Applejack stooped halfway down towards the barrel of apples and froze. She shot back up straight and a smile crossed her face, then she flinched and dug back into the apples. “Sure, Twi.”
Twilight shrunk back a half step from the side of the fruit stand as Applejack loaded up the counter with apples. “Yeah?”
Dropping the last apple on the pile, Applejack said, “Eeyup.” She turned and smiled at Mrs. Cake, who had lost all interest in the apples and stared back and forth between her and Twilight with slack surprise. “That’ll be eight bits, and thank ya kindly.” She swept the coins into her drawer as Mrs. Cake wandered off in a daze. “When ya wanna go, Saturday? If ya like, I’m all about sold out here, we can go after I close up.” She glanced up and smiled wide. “Howdy there, Ms. Cheerilee, what can I do ya for today?”
Cheerilee jumped and stopped staring at Twilight. “I’m sorry, what?”
Twilight rubbed her shoulder as spots of pink grew brighter on her cheeks. “So that was a yes?”
Applejack blinked, glanced between Twilight and the twisting line of gawking customer ponies, then pulled her hat down over her eyes. She cleared her throat and said to Cheerilee, “‘Scuse me just a moment, sugarcube,” then turned to face Twilight directly. “Sorry, Twi, lemme try that again.”
Twilight laid her ears flat. “Huh?”
“What I was meanin’ to say was that I’d love to go on a date with you.” She smiled and put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Oh. Oh!” Twilight’s ears shot up and she grinned. “Okay. Great!”
Applejack returned the smile, then winced as a small chorus of cheers and cat-calls erupted from the line. She eyed them, then started loading apples onto the counter. “Sorry I didn’t say it that way the first time, I’m just …” She glared at Cheerilee, who was beaming at the both of them.
Cheerilee started. “Oh, um. A half dozen, please?”
“Sure thing.” She looked sidelong at Twilight. “I’m just sayin’ you picked a funny time to ask is all.”
Twilight blinked herself out of a reverie and looked down sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry. I just … wasn’t sure how long my courage would last.”
“Well, that’s all right. And that’s five bits.” She raised her voice. “I said, five bits.”
Cheerilee eeped, and dropped some coins on the table, then skittered away backwards with her apples, still watching them.
Applejack sighed, gave Bon Bon a warning stare, then turned back to Twilight. “I’m glad ya asked any which way, what’cha have in mind?” She glared out of the corner of her eye when someone whistled.
Twilight cleared her throat and muttered, “I didn’t know I would cause a scene, sorry.” She swiveled around until she was mostly putting her back to the line and leaned in, keeping her voice low. “Do you want to grab lunch after you’ve sold out?”
“That sounds great. I’ll get everything closed up and put away, then I’ll swing by for ya. Sound good, Twi?”
“Sounds perfect.” Twilight nuzzled her cheek, igniting another round of whistles, which made her spring back. She gave Applejack a tiny, embarrassed wave, and hurried off out of the market.
Applejack looked up at the sea of grinning faces. “Y’all better cut that out right now or ain’t nobody buyin’ no more apples today!”
Bon Bon withered in her gaze and held her front hooves up in surrender. “I’ll be good! I just want to buy things!”
Chuffing in satisfaction, Applejack nodded sharply. “That’s more like it. What’cha having?”
“Ten, please.”
Applejack nodded again and filled Bon Bon’s order on the counter. “And lemme beg your forgiveness, I don’t mean to be sour with you.”
“No, no, I understand. That was just very … sweet.”
“Uh huh,” Applejack said flatly. “Seven bits.” She stored Bon Bon’s money and glared at the barrel. Normally she’d look on the bright side of things and say it was half full, but at the moment she’d prefer it to be half empty. She returned to the line and her expression softened. “Well, howdy there, Mr. Rich.”
“Hello to you, too, Ms. Applejack,” Filthy Rich said, giving her a warm grin. “I was—”
Diamond Tiara stood up on her hind legs and squirmed in front of her dad to look at Applejack with stars in her eyes. “That’s amazing! You’re going out with a princess!”
Applejack’s teeth clacked shut and she shrunk back from Diamond Tiara.
