• Published 3rd May 2013
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Moving Day - Timothy48



Moving is hard, especially when it's to another country, and it becomes doubly difficult when you move there unexpectedly and against your will.

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Chapter 36 Making Hay Part 1 (Morning Prep)

Chapter 36

The barns were finished. Steel and his crew, along with Rune Chisel and his sons, had put the last of the finishing touches on both the animal barn and the hay shed yesterday, and Allen was excited. He was finally free to cut some hay.

With a spring in his step, he closed the front door of his house behind him. Water jug in hand, he whistled a happy tune as he jogged across the yard towards the nearby equipment shed. Opening the sliding doors, he looked around to see what he wanted to do first.

Let’s see, I still need to grease and check over the discbine, and I need to decide which tractor I want to use, probably one of the Farmall’s. The Case is a bit too big for the kind of hay work I’ll be doing today, even if it does have a cab.

Setting his water jug down, he stepped over to the workbench and rummaged around for a grease gun. After hunting through about half of the drawers, he found what he was looking for, and pulling it out, he looked it over.

Still some grease in here, maybe about half a tube left, better not waste any, he thought as he grabbed a spare tube of grease and headed over to the discbine to prep it for the day. Humming a quiet tune to himself, he carefully checked over the machine for any obvious defects, such as frayed belts, loose bolts, broken blades, etc. Satisfied that nothing was out of place, he set to work greasing every zerk fitting with an adequate amount of grease. It was important to make sure that he used the right amount for each area, as some needed only a pump or two, while others needed more like five or six to be properly lubricated.

Unhooking the grease gun from the last zerk fitting, Allen swapped out the now empty tube with a full one and turned his attention to the pair of Farmalls sitting on the other side of the shop.

Sitting side by side, they were part of the 06 series of tractors, a 706 and 806 respectively, and had been the pride and joy of his late grandfather who had bought them in the back in the early to mid-sixties to replace the old, but still reliable Super M with something a bit more powerful. Back then, these two tractors had done everything on the farm, from plowing and planting to harvesting and carting. Nowadays, however, they were regulated to mostly carting and hay duty, while the Case 7220 took care of the heavier tasks.

Both tractors were nearly identical, save for the different engines and a few accessories between them. The 706 had the lower horsepower, but for Allen’s purposes, it was good enough, plus it didn’t have a bad rear hydraulic port like the 806 did.

706 is it, thought Allen as he grabbed the key for the tractor from a key box on the wall by the door. Opening the petcock valve above the fuel sediment bowl, Allen checked the fluid levels for the radiator and oil. Climbing up, he sat himself down in the worn seat, stuck the key in the ignition, and turning it to the on position, he glanced at his fuel gauge.

Full, that’s good. That should get me through the day then.

Opening the choke to the half-open position, he nudged the throttle lever a little to the right, opening it up a bit more, and then hit the ignition button. The engine whined as the starter spun and cranked the engine over several times before with a cough and puff of black smoke, the engine rumbled to life. Pushing the choke back in, Allen let the engine warm-up for a minute while he jumped down to check and make sure nothing new was leaking. The exhaust flapper up top making a rhythmic, metallic tinking sound as it floated up and down on the exhaust fumes released by the idling engine.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Allen climbed back on and flipped the park lock lever down, pressed in the clutch, and put the tractor in gear. Opening up the throttle a little more, he eased off the clutch and let the tractor creep forward.

Leaning slightly to the left on the flat top fender to see better, Allen glanced down to make sure he wouldn’t hit anything with his front wheels on his way out of the shed. Things had a habit of being left in front of equipment at times, and it never hurt to make sure you weren’t about to roll over a misplaced box of tools.

Rolling out into the morning sunlight, he felt a sense of happiness wash over him and his trusty steed, the sun glinting off the few bits of old chrome left on the tractor after fifty-plus years of service. Pushing the clutch in again, he let the tractor roll to a stop before gently putting her in reverse, the gears making a grinding racket as they begrudgingly meshed with each other with a loud pop.

Slowly he backed in again, expertly aligning the tractor with the discbine behind him. Splitting his attention between the drawbar hitch point and how close he was in relation to the mower, Allen slowly and carefully continued to reverse, making sure to keep the drawbar’s hitch lined up with the mower’s.

