Harvest
"Ah thought Ah told ya to wake up a half hour ago!"
Your eyes slide open despite your brain's protests, and you're greeted by a certain irritated orange mare. You can barely see her bright-green eyes under the brim of her brown stetson. Slowly, you come to your senses and sit up in your bed, rubbing your eyes with your hands.
"What time is it?" you ask her, still groggy from your deep slumber.
The mare sighs. Most mornings start this way, with you sleeping in late for the morning's work. You've been working on the farm for a while now, but you still have trouble waking up at six in the morning; back on Earth, you could have slept in until twelve and still felt tired.
"It's seven o'clock, sugarcube. Ah let ya sleep in thirty minutes before Ah even came in here to wake ya up the first time!"
Within a matter of seconds, you're out of your bed and dressed in your work duds: a plain cotton shirt and denim jeans made by Ponyville's local seamstress, Rarity. "I'm sorry, miss Applejack! It won't happen again, I swear!" You slip on your boots and stand in front of the mare, ready for work.
Applejack marvels at how fast you were prepared. "Ya know Ah hate bein' called that. Just 'cause Ah'm yer boss don't mean ya hafta go around callin' me miss."
"Okay, mi- I mean, Applejack."
She chuckles, temporarily dropping her stern demeanor. "Ya nearly did it again, sugarcube." But just as quickly, she switches to business mode once more. "We gotta start buckin' down the apples for the harvest. Big Macintosh is already out there, workin' his flank off, so Ah don't wanna hear none o' yer gripin'."
This last part is more of a joke than anything else, as your job is easy to the point of being boring. Since the farmponies are much stronger than your skinny human self, you're often left to simply pick the apples that they miss and put them in a basket. Not the hardest job in Equestria, and your pay certainly reflects it, but you took the job mostly because you had nothing better to do with your mornings. The only complaint you have is the sleep schedule, but you typically keep that to yourself.
"I'll keep my mouth shut," you joke to the orange mare. Before she can tell you to head out there, you're already on your way to the orchard.
You stop at your destination for a moment, taking in your surroundings. Apple trees stretch across the landscape for miles, reaching as far as the eye can see. Most are still dotted with the red and green of their fruits, but a good number have already been harvested of their product. Off in the distance, you can see the red stallion Big Macintosh already hard at work, kicking at tree trunks with immense power. With each buck, scores of apples topple from their branches and into well-placed baskets.
The Apple family has the art of the harvest down to a T, which further raises the question of why you took this job. They hardly even need you here, after all. But you have your reasons. Five other ponies had given you job opportunities, ranging from being a librarian's assistant to baking cupcakes to taking care of animals. Of course, you're no good at organization or cooking or even pet-sitting.
This particular job is the simplest of the six; all it requires is the ability to pick up objects and put them in a container. Child's play (or rather, foal's play). Plus, the Apple family even supplied you with your own room in their home. Of course, due to your much taller stature, they had to build you a custom bed. Not that you're that tall by normal standards; humans just happen to be about twice as tall as ponies here.
"Are ya still asleep or somethin'?" Applejack inquires as she passes you by, making her way out to the orchard. You waste no more time, quickly following after the mare to begin your work day.
<===oOo===>
By the time the sun has reached its zenith in the mid-afternoon, you're sweating worse than you ever have before. The climate in Equestria is similar to your old home's weather, but that still doesn't change the fact that Ponyville reaches a sweltering heat in late summer. Between filling your basket with stray apples, you wipe the sweat from your forehead with your wrist. If you had to estimate the temperature, you would say at least ninety degrees. Surely Big Mac and Applejack are this hot, too?
As if on cue, you hear the mare issue a loud "Whoo-ee!" from behind you. "T'aint been this hot in Ponyville in years!" She trots over to you and claps you on the back with a forehoof. You wince, but manage to crack a smile. She seems to be in much higher spirits now that you're awake and working diligently. "How're ya feelin'? Muh Granny's in the kitchen, makin' some ice-cold lemonade for y'all."
You practically start to drool at the mention of lemonade. You're so thirsty that you would drink out of the pig's trough if you had to. "Lemonade sounds great," you tell her. "It's sweltering out here."
"Y'can say that again." The pony fans herself with her stetson to ward away the heat. "We ain't got no time to shoot the breeze forever, though. Better get a move on, sugarcube."
You give a mock salute to the farmer. "Aye aye, captain!" With renewed energy, you march onward, picking up fallen fruit in your path. Between Big Mac and Applejack, there's quite a few apples to gather from the ground. It's times like these when you wish you were a unicorn; they, at least, can levitate objects without having to move a muscle.
Then again, being human has its perks in Equestria. You're much more dextrous than earth ponies and pegasi, and you're usually the center of attention wherever you go. One mare in Ponyville has even become obsessed with your hands, of all things!
On the other end of the spectrum, though, you feel quite alone sometimes. You're the only one of your kind in Equestria, and at times it feels like you have no one to relate to. There's Applejack, of course, but she doesn't grasp your past life on Earth better than anypony else. You've tried to explain a few things to the mare (such as television and science), but she can't wrap her head around the idea of a world without magic. If the roles had been reversed, you yourself would not have believed of a world where the sun and the moon are raised by all-powerful pony goddesses, so you don't judge the earth pony for not understanding.
