What the Hay Rhymes with Apple?
It was a lovely evening, the sun heading towards the horizon as Celestia began to end her day, Lunas moon soon to ascend into the sky. Even the Everfree forest looked beautiful, in a wild, dangerous, disorderly sort of way, as a lone pony made her way along the path towards a hut.
There was a knock at Zecoras door. The rhyming zebra paused from adding a few ingredients to the stew within her cauldron, nudging the door open with a hoof, revealing a somewhat bedraggled looking pony with a stetson.
"Ah, Applejack, my pony friend!" She said in delight. "What can I do for you? What may I mend? Come in, come in! " She paused thoughtfully as she led the cowpony inside. "Mind the bin."S he added as ana fterthought as Apple banged her hoof on a trashcan.
The orange pony looked oddly sheepish. "Ah do apologize fer botherin ya Zecora. I got a couple reasons fer comin over tho." She said. "My grannies hip is botherin her sumthin fierce--ya'll got anything'lll help?"
The striped equine chuckled, nodding, rummaging on a shelf for a moment. "Here, to ease the pain. A bit of valeroot, and oil of Dragons-stain." She poured a careful measure out of a bright green bottle into a little travel flask. "A warning now, to help the hip--she should not drink more than a daily sip. For three days mix with cows milk, and then the joint shall move like silk.
Applejack smiled and slid the little flask into her saddlebag, coming out with an apple pie, setting it on Zecoras shelf. "Thankee kindly Zecora. I'll get a basket of apples out here for ya tomorrow as payment. And this..." She slid the pie closer. "This is an apology."S he said, looking a tad shamefaced.
Zecora looked at the pie, puzzled. "Delicious as I find your pie, I must ask...what reason? Why?" She said, sounding a bit confused. "I remember no slight, and we have had no fight."
Applejack rubbed the back of her head. "Ah know, not lately but...that business when we first met yall...well I was a pretty bad instigator of everythin."She admitted. "I branded ya as trouble for ah ever metcha, and ah feel bad bout it. Thought I owed ya a pie at the least, sorta clear the water tween us. . "
The zebra smiled. "Applejack, my silly mare, no apology needed. All is forgiven, clear as air." She did, however, slide the pie a bit closer to herself. "I will acede, however, to your wish....as I said, I find your pies to be delish." She winked, Applejack snorted and laughing.
"Yeah, well, Ah do make a good pie if I do say so mahself." She said with a touch of pride. Zecora grinned. "I do agree. Now, what say you stay, share a meal with me? " She said, gesturing to the stew bubbling on her fire.
Applejack grinned. "Well, I figure grannies hip can wait abit more. " She said agreeably. "And that stew smells mighty fine indeed. " Zecora grinned, ladling out a pair of bowls, with some thicky crusty bread.
Applejack licked her lips and dug in, slurping up stew and sopping up some with the thick bread. SHe looked up curiously at an odd *POP*, seeing Zecora pulling a cork from a thick, earthenware bottle. "Whuts that?" She asked, as an odd, fruity scent filled the air.
Zecora poured a cup of the dark colored liquid. "It is a drink, brewed from fruit of the vine--I believe you ponies would call it wine." She answered. "Would you care for a drink? There are extra cups in the sink." She said cheerfully.
Applejack considered for amoment. "Well...ah aint much of a drinker...but what can it hurt?" She said dismissively, getting herself a glass as well. "Can't be any worse than the stuff uncle Cider makes." She reasoned aloud, taking a sip. SHe paused. "...This stuff tastes a mite better as well." She said, giving the glass an appraising look. Surprisingly....smooth.
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it was a beauitful morning, Celestias sun rising over the horizon. A beam shone down through the Everfree forest, managing to slip and slide past leaves and branches, and through a cracked open window, to stab into the eye of an orange pony in a little hut. An orange pony that rolled over, feeling rather...hungover.
"WHat in the hay....?" She muttered, sitting up , rubbing at her aching head. "No wonder Uncle Ciders always so durn grouchy come mornin time...." She muttered, eyes blinking groggily open. She looked round. "...Where am ah...oh right. Zecoras hut. Man....granny smith is gonna be so mad at me when ah get home....stayin out all naight drinkin like tha--" She froze, eyes wide as she took in the sight of the striped equine laying next to her in the bed, one hoof thrown over Applejack own flank.
