Chapter 5: These Eyes Are Cryin’ In the Light of a Fading Star
Twilight Sparkle fell out of her bed with a yelp. An explosion had sounded like it went off somewhere high above her head and had startled her out of a pleasant half-doze she’d been languishing in for the past hour, listening to the rain strike the window panes. Twilight scrambled upright and peered out the window, seeking the source of the bang. She was blinded by an expanding ring of rainbow light and she watched in astonishment as the storm above Ponyville was simply torn apart and completely dispersed. It was an impressive display of weather work, and she knew exactly who was responsible for it.
Strong sunlight refracted into hundreds if tiny rainbows as they shone through the droplets of water stuck to her bedroom window and Twilight found that she couldn't really be upset. She'd been disappointed that the rain had come, it had meant that her meeting with Applejack probably wouldn't happen. Prolonged exposure to adverse weather conditions tended yield a high-percentage chance that she would catch a flu or cold. But now...Twilight found herself smiling in genuine happiness which bordered on joy. The pleasant melancholy she had slipped into while the rain fell had completely fallen away now. "Spike!" She called, "Let's pack breakfast up in a basket; I feel like a picnic at Sweet Apple Acres! Ooh, I know!” She exclaimed, “We’ll surprise Applejack with brunch! Make sure to pack that candied almond and chestnut mix, Spike, you know how much she loves that stuff.” She heard Spike’s indistinct call in the affirmative from downstairs and smiled.
She quickly packed her saddlebags with her notebook and extra quills and ink, along with a few sterile flasks. Twilight didn’t want to be unprepared for her lesson in horticulture. Which meant she’d probably need a few reference books... The basics only, so Applejack and Apple Bloom would know that she’d been doing her homework. And maybe a couple of the more serious horticulturalists texts, just to show them that she was actually serious about the project. Which meant she’d also have to stop by the gardening shop in Ponyville...
It really was sweet of Apple Bloom to give me that apple tree, she thought as she walked down the library stairs, already planning a shopping list and levitating various gardening books down from the bookshelves and stuffing them into her well-stretched saddlebags. I wonder where I’ll plant it? She thought there was a sunny patch out by the road where she could see the tree from her room. After helping Spike pack brunch, they made their way into town. She didn't even feel guilty that the library would be closed while she and Spike were out. On such an unexpectedly nice day, nopony would be inside if they could help it. Spike was chatty and in a good humor and Twilight found herself laughing and smiling more than she had in weeks.
Their trip into town was pleasant and confirmed Twilight’s suspicions that the library would be empty. Ponies walked together outside, shopping in the market, window shopping, running errands, or just enjoying the sunshine. More than a few times, she heard ponies mentioning the incredible way the storm had dissipated earlier that morning. Twilight smiled to herself thinking of Dash’s inflated ego, which by now would almost surely be completely insufferable. Spike and her entered the gardening shop and Twilight’s eyes widened in anticipation as she took in the vast array of implements she was sure were absolutely essential for gardening.
~*.*~
They joked and teased each other all the way down the road and with Spike there, Twilight managed to find her way all the way to the farm with no trouble. When they arrived, they saw Granny Smith sitting in a rocking chair out on the pitch, a glass set on a small table next to her with a sprig of mint sticking out of it. She waved happily to them and pointed out toward the East Orchard, "Applejack's out yonder, missy!" The old mare called, voice reedy and querulous. Twilight waved in acknowledgment and headed through the orchard.
The walk through the orchard was full of the smells and colors of fall. The apple trees were golden in their autumn colors and there was the soft tang of apple cider in the air, seemingly sunk into the very soil. Over the rustling of the leaves, Spike and Twilight could hear a steady knocking sound, as if someone were repeatedly pounding on a door. A few more minutes’ walk revealed Applejack working on the far end of an open field next to a fence, chopping away at a rough-hewn log with a hatchet, gripped tightly in her mouth.
“Hey there Applejack!” Twilight called happily.
Applejack spat out the hatchet and wiped a hoof at her forehead, pushing her hat up then looked up to give her friend a surprised greeting. The greeting died on her lips as she saw Twilight and Spike, though. Or rather, what followed Twilight and Spike. Hovering in neat formation was a veritable plethora of gardening and farming implements and tools. Rakes, shovels, trowels, bags of soil, soil aerators, spades, even a wheelbarrow floated in tow behind them. Spike had a long-suffering look plastered on his face and had a large straw hat stuffed onto his head. Twilight herself had a huge floppy sunhat, a brand-new suit of overalls on, and her overstuffed saddlebags were bulging with books, scrolls, writing implements, and what looked like a portable chemistry lab. “Uhm...” Applejack said hesitantly, “Are we gonna plant a garden today? Or did I miss somethin’?”
