//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Of Dogs and Men 
// Story: Space Anon in Equestria 
// by TrekkieAnon 
//------------------------------//

	You return to your ship. It must be close to midnight in this place.

After that little presentation, ponies eased up to you and became interested in you. Pinkie even managed to throw you a party, how she did it in such a short time, you will never know.

It was pretty fun, they have these pretty low alcoholic ciders which pretty much does nothing to you, but it works on them.  When Twilight told the town you needed a job, many ponies wanted to hire you. Applejack decided to hire you first.

These pony things, you still don't know what kind of alternate universe mentality thing is going on with them. They seem to be sunshine and rainbows so far.

You pick up your personal device, of course there are only few things working, there is no connection here. However, there is something you can do. 

You make a new file: 'Anon's voice log in Equestria'. You start recording.

"Spaceman Anon's log number 1, day 1 in Equestria."

You think for a second.

"This is Anon, believe it or not, I have arrived at a different universe. First impressions of this universe is that its both different and similar to our own."

You record what happened today in the space cloud, meeting with ponies, things about this world, gaining the trust of ponies and so on.

"This is Spaceman Anon, signing off for today."

You set the computer to wake you up 6 hours later and go to sleep.

In your dream you see the moment your ship was hit by the unknown force, this time it happens in slow motion. You see the way your friends disintegrate to ashes slowly.

You couldn't take it.

You wake up and shout out couple of fucks.

You check the time left till the alarm. One hour and a half, great. You don't want to sleep anymore, you get up and wash up.

You head outside and breathe the morning air a few times. You don't think you ever tasted such fresh air before.

The sun is about to come up. You start a light exercise to warm up, something you picked up from military training.

Sweet Apple Acres, isn't the name just too sweet. You arrive just as the roosters start to sound the beginning of the day. Maybe you were a bit too early, you check the place out for a bit.

Orchards of apples, a corn field, barns, and the family home. Its just so bizarre that its so...stereotypical? Not in a bad way, the place looks better than any greenhouse you saw.

"Anon? Is that you?" you hear a familiar voice.

You look up to see Applejack looking down from a window.

"Good morning, Applejack." you wave at her.

"You're awfully early, couldn't sleep?" asks Applejack.

"I just can't sleep in new places. If I came too early, maybe I can just wait here."

"Don't worry Anon, why don't you have breakfast with us?" asks Applejack.

"Oh I really shouldn't."

"Shush, I won't hear it, please, come in. I'll open the door for ya." says Applejack before going back in her room.

You enter the Apple family house, man, it really is homely.

"I'll get breakfast ready with my brother, why don't you wait on the couch?"  

"Of course, Thanks."

You sit on this real old fashioned couch....the seats are pretty hard.

After a while, you see a larger crimson male pony coming out of the kitchen, holding a bucket in his mouth.  You probably saw him last night too.

"Oh, hi, you must be Applejack's brother?"

"Eeyup."

Eeyup, what?

After about a minute, he shortly introduces himself as Big Macintosh. Then goes back to the kitchen. A man of- a pony of few words, you see.

"Applebloom, breakfast is ready!" says Applejack.

Applebloom? Another member of the family? I guess the whole family's theme is related to Apples. Interesting. Shortly after, you can hear sounds of tiny hooves coming down the stairs.

A young female pony, or you should call her a filly? Comes down from the stairs. She has a large ribbon on her mane.  She looks at you for a moment, then runs into the kitchen.

"Applejack! Applejack! There is that big ugly alien monster from yesterday at our house!" says the filly.

How cute.

Big and ugly? You look at your reflection in a mirror. Well, you think you did gain some weight. You were a little hurt by that ugly comment, though.

"Applebloom! Where are your manners? I told you he was coming to our home today, his name is Anon, now apologize to him!" Applejack scolds the filly.

"But sis..."

"Applebloom!"

"Okay..."

Applebloom comes towards you.