Feathering the clutch to slow the tractor down even further, he finally got the two holes lined up, and fully pressing in the clutch again, he put the tractor in neutral. Throttling down, he re-engaged the park lock and jumped down, quickly slipping the hitch pin in, linking the two pieces of equipment together. Leaning down so that he could look underneath, he expertly slotted the cotter pin in and made sure it wasn’t going anywhere before reaching over and adjusting the lift controls to raise the tractor’s drawbar, and by extension the mower’s tongue up so that he could lift the jack stand up and out of the way.

With that task taken care of, Allen clambered back up and turned the tractor off, the Farmall sputtering to a stop. The sudden quiet of the barn felt almost deafening after the racket of the diesel engine. With the engine off, Allen could finish hooking up the mower to the tractor safely. Grunting, he slotted the mower's PTO shaft yoke to the PTO spline on the rear of the tractor, jiggling and rotating it back and forth to get it to slide on.

“Come on, you stupid piece of... got it!” grunted Allen as the yoke slid into place. Giving it a firm tug to make sure it was properly seated, he heard the satisfying click of the yoke pin popping into position, signifying that it was properly attached, and wouldn’t come off while it was spinning. With that done, he hooked up the two hydraulic hoses that would allow him to swing the mower out into its operating position and lift and lower the mowing deck while cutting. Slotting the last hose into place, he did a final check and seeing that everything was good, gave a satisfied nod.

Grabbing his water jug from where he put it down on the workbench earlier, he set it on the platform in between the clutch and brake pedals, and climbed up, settling himself easily into his seat. Hitting the starter button, the tractor once more came to life. Adjusting the lift controls until the discbine tongue was at the right traveling height, Allen double-checked to make sure that he wouldn’t hit anything when he pulled it out of the shed, before turning around and putting the tractor into gear.

Letting out the clutch, he let the tractor roll forward slowly until he and the mower were clear of the door. Pushing the clutch in again, he shifted from first to third gear and let it out, the engine slowing a little as it struggled a bit with the higher gear ratio until he gave it some more throttle, at which point the tractor surged forward, a puff of black smoke bursting from the exhaust pipe as the hungry engine was fed more fuel.

Spinning the wheel expertly, his palm flat against the metal wheel spinner, Allen guided the Farmall through the farmyard. Zipping past the house and up the driveway, he soon reached the end of his drive and without even slowing down, turned right.

Opening the throttle up further, Allen pushed the torque amplifier forward, the tractor speeding up further still. Cruising at nearly fourteen miles an hour, Allen soon arrived at his destination. Backing off the throttle, he let the tractor slow down for a moment before pushing in the clutch and swinging wide to the left before then turning the wheel to the right to better align himself with the entrance to the field. Slowing to a stop, Allen throttled down further, the engine quieting down to a low rumble and putting the 706 in neutral, Allen jumped down.

Walking up to the red-painted metal gate, he undid the chain keeping it shut, and pulled it outwards, giving him access to the field. Wrapping the chain around a nearby post to keep the gate from closing on him as he drove through, Allen trotted back over to the tractor and drove it forward off the road and into the field so that it wouldn’t block the road, and any traffic that may pass by. Shutting it off, he jumped down, stretched, and looked around.

Penny should be here soon, he thought as he walked out into the field, the morning dew getting his boots and lower pant legs damp. He’d already walked the field the day before to see if it was ready to cut. Normally, he would wait until the beginning of the second week in June to cut, but in Equestria, with its favorable weather systems, he was cutting earlier than normal as the grass had practically exploded in growth.

Walking through the waist-high grass, Allen shook his head in wonder, he’d never seen this field look this good before. Usually, the grass would be half the height it was now, and there would be sections that were even shorter. However, everywhere he looked, the grass stood tall and proud as it waved gently in the morning breeze. It was tallest, and thickest along the fence line, however even in the middle of the field it was still very good volume.

“Amazing,” he muttered quietly to himself as he idly inspected a stalk of orchard grass. “Just an extra month of warm weather, and some mana in the soil makes all the difference it seems.”