“Aren’t you excited? That makes you royalty, too!”
Flithy’s tone turned chiding, but indulgent. “Diamond, honey, leave the poor mare alone, you know what I always say about gossip?”
Diamond glared and recited, “Other ponies’ business isn’t any of our business,” in a flat monotone at the same time as Filthy.
“Right you are!” He winked at Applejack. “I just need an apple for the apple of my eye, though I’m half tempted to buy the rest of your barrel so you can get out of here.”
Applejack chuckled and fetched an apple for Diamond Tiara. “’Preciate the thought, but you ain’t gotta do that, I’ll manage fine.”
He slapped down a bit. “I suspect you will. Tell the salespony ‘thank you,’ Diamond.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled around a bite of apple, then followed Filthy back out into the marketplace. Applejack heard her say, “What’s the big deal? Everypony who is anypony would be excited to date a princess!”
Applejack let out a long breath, then put on her best smile for the next in line. She filled orders one after another, emptying the barrel and filling her money drawer, her mind wandering. She frowned to herself. She didn’t agree to go on a date because Twilight was a princess, she agreed to go on a date because Twilight was Twilight. She didn’t much think about the princess part, it didn’t come up all that often. And it certainly didn’t make Applejack royalty, it was just a date.
She sold the last of her apples to Mayor Mare, packed up her cart, and headed for home at a quick pace. The sun was nearing midday, she could feel her stomach growling all ready, and she wanted to have a little bit of extra time to get ready.
“Might just be a date, but it’s still a date,” she said to herself. Her trot slowly turned into a prance and her smile grew as she went.
Applejack stopped short of the castle door and hesitated. She took a deep breath and patted down her mane, which was already down flat, brushed, and still slightly damp from a bath, then raised a hoof to knock. She thought the better of it and just grabbed the handle. The door swung open silently and she stepped into the antechamber.
“Twilight?” she trilled, winced, cleared her throat, and called out again in a real voice, “You, uh, ready for lunch?”
Twilight’s voice floated back through the halls. “Be there in a minute!”
Applejack crossed her legs and stood there, feeling somewhere between relaxed and awkward, and waited a few moments until the echoes of hoofsteps drew her attention. A door opened and Twilight poked her head out. “Hi.”
“Well, hi, yourself.” She smiled at Twilight. Twilight smiled back with color rising in her cheeks. Not that Applejack could talk, she felt heat warming up her own face. “You ready?”
“Um, almost. Maybe.” She shied back from the door she was peeking around. “You’re not wearing your hat.”
Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah, seemed … I dunno.” She shrugged. “Hat’s for workin’. Didn’t feel right wearin’ it on a date. I kinda thought about wearin’ …” She fidgeted and rubbed her shoulder. “Truth be told, I didn’t know what to wear and tore through the dozen big, flashy dresses Rarity’s made me over the years, before decidin’ that it was a lunch date and I oughta just come all normal like, if that makes sense.”
“It does,” she said with a hint of worry in her voice. “Um. Is this too much?” She stepped out from behind the door.
Applejack’s eyebrows shot up. The dress Twilight wore wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Grand Galloping Gala, with a long, flowing skirt in royal purple and her shoulders wrapped in a matching shawl, pinned in front with a large, six pointed star brooch on her chest. A fine filigree of silver thread made stars and moons flash over the whole surface as light caught the stitching.
“Wow,” Applejack eventually said.
“It’s too much.” Twilight sat down and pulled the whole dress off over her head in a single motion. “I knew it was too much.” She sighed and forced a smile. “Let me just … put this away.” She lifted the dress up in her magic and straightened it out.
“I-it’s a real nice dress.”
“Thank you. Rarity made it for me.”
“You can wear it if you want. I could go put on somethin’ … I was gonna say more fancy, but seein’ as I’m wearin’ nothin’ right now …”
Twilight giggled, and some of the rigidity left her tone. “No, no, you’re right, this is better for lunch, I was just worried that—” she cut herself and sighed, then giggled again. “I was overthinking things. I’m sure you’re surprised.”
Applejack laughed and sat down on the floor. “Don’t worry none, I ain’t doin’ much better.” As she said it, she felt most of her tension melt away.
