My Little Pony:

Friendship & Courage

Chapter: 3 "Student & Farmhand"

"Alright Soul, try it again" Twilight instructed, Soul nodded as he frowned at a training dummy in front of him, he then closed his eyes in concentration, nothing happened for a few moments but then a faint blue glow of Souls aura began to appear around him and steadily grew, Twilight smiled seeing this "That's it you're doing it!" she said happily, Soul however suddenly barred his teeth and his aura flashed before setting off a small explosion causing a smoke cloud, when it faded Soul was laying on the ground covered in soot, Twilight sighed a little "Well at least we're getting close" she said with a smile.

After Souls identity as an Aura had become apparent, Twilight has taken it upon herself to teach him how to use his magic effectively and responsibly and every moment of free time the two had was taking up with magical practise and study, Soul was a good student and was almost as much a bookworm as Twilight was, however when I came to practical magic use he was still struggling.

"I just don't understand" he said as he got up looking to Twilight "I've read all the books on magical theory and manipulation and I understand how unicorns use magic, but I just can't seem to produce the same results" Twilight smiled a little and walked to him.

"Well you aren't a unicorn remember?" she reminded him "maybe the way Aura's use magic is different, I'll have to reread the information Princess Celestia sent us, in the meantime why don't you meditate a little, meditation can help you concentrate" Soul nodded as he watched Twilight head back into her home, he then walked to the edge of the yard and sat down with his back legs crossed under him and rested his front hooves on his knees, he sighed, closed his eyes and began to relax.

For the next few minutes, Soul sat in silence, listening to noises from the village around him, he began going over everything he and Twilight had worked in the past week, remembering the hours of studying, discussions and magical practise, while Soul pondered these thoughts, he unknowingly began to shine with his aura which radiated from him like a shining light, pony's passing by stopped to watch in curiosity, inside the home, Twilight noticed the shine from out of a window, she looked out seeing Soul and smiled seeing his progress "That's much better" she said to herself as she watched, Soul meanwhile has fallen into a state of semi-sleep, slipping in out of dreams made up of him utilising his magic.

"SOUL!" instantly Soul was snapped out of his trance, is aura faded as quickly as it appeared.

"What? What?" he exclaimed a little looking around, he saw Applejack standing on the opposite side of the backyard fence watching him, she was frowning slightly which made Soul confused as to why as he got up and walked over to her " Hi Applejack" he said with a smile "what brings you here?" Applejack didn't return his friendly expression.

"I'm here for you!" she said "I've been a waiting for hours for ya'll down at the farm! I thought you said you wanted a job!" Soul's eyes widened in realisation.

"I forgot!" he responded "Applejack I'm sorry, Twilight and I just got so caught up in magical study I didn't even think of it" Applejack narrowed her eyes a little.

"Well that's as plain as the mane on your head!" she replied "but I don't care for your excuses! Get your sorry flank down to the farm right now!" at once Soul bolted back inside the home, grabbed his coat and was out the door before Twilight could even notice, when she did she ran out looking confused.

"What's the big rush?" she questioned, Spike shrugged a little standing next to her.

"When you gotta go you gotta go I guess" he said, Twilight just rolled her eyes at him.

Soul arrived at Sweet Apple Acres a few moments later, he skidded to a stop in front of the farm house and stood panting a little to get his breath back, Applejack came up next to him a second later.

"Alright then!" she began "If your gunna work on this here farm your gunna have to earn it" she then grabbed two large baskets held together by a shoulder brace and threw it over Souls back, he looked at them in curiosity as Applejack continued "Your first job is to fill those there baskets with as many apples as you can, then bring them back here, you do know how to Applebuck don't you?" Soul nodded his head a little at the question.

"Of cause I do" he answered, Applejack smiled a little and nodded back.

"Great! Well then get going, I expect at least 20 basketfuls of apples to be sitting here when I get back" with a tip of her hat, Applejack turned and strode off to another part of the farm, Soul meanwhile made his way to the apple orchards.

