You enter your house, and head to the kitchen. AJ follows you into the kitchen, but you stop her from helping.
“I’m going to make you dinner, so you just relax in the living room. I’ll let you know when it’s done.” She only reluctantly leaves the kitchen, and heads to the living room. You open up the fridge, and take stock of what you have. You quickly pull out some flowers, of various sorts, and before long you’re cooking up a storm.
Everything is coming together perfectly, and you are impressed with what you’ve made. A quick glance at the clock shows that it is almost eight, so you’ve been at it for almost an hour. Hopefully it’s as good as you think it is. You quickly add the final spices to the salad, and the garnish to the daisy soufflé. Despite the soufflé’s frequent use as a dessert you’re hoping that the combination comes out well for a dinner.
You light a few candles, and head to the living room to get Applejack. She’s curled up on the couch and just watching the fireplace. Her back is to you, so you walk up behind her, and give her a nuzzle on the neck.
“Dinner is ready.” She scoots away from you a bit, likely surprised by what you did. She gives you a quick look, and then she gets up, and follows you to the dining room. She gasps when she sees the way you set everything up. Although small, the crystals on the chandelier expertly catch, and scatter, the light from the three candles on the table. There’s also a bottle of cider in a metal bucket filled with ice, to keep it cool.
She approaches the table slowly, clearly impressed with what you’ve done. You pull out her chair for her, and she sits down. You sit opposite her, and quickly tell her what you’ve prepared for her.
“The salad is pretty ordinary, save for some special spices I threw in it. The soufflé is a daisy soufflé with a special raspberry sauce to give it just the right amount of sweetness to counter the lemon juice in it.” You gesture at the food. “Bon Appétit.”
Applejack giggles a bit, before she starts eating. Her eyes go wide as she tastes the soufflé, and she starts eating it quite rapidly. She has a similar reaction to the salad. Despite her reaction, you only find the food to be of average quality. You feel like you could’ve done better, but she likes it, and that’s what matters.
After a moment she finishes up, and you aren’t far behind. Judging by how far down the candles have burned you figure it’s only been forty-five minutes, at most. You slowly stand, and start taking the dishes to the sink, so you can clean them later. Applejack gets up too, and starts picking up some dishes to help. You stop her with a quick stare, and she puts the dishes back on the table with an insincere frown.
“AJ, you’re my guest. I’ll take care of this. You did say you would take care of dessert, so I’ll take care of this. I’ll join you in the living room in a short while.” She nods, and walks to the living room, leaving you to your thoughts.
You wonder just what they all think of you. There has to be more to it than just being you. There must be some specific part of you that they like. You immediately jump to Applejack, for obvious reasons. What is it that she could find attractive about you? Element of honesty, so perhaps she likes your up-front nature? You’ve never really thought about the way you speak to the ponies around, so that might not be what it is.
You continue your ruminations until you finish with the dishes. You walk into the living room, and Applejack is in a position similar to the one she was in before. With a quick pump of your wings you jump over the couch, and sit next to her. As you relax she leans into you. You wrap one hoof around her, and she gives a small sigh. You don’t say anything, and just enjoy her presence.
A short while later, and she pulls away from you, and turns to look at you. Her eyes have a small sparkle to them, and you find her more attractive than ever. She leans in, and your lips lock. It’s a passionate kiss, but not over-done. Your heart speeds up, and you feel a heat come to your cheeks. As Applejack pulls away you notice that she’s also sporting a hefty blush on her cheeks.
“So, is that my dessert?” You try to sound suave, but it doesn’t come out right, and Applejack gets a big grin on her face. You try to hold it back, but the corniness of what you said gets the better of you, and you both start laughing.
Her laughter is a beautiful sound, and you could just sit here and listen to it for hours. As she calms down you she looks you in the eyes, and moves in for another kiss. This one is brief, but no less passionate.
