“Hey, Applejack?”

“Howdy, Bonnie! What’s up?”

Startled, the filly shrank into her multicolored mane under the completely harmless scrutiny of her fillyhood friend. She squeaked, “Can we talk?”

Applejack barely even noticed how uncomfortable her friend was. “ ’course, sugarcube!”

Bon Bon shrunk even further away, barely audible, but managed to mumble her plea. “Y–you like me, right?”

“Sure Ah do, Bonnie, you’re my very best friend!”

“I l–like you too, Applejack.”

With a guffaw, Applejack tried to quell whatever spirit of terror had inhabited her trembling companion. “Well Ah’m glad.”

“I like you… a l–lot…”

She furrowed her brow, letting her wildly oversized hat fall over her eyes. It would be a number of years before it fit properly, but she still loved wearing it.

“I was h–hoping we could b–b–be more than friends, AJ.”

It finally sunk in. “Oh, Bonnie…”

“W–w–will you be my very speci–”

“Bonnie… Bon Bon… look, Ah like you a lot, but–”

She winced at the word, quivering and averting her eyes.

“Ah don’t… Ah mean, Ah don’t think me n’ fillies…”

“I understand,” Bon Bon murmured, barely audible. “We…” She choked on her words. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she started to speak again, but ultimately said nothing. She ran off with drooping ears and uneven footing. Applejack only watched, letting her go.

Applejack tried to shake the memory from her mind, but it was stuck fast. She just couldn’t stop replaying that moment, wondering what she ought to have done, and how she ought to have reacted. After that day, she and Bon Bon had drifted apart. She’d thrown away her closest friendship and the possibility of more because… well, she didn’t even know why. The foolishness of youth, she supposed. She’d always felt terrible about it, and blamed herself for their distance, but didn’t know how to repair their friendship. In the interim, she had made new friends, and so had Bon Bon. She rarely thought of what she’d lost, and wasn’t comfortable dwelling on it.

Still, it was a bitter memory, made only more bitter by recent events. Bon Bon’s long-expected wedding to Lyra Heartstrings had been held the previous day. It was a gala event with hundreds of guests, with a party planned by none other than Pinkie Pie and presided over by the mayor herself. Its preparation was the talk of the whole town for weeks, and surely the event would continue to be the talk of the whole town for weeks to come.

Applejack had not been invited.

She wanted to believe that it was a mere oversight, a clerical error or a letter dropped into a lake by a mailpony not minding the bags. She didn’t like the thought that she and her fillyhood friend were simply not friends anymore. She couldn’t tolerate the thought that she was being snubbed. Worse, she dreaded the possibility that had she just been a bit more open minded and less childish, it would have been her, and not–

Crack!

A few apples fell, but with them came a barrage of dislodged bark, pelting Applejack’s coat. She shook it off and prepared for another assault, but the last had drawn Big Macintosh’s attention. He gave her a nettled glare.

“Look, Ah’m just a bit distracted, Ah’ll be fine.”

Raising his hoof, he indicated the row of trees she’d come from. Each had two distinct, horseshoe-shaped imprints on them, and an alarming lack of bark, apples, leaves, most branches, or other signs of general apple tree health. He then pointed to her baskets, which in spite of the carnage around them were nearly bare of the fruit she was supposedly collecting.

His glare continued. Without words, it said, “Maybe today you shouldn’t do a job that involves kicking living things.”

With a harumph, Applejack relented. Bon Bon’s wedding still occupied much of her thoughts, and she was ashamed to realize how completely it distracted her, given that she prided herself on always getting every job done, and getting every job done right. She had recently reluctantly added “with some help from my friends” to that motto, but otherwise it had remained unchanged and resolute for years. Her work ethic wasn’t supposed to be so easily shattered.

Still, the trees were to her more important than her mental well-being.

She sighed. “Big Mac… didja ever think about settlin’ down?”

He responded with a crooked smile. “Ah don’t think that’s legal, sis.”

She stuck out her tongue in retort. “Very funny. Ah mean with somepony else, ya big galoot. Ah’ve just been thinking about it a lot Ah guess.”

After a momentary pause of consideration, he simply shrugged. “With who?”

