> A Bittersweet Apple
>  by MegaTJ
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The New Farmhoof
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The New Farmhoof


Applejack once again looked back to the entrance path to Sweet Apple Acres. Still no sign of him. She gave the nearest tree a hefty kick, sending apples tumbling into her buckets. Now that they were full she lowered them to the ground and picked up a pair of empty ones. Making sure they weren't going to slip off, she bucked the tree once again. Fewer apples fell, letting the mare know that it was time to move deeper into the orchard. She was hesitant about losing sight of the path.

"Where in tarnation is that colt?" she asked the tree. When it didn't answer she took one last look at the path. She hitched up to the small wagon that held a large number of the half-barrel buckets, and, with a troubled sigh, turned away to head toward the east orchard, where the hills would block any view she would have of the path and even the house.

"Ah just don' get why we need more help 'round here…" She kept arguing with Big Macintosh and Granny Smith for weeks until finally the older ponies overruled her objections, even when she tried reasoning that her friends could help when they needed it.

They wouldn't hear it, and told her that it wasn't fair to put their responsibilities on those who already had things to do. That's why, Granny Smith had said, they needed to hire somepony that needed the bits and had nothing else to do in their spare time. When A.J. tried bringing up the question of how they were going to afford it, Big Macintosh reminded her of how well the farm was doing nowadays. She had been thoroughly defeated. So she could do nothing to stop them from hiring a new farmhoof from Trotledge, which she had happen to know was big on ranching. She didn't know what bothered her more: the fact that there was the possibility of the new pony messing everything up, or that he would be so good that she would have to compete on her own farm. Everypony kept telling her not to worry and that it wouldn't be that way. Applejack just couldn't bring herself to believe them.

"Well, now there's nothin' Ah can do 'bout it", she sighed. She had set herself up for another bucking, and gave the tree a healthy helping of her hooves. The apples rained down, filling her buckets again.

Celestia's sun was beginning to give the new day in Ponyville a warm hug when Thorn Hopper walked over the hill to Sweet Apple Acres. He complimented it with another awe-struck gaze. It looked like it grew since he had seen it just two days before! His amazement didn't last long; he didn't want to be late for his new job! Granny Smith had told him to look for her granddaughter Applejack when he had passed his interview, so he knew he was looking for an orange mare about his height. He hadn't met Applejack during his interview, and wondered what she was like.

"Ah hope Ah can find'er first." He looked around the yard, only to find that no pony was around. He was sure Granny Smith told him that Applejack was usually doing morning chores near the house at this time of day. He walked up to the farmhouse and gave the door a generous few knocks. Thorn Hopper waited about two minutes before knocking again. "Where is ever'pony? They ain't hidin' are they?"

The green stallion scratched his head. "Welp, better start on trackin'er." Thorny left the house's porch and looked around for a place to start tracking. He looked until his gaze settled on a tree surrounded by buckets that were full of apples. That looked like a good place to start. He inspected the buckets, but didn't see anything that would lead him to Applejack or any of the other farm ponies. Then he noticed that there was a spot in the grass where the night's dew hadn't fallen. He looked closer and saw the thin tracks of a buggy or wagon lead away from the spot and into the orchard. Since he was on top of a hill, he could easily see where the wagon and, to his surprise, a trail of hoofprints led. He followed them until they disappeared behind a few trees. He was just about to take a step toward them when he saw a tree shake violently in the distance, causing a few birds to fly from it.

"Woowee!" Applejack whooped. She was on a roll today. That was tree number fourteen in about an hour. At this rate she would be done much earlier than usual. Sure her hooves were sore, but it was completely worth it. If she could finish the east field before lunchtime, then the west field wouldn't be any problem, especially since—

"Howdy!"

Applejack nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around to see a green stallion. He was smiling warmly. This must be the new farmhoof. A surge of nervousness hit her. "Howdy", she said half-shakily.

He offered her his hoof. "Name's Thorn Hopper, but ya can call m' Thorny! Ah'm the new help 'round here!"

She shook his hoof. "Applejack, mah friends sometimes call me AJ though", she replied.

"Nice t'meet ya, Applejack!"

"Same here, Thorny", she said less enthusiastically. For some reason, a lot of her nervousness had gone away, leaving just a little uncertainty behind.

The moment threatened to get awkward, so Thorny got straight to the point. "Ah'm here to help, so put me t' work."

"Um…okay." Applejack looked around. "Ah already did the other chores, so right now there's nothin' but buckin' to do."

"Alrighty then."

"Y'all know how t' applebuck?"

Thorny shook his head.

Applejack positioned herself in front of an unbucked apple tree. "Jus' do what Ah do." She reared and gave the tree a strong kick. Thorny watched as the kick rippled upwards through the tree. It rattled the branches and shook the apples loose. They all fell into Applejack's buckets, give or take a few that missed and hit the ground.

"Now y'all give it a try", instructed Applejack as she shed the buckets and picked up two more. She grabbed two more from her cart and a bucket harness for Thorny. "Here, put all that on, first."

Thorny hooked up with a little trouble. He was used to cart and plow harnesses, so this was a little new to him. "Uh, Applejack?"

Applejack almost burst into laughter when she saw that he had put a hoof in the wrong way and was now stuck. One of his hooves was tightly bound to his side, and now he couldn't move his head in any direction. He tried pulling it back out, but it only tightened around him more. She rolled her eyes and fought back the laughter again. Grabbing the back of the belt, she yanked it back over his head, pulling it off with relative ease. She turned it around and helped him get it back on correctly. "Like this." She pulled it tight, nearly keeping Thorny from breathing.

"Hey, careful, Ah need t' breathe!"

"Sorry, Thorny", Applejack apologized. She loosened the harness slightly. She picked up a bucket and hooked it to the harness. "The buckets jus' snap on."

Thorny snapped the second bucket to the vacant hook. He stood in front of the nearest tree. Before he gave applebucking a try, he asked Applejack, "'Bout how hard do Ah kick?"

Applejack wondered for a second. She had been doing it for so long that it was hard for her to measure. "Ah don't know…Ah guess jus' give it a medium like kick."

Thorny nodded and kicked his hooves from the ground. His hooves contacted so hard that apples rained down upon him whether or not they were ripe and ready. He shielded his head from the downpour. When the last apple fell, he said with an embarrassed smile, "Too hard?"

"Ya think?" Applejack chuckled. "C'mon, help me get these up."

Together they loaded Thorny's buckets with the grounded apples. So many had fallen that he had to set his first set down and pick up a second, which they filled to about halfway. Applejack tapped another tree.

"Alraht", she said, "Try again, but with a little less oomph."

Thorny's second attempt was more successful. More apples fell than when Applejack did it, but there was more control this time. He filled the buckets up the rest of the way.

"Ya got the hang of it now", Applejack stated. "Now Ah jus' need help with the rest of the trees.

"How many trees do ya usually do?"

"Till there ain't no more to do."

Thorny's jaw just about hit the grass. "And ya used t'do it alone?"

Applejack felt a wave of pride bring her mouth into a smile. "Yessiree."

"Well, now with me around, ya don' have to work so hard no more." Thorny bucked another tree.

"That's what Granny Smith an' Big Mac say", she replied, "But Ah really don't mind much."

Thorny didn't reply right off. He had just filled another set of buckets and was hooking up to two fresh ones. "Ah feel ya there. Back home Ah loved work. Almost more than Ah love eatin'. An' Ah love eatin'."

"Granny Smith told me you was a rancher." Applejack moved on to her next tree. As she peered around she noticed that it was getting pretty hot out.

"Best one in Trotledge", Thorny boasted.

"What did ya usually do?" Applejack dropped her buckets to listen to him.

"Most of mah time was spent takin' care of the fields an' keepin' critters in their corrals", he replied, "Then it was just havin' fun with mah sisters an' friends."

"Ya come a long way from home jus' fer a job", Applejack stated, becoming a little more interested in Thorny. "Whatcha move fer?"

"Family tradition!" he yelled. "Once the oldest child is old enough to move out, they and their brothers an' sisters move out too. I moved with mah sisters."

"Applebloom'll make friends with'em pretty soon."

"Who?" Thorny dropped his buckets and leaned against a tree.

"That's mah little sister", she explained. The breeze stopped, and all defenses from the heat gave way. "Say, let's head back up an' get to know each other."

Thorny gave her a smirk. "Tired already?"

"Listen here pardner", said Applejack with instant annoyance, "Ah can buck circles 'round you!"

"Hey, hey." Thorny held up his hooves, "Ah'm just pickin' Applejack."

"Ah know that", replied Applejack, "Jus' don't go gettin' a big head about you."

She dropped her harness. "C'mon, Ah'll show you 'round Ponyville so ya won't get lost when you have t'do runnin'."

Thorny shed his harness and followed her up. He was silent. The last thing he wanted to do was make his new coworker mad on the first day. Thorny tried finding something to say, but was much better at contributing to a conversation than starting one. He thought about how fiery she was. It wasn't unusual for him to meet such feisty mare; there were a lot of those back home. Applejack was a little different, though. She was an instantly-tempered gal who didn't let anypony get ahead of her without a fight. He chuckled to himself. It was going to be so much fun to tease her. He knew he'd have to do it off work, and that he couldn't go too far with it.

"How many sister's do ya got?"

"Two sisters. June Berry an' Apple Sprout." He moved into a slight gallop as the hill steepened.

"Apple Sprout", she laughed. "Keep'er a way from mah famly. We might jus' adopt her!"

"Why's that?"

"'Cause everypony in mah family is named after an apple or something close to apples", she explained.

"How much family ya got?"

"Well…"

15 minutes later…

Thorny's mouth hung loosely as Applejack finished naming off the Apple Family. They had absently walked past the house and were slowly trotting into Ponyville. The mare stopped after her hoof clopped on the deck of Ponyville's southern entrance bridge.

"Oh, would ya look at that. Ah talked us right into Ponyville." She turned back to Thorny. "Y'all had time t'look around yet?"

Thorny shook his head, "Barely had time t'eat."

She stepped aside. "Then let me be the first t'welcome you t'Ponyville!"

Thorny smiled. Applejack was just his kind of pony.
> Ponyville and Shenanigans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville and Shenanigans

Thorny walked with Applejack back to the farm house. Little did he know, that she had no intention of stopping there. Instead, she was focused on getting to know him a little. A small tour of Ponyville was the best way to find that out. The list of things she wanted him to see ran on, but she knew that the first thing she wanted to do was introduce him to her friendds. If he was going to be working on the farm, then they'd see him sooner or later.

"So, Thorny, how're ya likin' Ponyville so far?"

"Ain't that different from Trotledge", he replied, "'Cept there's tons more fields there. Dusty too. Ah like all the grass 'round here."

"You make any new friends?"

"Ain't had time too, movin' an' all that." He followed her without noticing they were leaving the farm. He was too busy trying to come up with his own questions for the mare. "Yer mah only friend' so far."

Applejack grinned. "Now who in tarnation said we were friends?"

Thorny blinked. "Ah thought—"

"Jus' pickin' with ya Thorny", she laughed.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Applejack lost the conversation. She wasn't exactly sure what to say. If he was a mare, it would be a lot easier talking to him. She could challenge and tease him, but simple discussion was so much harder. Absolutely no pony knew, but Applejack never could talk to colts much outside of family. Luckily for her, Thorny knew how to talk to everypony.

"Where're y'all takin' me, Applejack?"

"We're goin' t' Stirrup Street, then just around and maybe t' meet a couple of mah friendds."

"Why? You ain't showin' me off, are you?" Thorny grinned.

A blush crossed Applejack's nose. But instead of wanting to deck him for saying something like, she only laughed a little. "If Ah'm gonna show a colt off to mah friends, he's gotta be a little more handsome than you are."

Thorny laughed loudly. Applejack figured he was the kind you couldn't tease easily. He pulled ahead of her without realizing it. Applejack decided to get a look at him. From the angle she was looking, she noticed that his red bandana was neatly knotted in the back and that it was almost covered up by his hat, which he wore low on the back of his head, lower than she wore hers. She also noticed that his freckles only covered the bridge of his nose. She couldn't tell what color his eyes were. His Cutie Mark was a single ranching fence in the middle of a field.

She was so absorbed in him, that she almost passed their first stop up. "Okay, Thorny, this here is where we sell the apples durin' the week. Ah usually work the stand on Mondays an' Tuesdays, Big Mac works it Wednesdays, an' then Granny Smith on Thursdays. We don' sell on weekends."

"Can Ah pick up Tuesday? So we can all have jus' one day?"

"Ah'll talk it over with Granny Smith since it deals with money", Applejack replied, "But Ah don't got a problem with that."

"Maybe me an' you can do it then. So Ah won' have to wait so long."

Applejack liked the idea of not having to work very hard for two days. And Thorny would be good company to have. She remembered back to a few times when the boredom was almost ate her alive. With Thorny with her, she would have somepony to talk to. "Alright it's settled. We'll sell apples together."

Thorny smiled, and followed Applejack to wherever it was they were going next. He really didn't care. Her company was enjoyable, she was a really good pony to be around. And, he thought, She's mighty pretty… He blushed, but it didn't matter. He was sure she couldn't see it.

Now why is his face turnin' red? Applejack wondered to herself. She shrugged. Must be the heat. On that thought, she thought it best to get inside somewhere, and the closest place was Ponyville's one and only Sugarcube Corner. She led him into the spacious inside, where immediately Pinkie Pie had zipped out to greet them.

"Hey, Applejack!" she turned to Thorny, "Hey, you're new here! I love making new friends! Wanna be my friend?"

Thorny took a step back. "Uh…"

"Great!" She jumped up and bounced around. "This calls for a party!"

"Party?" Thorny asked as Pinkie Pie bounced away.

"Pinkie Pie throws parties for ponies who move in t' Ponyville", Applejack explained.

"Is she always so rambunctious?"

"Yep, that's Pinkie Pie for ya."

Thorny quietly exhaled. There wasn't a single pony like Pinkie Pie in Trotledge. He looked around the bars and shelves in the bakery. "Say Applejack, mind if Ah buy ya a slice of cake?"

Applejack stared at him. "why?"

"That's what friends do where Ah come from", he lied.

Applejack was a little skeptical, but shrugged and nodded. She never turned down free food. "Sure thing, Thorny!"

She left for a table while Thorny left to go pick out the cake. He skipped breakfast this morning and now he knew he wouldn't be able to watch her eat without scaring ponies away with his stomach growling. "S'cuse me ma'am!" he called to another pink mare.

"How may I help you?" Cupcake asked brightly.

"Ah'd like t' buy a slice of cherry cake an'…uh…" Thorny poured over the case, wondering just what kind of cake Applejack would like.

Seeing the orange mare take her seat near the door, Mrs. Cake whispered, "She usually likes to order apple spice cake."

Thorny smiled. "Thanks, Ah'll take one o'those."

She wrapped the slices up and hoofed them over the counter. "No need to pay, dear. I commend a young stallion who acts on a crush."

Thorny blushed three shades of red and chuckled nervously. He couldn't deny that he was, nor could he admit it. He only liked Applejack a little…so far. He wasn't about to ruin a friendship by jumping right into her personal space as a cowgirl. After thanking her he turned to find where Applejack had gone to. She waved to him from a table near the door. He briskly crossed the room and sat down in the opposite chair.

Applejack smiled. "Took ya long enough."

"If you weren' so darn picky, Ah woulda been back a while ago."

Somewhat impressed with his comeback, she quickly asked, "What did ya get me?"

"Apple spice cake."

Applejack's jaw almost hit the table. "How'd ya know mah favorite kinda cake!?"

Thorny glanced at Mrs. Cake. "Uh, lucky guess…"

Applejack forgot Thorny as she hurriedly devoured her favorite treat. She usually showed a little restraint around new ponies, but she couldn't help the fact that it had been a long time since she had last eaten the cake.

Thorny watched her with admiration. From how fast she was eating, Thorny guessed she could easily out eat anypony at an eating contest. Ah wonder if she could beat me… He shrugged and figured he would have to invite her to an eating contest some time. She was too far along for him to race her to the last crumb, so he ate at his original speed. He was glad he got cherry; the taste was so strong he almost fell out of his chair. He took bite after bite slowly, hopefully to preserve the flavor.

"Ya sure are takin' yer sweet time."

Thorny smiled. "Would ya rather me eat it in one bite like a pig?"

"If it means you'll get done before tonight."

Applejack watched Thorny take bigger bites out of the cake. In the hour that she had known him, she knew he was a good pony. And not just because he bought her a slice of cake. He was a hard worker, and that was enough to put anypony on her good side.

"About what time, do ya usually get back t'work", Thorny asked through a mouthful of cake.

"When it cools down", Applejack replied. "Ah don' know 'bout you, but Ah'm not havin' a heat stroke jus' to get apples from the trees. Ah learned mah lesson on that one."

"So that's a couple of hours without nothin' t' do", he stated obviously.

"Ah'm takin' you 'round Ponyville so you won't get lost, remember."

"Ah know, but what about after that?" He wiped his icing-stained mouth with his hoof and burped.

"We'll see 'bout that when it gets here." Applejack stood up. "C'mon, Ah'll give you the grand tour of Ponyville!"

"Sounds nice." They both rose from the table and headed back out into the bright day. Thorny followed Applejack through the streets. It had gotten crowded, and was beginning to look like the streets back in Trotledge.

"This here's the market", Applejack said as they passed by a few stands.

Thorny noticed that this was where everything food-wise was sold. That was great, he wouldn't have to grow his food like back home. "Ah gotta stop by pretty soon. Food's gettin' low."

Applejack walked on and named the buildings they walked by and the ponies that owned them. He kept a mental note of the ones he wanted to browse later. The space between them got smaller as Thorny got more comfortable with Applejack. She noticed instantly, but didn't say anything. So long as he didn't try anything, Ponyville General wouldn't be admitting a patient overnight. She didn't really expect him to, but there was that awkward doubt in her head.

Thorny couldn't help but find the tour boring. He was a pony of fun and work. The thought of his favorite past time brought a hopeful smile to his face. "There a river 'round here somewheres?"

Applejack hesitated. "Uh…yeah, why?

"'Cuz I love t'swim! And this heat's killin' me!"

"Hey, we got time", Applejack said. She choked on her next words. For a second she wanted to ask him if he wanted to go, but the words got caught in her throat. Instead, she made a small gasping noise. To her relief, Thorny didn't notice.

"Where is it?" Thorny leaned forward a little.

"Uh…" Applejack mumbled uncomfortably, "I-it's down by…um…"

"C'mon, AJ, just show me!"

She froze up. For some reason her brain was refusing to work. She knew what she wanted to say; the words just didn't want to come out. Thankfully, a random savior came to her rescue.

"Did I overhear you asking about a trip to the river?" asked a turquoise pony.

They both turned to see a colt peering at them curiously. "It's down the hill on the southern edge of Ponyville. Applejack should know that. She goes almost every day." He didn't have time to hear a reply from them. His companion was a little impatient.

"Wish, we're going to be late! Let's go!" Lyra called from somewhere ahead of them.

"Coming!" He jogged to catch up to them without waiting for a single word from the farm ponies.

