A yellow pegasus has caught the eye of Caramel. However, will he do anything about it and for that matter, does she even notice him?
“Her love is heavenly, when her arms enfold me,/I hear a tender rhapsody; but in reality, she doesn't even know me./It's just my imagination once again, running away with me.” –The Temptations, ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)’
Caramel is working his tail off at Sweet Apple Acres and, of course, having a string of bad luck. However, despite all of his misfortune, a yellow pegasus catches his eye and he is instantly smitten by her. The question is does she notice him, or is it just his imagination?
Clouds dotted the sky all around Ponyville. Just outside of the town, the clouds were a welcome to the workers at Sweet Apple Acres. One stallion in particular, a tan colt with a brown mane with the name Caramel, was grateful for the shade from Celestia's sun. Pulling the cart full of buckets of apples towards the barn, Caramel was struggling. He had always had a string of bad luck, and it had been that way for as long as he knew. However, his luck had been taking a better turn for him, such as finally getting some work at Sweet Apple Acres. He knew this was out of pity by his cousins Applejack and Big Macintosh, but to him, a job was a job. Trotting towards the barn, Caramel went to unload the cart. Exiting out of the barn, a yellow pegasus mare was waiting patiently outside the barn.
"Um, excuse me?" Caramel asked allowed, startling the mare.
"Oh….um…..h-hello. I wasn't expecting anypony here, sorry," the pegasus stated meekly, seeming embarrassed to simply just be noticed.
"Oh no, it's fine, I didn't think anypony was around here either. Can I help you with something?" Caramel replied. He quickly brushed his mane up to make it less scruffy and wiped the sweat off of his brow.
"I….um….well, I'm waiting here for Applejack. She told me that she….uh….would meet me here today…." the mare continued. She sheepishly tried to hide behind her long pink mane but to no avail.
"Applejack? Oh, she should be around here somewhere," the stallion responded. He looked around and noticed the area was very empty save the visible ponies in the distant orchard. "Anything I can get you while you wait for her?"
The pegasus quickly became flustered, "Oh no, I don't want to be a burden or cause any trouble like that…."
"It's no problem, ma'am," Caramel insisted.
"Well, um, if it's not too much trouble….can I get an apple? I haven't eaten yet today, and….well….." the yellow mare began to speak before trailing on into silence and being cut off by the stallion.
"Not a problem!" Caramel energetically replied before turning to the barn. What he didn't want to say was that it would actually cost some bits if he did give the pony an apple. However, he thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Worst case scenario, in his opinion, would be that he would have to repay for what he was to give her. He called out, "What kind of apple would you like, ma'am?"
She slightly jumped as she was called to, "Eep! Oh, um….I….uh….if you don't mind….um, may I get a gala apple?"
"Of course! Coming right up!" Caramel called back as he quickly grabbed an apple and returned.
"Oh, thank you very much," the pegasus took the apple, "all this and I still don't even know your name. I'm so sorry."
The stallion gave a small laugh, "Oh, you're welcome. And don't worry about it, my name is…."
"Caramel!" a familiar voice interrupted the tan stallion. Both ponies looked in the same direction to see an orange mare with a brown hat on top of her blonde mane.
"Oh, hey there, Applejack," Caramel welcomed his cousin.
"Don't ya 'hey there, Applejack' me, mister! Ya need ta get right back out there in the apple orchards with that there cart fer the apples!" Applejack was very annoyed at her cousin.
Caramel knew best not to test his cousin, even if she was slightly younger than him, "Y-Yes, Applejack!"
Rushing into the barn, the stallion attached an empty cart to himself and was quick to return to the orchard. While trotting to the grove of trees, Caramel turned to look back towards the barn. He saw the yellow pegasus leave the farm with Applejack. Inside of his head, Caramel couldn't shake the feeling that the yellow pony gave to him. He admitted to himself that he found her both cute and attractive. Caramel found that she simply shined down to him and brightened his day. Unfortunately for him, there was one thing quickly realized.
"It's a shame, really. She doesn't even really know me," Caramel gave a sad, defeated sigh as he went to resume his task.
As the day dragged on, Caramel was unable to completely focus on his tasks. This, unfortunately, caused problems for the tan stallion.
When taking the empty cart out into the grove of trees, Caramel managed to trip a number of times, causing him to get himself scrapped and roughed up. Later while bucking the trees, he would often miss the trees entirely and fall flat on his face. And in the evening, he fell into the mud puddles while feeding the pigs. These were normal occurrences for the earth pony and it didn't phase those who worked with him that much, but the increasing number did puzzle them.
Putting the pig feed away in the barn, Caramel was trying to shake off the mud before it began to stick to him.