"Collecting apples doesn't sound too bad" he said to himself as he opened the orchard gate and walked inside 'how hard could it be?", Soul walked over to the first apple tree and turned his back to it, he then swiftly kicked the trunk with his back legs, the tree shook a little and a few apples fell from the branches into his basket, Soul looked back to the baskets expecting to see them full of apples, however he was greatly disappointed " that's all?" he questioned as he looked up at the remaining apples in the treetop, he sighed a little and proceeded to applebuck the tree again, this time collecting more apples then before.

For the next 2 hours, Soul continually made his way thru the orchard, kicking tree after tree until both baskets where full to the brim with apples, he then took them back to the farm house and deposited them into a large crate, he repeated this back and forth until finally he had filled the crate with 20 loads of apples and sat panting and sweating against the side.

"Well looks like you did an ok job" Applejack said as she walked over and inspected his work, Soul smiled and stood up expecting his work to be over, however he was dead wrong, before he had a chance to protest, Applejack had set him to work collecting eggs and milking cows, while not overly strenuous work, Soul found it harder than he anticipated, the chickens where not about to give up their eggs without a fight and mercilessly pecked and clawed at Soul until he beat a hasty retreat out of the chicken coop, now covered in scratches and feathers, the cows weren't any better, after finally catching one, Soul had to endure painful kicks, head-butts and even had to outrun an angry stampede after he accidently knocked over his milking bucket causing a loud noise, finally after yet another few hours, Soul basically dragged himself back to the farm house with what eggs and milk he was able to collect, Applejack was waiting for him with a smile as he placed his spoils at her feet and collapsed to the ground.

"Your pretty good at this" Applejack said with a small laugh "but you can't rest just yet" Soul looked up at her with surprise and a little dread, Applejack smirked and pointed to a large bare field just behind the farmhouse "Your last job it to plough that there field" Applejack picked up a neck stock from a pile of farm equipment and placed it around Souls neck, it was similar to the one Big Mac always wore, only a little smaller, Soul felt like giving in, however he didn't want to disappoint Applejack so he promptly forgot his complaints and got to his feet, Applejack seemed impressed with this and smirked as she walked away again "Good luck sugar cube" Soul watched her go before looking to the field with dismay before walking to it and doing inside, he found a plough already waiting for him so he promptly hooked himself up to it and began pulling it thru the ground, making deep grooves thanks to the plough blades, it was very hard work pulling the plough back and forth, the ground was very hard due to little rain and disuse which forced Soul to pull even harder, by the end of his second trip across, Soul was barely on his feet.

"How do they do this every day?" Soul asked himself between pants as he continued pulling, after an hour Soul stopped for a break and looked as his work, he has done about 20 rows of ploughing and smiled a little "That's all of it" he said with a sigh, however as he looked around his ears drooped, there was still almost 3 quarters of the field to go, Soul almost fainted from the realization but he then saw Applebloom sitting at the far side of the fence watching with a smile, she had seen him working on her way home from school and decided to watch him work, she waved to him as he looked at her.

"You're doing great Mr Soul!" she called waving to him, Soul smiled seeing this then smirked looking back to his work.

"Well alright then" he muttered before giving the plough a mighty pull and began his work again, his body screamed for him to stop, however Soul endured and continued to push forward, Applebloom cheered a little as she watched him, over in the opposite field, Applejack heard her sisters cheers and walked to the fence to see what the commotion was about, she was surprised to see Soul was still going, having purposely given him the worst jobs on the farm to see when he would give up, however seeing Soul pushing thru his exhaustion to get the job done made her smile in recognition.

"Well I'll be darned" she said "he'd not doing half bad" Applejack then stopped her work for the moment and leaned on the fence watching Soul with a smile on her face, Big Mac walked up next to her and glanced at her, then looked to see Soul.

"This you're doing?" he asked her, Applejack smirked and nodded.

"Just checking to see how dedicated he is" she replied "think he has what it takes to work here?" Big Mac was silent for a while watching Soul.

"Eyup" he finally said before walking away, Applejack smiled watching him leave then turned back to the front.

"Well I guess its unanimous then".

As the sun began to set over the farm, Soul fell back against the side of the plough and sat looking at the sky exhausted, the field was now completely done and despite the pain he was in Soul felt good about his performance, Applebloom ran over to him and smiled handing him a juice box from her backpack.