It was a painfully direct observation. “That’s the problem, ain’t it,” she breathed. “Gotta keep my expectations down to earth. Stop chasin’ crazy fillyhood dreams.”

Big Macintosh raised an eyebrow at this seemingly out-of-the-blue statement.

“How was Bon Bon’s wedding?”

Affecting an expression of pure determination, he declared, “Ah didn’t go.”

“What? You were invited, weren’t you?”

He nodded and stamped a hoof. “Ah told ’er that if you weren’t invited, Ah wasn’t goin’.”

It was such a simple expression of sibling affection, it reminded her of how lucky she was to have a brother like Big Macintosh. “That’s mighty kind o’ ya, Ah suppose. Thanks.” She gave him an affectionate nuzzle. “Ah guess Ah’ll go do somethin’ that doesn’t kill our trees.”

She left with a shrug, and Big Macintosh simply returned to his task.

Tuesdays were usually applebucking days, and had been for years, but this Tuesday, she reckoned, would just have to be an apple-selling day. Selling apples, she assumed, could use the kind of fire she had put inappropriately into collecting them.

She trotted towards one of the oldest barns on Sweet Apple Acres. In it was her pride and joy: the apple stand. It had been in her family for four generations, and with a little bit of care, it continued to serve the family well, even as it gathered the smells of decades of ripe fruit. Still, with all the maintenance in the world, it was heavy, rusting, and quite a burden to pull. It was their primary source of income, but the family simply couldn’t justify pouring their minimal reserves into improving it, so it languished under her tender care.

Setting herself to the task at hoof, Applejack attached the harness and began the long trudge towards town.

Walking calmed her. Her plodding hoofsteps were welcomed by the soft spring wind through the apple trees carrying their sweet scent, the feel of well-packed earth underhoof, and the sound of–

Crash!

… the sound of pegasi careening into trees. Applejack stopped to roll her eyes at the sight. Rainbow Dash’s ability to recover from a crash was downright legendary: Hanging by her tail from a branch over the path, she was as cheery as ever. “Heya, Applejack! Uh, new trick. Didn’t quite stick the landing.”

Chuckling, Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “Ah can see that. Need some help?”

In a flash, Rainbow was back in the air, detached from the tree. “Not a chance! Hey, have you seen Twilight?”

Applejack shook her head as she continued walking. “Ah’ve been on the farm. Just goin’ into town to sell some apples.”

Rainbow frowned and nodded, then turned and bolted away. “Well you’re not gonna sell any today,” she cried back, already nearly too distant to hear. “Nopony’s in town!”

As it was too late to respond, given Rainbow’s speed, Applejack instead shrugged and recommitted herself to her trek. It was an odd thing to say, that there was nopony in town. But after all, it wasn’t even supposed to be an apple-selling day at all, so any business would be better than no business. And she figured that it wasn’t like there was some major pony holiday she was missing, so how empty could the town be?

She once again began to enjoy the familiar sounds and smells of the path, letting the ache from dragging heavy equipment soften under the cooling breeze. At that moment, her earlier concerns had vanished entirely from her mind, with only the simple, unthinking tedium of her walk taking its place. Each hoofbeat brought her further from her worries.

She was pulled from her euphoria by an unexpected but friendly babble.

“Hi Applejack!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Have you seen Dash or Twilight or maybe a cupcake ’cause I’m a bit hungry but first Dash or Twilight?”

After a moment of reeling from the onslaught of incomprehensible pink syllables, Applejack replied with slight agitation. “Ah just saw Dash, she was lookin’ for Twi. Ain’t seen Twi.”

Pinkie Pie huffed at the flat and unhelpful reply, but turned instantly back to her cheery self, following Applejack as she continued down the path.

“What ’cha doin’?”

“Just headin’ into town to set up the stand.”

Pinkie’s head twisted almost impossibly far to express simple confusion. “On a Tuesday? Why? Nopony’s there!”

Applejack stopped in her tracks. “Now just what’s goin’ on, Pinkie? Dash told me the same thing. And what’s so special about Tuesdays?”

With narrowed eyes glancing nervously from side to side, Pinkie indicated for Applejack to come closer. Applejack leaned in. With a conspiratorial tone, the pink pony whispered, “On Tuesday, something happens.”

“… Something.”

“Something.”

