//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Lonely Poor Soldier.  
// Story: Applejack and the Soldier. 
// by Wolf-Baron 
//------------------------------//

	“Man today’s applebuck’s harvest sure was excellent!” Applejack exclaimed with excitement as she carried her saddle sacks full of her juicy sweet apples and bags of her Granny Smith’s famous home cooked apple pastries. 
The sacks were filled to the brim with bright shiny apples freshly bucked from the farm. Golden delicious, granny smith, red delicious, and many different types were shining and just waiting to be sold. Applejack was heading to her stand in Ponyville’s market block, arriving a little early so she could set up shop early and get ready for the customers. 

She just happily trotted along the path whistling a little tune to herself and admiring the beautiful early morning sights. The birds were signing their hooting songs and tweeting happily to one and other as the Pegasus ponies flew in the sky setting and rearranging clouds for today’s weather. According to the newspaper, Cloudsdale had said the weather for Ponyville was supposed to be nice and sunny with a few clouds but nice none the less. As Applejack was trotting along the path, she came across a friend of hers, Fluttershy a Pegasus, with her pet/assistant bunny Angel.


“Howdy do Fluttershy?” AJ greeted with her warm smile. Fluttershy, who always had part of her face covered with her mane smiled back. 
“Oh, hi Applejack,” Fluttershy responded in a voice so soft she was practically whispering.
Applejack nodded and asked, “So Fluttershy, where y’all off to?” 
“Oh um,” Fluttershy stuttered a little “I’m off to Old Mare Jenkins place. She has a family of squirrels in her attic and she wants me to talk to them.” 
It was Fluttershy’s job to keep peace between the ponies and the local wildlife. 
“Oh that’s neat. I was just on my way to the market.” AJ explained. “This year’s Applebuck season was excellent!” 
“Oh, that’s good to hear.” Fluttershy congratulated in her still quiet tone. Just then, Angel bunny tapped Fluttershy’s leg and stared at her angrily. 
“Oh my, sorry Applejack!” Fluttershy whispered with a look of worry on her face. Even when she was scared or panicked, she almost never raised her voice. “I promised I’d be at Old Mare Jenkins at 7! I’m running five minutes late!” 
She immediately continued to her destination trotting at a rather faster pace. 
“Alright then Fluttershy, see y’all later!” AJ waved backed and tilted her hat at Fluttershy. Fluttershy turn backed and waved back and continued to head towards Old Mar Jenkins while AJ continued to haul her apples to the market. 

When AJ finally reached Ponyville, she headed to the market block where her stand was located. Because it was still relatively early, there was hardly anyone on the streets with the exception of a few Earth ponies who were getting up to head to the field. 

Normally AJ’s little sister Applebloom would be helping her with the stand but she had school today. Plus it didn’t help the fact that Applebloom was a lousy salesman; AJ and Big Macintosh were still paying that fine they had to pay after Applebloom poured applesauce all over a rich business pony’s expensive coat (don’t ask why, it involved some complex scheme to get her cutie mark). 

AJ carefully unloaded the apples onto the stand taking great cares not to bruise any of them. Once the apples and apple pastries where carefully and neatly placed on the stand, AJ flipped the sign from “closed” to “Open.”
“There we go!” she said with enthusiasm. “Open for business!” 
But as she was sitting at her stand waiting for the customers, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. 

Across from Sugarcube Corner, she saw an inn with its door open and a purple pony yelling at a human at the door. This was unusual; humans lived in a separate land and were not a common sight in Equestria, especially Ponyville. AJ herself had only seen a human once in her life when she was a very very young filly and she barely remembered him. The human was tall and appeared to be in his mid twenties and Caucasian. 

He had black hair which had been shaved and he was most likely in the military for he was wearing a woodland camouflage military uniform  with matching cap and he had an M16 rifle and a backpack which must have been very heavy strung on his back. 

But what got AJ was how sad he looked, he appeared to be pleading with the innkeeper to let him in but she yelled back and refused him slamming the door on him. The human soldier then walked down the corner, appearing sad, tired, and exhausted. 
“Awe, poor guy,” AJ said under her breath. For a second, the soldier looked up and saw Applejack and he looked back at her and the two stared at each other face to face even though they were several meters apart. Applejack just couldn’t take her eyes off him. She couldn’t explain it but something just caught the attention of him. 