Thorny glanced at Applejack. "South hill? C'mon, Ah'll race ya!" He galloped away, leaving a trail of dust chasing his hooves.

Applejack shot after him. She knew she wasn't going to let a new pony show her up. Her hooves pounded the path with a rhythmic beat. A playful smile formed under her nose. She wasn't even running her fastest and was steadily gaining on the green stallion. She kept going until they were even in pace and were neck and neck with each other. They raced passed ponies and dodged obstacles as they got farther away from the center of town. Many of the ponies didn't even see them. Pretty soon, the buildings gave way to the empty outskirts and they were now climbing the hill that hid the river.

"Applejack are ya even tryin'?" Thorny chuckled.

"Nope, an' Ah guess you ain't either."

He shook his head. "Ah don' even need to!"

Applejack stopped on the top of the hill. He came to a stop too. Glaring at him, she asked, "Now whatcha tryin' t' say?"

Thorny knew he must've touched a nerve, so he decided to have a little fun with her. He grinned. "Cuz Ah could whoop ya with mah eyes closed."

Now furious, Applejack stood on the tips of her hooves to match his height. "Now listen here! Jus' cuz you come from a different town don' mean ya can beat me in a race!"

Thorny gazed down to the river, where thirty ponies were swimming and splashing. He spotted a rope swing situated in a tree on a high bluff above the water. "You wanna find out?"

Applejack growled. She turned and, to throw him off, began to walk down the hill.

Thorny blinked. "Hey, Ah didn' mean t—"

Applejack took off in a full sprint down the hill. She successfully caught him off guard. Sure she had cheated a little, but she could bet the look on his face was priceless. She laughed to herself as she got closer to the river. She looked behind her, expecting to see Thorny staring at her in disbelief. To her surprise, he was right behind her, mere inches from her tail. She jumped and ran faster. Unfortunately, she didn't see the rock that had come to be in front of her hoof and she hit it with full force. Unable to stop herself, the mare could only be subjected to gravity, as it pulled her down the hill toward the water. She tumbled down until she bounced off the bluff and into the water.

Upon impact, everything hurt. She was glad the water wasn't deep. If it were shallow, it would've hurt a whole lot more. It didn't take her long to recover, but it when she did, she realized she was already being drug out of the river. She was only pulled for several seconds before Thorny had her on shore, both gasping for oxygen.

"Dang, Ah'm gettin' outta shape", Thorny weaved. "Ah woulda had you sooner, but mah lasso's packed up in mah room back home."

Applejack didn't say anything. Her brain was still trying to process what had just happened. She ignored the stares of the many ponies around them as the emotions began to seep in. Shock, embarrassment, anger, and gratefulness all set in at once. She looked at the ground.

"You alright?"

She nodded. She didn't know what to say exactly, but she knew being polite would be appropriate. "Ah didn' need yer help, but thanks anyways."

"Ah wasn' riskin' you bumpin' yer head an' not bein' able t' swim back up." He stood up and shook off. "If there's one thing Ah won' let happen, it's mah friends getting' hurt."

Applejack looked up to see Thorny offering her his hoof. A little anger came back as her burning for independence began to blaze. "Ah can stand by myself, thanks." She attempted to stand, but her left hoof exploded with pain. She yelped.

Thorny grabbed her hoof. After years of ranching, he knew exactly what was wrong. "You sprained it on that rock. C'mon, Ah'll help y'all get back home. Sorry fer racin' you."

Applejack snatched her hoof back. "Ah can get back jus' fine!"

"Okay", Thorny replied smugly, "Go ahead an' try."

Back on her three good hooves, Applejack once again attempted put pressure on her hurt hoof. "Ah!" The swelling made it impossible to put even the tiniest amount of weight on it. She tried two more times before Thorny took her foreleg and placed it around his shoulder. "Ah told ya Ah can—"

"Hush an' walk", Thorny instructed sternly.

The orange mare's face was alight with red from the embarrassment of being rescued AND hushed by a stallion. In her mind, she could have easily gotten up by herself. She had never once been in trouble she couldn't get out of, and now she was sure everypony was whispering about her. She could only keep her head low to protect what little pride she had left as Thorny guided her back home.


T


"Applejack, I think you're being unreasonable", said Twilight after hearing Applejack's tale of the events of her day.

"Unreasonable? Twi, the colt—"

"Was nothing but nice to you the whole day", the unicorn finished. "Sure he teased you a little, but isn't that what friends do?"

Applejack mumbled something that twilight couldn't hear. She rubbed the hoof that Thorny had bandaged up. "Yeah, but thanks to him, Ah can't work for at least a week."

"That wasn't exactly his fault, and I'm sure he feels bad about it. Didn't he apologize?"

Applejack nodded.

"Have you forgiven him?"

She shook her head. "It wasn' all his fault. Ah'm the one that ran off. Ah gotta apologize too…"

Twilight frowned. Applejack was apparently having mixed feelings about this new colt. Her instinct was to help her friend out, but that would be impossible with Applejack's independence and pride as a capable mare. She sighed and stretched before hopping down from her chair. "Want something to drink?"

"No thanks, Twilight." Applejack turned her gaze to Thorny's first aid work. The two splints he wrapped in the bandage doubled as a type of crutch that put pressure on her upper foreleg and shoulder instead of her sprained hoof. He sure was talented from what she saw from the day's events. She wished she was working out in the orchard right now, instead of letting Thorny and Big Macintosh work it while she recovered. Every time she got hurt or sick and couldn't work, she always felt like a useless burden. This time, she also felt jealous of Thorny. He got to work hard bucking apples while she was busy healing from her injury in the library.

She sighed heavily. So far, the new farmhoof was nothing but trouble. At least that's what her head was saying. Her heart, however, just wouldn't stop putting the images of him caught in the harness and eating his cake at Sugarcube Corner. Before she could stop herself, she gave a small giggle.
> Work and Jealousy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Work and Jealousy


Applejack sat idly in the kitchen while she waited for Granny Smith to finish upstairs. Her hoof still wasn't in any condition to work on, so she was subjected to housework. She sighed in frustrated boredom. For the past three days she couldn't do ANY fieldwork whatsoever. Instead, Thorny had picked up her slack as well as doing his own work. She couldn't help but find amazement in the way he worked. He pulled his own weight and then some. She watched him work in the fields with Big Macintosh a few times. At first she thought he wouldn't be able to handle it, but a few hundred cleared trees later was proof of the exact opposite. He was perfectly capable of taking anything the job threw at him.

She would never, ever admit it, not even to herself, but Applejack found herself jealous of the colt. She wanted to badly work in the orchard again. The burning sensation in the back of her mind ate at her, causing an itch to worker harder than him. She imagined herself bucking twice as many trees as him the second she could walk on her hoof again. She was so lost in her thoughts that Applebloom walked in unnoticed.

"Sis?"

The bigger pony returned to reality. "Oh, howdy Applebloom, when'd you get here?"

"Just now. You ain't see me come in?"

Applejack shook her head.

"Thinkin' 'bout Thorny again?" Applebloom teased.

"N-no!"

Applebloom nodded with a smirk. "Suuure." She left the house giggling. Outside, she saw Thorny pulling the apple wagon across the backyard. Cheekily, Applebloom held the door open long enough for Applejack to get a good look. Applebloom heard her sister growl.

Once the filly was out of the house, and the door was closed, Applejack sighed. The clock in the kitchen said it was a quarter after eight. "Guess Ah better get started on the chores."

"Not on that hoof you ain't." Granny Smith said, walking in the kitchen.

"Granny Smith", Applejack complained, "Mah hoof is fine. Ah can work."

"Ah'm sure you can, Sugar", Granny Smith replied, "Ah know yer itchin' to get back outside, but let Thorny handle it 'til you can."

"But he's been handlin' it since Ah got hurt!"

"Tell you what", the older mare said, "If you can be patient fer jus' a couple more days, ya can take Thorny's place an' he can help me in the house."

Her deal still didn't cheer Applejack up.

"Ah'll even make'im wear the flower apron."

Applejack laughed. "Now, Granny Smith, don'tcha think that'd be a little mean?"

Granny Smith sat across the table from Applejack. "Ah did the same thing t'Big Macintosh when he was Applebloom's age."

"You didn'!"

"Pictures don' lie dearie."

Applejack laughed. "Why'd ya do that, Granny Smith?"

She sighed. "It was durin' the time you left t'live with yer aunt an' uncle. He was so upset Ah had t'do somethin' to take his mind off it."

"Even if it meant embarrassin' the tar outta him?"

"It sure kep'im occupied 'til you got back", Granny Smith chuckled.

The door opened, giving an interruption to the interesting conversation the mares were having. The pony coming in was Thorny. He was dripping sweat from the heat outside. "Phew!"

"Are y'all finished with the south fields already?" Granny Smith asked.

"No ma'am", Thorny replied, "Big Mac an' me are just thirsty. Came in t'get us drinks."

"There's apple juice", Applejack stated, "Might wanna take the whole pitcher."

"Yeah, it's scorchin' out there already! If it wasn't for cider season, Ah'd work on the chicken coop some more, but we need those apples for the winter." Thorny sighed. "How's the hoof, Applejack?"

"It's fine, Thorny", she said somewhat with a growl, missing the part about the coop.

"Hope it's better soon", he said, "Can't wait t'work with ya again." With that, he left with the pitcher and two cups of apple juice Granny Smith fetched for him.

"He's a nice colt", Granny smith said.

Applejack failed to respond.

"You don' think so?"

More silence. Applejack looked away from Granny Smith's face.

"Ya ain't mad at'im for somethin' are ya?"

Applejack sighed.

The older pony had a feeling she was onto something. "It's because he's out workin' ain't it?"

Applejack half-nodded. "Ah jus' don' want'im t'think that—"

"'Cuz yer a girl ya can't do what he can?"

"Exactly."

"Ah don' think he's that type o'colt." Granny Smith gave her granddaughter a gentle pat on the back for reassurance. "Ah think he's a bit like Big Macintosh."

"How's he like Big Mac?"

"He works hard an' he likes workin' with you", she replied.

Applejack took the last part of Granny Smith's statement as meaning something more than she was just a capable mare, completely unaware that it was a failed attempt to get her over her slight dislike of the colt.

The conversation was brought to an end there. The sun's intensity outside was becoming greater, and they had wasted enough time talking the morning away. Fall was right around the corner and with the apple season quickly coming to a close, they had to use the apples they were pulling in for cider. When Applejack agreed to let Thorny help her sell apples during her days in the week, she forgot that it was time to close up the cart for the summer and focus on collecting as many apples as they could for the winter months. It robbed him of the chance to get to know her better since they were now separated, but he didn't show any signs that he was upset about it. That was good news to Applejack; he wasn't a crybaby.

"Now, where are them spigots?" Granny Smith rhetorically asked as she rummaged through the lower cabinets.

Applejack stood on her rear legs and checked the cabinets above the counter. "Ah got'em right up here, Granny Smith."

As the two set out to get the cider barrels cleaned, the stallions outside struggled to collect the apples to fill those barrels. Thorny bucked a tree, but nearly fell over in exhaustion. The apples fell but didn't make it to his buckets. He sighed in frustration. "Cartarnet!"

He looked over his shoulder to see Big Macintosh making even less progress. He kicked a tree, but no apples fell at all. He tried again and managed to get one apple. He saw Thorny watched him and shook his head.

"It'd be a whole lot easier if it weren' so dang humid", Thorny breathed. The heat made it hard to breathe, but he continued to muscle through it. There was no way he was going give the Apples any less than they were paying for.

"Eeyup", the red colt agreed.

Even though the orchard was covered in shade from the trees, it didn't help them cool off. The days were just leaving August, and the heat was beating down on them with all of its remaining might. Thorny was probably taking the worst of it. As he told Big Macintosh and Applebloom, Trotledge was a lot cooler during the summer, so he wasn't at all used to the heat. It was because of this that Big Macintosh took it upon himself to keep a watchful eye on the younger stallion. He knew Thorny to be the type of pony to work himself to death for a variety of reasons.

"Say, Big Mac", Thorny called.

The red colt looked up to see Thorny unhooking from his bucket harness. He didn't say anything, but Thorny knew he was still asking what it was he wanted.

"Y'all reckon we got enough apples for now?"

Scanning around, Big Macintosh found that they had collectively filled twenty buckets from the south orchard. With the apples they got from the trees around the house, he and Thorny had thirty altogether. He nodded. "Eeyup."

"Let's head back up", Thorny suggested, pulling the bandana from around his neck and settling it on his back, "Heat's killin' me."

Big Macintosh nodded in agreement. "There's stuff t'do in the barn. It's cooler in there so we can work through the rest of the day."

"Sounds good t'me."

Thorny led the way back up to the barn. He hated to leave the fields, but there was no way that not even he could work in the heat. Barn work was the next best thing he guessed. It also gave him a chance to get closer to Applejack, even though she was going to be in the farmhouse and not the barn with him. He wanted the chance to sit down with her or something along those lines so he could find out many of the things that plagued his mind with questions. Like if there's a colt she's got'er eye on…

The inside of the barn was a little stuffy, but significantly cooler. Thorny filled his lungs with the cool air. "Woowee! That's better!" He heard Big Macintosh sigh behind him. When Thorny looked around, he saw that much of the old barn was in need of a lot of repair. The stairs to the hayloft were split in many different places and sported a ton of hoof destroying rusty nails. Some of the ceiling boards had rotted out and littered the floor, letting sunlight filter in from above. In all, the whole place was a wreck. Thorny frowned. It looked like a twister hit. Along with the damage, it was super cluttered. Nothing was where it belonged, and most of it was just haphazardly thrown into giant piles. Why would anypony let it get so bad? At that point he knew the chicken coop had to wait.

Big Mac started to speak, but Thorny interrupted him. "Big Macintosh", he stated, "Ah hope that you an' me are fixin' up the barn. If you ain't, then Ah am. An' Ah'll do it by myself if Ah have to."

"Well, we were jus' gonna clean up a bit, but if y'all wanna go an' do all that…" Big Mac's voice trailed off. He wasn't sure why the new farmhoof wanted to do so much work for the rundown barn, but he knew he and Applejack had put it off long enough.

"Y'all can bet your tail Ah do", Thorny said. He set out by himself to find tools and wood. The barn back home had gone through lots of repairs, and Thorny knew how to get every single job done. His coworker started to look in the other side of the barn, wondering just what Applebloom and her friends did with all of the carpentry tools.

Anypony watching the two would have been amazed. Both went completely silent after Thorny found the belts, hammers, and nails. They worked on the opposite ends and slowly repaired their ways toward the middle. To Thorny, working on the barn was a privilege, so he worked a lot harder than any other pony would. The colts worked endlessly, with the hours that rolled by feeling like seconds to the laboring ponies.

When they met in the middle, they focused on helping the other getting to the hayloft by repairing the steps together. Once at the top, Thorny lassoed a few of the rafter hooks and created a sturdy harness for him to slip into while Big Macintosh lifted him up to fix the room. While he hammered, Thorny figured that there was another plus side to fixing up the barn. Applejack's appreciation would skyrocket once she saw that he took it upon himself to get her older brother to help him get the red building fixed up.

He hammered another nail into the fresh new board Big Mac lifted up with a second lasso. "One more, Big Macintosh", Thorny called from behind his clenched teeth. In a few seconds, Thorny had spat out a nail and drove it through the soft wood. He put four nails in it to hold it down and the fifth one just to get rid of the last one. Big Macintosh saw that he had finished nailing the final plank in and lowered the colt down to the floor.

They both stood in the barn entrance to admire their work. The inside was still a mess, but they could clean it later. The sun outside had traveled so far in the sky that it was well passed noon. "Now there's no way we worked that long!"

"Time flies when you're havin' fun", Big Macintosh replied.

"It sure was fun, wasn' it?" Thorny chuckled. He gave the taller pony a friendly punch in the shoulder.

"Eeyup", the assaulted pony replied, barely feeling Thorny's gesture.

"Now we jus' gotta clean it!"

"Clean what?"

Thorny excitedly spun around to see Applejack standing behind them. She was carrying a platter of lunch for the two. "Well, ain't you jus' in time!?"

Now confused, the mare lifted an eyebrow. "In time for what?"

"We fixed up the barn!" Thorny announced into her face.

She backed away from the crazy colt. "Y'all fixed up the barn?" she asked in disbelief. "The whole barn, not just part?"

Thorny nodded happily. "Yup! It really wasn' much to fix. Most of it just needed new boards an' y'all already had all that." He stepped aside. "You wanna take a look?"

Applejack almost said yes, but the word got stuck in her throat. She was happy that Thorny did something so nice, but was also envious that he got to do such a fun task without her. When she looked at her sibling, she got the burning look of a teasing smile, which made her face light up redder than the barn they had just repaired. She took it as an insult, and came up with a comeback. "Only if y'all cleaned it too."

"Clean!?" Thorny laughed. "You'll have better luck gettin' me t'never eat again!"

"So y'all will fix a whole barn up, but not clean one huh?" Applejack snickered.

Thorny nodded.

"Even though cleanin's easier?"

"Says you!" Thorny snickered. "Ah can't clean t'save mah life! Apple Sprout an' June Berry even clean mah room!"

Applejack smiled. That was great news. Thorny admitted to his faults and wasn't good at something she was!

"Hey, are them sandwiches fer us?"

"Yeah, but Ah don't know what kind", Applejack replied, "Granny Smith made'em."

"Sure smell good!"

"Eeyup."

"Ah guess you boys did earn a good lunch", Applejack said with her eyes on Big Macintosh. "Ah don' have t'eat it all myself now."

They snatched up the sandwiches and scarfed them down like wolves. While they mutilated their lunch, Applejack slipped away to see just what they did in the barn. She instantly saw all of the improvements made. The wholes and busted boards under the hayloft were no longer missing. The ladder to the hayloft no longer looked like a deathtrap. They even fixed the roof using ropes they had yet to take down from the hooks they used during celebrations to hang lights. Still in doubt, she gave the nearest board a hard knock. It was solid as a rock.

Applejack nodded in appreciation. It was a good job, and one that wasn't even asked of him. She knew because she and Big Macintosh were supposed to do it together on the upcoming weekend. She smiled at how kind Thorny was. The thought of Thorny sent a slight shiver through her body. It was brief, yet confusing at how it was easily room temperature in the barn.
> Fighting a Losing Battle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fighting a Losing Battle


"Phew…it's a scorcher out t'day!" Applejack squinted against the brightness of the sweltering day and let her eyes adjust as she left the farm house. Big Macintosh waited for her near the last few trees with four buckets of apples Thorny had bucked earlier in the morning. He was too busy putting a harness on to notice her.

She wiped the sweat from her brow. She had just finished moving the bales of hay to the barn, and that was tiring enough. Now she and Big Macintosh had to carry the morning's apples into Ponyville for a hopeful profit. It was going to be a long walk to Stirrup Street for her today. Her hoof had only just finished recovering, and today was the first for her to get back to real work instead of just lounging around the house with almost nothing to do.

She happily trotted across the yard to her older brother. She helped him tighten his harness and wiggled into hers. "It's gonna be pretty hot today, Big Mac."

