Rarity slammed the door behind her, huffing in panic.
She surveyed her shop and home. It was immaculate, of course. She screamed in frustration.
With a whiz of her horn, the curtains dropped on all windows, instantly darkening the area. She quickly lit a candle, and then another, and then some more that were elegantly arranged across her home as accents, that were never meant to be used.
Above her head, a thin red fabric roll floated in her magic's grip. It was rolled out, folded, and folded again in on itself several times before she sheared it with practiced ease. She slowed her actions, squinting in concentration, to cut a delicate heart shape. She soon had hundreds of hearts above her and scattered them from the door to the main room and beyond.
She considered cutting out some more, but of apples and diamonds. No, there was no time!
She looked around, frantically. She was the only moving object among a storeroom full of lifeless pony manikins, lavishly decorated walls, and expensively jeweled furniture. She caught herself in the mirror. She looked like she had been outside all day. Her hair was deformed as if it had been in a hat all day as well. And her smell! She ran up the stairs into her bathroom and turned a couple of knobs to run water and bombed it with several fragrances and opened bottles.
She was instantly standing naked in the tub, her hooves alternating tiny splashes as she pranced in place and panic. "Come on, come on! Can't you fill any faster!"
Once the tub was filled, she sank into her bath with a sigh. She took her time cleaning herself. This was not something to rush, she thought.
Finishing, she stepped onto a bathmat and dried off, making sure to leave no trace of water, save for her hair, which she did her best to pat dry. She wrapped it in a clean towel. She used her magic to grab the drain plug, but stopped. The sink!
She bit her bottom lip. The sink, it was supposed to be in need of repair. That was the whole point of this insanity! Did she have to break it, or could she play it cool and have Applejack not mind that she had lied?
She cursed herself, and ran downstairs into the kitchen.
She swung open the cabinet doors beneath the kitchen sink, violently. She opened a nearby drawer to pull out a wrench. She tightened it onto the sink's drain line and spun it around madly. It came loose and she repeated the process with another nut on the line, to then drop the wrench and think, what next?
Water! She needed it to look like a mess. She couldn't run the sink as she just had disassembled the drain and her cabinet and floor would be ruined. Come on, Rarity, think, she thought. What a foalish dilemma to put herself in. She lit up in realization--the tub upstairs!
She ran upstairs into the humid air of the bathroom. Taking out a towel, to then shrug and take out all her towels, she shoved them into the tub, which was still full of her bath water. In and out and swishing them around, she soaked them. Satisfied, she ran back downstairs into the kitchen and threw them all over the room.
Applejack could be here any minute!
She rushed back upstairs and began work on her hair, makeup, and… what would she wear? While on autopilot, she let her mind wander through the catalog of her personal collection of clothes. Something plain and simple, like her farmer? No, she scolded herself, Applejack was anything but plain and simple. Something elegant and flashy, like she had worn on what she had hoped would be romantic encounters? No, this had to be different.
Should she go naked? Applejack probably would be, save for maybe a tool belt. She pictured it and hummed to herself, flicking the image around with her tongue. No, she slapped herself with her brush--don't be silly! Silly? You crazy foal, you are well past that line of decorum, she screamed mentally. Was this a mistake? Maybe she could call it off. Yes, she agreed, maybe it was for the best. Maybe she was getting carried away. She could blame the book--Applejack blamed the book.
Two consecutive knocks rang out throughout her house like an invading army was ramming her door down.
"Applejack!" She had no time left. She put the finishing touches to her hair and grabbed the nearest piece of clothing she had, which happened to be a frilly-laced bathrobe. She raced out of her bedroom, but stopped to complete the look with matching slippers. She passed on the matching earrings with a great pain in her heart.
She stood before the main door, feeling overly nervous. What would be her opening pose and line, she thought. Standing on all fours unnaturally, like she had just been standing there the whole time? She backed up, and seeing a book on her sofa, she jumped onto it and quickly assumed a lounging position, opening the book to a random page.
"Applejack, dear, is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me," came a muffled cowpony reply.
"The door's open--please do come in!"
Rarity grimaced. She could feel the sweat roll over her. Dabbing herself with a nearby piece of fabric, she listened as the door opened and closed. Unmistakable hoofsteps followed.
"Where're you at? And what happened to the lights?"
"I'm on the sofa, darling."
"Want me to open some curtains?" Applejack asked as she spotted the sofa, only seeing its back. She walked around it. "Did you fall asleep, again? I swear, sugarcube, you're sleepier than a..." Her voice wandered away, leaving her alone with the other pony in a candlelit room.
"Than a what, darling?" Rarity asked in a drawl, blinking her eyelashes several times.
Applejack swallowed, hard. Before her laid Rarity, on her side, head propped up by a single hoof beneath her chin. Her lacy bathrobe spilled off her flank, exposing her crossed legs, the loose fuzzy belt trailing down her torso and off the sofa like a ribbon from an opened present.
Applejack's eyes felt a heavy weight as they surveyed the well-maintained pony before her. Her gaze lowered down her muzzle and lips, to her resting hoof that held open a book.
