Applejack sprang awake in a cold sweat, panting heavily as her damp sheets clung to her body.

“Just a nightmare… just a nightmare.”

It sure didn’t feel like a nightmare.

“Just a dream…”

The first rays of Celestia’s light peeking through her open window indicated that she had overslept. In spite of that, and unlike most mornings, she could barely drag herself out of bed. Her sleep had been entirely restless, and as she stumbled into her bathroom and saw herself in front of the mirror, her exhaustion was obvious. Her mane was disheveled, her eyes were bloodshot, and her coat was sticking up at weird angles.

“Here she is, everypony, the mare nopony can resist!” She couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it, and the fact that the laugh and lack of rest made her cough up a bit of morning phlegm only led her to laugh harder. For a moment, she was convinced that the whole previous day had been part of the same nightmare, and so she began preparing herself with renewed energy.

She really did clean up nice. Even she couldn’t deny it; of course, typically a pony wouldn’t want to deny that of themselves, but this was a unique situation. After bathing, drying herself and tying up her mane, she caught another glimpse of herself in the mirror and frowned. In spite of everything, she understood. Green eyes, freckles, strong and toned… she would have to do something about that.

There was only one solution, as far as she was concerned: be less like herself. Her first step in meeting this goal was to release her mane, allowing it to flow down over her face and neck. It was not unlike Rarity’s, though a bit longer and straighter. Satisfied that she had covered most of her face, she opened a dresser and dug through it, not quite sure what she was looking for. Nonetheless, she knew it when she spotted it.

She hadn’t worn work jeans in a decade, and the last pair she had were worn and a bit pale. As far as she was concerned, that was perfect. She struggled to pull them on, realizing in the process that she really was considerably stronger than she had been when she was younger; the fit was tight, but seemed to cover everything.

With another look in the mirror, she smiled at… somepony. Somepony who, to her relief, was not Applejack.

The final step of her usual morning routine before breakfast was to don her favorite hat. But this step gave her pause.

It really was a very nice hat.

Too nice?

But it covered up more. Covering up was supposed to be good, or at least so she mused.

No, whether it was too nice or not, it was too Applejack. She would do without.

Replacing the hat on its rack, she left her room, confident that she could handle this day like any other. As she was running late, Big Macintosh had already eaten and had kindly left a stack of pancakes in the oven to keep warm. The stack was a bit smaller than it ought to have been, undoubtedly because Apple Bloom had snuck a few extra pancakes when nopony was looking. She smiled and reminded herself to ask her sister about it later.

Unsurprisingly, they were apple pancakes. Unsurprisingly, she ate them with apple syrup. Unsurprisingly, she loved every sweet bite.

Tuesday may have normally been an applebucking day, but Wednesday was always an apple-selling day, and this Wednesday was to be no different, in spite of Applejack’s trepidation. She busied her thoughts with preparing the apple cart. It was exactly where she’d left it, in the barn, closed up and ready to be taken to town.

To Ponyville.

With all the other ponies.

With all the other mares…

Noticing a spot of mud on its frame, she trotted from the barn and was back in a flash with a bucket of warm water and a damp rag. Soon her small chore of cleaning its frame turned into cleaning the whole stand.

Definitely not stalling.

Definitely not afraid of going into town.

When the cart had been washed, and also had had a few nails removed and re-hammered and a small crack in a wheel mended, plus all the visible surfaces had been sanded, varnished and waxed, and the sign that read “Apple Family Apples” had been touched up to the point of being nearly repainted, and an axle realigned and the hinges had been replaced with spares, she examined her handiwork. The old stand really was a thing of beauty.

For selling apples.

In town.

Not in the barn.

She relented, having no excuses left and nothing to do but drag the cart into town. It took a moment to figure out how to strap it on without it tugging at her old jeans, but she failed to find a way to make that simple chore take more than a few minutes. Ready to sell, she was off.

The walk was slightly easier, as her muscles were loose from the morning’s work and she was quite distracted from the strain anyway. She breathed calmly, trying to ignore her recent problems and just enjoy the outdoors, listening only to the simple clip-clop of her hooves against the packed earth, the occasional crunch of a twig and the wind lightly rustling through the leaves. The rows of trees blended into a backdrop of green bliss, and she tried to drink in its ambrosia.