“… Happens.”

“Happens!”

Applejack shook her head and resigned herself to getting no useful information, which was a pretty common conclusion to a conversation with Pinkie Pie anyway. With nothing better to do, she kept walking towards the town.

Pinkie Pie vanished as mysteriously as she’d appeared, but her voice still rung out a final valediction: “Tell me if you see Twilight!”

Resigned to a lack of peace, the remainder of the journey felt far more achy and painful than the beginning had been. Worse, it seemed doomed to failure, if she were to believe Rainbow and Pinkie’s testimonies. With nothing left to do and nothing left to think about, her thoughts once again began to wander towards Bon Bon.

“I was h–hoping we could b–b–be more than friends, AJ.”

It finally sunk in. “Oh, Bonnie…”

“W–w–will you be my very speci– mmf!”

It was exactly what she’d wanted to hear. Exactly what she’d dreamed of. She couldn’t help herself. She cut off Bon Bon with a kiss.

There was nothing particularly special about it, really. It was like any first fillyhood kiss, exciting but somewhat flat and fumbled. It was a rocky beginning, but it was a beginning. A beginning of many years growing to know each other, to love each other, to be with each other.

And so, as Applejack stood at the altar, staring into Bon Bon’s eyes—Lyra had not been invited—her answer seemed so clear.

“Ah do.”

“Uh, do what?”

Suddenly lifted from her wild imaginings, Applejack stumbled to explain herself. “Uh, do– err, Ah do declare… um…”

Rainbow just laughed sportingly as Applejack failed utterly to suppress her blush. But it was Pinkie who interjected to make things worse. Giggling, she sputtered, “I now pronounce you mare and wife!”

Rainbow and Pinkie chortled together, nearly falling over each other.

Applejack walked past them, sneering. But in doing so, she was astute enough to notice something about the town. There was, in fact, nopony around. Ponyville was more barren than she’d ever seen it. Excluding herself and her two giggling compatriots, who were now hustling off somewhere else anyhow, she couldn’t spot a single soul on the normally busy streets. Still, she was far too committed to let that deter her, so she positioned her cart in the middle of the empty marketplace and, with a powerful buck, opened it. Then she waited.

She rearranged a basket of apples to make them as presentable as she possibly could. She stared at them for a long while. When she finally convinced herself that they were acceptable, she looked up again. Still, nopony was there.

She watched as a small cloud of dust was swept up by the light breeze, gently drifting over the cobblestone and distributing itself in a grandiose sweep across the marketplace, only to be lifted once more and shuffled again, like an explorer, ever ready for an adventure to the farthest reaches of the world. Or, as it were, Ponyville.

And watching dust was, at that point, the most interesting thing she could think to do.

She moved a basket of baking apples to the back, to show only the most delicious-looking fruit to potential customers. As if there were any customers. Potential or otherwise.

The length of an hour is, in principle, a fixed unit. It does not change. An hour is an hour. And yet, an hour of standing on cobblestone and staring at the dust whipped up by wind in an empty marketplace can feel insurmountably longer than an hour of bucking apples. And, Applejack was sure, there were plenty of other things taking roughly an hour that would seem to go by much more quickly as well.

But she wasn’t doing any of these exciting things. All she was doing was standing. She was very soon barely doing that, as she was in fact sleeping.

“Slow day, huh?”

She was startled awake by the friendly tones of a handsome, if rather undistinguished, brown stallion, who was uniquely identifiable only by a shock of electric blue hair. He bore a warm smile and soft eyes, but the attitude of a friend, not a customer.

“Mighty slow.” Applejack’s frustration undermined her attempt to be equally amiable. “What’s goin’ on anyhow?”

The stallion shrugged, seeming honestly ignorant. “Not sure, but it happens every week. Nopony’ll say. Well, have a nice day, Applejack.”

The potential sale lost with the flicking of a blue tail, Applejack stomped a hoof on her cart, which groaned under the unwarranted strain, and kicked an apple to the ground in frustration. It was only seconds after the apple landed, however, that it was assaulted by a pink blur.

“This one touched the ground that means it’s free right?!”

Applejack chuckled. “Sure, Pinkie, but the next one’ll cost double.”