Twilight giggled, “I figured Spike and I would surprise you with brunch!” A picnic basket floated out from among the various gardening tools.
“...And we went shopping,” Spike said flatly, “so we could ‘prepare’ for learning how to take care of the present Apple Bloom gave her.”
“The shopkeeper was so friendly and helpful!” Twilight said happily. “She said I only needed a shovel or maybe a trowel, but I assured her that Greenleaf’s Guide to Gardening listed a minimum of thirteen different implements for various tasks in the garden and I didn’t want to be unprepared. Once she knew that I knew the game, she became very helpful.”
Applejack choked back the laughter that was trying to escape her lips and nodded, “I...I can see that y’ got just about everythin’ y’could possibly ever need. For your apple tree saplin’. Which you’re gonna plant in the fall.”
“Oh good!” Twilight said, relieved. “I was so worried you were going to think I wasn’t serious about learning absolutely everything I could from you about taking care of an apple tree.” She let the gardening tools settle to the ground and put the picnic basket down between them. “But first, let’s eat!”
Applejack looked over at the unfinished fencepost and sighed. That’s gonna have to wait another day, she thought. Then she smiled to herself; she really couldn’t be mad about it. Twilight’s such a dork, she thought, but I’ll be durned if she ain’t the cutest dork in Ponyville! She chuckled softly to herself and sat down on her haunches across from Twilight, who had spread the picnic blanket out. Spike was pulling food and drink from the basket and looking mightily relieved to be done with walking for a while. Applejack spotted a certain bag as Spike pulled it out and set it on the blanket. “Are those them candied almonds n’ chestnuts ya got from Canterlot last spring, Twilight?” She asked hopefully.
“Oh good, Spike, you heard me!” Twilight nodded and levitated them over to Applejack, “You’re the reason I got ‘em. You’re the only pony I know who loves them so much, so I always keep some in stock. You just never come by the library much, so I never have an excuse to bring ‘em out.”
Applejack took the bag and opened it with her mouth, taking a few in her mouth and rolling her eyes back in her head in bliss. “Mmm! Twi, you’ve made me happier n’ a pig at wallow!”
The two ponies took their ease chatting easily with each other, laughing, and even eating occasionally. Spike was content to eat what they didn’t and make a wry interjection here or there. Unbeknownst to the three picnickers, another pair of eyes were watching them quite intently from hiding...
~*.*~
Scoots lowered her binoculars and adjusted her footing in the tree she had climbed to get a better vantage point. “Well?” Apple Bloom asked from below, “What’re they doin’? They kissin’ yet?”
Scootaloo pulled a disgusted face, tongue sticking out of her mouth in a mimed gag. Rolling her eyes, she called back down, “No! They’re just talking and eating. It’s so boooooring! Can’t Sweetie Belle take a turn now? This is more her kinda thing.”
Sweetie Belle’s face became even paler than usual as she eyed Scoots’ precarious perch in the apple tree high above her. She swallowed nervously, “Uh, I don’t know about that, Scoots,” she said, her voice small and choked. “I, uh, I don’t do too well with heights...”
A pair of binoculars dropped out of the tree and a moment later, Scoots fell out as well, her little wings flapping madly, but utterly useless as she crashed to the soggy grass below the tree. Rubbing her head, she scowled over at the picnickers in the distance. “I’m done spyin’, Apple Bloom! C’mon, let’s go try an’ get our brass band cutie marks like I wanted to do last week.”
“Oh c’mon Scoots,” Apple Bloom scolded, “y’cain’t expect ‘em to start kissin’ as soon as they see each other! They don’t even know they love each other yet. That’s where we come in.” She scratched her head a little sheepishly, “Though, I haven’t rightly figured that part out.”
“What if we, I don’t know, write them anonymous love notes?” Sweetie Belle suggested, her cheeks coloring in a blush. “And then we’d leave them at their doors and they’d pick them up and read them and just know the notes were written from each other!” She stared dreamily into the middle distance, imagining the scene.
Scoots rolled her eyes and pointed out, “But if they were anonymous, how would they know who it was from?”
“They’d know, silly,” Sweetie explained, “because of course they already secretly love each other and who else would write love notes to them?!”
Apple Bloom interjected before the argument could devolve into a full-blown fight. “C’mon Scoots, it ain’t that bad an idea. Only problem is I don’t know how t’write much lovey-dovey stuff. ‘Sides, I think my sister’d know it was from one o’ us. She can be pretty observant when the mood takes ‘er.”
“Why do you always take her side?” Scoots complained.