It didn’t work. She knew that the green bliss was merely the gateway to her own personal Hell.

On that thought, the first rows of houses became visible. From this direction, there was very little in the way of common residences, and she quickly found herself entering the town proper, and thus being subjected to the scrutiny of her fellow ponies.

Dragging the apple cart hadn’t made her particularly tired, but she sweated nonetheless. She could barely see out of her right eye with her mane tousled as it was, but she counted that as a blessing; what she saw to her left did little to subdue her troubles, and she feared the possibility that the situation was similar on her right.

Everypony stared at her. Everypony waved and said their friendly salutations. And then, instead of going back to their business, they kept staring. They watched her until she was out of their view.

Was that normal? She couldn’t remember. It seemed too… friendly. No, not friendly at all; it seemed downright intimate. She didn’t like it, but it was too late to escape.

“Applejack!” Her route brought her past Carousel Boutique, and its proprietor was there to greet her. “Love love love the new look, very harvest-chic. You should let your mane down more often!”

Applejack began to contemplate the possibility that her attempts at looking “un-Applejack” had not had the desired effect, but decided that Rarity wasn’t the ideal judge. She nodded and muttered “uh, thanks” over her shoulder, but didn’t break her gait. Not one to be deterred, Rarity trotted right along next to her, downright beaming in spite of Applejack’s discomfort.

“I certainly hope this is a sign of a newfound interest in fashion, Applejack. I’ll bet if you came by my shop later we could really make you shine!”

Applejack stopped in her tracks. “You, uh, want me to come by your shop?”

“… Yes?”

“So ya can have me in n’ out o’ clothes for hours and hours?”

“Well… yes?”

“Nothin’ doin’.” She resumed her original pace with little acknowledgement of her would-be outfitter.

Rarity gave a wistful sigh. “One of these days I’ll drag you out of all the mud and mess you work in and show you how to take some pleasure in life.”

Applejack shuddered and put more distance between herself and the harbinger of that supposed pleasure. “Not today.”

For all its awkwardness, the conversation had distracted her from everypony else. Now she was once again alone, but not really alone at all. She had as company the leering eyes of every mare in Ponyville.

She scolded herself for that thought. Surely they couldn’t be leering, she reckoned. That’s just not polite. They were just surprised to see her new look.

When she reached the marketplace and found an open spot—albeit one that seemed to open up magically upon her arrival, between Golden Harvest and a mare she didn’t recognize—she took her place and kicked open her stand.

Everypony was still staring at her. Or at least, she thought they were.

She began stacking baskets of apples to block herself from view. At first she just placed a couple baskets to her sides. Then she put a few in front of her. With the stand at her back and apple baskets around her, she was sure that anything enticing was out of view.

They were still staring at her.

Disregarding the correct mixing of apple cultivars, she stacked any apples she could find, mixing Macouns and Newton Wonders with reckless abandon; anything to hide herself.

Her eyes darted around. Nopony else’s did. They were still staring at her. She couldn’t understand why she was the center of attention when she was practically buried in apples.

Relenting to her hysteria, she constructed herself a veritable fort of apple baskets, such that only her muzzle was visible between a basket of Fujis and a basket of McIntoshes. At least, she concluded, this way nopony would be staring at her. Of course, she couldn’t rightly tell if they were or not; even if her vision had not been obscured by her mane, it certainly would have been obscured by her impromptu stronghold. But surely they couldn’t be. Why would they stare? All they’d see was her nose and a giant pile of apples. Nothing worth staring at.

The market was busy that day, as always, but to Applejack’s relief, her apple stand, normally one of the most popular, didn’t seem to be attracting any customers. Although her cocoon was far from comfortable, and was made less so by her mane getting in her eye and mouth and her jeans pulling tightly against her hind legs, it was sufficient to wait out the day in.

A familiar, and thankfully male, voice was the first to greet her. She recognized the voice as Caramel’s, even with only his caramel-colored hooves visible through her wall. “Hey there… Applejack? That is Applejack, right?”

“Howdy, Caramel,” she replied with restrained relief. “What can Ah do ya for?”

