//------------------------------//
// The "picnic" 
// Story: Applejack and Applebloom in Appleoosa 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
//------------------------------//

"At least it can't get any worse."  That was Soarin's first thought upon waking up.  He had passed out at some point while his shoulder was being cleaned, so he turned his head to look at it.  The cleanest parts of the tablecloth were tied to the wound with the rest of the checkered cloth, and the wound didn't appear to be bleeding too badly.

That didn't mean that it stopped hurting.  His entire shoulder ached with dull, throbbing pain.  He tried to move his leg, but the pain worsened, causing him to draw in a sharp breath.

"Sugarcube?"  Soarin' felt movement against his back.  "You awake?"

Applejack had been taking a nap in the shade beside Soarin'.  She wasn't exhausted or injured like he was, but she had to conserve the strength she had.  After all, there was no way Soarin' would be walking with his shoulder messed up like it was.

She got up and turned around to face the injured stallion.  "How ya feeling?"  She made a visual check of his injuries.  The shoulder was the only on bandaged, but he had many more.  There were a few scrapes and bruises from his rough landing, but those were relatively minor.  Applejack was more worried about the wounds he sustained from the broken bottle.  She didn't have anything to help her remove the bits of broken glass, so she had tried her best to rinse it away with water.  Fortunately, nothing seemed to have gotten any worse.

Keeping his weight on his good shoulder, Soarin' forced himself to a sitting position.  The movement still sent waves of pain crashing through his left side.  "I'm fine."

Applejack saw the pain he was trying to hide.  "Don't lie ta me, Sugarcube.  Ah patched that shoulder for ya, Ah know how bad it is."  She sighed and reached into the brown paper bag that held their food.  His lie had been well-intentioned, meant to reassure her, but she still didn't like being lied to.  She gave him one of the mashed up grilled cheese sandwiches.  It was mangled, almost beyond recognition, but it was better than nothing.  "Don't ever lie ta me."

Soarin' took the disfigured offering with a quiet, "sorry."

"What was that?"  Applejack took her own crumbly sandwich and contemplated it for a moment before taking a cautious bite.  Even if it was a little beat up, it still tasted as good as she remembered.

"I said, I'm sorry for lying to you."  Soarin' took a bite of his own sandwich.  He liked it, he just wished he would have been able to eat it under better circumstances.  "My leg feels like somepony tried to cut it off."

"Thanks for the honesty, Sugarcube."  There was one waterbottle left, she took a swig of the refreshing liquid before offering it to Soarin'.  There was no way around it, they just had to share, but Soarin' hesitated.  "Ah ain't got cooties, ya know."

"What?  No!"  Soarin' waved his good hoof in front of him, almost losing what was left of his sandwich in the process.  "I mean-  Um, have you had enough?  What if you want some more water later?"

Soarin's hoof was still stretched out in front of him and Applejack snuck a glance at it before quickly leaning forward and taking a bite of his sandwich before he could pull it away.  "Thish is shurfifal, Shugarcube, Ah don't mi-"  She suddenly frowned and started chewing.  After she swallowed, she stared down at her sandwich, then she looked over at Soarin's.  "Yers tastes better."  She sniffed her sandwich as Soarin' looked on in confusion.  She looked over at his sandwich on more time.  This time though, her gaze lingered prompting him to examine the cheesy edible resting in his hoof.  He slowly held it out to her and she took a sniff.  She immediately took another nibble of her own sandwich.  She stared at it in consternation.  "Mine ain't hardly got any seasonin'!"

Soarin' started laughing, each peal of mirth causing spikes of agony to run through his shoulder.  He just couldn't help it though, she was being so serious about the sandwich that it was funny.  "Maybe you should go get a refund," he joked, setting his sandwich on the paper bag and absent-mindedly taking a drink from the water bottle, "after what happened, I doubt they'd refuse.  You could get your hat back too."