“Deal!” The apple vanished—core, stem and all—in one quick gulp, during which Rainbow Dash joined the pair, swooping in from above with her usual overly dramatic flair.

“Sorry Pinkie, I can’t find Twilight anywhere! Hey, AJ, you haven’t–”

“Nope. And y’all still haven’t told me what this all’s about, anyhow.”

After a moment to guess what “this all” referred to, Rainbow stared with a look of utter shock. “You mean, you don’t know?”

Applejack was in no mood to play around, so she just stared her perpetual rival down.

“Yeah, I guess you’re never in town on Tuesday. Well, every week, everypony… well, just disappears. Me and Pinkie and Twilight always got together to try to figure out what everypony’s doing, ’cause they won’t tell us, and–”

“And now Twilight’s gone too!” Pinkie interrupted. “It’s a cataclysm! Well, it’s probably not a cataclysm, but it might be a catastrophe… or maybe just a calamity? No, it’s worse than a calamity but not as bad as a catastrophe so maybe–”

Knowing that this could go on forever, Applejack cut Pinkie off. “So now Twilight’s probably all wrapped up in whatever everypony else is doin’, and y’all never told me on account of Ah’m never in town on Tuesday.”

Pinkie and Rainbow nodded vigorously.

“So let’s find ’er and figure out what’s goin’ on!”

“Uhh, that’s a nice idea and all,” Rainbow groused sarcastically, “but how?”

Applejack turned to Pinkie as she kicked her stand closed. “With practically everypony in town all together somewhere, surely y’all’ve got some Pinkie Sense that can lead us to ’em?”

As if on cue, Pinkie sneezed.

“Follow that nose!” commanded Applejack.

Whether she was being led by her own seemingly supernatural forces or just being pushed along by Applejack was unclear, but either way, Pinkie led the group. For a while they wandered the residential streets of Ponyville with little obvious direction, passing well-groomed gardens and picket fences in various hues, with nearly every house and grounds conspicuously missing its occupants. However, as they approached the outskirts of town, they found themselves on the campus of a small but esteemed college, the West Ponyville Institute of Geology and Mining.

Pinkie became excited at the sight. “Oooh, it’s my old school! I wonder what everypony would be doing here!”

Rainbow affected a skeptical expression, asking, “You have a degree? From the Institute of Geology?”

If Pinkie understood that that had been intended as a jeer, she didn’t show it, as she continued to hop along merrily at the head of the group. “Of course! I majored in Agrogeonomics and minored in Earth Pony Studies.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both halted at this. Applejack blinked in confusion. “Agro… geo… Ah don’t think Ah even know what that means.”

Not noticing that her comrades were now lagging behind, Pinkie explained. “Agrogeonomics is the scientific study of the impact of the cultivation of rocks as produce on the global economy!”

“Uh… what? Ah’m more confused than a gopher in a gaggle o’ geese…”

“Shh!” Pinkie whispered, stopping so far ahead of the others that she was barely audible. “I think I hear something!”

She held her ground while the others caught up, then all three crept slowly towards a large building labeled “Sedimentary Science”. As they worked their way through a row of trees, windows became visible, and through them, a crowd of ponies in an auditorium-style classroom, clearly in the midst of some moderately secretive meeting. Applejack couldn’t help but notice that both Bon Bon and Lyra were amongst the attendees, but yet again, she had not been invited.

Applejack approached the window, keeping out of sight. Inside, Fluttershy stood at a podium at the front, waving encouragingly for Twilight, nearby, to take the stage. Twilight looked somewhat apprehensive, but reluctantly took her place at the podium.

“Hello.” She spoke so softly that Applejack could barely hear her from outside. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and… and…”

Fluttershy, still at Twilight’s side, spoke in her usual calming tones. “I promise you’ll feel much better once you say it.” Much of the crowd nodded in agreement.

Twilight nodded, took a deep breath, and, with eyes closed and cheeks red, spoke again. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and… I’m in love with Applejack.”

The crowd echoed her with a friendly, “Hello, Twilight!”

Applejack lost her footing and nearly fell to the ground, but was caught by a quick maneuver from Rainbow. Hearing the commotion, a few assembled ponies near the window turned, but all three outside managed to duck out of view in time.