"Every single time…." he mumbled to himself, struggling to shake of the muck off of his coat, "without fail, I always get tackled by those pigs into their mud…."
"It's 'cause they like it when you care fer them instead of the rest of us, Caramel," Applejack's voice joked. She trotted into the barn with a towel and offered it to the stallion, "Evenin' Caramel, how's mah unfortunate cousin doin'?"
Taking the towel from the mare, Caramel began to wipe himself down, "How do you think? I think I broke a record of how many times I messed up."
"Yeah, ah did notice that, what's got yer lasso in a knot?" Applejack asked as she sat down on a haybale.
Sighing, he replied, "Applejack, do you know you the name of that pegasus mare I was talking to earlier today?"
The orange pony tilted her head, "Who? My friend Fluttershy? What about her?"
Caramel sighed, "Is that her name? Fluttershy? That's such a wonderful name."
"Uh, Caramel? What's this all about?"
Taking a deep breath, he explained, "Well, to be honest Applejack, I think I like her."
Applejack gave a bewildered look to Caramel, "Are ya serious?"
"I can't help it. All I can really think about is the time I spent with her earlier today. It was just….enchanting," the stallion mused. He finished wiping the mud off of himself, and placed the towel aside on a bale of hay.
"An' lemme guess, ya can barely focus, right?" Applejack asked.
"How can you tell?" Caramel turned to his orange-coated cousin.
The mare smirked, "Well, it would explain why ya were more of a screw up than normal today." Applejack had a laugh, which caused the stallion to blush.
"You don't have to rub it in, Applejack…." Caramel was flustered at the laughter.
"Ah just find it adorable that ya have a small crush," the mare continued snickering.
The stallion tried to defend himself, "I-It's not a crush, Applejack…."
"Sure, keep tellin' yerself that, Caramel," the orange mare mocked as she began to trot out of the barn, "Supper should be ready in 'bout a half-hour. Just make sure ya clean yerself up completely before you get on in, ya know how Granny Smith can be."
The stallion sighed as he nodded, "I know, I'll be in there soon."
Watching his cousin leave the barn, Caramel took the towel and began to make his own way out of the barn and get ready for dinner. Going through his head, the stallion asked himself a few key questions. In particular, one that he asked bugged him, "Is Applejack right? About this just being a crush?"
The next day, Caramel went to work as usual. This time around, seeing his unlucky streak from the day before, Applejack gave the stallion the task of repairing the fence that Caramel had broke a few days before hand. He managed to finished repairing the fence in spite of the number of incidents that happen to the tan pony, such as swinging the hammer to miss the nail and to hit his hoof, hitting his head on the fence as he bent down to move his tools which caused him to start over, and simply stepping on a nail.
As Celestia’s sun was setting in the western sky, Caramel trotted back to the Apple family home, sore from his hard day’s work. Meeting him at the porch of the home was his cousin.
“Howdy, Caramel. How’d fixin’ the fence go fer ya?” the orange mare asked as she saw the stallion arrive.
Caramel mumbled under his breath, “Sore, tired, and I think I might just collapse.”
“Then take a load off, have a seat. Enjoy the evenin’ sky fer a bit,” Applejack offered.
Sighing, the stallion did as Applejack said, taking a seat and watched the few clouds in the sky turn colors as the sun began to sink beyond the horizon. The two made small talk about the day’s events, which led to silence. Finally, Caramel dug down deep enough to gather the courage to ask a question.
“Hey Applejack, can I ask you a favor?”
The mare’s ears perked up, “Sure, shoot.”
Caramel sighed before he continued, “Can you help me with Fluttershy?”
“What ya mean?”
“I mean….can you help me get to know her or something?” the stallion’s face had a slight tint of pink.
“Whoa there, partner. Ah’m not sure about this,” Applejack paused in her cloud watching to stare at her cousin.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Caramel quickly shook his face to hide the fact he was blushing.
Applejack’s voice gained a stricter tone, “What ah mean is ah don’t know if ah should be meddlin’ in other pony’s affairs. This is between you an’ her, right? Then do somethin’ about it.”
The stallion was a bit surprised at the mare’s words, “And you’re just okay with me doing this? I mean, this is your friend, Applejack.”
“This is yer business an’ that’s her business. An’ it ain’t mah business to butt into other’s lives,” Applejack stated as if it was a personal moral code that she had followed all her life.
“A-Alright then,” Caramel said, still nervous about the ordeal that may lay ahead of him.
Applejack took notice of her cousin’s anxiety. With a sigh and a chuckle, she continued, “Ya really are keen are ya, aren’t ya Caramel?”
