First half - 'Skin'

'Do You Love An Apple?'

First half – 'Skin'

Snow. Everywhere there is snow. It lies in neat layers on roofs, in intricate crystalline networks in the branches of the bare trees, in hard-packed pathways underhoof. No clouds are in the sky to trap any of the sun's heat; light scatters off the snow in an infinity of golden glittery flecks and dances away back into the sky. The air is still, the main street of Ponyville quiet on this Tuesday midmorning. The ponies outside go about their business quickly, bundled in scarves and woolen hats and winter saddles and covered boots. Twilight Sparkle is one of these few.

She trots past the frozen pond on the path to Sweet Apple Acres and barely feels the cold despite her breath misting in the air, for today is a rare day when Twilight is Ahead Of Schedule. It is the common practice of the universe to do whatever is possible to disrupt a Schedule – hence Twilight's checklists and timetables, which are the only method to reliably keep the universe in order – but today is one of those blue-moon days when every task planned so far took less time to complete than estimated. It is because Twilight is so Ahead Of Schedule that she finds herself on an unplanned errand. She had been returning a book to Pinkie Pie (Twilight had thought to try her hoof at baking, and the cake hadn't turned out so badly – she had used the amount of sugar and butter the recipe had originally called for and not the exaggerated amount that had been doodled in the margin, and the cake wasn't that badly burned at the base despite what Spike claimed), and she had made mention that today was the day Rarity was returning from her week trip to Manehatten, and Pinkie had insisted this was grounds for a party and darted around Sugar Cube Corner with the ferocity of a pink dervish making preparations before Twilight had barely finished her sentence, whatever task she had been in the middle of at the bakery forgotten or suspended or simply factored in to her frantic energy. Pinkie Pie is a pony who is so unacquainted with, so opposite to the very concept of Schedule, Twilight thinks as she walks, that she could never be Ahead Of or even Behind it.

"You look kinda busy, Pinkie..." Twilight had remarked.

"Do I?" At time time, Pinkie was keeping a rolling pin from falling to the floor with her nose while trying to open a bag of flour and fumbling with setting an oven with her back leg.

"If you want, I could tell the girls about the party, I have some free time and-"

"Oh, would you would you would you? That would be great!" Pinkie had bounced to attention, leaving the rolling pin and flour to drop to the floor and the oven to roar to life. "But don't tell Rarity. It should be a surprise!"

"Can do. And I shouldn't need to tell Fluttershy either, she said she'd meet Rarity at the station."

"So you're already halfway there!"

Twilight's plan was to speak with Applejack first, but another moment of good fortune keeps her day efficient: a multicoloured streak is moving against the clear blue sky.

"Hey, Rainbow!"

No response. Rainbow could be too high up for her to hear. Or, unlikely as it seems, the blur in the sky may not be Rainbow Dash; it displays none of her signature acrobatics, just shoots like an arrow in the general direction back to Ponyville.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Still nothing. So Twilight reaches out with her magic and wraps what is probably Rainbow Dash (but may not be) in a purple bubble of force. Immediately it begins to struggle – this is a long distance she's trying to hold an object from, and it's obviously not as complacent as a book or a quill – and she lets go. Soon she can see the familiar form of Rainbow Dash descending from the sky. She lands with a snort of irritation.

"Twilight, what the hay? You could have just called to me."

"I did," Twilight says. "Twice."

"Oh." Rainbow looks about, as if she's searching for something else to aim her temporary bad mood at. Finding nothing, she says, "So, what's up?"

Something about this feels off, but Twilight is unable to nail down how. Rainbow can be surprisingly touchy about some things, and she probably shouldn't have just magically grabbed her like that. She dismisses the thought and says, "Well, Pinkie's putting together a party for Rarity coming back today. It's a little last minute, but..."

"I'm always in for a last-minute Pinkie Pie party, that's the best kind."

"Great. It's this afternoon, at Sugar Cube Corner."

"I'll be there!" Rainbow gives a wide cocky smile.

"Oh, and, um," Twilight says, "I'm sorry about grabbing you like that."

Rainbow Dash pauses her takeoff and looks at Twilight.

"With my magic," she clarifies. Rainbow continues to stare. "Just now."

"Oh! That. No big deal."

"You just looked like you were in a hurry to get somewhere and I thought I wouldn't have time to... what are you in such a rush for, anyway?" Rainbow looks on the verge of zooming off into the sky and leaving Twilight hanging mid-sentence.

"I just had some clouds to clear. You know. Which is what I should be doing now. So-" - she takes to the air - "-see ya, Twilight!"

