//------------------------------// // Act I, Chapter I // Story: The Farmer & The Mermaid // by TheOneAJ //------------------------------// Applejack considered herself a rather simple   girl. Wake up, work the farm, make money by selling apples, see to it that her sister had a happy childhood, go to bed, repeat. Not to say that was all her life or that she didn’t have friends. Mostly a handful she had since jr high. All of whom, agreed, that said she seriously needed to get laid. Applejack, however, never had an interest in romance. For you see.... Well, what kind of story teller would I be if I simply expositioned all of this to you right now? No. What you all probably want, is for me to get to how this human version of Applejack, to clarify fell in love with this story worlds Rarity. Who, if you seen the cover art, was a mermaid. Well, it happened, like so... ***** ‘RING RING!!” Applejacks alarm clock blurted. As was routine, the farm girls hand slammed into the clock. She yawned, got out of bed, and did her routine jumping jacks and push ups before checking her phone. “29,” she counted, “30, 31, 3-“ Just then, her cell phone buzzed. And as tempting as it was just to finish, she instead reached out for it to see who it was. Message from, Rainbow Dash. Friend; RD; Hey AJ! You better be coming to the party on Saturday! Applejack looked to the calendar on her wall and rolled her eyes. Yes, she hadn’t forgotten about Pinkie Pies start of summer beach party in three days. AJ; ‘of course not! I’ll be there.’ RD: ‘good! You need a date? Sure I could find someone you’d like ;)’’ Applejack narrowed her eyes. Aj: no! Not again, never again! Also, I thought you believed me She sighed and placed the phone down. Minutes passed, to which Applejack was sure there wasn’t going to be a response. So she finished her push-up for the day. Once done, she was about to pick up her phone to apologize, when it buzzed.  RD ‘Okay, Sorry! You know I didn’t mean it like that, J! Applejack choose not to respond. She hadn’t opened the text, instead seeing the message on her lock screen. While not inevitable, she could act like she hadn’t read it. Slipping on her boots, she headed out of her room for the day. *****  “Morning, AJ”  her oldest brother, Big Mac, greated. “Howdy,” Applejack nodded, taking a seat at the table. “What’s for-“ “How about some apple oatmeal and bacon?” Granny Smith said, sliding her a bowl. “The perfect meal to start the day, boost your brain power, look into some colleges-“ Applejack turned and raised an eyebrow. “Eh... Oh and take care of the farm of course.” With that, Granny Smith, innocently, whistled her way out of the room. Applejack shook her head, and went to her breakfast. Knowing her family meant well, but still... “You know,” Big Mac added when Granny Smith left the room, “we just have your best interest at heart.” “I know.” Applejack sighed and pulled her hat down. “But what? There something wrong with just being happy with where you are?” “Well, Nope. Still, just because you’d be happy with your life now, doesn't mean you shouldn’t not take wild chances. May regret it later.” Applejack raised an eyebrow at her, older, brother. “Isn’t this conversation supposed to go the other way?” Big Mac shrugged. “Well that’s my two bitts. Take it or leave it.” Applejack chose not to answer that. Instead, to finish off her breakfast before doing some chores. Some good, old, not complicated, chores... ***** “All I’m saying,” Applebloom whined, “is that if Scootaloo can go, why can’t I?” Applejack rubbed her temples. “For one, I plan to have a word with Dashie about that. Second, this is a high schooler party. So that’s that!” Applebloom huffed and leaned back into her seat as the truck approached the middle school. “So you get to drink before you’re 21 and I can’t?!” Applejack raised one of her fingers from the steering wheel. “Now I didn’t say anything about drinking nothing!” Applebloom raised her left eyebrow. “Never you mind that!” Applejack said, face going slightly red. “You hear?. If I see you there, you’ll be grounded for a month. Got it?” Applebloom groaned in defeat as the truck pulled up to the school. “Understood. Sure it be dumb anyways.” Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, not wanting to end this chat on such a sour note, Applejack added, “I’ll tell you what, sugarcube! You and your friends promise not to show up to my party Saturday night, and I’ll let you youngins have your own shingdig in the barn on Sunday.” Applebloom paused. “Seriously?” Applejack nodded. “E’yup. Sound fair?” Applebloom looked circled one of her shoes in the ground. “Girls, and boys?” Applejack gulped, but answered, “Supervised, but yup.” “How about booze too?!” Applejack narrowed her eyes, but let up somewhat realizing applebloom meant that, half seriously. “Fine, but you mean it?” She asked, not wanting to let around she’d be hosting a party only for that not to happen. “Cross my heart, so long as you and your friends keep up their end.” Applejack promised. “Deal!” Applebloom reaches over and have her big sister a hug, before exiting the car for another school day.  Applejack smiles and was about to drive off, when she noticed a pamphlet sticking out from the seat. A giant blue U was all she needed to see before grunting. Probably planted there by Granny or Mac. She figured. Not caring who saw, she tossed the piece of paper out the window and drove off. ***** “My dear, sweet, Applejack!” an irritating voice startled the farmer as she had organized her locker. Gritting her teeth, she closed it to see, “Trenderhoof! How are you doing today?” She spoke each word painfully. “Why never better, Miss Apple.” He said, crossing his arms and leaning against the adjacent locker. “Same old same old. Excited for third period when-“ “No.” Spoke plainly. Trenderhoof lost his balance on the locker. “Huh? What! I mean… I do-“ “If not the beach party, I’m sure you were about to ask me out on a date or something. And the answer, if no.” She turned from her locker and him. Trender rubbed his neck, before trying to look all confident again. “Well, um, I mean, if you don’t have-“ Applejack sighed, rubbing her head, and turned around to face him. “Trender, you’re a nice guy that I’m sure would make anyone else happy. Just not me.” She tried to make that last part as apologetic as she could. Honestly not having anything against him. Seeing that he was about to get pouty, Applejack turned face and walked off before he could make her feel bad. Which, to his credit, she could respect, he didn’t try and Perdue, even if she was sure this wouldn’t be the last time he tried to ask her out. “Another event going stag, huh?” Another annoying voice asked. Glaring, Applejack replied to her rainbow haired friend, “You know some days I question our friendship.