I awoke to a weird, tickling feeling against my nose – like somepony was brushing a feather against it. I lifted a hoof to bat it away. Whatever time it was, it was too early to get up.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” cooed a familiar voice. “It's Hearth's Warming. You have presents to open...”
I groaned. “G'way, Fluttershy... S'not Hearth's Warming for ten more minutes...”
“Oh, it's not? Oh, I'm sorry, my mistake – my clock must be fast. I'll just--”
Somepony else cleared their throat, cutting her off. Didn't matter who it was, but I was grateful to 'em. I smiled and nestled myself further into the comfy couch pillows.
Then the feather-thing tickled my nose again. I opened my mouth to tell Fluttershy to quit it, but my breath caught in my throat...
I sneezed.
Somepony giggled.
As much as I would've liked to forget it and go straight back to sleep, the sneeze had shocked that dreamy haze from my head. Naturally, I was kind of annoyed about that. I craned open an eyelid to get a look at just what was going on. Fluttershy was there, but she wasn't the one holding the feather – it was hovering as if somepony was using magic on it. There were some other ponies behind her too... four or five of them...
Whatever. I started to close my eyes again.
And then I did a double-take.
“Surprise!” came a chorus of four voices, so loud and sudden that it startled me into back-flipping over the couch. I landed on my belly with a thud and groaned again.
“Guys, what the hay?” I managed as I pushed myself up and looked over the couch towards them. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and... Applejack... They were all smiling at me, and by the way that her horn was glowing, it looked like Rarity was the feather bandit.
All of a sudden, Pinkie bounced up onto the couch and pulled me into one of her traditional, random hugs. “Happy Hearth's Warming, Rainbow Dash! Did you sleep well? I know you did, because you were mumbling something about apples, and apples are delicious!”
“Um, yeah,” I muttered, creasing a brow. “So... what's going on?”
“It's a Surprise Hearth's Warming Get-together for all my bestest pony friends!” Pinkie reported happily as she bounced down from the couch. “Twilight's coming by later, if you were wondering – she has to take care of her visitor slash not-so-secret lover first. But it's cool, huh?”
I looked around at everypony again. “...You all planned this for me?”
“Actually, it was more of an impromptu thinger,” said Applejack. “Pinkie came a-calling to each of us this morning, saying we should all spend the day together.”
“Which is a wonderful idea, if you ask me,” Rarity chimed in.
“And then we all came here and thought we'd surprise you since you were the last pony!” Pinkie finished. “Well, except for Fluttershy – we woke her up first since we figured you'd be less likely to pass out when we all yelled 'Surprise!'”
“Huh,” I grunted. It seemed legit.
“Well, sugarcube?” said Applejack, taking a step forwards and smiling in that warm, sexy way that she did. “You want to spend Hearth's Warming with us?”
It wasn't exactly a coin toss moment. For me, Hearth's Warming usually meant spending the day hanging out with Fluttershy. Which was cool, of course, but it wasn't exactly something to get crazy excited about. This, on the other hoof...
I hopped up onto the back of the couch and leapt forwards – throwing out my fetlocks to catch as many of them as I could in a tackle-hug...
* * *
Celestia-knows how many hours later, I found myself collapsed in front of the gently burning hearthfire, with my friends all sprawled out behind me, on and around the couch upon which I'd woken up that morning. Twilight had shown up mid-way through the afternoon's third game of pin the tail on the pony, and after that there were no holds barred on the party front.
The room was littered with stray bits of torn wrapping paper, cupcake holders and other party stuff... I wasn't surprised that everypony had fallen asleep – it'd been one heck of a get-together.
I let out a yawn. It was pretty ironic for me to be the last one awake, I guess. Not that I minded – after a day like that, a nice, relaxing lie down in front of the fire felt about three times more awesome. Part of me didn't want to fall asleep – I just wanted to stay that comfy forever...
“Pretty, ain't it?” came Applejack's voice. I blinked in surprise and turned my head to the side as she laid down beside me, facing the fire. The crackling light gave her emerald eyes a fitting kind of sparkle.
“Thought you were asleep,” I muttered.
She grunted and smiled. “Nah. I reckon the others are all flat out though – they could do with a little more regular exercise if you ask me,” she added in a whisper.
I chuckled. “Yeah, you can say that again.”
“Besides,” Applejack went on. “There's still a few minutes left of Hearth's Warming to enjoy – can't fall asleep yet.”
I've got to admit, I was tempted to suggest enjoying them together. Just a little tempted. But I didn't. I was too tired and I didn't feel like spoiling the awesomely relaxed atmosphere by trying to break through that thick skull of hers. Not to mention that it was an easy target, and those were never much fun anyway.
So I shook the thought from my head and gave her a joking smile. “What, is that some kind of Apple family tradition?”
She scoffed and turned to look at me. “No. But them last few minutes are time enough for me to give you your present.”
My smile fell at that. Did she say present?
Casual as ever, she flicked off her hat and put it down in front of the fire, showing off her rough, golden mane. She reached inside with her snout and pulled out a thick, red envelope, laying it between us. I gulped.
“H-hey! I thought we agreed not to get each other anything!” I hissed, throwing her a glare.
“Yup,” she said coolly. “But this ain't for Hearth's Warming. Actually, it's a couple of months early, but--” She broke off and looked away. “--Well, after yesterday... I reckon you should have it now.”
