A Bittersweet Apple

by MegaTJ

The Road to Realization

The Road to Realization

"Ha!" Thorny yelled, throwing a bale of hay to the loft of the barn with the use of his lasso. "How'd Ah do!?"

"Almost t'the back, Thorn!" Apple Sprout shouted down. "You sure are ready fer the rodeo, huh?"

"Not yet, sis!" Thorny said. He snagged another bale and tossed it.

Apple Sprout galloped to the back to see that it had slid firmly to the back wall. "Yeehaw! Thorny ya did it!"

"Woowee!" The stallion threw his hat into the air for celebration. Instead of tying it to the back of his neck like he usually did, he only placed it on top of his brown mane.

"Now that yer done", Applejack said from the door with a laugh. "Why don' y'all come in fer lunch? Granny Smith's got apple chip sandwiches fer us."

"Had me at lunch", Thorny chuckled, catching his sister who took the easier and faster way down by jumping.

"Food!" the young filly cheered upon feeling her hooves hit the ground.

"Ah swear", Applejack laughed as she held onto her hat as Apple Sprout's tail wind rushed past, "Ain't nopony Ah know eat like her. 'Cept maybe you."

Thorny put his weight against the barn door with a roll of his eyes. "Ah just eat healthy like."

Applejack shook her head sarcastically. "Ah gotta be honest", she said, "Ah'm in real trouble if Ah ever get into a pie eatin' contest with ya."

"Don' want t'toot mah own horn", he replied cheekily, "But all o'Ponyville'd be in trouble!"

"Now don' be gettin' a big head 'bout ya", the mare warned with a decent amount of seriousness.

"Just pickin'." Thorny looked away with a scratch of his head.

While his attention was elsewhere, Applejack smiled with teasing intent. In a quick movement, she brought her hoof down on the brim of his hat, pulling it over his eyes. "Race ya!" she laughed. She turned to take off for the kitchen, but was held down firmly by Thorny stepping on her tail.

"Oh no ya don't!" he chuckled.

Applejack immediately struggled to free her tail, but got nowhere as Thorny's grip was just too much for her. He watched in amusement as she pulled harder and harder, grunting and groaning to free her tail. Only when he was afraid that she was going to break it in half did he ease up a little. He couldn't have chosen a worst time to let up. Applejack jerked as hard as she could the second he provided enough room for her tail to slip out from under his hoof. The moment caught her off balance and she fell over on her back in a flurry of dry dust.

Thorny looked down over her with a grin. "Ya alright, Dusty?" he snickered.

She crossed her hooves, clearly embarrassed with two pink hotspots settling on her cheeks. "Be quiet." Even though he had just accidentally humiliated her, accident or not, she still accepted his hoof up. She was pretty covered in dust from the fall, so Thorny decided to apologize by taking his hat and placing it on top of hers. She rarely saw him without the hat on top of his hat and it never ceased to amaze her how messy his brown mane was underneath it.

Neither said anything. The quiet of the day was too peaceful to ruin. Instead they made their way to the open door of the kitchen. Inside, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were busy planning for their next excursion. Applejack and Thorny sat on the opposite half of the kitchen table across from each other. There were two sandwiches left on a plate that the young ponies hadn't managed to destroy yet. Thorny and Applejack grabbed the two before one of the chatting ponies could decide they were still hungry. He didn't immediately eat, for he was interested in what they had planned for the next day.

"And I was thinking", the youngest member of the group, Cotton Threads, was saying, "That if we can get Rainbow Dash and the Weather Teams to create enough wind at the lake, we can get our Cutie Marks in sailboarding!"

"That's sounds awesome!" Scootaloo cheered.

Applejack quickly clamped her hooves over her ears. Thorny saw her, but didn't know what was about to happen since he was unaware of the CMC's antics.

"CUTIE MARCK SAILBOARDERS! YAY!"