The stallion was quiet at first. He then replied in a very hushed tone, “Yes, I really am. I am quite taken by her.”
“Wanna tell me why?”
In Caramel’s head, he tried his best to piece together a statement to reply with. However, it became quickly apparent that he was at an absolute loss of words. “I honestly have no idea, Applejack. She’s just simply beautiful, talking with her is just wonderful, even though she is timid up to the point of being flustered. In all honesty, I guess it’s just a number of things that allow me to be captivated by her. She really is just a shining beam of light in my day. It’s….it’s just hard for me to really explain.”
As Caramel finished, Applejack laughed softly to herself, causing him cousin to blush. “Ah think ah get the picture there, Caramel. Good ol’ Fluttershy has that affect on everypony, bein’ a wonderful mare that can brighten anypony’s day.”
“So yeah, that’s why,” Caramel finished his explanation.
Smirking, Applejack spoke, “Alright then, ah’ll do it. Ah’m gonna help ya out then, Caramel.”
Caramel’s face lit up at the orange mare’s words, “What? Really? You mean it?”
“Sure as sugar. Just givin’ ya a warnin’ though, she might not share the same feelins as ya,” Applejack advised.
“I know.”
“Also, yer gonna have ta watch out for the rest of the gals, particularly Rainbow Dash. She’s very defensive of lil’ Fluttershy,” the orange mare explained.
“Um, alright then….” Caramel was worried at Applejack’s statement.
“An’ when this is all over an’ done, no matter what happens, ah want ya ta get back ta workin’ without any problems or daydreamin’, got that?” the mare instructed.
“You are quite the slave driver, Applejack,” Caramel joked.
Applejack laughed, “Somepony’s gotta keep this farm runnin’ smoothly.”
“Thanks, Applejack.”
“Ah’m only helpin’ ya out cause yer a sad excuse fer a stallion,” the mare stated.
Another hard day of work passed for the tan stallion and it was not even done for him. Caramel continued to work in the barn into the evening, stacking the barrels of apples up for storage. It was Big Mac and Applejack's idea that he work in the barn to limit the risk of him striking up his bad luck streak again. Caramel was okay with this task, particularly because it was something simple for him.
About an hour into his work, his cousin Applejack arrived into the barn, "Howdy, Caramel."
"Oh, hey there, Applejack. What's up?" the stallion greeted his kin.
"Just stoppin' on in ta check up on ya," the mare stated, "Ya know ya don't have ta work through supper. Ya been workin' all day an' a break won't hurt ya."
Caramel rolled a barrel from one side of the barn to another, "I know, but I just want to get this done so I can relax and not worry about it."
Applejack shrugged, "Suit yerself. But just remember that if ya hurt yerself, that's yer problem."
"Good to know that you have my back if I'm injured or something," the stallion laughed, "I'll be fine. I mean, I can't screw something as simple as this, can I?"
The orange pony joked, "Ya never know. Yer bad luck streak is somethin' of legend."
"So that's why you give me the simplest, longest, and most boring job?" Caramel smirked.
"Ya know it!"
Caramel laughed slightly, "Figures. Well, at least I'm not screwing anything up."
Applejack continued to jest, "Yet."
"You know your not helping, right?" Caramel gave an annoyed glare to his cousin.
Exiting the barn, the orange mare laughed, "Ah know, but why can't ah have a lil' fun?"
Caramel sighed as he continued moving the large number of barrels around the barn. He slightly mumbled under his breath, "I still have no idea how we are related."
The tan pony continued his work for about thirty minutes until he was visited again. This time, however, it was a meek and timid voice that Caramel had heard before, "Um….hel….hello…."
Caramel turned to see the yellow pegasus that he had been smitten with, "Oh, hello….um, Fluttershy, was it?"
The pegasus nodded, her long pink mane swaying, "Y-Yes, I-I'm Fluttershy."
The stallion nodded back, "Alright, nice to see you again." Caramel tried his best to continue his work, but also to not trip over his own words. He was actually impressed he had not messed up already.
"It's really nice to see you too, Caramel," Fluttershy smiled warmly to the tan pony.
Caramel froze slightly. Inside, he was jumping happily that she remembered his name, though since Applejack did shout at him when they first met, it wasn't exactly all that hard to forget. Keeping his composure, he continued, "So, what brings you around?"
"Oh….well, I was trotting around town, looking for some small critters that might be hurt or something of the sort. I-It's something that I often do, and I thought that I might stop by here to see if there were any by the farm," Fluttershy explained herself.
"Oh, did you find any tonight?" the stallion asked, rolling another barrel to stack.
Fluttershy shook her head, "None tonight, so I figured I would visit Applejack."
