The Stereotypical Necromancer

by JinxTJL

Chapter 58 - Love's Frustration

It was the perfect feeling. Nothing else in the world compared to it- not scorn or spite or even souls. This feeling- this wonderful feeling- was the most pristine sense of wholeness he'd ever had.

Her lips on his.

It was such a chaste thing, barely more than the soft press of their muzzles together. There was nothing passionate or perverse about it; it was simply an embrace. A loving declaration.

Her hooves over and around his shoulders, so close and comforting, and his to match. How warm she was. How her very being suffused his senses.

He'd never get tired of it- he genuinely didn't think his joy would ever cease. The pure physicality of it like he'd never felt- the tingle running along his jaw, and the plump feeling of fullness. As though he were being weaned on so little as her touch; as though it was somehow addicting.

It must've been, because he suddenly had a sensation to truly put to the word. He'd never been so desperate for a sole feeling- nothing else beyond the present moment. It was intense, and fulfilling, and it left him desiring yet more even as he was still constantly provided the impulse. He wanted more. He never wanted to stop.

He murmured in gentle contentedness, and the feeling of his voice rumbling through her lips nearly made his closed eyes roll in ecstasy. So that was what it felt like.

He felt like he was drunk- or the closest approximation. Maybe this was what drugs did to ponies. Was Applejack a drug? No, that was such a stupid sentiment. Meaningless hyperbole. He was glad he'd not said it out loud- not just because speaking would involve him losing this feeling.

The closeness of it. The unbridled inclusion of mutual love. It was a sign. It was a harkening. It was proof that she loved him.

She loved him.

All his life, he'd not known how incomplete he'd been. This was true physical closeness. The fulfillment of it soared above petty little misdemeanors like hugging and holding hooves. Amateur hour. This was what it meant to be intimate. How could he have lived as he had, not knowing? He could never go back.

Applejack was like his drug. She made him so happy, the thought- no, the fact that she loved him was like nothing he'd dared to dream of. He'd never allowed himself to imagine something like this. He'd thought it was impossible. What idiot would waste time wishing for the impossible?

Even then, he'd never glorified kissing of all things. When he'd thought of it before- that stupid, ignorant time before- it hadn't seemed all that truly intimate. It had held such off-putting pretenses of weird, physical feelings that made him feel so sick. He'd turned his nose up. He'd stuck out his tongue and gagged.

Now, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to live without it. He wanted to do this all the time; he never wanted to stop feeling so wanted. Every time he saw her, he wanted to relive this moment.

Spotting her through the grove, staring up through the sunshine at an apple tree. Approaching from behind as he called out a greeting. Her cocky smile as she turned to disparage him for interrupting her while she worked. He'd snark back that she hadn't looked as though she were working at all.

Stepping in as her harsh smile eased, and her eyes fluttered. The faded scent of sweat from her day of work as he leaned closer. Her throaty chuckle rubbing fuzzily through his ears as their noses brushed.

The world falling away as their lips pressed together. Her pleased murmur. Whispering a soft breath as she-

Suddenly, she was pulling away, and Light's lips were left without their beloved partner.

His eyes fluttered blearily open as Applejack pushed gently away, their lips parting with the quietest puck. "Wa- Wait..." she murmured- his heart dropped- as she shook her head, brushing her nose against his as it tilted down. Her next breath came out as a pant, and though he was so glad to see them, daring to meet the precious emerald of her eyes seemed like a terrible omen.

She took a moment to breathe, their gazes sinking wantonly into each other for some resemblance of comfort. His, sharp and pleading; hers, cloudy and conflicted.

When she did finally speak- and her voice was so breathy- her head began to tilt forward, as a strange desire to reciprocate welled in his throat. Their foreheads pressing tightly together as their muzzles met at a frustrating angle; their eyes matching with longing; and her whispered voice tickling his perked ear and bringing to mind so much unmet need. "What... what're... we doing..?"

In the forbidden tryst of their gazes, he was sure she must've seen it. With how strongly he felt it, he didn't think there was any way she didn't. He might as well have been wearing a sandwich board with the words 'You're my everything' written across it in bold, unflattering script.

Locked in the embrace they were, how did she not feel his every intention? Could she not hear his heartbeat, as he could hers? Did she not know? In the tight clutch of their hooves binding them together like molded statues, could she not infer? How could she ask, when he'd made it so clear?

Still, her glazed-over gaze was asking as loudly as she'd voiced- which was pretty quietly. "We're... doing... what I know I've always wanted," he whispered, and for how thickly he'd accidentally laid his love into his tone, she smiled at him.

But then, she was shaking her head with it, and his head shook right along. "No, I mean..." Their gazes never left their bonding as she trailed to bite her lip, her eyes almost seeming to shine in the soft light of the waning day. Finally, she came to a conclusive, shuddering sigh. "...What does... this... mean for us..?"

His only response- all he could feasibly muster- was a breathy gape. For all he looked, searching her gaze for hidden meaning, there was nothing but the honest question. The genuine concern as the the lingering warmth in his lips only faded and faded. He missed it in each passing second.

He shut his dry, lonely mouth and swallowed thickly, blinking twice as his next, thinning breath came out raggedly. "I love you," he whispered thinly, and for how her eyes sparkled, he found the courage to breathe more out. "...that's what this means... to me. I love you, and... you mean... everything to me."

He had to stop. He felt the waver rising in his feeble throat before he'd even taken another breath, and he had to stop to just... stare at her. The unflinching smile on her blushing, orange face. Her teeny white freckles coyly hiding as it grew. The reciprocity in her eyes. The love.

And as her lips parted, as he felt the warm wash of her breath over his lips as her head began to tilt up, he heard it. "I love you too," she murmured, and it was loving. He had no time to ride out the intense wave of thankfulness that swept over him, and barely enough to lean in as her eyes slid soundly shut.

In the moment after, as their muzzles brushed once more, their lips rejoined. Her hooves crossed over his back to press him impossibly closer. Whatever else he might've had to say was gone, because he was closing his eyes again, too, and his own hooves were drawing her as tight as they could.

It was just as good the second time. Maybe it would be that good every time.

How was that possible? The implausibility- the sheer incredulity of such an illogical concept was going to drive him insane. How could she evoke such feelings in him? Things he'd... forever denounced? How was such... jubilance even warranted after all he'd done? After... he'd even told her of it. Most of it. The most important things, anyway.

As his thoughts began to run away with him, their incessant, chattering voices suddenly ceased as her lips shifted against his, and it was all he could think of. How thick his chest felt. His jaw growing so wonderfully sore. When he thought of her and how he'd always felt, it sunk in all over again that she was kissing him. He was kissing her. They were kissing, because they loved each other.

She loved him. How much longer would it take until he really believed it? For how unbelievable and surreal every moment of pure, incredibly felt joy was, he was afraid for every second of it that it would end. Abruptly. It wouldn't be true. Like the snap of a dying candle. Like the strain of twine drawn too tense. Like a last, desperate rasp.

Over.

How the thought played on his fears as she pulled back again- the peck of their parting lips- and let out another sigh over his muzzle that made him want to just rush forward and take the embrace back. It was only through a sheer application of will that he'd not even believed he'd had that he stopped himself, and it was just barely.

As it was, he still leaned in to keep the ends of their muzzles touching, even if their lips couldn't. She was already smiling- a loving, instinctive thing- but he liked to imagine the touch bolstered it as she blinked into their reciprocal stare with a satisfied huff.

And with that huff, her voice rolled out on a breathy whisper. "Say it again," she murmured, the slightest insistent tone of need in its waver. The raw message of it brought all the more blood rushing to his head- and he'd already thought he was close to fainting.

It must've been her presence that kept him alert- however drunkenly- with the presence of mind to stop fighting what indelible joy welled in his eyes. "I love you, Applejack," he whispered thickly - oh and every time he said it, it just felt like the entire world was rebuilding itself around them. Everything felt right. Nothing had ever been wrong.

His voice- it was really his own voice- brought the most wonderful thing: a bashful little giggle from the mare in his hooves, that he really had to hold himself back from thinking of as a hyuck. Or it might've been a reserved guffaw. Either way, it was so Applejack. So full of her charm. He was sure his ears were going to explode for how strongly they strained to listen to every little tone of it. He wished he could capture it in a music box and play it back over and over again. His lullaby.

As her smile turned grin-like, her hooves trailed up his back to rest on the bones of his shoulders as she pressed her muzzle forward to deviously steal the smallest little peck. Her mouth was there and gone before he could prepare his fragile mind, and she was leaning back with a dangerous feeling of electricity left behind on his lips. "Ah love y'too, Light," she murmured as her grin turned gloating- clearly reveling in the moment.

He found himself murmuring a disbelieving chuckle at her, just at the look on her face. She was grinning like- well, to quote something he'd heard her say, like the cat that caught the canary.

Or like a dog eating hornets. He'd heard her say that a couple times, too. What mattered was that it looked like she couldn't fight the grin off her face if she tried, and at his laugh, she started to chuckle, too. A low, lilting rumble of a bashful laugh that simply made the most stunning, coquettish impression with the heavy flush of pink that shone through her fur like cracks in a dawning window.

She drew out such urges in him, the temptress. He'd not been this needlessly, hopelessly poetic in... a few years, at least. If only she could see inside his head, that blush would bloom.

His own face felt pretty warm. Or hot. Or burning. Maybe he was going to pass out after all. He hoped it would be in Applejack's arms, because that would fulfill two or three different fantasies of his.

