//------------------------------// // A Night - AppleShy // Story: Shipping. Shipping everywhere. // by barbeque //------------------------------// Dear Fluttershy, Every year, on the longest day of the year, my sister Celestia hosts the Summer Sun Celebration. It is a day full of festivities throughout all of Equestria, from sunrise to sunset. Some ponies say “But Princess Luna, dont you have Nightmare Night dedicated to you?” and while these ponies are not wrong, Nightmare Moon and me are two very different personalities. It is also primarily targeted towards the little colts and fillies, and only lasts for a few hours. Therefore, my sister and I have agreed that an additional party is in order, called the Winter Night Celebration. As the name suggests, it will be held from sunset to sunrise during the longest night of the year. It will be a mare-and-gentlecolts-only party, as the little ones must sleep during the night. The venue is Ponyville’s town hall; I hope to see you and your friends there. Princess Luna *** The music was loud, lights flashed on and off, and drunken ponies - or at least, they had used something - were everywhere. If it wasn’t for her friends and the fact that she let herself be convinced to go by said friends so easily, Fluttershy wouldn’t be here at all. She just couldn’t grasp what other ponies found so exciting about exhausting oneself through the night. She’d much rather lie in bed reading a good book, and then doze off with her animal friends. She was sitting at a table in the corner of the room, essentially waiting until the sun would finally rise and this party was over, so that she could go home. But alas, that wouldn’t be for at least another six hours, it being a little past midnight, and sleeping here was impossible. Her eyes wanted to close constantly, but the music and lights made it impossible. No, she wasn’t really enjoying herself. Her friends seemed to, though, as she looked around and spotted her friends. Rainbow Dash was doing some kind of crazy dance together with Derpy, standing on their hindlegs with their forehooves near their ears, wings flapping behind them, swinging their bodies from side to side on the beats supplied by none other than the town’s own DJ Pon-3. Twilight was trying to mimic them as well, failed and fell on her back, but stood up laughing. Pinkie Pie was bouncing literally all over the place, which was quite normal for the party-pony, but it was now even more than normal. Rarity had somehow gotten hold of one of the discoballs, and was now cuddling with it on the floor like it was some huge diamond. Finally, Applejack was just sitting at the bar, drinking mug after mug of alcoholic beverages. She didn’t look too good, Fluttershy noticed, but she assumed that the farm pony must be enjoying herself, otherwise she could have just stopped drinking. Thus she was very surprised when she suddenly found the hostess of the party, Princess Luna herself, sitting opposite her. “Oh my, Princess!” she squeaked, though the words never reached Luna’s ears. Even the Princess’ breath smelt of alcohol, but only just a little bit; she was nowhere near as drunk as some of the other ponies. “My dear Fluttershy,” she began, the Royal Canterlot Voice being appropriate for once. “Your friend Applejack is drinking way too much, and I’m looking for one of her friends to bring her home. I thought I would ask you first.” The Princess winked at Fluttershy at the last statement, subtly letting her know that she was okay with it if the yellow pegasus would rather sleep. “Would you want to do it?” Of course Fluttershy would. She wasn’t a pony to jump on opportunities, but she really wanted to get away from here. This sort of party just wasn’t her thing. Subconsciously, her face had lit up at the Princess’ question, so much that Luna didn’t even wait for a reply. “Come on, follow me,” was all she said. A few minutes later, Fluttershy and a very, very drunk Applejack were standing outside, the cool night air an enormous difference with the temperature inside. It wasn’t just warm inside, it was hot. The soft breeze that blew from time to time made the already cold air just feel ten times more colder, so Fluttershy looped her long scarf around her neck another time, and set off to Sweet Apple Acres. Thanks to a drunken and easily distracted Applejack, the trip from the town center to the farm, which usually took only a little more than ten minutes, took over twice as long now. Time and time again, she had to stop and talk some sense into her friend. In the nicest way possible, of course. Which certainly wasn’t the fastest way to get a drunken Applejack home. Finally, they were passing through the gate that marked the entrance to the Apple family property. If it weren’t for the fact that Fluttershy lived next to the Everfree Forest herself, she would have been scared by how creepy the bare apple trees looked in the deepest of the winter night. Despite the variety of scarves and other assisting-in-keeping-warm clothing accessoires she was wearing, Fluttershy was still shivering from the cold. Applejack, on the other hoof, was acting like it was the middle of summer, but that was probably due to the alcohol. And then, halfway across the yard to the front door of the house, it happened. Fluttershy was afraid this was going to happen at some point - as this wasn’t the first time she had seen Applejack with a few too many alcoholic drinks - but of all possible moments, right then was without a doubt the worst possible moment. Applejack started singing. And when Applejack was drunk and started singing, it was loud. Not as loud as the music from the party perhaps, but still a good contender for second place. Oh and false. That actually hurt her ears more than the sheer volume of it. “Show me the way to go home...” After the initial shock of her friend’s singing talents had passed, Fluttershy quickly tried to shush her drunken friend, to no avail. “Ah *hic* had a little drink about an hour ago...” Pretty soon, the faces of three curious little fillies - Sweetie Belle was sleeping over because Rarity was at the party, and it had pretty soon turned into a full Cutie Mark Crusaders Sleepover - appeared at one of the windows. A few moments later, lights turned on in the house, and Big Macintosh