"I'm sorry I called you big and ugly Mr. Anon."

You smile. "No harm done, Applebloom."

You gently pet her head.

"Why don't we go and have breakfast?"

You go inside the kitchen with Applebloom. You see Applejack and Big Macintosh setting up the table. On the table you see amazing looking food, you also notice that most of them are apple related. Like apple pie and many others. It seems Applejack prepared more for you as well.

There is also a very elderly looking pony sitting at the table. When you sit at the table(still a bit small and short for you). She frowns at you for moment.

"Applejack? There is a large monkey wearing clothes at our table!"

You almost laugh because of that comment.

"No, granny Smith, this is Anon, remember?" says Applejack.

"Who?" asks granny Smith, while cupping her ears with her hoof.

"The alien that landed on Ponyville yesterday?"

Granny Smith grumbles and focuses on her food.

After breakfast, you, Applejack, and Big Mac head to the farm to start the day. The place is greener up closer, its amazing. Your work today is to help them with various things like: Picking the Apples, tending to other crops, fixing the barn, feed chickens and such.

Apparently, there were more things to do today for these two because demands for their produce rose these days.

You heard from Twilight about Earth pony strength and connection to nature, but these ponies seem surprisingly tough for their size. You see them carry and do a lot of things that would require machines to do back in your universe.

Maybe technology did soften humans a bit.

You do your best to help them but you still fall behind them, but Applejack tells you that extra hooves don't come easy. 

You are sweating a lot, still its better than drills during your recruit days, feels more worthwhile. You guess this is something about doing honest work.

After a short lunch, you and Applejack decide to take a break. Applejack goes to get some water. Man, the wind in this place feels great.

You hear noises behind a bush.

"You know, if you want to spy on something, you could be less obvious about doing so." you say.

"He found us!" "Lets go!"

Three fillies come out and run towards you.

"Surrender, alien!" says the tiny pegasus.

"Yeah, we're the Cutie mark crusaders!" says Applebloom.

"Um...he is lot bigger up close." says the young unicorn.

You snicker, kids will be kids, despite what universe or species you belong to.

"Oh no, highway...ponies are you? What will I ever do?" you say.

"We're the cutie mark crusaders, alien fighters!" says the pegasus filly.

"I thought we were Ponyville defenders?" asks the unicorn filly.

"But that sounds boring!" says Applebloom.

"How did you know we were watching?" asks the pegasus.

"Because I saw you doing that all day? Because you three aren't really that quiet?"

"There goes 'sneaky spies' cutie mark..." says Applebloom.

Collective 'Awwww's, how cute.


"Hey cheer up, let me show you something interesting." you say.  

You turn on your personal devise and start up some music.



You always preferred real old music, they have more feeling in them, unlike mostly computer generated music in the space age.

"Is that music?" asks Applebloom.

"But I don't see any disk players." says the unicorn.

You show the young fillies your personal devise, even show them some parts of holo-movies. They are amazed by it. The unicorn says she is Sweetie Belle, and the pegasus is Scootaloo. These names again.

"I hope you girls aren't disturbing poor Anon there." says Applejack.

"Its Applejack!" "We're weren't supposed to disturb Anon!" "Retreat!"

The fillies run away.

"Sorry about that, I told Applebloom not to disturb you." says Applejack while giving you a bottle of water.

"Nah, it was fun." you say.

"Cutie mark crusaders?" you ask.

"Its their little club they made so they could try to get their cutie marks." says Applejack.

Oh right those mark or something they get when ponies come to a certain age. you guess its kinda like puberty or something?

"What's left for today?" you ask.

"Deliveries, we have deliveries to make." Applejack shows you a list of names and places to deliver their produce.

Applejack and you carry all these goods to ponies all over town. The town ponies are more friendly towards you.

Applejack also seem to never tire, in fact, she enjoys working.

"You know, you remind me of my friend." you say that after putting down a bag full of corn.