“Did Ah… did she just say…”

Rainbow nodded, no less confused than Applejack.

“Why… what… Ah…” Applejack stammered. Unable to resist temptation, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie raised themselves back to the window, and, verifying that nopony saw them, encouraged Applejack to do the same.

Applejack protested, “B–but… this is just… weird!” Rainbow and Pinkie both nodded, flummoxed, but continued to motion for her to join them. Reluctantly, slowly, she did.

Fluttershy was speaking softly and encouragingly to Twilight. “Remember, we’re all here for the same reason, so there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Just tell us how it happened.”

Still red-faced, Twilight had only begun to calm down, but nonetheless nodded in agreement.

“Do you remember, a couple years ago, when Applejack had a big harvest, and Big Macintosh was injured, so she had to handle it all herself?”

Several members of the crowd nodded.

“And she also tried to do a bunch of other stuff to help out, but she was overwhelmed?”

More nodded, though some shuddered at the memory.

“Well, I ended up spending a lot of time with her that week, trying to encourage her to take a break. And, well… I realized that even when she’s at her very worst, it’s because she’s trying so hard to help everypony. Even when she’s being stubborn and proud, she’s stubbornly trying to do right for Ponyville.

“When she finally hit bottom, exhausted and sweaty and not even able to stand, and she finally accepted help, I saw her… well, differently than I ever had before. She was just so… exposed.”

A few members of the crowd chuckled at this phrasing, leading Twilight to glow brighter than ever. “N–no, not like that! Well, I mean, yes, like that, b–but I mean, oh, jeez–”

Fluttershy put a reassuring hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s OK, Twilight, we understand what you mean.”

Twilight took a moment to calm herself again, and continued. “Anyway, I didn’t even realize that I was… well, ‘that way’ until then. And ever since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her… I make excuses to be with her… I dream about her… I was too afraid to tell her, but I had to tell somepony, so finally I confided in Fluttershy. And, well, here I am.”

The entire crowd clapped politely while Fluttershy retook her position at the podium. “Thank you, Twilight. And just so you know, Applejack is a very special mare, you don’t have to be ‘that way’ to be here.”

Bon Bon’s familiar voice cried out, “But it helps!”

Most of the assemblage burst out laughing at this, with the conspicuous exception of Lyra, who seemed to fold into herself in embarrassment. Seeing this, Bon Bon pulled her into a hug and exclaimed, “Aw, pookie, I can be your Applejack!”

Completely flabbergasted by the display, Applejack sunk away from the window; her eyes were wide, her face starkly pale. “This can’t be real! It’s some kind o’ prank! That’s… that’s almost every pony in Ponyville…”

Still at the window, Rainbow’s gaze swept over the crowd, then she let out a sly chuckle. “Well, not quite every pony!”

“OK, OK, everypony except for you two.”

Rainbow just laughed harder. “Look closer!”

Returning to her spot at the window, Applejack did just that. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was, in fact, nearly the entire population of Ponyville. Except…

“Um… OK, every mare in Ponyville.”

Finally noticing that pattern herself, Pinkie joined Rainbow’s laughter, the two nearly falling over each other.

“Every… every mare in Ponyville…”

Pinkie and Rainbow continued their shared laughter until they noticed that Applejack was slowly backing away, eyes darting nervously between the two of them. They stopped simultaneously to stare back, confused.

“Y–you’re not… Ah mean, you two aren’t…?”

Rainbow smiled cockily. “Hey, don’t get me wrong, if you’re looking for a romp in the hay, I’m your mare, but love?” She struck a ridiculous pose, wings outstretched and muzzle pointed towards the sky. “I’m too fast for love.”

Applejack just rolled her eyes at the display. “Yeah, Ah’ll just bet you are.”

It took a while for Rainbow to realize that she had been insulted. “Hey! That’s not what I meant! I’ll show you!” Much to Applejack’s horror, she pounced with seemingly erotic intent.

Applejack fought off Rainbow’s treacherous advances for a few rounds, until they both caught sight of Pinkie, giving Applejack a strange, scrutinous look.

“Um… Pinkie?”

Rainbow disentangled herself, and as Applejack returned to her hooves and dusted herself off, Pinkie walked around her, examining every inch of her in ridiculous detail.