Somehow, he kept his wits and his consciousness hobbled mostly together as Applejack leaned back, shaking her head with her persistently triumphant grin. "Ah just- I'm havin' so much trouble just tryin' to wrap my head 'round this." A huff escaped her lips, as incredulous as it was starkly pleased. "Can't... quite believe this... is actually happenin'."

The bouncy undertone of joy in her voice rose again in a very humming giggle. A deep, throaty giggle, but a very cute giggle regardless. He'd hardly ever heard Applejack so... demure- so bordering on reserved embarrassment, and just leaning into it! The happiest, most nervous tone that he'd never thought she could affect!

It was so endearing. His own smile wasn't like to die anytime soon regardless, but hearing her own expressiveness was- it was just so exhilarating! He was having this effect on her, and that was incredible!

Applejack was laughing and smiling because of something he'd done, and not because he'd done something horrible first and then apologized! He felt like his chest- his cheeks- his heart was on fire! It nearly hurt!

He hoped this warmth would never go away.

He just had to reciprocate somehow. It felt like they were probably done kissing- maybe, though he hoped not- so he slid his hooves up from where he held her back, and along the curve of her shoulders. Letting out a soft murmur to match a hum from her as his hooves trailed down her arms, and gently tugged them forward off his own shoulders until they were held up in the air. A pleasant feeling of physicality grew as their heels pushed together, the both of them pressing in towards each other.

This felt right. Pushing against her as she pushed back; it felt solid. Like they were close.

"I know..." he murmured softly, taking care to relish in the physical impulse of her hooves on his, as his eye flicked down to her shining, golden soul. Slightly pinker than its own color, and so, so vibrant. He slid his eyes back up to hers with a cozy feeling of delight, and a satisfied breath. "It feels... surreal. After so long..."

His lips parted on their own with a humored cough of a laugh, his ears pressing nervously back as he tilted his head to the side. "Hey, do you mind..?" He trailed off with another nervous chuckle as Applejack's smile grew curious, her head turning the other way as he tried to shake off his trepidation, and take comfort in staring into her eyes. "...How long have you..? I mean- has it always been..?"

He stumbled on his words, once- then twice. If his cheeks hadn't already been burning, they would've set fire as he broke down into self-pitying chortles, and Applejack let out a few of her own. At least he was funny. A suddenly insistent push against his hooves brought him back to Equus, and Applejack's smile slowly turning knowingly, daringly chiding.

His jaw dropped with a short, upset breath, then his smile returned with a resigned sigh, and he decided to just beat the hesitation off. "How long have you- um- loved me?" His voice came out a little loud and his ears were straining like crazy, but the question came out regardless, and he considered that an accomplishment.

At his question, Applejack actually burst out laughing, leaning wholly into his hooves as she doubled over on the recurrent guffaws- and yes, these were guffaws. He weathered his dear, abusive love laughing at him with a few long-suffering- a bit impatient- nods, until she finally levered herself straight with a humored glimmer in her eye.

He was glad it was out of laughter this time.

"Shucks, Light, y'can up and declare that you love me over an' over again, but y'get all nervous askin' somethin' easy like that?" She shook her head with that gloating smile of hers, suddenly pushing strongly forward on his hooves, gradually forcing him back until he had to lean away with an upset stammer, and her face was able to inch forward until they were nearly eye-to-eye.

As she pushed closer and he got more flustered, barely even able to think, her smile only grew. "Well..." she drawled as their muzzles barely brushed, and his breath caught thickly in his throat. Suddenly, his hooves bent to the sides as her head pushed that last little bit forward, and she briefly pressed their lips together in a kiss that just about stopped his heart. She fell all the way back to sitting, then, still smiling as though she'd just won something. "I 'spose it ain't a big secret."

He had to shake his head once- twice to get the stars out of his eyes, and to conjure something more intelligible than a drone. Though, it took a moment longer than it took Applejack to sigh, and shake her head dismissively. "...Naw, it really ain't such a bad question, though," she admitted, her smile sadly lowering at its end as her gaze slipped wistfully down. As though... it was somehow something to regret.

No, that wasn't acceptable.

He pushed his hooves back into hers, drawing her curious attention back up to him, and with her troubled eye on his, he gave her his best, most sincere smile. Not something he really practiced all that often, but all he really had to do was try to wear what he felt.

It must've looked at least half as loving as he felt, then, because it had an immediate, warming effect on his love. The bob of her mane dipped over her eyes as they closed with a sigh and her head fell, hiding the returned flush on her cheeks that he definitely saw anyway. "Aw, shoot," she muttered with a shake of her head: a frustrated emotion that didn't show in the slightest as she raised her head again with a bright, beautiful smile.

They let out twin breaths of relief as Applejack disarmingly shrugged her shoulders. "It... wasn't all the time," she started on a thin chuckle, charmingly rolling her eyes as she spoke. "Heck, for most'a the time I've known you, it's been a real struggle not to smack 'ya over the head with one 'a them big ol' books 'a 'yers an' just leave 'ya somewhere."

His jaw became stuck somewhere halfway between grinding and hanging open, and he blinked to himself a few times as Applejack huffed out a sour breath. Huh.

"You know," he ventured, knocking his head forward with a stony smile as something a little bit aside love made home in his head. "-that's funny, because when I met you, I thought you were the meanest little filly I had ever met." He did his best to scoff, making a show of rolling his own eyes- how'd she like it? "Your 'language' of choice was and quite frighteningly often is alarmingly physical."

His thickly restrained mutter landed and promptly slid off Applejack's back, and though she first frowned, it quickly slid up into a cocky smile. "And after all'a that," she merrily jeered, pushing their hooves to either side to cock her head forward much as he had. "-who went ahead and kissed who?"

Her tone just- ha! He loudly and confidently declared ha with a toss of his head, lowering his gaze to glare back at Applejack, jerking his head down so their foreheads knocked together. "And who kissed who back!?" he mocked loudly, unable to fight the uproarious smile on his face that matched Applejack's, even as he continued hotly. "I might just be going insane again, but I think you liked it!"

His completely obvious accusation that could just be construed as a compliment was met with a loud, dramatically obvious gasp and a gape. His lovely, abusive best fr- marefr- kissing partner reared her head back with the exclamation, allowing him to push their hooves closer to her as she seemingly froze up in indignation, though he saw her chest flutter as she struggled not to laugh.

"Well, I ain't never heard somethin' so ridiculous!" Her affronted expression shifted in a blink to a concerningly audacious smile as she shifted forwards, forcing his hooves back as she jeered. "After all'a this time, y'all think 'jes 'cause ah keep doin' it-" She abruptly trailed off as she pushed forward, and placed the briefest kiss on his lips before she leaned slightly back, letting out the softest noise of pleased contentment with her muzzle still brushing against his, and continuing in an airy, satisfied tone. "-that ah like it or somethin'?"

He had to... woah. He had to shake off the sudden rush of dizziness from the kiss, and the sudden closeness, and- really, he didn't think there was any way to make further joking rebuttal after that. He was... lucky to have kept his brain intact.

What she did to him... he'd never thought such a loss of composure could be so desired.

At his vacant, dull-eyed stare, Applejack began to let out breathy, peaking chuckles, leaning back and letting his hooves hang in the air as she folded her own to her chest. "Funny," she teased, mocking his earlier tone, and he was able to find enough awareness to make note of the laughter in her emerald eyes. "-I think ah just found my new favorite way to shut you up."

That felt like an insult- or was it light hearted teasing? Either way, he felt like he should snipe back- except... wow, he was really lost for words. He just- the electric sensation she left on his lips kind of scrambled his thoughts. He'd get back around to speaking sometime within the hour.

Still laughing, still letting out satisfied sighs every time she left him speechless, Applejack rocked back on her hooves with a victorious smile. "Anyways, I dunno when ah started to really think about you." She twirled her gaze around, busily chuckling as her eye stopped here or there. "Think... for a long time, ah was mostly 'jes worried 'bout you."

And then, a little bit of the humor fled from her voice. "Actually..." she trailed off, her eyes narrowing in thought as her hooves fell to the ground, and she straightened. "-that might've been how it started..."

She worked her jaw for a moment, nodding as she sucked her cheek in and let it go with a pop. "Yeah," she eventually said, turning her eyes back to him. "-I guess I started wonderin' what y'all really meant to me when ah couldn't keep you outta my head 'fer a day."

The feeling on his lips- and his daze, not to mention- were gone at that point, and he was leaned curiously forward to catch her words. "You... said something like that earlier," he mused, thinking on it for a moment before he idly reached his hoof out. Applejack only stared at the proffered limb for a moment before her beloved smile returned, and she reached to grasp it. Their gazes matched as her hoof laid over his, and he continued. "You'd been thinking about me a lot?"

That drew a huff from his hoof-holding partner. "Now, don't let that get y'all worked up." The brief humor that he felt like he should pout at faded a second later as Applejack frowned consciously. "I didn't really think it was love back then- or, I guess I didn't really believe it was whenever the thought came 'round."

She sighed, leaning back a bit as she rolled her head around her shoulders. Once, twice, and again until something made a very interesting pop, and she sighed again- happily. "Mmyeah, it wasn't really 'till last night when it really clicked how much you meant 't me." Her eyes fluttered dreamily open- don't get distracted by how beautiful she was- and she leaned back in as she met his eye again with a genuine little smile. "That's kinda what I think it's like, anyway. Just... thinkin' 'bout you all the time. More'n anything else, anyways."