"Applejack left sometime ago. She might be inside the house eating dinner, though," the stallion informed her before lifting the barrel up to stack it.
"O-Oh, okay….I-I rather not be a bother to her if that's the case," the pegasus hesitantly stated.
"I don't think it'd be a bother to her," Caramel stated as he continued working, moving on to the next barrel.
"O-Oh…."
Silence filled the barn save for the sound of a rolling barrel. Fluttershy seemed to shy away from speaking, though it seemed to Caramel that she had something on her mind.
"Is something the matter, Fluttershy?" Caramel paused in his work.
Fluttershy seemed to be shaken at the sudden question that broken the silence, "Ah, um….no…."
The stallion was not convinced, "You sure? Seems like something is on your mind."
"N-No….but….um….if I-I am distracting you from your work, I….uh….could leave, if that would help…." the pegasus was very timid with her words.
"Huh? N-No, it's fine, really!" Caramel was flustered in his attempt to make the mare stay. He wasn't one for small talk, but he would have begged if it meant that she would stay.
"A-Are you sure? I-I mean, I don't want you to be distracted while you work…." Fluttershy spoke.
Caramel took a deep breath, "Actually, there's something else that's kind of distracting me…."
Fluttershy raised a hoof up to cover her mouth, "Oh dear, what is it?"
With a sigh, Caramel finally spoke what his heart wanted to say, "Fluttershy, I don't know really how to say it, but I think I might be in love with you."
There was a silence between the two ponies in the barn. Caramel couldn’t bear to look towards Fluttershy after bearing himself to her. As for the pegasus, Fluttershy was frozen in a state of shock. Her expression was one of astonish and fluster. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity between the two, the mare was the first to speak.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What?” her words were shaking just as her body was.
Caramel still couldn’t lift his head up to look at her, “I mean it. I really think that I am in love with you. I know it’s sudden and what not, but I can’t help it. Sorry about that.” The stallion finished his statement and returned to his work.
Fluttershy seemed to still be stuck in her surprised state as he continued his work with the barrels. After a bit, she finally spoke, “C-Caramel? D-Do you really mean that?”
The stallion stopped his work to reply. “Yes,” he replied, “I honestly mean it. I do really like you, a lot.” Caramel paused for a moment to see if she would say something. Seeing that she would not, he resumed speaking, “I understand if you don’t feel the same way. It happens and what not. To be honest, I’m just glad to have gotten this off my chest more than anything.”
“O-Oh….okay….” Fluttershy meekly spoke. She didn’t say much in response, but she was blushing fiercely on her face.
“Yeah, sorry if this was sudden and all that,” Caramel spoke as he moved the barrel up to be stacked on another.
“Oh, no no, it’s perfectly fine. I understand that it was something you wanted to say,” Fluttershy insisted.
With a half-hearted smile, Caramel trotted to get the next barrel. However, he tripped over his own hooves and fell to the barn floor on to his back. He lifted his head up to look at what happened.
“Oh my goodness, are you alright, Caramel?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, rushing up to the stallion on the ground.
Groaning, the stallion replied, “Yeah, I’m fine. It happens more often then you’d think.”
“Are you hurt? Is anything broken?” the mare was stressing over any possible injuries that might have happened. She picked up one of Caramel’s front limbs to check for any damage.
“It was just a small fall. No blood, nothing broken,” he reassured Fluttershy.
With Caramel’s words, Fluttershy was relieved, “Oh, thank goodness.” It took Fluttershy a moment to realize she was still holding on to the tan pony. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” she stated as she quickly let go of the limb.
Caramel sat up, “It’s alright, don’t worry about it.”
Fluttershy shyly looked away before turning back to Caramel with a pink tint on her face to match her mane. “C-Caramel?” her words were extremely soft and hushed, “I-I’m not s-sure how to say this either, b-b-but I-I l-like you, t-too….”
The stallion was very surprised, “H-Huh?”
She continued speaking quietly, “I-I have liked you for a wh-while now….a-and I would like if w-we did something together….um….if you want, that is….”
“Really?” Caramel was in disbelief.
The embarrassed Fluttershy could only nod. She then continued on to speak, “S-So….um….w-would you like to d-do something s-sometime?” Her words were spoken very quietly to the stallion.
“Y-Yeah, I’d love to,” Caramel replied, a pink tint across his face.
Outside of the barn, looking in through the open door, Applejack was watching from a hidden location in the bushes. While she couldn’t exactly hear every word that was being spoken, she could piece the puzzle together on her own. A smile on her face, Applejack quietly talked to herself, “Finally it’s over. Ah thought those two would never go through with it. Still stumps me why everypony comes ta me with their problems.”