“No, that wasn’t dessert. Just a small taste.” Your eyes widen a bit at what she said. You raise an eyebrow, and she tackles you off the couch. She’s sitting on top of you, looking you right in the eye. She has a beautiful smile on her face, and a sparkle in her eyes. She leans down, and this time the kiss isn’t full of deep passion, but a longing. The kiss lasts several minutes and you only break it once you need air. She doesn’t get off of you; instead she just lies down on your chest, her head just under your chin.
She slowly nuzzles you, and you hold her tightly. You don’t know how long you were lying there, but eventually she sat up again, and slowly got off of you. You pushed yourself up, and she just watched you.
“So, would you like to head to bed now?”
“Yes. Ah would. But I’d like for you to play me a song, to lull me to sleep. Just like you did with Dash.” You understand her request, and it doesn’t really surprise you. You walk up with her, side by side, and she crawls into your bed. You, however, sit down at the piano, and think about what you’re going to play for her. You could play the same thing, but you’d much rather do something new.
As you think, another song comes to your mind. You place your hooves on the keyboard, and you stretch out your wings as well. With a quick scale you prepare yourself to play. And play you do. (Canon by Pachelbel. Listen here)
As the last note wavers in the air, you lower your hooves and wings. With a glance to the bed you see that Applejack has fallen asleep. You don’t feel tired enough to head to bed, though, so you head up to the small dome atop your home.
As you climb up the view amazes you as it did before. As you lay down, and look at the sky you feel a stirring within your mind. A sudden sense of vertigo passes, and you find yourself lying in a field.
You sit up, and see your classmates next to you. The astronomy field trip wasn’t really a field trip at all. They just asked you to come to the school around midnight to watch the stars. Not that you were complaining. Suddenly you see a streak shoot across the sky. Several “ooh’s” are audible. Suddenly dozens more appear. Soon the sky is full of shooting stars, and you are awestruck.
You feel a hand grab your own, and you look to your right, and see Rachel. She’s been your not-girlfriend since middle school. She was always happy, even though she had a weird disease. She never told you about it, but it never changed anything about the way you acted towards her. Now, though, she’s holding your hand. You look her in the face, and see a big smile. You smile back, and blush more than you ever have in your life.
Without warning, though, the scene around you changes, and you’re now standing at your locker, rummaging through it looking for your books. Rachel is next to you, already finished at her locker.
“Rachel, we’ve known each other for how long now?”
“It’s been five years now. We met in seventh grade, and now we’re high school seniors. Why?”
“Well, I’ve always liked you…”
She interrupts you before you can continue. “Jeez, man. Do you ever give up? We’ve been through this before.”
“Just call me persistent, I guess.” You offer her a shrug, and she just rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I was just going to ask if you’d like to go with me to the dance next month. Not as boyfriend and girlfriend, but just as friends.” She offers you a smile, and she shakes her head.
“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”
“Not until you say yes.”
“Then yes.” You do a double take at that. She’s got a smile on her face, and you suddenly blush.
“Oh! That’s great!” She gives you a peck on the cheek, nothing more than what she’s done in the past, before she turns and skips down the hall.
The scene changes again, and you are in your tuxedo, except you’re lying on the floor in your living room. Rachel is sitting atop you, and giving you a look that sends a blush to your face.
She leans down and kisses you, and you swear that your heart stopped when your lips met. When she pulls back you look her in the eyes, and see tears. You wipe them away, and she holds your hand against her cheek. She lies down on top of you, and you just hold her gently.
With a quick gasp you wake up, and feel a weight pressing down on your chest. You look down and see Applejack lying on top of you. There’s a blanket on top of you as well. It’s still night time, and the stars are all still visible. As you look at Applejack you find some tears spring to your eyes. You wipe them away, and lie your head down again. As you feel sleep overtake you, you see a shooting star make its way across the night sky.
One word makes its way past your lips, unbidden.
“Rachel…”
(Yep, it's time for me to work more on this story. And more about your past! Updates for the next week or so will probably be for this story, unless I'm struck by inspiration. As on my other story, check out my last blog post, here, for info, and stuff.)