I finish cultivating the first field and see a really nice seed bed for the oats and fold the 24' field cultivator up and return it to its place in the graveyard, then drop it off before taking the 1586 back to its place. Setting the brake and shifting it to neutral, I then shut it off and make my way to my magnum with wide tracks on the back to get the field planted when I see a certain cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail streaking my way and stand still as she carefully lands and makes her way towards me saying, "Hi there, what brings ya to mah place Pervy Skittles?"

Rainbow chuckles and blushes lightly at the nickname he has for her and says, "Well, uhm...I have some news for you."

I get a funny feeling deep down inside and ask, "Okay, ah'm listening, what's going on?"

She then gulps and says, "Rodge, I'm uhhh...two weeks pregnant, and you're the only stallion I have been with since that night."

I walk up to her and kneel down in front of her, picking up her front end and hug her gently to my chest with my left hand behind her head saying, "It's alright Skittles, ah'll be there to help ya raise our foal. If ya get lonely at yer home, ya can crash at mah place and sleep with me or in the new mattress in the guest room."

Letting herself break down again, she wraps her front hooves around his neck and then encircles him with her wings saying, "Oh Rodge, I have no idea what to expect. This is my first foal and I'm so scared!"

Holding her head to my shoulder, I stroke her rainbow-colored mane gently and say, "There, there Skittles. Ah do have a book in mah library in the house about what to expect when yer expecting if ya'd like to read it and prepare yerself for the fun time that begins with waking up at night to pee and then wake up the next morning to puke your guts out, then continue to do that throughout the day and pee several more times as well."

She sobs into his shoulder as he holds her close, saying, "I-I was so scared that you would not want anything to do with me after I told you I was pregnant. Thank you for continuing to be there for me as our foal grows inside of me. I will keep the offer to crash at your place in mind for when I might wish to crash for a night or two."

I smile and then pull back to give her a deep, tender kiss and then pull back saying, "Thank you for getting pregnant."

Rainbow then smiles and says, "If you get any sappier, I might hurl, heh. I need to head home and take a nap, I'm exhausted after flying here."

I set her back down gently and say, "Well, ya can head on inside and lie down on the guest bed fer a bit, ah need to git started planting so ah can start discing the other field up."

She shrugs her shoulders and says, "Eh, alright then, if you insist. Thanks!"

I nod my head saying, "Anything for the mare that carries mah foal inside of her."

Rainbow gags and walks away saying, "Ack! I'm outta here to go lie down, you're getting cheesy."

I then grin and try to make her laugh saying, "I'm glad that it was my cheese that got you pregnant!"

She splutters and bursts out laughing, saying, "That's too weirdly funny!" and then opens the door and starts to head in, saying over her shoulder, "Oh yeah, you should know that a couple of my fellow Wonderbolt teammates might come talk to you before the season's over!" then closes the inside door as the storm door is slowly pulled shut.

I cock my head and say, "Wait...WHAT!?" I stare at the closed door for a few minutes before groaning and saying, "Oh...mah poor, poor boys..." With a sigh, I then head to the Magnum and start it up, then release the parking brake and raise the drill up before pulling forward. As I head to the end of the field I intend to start on, I consider which direction I want to plant in and decide to plant the whole field going East to West. I unfold the Case IH 5400 and line it up as best I can without satellite assistance, then pull it up to the edge of the field and drop it down onto the cut grass. Stepping out of the cab after setting the brake, I head towards the shop to get the forklift to grab a pallet of seed when I see Twilight, Starlight, and a few other mares walking up my driveway. I wait for Twilight to arrive with Starlight beside her and say, "Hi there, what brings ya two out to Sheridan Acres?"

Twilight then smiles and says, "We all have come to help clear your fields of rocks for 50 bits per pony!" then asks, "What are you up to Roger?"

I then say, "Well, ah'm going to get mah forklift to pick up a pallet of seed and dump it into the drill, then start putting it into the ground so the oats can start growing. Could ya two help me with dumping these heavy sacks into the hoppers? 60 pounds is a bit much fer me in my present state."

Twilight and Starlight nod as Starlight says, "I can help you do that, and Twilight can help organize the ponies looking for rocks to make it more efficient. Could you show the ponies where to go to start searching for rocks?"