Twilight let out a long breath and turned around. “Okay, I’m going to put this away, and then we can go to the café and have a normal lunch date like a couple of sane ponies. Does that sound good?”
“Sounds perfect.” She shared a grin with Twilight, who then stomped off down the hall. She let out her own breath and rubbed her face. She was regretting not wearing her hat.
The door opened again, and Twilight crossed the antechamber to join her at the door. “The café is okay, right?”
“Oh, yeah, ‘course.” She stood up and pushed open the door for Twilight, then followed out into the sunshine. “We always like that place.”
Twilight fell into pace next to Applejack and drew her brow together. “I know, that’s why I’m … overthinking things again.” She chuckled. “We’ve been there for lunch so many times without it being a date that it seems like maybe it’s not the right place to go.”
“Only difference between those lunches and a date is us sayin’ it’s a date or not, sugarcube.”
“I suppose that’s true.” A comfortable lull fell over them as they passed through the outskirts of the market and made their way towards the town square. Twilight snickered and looked sideways at Applejack. “So, uh, I hope you had an easy time selling the rest of your apples this morning.”
Applejack snorted and lowered her head. “Hoo, boy.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said through laughter. “I really didn’t mean to do that to you.”
“Wouldn’t imagine so, but you at least got to leave afterwards.” She bumped Twilight’s shoulder playfully. “But nah, it wasn’t nothing too bad. Just had to give ‘em the stink-eye for long enough, and they all piped down.”
Twilight smiled and shook her head. “I really don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking, really, it just felt sort of like a now-or-never thing, even though that’s silly.”
Shrugging, Applejack nodded. “I get that, I think. And if that’s what was goin’ on, and my choice was either you asked me then or never, I’m glad ya asked me.”
“Yeah?”
Applejack smiled. Twilight smiled back. They got to the café and Twilight sat on the haybale she always took, at the table they always ended up sitting at outside, and Applejack sat across from her. “Hoo-ee, I’m starvin’. Whatcha think, Twi, plate‘a hayfries? I ain’t gonna get through a whole one by myself.”
“I’ll have some.” She lifted a menu off the table and started reading. “Though that means I shouldn’t get something that comes with fries …”
“You mean you ain’t gettin’ the same salad you always get?”
“I didn’t say that at all, seeing as it doesn’t come with fries. But really, that isn’t fair, I know how to be adventurous with food.” She looked up at the waiter as he stepped over to the table. “Hi.”
“Afternoon, fillies. Lemme guess, water with lemon for the princess?”
Applejack snorted.
Twilight pouted. “I’m not that predictable,” she muttered low, then sighed and told him, “I was actually thinking of trying … okay, no, you’re right, water with lemon.”
Applejack grinned at Twilight.
“And an apple juice, extra pulp?”
Applejack stopped smiling. She sighed and gave the waiter a reluctant nod. “Yeah, that’ll do me.”
Twilight giggled. “I think he has us figured out.”
Leaning back on her haybale, Applejack nodded. “Yeah, reckon so. Care to try ‘n guess our food order, too?”
He drew himself up and frowned in thought. “Well, now, that’s harder to pin down. I suppose it really depends on whether or not you want an order of hayfries for the table.”
Applejack snorted and buried her face in her hooves. “Ah, heck, we’re done for, Twi.”
Stifling giggles, Twilight floated the menus off the table. “We give up, you win.”
The waiter took the menus and grinned. He said, “A glazed almond salad, an eggplant parm hero, and a plate of fries it is, then,” and walked back into the restaurant.
“Rats,” Applejack muttered, “I was still hopin’ he’d get it wrong.”
Twilight leaned forward and rested her chin on a hoof in thought. “That seems a little counter-productive to me. You’d end up getting something to eat that you didn’t want.”
“It’d be the best tastin’ wrong thing I’d ever eat.”
Chuckling, Twilight shook her head and leaned back. “I suppose it would be nicely seasoned with vindictiveness.”
“I’d probably miss my dang parm, though, so I reckon this is probably better.” She rubbed her cheek and frowned. “What were we talkin’ about before all this food stuff?”
