//------------------------------// // Hello Conscience // Story: Will She Love Me Too? // by Liechtenstein //------------------------------// That morning Twilight woke to a hearty, generous offering from the element of generosity. There was fruit, pancakes, toast, orange juice, coffee and almost every other breakfast food a pony could name. Rarity's reasoning for this bountiful breakfast was that Twilight "would need all her energy" for the day ahead, which didn't exactly serve to comfort Twilight; now she was worried that Rarity had something special lined up. Twilight didn't really feel ready for any surprises; she wasn't even fully sure if she was ready for going back to Applejack. However Twilight was sure that she trusted Rarity, or at least fairly certain that she trusted Rarity. Agenda for the day: follow Rarity's lead. I don't know how to deal with this and you don't know how to deal with this. I think we proved that sufficiently yesterday. Maybe we shouldn't be too dependent on Rarity? But what harm is it doing? As long as she is willing and happy to help we should be grateful of it. And it isn't if we could reject her help; she is so insistent. I mean if it wasn't for her insistence we'd still be in the same state of confusion, uncertainty and fear that we were a few days ago. We owe her for her help, and if she wants us to pay her back by letting her help then why the hay shouldn't we? So what if she happens to have some ulterior motive? That's for the future Twilight to worry about, now is now. "Twilight, dear, are you quite finished preparing yourself? I would rather we go to Applejack's sooner rather than later. Deal with this whole sordid affair as early as possible, you know? Then maybe w-you can focus on getting on with your life, without fear of judgement... at least from your immediate friends; society may have other ideas, but they needn't know anythin- I'm sorry, I'm making it worse, aren't I?" Rarity did have a tendency to 'stick one's hoof in it'; oftentimes saying one or two sentences more than is necessary. Twilight didn't mind, she sometimes found herself in much the same situation, though recently it was a lack of words that haunted her. "No, it's fine, Rarity; I kinda accepted that anyway. Also I'm ready when you are, it probably is best to deal with this as quickly as possible." The two ponies trotted out of Carousel Boutique, Twilight first; so that Rarity could lock up shop behind her. At first there was nothing spoken between the two, Twilight could only assume this is so Twilight could think, and so she took her cue. You need to think of a way to deal with this... Algorithms? Algorithms could help. Step one: Go to Applejack. Step two: Apologize. Step three: Take whatever abuse is hurled at me. Step four: repeat step two for however long is necessary. I really need to stop planning to be passive and submissive, that can't be healthy to purely rely on other ponies to deal with conflict. Then again we did try conflict management yesterday, that certainly didn't work... at all. "Sooo... Twilight... do you know what you're going to say, perchance?" "Umm... no. I kinda thought I'd just apologize and see where to go from there. Why? Do you have an idea?" "Well... no. I haven't really planned this out extensively. I certainly haven't planned this out as much as you may believe. This situation is as queer to me as- oh! Wait! I didn't mean 'queer' in that way, I meant unusual, weird, foreign. I am so sorry, darling." For the second time that day Rarity had to backtrack her words. Rarity's acting awfully strange today. She knows I won't get offended unless I believe she means it... Can't blame her though, especially not after how I reacted to Applejack. But this is different, she seems on edge; acting awkward somehow. "It's okay, Rarity; I know you didn't mean anything malicious by it. I'm not going to snap at you or get mad, I did my fair share of that yesterday, that's why we are here, after all. If there's one thing I'm good at it's learning from my mistakes." The two friends shared a warm smile as they trotted ever closer to Sweet Apple Acres. A few minutes passed and they found themselves at the foot of the door of the Apple family's residence. Almost telepathically Rarity and Twilight took their positions. Nopony had brought this up, but they seemed instinctively to know what to do. Rarity took her place directly in front of the door, while Twilight hid slightly around the corner, not entirely hiding, but not overtly present. Rarity raised her hoof and knocked on the door and tried to go through her non-existent plan in her head. Almost timidly, the door swung open, but the pony on the other side was not Applejack, but the much larger, commanding red figure of Big Macintosh. He said nothing; he just saw Rarity and slowly disappeared from the doorway. About half a minute passed and Rarity was finally able to greet Applejack. "Good morning, Applejack, I trust you are well?" Rarity wanted to be as amiable as possible, so that she wasn't cast out when she revealed why she was here. "G'morning, sugarcube, wha' can I do ya for?" "Well, I just wanted to talk, would that be alright with you?" "I guess so, whad'ya wanna talk about? And d'you wanna come in?" Applejack sounded very tentative, Twilight noted, perhaps her incident yesterday had hung in Applejack's mind. "Actually I don't really want to talk, but I have brought a pony who has something