"Eeyup", he agreed.

"Say", she said, looking around, "You seen Thorny? I ain't seen him since he left to go buckin' in the orchards. Is he done?"

"Ah think Granny Smith sent him off somewhere", he answered.

She nodded. "Probably some business with the mayor 'bout expandin' the south fields."

The red stallion shrugged. He latched his buckets to the hooks on his harness and hooked up to their mobile stand. He started off for Ponyville in silence like they did ever since Thorny suggested two ponies work the stand during the week. Now Big Mac and Applejack worked the stand on Wednesdays instead of just him.

Applejack followed him with her apples at her side. She didn't talk; it used energy she couldn't spare until they stopped. She trotted alongside Big Macintosh into the scorching plains of Ponyville's outskirts. It was an instant hassle. The burning ground instantly stung their hooves and refracted heat into their faces. She didn't complain. The last thing she wanted was to be offered help on her first day back on the job.

They trekked over the blazing hills, carrying the weight of the day's heat with them along the way. It was an automatic hassle on the two farm ponies. What was supposed to be an easy walk to town quickly transformed into a sweat-filled desert crossing. The already-fatigued ponies were nearly dragging their hooves by the time they decided to take a small break.

Applejack wiped the sweat from her face. "Phew! Now why would Princess Celestia decide to make it so dang hot today!?"

"If you can't handle it…" Big Macintosh's heavy voice said.

Applejack straightened up. "Now hush up with all that! Ah can get there just like always!"

The bigger sibling obeyed and didn't open his mouth again. It made no sense to argue with his sister. If she wanted to do it, she would do it. No matter what "it" may be. And almost nothing could stop her.

"Applejack!"

The Earth Pony sighed in frustration. This was the last thing she needed! Looking behind her, Applejack saw a pink container of energy bouncing toward them. Twenty minutes in, and they already hit their first speed bump of the day.

"Not now, Pinkie Pie! Ah got work t' do", she said.

The sugar-energized pony stopped in her tracks, still smiling to see her friend. "I just wanted to tell you that Rainbow Dash is going to make it rain and cool everything down. It makes sense since the sun is putting out so much heat like—"

"Why are y'all tellin' me?" Applejack inquired, generally confused, but glad that she had the delay to rest a bit. She would never admit it, but she was glad she had the break. She and Big Macintosh were carrying more apples than either of them were used to. They had Thorny's seemingly non-stop horsepower to thank for that.

"Because you look soooooo hot and tired. If you want to cool down, Rainbow Dash is going to make it rain soon. Hurry to town if you want in on the fun!" Pinkie Pie didn't even let them answer. She just bounced down the path toward Ponyville's marketplace.

"Ah'll never understand that pony", Applejack sighed.

"Ah don't know about you, but Ah would like to catch the rain before it starts", Big Macintosh stated. With that, he started walking. Applejack frowned, but followed wearily.

The main street was full of ponies moaning and lying still on the ground in the heat. Overhead, Rainbow Dash and a black Pegasus were moving all the nearest clouds over Ponyville. The shadow provided only some refuge from the high temperature. The heat made it hard for anypony to carry out a job correctly, so many were sluggish in even setting up the booths that should have been undergoing business for the past two hours. Complaints and groaning were the only sounds being made besides the flapping wings of the Pegasi collecting what few clouds left floating through the air. The farm ponies continued on until they got to their usual marketing spot.

"Okay, Dash. I think that's enough", Applejack heard the black Pegasus call. Rainbow Dash plopped down on the cloud, breathing heavily. He landed next to her and fanned her off with his wings.

"Thanks Cloud", she gasped. He flapped his wings harder while she stood up.

"Ready?"

He nodded, "Let's get this over with."

They both flew upwards until they landed on a small cloud that barely held the two of them. It was much higher than the big, dark gray cloud they had accumulated a few minutes ago. They stood on their hind legs facing each other. Slowly, they fell backwards, picking up speed as their altitude dropped. They dived downwards, and then flipped so that each of their hooves hit the cloud. A huge crack of lightning streaked from the cloud followed by an instant downpour.

The ponies below them cheered. The rain was just what the doctor ordered. The Pegasi that brought the relief flew down to join in on the cool fun. The young fillies and colts of the town were now running and splashing in puddles. The older ponies focused on getting everything set up for the day. Now that the air was cooling, the pace of the town picked up and things were beginning to get accomplished.

"Ahh", sighed Big Macintosh.

Applejack was too busy setting up their booth to notice. Most of her fun outside rodeo season came from the hard labor she went through every day. Just as she finished, the first customer of the day trotted up through the celebrating.

"Howdy there!" Applejack greeted over the rain.

The pink pony smiled an average day-to-day smile behind her glasses. Her apple red bow was drooping with wetness and her watch was covered with mud. She was carrying a large burlap sack. "Hi, how much for all you have here?"

Applejack did a double take. "Did y'all hit your head or something? All our apples?" Applejack asked in disbelief.

The customer nodded seriously. "Yes. My little cousin has just been born and it is my family tradition to hold a feast in celebration. My job is to gather a good supply of apples."

"How many apples did we bring?" Applejack whispered to Big Macintosh. He shrugged.

Applejack looked at the apples and tried to give a rough estimate, which was pretty tough since Thorny provided them with enough apples to feed a couple of families for a week. "Err…Ah think we have about 800 bits worth of apples here."

"800…" the pony echoed, "Good! I have just enough for it and a fifty bit tip for each of you!"

If Applejack's jaw wasn't connected to her face, it would have been muddy on the ground. Even Big Macintosh was surprised. What kind of pony carried that kind of money around?

"I take it we have a deal." The pony raised an eyebrow. They shook their heads and blinked.

"Big Macintosh, y'all help our friend here get these apples home. Ah'll bring the money back t' the farm", Applejack instructed.

The burlap sack that the pony had on her back jingled as she hooved it over to Applejack.

"900 bits. And thank you."

Applejack shook her head. "No, thank you. Y'all have no idea how this'll help our farm."

When the baskets were in place on Big Macintosh's and the pony's backs, they went their separate ways. Applejack hooked up to the stand and started on her way out of the marketplace. Pinkie Pie saw that the farm pony had finished work super early, and bounced over to her friend, hopping and splashing in any puddle she could find between her and Applejack.

"Applejack, you sold all those apples really fast, huh?"

"Yep, and now Ah get to bring the money we made back to the farm and count it." Applejack donned a large smile, signaling her happiness of the day's sellout.

"Soooooooooo…" Pinkie drug out the word. "You wanna do anything fun?"

"Ah can't just at the moment, but Ah'll come a lookin' for you when Ah'm done." They continued to walk, well, in Pinkie Pie's case bounce, down the path to the farm. The wetness had by now dried from their coats, leaving them once again vulnerable to the sun. It soon got very hot again. A bit of good luck did smile upon them, however. The wind started to pick up. It cooled them down, until something crazy happened. Suddenly, the wind turned into a fierce torrent of air, whipping them both in the face and almost ripping the grass from the ground.

"Weeeeeeeee!" Pinkie Pie cheered as the wind picked her up from the ground and flung her through the air.

Applejack had the exact opposite reaction. She desperately tried to stay on the path, happy that she had the cart to tether her to the ground. She had to keep the sack of money on the ground with her. If that bag was lost, then so were many of her hopes of fixing up the farm. She gripped the heavy sack and hung on for all she was worth.

Unfortunately, something just could not withstand the wind. Her signature hat flew right off the top of her head before she could clamp a hoof on it. She watched it soar away sadly. She had worn that hat ever since she had started her farming duties as a young filly.

When all hopes of anypony helping her were gone, a colt dashed onto the path at full speed. Applejack immediately saw that it was Thorny. He jumped once, and after getting the momentum he needed, jumped as high as he could, catching the hat in his mouth. He flipped it onto his head and kept running, jumping a third time and into a low hanging cloud. As he came out of the other side, three young Pegasi that were causing the wind flew away, either rubbing their sore flank, or just trying to get away from the bigger pony.

The pale green pony landed. He straightened up and looked at Applejack with a wide smile. "Y'all miss me", he said cheekily.

She stared at him in disbelief. Of all the ponies…

"Ah do believe this is yours." He held Applejack's hat out.

She shook her head, eliminating any more thoughts of how he looked and took her hat back. "…Thanks, Thorny. Who were them trouble makers?"

He shrugged. "Dunno, Ah just saw what they were up to and did somethin' about it."

She turned to pick up the sack again. "Thanks, again…"

"Let me get that for you." He picked up the sack and slung it on his back.

"Now Ah can handle it by myself-" He cut her off.

"You and Big Mac done already? See what I was tellin' y'all about teamwork and such?" He gave her a cheeky grin.

She blinked. Irritation hit her, not only had he interrupted, he still had the bag. "Thorny, gimme the bag. Right now."

He stared at her. "Ah'm sorry, Applejack. It's just that y'all was looking real tired and Ah just wanted to help is all…" He set the bag down, and as it lowered, so did his ears. He began to walk to the farm without her.

Applejack watched him start to walk away. Had she been that mean to him? Guilt caught up quickly, compelling her to rush forward to stop him, accidentally jerking the stand. "Wait. Ah'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell like that…it's just this dang heat."

"Can I at least pull the stand?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

"Alright, fine", she said casually. "But don't come whinin' to me when you hurt yourself." In the back of her mind, she was very happy she didn't have to pull the weight of the stand and the bits behind her. She fought it as hard as she could, but she lost the battle to a smile spreading underneath her nose.

"Y'all should know by now Ah ain't no weakin'." Thorny took the mare's place in front of the folded up stand and pulled it along with no effort at all.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie had just fallen out of the tree, giggling and bouncier than ever. She was watching the two talk and Applejack laugh nervously at a joke Thorny had made. They didn't noticed her eavesdropping and soon started to walk back down the path to the new home of the bits in the bag. Pinkie flew into the air, her hooves running before she even hit the ground. The other Elements of Harmony would definitely like to hear about Applejack's new coltfriend.

Applejack walked silently while Thorny yammered on about something he and Granny Smith were talking about earlier. She wasn't really paying any attention. In her opinion he talked a little too much. However, something about what he was saying reminded her of his absence for most of the morning. "Thorny", she interrupted, "where were y'all this mornin'?"

"Oh, that…" Thorny rubbed the back of his neck. "Granny Smith sent me to talk to the mayor 'bout rentin' the community center for Saturday."

That struck Applejack over the head with a stick labeled "odd". Before she could ask, Thorny answered her question.

"She said that the barn wouldn't be fixed up enough in time for the Blue Moon Harvest Festival." He looked at her. "Ah said Ah could do it, but she wanted me to talk to the mayor still anyways."

Applejack couldn't believe it. For the past six years, the Apple Family's annual custom was always held in their barn. "Did Granny Smith lose her marbles? The barn just needs a cleanin' and a paintin'. And that ain't gonna take long!"

"An' Ah'd hate to see somethin' so tradition like that be held in someplace it's not supposed to. When we get back to the farm y'all wanna get it cleaned up?"

Despite still being uneasy around him, Applejack couldn't refuse. It was just ludicrous to have the Blue Moon Harvest Festival in a place other than the barn. "Ah guess…"

There was no telling how much longer Big Macintosh was going to be, but she couldn't wait for him with the list of things they had to do. The Blue Moon would be over Ponyville Saturday night and that was not much time to get everything ready. Thorny did fix up much of barn, but it wasn't quite ready to hold a celebration. Applejack listed off the things that needed to be finished before the hootenanny started.

"When we get back, Applejack, y'all tell me what needs t'be done."

"What?"

"Y'all been workin' in the barn, right", he asked. "Before your hoof got better?"

She nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Then y'all gotta know what needs cleanin'. Ah don't know much outside what Ah saw the other day…"

She didn't know if he was playing her for a fool or not, but she liked the idea of getting to tell him what to do. "Alright, we'll see when we get there."

They stayed quiet for the rest of the walk. Occasionally, Applejack would chance a glance at the stallion, but quickly looked away before he could suspect her of looking. Thorny's head was too far in the clouds to have noticed anyway, so he just kept walking. By the time the heat got unbearable again they reached the farm. Thorny quickly made for the shade of the trees to drop the stand while Applejack left to tell Granny Smith about the profit. Before Thorny followed her in, he stopped by the well beside the house to dip his red bandana into. Once it was thoroughly drenched he dumped the bucket over the rest of his body.

Inside the house, Granny Smith was busy filling jars with freshly made apple jam. She thought she heard Applebloom walk in, but the filly was in school so assumed it was Thorny on his way back to tell her what the mayor had said. One could only imagine her surprise to see her granddaughter back so soon from selling apples. At first, she feared something may be wrong, but that was only until she saw the wide smile glued to Applejack's face. The younger mare set the giant burlap sack down on the dining table.

"Granny Smith", she said with a chuckle, "Hold on to your dentures, somepony just paid us nine hun'ered bits for our apples today!"

The years of life experience Granny Smith had couldn't have prepared her for news like that. She gawked at Applejack for a good ten seconds before Applejack laughed.

"Ah'm not lyin', y'all can see for yourself."

"I believes ya, Applejack", Granny Smith replied. "I just can't believe our luck."

"Ah gotta say, it's got a whole lot better since we hired Thorny", she blurted. Her eyes widened as she watched her grandmother smile knowingly at her. "N-no, Granny Smith, y'all know—"

"Ah need to get all this money in the family vault", Granny Smith interrupted. With that, she grabbed the heavy bag of bits and, with great difficulty, dragged it from the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway, "Don't worry, your old granny's still got some muscle left, eheheh."

She disappeared, leaving Applejack to question just what she had said to her grandmother. She didn't get much time to think before Thorny trotted in. The water still dripping from his mane was all it took to bring her out of her thoughts. She blinked but didn't turn around. "What'd Granny Smith say?"

She remained silent, not wanting to talk to him just yet. In her head she ran over a few safety precautions. She put her mind on the sole subject of fixing the barn. "I didn't get to tell her 'bout it. She went ahead and put the money up."

"Say, why don' we s'prise her by fixin' up the barn all the way!?" he suggested excitedly.

"Ah was thinkin' the same thing", she agreed. She finally turned, then wished she hadn't.

The light coming through the kitchen window bounced from one of the shiny lids of Granny Smith's jars to Thorny's freckled face, setting the pale green ablaze with light. His eyes twinkled with happiness. She had tried so hard not to look at him for too long since the walk back home and now she was staring him straight in the eyes! Her face darkened to red-orange with a blush while his just went red. They watched each other in what seemed like an endless staring contest.

When the burning in Thorny's eyes started to really hurt, he blinked and looked away. "…Ah guess we should start doin' it then…"

Only barely hearing him over her pounding heart, she replied in a mumble, "Yeah, let's get on it…" She let him leave first, then followed slowly out, wondering just why she couldn't keep her act together. With a sigh and a huge amount of willpower, Applejack followed him out to set into motion what she had yet to know would be the events to something she could never see coming.
> The Blue Moon Harvest Festival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Blue Moon Harvest Festival


Saturday came faster than Applejack had wanted it to. It was a good thing dressing out for the festival wasn't required, because just having Thorny attending the same celebration as her was enough to make her blush in itself. It was all so weird to her. For the longest time of her life, she couldn't even imagine talking to a boy outside family, and now she both couldn't wait to talk to one and wished that the very same colt wouldn't come near enough to talk to her again.

"Ah jus' don' get it", she said to her reflection. "Ah'm s'pposed to be the roughest, toughest cowgirl around. Ah can't stay like that if Ah let a colt get in the way…"

"Or can ya?"

Applejack stared back at her reflection. She sighed in frustration. "Now Ah'm goin' crazy."

"Or are ya?"

Reflections that replied a second time came to her as something more than just a stressed out mind slip. She watched her smiling reflection carefully, wondering just why it was so cheerful when she wasn't. There was something about the smile that seemed oddly familiar. She gazed into the mirror until the Applejack on the other side giggled.

The Earth Pony recoiled in anger. "Pinkie Pie!?"

"Heehee! Yup, the pony of ultimate pranks!" She hopped out of the window she had turned into a very detailed room using a little Pinkie Pie magic. "Betcha wonderin' how I did it, huh?" she asked, removing her Applejack wig and scrubbing off the fur dye from her face.

"Not really, Pinkie Pie", Applejack replied with a huff.

"So", the pink pony said in a way that suggested she was still on a quest to tease Applejack, "you like Thorny, eh?"

"Wha—no!" Applejack exclaimed. "Now how in tarnation did ya come up with that idea?"

Pinkie Pie smiled widely. Using a bit more imitation, she said in Applejack's voice, "Ah can't stay like that if Ah let a colt get in the way."

Applejack's cheeks became rosy red at the hard evidence. "Now, stop that, ya hear!?" She quickly left the bathroom and the giggling Pinkie Pie for the kitchen. Outside, the day was slowly turning into evening. "If Ah didn' know better, Ah'd say Princess Celestia was hurryin' the day along on purpose…"

"An' why is that a bad thing?"

Applejack bit her lip with a deep breath before turning to face Thorny. His face was soaked with sweat, a clear indicator of how hard he had worked through the day to get everything as perfect as he could before the big hootenanny. Being the Element of Honesty, she chose her words carefully to avoid lying. "Ah never said it was, Thorny. It's jus' movin' by so fast."

He nodded in agreement. "Ah was comin' t'tell ya that ever'thing's ready. Granny Smith wants ya t'get yer tail to the barn before everypony starts showin' up."

She decided to take the opportunity to leave instead of messing up any attempt to make a side conversation with him. Applejack left the house and was across the yard before Thorny could even think of walking with her. If she was lucky, Pinkie Pie would have broken out of the bathroom by now and distracted the colt with her antics. A small feeling of guilt did poke at her conscious. It wasn't right to leave Thorny so fast, but she only barely thought about it when she walked into the brightly lit barn.

Granny Smith waited for her near the large table full of food and goodies she and Applebloom had spent the last two days getting ready. She was just setting out the last of the apple pies when Applejack approached her. The older pony turned to the sound of hoofsteps and smiled upon seeing her granddaughter. "Ah was jus' wonderin' when you were goin' t'get here", she chuckled.

The orange mare smiled sarcastically. "Granny Smith", Applejack said with a shake of her head, "Ah didn' take that long."

"Ah was just wantin' t' tell ya like Ah told Thorny y'all did a good job on the barn."

"Shucks Granny Smith, it needed t'be done", she replied.

Applejack was too busy looking away modestly to notice the hint of teasing in Granny Smith's eyes. "You an' Thorny make a great team, did Ah tell ya that already?"

A blush appeared slowly across her nose. "Yeah, a couple times, Granny Smith…"

Granny Smith laughed under her breath, and kept going with her teases. "Ya know, Ah think y'all work better together than even me an' yer granddad."

"There anything else needin' done, Granny Smith?" Applejack asked in a desperate attempt to fight the embarrassment.

"Naw, Thorny already got to it all."