"Mah Hat?!"  Applejack hurriedly put the sandwich down on the paper bag and brought her hooves to her empty head.  Her eyes went wide as she found bound emptiness where weathered felt should have been.  "Ah lost pappy's hat."  Applejack started to panic.  She couldn't replace that hat, what would she do if it got damaged?  What if somepony picked it up and left town with it?  She might never get it back!

Something came down around her head, breaking her out of her frenzied thoughts.  She felt something resting on her shoulders, so she looked down.The tips of Soarin's wings were resting on either side of his old flight goggles which now hung around her neck.  Soarin' placed his good hoof under her chin and slowly tilted her face towards his.  "I'll get your hat back, A.J.  I promise."  He knew how he would feel if he lost his goggles and he felt responsible for the loss of her hat.  "Until I do," he tapped his hoof against the goggles, "you hold on to these."

Tears started to fall from her eyes as she looked at him.  "But Ah-"

Soarin' put a hoof to her mouth to silence her.  "Those are important to me, Applejack, take care of 'em."

"Ah will, Sugarcube," Applejack pulled him into a gentle embrace, "Ah wi-"

"GYAAHHH!  A.J!  SHOULDER!"

Applejack let go quickly.  "Sorry."

They sat in awkward silence as Soarin' recovered.  Once the pain subsided to a bearable level, Soarin' reached for his… sandwich.  "Uh, A.J?  Which 'wich is which?"

"Huh?"  Applejack looked down at the paper bag.  Two mashed up grilled cheese sandwiches sat side by side with no way to identify which pony each belonged to.  She shrugged and grabbed the one closest to her.  "Survival, Sugarcube."  She took a bite and held back a smile when she noticed that it tasted better than it did earlier.

Soarin' took the remaining sandwich.  "You keep using that word."  He took a bite and felt his face heat up when he realized that the sandwich didn't taste as good as it did before.

Applejack swallowed her food as quickly as she could and threw a hoof in the air.  "Ah do not think it means what you think it means!  Ah loved that book!"

Soarin' chuckled.  "That's an old reference, I'm kinda surprised you caught it."

"Pfft!"  Applejack dismissed that with a wave of a hoof.  "Old don't mean anythin' if somethin's good."

"That's for sure."  Soarin' noticed that she lifted her sandwich at the end of her sentence and idly wondered if she was taunting him.  "Have you ever seen the film?  It's pretty good."

Applejack washed down the last of her, Soarin's really, sandwich with some water.  She shook her head.  "Ah've been meanin' to, but Ah haven't had time ta get to a theatre.  Ah tried ta get Twi ta play it at the library once, but the projector was busted."

"Well, maybe I can take you to see it some time, it really is good."  It didn't even dawn on Soarin' that he just asked Applejack out.  "But seriously, why do you keep saying survival?  We walked into town in about an hour.  I don't know how long I was flying for, but we can't be that far away from Braeburn's house, can we?"

Applejack took a deep breath and put a hoof on his good shoulder, consoling him for what she was about to say.  "Here's the thing, Sugarcube."

"If I had a bit for every time I heard a mare say that…" thought Soarin'.

Applejack pointed one way.  "Farm's that a way."  She pointed in the opposite direction.  "You flew that a way."

Soarin' blinked and shook his head.  "Sorry, I blacked out for a moment there.  Did you just say I flew in the wrong direction?"

Applejack nodded.  "If Ah had ta guess, Ah'd say we'll be lucky ta get back before sundown."

"We?"  Soarin' pointed to his shoulder.  "I don't think I'm going to be walking anywhere anytime soon.  And if I tried to flap my wings, I'd probably start bleeding again."

"Ah know," said Applejack.

"Then, how-"  Soarin's eyes went wide when he realized what Applejack meant by we.  "No.  A.J., you don't have to-"

It was Applejack's turn to silence Soarin' with a hoof too the mouth.  "Ya carried me, Ah can return the favor.  And no complainin', Ah bet Ah've hauled baskets of apples heavier'n you."