A couple of months early? So, what was this, like, a birthday present? Or, more likely, she was trying to one-up me by getting me a Hearth's Warming present and saying that I didn't have to get her anything in return.
I lowered my snout towards the envelope, to push it back and tell her to save it for later, but somehow I couldn't. Maybe I was curious. Maybe I didn't want to hurt her feelings... I don't know.
“Alright, fine,” I grumbled finally. “But I'm getting you something too, first thing tomorrow!”
She didn't look at me, but I saw a smile creeping onto her face as she stared into the fire.
Turning back to the envelope, I tried to guess what was inside. Too small for a book, wrong shape for an apple... well, that sure narrowed it down... and the words 'Rainbow Dash' on the front didn't help much either. Maybe it was just a card? That wouldn't be so bad – cards were easy.
As I nosed open the flap and reached inside, it turned out that I was right. I pulled out the unusually-thick card and laid it in front of me. There were no words or patterns on the front or anything, it was just a plain card made of... card-stuff. I gave AJ a questioning look. She was watching me out of the corner of her eye.
With a mental shrug, I flipped open the card. That's when I saw the actual present...
“...A necklace?” I mumbled, shifting the chain aside so that I could see the pendant. “Why'd you get me a n--”
My mind flashed blank as I looked down at the jewel in front of me. Two cutie marks, mine and hers, underlaid by a cute little pink heart, all lit up awesomely by the flickering firelight. I couldn't even bring myself to try and process what it meant... I actually had to poke at it with my nose, just to make sure that it was real.
And then she kissed me.
I felt a warm, tickling sensation on my cheek as she pressed her lips up against it. My breath caught in my throat. My mouth went dry. My eyes bugged out. She held there for what felt like forever, before finally pulling back and leaving behind a cool wetness.
I stared blankly at the pendant. “No way...” I shook my head and turned to look at Applejack, who was watching me with an unreadable expression on her face. “Just... no way! Y-you're messing with me, right? This isn't what I think it is, right?”
A frown danced across Applejack's face as she stared at the manic look I was giving her. “I... I'm sorry, RD. I don't mean to be so forward--”
“FOR--” I broke off and glanced over my shoulder at our sleeping friends. Not wanting to wake them, I lowered my voice as I turned back to AJ. “Forward?! Are you kidding me?” I whispered.
She looked away, and her cheeks started to turn red. “I know it's kind of sappy, but I figured... after yesterday... why not?”
I... well, what was I supposed to say to that? I don't think there was anything to say. Was I supposed to smile? Was I supposed to jump over and hug her? Weirdly, with all my fantasies of her finally confessing her majorly-requited love for me, I had no idea what to do here.
So I laughed. I just... laughed. What else could I do?
“RD! This is serious!” Applejack hissed. Her cheeks were practically glowing now. “I'm bearing my soul out here!”
I choked with laughter, trying to get some words out. “You... you... after all my... trying to... and you... you like me? Ahaha--” I was half a step away from rolling onto my back and breaking into an uncontrollable giggle-fit. The glare on Applejack's face was the only thing keeping me from it.
“N-no,” I coughed, shaking my head and rising to my hooves with an ear-splitting grin on my face. “You... you know what? I don't even care...”
I unfurled a wing and brushed it against AJ's cheek, keeping her from looking away again. My feathers cast a shadow across her face, blocking the light from the fire. Her eyes still shined, even without the dancing flames to light them up.
“You're serious?” I asked, still smiling, but keeping my voice as level as I could.
She blinked slowly, then nodded.
“Good.”
Staring deep into her honest eyes, I knew what came next. For once, this was going to happen for real. I started to lean in, still holding my wing softly against her cheek. I didn't want to think about whether this was a dream – but I moved slowly just in case, so that I wouldn't jostle myself out of it.
We were close – inches away. She started to lean forwards too. Her lips parted and a wave of that familiar, sexy apple-scented breath blew past my nose. I closed my eyes. Nothing could ruin this moment...
“Mmph... are you two still awake?” grumbled Twilight.
'Oh, come on!' screamed a voice inside my head. Obviously startled, Applejack snapped away, blushing fiercely as she looked over her shoulder towards the couch, where Twilight was blinking the sleep from her eyes.
I glanced at AJ. Then at Twilight. Then back at AJ...
'Screw it.'
I put my wing under Applejack's chin and forced her to look up at me, then leant in and pressed my lips up against hers without another thought. I let out a relieved sigh through my nose and closed my eyes to revel in the awesomeness of the kiss. The rush of warmth that welled up in my cheeks and my chest, the gentle softness of the touch, the surprising lack of apple-flavour... it was everything I'd imagined and a hundred times more on top of that--
“Ho-ly letters to the princess!” yelled Twilight.
Applejack, cheeks still flushing, broke the kiss with a smack and glared over at the unicorn. “Twilight, don't you dare--”
I leapt forwards and tackled AJ, rolling over a bunch of times until I had her pinned to the ground a short way away from the fire. My eyes were foggy – they felt wet, swimming with joyful, triumphant tears. The shocked-looking farmpony beneath me could've been taken straight from a dream sequence. But she wasn't.
My other friends were waking now and turning to watch. I didn't give two bits.
I bent my hooves and bowed into another kiss.
Even with the shocked gasps and squeals of our friends, I could feel AJ pushing back against me. But she wasn't trying to push me away, she was...
...She was kissing me back.