"Well, Ah'm goin' t'get ready then." She turned a one-eighty and galloped back to the kitchen, which was thankfully vacant. She tried not to think about where the colt could have gone, but her curiosity wouldn't stop wandering the plains of her mind in search of a probable explanation. Applejack climbed the stairs to her room. The festival was only an hour away, which didn't give her much time to think over what she was going to do when it started. Usually she didn't have to think about it, but with Thorny being there, she was worried about what was going to happen. The last thing she wanted was Granny Smith trying to play matchmaker.

She flopped down on her bed, sprawled out. Everything filling her head became more and more complicated the more she thought about it. The roaring fire of frustration turned her ears pink with anger. "Why can't everything just be easy?" she huffed. She closed her eyes, and drifted off into a nap after her hard day of work.


T


Meanwhile, Thorny was on his way back from grabbing up his sisters from home. He and the two fillies trotted through the streets of Ponyville. The only reason they weren't wrestling was because Thorny was wearing his nicest rancher's vest. He even switched out his hat with the black one that his dad had given him right before moving out. "Y'all pick it up, now. We need t'get there so y'all can meet Applejack."

"Ah can't wait!" June Berry cheered.

"Yeah, me neither, ya made'er sound so fun, Thorn", Apple Sprout.

Thorny grinned. "Cuz she is."

"Ah'll be the judge o'that!" June Berry declared, taking obviously large steps.

The sky overhead was darkening into violet, revealing the stars on the other side of the thick atmosphere. The streetlights were beginning to light up the path ahead of them, casting warm light on the cooling evening. The darkness gave Thorny's filly sisters plenty of reason to stick closer to their brother. Crickets hidden in the grass somewhat eased the tension with a song for them. The trio kept trotting until the barn of Sweet Apple Acres came into view. It lit up the whole yard and even some of the orchard trees.

Thorny let his sister run for the barn, knowing that the distance between them was safe. Ponies littered the yard and all made their way to the barn, making the rancher wonder just how long the girls had taken to get themselves ready, especially since they had nothing to do but comb their manes. He shrugged. There was nothing that he wanted to do before everypony else arrived, he was just hoping to get inside to be the first at the food table. Social gatherings typically brought hungry ponies, and he hated to lick the crumbs from the plates of all of the good stuff they managed to get to first. He was sure that he and Granny Smith had managed to bake enough goodies for everypony to enjoy and if not she did let him have some of her recipes.

"Wonder if Applejack'll eat mah cookin'", Thorny thought aloud. When the stars didn't answer him he chuckled and said with a sigh, "Guess Ah'll jus' hafta find out, heheh."

The inside of the barn was brightly lit with strings of colored lights that Thorny brought from home. He told Applejack that he was going to use them for his porch, but decided against it when he read that it was against Ponyville regulations of housing. He didn't care that he couldn't put them up so long as they got used in some kind of way. He saw the best way as using them for the Blue Moon Harvest Festival.

He inspected the roof, where the lights hung from the rafters. He double checked his work from earlier to make sure what he had planned wouldn't go awry when he pulled out his surprise for everypony. He walked around aimlessly until he heard Applejack loudly greet some of the guests. He saw her laughing at something a colt had said. He blinked in shock and jealousy. "What in tarnation?" He quickly crossed the room to go meet up with her and hopefully find out what was going on. When he was close enough to hear what was going on, he stopped to eavesdrop.

"Ah tell ya", Braeburn was saying, "Them buffalo never win a pie flingin' fight! Not once since we started it!"

"Who could ever have known that a battle to save an apple orchard would start an annual tradition", Twilight Sparkle asked the group.

"Ah never coulda told ya that Ah tell you what."

"Got that right, Fuji", Braeburn agreed.

What they were talking about set Thorny's mind at ease. They were all just friends. "Howdy, y'all!"

"Oh, howdy, there!" Fuji greeted. "You gotta be Thorny. Granny Smith made a big deal 'bout meetin' ya."

"Heh, she did, did she?"

"Said somethin' 'bout you an' Apple here fixin' up the ol' barn, Ah tell ya. Ah'm Applejack's cousin Fuji", he replied giving the rancher a hefty hoofshake.

Braeburn exchanged shakes next. "Braeburn. Say, that's a mighty fine vest, Thorny."

"Thanks, you too."

Applejack let the colts talk and hopefully forget about her and attempted to slip away. Twilight saw her escaping and put up a magic barrier just on the other side of the cowgirl's rump, keeping her in place. Applejack glared at her fellow Element, but with Twilight's challenging expression she knew the unicorn had the upper hoof.

"How'd y'all manage t'pull it off, Thorny?" Fuji asked. "Granny Smith told me an' Braeburn that y'all got the barn ready in just three days."

"Ah did a lot of it a couple days before Ah even heard 'bout tonight", he explained, "But after that, Applejack helped out whole lot. Probably woudn' even be done right now if it wasn't fer her."

Applejack didn't say anything despite the room for a boasting comment. She attempted to back up again, but Twilight's force field was still firmly present. When Braeburn said her name for the second time she finally responded. "What, Braeburn?"

"Ah said, 'is Thorny tellin' the truth, or did he do all the work hisself?"

"Ah worked too. Mostly paintin' and cleanin' since Thorny's no good at it, but yeah, Ah helped."

"Y'all did a good job", complimented Fuji. He opened his mouth to go on, but caught side of his girlfriend waving him over and didn't get the chance. "Sorry, y'all, gotta go." He briskly left the conversing ponies for the green mare.

"Since when did Fuji start carin' bout mares?" Applejack asked curiously.

Thorny jumped right into the tease pool. "'Bout the same time you started carin' 'bout colts."

Instantly, Applejack felt the urge to sock him for such an insult but refrained from embarrassing them. Her cheeks turned red, a fact that Braeburn decided used as a diving board for the same pool as Thorny. "You ain't blushin' are ya Apple?"

Thinking quickly, Applejack said, "Y'all hear that, Ah think Ah can hear somepony callin' fer me. Ah'll be a minute." She turned and managed to get around Twilight's magic wall by catching the mare off guard and walking straight instead of trying to go backwards. The far wall of the barn seemed like a good place to hide out while her face cooled down. Thorny had straight out embarrassed her right in front of family. And Braeburn had turned right around and embarrassed her even more in front of Thorny! Anger was definitely present in the mare's scowl at the floor, but melted away as the band on stage started to play.

"Ah guess if there's one thing t'make me feel better", Applejack said with a smile, "It's a good hoedown!"

Upon her last words the banjo started up followed immediately by the rest of the band. Everypony having anything to do with country music formed up into a huge circle. Hooves stomped in tune to the music while they waited for the feedback from the microphone to clear. "Alright, folks", the pony on the mic announced, "We're kickin' tonight off with a little square dancin', yeehaw!"

"Yeehaw!" most of them cheered in unison.

The fiddlers jumped right to their song. Looking around, Applejack grabbed the nearest colt for her partner. The stallion happened to be somepony she hadn't thought to see.

"Howdy, Applejack!" he greeted with a laugh.

"Howdy, Cortland!" she replied to her cousin.

He smiled and held up his hoof for her to take for the starting positions. She put her hoof on top if it and looked around their square to find that they were couple number two. She looked around the barn to find Thorny had paired up with filly half his height whose red and pink braided mane almost hit the floor. In that same circle was Cortland's little brother Cameo paired with a pinker filly with a purple and pink mane held down by a bow at the end.

As long as he's all the way over there…

"Everypony join all hooves and circle to the left", the caller on stage instructed.

Everypony followed by spinning counterclockwise. They reversed the direction when it was called and spun high and low followed by a promenade. "Now spin fellas in, and once more then back again!"

Applejack spun around and around then brought it home with her old friend. They broke off on a left corner turn and exchanged partners to find herself dancing with Big Macintosh. "Corner off one more time and all align facing the head. Now move to the middle and back to the barn. Centers, right hoof in star."

She and three others danced to the center of their square and put their right hooves in and danced in a star like shape. "Once around, corner right, turn it tight. Corner once more through and through, now you got a new partner full and true."

Applejack turned her head around from the last corner to find she was partnered with an ear-to-ear-smiling Thorny. She blushed hard, but had to be impressed with the way he promenaded with her. "Two steps around now side couples forward to the middle and back and low, then one more time and do si do!"

Thorny couldn't be more overjoyed to be dancing with Applejack. He happily showed off his best square dancing for her and he had a pretty good idea she was doing the same. "Now Ah want y'all t'swing her high an' swing her low. Promenade around if takes a year or even ten. After and now there's no more so that's the end!"

"Yeehaw!" Thorny whooped. When he calmed down he looked to Applejack and found that they were still holding hooves. He smiled in embarrassment and gently let hers go to the floor. "Ya got the heart of a square dancer in ya alright", he complimented.

Before she could mutter thanks, the two fillies she saw in his starting circle galloped up and grabbed his front hooves in a big hug. "Gotcha Thorny!" the one with the braided mane cheered.

"Y'all know somethin'?" Thorny asked, squeezing them together.

"What?"

"Y'all said y'all wanted to meet Applejack, so why don' y'all say howdy, already?"

They both turned in unison to see Applejack looking down at them with a look of realization. "Y'all gotta be Apple Sprout an' June Berry. Thorny talks about y'all all the time."

"Thorny you ain't say nothin' embarrassin' did ya?"

"Nothin outside you suckin' yer hoof 'til ya was four." Applejack chuckled.

Apple Sprout blushed. "Thorn! You promised!"

"Oops", he chuckled.

Formal introductions followed a small argument between Thorny and his siblings, but cooled down to Applejack having a discussion with the three. The addition of the girls made it easier to talk to Thorny, mainly by keeping her eyes locked on them.

Sometime later, Cameo walked shyly up to June Berry, offering her an apple tart. "Ah, uh…was wonderin' if you was gonna play horseshoes t'night…"

She took the treat. "Ah was plannin' to. Why?"

Cameo looked down and scraped his hoof along the ground in front of him. "Ah, was just wantin' t'know if you would play with me…"

"Sure thing, Ah'll play", she replied with a mouth full of apple tart.

His mouth formed upwards into a big smile. "Let's go then!" He took the lead and they bounded off to go play.

That left only Applejack, Apple Sprout, and Thorny. The older sister pushed her braided mane to the other side of her head. "What in tarnation just happened?"

Neither older pony could answer due to embarrassment, but it didn't matter until she saw a few ponies having a contest near the door. "They ain't doin' pushups are they?" she asked Applejack, forgetting all about her sister.

"One o' the contests Ah set up", Thorny answered.

"Yeehaw, Ah'm in!"

They watched her gallop to where the colts were busy trying to lift themselves up more than the others. Thorny laughed heartily, "That filly's about t'put'em all t'shame!" He exclaimed.

Applejack said nothing in return. She was way too uncomfortable now that the sisters had taken off. She let her eyes wander to the desert table, and right after said the dumbest thing she could. "Ya want some cider, Thorny?"

The green stallion jumped all over the offer. "You bet yer tail Ah do!"

Why in the world did Ah jus' ask'im that!? She screamed in her head.

She let him guide her to the cider barrels. He grabbed two pint mugs and filled them to the brim. He hooved one to her and grabbed two nearby seats at one of the smaller tables for them. Applejack hesitantly sat across from him. She mulled over possible ways she could get as far away from him as she could, but everytime she came up with a good excuse, her body refused to move.

"Ya like mah sisters, Applejack."

She nodded. "They're a lot like me when Ah was a littlin'."

"Were you a hooffull, too?"

"Ah guess ya can say that", she replied uncertainly.

Thorny sipped his cider. A blush crossed his nose, but quickly drained from his face as he decided against saying what he wanted to. Applejack took a small sip, then figured that she might have a small chance to tease him. "Why are ya all quiet?"

"Just tryin' t'figure somehtin' out…"

"Like what?" she smiled at him teasingly.

"Heh, Ah guess Ah better just show ya", he chuckled lightly.

Just as she was asking what he was doing, Thorny stood up and walked over to where the lights were hooked up to the fuse box. He opened it and flipped one of the breakers, dimming the lights considerably. Everypony stopped to stare and murmur at the ceiling the second their pupils started adjusting to the lack of brightness. Thorny continued with his plan by untying the rope that was intricately knotted into a bow on one of the thick hooks attached to a pillar. At the highest point in the ceiling of the barn, the two halves of the roof split apart.

Applejack couldn't see the pivot points and brackets through the dark , but what she could see was the blue moon of the Blue Moon Harvest Festival at its largest size directly over the barn. The midnight blue light filtered down and cast a peaceful atmosphere over the ponies in the barn. As if the roofs stopping was their cue, the band played a gentle, slow song. Applejack turned her head to look at them, but was met with Thorny right in front of her. He was holding out his hoof and smiling warmly.

"Applejack", he said, "May Ah have this dance?"

All rhyme and reason left her cowgirl mind as she took his hoof and walked with him to the center of the floor, where many other couples slowly spun around them. The blue falling on Thorny's face hit a string deep down in Applejack's heart. Burning rose to her face when she finally thought with the smallest of all smiles, He sure is good lookin'…
> Bonding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bonding


"Tic-tac-to, that's three in a row, Thorny!" Applebloom announced to the bewildered stallion just before sneezing all over their game board.

"Dang", Thorny whined, "Ya just can't be beat!"

"Thorny", Applejack laughed from the chair near one of the farmhouse's windows, "She ain't that good."

"Says you!" Applebloom snapped, "Ah beat'im sev'n times already!"

"Hohoho!" Granny Smith laughed, nearly losing her dentures.

Thorny silently growled at the laughter directed at his losing streak. "Can we get back t' work yet?"

Applejack moved the curtain aside to see a dark morning riddled with downpour. "Nuh uh. Still stormin'. I ain't goin' out t' get mah tail struck by lightnin'."

"Nope", agreed Big Macintosh.

"Ya know, sonny", Granny Smith called from behind her knitting, "If yer itchin' so much t' get back t' work, why don' ya head up t' the attic an' move some o' the furniture 'round."

Thorny hopped up from the tic-tac-to board enthusiastically. "Ah'll get right on it!" In five seconds he dashed up the stairs to where the attic door's pull string dangled from the ceiling.

Applejack heard it creak open and slam against the floor above. No pony else in the living room seemed the least bit concerned that the ex-rancher would be rummaging around the storeroom of their most private possessions, which irritated her more than not being able to work alongside said ex-rancher. "Ah guess Ah'll go make sure he don' hurt hisself."

The second she left the room, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith exchanged knowing smiles. Applebloom grinned with them, having no idea at all what was going on. Applejack's hoofsteps echoed from the second floor, then disappeared as they climbed the ladder after Thorny. With her tic-tac-to mate in another part of the house, Applebloom rubbed her eyes and headed up the stairs too. Granny Smith decided to allow the ill filly to go after them since she was undoubtedly bored out of her mind.

She found Thorny rubbing his head as he looked over the massive piles of keepsakes her family had collected over the years. "Y'all got more junk than a packrat in a antique shop", he commented, continuing to stare around.

For any other pony, Applejack would've had a nice clobber for him, but since she knew he was teasing, she replied, "This ain't junk, Thorny."

He held up a box clearly marked with the word "junk". "Ya sure, now?" he chuckled.

She blushed a considerable shade of pink. Since they had gotten back to work a couple of days after the Blue Moon Harvest Festival, Thorny had grown like a patch of blackberries on Applejack. He was a lot funnier and cuter now, coaxing a few new feelings and reactions to come from the farm mare. She hated herself for ever little response to him. It was making her seem more like a city mare, which didn't settle right with her stomach.

Applebloom's sneeze pulled her from her current self-loathing. "Applebloom, why don' ya go take a nap? Yer mighty sick."

The filly shook her head. "Ah wanna help—achoo!—too, Sis."

The older mare didn't think having Applebloom with them wasn't a bad idea. It did keep her from being alone with Thorny. "Alright, but you be careful now, ya hear?"

"I will, Applejack."

Thorny wasn't paying attention to the sisters. He was busy climbing a mountain of trunks to find anyplace barren of boxes. "Dang. Ain't no place clear."

"Only one thing t'do 'bout that", Applejack replied.

"What?"

"We gotta pile some down in the hall."

"Alrighty, then." Thorny turned and carefully jumped down to the floor. "Let's go through it an' find somethin' y'all don' need no more."

The three set out to find anything useless to the Apple Family. Thorny had no idea what was what and didn't want to bother Applejack or Applebloom to find out, so he just set out to do a little organizing. Applejack, on the other hoof was making great progress in chucking stuff through the hole in the floor down to the bottom of the ladder. When she had a pretty good spot cleared for them to set hoof on, she called out, "Hey, y'all can stop, Ah got enough cleared over here!"

Thorny stopped piling somepony's collection of old dolls under the window in the back to go find her. "Ah guess Granny Smith jus' wants us t'make it so ponies can walk up here. Whatcha think Applejack?"

"Ah think that'll work jus' fine", Applejack replied without turning around from rummaging through a box, "Ah don' wanna spend all day tryin' t'figure it out."

"Ah'll get t'takin' care of the boxes by the window an' try to get yer an' Applebloom's stuff over there." Thorny left her again to go stack boxes against the far wall.

They worked quietly with the exception of the humming coming from Thorny. Neither bothered to keep track of the time spent on the opposite ends of the attic. Even though they had no current contact with the other, both ponies were content with just working. They didn't noticed Applebloom snoozing in a pile of stuffed animals she stumbled upon. Applejack had attempted several times to get a glance at Thorny over her shoulder, but the mountain of boxes between them cut her visibility of him down to absolute zero. She could still hear him rummaging through her family's things and settled with that.

The storm outside raged on. The wind outside kept the attic vents in a constant state of motion, sustaining a cool temperature for the two ponies to work. Applejack listened to Thorny's humming while she pushed boxes around. She didn't recognize the song, but enjoyed it nonetheless. She noticed that with every roll of thunder outside, his humming sped up and became higher in pitch. It struck her as odd, and she began to wonder why when a bolt of light streaked across the sky, lighting up the attic and shaking the house with its thunder. Immediately following the force of nature was a loud crash of boxes.

Applejack was on the other side of the attic before the last box could even hit the floor. She found Thorny standing rigidly with his eyes shut tightly. The boxes apparently fell from against the wall away from him, leaving him to shake himself nearly to tears. She approached him slowly, unsure of how he would react to her presence. "Uh, Thorny?"

"…Jus' gimme a second", he said behind clenched teeth. He took a few deep breaths.

While he recuperated from the shock of whatever happened Applejack looked him over. She noticed beads of sweat forming among his freckles. He looked utterly terrified. That was, until he smoothed his damp mane over with a sigh. He pushed his hat further down his neck until it touched his back. "Sorry 'bout that", he chuckled, "Jus'—"

Boom!

"Ayep!" Thorny yelped. He jumped seized up again.

"Thorny, are ya 'fraid o' storms?" Applejack asked semi-incredulously. It really surprised her that somepony as strong as Thorny could be afraid of anything.

He nodded. "Sorry. Ah'll jus' muscle through it."

"Ah don' think so, par'dner", Applejack interjected, putting her hoof out to block him from getting back to work. "I ain't lettin' ya get back all worked up."

"Ah'm fine", he tried stubbornly.

She put a hoof on his shoulder. He was tensed to the point of trembling badly. "Sit down, Thorny", she instructed sternly.

