Today is the Day

‘Today is the day.’ Fluttershy thought as she made her way towards Sweet Apple Acres. Today was the day she had finally worked up the courage to go tell the stallion of her dreams how she felt about him.

‘Why did TODAY have to be the day!’ she thought as she ducked behind a crate along the road to the farm her crush lived and worked on. Taking a deep breath she began trying to gather her courage again. This exact scenario had played itself out at least fifteen times now as she walked through Ponyville to get to where she was now.

‘Ok. I can do this. All I have to do is find him and tell him how I feel. What’s the worst that...’ knowing herself a bit too well she stopped thinking as quickly as she could and began walking again to try and ignore where her mind might go.

~~~~

‘Today is another day...’ Caramel thought, rather downtrodden, ‘another day working hard. Alone.’ A frown found its way to his muzzle as he rolled out of bed and moved to the door.

‘Now I can’t be thinkin’ like that every day. I have work to do, and a nice group here who support me. I live well, I can push through some loneliness for as long as I need to.’ he thought in a mock attempt to cheer up. ‘Or not...oh well, throw on a smile and get to work, that always keeps me distracted.’ and with that he marched out of his room, and towards the farm so he could start his daily chores.

~~~~

Fluttershy wandered through the apple tree fields, a feeling of unease starting to grow in her as she realized she didn’t know exactly where she would find her stallion.

*THUD*

The pegasus leaped into the air with fear before she realized what the sound was, ‘Apple bucking! Maybe it’s him! O-or AJ and she could tell me where to find him!’

As a smile came to her face she began to gallop towards the sound. Rounding a tree she collided with a mammoth of a pony with an apple-red coat and an orange mane.Raising herself to her hooves she found his strong head helping her as he nudged her back to all fours.

“Ahm sorry about that miss. Ah didn’t see ya comin’ or Ah’d have moved out of the way.” Big Mac said with a small friendly smile.

“Are y’all lookin’ fer Applejack? I think she’s up in the barn right now.” he said softly as he turned back to his cart and pushed it under the massive tree. “Ah’ve gotta get back to work, so if’n that’s all, Ah’ll get to finishin’ this.” he punctuated his sentence as he turned away from the tree and gave a solid buck with one leg into the base of the trunk, apples falling flawlessly into his awaiting cart. He looked at her with his distant stare and a kind hearted smile as he waited for her say something before heading off to the barn.

Fluttershy turned down blushing as she realized she had been staring at him as he turned to his work, now that he was looking at her again she felt all her worked up courage melt away. She wasn’t ready for this. She couldn’t hope to talk to the stallion she had thought of for so long, “I.. I” She couldn’t hope for him to understand. But she had to try.

“I needed to talk to y-you, Big Mac.” she squeaked.

“Well here Ah am.” he chuckled as his gaze grew a bit more cheery.

“W-well you s-see...” she stammered.

“Come on now, Ahm here to help.”

“I think I like you!” she blurted out, instantly regretting her choice of words and timing as she turned away in embarrassment.

It fell silent for a moment before Fluttershy felt a large hoof place itself on her shoulder as a deep but quiet voice spoke to her, “Ah thank ya Flutter, it’s mighty kind of you to come out here to tell me that, but Ahm married to this farm. Ah need to keep myself focused here to keep mah family goin’. Ahm sorry to say Ah can’t fit a relationship into mah life.”

The pegasus’s head drooped further before the strong earth pony raised her gaze with his own before continuing as he stared into her eyes.

“Ah mean it Flutter, thank ya. You’ll find somepony for ya, no doubt in mah mind. Ah just know Ahm not him.” his smile remained but it seemed to just help in breaking the small pony’s heart.

Fluttershy’s eyes filled with tears, but she held them back as well as she could. “Thank you, Big Mac. I’m glad I could tell you at least... I-I think I’ll go home now.” she said, closing her eyes to try and squeeze the tears back.

