//------------------------------// // The Arrival // Story: The Seeds of Romance // by sister_mike //------------------------------// The Arrival Applejack was running around the house frantically. Everything had to be clean. Everything had to be perfect. She nearly ran over Apple Bloom as she headed into the kitchen to ensure that everything was pristine again. "Applejack! Watch where you're goin'!" Apple Bloom said, as she straightened her bow. "What's the big rush anyway?" "We have company coming over Apple Bloom! The house has to be perfect!" Applejack said. She straightened a dish towel. "But it's just Tomato Seed. It's not like he's Princess Celestia or anythin'. I'm sure he won't mind a little mess," Apple Bloom said. "Apple Bloom! A guest is a guest. The house needs to be clean. Now go make sure the upstairs bathroom is tidy," Applejack said, pushing her sister towards the stairs. "I've check three times already, nopony's been in there all morning," Apple Bloom groaned. "Go check anyways," Applejack said. She watched as Apple Bloom mumbled to herself and went up the stairs. Applejack took a deep breath and tried to relax. The minute Apple Bloom had mentioned his name, her heart had begun to race. Tomato Seed was coming to visit the farm. To Ponyville. For a full two weeks. He was going to be here, in her house, and she was going to be the only pony he knew in town (aside from her family). They would have to do everything together. It was going to be perfect. Applejack smiled to herself and ran up to her room. She looked herself over in the mirror. She had brushed her mane 100 times—something which she knew Rarity did every day—and had pulled it into a neat braid. Her tail (also brushed 100 times) she kept in her usual neat ponytail. She picked a loose thread off her hat and inspected her teeth, checking that nothing had randomly wedged itself between them while she had been cleaning the house. She glanced over at the clock. She still had a few minutes before she had to leave to pick up Tomato Seed at the train station. She sighed to herself, somewhat dreamily, and opened a small box on her dresser. It was one of the fancier things she had in her room, this box, neatly decorated in gems in the shapes of apples. Rarity had made it for her for her last birthday, and as soon as she opened it, Applejack knew what she was going to use it for. She carefully pulled out the stack of letters that lay inside. Before, the letters had been in an old shoebox. Now, since they were the most precious things she owned, she put them in her fancy box. The letters were letters that Tomato Seed—Tom as she called him—wrote to her. They had been pen pals for the past couple of years since they had met. They had written to each other at least each month since they had met when they were still foals. They had met at an orchard farming camp for foals. It was open to all kinds of different farming, and Applejack had decided to go. This was just about right after she had gotten her cutie mark and had come back from Manehatten. With the renewed spirit of farming swelling within her, she had begged Granny Smith to let her go. Big Mac had decided to stay home and help Granny Smith—especially since little filly Apple Bloom had just been born—so Applejack had taken the train for the first time all by herself. Once at the camp, all of the fillies and colts were divided into cabin groups by gender. Applejack shared a cabin with five other fillies. Some of them were a bit younger and some a bit older. Two of them were blank flanks, and the rest of them, Applejack included, had their cutie marks. All of them had, of course, come from farming families. For the first couple of days, Applejack had spent most of her time with the fillies from her cabin. She learned about the different things they harvest and about where they came from. One filly came from a pineapple farm, which Applejack had found particularly fascinating. It wasn't until near the end of the fifth day that Applejack met Tomato Seed. The camp was having a big festival and all of the foals who had come to camp were expected to make something with the crops that they grew at home. Applejack made her Granny Smith's delicious apple fritters. Applejack stood at her booth, a big smile plastered on her face. She didn't know at the time that she still had flour in her mane. The fillies and colts were separated into two groups, so that each would have a turn walking around and sampling the others' food. Applejack chatted with the foals who came and tried her dessert. As part of the "fair fun", as their camp leader had called it, the foals had also been required to write out the recipe they were sharing on little cards, so that those who were interested could take the recipe and try it at home. Applejack had printed as neatly as she could, and felt a small stab of pride whenever one of the fillies or colts grabbed her grandmother's recipe. "Mmmmm, mmm, these are deeelicious!" said a yellow coated colt. Applejack smiled at him. His coat was a dark, golden yellow, and he had a sunset red mane. He was an earth pony and his cutie mark was a handful of seeds that Applejack didn't quite recognize. "Glad you like 'em! I can't wait to see what you've made," she said. "I actually just sold out," he said, "I was in this round too." He reached for another apple fritter. "You sold out? Everypony must have loved what you had," Applejack said, "Too bad I won't get to try it." "Here." He slapped down a recipe card on the table. Applejack picked it up and stared at the barely legible writing. "It's for pan-roasted cherry tomatoes," he explained, "We grow tomatoes where I'm from." "Where are y'ah from?" Applejack asked. "A town called Neighgley," he said, "What about you?" "I'm from Ponyville," Applejack said. "What's your name?" "Tomato Seed, but most people just call me Tom," he said. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Tom," Applejack said, "I'm Applejack." And from then on, the two were friends. For the remaining two weeks of camp, they did everything together. They met up in the breakfast hall, signed up so they were always in the same activity groups, and when the time had come to go home, they swapped addresses and planned to be pen pals. In the beginning, Applejack had thought nothing of it. Tom was essentially her first real best friend, aside from her brother. They wrote to each other at least once a month, and a two years later, Tom had invited Applejack over to visit his farm. At first, Granny Smith had been slightly reluctant to let her go. They were on the brink of teenage-hood, and Granny Smith had prattled on about something to do with raging hormones. Once Applejack had figured out what she was hinting about, she had been deeply embarrassed and explained that she and Tom were explicitly friends only. She practically thought of Tom like a second (slightly older) brother. Neighgley was about a three and a half hour train ride from Ponyville. Tom's family was extremely nice, and his tomato farm was much smaller than Applejack's apple farm, but it was clearly very popular. Everyday different ponies from town would come directly to the farm to buy tomatoes. "You guys don't have a stand in town?" Applejack had asked. "We have a shop actually," Tom said, "It sells both fresh tomatoes and tomato products that we make, such as ketchup, soup, paste... I'm still being trained to help out on the farm, but in a few months, my father says I can help my older brothers in the shop!" Applejack had been deeply impressed. A shop? They had a shop, and yet ponies still came directly to the farm as well to get their tomatoes? "The lines in the shop are too long sometimes," Tom laughed, when Applejack had asked. Impressive indeed. Tom had a big family. Both of his parents were still alive, plus two grandmothers and one grandfather. He had three older brothers, one younger brother, and a younger sister as well. And even though the farm was small, they had two extra hires to lend an extra hoof. The week long visit had come and by so fast. Applejack had learned a lot about tomatoes, and had finally managed to try some of that pan-roasted cherry tomato recipe that he had brought to the camp two years ago (she had never managed to read what his instructions were on the card). On the train ride home, Applejack had begun to miss Tom already. Which is weird, because I just saw him less than an hour ago, she had thought to herself. But she shrugged it off and figured it was because they had become such close friends. She wrote to him as soon as she arrived back in Ponyville. They kept up their pen pals, neither of them missing a reply. And after another three years went by, Tom wrote that he would be passing through Ponyville in a couple of days, on his way to a big Tomato Convention in a town south of it. Applejack had never been so excited in all her life (except for the present of course). She made a long list of things that they could do together, even if it was just for a few days. Tom and two of his older brothers stayed at Sweet Apple Acres on their way down to the convention. His older brothers became fast friends with Big Mac, despite the big red stallion's strong shy side, and Granny Smith put them all straight to work on bucking apples. Applejack showed Tom everything she knew about apples. She even told him about the zap-apples, even though they wouldn't be in bloom for another five months. Apple Bloom, who was just about to start school, would tag along with them. This slightly annoyed Applejack at times, because she wanted to spend as much time with Tom as she could. And it wasn't until she watched him and his brothers continue on their journey to the convention that she realized why she had felt that way. It was because she had feelings for Tom. Romantic feelings. As a matter of fact, the more she thought about it, the more she figured out that these feelings had been there all along. She was started to fall for Tom. And she was falling hard. The next couple of letters she had received from him she had scrutinized every single detail, trying to figure out if he reciprocated her feelings. But after she couldn't find any hints of anything, she tried to calm herself and appear as nonchalant in her replies as she could. Her next fear was that Tom would figure out her feelings for him in her writing, and that he would reject her. But no such accusations had ever come. And part of Applejack had sort of hoped that her feelings for Tom would fizzle away, but they just continued to grow stronger and stronger with each letter she wrote and received. She began to debate about just telling him the truth, but she was so afraid. When she made friends with the other Elements of Harmony (the first set of real girl friends she had ever had), she debated about telling them about Tom too. Surely they would have some useful advice on how she could broach the subject. But a big part of her wanted to keep Tom to herself. And now he was coming into town. He was going to be staying at her house for a full two weeks. She was finally going to be able to introduce him to her friends (she had written a lot about them), and then after they met Tom, maybe then she would ask her friends how she could bring up the subject of her feelings. Applejack sighed softly to herself and carefully tucked the letters away. She put the box back neatly on her dresser and double-checked her appearance one last time. It was a lot of work, worrying and caring about one's appearance. She wondered how Rarity could do it on a daily basis. "Alright, I'm goin' to pick up Tom from the train station!" Applejack yelled, as she walked down the stairs. "Can I come?" Apple Bloom asked. Apple Bloom looked at Applejack's braid, which Applejack considered as a "fancy hairdo", and gave her a quizzical look. Applejack ignored it. "Sure, why not," Applejack said. If Apple Bloom was there, maybe Applejack would feel a little more at ease. She was pretty sure her heart was going to burst from her chest at any moment. The two made their way to the train station and waited on the platform with other waiting ponies. Applejack kept glancing nervously at the clock, but thankfully Apple Bloom didn't notice. Applejack's heart began to beat faster than she thought was physically possible as she saw the train pulling into the station. She took a big gulp and began to shake, as she scanned the crowd of arriving mares and stallions. "See him yet?" Apple Bloom asked. Applejack nearly jumped at her voice. "N-no, not yet," she managed to respond. But just as the words escaped her mouth, her heart stopped, for there he was. As if the god ponies were playing a trick on her, forcing her to melt even more, Tom was helping an old mare off of the train and was carrying her bags. He walked with her until she found her family and then tipped his hat at her and bid her a good day. He then scanned the crowd slightly and smiled when he spotted Applejack, and cheerfully made his way towards them. "Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod," Applejack muttered under her breath. "What are you sayin'? Oh, look, there he is!" Apple Bloom said. Applejack inhaled sharply and held her breath as Tom made their way to him. "Hey there, Apples!" he said cheerfully. Apple Bloom ran up and gave him a big hug. Tom hugged her back and cracked some joke that Applejack hadn't heard. He then turned towards Applejack and smiled at her. She managed to smile back. He began talking to her, and Applejack just nodded her head. She couldn't even really hear what he was saying. This was the first time they would be together when Applejack knew what her feelings meant, the first time together since she realized she was in love with him.