-The Next Day-
Fluttershy paced about her living room, shaking her head.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He can't. I mean...He isn't...Ohhhhh..." Her stomach was in knots.
'How could Big Macintosh know?' 'How could he have found out?' 'How can he feel this way?'
These questions whirled around her mind, twisting her thoughts and diverting her attention from the pouting bunny at her hooves.
"Oh, Angel," Fluttershy confided in her pet. "I just don't know what to do. I could never face him after reading this, I mean, I'd be so nervous. So very nervous. I don't even know if I'll be able to be friends with AppleJack, I don't know if I can visit Sweet Apple Acres....Oh, Angel bunny..." Fluttershy cuddled her bunny, whose eyes softened and whose little paw began to stroke the mare's cheek.
Although the soft touches were soothing, Fluttershy still felt awkward inside. Nervousness clawed at her belly, her flank shivered as she breathed. The mare wanted to go back in time, before she received the letter, before Big Mac confessed his feelings, before she confirmed them. She sighed, collected her emotions and picking herself off of the floor, Fluttershy set down a bowl of sliced apples for Angel and headed down from her home. The pegasus decided to set aside her emotions for now and to move through the day as if she'd never received the letter.
-Sweet Apple Acres-
"Hey there, brother!" AppleJack greeted Big Macintosh as he entered the orchard. Her orange legs bucked the hard bark of an apple tree that was rooted behind the mare. "Yee-haw, it's a fine pickin' today, Mac! Each of these baskets over here, they're perfect! Not a bruise on them!"
Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup." His orange mane fell over his eyes when he reared up in joy. Macintosh had distracted himself with his other love, other than the shy Pegasus, apples.
His hooves hit the ground with a soft crunch of the dirt.
"Yep, brother! Now we should get back to buckin', 'tis fixin' to storm."
"Says who?" Big Mac asked jokingly.
"Says that there dark cloud." Aj tipped her hat toward a group of grey clouds that floated from Cloudsdale's weather factory. The mare bucked another apple tree before heaving the wicker baskets onto the wooden wagon that Big Macintosh had hitched to himself.
After an hour or two of bucking, the wagon was full of apple baskets. The storm clouds had rolled in overhead, their noises spoke of thunder and lightning.
"Come on now, Macintosh!" Applejack shouted over the wind that had risen. "We gotta get back to the house!"
"Eeyup." Big Mac heaved the wagon over the hilly landscape of the orchard. The amount of baskets in the wagon was more than Mac was used to pulling, the weight straining on his neck. The apple pony would be fine, his muscular build is all he'd need to get the wagon to the orchard entrance, which was only a few hoovesteps away.
- Pony ville -
When Fluttershy arrived in Ponyville Square, the storm clouds had just been released from Cloudsdale, but now they were hovering above the markets. The sales ponies and shopkeepers quickly withdrew their merchandise and closed up their booths.
"Eeep!" The sound escaped from Fluttershy's throat as the clouds drew closer. The yellow mare's wings shot up in fright, her feathers rustling in the high winds. She tried to shy away from the wind, but it's ferocity grew and before she could do anything about it, Fluttershy was whisked into the air.
"Oh, dear!" She squealed as her wings uselessly beat the razor sharp air. The saddlebags dropped from Fluttershy's side and were thrown somewhere outside the wind's reach.
The storm tossed Fluttershy forth her wings catching a new gust every time she was dropped. If her wings had been stronger, she could have maneuvered herself to the ground below but instead they drew her upwards and away from Pony ville. Lightning had now began to flash in the storm, Fluttershy's heart was in her throat. Back in flight school, she'd been told stories of Pegasai being stuck down by lightning.
She screamed at every sharp sound of the storm and whimpered as she tried to veer away from the flashes of light. Tears bundled up in the corners of her eyes. Fluttershy was sure this was the end, she had been carried to the orchard and a new fear rose in her - the fear of being thrown into a tree.
-Below-
The lightning flashed again and stuck down a giant tree, its heavy carcass crunched against the ground, resting in front of Big Mac and his wagon. The stallion reared up in surprise, the wagon bringing him back down.
Applejack, who was already beside the barn shouted for her brother, but her call was lost in the howling wind.
Big Mac tried pushing aside the tree, but to no avail. Then a sound pierced his ears, it was a high sound and it sounded familiar. Pushing the storms noises from his head, he realized the sound was his love. "Fluttershy!" He called, green eyes searching the darkening sky.
Then he saw her, her yellow flank standing out from the black clouds. He watched helplessly as he saw the delicate body being twirled above his head. Then he heard it, a sickening scream as Fluttershy's body dropped from the air after a bolt of lightning lit the sky.
"Fluttershy!" Big Macintosh unhitched himself and galloped into the orchard.