Spike walked with Applejack and Apple Bloom, across Sweet Apple Acres and out to the field where the new trees were to be planted, with unusual vigor and motivation. He was still thinking about last night with Rarity, and how incredible it felt to be able to talk to and connect to her like that, for he had never before had such an opportunity to be completely alone with her. Of course, it wasn’t unusual for his mind to wander to Rarity, but since the events of the previous night, he felt as if his feelings for her had renewed, maybe even intensified, and he wasn’t quite sure why. He had always loved her since the day they met, but it was that last night that he felt like they were meeting for the first time, like he had fallen for her all over again.
He wasn’t jumping to any conclusions, but the night before, he also felt a sort of… Connection, almost. Like, he had a feeling as if Rarity felt the same way about him, like he could actually have a chance with her.
Of course, the more he thought of it, the more he knew that was EXTREMELY unlikely. Seriously, RARITY and HIM? What could she possibly see in him, anyway? Why would she go for Spike, the goofy, sixteen-year-old dragon, when she had just about every option in the world, being so incredible in every way? He knew his chances were slim for a multitude of reasons, including these. But it had never stopped him from dreaming before, so why should it stop him now?
“Hold yer horses, Spike! Wait for us!” Applejack called from behind, and it wasn’t until now that he realized that he had gotten several meters ahead of the two ponies.
“Oh, hehe… Sorry AJ. I forget that I’m not as slow as I used to be anymore.” He stopped for a few seconds so that they could catch up.
“Pfft, I’ll say!” Apple Bloom laughed as she and AJ trotted up to him, and they continued forward to the outer fields of the farm, where today they were to plant a new shipment of apple trees that had just arrived the previous day. This was a regular sort of thing for them, as the trees died off naturally all the time, a dozen or so every month. So Spike figured it would be just the usual two or three dozen new trees to be planted, which was an easy job with the aid of Twilight’s magic, and the rest of the Apple family – including Apple Bloom, who was now able to work in a similar manner alongside her big brother and sister – and Spike’s newfound strength. Twilight had split up and gone with Big Macintosh to a field near the other end of the farm, dividing up into teams; so that Applejack, Spike and Apple Bloom could work together on this part of the farm; while Big Mac and Twilight worked near the other end, hopefully doing more work in less time.
They rounded the top of the last hill that stood between them and the field, and Spike’s jaw just about fell to the ground; before him stood at least three hundred fresh, unplanted trees, all stacked nice and neat in the clearing where they were to be put into the ground.
Applejack noted his facial expression and laughed. “Yup! That there’s about the biggest shipment o’ apple trees we ever had. Alot of the old ones that we already had died off a few months ago ‘cause o’ some disease or somethin’. That’s why we asked y’all to come down here an’ help us! We knew we wasn’t gonna be able to get all these in the ground on our lonesome!”
Ya THINK!? Spike’s pupils became tiny as he continued to scan over the unplanted forest of wood. Ughh, this is going to be a LOONNGGG day…
* * *
Spike exhaled a long sigh as he slid down into a sitting position against the tree he and Apple Bloom had just planted, the last one of the day. “Whew!” he exclaimed as he wiped his hand across his forehead, pulling it away slick with sweat. “Is this the kind of work you do all the time?”
“Well, sorta. We don’t normally do this much in one day, if that’s what yer askin’.” Apple Bloom panted, her coat also quite damp with sweat. It was nearly dusk now, and the sky was a bright shade of orange as Celestia’s sun continued its gradual decent behind the horizon.
“I sure hope not!” Spike's entire body felt weak.
“Believe me, I don’t think I’d want to be livin’ on this farm if we had to do this kinda work on a daily basis.” she said with a low chuckle.
“Boy, y’all look like ya just got done runnin’ a marathon!” Applejack said, approaching from several meters away, where she had just finished lowering the last of her share of the plants into the ground. Spike noticed that she didn’t seem the least bit tired at all.
