//------------------------------// // Boneshaker // Story: An American Werewolf in Equestria // by Ron Jeremy Pony //------------------------------// An American Werewolf in Equestria Chapter 6 – Boneshaker (Sweet Apple Acres – During David’s trip to the Crystal Empire) Applejack looked at the yellow Stallion before her. He had finally gotten out of the Parka he had been wearing at the castle, but now he wore a similar green vest. Apparently it was something Rarity had made for him. She breathed out a sigh and looked at him. “Let me get this right Sugarcube. You want to come to work fer me, and ma family,” she said. “Well, to be honest it’s about the only thing I know that I can do with no problems. See, I was a theater major back in college, and I really didn’t see any place where an actor or stage hand would be needed,” he said. “Stage hoof. It’s called a stage hoof, and naw y’alls right about there not being much call for a stage hoof or an actor. We have the annual friendship fair and play, but the only place that really has a lot of that kind of thing is Manehattan. So, what experience do you have with Apple farms?” she asked. “My grandpa owned on. I went there every summer and helped clear the orchard. It was a lot of work, but usually Grams would have some apple brown betty made for us when we were through,” he said. “So you have experience apple bucking?” she asked. “Apple what now?” he asked. “Apple Bucking,” she said as she walked toward a tree. She placed a tub at the base of the tree and gave it a good kick. The tree shook and then all of the snow fell into the tub, “Imagine that snow was ripe apples, and that’s apple bucking.” “We picked the apples,” he said. “Picked?” she asked. “Grandpa would hire several migrant workers, and of course have us grandkids, to work the fields,” Jack said. “Yeah, that sounds a tad too expensive, and not something we would do; however, if’n you are willing to learn ah suppose ah could hire you… But no playing with ma flank!” she exclaimed. “In my defense I was just playing around,” he said. “Uh huh, Jest ‘member that y’all’s are all solid now and ah don’t have a problem putting a stallion in his place,” she said as she walked off. He shook his head as she began to walk back toward her barn. There was every reason in the world not to try and get under her skin. She had offered him a job, and she had even volunteered to teach him the finer points of it, but he couldn’t stand it. He followed her toward the barn and waited until she was inside. He then stepped in with her. “Any reason y’all wanted to follow me into ma barn?” she asked. He tried to smile innocently and then shook his head. “Yeah, I was going to try and scare you,” he replied. “Sugarcube, you ain’t as cute as you must think you are. Now, look I’ve got a whole lotta work to git done before Winter Wrapup starts. I’ve got to help Granny Smith git the perserves ready, and I’ve gotta git the dead trees surrounding the farm knocked down and chopped into firewood. So unless you got experience doing either of them things…” she started before he held up a hoof. “I said before I worked on my Grandpa’s farm. I know a thing or two about dealing with dead trees,” he said. “You do huh? Okay, how about we test that theory?” she asked. He looked at her questioningly. “We’ll both take an axe with us, and the first one who can fall the most trees gets treated to a drink of hard cider at Lucky’s,” she said. Jack realized that he might have taken his foot, or hoof rather, and placed it squarely in his mouth. He had worked on the farm, but his grandpa had taught him to use a chainsaw. Sure, he had brought down a few trees with an axe, but it had left his arms numb and his hands blistered after about the sixth one. Not to mention that he didn’t have the use of his fore mentioned hands. He walked over to where she was digging around and watched as she pulled out two axes, one after the other, and handed one of them to Jack. She looked at him quizzingly as he stood there. Realizing that he was going to have to hold the tool in his mouth he opened his mouth, took a bite lower than her own and waited for her to drop it. “Good, now Ah should warn ya that I’ve fell well over seven trees in half an hour by maself,” she said. “Yep, I screwed myself over,” Jack thought. He followed her out of the barn and toward the northern section of the farm. She grinned as she walked up to the first dead tree. Without a warning she began chopping away at it. He watched as she stopped after a moment and readjusted her mouth