//------------------------------// // A Slip of the Tongue // Story: AppleShy: The Series // by solsticebrony888 //------------------------------// The orange pony stood there, stunned. Seeing the Pegasus cry took all the anger out of her and replaced it with remorse instantly. Then she panicked. This was nothing she could have ever expected herself to do, she never ever wanted to hurt Fluttershy or make her cry, and she had done both. What have ah done?! Applejack jumped around for a second, unable to think of what to do. The past few minutes hit her like a ton of bricks. She recalled her own words with disgust as if it wasn’t even herself saying them. “Ah juss told the one pony in Equestria that ah love more than anypony else, that we shouldn’t be together, ah’ve never been disappointed in anypony more than I am of mahself right ‘bout now! Ah’m the worst pony ah know…” Five months and they had never been in a single argument until then. Five months and they had been one of the happier couples in town. They were always happy with each other. Now, however, Applejack believed that she could have just ruined everything with her own lack of control. Her own element of honesty had worked against her. “She saved ma life…and this is how ah repay her?” Applejack exclaimed with a flailing of her hooves in frustration. She felt utterly disgusted with herself as she gazed at the scar on her right hind leg, “Why did ah do this…? Why did ah decide to even speak…ah could’ve juss hit the hay and…ah don’t even know.” This mistake was so recent for Applejack that it almost seemed tangible, like she could jump back in time and erase it before this could happen. Instinctively, Applejack ran outside just to see the Pegasus too far in the distance to be able to hear her calls. The orange mare didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know where to go, or where Fluttershy was going. All she knew is that she needed to fix this. She scolded herself in her thoughts as if it would turn back time so she could change what she said and to just enjoy her time with the Pegasus as usual. Applejack assumed the worst. She almost considered packing her things, because it was such a low thing for her to do, to cause her love to cry. It was something she had promised herself to never do. Applejack felt unworthy of even being with the Pegasus. However, she couldn’t just give up over one argument, one mistake on her part. Ah need to find her and apologize and ah need to show her that ah really am sorry for bein’ such a foal about everythin’ today. She closed to door behind her and starting galloping towards town. If Fluttershy went anywhere, it would to a friend’s home. <><><><><><><><> Fluttershy flew without knowing where she was going to go. Rarity, her best friend, was still in Canterlot and she really didn’t know if she could confide in anypony else about Applejack’s sudden brashness. However, it wasn’t just Applejack’s sudden release of anger towards the yellow Pegasus that had her sad, it was the fact that she held the same thoughts as Applejack. She agreed in some respect that maybe their relationship could be pointless because they couldn’t create a foal without the assistance of magic, and this thought always caused her to feel down. However, up until this day, she was able to take solace in the fact that Applejack was the confident and undeterred one. The orange pony was the strong one who didn’t care about what other ponies thought about them, because they loved each other, for each other. The Pegasus knew that she had to confide in somepony and, as she flew over the center of Ponyville, she saw Pinkie Pie bouncing merrily below. Pinkie Pie noticed her immediately. She didn’t want to confide in Pinkie Pie; Fluttershy never thought of the pink pony as somepony who could help much when it came to relationship advice. “OMIGOSH! Fluttershy! Hi!” The pink pony said from below with a beaming smile. “Oh, Hi, Pinkie Pie…” the Pegasus said, lowering to meet her friend, no matter how much she wanted to find somepony else to confide in. “What’s going on? I just got back from telling the Cutie Mark Crusaders my cutie mark story, since the last time I told them a story, it was about how Equestria was made. Sooooooo….how are ya?” “Oh, um…I’m fine, I’m kind of busy…do you know where Twilight Sparkle is? I kind of want to see her.” Pinkie Pie studied Fluttershy for a minute as if there was something missing. “Why do you look like you’ve been crying, Fluttershy? Where’s Applejack? *Gasp* What happened?!” Pinkie’s Pinkie sense quickly caught Fluttershy, “Well, u-um, I don’t…” The pink pony frowned. “It’s okay Fluttershy! If it’s a secret, I can’t force you to tell. That would be the meaniest of mean things for me to do,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, to the relief of the Pegasus, who was still flying beside her, “OH YEAH! Twilight’s at her home right now I thinky.” “Well, um, thank you Pinkie, I’ll see you around,” the yellow Pegasus said, quickly flying off towards the librarian’s home. On the way to her friend’s home, Fluttershy got conflicted. Maybe I should go back? I shouldn’t have left… She contemplated this, knowing that she left Applejack in quite the situation. The Pegasus actually felt bad for leaving, because of how the orange mare must feel. However, she wanted to speak to one of her friends before she made her way back, she just needed the comfort of an outside party, somepony like Twilight Sparkle who was always the voice of reason when somepony may need help. Rounding a corner, Fluttershy noticed the purple unicorn reading a book on her balcony. Twilight seemed quite enthralled by her book, so the Pegasus kind of hoped that her friend would notice her first so she wouldn’t have to awkwardly get her attention so they could talk. Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle lifted her nose from her book to notice the shy pony flying towards her. “Oh, hello Fluttershy! What brings you here? Where’s Applejack? Is she still mad about that rude Canterlot stallion from earlier?” she questioned, while floating a bookmark to hold her page in the book as prepared for a conversation with her friend. “Well, I um…we…we kind of got in an argument, she was really mad and I guess I maybe shouldn’t have pestered her about it.” “Oh, Fluttershy I’m sorry to hear about that, what exactly happened?” Fluttershy slowly flew down until she was sitting while facing the unicorn. “Well, u-um, she was still mad when we were walking home, so when we got home, I asked her about it and she starting asking questions about us being together…like if it was wrong for us to be together. It made me sad, but she kept going and going until she said that our relationship may not be natural, an I-I…” The Pegasus help back tears as she spoke to her friend. “I flew away because she was making me feel really bad... But I don’t know, I think I should’ve stayed because we may have been able to work things out…” “I’m sorry she said such things Fluttershy, but everypony knows Applejack is the most honest pony around, did she say that she didn’t want to be together anymore?” Twilight ventured further, though absolutely hoping that the orange pony didn’t say such a thing. Twilight adored their relationship. “N-no, she was just…well, um, everything she said, I have thought before, u-um, when we’re out in public and somepony says something about how close we’re walking together, I always assumed it didn’t really bother her, so it never really bothered me, because I have her. B-but she said that she was worried that our relationship was pointless because we’re mares and that we might just be wasting our time…” “I honestly thought the same thing, however, I can understand how Applejack is feeling about this. I could imagine myself in the same situation and I couldn’t go a week of being stared at and judged so much. Maybe things like this have just gotten to her and she needed to vent a little. I can assure you, based on a book I have recently read, that your relationship isn’t unnatural.” “What do you mean? W-we are both mares…” “The book simply states that if something exists, it’s natural in Equestria. Something cannot exist and still be unnatural, because it exists in the first place. It’s not like you and Applejack are the only two mares in Equestria. Granted, the only other mare couple in Ponyville is Lyra and BonBon from what I’ve seen, but that doesn’t change anything. I can promise you, that you two being in love is normal because it exists in the first place,” Twilight ended her response with a smile, knowing that the cogs were turning in Fluttershy’s mind. The Pegasus even relinquished a smile in response to the purple unicorn’s explanation. “Wow Twilight., I never would’ve thought about it like that,” the Pegasus said. “But Applejack is so stubborn, I-I don’t know, maybe I should go back and talk to her.” “Maybe so, how many times has she said mean things like this before? Not to intrude on your personal life or anything,” the purple unicorn questioned. “She’s never done this before…this was our first disagreement.” “Wow, really? That’s amazing, Fluttershy. How long have you two been dating? Like 4 months?” “Actually, we’ve been dating for 5 months,” The Pegasus said, visibly proud. Then a thought occurred to her, one which she didn’t like at all, “Twilight...what if Applejack said these things because she wants us to break up…?” “Well, Fluttershy, I wouldn’t believe so, considering that she almost always seems happy around you…maybe you should go talk to her just to be sure? Remember what I said, okay?” “But...Maybe I’m taking this too lightly...” “What do you mean?” “Well, she was so mean to me...just because it was our first argument doesn’t mean I should just forgive her, I-I mean, we’ve gone through so much together, why would she care about something like ponies judging us?” Fluttershy’s mood switched from sadness to increasingly angry (Well, about as angry as Fluttershy could get). “Well, you did save her life,” Twilight added, considering what Fluttershy had jusrt said. Fluttershy continued, “It’s not like she was the only one to go through what we’ve gone through...I um, I mean I bet everypony would have thought I would be the one to be affected by everypony that judges us, first.” The Pegasus was now in mid air as if it added to her sudden change of heart. “Maybe I-I should stay the night somewhere...I think that would do us both good.” “I would offer for you to stay the night here, but I’m going to Pinkie’s later. She’s going to to teach me how to bake muffins