Applejack glances to the storm clouds brewing above the Everfree Forest. Then she looks at the pegasi setting up tonight’s rain shower, wondering if she can spot Dash’s chromatic mane. It’s been more than an hour since the pegasus left, and she knows Dash likes to jockey to work the airspace above Sweet Apple Acres. Mostly on account of the apple trees she can grab a quick snack or nap in. Or both.

A grimace slowly spreads across the orange muzzle, much like the dark arcus threatening to push out ahead of the main storm. And it looks to be a howler of a storm, assumin’ the weather team don’t manage to push it back. Ah was hopin’ to get a third cart in, but if Ah’m stuck with two Ah guess we’ll manage. Her muzzle purses even grimmer. No, we wouldn’t. Ah’d be stuck workin’ in the rain. And Ah hate workin’ in the rain. Makes me rush, Ah hate slippin’, and the mud gets everywhere.

Applejack picks up her pace, not that she wasn’t working fast already, her second cart halfway full. Her ears flick as she barely makes out a faint whistling from the north. Pa? Her heart beats quicker at just the thought, impossible as it might be. She shakes her head. No, it ain’t a tune Ah recognize. And Ah’m pretty sure Ah knew all’a his. But it intrigues her nonetheless. She continues working her way north, skipping a few of the trees in order to get to the edge of the farm a little faster. The whistling steadily gets louder, a cheery walking tune that goes up, down, and all over the place. It ain’t Big Mac, he’s more precise. Pegasi generally ain’t that deep. She enjoys it nonetheless, and hastens her pace to catch whoever it is before they get past her.

She gets to the fence line. North of her is the easternmost part of the White Tail Woods, and north of that the rolling foothills of the Unicorn Range, before it turns into mountains to the northwest. She looks west, rolling her eyes as she sees who it is. Of course it’s Doug. He makes his way along, stepping in time to the music, holding the nails, hammer, and a few sheets of paper. “Workin’ hard?” she calls, smiling jovially.

“Hardly working,” he returns just as cheerfully, slowing to a stop on the other side of the fence. He has a pensive look on his face, almost like he’s a little disappointed Applejack came up to him.

“What song is that?” Applejack asks curiously.

“Johto, Route 1.” Doug shrugs at Applejack’s lack of recognition. “From a game back home.”

“Can’t say Ah’ve heard of it.” Applejack glances at the papers, recognizing them from earlier. “Dash ain’t makin’ you fill those out, is she?” She shakes her head, sighing. “Supposed to be her punishment, not yours.”

“Aww,” Doug says cheerfully, “you have to force ponies to make friends with me?” Doug holds a hand to his chest, eyes twinkling. “I’m touched.”

Applejack rolls her eyes. “Nah, Ah just wanted to make sure things between you’n Dash are good.” She offers Doug a hopeful smile. ‘Cause Ah can totally see that pugilistic pegasus makin’ things worse just ‘cause she can.

Doug nods. “Don’t know if they’re perfect, but definitely better.” A hand raises to the spot where Rainbow Dash nuzzled him. He disguises the action by scratching at his chin. It’s no more than the other nuzzles I’ve gotten, right? Just a way to show we’re on friendly terms?

“Glad t'hear it,” Applejack says with a smile. “How was checkin’ the fences?”

Doug shrugs. “Just about all of them were in good condition. None need replacing, and I put back the few that had fallen down.” He shudders as he glances to the south, the entirety of Sweet Apples Acres being in the way still making him uneasy. “I could tell what you mean by the Everfree Forest, though. When it was just the train tracks separating me from them? Felt like I was being watched the whole time.”

“Ya might’a been,” Applejack confirms darkly. “Me’n Mac generally work the wheat fields together just in case somethin’ tries somethin’.” Her muzzle purses as she realizes that she told Doug to do exactly what she avoids doing, and when she has to inspect that side of the farm she tends to do it at a bit of a canter.

“Yeah,” Doug says, nodding along. He doesn’t seem too disturbed about it. “That’s where most of the fallen rails were. And the storm brewing didn’t help morale either. Rest of the farm was pretty good.” He takes a deep breath. “Gave me a lot of time to think.”

“Alright then, partner. You wanna walk with me?” Applejack follows his motion to the northeast and the remaining fence line. “Don’t worry; you can get to that part later.”

“Well, that’s just it,” Doug says somberly as he follows the orange mare through the orchards. “I’m not sure that I’ll have a lot of time later to get to things.”

Applejack frowns as she walks past the cart, getting to the trees she had skipped earlier to make it to Doug in time. Is it somethin’ Dash said, or did? He didn’t seem too beat up about that. Or is it me? “Ah know you asked initially about just workin’ the day here.” Applejack bucks a tree while Doug goes to some of the previous baskets, making the long trip to the cart with just one at a time. “Ah was hopin’ you’d reconsidered, thought about makin’ it more long-term.” She offers a hopeful smile. “We got space at the farmhouse for you to have a room to yourself, and all the apples’n wheat you can eat.”

Doug frowns, hating to disappoint the mare he’s gotten close to; at least, the closest of the mares he’s gotten to know. “And with all those extra wheat seeds, you’ll have plenty for the future, right?” He smiles briefly, though it quickly turns to a glum frown.

“Now that’s thinkin’ ahead!” Applejack grins, but it doesn’t take long for her to notice his put-out expression. She tries to stay optimistic, “Ah know we don’t have much to offer, but the farm could really use ya.” And not just the farm. Ah really want you to stay, too.

Doug sighs heavily. “I mean, pay would be nice, but all that does is enable me to see what else is out there more frequently.” He motions towards Ponyville, but mostly at the majestic mountain beyond, barely visible through a less dense section of trees. “And there is so much out there that I want to see.” He curls his toes up to kick at the ground with the ball of his foot. “Spent a lot of time thinking about what else I could be doing, where else I could be trying to go.”

Applejack gulps. “Y-you’re talkin’ about goin’ home, aren’t ya.” Ah can’t blame ya. Ah’d sure try to get home somethin’ fierce, too.

It takes a few seconds, but Doug eventually nods. “Not sure how high of a priority it would be, but the thought is there.” He chuckles darkly. “Sad to say, but there’s quite a bit more I’d want to do first.”

“Well, much as Ah hate to admit, the Everfree does tend to make life more interesting.” Applejack stays chipper as she flicks her mane towards the storm clouds gathering above the Everfree Forest. “For instance, we should try to get as many apples harvested ‘fore that storm hits. ‘Cause if the weather team ain’t able to corral it, it’ll get the night’s rain shower started early. And it’ll probably dump twice as much rain as the clouds are supposed to. So we gotta figure out whether we can deal with that extra rain, and let the weather team know how we want the clouds adjusted. Or if we need to dredge up as much water as we can.” Applejack glances at Doug, hoping he’s still paying attention. Most earth ponies have a good grasp on what their farm needs, but tryin’ to explain to Dash or anypegasi else is pretty much a lost cause. She smiles; he doesn’t have that glazed expression Dash gets, instead watching her patiently.

“Really?” Doug says at the pause in Applejack’s explanation. That’s kind of interesting, I guess. If humans could control the weather, what would we decide? I mean, sunny days are kind of obvious, and no rain on the weekends. What unintended consequences would there be if we stopped hurricanes and tornadoes, or at least directed them towards uninhabited areas? ...Or our enemies. Doug gulps. More fuel for the ponies vs debates.

Applejack’s expression brightens, opposite the sky that continues to have clouds spread across. “Yeah!” She allows a bit of the frown she’s hiding to surface. “Ah know the work on the farm ain’t that exciting. ‘Cept for Zap Apples.” She shakes her head dejectedly. “Only good thing about the Everfree. But even so…” She glances south, a heavy sigh dropping her head. “Sometimes, it ain’t worth lookin’ for somethin’ better. Should just be happy with what ya have.”

“Well,” Doug starts, finished gathering the furthest baskets and working closer to Applejack, “it’s not that I don’t like the work on the farm. It’s tolerable, if a bit boring.”

Applejack allows a faint smile to come to her muzzle. She catches Doug’s eye as she reaches a hoof back, tapping her cutie mark, while her focus is on his blank flanks. “Ah suppose this helps a lot with that, huh?”

Doug rubs his side where Applejack is staring, looking at the three red apples on her flank. Is she talking about me staring at her flank? This could get awkward. Misunderstandings galore. “Afraid I don’t know what you mean by that.”

Applejack nods gamely. “Guess Ah should’a expected that, huh? Only ponies get cutie marks, once they figure out their special talent.”

“Cutie marks?” Doug says with a touch of disbelief. Those things they have stamped on their sides mean something?

“Eeyup!” Applejack grins. “It’s a sign of growin’ up, becomin’ a mare. Or a stallion. A filly gets one once she knows what she's good at, what she wants to do with her life.”

Doug guesses, “So your special talent is… growing Red Delicious? And that’s what you want to do with your life?”

“Well, just about any variety.” Applejack motions to the trees around them, the apples many more colors than just red and green. “Granny Smith ain’t only good at usin’ Granny Smiths in pies, ya know? She can bake any apple delicacy you can dream up. And growin’ apples makes me happy. Gives me joy.” A broad smile covers Applejack’s muzzle as she breathes deep of the apples growing around her, nearly standing on her hind legs to get closer to the beloved crop. And it ain’t the only kind of apple Ah want to grow.

Doug smiles at the pure bliss surrounding the mare, though it fades as she settles back down to all four hooves. “Well, unfortunately, humans don’t have something that lets us know what we’re good at. We spend years in school learning about, well, everything. At some point you decide on what you want to focus on, or life chooses for you, though you aren’t locked in by any means. Interests change, opportunities dry up, and sometimes you’re forced to do something you don’t want to in order to make it to the next day.”

“And could Sweet Apple Acres be someplace you see yourself stayin’?” Applejack keeps her hopeful smile as she loads the last basket of apples, hooking herself up to the cart. “If you can choose to do whatever you want? And since, ya know, you don’t mind the work?”

“I think the company has been the main thing making the work tolerable,” Doug says, though he can’t quite bring himself to smile, much less wink at the mare dragging the cart back to the farmhouse. “But, I look back at how my interactions with the ponies in Ponyville have gone, and maybe they could have been better. A lot of that’s my fault, and there’s a thousand different things I could have said or done that might have made it better. But I didn’t, and I’m stuck with the results.” Doug sighs. “Well, not quite stuck. Because as wonderful as it has been working with you, I can’t help but wonder what life would be like somewhere else.”

“Oh,” is all Applejack can bring herself to say, doing her best to keep the tears from welling in her eyes. She chokes back a sob, only able to speak once they get to one of the larger barns and finish unloading the baskets. “Well, maybe you can help Granny Smith sort these. Ah gotta go get more.”

“Sure,” Doug says, feeling more than a little depressed himself.

Applejack trudges back north. What am Ah gonna do?

Next Chapter: Ch. 20 - The Eternal Apple Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 55 Minutes