on the handle. Seeing what she was doing he did the same and found the axe went in surprisingly easy. He pulled back and swung his neck again. It hit with a loud thud and he looked down the axe handle to see the axe head nearly wedged halfway through. He pulled, but the axe wouldn’t move. “Ha! Looks like it’s already over!” Applejack said as she went back to work on her tree. He turned around and kicked his tree hard. There was a crack, a slight bend, and then the tree started to fall over. Applejack growled, pulled her axe out and did the same. “I didn’t say a world to ya about bucking the trees!” she exclaimed. “Hey, it worked,” he replied as he went to work on the next one. Soon he found himself actually holding his own with the farmer. To his surprise he was enjoying the work, and while the competition wasn’t something he was too thrilled about he did like the fact that I reminded him of home. By the end of the hour the tally was done and Applejack had fell eight trees, and was well on the way of falling her ninth. They checked his over and he was in the middle of his eighth tree. “Well, Ah reckon that was mighty close, but mighty close doesn’t quite cover being all of the way. So, let’s talk to Granny Smith about getting you to work on falling these dead trees, and then we’ll talk about pay. After that, we’ll head to Lucky’s, and you can buy me ma drink,” she said. He laughed and nodded. There wasn’t any reason to upset about it. Hell, he was getting a date out of the thing. Well, at least he was buying a girl a drink, and it could be worse. He could be getting ribbed about it mercilessly from David. He followed her to the farm house and walked inside of the farm house. Although it looked more like what his Grams would have decorated it the place reminded him of his Grandpa’s farm. He heard an old voice saying she would be down in a couple of minutes. The few minutes passed and an old looking green pony appeared. She walked toward them and eyed him for a moment before turning to Applejack. “So, who’s this young’n?” Granny Smith asked. “Granny Smith, this is Jack. He’s looking for work, and he has helped me clear a good seventeen dead trees already. Plus he said that he has some experience of working on a farm,” Applejack said. Granny Smith eyed him again and nodded. “We’ll take you on for a short spell. Ya earn your keep and I’ll go ahead and keep ya on. Right now we’re going to start ya out at fifteen bits a day,” she said. “That sounds fair to me,” Jack said. “Yer darn tootin’ it’s fair. Now ya’ll go ahead and finish clearing those trees out,” she said walking toward the kitchen. Jack trotted back out toward the dead trees and got back to work. He laughed a little as he worked. He hadn’t thought about it before hand, but he had been carrying a hatchet in his bag when they ran onto that werewolf. If he would had brought it out there was a chance he could have killed the thing. “Right, and maybe I could have talked my way right into Princess Diana’s panties too,” he thought as he went back to work. “Hey, ah was a hollering at you!” AJ said as she caught up to him. “Oh, sorry I was just ready to get back to work,” he said. “Ah understand that Sugarcube, ah really do, but ah was trying to ask ya a question,” she replied. “Oh, okay, what was the question?” he asked. “Ah wanted to know if y’all had a place to stay at yet. Ah was asking ‘cause yer friend has been staying with Twilight, and ah know her place isn’t really set up for more than a couple of ponies,” she said. “Well, actually I’ve been camping out at the train station. It’s not much different than when I had to camp out at the bus station when our financial aid was late. David and I stayed in that bus station for a good two weeks, walked to classes, and then finally the change checks came and they let us into the dorms,” he said. “Ah don’t know about a bus station, but ah know that old train station only has hard benches to lay on. Why did ya ask one of us for a place to sleep?” she asked. “Believe it or not I really don’t like to bum off of people, er ponies. Most of the time I want to make it on my own steam,” he said. “That’s mighty understandable, but it’s also foolish. Look, I know Granny Smith won’t mind ya staying on here. She might not even deduct anything if y’alls willing to sleep in the barn. Ah would offer the house, but almost every room is being used, except for Ma and Pa’s… Ain’t been no one in that room since…” she stopped. Jack looked at her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, I know what it’s like. My Dad was killed in a car wreck when I was six. Mom had to raise me by herself, well me and my little shit of a brother Mikey. The one good thing was that he liked just about everything. Mom would always say, ‘look at Mikey try it, he likes everything.’ She was right too. He would eat about anything she brought home for dinner,” he said. “Sounds to me like ya miss ‘im,” AJ said. “I do. I miss them both. I miss them and I miss Grandpa and Grams. I got to see them at my funeral you know,” he said as he looked at her, “Remember I was undead before. Mikey cried his eyes out. I didn’t know he cared that much for me. As for mom… she completely lost it for a while. Mikey went to live with Grams and Grandpa. It might have been best for him.” “Sounds like losing ya was hard on them all,” she whispered. He nodded and bent down to lift the ax. He stopped and looked back at her. “Look, I don’t know all of the family you got here. I really don’t, but a little bit of free advice from someone who has already been on the other side of life. Don’t ever take them for granted. Never think that there’s always going to be time to do something special for them, or that if you have a fight it will work out. Before I left home for college Mom and I had a fight. It was a pretty good one. She was angry that I wanted to major in theater. Looking back on it the entire thing was stupid, but I would give anything to go back and take everything I said to her back,” he said. She sat down on her haunches and looked at him. “Ah don’t think that ah take ma family for granted, but there are times ah go off with ma friends and leave them here alone,” she said. “Just don’t take them for granted,” he said. She nodded and got up near him. She picked up her ax, and then put it back down. “If ya want we can make room in the house,” she said. “The barn is fine. Trust me I’ve slept in worse,” he said. “Tarnation, I’m offering ya a room, so ya better accept,” she replied. “Okay, I accept,” he said. “Good, now let’s finish this and then we’ll go to Lucky’s. I could really use a hard cider,” she said. (Crystal Empire – The Crystal Castle – The following Morning) David groaned as he stretched. He wasn’t chained up anymore, but instead he was in a bed. He looked around for a moment and then sat up. The bed was warm, soft, and to be honest it felt amazing. He felt the soft sheets touching him all over. The realization that he was still nude bothered him a little. It meant that once he transformed back they had moved him. The idea that several new ponies had an idea of what he looked like without clothes wasn’t sitting quite right. He felt the bed shift and quickly turned to see a large lump in the bed. Unsure of how he missed that he gently touched it. “Hmm?” a familiar voice asked. “Twilight?” he asked. She moved, looked up at him, and swallowed hard. “Oh Celestia tell me we didn’t,” she said. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “No, you didn’t,” Princess Candace said. They looked toward the door and saw the Princess of the Crystal Empire standing there. She had a bright smile on her face. “Twilight came in her with you after you transformed back. You were moaning and she wanted to help make sure that you were able to rest. I know she fell asleep as well. Believe me, I could tell if something else happened,” she said. David looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Love magic. Trust me I can see when love is shared,” she said. Twilight got up and trotted over toward the door. She looked back to see David still sitting there. “Aren’t you getting up?” she asked. “I need to get dressed,” he said. “Why? Everyone saw…” Candace started to say and noticed how bright red David’s face was turning. “I take it that nudity is a taboo then. Very well, we’ll wait for you downstairs. Although I should tell you that our cook is quite good at making blueberry pancakes, and Shining does like to eat the largest bulk of them. So, if you like blueberry pancakes I suggest that you get dressed quickly,” she said. The two of them left an embarrassed werewolf alone in the room to get dressed. “So little sister, how close were you to taking the next step?” Candace asked. “Candace! I… We’re just friends,” she said. “I’ve seen what his other side feels Twilight, and you can lie to yourself all you want to, but there is an attraction between the two of you. After what all of my guards saw last night and this morning I wouldn’t be surprised if another mare tries to step in to gain his attention if you don’t,” Candace said.