“How aren’t YOU exhausted, Applejack? You did more work than we did!”
The orange pony laughed. “Ah’m used to this sorta thing by now. Ah do this all the time, an' one day, you will too, Apple Bloom!”
Apple Bloom’s eyes grew to the size of soccer balls.
Spike, too, was a bit taken aback by this statement. All day while he worked, he had been rethinking the whole thing about asking for employment here, realizing that, while he indeed may have the opportunity to do some cooking every now and then, he would be spending most of his time out here on the farm, doing THIS sort of labor. And after hearing what Applejack just said, he confirmed his decision: NOPE.
Applejack sighed, slightly offended at her sister's adverse reaction, but she understood all the same.“Well, ah know that ya may not like the idea NOW, but give it time. You'll find that ya love it out here, just like ah did." She looked up at the setting sun. "Ya should prob'ly be headin' back to the barn, Apple Bloom. Twi' an' Big Mac are waitin' for us, so tell 'em we'll be back in 'bout a half hour."
Apple Bloom nodded, and hastily turned and began to walk back to home. Spike was about to follow.....
"Ahem... I said WE. Spike, you stay here with me. There's still a couple more trees ah need yer help with."
"There's more? Oh JOY!!" he said as acerbically as possible, rolling his eyes.
Applejack smirked. "Do ah sense a bit o' sarcasm there, Spike?"
"Nope, I dunno what you're talking about" Spike teased.
"Good." AJ laughed, and began walking to the other side of the field. "Now get yer behind over here an' help me with these last five 'r six trees. Don't worry, won't take long."
With a sigh, he followed. The dragon honestly didn't know if he COULD do any more of this, he could barely lift his arms anymore as it was, let alone the heavy weight of the large, apple-bearing plants.
As the last of the trees came into sight - Applejack had under-exaggerated the amount once again, for there were a few dozen, rather than just the half-dozen that she had suggested - he took a deep breath, thinking about what always gave him his motivation: Rarity. For whatever reason, when he had her in mind, he felt as if he could take on the world with his bare hands.
So, with his head full of her, he went to the opposite end of the tree Applejack had stopped at, and re-enacted the same old routine: She tied her rope on the base the tree while he lifted the other end, and they dragged it over the the hole that had already been dug the previous day. With Spike still holding near the top, Applejack began lowering the base into the hole. As she did this, Spike pushed up on the tree with all his might, moving it into an erect position into the ground. Applejack untied the rope from the base and re-attached it near the midsection, Spike doing the same with another section of rope. They pushed and pulled in different directions until they both decided that the tree was, more or less, perpendicular to the ground. They repeated this process over and over, as they had been doing all day.
Spike's mind found itself playing through a particularly pleasing thought. He imagined him actually asking Rarity out on a date, and her accepting. He began having that same weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that, while once again his chances weren't great, he felt that maybe she did - or at least could, sometime in the future - like him back, and he could be with her. He was so wrapped up in these thoughts, however, that he had nearly abandoned the task at hand, and he found himself having to constantly be snapped back to reality by Applejack, who quickly grew tired of this.
"UGH! SPIKE!"
He shook his head. "Huh? Oh, ye- yeah... Sorry..." He stuttered and began to pull his end of the rope. "More this way? Or toward you?"
Applejack shook her head and spat the rope out of her mouth. "Listen, ah can't be doin' this if yer just gonna keep zonin' out into la-la land all the time like that. Got it?"
"Umm, yeah.... I'm sorry Applejack. It's just that... Meh, nevermind..."
She cocked a brow. "Never mind what? There sumthin' you wanna talk about?"
"Nah, don't worry about it. It's nothing, really."
"Horseapples. C'mon, you can talk to me about it. 'Sides, talkin' always makes you feel better." Her tone of annoyance quickly changed to a tone of sympathy, as she could tell that there was something on the young dragon's mind.