“Excuse me!” a voice interrupted AJ from her trance. Applejack shook her head a little and looked at who contacted her. It was a pony with spring green fur, a blue mane, and what appeared to be a cutie mark in the shape of flower pedals. 
“Oh sorry maim!” Applejack apologized to the pony “What can I get you?” 
“I’d like to buy four golden delicious apples and two granny smith apples.” The pony answered.
“Yes maim.” AJ replied cheerfully and handed the customer the apples she ordered. The customer pulled out a few gold bit coins from her saddle bag and placed them on the counter and took her apples. 
“Have a nice day.” Applejack told the customer as she put the gold in her own saddlebag. Once the customer was gone, AJ looked back at the place where she saw the human but he was gone. But Applejack needed to focus on her customers so she continued to run the stand and tried very hard to get that human out of her head.

Despite the success of the harvest, the business was very slow today. Applejack got her usual number of customers but not a whole lot. While AJ kept her smile for the customers, it was difficult to hide her disappointment. There were in fact several points during the day were she didn’t even get any customers. It was the Grand Galloping Gala all over again. 
Eventually nightfall came and Applejack had to close up.

“Oh hay,” AJ sighed with disappointed at the slow sales. She checked and counted how much gold bits she had made during the day. Sure she had made a profit, but it was much less than it was last year. But she kept her chin up. After all, it was only the first day of business. She had learnt from past experience that you are gonna have slow business some days. Sometimes, ponies just aren’t in the mood for apples but it was no reason to give up. 

Applejack gathered up her surplus and put them in the cart and started to head home. As she was pulling the cart away from the stand one of the hinges broke off and caused the cart to roll out of control. Normally Applejack was strong enough to manage this, but she was tired and exhausted from bucking Apples yesterday.

“Whoo whaaa!” she screamed as she struggled to maintain her balance and fell hard with a thud to the ground with the cart. The tipped cart spilled its cargo and the entire ground was covered with fallen apples. 
“Oh gosh durnit!” AJ grunted as she struggled to get herself up. As she was picking up her hat which had fallen off her head and facing the opposite direction trying to pick her apples up, she couldn’t see the person rushing to approach her from behind and reached out to help. 
“Oh my! Are you alright?” a male voice asked with sincerity “Do you need any help?” 
“Oh thank ya kindly dear….” Applejack began but then was silenced by what she saw.

The person was the human soldier she had seen earlier. He was still carrying his rifle and backpack and was reaching out with his left hand to help as his right held onto his pack and rifle strap. 
“uh…dear sir.” AJ continued stuttering a little bit as she stared into the human’s crystal blue eyes. She had to admit, he was very handsome. By human standards that is. 
He helped her pick up her apples and other fallen supplies and got her cart back. AJ couldn’t help but look at him the entire time but she would turn away every time they faced each other eye to eye.

“Hmmm, this cart is still broken.” The human said as he analyzed it. “Maybe I can help you carry this stuff back to your home?” 
Applejack struggled to hide the fact that she was blushing. 
“Well that’s awfully kind of you and all, but I don’t wish to be a burden and all,” she explained with a rather bad stutter. 
What’s wrong with me? She asked herself. She normally didn’t act like this.

But the human soldier just smiled back. “No I insist.”
He grabbed onto the broken end of the cart and held it strongly so it wouldn’t loose balance.
AJ nodded back. “Okay then, but I’m just gonna warn ya my farm is quite a walks away.” 
The human suddenly looked up and his eyes widened with excitement. 
“You live on a farm?” he asked rather than with a lot of excitement. 
AJ nodded back. “Mmm hmmm. All my life.” She replied. 
“Excellent. I haven’t been to a farm since I was a kid.” He asked. “Okay let’s go.” 

AJ and the soldier walked and worked their way to the farm keeping the cart full of apples stable. Applejack was a little impressed by the human’s strength. Despite carrying both a heavy rifle and backpack, he was dragging a heavy cart and he never once complained. There were a few close calls but they quickly recovered and just laughed it off. 
“Thank ya so kindly.” AJ thanked the human as she was pulling the cart. “By the way, I never introduced myself. My name’s Applejack. What’s yours?”
The human nodded back as he held onto the cart. 
“Ryan.” He answered by. “Ryan Winters.” 
Applejack laughed and nodded. “Well howdy do Mr. Winters.” She responded happily. “So what brings you here to Ponyville if ya don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m a soldier in the Karelian army.” He answered. The Unites States of Karelia was where most of the humans were from.

“I was on my way to the army base we have in the outskirts of the city you ponies called Fillydelphia. But I accidentally got aboard the wrong train. I ended up here. I’ve been looking for a place to stay a few days until I can contact my commander about the mix up” He continued occasionally grunting from the weight of the cart. 

“Ah.” AJ answered back. 
“In case you didn’t know, I saw you earlier this morning.” He told her. 
This statement caused Applejack’s eyes to widen and her cheeks to blush. 
Oh I hope in the name of Celestia he didn’t notice me starin at him! She screamed to herself in her head. 