His flank hit the floor without argue. Applejack took a seat across from him on an old pillow. "Better, isn't it?"

He nodded, keeping silent. The rain outside quickly changed from small to gigantic water drops. It pounded against roof, driving the stallion crazy. Applejack watched him writhe. She felt really bad for him, but didn't know how to make him feel better. He couldn't even hold himself together in her presence. She couldn't tell if he was even trying to. Eventually, when she thought his eyes were tearing up, she decided that five minutes of silence were enough. "So, uh, why are ya 'fraid of storms?"

He mumbled inaudibly to himself. It looked like whatever it was he didn't want to talk about it. Applejack just had to help him, but couldn't unless she knew why the storm was scaring him so much. "C'mon, Thorny, why're ya so scared?"

When Thorny glanced into Applejack's concerned face, he was sure that she wasn't going to make fun of him. "Can ya keep a secret, Applejack?"

"Yer darn tootin' Ah can!"

"Alrighty then." Thorny felt he could actually trust Applejack with it. He had never felt that way about anypony else. "It was a long time ago. Back before mah sisters were runnin' 'round."

Applejack leaned in to get more comfortable. It seemed like Thorny had a story to tell, and she was more than ready to hear it. Thorny gulped. Everytime he told the story, he could remember it clearly in his head.

"Come on, Thorny!"

"Stop goin' so fast, Bramble!" the little colt whined as he galloped up the hill.

"Haha!" Bramble laughed, "Yer slower than a frozen snail in winter!"

"We were goin' to the lake t' pick flowers fer Mother's Day", Thorny explained, "It was gonna storm pretty bad, so we were tryin' t'get there as fast as we could. Bramble got to the lake first, but waited on me jus' like he always did."

"How'd ya get so fast, Bramble?" asked the four-year-old-Thorny, trotting up to the taller pony.

"Jus' did a lot o' runnin', Thorn", the bigger brother replied. "Ah'll teach ya when we move t'Ponyville after mah birthday."

"Ah can't wait!" Thorny grinned up at his brother with a gap-toothed smile.

Bramble laughed. "We gotta hurry an' get these flowers. See them clouds? We don' wanna get stuck out in the storm."

Applejack's heart sped up with every word that came out of Thorny's mouth. She didn't like the way she thought he was taking the story. She didn't ask him to stop, though. It was bonding material that only came around once in a lifetime.

"Well, we got the flowers an' were headed back when it started to rain." Thorny took a deep breath and swallowed. Here came the hard part.

"Somethin' must've gone wrong with the weather team", Bramble observed. "Hop on, Thorny. It's time to hoof it home!"

"Woowee!" Thorny climbed on his brother's back and held on to the flowers they collected as tightly as he could.

Bramble tore off in the direction of their home as fast as he could. Not long after they started running did the rain start pouring faster onto the dusty path. Bramble slid to a stop. "Aw, dang, Ah can't see anything!"

"What?! Ah can't hear nothin' yer sayin'!" Thorny tightened his hold around his sibling's neck.

The wall of water falling around them made it hard for the two to even see their noses. Bramble frantically spun around for any hopes of seeing shelter. "This ain't good! Ah gotta get up a hill or somethin' right now!"

"Ah was too scared to know what was goin' on." Thorny's voice was now only barely a whisper as the worst part of the story came nearer. He had forgotten about the rain outside for the downpour in his memory. Applejack took the chance to move to his side to listen better and put a hoof around him.

"Dang this mud!" Bramble cursed as he climbed a steep hill, "Hang on, Thorny!"

"What's goin' on, Bramble?"

"We gotta get t'the high ground!" Bramble shouted. "If it starts t'flood that's the safest place!"

The mud caked up at his hooves, eliminating all traction from the ground. They slowly slid back down to the foot of the hill. From far off in the distance, a large roar echoed over the rain. Bramble quickly put Thorny down on the ground. "Thorny, Ah want ya t'listen t'me."

The younger brother nodded seriously.

Bramble removed his hat and bandana, revealing his blue and white mane. He quickly slipped them onto his brother. "Ah'm goin' t'throw you up the hill. Whatever ya do, DON'T get by the edge!"

Thorny didn't get the chance to nod before he was scooped up in his brother's hooves. He looked over his shoulder to see a massive wall of water swallowing the plains of Trotledge. "Ah love ya Thorny!"

"Next thing Ah knew", Thorny sniffed, "Ah was flyin' through the air. Ah landed on the top o' the hill. Ah waited fer Bramble t' climb up, but he never did…"

Applejack pulled Thorny into a hug. She didn't know if anything she could say would make the pain go away, so just held on to him. The storm outside poured on. Applejack found herself watching it slowly ease up while Thorny sobbed into her fur. She felt guilty for hearing his tale even though she didn't really force him to tell her.

"Thanks, Applejack." Thorny stood up. "Not many ponies do that fer me."

"Sure thing", she replied brightly.

As if nothing happened, the stallion started moving boxes again. Applejack chuckled. "C'mon, Thorny, sit down."


T


Big Macintosh felt that the three in the attic should be aware that the rain stopped. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he found boxes of his old things piled down by the attic's ladder. He sighed. In the attic he found Applejack and Thorny lauging across from each other on two old large pillows. "Anypony mind tellin' me why mah things are thrown down in the hall?"

"Mah bad, Big Mac", Applejack laughed. "Ah forgot t'get it all back up here."

"Anyways, Ah came up t'let you know that the storm stopped. Ah'm goin' out t'check on the south orchard."

"Be out in a minute, Big Mac", Thorny called down after him.

The two let the red pony leave earshot before continuing their conversation. "Yeah, we have rodeos."

"Phew, that's good", Thorny said, "Now Ah don' have t' just go back t'Trotledge fer'em."

"Matter o' fact", Applejack said, "Ah think the next one's comin' 'round in a couple o' weeks."

"Can't wait!" Thorny hopped up from his pillow. "Ah'm goin' out t'practice with a little work."

He jumped down the ladder to head out to the fields, leaving Applejack to think to herself. "Ah wonder if Ah shoulda told'im that Ah compete in rodeos too…hmm, nah! It'd be a big surprise fer him."
> The Road to Realization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Road to Realization

"Ha!" Thorny yelled, throwing a bale of hay to the loft of the barn with the use of his lasso. "How'd Ah do!?"

"Almost t'the back, Thorn!" Apple Sprout shouted down. "You sure are ready fer the rodeo, huh?"

"Not yet, sis!" Thorny said. He snagged another bale and tossed it.

Apple Sprout galloped to the back to see that it had slid firmly to the back wall. "Yeehaw! Thorny ya did it!"

"Woowee!" The stallion threw his hat into the air for celebration. Instead of tying it to the back of his neck like he usually did, he only placed it on top of his brown mane.

"Now that yer done", Applejack said from the door with a laugh. "Why don' y'all come in fer lunch? Granny Smith's got apple chip sandwiches fer us."

"Had me at lunch", Thorny chuckled, catching his sister who took the easier and faster way down by jumping.

"Food!" the young filly cheered upon feeling her hooves hit the ground.

"Ah swear", Applejack laughed as she held onto her hat as Apple Sprout's tail wind rushed past, "Ain't nopony Ah know eat like her. 'Cept maybe you."

Thorny put his weight against the barn door with a roll of his eyes. "Ah just eat healthy like."

Applejack shook her head sarcastically. "Ah gotta be honest", she said, "Ah'm in real trouble if Ah ever get into a pie eatin' contest with ya."

"Don' want t'toot mah own horn", he replied cheekily, "But all o'Ponyville'd be in trouble!"

"Now don' be gettin' a big head 'bout ya", the mare warned with a decent amount of seriousness.

"Just pickin'." Thorny looked away with a scratch of his head.

While his attention was elsewhere, Applejack smiled with teasing intent. In a quick movement, she brought her hoof down on the brim of his hat, pulling it over his eyes. "Race ya!" she laughed. She turned to take off for the kitchen, but was held down firmly by Thorny stepping on her tail.

"Oh no ya don't!" he chuckled.

Applejack immediately struggled to free her tail, but got nowhere as Thorny's grip was just too much for her. He watched in amusement as she pulled harder and harder, grunting and groaning to free her tail. Only when he was afraid that she was going to break it in half did he ease up a little. He couldn't have chosen a worst time to let up. Applejack jerked as hard as she could the second he provided enough room for her tail to slip out from under his hoof. The moment caught her off balance and she fell over on her back in a flurry of dry dust.

Thorny looked down over her with a grin. "Ya alright, Dusty?" he snickered.

She crossed her hooves, clearly embarrassed with two pink hotspots settling on her cheeks. "Be quiet." Even though he had just accidentally humiliated her, accident or not, she still accepted his hoof up. She was pretty covered in dust from the fall, so Thorny decided to apologize by taking his hat and placing it on top of hers. She rarely saw him without the hat on top of his hat and it never ceased to amaze her how messy his brown mane was underneath it.

Neither said anything. The quiet of the day was too peaceful to ruin. Instead they made their way to the open door of the kitchen. Inside, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were busy planning for their next excursion. Applejack and Thorny sat on the opposite half of the kitchen table across from each other. There were two sandwiches left on a plate that the young ponies hadn't managed to destroy yet. Thorny and Applejack grabbed the two before one of the chatting ponies could decide they were still hungry. He didn't immediately eat, for he was interested in what they had planned for the next day.

"And I was thinking", the youngest member of the group, Cotton Threads, was saying, "That if we can get Rainbow Dash and the Weather Teams to create enough wind at the lake, we can get our Cutie Marks in sailboarding!"

"That's sounds awesome!" Scootaloo cheered.

Applejack quickly clamped her hooves over her ears. Thorny saw her, but didn't know what was about to happen since he was unaware of the CMC's antics.

"CUTIE MARCK SAILBOARDERS! YAY!"

The cheer nearly knocked the stallion right out of his chair. High pitched ringing echoed through his head. When it cleared up, he saw Applejack smiling apologetically. He shook his head to fully get his sense of hearing back. When he looked, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had already disappeared from the kitchen.

"Sorry", Applejack said, "Shoulda warned ya."

Thorny smiled. "S'okay, ya didn' have the time t'say anything anyways." He looked down at the last survivor of the pile of sandwiches. Without thinking twice, he quickly wolfed it down and finished with a noisy burp. "Ah ain't had a sandwich like that in a long time!"

"Ah ain't see somethin' eat like that since I fed the pigs this mornin'", Applejack teased.

He shrugged, "At least Ah'm not 'shamed of it." He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes in deep thought.

Applejack watched him. She didn't do or say anything except study his relaxed expression until she noticed she was staring. "Thinkin' 'bout the rodeo again?"

He nodded. "Can't wait", he sighed. "Been trainin' all week."

"Ah'll be watchin' ya."

Thorny opened his eyes. "Why don' you do it with me?" he asked.

Applejack flinched. Since she told him about it, she still hadn't said that she competed. The desire to surprise him led her to make sure that nopony breathed a word to him about her having competed in past rodeos and she had even gone so far as to hide her collection of trophies and ribbons. She didn't want to lie for fear of seeming untrustworthy so she said the only thing she could. "I don't know…" she muttered uneasily.

"Jus' not the rodeo type?"

"Ah guess…"

"Ah think ya should do it", he stated.

"Why?"

"'Cuz you'd be good at it", he pointed out.

Her heart jumped. "Ah don't know", she said modestly, looking away with a blush.

"C'mon Applejack! You an' Ah both know ya can buck circles 'round me in the orchard. Ain't not tellin' what else ya can do!"

"Ah'll think about it, Thorny…"

He laughed, "I got no doubt in mah mind that ya can't bring home less than three ribbons!"

Applejack became mute with excitement. The fact that he believed so strongly in her and admitted that she was more skilled than him in something put her heart into overdrive. To make up for the rushing of blood through her veins, she began to breathe deeply. Realizing what her body was doing before Thorny could ask, she quickly left the kitchen, hoping that he didn't catch on to what had just happened to her.

Thorny watched her leave. He didn't follow to question her because she was her own pony and had her own reason. He checked the time. "Four o'clock", he sighed, "Dang it's been a busy day." Having nothing else to do, he collected the dishes from the table and began to wash them until somepony came along to keep him company.

Outside, Applejack rested against the side of the house. She shook uncontrollably as she attempted to get her body back under her control. "What in tarnation jus' happened? Why did it happen?"

"Because you're in L-O-V-E", said Pinkie Pie, stepping away from the wall of the house wearing the exact same color as the wall.

Applejack jumped back angrily. "Pinkie Pie! How many times do Ah gotta tell ya: Ah ain't in love", she snapped.

Pinkie giggled and shook off her camouflage paint just as if it was water. "Yes you are and I can prove it!"

"Oh, yeah", Applejack challenged.

"Yep. Just follow the bouncing Pinkie Pie!" she cheered just before the said Pinkie Pie hopped away from the house.

Applejack shook her head, but followed anyway, confident that she could prove Pinkie Pie's presumption paltry. Though she was sure that she would, there was a little twinge of doubt in the back of her head. No matter how hard she fought and denied it, a small cogitation of Thorny would break through and flutter her heart. It was as if some small part of her wanted to be in love with him. The orange mare quickly shifted her attention from her thoughts to the babbling mare leading her away from her farm.

She wondered where exactly Pinkie Pie was taking her to keep her mind clear of the stallion she left in the kitchen of her home. At first Applejack thought they were going to see Rarity to get a full romantic profile and several unneeded explanations about how she was in love. When they passed by the Carousel Boutique, she thought it was probably Fluttershy. The mare was probably going to make her see reason about her feelings, but when she noticed they weren't headed in the right direction, she was completely confused. Unless Twilight was going to put her under a mind-control spell, there was nothing the librarian could do to confirm that she was in love, and Celestia knew that Rainbow Dash knew enough about romance to do anything to help Pinkie Pie.

She continued to wonder exactly who Pinkie Pie was taking her to while she followed the pink mare to wherever it was they were going, which actually turned out to be a giant circle around the library as she was too caught up in her thoughts to notice until she saw the same reading bench for the fifth time in a row. She looked up to see they were getting nowhere and angrily called, "Pinkie Pie! Where're we goin!?"

She stopped in front of the door and opened it. "Right here."


T


Meanwhile, Thorny was back in the barn matching wits in a battle of strategy. He slid his red checker into place, confident that his opponent couldn't do anything to stop him now.

Tick Tack Tick!

"What?"

"Triple jump!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, happily collected the captured pieces and preventing him from obtaining the first king of the game.

"Dang it, saw that one comin', huh?"

"I saw it five moves ago!" she bragged.

Thorny smiled. Her arrogant attitude was just what he needed to bring victory down on her rainbow head. He studied the game board. There were very few moves he could make without mistake, but they all put him in a disadvantage. He kept looking it over until he found a move that didn't. He just hoped that Rainbow Dash would put herself in a tight spot with the next move. He slid his checker into the safe spot on the side of the board.

Rainbow Dash slid one of her checkers forward, almost having reached the middle. Seeing that move gave him an idea. With his two pieces guarding the sides of the board, he could funnel her through the middle with useless moves. Against his normal strategy, he moved one the checker on the far back right guarding the king making spaces forward. It forced her to move one of hers, starting a series of useless moves to keep from getting a checker captured from the other.

Eventually it got to the point where Thorny had more moves than she did. Her next move would have to be a sacrifice. She slid her leading black checker into the opening. That's just what Thorny wanted. With a smirk and a very complicated pattern, he successfully jumped every one of Rainbow Dash's checkers, winning the game.

She stared at the large move he made mouth agape with shock. She looked up to see him grinning victoriously. She chuckled, impressed. "That was awesome!" she flew into the air with a backflip. "How'd you do that?"

"Ah waited until ya got to where ya couldn' move no more and then you saw what happened." He put the game back into its box from the barrel they were playing on and replaced it back into the shelf behind the cider bar in the barn. He took a stool and propped himself up backwards on the bar. "Wanna do anything else?"

She shrugged. "Not really", she admitted, "I just came over to get AJ's leg weights so I can train for the rodeo."

"You compete?" he asked.

"You bet! I even have a couple of ribbons! Gotta be honest though, it's totally not easy. I never got a first place before…"

Her confession made Thorny feel bad, so he decided to let her in on a secret of his own. "Don' tell nopony, but Ah never won anything in a rodeo before. Ah'm hopin' this time it'll be different."

"I know how ya feel", she sighed.

"Promise ya won' tell", Thorny told her.

"Don't worry, dude. Secret's safe with me."

He smiled. "Thanks."

An awkward silence festered between them. Rainbow Dash quickly broke it. "So…where do ya think AJ is?"

"Ah don' know", Thorny answered, "But wherever she is, Ah bet she's enjoying it."

T

"NO!" Applejack bellowed, "Ah ain't gettin' brainwashed! Get that thing away from me!" She dashed for the stairs and almost made it out of Twilight's attic before Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Silly Applejack!" she laughed, "That's not what it's for!"

She stopped on the first stair. "It ain't?"

"Not at all", Twilight confirmed, "It's just going to measure your heart rate and other things while we ask you a couple of questions."

Even though freedom was just a hop away, Applejack took a second look at the big machine Twilight had just attempted to hook her up to. She slowly walked back into the attic. "Let's get this over with so Ah can prove y'all wrong…"

Twilight removed the hats from Applejack's head to replace them with a large bowl-like device. She strapped it on firmly. "Okay, Applejack, now just put your hooves right here", she instructed, tapping a podium in front of her.

Applejack looked at it hesitantly.

"Don't worry, it's just to analyze your pulse."

Applejack shakily placed her hooves upon it. The second they made contact, two cuffs trapped them their old-fashioned stock-style. Immediately, Twilight began to turn on the machine. It whirred to life and soon the attic was alive with the sounds of beeping, clicking, and other such noises. It wasn't long before the heart monitor blared a siren at the massive BPM Applejack's heart was producing. To save everypony's ears, Twilight recalibrated the sensitivity. "Just try to relax Applejack. It can't hurt you."

A few deep breaths did little to calm the nerves of the trapped Earth Pony. Now that escape was officially impossible she looked around until her gaze fell upon a pony she didn't know restrained in much the same way she was. "Whatcha in fer?"

"Insomnia", the mare yawned, "I haven't been to sleep in a week."

Remembering her other client, Twilight quickly zipped to her and slipped a headset over her ears. "This will play soothing sounds to help you relax. Just focus on them and try to sleep, okay?"

"I will, Twilight", she replied drowsily.

Twilight turned back to Applejack. "Ready?"

"Not really." Applejack felt she was going to be sick, but had to get the rumors off of her so she dealt with it.

"Okay, first question: Do you deny being in love with Thorny Hopper?"

"Yeah."

Twilight checked the monitors to make sure they were all working. "Okay, do you ever feel different when around him? Maybe giddy or bashful?"

Applejack mulled it over. She had a feeling that there was a lie detector hooked up to her somewhere, so she knew she would have to answer honestly. Thorny always did make feel a little weird. Especially earlier, but she didn't know what kind of feeling it was. "Ah guess…"

"Last question!" Pinkie Pie announced from the spot from where she was forcing herself to be quiet. "What would you do if you could never see Thorny again!?"