"Well, I guess" Spike sighed. "It's about Rarity."
"THERE'S a surprise. Never woulda guessed!" The orange pony laughed. "Anyway, what about her? Ah mean ah know y'all daydream about her nonstop, but ah aint never seen ya THIS absentminded. Is there somethin' wrong between y'all?"
"No, nothing like that. In fact, kinda the opposite. You see, after my birthday yesterday, she came back after the party just to say happy birthday to me, which I thought was nice. But not just that, the fact that she even did such a thing made me really happy, I mean, who else would do that? And it's not just that, either. She stayed afterward and we talked for a good three or four hours, maybe even longer. And I don't quite know how to describe this, but I also felt like there was something there in her, too. Like, it's obvious that I like HER, but at that time, it felt like SHE liked ME back. Like it was some feeling that came from my stomach, I can't really explain it. And the reason I've been slacking off - sorry about that again - is because I guess my mind is just freaking out over the idea that she might like me, too! Gosh, the more I talk the more ridiculous I sound, huh?"
Applejack was smiling. "Aww, that's might adorable! An' don't worry, ah understand that whole thing 'bout you not bein' able to concentrate on much. Ah know EXACTLY how ya feel. There's this one colt in town, and whenever ah get to thinkin' o' him, I either freeze up, 'r start gettin' all hyper-like. Just makes me giddy to mah stomach!" Her voice rose as she said this, and Spike knew she had to be thinking of said colt right now.
Applejack blushed and cleared her throat. "Anywho, if y'all really do feel that way 'bout her, you should say somethin'. Otherwise, nothin's ever gonna happen. And 'sides, even if she turns ya down, you can still say ya tried, and tryin' is 'bout the best you can do. Ya can't win if ya don't play the game."
You can't win if you don't play the game... Spike liked that. And Applejack had an incredibly good point. The least he could do was try. After all, she already knew he had a crush on her, EVERYONE did, so even if he did ask her on a date and she turned him down, what's the worst that could happen? They'd still be friends, and he's just be right where he was now, which wasn't exactly the MOST desirable option, but it wasn't a bad one, either.
"Huh... You're right, Applejack. Thanks for that! In fact, I think I might just go to her door right now and ask her!" He turned and was about to start running back toward Ponyville.
"Woah ho, hold yer horses, there, loverboy! You still gotta help me finish with these last trees here!"
"Oh yeah... Heh." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
* * *
Spike had never been this nervous before.
As he walked through the streets of Ponyville, just after dusk, he felt as if he could throw up. Not literally of course, but this feeling resembled that of nausea, which he found odd, considering that he was so confident and excited just a few hours ago. Of course, he was still incredibly excited, but the feeling of confidence had been replaced with a feeling of OH JEEZ OH GOODNESS OH MY OH WHAT THE HECK AM I ABOUT TO DO.
He wasn't stopping now, though; he had a mission, and he was sticking to it. Though, the strategy he chose to accomplish said mission was sketchy at best, it was probably the most surefire way to test if Rarity did indeed have feelings for him as well. He was afraid that he was going to be MAJORLY overstepping his boundaries, however, as his "plan" involved him knocking on her door, her opening the door, and him planting a full-on kiss on the mouth right there. Plain, straightforward, and he figured that if that weird feeling in his gut was right, and she did indeed like him back, she would melt in his arms, and the universe would be perfect.
Of course the universe was NEVER perfect, and while these ideas seemed golden in his head, he wasn't sure how they would play out in reality. BUT, there was nothing else he could really think of: he had tried everything traditional to show affection - flowers, trying to impress her at every turn, occasionally flirting - to no avail. So, this was, more or less, the only option he saw left available to him.