Light opened his mouth, then shut it with a frown as Applejack watched, then opened her mouth. "So, that's me squared away," she said in a clear lead, pausing for a moment as he remained silent, then she leaned obviously in. "Seems like it'd been a while 'fer you, and- honestly-" She seemed oddly proud at that. "-I'd kinda got a feelin' you'd been pinin' after me, Light."

He opened his mouth again, and- augh, why was it so hard to speak?! He choked on his tongue for the nth time as Applejack waited for him to respond, and as he didn't, and as he tried- sputtering and shaking their hooves up and down- she sighed with a slump, straightening as she fixed him with a patient leer. "...Are y'all gonna be able to tell me how far back you'd been feelin' for me, or am I gonna hafta go on not knowin'?"

Light swallowed, and sent a silent prayer to either Deity he held extreme contempt for to regardless help him speak. "I- It's been- well- a long time!" He began on a lilting course of slowly formed words, easing in as Applejack nodded with a knowingly condescending smile, until something finally ticked over in his head and his last words came out on a wave of energy as a shout that he desperately took her hoof in both of his for.

Oh, how words failed him. His greatest enemy; his most grappled-with philosophy. Words. He hated words almost as much as he hated himself.

He tried not to cringe away in total mortification as Applejack simply stared widely at him for a moment, until an amused smile grew over her face and she let out a loud snort. The- difficulty notwithstanding- love of his life rocked back with a peaky chuckle, still holding his hoof as the other came up to rub through her mane. Presumably on the instinct to knock her hat up, even though it wasn't there.

...Now that he thought of it, where was her hat? With all those heartfelt professions and world-rocking smooches, he hadn't quite been the eagle-eyed observer he normally figured himself to be, and sometime between when she'd set it down behind her and now, it'd disappeared.

He averted his gaze from its surreptitious peek behind her and back to her tolerant stare, pursing his lips with a hum. Should he..?

...Not right now. A different question, first.

He was calming down, able to breathe right and stop feeling his tongue so much. Still, he bit his lip, pressing into the tic to feel a bit of centering pain as he nodded, casting his gaze down at her hoof held in his. "Sorry, I just-" He blew out another anxious breath, forcing himself to meet her eyes with a useless chuckle. "This isn't a question I'd ever really... given thought to actually answering."

Applejack's brows jumped with a slow blink as her smile turned wry. "Can't say I'd done, either," she pointed out humorously- nearly mocking if not for the note of fondness in her tone as her head tilted curiously to the side. "Why don'cha 'jes say whatever you think of first? That's kinda what I did."

He took a moment to imagine that, then sighed. "Do you even... know me?" he muttered lowly as he sagged from the effort, and of course Applejack laughed. He waited an irritated moment to let her finish as he more or less straightened, and her attention was fully on him again. "I suppose..." He thought about his answer for a moment, then shook his head. "-I'm not really sure."

The immediate reaction was an unimpressed snort, to which he bristled with indignation. "It's hard, alright?!" he snapped back to his smugly grinning love, for what little actual impression it made. He gave a short huff as he wrenched his hooves off hers, petulantly hugging his own sides. "I mean- I can't just put definite dates to my feelings!"

With her hoof free, Applejack was free to lean forward. "Well, give it a try!" she shouted daringly- right into his face. Still smiling, looking to be on the verge of laughter, she rocked back again as he tried to take a swing for her- which probably would've just hurt his hoof. Her lips were soft, but the rest of her might as well have been one giant muscle.

Light simmered with grit teeth for a moment, internally debating whether it was worth it to lunge after her for some kind of ultimately petty retribution, before he discarded the stupid idea altogether. "Fine!" he groaned, tossing his head aside and throwing his hooves up to the benefit of Applejack's smile. His hooves lowered and crossed over his chest again. "I guess it was the first weekday after I met you!"

His shout rung out in the slowly dusking riverside clearing, and suddenly, Applejack wasn't smiling or chuckling anymore, only... staring at him with a small, open gape. Her eyes wide and her cheeks quickly returning to a familiar flush; her hooves idly folded to her chest and her ears pressed lamely back, for all the world looking like the glossary-standard exhibit of shock.

There was a part of Light- maybe a fourth- that felt just as embarrassed or even more, and it was that part that was currently warming his own cheeks. It was a pretty big declaration to make, and in any other situation, he'd probably be looking for a convenient hole in the ground nearby to scurry into. He was very well in tune with his fight-or-flight response.

The dominant portion of his brain, though, was pretty busy relishing how quickly he'd gotten her to shut up. Hey, maybe this was his new favorite way to get her to be quiet! Blabbing some ultra-schlocky romantic expression that usually flit about his mind when he was trying to sleep at night. He had a ton of them, after all. He'd used to fill books with them until it occurred to him how inane that was, and he'd chucked every volume he'd ever written into the Everfree.

There just may have been some lovestruck monster somewhere in there that had weaned itself on his foalish notions of romance. If that was to be his retribution, then it was probably deserved.

With a victorious grin that was beginning to hurt his cheeks, Light leaned in on a humming, mocking little snicker. "Come on, Applejack," he sneered- lovingly, he should add- poking his hoof forward to gently boop her muzzle, finally snapping her out of the trance as her eyes crossed. "-I just said something nice, didn't I? You're starting to hurt my feelings."

He loved Applejack- more than anything- but he also loved to make fun of her. Some of her best expressions were out of anger or annoyance, and the frown that slowly grew over her face as her eyes uncrossed to levy a dry stare at him was definitely one of them.

The slow clasp of her lips together, that so smoothly pressed thin before its ends were drawn down like a rope pulling sheer orange curtains slack. The gradual creep of her expressive eyebrows to hover menacingly over the dying spark of humor in her eyes- though not to anger, either. Her freckles folding out to glare harshly at him. The bags under her eyes pronouncing with intent. His hoof still connected to her muzzle-

-until she swatted it aside, and audibly huffed. The moment of Apple-watching was over, leaving Light with his taunting smile and a fresh wave of appreciation for her beauty. His annoyed, ever lovely love kept her put-off expression for another moment as she only glared at him, until it began to lighten in gradual strokes from her brows to her frown.

"It can't have been... all that time," she half-spoke to him, half-muttered to herself. Seeming altogether unsure as some modicum of her previous shock returned, then snuffed with guarded curiosity as he made careful effort to catch her eye before he shook his head.

"I suppose that might've been facetious," he echoed in idle admittance- making sure to keep his mouth open as Applejack immediately rolled her eyes. "All I really know is that, after I saw more of you than just your hooves, I couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful you were."

He began on a casual, matter-of-fact tone that quickly lowered into a deep, what he hoped sounded sensual, murmur as he leaned forward, entering Applejack's personal space and brazenly grasping her hoof in his at once. Before she could react- and how she began to flush- he quickly raised her hoof up as his head lowered, and, with as much overblown panache as he could muster, laid a soft whisper of a kiss to the dirt-smeared bridge between her pastern and hoof.

It felt weird- and he felt sort of stupid where he didn't also feel horrible, heart-rending anxiety. Tartarus below... he sounded like a romance novel protagonist. Though, in the end, as he retreated back to his haunches while trying not to scream, he was still glad he'd tried it out.

Light was not suave, nor was he smooth, nor did he think he was very capable of pretending to be either. Everything he'd just done had been more or less channeled directly from emulating a mental picture of Rarity and the trashy ponies in the equally trashy magazines she left around the lobby of the boutique for bored patrons just such as him. His entire romantic charade was based on a drama queen and her beloved tabloids.

As dumb and worthless as he'd felt, however, the emotions were more or less snuffed by a deep source of astonishment as Applejack... reacted. He couldn't quite see her face through the crook of the hoof she'd almost immediately slapped over it, but what little he could see was definitely very red, and her eyes were just about as wide as her head. Like... dinnerplates, he was sure was another countryism. Or... that might've just been regular hyperbole. Who really knew?

Her ears were flicking about in distress, too, he noticed just before he was roughly shoved onto his back. The grass cushioned his head as he suddenly blinked up at the red, blushing sky that hadn't been there a moment ago, before he pushed himself back up to stare curiously at the side of Applejack as she turned away to further hide her face. A short huff or three made its way to his ears as the mare... tried in vain to deal with... whatever clumsy spell he'd somehow put her under.

Slowly, a niggling little smile that felt oh so very pleased began to worm its way onto his face.

He elected to stay quiet as he pushed himself back up to a sitting position, content to just wait it out and, more importantly, to unabashedly ogle his- evidently much more demure than he'd thought- love's shoulder. His joy was... somewhat lessened by her position showing him the coarse little dot of red painted in the center of her mane that she'd told him came from last night, but he'd come to terms with that. Mostly. One day.

He kept smiling, because today was about proving his mind and his instincts wrong. Sometimes. He was trying.

Eventually, his blushy love turned slowly back to him, still hiding her face with a hoof crooked over her muzzle. Her eyes, at least, were fully focused on him, and she was blinking now. Cautiously, Applejack's hoof slowly slid down her muzzle to show her still-red face, resting on her chest as she gave him a wary side-eye.

"...That ain't you, sugarcube," was her eventual, quiet response. The reserved tone of solemnity in her voice let him know that this was the time to stop smiling, and so, he let it slip away with a sigh.