"That was awesome Mr Soul!" she said sitting next to him "I haven't seen any pony but my big brother plough a field like that "Soul smiled at her as he took a long drink from the juice box.

"Thanks Applebloom" he replied "I just hope I did a good enough job" Applebloom giggled a little.

"Well looks like your about to find out" she pointed ahead of them and Soul saw Applejack walking over to them with a small frown on her face, Soul quickly got to his feet trying not to look too warn out.

"So you're all done huh?" Applejack questioned him when she reached them, Soul slightly nodded.

"I believe so Applejack" replied, Applejack narrowed her eyes which made Soul visibly wince, however Applejack then smiled and she lightly punched Soul in the shoulder.

"I'm only joking with ya'll!" she said making Soul look at her confused as he rubbed his already throbbing shoulder "you did a A-grade job with those chores I gave you, and from what I've seen you'll fit in fine around here" Soul blinked a little in surprise.

"You, you mean I got the job?" he asked, Applejack smiled and nodded.

"I think you more than earned it" she said "plus I'm sure Applebloom and Big Mac agree right?" she smiled looking to Applebloom who nodded happily, Big Mac walked up next to Applejack and nodded as well, Soul looked to them with gratitude and smiled back.

"Thank you so much you guys!" he said happily "you won't regret this" Applejack smirked again and stepped close to Soul in a slightly intimidating way which made him back up slightly.

"Ya'll better hope we don't" she said " otherwise I'll have ya'll fillysitting Applebloom" Applejack then started laughing seeing Souls expression, Applebloom did the same, Big Mac had walked off back to the farm house, Soul realised the joke and started laughing a little himself, however he and Applejack were suddenly hit with a water balloon, drenching them.

"APPLEBLOOM!" they both yelled frowning to Applebloom who was already running for her life laughing and giggling loudly as the two gave chase.

It was getting dark by the time Soul made it back to Twilights home, he was still sore from his work on the farm but happy at the result, he smiled as he stepped up to the door and knocked.

"Twilight I'm home!" he called, he stood waiting for the door to open however no one came, Soul looked a little confused and knocked again "Twilight?" he questioned, he walked to a window and looked inside, the home was dark and he could faintly here the sound of Spike snoring in bed on the level above, frowning a little, Soul walked back to the door and opened it walking inside "hey spike!" he called, Spike just rolled over not responding, Soul started to get a little annoyed and climbed up to Spikes bed area "SPIKE!" he yelled, making the young dragon jump a foot and snap awake, he landed with a crash in his bed and sat up rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey hey I'm up, no need to yell" he murmured still groggy

"Sorry" Soul said dropping back down to the ground floor; Spike looked over the side of his bed at him rubbing his eye.

"Oh, welcome home Soul" he said with a yawn" how was your first day at work at the farm?"

"It was fine" Soul replied as he looked around "Where's Twilight?" he asked looking back to Spike, Spike blinked a little and looked around himself.

"Um, I don't actually know" he said shrugging; Soul frowned a little before heading up the stairs to Twilights room and knocked.

"Twilight?" he called, there was no answer, Spike came up behind Soul still yawning and dragging his feet.

"Oh that's right" he said making Soul look at him "I think she said something about going out for a walk" Soul rolled his eyes at him, suddenly they both heard a loud crash coming from outside.

"Let go of me!" yelled Twilights voice, Soul frowned hearing this, turned and ran back down the stairs, Spike quickly grabbed onto Souls mane and pulled himself up onto his back as they ran out the door.

"Twilight?!" Soul shouted looking around.

"Over there!" Spike cried pointing off the to the side, Soul looked in the direction and saw Twilight over by the edge of the Everfree being held up in the air by magic, a pony was standing in front of her dressed in a black hood and cloak, their horn shining the same colour as the magical aura around Twilight, Soul glared and ran as fast as he could to the area.