You've been working continuously for about twenty minutes when an aged and yellow mare comes trotting into the orchard, holding a tray of lemonade in her teeth. You let out a mental sigh of relief as she ambles over to you and presents you with one of the ice-cold beverages.
"Here ya go, sonny," she manages through the tray in her mouth.
"Thank you, Granny Smith." You grasp the glass in your hand and nod curtly. Trying a sip of the yellow drink, you find it to be quite excellent. The perfect balance between sour and sweet. You've drained the cup in no time at all, leaving you feeling refreshed and rehydrated.
You catch up on your work quickly, and by four o'clock the issue is not how you'll keep up, but how you'll pass the time until the workday is over. You decide to help carry the apple baskets into the barn so that the family can send them out tomorrow morning. Of course, the baskets weigh a lot when they're full, and you're not particularly strong. Most of the heavy lifting (quite literally) rests on Big Macintosh's shoulders as he brings the harvest inside.
By eight thirty, the sun is moving aside for the moon in the night sky and you're all heading inside to have supper. Applejack's family really took a liking to you when you took the job, so you even eat meals with them at their house. Tonight, Granny Smith has prepared a warm dinner of baked potatoes with salad and homemade bread. Looking at the food laid out before you, you don't even mind that ponies don't eat meat. If you could live off of nothing but Granny Smith's cooking, you would die a happy man.
Applejack sits next to you at the table, eyeing the meal with as much hunger as you. "Dig in, everypony," she says before starting on the meal.
You grab your fork and spear a chunk of potato. After all the hard work you've done today, eating hot food is a godsend. Applejack's younger sister, a red-maned filly named Applebloom, watches you curiously.
"So, those things on the ends of yer forelegs're called hands, right?" the filly asks.
You pause, the forkful of food balancing just outside your mouth. "Uh-huh." The rest of the Apple family watches on, eating their food in silence.
"Why've ya got hair on yer head, but not on the rest of yer body?"
"I don't need hair anywhere else, I guess."
The filly ponders this for a moment before shooting off yet another question. "Why're ya so tall?"
You really want to just take a bite of your food, but it would be rude not to answer her. "That's just how humans are. In my own world, the ponies didn't talk."
Applebloom, thinking this over, finally comes to a decision. "Humans are kinda weird."
Applejack rolls her eyes. "Applebloom! That's no way to treat a guest." She considers her words for a moment. "Actually, at this point, ya been with us fer so long that yer more than a guest."
Before anypony can interrupt you, you pop your fork into your mouth, chewing thoughtfully for a few moments. "What?"
"Well, Ah guess we could call ya a part of our family."
You cough as the food you had swallowed just moments ago slides down your windpipe. It takes you nearly a full ten seconds before you stop sputtering. Applejack is as confused as ever by this, touching your arm with a hoof and looking into your eyes. "Y'alright, sugarcube? Ya nearly choked!"
You had had a family before you went to Equestria. Sure, it wasn't much, just your parents and siblings, but they were family. After you'd gone through that portal, and after you'd found out you couldn't go back...
Let's just say that you miss them.
"I just need some fresh air," you say, scooting out from your chair and stepping outside. The sky is dark, but you can still see and hear the wind gently rustling the leaves of the bare apple trees in the orchard. You walk over to the barn entrance, taking a seat on a hay bale and staring out at the stars.
During your relatively short stay in Equestria, you've embraced quite a bit of its culture. You've become a vegetarian, even! But you don't know if you're ready to give up on your old family to become part of a new one. Just hearing the word reminds you of your past life too much.
"Sugarcube?" calls Applejack from the porch. "Are ya out here?"
"Over here," you reply, not taking your eyes away from the sky.
The mare trots over to you and sits down beside you. For a while, neither of you speak, both staring at the sky. Finally, Applejack speaks up: "What's eatin' ya?" She seems genuinely concerned.
"You, of all ponies, would understand. You've got a family here, who love you and care for you, right?"
She nods, not fully comprehending where this is going. "O' course."
"Now imagine being whisked away from them, to a place where nobody knows you or understands you." You squint your eyes, trying to make out the stars in the sky. "I like to think that somewhere out there is my home, and I'll be able to reach it again someday. But odds are, I can't. For all they know, I disappeared off the face of the earth."
Applejack remains silent, following your gaze. "Ah'm not one fer philosophy, sugarcube," she says after a time. "But Ah do know that family is important, whether they're yer Ma and Pa or anypony else. As long as they're important to ya, they're family." She looks you in the eye and gives you a reassuring smile. "Ah'd be mighty pleased to have ya be part of our family, if fer no other reason than 'cause we care about ya."
"You do?"
The farmpony nods once more. "Why do ya think we went to all that trouble of makin' ya a room here? Ah know it seems like yer alone, but yer not. As long as ponies - I mean, people - have friends, they ain't alone."
You consider her words carefully. "I guess you're right. You and your family are the closest I've been to having friends since I came here."
Applejack hops off the bale. "Well, if ya feel like comin' back inside and joinin' the family, we'll be waitin'. Just think about what Ah said." With that, she trotted back to the house and stepped inside.
You sit for a while longer, thinking it over in your head. Of course you care about your folks back on Earth, but you may never see them again. You can't live your whole life in Equestria just pushing ponies away from you because you miss your parents and siblings.
It doesn't take you long to reach a decision. You stand up and walk out of the barn, moving to the house to rejoin your new family for dinner.