He let his head hang forward on a tired wave of resignation as his eyes shut for a moment, then opened as he tilted his head up to apologetically catch her gaze. "You're right," he murmured, forcing a sorry smile onto his face. "-it's really not."

His seeming regret was enough to draw Applejack back out of her shell bit by bit, her smile beginning to make a delightful reappearance. The extremely brief moment of tension that'd flared to life in the air lessening by the second as they took a solitary moment to simply stare at each other. It was nice.

Until he opened his mouth again. "But it could be."

The sudden reemergence of intensity in the unusually somber tone of his voice cut Applejack's smile cruelly short as she tensed slightly back once more, her new frown colored apprehensively confused. "What... d'you mean?"

Her matched her gaze for a few, painful moments of real regret before he let out another sigh, and straightened. Lowering his lidded gaze to the bright ball of golden light behind the hoof on her chest, shining through her very flesh in all its yellow-tinged, slightly-sped glory. She was a little afraid of what he might say- or, his implication had genuinely been that disconcerting.

He hoped not, otherwise everything he was about to say was going to really knock her for a loop.

"Applejack... I love you," he began, because that was a very good place to begin. It brought an evident hint of fondness back into her expression, and the tense, yellow glow over her soul eased a bit- how nice. It almost swayed him to just shut up and be happy, but he continued on anyway. "...and, because I do love you, so much, I need to know..."

The question was right there. Nearly broached. His mouth was already open, so if he just leaned into the anxiety, it would provide the terrifying antithesis to just say it. If he bit his lip like he wanted to, he might chicken out. If he waited too long, poor Applejack's conflicted face might stop him. If he didn't say it now, then he wouldn't sleep right tonight.

And how he needed a good night's sleep.

His mouth was already open, waiting for the next words, and after only a few moments, he found where the rest had been hiding. "...what are we, now?" In the moment after, understanding bloomed on his love's face, and he closed his eyes with a short, exerted breath. "Where do we... go from here?"

It was quiet in more ways than one after that, as the dusk began to creep by. In the chilling air, even the background noise of the stream, filling every silence as water was wont to do, sounded ever so much quieter. It pressed relentlessly on his ears, hoping to muffle his every sense in penance for what he'd dared to speak of. The dreaded question.

He didn't like books about romance, or romance-related stories at all- on general principle- but he knew some romantic tropes and clichés, regardless. Tantamount to relationship poison was asking where the relationship was going- or, in their case, whether they were in one.

He couldn't just... not ask. He had to know- they had to put a label on this before the day was over... for his own sanity.

He was still so afraid. He wanted it... this, to be real.

It took Applejack a long while to respond. Long enough for him to actually tidy up his thoughts, however impossible that should've been, leaving him just staring and waiting for her as her muzzle remained scrunched in clear thought. Her hoof still on her chest; her jaw working on way or the other every few seconds. For what it was worth, she didn't seem to be afraid or lastingly disturbed anymore, so he had that going for him. Hooray. They were practically married already.

Finally, as she softly opened her mouth, then shut it, then opened it again, her voice trotted cautiously out. "Ah'm... not sure," she badly enunciated as her gaze tracked up, and her hoof slid up to rest on the latch of her throat. She seemed to be picking words straight out of her mind, if her lilting choice of speech was any indication. "For the moment... I hadn't really... thought about it."

She pressed her lips together as her hoof came sideways and wrapped around her ponytail, smacking them apart in idle thought as she tugged her mane around her shoulder. "Ah'd... thought to think 'bout it when we started kissin', 'cept after that ah'd kinda gotten distracted with..." She trailed off, and somehow managed to keep a straight face as she trailed down to meet his eyes. "-well, y'know, the kissing."

He hesitantly met her gaze as she repeatedly brushed her hoof down what she could reach of her ponytail, while his mouth gaped gently open in an air of... incredulity. He began to wonder whether anything his love did made any sense at all as she hummed, and knocked her head ponderingly to one side.

"Ah do really like kissin' you." Her statement hung in the air before it registered, and then he felt his cheeks begin to refill with warmth. Somehow, as mortified horror began to well in his throat, Applejack continued nonchalantly as her gaze once again tracked up. "Can't deny that. Can't rightly say it's the only thing I love 'bout y'all, either."

Well... that was... good? He felt lost, and a bit afraid.

Light continued to struggle between balking, blushing and screaming as Applejack finally showed some emotion other than hard-hitting thought. Her contemplative frown turning apologetic as her eyes, lowering to his, narrowed in sincere concern. "Ah guess... ah'm not really sure?"

His heart shattered- but Applejack quickly continued as his face immediately twisted in pain- there was the welling in his eyes again- leaning forward, waving her hoof in a panic. "Not- not because ah don't love you, or that ah don't wanna be with you!" His heart messily reconsolidated for the moment as confusion took over for agony on his face, and Applejack let out a tired sigh. "It's 'jes..."

She trailed off on a half-spoken thought as faltered, shaking her head with another sigh a moment before her glimmering, questioning gaze met his. "What would... really change?" she asked, her voice suddenly softening to a quiet, considerate murmur. And, as his mouth opened, he found that to be a very good question.

"Uh..." His first response went on perhaps a few seconds too long, and drew an unsatisfied grunt from Applejack that very expediently sped his thoughts up. "Well- I mean, we'd tell ponies, right?" he hurried out, speaking as quickly as the words came to mind. At that ill-considered notion, Applejack's expression lightened, and she let out a thoughtful hum.

"Ah guess..." she murmured vacantly, raising her hoof to her chin again as she seemed to... scrutinize him. "'S not like my family don't like you, and ah wouldn't be all that surprised if Granny wasn't surprised."

It was just a passing mention, but the very mention of Applejack's grandmare brought a sudden shiver down his back. It seemed as though she didn't notice- deep in thought about her family, as was typical for her- but he still had to hug his hooves to himself to fight off another shiver as he gave it some deep thought of his own.

He'd known Granny Smith since... he was about nine years old, and it hadn't taken him until ten to realize that he ought to fear her. She was... perhaps the single most intimidating mortal mare he'd ever met, and that was with her extreme age.

The magic of earth ponies was not well understood, especially not by him, but he'd sort of learned through intuition that it probably had something to do with longevity. She'd already been a young mare when she'd founded Ponyville with the Rich family, and that had been about one-hundred and forty years ago.

And yet, he'd seen her do a full hoofstand once- for over three minutes. Applejack had told him about how the old mare had her off days, but was otherwise sharp as a tack with the business acumen and physical ability of a magnate merged with a... well, her.

Of course, not every earth pony lived as long as she had, which really only meant that Applejack's grandmare had some serious magical potential- well, for an earth pony, anyway. Still frightening.

He tried to imagine that old mare, who had given him more scoldings and slaps on the rear than his own mother had, reacting to the news that he was dating her granddaughter.

...It might not be worth it.

He opened his mouth- sorry, Applejack, but he was having second thoughts on account of terrifying elderly- and was stopped mid-breath as Applejack shook her head, and spoke in a glum tone. "Naw... it's not really about what other ponies'd be thinkin'." She caught his eye again- he shut his stupid mouth- as she scooted closer, and suddenly his hoof was in hers. "It's about how we'd be treatin' each other."

He stared down at his hoof held solidly in hers, and though he'd liked the embrace thus far, now it felt a little like a steel trap. He suddenly distinctly remembered the time they'd accidentally tipped a whole bucket of apples into a pond, and she'd grabbed hold of his hoof and marched the two of them back to her house to fess up. He had a vague recollection of the idea of chewing his arm off, and it was once again evident why.

Oh, well. He could live with a metaphorically maimed hoof. He met her gaze with a sinking feeling of acceptance as he took a moment to think, then nodded his assent. It was a question of how their relationship would modulate going forward, after all. Of course the most important change would be about them.

Seeing his speechless thought on the matter, Applejack blew out a breath, and dropped her gaze. "Yeah, alright, so..." she ventured out on a limb, taking another stern breath as she bounced his hoof in hers. He hoped it brought her some comfort as she took the moment to ponder, staring down until, suddenly, her gaze rose to meet his in a moment of serious connection, and she bravely continued in a semi-confident tone.

"Ah don't... really think I wanna change how we act."

He tried not to feel hurt at that- he really did- and it was all the sadder that he did a very bad job at it, because the emotion instinctively showed all over his face. Applejack- bless her hateful heart- jumped forward to cut her own implication off, freeing a hoof to wave it in a panic.

"Ah mean- we can still act all close an' touchy an... kissy with each other, but-" As she reached the tail-end of a hasty explanation, she stopped short with a half-drawn breath, topped off with a subtle slump. Some of her frantic energy seemed to calm in the next few seconds as she raised her hoof consciously, flicking her gaze up with her mouth open for... whatever she was trying to say.

Whatever it was, she found it a few moments after her mouth shut with a silent clack. The farmer seemed to reel herself back in a deep breath that she straightened for, opening her eyes to his with markedly more control. "I really 'jes meant... ah don't think it'd be right to start actin' like... this-" She waved her hoof in a circle between them. "-changes how we already feel."

Oh. Okay, that made... a little more sense if he was understanding it right, which he was fairly sure he... might've.

He was a little confused, and, he couldn't deny, just a little bit hurt, so he tried to silently prod Applejack to continue with a little nod of his head. If she was frustrated by his mute contribution, she probably clamped down it like she'd had ten years of practice doing, because she fairly readily pressed on with a bob of her head and a brisk tone.