The cheer nearly knocked the stallion right out of his chair. High pitched ringing echoed through his head. When it cleared up, he saw Applejack smiling apologetically. He shook his head to fully get his sense of hearing back. When he looked, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had already disappeared from the kitchen.

"Sorry", Applejack said, "Shoulda warned ya."

Thorny smiled. "S'okay, ya didn' have the time t'say anything anyways." He looked down at the last survivor of the pile of sandwiches. Without thinking twice, he quickly wolfed it down and finished with a noisy burp. "Ah ain't had a sandwich like that in a long time!"

"Ah ain't see somethin' eat like that since I fed the pigs this mornin'", Applejack teased.

He shrugged, "At least Ah'm not 'shamed of it." He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes in deep thought.

Applejack watched him. She didn't do or say anything except study his relaxed expression until she noticed she was staring. "Thinkin' 'bout the rodeo again?"

He nodded. "Can't wait", he sighed. "Been trainin' all week."

"Ah'll be watchin' ya."

Thorny opened his eyes. "Why don' you do it with me?" he asked.

Applejack flinched. Since she told him about it, she still hadn't said that she competed. The desire to surprise him led her to make sure that nopony breathed a word to him about her having competed in past rodeos and she had even gone so far as to hide her collection of trophies and ribbons. She didn't want to lie for fear of seeming untrustworthy so she said the only thing she could. "I don't know…" she muttered uneasily.

"Jus' not the rodeo type?"

"Ah guess…"

"Ah think ya should do it", he stated.

"Why?"

"'Cuz you'd be good at it", he pointed out.

Her heart jumped. "Ah don't know", she said modestly, looking away with a blush.

"C'mon Applejack! You an' Ah both know ya can buck circles 'round me in the orchard. Ain't not tellin' what else ya can do!"

"Ah'll think about it, Thorny…"

He laughed, "I got no doubt in mah mind that ya can't bring home less than three ribbons!"

Applejack became mute with excitement. The fact that he believed so strongly in her and admitted that she was more skilled than him in something put her heart into overdrive. To make up for the rushing of blood through her veins, she began to breathe deeply. Realizing what her body was doing before Thorny could ask, she quickly left the kitchen, hoping that he didn't catch on to what had just happened to her.

Thorny watched her leave. He didn't follow to question her because she was her own pony and had her own reason. He checked the time. "Four o'clock", he sighed, "Dang it's been a busy day." Having nothing else to do, he collected the dishes from the table and began to wash them until somepony came along to keep him company.

Outside, Applejack rested against the side of the house. She shook uncontrollably as she attempted to get her body back under her control. "What in tarnation jus' happened? Why did it happen?"

"Because you're in L-O-V-E", said Pinkie Pie, stepping away from the wall of the house wearing the exact same color as the wall.

Applejack jumped back angrily. "Pinkie Pie! How many times do Ah gotta tell ya: Ah ain't in love", she snapped.

Pinkie giggled and shook off her camouflage paint just as if it was water. "Yes you are and I can prove it!"

"Oh, yeah", Applejack challenged.

"Yep. Just follow the bouncing Pinkie Pie!" she cheered just before the said Pinkie Pie hopped away from the house.

Applejack shook her head, but followed anyway, confident that she could prove Pinkie Pie's presumption paltry. Though she was sure that she would, there was a little twinge of doubt in the back of her head. No matter how hard she fought and denied it, a small cogitation of Thorny would break through and flutter her heart. It was as if some small part of her wanted to be in love with him. The orange mare quickly shifted her attention from her thoughts to the babbling mare leading her away from her farm.

She wondered where exactly Pinkie Pie was taking her to keep her mind clear of the stallion she left in the kitchen of her home. At first Applejack thought they were going to see Rarity to get a full romantic profile and several unneeded explanations about how she was in love. When they passed by the Carousel Boutique, she thought it was probably Fluttershy. The mare was probably going to make her see reason about her feelings, but when she noticed they weren't headed in the right direction, she was completely confused. Unless Twilight was going to put her under a mind-control spell, there was nothing the librarian could do to confirm that she was in love, and Celestia knew that Rainbow Dash knew enough about romance to do anything to help Pinkie Pie.