and cupcakes, and all varieties of small unhealthy treats. It’s something I’d rather learn by doing instead of reading about them. You could join if you want too, Fluttershy.” The Pegasus, still flying, considered her friends offer, but she developed a better plan in her mind. If anypony was going to understand what she’s going through and would let her stay for a night, it would be Rainbow Dash, who’s been through many relationships and could help Fluttershy on what to do. “I’d love too, but I think I could go somewhere else...I just need some time to calm down." "Where are you going to go?" "To Rainbow Dash's house. I think she'll let me stay over." "Is it because she's dating that DJ pony?" Twilight asked suddenly, surprising Fluttershy. The Pegasus had assumed that she and Applejack were the only ones that knew about Rainbow Dash's relationship with the DJ mare. "Um..." the Pegasus had no actual response for the unicorn’s question. “Rainbow doesn’t do a good job hiding it when she’s around her,” Twilight said. “I didn’t even know she was trying to hide it.” Rainbow Dash had a tendency to hide her relationships from the public eye. “...Well, Um, by Twilight, thank you so much for your help,” Fluttershy said with a tiny thankful smile. She didn’t want actually admit that Twilight was correct about the blue Pegasus’ relationship with Vinyl Scratch. “I hope everything works out between you and Applejack.” “Me too,” the shy Pegasus said with a sigh. She then lifted off, and started flying toward her friend’s cloud home in the sky. It wasn’t a far distance for her to go, especially as a Pegasus. It didn’t take much time to arrive at her friends home, but along the way, she had some more confusing thoughts that bothered her. What if she was overreacting? What she should just go back before it becomes more than just an argument? What about the plethora of animals she took care of, left in her house? However, she had answers. She felt she wasn’t overreacting, she needed some time to just calm down, and Applejack was more than capable of taking care of the animals by herself after living there for five months. When arriving at her friends cloud home, the day was quickly coming to an end, and Luna would raise the moon and bring about night within an hour or so. Fluttershy knocked on the door tentatively, as if knocking loudly would make Rainbow mad. “Come in!” the Pegasus said. “Oh, um, hi Rainbow,” the Pegasus said nervously, opening the door, “I- I um...” “What’ya need?” “Oh, um, well. Me and Applejack got into an argument and I would just like a place..to um sleep, that is, if you wouldn’t mind of course...” The speedy Pegasus sighed loudly. “Yes, Fluttershy, you can sleep on cloud. What happened?” The tone of her voice made it obvious that she wasn’t too interested in her friends’ relationship, “Was it because of that stallion that insulted you guys today?” “Y-yeah.” “And now you have to sleep over here?” “I just want to take the night to think, and um..I’ll just find her tomorrow.” “Alright, I’ll be going to sleep early tonight. Me and Vinyl had a blast at a party last night, I didn’t even go to sleep. I was DJ half the time that she was! It was so AWESOME! DJ-RainBow? or should it be DJ Dashie?” the blue Pegasus said from a cloud she was perched on. “I think DJ Dashie sounds...nice,” the shy pony said. “So you’re sure it’s okay that I can stay here?” “Yeah it’s fine,” Rainbow Dash said with a voice crack. “So what’s up with you and Applejack? It’s kinda weird just not seeing you with her.” “Oh, um... do you really want to hear? I don’t want to burden you more than I already am...” “Well sure, you and Applejack helped me with Vinyl Scratch, I don’t see the problem in returning the favor.” Fluttershy sighed and confided in her second friend of the day. “Well, when we got home earlier...she was really mad..then she started questioning our relationship and it made me feel sad...then she said that she, um, didn’t think our relationship was even natural, but Twilight helped me with that...I-I I just don’t know, maybe I overreacted,” Fluttershy said, flying in a contemplative circle as she spoke. “Sounds to me like Applejack was the one that overreacted,” Rainbow Dash said in a matter-of-fact way. “Ya know, ‘Shy, since me and Vinyl have been together, we get along best when we haven’t been able to see each other for a while, I mean, she has gigs all over Equestria, and I can’t just go with her everywhere. Maybe you Applejack just need a break after five months of constantly being by each other...I’m impressed you got THIS far in the first place!” The thought intrigued Fluttershy. The thought of maybe just taking a break from their relationship, to take a breath of fresh air instead of the normal seeing each other all-day every day. In the Pegasus’ mind, it would be better for Applejack too, to be in public and not stared at, not pointed at. She could be in public without being judged. Fluttershy thanked her friend for the idea, and decided to go to bed early, to consider it. It had been an awfully long time since Fluttershy had even stood on a cloud, let alone slept in one. It was beyond relaxing for her, despite the situation she was in. She had a lot to think about, a and a lot to consider. The night was going to be a long one.