Do You Love An Apple?

by A Hoof-ful of Dust

Second half - 'Seeds'

'Do You Love An Apple?'

Second half – 'Seeds'

Heat. The room is nothing but heat. The air is warm steam, heavy to breathe but comforting. The wood that covers the walls is hot to the touch. The wooden benches sweat. A bead of water lands on one of the glowing coals and bubbles, sputters, evaporates. Fluttershy's towel is a heated cocoon encasing her mane.

Rarity is dominating the conversation, which is nothing unusual, but Fluttershy is finding it hard to pay attention. The story about the ponies who came up with idea for the sauna did sound interesting, but she was stuck on thinking about the part where it was supposedly tradition to rush straight out into the freezing snow afterwards. Something about that was sticking in her mind, making her think of standing at the crossroads with Applejack yesterday, making her stomach turn over.

From far away, Fluttershy becomes aware that Rarity is waiting for a response.

"Oh. Um. I'm sorry. You were saying something about jumping in the snow?"

"No..." Rarity says, "I was talking about how my brunch with Cutting Edge went, and you... drifted off. Is everything okay?"

"Well..."

"Oh, I've been completely dreadful! I've just been talking about myself the whole time, while..." Rarity focuses her completely attention on Fluttershy. "What's wrong, dear heart?"

Fluttershy thinks for a moment about what is wrong, and her cheeks begin to feel warm for a reason completely unconnected to being in the sauna.

"There's nopony else here," Rarity prompts, "and I promise I won't tell a soul. Cross my heart, and cupcakes, and all that."

"Well..." Fluttershy picks a knot in the grain of the far bench and stares at it. "If, um, if there was somepony that, that you liked..." She can feel the tension grow in Rarity as she fills with excitement without having to look at her. "But, but, you were friends with that pony, you're really good friends with them, and you really don't want to do anything to threaten that friendship, and on top of that this pony might not be feeling so good about some things that just happened and you want to tell them that everything will be okay but it's hard to bring the subject up without letting that pony know what you're really talking about and-" She stops when Rarity rests her hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy looks up at her to find her giving a comforting smile.

"...What would you do?"

"I think," says Rarity, weighing her words carefully, "that if I were in that position, I would let my actions speak as to my intentions. I would be simple and direct." She smiles again. "I think I would just be my dear kind self and let things work themselves out."

"I... I think I could do that," Fluttershy says, and smiles.

Rarity hugs her. They are both overly warm but it is not uncomfortable. "I know you can."

------------------

Simple and direct, Fluttershy thinks as Rarity heads off to Carousel Boutique. Let my actions speak. Simple and direct. Be myself. Simple and direct.

Unlike the first ponies from the far north to pour water over heated coals in an enclosed room, Fluttershy has not gone out into the cold unprotected. She has her boots, and a lumpy knitted wool hat that was a present from Twilight from when she went through her phase of trying to teach herself to knit (which came and went with nothing to show for it other than Fluttershy's hat and a pair of mittens for Spike that he accidentally set fire to), and a long scarf that she needs to loop around her neck three or four times so it won't drag on the ground. She is thinking about the kind of shock there would be from going from sauna to snow. She is thinking about how to be simple and direct while being herself.

Hi, Applejack. What are you doing today? Oh, she's probably busy with something for the farm. What are you doing today? If you're busy right now, what are you doing later? No... that's not simple, it's too open. Hi, Applejack. Are you doing anything later? Because I thought we could... do something... later. If you want. But I don't have anything ready to do... Hi Applejack. For a while I've been feeling something about you and I think you're very brave and nice and strong and I think that I like you as something more than a friend, are you interested in seeing if you feel the same way? ...Absolutely not.

Fluttershy is so inside her own thoughts that she doesn't see Rainbow Dash until she lands right in front of her. She hops back, startled.

"Fluttershy, are you busy right now?" Rainbow asks without preamble.

"No, not really."

"Great! Can you go to Applejack's and tell her I'm sorry about leaving the thing with the snow from yesterday half-finished? I was gonna go by there this morning but my alarm was too quiet or something, and somepony didn't keep a close enough eye on the storm for today and it's gone and mixed with some clouds over the Everfree Forest, so now I have to go fix that..."

"I'd be happy to go see Applejack." The words come out of Fluttershy's mouth, but to her it almost doesn't feel like she's the one saying them.

"Okay, awesome. I owe you one."

"Really, it's no trouble..."

"Well, anyway. Thanks, Fluttershy!"

"Good luck with the storm," she says as Rainbow Dash takes to the sky. As she watches the rainbow afterimage fade, the perfect simple and direct words come to Fluttershy.

------------------

"Need some help?"