Applejack didn't know how to respond right off. She had become so used to seeing Thorny almost every day that she never got the chance to miss him. When she imagined what would happen if he had to go away for a while, her heart became light with panic and her stomach knotted with fear. Thinking about what would happen if he had to move back to Trotledge almost made her hooves sweat and nearly sent her lunch flying. Then she thought about what if she had never even met Thorny.

WWWWOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Twilight quickly unplugged the machine before the alarm caused panic in Ponyville. She freed Applejack's hooves before the circuits fried. "Okay, let's see now…"

"What did Ah tell ya", Applejack gasped, "Was Ah right or what?"

"Actually", Twilight said, looking over the printed data that the machine had collected during the questioning, "From what I see here, you are completely head over hooves for Thorny!"

"Aw, what does some machine know anyhow?! It don' know how Ah feel!" she yelled angrily.

"I'm sorry, Applejack, but these results don't lie…"

"Even if Ah'm in love", Applejack snapped, "What do Ah even do now?"

"Well", Twilight began, "You can confess your feelings…" The glare she received was solid proof that that wasn't what the mare wanted to hear so she quickly continued the suggestions. "Or you can do nice things for him and be sweet until he confesses."

"Oh, Ah guess Ah'll go be sweet to him right now until he tells me he loves me!" Applejack finally ripped the monitor from her head and threw it down. She collected the hats and stormed out in outrage.

Terrified at her rage, Pinkie Pie and Twilight let her leave. With a sigh, the unicorn picked up the helmet and placed it back onto its appropriate table, not noticing that it was hooked up to the other machine that was currently being used too. Twilight saw that her friend had fallen asleep.

"At least I managed to accomplish something today…"

By the time that Applejack reached the front door of the library, she had managed to cool down. More thoughts formed in her mind about what just happened. Twilight was never a pony to lie to her friends. "An' if she was right", Applejack sighed, "Ah need t'do somethin' nice fer'im…Ah guess Ah can start by lettin' him win the big obstacle course this weekend…"
> Roundup Rodeo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roundup Rodeo

Thorny and his sisters gazed on in awe at the giant, portable stadium that housed Ponyville's biggest rodeo of the year. The early evening hours were set ablaze as the lights from the event lit up the surrounding valley, making it a star on the ground of the darkening world. Even with the ponies making their way to it around them, they couldn't help but stand there dumbfounded until an outside force caused them to get off their flanks and move toward it too.

Somepony snickered behind them. It only just caught Thorny's ear, but it was enough for him to stand up and turn around with smile. He looked up the second he remembered that Rainbow Dash wasn't much of a walking pony. She was still trying to get a grip on her laughs at the sight of his sisters still wide-eyed.

"Are all rodeos this big in Ponyville?" he asked the giggling Pegasus.

"No…just this one", she laughed. "Come on! You need to get your sisters moving if you want to make sign ups!"

With that she flew to the stadium, leaving Thorny to pick his sisters from the ground and carry with him. The other side of the gates were no less impressive. It was very decorated with the different ponies photographed competing in the year's before. Banners, streamers, lights and even flags were placed all around the halls depicting different event stations and snack stands. He looked around for where Rainbow Dash had gone and found her hovering above a lengthening line near the bend of the vast corridor.

He ushered his siblings to the line before it could get too long. The last thing he wanted to do was get stuck at the end where by the time he signed up the rodeo would be over. He got behind a dark red stallion that towered above him. He paid no mind to him, he was too busy keeping his sisters from wandering off towards the many attractions the place had to offer. It'd be a little hard to get his name on the registry while looking for two lost fillies.

"C'mon, Thorny, let's get some cotton candy!" Apple Sprout urged with a tug on her brother.

June Berry pulled in the other direction against Thorny's other hoof. "No, apple pie!"

"If y'all don' quit Ah'm goin' two ways in half!" he protested. "Celestia, somepony come by t'take you two!"

His request to the heavens was answered immediately as a gray unicorn happened by with his own younger ponies in tow. He saw the Earth Pony struggling with the two trying to pull his hooves off. He immediately crossed the small distance to give assistance. "Thorny, would you like me to show your sisters around?"

He looked up to see the Carousel Boutique's assistant tailor and one of his best friends standing not even five feet away. He sighed. "Linen, Ah oh ya one."

"Ah, no repayment needed, it's the least I can do after you fixed the floorboards of the attic." He took the hooves of Thorny's sisters and led them away from the relieved stallion. He turned around to find that the line had moved forward by three whole ponies. Hurrying to keep his place in line, he galloped forward to secure the sixth position from the table. The line moved along at a pace smoother than he could previously determine with his sisters testing the breaking points of the tendons in his shoulders. When the big pony in front of him signed his name and left for wherever it was he was going, Thorny was surprised to see Granny Smith managing the lists spread out over the top of the table.

"Ah was wonderin' when ya was gonna get here", she chuckled, "Just put yer name wherever ya wanna compete. Or jus' sign the big list an' you can go at'em all."

Thorny obliged and signed the largest, and most filled, list on the table not at all noticing who had signed it first. She slid the number sixteen across the table to him. He grabbed it up. "Thank ya, Granny Smith."

"Good luck, sonny", she replied as he walked away. "They'll call fer ya after a while."

With his name finally on the paper, Thorny left for where he saw the other ponies from the line go. He rounded the corner of the hallway and found himself in what looked like a large souvenir shop. The place was busy with ponies going from one booth to another to purchase some kind of memorabilia ranging from designer cowboy hats to rock candy. There was a door on the other side where, he hoped, would lead him to a practice area. Navigating the crowd was a challenge considering the space between ponies was less than a foot. Thorny pushed through as politely as he could. No pony seemed to notice his large frame creeping through in an attempt to prevent knocking somepony over.

The adjacent room was less crowded. It appeared that it was just a place for the bathrooms, and nothing more than that. He turned to brave the crowded tourist trap once again, but caught sight of a third door just to the side of the restrooms. Behind that door was another hallway. He sighed in frustration. "Ah need a map."

"There you are! Had a feeling ya got lost." Thorny whipped around to see Rainbow Dash looking down at him from the air. "C'mon, let's get out on the dirt already!"

"'Bout time!" Thorny laughed.

On the way back, Thorny saw signs with maps of the place plastered every so many feet. He would have cursed himself for not seeing them on the way to the wrong side of the complex, but he couldn't blame himself for having to focus on one thing at a time. Rainbow Dash led him past the sign up line, which had begun to wrap around the bend and out of the entrance.

Since he wasn't much of a quiet pony, Thorny looked up at his Pegasus guide. "Been here before?"

Rainbow flipped over and lazily coasted along on her back. "Only this year and last year when AJ got me into'em."

"How many ya been in?"

Rainbow Dash counted the times she ever signed up alongside Applejack for a shot at a blue ribbon. "Six times…I think. I really don't keep track of that stuff. You?"

"Twenty times! Been at it since Ah was little", he proclaimed proudly.

"Yikes", Rainbow Dash commented, "And not one ribbon?"

Thorny's pride withered away into disappointment. His head shook to confirm that she hadn't forgot what he told her earlier in the week. He turned his frown from her to the path ahead. At the end of the long hallway, Thorny saw the walls and floor stop suddenly to give way to the gigantic field. He couldn't help but gallop forward with excitement. The second his hooves hit the dusty ground of the outside he felt much more relaxed and ready to take on the rodeo. Rainbow Dash landed next to him and together the two stared around at the crowd that had gathered for the event.

"I don't remember the crowd being this big last year", Rainbow Dash, "Just more ponies to see me win!"

Thorny ignored her to go on to the field, where tons of practice material lay in wait. Looking over what was set out for the competitors, he knew that he could only warm up. The only things he was unprepared for was the events that didn't require equipment. He leaned forward to start off his stretches. Occasionally, he gazed around to check out the competition. Many of the ponies he knew were from Ponyville. There were some from out of town and even one or two foreigners.

"These chumps won't know what hit'em", Rainbow Dash boasted, taking a stretching stance next to him.

"Ah wouldn' be thinkin' like that if Ah were you", Thorny warned.

"Why not? Look how scrawny most of'em are!"

Seeing that she was speaking the truth somewhat put Thorny at ease. He was used to competing in rodeos where even some of the mares towered over him. Here in Ponyville there was probably one or two colts that stood any chance against him in any muscle contest. Rainbow grunted next to him as she stretched as low to the ground as she could. He watched her, and noticed that she was number six in the rodeo.

As time passed, more and more ponies filled the small, enclosed field. Rainbow and Thorny slowly found themselves crowded to the point of not being able to move. Fortunately, a few officials moved the fences farther into the main field were the events were set up. It wasn't much longer after they were able to continue warming up when somepony tap a microphone, causing a little feedback to echo over the stadium. The crowds fell silent as they waited for the announcer to start the rodeo.

"Howdy, and good evenin' Ponyville!" boomed a mare's voice from many sets of speakers around the stadium. "Welcome t'the fifth annual Roundup Rodeo! We got lots o' excitin' events this year! If yer new, listen up for the rundown. We run this rodeo like a big tournament. You'll get paired up with different ponies and y'all'll go at it. If ya get eliminated, ya get three more chances before yer completely outta the game fer overall! That don' mean ya can go fer ribbons in the others though! Our field can handle all events at once, jus' listen fer yer number!"

The gates to the practice field opened up, letting the competing ponies through to the vast valley of a field. Thorny started to go with the others, but stopped when he noticed Rainbow Dash looking around. "Whatcha lookin' fer?"

She snapped to him. "Nothing, c'mon, let's go!"

He thought that was a little weird, but followed her without a second thought. Along the way, he noticed a huge board being worked by a small team of Pegasi. They were busy arranging numbers on a thirty-two count tournament bracket. They were in numerical order, meaning he was up against number fifteen. He looked around but didn't see anypony wearing the number in the crowd.

The first eight ponies stepped up to the four different challenges. He wasn't much interested in spectating just yet. He was more interested in scanning the audience seated in the high stands for his sisters, or really, anypony he knew in the colorful crowd. His eyes failed to spot anypony who had taken a seat near the first rows, and soon after that faces became unrecognizable as they got farther from the ground. He did see, however, Rainbow's fanclub waving signs bearing her face and words of cheer and support.

He could hear the events starting off behind him, but still didn't turn around. His nerves finally caught up to him as the memories of past rodeos and his losses creeped into the back of his mind. His attempt to deter the feelings ended in only multiplying them immensely. He could only imagine how pathetic he looked being the only pony who was sweating buckets without even exerting himself for a ribbon.

The stress was bearing down on him so much that he wasn't even aware that an official was calling his number until Rainbow Dash gave him a nudge. He shook himself loose of the tension to see that she was pointing a dirt-covered hoof to the farthest event. From where he was he couldn't tell what it was, but figured that it would be best to see what it was when he got to the irritated judge waving him to it.

"Stand here", he was instructed by the judge.

He stood on the white line, and when he looked downrange, saw two sets of single-file poles sticking up from the ground. On the other side, a unicorn stood ready. Thorny counted the poles on his side, noting that the ground bore twelve of them. His nose and cheeks started to bead over with sweat. Pole bending wasn't exactly on the top of his training list. He gulped upon seeing the judge making his way to the middle off to the side. She put her whistle into her mouth and, making sure that both were ready, blew as hard as she could into it.

Like a whip, Thorny was sprinting for the end of his poles. They all conformed into a single, blue and white striped blur to his side while his hooves put land behind them. The last pole came up faster than he could react, causing him to slip trying to cut a tight turn. He managed to keep his balance, but it cost him, down at the other side, his opponent was already starting back. He kicked forward and weaved in and out of the poles as fast as his body would go without whipping his flank into one. When he got to the end, he used his weight to his advantage. Dipping low, Thorny gripped the ground with his forehooves to allow his flank to rotate him around. The unlost momentum propelled him back through the poles.

Back and forth he went through the obstacles until he rounded the last one for the second time. Somewhat dizzy from dodging the poles, Thorny made a beeline back to where he first started. He dared to peek at how the other pony was doing. Relief cooled his nervousness when he saw that she was just coming out of her second set of weaving. He looked back and hurriedly slid to a stop just on the other side of the line. Rainbow Dash met him with a high hoof. He let a sigh go somewhere amidst his heavy breaths.

"Dude you were flying!" she cheered. "How'd ya go so fast?"

"Ah just pretended mah tail was on fire", he joked.

She rolled her eyes. "Looks like we're both going to the second round."

"Yep", he agreed, "Wonder what'll be next."

"Oh, you're over at the other end. Winners rotate around. I'm right here."

"Oh, alright, see ya later." He nervously trotted to the other end. It looked like hay chucking, which was something he was grateful for. He watched the third and fourth competitors hurl bales tied with different colored wire as far as they could. His confidence grew a bit when not one of them could fling the cubes of hay more than twenty-five yards.

"Number sixteen and number fourteen!" called an official.

Checking his flank to make sure that his number hadn't changed, Thorny walked up to the white line from where he would send cubes of hay flying. He waited while the officials returned the hail bales back to their original places. He sized up his opponent. She was a violet Pegasus with a yellow mane. She didn't look very happy with him. The daggers she glared at him didn't set right with his stomach, causing the stallion to turn and look back over the now-clear field.

"Alright, you two", the judge said, "Yer jus' throwin' the bales as far as ya can. The one with most distance wins!"

Thorny grabbed the lasso provided from the post to his left and eyed his small pyramid of hay as he set it up. He couldn't see, but the mare behind him decided to take her approach of the event by simply grabbing a bale by its ties and whipping it out on the field where it landed past a marked line of forty yards.

In the stands, two fillies strained to see what was going on down on the field. They were sure Thorny was struggling. From their seats atop a safety rail, it looked like all the green pony was going to do was twirl his lasso above him while the Pegasus next to him chucked bale after bale out on the field.

"What's he doin'?" Apple Sprout asked through a mouthful of cotton candy.

"Ah don' know", was the simple answer from her sister.

"I do hope he isn't becoming nervous", Linen commented.

They continued to watch as the circle of the top of the lasso grew in size until Linen calculated it to be near physically impossible to hold such a shape. He tossed it over the perimeter of the bottom layer of hay. He pulled the rope taut and squeezed the four bales together. He took a running start, pulling them along with him. He ran away from the line, and then back to it. He stopped to let the bales slide past in the lasso and use the passing momentum to bring it into a winding loop. The hay circled around him four times before Thorny released it out over the field. It sailed passed the forty-yard mark, landing somewhere on the fifty, and sliding to a stop just before the seventy.

The world around Thorny stopped spinning and settled on an impressed-looking judge and a bewildered mare. He grinned goofily at his accomplishment.

"Ya still got three more there, bucko", the judge chuckled, wanting to see more of what Thorny had.

With the lasso nearly on the other side of town, Thorny resorted to taking the bales of hay and simply bucking them as hard as he could. All the time spent in the orchard with Applejack reinforced his rear hooves, enabling him to kick the dried straw farther than he thought he ever could. All three bales landed five more yards more than the first mass of four did. He thought it was his imagination, but he could have sworn the crowd got a little louder the second the final bale of hay skidded to a stop in a heap of dust.

The judge tallied up the final score, mainly for record purposes; it was clear who won. Thorny's second time walking back to where the other competitors were waiting in the designated area off to the side was accompanied by several compliments. His confidence soared upon hearing how impressed the other ponies were.

"Ah might jus' have a chance", he chuckled to himself.

Since his event finished second to the others, he sat down to relax before the next round cycled through. He watched the competition from a vacant bench. Most of it looked like it had since the rodeo started: uninteresting. He saw Rainbow Dash whip the scarf off some poor colt in pole bending, but didn't get up to congratulate her. He would just have to cross back over the field and expel much needed energy.

"Lookin' good out there, Stranger", said somepony behind him.

"Thanks", he replied, taking the compliment with a smile, but not recognizing the voice it came from. He sighed in content at the last of the stresses having finally faded away. He still felt the pony behind him, and when he turned around, he saw why.

"Applejack?"

"Yer darn tootin'", the orange Earth Pony laughed.

"What are ya doin' down here?" he asked.

She turned to the side to show him the number twelve she taped to her flank. "Same thing as you!"

He stood up with excitement. "Ah thought ya didn' do rodeos."

"Gotcha, then! Ah go t' every rodeo that comes t' Ponyville an' then some! Jus' wanted t' surprise you!"

The look painted to Thorny's face was hard to appraise, but surprise was definitely one of the things she could have used to describe it. He smiled after several seconds much to her relief. "That's great!" he exclaimed, "Now Ah got real competition t' worry 'bout."

Seeing how he took the news rather well, Applejack saw an opening for a little bragging. "Ya sure do, cowboy. Ah'm not goin' easy on ya!"

"Ah'd be mad if ya did!" he laughed.

The smile faded from Applejack's face as if somepony had attached lead weights to the corners of her mouth. She really hadn't thought of that. Her whole plan of letting him win any competition they were in together filled to the brim with doubt that it was going to work. The fact that Thorny was still smiling didn't do much to assure her that he was joking. She had a feeling that Thorny was the type of pony that enjoyed the thrill of a challenge, and that didn't exactly make her feel any better.

Lucky for her, she didn't have to mentally writhe in front of him for much longer. "Number twelve!" an official called from the barrel racing event.

"Go get'em, Applejack!"

She turned back to see Thorny nodding her off, to which she complied with happily. The longer she was in his presence, the more the confusion pressed down on her. Now she didn't know what to do. The desire to give kindness and let him win now conflicted with the thought that he may not like it at all. The impasse was so bad her mind couldn't even come up with a worst-case scenario. Her luck took a downward spiral into a black abyss when she saw who was at the starting line waiting for her. Argh! This is the last thing Ah need right now!

"Yeah! Hey AJ!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "It's about time I got somepony who can come close to beating me!"

Applejack remained silent. Her mood had already gone sour in the heat of what had transpired over the course of the last five minutes, and now not only was she not in the presence of Thorny, she was dealing with an emotional battle that would more than likely follow her into the barrel race with the one pony who was surprisingly fast on her hooves for a Pegasus.

Regardless of what was going on or how she felt, the orange pony still readied herself for the race ahead. She crouched down low to get leverage for her back hooves. Rainbow did the same, but didn't get as low. Neither looked at each other. Instead they studied the path of barrels ahead of them. Applejack immediately saw it was different this year. Instead of a straight line, the two sets split off and wrapped back around to the starting line. She wasn't prepared for the new arrangement, but luckily, neither was Rainbow Dash. Applejack figured if she could keep from slipping, she could overtake her rival at the bend.

"Three! Two! One! An' GO!"

Applejack's body moved without her thoughts accompanying it. The only thing that she focused on was zigzagging in and out of the dirt-filled barrels. She caught Rainbow Dash out of the corner of her eye. So far both were tied for first. The bend came up four barrels later. Applejack tightened her path so that she was just barely missing the wooden containers. She came out of the turn and looked to see that Rainbow was beating her. Applejack pushed her hooves into the dirt harder. She wasn't about to lose to Rainbow Dash with Thorny watching. She reexamined that last thought, then turned her attention to the crowd the stallion managed to push himself to the front of.