Zecora blinked, sitting up as she heard a crash, waking her from a rather nice dream of her homeland. "Applejack? Are you okay? What has--Wait! Why do you run away?!" She called, seeing the cowpony wrenching open the door and fleeing. She tilted her head. How odd. "She must be late, at this hour...perhaps trying to avoid a grannies glower." She chuckled to herself, sliding out of the bed, and noticing something else--the silly pony had left her had behind. She sighed, picking it up and stowing it in Applejack pack, also left behind. "Perhaps I should deliver her hat and pack, to save her a trip back." She mused aloud, throwing the saddlebags over her own flanks, locking the door to her little home as she left.
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It was a long walk to Sweet Apple Acres, but Zecora was used to such walks--how else could she find the necessary ingredients for her many brews? As she approahced the gate, she noticed the large red stallion pulling the applecart out.
"Ah! May you have a morning without cares! Where go you now--to sell your wares?" SHe said warmly.
"Eyyuuup. " Was the laconic reply. The zebra smiled. "Then I will have apples, three." She rummaged in her bag for a few bits. "Oh! Where is your sister? Where she went, did you see? " She nodded to the extra saddlebags on her back. "She left these in my hut this morn--And her hat as well, far from the norm. " The striped equine paused at the outright startled look Big mac gave her.
"She left her hat behind?" He said, just a touch incredulously. "Thats....weird. I think shes up in the field, buckin trees. " He looked concerned. Applejack LOVED that hat....
Zecora nodded. "My thanks. I hope her absence did not worry create...at least her arrival would cause any to abate." Big mac shook his head. "Nnnooope. Applejacks a grown mare. Ah trust her out and about. Didn't think she spent the night with you tho, thought..." he shook his head. "Ah, stray thoughts. Ne're mind. Id' held ya find her, but its mah turn to sell some apples. So...G'day." He nodded amiably, before heading up the road towards town.
The mare chuckled. "Good luck, my friend. I should see you again before days end." She said, heading onto the farm to try and find the wayward bearer of Honesty.
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She found the orange mare a short time later in the center of the orchard, bucking appletrees. SHe might have been bucking them a...bit....too hard, considering the force with which a flying apple smacked into Zecoras flank. She winced, looking up, spying the cowpony hard at work. "Applejack! You left your hat! When you ran out, without even a breakfast chat!" She called up as she amde her way up the hill.
Applejack had been agonizing pver the previous night ever since she awoke to find herself beisde the other equine in bed, franticly trying to make herself remember what had happened during their drunken revelry. If you could call it that. So you might understand why she froze, hearing that voice...
She turned, and gave Zecora a very strange look. It somehow managed to combine confusion, a bit of vulnerability, and anger into one glare. The zebra was given pause by this.
"Applejack, I see your working your farm....um. Have I caused you some harm? You glare as tho I commited a slight....did I say something wrong last nigh--" She was cut off by the orange mare snatching her hat and pack away. "NOTHIN HAPPENED." She hollered. It...echoed, to say the least. "NOthin happened, ya striped...striped...stripy thing!" She growled. "Ah was drunk and passed out, and we dinna do nuthin, got it? Ah Aint like that. Ah aint a fillyfooler or mare mounter or whatever the dang word is!"
Zecora was.....taken aback, to say the least. A hurt expression flashed across her face, before a cold, angry one took its place. "RIght you are that nothing occured. Why do you think something so absurd? It happened just as you said--you drank too much, and I put you to bed. " She grabbed the pack and slung it off, tossing it at Applejacks feet, the orange ponies rant cut off by the obvious anger in the zebras voice. "Never did I think I would hear such an insult." She spat. "I had thought you an adult! That I would, my friends trust betray..." She trailed off, and nodded firmly. "Have a fine day." And turned and trotted off at that, fuming as she headed toward the gate.
Applejack watched her go, the fire in her dampened by the sudden sinking feeling she had in the pit of her stomach.
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Big mac raised an eyebrow as he saw his sister trudging up the road to their house. The way she was walking, he didn't think her apology to Zecora had gone well...
The orange mare had come to him the afternoon before, after she'd cooled down a bit from her little spat with the zebra. She'd seemed troubled...of course, part of that was a falling out with a friend. Never easy. But she'd seemed a bit more...worried than he thought she should be, even after she'd confessed her night of drunkeness. Still...maybe....