“… Um …” Twilight knit her brow. “Had we moved on from me leaving you with a bunch of prying customers?”
Applejack crinkled her muzzle, then shrugged. “I guess that’s what it was. Eh, don’t matter. You know how my day went, anyway, how’s yours been?”
“Oh. I don’t know, mostly normal. I’ve been answering so many letters if feels like my horn’s going to fall off.”
“This just ponies lookin’ for advice?”
“Yeah.” She rubbed an eye and gave Applejack a tired smile. “Most of them foals, too. And a lot of the problems are the same. It’s funny how often I can answer a question by just relating a story about something the six of us have been through.”
“I bet that wears ya down after a while.”
“Oh, I’m okay.” She sat up straight. “I like doing it, really. And it can’t be more tiring than bucking trees all day.”
“Different sorta tirin’.” Applejack shrugged. “And I’m sure them letters keep comin’ no matter what ya do. If you ever need a break, I wouldn’t mind writing back a few for ya. Bet the girls’d be happy to do that, too.”
“Thanks.” The waiter stopped off with their drinks, and Twilight floated the lemon wedge out of her glass. She rubbed it along the rim, then squeezed the juice out over the water. “I’m okay, but I will keep that in mind. And really, you’re welcome to read and answer letters whenever you want. I think you’ve all got just as much of a right to them as I do.”
“Hm. Maybe I’ll take a gander at ‘em soon.” She took a sip of her juice and enjoyed the fact that she could chew it. “So ya spent the mornin’ writin’ letters, then up and decided to ask me out?”
“Oh, is that why you asked about my day? I thought you actually wanted to know how it was going.”
Applejack raised her eyebrows. “Nah, I mean—”
Twilight giggled. “I’m just kidding, don’t worry.”
“I would’a let it be if you said you were havin’ a rough day.”
“I know. I’m also stalling.” Twilight took a long drink of her water, keeping her eyes trained on the table. She set the glass down and cleared her throat. “The last letter I read was from a filly in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”
Applejack nodded. “Made ya think back over your days there?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Not really. She was writing because of a problem she was having with her best friend. The problem was she has feelings for her best friend, and doesn’t know how to tell her.”
“Ah.” Applejack nodded firmly. “I’m seein’ it now.”
“Yeah.” She sipped her water, and her lips puckered from the lemon and she wrinkled her nose for a bare second. Applejack pretended not to notice. “That’s a pretty common type of letter for me to get that I don’t have an easy go-to story to share for.” She straightened up. “But most of them are from colts writing about fillies. Or fillies writing about colts.”
Applejack nodded again. “And this’n made you think about you a li’l faster.”
“It wasn’t even that, really.” Twilight frowned and rubbed her cheek in thought. “It was everything she said in the letter. She was scared about what her friend might say, and what it might do to the friendship they already have. She said that if she was risking losing that friendship, she’d much rather say nothing at all.”
Applejack frowned and fidgeted in her seat on the haybale. “You ain’t—weren’t—worried ‘bout what I might’a said like that, were you?”
“No.” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “The first thing I wrote down in the reply was that from everything she’d said to me about their friendship, nothing in Equestria would ever have the chance of breaking that friendship apart.” She took a long drink of her lemon-water and puckered up again. “I then threw that reply out, because I realized I was projecting, and maybe I didn’t know enough about her to say that.”
Applejack chuckled and stared at her juice. “Yeah, I was gonna say.”
“It did make me articulate the thought, and realize that any anxieties I had about asking you weren’t founded on anything real. Plus I could relate to a lot of what she was talking about, so it got me thinking about … things.”
Applejack grinned and chewed her juice. “Whatcha end up sayin’ to her after all’a that?”
“Oh.” She sighed. “I haven’t written back yet. I threw out my first draft and went to talk to you.” She smiled and rubbed her shoulder. “And after that, I thought it probably wasn’t a good idea to just write, ‘you should tell her, she’ll say yes and you’ll feel like you got a perfect score on a surprise quiz for the next few hours,’ so I decided I should wait to answer her until I have a bit more level of a perspective.”