"Bye, Rainbow!"

The feeling of something being off comes back. It's not until Twilight can see the snow-covered fields of Sweet Apple Acres that she remembers the skies over Ponyville , and every else as far as she can see, are azure blue and completely cloudless.

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

There's no immediate sign of Applejack at her farm, but there is a Cutie Mark Crusader Construction Crew building a snow fort and gathering snowball munitions. Sweetie Belle peeks over a rampart, her ears covered with earmuffs, wary of invaders. When she sees it's only Twilight, she shouts an enthusiastic greeting.

"Hi, girls," Twilight says, "where's Applejack?"

Applebloom pauses in rolling a snowball towards a formidable snowball pyramid to indicate a cluster of buildings at the edge of one of the fields. "She's clearing the snow off the storage bins."

"She's just moving the snow around," Scootaloo clarifies, "Rainbow Dash is the one doing all the clearing!" She dives at a snowdrift in demonstration, spraying Applebloom in a shower of loose snow. Applebloom bucks the highest snowball of the pyramid back in response.

"I see," Twilight says over the collective laughter of the three fillies. This confirms that something is indeed off. Perhaps Applejack will be able to explain Rainbow's weird behaviour.

But the storage silos seem deserted. A couple of roofs are still covered with snow and the snowplow lies abandoned at the head of a snowdrift. Twilight calls, "Applejack? Hello?" but gets no response. Around the back of the buildings, between them... nothing. Twilight even checks the ground, but can't tell any more from the tracks around the storage area than that ponies had come from where she had come from and walked around like she had. She looks up and glances over to Applebloom and her friends playing in the snow. She can hear them easily, their laughter carrying in the still air. It doesn't seem like anything bad has happened, and yet...

As Twilight leaves Sweet Apple Acres, she asks Applebloom to give her sister the message about Pinkie's party. While she travels back to Ponyville being Ahead Of Schedule is no longer at the forefront of her mind.

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

"Stop worrying, Twilight."

"I can't just stop worrying, Spike. You can't just tell somepony 'stop worrying', because then they'll worry they haven't stopped worrying about what it was they were worrying about in the first place, and still be worrying about that!"

"Well, can you stop pacing, at least? You're getting hard to talk to."

Pinkie has just left Sugar Cube Corner to intercept Rarity and Fluttershy at the train station, leaving Twilight alone with Spike and her worries. Throughout the day he has heard both sides of Twilight's argument examined at length – what if something has happened, but why didn't anypony else seem to notice, and should I maybe take another look around the farm, but what if it's all my imagination, but what if it isn't – and he really just wants her to pick a side and go with it. He is of the opinion that it's nothing major, and has thought of bringing up Pinkie's Pinkie Sense (or lack of activity thereof) as proof, but he's unsure how Twilight will take mention of that right now.

Twilight stands her ground and looks at Spike. "I know I'm probably being paranoid." She taps a hoof on the floor. "I'm just worried about her."

"Who're y'all worried about?"

Applejack stands in the doorway, her wide-brimmed hat that guards against the sun traded in for one with tufted flaps that hang at the sides of her face to guard against the cold. She comes inside and shuts the door.

"Applejack!" Twilight exclaims.

"See? Everything's fine," Spike says. He sneaks another cupcake.

"I came by the farm earlier today," Twilight begins to explain.

"So Applebloom told me. She passed your message right along."

"I looked for you, to tell you myself."

"Well, that was mighty nice of you, but you know you can trust my sister and all." Applejack does her best to avoid looking Twilight directly in the eye.

"I called after you, there was no answer."

"Well, I was awful busy this morning..."

"Is that because Rainbow had to leave before you finished the job?"

"She did leave partway, yes."

"I met her on the way to Sweet Apple Acres, she didn't mention anything about it."

"Well, that's awful strange."

"That is strange."

A long moment passes in silence. Spike's gaze shifts from one pony to the other, unsure who will make the first move.

It's Twilight. Slowly, cautiously, she asks, "Are you alright, Applejack?"

Applejack spends a long time looking for the right words. "Can it wait, before I talk about this? I don't-"

The door interrupts them. "It is cold out there! Feels like my wings are about to freeze off."

"Hey, Rainbow Dash," Applejack says meekly.

"Applejack," Rainbow curtly replies.

Twilight has had enough. "Okay, what is going on with you two?"

Rainbow's eyes dart about the room. "Nothing's going on between us!"

"Uh, Rainbow, I don't think..." Applejack begins, but Twilight cuts her off.

