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// 16 
// Story: The Truth 
// by Jet Cannon 
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	Pink Pearl and Redstreak were delighted by the rapid shift in Big Macintosh’s demeanour. Pearl in particular waxed lyrical to her small contingent of friends about how she had her “darlin’ baby colt” back once more, often accompanied by a sizeable outpouring of emotion (much to a future Rarity’s approval). It could not be said that Mac was especially grateful for such mollycoddling, but there were less pleasant things to be smothered with than his mother’s hugs and kisses. Working on a farm, he had experienced being smothered in several of them.

Redstreak did not go without heaping attention upon the colt either, and the two spent many hours engaged in “stallionly stuff”, like hoofball and hoof-wrestling, that Mac had previously been uninterested in. Even Granny Smith seemed to pick up on all the youthful energy floating around, and almost seemed to bounce everywhere with a vigour belying her age (much to a future Pinkie Pie’s approval, and everypony else’s confusion).

As for Applejack, she was bowled over by Macintosh’s changes. Every minute that he could spend around her, from helping with her chores to simply enjoying her company, he did so. He took things carefully: doing enough to be noticed, but never going over the top and becoming clingy or weird. Now that he finally had a chance with Applejack, he wasn’t going to ruin it by rushing anything.

With his sweet and romantic side now revealed, Applejack quickly found herself falling for the handsome red colt. Her mind told her not to rush things: that she couldn’t let the novelty of having a relationship get to her head, that she had lived most of her life with him being her brother and that she really, really needed to think this through more thoroughly, but… She surprised herself with how easy it was to think of Big Macintosh as a coltfriend. He was just so… nice.

Of course, now that he had come out of his shell, certain unexpected problems presented themselves. Unexpected, filly-shaped problems. Of all the crazy places Applejack’s brain had taken her through the years, she had never thought of considering her friend Rarity as competition, of all things. And yet Rarity, along with a lot of Ponyville’s other resident teenage fillies, inexplicably became regular visitors to Sweet Apple Acres. Neither Applejack nor Macintosh was best pleased by this new development, although for different reasons: he for having to fend off the unwanted attention from several (admittedly rather attractive) young mares; and she for having to watch this without bucking each one in the face with both hind legs.

Redstreak was rather amused by all the kerfuffle, and of course Pearl gushed about Macintosh growing into a fine young stallion who had the fillies falling at his hooves. Neither showed any support whatsoever for Macintosh and Applejack being together, however, although in reality this was hardly surprising: neither actually knew.

The young couple had decided at the offset to keep their relationship a secret for a number of reasons. For one thing, whilst age differences of three years were not strange in older couples, when one party was only fifteen (and therefore still legally a child) things could get complicated quickly. For another, everypony outside their family believed them blood-relatives, and their family members considered them as such. Whilst they were fairly certain that their parents would not object to such a pairing (eventually, after a good deal of surprise and, in all probability, stunned silence), trying to inform an entire town so as to avoid misunderstanding would be quite a headache, and one they were unwilling to deal with yet. After all, it only took a single pony mishearing half of a story to set gossipers’ lips wagging, and there were enough nasty, untrue stories about the Apples being inbred as it was thank you very much indeed.

So it was that Macintosh’s nineteenth birthday duly rolled around, and then the month of Applejack’s sixteenth, and neither Redstreak nor Pink Pearl were any the wiser. Every now and again Granny Smith would say some small thing which made Applejack fear the jig was up; after all, the old mare could be surprisingly canny when the mood took her. But then she would simply go back to her usual dithering, and Applejack was left relieved if slightly shaken.

A calming activity was required to still her nerves, and she had questionably decided that practicing with a lasso would do the trick, with Macintosh for her teacher. It was a surprisingly useful skill to have on a farm like theirs, but difficult to master, and so the eager filly had taken to the challenge like moths to a flame. Enthusiasm could only get one so far, however.

“Shoot, missed again!” The loop of rope had flopped down harmlessly in front of the apple which Applejack was supposed to be practicing on, landing at least a foot short.

“Y’all gotta focus more on spinnin’ the loop up to speed first,” Mac explained, demonstrating the action on a nearby fencepost.

“If ya don’t have the speed in it, it ain’t gonna get there. But ya can’t spin it too fast, otherwise it’s harder to control an’ it probably might overshoot.” The grim determination set upon Applejack’s face as she made to spin the lasso again was all the indication Mac needed to see that his fillyfriend was taking this far more seriously than was likely wise. He put a calming hoof on her shoulder, smiling slightly at her cute frown.

“AJ, yer supposed to be doin’ this to relax yerself, remember?” He shot a look around to make sure they were definitely alone, before leaning in with a smirk.