Applejack and Big Macintosh are in the middle of wrangling a cumbersome ladder. It seems to be refusing to lie stable against the storage bin even with the aid of a couple of ropes.

"Well, hi Fluttershy," Applejack says, "and yes, that would be mighty appreciated."

"Rainbow Dash says she's sorry for not finishing yesterday," Fluttershy explains, "but there was a big emergency with a storm so she couldn't come today, but I wasn't doing anything, so I thought..." She flutters her wings.

"That's better than what we were planning. This old ladder's seen better days, I reckon."

"Eeeyup," Big Mac adds for emphasis.

"Mind getting the plow out?" Applejack asks. Big Mac does not, and he begins to makes his way to the shed back across the field.

"Were you going to climb up that?" Fluttershy asks, indicating the ladder.

"Well, nopony'd have to if we'd fixed the roof like we wanted. Applebloom found some spots where the wood's nearly rotted through – she was up there trying to earn herself a cutie mark in climbing, or somesuch – but that was right in the middle of the fall harvest, and we never got time to replace the rotten parts before the snow came. So I've been going up there every so often to make sure the rot doesn't set in any further, or else the whole roof might just fall in."

"That seems very... dangerous."

Applejack snorts. "There ain't any pony more sure on her hooves than me. 'Sides, it's nowhere near as dangerous as what Rainbow wanted to do. She was fixing to tear over the roof and sort of blow the snow off in the slipstream. Would've taken the roof with it and probably brought the whole mess down to boot."

"Oh, that would be bad."

"A little."

Fluttershy looks up at the roof of the building. "So, how should I get the snow down?"

Applejack shades her eyes as she looks up; she is once again without her regular hat. "You can just sort of push it off. It comes down pretty easy."

"Okay."

Fluttershy flies up to the level of the roof. She can see Big Mac returning with the snowplow. The roof is broad, and tilted enough that it looks as if it would be difficult to stand on it even if it wasn't covered in a thick crust of snow. Fluttershy gives some of the snow at the apex of the roof a ginger push, and a wide sheet of it cascades to the ground. It reminds her of that image of going from snow to sauna, for some reason.

"Like that?" she asks from over the edge.

"Perfect, sugarcube!"

Fluttershy is suddenly very glad she can duck back beyond the lip of the roof. She backs up without looking and hears a sound – a wet, muffled crunching. She's sunk her hoof into a rotten section of the roof up to her boot. She tries to pull herself free, but that just yields a soggy grinding noise. Some more snow dislodges above the hole Fluttershy has made, causing her to squeal as it fills her boot. She pulls once more, her wings beating harder, and feels a splinter of wood jabbing her somewhere underneath the snow.

"Everything okay?" comes Applejack's voice from the ground.

"I'm sorry!" Fluttershy starts saying. "It was an accident, I wasn't-"

"What happened?"

"I... I think I'm stuck."

Fluttershy isn't sure how to interpret the silence that follows her statement, but then she starts to hear a mysterious rhythmic tapping noise. For a moment she worries it's the whole roof slowly giving way, but then she spots the top of the ladder moving in time with the taps. Applejack's head appears from the edge of the roof.

"Well, that'll teach me for waiting," she says, mostly to herself. She climbs up another rung and reaches out to Fluttershy. "C'mon, give me your hoof, I'll pull you out."

Fluttershy has to stretch awkwardly before Applejack can get a solid hold of her. After some fumbling attempts, Applejack has Fluttershy's hoof in a firm grip while leaning over the treacherous roof.

"Alright," she says while looking Fluttershy in the eyes, "One. Two-"

An echoing crack, a sound vastly different to the rotted wood in the roof. The old ladder has chosen this moment to bite the dust.

Applejack has enough time to reflect on how slow it seems the ladder is falling, almost like it is melting and sinking away. She holds on to Fluttershy tighter and Fluttershy holds tighter on to her, and then Applejack's back hooves are suspended in empty space. The ladder collapses to the ground. Fluttershy lets out a long sigh, and Applejack realises she has also been holding her breath. She is about to comment on how close that all just was when the combined weight of two ponies becomes too much for the spongy wood anchoring Fluttershy. It gives out with a gnarly growl, and Applejack slides over the edge of the roof, dragging Fluttershy with her.

Once again Applejack has time to think of how slow everything is, only now it's all because of Fluttershy. Her wings beating furiously, her eyes screwed shut, she's doing all she can to slow Applejack before she hits the ground. Her landing is neither gentle nor graceful, but it is free of broken bones or worse. Applejack lands on her back with a grunt, and Fluttershy collapses beside her in the snow.

"Applejack!" Big Mac rushes to her, abandoning the snowplow.