“Err… I was going to buy some apples for… y’know what, I don’t need ’em so badly. Uh, talk to you later, Applejack.”

Before she could think of some explanation for her situation, he had left. Kicking herself for the lost sale, she thought of an excuse, and waited for another customer, hoping only for a stallion.

In a town with a 97% female population, that hope can rarely be fulfilled.

“Hi, Applejack! Playing hide-and-go-seek with somepony? I love that game!”

The pair of pale yellow legs that appeared could have belonged to any of a dozen mares, and Applejack had no way of guessing whose they were. But at least she had her excuse prepared this time.

“New advertisin’ campaign. Put the apples first!”

Whoever it was, she was nearly as exuberant as Pinkie Pie. “That’s so clever! You’re always so clever!” The legs moved a bit, and Applejack’s apple fort shifted somewhat. “Two, please!”

“Uh… three bits.” She wasn’t quite sure why she’d said it. It was an unreasonable price for two apples. Not highway robbery, but hardly sensible.

The bubbly stranger didn’t protest the inflated price, but did voice another concern. “Uh, how am I supposed to pay you?”

It was a problem she hadn’t considered. She wasn’t behind the counter. She didn’t have a slot for change. She couldn’t extend her hoof without toppling her fort of apples. The only part of her that was free was her muzzle. Which is to say, her mouth.

And her lips.

Whoops.

The other mare had apparently come to the same conclusion, and was precariously balancing three coins between her teeth, just within sight through the crack in Applejack’s wall. Applejack shuddered, but steeled herself, and prepared to receive the payment.

The mare inched closer. A bead of sweat trickled down Applejack’s cheek.

Ptoo!

The coins flew to Applejack’s hooves, and the stranger stole a quick peck on the lips before darting off, giggling. It was too quick to avoid, and too quick to possibly guess who the mare had been. Applejack recoiled in shock and a small degree of horror, knocking over a basket of apples.

Like dominos, all of the baskets began to fall. One lost its balance, falling into another, then another, until layer upon layer of them teetered. She flailed about to right them, but wasn’t fast enough. Soon the south wall collapsed, then the east. When the north wall fell, defeat was inevitable. She could only watch, transfixed, as a sea of apples swallowed her.

She breathed heavily a few times and twitched under the load of apples. At least the smell was nice.

But everypony was staring at her again.

Staring at her legs and muzzle sticking at odd angles out of an enormous pile of assorted apples.

She hated when everypony stared at her.

“Uhh… need some help there, Casanova?” Her only relief was the fact that this unwanted nickname came from Rainbow Dash, and not some other mare.

“Mmmf.”

A pair of hooves pulled her out, and she righted herself with a shake and a quick flip of her mane. Her precious fort of apple baskets was in shambles. All manner of cultivars were mixed, but luckily the cart had been mostly spared since she’d set up her fortification far enough away from it. Concluding that the damage was repairable, she turned to her rescuer.

“Thanks, Rainbow, Ah was…” Seeing Rainbow’s expression, her attitude reversed. “What… what’re ya starin’ at? Ah don’t like it when ya look at me like that, Dash…”

Rainbow’s eyes were wide, and her jaw hung agape. “Y–your mane! And, pants?!”

“Well, Ah figured since everypony seems to be all gaga over me like Ah was, Ah’d try somethin’ different.”

“Like entering the ‘Sexiest Mare in Equestria’ competition? I don’t think that helps, Applejack!”

Applejack took a step back. “Wh–what?!”

Rainbow shook herself, her eyes fixated on Applejack. “At this rate, next week I’ll be the newest member of your lovey-dovey fan club. You’re… you’re hot! Hrrrng!” She put a hoof over her eyes mockingly.

“OK, Ah get it, har-dee– um, hi.”

Whether Twilight’s dazed expression was due to Applejack’s appearance or the apples scattered about would not have been clear if not for her poorly concealed blush. “Hi…”

“Need somethin’?” Applejack asked gruffly.

“Are… um… wow…”

Her nostrils flared and she stomped a hoof. “Well, what is it?”

Twilight recoiled from the brunt of Applejack’s rage, clearly hurt. She almost whispered her request. “What kind of apples do you recommend for an apple cake?”