The sight of him was all it took for Applejack to find the hidden gear that she needed to unleash a tidal wave of speed. She launched past Rainbow Dash and ended the race by a landslide. Her lungs begged for breath, causing her to stop and gasp for air. The lights around her dimmed when the blood caught up with her head, but she shook it off to go see Thorny before it was his turn out on the barrels.

"Woowee! Ah've never seen ya run like that!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, me neither", Rainbow huffed, clearly disappointed at the loss. She hovered in place, muttering something about how Applejack got lucky.

The farm ponies ignored her for each other, Applejack reveling in Thorny's praise, and Thorny impressed with how well she performed. It was short lived, however. It wasn't much longer before Thorny was called out into the mass chaos to compete in the very same event Applejack had just finished. She sat with Rainbow Dash, but was more caught up with her thoughts again to watch Thorny go up against a blue Pegasus.

The subject didn't change, yet she still couldn't find a solution to it. She thought about what might happen if she did her best and won. Maybe he wouldn't mind, but then again it could upset him that he didn't win his first Ponyville rodeo. She didn't know him to get mad over anything, and that made it even harder to tell if she was going to mess up with whatever decision she made.

"Guy's good", Rainbow said, giving an interruption to her thoughts.

"Yeah", she agreed, "Real good."

"Can't believe he's never won a ribbon be—" Rainbow noticed her mistake too late. The damage had been done. "Uh, please don't tell him I told you that."

While Rainbow left with a heap of fear and guilt, Applejack finally had the answer she had been looking for. Disbelief didn't even present itself over the fact that Thorny had never gotten a ribbon in a rodeo before, because she was going to help him get his very first. The old plan she formed the day before came back to the front of her mind full-force. She rehearsed it to make sure she didn't forget anything and finished just as Thorny was stepping away from his race with a proud smile stuck to his face.

"Now that the easy stuff's over", Applejack said, "Ya ready fer the hard part?"

Thorny had no idea what he was getting into when he answered with a nod. The next challenges were not only against tougher ponies, but were themselves tougher. Obstacles and high nets were planted on the field of the hay chucking event. That made it hard for anypony to use height to help distance. Thorny and Applejack both scraped by with only a few yards ahead of the ponies they were against, leaving Rainbow Dash with her second loss and facing disqualification. Pole bending wasn't much harder if you were a pony with suction-cup hooves. The greased ground nearly caused Thorny to face his first loss. If his reckless opponent hadn't slipped and spun out of control, he wouldn't have moved up on the bracket. Applejack and Rainbow both dominated the poles, using their light weights to their advantage and gliding gently along on top of the slick.

The rodeo drug on for the participants. Grueling exercise and even tougher tasks wore them down so much that they couldn't even give somepony the correct time or even day of the week. The numbers on the giant board eventually turned into the names of the ponies going on to the semifinals. With only one loss, Thorny found himself in the top four before he knew it. On the board with his name were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and a pony named Mind Fracture. The four were offered a thirty minute intermission to rest and get ready for the most difficult part of the rodeo. Each gladly accepted.

Thorny found himself alongside Applejack at the refreshment stand nearest the field. They were mainly silent, with the exception of the two chugging cup after free cup of water down. Slowly, they slowed their guzzling down to a sip every few seconds. Not much longer after they had been thoroughly hydrated Thorny spoke.

"Dang, Ah ain't been worked so hard in mah life", he exclaimed.

"Jus' wait 'til Zap Apple season", Applejack chuckled.

"Whassat?"

"You'll see later on."

Thorny smiled upon noticing just how dirty they were. It looked more like they were the unfortunate victims of a horrible accident than a rodeo. Their hooves were dry, but still contained the stains of the color. Their fur was full of dust and dirt, not to mention that the weight of their manes was twenty percent dirt. Exhaustion presented itself in the worn looks on their faces.

Applejack felt Thorny's smile warm her damp, crusty, and stiff fur. She smiled bashfully, sure that he couldn't see the way her face was heating up. She took a deep breath in preparation to face him. "How ya holdin' up, Thorny?"

He sighed heavily. "All Ah can say is Ah'm gonna sleep good t' night!"

"Ah'll say", she agreed. "Jus' two more left. Can't wait."

Thorny downed another cup of water. "Ah can't believe Ah lasted this long. Ponyville's tough."

"Yer doin' good, Thorny", Applejack complimented, "Ah'm proud of ya."

The resting heart in Thorny's heart rocketed to his throat. "R-really?"

She nodded honestly. "Yeah, Ah always see ya workin' in the field, an' Ah really didn' know what t' expect."

"Thanks, Applejack", he replied, "Hey, uh, maybe we could spend some time t'gether outta work. Maybe…fer…lunch or somethin'?"

His offer struck gold in the form of a deep red blush when Applejack realized that Thorny had just asked her to a date. She mulled it over, marrying the fact that she only rarely ever saw him outside of the farm with the absence of an excuse to get out of it.

"Yeah, but let's wait 'til after the rodeo t' plan somethin'", she suggested.

Thorny yawned, "Ah'm with ya, there. Can't hardly think."

"Stay awake, Cowboy!" Applejack laughed. "Don' need ya fallin' out out there."

Her comment received a sarcastic eye roll from the stallion downing his eighth cup of water. "Ah'll be fine", he sighed, "Ain't nothin' Ah can't handle."

"Remember what happened the last time ya said that?"

"Sure do. Took a big nap, that's what", he replied. He pushed himself away from the table. "Take a walk?" he asked.

"Where?"

"T' the dirt", he chuckled, "We're gonna be late gettin' back."

Applejack shot off her stool and on her hooves. Wordlessly, they backtracked the path they took to refresh themselves and ready for what they were heading right back into. The two didn't make it a race; fatigue may have interrupted common sense, but it took a mental process even more instinct than that to reason that it wasn't wise to gallop back. The halls were pretty vacant as the spectators were still in their seats observing the few ponies up to competing for the single events.

Nothing really happened on the way back with the exception of the echoes coming from the two sets of hooves. The thundering sounds of cheers and applause got louder the further along they trotted. Their worn frowns and bloodshot eyes morphed into shocked expressions when they saw the surprise that awaited them when they stepped out into the cool, damp evening.

The mere shockwave from the erupting audience nearly had the two farm ponies taking flight. They looked around to see that the whole stadium had transformed insanely fast. The crowd had by now chosen which contenders they liked best and were now divided into four massive groups waving large signs and banners bearing their names and pictures. How exactly all of these things came about neither could even imagine.

"An' here they are, everypony", the announcement mare announced, "Now that they're all back, let's get t' the semifinal round before the big obstacle course!"

Thorny and Applejack spotted the Pegasi waiting for them near a judge. They quickened their pace to a light gallop to see what was going on. "Okay, t' decide who goes up 'gainst who, we got a really advanced way of doin' it fairly." The four leaned in for what they thought was going to be a complicated and drawn out explanation. "Ah'm thinkin' of a number between one and ten." There wasn't a facehoof powerful enough. There just was not. Since none of them could come up with a way to display their disappointment, they resorted to choosing a number.

"Four", Thorny said immediately.

"Nine", said Mind Fracture.

"One!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Six", Applejack mumbled.

"Alright, Thorny got it. You go ahead an' get t' the plow racin' strip", the judge instructed.

Thorny left the group to guess the next number while he got hooked up to his plow. So far, it hadn't been a challenge. Not the mud nor the heavier plows. Now it looked like the whole strip had been reset and lain with gravel. The farm stallion winced. That was going to be horrible on his hooves. When the final clasp was clicked into place, Thorny looked up to see the group of ponies dispersing. Applejack and Rainbow Dash left for the final round of pole bending. Mind Fracture started in his direction.

"By now, y'all know how it's done", said the judge while the blue Pegasus got hooked up.

Thorny nodded. He shifted his focus to the racing mares. He didn't know how they were doing, and it by the time he shifted his gaze back, Mind Fracture was ready with his plow. Thorny straightened up. It was the final round before the big event, so he had to tough this last one out.

The judge stepped ahead in between them. "Alright! Ready? One! Two! Three! Go!"

Thorny gritted his teeth and stepped out onto the gravel. He dug in and dragged the plow behind him. Before the rodeo he had never pulled a plow before let alone over the toughest terrain that the evil hosts of the rodeo could find. His already by now sore hooves screamed in agony for him to stop. He couldn't hear them over the orders the strive to impress Applejack were barking at him. He couldn't brave a look at his opponent for fear of seeing the Pegasus ahead. The plow suddenly stopped when it hit hard clay. Thorny leaned forward for more momentum. The plow inched forward. The agonizing battle with the piece of farm equipment drudged on with slow, torturous steps forward.

The world didn't go by as slowly as Thorny's psyche made it out to be. He collapsed on what he thought was still dried clay, but the cheering suggested that something else happened. Thorny came to to realize that the crowd had exploded into chaotic applause at his success of beating Mind Fracture by three feet. The poor Pegasus just had no more strength to pull the heavy plow. He was down for the count.

"Way t' go, Thorny!" Applejack cheered just in front of him. She and Rainbow Dash smiled at his arrival to the semifinals. They helped him out of his harness and left the field. The three ponies stopped at the water stand he and Applejack almost drank dry the previous break.

Thorny was the first in a stool to get off his tender, heavily callused hooves. He didn't lose much water in the race, so he passed on the chance for a few more free rounds. He rested his head on his hooves and his hooves on the table with closed eyes.

"Ya alright?" Applejack asked.

"Jus' hurtin'."

"Feel ya", sympathized Rainbow Dash, "And we all have one more to do!"

"Excuse me."

The trio turned to see Thorny's previous opponent barely standing with a jet black Pegasus with a crimson mane holding him up. "I would like to congratulate you for your achievement of defeating me in our race", he told Thorny. He turned to Rainbow Dash, "I'm sorry to inform you that I am in no condition to continue competing. I surrender the opportunity for third place to you."

"Third?" Thorny inquired.

Rainbow Dash nodded with a huff. "Applejack beat me in the barrel race."

"That means it's you an' me on the obstacle course, par'dner", Applejack announced, giving him a pat on the back.

"Ah'm in fer a world o' trouble", Thorny realized incredulously.

"I wish you both luck", Mind Fracture said, turning to leave.

"I'm sure you'll do juuuust fine", cooed the mare, firing a wink at Thorny, causing him to blush.

Applejack's face nearly caught fire. If she wasn't afraid of embarrassing herself in front of Thorny, she would have given Fracture's companion a piece of her mind. She let them get out of her sight before opening her mouth. "It ain't gonna be that bad", Applejack assured.

"Are you kidding!?" Rainbow bellowed, "It's gonna be a slaughter!"

Applejack shot her a stern glance, and received a "What did I do?" shrug from Rainbow Dash. She turned in her stool to rest on the bar with Thorny. "You okay?"

"Yeah, Ah jus' gotta give it mah all when Ah get out there", he admitted. "Ah can't go easy on ya jus' 'cuz yer mah boss."

His competitive words lifted her lips into a smile. The more he got fired up about the race, the prouder he would feel about winning first place. Sure she would give up her combo of fifty-seven straight Ponyville blue ribbons, but she would make a very special pony very happy. She pushed herself away from the table. She had to get her mind off of the emotions plaguing her, and she had a feeling she knew how to do that. "Say, Thorny, there's a bunch o' time t' kill while the rest of the obstacle course gets set up. Ya wanna walk around?"

"Frat'nizin' with the enemy?" he asked with a grin.

"No, nothin' like that", she chuckled, "It'll help us forget 'bout how tired we are."

"Doubt that'll happen", he replied, "But sure thing."

"I'll catch up later", Rainbow stated when they got up. She yawned heavily. "I'm just going to rest my eyes for a sec."

The two Earth Ponies shrugged, then left Rainbow to snooze at the bar. More ponies filled the corridors to build giant lines for the bathrooms before the interlude ended. It wasn't so bad they had to fight the crowd. As a matter of fact, most ponies got out of the way when they saw the finalist lazily parting the colorful sea of Earth Ponies and unicorns with their presence. Murmuring chased after them, however both ponies were too tired to pick up on what any of them translated into. A little while later, the aimless walk came to an end in one of the most energetic of ways.

"THORNY!" two high-pitched voices rang. The owners of the voices tackled him with hugs. Unable to catch the weight, Thorny went overboard. With an "oomph!" and a laugh, he did his best to rough house with the girls. Ultimately, they won.

"We finally gotcha, Thorn!" Apple Sprout cheered, sitting on his right forehoof.

June Berry squirmed on top of the left one with a, "Yay!"

Applejack put a hoof to her mouth to help muffle her laughs. The helpless stallion looked around for any means of escaped when his eyes fell on the pony he left foalsitting them. Linen watched the scene amused until the look Thorny gave him was ready for its license to kill. "Apple Sprout, June Berry", he called. "I'm sure your brother is very tired. Why don't you both release him so we can go get the ice cream I promised?"

"Ice cream!" they shouted together.

Forgetting that they were on top of their brother, the fillies took off back for the gray unicorn. Once Linen made sure that he had them all in line and that his little brother wasn't going anywhere, he had them wave goodbye to the farm ponies, and together they started in the opposite direction. "Good luck!" Linen called over his shoulder, "I'll be, how does Ponyville say it? Ah, yes, rooting for you!"

Applejack helped Thorny up to spare his muscles. He dusted himself off only to uncover dry mud underneath. He shrugged. "Ah'm goin' fer a dip in the river after this, anyways."

"Ya sure?" Applejack asked, "It's pitch black outside."

"Gotta better idea than cleanin' mah house?"

"Well, since ya said it like that, Ah'm comin' with ya."

Thorny enjoyed the sound of that. It would be the first time to the river since his first day at Sweet Apple Acres. "Jus' don' hurt yerself this time", he joked.

She rolled her eyes, which wasn't the fuss Thorny was hoping to get from her. He didn't egg her on anymore, though. He really didn't want to deal with an angry Applejack on the obstacle course. The thought of the last event brought his brow into a furrow. "Say, how long's our break?"

"An hour", she replied.

"Nap time!" Thorny declared suddenly, jumping to the nearest empty bench.

She peered over him. Whether or not he was faking it, Thorny was out cold. Unfortunately, there were no other empty benches around, but that didn't stop Applejack from sitting on the floor in front of Thorny's. She leaned her head back against his warm body, and slowly drifted off.


T


An hour to recuperate from hard exercise wasn't exactly enough to be able to relish. Almost as soon as they closed their eyes, they opened again to meet their tiny reflections in the black abyss of a rodeo official's shades. Applejack saw herself first. She reached back and swatted Thorny lightly. He snorted the rest of his snore and woke abruptly to see an impatient Earth Pony standing over them. He yawned, "Howdy, par'dner."

The official shook his head. "The obstacle course's done, y'all."

"Great", Thorny replied, lying back down, "Five more minutes."

"C'mon, lazy bones. Ya can sleep when yer dead", Applejack urged.

"Alright, alright. Ah'm up!"

The judge escorted the two back, keeping the pace by staying behind them and nudging them along when they fell behind. In the hour of their nap, the halls cleared completely. Their hooves echoed eerily through the air. The crowd outside rumbled through the walls. Excitement began to pump into their systems with every step closer to the bright opening of the hall. On the outside, the crowd cheered upon seeing the remaining two ponies enter the stadium.

Thorny stopped just outside the exit to appreciate his fans' joviality. He waved to the whole stadium before moving on proudly to take his spot next to Applejack, who passed him to psych herself up for the large course awaiting their run-through.

"An' here they are folks! Applejack an' Thorny Hopper ready t' duke it out in the obstacle course for the blue ribbon! Who's gonna win, the return champion, or the newcomer? There's only one way t' find out!"

Thorny looked over the field. Five obstacles stood in the way of victory. Taking a glance to his left, he saw Applejack ready to leave him in the dust. The look of determination filled him with eagerness. He couldn't wait to see how well he would do against her. If he did beat her, then maybe she would be impressed.

The mare, in turn, experienced the exact opposite of what he was feeling. Anxiety, doubt, and even a smidgen of fear clung to the back of her head. All the planning in the world didn't help the fact that now she had to carry them out. She forgot to think about when she would purposely flub the event. Then it came to her. The last obstacle came out into a clear path for them to sprint. All she had to do was let him pass her there. Then, everypony would be happy and she would still look like she did her best.

"…Two!" the announcer called amidst the mare's thoughts. "Three! Go!"

Applejack tripped over herself in panic in her attempt to dash out ahead, giving Thorny room to take a commanding lead. She chased his tail to the first challenge of stump jumping. She watched him sail over two at a time while she took them one by one. Her hooves launched her over each one, keeping her from falling any farther behind as she flew over the sawn trees.

Ahead, her stallion rival had already made it to the rope swing. Thorny grabbed the shortest in a high leap. He swung forward, but his weight combined with the lack of length in his rope brought his body back down where he landed just inside of the mud pit below. He recovered as quickly as he landed, looking behind to see Applejack just grabbing a rope.

She landed on the other side on the pit and pursued him to a pair of hoops suspended by cables. He jumped from the small platform provided only to get his large frame stuck halfway. She laughed at him along the way of making it through her hoop. She rounded the next bend to find swinging bales of hay. She went into the forest of swinging straw without twice checking what she was up against. Applejack dodged a slow swinging bale. She didn't see another, much faster bale until it knocked her aside with enough force to leave the mare on the ground with no wind in her system whatsoever.

Thorny barreled past, taking hits left and right, yet not even flinching. Applejack forced herself up and after him to the low crawl. Thorny slid to a stop in front of it, then carefully got low to crawl through the mud. That was where Applejack overtook him once again. In a diving jump, she sailed underneath the wire and slid across the mud to the other side. She momentarily stopped to shake off the mud and continued on. Behind her, Thorny came out of the mud with no intentions to shake it off.

Now was the time. The final sprint had come at last, and with the finish line only yards away, Applejack slowed her pace. Not enough to make it obvious but enough to let Thorny rocket past. It was only a split second. The moment his nose was past her, she put everything she had into her hooves. She stayed just behind his tail for the last leg of the race. When the line to end it all was but five feet away. She closed her eyes. Thorny had won. She smiled with happiness at how it all worked so perfectly. That was, until she felt herself push through something.

Applejack's eyes opened just in time to witness a roaring ovation and falling confetti. Confused, she turned to see Thorny picking himself up from the ground mere inches from the finish line. He rubbed away the pain from his fall and looked up with surprise to see Applejack being congratulated by the rodeo's owner.

The next hour and a half went by in a blur if your name was Applejack. Even though she stood on top of the tallest rostrum and held the first place prize, she felt as if she accomplished nothing. Three days of planning wasted. Thorny would never forget it. He'd never forget how he got beat by a girl. Those and similar thoughts plagued her until she left the stadium for a sleepless night. Crickets chirped in the moist grass along the way back to Sweet Apple Acres. Most ponies would have enjoyed their songs combined with the cool air of the growing autumn night. Applejack however, wanted nothing to do with happiness seeing as how she royally messed up the chance of making Thorny happy. She continued to sulk on the road home. It wasn't long before the silence was broken by the last pony in Equestria Applejack expected to see.

"Hey, Applejack! Where are you going!?"