Tossing the orchard grass away, Allen turned and headed back. As he walked along the fence line, he heard a pair of voices drifting on the wind from amongst the trunks of the apple trees to his right. Unfortunately, the voices were too far away for him to make out what they were saying. Shrugging his shoulders, he figured it was just Applejack and her family out working in the orchard.

Taking in a deep breath as he walked, he let it all out in a happy sigh as the fresh country air tickled his senses. What a beautiful morning, he thought. Just a couple of clouds in the sky, and this slight breeze should help the hay dry down nicely.

Coming to a stop next to the tractor, Allen leaned his shoulder against the rear tire and waited. While he waited, he thought back over the last few days. Apparently, Penny had sent a letter to Blueblood the morning after their discussion, and he had come down to speak with Allen and Penny in person.

He hadn’t stayed long, as he had claimed he was needed back in Canterlot post haste for an important diplomatic summit or something. However, in the short time that he was there, he had quickly laid to rest any worries that Allen had in regards to using DOTI services. That didn’t mean Blueblood was exactly thrilled at this turn of events, but he wasn’t so obstinate that he would block Allen from doing something that he and Penny thought would be beneficial for the business. In the end, he had grudgingly given his blessings on the matter and after learning that Allen was nearly ready to make his first cutting, he had asked Allen to let him know when he had a firm date in mind as he was very interested in seeing how the process worked with human technology in comparison to Equestrian.

Allen had been more than happy to accommodate his request and had asked if he wanted to take a quick tour of the nearly finished barns. Blueblood had regretfully turned down the invitation. However, he had said that he would be quite happy to see the progress the next time he was there. Allen, of course, was fine with this, and soon after Blueblood departed.

With the royal gone, Allen had asked Penny to make sure to send invitations to Checklist and Just Cause for the event, as well as Twilight and Lyra, as he figured they would be interested in watching him work. When Penny had asked why he wanted Checklist and Just Cause there, Allen had replied that he had promised Checklist he would invite her, and he figured that having somepony who could calm her down if she got upset at Blueblood was a good idea. Penny had readily agreed.

After that had been taken care of, both Allen and Penny had sat down and finished the needed paperwork to formally incorporate Allen’s farm. Though Penny had been a bit put out when she learned that Allen hadn’t thought of a good name for the farm, at least in her opinion it wasn’t good enough.

“You can’t just call it The Ross Family Farm and be done with it, Allen!” she admonished, an irritated expression on her face.

Allen merely shrugged dismissively. “It’s what we’ve called our farm since my great grandfather bought the first patch of ground back at the turn of the last century, and it's worked well for us since then, besides, it's not like it really matters anyways.”

“But it does matter!” she shot back, pointing a hoof at Allen in frustration from her seat across the dining room table from him.

Leaning back in his chair, Allen took a sip of water from his glass and gave her a skeptical look. “It happens all the time back home. Naming your farm after your family surname is perfectly normal.”

Penny rolled her eyes and said, “Maybe back in your world, yes, but here it’s another matter entirely. We need to build a brand name Allen if we’re going to be competitive in the market.”

Setting his glass of water down, Allen leaned forward and said, “I think you’re overthinking things here Penny.”

“And I think you're underthinking them!” she shot back. “Ponies aren’t going to buy things from you if you don’t have a name that stands out, Allen! Besides, Ross sounds too close to moss, and nopony likes eating moss.”

“Are you saying that my last name is boring and tasteless?” asked Allen, a bit miffed at having his name compared to lichen.

“Yes! Uh... no offense,” she replied, a sheepish look on her face at seeing Allen’s unamused look. Clearing her throat, she quickly moved on. “Look, I'll make it simple. We want ponies to buy things from us. Our first impression is our name. For example, if you were to buy an apple from Sweet Apple Acres, naturally, you’d think that the apple tastes sweet right? I mean, it’s in the name after all.”

Allen shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Penny shook her head, a serious look on her face. “There’s no guessing about it. I studied this stuff Allen, good marketing is what separates successful companies from those that fail. It’s not just about having a good product, it’s also about making sure that you have a good image to back up that product. We only get one shot to convince ponies that our products are worth buying, and if they don’t buy our products because our brand name sucks, then it becomes that much harder to do business.”