"I know ah already think 'bout you a whole lot, an' ah can only assume-" She paused, and after shaking off the put on the spot feeling, he nodded, and she nodded relievedly back with a flash of a smile. "-yeah, an' we already spend a whole lotta time together, so..." She trailed off, pressing her lips together as she seemed to think, finally going on in a reserved tone of airy thought. "I'm really 'jes wonderin'..."

Again, she trailed off with a grim note of unrest gleaming in her eye, so believably genuine in its deserved concern that even Light began to feel it.

"Should we really change that?"

It was quiet for a while after that, as they both sat in their own silences. Still holding hooves- reveling in the comfort- but with their minds and their eyes on their own thoughts. He found looking at his back legs tucked under him helped him think, only not really about anything helpful. Somewhere along the way, he'd become distracted wondering about pinpointing the exact moment when his legs went numb enough for the position to become comfortable, and how that sort of inconvenience was so readily accepted. He'd had this thought before, it felt like.

...And he'd done it again, even after realizing he was doing it. What a dumb colt he was. He deserved worse. Thinking of it, blinders were a macabre invention meant to keep slaves in line, but maybe he could benefit from having his vision controlled. Might help keep his thoughts in line.

He'd put a thought or two together along the way, though, so with his eyes still down on his hooves that had taken him down a weird hole, he bobbed his head in an absent nod. "I guess not."

His shallow response was as good a place as any to jump back into the semi-comfortable, super frightening topic of categorizing their budding relationship, and he did so while meeting his love's curious gaze. "But... I think..." He spoke slowly, picking his words carefully as he dropped his gaze back down, then back up on a daring little feeling of bravery. "I wouldn't mind spending... just a little more time with you?"

The stress written on her face seemed to ease at that, the sight giving him a tiny boost of hope of his own. He scooched closer- on his numb haunches- gathering her hooves into his in an earnest hold as their back legs came inches away from touching. "And... and maybe being a little more... considerate? Just- here and there, you know?"

As her smile grew- as his excitement grew- and as he grew worse at hiding the frank adoration in his voice, the bashful pink flush that had escaped from her cheeks began to trickle back in. The love of his life seeming so uncharacteristically soft as he raised their hooves between them, nearly pressing them to his chest- she'd be able to hear his heart pounding.

A lump was clawing its way up his throat, and he appeased it by giving a wan chuckle as he dropped his gaze to their hooves. "It... doesn't have to be all the time," he murmured, his voice lowering as he found it suddenly harder to speak up. Still smiling, perhaps even more so, he raised his lidded eyes back to hers. "I don't really think I could pretend like you don't frustrate me sometimes."

Applejack's own smile curled into a smirk as she snorted, as clearly amused as was her eyebrow creeping up her forehead. "'Bout as fair a chance 'a that on my side as there is 'fer apples to start growin' blue." It was a familiar tease in such a familiar tone- and it just made the feeling in his chest swell.

He couldn't stop smiling at that point as he gave a reckless, coughing laugh of his own, shaking the clouds out of his head as he tried to keep focused on speaking. "We don't really have to act like Equestria's most perfect couple, but... in-between the physical closeness and the time we spend together..."

He trailed off, because it was almost too much to say. Even then, sitting so close to her that he could easily collapse into and over her lap, and her face within kissing range, there was some tiny part of him that... still couldn't believe it. It could've all been an illusion, or this entire day could've just been his afterlife. None of it might matter. None of it might've been real.

The thought seemed a little stupid, looking into her eyes. Those emerald-green, dark-flecked eyes with their uncountable flaws, lidded and shining with unrepressed love. For him. For him.

Sitting there with her, wreathed in her scent mixed with the chilling dusk, everything seemed brighter. Everything seemed better.

He wasn't trapped. He felt free.

He smiled as he spoke, because he wasn't afraid. He didn't feel the need to lie to her, or to himself.

"...we could just... act like how we feel?"

It only needed a moment to settle in the air before her smile grew in reciprocity, and she raised her hoof to wrap around one of his. The both of them squeezing their hooves together in a tight ball of comfort, finding immaculate solace in the simple pleasure of the mere sight of each other.

How he'd missed her in that time he'd thought he was beyond saving.

"Ah think I'd like that."

Her quiet, husky voice tickled in the most scintillating way on his strained ears, and brought a relieved breath washing over his parted lips. "So..?" he pressed gently, insistently, waiting with that bated breath for the answer that was only seconds to come.

Her next blink was slow, coquettish for how it seemed as her grin curled, her eyes glittering in the orange light of the dusk as her gaze fell to their hooves. Light's nerves cut to the breaking point of anticipation as she chuckled- once, then twice.

"Heh... yeah..." She shook her head again, faster this time. "Shoot, why not?" Her head swayed to a stop fully focused on him; a moment of unconquerable steadiness as her eyes seemed to glint to perfect time with a pulse of her incandescent golden soul. Showing but one emotion to lay bare, and for the first time in such a very long time, he saw how that inscrutable orb could singularly shade with such bashful pink.

All for him. All for him.

"I'll be 'yer marefriend, if you'll be my coltfriend."

How she must have missed him these past two years.

He had nothing else to say, nor did she. When next he blinked, her eyes were closed, as soon were his. The worsening chill in the air seeming so negligible as their muzzles brushed, warming each other with the breath of their lungs. What brilliance she made out of life... How amazing it all seemed for her to complement it...

The cold of the night was soon to come, yet for the two of them- for Light- there was more warmth on Equus than ever. Never had he felt so warm- so connected. So loved. So... complete.

She'd banished his fears; she'd made little his loneliness and driven away the shadows that yet clung to him.

So much had transpired, yet for her, he could think so little of it. The long night. The two years of suffering. The sacrifice he'd made, and the judgement cast over him for daring to survive it.

His secrets. His foolish notions. The hunger that even then still brimmed in a placeless part of his heart.

He could ignore it. He could move on.

He'd found tomorrow.

Eventually, they parted, as all things, good or bad, must find their end. When she began to pull away- hooves gently pushing at his chest- he let her, content that any of it had happened at all. He'd keep the warmth on his lips just as much as he kept her love in his mind.

With their lips freed, the sides of their muzzles enjoyed an embrace of their own. Their eyes, as well. All the more intimacy to remember- to cherish, as it all was.

How he cherished her. His greatest treasure; he'd finally captured her for himself. All for him.

She murmured to him- "Think ah should be heading home soon." -and he made his peace with that. For the summer sun soon to set on their mutual inclusion, of course he knew she couldn't stay there with him forever, no matter the idyllic surroundings. No matter how briefly he'd entertained the fantasy of resting here with her, aside the burbling stream where they'd professed their love. Laying together under the sparkling night's sky, holding hooves in body and mind as they drifted away...

But that was only a fantasy, though it was always alright to fantasize. He'd fantasized of their relationship in he first place, and just look what had become of them. They yet had an entire future together to destroy their postures and mark indelible grass stains on their coats.

Was that innuendo? He hadn't meant it.

He murmured something loving- something incomprehensibly mushy- as she pulled away, showing her love in as much as her sparkling gaze and her trailing hoof as she made to stand. Letting both hang- and how he pleaded for them both to stay- for a moment longer than necessary, before she shook her head with a snicker and pushed herself up.

He laughed too, as much as he wanted to weep. He may have accepted that she needed to go home, but that didn't mean his peace wasn't shaky. Mark his words, there would one day be great conflict in her name, with their love at its center.

He would go to war for her, if only to see how she'd stop him.

He... was getting really poetic. It was probably best she was leaving, or else he might've begun to wax a soliloquy in her name. Heavens above be damned, he may still after she'd gone.

He didn't stand as Applejack did. He was content to lay prone- even fall to lay on his side as she busily brushed stray grass and smudged dirt off her haunches. His marefriend- his marefriend- giving him another brief smile as she turned further, and for the simple meaning of it, he happened to take a moment to... give her a little ogle.

He'd always been attracted to her form, however disgusted he typically was of contact. There was just a certain... something about the power she held. The sheer fitness she put on display that was always so discernable at any one time, provided he only pay attention. It was intoxicating.

How her fur barely contained her form- how she rippled with such tight muscle underneath it all, and for actions so common as moving. That may have been the best part of it: she needn't even show off; her physique simply accentuated itself.

Her shoulders rolling with control as she asserted her collar. Her haunches tensing at her thighs as she moved- oh, he'd always been so impressed by the points of articulation in her lower half. She held such raw power in that ompact frame. He'd always wondered, just how far might she be able to go? How much did she hold back when bucking trees?

It would be enthralling indeed to see what may happen were she not to.

Such thoughts may have been creepy, he was aware, and in the past, he'd often abstained for that very thought. Now, though, he was afraid it was his job as the coltfriend. Literature- however trashy- had instilled the concept of an apprising leer into him. It was accepted- perhaps even encouraged.

He was always very discreet, but if she were to make notice, it would only be right that she be flattered. Of course he held interest in every part of her, and that should've been a compliment.

He... was pretty sure. That was the trope, anyway.

He pursed his lips as Applejack momentarily escaped his awareness. Maybe it was best for his glances to remain discreet, at least for now. It may just destroy him beyond any saving were he to wreck their relationship so soon after it just began.

"Hey... where'd mah hat go?"