"I'm alright," she manages. She turns to Fluttershy. "Thanks, sugarcube."

"Oh, it wasn't really..." Fluttershy breaks off speaking as she notices how Big Mac is looking at her. It's a strange stunned look, one that sits uncomfortably on his usually calm face. Fluttershy glances at Applejack to see the look has spread to her as well.

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"Miss Fluttershy... your leg."

Fluttershy looks down at the leg that was caught in the roof. The blood coming from the gash that came from pulling free from the hole in the roof is turning the white snow around her leg a pale red. She suddenly feels a very uncomfortable sort of lightheadedness.

------------------

"You don't have to go to all this trouble..." Fluttershy protests.

"If you say that one more time, I might just wrap a bandage 'round your mouth, too." Applejack is being playful, but Fluttershy falls quiet all the same. "Now, hold still."

She may have a hard time with that; Fluttershy is worried. She is worried about Applebloom fixing the hole she made in the roof, despite Applejack's assurance that her sister 'doesn't weigh much and knows the right end to hold a hammer by'. She's worried about Angel, even though he can mostly take care of himself through the winter because so many of her other animal friends have flown south to warmer places or hidden in warm burrows under the ground. She's worried about the dark clouds approaching that look heavy with cold rain instead of fresh snow. She's worried because she's been more of a bother than a help to Applejack. She's worried about talking with Applejack.

"There. All done."

Fluttershy looks at her leg, wrapped in a white bandage and missing its boot. The cut was not deep; the real injury was to her ankle, which had twisted in some way it wasn't meant to when she came free from the roof and had swelled and turned an angry colour. Fluttershy doesn't think she could get her boot back on even if it wasn't in the hole somewhere full of snow. She can walk still, but has to avoid putting anything but the lightest pressure on that hoof.

"Thank you," Fluttershy says, "but I should be going..."

"I'm not letting you go anywhere," Applejack says, "not with your leg the way it is."

"I could fly home, it's not so far."

"With that storm?" Applejack counters.

Fluttershy glances out the window at the oncoming clouds again. Angel would be okay, she thinks: he likes it when there's a storm, much more than she does. And there's no reason to leave just yet. Be direct. Be brave.

"Look," continues Applejack, "at least have dinner here. For your help today."

Fluttershy looks at her. "I don't think I was that much help."

"Well... alright, no, but you tried, and that's gotta count for something." She says this with a large warm smile, and something in her voice Fluttershy can't place. Could...?

The front door opens. Big Mac strides nonchalantly inside. "Roof's fixed," he announces. "Ladder, too."

"Eeeyup," says Applebloom, trailing after him. She drops what she's carrying on the floor with a thud. "We found your boot." The boot has seen better days.

"Thank you," Fluttershy says. "I'll... clean it up before I go." She turns her attention back to Applejack.

"Stay," Applejack says simply. "Please?"

"Alright. Until the storm passes, at least."

------------------

The storm continues after the moon has replaced the sun in the sky. The rain is a constant presence all around the house, wet and cold and thick. Fluttershy is glad for her hat; oddly-shaped as it is, it's still quite warm.

She watches Applejack busy herself with tidying up in the kitchen for a few moments (although it is already tidy enough, as far as Fluttershy can tell – there is only so many times a pony can adjust a row of jam jars) after Big Macintosh has retired upstairs, and then asks, "Applejack... is there anything you'd like to talk about?"

Applejack pauses in the middle of swapping two jars that have already had their positions altered three times in the last couple of minutes. "Maybe," she says without turning around. She gives the apricot jam a final nudge with her nose, then comes to sit at the end of the couch where Fluttershy is propped up by a pillow and swallowed by a patchwork quilt.

"I'm not sure I can do this," Applejack says after a moment while staring at the floor.

"Do... do what?"

"This!" She gestures to herself, suddenly frustrated. "Me." She closes her eyes. "I always thought I would be with a colt."

"How come?" Fluttershy asks, sitting up a little.

"Granny Smith, mostly. She's always dropping these hints – and they ain't subtle, most of the time – hints about the greatgrandponies she'd like to see and the future of the farm and all. I guess it's always been in my head somewhere since I was a little filly – gotta find a nice stallion, gotta keep the farm going, gotta keep the family going." She sighs.

"What about Big Macintosh?"

Applejack gives a rather humourless laugh. "Oh, Granny used to hound him something fierce too, but he just sorta eeeyuped and nnnoped his way through it, so she mostly doesn't bother. Big Mac's so darn shy I don't think he's able to say more'n two words to a filly at one time."

Fluttershy has little to say on this subject, although she feels she can understand Big Mac's point of view.

