Applejack had long ago given up on counting how many calming breaths he had taken before he reached the door of the boutique. He didn’t exactly have an idea of what to expect when Elusive had asked to see him… alone… in a secluded place… away from everypony else. Shaking his head, he rang the doorbell, and a moment later was swiftly pulled inside by a light blue aura.
Elusive quickly closed and locked the door behind him. “Were you followed?”
“Uh… Ah don’t think so…?”
“I need you to be certain.” The tailor peeked behind the curtains of his shop. “Are you sure nopony followed you?”
“It’s jus’ me,” AJ replied. “Lucy, what’s with all the cloak and dagger?”
Satisfied that he didn’t see anypony outside of his shop, the unicorn approached the farmpony. “Before I say anything, I need to ask one very important question: Do you really want Dusk and Solaris to be broken up?”
“Well… Ah guess not, but if it’s the only way to get mah friend back, Ah’ll do it.”
Elusive smiled as he had the farmpony under his hoof. “Look, love is sacred. There are other ways of getting our friend back, so we can all work this out like adults. Bubble Berry is wrong, and you and I can see that. Just us two, you and me AJ. We are smarter and better than that. What’s more…” Elusive gulped a bit before carrying on. “What’s more is, I think we might have something… uh, special going on here. While it’s still too early to be certain of whether or not we should embrace it, everything will be about Dusk if we break him up.”
Applejack’s heart raced into his throat, his chest tightening as he nodded his head furiously. “Lucy, what do y’all propose we do?” he cried.
Elusive quickly threw a hoof over Applejack’s mouth. “Shhh! Keep it down.” He hushed quietly. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time.”
“What do y’all propose we do?” Applejack repeated in a whisper.
“Firstly, what Berry is doing is wrong but for all the right reasons. Yes, we should have our friend back, however, I don’t think that having us breaking them up is the answer. I think that the key to all of this may lie with Solaris. If we could just get close enough to him, he might provide the solution we’ve been looking for. Of course, the rest of the guys will be watching us, so we must get the message across without them knowing it. We’ll have to do some, but not all, of the things they’ll suggest for us to do, and we’ll have to keep damage to a minimum. With Prince Solaris’s help, we could both leave their relationship intact and have Dusk back too. Are you following me?”
“Ah think so. You want us ta speak with Dusk’s coltfriend while makin’ Berry thinks we’re busy destroyin’ it?”
“Precisely,” Elusive nodded. “If we do this carefully and it works, we’ll end up with a win-win.”
“Ah don’t wanna get them in trouble or nothin’ Lucy. Ah wanna help, and Ah like what yer doin’, but Ah don’t want it to seem like they’re in the wrong.” Applejack admitted looking away from Elusive.
“Alright, alright, fine. But what can we do?! If their plan doesn’t work, then maybe we can sort this all out with Dusk, but we need the time.” Elusive thought.
“Why don’t we sabotage the sabotage? Like, we secretly ruin Berry’s plans durin’ the double date, then with the time we gain by ruinin’ their plans, we can sort this all out with Solaris and Dusk. Nopony gets inta trouble, nopony gets hurt, and Dusk’s relationship is saved.” Applejack suggested.
Elusive thought for a moment, his eyes getting wider as he thought more and more about it. He gave Applejack a huge smile, leaping at his friend with his hooves thrown around him in an enormous hug. “Applejack, that is pure genius! Why didn’t I think of it before? Oh, that is perfect! Thank you, Applejack.” Elusive broke their hug to see a tomato-colored face. “Do join me for some tea so we can discuss the details.”
Applejack moved forward with a slight trip, very much excited about this prospect. “Ah’d love to, Elusive.”
“Oh, and one more important item of business,” Elusive said. “Now Applejack, I’m going to ask you something that’s… somewhat embarrassing, but I need you to be honest with me when I ask this.”
Applejack froze. “Uh… s-sure. What is it?”
“Applejack, I’m not going to lie since you are making it fairly damn obvious, but for all intents and purposes to ensure that I haven’t been given the wrong impression…” He took a breath, steeling himself. “Do you have a crush on me?”
His friend stood still for what seemed like an eternity, his mouth moving but no sound came out of it. “A-Ah, um… Ah, uh…” His face was burning, ears drooping back as he rubbed the back of his neck. He finally let out a soft “Yes’m.”
