, “Sure, why not.” He turned around to give the wheel another spin.