came out the front door, walking towards the pegasus. Parties like this weren’t his thing, plus Granny Smith and especially the fillies would need someone looking after them anyway, so he had stayed home. He hadn’t expected his sister to come back this ‘early’, nor for Fluttershy to be with her, and to say that he looked mildly annoyed by his sudden awakening would be an understatement. “Apples. Apples. Apples. Apples. Apples. Apples. Hehe, *hic* apples. Get it?” It was that Applejack found her own joke so funny, because Fluttershy and Big Macintosh didn’t get it at all. “Ohohohoho, Apples!” Applejack continued, breaking into a fit of laughter. “Uhm, I think she had a few too many drinks tonight,” Fluttershy said at last. “I was wondering, um, if we could go inside to sleep? I mean, if that’s okay with you.” “Eeenope,” the red stallion answered simply, before explaining himself a bit more. “She’s drunk,” he said, pointing at his sister. “When she wakes up tomorrow, she sometimes gets mighty aggressive.” “A-aggressive?” “Yup. Kickin’ things and stuff. Or falling down stairs, she does that too. So, she sleeps in the barn.” “But, but it’s so cold...” Fluttershy trailed off, though Big Macintosh cut her off. “She won’t be cold. I’ll make a circle of a few bales of straw, to keep the wind out, and give her some blankets,” Big Mac answered. “Are you going back to the party now?” No. Fluttershy definitely wasn’t going back to the party. “Uhm, actually, I was just going to sleep as well,” she answered, then eyed her orange friend and added, “Are you sure she will be alright?” “She’ll be fine. I’ve seen her worse than this. You could just sleep in my sister’s bed if you want to.” “Oh, that’s very nice of you, but, uhm, I couldn’t do that.” Fluttershy meekly eyed her friend again. She was still worried about the earth pony. Not in the sense of being worried – Big Mac was her brother after all – but still, she didn’t like the idea of Applejack having to sleep all alone in the barn. As a matter of fact, she also didn’t want to walk all the way to her own cottage either, and she wondered why she had just turned down the red pony’s offer, when she got an idea. “Could I... could I maybe keep her company tonight? It would be nice - for Applejack I mean - if she didn’t have to sleep all alone.” “Don’t see why not. I’ll keep the fillies out of the barn tomorrow morning, so you two can catch up on sleep. If you can get AJ into the barn - somehow,” he paused, looking at his sister who was currently making funny faces, before continuing, “I’ll get some blankets from inside.” It didn’t take Big Mac long to get the blankets - driven by his own desire to get back to sleep, probably - and in a matter of minutes, a simple shelter that was referred to as the ‘hay fort’ had been built. Essentially it was just a pile of blankets on the floor, surrounded by blocks of hay, two high all around except for one place, where it was only one high, so that a pony could get in and out somewhat easily. Which was good because while Fluttershy would be able to simply fly over it, Applejack, even more so in her current state, could not. The red stallion reminded her one last time to give his sister a little room when she would wake up the next morning, and went back to the house, leaving Fluttershy and Applejack lying inside their little straw-fort, on top of, underneath, and wrapped in the numerous blankets Big Mac had brought. The bales of straw around them kept out the wind which blew in through various cracks in the wood of the barn and which was bitterly cold, while the blankets kept them them warm and cozy. They lay there for a while, sometimes one of them dozing off, then awake for a while again. This could be attributed to Applejack, who started ‘singing’ from time to time again, though it wasn’t as loud as before anymore. At one point, the pegasus was starting to doze off again, when suddenly, the farm pony blurted out vastly different words, which had Fluttershy’s eyes open wide. “Ah like a certain pegasus, she’s quiet and subdued, when I’m around her, I feel really good. Ah’ve been putting this off for too long now, so tomorrow I’m gonna tell, because I really need to know, if she loves me as well.” Silence reigned after Applejack had spoken, only to be broken moments later by her snoring. Under any other circumstance, Fluttershy would have been glad to follow the farmer’s example and fall asleep as well. But Applejack’s words had a weight in them. Even in her drunken state, there was simply no way the earth pony would come up with this out of the blue. It sounded more like something Applejack would say to herself every night before going to sleep, like a lullaby, and if the way it rhymed was anything to go by, bothered the farmpony’s mind quite a lot, and had been doing so over the past while. Did Applejack had a crush? But on who? Now what did she say exactly? I know she said it was a pegasus. And that it was a... she... Fluttershy didn’t have anything against same-sex relationships. In fact, she wouldn’t be lying if she admitted that back in Flight School, she had a crush on another mare. That had been Rainbow Dash, but when she finally mustered up the courage to tell her, Rainbow wasn’t interested. They remained good friends though, and it was Rainbow’s shoulder she cried on when she heard the news that her crush wasn’t mutual. But she had always thought of Applejack as being a more traditional mare in the ways of love and marriage, so the fact that she had said her crush was a mare just struck her as a little odd. Maybe she had a crush on Rainbow Dash? There were lots of ponies nowadays who had a crush on the cyan pegasus, she knew. Quiet... Scratch Rainbow Dash then. ...and subdued. Oh. It finally hit her that all the signs were describing a pony she only knew one of in all of Ponyville... Fluttershy herself. Of course, she would never assume such a thing without hearing it directly from the pony’s mouth. The only thing she knew for sure was that Applejack had a crush on somepony, and although it could very likely be her, she could wait until tomorrow, when the alcohol had worn off and they both had a good night’s sleep, to ask the farmpony about it. Content, Fluttershy fell asleep as well. In her sleep, she wrapped a wing around Applejack...