He tuned back in as Applejack, his marefriend, spun around in a tight circle, forcing him to lean back just in time to avoid her swinging tail. Her head jerking this way and that as she trotted to the side, then back, then leaned over the edge of the stream with a confused drone.

He followed her gaze in as many directions as was obvious were the wrong ones, and craned his head up to the sky to think of it on his own with a curious murmur. Where had her hat gone?

She'd... put it down behind her when she'd turned to show him how she'd been hit on the head... and then...

He propped himself back up onto his haunches, putting a hoof to his chin as he idly scrutinized their surroundings. There wasn't really anywhere it could've gone, besides...

His gaze crawled to a stop at the stream, which had gained a new occupant while he wasn't paying attention. Applejack had jumped in to wade up its path a short distance, looking all the more perturbed as her hat continued to hide from her. Splashing about in its very shallow depths as it carried past her... soaked... hooves...

Hm.

"Hey, do you think..?" he mused, catching her eye as she turned to him with a start. He thought for a moment more, staring up and down the stream again, soon turning to her with a curious tilt of his head. "Maybe it got carried downstream?"

He may have said that a bit matter-of-factly, but he tended to get that way when he was thinking. It was better than smarming it, as scorn tended to be his other default emotion when making observations.

Well, for however he'd said it, he sure felt a little responsible as his marefriend... turned a bit white at that. "It- down- gone-" she stammered, jerking her head between him and the distant trail of the stream, only managing to quiet as she took a deep swallow with her gaze firmly set on the stream, and she finally put the pieces of her sentence together.

"It went downstream?!" she cried, and Light bit his lip, cringing back as his marefriend leapt forward, scattering water every which way- and most importantly his way. He let out a shout of indignation as she splashed her way a short bit down the stream, then froze.

She stayed there for a moment as Light glared after her, scrubbing stray water drops off his flank, before she quickly turned and splashed back to him- scattering more water onto him. "Light, listen," she hurried out, as he tried to dry himself with a scowl. "There's- gosh, there's still a whole lot I wanna talk with y'all about, but-"

She cut herself off with a panicked growl, jerking her head again to the area downstream. She... seemed to bounce on her water-bound hooves as she turned back to him, and for how aggravating it was- it's not like she'd lose it any more at this point- there was a note of genuine regret in her gaze, as well as the most pitiable yellow sheen over the spinning orb in her chest.

He kept his hard stare for a moment, before letting it fade with a sigh. "Go," he murmured, nodding his head forward, as a small smile grew on his marefriend's face. Her cute little freckles hiding away. "I'm sure you'll catch it before it... gets away."

His small attempt at dry humor rolled off her back like- like water, as she nodded back to him, smiling all the more apologetically. "Come on by the farm tomorrow, alright?" He opened his mouth to accede, before she gave a start with a groan, and shook her head roughly. "No, not tomorrow- all the family's gonna be there..."

He closed his mouth with a long-suffering sigh, then opened it again to give a suggestion- as Applejack shook her head again, glancing downstream as she teetered on her heels. "Can't be- not th' day after, either... not... this weekend, still got that meetin' 'bout the harvest... um.. well... shoot..."

One way, then the other; Applejack really could work herself into a remarkable lather. Just like him. No wonder they'd fallen in love.

...even in passing thought, the thought was still so delightfully squeamish. Just sent warm little pangs all through his chest.

As in many things, Light was content to bite his lip and watch Applejack as she fussed over her various responsibilities, growing more and more frustrated as she looked at him then the stream then him and back to the stream as she probably wished she could just split herself in two.

One Applejack was enough for him. He... could barely even handle that.

Finally, with a half growl, half yell, she threw her head back and slapped a hoof to her forehead. The distinctive noise brought the slightest grimace to his face, that he quickly wiped as she levied a final, despondent stare on him. "I'll 'jes come by your place!" she... yelled at him, and because it seemed like the right thing to do when one's marefriend shouted at them with so much conflicted emotion, he nodded.

At that, Applejack nodded back with a smile that didn't really look right when half of it was so wiggly, and turned away from him for the final time. Again, she splashed a short distance away, then froze, then whirled around to stare at him. "Er- bye! I love you!"

He watched with some trepidation as she then turned from him for the actual final time and quickly ran- well, more like floundered downstream, trying in vain to open his mouth to reciprocate the hurried sentiment. His marefriend seeming little more than a bobbing set of shoulders as the bank framed her retreating form, then a scant circle of blond mane, then she was gone. Around a bend and out of sight; very suddenly, he was alone.

Light, still sitting stock-still in place, his mouth dumbly open until he finally caught a breath, managed a quiet, conflicted murmur. "I... love you too?"

He didn't really know why, since it was far too late for her to hear him. He supposed... for the sentiment? It was nice to say, and to imagine a world where he'd spoken up sooner, and louder. Maybe a world where they shared one last kiss...

He'd get over it. Kissing wasn't everything, it was just... really nice.

As Light was alone now, alone by the stream his marefriend and her hat had vanished down, he had a moment to think on the events that had transpired. He did enjoy thinking, he thought. There was the proof, as well. How circuitous.

...Okay, he was stalling. He cared enough to admit that.

Applejack was a conflicting mare. He did love her, with all his heart- well, most of his heart- it was just that she was more than a bit... difficult sometimes. There was some part of him that surmised her difficulties only made him love her all the more- the thrill of the chase, and whatnot- but it was undeniable that there were some aspects of his new and very cherished marefriend that were somewhat disconcerting.

Her attitude was not always quite as agreeable as he'd like, though to be fair, neither was his. Still, it was a gripe, and her attitude wasn't exactly all that held her back from total amicability. She was fairly open-minded at most times, but she could be a bit obstinate in some circumstances that... really didn't call for it.

Again, he was the same. Actually, thinking of it, they happened to share quite a few negative traits. What Applejack would call pig-headedness, as well as a temper, unwillingness to change, and more than a small penchant for dry humor. He was a big fan of it, for what it mattered, but irony and spite sometimes rubbed ponies the wrong way. He'd found that out the hard way- another, even less enviable, wrong way.

He gave a sigh through his nose, flicking his eye up to watch the darkening sky for a moment. He'd missed the hue that matched Applejack, unfortunately, and now it was approaching nighttime. How thematic.

How reminiscent.

He'd prefer not to idle on his own in the dark.

Through some adversity, Light managed to rise to his hooves for the first time in... heavens, it may just have been a few hours. He did his best to stretch out the aches in his semi-recently pulverized bones, rolling his head around his shoulders without the satisfying pop Applejack had managed, and fighting back a tantalizing yawn as... he began to notice how sleepy he was.

Funny, he usually skipped past sleepiness and straight to passing directly out. That... might've been Nightmare Moon's fault, granted, but all the same, it was a somewhat foreign concept.

He took his last looks around, just for kicks. Trying his best to take in as many details that he'd likely forget, because when he'd remember his and Applejack's first kiss, it wasn't like the background would be what stood out.

The stream, he'd remember, at least. The bank, the hushed grove, and the opposite side, though, were little more than forgettable scenery. He'd take what mattered from the experience, and so he didn't give any of it a third look as he turned to the woods.

It would be a long trot home. Already, as he weaved through the first trees, entering the darker canopy that really made him feel the chilling dusk, he was having to focus more than he'd like on remembering where he should be going. He figured... just so long as he remained set on a general direction, he'd find a landmark eventually. In the distance or otherwise, he'd find his way home one way or the other.

The walk, at least, gave him time to think. For every bush he circumvented, frowning at the brambles in his path, he had much to dwell on. Much as he'd... prefer not to.

He'd never told Applejack the truth about his special talent, and he felt truly bad about that. He'd really meant to... only... her lips had kind of precluded his attempt at honesty.

The thought drew a frown from him, even deeper than the one he wore on principle. But then, something else returned a somber grin to him as he turned around a tree, heading towards what he felt like may have been a break in the treeline.

A kiss was not the worst thing that could have stopped him.

She'd kissed him, because she loved him. It was still so wonderful. The thought of it... of her... oh, it may have been the one thing in his life that actually made him want to run. Such nervous energy in his trembling hooves.

Except, he was exhausted. He really couldn't run, because he'd probably collapse. He kept that stark thought in mind as he stopped, then turned to the right, because it was a very real eventuality. He'd still had an unfairly rough day, no matter how life-affirming its relative end had been.

He'd... died, of course. A bad start to any day, to be certain. Coming back to life may have just been worse given that it invited every turn that came after. Even the best events took so much effort- not that he would trade them away for the peace of death. It was just... tiring.

He stopped, just to lean a hoof into a tree. It turned out what he'd seen hadn't been a break in the trees, and so he'd tried a different direction. Really, he had no idea where he was going, so he was pretty much running for any exit to the woods at all. It all looked so stupidly similar.

Shouldn't take too much longer. He kept that comforting lie in mind as he pushed away from the tree with a groan, and kept trotting ever forward.

It had been an interesting experience to be arrested, as had been the interrogation. A very harrowing experience that he'd... rather not think much of. Of all the things he'd endured, it may have just been the most jarring, and for that, it might've been the time he abhorred the most.

He'd met Bon Bon, at least, and finally found a face to throw blame at. It was a good face for such a thing, he thought as he idly picked a path around a small hill. A nice, angry face to ascribe horrible deeds to. Why did she seem so angry all the time? Was she trying to make the worst impression possible? Not to mention when she'd broke that character, and had pretended to care about him when he obviously knew she didn't.