Applejack laughed, then covered her mouth as their lunch arrived. A small curl of steam rose up from her eggplant, and she smashed the top bun down over it, glad he hadn’t gotten the order wrong after all. “Now we’re talkin’!”
“Can I get you ladies anything else?”
Twilight and Applejack exchanged a look, then turned to him and said in unison, “You tell us.”
He smiled and gave them a little bow. “Peace and quiet it is, then. Let me know if you need anything, I’ll be back with fresh drinks just before you’re about to run out.” He winked, then turned and walked away.
“I dunno if that’s real good service, or kinda spooky.” Applejack took a bite of her sandwich.
“I’m going with both. How’s the sandwich?”
“Just what I wanted.” She took a bigger bite and smiled around it. “’N ‘r s’l’d?”
Twilight giggled and covered her face. “My old Ponish is a little rusty, but the salad is good if that’s what you asked, thank you.”
Clearing her mouth with some juice, Applejack said, “Welcome. So other’n letters from lovesick fillies, how’s other stuff goin’?”
“Oh, you know.” She shrugged and floated her napkin to her mouth. “Nothing too exciting. The map hasn’t sent anypony off anywhere lately. The last pony—err, creature, I guess—that it called was Spike, and that was kind of a strange one, honestly. It kind of seemed to make everything worse than it would have been if Spike had just dealt with Ember and Thorax on his own. Why are you laughing?”
Applejack picked up her own napkin and hid her chuckles. “Sorry. When I was askin’ how stuff’s goin’, I wasn’t tryin’ to make you talk about work. I’m sure you get enough’a that when you’re workin.’”
Twilight blinked, then giggled. “I guess I’m sorry for bringing work up again. That’s something normal ponies try to relax and unwind from, isn’t it?” She rubbed an eye.
“Ain’t no reason to do the ‘normal’ thing if you don’t wanna. Plus, there’re plenty’a ponies out there wrapped up in their jobs.”
“I can see both sides of it, honestly.” She speared several hunks of lettuce and a grape tomato on a fork and shoved them in her mouth. “After … everything,” she fluttered her wings for emphasis, “I spent a long time feeling at loose ends, and it’s felt really good to have something to do since then. It’s a little hard to turn that off.”
Applejack glanced up from her sandwich with her mouth full and nodded.
“On the other hoof, it’s a little hard to turn off. Sometimes it feels like all I am anymore is the work.” She hovered her fork over her salad and rested her chin on a hoof. “There’s always something else to do, and somepony else who really needs me.” She sighed. “And I can’t forget that the only vacation I’ve had ended up turning into work, too.” She looked up, then forced a smile. “Sorry. I’m complaining about silly things.”
Applejack swallowed and wiped her mouth off. “Nah, I get what you’re talkin’ about. I ain’t gonna pretend a farm needs the same sorta stuff as ponies in trouble, or that it’s the same sorta important, but there’s still always somethin’ to do, and it ain’t something I can turn off too easy myself. And feelin’ that way don’t mean I don’t love it any more than it means you don’t.”
Twilight’s smile warmed up and she nodded. “I guess that’s true.” She took another bite of salad. “So how are things going for you?”
“Oh, y’know, gettin’ about time for cider season.” She winked, sparking a laugh. “Nah, things’re good. Nothin’ too excitin’ or different, just the usual sorta day to day stuff, but between all the savin’ the world troubles, I’ve grown to really like the day to day stuff.” She looked over what was left of her hero and took a big bite, chewing slowly. “… Been … nice gettin’ to know Grand Pear.”
Twilight looked down at her salad. “I’d bet that is nice.”
“It’s hard. But still nice. He knows stories I don’t, and he’s givin’ Apple Bloom a bit of mom she ain’t had. Me and Mac, too, but that don’t matter so much to me as Apple Bloom. But … part’a me … still remembers mom, and what he did, and wants to be angry at him for it.” Applejack winced and set her sandwich down. “Sorry, this got kinda heavier’n I meant it to.”
“That’s okay.” Twilight smiled and slid her hoof across the table, resting it on Applejack’s. “I understand. And it’s good to talk about. If you want to.”
