Chapter 2: New friends and challenges

Victor woke up early that morning, a bad habit from the army days I guess. He was going to the exit when Maxmine walked in.

“Good morning Victor, I thought you would like some breakfast so I brought some things from the grocery store.”

“Oh thanks bud, care to join me?”

“Sure, let me just get a table”

So they talked for a while, Victor keeping track of time this time around. Max told him that he used to be just like him, a new comer to the town and he felt like a complete stranger until he met Applejack and…

“Wait, Applejack?” Victor asked.

“Yup, she’s a real sweetie; she introduced me to her friends, including Pinkie who got me this job! Apparently the former barkeep had an attitude problem.”

Max continued: “You’ll probably get to know the rest of the group soon enough, there’s Pinkie, Applejack and 4 more.”

“Well, I know friends are something that you can never be short off.” Victor said. “Well gotta get going… see you later.”

Max weaved his hoofs as Victor walked out the door; it was time to get started in this city.

As he walked through the streets he started planning his day, the banks only opened at 10:00am so he still had some time to kill before he could buy his apartment, he might as well check that Applejack job offer, after all some extra cash never killed anyone. Plus he was curious to meet the group that Max was talking about.

He was about to ask a nearby pony for directions when… *THUMP* somepony bumped into him, a beautiful white unicorn with purple hair.

“Oh goodness, I’m SO sorry…” The unicorn said.

“No, no, it’s alright, I wasn’t looking…”

“Ugh I was so distracted now my fabrics are all over the ground! Of all the things that could happen this is THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!” She then proceeded to collapse on a nearby bench.

Kinda melodramatic… As Victor was helping the unicorn gather her stuff he decided to ask her for directions.

“Say, I’m new in town, can you give me some directions?”

“Well after this inconvenience that’s the least I can do, ask away.”

“I need to find the Sweet Apple Acres farm.”

“Oh it’s easy, just follow Main Street until you get to Auckland road, and then go straight till you get there, you can’t miss it.”

“Thanks, I’ll be on my way then, c’ya.”

As Victor walked to the farm he couldn’t take that beautiful mare out of his mind, damn, he should have asked her name, why didn’t he tried to make some conversation?

He thought: “I can hit a target with a rifle at 200 meters and survive in the Everfree forest, but mares, I’m just totally lost about then.”

It’s not like he never had girlfriends before, but he was never the pony to make the first move

Well no time to lament about that, Sweet Apple Acres is just ahead.

As Victor got to the massive apple farm he could see somepony bucking the apples, must be Applejack, he approached and introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m Victor, Pinkie Pie told me about a job available here?”

“Hey there partner, I’m Applejack, Pinkie Pie told me about you…”

“Yea, she’s quite a figure huh?”

“Eeyup, but she’s a real pal, she told me she offered her party room for you to stay, she normally doesn’t do that…”

“Well anyway, what’s the job?” Victor was anxious to get started.

“It’s simple, just kick the trees and buck the apples.”

“Sounds simple enough…”

“Wha, y’all think it’s easy eh townpony? Very well, lemme see how you buck then apples.”

AJ then lead Victor trough the apple field, apple trees as far as he could see, and they kept walking until they reached a particularly strong looking tree.

“Well lemme se wha’cha can do, give it ya best shot!”

Victor, with his rear hooves, slammed the tree as hard as he could, it had little effect as only 2 or 5 of the 15 or so apples fell…

“Hold on, I can do this…”

But really, he couldn’t, he did several attempts to buck the godforsaken apples to no effect. In frustration he punched the tree, and then an apple fell right on his head.

“Hehehe” Applejack laughed. “Nice try…”

“It sucked huh?”

“Yes but I don’t blame ya, the only pony I know that can buck that tree is mah bro Big Macintosh and he’s twice your size”

“Well, why did you ask me to buck this tree then?”

“Well seeing ‘em try never gets old hehehe”

After that Victor tried bucking some other trees, fairing much better this time around.

“I’ve seen enough.” Saied Applejack.

“So?” Victor was curios

“The job is yours, be here tomorrow at 7am”

“Yes ma’am, you won’t be disappointed”

“I know I won’t” AJ smiled.

As AJ showed Victor to the exit, he noticed two ponies waiting by the front gate, one of them was familiar…