She continued to wonder exactly who Pinkie Pie was taking her to while she followed the pink mare to wherever it was they were going, which actually turned out to be a giant circle around the library as she was too caught up in her thoughts to notice until she saw the same reading bench for the fifth time in a row. She looked up to see they were getting nowhere and angrily called, "Pinkie Pie! Where're we goin!?"

She stopped in front of the door and opened it. "Right here."

T

Meanwhile, Thorny was back in the barn matching wits in a battle of strategy. He slid his red checker into place, confident that his opponent couldn't do anything to stop him now.

Tick Tack Tick!

"What?"

"Triple jump!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, happily collected the captured pieces and preventing him from obtaining the first king of the game.

"Dang it, saw that one comin', huh?"

"I saw it five moves ago!" she bragged.

Thorny smiled. Her arrogant attitude was just what he needed to bring victory down on her rainbow head. He studied the game board. There were very few moves he could make without mistake, but they all put him in a disadvantage. He kept looking it over until he found a move that didn't. He just hoped that Rainbow Dash would put herself in a tight spot with the next move. He slid his checker into the safe spot on the side of the board.

Rainbow Dash slid one of her checkers forward, almost having reached the middle. Seeing that move gave him an idea. With his two pieces guarding the sides of the board, he could funnel her through the middle with useless moves. Against his normal strategy, he moved one the checker on the far back right guarding the king making spaces forward. It forced her to move one of hers, starting a series of useless moves to keep from getting a checker captured from the other.

Eventually it got to the point where Thorny had more moves than she did. Her next move would have to be a sacrifice. She slid her leading black checker into the opening. That's just what Thorny wanted. With a smirk and a very complicated pattern, he successfully jumped every one of Rainbow Dash's checkers, winning the game.

She stared at the large move he made mouth agape with shock. She looked up to see him grinning victoriously. She chuckled, impressed. "That was awesome!" she flew into the air with a backflip. "How'd you do that?"

"Ah waited until ya got to where ya couldn' move no more and then you saw what happened." He put the game back into its box from the barrel they were playing on and replaced it back into the shelf behind the cider bar in the barn. He took a stool and propped himself up backwards on the bar. "Wanna do anything else?"

She shrugged. "Not really", she admitted, "I just came over to get AJ's leg weights so I can train for the rodeo."

"You compete?" he asked.

"You bet! I even have a couple of ribbons! Gotta be honest though, it's totally not easy. I never got a first place before…"

Her confession made Thorny feel bad, so he decided to let her in on a secret of his own. "Don' tell nopony, but Ah never won anything in a rodeo before. Ah'm hopin' this time it'll be different."

"I know how ya feel", she sighed.

"Promise ya won' tell", Thorny told her.

"Don't worry, dude. Secret's safe with me."

He smiled. "Thanks."

An awkward silence festered between them. Rainbow Dash quickly broke it. "So…where do ya think AJ is?"

"Ah don' know", Thorny answered, "But wherever she is, Ah bet she's enjoying it."

T

"NO!" Applejack bellowed, "Ah ain't gettin' brainwashed! Get that thing away from me!" She dashed for the stairs and almost made it out of Twilight's attic before Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Silly Applejack!" she laughed, "That's not what it's for!"

She stopped on the first stair. "It ain't?"

"Not at all", Twilight confirmed, "It's just going to measure your heart rate and other things while we ask you a couple of questions."

Even though freedom was just a hop away, Applejack took a second look at the big machine Twilight had just attempted to hook her up to. She slowly walked back into the attic. "Let's get this over with so Ah can prove y'all wrong…"

Twilight removed the hats from Applejack's head to replace them with a large bowl-like device. She strapped it on firmly. "Okay, Applejack, now just put your hooves right here", she instructed, tapping a podium in front of her.

Applejack looked at it hesitantly.

