You were still filled with energy as you entered your home, and you grabbed the latest journal from the shelf. You flipped open to the latest page, and suddenly you found yourself unable to write down your thoughts for the day. Not because nothing had happened, but because you lacked the words to really put your thoughts to paper. You looked at the page for a few minutes before you just wrote down a few simple words.
I kissed, and was kissed by, Applejack.
The silly grin that was on your face persisted as you laid down in bed, and got ready for sleep. Tomorrow, after work, you’d take care of the issue with Scootaloo. Despite the happiness you felt that simple thought was enough to pull the smile from your face.
“Nopony ever said that life was easy…”
The alarm’s blaring came just minutes after you woke, and you landed a hoof atop the clock, silencing the blaring quite effectively. You sat up, and climbed out of bed, feeling more energetic, and more refreshed than you normally did. As you began leaving your room you glanced over at your desk, and lying on your desk was the journal you had taken down yesterday. You went over, and read it once more, before closing it, and putting it back up on the shelf.
With a small smile painted on your face you went downstairs and grabbed the training weights. You hesitated for a moment before putting them on, realizing that a lighter work out wouldn’t hurt, considering what’s going to be going on today at the farm. You grabbed the lightest weight set you had, and you buckled them around your legs before heading out into the young, new, morning.
Your run was the same length as usual, but without the extra weight it felt like far shorter than normal. You pulled the weights off your legs, and then you began the walk to the farm. The dawn sky drew your attention and you welcomed the distraction. The color, combined with the fading stars gave it a beauty that you’d hate to miss seeing. Soon enough you were on the outskirts of town, and in the distance you could make out the edge of the Apple family property. A voice caught your attention, and you turned to see Storm and Rainbow Dash both walking down the road towards you.
You waited for them to catch up before beginning to speak with them.
“Storm, Dash, what brings you by this early? Aren’t the two of you in bed till noon, usually?”
Dash rolled her eyes in response, and Storm gave a weak smile. “I’ll have you know that we’re up no later than eleven. The weather doesn’t take care of itself, you know.”
“What I do know is that the weather is supposed to be done by nine!”
“Yeah, well, since Rainbow is the captain of the weather team, and I’m the only other member I don’t have to get up until she does. Good leaders should lead, not follow.”
Rainbow shoved Storm playfully, and Storm lowered his head in mock sadness. “I think somepony wants to spend a night on the couch.”
“No! Come on, Dashie, I was joking. You know that, right?”
You simply roll your eyes, and continue towards the farm, leaving the two lovers to their quarrel. Soon enough the two dropped into silence, and you were thankful for it. Their bickering was a bit annoying, but you could tell by the tone that it wasn’t really a serious argument. When you reached the entrance to the farm you couldn’t prevent a quick flick of your gaze to the small mound of dirt that hid your newest secret. The walk down the road to the farm was a relief, since it put distance between you and the letter.
As you reached your customary spot you looked to the farmhouse just as Big Mac emerged from the door. What surprised you, though, was an energetic Apple Bloom rushing out of the house. She had a great big smile on her face and she ran past you without a second glance. You looked over to Storm, though, and she was giving him a quick hug. You feel a smile tug at your lips, and you look away.
Big Mac takes his customary spot next to you, and you glance at him quickly. “So, where’s she off to? No school today?”
“Nope. No school till next week, on account of the Summer Sun Celebration. Although just once I’d like to see her get up this early for school.” You nod in response, and even chuckle a bit, and then you turn your gaze back to the glow on the distant horizon. The usual amount of time passes before you hear the door open once more, and you hear the sounds of hooves on wood, before it changes to the muted thud of hooves on packed earth. You feel Applejack move next to you, and she leans on you for a moment before she announces the jobs for the day.
“Right, everypony listen up. It turns out that the princess will be coming and a good number of other canterlot ponies will be coming too. Because of this we’re going to have to kick up our efforts in order to get things done in time. Storm, Dash, the two of you are in charge of the Northern section of the orchard. That’s a few hundred trees, so you’d best get going right away.” They both threw casual salutes to Applejack before they took flight to the north.
“Big Mac, you’ll have the Western section. Twilight and Rarity should be coming by before long to help out where they can.” Big Mac nods before heading off to the Western section, leaving just you and Applejack in the small clearing in front of the farmhouse.
“And what about us, AJ? Where are we headed?”
“You and I get to tackle the North Eastern section. It shouldn’t be too bad, considering it’s the smallest section of the farm. But don’t think that’ll make it easy. Some of those trees are as stubborn as I am.” You both share a quick laugh before heading to the barn to gather buckets and other supplies.
Several hours pass, and you and Applejack finish the last tree in your section. You place the final bucket of apples onto the cart, and then you just sit in place, unwilling to move for a few minutes. When Applejack had said that the trees were stubborn you didn’t realize just how stubborn she meant. It had taken you almost a dozen bucks to get some of the trees to release their fruity bounty. But now you were done, and you had every intention of relaxing for a moment before continuing.
Applejack took a seat next to you, and then she leaned into you. You wrapped a hoof around her, and she moved just a bit closer to you in response. You glanced at Applejack out of the corner of your eye, and then you looked forward again. You began to shift your weight onto your legs just a bit, and then you pushed yourself onto Applejack, and she let out a surprised yelp as you pinned her beneath you. You gave her a warm smile, and she returned your smile with a mischievous one. You raised an eyebrow at her, and then she quickly rolled the two of you over.
