The trip through town to Sweet Apple Acres gave Steed the opportunity to meet some of the other Ponyville residents (he was particularly excited to meet Vinyl Scratch, as he was a big fan of hers) who all welcomed him warmly and also didn’t question him about the bizarre manner of his arrival, and eventually the group made it to Applejack’s farm where the first pony they saw was Big Macintosh hauling a cart, full to the brim with freshly-bucked apples.
“Hello, Big Mac!” Twilight called to him “Is Applejack around?”
“Eeyup,” he replied whilst gesturing towards to orchard.
“Thank you,” Twilight said to him, as the group headed in the direction he pointed out.
When they finally found Applejack she was in the middle of apple-bucking, however the tree she was currently working on must have been particularly stubborn as, no matter how many times Applejack bucked at the tree only a few apples would fall from the branches, leaving the vast majority of them still hanging on.
“Come on, ya dang nuisance!” Applejack shouted at the tree, clearly frustrated
“Stand back, ma’am!” Steed yelled at her, in a very heroic and clichéd tone of voice, then galloped full speed straight at the tree while everypony else could only watch in a mixture of shock and awe.
To everypony’s surprise Steed, instead of bucking the tree, continued running towards it and head-butted it with such force that not only shook the apples into the buckets placed by the trunk but, also some of the branches to the floor.
“Thank yah kindly partner, but didn’t that hurt?” Applejack asked in a tone of concern, while helping Steed up.
“Nope,” Steed replied, though the fact his eyes were momentarily facing opposite directions after the impact gave the girls reason to doubt him. “I’ve got a tough head. I need it too; considering how bad I am at my hobby.”
“Which is?” Twilight asked, wondering how much stranger this stallion could get.
“Mountain climbing.”
“Oh dear…” Rarity groaned to herself, massaging her temples in exasperation.
“Oh wow! You climb mountains!?” Pinkie squealed in excitement.
“Well sort of, but I haven’t quiet got the hang of it yet,” Steed replied, a little embarrassed. “Doesn’t stop me from trying though,” he added with a smile.
“Is that what your cutie mark means then? Not giving up?” Twilight asked and only thinking afterwards that her question may be to personal, and then thinking how rude she must seem and that she may have upset Steed, and if she had upset Steed he may not want to talk with her anymore, and if he didn’t want to talk to her anymore then he may leave Ponyville and was about to continue thinking along those lines until Steed answered her with a smile.
“To some extent, I suppose. My mum says it ‘represents my stubborn but proud refusal to break under any pressure’, but I just think it looks cool,” he then turned so that all the girls could get a good look at it. “I got it during my first avalanche.”
“I’m sorry, but did you say ‘avalanche’?” Rarity asked, trying to hide her obvious bewilderment.
“Did yah say ‘first avalanche’?” Applejack added, not bothering to hide hers.
“Yeah. It was the first mountain I climbed. I got pretty near the top when half the mountain side just fell out beneath me,” Steed replied, puffing out his chest.
“How the hay did yah get through that in one piece?” Applejack asked, with a look on her face of both terror and admiration.
“I didn’t. I had to spend the next three months in a hospital; coincidentally that was also how I got this,” he rubbed his hoof over what remained of his left ear “I never actually saw my Cutie Mark until they took the cast off. I’ll never forget that day.” He finished while looking to the sky with a satisfied smile on his face.
Unlike all the other girls, who now saw Steed as a good-looking, devil-may-care, tough-guy Twilight found his story to be horrendous “How old were you when this happened?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t say ‘very young’.
“Think about it, Twilight, this was how I got my cutie mark! I was just a little colt!” He replied, with a small snicker, which didn’t make Twilight feel any better about this.
“And you parents let this happen?!?” she half screamed at him.
“Oh, Celestia, no!” - his snicker growing to something just less than a laugh but more than a chuckle - “I had ran away from home.”
“What!?!” all the girls replied.
“It’s a long story,” Steed said tediously, implying he had told it many times.
“Well instead of getting too much into that,” Twilight said, trying to change the subject “How about you introduce yourself to your friend’s cousin?”
“Oh! Right!” Steed replied, turning to face Applejack, “I’m Steed. I’m sure Braeburn has told you about me,” he said to her.
“That he did! In fact, ya’ll should come back to the barn with me; Ah’ve got a little somthin’ for yah!” She said, with a sly little smile and started heading out of the orchard.
Before he followed Applejack, Steed turned to Twilight and asked her, “Should I be excited or scared to find out what her ‘little something’ is?” to which she simple giggled and left Steed standing alone in bafflement before hurrying to catch up.