As if her imagination was playing a horrible trick on her, she turned to see Pinkie Pie bouncing after her. The only reason she didn't take off in a sprint was the fact that she had absolutely zero energy. "Whadda ya want Pinkie Pie", she asked somewhat harshly.

"You left without seeing Thorny!" the pink mare exclaimed.

"So?"

"'So'? So he's in the infirmary right now with a sprained ankle, that's 'so'! That rock he tripped on really hurt him!"

"Is he alright!?" Applejack panicked.

"The doctor's don't know if he's going to be able to walk home! He's going to miss dinner! And desert after dinner!"

"Ah gotta go see'im!"

Pinkie Pie watched her friend tear off back to the stadium. When she lost the orange mare in the large crowd exiting, she picked up the dropped blue ribbon and happily bounced away.

T

Thorny sat alone in the small room. After telling Linen to take his sisters home with him for the night, there was nopony else to talk to until the doctor got back with a wheelchair. His hatred of the confounded chairs didn't mask what his mind was really focused on. He wish he knew why Applejack left the way she did. Why wasn't she happy to win first place? It didn't make much sense to him. Maybe he mistook her for that type of pony. The door creaked open. He looked up expecting the doctor. The pony on the other side was just the pony he really wanted to see.

Applejack smiled guiltily upon seeing Thorny and his bandaged hoof. "Hey…"

Even in the dim room she could make out his smile. He erupted excitedly. "Ya missed it! Ah met Princess Celestia! She came down t' congratulate me on second place! Why'd ya leave? She wanted t' talk t' you too."

Instinct took over her mouth and she quickly gave him the excuse of, "Ah'm jus' really tired…Ah didn' even know you were hurt."

Thorny took it. "Oh, alright", he replied. "Well, Ah hope ya ain't too tired t' go out t' morrow.

"What?"

"Pinkie Pie's throwin' us a party 'cuz we won!" he explained.

"Yer okay 'bout second place?"

"Yeah! Why wouldn' Ah be?" he asked, "It's mah first ribbon since Ah started rodeos! It's the best thing t' happen t' me since Ah got hired on with you!"

He showed no signs of embarrassment at what he just said, probably because Applejack got embarrassed for him. She chose her next words carefully. "…Well, Ah'm real proud of ya, Thorny."

"Thanks, but not as proud as Ah am of you!" he beamed, "Can't nopony else say they got a boss that can whup anypony in a rodeo!"

The Earth Pony stared at him. She had no idea what to say or do now. She hadn't planned this part out, and now there was a hideous blank left in her mind. Should she just say thanks? Should she kiss him, even though she'd prefer not to trade mud? The confusion made it hard to stay still, and she shakily rose up to give him a small hug. "Thanks…Thorn."

She let him go to find that he was smiling differently now. Thorny never smiled at her like that before. It made her feel really light and happy. Something behind him caught her attention. She focused past his smile to see a pile of different sized poles used for building in the stadium. An idea forming, she grabbed two short ones and a roll of bandage tape.

The injured stallion didn't need to ask her what she was doing. He simply held out his hoof and let her wrap the poles tightly against his leg so that the poles were sticking out past it. She used the same wrapping technique she'd witnessed him use before and securely finished his splint in a few seconds.

Thorny admired her work. "Ah couldn' a done it better mahself! Good job, Applejack!"

She helped him down from the table, where he tested how well she did by stepping down with the injured hoof. The wrap held, allowing him to walk. "C'mon, Thorny. Ah'll walk ya home."

She didn't have to, but she leaned against his side to help keep weight off the splint. They left the infirmary, eventually the stadium, and soon found themselves in the dark on the way to Thorny's house. The cool night did bug them too much. Their warmth bathed them in comfort.

Kinda like sharin' a blanket, Applejack thought with too much exhaustion to realize what she said. Ah really gotta do somethin' nice fer him soon…
> Nice Thing Number Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nice Thing Number Two


As Applejack gazed out over the horizon lit orchards, she felt her body rock with a heavy sigh. It was going to be a very hard day ahead, what with Thorny being home and Big Mac having running to do to the cities. Applebloom would be out crusading until later in the day, when her older sister had worked through most of the day's trees. Today she would be going back to a time when the once peaceful quiet would now only be lonely. At least the scorching summer had finally backed off to let fall take over.

"The tree's ain't gonna buck themselves, Applejack", she told herself. Disconsolately, she left the comfort of the porch. Usually, she'd look forward to getting to work. Today, however, Thorny wasn't going to show up. Even somepony as pigheaded as him couldn't possibly work with a sprained hoof.

She trotted down to the south orchard, ducking the occasional fruit bat that flew too low. Through the trees, she spotted where they left off the last day they worked. The wagon, buckets and harness were all there, and so was something else. "What in tarnation?"

At first, she thought the large pile of apples were a figment of morning drowsiness. After feeling them and even taking a bite out of one she decided they were as real as the hat atop her head. The only thing to figure out now was how they got there. In the distance came no sounds of bucking, so that ruled out Thorny getting there before her. There was absolutely nothing to suggest who or, at this point in her confused mind, what filled the apple wagon.

When she circled the wagon for more clues, she found one. Somepony nailed a note to it. In very scratchy hoofwriting, she read:

Applejack,

Take a load off.

-Thorny

For the life of her she couldn't figure out when and how he managed it, but it didn't matter. Now she had a day with nothing to do. Before meeting Thorny, she would have hated taking a break. The colt had since taught her the meaning of relaxation by pushing off a little laziness on her. "Sure was mighty nice of'im", she said to his note.

It swayed in the breeze, almost pointing her back to the house. Reckoning the apples would survive sitting for the day, she returned home. She thought along the way about how she should spend the blessing Thorny had bestowed upon her. It was getting too cold for the river, of which she was partly glad they didn't go the night before like Thorny had told her they would. Most of her friends were either working or enjoying the Sunday off, like she should have done originally instead of going out to catch the farm back up from the week she and Thorny used for training.

She didn't know whether or not to visit Thorny. He was probably sleeping in, and needed his rest anyways. She could save it for later when he would definitely be awake. She'd hate to have to drill him with questions regarding why he did what he did with the apples first thing in the morning. Once she made it back to the house, she sat on the swinging bench for a light nap. Maybe when the drowsy fog cleared from her head she would be able to regain decisiveness. Her body became heavy with sleep the moment her eyes closed. It was one of the types of sleep where she was still semi-conscious, so no dreams came to her. Not that they would have had any time to form for she was only napping for something going on two minutes before the front door shut loudly.

Applejack hit the ground with a startled cry. Looking up, she saw Granny Smith chuckling. "Sorry ta wake ya."

"Sure, Granny Smith", Applejack replied sarcastically.

"Ah take it ya found Thorny's late night work", her grandmother assumed.

"Late night work?"

"Mmhmm. He came here last night an' told me he was gonna get us caught back up so you could relax t'day", she explained.

"An' ya let him", Applejack questioned skeptically.

"Ah could see it in his eyes that he wasn' gonna let me say 'no'."

"Why?"

Granny Smith shrugged. "Ah don' know. He's jus' like that."

"Like what?"

"Nice an' all." Granny Smith smiled. "He's a lot like you, Applejack. Still upset that we hired'im?"

The younger mare shook her head honestly. "Ah'm glad ya did."

"Then why not go tell'im", she suggested.

"Why would Ah do that?"

"Oh, c'mon AJ", Granny Smith fussed, "Everypony an' their brother knows ya got yer eye on'im."

Red pools of hot blush broke the surface of Applejack's orange face. The worst part was she couldn't get mad. Granny Smith already knew that trick of getting out of a discussion. "So?" she mumbled.

"An' Ah'm not the smartest pony, but Ah think he likes ya back."

The matter-of-factly reply kick started Applejack's heart so hard she was now fully awake. "What? Really?"

"Yer either a foal or blind, Applejack", Granny Smith pointed out. "Even Applebloom can tell."

It was almost impossible to accept. Sure, a small portion of her wanted it to be true, but what now? She didn't know how to chase her feelings. That's when she remembered what Twilight said about doing something nice for him. The rodeo could hardly count since he didn't know what she tried to do, but maybe something to return the favor of his work in the orchard... "Ah gotta go, Granny Smith."

"Heheheh", chuckled the older mare, taking a seat on the swinging bench. "Jus' like'er mother…" She watched Applejack gallop away as fast as she could. She wondered just where she was she was going, but let it go to relax in the cool sunlight.

What am Ah gonna do? Applejack thought as she slowed to a less-crazy trot through Ponyville. There were plenty of places to shop for a gift, yet she trotted on, unsure if she would be able to even find something he would enjoy. The more she mulled it over, the harder it became to decide which of the infinite things she could do would be the one. Not even shopping for a Christmas shopping for Rarity was this hard.

Applejack stopped. She couldn't believe she was about to do it, but she turned and headed for the Carousel Boutique where maybe the tailor or at least her assistant would be able to help. She tried not to think of it on the way and focused on the gentle breezes and soft sunshine. It calmed her down, eventually reaching her pride and watering it somewhat too. She had practically forgotten where it was she was going and why. Then she reached the door.

This impasse with herself was much harder to break through. Celestia knew what would happen the second her hoof made contact with the wood. Diffidently, she raised her hoof to knock. She had only barely decided to finish the act when the door swung inwards. What lay behind it was a now-bewildered Rarity wearing a large bandana in the form of a bonnet. Her sunglasses were too dark for Applejack to see her blink in surprise, though the emotion was clearly evident in the sight of the unicorn's loosely hanging mouth.

"Applejack, what a surprise!" she greeted, turning her mouth up into a friendly grin. "Whatever have you come to visit me for?"

A reply didn't come in a hurry. From the blank, unsettled stare she was getting, Rarity felt there was something that Applejack needed to get off her chest. She stepped aside quickly. "Please, come right in, Applejack. Something is troubling you and I cannot simply stand idly by while you struggle with it."

Applejack couldn't even mutter a thanks. She stepped inside with the fuel of embarrassment somehow making her muscles contract. Rarity led her to the kitchen, where inside she took a seat at the table as her host put a pot for tea. She sat across from Applejack in the way she did when there was a heavy amount of gossip to be discussed: slow and nearly accusingly. "Sooo, what seems to have your tail in knots, dear?"

The farm mare hated it when Rarity talked like that. It was so…motherly. Regardless, she had a problem that, while probably more confidential had she just gone to Twilight, she could help with. Even though all roads ended at the same dead end, she chose her words carefully. "…Ah…Thorny stayed up late last night t' work so Ah could have a day off, an' Ah wanted t' do something nice fer him…but Ah don' know what…"

Rarity removed her glasses, revealing a twinkling pair of eyes. "Oh, you need that kind of help."

"It ain't like that!" protested Applejack, "Ah jus' wanna do somethin' nice fer him!"

"Oh, Applejack, there is nothing wrong with trying to win the affections of a stallion." A burning glare from her friend caused her to go on. "However, there is also nothing wrong with returning a favor. Luckily for you, Linen Fiber and Thorny Hopper are best friends, and wouldn't fate have it that Linen loves to discuss everything with me."

"Ah can't see why", Applejack muttered.

"From what I have been told", Rarity went on, "Thorny enjoys collecting things. Namely vintage bottle caps. I do know that he is also a gem enthusiast like myself."

"Anything else?"

Rarity put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Hmm…"

If she was only considering it earlier, Applejack was now certain coming to the Carousel Boutique was a bad idea. She sighed. The only positive side to this visit was Rarity knew more about Thorny than Twilight did. She absently listened to Rarity ramble on with things that didn't seem even remotely important.

The tea kettle began to whistle fiercely. Rarity rose to finish making it, providing Applejack with a little silence. It was very short lived. No sooner did Rarity finish pouring the hot water into cups, did her mouth resume excessive movement. Applejack sipped her tea, sometimes catching the odd word from Rarity. It wasn't until she mentioned something about Thorny's want for a pet did she actually start to cash in her attention tokens.

"What?"

"He is looking for a new puppy. Yes, I recall Linen mentioning something about how he has been looking all over for a rare breed. I'm not a canine's pony, but I think the breed is a 'New Whinny Singing Dog'."

"'Singin' Dog?'"

Rarity shrugged. "There is also the possibility of his second choice, the 'Equestrian Vallhund'."

"Ah heard o' that one", Applejack commented, "His brother had one." She stood up. "Thank ya kindly, Rarity. Ah know what Ah wanna do now."

"No problems, Applejack", Rarity replied happily just before adding slyly, "It's always a pleasure assisting my friends with colt problems."

Applejack pretended she didn't hear. She would just cause more problems making a hassle about it. Ponyville surprisingly didn't change much in the metaphorical days Applejack spent trapped within the walls of Rarity's home. The good thing was she got results. She couldn't believe she didn't think of it herself. You just couldn't live in Ponyville without a pet.

Now all remained was just one more problem. She had no idea where to get those breeds of dogs. To make it worse, they were rare breeds. She had a friend in the Equestrian Domestic Pet Organization. Sometimes they dealt with rare animals. The odds weren't in her favor, but it was her only lead, so she headed to the EDPO outpost in Ponyville. It was on the other side of town, leaving her with plenty of time to enjoy the warming weather of the advancing day.

Looking around, she saw that it was a lazy day. Most ponies were idly walking by with no specific destinations in mind. The odd couple trotted by, laughing at a joke or sharing words Applejack prayed she would never say to Thorny. Fillies and colts played games of tag and hide-and-seek. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were trying their luck at receiving their Cutie Marks through tree trimming. Applejack was just in time to see the seven hit the ground followed shortly by a large glop of extra-sticky tree sap. A futile headshake later, Applejack found herself clearing the library.

It was only a few blocks now. The EDPO building was easy for somepony to happen by and not see it, unless said somepony was looking specifically for a boring gray building bearing the words, Equestrian Domestic Pet Organization in a horribly painted black font next to its worn door. It was sad how they were under-funded, really. Applejack always felt pity for them, but was very impressed with how they never lost one single animal. Unlike some of the other poorly-funded outposts, Ponyville's believed in using the money to provide their animals with care and food rather than making their exterior lavish with self-advertisements.

She pushed through the door only to have to get through a wall of animal sounds and freezing air right after. A light tan pony approached her. "Hey, Applejack! What brings ya by?"

"Lookin' fer a dog, Wish", she shivered.

"Got those!" he laughed, "Anything in mind?"

"New Whinny Singing Dog."

He whistled in revelation. "Now that's a dog hard to come by."

"So Ah heard."

"Hmm…And to think I was just wishing how our new female's litter would became available for adoption."

That was her cue to smile with relief. Whenever he wished something, he just so happened to have or make happen what it was. Everypony knew he did it just to tease, though. He nodded to a kennel in the back. "She's pretty docile, now. You can go ahead and have a look."

"Thank ya so much, Wish", she said, tipping her hat to him.

"Anytime, Applejack. Anytime." He turned back to feeding a cage full of hungry hamsters.

Applejack wondered what the dogs looked like, having never even heard of them until only a few minutes ago. She rounded the corner, where instantly seven heads turned in curiosity. The brown pups eyed her from the protection of their light caramel mother. She leaned over the low gate for a better look. One of them bravely strutted up to her. He got down into attack stance with a growl.

"Ain't you cute?"

"Owooo!" she howled.

"Owooo!" copied her brothers, sisters, and mother.

"Ah guess that's why they call ya singin' dogs", Applejack chuckled. The howls started out high in pitch, lasted for about two seconds before faltering at the end.

"That's called a chorus howl", explained Wishing Star, appearing next to her.

"Bark!" the brave one objected to the new pony.

"That one", Applejack chose. There was no doubt Thorny would love her.

He leaned over and scooped her up. He hoofed her to Applejack. "Since I already have you down as a previous adopter, you don't need any paperwork. I'll just put her down under your name."

"She ain't exactly fer me", Applejack said, "Ah'm gettin' her fer mah friend Thorn Hopper."

"That's a different story", he said, "I wish there was a way out of wasting trees. Oh, wait a minute, there is! I'll just list her as 'gift'."

"Thanks", chuckled Applejack.

"No problem." He grabbed a saddle carrier from a nearby hook. "Here. Free of charge."

If she didn't have her hooves full with the squirming puppy, Applejack would have objected to the hoofout. Wish threw it over her back and settled the puppy into it. She was so small that he didn't even need to zip it closed. "Alright. I'll see ya later."

"Ah owe ya a free barrel of cider fer this", Applejack called over her shoulder.

"I'm going to remember that!"

Outside for the third time, Applejack glanced at the whining puppy in the side of the saddle bag. "Don' worry, girl, Ah gotcha a real good home on the way."

The mare reflected on her luck from the past two days. First, she does something nice for Thorny. In the process, she learned where he lived. Then Thorny does something nice back. And now she was about to do something so nice he was sure to love her for it. She froze upon that last thought. Is that really what she wanted? She turned her head back a second time to see the puppy clawing at the mesh wall. What else would giving him a pet only she was able to find help achieve?

Continuing on her way left her with little time to think about it; Thorny's house was closer than she recalled. For some odd reason, she was now determined to finally conquer her nervousness. She walked right up to the door and firmly knocked. "Ah'm comin'!" called Thorny from what sounded like the other side of the house. He opened the door smiling almost as wildly as Applejack. She stepped to the side to conceal what she got him.

"Applejack! What are ya doin' on this side o' Ponyville?" he asked.

Cursing herself for failing to rehearse anything she wanted to say, she responded, "Ah jus' wanted t' come by an' thank ya fer whatcha did last night."

He chuckled, "C'mon Applejack, Ah didn't mind."

"Ya saved me a day's work. Ah can't thank ya enough fer it", she sighed honestly, "So…Ah gotcha somethin'."

He straightened up. "Really, now?"

She nodded. Whatever was suppressing her feelings was doing a terrific job. She felt no nervousness, hope, nor embarrassment. She happily turned to the side to present Thorny with his new friend. His eyes widened in utter disbelief. The puppy barked at him, so he figured it was indeed real. "Applejack…"


T


"Ya shoulda seen the look on his face!" declared Applejack sometime later to Twilight. "Ah ain't never seen him so surprised before!" She paced with the excess energy of excitement.

Twilight smiled upon hearing what Applejack had done so far in her day. "I'm sure you made him real happy."

"An' the best part was Ah didn' get nervous or nothin'! Ah don' feel weird no more either!"

"I think you've finally accepted your feelings, Applejack", Twilight assumed from her reading couch.

"Say what?"

"Well, you were in such heavy denial that your subconscious must have been trying to convince you of your feelings this whole time."

Applejack pondered this for a moment. She didn't understand it completely, but figured that secretly to even herself, she liked Thorny and was trying to convince herself that she did all the while she insisted she didn't. It didn't make her mad that Twilight said it, because she knew it was true. Thorny was by far the nicest stallion she had ever met. He respected her, complimented her even if it meant downing himself, and did everything he could to make her life better. Who knew all it would take for her to finally wake up and smell the coffee would be getting him a dog?

"Do you know what you want to do now?" Twilight inquired.

"Yeah", Applejack replied, "Ah think Ah'm goin t' the meteor shower with him t' morrow an' tellin'im."