You attempted to switch positions again, but Applejack stopped your efforts before they could begin with a quick kiss. She lingered close to you, her warm breath washing across your face. You raised your head a bit, and you kissed her back. You raised a hoof up, and you wrapped it around her head, gently pulling her deeper into the kiss. You felt a moment of resistance, but it quickly dissipated, and then you felt her push into the kiss a bit harder.
You pulled back from the kiss, and Applejack moved her head back as well, allowing you to see the deep blush on her cheeks. You could only imagine the color on your own cheeks. You look her in the eyes, and you find yourself lost in her eyes once more. Without thinking about it you move to kiss her once more, when a groan of disgust shakes you from your stupor.
You look around, trying to find the origin of the groan when you spot the Crusaders a short distance away, looking at you with disgusted looks on their faces.
You drop your head to the ground, and an exasperated sigh bursts from your lips. “Really? Really? I swear, AJ, it’s like the world doesn’t want us to enjoy a moment together…”
“I don’t know, last night was pretty good all things considered.”
“You’re not helping the situation, AJ.”
“Oh? Would you like me to stop?”
“Well, I’d rather not have an audience…”
Scootaloo pantomimes a vomiting motion, while Apple Bloom desperately looks for something to look at that isn’t you or Applejack. Sweetie Belle takes the initiative to speak to the two of you, despite your provocative stance. “Well, we were going to tell you about our latest idea for crusading, but I can see that the two of you are busy, so we’ll go…”
“It isn’t rock climbing, is it?” Applejack’s voice is quite serious, and the Crusaders all look at her with contrite expressions on their faces.
“No. We were going to search for buried treasure.”
“Well just be sure to be home for dinner. Now get on out of here! We adult ponies have work to do.” The crusaders quickly run off, leaving you and Applejack where you had left off.
“So… Where were we?”
“We’re getting back to work.”
You heave a sigh, and Applejack climbs off of you, and she heads over to the cart, and you follow close behind. You hook yourself up to the cart, and you both begin the walk back to the barn. It doesn’t take long, and when you finally spot the barn you see Storm and Rainbow Dash both sitting outside the barn, drinking something from some mugs. When you finally get close enough to hear them they drop into silence.
“When did you two finish? And where’s Big Mac?”
“We finished up a little while ago. And Big Mac should be here any minute, Twilight and Rarity were both helping him load up his cart when we saw them last. Or, I saw them. Dash here checked on you two when we finished, and I checked on Big Mac. And since she got back Dash hasn’t been able to stop laughing, so would you tell me what the joke is?”
Before Applejack can say a word you jump in, eager to defuse the situation before it can get out of hand. “We, um… Well, we were… You know what; I’m not going to answer that question.” An excellent job of defusing that situation, to be sure.
Rainbow Dash looks at you with a wicked grin on her face. You begin shaking your head rapidly, but the grin only widens in response.
“Well, Storm, these two lovebirds were lying in the orchard making out. Then the Crusaders showed up, and I could barely contain myself. The look on their faces was picture perfect!” Near the end of her explanation Rainbow Dash began laughing, and soon after she finished Storm joined in the laughter. A nervous chuckle escaped you, and you felt your cheeks begin to warm from embarrassment. The laughter only persisted for a moment or two, and the silence that followed was worse than the laughter.
Big Mac’s arrival was welcome, as far as you were concerned, and with his return also came Twilight and Rarity, both of whom seemed fairly tired from their work. With a small start, you realize that you had never brought your apples into the barn, so you quickly move into the barn behind Big Mac. All the others stayed outside, and so just you and Big Mac took care of the apples. It was easy work, compared to bucking them off the tree, and the barn was fairly cool on the inside, so you weren’t going to complain.
“So, I see you and my sister are getting… familiar with each other.”
“Yeah, we are. But she doesn’t want to rush it, and I wouldn’t dream of rushing her, so it seems to be working out. At least, for now.”
“Well she hasn’t said anything to me about it, so I can only assume that you haven’t really done anything she’s uncomfortable with.”
“I’m glad. I don’t want to mess up, and cost us our friendship. That would suck. A lot.”
“Well, don’t tell her I told you, but there’s one specific aspect that AJ looks for in a colt. One that she found in Storm, way back when. It’s something that you wouldn’t expect her to look for.”
“What’s that? I can think of a few things, but you’d know best.”
“The one thing that Applejack wants to see in-”
A shrill cry stopped Big Mac’s speech, and you turned to look to the door. Without a second thought you rushed to the door, and threw it open. You looked around the immediate area, and there was nopony to be found. You saw a bunch of hoofprints leading down the road, though, and so you broke into a run down the road, hoping to catch up.
When you reached the end of the road, you also reached the source of the cry from earlier. Your run quickly slowed to a trot, and then a walk, before you finally came to a stop.
Sitting there, on the ground, in front of a small hole in the ground, was a group of three fillies. The one on the left had one of her white hooves wrapped around the shoulder of the middle one. The one on the right was a mirror image of the filly on the left, save for the difference in coat color. The filly in the middle, though, was the focus of your attention. Her purple eyes looked right at you, and the tears streaming down her face increased.
“Scootaloo, I…”