Allen sighed and shook his head as he threw up his arms in defeat. “Fine, you can call it whatever you want. Fuck, call the farm Green Acres or Hidden Valley for all I care,” he paused as he frustratedly rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Do we have to get this stuff in now or do we still have some time?” he asked, suddenly feeling very tired.

Penny jotted down some notes on her legal pad. “We still have some time, but the sooner we get it done the better. I can file the needed paperwork with the mayor and just use a placeholder name for tax and insurance purposes until we come up with something more appropriate.”

“They’ll let you do that?” asked Allen as he took another sip of water.

Penny nodded absent-mindedly as she shuffled papers around. “Yep, it happens all the time. Most of the time it’s just the ponies name followed by the word ‘company’.”

“So... we could literally just do what I suggested in the first place?” replied Allen with a cheeky grin.

Penny sighed and glared at Allen. “Yes... we could, but as I mentioned, that is just a temporary solution, and we change the name as quickly as possible. In our case, we can temporarily use ‘The Ross Family Farm’ as a name until we can find a better one.” She paused a thoughtful look on her face, “The one that you just mentioned, ‘Green Acres’ has a nice ring to it, as does Hidden Valley,” she paused as she spread her hooves out to either side as if she were spreading an advert poster on the wall. “I can already picture some of the advert slogans that we could use to sell our products. On the other hoof,” she said, dropping her hooves back to the table, “we could use names from the surrounding area, such as Everfree Farms, though that might not sit well with the locals due to the Everfree’s... strangeness, hmmm....” she idly tapped her chin with the eraser end of her pencil. “We’ll probably want to do a couple of focus groups to see which names ponies will like.”

“Let’s worry about that later,” said Allen as he tried to move the conversation along. “We don’t even know if these names are even available. It could be that someone’s already beat us to the punch.”

“Hmm, you’re right, I’ll need to make some inquiries. In the meantime, I’ll get this stuff over to the mayor’s office and filed, after that, I can head over and coordinate with the local DOTI office to get your buildings re-inspected and approved, along with purchasing those services that you wanted to try out. Then I’ll need to send out invites, do you know when you will be cutting hay?”

“Probably Thursday,” replied Allen. “The weather schedule is calling for dry weather through next week. Steel and Rune told me they should be finished by the end of this week, and since temperatures aren’t going to be much over eighty degrees, it’ll take an extra day or two for it to dry down properly. So realistically, I’ll probably be baling either Saturday or Sunday. Which means the barns should be ready to put hay in.”

Scratching out another note, Penny nodded. “Where are you going to make your first cutting?”

“It’ll be on my land and for my animals only. I want to make sure that everything is working properly before I do any large amount of cutting, so I’ll probably only take down about ten acres or so. It’s still going to be a lot of hay, maybe about a thousand bales or so, possibly more. I walked the field I wanted to cut this morning and the grass looks really good, like really good. Nice and tall, plus it's thick with grasses that’ll give me some good volume.”

Looking up from her notes, Penny asked, “How many acres do you have dedicated for hay production on your land?”

Allen leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He hummed quietly for a moment and then said, “About fifty acres I think is dedicated purely for hay, another fifty as pasture, and the rest for row crops, which I won’t be doing this year, so I’ll just let them lie fallow for now.”

Penny tilted her head to one side and asked, “Why? I thought you would want to do something productive with them?”

Draining the last of his water, Allen paused to swallow then replied simply, “Wouldn’t be worth it,” pointing out past the sliding glass door of his house he said, “Blueblood has given me access to an area of land that is bigger than some countries back home. A couple of hundred acres of depleted cropland wouldn’t be worth my time to do anything with. By the time I got done plowing, cultivating, and planting grass, I could have harvested probably ten times that amount of hay from Blueblood’s land for the same amount of fuel and time I would waste trying to convert that over to grassland. Besides, if I let it lie fallow for a bit, nature will do all the hard work for me, and it could use a rest anyways. Modern human farming practices can be pretty demanding on the soil, so sometimes we are forced to let the field rest for a season or two in order to let it recover a bit.”