Elusive closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay… okay, I think we can work with this.” He looked up with a smile. “At least it would make our double date proposal to Dusk all the more convincing, right?”
The farmer chuckled. “Y-yeah, Ah guess so.”
“Come, then. Let’s have some tea.”
_*_
“Now, do you remember how we are going to make it a little more interesting for Berry’s plan?” Elusive asked Applejack, walking convincingly close to each other as they made their way to Dusk’s castle.
“We suggest a double date by the lake.” Applejack smiled in content.
“No! That’s where Berry wants us to take them. We need to take them to the top of that scenic hill at Sweet Apple Acres, far away from Bubble’s traps and in your turf.” Elusive smiled and, much to the delight of Applejack, pulled him closer as they approached the entrance to Dusk’s castle. “With a blush like that, lovercolt, we’ll easily convince him.” Elusive giggled as Applejack only blushed harder.
Knock, knock, knock.
The two waited for a minute until the enormous doors opened. “Yes, can I… Oh! Hey guys. What’s up?”
“Howdy Dusk!” Applejack replied, sticking close to the unicorn while rubbing the back of his head. “Are ya busy any?”
“I was just reading about the history of physics, but nothing much besides that.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Can we talk to you?” Elusive asked. “Preferably inside?”
“It’s kinda embarrassin’,” Applejack added. “None of the other guys know about it yet, so we wanna come to ya first.”
Dusk blinked. “Okay…? Come on in then.” He stepped aside and the three of them walked to the throne room. “So, what is it that you guys want to talk to me about?”
“Well, it’s… it’s kinda big. Why don’t you tell him, AJ?” Elusive smiled and rubbed against Applejack.
Applejack stammered a bit before finally managing to bring out the words. “Well… Ah and Elusive… are kinda… well, together.”
Dusk raised an eyebrow, clearly not understanding. “Define 'together’.”
Elusive rolled his eyes. “For the love of… Dusk, we are in love! For goodness sake, you haven’t changed a bit.” He huffed.
Dusk was taken aback as he looked between the two. “Wait… like, really?” Dusk asked, clearly finding difficulty believing them.
Elusive just looked at Dusk in confusion. “Dusk! How can you deny this?” Elusive threw Applejack’s head back and suddenly kissed him like he’d trained for it his whole life.
The lilac alicorn’s jaw slammed to the floor. When the two stallions finally parted lips, they glanced over to their friend. “O-Oh wow… I really didn’t see that coming.”
“Neither did Ah,” Applejack sighed, shaking his head to return to his senses. “A-Anyways, y-yeah. Ah know this is really unexpected for Y'all, but Ah guess Ah can’t exactly blame ya since nopony else really knows about it.”
“How long has this been going on?” Dusk inquired.
Elusive rubbed his foreleg. “We had somewhat of an idea for a while now, but it wasn’t until recently when… certain things came into light.”
“That, and we’re still pretty new to all of this,” Applejack admitted. “So, since yer the only friend we know that has a coltfriend, we were thinkin’ if ya could… uh…”
“Yes…?” the alicorn asked, intrigued.
“Well, we wanted to be able to connect with somepony like us. Applejack and I were hoping that we could maybe have a double date with you and Solaris.” Elusive smiled.
Dusk’s eyes lit up. “That sounds like a fantastic idea guys! This will be great! Solaris is coming over for a dinner date next Friday. Where should we go?”
“Well, we were maybe thinkin’ about goin’ to Sweet Apple Acres.” Applejack smiled, rubbing his face against Elusive’s affectionately. “There’s a nice place where it’s scenic and beautiful. Lucy and I could cook and then some. ‘Sides, come Friday, Grandpa Smith and Apple Buck will be in Appleloosa, so we shouldn’t have any distractions.”
The prince put a hoof to his chin. “You know, we haven’t gone on a picnic for a while ourselves, so I guess that could work. There are so many things we could teach you guys since you’ve just started out. Everything that we’ve learned and all. So yeah, I’ll be glad to help you guys out.”
“You’re the best, Dusk,” said Elusive. “We’re so glad to have somepony like you around.”
“Not a problem. Of course, I need to tell Solaris about this so he at least has an idea of what to expect. And guys,” Dusk smiled at them, “I do hope that your relationship will be just as happy as ours! I’m so oddly excited for this date.”
“Thank ya, Dusk,” Applejack nodded and winked at Elusive. “We’re all lookin’ forward to it.”