"Land sakes, is this how you usually read your romance stories?"
"What?" Rarity slid herself up onto the armrest. "No, this is--you know what? It doesn't matter what this is." She flung the book behind her with her magic. "What matters is you and me, and our pressing needs," she said, as she flicked her robe back, to place a hind leg on the floor, followed by the other.
"Heh, you're making me feel a tad under-dressed," Applejack tried to smile. "You did say you needed help with your sink, right?" She felt her legs giving out on her. She must have worked herself harder than she realized, she thought.
Rarity snaked her hoof around Applejack's neck. "Yes, of course! My poor kitchen is wet and I really, really need somepony with a strong hoof to sort me out."
Applejack stood motionless with Rarity wrapping herself around her dramatically.
"You mean to sort it out, right?"
"Yes, dear, that's what I said." Rarity rubbed her cheek against Applejack's. "You have come to my rescue. However will I repay you?"
Applejack couldn't move. "Well, you can start by letting me go fix it first."
Rarity let her go and strutted to the kitchen doorway. "By all means, darling. It's right here. Come and get it."
With eyes and ears searching for other ponies and any sign of an incoming prank, Applejack trotted to meet her. Rarity stepped aside, but not entirely, to let her in. Applejack's eyes implored her to make some more room, and she could have sworn Rarity shook her head no, ever so slightly. She squeezed through, feeling Rarity's soft bathrobe as she went, and a light tap from her tail after making it through.
Candlelight danced across the tiles of the kitchen. There were candles in the kitchen, Applejack took note. She didn't ask.
Stepping over a few damp towels randomly scattered across the floor, she made it to the sink. Although she didn't turn her head to look back, she knew Rarity was nearby, like some kind of eloquent ghost. There was something strange in the air that she couldn't quite place.
Without a word, she opened the cabinet under the sink to take a look. It was dark.
"Could you bring one of them candles down here?"
Rarity did so with her magic.
"Alright, well, I'll just get to it then."
"Ah-ah-ah, darling! Your hat." Rarity lifted it with her magic.
Applejack turned to look at her, already on the ground ready to enter underneath. Rarity moved her hat onto the counter, but the magic lingered over it, not quite ready to let it be. Applejack watched in deep concern as it drifted away, the unicorn apparently having changed her mind. Slowly it floated above Rarity and down onto her head. She was now wearing her hat.
"Don't worry, darling. I'll keep it warm."
"Thanks," was all Applejack could think to say. She felt very over her head as she scooted into the cabinet on her back.
She gave the plumbing a brief once-over and saw only a few nuts loose. Rolling her head to each side to investigate, she did not notice any water damage. Everything looked more or less as pristine as its owner. All she saw was a wrench. This had to be a prank, she thought.
Raising her head to look back out, she caught Rarity standing a pace away from her legs, looking right back at her. Rarity kept her eyes on her, not even pretending to look away having been caught staring. Applejack suddenly felt very trapped. Rarity's eyes shifted downward and her grin grew. Applejack slammed her legs together, carefully crossing them over and under each other.
"Looks like someone loosened things up," Applejack said, promptly biting her tongue after the words left her mouth. "They even left the wrench."
"How dreadful! Perhaps it was our sisters playing a joke on me." Rarity faked a toothy grin, feeling the blush of a lie take her.
"Maybe," Applejack pondered. "Wouldn't be surprised if they were trying their hand at plumbing or something. We'll ask them about it later."
Grabbing the wrench with her mouth, Applejack fitted it on the bolts and began the tedious process of winding it around with her hooves. Once she finished, she called out, "Okay, that should do it. Would you mind turning on the water to check?"
"With pleasure," Rarity exhaled. She walked forward, slowly, delicately over Applejack. She lifted herself up to rest her hooves on the counter.
Feeling Rarity's legs touch her sides, Applejack lifted her head to see herself laying between them. She cleared her increasingly dry throat. "Whenever you're ready."
The sound of running water splashed against metal and carried through the pipes in one fluid movement. Applejack let out a deep breath, oddly relieved.
Rarity lowered herself, at first squatting, to then straddle Applejack.
With a giggle to scare away the sheer terror racing through her system, she faked a pout, "Finished so soon?"
Applejack gulped, very audibly, "Reckon so."
"It's a pity," Rarity looked anywhere but Applejack's face, fidgeting with the lace of her bathrobe. "I was hoping you could show me a thing or two so I could get my hooves," she winced, "Wet."
"Rares, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, darling," Rarity lied. "You are very nice to ask such things. In fact, somepony might think you care a lot about me. I mean," she leaned back, feeling more of her warm orange seat as she did so, eliciting a soft throaty moan in surprise. "Oh, my! If, if we didn't know each other so well and how much we liked to argue, I could see somepony seeing us like this and thinking we were, well, that we..." She buried her face into her hooves, giving up on whatever she was trying to say.
Applejack sighed, and could not help but smile--for her and for the situation they put themselves in. She reached with her hooves to rest them on Rarity's hips. This was a small moment she wanted to herself before it left her. She knew such small things were rare and not to be taken for granted.
