“Howdy Sugarcube. I see you’ve landed.” Applejack texts just as I step into the terminal to pay my fees.

“Are you at FSM?”

“Yes.”

“Would’ve been nervous if you had said somewhere else.”

Suddenly, she walks through the doors, wearing a mask with an image of a bitten apple off-center from her mouth. It’s actually quite cute on her.

“I mean, I could’ve tracked yer flight path with that app thingy you told me about.” She says.

“I wouldn’t expect you to use it. I can always just give you position reports.”

She chuckles. “I’d prefer to see ya land in person.”

At her request, she has me climb into her Raptor, and sit the driver’s seat.

“I’m ready to give her to ya.” She begins after taking her mask off and putting the keys in the cup holder. “We’ve been holdin’ onto the money ye’ve sent us for a while now, and now that I can give ya my truck, we can start spendin’ it.”

“I have this month’s payment ready too if you want it.” I say, speaking up slightly to compensate for keeping my mask on.

“Actually, I think ye’ can skip this month and all the rest fer now. I still have ‘ta count everythin’. I don’t wanna take more than we need from ya.”

“Hey, if you need or even want the money, I’ll happily give it to you.”

“No. I hate askin’ for more than I need.”

“I’m not holding you to a strict schedule of payment. This plight is an insurance issue and I don’t want you to suffer any more than you have.”

“Nonsense. It’s fine. And would you mind takin’ yer mask off? I want to see yer smile.”

“Have you been in any contact with anyone outside your household? Or has anyone else of your household?”

“No. All of Apple Bloom’s deliveries are contactless. I don’t really do anythin’ other than prune and pick, and Mac? Well, he’s probably the highest risk out of all of us. He’s seein’ Sugar Belle, but they’ve been together since before everythin’, so I trust ‘em.”

“And your grandmother?”

“She keeps busy. She does most of the housekeeping, though ye know I’m nervous for her. She’s gonna get herself hurt one’a these days.”

I chuckle.

“Max,” she then continues, grabbing my hand, “please. I can understand if ye’r nervous about catchin’ anything, but I… I’d feel a lot better if ye’ took it off.”

Now I can tell she’s being serious. With just enough hesitation, I take a deep breath and remove the straps from my ears.

She tightens her grip and says, “thank you.”

“So, uh,” I begin out of a desire to address the elephant in the room, “do you want to talk about your… um… confession?”

She blushes just enough before removing her hat and saying, “well, no use puttin’ it off. I like you, Sugarcube, and I think I’ve got it bad.”

“How bad are we talking? Obviously, our personal definitions are different, but…”

She interrupts me with, “I think about you a lot. I wish you were by my side quite a bit, and most of all… I… I have… fantasies.”

“Really?” I respond dry but neutrally. “Gotta say, AJ: I’m impressed. By how you make it out, sounds like you’re nearly head over heels for me, which is odd coming from you because I know how little you tend to put towards that side of your life.”

She doesn’t respond, but her eyes say so much. That, and not quite visible but somehow palpable quivering, so I continue.

“That’s not to say you’re completely unopposed – or as some would say, incapable – of romantic feelings. I just have a hard time processing the fantasies part. I never took you for that kind of girl. Anyway, it’s not my place to ask, but if that’s so, I must say I’m quite flattered. How long have you been like this?”

“Only since…” she responds immediately and quite quickly, “since you and Rainbow Dash did that flight together, ‘fer Delta, was it?”

“Oh, when we went to the Azores?”

“Yea. I was kinda jealous of Rainbow because you two were spendin’ lotsa time together.”

“Shucks,” I respond trying to play it off, “I don’t have many other friends. Who are pilots. Less so ones that have the kind of experience she does. Plus, you have to remember she is training under me. I’m getting her qualified to fly that airplane. Or the two that her certificate sought covers.”

“I know, but the more I saw that you two were doin’ stuff together, the more I felt like we never really spend time together.”

“In fairness, I will admit that while I can see why you feel that way, we have no shortage of… let’s call it intimacy. Sure, we don’t spend a lot of time together, but to me, the time we do spend together is actually quite intimate. Whether it be having a bit of fun while I help you work, or we’re cozying up to each other in the mid-to-late evening. Just because we’re not affectionate on the surface doesn’t mean the time we spend together isn’t intimate or meaningful. Quality Time is a love language.

“It seems to me, at least now that I’m thinking it aloud, maybe I’m the one overstepping the boundaries of what we should do with the kind of relationship we have?”

“No.” She responds bluntly, and immediately. “It’s more than that. It’s… when I’m with you, I feel comforted, I feel loved, I feel… treasured. I feel like I’m more than just some rough and tough farm gal that devotes way too much time to her work. Heck, I’m surprised ye haven’t ever spoken up about me workin’ too much.”

I smile, but wait for her to continue.

“I know that ever since you told me that ye had some sort of feelins fer me that you’ve been more or less careful about what we do, but I’ll say that I really did appreciate yer honesty. I’m also not afraid to say that even though it’s taken this long for me ta realize it, I think that I may have liked ya for a while anyway.”

“Well, I mean, if I met anyone else in your… disposition, doing some of the things we did, even and especially early on in our friendship, would certainly be off-limits to anyone else. I’m a lot more physical of a friend than most would consider normal.”

“That’s exactly it. Maybe our first spark of intimacy started something between us? I know I was pretty resistant to ‘yer admission at first, but we still did a lot of stuff that most friends would definitely not do.”

“Exactly. The way I see it, with all the physical and emotional intimacy we share, maybe that’s the cause for your feelings. Being so close so quickly may have fostered those feelings.”

