Crossing the bridge with the bright blue spring afternoon overhead, Fluttershy brimmed with happiness to hear Applejack humming the song beside her. But with each step they took toward Ponyville, those good feelings got shakier and shakier. "Umm, so," she finally said as they came around the little hill into sight of the buildings at the edge of town. "What are we...what are we actually going to do?"

"Fair question." Applejack nodded. "First, we'll stop in at Sugar Cube Corner to tell—"

"Pinkie Pie??" Fluttershy almost froze, her ears folding at the imagined shouts of Pinkie leaping from rooftop to rooftop to let all of Equestria know that Applejack and Fluttershy were now marefriends. "But won't she—! I mean, shouldn't we tell Rarity first? She'll be so hurt if we don't! Oh, she'll say that she isn't, but you know how sensitive she is! Or Rainbow Dash! She's my oldest friend, after all, and might feel—!"

The sweet, firm press of Applejack's lips to hers stopped her words, but her doubts kept gibbering away: Kissing?? In public?? What if somepony saw?? "Now, honeycomb," she barely heard Applejack saying. "'Cause you told me to, I'm gonna ask nice and quiet if you trust me."

"I do!" Scrunching her eyes closed, Fluttershy made herself whisper it over and over again—"I do! I do! I do!"—till she could hear it more clearly than that horrible little voice in her head. Peeking out from behind her bangs, she swallowed to see the concern on Applejack's face. "I do trust you," she said as loudly as she could manage. "Really and truly, Applejack, I do. But I'm just so...so..."

Which was when Fluttershy realized that she didn't know what she was feeling. She wasn't scared or nervous, she knew, because, well, how could she possibly be either of those things when she was wearing Applejack's hat?

And yet... Her stomach in knots, all four knees trembling, she hung her head and murmured, "I'm just so me...."

Applejack's low chuckle stroked her ears. "Are you now?" The gentlest, softest little kiss caressed the side of her neck. "Well, just so happens that that's the exact same pony I'm crazy in love with."

The clench in her middle loosened so suddenly, Fluttershy was sure she heard a snap, and she found she could breathe deeply again. Straightening, she let her gaze rest on Applejack's happy face and said, "Thank you. I love you, too, in case I haven't said it lately."

"Honestly, honeycomb? I hear it ev'ry time you gimme that sweet, sweet look with them purty blue-green eyes." Applejack turned back toward town. "Now! You ready?"

"Yes, I am!" Fluttershy had never meant it more in her life; she stood and trotted to Applejack's side.

Applejack nodded, and they set off once more. "So, like I was saying: Pinkie, then Rarity, then the glass shop to get 'em out here fixing your window, then Rainbow Dash, then Twilight."

Fluttershy nodded, too, and feeling Applejack's hat shift between her ears, she opened her mouth to ask if maybe Applejack might want to take it back so—

So nopony'll know about the two of you, you mean? that awful voice muttered, and Fluttershy pulled her mouth closed, determined that she would never say such a terrible thing. Why wouldn't she want ponies to know she and Applejack were in love? It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life!

Wasn't it?

A picture spun into her head: Applejack with a whole crowd of ponies around her, all of them laughing and slapping her on the back. You know how ponies are always looking at her? that voice whispered. Guess what that means?

And suddenly Fluttershy was standing next to Applejack, all the ponies in the crowd staring at her, too. Even just imagining it, she could feel the sweat start trickling down the backs of her knees, and the sweat went cold when the voice continued: You thought it was bad getting those medals from the princess or being in the play? Imagine all the times Applejack gets awards. And you'll have to be right there—

"Honeycomb?"

Startled, Fluttershy blinked and winced. Looking around, she saw they'd not only reached the town square, they'd crossed it and were standing in front of Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack's muzzle curled in that little crooked smile of hers. "Looked like you was thinking something powerful, so I reckoned I wouldn't disturb you."

"Oh, no." Fluttershy felt herself blushing, and trying to stop, as always, just made her face heat up all the more. "I...I'm not very good at thinking, so please disturb me any time I'm doing it."

Applejack cocked her head. "Not very good at thinking?"

Unsure how to explain, Fluttershy shrugged, her gaze focused on the ground. "A lot of the time, even when I know something, if I start thinking about it, it gets all..." She held a hoof up and swished it around in the air. "All tangled up and confusing, and I start not being sure if I really know it or if I'm just imagining that I know it." She swallowed. "I don't like it when that happens."

Everything got so quiet in front of her, Fluttershy snapped her head up in a panic, afraid that Applejack had run away. She was there, though she had a look on her face like she'd bitten into an apple and found half a worm. "You having second thoughts 'bout us?" she asked quietly.

"No!" Fluttershy jumped forward, rubbed her cheek against Applejack's neck. "Never! I wouldn't!" She pulled away again so she could meet her eyes. "It's...it's just my brain, not me!"

For a long, horrible second, Applejack didn't do anything but blink. Then she smiled and patted the hat Fluttershy was wearing. "Well, remember you got the thinking cap on now. Might be that'll help you and your brain."

"It does!" Fluttershy nodded so hard, she had to stop, afraid the hat might fly off. "It already has, I mean!"