His conveniently expository meandering thoughts were interrupted by his sisters sigh, and the sound of her plopping down on hte porch next to him. He silently offered her some lemonade. She sipped it without really looking. "She not go fer it?" He said gruffly.
"....Nah. Was real polite about it, but basicly told me she were more'n a mite miffed with my..um. Assumptions." She still flushed. She shook her head. "Gah. Don't know whats wrong with meh Big Mac. Ah mean, thought ah'd learned mah lesson when we first met'er, about assumin things, but...man. Dunno why ah jumped to the conclusion she'd um. I um. She'd..." She paused, blushing hotly.
"She'd taken advantage of a very drunk you fer a quick hay-roll?" supplied Big Mac. She looked down. "...Yeah, that. "
"Hmm. Maybe cuz yer own thoughts were head that direction for ya passed out?" He seemed outwardly calm, but was preparing for a bucking inside. Sakes alive, his sister was strong....still, simple shock kept her from outright kicking him. "Whut?"
"...Maybe yeh jumped to such a outlandish thing, cuz it was on yer mind already." He said firmly. She stared. He went on. "....Aj, ya aint ever really had anything ya might call a gentleman caller. Coltfriend, whatever. An evertime Granny asks, ya wave it away, like ya aint even thought about it. Ya ever think....eh, maybe ya play the other side?"
He braced for impact....and almost fell over when she just sighed. "...Yer right."
He stared. "...Whut?" He said deadpan.
She looked up, challenge in her eyes. "AH lahk mares." She shook her head. "Look, ah've known awhile now. Just. I could never cotton ta colts. Ah tried, like, with some'a the hired workers from time ta time, but it jest...never." She shrugged. "Then one night Ah got kinda plastered with Rainbow and--"
He jumped. "You an Rainbow?!" She glared. "Yeh, me an Rainbow. We had a...I dunno. A thing? Fer a while, but it just...eh. It didn't work. She's datin some gal from cloudsdale now, ah aint mad at her or nuthin but...dang. Been awhile, and...ah dunno. Ah been keepin it a secret so long, ah...ah think thats why ah blew up at Zecora like that. AH mean, what would everyone think if'n they knew?" SHe traced a hoof nervously on the wooden plants.
He raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Yer friends wouldnt care. Ah dont care. Granny might give ya some guff, but ah doubt she'll care neither, long as yer happy. Anyone else can go an take a flyin leap without wings if'n they wanna make a fuss. " he said frankly. He tilted his head. "....That the only reason ya might've freaked out?" He said gently. "Or maybe theres another? Ah dunno...maybeh ya'll wanted to try somethin more romantic than a drunken bit of bed-fun."
She flushed again and just nodded.
"...Why don't ya see if she'll try it then?" He said reasonably.
She shot him a disbeleaving look. "...Cuz she'd madder'n a snake on a hot stone at me?" She said, sarcasm dripping from her words.
He rolled his eyes, downing a bit more lemonade. "So? Ya'll ain't even gonna try? Aj, I thought bettern'that of you." He shook his head. "Look, ya'll wanna go ahead an give up afore ya even get started, go raght ahead, ah won't stop ya. Ah just think it's foolish."
She fidgeted a bit. "...Look, how do ya'll even know she's um...lahk that? Ah dunno, Maybe its realleh bad where she comes from and like, thats why shes so mad at meh...." She fretted.
He sighed. "Are ya'll gonna figure that out sittin here?" He asked, eyebrow raised.
She paused, and sighed. "When in the hay did ya'll get so durned smart?" She said sourly.
"About when ah started doin the farms taxes." He mused, giving her a shove."Go giver some flowers or sumthin."
SHe snorted at him. "How can you be so good at given advice lahk this when ya can't even ask Fluttershy out?" He spluttered, going wide eyed. "How did you, I, she, it. Get goin!" He yelped.
She snickered, mood a little brightened by the teasing, and hopped down from the porch to head back towards the Forest.
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She stared at the door nervously. A bouquet of wildflowers she picked up from the cart on the way in her mouth, she just...stared at the door. It was overcast with the shadows of leaves, a bit dim despite the bright day.
Cmon. Cmon, knock. At least she'll forgive ya, and...ah dunno. Mehbe you'll get a date? She gave a mental sigh. Cmon Applejack, ya been psychin yerself up for this the entire walk over. Cmon, you can DO this! She reached forward, suddenly determined, and....paused, as the door began to open.
....That just taint fair. Ah didn't even get ta knock....She thought to herself.