“McIntosh.”

“Six please.”

“Don’tcha think sex apples are a bit much?”

“That’s what the–”

“Six apples! Six apples!”

“–recipe called for.” Seeing that Applejack’s anger was clearly not directed at her in particular, Twilight began to relax. “What happened? Can I help you clean up or anything?”

Ignoring her, Applejack put six McIntosh apples in a paper bag. “That’ll be fourteen bits.”

Twilight scoffed. “For six apples?!”

It was a good point. Reminding herself that she wasn’t helping matters, Applejack tried to recover the situation. “Ah mean, uh… fourteen cents?”

“… For six apples?”

“Three bits!”

Clearly confused, Twilight hoofed over the bits, then, her actual business concluded, repeated her more friendly query. “What happened?”

Applejack huffed. “Ain’t nothin’.”

After a moment of consideration of this blatant lie, Twilight’s eyes widened and she panickingly babbled, “Oh no, oh no, oh no! You… you know, don’t you?”

Worst-case scenario. “Ah wasn’t eavesdropping, it was a mistake!”

“You’re a terrible liar, Applejack.” Twilight sighed with a pouty frown. “OK, OK. Well, if you know, then you can help. But we can’t talk about it now. Meet me at the library tonight?”

A million thoughts flew through Applejack’s mind. Help? That couldn’t be good. Visions began to resurface. Suddenly Twilight was standing over her, holding her hooves with cruel magic, leaning down; the fire and ice returned, her body froze, her blood boiled. She recoiled in terror. “Help?! Tonight?!” She swallowed hard. “… Your place?”

“Well, I’m not a very good baker, but I didn’t want anypony else to find out about Spike’s surprise party, so I thought I’d try to make the cake myself…”

Applejack’s relief was palpable. “Oh, oh, Spike’s surprise party, y–”

“Keep your voice down!” Twilight’s eyes darted about, looking for any sign of an interloping baby dragon.

“Sorry,” Applejack whispered. “Ah’d be happy to help ya, Twi.”

“Oh. Oh! Great, see you tonight then!”

“Tonight.”

With a nod, Twilight left, trotting cheerfully away. Applejack took a few deep, relieved breaths, but sharply inhaled when she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s voice. She had forgotten that her confidant was still there, smiling cockily as ever.

“What the heck was that all about?”

“… Ah don’t wanna talk about it.”

Unrelenting as ever, Rainbow continued to prod for any nerves. “Well I’d like sex apples too!”

Applejack just growled, making no attempt at forming words.

“Three right here…” Practically prancing, Rainbow poked Applejack’s left thigh, right where her cutie mark was. The taut fabric rustled against Applejack’s skin in surprising ways, but that only made her angrier. “… And three right here!” Rainbow poked her right thigh in the same spot.

Still, Applejack could only growl at her torment. This, of course, just made Rainbow laugh, until in her jubilance she tripped into the expansive pile of now-worthless apples. With her upside-down and covered in sticky bits of apple, it was now Applejack’s turn to laugh. Rainbow pumped her wings uselessly, but they were stuck in the gooey applesauce.

“Y’all handle your hooves like a chicken handles its wings,” Applejack snickered.

“Har-dee-har. Help me outta here, wouldja?”

She was still chuckling as she helped her friend up. Rainbow tried to nonchalantly brush herself off, like a cat when seen doing something embarrassingly ungraceful, and relaxed when Applejack—and everypony else—stopped staring at her.

Never finding reason to introduce her intrusions, Pinkie Pie appeared as if from nowhere, and whispered excitedly between them, “Oh my goodness, I heard a big secret but I can’t tell you ’cause it’s a secret but oh my goodness it’s such a big secret!”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ya mean how the whole town has a secret club that wants to hunt me down like jackrabbits in the spring?”

“Noooo! That’s not even a secret, everypony knows that… which I guess they’d have to, since everypony’s in it! I know another secret!”

Rainbow put a hoof to her head. “Is it about Spike?”

As per usual, Pinkie Pie was barely able to suppress her exuberance. “Yesssss!”

Rainbow droned, “Is it about his secret birthday party?”

Her energy waned somewhat, but that still left her the most excited pony present. “How did you know?”

