“Fluttershy, listen.” Big Macintosh scooted along the ground, trying to get out from underneath the mare atop of him. “Ah think yer’ a really nice gal ‘n all, but Ah think we—“
“Hush now, quiet now,” She whispered as she moved in the opposite direction, getting ever closer to her prize.
“Ah’m really uncomfortable with even thinkin’ about doing this!”
She placed a hoof on his lips to silence him and brought her own lips down to meet their goal, when a knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
Followed by another.
Followed by Applejack, walking into the room, and her eyes widening in horror as she was realized she was witnessing her brother and her best friend about to… to…
“Umm… Applejack?”
About to…
“Applejack?”
NO.
“APPLEJACK!”
“APPLEJACK, WAKE UP!”
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Big Macintosh’s shaking finally woke her up, bringing her consciousness back to the warmer, much more… not that.
“What the hay had ya so riled up?”
Shaking the loose hair from in front of her face, Applejack tried to come up with a response. But the best of her efforts came up flat.
“Well, when ya feel like talkin’ about it, Ah’ll be downstairs. Don’t forget, Ah promised Fluttershy Ah’d take her over ta ‘Quills & Sofas’, so yer going to be stuck with Applebloom over to Rarity’s.”
“Right...” Applejack mumbled as she rubbed the last of the sleep out of her eyes. She watched her brother limp his way out of her room, the small wheels on his cast squeaking along the way.
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As he limped up to Fluttershy’s cottage, Big Macintosh could already hear the cacophony of chirps, shrieks and chitters that seemed to fade into white noise that constantly accompanied the mare’s house.
“Miss Fluttershy?” he knocked, not entirely sure what her policy was when dealing with expected company.
“Oh, just a minute, please! You can come inside if you want, I’ll be right out!”
Looking down at the single daisy clutched in his hoof, he really couldn’t decide where it fell. Was it too much? Or was it too little? Should he bring anything, when they were just planning on going and getting a fancy quill for Twilight’s birthday, and lunch after? Or should he have brought more, considering that it was what could easily be seen as their first date?
And now that he was looking at it, this daisy wasn’t all that pretty. In fact, it had already started to droop a little. Maybe he should just drop it somewhere and—
“I’m ready to go now, if that’s okay.” Fluttershy’s voice broke him from his thoughts. Looking between her and the daisy, he held it out for her, hoping she would get the idea.
“Oh, thank you! But, you really didn’t need to…”
She took the flower from his hoof, and placed it between her mane and ear, and then shut the door behind her.
“Are you ready to go?”
“Eeyup.”
The pair began their trek to Ponyville, a not-entirely-unwelcome silence accompanying. Neither knew where exactly to start the conversation, nor what the conversation should or could encompass. In fact, the most noise between the pair was the occasional squeak from the wheels on Big Macintosh’s cast. The occasional glance down at it from Fluttershy almost provided an opening, but by the time either had worked up the courage to act on it, they had already arrived at “Quills & Sofas.”
Stepping inside, they were greeted with what one could expect from a store called “Quills and Sofas”—it was covered in quills and sofas. Ranging from the more regal, fluidly designed divans to the more bland, ergonomically designed office chaises, there certainly wasn’t a lack of variety. Not to suggest that the quills half of the store was sub-par, of course. More styles and varieties of the writing tool than either had ever heard of decorated the walls, forming a prismatic sheet, with one specific quill held in a glass case in the center of the store.
This quill, however, deserved it’s own spot. It had a gold-bordered label underneath, which read “Prismatic Phoenix.” The “Phoenix” part, Fluttershy could understand. The feather was reminiscent of the one she had received from Philomena, it’s flame-colored fade, and faint heat had both left quite an impression on her.
“Umm… excuse me, sir?”
“Yes?” Davenport, the store’s owner called from behind the counter.
“Why is this quill placed apart from the others?”
“Well,” Davenport chuckled as he trot over to the quill in question, “better question is; How is this quill apart from the others?” Lifting the glass dome, he began to ink out a message on a spare sheet of parchment he kept on his person for just such an occasion.
“For one, it’s a phoenix feather—doesn’t take much looking to figure that out—and another, it’s enchanted. Doesn’t need ink at all. See?” He presented his own name scrawled out upon the paper. “How about you try?”
“I’d love to!” Taking the quill in her own hoof, she began to pen her own name when she noticed that instead of the same navy blue that had come out for Davenport’s name, a light rose to match her mane came out instead.
“Oh no, I broke it, didn’t I?”
“Far from it, my dear,” Davenport chortled, “That’s one of the many ways this quill is enchanted. It’s designed to have any color ink you could possibly please, but you have to focus on one particular color, or it’ll decide by itself.”
“That sounds absolutely wonderful! I’m certain Twilight will just love it.”
“Twilight?” Davenport’s eyebrow shifted, surprised to hear that particular name come up. “As in, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes, why?”
“Why, she’s a very good customer of mine! Now that I know her birthday’s coming up, I have to think of something to get her myself!” He chuckled, taking the quill over to the counter. “That’ll be 40 bits.”
“Oh, thank you so much! I can’t…” As Fluttershy reached into her bit purse, she realized that she hadn’t more than 10 bits to her name, after paying off the hospital fees. “I can’t…” She began frantically searching through the purse, hoping that by some miracle the remaining 30 bits would appear by themselves.
“Listen,” Big Macintosh stepped in, withdrawing his own, substantially heftier bit bag, “Ah’ll pay for it.”
“Oh, I don’t want to be a—“ Fluttershy was cut off by a quick glance from Big Macintosh as he placed the bits on the counter.
Unknown to most ponies outside the Apple Family, Big Macintosh had his own version of “The Stare”. While he couldn’t use it to compel Winona to actually be quiet when Granny Smith was taking a nap, he used it more often than not to relay messages that just couldn’t be said out loud.
After placing the wrapped and boxed quill in his saddlebag, the pair exited the store, with Big Macintosh left to ponder how to broach the topic.
There was blunt as a rock, which would work if she flat-out denied it, but…
“I- I’m not broke, if that’s what you’re thinking…”
Blunt it is.
“I’m just…” Fluttershy began fumbling for words, began staring at the ground.
“Let me guess: You’re only in ‘dire financial straights.’”
“I wouldn’t… oh, I would say that.”
Really, really blunt it is.
“Sugarcube, that’s what my Paw said when he was about to drink the farm under. You’re broke.”
“I… all right, I’m broke,” she admitted, “but I dug this hole myself, and I’m not going to bother anyone by asking for help trying to get myself out.”
Rolling his eyes, Big Macintosh grumbled something about being ‘stubborn’ and ‘foolhardy’ before finally coming up with a more finesse way to say what was on his mind.
“Listen, while Ah think there ain’t a hole you can dig that you can’t dig yourself out of, there isn’t anything unkind about accepting help when it’s offered.”
“But I dug the hole, and you fell in with me!” Fluttershy replied, tears brimming her eyes.
“And now, we’re diggin’ out.”