Applejack sighed and nodded. “I dunno. Whatever the story then and whatever he did and said, he’s a sweet ol’ gramps of a pony now, and I know deep down in my heart that I can’t really be mad at him. All he wants is a bit of that family he let go of. Took him some time to get there, but he still got there.” She stared at the few bites left of her sandwich and pushed the plate away. “I guess I’m just still sore ‘n raw about mom and dad. And that ain’t fair to him.”
“I don’t know that it has to be fair to him, really. I don’t know that life works that way.”
“It oughtta.” She looked up and gave Twilight a crooked smile. “But yeah. I reckon it’ll get easier here ‘n there. And givin’ that to Apple Bloom makes it all worth it, anyway.”
Twilight nodded. “Just don’t … bury those emotions, okay? It’s okay to not feel perfectly happy about all of this, you’re coming from an honest place. Pushing that away for the sake of others might be the noble thing to do, but it doesn’t help anypony if it eats you up inside.”
Applejack closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Yeah …” She patted Twilight’s hoof fondly, then took hers back and rubbed her face. “That’s the right call, I think. We all mended the bridge there with him ‘n Granny, and the dinners and stories with him’re nice, but I been feelin’ a wall there between him and me, and it’s been growin’ thicker. I really should talk to him about all’a this. I’ve just been scared that if I did, it’d drive somethin’ between him and AB, and it’d be my fault.” She grimaced and ran her hoof over her mouth. “And it would be my fault, ‘cause who he is now is what oughtta matter.”
“Your feelings matter, too.” Twilight frowned and sat back on her hay bale. “As much as it feels like it, other pony’s feelings aren’t your responsibility, and you can’t take all of that on your shoulders just to try and protect them.”
“I know that in my head,” Applejack said. “But knowin’ it in my head and feelin’ it in my heart ain’t the same thing.”
Twilight let out a long breath and nodded. “Believe me, I understand that.” She smiled wanly. “Still. You said that Grand Pear already gave up part of his family once, and spent years of his life regretting it. I don’t think he’d make the same mistake again, just because one of the ponies he’s trying to get back hasn’t had a chance to heal yet.”
Applejack stared off, away from the table. “Yeah.” She sighed. “It’d be a lot easier if ma and pa were still here. I can see what mom would’a been like if she’d been there when he came back, in my head. She wouldn’t have been raw like me. She couldn’t hold a grudge in her body for a second.” She turned back to Twilight with a small smile fighting its way through. “Dad’s a bit harder to guess, but he loved seein’ ma happy, he’d probably hold onto that with all four hooves as tight as he could.”
“Well … maybe that’s worth keeping in mind. If you know that no matter what he did and how it hurt your parents in the past, your mom would still have welcomed him back …”
“Yeah, I been tryin’ to think of it that way.” Her smile drifted away. “Then again, I was awful little when we lost ‘em. Can’t say I even know ‘em well enough to guess how they’d be.” Applejack felt a wave of melancholy crash over her, and she closed her eyes for a moment. She took a deep breath and shook her head. “I wish I had more of ‘em, or remembered ‘em better, so I could really know what they’d say ‘n what they’d want. I think that’s a big part’a why I’m so angry at him.” She clenched her jaw and looked down at her scraps of food. “If he hadn’t left, maybe things’d be different. Maybe I wouldn’t’a lost ‘em.”
Twilight didn’t say anything. She looked down at her salad and loaded up her fork with what was left.
“I know playin’ that game ain’t gonna get me nowhere. What’s done is done. Nopony can change that. I just gotta try’n … let it all go. I don’t want to be angry at him, I wanna forgive him if I can, and have somethin’ with him the same as AB’s gettin’. I wanna know him better, try and get some piece of mom back, even if she’s gone. I want a grandpa.” Applejack let out a long sigh and sat up straight. “I am feelin’ better now, havin’ talked it out. Thank you, Twi.”
“Of course.” Twilight smiled, though a hint of sadness colored her expression. “You’re welcome.”
“Maybe I needed it, but I’m still sorry for bringin’ down the mood.” Applejack rubbed her cheek and looked down at the table. “… And for orderin’ fries, we didn’t even touch ‘em.”
