A/N: This is my first fanfic, reviews will be most welcome =]
It has been a few months since Discord's demise and it was yet another normal day in the peaceful land of Equestria. The sun was almost halfway through the sky, shining its light on the town of Ponyville along with 'Sweet Apple Acres' not so far from it. There were but a few clouds up in the sky, but not a single one of them seemed like it contained enough water in order to rain down and somehow spoil this beautiful day which seemed almost magical. From Ponyville itself one could easily get a glimpse of the town of Canterlot, which looked like a paradise no matter in what angle and from what height one looked upon it.
To a young pegasus colt, who was about the same age as Twilight Sparkle and her friends, this marvelous sight appeared all at once as he flew past a mountain which was hiding Ponyville and Canterlot from his sight just up to a second ago. Having only heard how magnificent of a sight it was from above, seeing it for the first time left him so astonished that he nearly forgot to keep flapping his wings. Regaining his bearings, the expression of amazement on the young stallion's face turned into a huge smile as he continued flying towards the little yet big town.
His name was Paint. It might not sound like a normal name to anypony, but usually other ponies realized that it made sense just as any other name did. Paint's cutie mark was a paintbrush with a bright handle. The bright wooden-like appearing handle made it easy to notice on his blue coat, which resembled the sky when it was almost dark; a blue which appeared just for a few moments before the sun completely finished setting. The edge of his paintbrush cutie mark was covered in simple stripes of the rainbow colors. The colors just happened to be organized in the same order as they appeared on Rainbow Dash's mane, tail, and cutie mark. His mane and tail were colored a lighter blue like the sky in a bright summer's day and his eyes were green.
As you've most likely figured, Paint likes to draw. To him, painting wasn't just a hobby; it was his special talent as understood from a single look on his cutie mark. While most pegasi's talents were focused around flying, that is what Paint specialized in and enjoyed doing. He would take drawing of almost anything that caught his eye using his quills for the sketching and then his paintbrushes and small paint cans for the actual painting. Those drawing materials, including paper and a pad, were the only contents of his first saddle bag. On the one on resting against his other side he carried his money and the food he bought from the last village he's been to.
You might have assumed that he made a living by selling his paintings, but if you had then you assumed wrong. Paint had a compassion for drawing, but he was too modest to turn that into a living. Instead he would work for ponies that lived around where he was staying in order to afford food and a roof over his head, but never has he ever sold a painting before. He would happily give them out to ponies who liked them before drawing them again out of his memory in order to have a copy that he himself could keep in case he wanted to. After all making a living out of that would mean he'd have to spend hours on end drawing, and since he didn't always have the inspiration most artists needed, it didn't sound like he'd enjoy such a life. Also, he wasn't a lazy pony. He might not be living a life of wealth, but he was able to make a living and still have time to enjoy his talent, what else could he ask for?
While his talent was not related to flying at all, Paint has been to the flying school in his own place of birth when he was little and had the flying capabilities of any average pegasus. He flew often, sometimes just to get his head clear and enjoy the fresh air and sometimes in order to look out for things to draw like a setting sun's orange light breaking through the clouds in its way or a clear night's sky or a waterfall, any of nature's wonders that was a sight worth memorizing. Just in the past five seconds Paint's eyes had already seen so much that he didn't know what he'd like to draw on paper first.
He pushed his artistic compulsion aside for now though, for it will have to wait. His last employer at the last village he was staying at, a fully grown earth pony, to whom he helped run a small apple store, has heard that Paint will be traveling to Ponyville next. He was kind to inform some members of his family in 'Sweet Apple Acres' and even said that they will be more than happy to give him a place to stay, not to mention that they were always looking for workers to help with the lots of harvesting they had to do since their apple fields were huge. According to his last employer, they were the ones sending him all the apples he sold.
Paint could not have expressed his gratitude in a better way compared to thanking the pony a thousand times, since now he already had a place to stay and a job before he even got into town, but his former employer said that he shouldn't mention it and that the Apple Family had plenty of room. The young colt pegasus immediately identified the place where he would be staying from now on; Sweet Apple Acres. His former boss certainly was not joking, for that there was a very big apple forest, no wonder the Apple Family was always on the lookout for some help. Since all the traveling he had gone through until now was in order to reach this specific town, he doubted he would be leaving Ponyville any time soon now that he was finally there.
Growing more and more excited the closer he got to Ponyville, the pegasus flew even faster towards the farm he was to live at from now on. He could be a punctual pony despite the fact that he was a carefree pony who liked to spend his time relaxing by watching the sky and painting it. He didn't want to be late to the farm; it would be simply rude after all the kindness that he was shown from the Apple Family. Also, he wouldn't mind making a good impression on the earth ponies. Since he was to actually stay for a long period of time, he was already planning on going to Ponyville after greeting the Apple Family and settling in, for he was already eager to meet new friends. That is, as long as there wasn't any work that had to be done around the farm right now. There might be, and there might not, but Paint knew that his new responsibility had to come before anything else if he was to express his gratitude towards the family he will be staying with.
The farm was literally enormous, and Paint soon realized that finding out the location of anypony from the Apple Family might prove rather problematic. His first attempt was aimed at the barn and house at the edge of the apple fields since it was obviously the easiest place to search at. Flying towards the two wooden buildings, the young pegasus descended a little in order to get a better look around. His search was short and produced no result, causing Paint to figure out that the ponies he was looking for were probably out working in the actual fields. He flew away from the house and above the tightly-close together apple trees. It was impossible to even see the ground from above since the trees were so close to one another, so Paint had to fully descend and land in order to look around.