"Don't worry, it's just to analyze your pulse."

Applejack shakily placed her hooves upon it. The second they made contact, two cuffs trapped them their old-fashioned stock-style. Immediately, Twilight began to turn on the machine. It whirred to life and soon the attic was alive with the sounds of beeping, clicking, and other such noises. It wasn't long before the heart monitor blared a siren at the massive BPM Applejack's heart was producing. To save everypony's ears, Twilight recalibrated the sensitivity. "Just try to relax Applejack. It can't hurt you."

A few deep breaths did little to calm the nerves of the trapped Earth Pony. Now that escape was officially impossible she looked around until her gaze fell upon a pony she didn't know restrained in much the same way she was. "Whatcha in fer?"

"Insomnia", the mare yawned, "I haven't been to sleep in a week."

Remembering her other client, Twilight quickly zipped to her and slipped a headset over her ears. "This will play soothing sounds to help you relax. Just focus on them and try to sleep, okay?"

"I will, Twilight", she replied drowsily.

Twilight turned back to Applejack. "Ready?"

"Not really." Applejack felt she was going to be sick, but had to get the rumors off of her so she dealt with it.

"Okay, first question: Do you deny being in love with Thorny Hopper?"

"Yeah."

Twilight checked the monitors to make sure they were all working. "Okay, do you ever feel different when around him? Maybe giddy or bashful?"

Applejack mulled it over. She had a feeling that there was a lie detector hooked up to her somewhere, so she knew she would have to answer honestly. Thorny always did make feel a little weird. Especially earlier, but she didn't know what kind of feeling it was. "Ah guess…"

"Last question!" Pinkie Pie announced from the spot from where she was forcing herself to be quiet. "What would you do if you could never see Thorny again!?"

Applejack didn't know how to respond right off. She had become so used to seeing Thorny almost every day that she never got the chance to miss him. When she imagined what would happen if he had to go away for a while, her heart became light with panic and her stomach knotted with fear. Thinking about what would happen if he had to move back to Trotledge almost made her hooves sweat and nearly sent her lunch flying. Then she thought about what if she had never even met Thorny.

WWWWOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Twilight quickly unplugged the machine before the alarm caused panic in Ponyville. She freed Applejack's hooves before the circuits fried. "Okay, let's see now…"

"What did Ah tell ya", Applejack gasped, "Was Ah right or what?"

"Actually", Twilight said, looking over the printed data that the machine had collected during the questioning, "From what I see here, you are completely head over hooves for Thorny!"

"Aw, what does some machine know anyhow?! It don' know how Ah feel!" she yelled angrily.

"I'm sorry, Applejack, but these results don't lie…"

"Even if Ah'm in love", Applejack snapped, "What do Ah even do now?"

"Well", Twilight began, "You can confess your feelings…" The glare she received was solid proof that that wasn't what the mare wanted to hear so she quickly continued the suggestions. "Or you can do nice things for him and be sweet until he confesses."

"Oh, Ah guess Ah'll go be sweet to him right now until he tells me he loves me!" Applejack finally ripped the monitor from her head and threw it down. She collected the hats and stormed out in outrage.

Terrified at her rage, Pinkie Pie and Twilight let her leave. With a sigh, the unicorn picked up the helmet and placed it back onto its appropriate table, not noticing that it was hooked up to the other machine that was currently being used too. Twilight saw that her friend had fallen asleep.

"At least I managed to accomplish something today…"

By the time that Applejack reached the front door of the library, she had managed to cool down. More thoughts formed in her mind about what just happened. Twilight was never a pony to lie to her friends. "An' if she was right", Applejack sighed, "Ah need t'do somethin' nice fer'im…Ah guess Ah can start by lettin' him win the big obstacle course this weekend…"

Comments

[Sea_Swirl]

I wonder what thorny will think if he finds AJ's ribbons and metals.

[SageBrony07]

AppleJack. You still have a long way to go before you get a ring. Great chapter. Good luck with the next one.