"Wait, what does that mean? I-"

"She kissed me! Why does everypony always assume-"

"Dang it, Rainbow, I asked you not to-"

Twilight is suddenly too stunned to follow the argument properly. Kiss? Did Rainbow Dash just say Applejack kissed her? And that has somehow led to this fight between her two friends. Their voices are growing louder, and now Applejack is turning away from Rainbow and heading for the door, now she's apologising to Twilight, now she's going back out into the cold, and was she about to cry? Applejack nearly runs into Rarity and just keeps going, not looking back. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie enter Sugarcube Corner with confused and concerned looks, and Twilight does not know where to begin to start explaining what just happened. The silence is overwhelming.

Eventually all eyes turn towards Rainbow Dash.

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

Rainbow Dash is not a pony who thinks she is awesome – Rainbow Dash is a pony who knows she is awesome. There's nothing she couldn't do, unless that thing was to be not awesome. She was the fastest pegasus at flight school by miles, came up with the best tricks, was pretty much the coolest pony ever – a position that naturally comes with being the subject of a fair amount of jealousy and envy. The three meatheads that had collectively come up with the nickname of Rainbow Crash (and what an all-night brainstorming session they must have had, to come up with that gem) had been the most vocal, taking whatever opportunity they could to show how jealous and envious they were of all of Rainbow's many talents. Rainbow ignored them, of course, when she wasn't insulting them back, but still... day after day, every day, it wore on her. But she never let them see that.

Until one day when one of them had suggested the real reason Rainbow could keep up with them (which was a lie, she ran circles around them then and still can now, the losers) was only because she was into mares, and she let them have it. Just because she didn't want anything to do with those dorks... she likes stallions! She had taped a poster of Spitfire up in her dorm because she thought Spitfire was cool, not because she was hot. Two of the meatheads ended up with sprained wings. The other got a black eye.

That was the day she was put on probation at flight school, which ultimately led to Rainbow being kicked out.

Rainbow Dash is not against the idea of two fillies being together or anything. What ponies do in private is their business, so what? She probably would have fought those three even if she was interested in mares. The thing that really made her see red was that they were saying the only reason she is any good was because, somehow, she is like them in some way. She isn't like them in any way! She's better than them because she is Rainbow Dash, who is always awesome all the time!

And the quiet little interior voice that Rainbow sometimes hears but often doesn't want to listen to speaks to her as she hovers over the snow: But Applejack couldn't have known any of that, could she?

She has explained what happened with Applejack – how she was helping get the snow off the high silo roofs, and they were having a completely normal conversation, and the next thing she knows Applejack is kissing her, or, well, trying to – and now she's with everypony else looking for Applejack. Pinkie's being super-apologetic to Rarity for her surprise party not actually being a party but being the bad kind of surprise, and Rarity is assuring her it's alright. Twilight is trying, unsuccessfully and for the third or fourth time, to explain things completely to Spike. Fluttershy keeps pace with Rainbow and seems more quiet than usual.

What had they been talking about? There was a lot of stuff, but what was the last thing? It was about the apples in storage – Applejack was talking about some kind of apple stew and Rainbow had said that barely sounded edible and Applejack had defended it and Rainbow had said something about Applejack making this apple stew for her. It was when they settled on a night...

The pace everypony is keeping suddenly seems stifling. And, just as suddenly, Rainbow sees a way to fix things. She rockets ahead in a flash, zero to top speed in the blink of an eye, headed to Sweet Apple Acres. The others will catch up soon. There's just something Rainbow has to do first.

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

Applejack is more or less where Rainbow guessed where she'd be. It's a bit hard to see into the storage silo while standing in the open door – there's too much light outside and too little inside – but she can make out an Applejack-shaped figure in there somewhere.

"So, uh," Rainbow begins. Just say what needs to be said. "I want to apologise, and if you still want to be mad at me I'll totally understand, because I was being a huge jerk. I wish I was better at thinking things through sometimes, like you or Twilight or... hay, even Pinkie's better at..." Stay focused, you're drifting. "Anyway, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you thought I wasn't your friend, because I am your friend and I love you a lot, just..."

Applejack emerges from the shadow. Her eyes are slightly red.

"...You know." Rainbow glances at somewhere that isn't Applejack, and scuffs at the snow a little.

"You shouldn't be the one who's apologising. What I did was wrong."

"No it wasn't. I'm just too dumb to pick up on what you were trying to tell me."

"And you're... you're not angry?"

Rainbow Dash pulls Applejack into a fierce embrace. "Not at a friend." After a moment, she can feel Applejack hugging her back.

"Hey! You're meant to be mad at each other!" Pinkie Pie has caught up with them. The others trail half a field behind.