"Who would that be?" asks Applejack.

"A guy named Abe, or Abraham."

"A guy?" asks Applejack.

"Not that you look like a guy, Applejack."

You tell Applejack about Abe, how he was a hard and honest working person, just like her. Not to mention the accent and the strength.

"This Abe fella really sounds like a nice human to hang out with."

"Yeah, he was." you say.

Silence.

Applejack is about to say something when you hear screams nearby.

Applejack and you quickly run to the place.

In the middle of the market, you see 5 big bipedal dogs, you wouldn't be surprised if they talked.

"Nun of ye come near, or these ponies geddit!" shouts the biggest of their group, certainly the leader.

Of course they talk.

Two of them are holding a unicorn and a pegasus with their paws, with the rest of the group stealing goods from the stalls. The ponies can't do anything because of the hostages.

Applejack goes near the dogs.

"Hey-"

"HEY!" you shout as you walk towards them.

The dogs focus their attention on you.

"Wut da shit are ye supposed to be?" asks their leader holding the pegasus.

"I could ask you the same thing, you fucking mutt." you already know that they wont like that word.

The dogs growl at you. The leader throws the pegasus on the ground at picks up his ridiculously oversized wooden club with two paws.

You quickly grab your beam pistol, lucky you decided to bring it with you this time. You turn off the safety and set the level to 2, or 'medium rare' as soldiers like to call it.

The big dog charges at you screaming while holding the club in the air. You aim and shoot the wooden club. The wooden club disintegrates in an instant.

The dog looks where his club was supposed to be, he also notices his paws are on fire, the dog howls and puts out the fire with a nearby barrel of water.

The rest of the group looks bewildered.

"Wut de fuck was that?" says the leader.

You turn the pistol to level to 5, or 'Well done' and fire at a nearby pony statue. There is a large hole where the statue's head was supposed to be.

"See that?" you say, aiming the pistol at the dogs again.

"If you don't wan't that to happen to you, I suggest you put that pony down, drop the things you are stealing, and leave." you threaten the dogs.

The dogs look at each other, not knowing what to do.

"I SAID, PUT THE PONY DOWN, DROP THE GOODS, AND RUN!" you fire another warning shot, this time near their feet, blasting a chunk of rock on the floor.

The dogs put the unicorn and the bags down and start running away.

The leader looks back at you.

"I'll get ye for this, I swear." he growls and runs away on all fours.

You holster the beam pistol.

You check up on the ponies they were holding hostage. They are coughing because the dogs were holding them by their necks.

"Are you alright?" you ask.

The ponies thank you, the ponies nearby start gathering. Also thanking you for stopping what they call 'Diamond dogs'. Seems too elegant name for such brutish creatures.

You return to Applejack.

"Anon, what in tarnation was that?" she asks.

"Oh well, I couldn't just stand there and-"

"You know that was not what I meant." interrupts Applejack.

"Oh, this..." you look at your weapon. "This is a weapon, its what we call a gun."

"And you carry that around the whole time?" she asks in astonishment.

"Its...its just that, when I ignored my training and decided not to carry one with me, I almost lost my life." you say that while scratching your neck.

Silence.

"What matters is that those ponies are safe." say Applejack.

"You're not mad or anything?" you ask.

"Of course I am, carrying that dangerous thing around, but you saved lives today Anon. I guess its forgiven." says Applejack.

"Just be careful with that thing." she says that while looking at the gun.

"Don't worry, I will." you assure Applejack.

"Uh, I guess I have to pay for the statue and the floor?" you ask. Already causing property damage, well done.

"Things like that happen more often that you think, it should be alright." says Applejack.

"So, lets continue, shall we?" says Applejack after lifting a bag.

"Whatever you say, boss."

Turns out you did need to carry a weapon, even in this universe. You guess trouble comes everywhere, but that was just minor rabble, you won't need anything big in this universe.

Next day, you found out how wrong you were.