Twilight blinked, looked at the heaping plate of hayfries, then snickered. “Technically we didn’t order them, though, did we?”
They shared a look, then both started laughing. “Next thing you know, he’s gonna bring—”
“A to go box,” said the waiter as he set a small carton down on the table. “And your check, unless I can get you anything else?”
Applejack grumbled and started loading the hayfries into be box.
“No, I think that’s it, thank you.” Twilight took the bill’s folder in her magic, then had it snatched out of the air in Applejack’s teeth. “Hey—"
“I got it, Twi,” Applejack said around the folder as she closed up the box.
“You don’t have to do that, I’m happy to—”
“And so am I.”
Twilight muttered something under her breath, then gave the waipony a polite smile, who took the hint and slipped back towards the restaurant. “I invited you out, it’s tradition that I pay.”
Applejack spat out the billfold, then pinned it down to the table when magic surrounded it. “And I’m payin’ anyways.”
“Ugh, fine, but I get the next one.”
“Fair.” A small lull fell over them while Applejack counted out some bits and stacked them up on the check.
Twilight cleared her throat. “… I mean, i-if you’d like there to be a next one …” Her voice came out shaky and a little hollow, with a false lack of concern.
Applejack paused halfway through tallying and smiled. “You free tomorrow night?” She counted out a tip, then shut the folder and jumbled all the coins up together.
“Yes, I’m free,” she said with the same fake carefree tone, this time obviously covering up an opposite array of emotions.
“That’s settled then.” She grinned wider and stood up from the table. “Though before we’re worryin’ too much about the next date, let’s finish this’n. Fancy a walk in the park?”
Twilight followed Applejack away from the café and they walked together in comfortable silence. They crossed the town square in the opposite direction they came, out past the fountain and into the paths winding through the park just south of town. Twilight felt the sun beating down on her mane and warming her wings, and the air was filled with the rich, earthy smell of summer.
“This is nice,” she muttered. “I don’t come out here often enough.”
“Eeyup, I hear ya. Amazin’ how many bugs ya can hear when you’re not haulin’ a cart.”
She smiled and swiveled her ears, picking up the ebb and flow buzzing of a cicada, mixed in with the constant hum of the bees flying through the flowerbeds. “I don’t remember it being this peaceful here.”
“That’s ‘cause we usually got all the pets with us.”
Twilight giggled and nodded. “Yeah, and that’s sort of the definitional opposite of peaceful.”
The path forked and they came across a cart vender selling ice cream. Twilight flashed Applejack a warning look and stepped up to the cart first. “What would you like, Applejack?”
Applejack smiled mischievously and fell into place behind her. “Okay, but this means I’m payin’ for dinner tomorrow.”
“I’ll fight you for the bill. Now come on, what would you like.”
“Always been partial to rocky road.”
Twilight nodded in victory and got Applejack’s ice cream and a scoop of mint pistachio for herself. She floated her cone in front of her face and continued down the path. She stopped and looked back when Applejack didn’t follow.
Applejack held her cone precariously in the crook of a foreleg and inched along the path, looking back and forth from her footing to the ice cream threatening to splat to the ground. Twilight bit her lip.
“Umm, how about we sit for a while,” she offered, and crossed over to a park bench.
Applejack gave her a grateful look, then maneuvered carefully to sit down. She held her ice cream between both hooves and let out a breath of relief. “That’s better. Sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Twilight giggled. She took a slurp of her ice cream and sat down on the bench. “I forget about things like that sometimes.”
Applejack flashed a smile and dug into her cone. “Must be nice forgettin’ that.”
“It has its tradeoffs. I’d bet you five bits that if I tried to hold an ice cream cone in one hoof, it would end up with the ice cream on the ground and the cone on my horn.”
Applejack laughed. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s happened before.” She hid her face with a gulp of ice cream and looked out across the park. A group of foals off in the distance ran back and forth in a spirited game of tag, while a small filly threw a frisbee for her dog. The shouts and barks carried across the park just loud enough for Twilight to hear them, adding a pleasant, bouncy melody to the rhythm of the bug buzzing. She let out a sigh of contentment and settled back against the bench.
Applejack’s hoof slid over her fetlock. She rolled her leg around and held Applejack’s back.