The orchard was surely bigger once one stepped into it compared to when one flew above it. Paint was already expecting a long and frustrating search, and also once he would start helping the Apple Family with their work it would take him time to get used to this gigantic place and get his bearings. Lucky for him though, he was able to hear some talking just after a few moments of walking. Following the voice, Paint could soon see two mares about his age. One mare he could instantly recognize as one of the Apple Family, especially because of her cowboy hat and Curie Mark which consisted three apples. Applejack was talking to Pinkie Pie, who Paint couldn't really connect to the orchard and its scenery, which was why Paint figured that the two were probably friends.
After a few more seconds, the pink pony let out an excited giggled and left by hopping away excitedly like a bunny. Applejack chuckled and looked at her friend as the energetic pony hopped away, before turning back probably in order to carry on with her work and noticing Paint who was still peeking from behind one of the trees. "Well howdy there partner!" said the earth pony, heading over to him and starting to shake his hoof before Paint even got the opportunity to answer and introduce himself. "Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Ah'm Applejack, how may-ah serve you?"
It took Paint a few moments to take in Applejack's extremely friendly approach and another few moments to realize that he was still shaking his own hoof in the air even after Applejack has already released it, which caused the earth pony to chuckle. Feeling embarrassed, the colt went ahead and was about to introduce himself, only for Applejack to speak up just a moment before he opened his mouth to do the same. "You oughta be Paint," she could tell by his saddlebags and by the fact she did not recognize him that he was a traveler, and his cutie mark was what caused her to realize who he was. "You worked for mah great uncle Applegrapes; he told us you were comin'."
Paint smiled at Applejack with a polite nod, "Yes, that's me." He quickly spoke again so to not forget. "I can't thank you all enough for this; it's going to make things a lot easier for me around here."
"Don' mention it." She responded, "There's more blessin' to give than to receive. Besides, we could really use some extra help around here."
"I can tell." He quickly regretted saying that upon realizing that it sounded quite rude. "I mean, no offense intended! It's just that this is a really big farm."
Applejack couldn't help but chuckle, "Ah like you already Paint." She took a look around, "Yep, this farm was brought up by mah Granny Smith and her relatives when she was mah age. Ponyville didn' even exist back then."
"It is a really beautiful sight." Now Paint already had yet another idea for a new drawing, for he really did mean it when he said that Sweet Apple Acres looked astounding from a distance. It was no doubt that the Apple Family was a proud family, and they had every right to be proud.
"Le'me show you around, we already prepared a place for you to sleep at." With that the earth pony turned and walked in the direction of the house. "We have a small room in the basement that we're not usin'. It might not be big, but we all agreed that it's better than the barn.
"It's okay, I don't mind if it's small." Replied Paint as he followed Applejack. "You're being kind enough to me as it is."
And so Applejack led Paint towards the house giving him a small tour by showing him the kitchen, the restroom and the bathroom. They passed by Granny Smith who was taking her early afternoon nap in the living room, but Paint didn't need to ask in order to realize who she was. To Applejack's relief, her little sister Applebloom wasn't home and was probably outside playing with her friends on some weird 'Cutie Marks Crusaders' adventure. It was a good thing in her opinion since Paint would obviously need some time in order to get settled and it would be rude to have her playful young sister follow him all over the place.
The two headed then downstairs and into the basement where they found Big Macintosh just leaving a small room which was located in the corner. Paint could tell by a single look at the basement that the room in question was where he'll be sleeping from now on. "Well, looks like we arrived just on time." Said Applejack and looked around at Paint. "This here's mah brother Big Macintosh." Shifting her gaze from Paint to her brother, she continued. "Are you done organizin' the room?"
"Eeyup."
Paint hurried and said, "Oh, you shouldn't have… I could have organized things on my own."
"Nonsense," said Applejack. "It's nothin'."
"Eeyup." Said Big Macintosh, using the same tone he spoke with last time.
"Your great uncle sure wasn't lying when he said I'd get a warm welcome here…" said Paint, slightly embarrassed. Applejack wasn't going to say it to him, but his warm welcome was far from delivered yet.
"Eeyup."
"You're a stallion of a few words aren't you?"
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh gave him a friendly smile and shook hoofs with him before leaving.
Applejack chuckled, "Well, go on." Paint smiled thankfully and walked inside. Applejack followed. The room really wasn't too big, but it wasn't small for a basement backroom either. There was a mattress already made up in the upper left corner with a small shelf next to it and a small lamp on top of the shelf. In the upper right corner was a closet which wasn't very big compared to the ones you'll find all over Rarity's Boutique but still big enough for Paint to store his belongings in. Between the closet and the shelf and mattress was a table a pony of Paint's age could sit in front of properly without needing a chair. Paint didn't have any complaints on his mind; in fact he would still have been thankful even if the room had only the mattress. "So how is it?" asked Applejack, breaking the silence. "We would have given you somethin' more appropriate if we had, but it's still better than the barn."
Paint turned to her with a smile, "Oh, don't worry yourself over it, it's perfect, thank you."
"Well Ah'll leave you to get settled, and then I can show you around Ponyville."
"But isn't there work to be done on the farm right now?"
Applejack grinned, "Don' worry about it, you'll get to workin' only after you get settled." Her great uncle Applegrapes surely meant it when he said that Paint was serious when it came to working. "Ah'll probably be in the barn when you're done, so when you feel ready I can show you around the village." Paint silently thanked her and she left in order to allow him to get his belongings organized.
A/N: I hope it's okay for a first chapter. I hope to get the next one done in a few days. I'll be more than happy if you'd keep reading whenever I update.