“Ah think this’ll work better.” The unexpected kiss which followed did wonders for the filly’s stress levels, and she gladly leaned in to deepen it. They pulled apart a few seconds later, panting slightly but both feeling far better for the intimacy.

“Thanks, sugar cube, Ah reckon Ah needed that.” AJ finally smiled again, bringing a hoof up to his cheek as he did the same with her. They stood for a few seconds and simply smiled at each other, before leaning in again and nuzzling gently, giggling as they did so.

“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do,” Mac said as he pulled back again. “Ah’m gonna go get something bigger ta practice on than that apple. Meantime, you just practice spinnin’ that rope properly, a’ight?” Applejack nodded her consent, and she set to spinning the lasso once more as Mac trotted off to find a barrel or a box.

When he returned, a sizeable wooden barrel balanced on his back, he stopped just short of Applejack and stared at the sight before him, a small smile tugging at his lips. Through Celestia-knows-what sort of an accident, she had managed to tangle herself up with her practice rope, and sat before him now with an embarrassed smile, a tinge of red making itself known on her cheeks.

“…Ah don’t even know what to say.”

“Heh, uh… little help please?” she asked, feebly waving her hooves a little to show how little she could move. Mac sighed dramatically, earning a laugh from Applejack, which unintentionally gave her coltfriend a very evil idea.

“Say, Applejack?” he said conversationally, ever-so-casually sidling up to her before slipping behind her.

“Y’all ain’t… ticklish, are ya?”

“Huh? Whut ya – No.”

“Eeyup!”

“Don’t you d-aaaaaaah!” But she was as helpless to fend off his hooves as he was merciless in applying them, and Applejack was soon reduced to peals of laughter whilst Macintosh exploited every weak spot the ropes gave him access to. The final straw came as he placed his lips on her side and blew a huge raspberry. Applejack spasmed with a huge guffaw and toppled the pair of them over, so that they were lying sideways on the ground.

“Ah’m gonna… get you back… so much later…” the filly promised between gasps of air, sighing in relief as Mac finally pulled away the ropes, but Mac only chuckled and nuzzled the back of her neck.

“In fact…” Now that she was no longer under tickle attack and distracted, AJ’s mind had already picked out a rather delicious revenge scheme.

“Why wait?” she announced, and before he could do anything, Mac had been rolled onto his back and pinned, Applejack standing over him with her legs on his either side. Of course, he was far larger than her, and her legs were only just long enough to stop their barrels from touching, so…

“Um, AJ? Yer, uh, yer awful close…” His face had again gone even more crimson, and an almost comical bead of sweat ran from his forehead.

“Why, Big Macintosh,” she began, in as sultry a voice as she could muster, “y’all wouldn’t happen to be uncomfortable, would ya?” She remembered a little trick that Rarity had shown her, and she batted her naturally wonderful eyelashes at him whilst smiling seductively. It worked stupendously, and Macintosh gulped from beneath her as he nodded.

“Anythin’ Ah can do to help?” He squeaked adorably when he felt her tail trailing his inner thigh, and he vehemently shook his head.

“Nope! Nope, nope nope nope! C’mon, AJ, cut it out!” But she had already started climbing off of him, laughing almost as hard as when she was being tickled.

“Oh Mac, yer face! Ah’m tellin’ ya, yer face!” He stood and huffed, but he soon saw the funny side himself and joined her in a chuckle or two, albeit whilst still feeling rather flustered. A change of subject (and probably a cool shower) were both required in the immediate future, so he chose the former as a means of passing time until the latter.

“So AJ: big day in a few weeks.” They both gathered in the ropes they had been using, and Macintosh headed for the farmhouse.

“Uh huh.” She fell in beside him as they walked back, brushing her side affectionately against his.

“Got any idea whatcha might want yet?” Subtlety, thy name is Big Macintosh.

“Well, not much really.” She shrugged. “Ah ain’t fussy. Whatever ponies choose to get is fine with me, if anything.”

“Aw come on, yer gonna be sixteen fer Celestia’s sake! Even you’ve gotta have some ideas?” ‘Cos if ya don’t, Ah’ve got no idea what to getcha that ain’t generic and boring…

He sighed internally, not noticing the filly beside him take a look over her shoulder, her gaze lingering on his flanks for rather longer than may have been considered appropriate before returning to the path in front of her. She smirked a little.

“Well, maybe a few…”

“Yeah?” he asked hopefully as they reached the house, and he held the door open for her. Words were not forthcoming. Instead, as Applejack walked past him slowly, her long and surprisingly dextrous tail ran along his flank, over his shoulder, and onto his throat, before flicking up and brushing beneath his chin, leaving him speechless once more as her swaying hips rounded a corner, and she disappeared.

“A-Applejack?” he squeaked again. “Ah told y’all to quit messin’ around! Y’all are messin’, right? AJ? AJ!”