When Applejack had suggested to Twilight to join her in the hot springs, Twilight agreed mostly for the convenience. She needed a shower after her sparring sessions with Applejack, and Spike was using their room’s bath for his own shower, so joining Applejack seemed like an easy solution for everyone.
But there was something that didn’t occur to Twilight until she was standing in the middle of a public hot spring covered only by a little modesty towel and several beautiful naked women bathing around her.
Twilight Sparkle was motherhecking GAY.
Now, being surrounded by several beautiful naked women was one thing; Twilight could deal with that. Neither Equestria nor Twilight’s home in Zebrica really had much of a nudity taboo, and it was a common occurrence to see naked women just walking through town in the summer time.
But seeing Applejack naked? That was a different story.
Twilight had chalked her increasing body heat and nervousness during her sparring sessions with Applejack to the heat of the moment, excitement and adrenaline that was natural to occur during any kind of combat, sparring or otherwise.
Her appreciation of Applejack’s form and technique, and the fact that Twilight noticed how incredible Applejack looked as her massive, muscular body glistened with sweat? Twilight could chalk that up to a platonic appreciation of Applejack’s objective aesthetic beauty.
But seeing Applejack naked? That was another story entirely. Quite frankly, the main reason Twilight kept the modesty towel on was so she could hide the incredibly obvious indicator of her attraction to Applejack.
Twilight could just leave, if she was really that uncomfortable. But the thing of it was, she wasn’t uncomfortable; but she didn’t want to make Applejack uncomfortable either.
So Twilight dipped her hoof into the hot spring, and then slowly slid into the water, at first placing her hands over her lower regions out of self-consciousness but then she thought about how it might look if someone saw her hands down there so she quickly brought them up out of the water and leaned them on the rocks behind her.
She was just having a totally normal hot springs experience.
“Damn, Twi,” Applejack said as she slid into the water next to Twilight, “I never noticed how hot you are.”
Are you KIDDING me!?
“Uh, what?” Twilight said, her brain exploding in her skull and leaving a fried gooey mess all over her head. She was sure you could see the smoke pouring out of her ears.
“Sorry, was that too forward?” Applejack chuckled awkwardly. “I guess bein’ with Rainbow’s made me a little bit more friendly. Sorry about that.”
“N-no don’t be sorry!” Twilight exclaimed. “I was just surprised is all! Cuz I was, uh, maybe I was thinking the same thing about you.”
“Oh yeah?” Applejack grinned and flexed her muscles for a moment and Twilight almost felt like her nose was bleeding. “You like whatcha see?”
“Ughuabuhfguh.”
Nice save, Twilight.
“You have so many freckles,” Twilight cooed, her eyes going from Applejack’s shoulders down to the sides of her chest, all of which her dotted with little white sparkles. She was beautiful.
“Yep!” Applejack said proudly. “Lotta girls are into the freckles.”
I bet Rarity really likes them.
Oh.
Oh it’s gonna be like THAT, huh.
Twilight’s mood crashed like a glass chandelier falling to the floor, shattering into a million pieces upon impact.
“Twi?” Applejack asked. “You okay?”
“I’m—” Twilight moved away from Applejack, pushing herself through the water and trying to cover her body with her wings, but she forgot that she had put them away since she couldn’t be seen with them in front of ponies. “I thought about Rarity.”
“Oh,” Applejack said dourly.
Way to ruin the mood, Twilight.
“I still love her,” Twilight said despite the demons in her brain screaming for her to just stay quiet. “No, I guess it’s more a matter of— I still want her to love me. I mean, the first part’s also still true, but it’s more that second part that’s nagging at me right now.
“It’s more that second part banging pots and pans in my brain, telling me that if she knew what I was thinking about you right now, she’d hate me even more than she already does.”
“What yer thinkin’ about me?” Applejack asked. “Cuz it seems like yer thinkin’ ‘damn she’s hot’, and that’s just objectively correct. Even Rarity’d tell you that. She couldn’t get mad at you for that.”
“I guess,” Twilight muttered. “But I’m not just thinking about how hot you are. Granted, I am extremely thinking about that! Like, oh my GAWD. But it’s more than that.
“I’m jealous. Of what you have with Rainbow Dash. I miss Rarity, I’m so angry and sad that I never got to have the relationship with her that I wanted to, and I’m dearly missing having someone in my life who I care about in that way. My head’s already a mess of emotions and I guess adding ‘thirst’ to those emotions tipped me over from ‘mess’ into ‘straight-up disaster’.”
“Hon, yer not a disaster,” Applejack said, swimming closer to Twilight and putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, “not any more’n the rest of us anyway.”
“I know,” Twilight bit her lip and struggled to hold back tears. “I know you’re right, but I—”
“It’s rough,” Applejack sighed, tracing her fingers through Twilight’s bangs the way Ra— “I get it. It’s rough when you feel like yer bein’ drowned in yer own emotions.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said and smiled up at Applejack, instinctively putting her hand on Applejack’s chest. She didn’t realize she had done that until a second later, and she immediately turned bright red and the heat burning all over her face could give the hot springs a run for their money.
Applejack didn’t say anything. She looked down at Twilight’s hand— which Twilight knew she had to move off of Applejack’s chest, but her fur was just so soft and her body was so strong and tough and warm and—
Applejack put her own hand on Twilight’s chest, and to say Twilight’s ears shot straight up would be an understatement; they were like rockets trying to blast off from Twilight’s head. Twilight audibly gasped at Applejack’s touch but she could barely hear herself over the pounding of her heartbeat thumping in her ears.
“Hon, I’d never say that I could replace Rarity or anything like that,” Applejack whispered, “but if you seriously want what me and Rainbow have, I’m not against giving it a try with you.”
“A-are you serious?” Twilight gasped. “We barely know each other!”
“We’ve known each other for months?” Applejack scoffed. “What’re you talkin’ about?”
“Well! I m-mean, yeah! I guess so!” Twilight stammered, and the fact that her and Applejack still had their hands on each other’s chests did not escape her notice. “But I hadn't really thought about you in that way, until—until—”
Twilight paused, and she retracted her hand, pushing herself away from Applejack.
“I never really thought about you in that way before,” Twilight said solemnly. “I’m not even sure I fully understand what ‘that way’ even is. But the last thing I want to do is treat you as a rebound.”
“And I don’t wanna try and put you in any kinda way yer not totally comfortable with,” Applejack said, and her comforting tone was so sweet and kind Twilight almost cried.
“Can I ask you a favor though?” Twilight muttered.
“Of course,” Applejack smiled.
“Can I have a hug?”
“Absolutely, honey,” Applejack laughed, and she pulled Twilight into a warm and tender hug.
As Twilight felt her naked body pressed against Applejack’s, she immediately turned red again and wondered if perhaps she made a huge mistake, but she decided to just let it go and bury herself in Applejack’s chest.
It was soft. And warm.
Felt like home.