“Shut yer trap, Scoots, I’m thinkin’!” Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes in concentration, staring at the distant forms of her sister and Ponyville’s librarian. And Spike. You couldn’t forget Spike... He’d have to be watched. But who knew how to write a love note? “Sweetie...” Apple Bloom said slowly, “what’s your sister doin’ this afternoon?”
~*.*~
“So what do we do first?” Twilight asked eagerly. “Do we aerate the soil? Start a worm farm? Compost? Ooh, I know! We rotate crops!” She started rummaging in her saddlebags, “I’ve got a book about crop rotation in here, I just know it...”
Applejack sighed. Brunch was over and Spike had packed everything up, heading back to the library, saying something about needing to nap off such a huge meal. Applejack put a gentle hoof on Twilight’s neck as the lavender unicorn searched. “Twi, darlin’, y’don’t really, uh...well, y’don’t really need any of this stuff. All y’really need is a shovel...Or maybe a spade. Prob’ly just a spade, considerin’ the sapling Apple Bloom gotcha was kind of a runty little thing.” Twilight stopped digging through her saddlebag and turned back to Applejack, mortified.
“Y-you mean... All this was useless?” She gestured broadly at the pile of tools jumbled in the field.
Applejack puffed out a sigh and smiled at her friend who was obviously distressed, “Nah, it ain’t useless, Twi. It’s just for more... advanced stuff, I guess y’could say. For a little sapling, well, y’just need to put it in the ground.” She paused for a second, thinking, “‘Course, if you ever want apples, you won’t be able to plant it back at the library.”
Twilight stared at her quizzically, “Uh, it’s an apple tree, Applejack. Why wouldn’t it get apples?”
Applejack laughed and shook her head. She gestured to the orchards a short distance away. “What’s the first thing you notice when y’look out over there?”
Twilight glanced over where Applejack had pointed and then back at her friend, trying to find the catch or the twist in her honest friend’s questions. If this was Princess Celestia, there would be some underlying meaning, some sort of koan which would provide enlightenment of a complex subject through a simple example. But this was Applejack. Straightforward, honest, and direct. “Apple trees?” Twilight hazarded.
“Exactly,” Applejack smiled. “A plus, Ms. Sparkle, y’get yer gold star for the day.” Twilight blushed and rolled her eyes. “Now a big farm like Sweet Apple Acres is gonna have a bunch o’ apple trees of all diff’rent sorts. But even the smallest apple grower’s gonna have more ‘n one apple tree.”
Twilight looked even more confused than ever, “Why? I mean, I don’t want a whole bunch of apples. I don’t eat that many!”
“‘Cuz apple trees come in two varieties, like. Sorta like ponies. Y’got yer little girl apple trees and yer little boy apple trees. And the seeds’re their babies... D’you see where I’m headin’ with this?”
Twilight blushed and nodded. “Of course! How could I have overlooked such an obvious caveat?” She frowned, wondering aloud, “So why did Apple Bloom give me an apple tree?”
Applejack shook her head, “That’s just it. I cain’t really figure it. Apple Bloom knows apple trees just as well as any other Apple and she’d o’ known y’cain’t get apples from just one apple tree. I mean, y’can, but you’d have to if you plant a hedge of dwarf apple trees or an apple espalier around it.”
“Maybe she wanted me to plant it here? I mean, she did seem to think it was pretty important.”
Applejack considered it. “Guess it makes a certain amount o’ sense,” she conceded, “but that’d just be like plantin’ another tree in the orchard. I mean, why give it to you?”
Twilight laughed in sudden realization, “Oh, I think I know why!”
“Really?”
“Yes... What if she has a crush on me?” Twilight giggled again. The prospect seemed absurd, but cute, too. And it fit logically.
Applejack didn’t seem to think so though. “D’you mind explainin’ how y’came to that conclusion?”
“Remember? Yesterday? When Apple Bloom gave me the present and then started asking about love? And marefriends?”
Huh, she didn’t say ‘fillyfoolers,’ was the first thing that came to Applejack’s mind as she mulled it over. Finally she nodded in concession. “I think y’might be right. She seemed a bit eager t’know what I thought of mares on the way home.”
“It makes sense,” Twilight said, “a little filly looking up to her big sister as a role model. Obviously she’d look to her elders for guidance...”
“An’ I practically snapped her little head off!” Applejack moaned. “Now she’s gonna think it’s somethin’ to be ashamed of! Dang it! I’m a consarned fool!”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Twilight said stepping closer to her friend and putting a conciliatory hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “How could you have known? Imagine how I feel! Spouting statistics and social science at her. She must think I’m such a bore!” Twilight scrunched her eyes shut, wincing at the memory.
Applejack shook her head, “Now don’t say that, Twi. That little filly has good taste! She only picked the smartest, kindest, funniest, prettiest pony in Ponyville t’ have a crush on.”
