The morning was filled with cleaning the kitchen after Applejack's midnight raid. The farmgirl spent most of it returning smirks with scowls and mopping up melted mess that she had failed to do away with the previous evening due to her wife's... overeagerness, and her own exhaustion thereafter. Granny Smith's calm, knowing smile was enough to keep her from blowing her already-short fuse.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, had become strangely scarce since the camera incident that morning. She had yet to see anything but glimpses of the pegasus, and those times she did, her mate was quick to vanish. Applejack had spent the better part of her morning washing up and preparing for her barrage of taunts and general messing-around she thought she was sure to receive after gorging the previous night.
The fact that it never came, except from her own kin, didn't sit well with her.
She'd spent the last hour prepping for the onset of apple season with Big Mac and Applebloom, and neither hide nor hair of her dunderheaded wife since breakfast had made an appearance. After being stubbornly dismissed by her big brother -- she honestly wondered where he got it from -- she went back inside.
After a large and hearty lunch, she dragged herself back into the orchards.
They had yet to smell like the sweet fruit she loved. The season was too early, and the crop had yet to come in fully. That was fine with her. The smell of apples made her hungry, and being hungry kept her from sleeping.
It was one of the few times a year that Applejack could comfortably relax beneath the boughs of her trees without being distracted by either weather or the thought of eating, though typically she was too busy preparing for the harvest except for the occasional nap she snuck.
It occurred to her just how much Rainbow had rubbed off on her over the years.
She wasn't sure where the smile came from, but she didn't mind it. Settling herself down into the cradle of the tree's roots Applejack closed her eyes and yawned.
The time passed slowly, though judging from the gray clouds being blown in from the southwest by the Las Pegasus weather ponies, it was more time than she figured.
The clouds blotted out the sun, providing welcome relief from the intrusive light, but sending a chill surging up through the valley.
Applejack winced and curled up into a tight ball, holding determinedly to her napping spot. A little weather wouldn't drive her off without a fight. The slicing wind, however, seemed to disagree.
She got up and rounded to the protected side of the tree. It was less comfortable than the wide-spaced roots facing the open valley beyond, and the view wasn't nearly as nice. Still, the view of Ponyville wasn't bad either, and she once again settled in for a nap.
The second interruption put her in a foul mood, and her tail twitched irritably to whatever had snapped the twig behind her.
The intruder wisely circled around to her left. The familiar smell of ozone and rain reached her nose.
"There you are," came a familiar voice.
Applejack's ears twitched. "Yeah. I was gonna have a nice nap."
Rainbow grinned and hovered up next to her before touching down. She noticed a peculiar absence of a particular recording device on her person. "What's stoppin' ya?"
"A flyin' mouth that won't quit."
"Catty," the pegasus replied, waggling her eyebrows.
"Where've you been?"
"Out looking for you!"
Applejack peeked an eye open. "Lookin' at me with a camera's probably more like it..."
"Camera? What camera would that be? I don't know anything about no cameras."
"Bullcrap," the farmgirl muttered, closing her eyes again.
Familiar chuckling rang in her ears that somehow irritated her further, and at the same time made everything better. She yawned and turned away, resting her other cheek against a root.
Rainbow came closer from the sounds of her hoofsteps. The next thing Applejack knew, she felt the pegasus's relatively-soft hooves press against her back.
Applejack grunted from the weight bearing down on her.
"Why're you bein' so annoyin' today?" She paused. "More'n usual, I mean..."
Rainbow softly ran her hooves up and down along her spine, immediately driving all sense of irritation out of her head and replacing it with moans of appreciation.
"Who's being annoying again?"
"You..." Applejack grunted, tensing a moment before turning to putty in her wife's care. She could just imagine the smug, self-satisfied smirk her mate wore. That was okay, though. She could have it for now. "But yer makin' up for it pretty good..." she sighed with a smile.
"I'll say. It feels like you have a rock right here..." the pegasus said, massaging insistently at a particularly sore spot.
Applejack's eyes rolled back into her head and all sense of tension fled her like a flock of birds amongst a pouncing tiger.
"There we go..." Rainbow said soothingly. All too soon, the massage was over prompting a disappointed frown from the farmgirl. It was swiftly replaced by the equally-pleasurable soft, warm coat of the pegasus snuggling down atop her like a bird to a nest and wrapping her wings securely around her barrel. Grunting, Applejack adjusted herself for comfort, and let out a contented breath.
A kiss to her cheek returned a broad smile to her lips.
She opened one eye and fixed her wife with it.
"What do you want?"
Rainbow's ears pinned back. "Huh?"
"What're you butterin' me up for?"
"Oh! U-uhh... n-nothin'..."
Applejack opened her eyes and grinned at her mate. "You only start kissin' up to me when you either want somethin' or you've made a despicable mess outta things. So which is it this time?"
"N-nothing! I swear!"
"'Kay. You done somethin'."
"I did not!"
"Bullcrap the second." She smirked. "If'n ya fess up now, I won't let it hurt as much."
Rainbow jutted out her bottom lip. "I've been good, AJ. I swear."
Applejack eyed her.
Her wife smiled a frustratingly-genuine smile.
Applejack sighed and frowned. "I'm still waitin' for the other horseshoe to drop..."
"No horseshoes! No dropping! Promise!" Rainbow hugged her tightly around the chest. "Truuuust me..."
"Oh, this is gonna be a doozy..."