Reserve Stock: Concentrate

by Petrichord

Serve

By 9:31 AM, Applejack was down by the irrigation sprinklers with a socket wrench in her jaws.

Most ponies took machinery maintenance for granted. If they didn’t have to work with plumbing or carpentry or whatnot, they tended to assume that once something was built, it would last forever. It was the same plumb foolishness as somepony skipping dessert for a week and assuming that they’d have the sort of body that ponies had in Rarity’s high society magazines, but there wasn’t any accounting for foolishness.

It didn’t change the fact that pipes needed to be checked for wear, and that included the bolts holding things together. The alternative was having water get every which way all over the plants, which was a good way of ruining an entire field.

There. A bolt, right near a T-section of pipe, looking unusually loose. Applejack bit down on the socket wrench, bent over, tightened the bolt again and set the wrench down to work her jaw muscles a little more.

“One down,” Applejack muttered.

“I hope you don’t have to do all the rest. There’s got to be, like, hundreds out here.”

Applejack spun around. Ember loomed over her, oversized breasts jutting out into the fresh air as she peered at the irrigation system around Applejack.

“Can’t say this looks fun, either.” Ember shook her head. “I guess you don’t always get to blow up Timberwolves, though.”

“Hey, Ember.” Applejack took off her hat and set it on the ground, wiping a bead of sweat off of her temple. “Need something?”

“Need to talk, actually. If you can take five minutes out of your schedule or whatever.” Ember looked around at the ground, then knelt carefully down at a barren-looking patch of earth.

Applejack sighed. “What about? Yesterday?”

“Yesterday.” Ember rubbed her eyes. “Look, I’m not sure I got through to you properly.”

“Naw, I getcha.” Applejack shook her head. “It ain’t right to try an’ force somecreature to like you out of obligation. You can’t own somepony else, an’ it ain’t a good idea to try.”

“I mean, that’s true, but let me talk, okay?” Ember reached over and brushed the bangs away from Applejack’s eyes, then slid her claw down to cup Applejack’s cheek.

Mutely, Applejack nodded.

“I’m not saying I was wrong, okay? Because I’m not. But my phrasing sucked. We both sucked at phrasing things, okay? Not just me, but...ugh!” Ember groaned in frustration, then sighed. “Look, Applejack, remember when I said I didn’t hate you?”

Applejack nodded again.

“I mean it. And what I meant to say was that it isn’t like I don’t care about you.” Ember cracked a small smile. “We don’t need to be an official thing, and you don’t get to dictate my life, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to laugh at your jokes. It doesn’t mean I won’t hug you when you’re sad, and it doesn’t mean I won’t listen to you if you need to talk. Because I will. Because I want to. Does that make sense?”

Applejack remained silent. Ember’s wings unfurled, then furled again.

“I wouldn’t have visited you after the first time if I didn’t care about you. I wouldn’t have agreed to what happened yesterday if I didn’t want to. And I wouldn’t have spent all those times with you up in Rarity’s guest bedroom if I didn’t enjoy it. And when I say ‘enjoy it,’ I don’t mean ‘found it fun.’ I mean ‘found it emotionally satisfying.’ ” Ember’s smile grew broader and warmer. “Maybe you think that you’re unattractive, messed up in the head, easily embarrassed, hard to talk with, too reliant on pony rules and doing what you think ponies should do. And maybe there’s some truth in that, especially the last bit. But it can’t all be true, because otherwise I wouldn’t want to spend time with you more often than I do with anycreature else.”

Ember leaned over and kissed Applejack’s forehead, and Applejack’s heart skipped a beat.

“I need you to recognize that I’m my own dragon and I can do whatever I want without having to feel beholden to you. And I need you to have at least a little faith that I’m not just going to walk away from you without saying anything, okay? I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

“It…” Applejack’s voice cracked again. “It ain’t, no.”

“See? That’s a good response.” Ember’s gaze turned a little stern. “And please don’t walk away from me, either. You scared the fire out of me last night.”

“I...I figured that you woulda stopped me or said somethin’ if you didn’t want me to.” Applejack shivered. “...I’m sorry I didn’t look back.”

“And I’m sorry I didn’t try to stop you. I just kind of...panicked, I guess. Couldn’t figure out what to say without sounding like a hypocrite and an ass.” Ember scratched the back of her head. “Plus, I was still kind of furious about the whole thing, but there’s not a lot of point in rehashing that fight again.”

“Yeah.”

Silence settled, broken only by the buzzing of cicadas and the faint whistle of wind.

“Anyways.” With a grunt, Ember stood up again and arched her back. “I guess that’s all I have to say for now. If you want to hang out again, you know where to find me.”

“Hey.”

Ember froze. “Hey...what?”

Applejack stood up. “If that offer to listen to me when I talk’s still on the table, than I wouldn’t mind takin’ you up on it. Elsewise, I didn’t get all the wasp nests burnt out yesterday, an’ I figure it wouldn’t hurt to have some help around for the rest of it. You can even work the chemical thrower if you don’t feel like wheezin’ on ‘em and you ask me nicely.”

Ember grinned. “Deal.”

As one, the two of them turned and walked back to the barn.

Comments

[Captain PonySeidon]

God Dammit Petrichord what am I supposed to do with all these damn feels, huh?! You weave between sheer fetish fuel (admittedly a significant part of what I came for) into deep, soul-searching introspection, & amusing show references in an effortlessly graceful way that makes me want to hate you for not only being so damn talented, but seemingly so oblivious to it as well! Seriously though, it was a hell of an emotional roller-coaster. As the eldest sibling in a broken household, I relate all too well with having to be "the sensible one" & admittedly ponies are perhaps a bit of an understated rebellion yet here we are. Frankly, I thought this was a laughable crack-ship when you started on this project, & past the certain perverse sense (pun intended as I'm no coward) it makes, I now see qualities within these characters the are surprisingly complementary. Cheers mate!