I nod and then say, "Alright, let me go get the payloader instead and ah'll lead them out to where to start." I then make my way to where I parked the payloader as I hear Twilight address the gathering mares. When I get there and drive the payloader out to the field, I turn left onto the unplowed portion of the grass and stop. Setting the brake, I open the door and step down out of the cab, then make my way over to the gathering group of ponies and say, "Thank ya all for coming to help me clear rocks off a field so ah can work it, please follow me but keep back a safe distance of about 50 feet as this machine is heavy and dangerous." I see them all nod or acknowledge my words and make my way back to the payloader, then climb up into the seat and take the parking brake off before driving towards the edge of the field. When I stop near the end of the field, leaving enough space for the ponies to make a pile, I set the brake and drop the bucket down with it tilted back all the way. Turning it off, I then exit the cab and look to the mares saying, "With the machine not running like this, it is safe to get close to it. Ah'll show ya where the field starts, so follow me right this way, ladies." and hear a few giggles from the mares at calling them ladies as I lead them to the edge of the tall grass saying, "Alright, this tall grass here is where mah new field begins, there are corner markers placed at each of the field's corners. Ah have no clue as to what they look like, so..." when I am interrupted by Twilight.

Twilight says, "The posts are painted white and they are just three-foot round stakes pounded a little ways into the ground."

I look to her and nod saying, "Thanks fer telling me that bit of information, Twilight." then turn back to the mares and say, "Ah would like ya all to start here and work as a group to start at this edge here and make yer way towards the east to the first post, then start heading north to the next post. Ya can set the rocks in piles on the cut grass here at this edge here, and for when ya start heading north..."

I hear a couple of familiar voices interrupt me as the Butter twins say, "Don't worry about that because we brought our wagons to help cart rocks, Roger!"

I chuckle and nod my head saying, "Alright then, ah'll let the rest of ya get things started here, ah have a field to plant. Are ya ready to begin loading seed, Starlight?"

Starlight nods saying, "I am indeed, lead the way, Roger."

I make my way back to the Magnum and look back at Twilight saying, "Have fun with the organizing, Twilight!"

Twilight pulls out a clipboard, a quill, and an inkwell, then looks over at Roger saying, "I will! I love organizing almost as much as I love books!"

As I reach my driveway, I turn to Starlight and say, "Alright, just wait here and ah'll go get the forklift and bring a pallet of seed here, then ah'll show ya how to open up the lids where the bags get dumped in."

She then shrugs her shoulders and says, "Alright then, no problem."

I then head to the forklift and drive it out of the shop towards the machine shed, then grab a pallet with 19 bags on it and then drive it carefully towards my drill. I set it down behind the machine as it rests on the ground, then set the brake and shift it to neutral before shutting it off. I get out of the seat and hop up onto the platform saying, "Alright, it is simple to lift these up, just take it by the metal handle here and lift it up until the supports lock into place. Once they both lock, the lid will stay up so you can start filling it."

Starlight looks at the support mechanism and smiles saying, "Oh this is quite simple."

I then get down and make my way to the pallet saying, "Alright, since ya have magic, ya can lift the bags off of the pallet so ah can figure out how bags are opened in this world."

She nods and lifts the top bag off the pallet with her magic and lowers it down for him to look over when he laughs a few moments later saying, "Ya need to turn the bag so the other end is up, though the stitching pattern is the same slip-knot style used back home, haha!" and then turns it around.

The two of us then work together as I pull the strings and stuff them into my pockets, instructing her on how to dump the bags in a way that won't overfill the seeder. As she dumps the last bag in and sets it aside, she heads to the next one and raises it up until it locks into place.

Starlight moves onto filling the next one, grabbing a bag, and turning it the right way up as she waits for Roger to pull the string. Once he pulls the string off the bag, she brings the bag over and carefully dumps it in without spilling any seeds. Setting it aside with the others, she moves on to the following bag and so on. When the last bag is dumped in, she looks it over and says, "That's it, it's full. How do you put these lids back down?"

I then grin and start stuffing the bags into one of the empty sacks saying, "There are two rods inside that ya lift up on a little bit so they come out of the notches the small bar falls into to hold it up, the lid is a little heavy so ya will have to hold it up while ya undo them. Are ya able to multi-task with yer magic?"

She then looks it over and says, "I can, yes." then uses her magic to lift up on the handle a little, then extends her magic to the two rods and lifts the bottom part up before bringing the lid down. She then moves to the next lid and lowers it down saying, "Last lid is down, now what?"