“Uh… what are you doin’, Pinkie… Ah don’t think Ah like this…”

Ignoring her pleas, Pinkie prodded her ribs and her thigh, then held her mane for a moment.

“Please tell me you’re not– yipe!” Pinkie stuck her head between Applejack’s hind legs. “Woah there, pony girl, that’s off limits!”

Retracting and returning to the other side to face Applejack with her usual bright grin, Pinkie stated, absurdly, “Naw, you’re a good friend and all, but you’re not ‘equipped’!”

Rainbow guffawed and fell to the ground, holding her sides. Applejack just shook her head. Alerted by this ruckus, a few ponies inside once more turned towards the window, so all three ponies outside dropped to the ground and silenced themselves. A light blue unicorn that nopony recognized came to the window, and all three held their breath, praying she wouldn’t look down.

A blue aura surrounded the curtains folded neatly at the edge of each window, and quickly snapped them shut. As easily as the group had found their goal, they now found themselves blocked off from it. The thick curtains even cut off most of the sound, leaving the three alone to contemplate what they’d seen.

Applejack looked straight ahead, not willing to meet the gaze of either of her friends—or, for that matter, anypony else. She got up very slowly, dusted herself off, and began to walk back towards the marketplace in a plodding, tired pace, to retrieve her cart.

With a shared shrug, Rainbow and Pinkie also departed, in opposite directions.

Applejack’s mind raced, and yet she couldn’t think of anything in particular. She tripped over stray thoughts, odd remembrances of ponies doing or saying things that seemed so different in this new light, but still couldn’t make sense of it. She barely even thought of labor as she attached herself to her harness and began to drag the cart back towards her home.

The weight was comforting. It made her feel reattached to the world. In fact, it wasn’t particularly dissimilar to having hooves on her back, the weight of another pony…

She shook herself, pushing that thought from her mind. When she arrived at her home, she locked the cart in the barn and immediately went to bed without a second thought. Her blankets, a calming dark purple that always helped to lull her to sleep, welcomed her to what she hoped would be a restful night. She was so mentally exhausted from her day, she fell asleep readily.

It felt like she had barely closed her eyes when she woke up again. She wasn’t in her bed any longer. She was lying on her side, on a hard, dark surface, surrounded by utter blackness. She would have concluded that she was in a completely dark room except that she could see herself perfectly.

“Hello?”

Suddenly she was twisted from her side onto her back, and her legs were lifted up beyond her control. After struggling fruitlessly, she looked down to see what had snagged her. Her eyes widened and her mouth turned dry at the sight.

Each of her hooves was encompassed in the magenta glow of powerful magic.

“T–Twilight?”

As if summoned from another plane of existence, Twilight’s face, and soon the rest of the unicorn, appeared above her, looking down at her with a small, satisfied smile and impossibly bright eyes. The two ponies’ relative positions made Twilight appear upside-down, rendering her otherwise endearing smile into a sinister frown.

“I know that you know about us, Applejack.”

“Oh, um, about that…”

Twilight sighed listlessly. “I thought you were so honest, Applejack. You’d never stoop to something like this.”

“Ah didn’t mean to eavesdrop! We were just curious!”

The fire returned to her eyes. “Well, we’re going to have to do something about this.”

Applejack could only stare helplessly as Twilight leaned down, the fury never leaving her gaze, until their lips met.

There was undeniably magic in the kiss. Fire and ice ran through Applejack’s veins, and she twitched all over with a strange mix of pleasure and pain. She tried pulling away, yelling out, even biting Twilight’s tongue to make it stop, but nothing worked.

She was completely helpless as the horde descended upon her. Fluttershy flitted in from above, Rarity slid gracefully to her side, Bon Bon and Lyra bounded in with their mischievous intent clear. There was nothing she could do to stop them.

And for a moment, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to.

Author's Notes:

Whew-ee! This has been in the works for a while! I'd like to thank many people who helped along the way:

Editor: TheNitroPony
Cover art: Mr Snowpony
Prereading: Jackie, Gold and Mr Snowpony

There were certainly others, and if I missed you, I'm sorry, bother me about it!

And of course, I want to thank you, dear reader. If you enjoyed it—heck, even if you didn't—please leave a comment. I love hearing from you!