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// 5 - How the farm ponies trot 
// Story: Cloudburst 
// by Xaigatomon 
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The night felt endless and unwavering. The morning light was not known to the blue Pegasus who rested in a spare room in Applejack’s house.

Cloudburst was practically melted into the soft mattress, he had had such a long and exhausting first day. First day as a pony, first day in Equestria… meeting so many ponies and learning new things. Learning to walk, to fly, all of this all at once had completely wiped out the young stallion.

And little to anypony’s surprise, he had not yet woken almost halfway into the second day. His deep and healthy sleep still going as he breathed softly in and out, repetitive, identical breaths, each the same as the last, the gentle sounds settling into the quiet, dusty room.
But the sleep did not last forever, as slowly, the monotony shifted, with the blue pony slowly stirring, shifting his legs and digging his hooves into the pillow, arching his back with a satisfying series of snaps, and letting out a deep stifled strain of pressure before his nostrils ejected a sigh of utter relaxation as all the tension left him.
Falling back into the weight of the mattress, he took another deep breath and opened his eyes. Everything was so much brighter now. A beam of sunlight was breaching the gap in the middle of the pink cloth curtains.

With a little effort, he managed to roll onto his back, a welcomed pose, especially that he could now breath through his mouth and allow his lungs proper room to inflate. Not that he was out of breath. That had certainly been the most relaxing sleep he’d had in a long time, even though it was the first and only sleep he could actually remember.
It may have just been the incredibly long and arduous day he had experienced before, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t had a good night's sleep in a while. Wherever he came from, maybe he had been stressed and tired, who knew.
One thing was for sure though, he certainly felt a lot more grounded now he had a chance to slow down and sleep. And he would have remained in this luxurious embrace for a while longer if not for one of his wings beginning to feel a little cramped under his body.
So, with another deep breath of rejuvenation he rolled over and hopped out of bed, allowing gravity to land him neatly on his brand new set of hooves, which were feeling much nicer now that he had rested them after the long day of walking.

With another cat-like stretch and a deep yawn he prepared himself for the day. He fluttered his wings briefly to shake the feathers back in place before he would head downstairs. It felt so odd having wings, especially on top of the fact he had only legs otherwise. That thought reminded him to check in with Twilight Sparkle sometime to see if she had time to study with him.
Cloudburst chuckled as he left his room. “Hehe, these ponies all have such cute names… Twilight Sparkle…”

Wondering what the day would hold, the still weary stallion reached the lower floor to find all the rooms surprisingly quiet. He remembered Applejack mentioned they had to get up for work and that even Apple Bloom had to help today, so he figured that was where they had gone to. The idea of farm work would normally be one with not a large amount of appeal, however, Cloudburst found himself desperate to see and experience as much as he could and his hooves felt practically buzzing to take him outside to see. On his way there however, he stopped in the kitchen as he noticed a plate of food on the empty dining table. His stomach growled as he eyed the food hungrily. Wandering if it was for someone else, he looked around to see four plates stacked by the sink, clearly having previously contained the same sort of contents the fifth one on the table now did. He had only known four of them to be living here, but just to be on the safe side he went wandering around the house in hopes of finding somepony to ask if it was okay. Despite thinking they were all outside, he found the elder, Granny Smith sitting in her rocking chair.

“Ooooh g’mornin’ young-un! Ah hopes ya had yerself a good night’s sleep?” the older mare asked cheerfully, a tone that came all too welcomingly to the guest in the house, who now felt confident enough to step out from behind the doorframe.

“Yes ma’am. The bed was really soft.”

“From what that Rainbow Dash told our Applejack, you must have had yerself a busy day yesterdee. No wonder you were all tuckered out last night. There’s a plate of breakfast for ya too, help yerself to it.” She commented in the kind of caring tone you’d expect from an elder of a big family. Her words seemed to perk the younger pony’s face up

“Oh, that’s for me? I was wondering…”

“Hehe, it’s fine. Go ahead.” she encouraged as a warm smile penetrated her withered skin.