I nod and then ask, "Do ya happen to have a spell that will let ya fly for a time?"

Starlight grins and nods saying, "I do, it will grant me temporary wings for a few days, what do you need me to do?"

I then walk up to the back of the drill and point to one of the tubes saying, "Ah need ya to follow behind me and keep an eye on the space between the tank's bottom and the tube below it, which guides the metered seeds into a furrow. Make sure that ya can see seeds dropping out and going into each of the tubes, if the flow of seed stops in any one of them, wave yer hooves in the air to let me know there's a problem, and ah'll stop and come check it out. Ya also need to keep an eye out for what ah'm doing because when ah reach the end of the field, ah'll raise the drill up and turn around. So when ya see it rise up, hold yer position until ah relocate and drop it back down, then fly over and resume watching. After a few passes, ah'll stop and check the seed level to know when we'll need to fill up again. Ready to get started?"

She then casts her spell, granting her vibrant multi-colored translucent wings at the cost of a good portion of her magic and then says, "Yes I'm ready, let's go!"

I chuckle as she hovers behind the machine as I head towards the cab, climbing up into the seat and looking back to see her back just above the lid on the left side of the drill and her wings fluttering in the air. I take the parking brake off and put it into gear, then increase the throttle a bit and start putting the seed into the ground.

Everything goes smoothly as I finish the last end row two and a half hours later, then fold the drill up and take it to the shop. Parking it inside while making sure I have enough room to put the forklift inside, I set the brake and put it in park before shutting it off. I exit the cab and head out of the shop, seeing Starlight standing outside and say, "That is one field planted. Now, let's over to the field and see the progress they are making."

Starlight looks over to him as she hovers over the ground saying with a slight blush, "Thanks for uhm...not listening to my desires the other day."

I look over at her and say, "Oh, yer welcome, ya didn't ask me or mention it beforehand, so ah assumed ya weren't ready to have a foal yet."

She then shakes her head saying with a light blush, "Not yet...no, but maybe one year I will be."

After getting to the new field, I see a large line of rocks piled up as Twilight heads toward me with a smile and ask, "How's the progress going Twilight?"

Twilight smiles and says, "It is going great, they are halfway done with the field. Congratulations on getting your first field planted!" then looks at her pupil and smiles saying, "See, you never know when the strangest of spells might come in handy!"

Starlight chuckles and then says, "You are quite right about that, how about you let me take over for a bit? I have a feeling that Roger's wanting to get these rocks moved so that he can work this next field soon, am I correct, Roger?"

I nod and chuckle saying, "Yep ya are Starlight." then turn to Twilight and ask, "Are ya ready fer some heavy lifting, Twilight?"

She nods nervously and says, "Uhh, heheh...sure." and hands her list over to her, showing her what she has organized. After Starlight heads off towards the center of the field, Twilight looks at Roger and asks, "So where do we start with the heavy lifting?"

I chuckle and then point at the pile in front of the payloader saying, "Let's start right there."

So as Twilight starts to load the bucket up with rocks, she watches Roger turn around and head to the other side of his driveway and piles them up between it and his freshly planted field.

It takes the two of us an hour or two to get the long row of rocks picked up and moved when I see the mares all start making their way out of the field, parking the payloader in front of the shop door beside the Magnum. Setting the brake and shutting it off, I exit the cab and see Twilight standing near the oak tree with a few of the mares as they start to head towards it as well and say, "Alright everypony, ah'm gonna go get bits to pay ya all." I look over at Twilight and ask, "Twilight, would ya please come help me sort and gather enough bits to pay everypony that came here? If ya need to, please take a headcount and double-check it."

She nods her head and looks at the gathered mares, then says, "Alright, if you all will please stand up and say your name one at a time so I can write it down, when I say 'next' you can lie down."

I watch her as she spends a few minutes writing down the names for each mare that came to help move rocks, waiting for her to get them all before hearing Twilight give me a number for the gathered mares and nod saying, "Alright, let's go inside and find enough pyrite bits to pay them."

Twilight nods and follows him inside, then down to the basement as he opens a chest and starts pulling sack after sack of bits out until one of the chests is completely empty and asks, "Why did you pull all of those sacks out, Roger?"

I chuckle and say, "Well, ah did that because these sacks are not sorted, these chests all contain my payment ah received from the griffons. So, if ya wouldn't mind, could ya help me sort them out?"

She looks at all the chests in the room and sighs saying, "Sure I can help you do that, but lets focus on getting the mares paid first before we start this time-consuming project, alright?"

I nod and say, 'Alright, ah'll grab the empty sacks from the land payment so ya can fill each one with fifty bits, then ah'll start dumping out the coins into a pile fer ya to make a system to arrange them." and go to the side of the room where I put the empty sacks from the other day, then toss them beside Twilight and grab a full sack to dump it on the floor.

Twilight begins using her magic to set non-pyrite coins aside and starts making five stacks of ten pyrite coins to put into each sack, double-checking her count three times before moving them into a bag and tying the string shut. Setting that bag aside on the opposite side of the empty bags, she then starts gathering and counting more pyrite bits for another payment.

It takes the both of us an hour before Twilight says there's enough for everyone and then tell her, "Fer helping load all those rocks and the organizing, take an extra fifty bits, and an extra fifty fer Starlight as well fer all the help she gave me."

She then blinks, realizing that she forgot to add herself to that list and smiles saying, "Thank you very much, are you sure about that?"

I nod and pick up two bronze bits and hold them out to her saying, "Yes ah'm sure, take these and give one to Starlight."

She moves one of the sacks aside and takes the two bits, then puts them in her empty saddlebag and uses her magic to pick up the filled sacks for the rest of the mares that came saying, "Alright, that is all, so let's go hand these out to them before heading inside to start sorting."

I chuckle and head upstairs, then hold the storm door open for her as she walks out. I then close the door and follow her to the tree as she asks the mares to start lining up and then clear my voice to say, "If ya all want to come back tomorrow to do the same thing to the other field, ah'll pay ya each fifty bits again! Then, if a few of ya still have enough energy and magic, ah'll pay ya to collect rocks around the rest of the place except for the two cattle yards. Ah will ask a friend of mine if he would mind scouring mah boneyard floor for any nails or other pointy objects slightly buried under dirt that might cause a pony to become lame, as there did use to be an old hog shed there at one time."

Discord pops up out of his pocket and jumps to the ground in front of Roger saying, "I would be delighted to do that for you Roger, just let me pull out my D.O.D and I will start right away!"

I shake my head and say, "Alright then, have at it Discord." while lightly chuckling at his wild nature.

As Twilight hands out the last few sacks, she looks at Starlight and smiles saying, "Roger gave us a little extra for the extra help we gave him, so here's your payment." and pulls out one of the bronze bits, then holds it out to her.

Starlight smiles and says, "That was really nice of him, I will come back again tomorrow. Will you be coming back also?"

She smiles and chuckles saying, "I will be staying here tonight to watch over Roger, as he also asked me to help him organize his collection of bits from the griffons. I will help out tomorrow as well though, so I will see you when you all come back."

I watch the other mares start to leave and say, "Ah hope ah'll see ya all here again tomorrow at around the same time!" When I see Starlight head down the road, I turn to Twilight and say, "Ah have chores to do, so ah'll be in to start on dinner in a little while."

Twilight then nods and makes her way towards the house saying, "I will have a look around your library for a while, if that is okay? Where can I find it?"

I then tell her, "Oh that's fine, ya just go into the living room and there'll be a door between the fireplace and the picture of an old farm place being worked by a much older tractor."

She then smiles and says, "Thank you, if I don't hear you say dinner's ready, let me know, okay?"

I chuckle and then nod saying, "Ah can do that, no problem. Go have fun ya adorkable nerd."

Twilight then cocks her head and asks, "What does adorkable mean?"

I laugh loudly and say, "It just means that yer so adorable for sometimes being a dork."

She blushes and giggles at it saying, "Oh...alright. I will see you whenever dinner is ready." then turns and heads to the house thinking to herself, 'Would it be so bad if I tried for a foal this season? I will have to think on it some more...'

I then head out to do my evening chores, tending to the beef cattle first and then think, 'Hmm...ah think that Rarity might be full up on gems, but it would be best to ask and make sure.' I then look up at the sky and see the sun still a ways from the horizon and say, "Ah'll get mah evening chores done quick, and then go mow mah new field." and continue towards the tractor with the mixer on it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 48: An unexpected occurrence Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 14 Minutes