she needs to say to you." Rarity gestured to Twilight to reveal herself, and the purple pony took her cue. It wasn't a grandiose reveal; Twilight was unsure as to how to show herself, and so she ended up timidly walking round the corner, nearly falling over her own hooves. The amiability of the situation decreased immediately; Applejack now wore a frown, and spoke with a hint of resentment. "Twilight." the farm pony reluctantly acknowledged her friend, with spite in her voice. "Um- Applejack... look, I just wanted to say something-" "I think you said all you needed to say yesterday. Goodbye." Applejack went to slam her door, but found that the door was being held open by her seamstress friend. "Applejack," said Rarity, using a tone that made her sound like a disappointed mother, "Don't be silly. Twilight is here to make amends for what she said yesterday. I think you at least owe her a chance to say sorry." "Ah- bu- n-" Applejack stumbled over her own anger, before finally submitting to Rarity's request; not wanting to lose two friends. "Okay, Rarity, I guess I a'least owe her a chance to explain herself. We could go for a walk, it's best Big Mac or Granny Smith don' see you, I mentioned what you did yesterday; saying I was brought up wrong and all. You're are... well-" "'Pullanus non grata'? Twilight offered. "Sure, lets just go wi' that." The three ponies soon found themselves wandering around the Apple orchard, with Twilight trying to ascertain at which point it would be appropriate to start speaking. She decided just to blurt out what it was that she felt she needed to say, it wasn't as if there was a conversation that she would be interrupting. "Um, Applejack, about yesterday... look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten angry like I did-" "I understand, Twi. I would've gotten angry too. I was just being a stupid, stubborn mule before. I'm the one who should be sorry. You were righ' I had been saying things, stupid things behind your back. An' I honestly didn't know that it wasn't a choice; I've never really been exposed to... 'this' before. I didn't know what to think. Bu' here, in this orchard, seeing yous together like this, well it makes ma heart melt. I don't hate you, Twi, I was just stupid. You understand, right?" Applejack's words left the other two in a state of shocked silence, and it was left to Rarity to help stem the awkwardness. "I'm sorry, Applejack? I could have sworn you just said that me and Twilight were an item." Rarity chuckled lightly, to try and help her say what she wanted to say and shrug it off. "Wha', you're not?" Applejack herself seemed genuinely stunned by this new revelation. "Why, no. I'm not even a lesbian, for a start. What would ever give you that impression?" Rarity seemed slightly offended by Applejack's accusations, but she did try and keep her offence hidden for Twilight's sake. "Well its just 'cause from what I've seen you two have been inseparable. First you were together when Twilight made her announcement and now you're here with her. I jus' thought that you were protecting her because yous were together. And, if you don't mind me sayin', when we were walking through the orchard you were awfully... 'close'." "Its okay, Rarity, Applejack made a mistake, she didn't imply anything by it; its just a normal inference a pony could make based on her observations." Twilight could see Rarity was getting slightly wound up, and that Applejack must have touched a nerve, but she was unwilling to let Rarity speak out, lest she repeat Twilight's mistakes from yesterday. "Thanks for this chance to clear the air, AJ, it means a lot to me. So... we'll see you later then?" Twilight felt as if she had to excuse herself, and Rarity, it certainly seemed to be the best thing to do. Why was Rarity so offended by such a trivial mistake. It can't be because she hates 'us', can it? If she had hated the way I am she wouldn't have put up with me so much. It has to be something more, something different. I'm sure Rarity will explain it to me when we get back to her house. "So, Rarity, back to yours?" "Oh... well, if you want to, dear, but I thought you'd be going back home now; after all we have done what you wanted to do. I can't really think of a reason why you'd want to come back, if I'm honest, darling." ============================== The working title for this monster was "UnTwiloTitled", but that was changed as I was certain that only I would get the reference, and it would look wrong compared the other titles, which are all straight song titles, not bastardized versions of songs... Even if the bastardification was very witty, clever and hilarious to the point where the person who came up with it must've been all those things... and sexy. Also social experiment, how many people read these footnotes, honestly? I don't care if no one actually reads these, I just like typing random stuff that is tangentially related to the "Main Event", it makes me feel important... and witty... and sexy... and just a great person in general. (Also these digressions may move to the first comment from now on) Also WHOO so many words. Its nearly like a normal fic chapter length now! And I am getting dangerously close to getting the 50 likes or 1,000 views mark. I am grateful for all the positivity and what not, and for this I shed a tear. Incidentally this = not pre-read, I thought "Buck it, do it live", if "live" means "not triple-checked".