“Thank you very much!” Cloudburst made sure to speak politely and gratefully before he quickly hopped back to the kitchen and sat down.
On the plate was a pile of lush green lettuce, two halves of a hard boiled egg, some baked beans and mashed potato, with what seemed to be a small pile of oats that had been warmed, and probably cleaned. He hadn’t given thought to the ponies eating habits much until now, other than that they enjoyed cupcakes apparently.
“I can’t remember who I was before I came here… But I don’t feel like I would have been too keen on this much salad…” he speculated skeptically as he poked the leafy vegetables. “Then again… I am an equine now…” and with that he curiously picked up a large leaf and clumsily inserted it onto his face and bit into it. It occurred to him he needed some practice eating.
Those idle thoughts were put to the side suddenly as his ears perked up and eyes opened. He munched the rest of the leaf into his pony mouth as he chewed it. Surprisingly, he actually found it refreshingly delicious! The healthy, thick and tasty leaves remaining on the plate suddenly became much more appetising to him and he dug in. He enjoyed the oats too, much more than he anticipated. It seemed a little odd not to have meat, but he wasn’t at all surprised given the species was meant to be a herbivore.
After polishing off the plate he felt astoundingly better, like he had the strength to lift a boulder! Apparently he hadn’t realised how hungry he had been. And a few cupcakes just hadn’t been enough to sustain a brand new pony body.
“Hmm…” he contemplated suddenly as he looked down, raising a hoof to his chin instinctively. WAS it a brand new body? Rainbow dash had told him he had appeared as if by magic. But that didn’t necessarily mean he had come from another world, the amnesia might very well be separate to where he came from. Maybe he had always been a pony? He had assumed because all the things in this world seemed so different to him… but maybe-
He cut himself off, it would do him little good to dwell on could-bes and speculation like this. It would be better to hold off the philosophising of his situation until he was with Princess Twilight. He was sure she could help him.
The thought of the young Princess uplifted him a little. Not only did he already have good friends in Rainbow Dash and Applejack, ponies he felt he could rely on, but he had a highly magically inclined gifted scholar and -actual- princess who was more than willing to help him. He might have no idea where he was, or who he HAD been, but it seemed to matter little to him when he thought about those around him. All the pessimistic fears from last night seemed like they were miles away now.

And with that he decided to take his high spirits outside. It seemed to be a lovely day and he was sure the warm young farmpony would be hard at work, and he felt all too excited to join her.

Indeed the scene outside was just as he had expected to see. The sun beamed down unhibited by the curvy clouds and the animals frolicked in their pens while he could see the shapes of the Apple Family out around the apple trees.
He approached Applejack, who he could see was the closest. As he drew closer he could see with greater detail what she was doing. By each of the empty trees sat baskets filled with a towering pile of red juicy apples. She was harvesting the trees, but how? By kicking them. Applejack would position herself just in front of a tree, her rear end facing it, a big basket placed either side of the thick trunk, before she would reel up, lifting her back hooves high into the air, and with a majestic strike she slammed them into the bark, the shockwave shaking loose all of the apples in the tree in a single go! He watched the red fruits pile into the baskets with ease, and had to admit, that was pretty damn cool.

“Ah! Mornin’!” Applejack’s voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. “Finally up! Did ya sleep well? Find yer breakfast on the table?” she asked as she trotted leisurely up to the Pegasus.

“Ah, yeah, slept like a log. I feel so much better now! Oh and the breakfast was awesome, thanks. I haven’t had a proper meal since I got here.”

“All hoofgrown here on the farm!” she stated proudly. “Well, except the beans. And ah suppose ya don’t ‘grow’ eggs…” the orange pony contemplated, her eyes drifting off to the sky.

Cloudburst couldn’t stop a small chuckle escaping his lips. “No I suppose not. Still, it was lovely, thanks.”

“Ah shucks, it was nothin’. So what ya gonna get up to today?” she began while heading over towards the next tree. Cloudburst walked alongside casually.

“Dunno, Hadn’t really thought about it. So, are you harvesting these trees?”

“Yup! Gotta get all the apples off within the week. It’s called Apple Buckin’”

“I think it’s cool. How do you get all the apples to fall out with just ONE kick?!” he marvelled.

“Heh, ya been watchin’ then? Well, it’s all in the thrust! It helps that us Earth Ponies are good at this sorta thing.”

“Earth ponies, right, that’s one of the types of ponies, isn’t it?” he questioned, trying to recall the blur of information he had been dumped with yesterday.

“Heh, yeah. Okay so since our dear old Rainbow probably didn’t explain it very well how’s about I clear things up for yeh?”

“Oh, that would be pretty awesome, thanks.” he admitted with a slight sigh of relief.

