Bonding
"Tic-tac-to, that's three in a row, Thorny!" Applebloom announced to the bewildered stallion just before sneezing all over their game board.
"Dang", Thorny whined, "Ya just can't be beat!"
"Thorny", Applejack laughed from the chair near one of the farmhouse's windows, "She ain't that good."
"Says you!" Applebloom snapped, "Ah beat'im sev'n times already!"
"Hohoho!" Granny Smith laughed, nearly losing her dentures.
Thorny silently growled at the laughter directed at his losing streak. "Can we get back t' work yet?"
Applejack moved the curtain aside to see a dark morning riddled with downpour. "Nuh uh. Still stormin'. I ain't goin' out t' get mah tail struck by lightnin'."
"Nope", agreed Big Macintosh.
"Ya know, sonny", Granny Smith called from behind her knitting, "If yer itchin' so much t' get back t' work, why don' ya head up t' the attic an' move some o' the furniture 'round."
Thorny hopped up from the tic-tac-to board enthusiastically. "Ah'll get right on it!" In five seconds he dashed up the stairs to where the attic door's pull string dangled from the ceiling.
Applejack heard it creak open and slam against the floor above. No pony else in the living room seemed the least bit concerned that the ex-rancher would be rummaging around the storeroom of their most private possessions, which irritated her more than not being able to work alongside said ex-rancher. "Ah guess Ah'll go make sure he don' hurt hisself."
The second she left the room, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith exchanged knowing smiles. Applebloom grinned with them, having no idea at all what was going on. Applejack's hoofsteps echoed from the second floor, then disappeared as they climbed the ladder after Thorny. With her tic-tac-to mate in another part of the house, Applebloom rubbed her eyes and headed up the stairs too. Granny Smith decided to allow the ill filly to go after them since she was undoubtedly bored out of her mind.
She found Thorny rubbing his head as he looked over the massive piles of keepsakes her family had collected over the years. "Y'all got more junk than a packrat in a antique shop", he commented, continuing to stare around.
For any other pony, Applejack would've had a nice clobber for him, but since she knew he was teasing, she replied, "This ain't junk, Thorny."
He held up a box clearly marked with the word "junk". "Ya sure, now?" he chuckled.
She blushed a considerable shade of pink. Since they had gotten back to work a couple of days after the Blue Moon Harvest Festival, Thorny had grown like a patch of blackberries on Applejack. He was a lot funnier and cuter now, coaxing a few new feelings and reactions to come from the farm mare. She hated herself for ever little response to him. It was making her seem more like a city mare, which didn't settle right with her stomach.
Applebloom's sneeze pulled her from her current self-loathing. "Applebloom, why don' ya go take a nap? Yer mighty sick."
The filly shook her head. "Ah wanna help—achoo!—too, Sis."
The older mare didn't think having Applebloom with them wasn't a bad idea. It did keep her from being alone with Thorny. "Alright, but you be careful now, ya hear?"
"I will, Applejack."
Thorny wasn't paying attention to the sisters. He was busy climbing a mountain of trunks to find anyplace barren of boxes. "Dang. Ain't no place clear."
"Only one thing t'do 'bout that", Applejack replied.
"What?"
"We gotta pile some down in the hall."
"Alrighty, then." Thorny turned and carefully jumped down to the floor. "Let's go through it an' find somethin' y'all don' need no more."
The three set out to find anything useless to the Apple Family. Thorny had no idea what was what and didn't want to bother Applejack or Applebloom to find out, so he just set out to do a little organizing. Applejack, on the other hoof was making great progress in chucking stuff through the hole in the floor down to the bottom of the ladder. When she had a pretty good spot cleared for them to set hoof on, she called out, "Hey, y'all can stop, Ah got enough cleared over here!"
Thorny stopped piling somepony's collection of old dolls under the window in the back to go find her. "Ah guess Granny Smith jus' wants us t'make it so ponies can walk up here. Whatcha think Applejack?"
"Ah think that'll work jus' fine", Applejack replied without turning around from rummaging through a box, "Ah don' wanna spend all day tryin' t'figure it out."
"Ah'll get t'takin' care of the boxes by the window an' try to get yer an' Applebloom's stuff over there." Thorny left her again to go stack boxes against the far wall.
