//------------------------------// // Ch. 3, Hard Days Work // Story: Guardian Of Darkness // by giantpepsi44 //------------------------------// I woke up in a sweat surrounded by bundles of hay and an unstable floor and a baby blue blanket strewn over me which I swore was not there last night. Putting the thought aside, I rose off of my makeshift bed and peered out of the window in the side of the room which unveiled the rest of the farm to me. I saw the sun was only just beginning to rise, but a figure stood by the apple tree fields not far away. I turned to go and greet myself, but as I did, Applejack opened the door. "Oh Kalacos; you're up, good. Thought I would have to wake you myself. Anyway, there is breakfast in the house and maybe, if you feel up to it, you can help me and my big bro around the farm," she stated. I nodded in reply and shut my eyes for a second, and when they reopened, she was gone. I made my way out of the barn and, whilst walking to the house, I ran last nights dream through my head. Who was the women in the golden armour, where was the castle I stood in, who were the people that the monstrous stallion were talking about, who was the pony in the mirage and finally, what the hell had I done... Arriving in the house, the scent of pancakes, hay fries, apple pie and a load of other pony goods that I couldn't even name filled my nose with a thrilling sensation. My mouth began to water and I realised how hungry I was after a whole day without food. I made my way into the kitchen and met Applejack and two other mares who turned to me with smiles on there faces. One of them was a green, older mare with a white fluffy mane and a symbol of a pie on her flank. The other was a young, pale filly and a straight, dark pink mane with a pink bow laced through. I picked up on the fact that; unlike every other pony, she did not have anything on her flank. "Ah, Kalacos, I thought for a second you weren't actually going to come," Applejack stated, turning to look at the other two mares. "Guys, this is Kalacos, he was badly injured yesterday and needed a place to stay so he will be staying in one of our old barns for a few days and helping around the farm. And Kalacos, this is Granny Smith, and Apple bloom." Both of the mares looked at him and nodded respectfully, "And my bro, Macintosh is outside working right now, but we just call him Big Mac," she explained and I nodded in return. I was to hungry to concentrate on whatever she was talking about and before I properly realised what I was doing, I pilled my plate full of food. I was about to take a chunk of my food out when I peered up and saw Applejack staring at me. "I'm sorry, do you guys want me to wait until you are ready?" I asked in a guilty tone. "No, go right ahead," Applejack said. I sighed in relief and filled my mouth full of hay fries. The crispy texture made my mouth water even more, and when I swallowed, I ended up smiling like a maniac. I looked up and saw Apple Bloom and Applejack giggling to themselves. "What?" I asked them. They shrugged and laughed a little more, then began to stuff there mouths full also. After an amazing breakfast, I trotted around the room until I noticed something, I wasn't in any pain. I trotted out into the main hallway where mirror stood allowing me to properly look at myself. I was a pitch black stallion with a back mane that appeared to be naturally spiked, and dark blue eyes. Nothing creative there. I turned to see my flank and saw a grey mist like mark on my flank "Are you ok Kalacos?" she asked. I turned back to the mirror and sighed. "I feel completely fine, and that is what I am concerned about," I replied. She looked down at the cuts that were previously on my pelt that were now almost completely gone. "Who are you Kalacos?" She asked after a moment of silence, honestly slightly scared. "I was wondering the same thing," I explained, turning to look back at her whilst sighing. Suddenly, the door shot open and a Red stallion with a dark yellow mane and a green apple covering the majority of his flank entered the house. He peered in and looked at Applejack from which she coughed and put back on a stern face. "Hey Big Mac, this is Kalacos and he is going to be helping around the farm for a few days<" she told him. He nodded in reply and issued me to follow him out. "Is he always that quite?" I asked her as we travelled away from the big house. "Normally yes. He is quite shy and uncomfortable around new people, but he is a sweet guy and a hard worker. Don't worry, you help him, he'll help you," She explained. I nodded and carried on forward but I felt Applejacks eyes on my flank where my cutie mark laid. She was still obviously concerned about my quick healing and was trying to find out who I really was. I paid no attention to her judgemental sight and carried on following the happy trotting stallion in front of me. After a few more minutes of travelling, we arrived at a red coloured barn not far away from the big house. Big Mac held a piece of rope in his mouth and flung the doors open, causing a wave of stench to shoot out. "Ugghhh, what the hell do you store in there?" I asked. They didn't pay much attention to the smell and carried on inside until they stopped at some sort of metal block with a pointed end. Big mac bit on the strings on the front and pulled it out of the barn where he let go of the string and looked up at me. "Since you feel better