She slowly turned away, hearing another loud buck not long after she began walking. ‘I knew this would happen and I lied to myself again and again. He’s just too kind to say it’s me...’

~~~~

Caramel made his way through the trees to try and find Big Mac. He had found his barn duties finished by AJ and knew that the red stallion would know of something for him to do that he might not ‘ruin’ with his klutzy ways.

As he rounded a line of trees he could make out the stallion in question and the small pegasus friend of AJ’s. He felt the usual butterflies in his stomach that he always did when he spotted her, but it quickly dissipated as his heart froze from what he saw.

Big Mac was nuzzling her! ‘It isn’t bad enough that everypony falls for him, he takes the one pony I told him I liked!’

Caramel wanted to turn and run. He wanted to burn the image out of his memory, but all he could do was stay sitting next to a tree, watching the mare of his dreams with Mac.

As she turned and walked away Caramel rose to his hooves. ‘What. The. Hay. How dare he...’ Caramel was shaking with anger. ‘How DARE he.’

The light brown stallion began to gallop towards Big Mac as the stallion moved his cart to the next tree, with a twist on his front hooves Caramel swung around and attempted to buck Mac, missing just barely and striking the tree with a loud *THUD*.

Big Mac jumped slightly, having not known Caramel was up yet, let alone out and buckin’.

“Whoa there Caramel, ya almost took mah head on that buck.” he said with a light chuckle. “Ah didn’t know you were supposed to be bucking today anyway? Did AJ send ya ta help or somethin’?”

Caramel glared at his friend as he panted heavily. He contemplated turning and bucking again but he had enough sense left to know that with Mac looking he couldn’t hope to hit him, he needed the element of surprise for any chance, and that was long gone.

“How could you! I told you I liked Fluttershy and you just invite her out here for a private get together!” the smaller stallion was visibly shaking with rage and seemed ready to jump at Mac’s throat.

“Now calm down, Ah did no such thing.”

“Liar!”

“No. You know me, Ah don’t lie. Fluttershy came to me and said she likes me, Ah put her down as gently as Ah could since Ah don’t need anything distracting me from mah work. And for you.” Big Mac gave a knowing smirk to the stallion. “Ah wouldn’t dream of tearing you from yer chances with the filly you like, ya know that’s true. Yer family around here, and Ah don’t cross family fer nothin’.”

Caramel stopped shaking as he fell to his haunches and tried to calm himself down.

“Oh.” he said with a sigh.

It fell silent for a moment as Big Mac gave a blank stare to the smaller stallion and waited on his nerves to calm.

“Well I guess I jumped the gun a bit..” the now embarrassed Caramel said with a mock laugh.

“No hard feelin’s. How ‘bout we get some buckin’ done some time today though?” Big Mac said as he gestured to the acres before them.

Caramel nodded before something hit him, “Actually, give me a moment Mac. I have something I need to do first.”

If Mac knew his intents, he showed no sign of it as he simply nodded him off.

~~~~

It wasn’t long before Caramel spotted the slowly moving yellow mare and had caught up to her.

“Excuse me miss, are you alright?” he asked, there was no way he’d let her leave here feeling completely alone in the world, even if he didn’t say much, he wanted to at least cheer her up.

To his surprise she started crying right then and there. He felt heartbroken to see her in such distress and wasn’t entirely certain how to go about calming her.

After a silent moment of sobbing Fluttershy felt herself being pulled into a light embrace as Caramel tried to console her as best he could.

“It’s alright, it’s alright.” Caramel’s mind was racing on what to say, but nothing was coming up. He wasn’t the best at emotional problems, ‘How do I calm her?’

The answer came in the form of a song he had heard when he was younger, it always did the trick.

As Caramel held Fluttershy, her tears soaking into his brown mane, he began to hum along to ‘Hush Now Quiet Now’. The soft lullaby had always been able to comfort him when he felt down, and he hoped she would find it soothing now.

Finishing the last lines in his hummed lullaby he felt her crying soften as she quieted down.

“There, ya see? It’s alright. Whatever’s got you worked up isn’t that bad.”

He gave the mare a small smile which she returned.

“Th-thank you...” both lightly blushed.

