Going in the direction his host had pointed him, Sam strolled down the wooded path to Applejack's farm. He noticed that the reaction he got from the few ponies he'd passed along the way had been a bit milder. He supposed that being seen with Twilight and Pinkie at the bakery at least suggested he wasn't a threat to anyone. It was a pleasant, sunny day, and though he was still trying to fully wrap his head around his situation, Sam felt at ease. As far as waking up in the far future could have gone, he felt like he'd gotten a pretty decent deal. He thought back over all of the movies and shows he'd seen dealing with this situation; he could have ended up forced to be a delivery boy in New York for the rest of his life. His pony hosts had been pretty good to him so far. Twilight had given him a place to stay, at least temporarily, and seemed fairly eager to help him adjust and fit in to Ponyville's way of life.

At first, the idea of being interviewed as a history source struck him as strange. Sam was afraid he would be treated as an experiment subject, but talking to Twilight about everything had just felt like a nice chat between two friends. He smiled a little as he remembered how she seemed to hang on every word he spoke about his past.

A drawling voice snapped him out of his thoughts, "Well are ya'll gonna stand there all day or are ya gonna tell me what you're doin on mah farm?" A tan pony with a tied-back blonde mane and Stetson hat was staring at him out of the barn. Sam had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed that he had arrived at Sweet Apple Acres.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, kinda went out of my head for a minute there. I'm Sam, your friend Twilight Sparkle sent me down here to see if I might find some work around here." Sam looked around at the multitude of apple trees, they seemed to stretch completely past the horizon.

"A friend of Twilight's, eh? In that case, ah'm Applejack, and if'n yer lookin fer work, ah'd wager I kin keep ya busy! Follow me and I'll show ya 'round. You ever buck apples before?" Sam shook his head, wondering what he'd gotten himself into.

------

It was nearly sundown before Sam stumbled back to Twilight's library. She heard him enter and galloped to meet him at the door, "Oh good you're back! How did it go with Applejack?" Before he had a chance to catch his breath, Twilight answered for him, "Judging by all the dirt and apple fragments on your clothes, I'd say pretty well. I'm sure AJ appreciates the extra help."

Slumping down in an overstuffed chair, Sam finally recovered enough to speak, "Yeah, she tried her hardest to teach me to, what was it, buck apples? I tried telling her that humans just aren't naturally as strong as horses and ponies, but she wouldn't give up on me. I ended up helping her brother plow and sow their field. Real talker, that Big Mac."

Twilight sat down next to him. "Spike just finished helping me make some dinner, and we've got plenty left over. I'm sure you've gotta be starving."

Sam patted his stomach, smiling, "Thanks, but you didn't tell me Applejack and her family were such accomplished cooks! They refused to let me leave until I'd eaten with them. Actually, they almost refused to let me leave at all and insisted I stay the night with them. They took to me almost as quickly as your friend Pinkie did."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that's the Apple family for you! They'll work you to death, but only so they can smother you with hospitality afterwards. So, are you up for more questions tonight? I hope you don't mind, but I looked through more of those pictures you showed me yesterday and I'd love it if you told me a bit about them."

Sam nodded, and reached for his laptop. "I think I can stay awake long enough for that. So, I took this one when a good friend of mine and I went to New York. Back then, it was one of the biggest cities anywhere. So many sights to see; a lot of history in my country happened here." Switching to a picture of Sam and another person in an Italian cafe, "Oh man, this was a good one... My friend, Danny was his name, and I went to this restaurant during that same trip. Best food I'd ever had, and they finished it with a tall pitcher of this drink called "sangria". It was like wine but with chopped up bits of apples and other fruits at the bottom. I wonder if anyone around here makes wine, I'll have to talk to Applejack tomorrow... Anyway..." Sam continued recounting some of his favorite memories as the pictures triggered them. Twilight moved a little closer to him on the chair. Feeling her eyelids and head getting heavier from a day of intense study, she rested her chin on his arm as he proceeded telling her everything he could remember about the highlights of his old life.

Sam continued on, describing a trip he made to his old university. She looked at him with a bit of confusion as he recounted how he drank so much of a drink called "rum" with his friends that he completely blacked out, and was violently ill in the morning. "Why would anyone do that for fun?" She thought; she would ask him about it later. He told her about a city called "Boston", how he loved taking the train near his house to go there on his days off. He described malls and shops that would have made Rarity forget all about anything she'd seen in Canterlot.

Eventually, the little lavender unicorn had completely fallen asleep. Sam, noticing this, carefully put his laptop aside so as not to disturb his sleeping host. He couldn't help but smile at how cute she was like this. He shifted around on the chair to get comfortable, and fell asleep himself.