Kalacos, you will be doing some ploughing to start you off," she told me. "Ploughing?" I asked. "You don't know what ploughing is?" She asked, shocked. I gave her a look which screamed really "Sorry, your memory." I followed Big Mac as he put the rope around his flank and carried it across a stone path to a dirt field until he arrived at a small gate and entered a field. He placed the plough just in front of the field and turned to me. I approached the plough and put all fours through the gap in the string and picked up the front to begin pulling the plough across the field. I started moving forward with ease and trotted casually up and down the field. I looked behind me as I travelled and saw the ground turning in my wake to reveal a line of a small dirt trench. I looked at the packet on my side with a symbol of a carrot and found that tiny seeds were inside. "What am I supposed to do with these?" I asked Applejack. "Once you have a line, you plant those seeds 5 cm apart from each other," she explained. I looked across the field at everything that was left and closed the satchel at my side and carried on moving up and down the farm. This wasn't hard at all, it was simply just walking around a field. However, when I looked up, I saw Big Mac looking at me very impressed. After what felt like hours, I collapsed at the end of the field out of exhaustion and closed my eyes for a few seconds. After I had finished ploughing the field, I planted the seeds all around the field whilst a searing pain exploded in my chest where the rope was. I had not released how much strain it had put on me until I took it off, and now I even struggled to breath through it. I kept my eyes closed, but suddenly I heard someone approaching behind me. My eyes fluttered open slowly and I saw Applejack standing above me grinning like made. "You seriously did not just plough the whole field did yah?" She asked me trying to hold back a giggle. I looked at her in annoyance. "I thought..." I stammered. She started laughing. "I didn't tell you to do the whole thing, I only asked you to plant some of the seeds around the field," she explained. I groaned and shoved my head into the dirt on the ground. "Well, you saved me a whole weeks work so that's good," she explained. I looked up at her with a glare and slowly rose to my feet. She turned to look out towards the direction of the Ponyville. "Well I need to go into town to get some things. You're welcome to come if you want," she explained. I groaned but nodded. "Just give me a couple of minutes," I replied. I sighed and made my way back into my barn. I collapsed face first into my bed with my rear end straight up in the air. A few minutes later, Applejack emerged through the door way and issued me to follow her. I stood up and exited through the same path that I entered the farm with yesterday. We made are way into town where many of the ponies looked at me concerned. I heard whispering like That's the injured pony from yesterday and he looks completely fine, what the hell happened. I ignored them and followed Applejack knowing if I paid to much attention nothing good would come out of it. "Ok well, I have got some errands to run. I wont be long but can you stay here until I am back?" She explained. I nodded and she walked away towards an allotment of stores. I turned and walked towards a grassy area where I laid down for a second. Ponies looked at me strangely as they walked past but I didn't pay much attention, I was in to much pain. Suddenly, from around the corner emerged the Yellow and pony with the pink mane from yesterday, what was her name... Fluttershy. She was making her way into town with a bag full of pink decorations by the look of it. "Hey, Fluttershy," I said. My voice was shrill and croaky as I attempted to stand up once again. She turned in embarrassment but the instant that she saw me, her eyes widened and she charged over to me. "Oh my god. Are you ok!" She said whilst charging towards me. I nodded and she stood over me as I attempted to get up. "What happened?" She asked me concerned. "Not much just... you know... ploughed a whole field," I explained whilst groaning. I regained my full strength with the help of Fluttershy and I smiled at her. She backed away nervously. "I er, I have to go now. I hope you feel better," she said and ran away. I looked after her as she left in confusion. "What is wrong with her?" I whispered to myself. I followed her with my gaze for a little longer until my eyes set upon Applejack making her way back towards me. "Well, I have finished what I have to do. I am heading to Sugar Cube Corner now," she said. She began to walk away until she realised I wasn't following her. "You can come with me this time," she explained. I nodded and began following her away. We arrived at a small shop with no lights on inside and no sign of life anywhere. "Are you sure this place is open?" I asked her. She nodded and stepped inside. I followed and we were in the dark for a second until suddenly... "SUPRISE!!!" The lights shot on and party poppers were fired everywhere. Around 30 ponies were in the building and the tables were lined with snacks, drinks and balloons. A banner was above the table ready 'WELCOME TO PONYVILLE KALACOS'. "What... what's going on?" I stammered. "Well, you're new here and I realised you didn't know anyone so that means that you didn't have any friends and that mad me sad so that gave me an