“Uh…yeah.”  She answered back nervously. “I own the stand I was selling apples.” 
“Ah that’s nice.” He answered very friendly. “How’s business going?” 
Applejack sighed at being reminded about her poor sales. “Well, it’s been better.” She answered back with a small frown. 


“Oh look we’re here!” she called out as soon as they reached the gates of Sweet Apple Acres. 
“Wow!” Ryan responded amazed. Even at night, Sweet Apple Acres looked beautiful. The farm was a great looking place with a nice little house next to a large red barn with pigs, cows, and chickens playing or sleeping in their pens. But the thing that surprised him the most was the apple trees. There had to be hundreds of them! Spread out as far as the eye could see. But he stopped his sight seeing and turned back to Applejack.
“Where do you want these apples?” he asked.

“Oh we have a shed we can store em in until tomorrow.” She answered back. 
“Okay.” He answered back and returned to helping her. Ryan helped AJ roll the cart to the shed a task which took quite some strength but to Applejack’s surprise Ryan could do it.

“Is that it?” He asked while wiping the sweat off his face. 
AJ nodded “That should be it.” 

“Oh, okay then.” Ryan answered back in a rather sad mood. “I guess I’ll be on my way. Nice knowing you Applejack” 

He then turned away and began heading for the main gate. AJ remembered the expression he gave when the innkeeper rejected him. 
“Hey Ryan!” she quickly called to him. Ryan heard this and he turned out.
“Yeah?” he called back with curiosity.
Stuttering a bit and nervously rolling her left hoof in the ground AJ explained, “Well, if yer still looking for a place to stay, yer more than welcomed to stay here.” 
Ryan’s eyes widened and he stared at her almost in disbelief. 
“Really! Do you mean it?” he asked back both excited and nervous at the same time. 
Applejack cheerfully answered “Sure, we’ve got plenty of room and my granny loves having company over! You can stay for a few days.” 

Ryan rushed back and approached AJ with a look on his face so happy and full of gratitude. 
“Oh thank you Applejack. I promise I won’t be a burden!” he kept saying at a very fast pace that would give even Pinkie Pie a run for her cupcakes. 
“Ye won’t be. Why, you’re practically a member of the family already!” AJ kinda laughed a little when she said this. “Now com’on out of the night air. Granny’s cooking up some delicious grub.” 

Ryan nodded and walked besides AJ as she led him to her house where he could finally get some well needed rest. But Applejack couldn’t help but notice the conflicting feelings in her. Every time she looked at him, she felt this warm fuzziness of comfort that she had never felt before she felt like she almost had…feelings for him. 

No AJ! It’s not that! She shouted to herself in her head. Yer just being friendly that’s all. He’s a guest and maybe he could be a friend but he’s not…well…
AJ breathed a big sigh which made Ryan look at her with concern. 

“You okay Applejack?” he asked her. 
“Oh no. Ryan. I’m fine.” She answered with a faux smile. Ryan smiled back and nodded as she led him to the house. AJ opened the door and Ryan could smell the aroma was a freshly baked stew and apple pie. It smelt so delicious his mouth began to water.
“Well, go on in.” AJ giggled as she noticed this. “You must be hungry.” 
Ryan nodded and headed inside. “Thank you again Applejack. You’ve been so kind to me.” 

Then he did something Applejack didn’t expect. He leaned forward and gently kissed her on the cheek. Even though it was just a little peck similar to the ones she and Applebloom would exchange when they dropped her off at school, the warm fuzziness returned and she blushed heavily. Her heart was racing and beating faster than Rainbow Dash’s wings when she was flying at mach speed. 

“Oh uh I’m sorry!” Ryan apologized when he noticed AJ blushing. “It’s just that, where I’m from, it’s customary for us to kiss the cheek of whoever shows us a great act of kindness. I’m so very sorry I should have told you first!” 
But Applejack just nodded and giggled a little. “Oh it’s alright.” She answered back still blushing and with a smile. “It’s actually kinda sweet from you.”
Ryan gave a sigh of relief. “Oh well that’s good. Again thanks.” 

As AJ let him in and closed the door her mind was racing. His kiss was more than just sweet. It was wonderful! AJ felt like she could fly and felt a rush that she normally only got from bucking apples from the trees. She wished it had been longer more romantic. She just wanted to reach out and….
No AJ what’s wrong with you! She screamed in her head to snap herself out of it. Take it easy there girl. He’s just a guest and you’re being friendly with him. And that’s all. Just take it one step at a time. 
She then led Ryan to the dining room and prepared to introduce him to her family.