“Heh, ain’t no problem guy. Right, Get yerself comfy.” the strong but feminine farmpony almost demanded as another powerful buck sent piles of apples tumbling into readily positioned baskets.
Cloudburst did as instructed, perching his hindquarters down, admittedly a bit harder than he would have liked. He still was not very nimble on his hooves.

“Okay, so first and foremost ya got Earth Ponies, like mah family, right? We tend the ground. Earth Ponies are great at producin’ crops, tendin’ to the earth and soil, carin’ fer animals, and just basically doin’ all the hard work needed from the ground to produce all the food and other essential things ponies need. We take care of the world around us.”

“Wow…” Cloudburst interjected with his quiet admiration. “That’s pretty cool.”

“Hah, real glad ye think so.” she said with a hearty chuckle as she positioned herself in front of the last tree that was in their vicinity. Once it’s apples had surrendered to her powerful kick and fallen into the basket, she walked back over to him to give her guest her full attention now.
“Most ponies seem to think Earth Ponies’ve got nothin’ cool ta show off, but that ain’t true at all. Now, you also got Unicorns. They’re the magical ones. Unicorns practice all kinds of spells that do things the rest of us couldn’t hope to. Unicorns pro'lly have the most ver-seh-tile range of skills. Ya met Twilight already right? She used ta be the most magically inclined Unicorn any of us knew.”

She watched Cloudburst nod in understanding before continuing. “Then yeh got Pegasi, like you and Rainbow, and uh, that filly there.” she pointed to a light gray pegasus mare with a blonde mane fluttering down towards the house in what looked to be a mail-man outfit, before crashing into the wall of the house and falling to the ground.

“... Celestia…” she cursed silently before returning to Cloudburst. “Anyhoof, Your kind is responsible for the skies. As the only normal pony race that can FLY your guyses job is ta maintain the clouds usually. Weather ponies, as you’d be expectin’, control the weather. They give us earth ponies the rain AND the sunshine we need to grow food.”

“Oh, yeah! I saw Rainbow and her friends at work yesterday, it was so cool, they could move the clouds with their bare hooves! And- and I SAT on one!!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“Hehe, yep sounds about right. No other ponies can do that by the way. ‘xceptin a’course a unicorn happens to cast a certain spell on yah like Twilight did this one time… Anywho, like I was sayin’, Pegasi can control the weather, but yer ability to travel long distances quickly makes your kind good for jobs like mail delivery like that mare ye just saw... crash into mah house.”

“Huh, I see…”

“Aaaand, one last one.” Applejack continued, before he assumed she was done. “And the most special of all. So ya got the three main pony races, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi, but there’s another; Alicorns. Remember when I said Twilight used to be the most magically inclined unicorn any of us did know?”

“Uh-huh.” The stallion nodded.

“Well, She’s still just as good prolly even MORE spec-tac-u-lar. But she ain’t a Unicorn no more. A little while ago she turned into an Alicorn. Heck none of us even knew that was possible. Don’t think even the filly herself knew. But Princess Celestia appeared at the same moment and told us all she was a Princess! Hah, you should have seen the look on her face, and the first thing she said was “Is there a book on bein’ ah princess ah should read?” heh” applejack did her best effort at an impression of Twilight, mimicking a slightly squeaky-er voice.

“And, what exactly makes Alicorns so special?” he inquired, tilting his head, though also extremely curious about what happened with Twilight, he felt that was a story for another time.

“Oh, well there ain’t many of them for a start. Ah only know of four. There’s the two regal sisters, Princess Celestia, who controls the sun, and Princess Luna, who controls the moon. At least now that she’s back, and Princess Cadence who is all the way up north in the Crystal Empire. She’s married ta Twilight's big bro, Shining Armour. And then a’course there’s the purple bookworm herself.”

“Guh, so many names” Cloudburst moaned, rubbing his head a little.

“Heh, sorry ‘bout that. I think it might be better if you just meet them yerself one day.”

“Wh- what? But they sound so important!” he baulked.

“Oh trust me, stick with us lot, and yer sure ta meet the princesses up in Canterlot soon ‘nuff.”

“That’s so cool.” he beamed. “Thanks for teaching me all that.” he spoke gratefully as he held his front hooves together in thanks.

“Heh, t’weren’t nothin’.” Applejack replied modestly. She looked around the fields and saw there were many other apple trees left to be bucked. “Unfortunately though ah gotta get back ta work. Lots of trees left in need of a buckin’”

“Oh, mind if I help?” Cloudburst practically lept to his hooves stumbling a little.