“Alright, I see your point,” replied Penny, “with our limited resources, it would be best to focus on what will bring us the greatest return on our investment in the short term while we explore more long-term solutions.”

Allen nodded. “Yeah, have you been looking into finding me an alternative fuel to use for when my diesel runs out?”

“I am afraid I’ve been too busy dealing with all of this paperwork, I’m sorry,” she replied sadly. “But, now that we’re almost done, I should be able to devote more time to finding alternatives for your consumables. Though, I’ll need some samples of items that you need so that I can look for suppliers. It would be easier to show them rather than try and explain what we need. About how long can you go before you run out of key materials?”

Allen leaned back and rubbed his chin as he quietly tallied up his inventory in his mind. Thankfully, he and his father tended to buy things ahead of time so that way they had it on hand in case they needed it during the growing season. As a consequence, he had plenty of fuel in the underground storage tanks ready for use, along with critical spare parts, oils, filters, grease, and other necessities needed to run a modern farming operation. Even so, he knew that unless he found replacements, he’d be out of business by the end of the summer, maybe even sooner depending on how much work he did.

Sighing, he replied, “I’ve got enough for now, but I’m going to start running out of things by the late summer, maybe even midsummer depending on how much hay I bale. If my calculations are right, I should have enough fuel and lubricants to get me through a full hay season, but the problem will be if I have enough baler twine.”

“How much do you have?”

Allen tilted his head back and forth for a second in the way people do when they’re thinking really hard about something. “Probably enough for ten, maybe fifteen thousand small square bales, and maybe about five hundred round bales. My dad bought more twine than we needed this year by accident, which I guess was a good thing as it’ll let me pack my barns with hay for my animals and still give me a decent amount to sell at market.”

“And I take it that not just any old twine will do?” inquired Penny as she wrote something down on her legal pad.

Allen shook his head regretfully. “Nope, it needs to be a certain thickness and tensile strength in order to go through the knotter properly. Too thick and the knotter won’t tie it right, and if it’s too thin, the bales will break when they’re getting tossed around. Plus the twine balls need to be designed so that they unwind properly without kinking up and breaking. I’ve got a couple of twine rolls that you can take, one of them is for my round baler and the other is for the square baler.”

Looking up from her notepad, Penny asked, “Which one do you want me to focus on getting first? It might take some time before I can find a supplier willing to retool part of their operation for a single customer... let alone just finding a supplier in the first place. Hay balers are only used in certain areas and so there isn’t much of a market for twine for that sort of thing anyways.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured,” replied Allen with a nod of understanding. “Just try and find something that I can feed one of my balers with, and I’ll worry about making it run right. I doubt anybody is really going to make a fuss over whether I use round or square bales anyways.”

“Which do you prefer doing?”

Allen shrugged. “Each one has its pros and cons, Penny. Square bales are small and easy to move, but they require more people to move them around in large quantities than round bales. Whereas round bales are too big to move by hand, so you need a machine to do it, in our case that’s a con because I don’t have a lot of fuel to waste on moving bales around in the field. If I didn’t have to worry about fuel, then round bales all day long, as I can pack a lot of hay into a single round bale and I don’t have to get hay chaff on me from moving it. Even so, I’ll probably still need someone to help me move things, so we’ll need to hire somepony to come and help when I bale my hay this weekend.”

“I’ll see if anypony is interested,” commented Penny, “there’s usually somepony looking to do an odd job for some extra bits on the weekend, and don’t worry, I’ll take care of the compensation side of things.” Jotting down one final note, Penny closed her notepad and put it away in her saddlebags before jumping from her seat and slipping them over her back. Giving a little jump to settle them just right, she looked up at Allen and said, “I think that’s good enough for today, I’ll get started on securing some help and trying to find some suppliers. Do you think you could get me some samples of the twine and fuel that you need?”

“Sure,” nodded Allen as he stood up and followed Penny. “I’ll get you a small can for the diesel and a pair of twine rolls.”

“Great, there’s no rush to get it for me right now, I’ll collect them this Thursday when I come back,” said Penny as Allen opened the front door for her.

