//------------------------------// // Chapter one*:The first day // Story: The Apple of my eye // by axelbear //------------------------------// (hey guys, this is my first work here, so any and all advice is much appreciated, Thanks!) My name is Alex, I'm just an average 19 year old guy, and nothing truly special ever happens to me. When my parents told me I was leaving to visit my aunt and grandparents, I reacted like this- "Ugh! Do we really HAVE to? All we are gonna do there is help move their cafe to a new location!" To be honest, I didn't really mean it. I wasn't as bummed as I implied; I loved my grandparents, but I was too stubborn to just leave without giving my parents a little trouble. In reality, I was ecstatic to see them again. We headed off in the family car, driving down the road to Show Low, a small town in northern Arizona; a nice enough place. It was the last time I ever saw my home... The first place we were to stay at while we were there was the HOLZ café, where we were to help move the contents of the building into storage so that they could move the store to a new location. While there, we were welcome to do whatever we wanted to with the walls. Being the Brony I am, I decided to attempt to create some Equestrian art. "Hmm... Oh! I know what I'll do!" I started with something simple. Since she was my favorite character, I decided to try my hand at Applejack’s cutie mark. As it turned out, I had a knack for drawing on large spaces. Seeing as I had done a fair job on her apples, I decided to try something... bigger. I decide on drawing... her. Once I had my mind set, I mentally traced around the area I would use; I started with her snout, moved on to her traditional cowpony headgear, then her tail, her mane, and finally... her eyes. I was only up to going to Show Low because of problems I had coming around in Phoenix; once my girlfriend dumped me I started doing worse in school, and I had succumbed to the depression slowly eating away at me. I could only find some form of solace in watching MLP. I immediately took a strong liking to AJ. I didn't know why, but there’s always been a special place for Applejack in my heart. But when I finished drawing her eyes, it was then that I realized I truly had fallen in love with her. A pang of sadness struck me as I realized it; she doesn't exist, well, at least here on Earth, in this reality, but if I had the kind of magic they had there, maybe I could do something... I concentrated as hard as I could when suddenly... Nothing... "Oh well, I guess no amount of magic can bring her to me." Disappointedly laughing at myself, I stood back to admire the finished work. The fatigue of the day’s work finally getting to me, I almost collapsed from the initial shock of realizing it was almost morning. I rushed to my quarters to try to get some rest before I had to start my work again. Another hard day ended as we finished loading the last truckload of goods and furnishings to be sent off. Determined to get some much needed rest, I headed straight for my quarters. I lay in bed, trying to find a way to get some sleep, but try as I might I just couldn't. I tried for an hour or so, until I just gave up and lay there. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a dim glow coming from the main room of the now mostly empty cafe. "Well now, what could that be?" I got out of bed to investigate the glow. Immediately after opening the door to the main room, I realized that the glow wasn't an electric light or a fire, but an arcane glow, surprisingly coming from my drawing of Applejack. When my vision finally came back into focus after being blinded by the brilliant light, I looked back to the source and saw that the picture was now warping, not twisting but bulging as if something behind the wall was trying to, or rather BEING pushed through. Whatever the case was, whatever was on the other side finally succeeded in getting through, and with a large pulse ripped through the air, collided with me and forcefully knocked me onto my back and subsequently knocked all the air out of my lungs. When I eventually returned to the land of the living, I looked around to see what had come through. "What on Earth was that?" I said, rubbing my head. The visibility was low, since the pulse caused several bulbs to burst... And now here I was, looking at a figure sprawled out on the floor just inches away from me. I tried to sit up so that I could get a better look at the new figure, just barely managing to prop myself up on my elbow. As I had got my first look at this anomaly, my eyes immediately grew wide as my scan caught a simple trio of apples nestled upon an expanse of orange fur. "Oh. My. God..." I could feel my eyes starting to water as I felt like some sort of subconscious prayer had been answered. I cut my Brony instincts down and switched into a worried/serious mode; I checked her condition and saw that she was fine, but unconscious. Knowing that I couldn't just leave her in the main room for all to see, I carefully put her on my back in piggy-back fashion,"Wow, she's a bit heavier than I thought..." I carried her to my room, lay her down on my bed, got a blanket for myself, and dozed off in a chair in my room. About an hour later, I was awakened by the sounds of the creaky cot I usually slept in shifting around, to find a drowsy equine slowly rousing from her slumber. She sat up with a tired and confused look on her face. She looked around until her eyes meet mine. the sight of me made her jump a little and she shakily asked "Where...where am I?" I quickly responded "Earth, but I don't know how-" but I was cut off when she jumped to her next question. "How did I get here?" she said shakily. I looked at her curiously and said "I don't know; I thought you would. Did a friend of yours use some sorta crazy mumbo-jumbo magic on ya an' it screwed up somehow?" She tapped her hoof to her chin for a moment and then said "The only pony I know that might have magic that strong is my friend Twilight Sparkle, and she doesn't usually mess things up; well, at least, not this bad..." she said kindly. "Well then, I'm stumped..." I said with a sigh. "So what are we- I gonna do now?" she started. "I guess we'll just have to wait a while and see what happens," I replied with a joking tone to try to ease up the mood a bit. "Hell, you've already made a friend here and you've only been here an hour!" I add happily. Applejack smiled