“Oh er, I dunno, this kinda thing takes practice.”

“I wanna help out if I’m staying here.” the stallion assured. “It’s only fair right?”
The Apple family had been so kind to him already, he felt that he needed to find a way to repay that hospitality.

“Oh no, you don’t need to. ‘Salright. “

“No no, it’s the least I could do, besides, it looks really cool. I wanna try it anyway.”

“Heh, well, ah won’t object te lettin’ ya try it at least.” she gave in and together they trotted over to another apple tree. As Applejack started to drag a basket over to one side of the tree with her mouth, Cloudburst jumped in to help out by pulling one to the other side, just like the other trees.

“Thank ya kindly. So, wanna try this one? Ya saw me buck the other ones so I take it you at least saw how I did it? Just lift up like so… and KICK!” she demonstrated by standing away from the tree, rearing her legs up and kicking into the air, making a satisfying ‘swoosh’.

“Yeah, let’s give it a try…” Cloudburst said, nervously, as he approached the tree and positioned himself, looking over his shoulder to the tree to make sure he was aligned. Now that he thought about it, this was not easy given that he barely knew how to move anyway, but he needed to try.

“Here goes nothing.” he muttered before taking a breath and then he pulled his weight forward, trying to lift his hind quarters up into the air, which was harder than it looked. Too little and he would fall down, too much and he would overshoot it and fall onto his face. In the end he didn’t quite lift his legs up high enough and made a desperate attempt to kick. One leg returned to the ground instinctively to stop himself from falling and the other one missed, scraping the bark.
He ignored a chuckle from Apple Jack and quickly tried again, since he’d just not quite moved enough before. On his second attempt he threw his hind quarters up more passionately, to the point where he almost fell forward, before he lost his balance he sprung his legs out hard. Both his rear hooves connected with the bark but all it did was launch him face first through the mud.
Applejack erupted into laughter.

“Hya ha! ahh Celestia~ ah told you it wasn’t as easy as it looked.”

“Actually you never said those words exactly.” he pointed out irritatedly, annoyed at his failure.

“Ah no worries big guy, like ah said it takes gettin’ used to. Now that ah actually DID say, heh.”
She moved in front of the tree, and once again made a strong buck, shaking the tree and causing all the apples to fall into the baskets.

“Aww, I didn’t even get one… how do you do it?”

“It’s all in the kick! heh. In all seriousness though, it’s just the kind a’ thing ya gotta just do until you start gettin’ it right.”

“HYYYAH!” a familiar voice came from a few trees over. Apple Bloom appeared to have jumped into the air and span, kicking the tree like some kind of ninja; which was surprisingly impressive by itself. Only one apple dropped from the tree however. Annoyed at this, the filly groaned and headbutted the tree, causing another apple to fall out, which made her grin.

“Heh, come on AB, you’ll never get the job done like that!” Applejack instructed.

“Yeah yeh ah know, ah was just tryin’ ta have some fun. OH!” she sprung up as she noticed Cloudburst and ran over. “Yer awake!”

“Heh, good morning.” he replied politely.

“Mornin’?! It’s laik noon already! Heh, yer so lazy.”

"Heh, sorry. I ain't a farmb- pony." he grinned a little. making a small attempt to mimic their dialect.

"So..." the small red-headed pony began, changing the subject. "You wanna explain how ya don't have a cutiemark yet? I aint never seen a pony yer size without a cutiemark before!"

"Oh yeah, thet's like, the symbols on your uhh, rear end, right?"

"Symbol?! It's much more than a symbol!" Apple bloom almost sounded offended. before she could launch into a passionate ramble, Applejack decided to cut her off.
"Allright that’s enough little one,” she interrupted, “Ya got chores to do.”

“Ah know ah know!” she protested and walked off sulkily. Now that Cloudburst thought about it, maybe the little one had even more of a heavy accent than her older sister. It was hard to tell.

“Heh, she’s so cute.” he smiled.

“Eh, she can be.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I gotta get these trees done.”

“I still wanna help…” Cloudburst protested. “I wanna get more apples than Apple Bloom by the end of the day!” he struck a determined pose, as if setting a resolute goal.
Applejack laughed a little. “Alright simmer down. I'm sure there are other ways you can help.”