“Sounds like a plan, you let me know how things go with the mayor’s office and the DOTI, alright?”

Smiling, Penny replied, “Of course, and don’t worry, I’ll be sure to get a couple of quotes from them on different packages and let you look them over before we decide on anything.”

“Alright, well I guess I’ll see you on Thursday then,” replied Allen with a wave goodbye as Penny turned to leave, giving her own goodbye as she departed.

The sound of wing beats overhead drew Allen out of his memories and looking up, he spotted a small, Roman-style chariot pulled by a pair of white-coated pegasi in golden armor coming in for a landing on the road behind him. Stepping away from the tractor, Allen approached the gate just as the chariot touched down and rolled to a gentle stop in front of him.

Stepping down from the chariot was Blueblood and a stallion that Allen hadn’t seen before. He was a unicorn like Blueblood, with a wavy azure-colored mane, and tail. His coat looked white until you got closer and noticed the slight grayish hue to it. He was dressed in a black waistcoat, with a blue vest, white undershirt, and purple bow tie, with a monocle completing his ensemble. His blue eyes looked Allen up and down as he used the corner of a well-manicured hoof to stroke his neatly trimmed mustache, an unsure look on his face.

“I must say Blue, you certainly have a knack for meeting... interesting creatures,” he said in a posh, upper-class accent.

Cocking an eyebrow, Allen looked at Blueblood and asked, “Friend of yours?”

Seeing Allen’s unamused look, Blueblood swiftly leaped into damage control mode with a grace befit that of a seasoned diplomat. “Allen, might I introduce you to my old friend, Baron Fancy Pants of Manehattan. I do apologize for not informing you of my plus one beforehoof, but he just sort of invited himself along at the last minute,” replied Blueblood, a touch of faux exasperation coloring his voice.

Extending his hoof, Fancy said, “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ross, though you may call me Fancy or Fancy Pants, I leave the titles for official occasions. Blue here has mentioned you a time or two during our weekly poker games and I must admit, between that and the rumors floating around Canterlot the past few months, I was extremely curious to see what all the fuss was about myself. I do hope it’s no bother.”

Allen gave a curt nod. “No trouble at all,” he replied as he took the offered hoof and shook it gently.

Letting go of Fancy’s hoof, Allen turned to Blueblood and said, “Looks like you guys were the first ones to arrive.”

Blueblood puffed up his chest and smugly replied, “Naturally, being early all but guarantees one gets a good spot to watch the upcoming demonstration.”

“Unless you are a pegasus,” said Fancy Pants teasingly.

Blueblood’s smug expression fell. “Well obviously,” he retorted before straightening up again and saying, “I do not believe we will need to wait long, I believe I spotted a small group of ponies making their way past Sweet Apple Acres as we flew over.”

“Well that’s good,” replied Allen as he looked up in the sky to check the current position of the sun, “cause it’s getting along into the mid-morning, and I’d like to get this field cut and give it a chance to dry a bit before I ted it this afternoon so that it can dry down during the hottest part of the day.”

“I’m sure they will be here soon,” replied Blueblood, before he excused himself for a moment to go and talk with the guards.

Dropping his gaze from the sky, Allen looked at Fancy Pants and asked, “So, what do you do?”

“Oh well, as Blueblood mentioned, I am the baron of Manehattan, but I am also one of Princess Celestia’s advisors and event organizers.”

“Event organizer? Doesn’t sound like something a baron would do,” remarked Allen skeptically.

Fancy Pants chuckled as he removed his monocle with his magic and carefully cleaned it with a handkerchief he had pulled from the breast pocket of his coat. “Normally, I would agree with you old chap, however certain events require a pony with the right connections to properly put together and have it go off without a hitch.”

“And you’re that pony?” guessed Allen.

Fancy Pants nodded, a pleased smile on his face. “Of course, I am the kind of pony that everypony wants to know after all.”

“I bet,” replied Allen, “and how come you wanted to come out here? I wouldn’t expect you would be interested in watching me cut hay.”

“If there is one thing that I have learned from being the baron of the financial capital of Equestria, it’s that one should never pass on a potential opportunity to meet new and interesting people. One never knows what kind of doors they may open,” replied Fancy, a knowing smile on his face.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call myself ‘interesting’, but I am definitely new around here,” replied Allen.