Thinking quickly, Applejack cut in. “Y’know what, Pinkie, Twilight is lookin’ for somepony to help her bake the cake tonight. Ah think you should help her, she’d really appreciate that!”

What little enthusiasm Pinkie had lost was regained quickly, as she wailed, “Really? Really really? But you’re a great baker, Applejack!”

“Uh… maybe Ah don’t want to spend time alone with Twi right now…”

Pinkie cocked her head, confused. After a moment, Rainbow gave her a knowing smirk. “Oh, I get it,” Pinkie finally said with an exaggerated wink to Applejack, “you spill a bit of icing on yourself and suddenly Twilight’s all, ‘Oh no, that’ll stain your mane, let me get that… with my tongue.’ ”

Applejack grimaced, but Rainbow refused to leave the taunting there. Imitating Applejack’s accent, she added, “ ‘Oh Twi, Ah had no idea you were so flexible!’ ”

“ ‘Oops, now I’ve gone and sat in the powdered sugar.’ ”

“ ‘Oh, Ah think Ah can do somethin’ about that!’ ”

Both then waggled their tongues at each other and made a series of increasingly obscene gestures, while Applejack became riled and, to her own horror, began blushing at the images flashing before her mind. Exasperated, she pleaded, “Can ya bake for her or not?”

Huffing, Pinkie relented. “You’re no fun!”

At this point, the day was ruined. Her crop was a lost cause, her stand had no customers, and no matter what she did, everypony kept staring at her. Her foul mood didn’t go unnoticed by her companions, but they were too jovial to pay it much heed. In an effort to bridge this gap, Rainbow gave a small smile and declared, “Your problem is that you’re treating this like a curse. You should be taking advantage!”

She swept a hoof through the air at the crowd of staring mares. “You’ve got powers like nopony could even imagine. I’d give my left wing to have powers like that!” She twitched with restrained jealousy. “And here you are, complaining and hiding away like you’ve got pony pox. Just look at them!”

Applejack looked. Everypony looked back.

“Just imagine!” Rainbow whispered, obviously trying to sound seductive. Even under the circumstances, it was surprising how unseductive it was.

With another shudder, Applejack pushed her friends away. Quite simply, she did not agree.

Reluctantly, Rainbow and Pinkie began to walk away, but Rainbow smirked suspiciously. In a faux whisper loud enough for everypony to hear, Rainbow slyly remarked to Pinkie, “I heard a secret about Applejack!”

Clearly unsure of what was going on but always happy to help with a prank, Pinkie gasped in her usual, exaggerated way.

“Wanna know what it is?”

Pinkie nodded excitedly.

Rainbow leaned in, as if telling a closely guarded secret. Her voice only became louder, though. “I heard she prefers the fairer sex, if you know what I mean.”

The pair galloped off, giggling to each other.

Their laughter was the only sound, their hoofbeats the only movement. What had been a bustling, busy day only a moment before had now completely frozen. Nopony twitched. Nopony even breathed.

Everypony stared at Applejack.

“Heh… heh…”

In the periphery of her vision, a caramel-colored mare with a forest-green mane fainted, hitting the cobblestone with a soft thud. Those around the fallen pony glanced at her for only an instant, before returning their gazes to Applejack.

“Well, y’know… rumors… heh… heh… never can trust ’em…”

Slowly, pensively, and even a bit sadly, the crowd tore their attentions away from Applejack, returning to the business of the day.

All except for one.

Why, Applejack begged, did it have to be Fluttershy? It would be nearly impossible to be mad at Fluttershy.

“You know, Applejack,” she murmured from her customary hiding place behind her long pink bangs, “if you did… I mean, if you are, um… we would all support you. Everypony just wants you to be happy.” She pulled even further into her mane, hiding her face. “N–no matter who you love.”

It seemed so damnably sincere. Ever kind, ever gentle.

Applejack had never been more terrified of Fluttershy in all her life.

With a muttered “thanks”, she began packing up what remained of her precious apples and their baskets. Even though it was far from the end of the market day, she felt oddly tired, and was desperate to end the terrible day, get away from everypony, and get back to the comfortable embrace of her bed. Fluttershy looked like she wanted to say something more, but Applejack made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want to hear it.

