Friends and Lovers

by Donnys Boy


Calling the Bluff (ApplePie)

"Calling the Bluff"
(ApplePie)

When Applejack woke up, she awoke to a pair of bright blue eyes. They were not the blue eyes that she'd dreamed of for months—those awful, secret, shameful dreams that always left her feeling so guilty and sick inside—not those dark blue eyes that sparkled and gleamed, that mocked and taunted. No, these blue eyes were a soft, baby blue, open and honest as the day was long, and even this early in the morning, full of the purest kind of laughter.

"Good morning, Applejack!" sang Pinkie, while giving the farmer a quick lick on the nose.

Applejack almost grinned. Almost, but not quite. "G'morning, Pink."

Rolling out of bed, the pink earth pony trotted over to a dresser and began dragging a brush through her unruly mane. "So, what do you want for breakfast today? I was thinkin' blueberry muffins, but I know how you feel about apples, so maybe I could—"

"We gotta stop."

Pinkie slowly set down her brush. "What? Stop eating breakfast? Perish the thought!"

"We gotta stop … stop doing this." Applejack sat up in bed and ran a hoof through her shaggy mane. Her hair was untied, and she tossed it over her shoulder in irritation. "It ain't right, what we're doin'. It ain't right, me using you like this!"

"Applejack, you're not—"

"Pinkie, I know what yer gonna say." It's what Pinkie always said, but this morning, Applejack wasn't going to let her. Couldn't let her. "Fact o' the matter is, though, that we both know all o' this only ever happened 'cause you was smartin' over losing RD and I was all hung up on …"

Pinkie raised an eyebrow, almost as if daring the other pony to say the name.

" … well, it don't matter none who I was hung up on, I don't reckon," finished Applejack, with a scowl. She grabbed her hat from the bedpost and headed for the door. She paused with her hoof on the door knob, glancing over her shoulder at Pinkie Pie, who was still standing by the dresser.

“Please don’t go, AJ. Pretty please?”

"I’m sorry, sugarcube, but it's high time we both faced the truth. You don't love me, and I …" Applejack looked away, up to the corner of the room, where a scrap of an orange party streamer dangled limp and lifeless from the ceiling. "And I don't love you, neither."

Swallowing hard, Applejack pushed open the door. She barreled down the stairs at a full gallop, as she felt stinging behind her eyes, and was grateful to find a closed and empty bakery below her. Just as she reached the front door of Sugarcube Corner, she heard the soft clop of hooves from behind and froze.

She probably should have kept on going. But she didn't.

Maybe it was because her Granny raised her better than to just cut and run like a coward. Maybe it was that stupid orange gem, cut in the shape of an apple and set into a necklace of shining gold.

Maybe it was just because she was a darn fool. Granny always did say that all the common sense in the family went to Macintosh.

"You're wrong, you know." Pinkie Pie's voice was perfectly pleasant, perfectly cheerful, perfectly Pinkie.

Despite herself, Applejack snorted. "Wrong about what?"

She could hear hooves on wood as Pinkie slowly approached. "About me not loving you, of course."

Applejack shut her eyes. Darn it. Darn it, darn it, darn it! She'd thought … she'd hoped … darn it all to Tartarus and back again …

"Oh, and you're wrong about you not loving me. That too!"

Instantly Applejack's eyes flew open, only to be greeted once again by that sea of shimmering blue, as Pinkie had somehow positioned herself directly between the orange pony and the door.

Shakily, Applejack licked her lips and asked, "Pink, what in Equestria are ya talkin' about?"

The other pony grinned like a Cheshire cat. "You ever wonder why Rarity and Dashie always get all your bits whenever we play poker, AJ? It's because, even though you're really great at lots and lots of things—like apple-farming and baking and rodeos and that one super awesome thing you can do with your tongue—you are the worstest ever at bluffing, you silly filly."

Applejack didn't quite know what to say to that.

She was rescued from the necessity of a reply, however, when Pinkie Pie's lips met hers, hard and insistent, yet somehow friendly and inviting. After a moment's hesitation, a moment of confusion and indecision, Applejack returned the kiss. It seemed like the thing to do.

She didn't know why.

And she didn't know why that stinging behind her eyes suddenly got worse, as soon as she started kissing Pinkie back, why it got so bad that she could feel hot tears begin trickling down. But when a pair of soft hooves touched her cheeks and gently wiped away those tears, she couldn't stop the grin that slowly but surely overtook her entire face.

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Author's Notes: I'd never intended this series to work like "The Combinatorics Project," with just one story per ship, but instead to feature whichever ships I felt like writing. So I always knew there would be ships that repeated, 'cause goodness knows I have my favorites ... but if you'd told me the first ship to get more than one story would be ApplePie, I'd have told you that you were nuts.

But Kyronea gave out a writing prompt about Applejack confessing her love to Pinkie Pie, and I felt inspired. So here 'tis.

Best ship name is best ship name.