“Mm.” Applejack crunched into the cone. “Thanks for the ice cream, Twi.”
“Thanks for lunch, AJ.”
Applejack chuckled and scooted back into the bench, bringing them shoulder to shoulder. Twilight hesitated for a moment, then leaned into it, resting her head against Applejack’s. Applejack took her hoof back and wrapped it around Twilight’s shoulders.
Twilight felt her heart racing. Nothing in the day had gone quite like she’d expected it would, and there was a delirious, giddy sense of freedom and unknown wrapped up in it. They hadn’t even done anything that special, and yet her hooves were shaky. She felt Applejack’s head turn, and she matched the movement, sharing a smile, feeling Applejack’s breath on her muzzle, smelling a hint of chocolate. She closed her eyes. Their lips met.
A searing flash of light exploded in front of her eyelids.
Energy rushed out around her, enveloping her, making the hairs of her coat stand on end. The muscles in her legs seized up, and she felt Applejack flinch against her. The crackle of magic drowned out the sounds of the park, and the warmth of the wooden bench planks vanished as she and Applejack lifted up off the ground, floating in the air, the whine of magic growing louder and stronger.
Twilight opened her eyes into the blinding light. In the haze, a flurry of images rushed past her mind, faster than she could process, but clear and sharp. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, all playing out at once, the sights and sounds and smells melding together one on top of the other, all vying for attention, and all burning themselves into Twilight’s mind at the same time.
She saw Big Macintosh, smaller and lankier than she’d ever seen him before, putting a bandage over a cut on her gaskin. Her orange gaskin. She could see freckles on her muzzle in the corner of her eye. She brushed her blonde mane out of her face and sniffed. “Thanks, big bro, it feels better already,” she said.
She saw Applejack smiling with her mane done up in a Prench braid, a dark, satin sport coat picking glints of the setting sun, with her hoof raised up, holding Twilight’s. Applejack said, “I do.”
She saw her mom holding Apple Bloom in her arms, swaddled in a blanket. “AJ, don’t be scared, come meet your little sister …”
She saw an old barn, set back and away from Sweet Apple Acre’s main buildings, transformed into a farmhouse, first in bits and pieces fueled by blood and sweat, then shiny and new, then warm with age and use, the garden around the front porch growing stronger and wild with year after passing year.
She saw Applejack’s shy coquettish expression as Twilight led her down the hall of her castle, past the thrones and kitchens, back to her bedroom.
She saw the apple orchard sprawling out in front of her in the dying light of the evening, lit up in tiny flashes by thousands of fireflies, until her attention was stolen by Applejack taking her hoof, bending down, and opening a small box. The rush of happiness blurred the image around the edges until all she could make out from it was her own voice, shouting “Yes!”
She saw the orchard come into view closer and closer as she ran, following the rainbow through the sky as it guided her home, felt her lungs burn from the effort. Granny and Big Mac were waiting for her. She jumped into their hooves.
She saw her hoof hanging off the side of a rocking chair, with Applejack’s own hoof holding tight, rocking in unison with her. Applejack’s face was lined with wrinkles. Her own hoof was knobby and weakened by time.
She felt herself pushed in a swing, a swing somewhere off in the same park they were in, catching Applejack in glimpses as she was caught and pushed again, giggling at the novelty. Applejack caught hold of the swing and didn’t let go. Twilight raised an eyebrow then felt herself hugged around the middle from behind. “I love you,” Applejack whispered. She turned halfway on the swing and returned the embrace.
She saw Twilight Sparkle at the end of her hooves, dangling off the side of a cliff, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hovering in the air. She said, “Trust me.” Twilight opened her eyes. Then she let go.
She saw more, so much more. She saw fights and warmth, sadness, and joy, boredom and comfort, as years and years of images etched themselves into her memory. The blinding shine of magic faded around her and the blurry shape of Applejack swam back into her vision as their hooves touched down on the soft ground of the path. Her horn spat a series of hissing sparks as they fell apart, panting and shaky.
Applejack shook her head and rubbed her face. “Twilight, what was—?”
Twilight didn’t hear the rest of the question. She turned around and ran.