J and AJ, Learning to live again
Chapter 3 ‘Find Out Who Your Friends Are’
(Ponyville – Sweet Apple Acres Apple Stand – Two days later)
Applejack looked at the crowd of ponies going about their business. Jack was back home working the farm with Big Mac, although she knew he was still stewing about what Diamond Tiera had said to Applebloom. She had been thinking about marriage. They had actually moved a step toward it with him proposing. It had been sweet. He had proposed to her before Twilight’s wedding, but since so much had happened. She looked up to see someone walking toward her stand only to have a mare stop him.
The mare gave her a dirty look and then pulled him back toward a different grocer’s stand. She looked at what happened completely dumbfounded. Applebloom looked up at her sister and then at the couple who had walked away.
“Sis?” Applebloom asked.
“It’s alright Applebloom. It was jest one mare,” she replied.
Another Stallion began to walk toward her stand, and like the last one a mare caught him, looked at him hard, and then gave her a look of anger and disgust. Applejack felt her own anger boiling near the surface. She need to bite it back though. They had a job to do, and that job was selling apples. She spotted Rarity and waved to her friend. Rarity walked past the onlookers and over to Applejack’s stand.
“Applejack… It’s horrible what they’re saying! I keep hearing them call you a… a tail lifter,” Rarity said in a hushed whisper.
Applejack closed her eyes. She had hoped that it was nothing more than just a filly being a bully, but now the rumor had made it out to everypony else. She looked at the group of shoppers and shook her head.
“Ah ain’t Rarity. Jack and ah are getting married,” she said.
“I thought so darling, but… they are all going on about this. You need to publicize the fact that the two of you are getting married,” she said.
Another stallion walked their way. He stopped at her stand and looked at the apples. A smile crossed his face and he started to pick one up when there was a thundering sound of hooves behind him. A gray mare marched up to him. She grabbed the apple from him and threw it back on the others.
“What is yer problem?” Applejack asked.
“Like you don’t know tail lifter,” the mare said.
Applejack stood, bit down her anger, and began putting everything up. She looked at Applebloom and motioned for her to help load the cart. She looked at Rarity.
“Ya want to help Rarity?” she asked.
“Of course darling,” she said.
“Ah need a dress for a wedding. Ah got to make this stop. Ma family depends on selling these apples, and Ah can’t if’n they won’t buy ‘em,” she said.
“Applejack, surely that’s not the only reason to marry Jack,” she said.
“Ah love him Rarity, Ah do, but Ah can’t wait for him to be ready any longer. Ah can’t let ma family’s lively hood suffer like this,” Applejack said.
“Of course, come by the Boutique tomorrow and I’ll get you fitted for a dress. Have Jack come with you, and I’ll see that he gets a tux,” she said.
The walk back to the farm was a quiet one. She could tell that Applebloom had more questions in her than the night had stars in it. She wasn’t sure what to tell her little sister. She wanted to tell her that it didn’t matter what anypony else thought, but then if that was true why was she wanting to rush Jack into this. The argument that it was for the farm, for the family was still strong, and it was part of the truth, but there was another part that she was trying to ignore.
She wanted to be accepted. She had always been an accepted part of the community, and now she was being pushed outside. She hated it. She hated how it made her feel, and she hated that it was making her consider bending and bowing to the community in order to feel accepted. They neared the farm, and she pulled the still full cart into barn. She unhitched herself, but she didn’t head straight inside. Applebloom looked up at her and she smiled down at her little sister.
“Ah’m going to do a little work in here, but go ahead and let ‘em know what we’re back would you sis?” Applejack asked.
Applebloom nodded and ran off into the farm house. Applejack turned back to the cart and kicked it. She didn’t kick it hard, but that didn’t matter. It was so frustrating. The entire thing was so frustrating, and it felt like the entire community had taken a dull knife and tried to cut out her heart with it. The first tear threatened to appear, and soon it was followed by another. They began cutting little lines in her fur covered face. She hadn’t felt like this in such a long time. It had been after her parents had been taken from her and it left Granny Smith, Big Mac, and her to look after Applebloom. She had been so lost then. She couldn’t ask her mama to give her a hug at night, and suddenly she had to grow up and be a mama to Applebloom. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her sister. She did. She loved Applebloom with all of her heart, but she hadn’t been ready to be a mama when she was forced to be. The entire thing had made her feel so helpless and small, and right now she felt the same way again.
“It ain’t fair!” she shouted.
“It never is,” a calming voice said from behind her.
She felt a gentle nuzzle and turned around. She buried her face in Jack’s shoulder and tried to keep from crying. She wanted to keep from crying, but it wasn’t working. Instead she was getting that green vest of his wet from her tears.
“Hey, it’s okay AJ,” he said.
“They all said it Jack. All of them are callin’ me a taillifter, and ah couldn’t sale a single apple because of it,” she said.
He gently stroked her mane and held her. She continued to cry into his vest. It pained him to see her crying like this.
“I know that you’re not, and I know that your friends don’t either,” he said.
She sniffed and nodded.
“Look, it’s going to work out. We’re going to get through this,” he promised.
“They won’t quit until ah’m married Jack, and then it might take a while,” she said.
He smiled at her.
“Then we get married,” he said.
She looked at him in wonder. She had almost talked herself out of asking him. She had chastised herself for wanting to try to force him to marry her before she was ready, but he stepped up.
“Ah love you,” she said.
“I love you too. If it takes us getting married to stop them saying it then it’s fine. I want to spend the rest of my life with you anyway,” he replied.