Soarin' let out a sigh, there was no way he was going to talk her out of this.  "Looks like we're in it for the long haul."

Applejack snorted trying to hold back laughter, but ended up laughing anyway.  "Ya oughtta tell more jokes, Sugarcube, that one was mighty clever."

"You ought to laugh more, it's really charming."  Soarin' started chuckling, but suddenly stopped and let out a horrified gasp.  "Was that out loud?"

Applejack patted him on top of the head.  "Yes it was, Sugarcube, yes it was.  Ah'll make ya a deal though, keep tellin' jokes, and Ah'll keep laughing.  Sound good?"

To Soarin', that sounded very good.  "A camel, a zebra, and a unicorn were on a journey in the desert when they came across a pegasus.  The camel- mmph-hmm-bmmmh-"  He looked down at the hoof in his mouth, then at the glare on Applejack's face.

"Too soon, Sugarcube, way too soon."  Applejack took her hoof out of his mouth and wiped it on the ground.  "Let's try gettin' out of the desert first."

"Ok."  There was a long moment of silence as the two ponies stared at the ground between them.  "Um, A.J.?  How do we do this?"

"Ah dunno."  Applejack got up and stood sideways in front of him.  "Ah guess ya just climb on.  Ah've never gotten this far with a stallion before."

Soarin' stood up, keeping his weight off his injured leg.  "Well, if I-  Wait.  What?!"

Applejack looked back at him.  "What?"  

Soarin' blinked.  "What?"

Applejack looked around like like she was confused.  "Why ya sayin' what?"

Soarin' shook his head.  "Huh?"

Applejack pointed up at the sun above them.  "Time's wastin', Sugarcube.  Ya wanna get home before nightfall?"

Soarin' took everything that just happened and pushed it as far out of his head as he could.  Tucking his bad leg as tightly to his body as he could, he threw his good hoof around the back of Applejack's neck.  Then he hopped up so he was laying sideways on Applejack's back.  He wrapped one wing around her midsection to stabilize himself.  "Is this ok, A.J.?"

Applejack took a few steps forward.  "That's fine, Sugarcube.  Ya comfy?"

"Um, very much so."  He stretched his other wing out over Applejack's head, shading her from the sun.

She started walking in the direction of Appleoosa.  "Thanks, Sugarcube."  This was going to be a long walk, and the shade would make the trip a bit more bearable.

Soarin' shifted a little, so he he would be in a better position to talk to the pony carrying him.  "Why Sugarcube?"

Applejack glanced back as she walked.  "What was that?"

He spoke a little louder.  "Why do you call me Sugarcube?"  He wasn't complaining, he was just curious.

"Well, ya can blame my brother fer that."  Applejack let out a chuckle at the memory before continuing her story.  "Ya see, we lost our ma and pa long ago.  Ah don't know exactly what happened, and Ah think Mac's the only pony who knows the full story.  Anyway, Granny Smith became our legal guardian, but she couldn't handle all the work.  Mac did everythin' she couldn't, tending the fields, makin' repairs, even takin' care of Applebloom.  He pretty much raised the both of us.  Before she was old enough to know better, Applebloom even called him pa.  He taught me everythin' there was to know about runnin' a farm.

One a' those things was sellin' our goods at market.  Ah was nervous on my first day running the stall, so Mac told me to pick somethin' Ah liked.  Ah picked a Sugarcube and he told me ta call the customers Sugarcube.  And that way, Ah'd be thinking about that rather than being nervous about talkin' to somepony.  Well, Ah started doin' and it just kinda stuck.  Mostly, Ah use it fer mah friends.  Sorry it ain't nothin' special."

Soarin' thought about that for a moment.  "So, we're friends?"

Applejack gave a small shrug.  "Sure."

"Well," said Soarin', "I think that's special enough."