“I-I need to go though, I really must get home...” Caramel’s smile changed slightly to the smallest of frowns, but he hid his disappointment from his voice,

“Oh... me too! I mean, lots of work and the like around here.” he said with a small, mock laugh.

Fluttershy gave him a small smile and a nod before finally leaving the calming embrace and heading off towards the town.

Caramel watched as she left before he quietly cursed himself for being brave enough to talk to her, but not brave enough to tell her how he felt. ‘Come on you lug head! Why can’t you ever show how you feel, rejection or not, wouldn’t it just be better to come clean!’ he lightly tapped his head with a hoof as his mind rationalized a bit further.

‘Well. Maybe this just wasn’t the right time. I’d be taking advantage of her situation if she did say yes now, and I don’t want that.’ he thought with a small frown.

Caramel made his way back to Mac to begin today’s work.

~~~~

It had been three days since Fluttershy’s admittance to Big Mac, and she still felt devastated. The only lightening factor to her emotional wound were her memories of the kind stallion who consoled her without needing to. It confused her slightly whenever she thought of him. It gave her the same feelings she felt when she first met Big Mac, a sort of ‘butterfly tickle’ in her stomach.

Love, new or old, was the last thing she wanted to think about now though. Even if she did like him, who’s to say he wasn’t tied to the farm like Mac.

Even though his motives were the same as theirs, she was thankful that none of her friend’s had shown up to talk to her just yet, it hadn’t  been too long for them to think it strange for her to stay at home. While she trusted them to try and cheer her up, all she wanted was to be alone, let herself wallow in her self-pity for a little while longer.

Angel had spent the last few days trying his best to console her, whenever he wasn’t doing that he tried alternative measures, stomping his feet angrily and pointing to the door in an attempt to tell her to get out there and enjoy the day.

Angel was doing that now, glaring over to her as she lay on the couch surrounded by tissues. “I know Angel, I know.” she fell silent for a moment as she thought of how long she had been moping on that couch.

“Will you let me relax if I go get you a treat from town? Just something small from one of the stands.” she asked.

Angel scratched his bunny chin for a moment and nodded as he opened the door and hopped over to push her out of the house.

*SLAM*

“MEEP!” Fluttershy couldn’t help but be startled by the bunny’s slamming of the door.

‘Well. At least I know I won’t run into Big Mac in town, he hates running the stand.’

Despite her attempt to cheer up at this fact, her frown only deepened.

‘Maybe a snack will do me some good as well.’ she thought as she began her walk towards the town square.

~~~~

‘I wonder where she could be?’ Caramel thought as he adjusted some of the apples on the stand.