She was terrible, and rude, and had helped to kickstart some of the most damaging events in his life. Her marefriend was needlessly energetic and horribly salacious- ew- and her penchant to wear false faces may have just been the most damnable aspect of her. No integrity to speak of. She sickened him.

And yet, as he somehow picked out an incongruence in the endless rows of trees ahead, he thought again of the moment she'd laid atop him. The brief flash of blue through the false soul she somehow wore just after she'd arrested him. Her hurried admittance of her name after he'd healed her, thrown over her cold shoulder as she'd run ahead regardless of the danger it posed to him.

As he shouldered through a bush- pricklier than it'd looked- out into the open air, with trees trailing after him and a darkened, sleepy town in the drooping distance ahead, he couldn't help but wonder if it had really been an act. Maybe she had a heart. Maybe said heart was dark enough to fake it all.

He stared out into the horizon for a moment, relishing the breeze over his head as he took a refreshing breath. Lonely, outside air. The first time to himself in so long.

She probably didn't deserve any more thought. Applejack should've been the foremost mare on his mind.

He thought no more of Bon Bon as he focused his attention to the left, where a much darker expanse of trees laid nestled a short distance away from the unassuming rows of buildings. As he began anew in his travels home, he cast his thought elsewhere, to what lay ahead.

He'd sleep when he got home, of course, but what then? In the morning, he'd probably... see somepony about fixing his door- that seemed like a start. That'd take some bits of course- but that wasn't a thought for now. Besides what he'd be doing for money, how would he be spending his time going forward?

It was a thoughtless effort, trailing through the plains, yet even that innocuous thought brought a frown. He'd... wasted his life up to this point, he could admit that. He'd read too much of too little, sat on his butt, slept at his desk, and gone exactly nowhere. He wanted to change that.

He had a destiny he'd been neglecting, and it was time to indulge. His marefriend may not approve, but he had a purpose to follow. A... dream that... may no longer seem so tantalizing, yet all the same, he wanted to live.

To Light, living started with just two things. He'd already acquired one: the mare of his dreams, and so it was time to start on the other.

Necromancy. The sweet little taste he'd had in the woods just hadn't been enough. He'd healed Bon Bon- but there was so much lacking. He was inexperienced- he had to practice! Again and again, he wanted to repeat it. He wanted to try other things, too! Any spell he could conceive of, he could apply himself!

The rules meant little to him. The art... tailored itself for him.

The thought came with a huff as he came to a stream running down towards Ponyville, and yet... it came with an odd little smile.

For all that he hated Her... She had taught him much. If he was to move forward, he ought to recognize that, at least. He could hate Her with all his being if he pleased- and he did so please- but he'd be a horrible sport indeed if he didn't benefit in some way from his lessons under the Goddess that had torn him limb from conceptual limb.

At least, in actuality, he'd subjected himself to more physical pain than She had. Small blessings that She'd not killed him in the end. That honor was his alone.

He didn't need spellbooks- and he should scrutinize the events surrounding his life with just a bit more suspicion. If he'd been able to achieve more in a single night with his least favorite mare in the world than he had in eight years with the mere five books his long-dead benefactor had provided him with, then there may have been some truth to Her professions that he was some kind of vast fool. Light and that old sorcerer. The both of them were great fools indeed.

He was approaching the Everfree, then, and at the perfect angle that he could begin to pick out an odd speck of charred brown from the brown outskirts.

He'd taken a soul last night- that of a crow, but regardless, it was an achievement. It was even still there inside of him, however little he could feel it without concentrating; it remained a semi-physical proof that he was a Necromancer.

And... there was another. How could he forget for even a single second?

His house was in sight- how comforting- and just aside him was a previously verdant tree, reduced to a scarred husk. He really had no idea what had happened to it, though there was also an odd circle of dead grass and ash just aside it, about the direction the char on the tree curled away from, so whatever it was had an epicenter.

But that was a mere distraction, he mused as he ran a hoof along its dead bark. Its crusty covering flaking off from his hoof where it wasn't already burned smooth. What a sad sight. What a sad sort it, and he, was. The tree may have held no soul, nor any remaining life at all, yet he held three all to his own.

Only one was rightful, and though nopony would ever miss a crow, there was another the world would sorely lack for.

He sighed, and trailed his hoof away. Hanging his head towards the tree, perhaps in reverent proxy.

Only for a moment, though. That solitary moment he spent with his head uselessly bowed to a tree, before he raised his head and turned, walking briskly towards his house. His sad little house all covered in ivy; it made such a depressing impression. No wonder he had no visitors. Not even a mailpony. He supposed he liked it that way, though alas- it was such a depressing concept.

He thought of little behind his lidded eyes as he trailed up to the face of his house, slowing to a halt before its open, yawning mouth. The windows ever closed and barred with vines, and his poor door so cruelly kicked in. Not just once, but twice. He could forgive Applejack- she'd been worried- but if there were any way he'd be able to bill Bon Bon for damages, then he'd find it.

The inside of his home was dark from where he stood, suffocatingly so even for how near to night it was. The sky was yet dimly orange, and the sun was not entirely gone, and even still the depths of his house remained an inscrutable wall.

Perhaps that was why he idled in front of it, barely managing to raise a hoof to take him forward. Perhaps it was a lingering memory of... some horror he'd once endured- perhaps of a fake voice, or of shattered golden rings- but for whatever reason that compelled him, he found his gaze trailing to the side.

Around the corner of his house, closely hugged on both sides by overzealous trees, at its back and nestled into a small crook between walls, there was a cellar door held shut by chains and a padlock. Its dark recesses so vaguely foreboding in his memory now, and for what they contained...

A little box meant for apples shoved into a corner and plugged into a mana battery to keep its contents frozen. Preserved, and eventually forgotten.

He stared at the corner for a moment, before he let out a small huff, and turned to trot into his home.

He'd get it back to her soon. That was his first goal.

Although... as he eyed the door on his left hanging weakly out by a hinge, he amended that. Fixing his door was the first goal. Zebra resurrection was number two, sorry to say. He'd rather not get robbed or murdered in the meanwhile.

He spared a glance and a grimace for the empty room- trashed beyond cleaning- before he turned to the door. Summoning his magic- bit of a headache- he managed grasp its edge and press it closed... for all the good it did without a frame for the knob to latch into, though that seemed more like semantics.

Earlier in the day, while Bon Bon had burned a hole into the back of his head, he'd found a stuck-out nail in the frame that he'd tied some twine to from his doorknob. Thankfully, when Applejack had later bucked it open, it had only snapped the twine rather than displace the nail further.

Staring then at the somewhat wimpy looking nail- practically halfway out of the frame- it seemed a little improbable that it had been the survivor, but he supposed that only meant he'd used some really weak twine.

He only had the one spool on the floor where his desk had been, though- he wasn't Rarity- so the most he could do as a precaution was to use a few more loops. He'd spun his temporary lock, cut it and tied it off, and stepped back to inspect his work.

There remained a tiny crack of light in-between the door and the frame at its bottom and top corners, but that seemed fitting. He hated the pun, but he liked that he could make the pun. He turned from the door more content than he was discontent, however barely, and to the... room...

...So messy.

Light groaned, and made his way to the center of the main room. He cast a pitying glance to either side of the room- his kitchen mostly undisturbed, the hearth the same, and a bent knife buried in the opposite wall where his desk should be- as he arrived to what lay immediately before him. His toppled-over desk, and the inscrutable remains of a machine he still had trouble conceptualizing.

Standing over his desk on its side and a scattering of broken glass and some colorful gems, Light could only feel tired. He didn't want to deal with this right now. Judging by how even closing his door had made his skull ache, he wasn't sure if he could right his desk at the moment. His broom was... somewhere, ugh, it felt like it'd been years since he'd been home.

He was getting bleary, his mind was growing fuzzy, and his eyes felt heavy. Staring at the mess... the knife in the wall... the black stains he'd only just seen on the grey stone of the hearth... he just...

Light turned away, and trotted on unsteady hooves to his bedroom door. He spared one last glance to the room, and to his vandalized front door that wouldn't ever stop anypony who actually wanted to come in, before he pushed the slightly-ajar door open and into his bedroom.

It seemed less disastrous in here, at least. His dresser was there, with his cloak that needed replacing probably stuffed into one of its drawers, as was his bed aside from it; both of his things remained relatively undisturbed. The one openable window on his bed's other side was firmly latched, so nopony had broken in.

Otherwise, he'd never decorated. He'd thought about getting a plant, but he hadn't because he'd figured he'd forget about it and let it die. Or... maybe he'd had a plant, but he'd forgotten about it, let it die, and thrown it away. One of them was right, he was sure. There had been something about a plant at some point.

When had his hooves gotten so heavy? He shuffled tiredly over to his bedside, staring apprehensively down at his black covers. He'd purposefully bought an uncomfortable blanket after he'd grown too large of the one he'd brought from his foalhood home, because it had made sense at the time. Because he was and is an idiot.

What if it was stained, as well? It was already black, so if he'd thrown up on it, then he'd not be able to tell. Should he risk it, anyway? He didn't even know what that black stuff was. It could've been hazardous.

He weighed his options for a moment.

It was good enough to collapse into, as he did with a groan. That was nice; it didn't feel sticky or slimy. Just as scratchy as usual.

He'd always been very good at falling asleep. It hardly took any time or effort most days, or even those scarce times he fell asleep at night.