“I see it the opposite way, Sugarcube. I think I always knew we had somethin’ special between us, shortly after the first time we met. I think because you always made me feel comfortable and valued, that… validated my kindling feelings.”

“Well,” I say with a new warmth building in my stomach, “however which way you cut it, there is simply no opportunity for us to work. You have your life, I have mine. I also would like to note that since what we have is quite special, I would hate to risk it, especially given my track record with romance. I wouldn’t want to lose any of you, and I fear that would happen if I went for any one of you. Or maybe I should phrase it as dating one of you risks the danger of quite literally betting the farm.”

“Isn’t that what you said to Rarity?”

“And Sunset. For good reason. Rarity arguably out of the seven of you best understands that the demands of our careers would create a conflict of interest, at least in terms of living situations. I think the reason she got over me so quickly after our trip to Europe is because she was attracted to her idealization of me. And while I’m not confident in saying this, because we haven’t done anything to the level that Rarity displayed in the events leading up to, and during, the Europe trip, I think you might be having the same Problem. [I’m thinking] you love the thought of me more than you love my presence.”

“Max,” she says closing her eyes, clearly agitated, “I know that wasn’t intentional, but I’m being serious. I’ve talked to the other girls about it, and they all can speak for me when I say that that’s not true.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I reply as genuine as I can sound. “You know each other a lot better than I do, so it’s not my place to make any call on the authenticity of your feelings. However, if you would like, I am willing to ‘trial date.’”

“No. I wouldn’t want to do any of this “trial” nonsense. I really like you Max, and I think that the timing of how my thoughts of and about you along with what’s currently happenin’ jus’ might be a sign ‘fer me.”

“Of what?”

“Well, as I said with you and Rainbow Dash, with all the time ye spend together, I feel like we never do. Even though we do things that most friends at our level of kinship would easily shy away from, we’ve never really had a problem with bein’ a might intimate.”

“Well, you know me. I’ve always been a proponent of being physical with friends who are okay with it, and actually, to my surprise, you put up more resistance than even Fluttershy, though that may be because she pities me since I’m always so self-deprecating around her. Point is, even though I haven’t really thought much of it, I guess you have, and maybe it was my fault that you caught feelings. We’ve been pretty intimate both physically and emotionally despite what it may appear to others when we spend time together, so I guess falling for me was the next step.”

“But that’s the thing, Max. I’ve felt this way ‘fer a while. I don’t think yer theory is true, at least from my view.”

“Put yourself in my shoes.”

“Can’t, ye’r too many sizes too big. Even if I could, I don’t think I’d want to. I could never wrap my head around wanting to die.”

“Ouch, AJ.”

“Sorry, but it’s the truth.”

“No argument. I see your view, and it’s not invalid at all, but I stand by my word. We were and still are close enough of friends that we could get away with cuddling and snuggling and even spooning, (from the last time I was here). Even without needing to be physical, we’re still very intimate.”

“And I stand by mine. I’ve always known we had somethin’ special, and being warm and fuzzy with each other was because of that, not the other way ‘round.”

“Maybe that’s why we can. Let’s not forget that I outed myself as liking you basically when we met.”

“Yea, and I love that you did it.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about it, and I even asked Sunset from a psychological view, did the fact that I told you upfront that I liked you have any effect on your feelings?”

“Uh, maybe at first. It was certainly a shock, but… I’ll say I think so.”

“Would you say that you liked me more because of it?”

“Well, it definitely stoked the fire, but it didn’t really fan the flames as it were.

“Ye’ know, if I ever had more time off, I’d want to spend as much time as I could with ya.”

“I’d like that, but I wouldn’t want you to completely readjust your life just so you could see me more.”

“I wouldn’t do that, not even fer you.”

“Thanks.”

“Haha!” She chuckles heartily, “if there’s anything I’ve learned as of these past events, it’s that I ought to find other ways to keep myself busy besides the farm.”

“Too bad it took something like this. Now that there’s fun stuff you more or less want to do, most of it we can’t even do.”

“I know. At the very least then, I’d love ta’ join ya on some flights from time to time.”

“That would be fun.”

“Oh, can ye’ take me home? Since Mac’s gone fer a few days, Bloom and I have to continue tending to the inactive orchards while they rest.”

When we return to the farm, I’m instructed to park at the farmhouse, but we notice the garage open with Big Mac’s truck missing along with Granny Smith’s.

“Wonder where she went.” She ponders.

“Is she in the fields with your sister?” I ask.

“Maybe. Or she’s loadin’ up scrap metal.”

“There a lot?”

“Not really. Enough to fill one of the trucks, but I wouldn’t expect Granny to do it on her own.”

“Well,” I say as I throw the gear lever into park, “you want me to go with you?”

“Ye don’t need ta be anywhere, do ya?”

“Not until next week I think. You wanna come on my next hire flight? Rainbow’s the contact. Well, the liaison.”

“Why would Rainbow Dash need ya to fly her somewhere?”

“Don’t know. All she said was to make sure I’m available. Wanna come with?”

“Sure, I’ll come with ya.”

“Are you and Dash gonna be okay? I know she was… interested in dating me, were it not for my smoking.”

“Are ya gonna quit or not?”

“Depends. Is my smoking still a dealbreaker?”

There’s a long pause as she grabs the handle, but she ponders an answer before opening the door and not answering the question.

“Come on. Let’s make sure Granny isn’t hurtin’ herself.”

Next Chapter: Call in the Team Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes