Chapter Four

A long silence. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Or at least that was how it felt to the little pegasus foal who had just finished his tale. A knot sat in his stomach as he waited patiently awaited a response from Applejack. But the response never seemed to come. Everypony just stood there, staring at him with somber expressions. Somepony, anypony, say something! He screamed inside his own mind. The silence was killing him. Just the constant waiting, expecting the bombardment of cruel words and scolding. Eventually, the quiet was broken.

"Well now, that certainly was an, uh, interesting story ya got there." Applejack's voice was surprisingly calm as she spoke. No doubt she was trying to hold back a lot of anger.

His face perked up at the voice, his eyes meeting the earth pony's. Yep. She's still mad. The scowl the orange mare had been giving him was still there. Great. Here comes yelling. I can just feel it.

"But it don't excuse what ya did." The farm pony's voice didn't seem to match with what she was saying. Her words were softly spoken, almost the way a mother would speak to her child. The words may not have been angry, but then certainly hurt all the same. The foal glanced over to Rainbow Dash, who quickly turned her head away, avoiding looking directly at him. Scootaloo did the same. The sight only made the weight in his stomach heavier. He had effectively made and lost his only friends in the same day. Perfect. Just perfect. He cursed in his mind.

"However, ah ain't heartless. Ah can see why ya did it." He looked back to Applejack. The scowling face was gone, replaced by a soft, soothing smile. For a moment, he felt a twinge of hope that he may yet make it out of his predicament unscathed. That hope was quickly washed away as Applejack continued to speak.

"Tell ya what, ah'll make ya a deal. You do work around the farm fer a while, an' maybe we can put this whole ugly mess behind us? Whaddya say?" She held out a hoof in front him, wherein he promptly returned the gesture with a hoof shake.

"Now don't you go making me regret it this time. Ah ain't givin' you no more chances." Applejack let out a hardy chuckle. The two shared a smile between each other.

He glanced back over To Dash and Scootaloo, and his heart dropped in his chest. They were already gone. Applejack seemed to have just taken note of this as well, and quickly wrapped her arm around the foal.

"Now c'mon. Let's get ya back to the farm." Applejack added cheerily, smiling down upon the tiny pegasus.

He looked around. Not a sign of the cyan or orange pegasus to be seen. Maybe they had somewhere they needed to be? That thought was a little too optimistic for his liking. No, they were ashamed to be around him, so they left. Yeah, that fit better in his mind. What do I care, anyways? It's not like I need them. They don't know me. The bitter thought left him grimly satisfied. He didn't need anypony. He glanced up at the mare walking alongside him. Okay, maybe not anypony.

The walk felt longer than it should have, neither pony speaking a word to one another until they had arrived through the gate of Sweet Apple Acres.

"I'd give ya a tour of the place, but ah'm thinkin' ya already done that yerself." Applejack gave the pegasus a faint smirk.

He shrunk back at the comment. Relax now, she's only kidding with you. Isn't she?

The farm pony, recognizing the guilt on the foal's face, instantly changed her smirk to a heartwarming smile.

"Ah'm only kiddin' with ya. Now c'mon, yer gonna come help mah sister pick up the rotten apples."

The prospect didn't sound too attractive to him, but shrugged it off with a thought. It could be worse. Applejack pointed him in the direction of a little yellow speck off in the distance. He blindly obeyed, and began trotting off across the orchard. The short trip however, gave him some time to think. You could just bolt it, you know. Nopony's looking. He didn't argue with the notion. Something though, was keeping him on track towards the little yellow filly that was now coming into focus.

Come on. Just run. You know you want to. The voice in his head was right, he did want to run. Far, far away. His feet on the other hand, seemed not to stray an inch from his target. You're running out of time here! Too late. He was now standing in front of the pony now identified to him as Applebloom. Wait a minute. This pony seems familiar... Uh oh.

"Uh, can ah help- Hey! I recognize you!" The filly jumped with curious excitement. He could tell she must be brimming with questions for him. Their earlier encounter had certainly been interesting to say the least. He stood there for a few moments. He didn't really know what to say. Should he just start picking up apples? Looking around, there certainly were a lot of them littering the ground around him.

"What were ya doin' in mah house earlier?" Applebloom asked with wide eyes. It was actually kind of cute. Woah, where did that thought come from?

"I, uh, came here to help." He put on a big, fake grin. Hopefully he could leave out as much of the details as he could.

"That doesn't really answer mah question." The yellow filly raised an eyebrow.

Shoot. He really wasn't listening to the question she was asking in the first place. He was just stammering out an answer. Her probing eyes weren't exactly helping him concentrate.

"Hehe. Sorry. I was... um-" Come on! Think of something! It's not like it's the first time you've had to lie to somepony! "I was fetching something that, um, Rainbow Dash left here! Yeah, that's what I was doing."

Applebloom's brow raised higher. Uh oh. I don't think she's buying it.

"Oh. alrighty then." Her face snapped back to a cheery grin. "So why exactly're ya helpin' us 'round here anyhow? Ah don't think mah sis ever mentioned ya before. Or anypony else fer that matter." The filly's expression reverted to the cocked brow.

This filly asks too many questions. "I'm... I'm just the helpful, is all. I had nothing better to do, so I came here." That wasn't exactly a lie. He really didn't have anywhere he needed to be at the moment.

