In the garden

His work done for the day, James walked to his garden to tend to it and relax for a while. He smiled as his eyes caught a glimpse of red among his tomato vines. His face twisted up as it moved, clearly the red wasn't a tomato.

“Hello?” James calmly asked as he approached, smiling as he saw Apple Bloom poker her head up from behind the plants.

“Hi.” She happily called back, carefully making her way out through the vines with impressive agility.

“What brings you out here Apple Bloom?” He knelt down in the dirt to look her in the eye as he got close.

“Well, you help us out on the farm, I thought I'd come help you with yer garden.”

“Thank you very much for that. But don't you get enough work on the farm?”

“Yer garden ain't that big. And you've got such cool plants too! Purple Potatoes, a whole rainbow of carrots,” as Apple Bloom spoke she bent down, biting a vine with prickly round yellow fruit and brought it up to show James. “and what even are these?”

“Those are cucumbers.”

Apple Bloom looked down at the vine, a moment. “Are they not ripe yet? Ain't cucumbers long and green?”

“These are lemon cucumbers.”

“Ooh, are they sour like lemons?” Apple Bloom asked excitedly.

“They're actually a little sweeter than the cucumbers you know. They're only called lemon because they're round and yellow.”

“Can I try one?”

“Of course, but that one is actually a bit over ripe. I turn those ones into pickles for Lucca and Sara. Let's get some that aren't quite so dark yellow for ourselves.”

Apple Bloom beamed as she and James picked through his garden, finding as many ripe fruits and vegetables as were ready.

“Normally you'd be here with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle … Well, at least Scootaloo.”

“Lofty took Scootaloo bungee jumping. I'm not really interested in that.”

“At least you tried it when you were trying to get your cutie mark.”

“No, that was zip-lining.” As she spoke a honey bee flitted past her face, landing gently on her nose. Apple Bloom froze and focused on the insect, her breathing steady but clearly troubled.

“What's wrong?” James asked, turning to the now nervous filly.

“There's a bee on mah nose,” her voice trembling slightly as she spoke.

“It probably just likes how you smell, you spend most of your time around flowering plants after all.”

She kept her head very still, never looking away from the bee still perched on her muzzle. “Ah'm allergic to bees.”

Immediately, it made sense to him why she would be worried. “It'll be alright Apple Bloom, it'll probably just fly off,” he kept his voice calm and even. While his allergies were easier to avoid, he knew how dangerous they could be.

“And if it doesn't?” She was beginning to sweat as she kept her focus on the insect.

“Then I'll take care of you, I promise.”

She felt a strange tickling on the tip of her nose, and hesitantly turned her attention to James.

He could see how worried she was. Not that he didn't understand, were he in her position, he would likely have been close to panic. “It's just licking you.”

“Why is it licking me?” Despite her unease at the situation, she couldn't help but be confused by the bee licking her.

“My guess: same as last time, you're covered in pollen. So was certainly have proof you're sweet.” Jokes weren't helping, but he wanted to do something to try make her feel safer.

“Can we just get the bee off mah nose?”

James wanted to flick it away, but he couldn't risk it without knowing there was epinephrin nearby. “It'll leave as soon as it's done. I don't want to risk startling it and having it sting you.”

The seconds dragged on for Apple Bloom, wondering if she should try asking the bee to leave, or if she could even keep talking without upsetting it. Her stomach tied in knots as she wondered just what she could do. After what seemed to be minutes she felt a gentle breeze across her nose. The bee tried to stay in place, but eventually took off and vanished into the leafs of the plants.

With a sigh of relief Apple Bloom turned her attention to James. Realizing that he had moved beside her and was fanning her face with a book.

“There we go.” He calmly said, carefully inspecting where the bee had been before gently hugging her. “It didn't sting you, right?”

Apple Bloom shook her head as she smiled.

“That doesn't happen much, does it?”

“Nope, we don't keep many bees on the farm, and Fluttershy made sure they stay away from me. Granny's pretty good with bees too, she needs happy bees to make honey for the Zap Apple Jam.”

James smiled and nodded. “That's good to hear. Let's get these inside and have a snack. And if you want, afterwords you can help me make some pickles”

Apple Bloom returned the smile and trotted along beside James as they went inside from his garden.