“I think you might be surprised how many ponies will find you interesting, Mr. Ross, the world is an ever-changing place and I have a feeling that you might be someone worth knowing, here,” he said as he pulled out a small silver case and produced a business card, “my card.”

Taking the card, Allen looked it over. With its flowing gold lettering and high-quality paper, it was quite fancy looking, as befitted a pony with the title that Fancy Pants had.

“Blue isn’t the only noble-looking to increase their fortunes, you know,” said Fancy as he tucked the card case away in his jacket pocket. “I’m just as much a businesspony as he is, and I am sure that you are in need of things that may be hard to come by. One of my businesses is shipping and I have contacts all over the world that allow me to acquire resources that other ponies would have difficulty obtaining for you.”

Allen looked at Fancy and quietly nodded. “Well, thank you for the offer, I’ll be sure to keep it in mind,” he said as he slipped the card into his front pants pocket to give to Penny later.

Turning away from Fancy Pants, Allen looked up the road and spotted a small herd of ponies headed their way. “Looks like the rest of the group is here,” he stated as he waved. Several ponies waved back, including Penny, who appeared to be hitched to a small two-wheeled cart.

It was a larger group than Allen was expecting. Besides Penny, there was Twilight and Spike, who was perched on her back, while Lyra trotted alongside Twilight and seemed to be talking excitedly about something to the other unicorn. Up above them, Cloud Kicker and Rainbow Dash lazily kept pace with the group below, occasionally flapping their wings to stay aloft, but more often just gliding along on some weak morning thermals. At the rear of the group were Just Cause and Checklist, who seemed to be fussing over a stallion that Allen hadn’t met before. They were too far away for Allen to make out any details, but judging from the stallion's awkward gait, he seemed to have trouble walking, which probably explained Checklist’s fussing over him. Then there was the last arrival, an earth pony stallion with a dark slicked-back mane and sporting a red tie with a white and blue-collar that seemed to be speaking with Just Cause about something.

When Penny saw Allen waving, she immediately picked up the pace and made a beeline for him, coming to a stop near the gate, while the rest of the group paused to gawk at the nearby tractor and mower sitting just inside the entrance to the field.

Walking over to Penny, Allen said, “I wasn’t expecting this many ponies to show up.”

“Sorry about that,” she apologized as she unhitched herself from her cart, having parked it next to the fence. “Turns out that word got out a bit, and we ended up with some extra tagalongs,” pausing, she peered past Allen and seeing Fancy speaking with his fellow noble, remarked, “I see I’m not the only one who brought a plus one today.”

Allen sighed. “Yeah, so who are the extra guests? I recognize everyone but those two stallions over there by Checklist and Twilight.”

Setting her harness in the cart, Penny looked over her withers at the group nearby and replied, “Well, the earth pony stallion talking to Twilight is Filthy Rich, he owns and runs a company called Barnyard Bargains here in Ponyville, he’s got other stores in several towns and cities nearby. I’ve been talking with him to see if he might be able to help us with part of our supply problem, he said he would look into it.”

“What about the other one talking to Checklist?”

Penny hummed thoughtfully. “I’m not sure about him, he came in with Checklist and Just Cause on the morning train from Manhattan. I think he might be related to Checklist, but I’m not sure.”

“I see, and who invited this Filthy Rich guy along?” Allen asked quietly.

Penny shrugged. “Probably either Lyra or Twilight. I sure as hay didn’t invite him.”

“And Cloud Kicker and Rainbow?”

“Well, Twilight invited Rainbow, and Cloud just kind of invited herself along,” replied Penny.

Allen rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that sounds about right,” he sighed and straightening up said, “Well, best get the introductions out of the way. The sooner I get that done, the sooner I can start mowing.”

Author's Note:

Hello everyone, first of all, Merry Christmas! Consider this my little gift to you guys. Sorry, it took so long, but as always life gets in the way, but to make up for it, you guys are getting two chapters today, and at least one more next Saturday, possibly two if I don't run out of motivation in between now and then.

Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you guys in the next one.

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