"That's seems a lil' bit weird, if ya don't mind me sayin'." Those eyes. Those big, pressing eyes. They were cutting through his facade like a hot knife. The sweat dripping from his face was becoming quite evident.

"Ah appreciate the help, though. Let's get to work." Her smile had snapped back into place. Good. Smiles are something I can deal with. Not hard talking to somepony when they're smiling, rather than burning their retinas into me with their stares. The two didn't talk much. They just went about tossing rotten apples into a big bucket, taking it in turns to bring back the full bucket to the barn, and grabbing an empty one on their way back. Before long, hours had passed. It was late into the evening now. The young pegasus felt more tired now than he ever had in his entire life.

"C'mon inside, you two! It's time tah eat!" Applejack's voice carried over the orchard to the two foals, still busy collecting the defective apples. They both rushed towards the farmhouse, eager to fill their bellies. Once arriving though, the pegasus' stomach didn't feel so empty anymore. He was too terrified to be hungry now. He was met with the faces of the entire Apple family. Having an unexpected guest show up, working around the farm was likely to raise some questions.

---

All in all, dinner had gone better than he had expected. Sure, he had a bit of a panic attack anytime anypony asked a question about him, but Applejack seemed to be able to cover up things fairly well. The orange mare had passed off his presence as him being Applebloom's school friends. This of course caused the little filly to shoot her sister a confused glance, but the filly caught on to the secret when Applejack chanced a quick wink at her.

Aside from the awkward conversation, dinner had been terrific. He couldn't really remember what it was he was eating; he had devoured the meal too quick to inspect it. He hadn't had a meal that good in ages. After everypony had finished their meal, Applejack led the blue foal out of the room to make up the couch into a guest bed while the others cleaned the dinner table and dishes. The couch proved to be quite soft. But then anything was better than the kind of sleep he was used to. He quickly took to passing out on the couch within minutes, not used to the physical exertion he had been doing all day.

---

Applejack woke up in the middle of the night to an unusual noise coming from somewhere in the house. It sounded like... sniffling? She opened the door and descended the stairs, making sure to keep her hoofsteps light as not to wake anypony. She followed the source of the noise down the hall, and pressing her ear against a door she could definitely hear the sound of- was that crying? She gently pushed open the door, only to hear a gasp and rustling of blankets. She opened the door the rest of the way to see the little pegasus foal on the couch, covered in blankets, shaking.

It was fairly obvious he was trying to make himself look to be sleeping. Trying and failing; Applejack could tell right away he was hiding something. She trotted over to him, bent her head down and whispered in his ear.

"Hey there, now what's tha matter?" Her voice carried a concerned tone.

Slowly he popped his eyes open, revealing bloodshot, puffy red eyes. Recoiling for a moment, Applejack sat down next to the tiny pegasus, and pulled him close into a hug.

"S'alright now. So ya gonna tell me what's botherin' you?" The farm pony looked at the shaking pony in she held in her hooves. He pulled his face up to meet hers, their emerald eyes meeting. Then he did something she hadn't expected.

He pulled her even closer into the hug, his heavy breaths blowing against her chest. Applejack was taken aback by this. She really didn't know quite what to do. She had dealt with this kind of thing with her sister when she was younger, but that was different. Then something occurred to Applejack.

"What's yer name?" It might not have been the appropriate time to ask that, but she felt she needed to know. The pegasus' gaze fell to the floor, and he pulled away from the embrace.

"Laron." He said, flatly.

"That's... a bit of an unusual name fer a pony. If'n ya don't mind me saying, that is. Ah mean, usually a pony's name says somethin' about 'em." Her voice still carried that warm, comforting tone to it as she spoke.

Wiping away a tear that found its way down his cheek, he continued. "Somepony once told me it was fancy talk for thief. Does that answer your question?" It came out sounding a lot meaner than he had meant it to. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude." He added.

Applejack couldn't think of anything to say, so she pulled him back into a hug. She felt horrible for even asking the question now. She could even feel her own tears beginning to pool up in her eyes. The foal quickly took notice of this.

"Please don't feel bad. I'm used to it, really. It doesn't bother me. Honest." Their eyes met once again. A faint smile crossed Applejack's face before quickly sinking back to a deep frown.

"Then what in tarnation's got ya down here all huffing like this?" The orange mare's concerned eyes did a world of good to relax him. He felt like he could trust her. After all, she had trusted him, right? Yeah, and I bet she regretted it the first time. He quickly pushed the thought away. He hated thinking like that.

"I'm just really grateful for what you've done. Nopony ever gave me a chance, let alone two. Which reminds me, i'm really sorry I stole your bits." It felt nice to get that off his chest, and he was rewarded with the biggest smile he'd ever seen before Applejack pulled him into another hug.

"Apology accepted. But that can't be what's got you all worked up, now is it?"

He was afraid she might figure that out. He really didn't want to tell anypony this, but looking it the those big, emerald eyes, glistening in the moonlight, the most caring look he had ever seen anypony give him, gave him a bit of a boost of confidence. Releasing a heavy sigh, he got ready to tell a story he had always wished to keep a secret. Next Chapter: Chapter Five Estimated time remaining: 29 Minutes