"So," Applejack continues after a moment, "if I ever did start thinking anything about another mare, I'd just try to forget about it. Pretend like it didn't happen. Because it didn't fit, you see?" She wipes absently at one eye. "It always felt like I would be going against my family."

"I'm sure they would still love you..."

"I know they'd still love me. Just didn't want to disappoint any of 'em." Applejack lets her head fall. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to... I made a real mess with Rainbow."

"You didn't-"

"I did," Applejack insists at the floor. "I don't know what I'm doing at all. How do I figure it all out?"

"I'm sure you can," Fluttershy says, and places her hoof on Applejack's shoulder. After a second she adds: "I did."

Applejack looks up at Fluttershy, comprehension breaking on her face like the dawn.

"And," she continues, emboldened, "I know I'm not brave or strong like Rainbow is, but..." She swallows. The drumming of the rain continues outside. "But I think you're somepony very special and I would really like to know if you might feel the same way or not." She looks at the section of quilt she's been fiddling with.

Applejack blinks. "Sugarcube... are you asking me out?"

"Well... if you want to, that is."

Applejack waits for Fluttershy to meet her gaze. "I want to."

"Okay."

"Alright." They look at each other for a moment longer. "Did you have anything special to do in mind?"

"Oh." Fluttershy looks suddenly crestfallen. "No. Rarity would have planned something properly first..."

"Twilight would probably have pulled an idea from some book or other."

They share a quiet laugh together.

"We should be able to think of something," Fluttershy says, smiling. She becomes aware of how warm she is.

"I reckon we're smart enough to come up with something together," Applejack says. Her voice sounds slightly different than usual. Deeper.

"Together," Fluttershy echoes. When did she come so close to Applejack? She is close enough to hear her breathing in, breathing out. The freckles at the corners of her eyes flex in time. The pair are close enough to... to...

"I ain't never done anything like this before," Applejack breathes.

"Neither have I." Closer still. "Applejack...?"

"Hm?"

"Could... could you close your eyes?" Fluttershy whispers.

Applejack shuts her eyes, and the world turns dark. All she can hear is the rain pouring outside.

The rain lasts all through the night.

------------------

Light. The house is filled with glowing morning light. The sun streams through the windows, making bold long shadows, sparkling across uneven surfaces in bright beads, illuminating the thousands of dust motes that somehow just appear in the right kind of sunlight. Applejack watches them float lazily through the air, winking in and out of the shaft of light that falls over the couch. She is content to watch the specks forever, while the farmhouse lies dormant.

Soon, the house will come to life, and the world outside of it. Soon, she will have to break the still trance everything is held in. Soon, she will wake the sleeping Fluttershy snuggled next to her. Soon this moment will wink out of existence like one of the dust motes when they leave the beam of sunlight. Soon.

But not just yet.

Comments

[The Incredible Werekitty]

That's rather sweet.

[GuyFace]

Well, that was a D'aww moment if I've ever read one...

[Several Alpacas]

Been waiting for some good fluttershy shipping.

yay i found it

[ThePwnzorMuffin]

I read this a while ago, but after reading Synchronicity I figured I'd go back and read this again.

Very sweet. I love your writing style, though I'm not really sure how to describe it.

Anyway, the fact that this has 0 dislikes should say it all. It just needs more attention.

[A Hoof-ful of Dust]

835561
I think the reason this story has 0 dislikes (currently) is a function of it not having a lot of attention, actually. As a story it's got some definite problems, but it was a good way to get myself back into writing and get a feel for the universe.

[ThePwnzorMuffin]

842759

Usually, any good story (by my standards) that I see, usually only gets to 20-25 likes or so before it gets at least one thumbs-down.

I guess it is pretty much impossible for a story to avoid getting disliked, especially the more attention that it gets. So yeah, if this story were more popular, it would have some dislikes.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this story deserves every like that it's gotten so far.

[Arkensaw Pinkerton]

This is really lovely. There's some proper heart behind the ship, and I am a sucker for a good Appleshy fic. If I might give you one bit of advice? You switch between present-tense and past-tense occasionally, and that can make things a little confusing to read. It's usually best to stick with one. That is genuinely the only decent criticism I can come up with for you here- while I prefer an Equestria that's totally on board with gay/lesbian relationships, In one that's maybe slighty less so I can completely see Applejack reacting like this. It was all very in character. Yay!

[AverageJoe]

835561 It now has exactly 1 dislike. Go figure. There just seems to be someone somewhere out in this big old world at any point in time who just can't agree with anything. Seems to be the way things work.

Me, on the other hand, find this story to be pretty damn good, and very sweet at the end. I reward this story with a cookie.

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