and said "Well, I'm darn happy to have y'all as my first friend...well, here anyways." I could see a slight blush on her face. I don't know why she would blush at that, but I could feel my face starting to get warm at the sight of it. But then that pang of sadness returned to my heart, because I knew she couldn't have feelings for me, and even if she did, her friends would most likely come and get her soon, and I'm sure I wouldn't be able to go with her... Right? ******** For the next hour or so, I spent my time listening to Applejack tell stories about her friends, adventures, and anything else she could think of. "So then just before the others hit the ground, she blasted ahead, leaving the most colorful explosion I've ever seen!" When she finished laughing at my shocked expression she said "Well shoot, I've been busy talkin’ about myself, I haven't even learned your name, or even given mine for that matter. I'm Applejack." She blushed out of the apparent embarrassment of the situation. "Well then, I'm Alex, nice to meet you ma'am!" I said as I bowed, and looked to see her expression. As I expected, she was on the verge of cracking up. Her reaction to seeing the sly look on my face was to then pull me down. I fell directly on top of her and when I regained my bearings, I looked down to see that I was face to face with Applejack, She looked deeply into my eyes as I do the same to her, my heart beating at a ridiculous rate as I can feel hers do the same. After what seemed like forever, we shook ourselves back to our senses.I rolled off and said, "I'm so sorry for that, I don't know what I was thinking..." I stuttered, but then she put her hoof to my mouth to stop my babbling. "It's okay, Alex. After all I do kinda li-" She stopped when we heard a door open. Damn it! I never thought about what I was going to do about her when the others got up... "Applejack, we've gotta hide you for now. I'll check up on you every 10, 20 minutes, ok?" I asked. "Okey dokey sugar," she said "But we gotta talk. We gotta figure out a whole lotta stuff when you get a break, OK?" she asked. "That’s fine," I said nervously, "But where do you wanna hide?" I said. "Hmm... Oh! How about here?" she asked, pointing to the rather large pantry. "Perfect!" I said. She walked in and turned on the light. "Well, I'll be! This is one roomy closet... Hmm... Why's there so much food in here?" she asked. "Oh, because this is a café, and it's moving to a new location, but we aren't unloading this room or that closet for a couple of days because I'm staying in this room ‘til we leave," I stated. "So, I'll be back in a bit okay, Applejack?" She looked at me with an uneasy smile and a noticeable blush and said "Oh, o-ok..." As I worked on transporting the innards of the small restaurant, my thoughts were racing, thinking of the time I got to spend with her and of what happened. The thought of seeing her again pushed me quickly to my break. "Hey, I know it’s a bit much, but can I have my break last an hour today? One of my good friends needs to talk to me about something and I wanna have plenty of time for her!" I begged my aunt as she stood with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face. She finally looked at me and said "Fine, but only today, got it?" "Oh, yes ma'am! Thanks again, aunt Pammy!" I ran to "my room" and closed the door, locked it, and went to the closet and stopped. I was unsure if what I thought I would see in there was real, or if I had either dreamed or just simply imagined the entire night. Slowly, I put my hand on the knob, turned, and pulled... What I saw next was, WAS, nothing. My heart sank, and I slowly walked back to my bed to lie down and think about the cruel trick my mind had played on me. I quietly lay down on my bed so as to not alert anybody near the room, as my mind wandered away, anywhere but where I was right then. I lifted the covers on the large bed and put them over myself, and started to drift off... I suddenly snapped back to consciousness when my arms extended and wrapped around something... warm... and... FURRY!?!? My eyes shot open and I saw the mare I had just moments earlier thought to be just a figment of my imagination once again face to face to face with me, but this time gently snoring. My sudden movements began to wake her from her slumber, so I immediately rolled out of the bed (apparently only adding to the waking). I stood up and looked at her, feeling an odd mix of confusion, relief, and excitement. She slowly opened her emerald eyes to see me with an extremely shocked look on my face. She sat up and said "Hey sugarcube, I'm sorry if I startled you. It started getting’ chilly in there so I moved on up into your bed... thing." I gave her a look, and then shrugged and sat down, and asked her "So Applejack, what did you wanna talk about?" She looked at me for a moment before figuring out what I was talking about. She blushed and said "Oh yeah, it's nuthin’ really I just wanna get to know the person who’s helpin’ me out a little better, is all. So tell me about yourself a bit." For the next ten minutes or so I told her about myself, just basic things like my age, what I like to do, etc. All the while feeling a little bit of sadness seeping into the joy in the moment. Once my break finally came to an end, I let her know how long until she could expect me back, and bid a short goodbye. As grueling as the work was, it passed by rather quickly. When the end of the day finally came around, I was drained of energy and wanted nothing more than to get back to Applejack. I walked into the room and saw her looking intently at me. Seeing her like this made me wonder what she had in mind. "Right on time, Alex! I was gettin’ bored in here," she stated happily. "So, what do you wanna do, Applejack?" I asked. She thought for a second, then said "How about we hoof wrestle?" "Is that a challenge, Applejack?" I asked jokingly. "Sure as sugar!" she said cheerfully, I pulled up a small table I had been using as a nightstand to use as a makeshift playing field. We put our appendages in position and prepared for the match. "Care to make this game interesting?" she asked playfully. “What, a bet? Sure, I'm game. What’s at stake here?" I said. Right away she snapped back "The loser has to do something of the winner’s choice, no questions asked, okay?" I gave her a quizzical look, and just shrugged it off and said "Fine, but I'm gonna enjoy that favor!"