Feeling the intimate and awkward air between them, she greedily took in one last moment, and patted a diamonded hip.
"This was some crazy idea from one of your books, wasn't it?"
She listened for a pause and a sniff.
"Yes."
"Your sink was never broken, I'm guessing?"
"It made so much more sense in my head. I've ruined it. I've ruined everything!" Rarity all but sobbed into her hooves.
Applejack stroked the legs still straddling her. "Must have been some story to get you to try something like this."
"No, it wasn't. It was a trashy, filthy thing. Just like me."
"Don't say that." Applejack rested her head inside the cabinet, staring at the curvy drain pipe above her as candlelight flicked its shadow across the small space.
"Well, it's true. Me, who is always going on about romance and proper courtship, doing something so... unbecoming of a lady. I can't recall the number of times I have tried to instruct you on the subject, or how to play the damsel, or how to dress, how to act." Rarity wiped her eyes. "And me, could you ever believe I knew so little and could act like such an emotional filly about it?"
"Never in a thousand years," Applejack smiled, thinking of the Rarity she knew, perhaps better than she knew herself. Memories of her own childhood stirred in her head--images of a filly who wore dresses and pretended to be a lot of things.
"I've made things weird, haven't I?" Rarity whined. "Do you hate me, Applejack?"
Slowly, and with great effort, Applejack propped herself up with her hooves out from under the sink. They stared at each other, searching the other's face for answers, lips parted with questions.
An orange hoof rose through the thick air between them. Its destination seemed to be Rarity's face. She closed her eyes, cheeks blushing in anticipation.
She felt Applejack's hat lift away from her.
Applejack put it back on, and watched the flurry of emotions that stormed across Rarity's face: surprise, heartbreak, anger, and even a little amusement.
An orange hoof rose again to bop Rarity's lips.
Rarity fell into Applejack, laughing, hugging her warmly, feeling their bodies rub and softly bounce against each other. A small, familiar thought came to her in that moment. It was so small that she had thought she would never find it again. She wrapped her leg around it. And she laid there, on top, putting her weight onto it to keep it from leaving her.
"Okay now, heh," Applejack could still feel Rarity titter in small bursts of happy laughter, with the mare's head tucked between her shoulder and cheek. "It's getting to be a bit heavy."
Rarity lifted herself to give Applejack the largest frown she could muster through her smiling.
"Fine, I see how it is. You do hate me."
And with that, they soon found themselves standing across from each other, in more familiar positions.
"Hey now, I never said that."
"I am deeply sorry, Applejack. I'm glad we can laugh about it, but I can understand if I crossed a line."
"Look, Rares, it's okay." Applejack lowered her head in thought and gave a small nod to herself. "You know what? It's more than okay."
"But, Applejack, I--"
"Listen, and let me talk for one darn second." Applejack took a deep breath. "I know it's crazy and silly and whatever, but I'm glad it happened." She looked up. "I'm glad it happens. We've been through a lot of interesting adventures. And I may not seem thrilled at the time, but I always look back at them fondly. They always end with us being happy with each other."
"What are you saying, darling?"
"I'm trying to tell you that I don't hate you. I know we're different ponies, but we're not so different in what counts. You know that. I know that. And even the stuff that drives me up the wall with you and all our arguing--you know what? I kind of like it. I know ponies like to think of me as a boring farmer with a simple life--"
"You're anything but, darling," Rarity whispered.
"And maybe I am, I don't know. But what I do know is that, what I guess I'm trying to say is, well..." Applejack looked away. After a breath, she grabbed her hat and put it on Rarity, giving her a light jab across the cheek. "You make this cowpony's life pretty interesting, partner."
"Applejack..." Rarity almost cried.
Applejack gave her a wink and walked away.
"Applejack!" Rarity shouted with a tinge of anger, "What makes you think you can just walk away from a lady after saying all of that?"
"Rares, it's as clear as day that neither of us really knows what we're doing. I figure I've helped you with what you needed and it's time for me to go."
"Please, don't go."
"I'm not going to be gone forever, you crazy mare. Let's just follow our hearts and not think about what we're supposed to do or impressing anyone but each other. Deal?"
"I suppose I could submit to that."
"Great. Well, I'll be seeing you, sugarcube."
"Wait! What about your hat?"
"Oh, that little thing?" Applejack beamed. "Figured you can hold onto it for now. Maybe," she tapped her hoof in thought, "Return it to me tomorrow night when I stop by to pick you up for dinner."
Rarity lifted a hoof to touch the hat, making sure it was real. Her heart danced inside her, causing the rest of her to softly prance in place.
Applejack tipped an imaginary hat and left.
Rarity let out a sharp squeal and raced to her bedroom. Madly digging through her closet, she found the book and slammed it against her bosom. Jumping onto her bed as if she were a cowpony, she hugged the hardback, entangling herself in sheets as she rolled around with it.
She stopped to find her breath and to place it down. She gave it a look before throwing it open to her bookmark. With newfound courage, she read the final chapter.