amazing idea to throw this awesome party for you so that you can meet everyone and just have a fun time," she explained in one breath. I was confused at first but I couldn't help but to thank her anyway. I felt myself begin to grin when I saw everyone who had turned up to say hello. "All this, is for me?" I asked her, shocked. I felt tears of joy began to swell in my eyes. "Yes it is. It was all pinkies idea but we helped a little," Twilight explained. "Thank you guys. so much," I said. They all smiled at me but parted out the way when a small green dragon appeared next to them. "So, are you Kalacos?" he asked me. I thought it was a pretty stupid question considering the fact that they had all just introduced themselves to me, but I nodded in reply anyway. "Good. My names Spike, I help Twilight around the library and I heard a quite a bit about you last night when she came home rambling," he explained. I turned to Twilight and saw her slightly blush when she looked away. "I just wanted to see if I could find anything about you or where you were from in any of the books," she stated. I laughed a bit and turned back to spike. "Well hey Spike, I'm Kalacos. I am helping Applejack around the farm for a bit until I get my memory back," I replied. Applejack laughed "Did he ever help around the farm," She said. I gave her a shut up look and turned back to the others. "What do you mean Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well, I woke him up and we had breakfast and I thought it would be a good idea to get him to start off the ploughing for the week," she said. At this point, the girls glanced at the red mark on my flank. "And well, he did it. The whole field, in less then an hour," she explained. They looked at me shocked until I backed away out of embarrassment. "I didn't know I wasn't meant to do the whole field. It was pretty easy and I didn't realise the strain that it had on me until I was finished. I just kept going and going until I realised I had finished," I said. I saw them begin to smile a bit until chatter spread up and ponies began to take the food from the table. "Well, after that you must be hungry. Take whatever you want," Pinkie explained. I nodded and smiled in appreciation and walked over to the buffet. I looked around and conveyed what I wanted to eat. I saw a cupcake that seemed appetising and ate it off of the counter. I chewed it for a little and ended up smiling like a maniac from the taste. "wow, that is amazing," I said to no one. "Should be, Pinkie makes them personally," Spike said, suddenly standing next to me. I looked over at her where she was laughing with the other six. "She has a talent," I said, taking another bite. I accidently nudged it away and it began falling off the table. Before it hit the floor, a black aura began surrounding it and it rose back to my mouth. "Few, that was a close one." "You.. you can cast magic," spike said in shock, slowly backing away from me. "I guess so... why?" I asked confused. he looked at my head as if trying to find something. "You're an earth pony aren't you. So how can you cast magic?" he questioned me. The other six began looking over at the commotion and decided to come over to us. "Spike. What happened?" Twilight asked. He looked up at her and then back at me. "I don't know he. Probably nothing," he said and walked away. I looked after him in shock as he walked off. I turned back to the others and they were giving me questioning looks. "What happened?" Twilight asked. I looked down at the rest of the cupcake on the table, and then back up at spike. "I'm not sure...." I replied. After a few hours later, tensions died down and the party was a lot of fun. Occasionally, I would see Spike look over in worry as he talked to Twilight about something clearly urgent, but they never said anything to me. But when the party ended, I felt like I as going to pass out of exhaustion. "So Kalacos, what'd you think of the party?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah it was good, apart from that... incident," I said. Pinkie giggled a little, but I didn't find it funny, I still had some cake in my hair. Around half way through the party, Pinkie came up to me and started dancing next to me, but her dance was so unique that I couldn't keep up and she ended up launching me into one of the cakes, knocking the whole mini table over. "Yeah, that happens a lot," Rainbow Dash said chuckling. The others smiled a little and I stood straight up. "Well I'm plum tuckered," Applejack said, stretching her flank a little. "Yeah, I'm ready to hit the hay... literally," I replied. Everyone else nodded and walked out the store. Pinkie closed the door behind us and caught up. We all began to walk the same direction, until suddenly time moved slowly once again. "Hello Kalacos," a voice spoke. Chills shot down my spine. I looked around frantically. "Who are you!" I demanded but she let out a chilling laugh. "You know who I am. Well you do somewhere inside of you anyway. Don't worry, everything will come clear in 2 days," she explained. Before I could do anything, time went back into motion, but I started swaying. "Kalacos you..." Applejack was about to say something when she turned but she stopped. "You ok honey?" Rarity asked. "I don't feel so good," I replied. I began to topple over but Rainbow Dash and Applejack caught me. I heard them saying something but before anything else happened, I blacked out.