They worked quietly with the exception of the humming coming from Thorny. Neither bothered to keep track of the time spent on the opposite ends of the attic. Even though they had no current contact with the other, both ponies were content with just working. They didn't noticed Applebloom snoozing in a pile of stuffed animals she stumbled upon. Applejack had attempted several times to get a glance at Thorny over her shoulder, but the mountain of boxes between them cut her visibility of him down to absolute zero. She could still hear him rummaging through her family's things and settled with that.
The storm outside raged on. The wind outside kept the attic vents in a constant state of motion, sustaining a cool temperature for the two ponies to work. Applejack listened to Thorny's humming while she pushed boxes around. She didn't recognize the song, but enjoyed it nonetheless. She noticed that with every roll of thunder outside, his humming sped up and became higher in pitch. It struck her as odd, and she began to wonder why when a bolt of light streaked across the sky, lighting up the attic and shaking the house with its thunder. Immediately following the force of nature was a loud crash of boxes.
Applejack was on the other side of the attic before the last box could even hit the floor. She found Thorny standing rigidly with his eyes shut tightly. The boxes apparently fell from against the wall away from him, leaving him to shake himself nearly to tears. She approached him slowly, unsure of how he would react to her presence. "Uh, Thorny?"
"…Jus' gimme a second", he said behind clenched teeth. He took a few deep breaths.
While he recuperated from the shock of whatever happened Applejack looked him over. She noticed beads of sweat forming among his freckles. He looked utterly terrified. That was, until he smoothed his damp mane over with a sigh. He pushed his hat further down his neck until it touched his back. "Sorry 'bout that", he chuckled, "Jus'—"
Boom!
"Ayep!" Thorny yelped. He jumped seized up again.
"Thorny, are ya 'fraid o' storms?" Applejack asked semi-incredulously. It really surprised her that somepony as strong as Thorny could be afraid of anything.
He nodded. "Sorry. Ah'll jus' muscle through it."
"Ah don' think so, par'dner", Applejack interjected, putting her hoof out to block him from getting back to work. "I ain't lettin' ya get back all worked up."
"Ah'm fine", he tried stubbornly.
She put a hoof on his shoulder. He was tensed to the point of trembling badly. "Sit down, Thorny", she instructed sternly.
His flank hit the floor without argue. Applejack took a seat across from him on an old pillow. "Better, isn't it?"
He nodded, keeping silent. The rain outside quickly changed from small to gigantic water drops. It pounded against roof, driving the stallion crazy. Applejack watched him writhe. She felt really bad for him, but didn't know how to make him feel better. He couldn't even hold himself together in her presence. She couldn't tell if he was even trying to. Eventually, when she thought his eyes were tearing up, she decided that five minutes of silence were enough. "So, uh, why are ya 'fraid of storms?"
He mumbled inaudibly to himself. It looked like whatever it was he didn't want to talk about it. Applejack just had to help him, but couldn't unless she knew why the storm was scaring him so much. "C'mon, Thorny, why're ya so scared?"
When Thorny glanced into Applejack's concerned face, he was sure that she wasn't going to make fun of him. "Can ya keep a secret, Applejack?"
"Yer darn tootin' Ah can!"
"Alrighty then." Thorny felt he could actually trust Applejack with it. He had never felt that way about anypony else. "It was a long time ago. Back before mah sisters were runnin' 'round."
Applejack leaned in to get more comfortable. It seemed like Thorny had a story to tell, and she was more than ready to hear it. Thorny gulped. Everytime he told the story, he could remember it clearly in his head.
"Come on, Thorny!"
"Stop goin' so fast, Bramble!" the little colt whined as he galloped up the hill.
"Haha!" Bramble laughed, "Yer slower than a frozen snail in winter!"
"We were goin' to the lake t' pick flowers fer Mother's Day", Thorny explained, "It was gonna storm pretty bad, so we were tryin' t'get there as fast as we could. Bramble got to the lake first, but waited on me jus' like he always did."
"How'd ya get so fast, Bramble?" asked the four-year-old-Thorny, trotting up to the taller pony.
"Jus' did a lot o' runnin', Thorn", the bigger brother replied. "Ah'll teach ya when we move t'Ponyville after mah birthday."