"Hey!" he shouted, making both Twilight and the hooded unicorn look at him, the unicorns eyes where glowing orange and she glared at him, before Soul could react, the unicorn used her magic to throw Twilight towards Soul and Spike, making them crash into each other, while the trio where busy recovering, the unicorn retreated back into the undergrowth of the Everfree and disappeared, Soul got up rubbing his head then quickly helped Twilight to her hooves "are you ok?" he asked her looking worried, Twilight shook her head looking a little dizzy but nodded.

"I am now" she replied "thanks for helping me" she smiled to Soul then frowned looking to the Everfree, Soul looked also and frowned concerned.

"Who was that?" he asked looking back at Twilight, however she shook her head.

"I don't know" she said "she didn't tell me her name, but she kept on saying something about getting back what was hers" Soul frowned more at this but nodded.

"Let's get back home, I'm not sure being out and about right now is the best idea" he muttered, Twilight and Spike nodded and with Soul they marched back to the home and went inside, locking the door and windows, afterwards, Twilight sat at her desk with a coffee while Soul placed a Band-Aid over a cut on her cheek.

"I'm fine Soul really" she assured him as he sat opposite her, Soul nodded and took a sip of his own coffee.

"Sorry" he said taking another sip " just making sure, guess I'm still a little on edge after seeing Trixie attack you the other week" Twilight nodded then looked to Spike who was pacing back and forth in front of the door like a guard.

"I don't think the one who attacked me tonight was Trixie though" she finally said 'she'd never disguise herself, her ego's to big" Twilight took a sip of her coffee frowning a little at the window, Soul nodded as he stared at the desk top thinking about who he saw, he could of sworn the unicorn whom had attacked them had said his name, though he quickly thought better of it, he looked back to Twilight and saw she was smiling at him "So how was your first day working at Sweet Apple Acres?" she asked, Soul blinked a little at her change of topic but smiled.

"Tough" Soul replied with a small laugh "Applejack can be a slave driver sometimes" Twilight giggled a little and nodded.

"I know what you mean" she replied, soon the two were talking and laughing happily again, the incident with the unknown unicorn forgotten.

Meanwhile in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was finishing off her final few duties before heading to bed; she smiled as she signed the final royal partition and put her quill down.

"That's everything: she concluded getting up and stretching a little, sitting on a throne all day could make one very stiff, Celestria smiled as she walked down off the throne steps and opened the side door leading to the palace hall, as she walked thru the hall she passed Luna who was on her way to the throne room to begin her shift as ruling Princess of the night in Celestia's absence "Have a good evening Luna" Celestia said with a smile and nod to her, Luna nodded back.

"Same to you sister" she replied with a small smile of her own, Celestia watched her sister walk away before continuing down the hall, as she walked she looked out of the windows as she passed seeing the royal garden.

"Maybe an evening stroll is in order before retiring for the night" Celestia decided, she made her way to the garden passage and walked down the stone path into the main flora area, the garden was as royal as the palace itself, with many different breeds of flowers and plants, all kept neat and tidy by the palace workers, situated in various spots around the gardens stood statues of different makes and designs which only added to the gardens beauty, Celestia smiled as she strode down the path which circled the garden, smelling a few flowers here and there as she passed, it wasn't often she was able to walk like this without some form of protection or guard and tonight was one of those rare occasions she could forget about being a Princess and just be herself, Celestia came to a stop in the middle of the garden where a lone statue stood in the centre of the paved courtyard, it was one of the stranger statues in the garden, at first glance it appeared to be a dragon, but upon closer inspection, one could see it was made up of different creatures, such as a goat, and a chicken, Celestia gave the statue a strange caution as if it were alive and kept her distance as she explored the area, finally walking up to the statue and looking it in the eyes " That reminds me" she finally said as if talking to the statue itself " I must look into Luna's concerns of a sorceress causing trouble in the town, with all this business with our new friend, a dark unicorn is the last thing we need don't you agree?" Celestia paused for a moment as if expecting the statue to reply then chuckled a little before turning and walking back down the path to the palace and closed the door behind her, the garden returned to its silent beautiful state following the princess's departure, the statue she was talking to standing as motionless as ever, however if anyone was around at the time they probably could've sworn they saw the statues eyes blink and a smirk appear on its face.