After their day’s work three days back, Caramel had asked Big Mac if he could take over the stand for a while. ‘See if I can’t do something without screwing it up for once!’ he had said, and while he guessed that Mac had seen through his ruse, as usual, he couldn’t help but feel like he agreed with the logic. ‘Oh come on Mac, I’m not THAT much of a klutz.’ After that thought, the apple he had adjusted fell, dragging with it a small bundle of its brethren with it. ‘Ok... maybe I am a little bit of a klutz...’

~~~~

Fluttershy made her way through the town, trying her hardest to hide her still broken heart. Luckily, she looked like her normal meek self to the average pony and no one approached her.

As she made her way to the town square she spotted a familiar pony running the apple stand, it was the stallion who had tried his hardest to make her feel better a few days back. After thinking it over for a moment she decided she would go get some apples for Angel, and herself, along with thanking him again for helping her out.

“H-hello there.” she squeaked as she approached the stand.

“I’d like some apples, please.” she said quietly.

“Oh! Glad to see you around! I was hoping I’d see you again.” Caramel said, slightly forgetting about his stand as he talked.

“Hmm?” the confused pegasus asked.

“Oh. I mean. Here.” pushing a basket of apples towards her he continued, “I, uhh, heard what happened with Big Mac. I’m really sorry. I hope you’re doing Ok after that.” he said sadly.

Fluttershy blushed as she took hold of the basket in her teeth and sat it next to her. “Oh. H-He told you?” ‘I should have known he would. He wanted to make me feel better but then he went right off and bragged to everypony!’ her thoughts made her want to cry.

“No! I mean, yes he did, but only because I made him. I thought he had...” Caramel realized what he almost said and he blushed heavily as who he was talking to finally took full effect on him. “I.. uhh..*ahem*. I’m sorry again. While he meant it when he said his life is the farm, he also put you down for another reason.”

Caramel’s heart tightened in preparation for what he was going to say, ‘How could she take what I say and possibly like me?’

Fluttershy’s heart sank as well as he spoke, ‘I knew he said no for another reason...’

“I...I”

Fluttershy picked the basket back up as she began to turn away.

“No! Wait!” Caramel said as he ran around his stand to stand next to Fluttershy.

“I’m the other reason! He knew that I...” ‘Now or never’ “I like you, Fluttershy. I-I’ve never been very good with showing my emotions... So I didn’t tell you when I first noticed, but- but I asked Mac about how to tell you, but he has always been one for the farm so he didn’t have much to say when it came to ‘love’.”

The light brown stallion let a soft laugh out as he finished.

He sat next to the mare of his dreams, staring into her cyan eyes with his own hope filled.

The silence began to get to him. Caramel began to talk again, “So-”

“I spent the last few days thinking,” she interrupted with a whisper.

“and, well... nopony’s ever shown such genuine care for me as you did when you hugged me in the orchard.” her cheeks turned red as she mentioned the event out loud but she continued, “I, I think I like you too.” she finished.

Caramel felt frozen in place from surprise, ‘Did she say that, or did I think it?’ as he tried to say something she began again.

“I... umm.” she moved a bit closer now, “I’d like to be your marefriend... if that’s ok with you..”

After a moment of mental catch-up Caramel nodded softly as a smile came to his face.

“Tha-”

His eyes went wide as he was stopped by her muzzle coming to his, her lips locking onto his own as she kissed him with all her strength.

After a few moments the kiss ended with both of them softly panting.

“Thank you,” she whispered into his mane as they embraced again.

“No. Thank you, for making me the luckiest stallion in Equestria.” he said into her pink mane as he tightened his grip around her.

“This calls for a party!” a loud voice called from behind them, sending both of them skyward as they shrieked.

As they landed back on solid ground, Fluttershy and Caramel glanced around to the normally busy square as all its inhabitants stared at the new couple with adoring eyes.

“Oh..” Fluttershy said as her face flushed red with embarrassment.

“Uhh...” Caramel said as well, his face mirroring the pegasus’s in shade.

“Oh is right! You two are SOOOOO super duper cute together! We just HAVE to have a party to celebrate! I mean come on, how often do two of the most shy ponies in all of Ponyville just get together?! I’ve gotta go, this party has to be perfectly planned, AND presented! ~”

Pinkie Pie ignored the couple’s apparent embarrassment as she began to hop towards the Sugarcube Corner as she listed off various supplies she would need. “I’LL SEND YOU YOUR INVITATIONS!!” she yelled back as she turned a corner.

With the exit of the party pony the majority of the square turned back to their work, allowing the new couple a second to collect themselves.

“So I guess we’ll be having a party?” Caramel half laughed.

“Umm.. yeah, I hope Pinkie doesn’t make it too big.” Fluttershy replied.

~~~~

Fluttershy and Caramel made their way through the orchard towards the barn. Caramel needed to stock the leftover apples from today’s stand into the their proper places, and Fluttershy wanted to come along seeing how she had spent the rest of the day assisting him in the stand.

“And that’s that.” the stallion said, pushing his cart next to another.

“So, I was going to see about getting tomorrow off, I doubt Big Mac will argue seeing how I normally set us back rather than forward when I work.” he said with a laugh. “Could I come see you? I could help with the animals, maybe?”

Fluttershy gave him a smile as she moved in for a small kiss.

“Of course you can. I can always use the help, and I’d love to have you with me.”

As they finished their chat and went their separate ways, Caramel to the kitchen to find Big Mac, Fluttershy towards her cottage, they both thought the same thing.

‘Today is the day. The final day I have to wake up alone in this world.’