"Ah can't wait!" Thorny grinned up at his brother with a gap-toothed smile.
Bramble laughed. "We gotta hurry an' get these flowers. See them clouds? We don' wanna get stuck out in the storm."
Applejack's heart sped up with every word that came out of Thorny's mouth. She didn't like the way she thought he was taking the story. She didn't ask him to stop, though. It was bonding material that only came around once in a lifetime.
"Well, we got the flowers an' were headed back when it started to rain." Thorny took a deep breath and swallowed. Here came the hard part.
"Somethin' must've gone wrong with the weather team", Bramble observed. "Hop on, Thorny. It's time to hoof it home!"
"Woowee!" Thorny climbed on his brother's back and held on to the flowers they collected as tightly as he could.
Bramble tore off in the direction of their home as fast as he could. Not long after they started running did the rain start pouring faster onto the dusty path. Bramble slid to a stop. "Aw, dang, Ah can't see anything!"
"What?! Ah can't hear nothin' yer sayin'!" Thorny tightened his hold around his sibling's neck.
The wall of water falling around them made it hard for the two to even see their noses. Bramble frantically spun around for any hopes of seeing shelter. "This ain't good! Ah gotta get up a hill or somethin' right now!"
"Ah was too scared to know what was goin' on." Thorny's voice was now only barely a whisper as the worst part of the story came nearer. He had forgotten about the rain outside for the downpour in his memory. Applejack took the chance to move to his side to listen better and put a hoof around him.
"Dang this mud!" Bramble cursed as he climbed a steep hill, "Hang on, Thorny!"
"What's goin' on, Bramble?"
"We gotta get t'the high ground!" Bramble shouted. "If it starts t'flood that's the safest place!"
The mud caked up at his hooves, eliminating all traction from the ground. They slowly slid back down to the foot of the hill. From far off in the distance, a large roar echoed over the rain. Bramble quickly put Thorny down on the ground. "Thorny, Ah want ya t'listen t'me."
The younger brother nodded seriously.
Bramble removed his hat and bandana, revealing his blue and white mane. He quickly slipped them onto his brother. "Ah'm goin' t'throw you up the hill. Whatever ya do, DON'T get by the edge!"
Thorny didn't get the chance to nod before he was scooped up in his brother's hooves. He looked over his shoulder to see a massive wall of water swallowing the plains of Trotledge. "Ah love ya Thorny!"
"Next thing Ah knew", Thorny sniffed, "Ah was flyin' through the air. Ah landed on the top o' the hill. Ah waited fer Bramble t' climb up, but he never did…"
Applejack pulled Thorny into a hug. She didn't know if anything she could say would make the pain go away, so just held on to him. The storm outside poured on. Applejack found herself watching it slowly ease up while Thorny sobbed into her fur. She felt guilty for hearing his tale even though she didn't really force him to tell her.
"Thanks, Applejack." Thorny stood up. "Not many ponies do that fer me."
"Sure thing", she replied brightly.
As if nothing happened, the stallion started moving boxes again. Applejack chuckled. "C'mon, Thorny, sit down."
T
Big Macintosh felt that the three in the attic should be aware that the rain stopped. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he found boxes of his old things piled down by the attic's ladder. He sighed. In the attic he found Applejack and Thorny lauging across from each other on two old large pillows. "Anypony mind tellin' me why mah things are thrown down in the hall?"
"Mah bad, Big Mac", Applejack laughed. "Ah forgot t'get it all back up here."
"Anyways, Ah came up t'let you know that the storm stopped. Ah'm goin' out t'check on the south orchard."
"Be out in a minute, Big Mac", Thorny called down after him.
The two let the red pony leave earshot before continuing their conversation. "Yeah, we have rodeos."
"Phew, that's good", Thorny said, "Now Ah don' have t' just go back t'Trotledge fer'em."
"Matter o' fact", Applejack said, "Ah think the next one's comin' 'round in a couple o' weeks."
"Can't wait!" Thorny hopped up from his pillow. "Ah'm goin' out t'practice with a little work."
He jumped down the ladder to head out to the fields, leaving Applejack to think to herself. "Ah wonder if Ah shoulda told'im that Ah compete in rodeos too…hmm, nah! It'd be a big surprise fer him."