You, Me, and Cozy

by bahatumay

Here There Be Apples

Wallflower was a gardener, not a farmer. Even the largest plant she grew was small enough for her to carry.

But when Sunset invited her to Applejack’s today, Wallflower figured that was close enough. Hands jammed in her pockets, she wandered up to where Applejack was carrying a stack of baskets far too large for a typical high schooler. Wallflower pursed her lips. She still wasn’t comfortable with how blasely they used that geode magic.

And then Applejack turned quickly, knocking Wallflower onto the ground with one of the baskets. She hit the ground hard.

Now she just wasn’t comfortable in general.

“Ah, shoot. Sorry, Wallflower,” Applejack said, quickly setting them down and reaching down to help her up. “Didn’t see you there.”

“It’s fine,” Wallflower said, letting Applejack help her up. She brushed dirt off her pants. “Is Sunset here?”

“She’s inside, helping Granny peel some apples,” Applejack said. She raised an eyebrow and one side of her mouth pulled up. “Why?”

Wallflower winced. “No reason,” she said a little too quickly. Did everyone but Sunset know?

Wait.

Did Sunset know?

“But Cozy’s out here,” Applejack offered.

Talk about a whammy prize.

“Cozy wants to expand her baking re-por-i-tore,” Applejack said with pride, “so we’re gonna bake some apple pies today. And the best part of baking pies is sharing ‘em with friends, so I hope you’re hungry!” She grabbed Wallflower in a tight side hug.

Wallflower found this both oddly comforting and a little excessive, so she smiled and hoped it passed for genuine. “So, anyone else coming? Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash?” she guessed, trying to remember who was back yet and who wasn’t.

Applejack dropped her hands. “Rainbow Dash doesn’t like pie,” she said in a dark voice that implied a lot of backstory that Wallflower didn’t dare dig into. Already, she was intense enough that she took a slight step back.

Thankfully, Cozy provided a (semi-)welcome distraction by skipping across the orchard, a basket full of apples on one arm, looking somewhat like an out-of-place flower girl. She paused, then leaned over, cutely tapping her chin, before selecting another large apple just barely within her reach and skipping back. “How do these look, Applejack?” Cozy asked, holding the basket out with both hands.

“These look great,” Applejack said. “You’re a natural.”

Cozy beamed.

Before long, Wallflower found herself inside, wearing an apron, holding an apple peeler. It was heavy, looked about as old as Granny Smith, and felt unwieldy in her hand. Honestly, she would have preferred using a spade, because at least that felt good in her hands.

Maybe this had been a mistake.

Sunset noticed her concern and grinned as she approached. “This one’s tricky, but it’s better-balanced than it looks. Here, hold it still.”

And to Wallflower’s shock, she reached around, wrapping her arms around her, guiding her hands. Her heart had stopped. Sunset was so close to her.

“It’s just smooth motions,” Sunset said, demonstrating.

But Wallflower’s thoughts were definitely not on the apple, so when Sunset returned to her own peeling, none of her attempts were as nice as Sunset’s were. Thankfully, they had plenty of apples, and the rest of the pie process went pretty well (as well as it can go for someone who’d never baked a pie before, anyway). The whole sifting the flour thing was odd, though. She couldn’t see how this would make any difference, but everyone else seemed to just accept this as necessary so she went along with it.

Before long, each girl had an apple pie. Wallflower grimaced looking at her crust. It was lopsided, uneven, and bunchy. Applejack had made four in the time it had taken her to make one, and all of hers looked picture perfect. Sunset’s looked passable, and Cozy had done a little sun design on top of hers!

Sunset seemed really pleased at that. She pulled the pie and Cozy Glow in for a picture.

Wallflower and her amateur photography hobby suddenly seemed very unimpressive.

---

Wallflower staggered into her room and shut the door behind her. She unbuttoned her pants and let out a low groan as she laid down on her bed. She’d eaten way too much pie. Applejack, Granny Smith, even Cozy Glow with those wide eyes and slight pout had combined with her unwillingness to make a scene to equal one stuffed Wallflower.

But still, she’d gotten to spend a lot of time with Sunset Shimmer. So it was totally worth it.