So, he continued walking nervously, and about five minutes later, her house came into sight. He gulped and approached her door - once again playing out the plan in his mind and reassuring himself that he wasn't going to wimp out, and he was ACTUALLY going to do this - and knocked quietly. It wasn't TOO late, it couldn't have been past nine, but he didn't want to wake Sweetie Belle, just in case she was already asleep. He heard footsteps from the other side of the door, and took a deep breath, preparing himself. There was a click as the deadbolt turned over, the pony on the other side unlocking it, and the door began to open
Here goes nothing.....
It was a good thing Spike opened his eyes before he leaned forward and tried to kiss the pony standing there; it wasn't Rarity.
But..... it was Rarity.
Spike stood there in shock for a moment, trying to understand the sight before him: Rarity's coat was ruffed up and disheveled, and her makeup was smeared around and under her eyes, and it was obvious that she had been crying. And still was.
He stood there for a moment, too stunned to move. To think. To act. He had come here expecting the happy, proud, and glamorous Rarity that he knew and loved. But this. This was a side of the unicorn that he had never seen before.
And it about brought tears to his own eyes to see her like this.
* * *
Rarity's nightmares had taken an early hold on her mind this particular night, mostly due to the fact that she had gone to bed early. Her routine was under way; waking up in paralyzing fear, unable to move for several minutes; sneaking out into the kitchen to drink a glass of wine; listening to her music, the only thing that she thought could understand her; then finally, slowly drifting back to sleep, where hopefully, she wouldn't be disturbed by another nightmare for the rest of the night.
As she lay there in her bed, tears slowly leaking down her cheeks, she longed for one thing: someone she could talk to. This was a secret half of her life that no-one - not even Sweetie Belle - knew of... And it was killing her to hold it back like this. She WANTED to be able to talk to one of her friends about this, but she was terribly afraid to, not because she was afraid of being judged as "insane" or "crazy" or "pathetic" by everyone - although that would probably happen, too - but mostly because she was afraid it would hurt them as well to learn about this terrible secret.
About thirty minutes passed, and the effects of getting only three hours of sleep the previous night began to take hold. She was nearly asleep, when a rap on the door brought her back to consciousness.
Who could possibly be here at this hour? She thought, but then remembered that it wasn't all that late, probably no more than nine or ten. She peeled herself out of the bed with a sniffle, and realized that whoever was here was going to see her in this broken state. But she hardly cared. The sooner she answered the door, the sooner whomever that was there would leave, and the sooner they would be out of her hair. She walked quietly across the house and to the front door, where she opened it to find probably the last person she would have expected to be there.....
.....But she couldn't have been happier to see him.
"Spike!" She shouted and threw herself into his arms, and began weeping again.
"R-... Rarity? W- what's wrong? Are you okay?" He stuttered, a shocked expression on his face, unable to understand what was going on.
"No. No I am not okay." She admitted. And this was the first time she had admitted it.
"Then whats wrong? Why are you so upset? Did someone hurt you?" He struck a defensive stance and glanced around, gripping her closer to him.
This pleased Rarity, to be here in his arms, it felt as if her problems were - although not gone entirely - significantly less intimidating. "No, nobody's hurt me... Well, actually, I suppose in a way, yes, but..." Saying this, she knew she was going to have to explain herself.
But she didn't mind. At least not to Spike. In fact, she would rather explain herself to him than anyone else that she knew. So with a sniffle, she took a deep breath, and said "Spike, come inside, please.. I want-... No, I NEED to talk to you." She looked up into his eyes, and saw that a few tears of his own had formed.
So, reluctantly pulling herself off of him, she began to walk back toward her room, Spike following close behind. She closed the door to her room behind them, and lay back on her bed, instructing Spike to lay beside her. He did, seemingly still too confused to do anything but simply oblige by what she said, and Rarity pulled herself over to him, wrapping her hooves around his body and laying her head upon his chest.
With tears still flowing down her face, she began to annotate the gruesome tale of her childhood, nightmares, and generally everything that she had been keeping stashed away to herself for so long.....
......Only, this time, her tears weren't as much of sadness, but rather relief.
*End part three*