“Now you’re mocking me! I am no where near any of those things!” Twilight laughed harshly, her insecurity painfully obvious to Applejack. “I mean, sure, I read a lot, so that makes people think I’m smart. But if they only knew me, they’d know just how much I don’t know! And if she wanted to crush on a pretty pony, Rarity’s so much prettier than I am! Or Fluttershy who’s sweeter and prettier.” She hung her head, tears stinging her eyes, “And Rainbow Dash isn’t so inexplicably e-emotional all of a sudden!” She said, a sob breaking her voice at the end.
Applejack pulled her friend into a hug shushing her softly. “Twi... C’mon. You know my sister. And you know me. Element o’ Honesty, remember?” She pulled back a little, looking earnestly into the librarian’s eyes, “And I say you’re one of the prettiest mares in Ponyville, y’hear? And all the rest. Humble, too. See? So Apple Bloom’s gettin’ the whole package in this crush o’ hers.”
Twilight gazed back at Applejack, her eyes shining with unshed tears and she sniffed, wiping at her muzzle with one hoof. She smiled weakly and laughed softly, “You make me sound like quite the catch!”
Applejack chuckled herself, but found herself drawn into Twilight’s violet eyes. They were so big, so expressive...A pony could get lost in those eyes, she thought absently. Slowly, almost without her thinking about it, she brushed Twilight’s magenta and purple mane with one hoof, marvelling at the softness. “Yeah...” She breathed, “Quite th’ catch...”
Twilight blushed and leaned a little closer. Applejack leaned in a little more until their noses were barely separated. They stayed that way for what could have been mere seconds or maybe hours. Neither of them moving any closer, both unable to break eye contact. Applejack felt...she didn’t know what she felt. She just...couldn’t look away. Twilight was just as arrested. Neither could look away, but neither could act.
The moment passed. Twilight glanced away at some little sound and the spell was broken. Applejack pulled back suddenly, blushing furiously and now completely unable to look at Twilight. “So, uh...” Applejack said, but her voice grew hoarse and husky and she had to clear her throat to continue. “So it makes sense that Applejack’d have a crush on you.” She blinked, running that last sentence by her again, “Apple Bloom. I meant Apple Bloom!” She blushed again, completely flustered.
Twilight laughed a little manically, relieved to have something to break the tension that had suddenly sprung up between them. “Right!” She said loudly, “Apple Bloom! Ha!”
They each trailed off into awkward silence, neither looking directly at the other, but each sneaking glances out of the corners of their eyes. Applejack found her eyes on Twilight’s flank, studying the starburst pattern of the librarian’s cutie mark. As soon as she realised what she was looking at, she blushed and jerked her eyes up, but they only got caught on Twilight’s mane. What is goin’ on with me?! She thought desperately. I cain’t seem t’ look away!
The scene could have played out for hours, but the tension was suddenly shattered with a flap of cerulean wings. Rainbow Dash yawned hugely as she plopped out of the air with little of the usual grace she usually displayed, “Hey girls,” she said, “whatcha’ doin? Woah, that’s a lotta garden stuff.”
Twilight yelped and tripped over her hooves in surprise going head-over-flanks. “We weren’t doing anything!” She said frantically.
“Yeah,” Applejack agreed quickly, “we were just talkin’ ‘bout Appleja--er, Apple Bloom havin’ a crush on Twi here.” She laughed uncomfortably and fanned herself with her hat. “Did it suddenly get hot out here? Is it hot to you? It feels hot to me,” she babbled.
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at the two of them, then something seemed to dawn on her and a knowing grin spread across her face. “Oooooh,” she said, winking at Applejack. “Right! Apple Bloom has a crush on Twilight. We’ll go with that! Say, Applejack, you got any food? I’m starvin’!”
Applejack couldn’t remember the last time she’d blushed so much or so often, but it felt like her cheeks had caught fire with the heat of her blush and she rolled her eyes, trying to play off her slip of the tongue. “Uh, yeah! I got some food back at th’ house. C’mon Twi, you wanna get a quick snack?”
Twilight scrambled to her hooves, trotting up next to Applejack, her own blush turning her purple cheeks almost maroon. “Right! Yes! Food! I eat food!”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and jumped up into the air, flapping her wings lazily and calling back over her shoulder, “Good! ‘Cuz I’m one hungry pegasus! Try not to get lost on your way to the house!”
Applejack and Twilight walked back to the farmhouse in silence that felt both unbreakable and extremely awkward. They walked almost shoulder to shoulder, with but a hair's breadth of space between them, but neither Applejack nor Twilight took a single step to widen the gap. Of course, they didn’t close the gap either.
~*.*~