“Hey Applejack, how did you like your first day at school?” I asked.
She responded, “Ah liked meetin’ everypony, but Ah won’t need some fancy-pants book smarts when Ah’m workin’ the farm wit’ mah brother Big Mac when Ah’m a full grown mare. But anywho, what’d y’all think sugarcube?”
“I didn’t mind meeting everypony either, but I don’t like the idea of another twelve years of this. I hear it gets a lot more boring as you grow older.”
“Twelve more years?! That sounds awful! Ah don’t like that much either. Hey, do ya think you could come on down to the farm with me? I gots a neat trick to show y’all.”
“Okay, but I’m going to need to stop by my place to let mom and dad know. See you there!”
“See ya soon!”
The walk to my place wasn’t all too bad, considering it was maybe a mile away. When I got there my parents were grinning. “How was your first day at school, honey?” my mom asked.
“It was pretty fun” I answered.
“Did you make lots of friends?” my dad wondered.
I responded, “Yes, dad.”
Mom asked, “Meet any cute fillies?”
“Mooooom!” I responded. That was quite an embarrassing question.
“I’m just asking!”
“Anyways, I’m headed off to Applejack’s place, said she’s got some sort of trick to show me.”
“You have fun dear.”
I heard my mom say to my dad under her breath, “I am quite concerned for that boy. He says he has a bunch of friends but all I ever hear is Applejack, Applejack, Applejack.”
“Don’t worry honey, he’ll make friends soon enough. It’s his first day,” he responded.
“Good Bye!” I said as I shut the door. As I started on my long journey, I wondered what she wanted to show me. I heard somepony call out my name from behind me.
“Hey, Shadow,” I said. Everypony in class knew about him, but he mainly kept to himself.
“Where are you headed to?” he asked, which was weird, because I had heard him talk only on a few rare occasions. “I’m going to Applejack’s farm. She says she’s got some sort of trick to show me.”
“Can I go with you?” he asked. I hated these sort of situations. I didn’t know what to do, what to say. So I went with the first thing that came to mind. “Umm... Sure?”
“Thanks,” he said sheepishly.
When we got to Applejack’s farm, Shadow stopped dead where he was standing, staring wide-eyed at the acres upon acres of apple trees as far as the eye could see.
“They’re unicorns like me, right? There’s no way that they could possibly buck all those
trees every season I mean, you’d have to be insanely strong and... and...” he stammered.
“Nope, they aren’t. They’re just regular earth ponies, and they have been bucking those fields for centuries, ever since Granny Smith founded Ponyville and the farm.”
Just then Applejack walked up to me. “Right, Applejack?”
“Sure as sugar! Ah haven’t been able to though, ‘cuz Ah’m too young accordin’ to Big Mac. But, lookie here.”
She picked up a leg and kicked the tree with all her might. Nothing. Again. Nothing. “Hey, Applejack, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but don’t you think it would be easier if you used both legs?”
“Ah never thought of that, you mean like this?” She jumped off her back legs, and then slammed them into the tree. It shook, dropping basket-fulls of apples. “Thank you so much!” she practically shouted. She was obviously ecstatic, having bucked her very first tree. It was then that I noticed Shadow’s hoof. It was pointed towards me.
I wondered how long I had left him hanging. It couldn’t have been that long. So I did the only polite thing. Hoofbump! He was smiling, as was I. Suddenly Applejack was gone, so was Shadow, and even the entire farm! I was walking, I think, but I wasn’t in my body. I was walking on my hind legs, and my front hooves had tinier legs on them. But everypony else did too! I couldn’t control anything I was doing. But anypony who looked at me was first shocked, then angry. It was then I realized I was scowling, and giving them all mean looks.
What’s going on? I was scared. I had never had this happen, and as far as I knew, neither did anypony else. I walked into a building and started talking to another of these creatures. It looked angry, and I started yelling. Why am I seeing this? I left and started walking through an alley-looking place. Suddenly two of these creatures jumped out. “We told you that if you didn’t pay, we would get it out of you!” one of the creatures said. This doesn’t look good! I turned around and ran. Since this wasn’t actually my own actions, I was helpless to see what happened next.
Two more walked into the alley-place. I was trapped. They pulled out a weird metallic stick, and I ran the other way, terrified. I apparently was going to try to run through these guys, but they stopped me before I could make it through. They turned me around and held my front legs with theirs. The man with the metallic stick thrust it towards my stomach area, and I was suddenly in a horrible agony. I was bleeding, and before long I was getting dizzy. The last thing I felt was a sharp blow to my side.
Eyes. That was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Two pairs of eyes that I had never been more happy to see in my life. Applejack and Shadow. They were standing over me. I got up to my feet and ran as fast as I could. I wanted to get away from that place where I saw and felt horrible things.
“And you’re just telling me this now why? That was nearly 8 years ago!” Vinyl practically yelled at me.
“Because I had another one just today.” I responded, full of terror and uncertainty.