So it was that he didn't even have to really curl up on his mattress, or squirm very far onto its surface. He didn't need his uncomfortable, dubiously-colored blanket or a goodnight lullaby, nor did he need to think of his new marefriend and how he loved her so.

He did not think of what troubled him, nor of what had transpired. Not of what was to come or what he'd left behind. Not what he'd done or what he wanted to do. Not of Applejack, Nightmare Moon, or that stupid EIA agent.

Within moments of laying down, Light Flow simply slept.

And for the first time in a long time, he did not dream.

Author's Note:

Ah, Applejack... son amour... So sweet the sound of a smooch.

So, I hope you like mushy romance! I know it's not a tag for the story- but come on! A good story's got a whole lotta elements! I can't constrain the narrative just to act in accordance with what the man told me the story should be!

I'm sure most of you are glad, at least- those of you who could stand it. Light's been wanting this for a long time; it's been a long time coming! After all that's been poured over him and lit aflame, don't you think he deserves a win? It's almost like... a reward, or something. not that I'm calling the authenticity of their feelings into question

I think they're just so cute together. Light is... a mess, and Applejack's no friend with this type of situation, either, so she's kinda flying by the seat of her hat. She's not all that afraid of talking about how she feels, but she is afraid of making a mistake. And, of course, Light's got that and more in spades.

They've got kissing down, at least. A pleasant, albeit rudimentary, physical connection to begin building something else on, while making clear that they don't have to change how they already see each other. It's a difficult promise to extract- and, somehow, Light kinda provided the impetus.

Applejack hammered out most of the details while Light tried in vain to keep up- and she broached the question much earlier- but he was the one who made them actually talk about it. He's... got some kind of self-confidence now. Not even just a self-righteous facsimile to use for slinging insults, either.

I think... after spending so long on the bottom, he's finally starting to learn how to climb back up.

We're finally seeing the light^pun at the end of the tunnel, and getting the slightest inkling of how the plot's gonna be progressing. The... non-Nightmare Moon related plot. How long's it been since we've had that, huh? When's the last time Light's been alone?

He might actually make something of himself after he wakes up. What a strange concept.

Though, I feel as though we're forgetting something that was supposed to have been coming... Something... blue? Fast?

Oh well. I'm sure if anything was going to happen, it would've happened already. Not like anypony with any kind of self-control would up and barge into somepony else's house while they slept, would they?

...Would they?

Comments

[Bandit1990]

I just hope, for his own sake, that Light is the one who tells AJ about his real talent. She won't take it well if she hears it from someone else. (I'm assuming that Twilight either knows or suspects)

[Screw]

Ten thousand plus words to acknowledge being marefriend-coltfriend. I don't know any other author can make such a scene last so long.

I thought it would be funny if Applejack's hat ended up being not too far on Light's path back to his house.

Also, I didn't forget about Rainbow. I was kinda expecting that she cut into their lovey-dovey moment and make things awkward.

A weird thing about how the time flows here. How long were they in the river? I assume Celestia raised the sun closer to noon, so Bon Bon's travelling and interrogation may have ended an hour and a half later. Plus another hour for her to finish the report at most.

But the report is irrelavant, so half an hour just for Light to catch up with the remaining Mane Six. So... this leaves almost three hours to 5PM of Light and Applejack bathing by the river and doing hot actions being close. Two hours if the bathing takes a whole hour.

Well, Wordsmith, in all? It took me one and a half hour, give about a couple minutes, to finish reading from the kissing to the departing. Considering I don't know when a non-equator sun sets other than vaguely 5-ish PM, it seems your timing might be accurate. Quite literally.

Light Flow is approaching a suspicious territory; he doesn't have a foot hoof fetish, does he? Though, with cartoonish quadrapeds, I don't believe it is as weird as bipedal creatures. But still... puts all that "orange hooves" into light, huh?

Light examining that firm plot. I was expecting her to already be walking way, not literally still in hugging distance. Yeesh, Light Flow is definitely down bad after gaining this new life.

It's good to know that Zecora is coming back. But how effectively? Judging by the princesses reaction, Light might be able to do it flawlessly. The question is, how bad will she take that she lost a lot of time? Oh, and how far back the Bridle Gossip episode is pushed back, too. Or maybe Light's creeper nature has already tempered the town's reaction over the years.

I wonder... would he attempt to ressurect something without obtaining their soul? Like say, his own mother? Or that long dead pegasus filly that kinda taught him the first step to necromancy? How about that tamed timerwolf? So many interesting ideas a sterotypical necromancer would try out.

Though I usually do not reply back to any comment, something about fimfiction not being able to support ten thousand plus comments in a short period in a roleplay group some years ago... I always enjoy getting to understand the writer's perspective. If only this site had a comment history.

All puns, all intended, full force.

[JinxTJL]

11663971
D'aw, I'm gonna take that jab at the word count as a compliment, Screw! After all, you've already read the 100k word night and the 30k word conversation- besides this one, I mean- so if you really thought my pace was egregious enough to become a sticking point, I'm sure you would've left by now!

You've posed an interesting question about the timeframe of the past few chapters, along with an interpretation that I hadn't considered. You see, in my head, I had assumed that Celestia would raise the sun to morning when She returned. The thought that She would instead raise it to what was considered its proper location is... probably more sensible. That's why I write these sorts of details to be fairly vague, though!

You've put together some very incisive pieces to form a relative timeline, and for the story's purposes, it might just be correct! If you want to hear my interpretation, though, then you've probably got a screw loose! Who'd wanna hear me talk?

Anyways, assuming the scene in Homecoming wherein Light and Bon Bon stand over Ponyville, marveling at the impossible odds they had survived, occurred at noon, then we can say it was probably... 3-ish when the interrogation fully concluded. Maybe... half an hour to forty-five minutes to travel into Ponyville to pick up the arcanic crystagram she needed and return to Light's house, and somewhere around two hours for the exceedingly tedious questioning and subsequent inquisition by Twilight. Maybe longer.

Let's say he and Applejack walked for... no more than twenty to thirty minutes judging by how long his walk home took- factor that in as well. Their talk did take a long time- Applejack's confession, Light's confession, the mutual profession of their love and everything that involved- so it feasibly could have taken anywhere between two to three and a half hours. Maybe even longer.

That puts us at around five for when dusk may have began, to the point it was ending at around six or seven when Light went home. Where I live, the sun sets at around 8 in the summer, so... it's close enough in my book! Any allowances either way should be marginal given that the sun hadn't actually set by the time Light went to bed, so it probably wasn't eight yet. The sun wasn't set when Rainbow got into her tizzy and flew off to find the poor fool, either, so all seems well enough.

You know, this isn't the first time you've coaxed me into slapping a semi-coherent progression of events together, funnily enough. It's nice! Comments like yours provide me interesting puzzles to work through, and force me to reconsolidate my understanding of the past chapters. Keep asking the hard-hitting questions, Screw; it's what I value you for! among many other things, of course

This is hardly the first time Light's... proclivities have come up. He's steadfastly disinterested in amorous matters- as he so claims to himself- but he feels attraction to Applejack, and... well... I think it's obvious he's got a type. Light wants a mare that could literally pulverize him

Regardless of Light's interest in fit mares and their muscles, I love that you're asking stuff about Necromancy! I'd like to emphasize that I love it, because I... can't answer those questions! I could pretend to theorize along with you- Light has innate abilities that surpass any who have yet been known, therefore- but I feel as though anything I could say about this might... reveal my own sway in the matter.

And... though I've said it before, I'm gonna go out on a limb, here. Necromancy? Soon.

For sure this time.

Thanks for commenting, and for reading, Screw! I might go back and reply to your comment on the last chapter, because I meant to, and got totally discouraged! I'm an oddity!

[duckmagee]

It nice light gets something good happen to him he deserves it after all he been through the last 24 hours

[Weirdo For Life]

11664215
Oh uh thanks. Like I said, I literally read the chapter at the start of the day and couldn't give a comment until the end. So my word vomit was building up for a while.

[Weirdo For Life]

My thoughts on this chapter can be best summarized with one word.

Cuuuuuuute!

They're just so cute together!

Let's just hope a blue ballistic missle doesn't ruin anything. Or purple time bomb. Or the literal sun and moon. Or you know, the thousands of other problems that are going to rear their ugly head.

[ANerdWithASwitch]

I know we're only just getting into the meat and potatoes of the fic, but by God this chapter felt like such an amazing conclusion to the beginning arcs. The slowburn romance has finally caught, and here's to hoping that it burns into a bright and glorious bonfire and doesn't get stamped out by the various factors around Light and AJ that may...disapprove of their relationship. But truly, the next chapter in Light's life can finally begin, and it feels like so much of the world's weight has been lifted off of his shoulders and he can finally just...live.

[Witchery]

That was adorable.

[ChakatRedstripe]

Good chapter, can't wait to see his necromantic hijinks

[Pharaoh]

Another marvelous chapter from the king of italics.

[JinxTJL]

11668178
The king, eh? Well... I wouldn't claim as such, but...

...if there were to be some sort of coronation, I wouldn't abstain from attending. Nor would I turn down a crown!

[Swordfighter125]

Wait wait wait... Both of them kissed?! Light is too young to do that!!

Edit: Did he got older?

[Witchery]

11672358
Bap.

[DoctorWhoooves]

I love the romance element and I hope it’s here to stay

[Direct Access]

I think I took mental damage.