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Hey, it’s high school. What you’d expect? You’ve either had a boyfriend by now, or else you’d be gay.” She threw her hands up in defense. “Just how it goes!” “And you can’t just be asexual in piece?” “Hey! You like or not what you like! I’m just saying that’s how-“ Rainbow squinted. “I thought you told me your were demisexual?” Applejack shrugged. “Meh, same-ish thing. Technically it is a form of asexuality. Besides, does better to keep boys at bay than saying you’re demi.” “Except Trender it seems.” Rainbow added, sounding more sympathetic this time. “But hey! You’re not the only one who regrets that one time you were nice to a boy you hadn’t realized was starting to like you until it was too late.” Applejack snickered. “So I guess Shy’s brother just asked you to the party?” “Yeah yeah,” Rainbow patted her head. “And hey, I’m not saying you have to make a life long commitment. But there’s still nothing wrong with being opened minded while still young. Break a few hearts, if not him give someone a chance if you don’t want to be considered gay. Or he'll kiss a girl if you’d like! That’s all I’m saying.” Applejack pulled up her backpack. “Or, you can just respect that someone wants to just be happy single,” she lied, surprisingly well. “Okay, okay. Still, we only got two years left before we hit the real world,” Rainbow said with sincerity. “I just don’t want you to say you had any regrets down the line if you didn’t try.” Applejack sighed. “It’s fine. And, as much as I hate you, I do appreciate you looking out for me.” The warning bell rang.  “I’ll see you later. And I promise; if anyone catches my interest, you’ll be the first to hear!” “I better!” Rainbow snickered, before heading their separate ways. **** “Needing a boyfriend, the nerve of some people!” Applejack complained as she harvested some apples into a basket later that afternoon. “Why, that’s the problem with teens nowadays,” she spoke as if she wasn’t a teenager herself. “Always thinking if they’re alone and not sleeping with someone, they’re a problem with them.”  She looked around at the empty orchard and took a breath. “Yeah, and I make a good case for myself.” Climbing down the ladder, she continued to talk to herself. “What? They think just because someone’s ace they don’t think about having a special someone? That the only thing stopping them is because the closest person she finds attractive is her best friend? And even then as hardly someone she’d want to date?”  Once on the ground, she kicked the tree truck. “Or the fear of what would happen when their partner wants  to have sex after months and months of dating? Is it wrong that they would want to wait for someone they find attractive? Someone that wouldn’t mind spending the rest of their life on a farm? Or at the very least someone who would-“ “Oh would you stop with the dramatics already?!” Applejack nearly jumped out of her skin at the unfamiliar voice. “What! Who said that?!” A moment later, she heard a splash from the nearby watering hole. “I heard you!” she called out, racing to the pond. “You’re on private property!” Reaching the lake, she saw that no one was there. However, the ripple in the water showed someone had just dived in to avoid detection. Looking around, she acted like this wasn’t the case and walked off. Instead, she hid behind a nearby tree, waiting for the culprit to surface. Not that she thought whoever she was, based on what the voice sounded like, could be a threat. Still, instead of diving in blindly, Applejack waited to see who the intruder was before she acted. When several minutes had gone by with no one surfacing, Applejack was just starting to think of one of two things. Either there was no one in the pound and she had just been imagining things, or that, whoever was in there, was in serious trouble. Before she could make up her mind, a purple haired head popped out of the water. Keeping low, Applejack watched as the girl looked around before swimming back to shore. The farmers plan had been to confront the girl once she got out of the water. Yet, when a good ten minutes passed by, and no person had come out, Applejacks impatience came to an end. So, she creeped over to the place where she saw the girl swimming too. Sure enough, by the waters edge, she saw the girls head and shoulders sticking out of the water as the rest remained submerged. “I beg your pardon there, missy-“ Before she could finish, the girl turned in surprise. Bright violet eyes that had Applejack mesmerized for half a second, before said eyes widened in horror as the stranger tried to swim away. “Hey wait!” Applejack called out, being a little bit faster as she jumped into the water, grabbing the mysterious girl before she could get away. “Let me go this instance, you Ruffin!” The stranger said, fighting back. “Now hold on there, missy!” Applejack protested, surprised with how much resistance this girl, whom she had guess wasn’t much older than, was putting up. It wasn’t enough for Applejack to be kissing this little tug of war as she dragged the girl back to shore. “Now I don’t know what made you think going for a swim in this here pond was a good idea. But I’m,” she huffed, as they started to come out of the water, “going to have to ask you too... too...” It started slowly at first. Once the girls lower half was dragged out of the pond, Applejacks first guess to the bright blue was just the bottom half of girls swimwear. The next step her brain took was to assume it was just some kind of costume. Not an unreasonable explanation to anyone in her situation. That theories plausibility diminished as said appendage in question curved upwards in such a way no human legs could of done so to smack her in the face. If Applejack hadn’t been so stunned at what she was seeing, she may have been able to dodge and hold on. Instead, the slap of the tale have the stranger the chance she needed to slip out of Applejacks grip and to dive back into the water. Applejack, having fallen onto her rear, rubbed at her face before  standing up, able to watch the silhouette raced to the other side of the pond. Once as far as she could get, the, mermaid’s, head surfaced to stare back. Both girls eyes continued to stay firmly locked onto one another’s. Both waiting for the other to make the first move. If only because neither seemed quite sure what to do....