"Not any more, sugarcube." Applejack looks at Rainbow Dash for confirmation. "Right?"

"Right."

"Alright! Then it's party time!" Pinkie punctuates her exclamation with an explosion of streamers.

"Not... just yet," Applejack says. The technicolour paper strips fall to the ground as Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy arrive. Spike is on Twilight's back. They all wait for Applejack to speak.

"So, now y'all know," she says. "I've been trying to work up the courage to tell everypony for a little while now..."

"Even your closest, dearest friends?" Rarity asks.

"Well, it ain't... y'know, normal."

Glances are exchanged. "Applejack, why would you think that?" Twilight ventures after a long moment of quiet.

Applejack levels her with a stare. "I work on a farm, Twilight, I know what's natural between critters and what ain't."

"Oh, but it's very natural," Fluttershy pipes up. "Lots of animals that, um, mate for life." Her face reddens. "Ducks, and swans, and penguins..."

"Those are all birds, ponies ain't-"

"Not just birds! Dolphins, and sheep, and Zecora was telling me about two elephants that..." She breaks off and glances at the ground. "And, ponies too," she says from behind her long mane.

"Not in Ponyville," Applejack says flatly.

Rarity asks, "Sweetie, do you know Lyra?"

"Well, of course I do, she's and that Bon Bon are always coming around the applecart in the summer together." Applejack pauses when she realises what she's saying. "Aw, horseapples. I am mighty blind sometimes."

"You mean you never noticed? Even I knew about them," Rainbow says.

"I just never..." Applejack stares at the ground. "Y'all don't think there's anything wrong with me?"

"There's nothing wrong with you being who you are," Twilight says.

Applejack doesn't look back up – if she does, she might start crying again. She feels somepony hugging her again – it's Pinkie, and Rainbow, and it's all of her friends, and she's very grateful for all of them.

"Thank you," she says in a quiet voice.

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

Pinkie's parties are not the ideal environment for meaningful conversation, but that's the kind of atmosphere the six ponies (and one baby dragon) are in the mood for. There is cake, music, dancing, fun. Rarity shows off her new outfit from Manehatten, and hands out souvenirs that made her think of her friends (Spike is especially enthralled with his, a tiny yellow replica wagon for storing quills). Rainbow even dances with Applejack and tells her she's almost as good as she is herself, which brings on a fierce bout of friendly competition that ends with Rainbow attempting some sort of complex spinning maneuver and ending up tangled in several balloon strings.

There is not much in the way of meaningful conversation, no, but there are a number of meaningful glances that come from Fluttershy. As is often the case, these are overlooked.

After the party ends, Fluttershy leaves with Applejack. They share a comfortable silence as they walk. The setting sun stains the sky a pleasant orange. The pair arrive at the fork in the path where one way leads to Applejack's farm and the other to Fluttershy's cottage, and pause.

"Well... guess I better see what ruckus my sister and her friends have been responsible for," Applejack says.

"I'm sure they haven't been too difficult," Fluttershy assures her.

"Yeah, you're probably right. G'night, Fluttershy."

"Goodnight." For a moment it seems like she wants to say something more, but no words come. Then, when Applejack begins to turn away, Fluttershy adds, "Um, Applejack..."

"Yeah?"

A long and heavy pause. Then: "No, it's nothing. Just, um..." She looks at her hooves. "If you need somepony to talk to..."

"I'll come to you first, sugarcube. 'Kay?" Applejack smiles.

"Okay." Fluttershy smiles back. She can feel her face warming.

Second half - 'Seeds'

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'Do You Love An Apple?'

Second half – 'Seeds'

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

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

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

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

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

"Well..."

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

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

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

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

"...What would you do?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"No, not really."

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

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

"Okay, awesome. I owe you one."

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

"Well, anyway. Thanks, Fluttershy!"

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

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

"Need some help?"

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

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

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

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

"Eeeyup," Big Mac adds for emphasis.

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

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

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

"That seems very... dangerous."

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

"Oh, that would be bad."

"A little."

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

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

"Okay."

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

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

"Perfect, sugarcube!"

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

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

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

"What happened?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"Miss Fluttershy... your leg."

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

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

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

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

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

"There. All done."

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

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

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

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

"With that storm?" Applejack counters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Do... do what?"

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

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

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

"What about Big Macintosh?"

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

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

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

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

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

"You didn't-"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Okay."

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

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

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

They share a quiet laugh together.

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

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

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

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

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

"Hm?"

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

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

The rain lasts all through the night.

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

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

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

But not just yet.