Cloudburst watched her as she went on with bucking the other trees. He kicked the dirt a little; he still felt a little bruised from falling before. He knew he still didn’t have very good command over his body yet, he was still so wobbly and unbalanced. But, he knew if he was going to get used to this body, it would happen a lot faster if he pushed himself. And as this thought entered his mind he felt a determined and focused look slide naturally onto his face. He wanted to get it right, he didn’t feel comfortable leaving his attempt at bucking a tree at failure.

Just then however, he was snapped from his thoughts as he heard Granny Smith’s voice. She was standing with Applejack.
“Ah need yer ta mosey down te town and pick up some shoppeen.”

“Aw but granny, I got a lot of work to do today still, Ah gotta pick up the pace if I’m gunna meet today’s quota.”

Cloudburst admittedly felt a little guilty now. He had been wasting Applejack’s time, even though he came out wanting to help, he had done the opposite.
He pulled that determined frown again and walked over. “Mrs. Smith, I could go and get the shopping for you if you’d like.”

“Oh now that's awful kind of ya, but ya don’t need teh worry yer little hooves over that. We’re happy ta have you, dear.”

“Thank you, but it’s no trouble” he smiled. “Besides, I know Applejack has a lot of work to do, and I just wasted some of her time teaching me. And I do need to get to know my way around town anyway.”

“Heh, don’t worry about that hun.” Applejack comforted. “Besides…” she continued, a smirk replacing her kind smile. “Watchin’ ya faceplant the mud was worth it.”

Cloudburst slapped his hoof to his face with embarrassment, feeling a hot flush cover his cheeks.

“Well, if ya really wanna go that badly, Ah won’t stop yeh heheh.” the elder mare chuckled. “Here’s the list.”

Cloudburst took the list from her and perused its contents for a moment, it was all pretty average sounding every-day items and groceries.

“Now uh, yer sure you can find yer way around town? Ye won’t get lost?”

“It’s fine. I’m sure the ponies in town will help direct me. Besides, what better way to get to know an area than to find out where to buy everyday items like these?”

“I ehh, uhh, that’s actually pretty smert.” the old mare commented, a tone slightly lower than her usual voice, almost like she was half talking to herself. “Anyhoof, here’s the bits you’ll need. Make sure yer back by this’afternoon, else we won’t have time to cook the dinneer! Heheh”

Cloudburst almost found it a little hard to understand some of what granny Smith was saying some of the time, but he was getting used to it.  He was about to turn and leave when she stopped him.
“Oh and uhh, one more thing.”

“Yes?” he replied.

“... Don’t ye be callin’ me ‘Mrs. Smith’ Again, just call meh Granny! Heheh.”

Cloudburst chuckled a little. “Alright Granny. Be back soon.”

And with that, Cloudburst turned and trotted back over to the main path that lead between the orchard. He found himself wanted to stay grounded for just a moment. It was nice just getting to stretch his legs a little and breathe in the nice fresh air. While he was moving like this, he got to enjoy a nice refreshing breeze; blowing under the fur on his face and his mane, it felt nice. But that breeze only made him yearn to try flying again. He lifted his feathery wings up and gave them a little test flap to exercise them before trying to fly. Even though he was doing it fine yesterday, and had been flying around with Rainbow no problem and even sat on a cloud high above the streets, for some reason now he felt a little scared to take off.

He put those fears behind him though and gave his wings a hard firm flap, and found his body eject from the ground, like he was suddenly so light. He smiled in astonishment. He soared just over the treetops, feeling the leaves bristly against the fur on his belly and along the tips of his hooves. He looked ahead to the horizon filled with thatched roofs and smiled, the wind soaring under his feathers felt utterly magnificent.
Despite the fact he knew he still wasn't used to this, he felt the need to close his eyes and enjoy the experience of feeling nothing but the cool breeze around him. A brush with a branch of a tree woke him up as he retained his senses, flapping back up a few more feet- or hooves in altitude.

It hadn’t taken him long at all to get to the main part of Ponyville. His hooves planted back down in the cobblestone streets. It was time for him to get around. He was a little nervous being all by himself but he was sure he could make do. Besides, he might very well bump into Rainbow Dash again, or that cute mare Fluttershy, maybe even Pinkie Pie or the Princess herself. Now that he thought about Twilight, he made a mental note to see if he could drop by there later. As long as he was back by the afternoon, it’ll be alright. 
Cloudburst beamed confidently as he looked out over Ponyville. This was his chance to finally explore!