As was her usual routine, she closed the cart with a powerful buck. She strapped herself into its harness and began her walk home.

One of the cart’s wheels had been cracked during the day’s events, and jerked painfully at the axel and harness with each rotation. It seemed like the perfect end to a downright miserable day.

As each bounce of the cart pulled uncomfortably at her back, she was greeted again by smiling faces. She tried not to look up, and for a few blocks of backbreaking travel, that worked.

“Woah there, Applejack, you’re gonna hurt yourself like that. I can fix that wheel in a jiff for ya.” She recognized the speaker as Sturdy Foundation, a pale blue earth pony who worked in construction, and had helped Applejack put up barns in the past.

A mare.

“Uh, thanks, but–”

“It’s no problem at all, happy to help!” She didn’t give Applejack a chance to argue before she brought the cart to a resounding halt and pulled a jack from her toolbelt. “Won’t take more than a few minutes. I’ve got a couple spares that should be about the right size.” Pulling the cart to the side of the road, she dragged Applejack into her simple, but undeniably sturdy, ranch-style home, pushing her unwilling guest through the front door. “You just get comfortable, I’ll come get ya when it’s fixed.” The door slammed.

Applejack was too exhausted to complain. She plodded into the main room, a living area with a plush-looking red couch next to a simple mahogany coffee table. At one end was an elegant fireplace and mantle, engraved masterfully in intricate patterns. It occurred to her that Sturdy must have built all of this, an impressive feat for any pony. At each corner of the fireplace there was an embossed engraving, stylistically distinct from the rest of the mantle, of three apples.

In panic, her pupils shrank to pinpoints. She blinked and squinted. Everything was so blurry. She was exhausted nearly to the point of collapse, yet she couldn’t pull her attention away. Desperately, she tried to convince herself that they were just circles.

Surely just circles.

Surely just…

“Applejack, how are you feeling?” It wasn’t Sturdy’s voice, but she couldn’t immediately identify it. She was too tired to look up, anyway.

“Mah back’s killin’ me.” She wasn’t sure why she was being so direct. Usually she would have been content to simply say “Fine.”

A pair of hooves gently guided her to the couch. She collapsed onto it, not so much from compliance as from overwhelming weariness. To her relief, the hooves simply rubbed the kinks out of her back, and nothing more. They were firm but gentle, careful and methodical. Accompanying them was a puzzling sensation of rhythmic pumps of wind over her back and the feeling of another pony’s mane at her side.

She tensed up and turned herself, craning her neck to see the pony behind her. Fluttershy gave a demure smile, her hooves gently probing Applejack’s back.

“Fluttershy, what’re you doin’ in Sturdy’s–”

“Shhhh,” Fluttershy shushed her. “Just relax.”

For all her woes, it really was quite relaxing. She turned back around and lay flat, thinking over her train wreck of a day. From waking up in the morning to that very moment, almost everything had gone wrong. But one thing stuck out to her: Rainbow Dash was right. If she just hadn’t treated this odd condition like a curse, everything would have gone fine. This unexpected back massage was just proof that she had been making her own disasters.

When she looked at it that way, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh!” Fluttershy stopped. “I’m sorry, did that tickle?”

“No, no, Ah–”

Fluttershy’s voice became deeper, softer, almost seductive. “How about this?”

It certainly didn’t tickle…

Author's Notes:

Hello, ponies! Clavier here, but first, Fluttershy!

“Hello everypony! I’ve been asked to make an announcement.”

“Um… I’m sorry about it, though… I think you’re all very nice ponies, but we had a vote…”

“A–anyway…”

“Anypony who believed that the end of chapter one was not a dream is hereby disinvited to the after-meeting sex romp!”

“S–sorry… we just thought it might be going to your heads…”

Thank you, Fluttershy. I’m sure they understand.

Now, I’d like to thank you all. We always hope our stories will do well, but I wasn’t prepared for this! Wow, thank you so much! I can only hope to live up to the hype. You guys give me warm fuzzy feelings.

Anyway, please feel free to leave comments. I love to hear your comments, almost as much as I love Applejack! Err, shoot, did she hear me say that?

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