"Glad to hear it." Applejack touched Fluttershy's face, and Fluttershy closed her eyes, leaned into the strength she felt there. "Now, pull yourself in a big breath, then blow it all the way out, OK?"

With another nod, Fluttershy inhaled and exhaled.

"That's my gal." Opening her eyes, she saw Applejack take a breath of her own. "Time for step one, then." She turned, pushed open the door, and stepped into Sugar Cube Corner, Fluttershy making herself follow.

Midafternoon, the shop was empty of customers, Pinkie pulling some metal baking trays from the display behind the counter. "Hi, guys!" she said, tossing the trays to balance across her back and turning for the doors into the kitchen. "I'll be with you in eighteen and a half shakes of a pony's tail!"

Nosing the door open, she stopped, her eyes blowing up like balloons, a shiver rattling her violently from ears to tail. The trays clattered everywhere, and Pinkie leaped spinning over the counter, her grin so big and wide, Fluttershy was afraid it might go all the way around her head and unzip it.

Bracing herself for Pinkie to start shrieking the news about her and Applejack at the top of her lungs, Fluttershy winced down nearly flat to the floor. But then Applejack was there, right in front of Pinkie and pressing a hoof over Pinkie's mouth. "Yep," she said. "And since me and Fluttershy are together now, we was hoping you could maybe squeeze in a party for us tonight."

Another wave passed over Pinkie, and she grabbed Applejack's hoof with hers. "Oh my gosh! A party! Of course!" She sort of flashed, and Fluttershy found herself caught with Applejack in one of Pinkie's bone-crushing hugs. "To celebrate the greatest day ever!"

The room spun, and Fluttershy blinked to see that she was now seated at one of Sugar Cube Corner's booths, Applejack beside her, Pinkie Pie standing on the table. "I always worried you two would never find your special someponies 'cause Fluttershy's always so—" Pinkie collapsed into a heap, her eyes gigantic and wavering behind the bubble gum bramble of her hair, and made a little mewing noise just exactly like a lost kitten. "And Applejack's always so—" She leaped to her hoofs again, her head held high, and snorted through her nostrils the way an angry bull would.

"Hey!" Applejack said.

"But now?" The world blurred once more, and they were all back by the counter where they'd started, Pinkie bouncing up and down in front of them. "Now you've got each other, and that's two worries gone just like that!" She did something with her front hoofs that made a popping sound, confetti and little streamers shooting across the room. "And I'm gonna give you the bestest party that's ever parted a tee! We'll have the whole town here!"

All at once, her eyes went shimmery, and her mane deflated, cascading down the sides of her head like a pink avalanche. "But how'm I gonna get ev'rything done in time for it to be tonight?? The invitations and the cakes and the pies and the sandwiches and the—"

"Invitations?" Applejack stepped forward again and put a front leg around Pinkie's shoulders. "Me and Fluttershy'll take care of that. And let's just make it the six of us, OK?" She gave one of her big grins. "We can save inviting the whole town till the wedding, I reckon."

Pinkie's mane exploded into its usual puffy jumble, and Fluttershy gasped as Pinkie caught her and Applejack in another massive hug with a squeal that made Fluttershy's ears fold. "The wedding! Yes! I'll start planning it tomorrow! But tonight with just us'll be the best party till then!" She stepped backwards, her lower lip trembling, her hoofs pressed to her chest. "'Cause I was kinda the teensiest-tiniest bit sad looking at you two and thinking about how you deserved to be the happiest ponies always and forever. And now you will be..."

The tiniest moment of stillness, then Pinkie was whirling. "So no more sad! Which is why we'll need banners! Big colorful ones that say, 'Hooray, Appleshy!'" She spun back. "Or is it 'Flutterjack'?" Her face crumpled. "I don't know which to use, and I like them both!"

Fluttershy blinked. "Ummm, maybe make...two banners?"

"Genius!" Another rush of pink surrounded her, and Fluttershy was suddenly standing outside Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack beside her, Pinkie's voice ringing out: "You guys get the others invited, and I'll see you all here at seven o'clock!" And when Fluttershy looked back, all she saw was the bakery's door swinging shut with a bang.

"And that," Applejack said after a few seconds of quiet, "is why we tell Pinkie first. So she'll stay happy and busy and let us take care of getting our news out ourselves to whoever we want and whenever we want."

Turning to her smiling friend, Fluttershy nodded, took off the hat, and gently placed it on Applejack's head. "And that," she said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek, "is why you get the thinking cap now."

Applejack blushed, something Fluttershy had never even imagined she would see, and it was just so incredibly cute, she had to clap her hoofs and give a little squeak.

"All right, all right." Applejack straightened her hat and started south. "Reckon Rarity's next."

Falling into step, Fluttershy couldn't help asking, "But how did you know how to—? I mean, Pinkie's a wonderful friend, but she's always so...I could never...I've never been able to..." She didn't want to say 'handle her' because it didn't sound very nice and wasn't what she really meant, but she suddenly couldn't think of any other way to put it.

"Oh, I hear you." Applejack blew out a breath. "Pinkie's the second friend I ever made who weren't related to me—you know me and Rarity were the last blank flanks in our class, right? 'Fore I run off to Manehattan to try my hoof at being an Orange like my Ma? Well, after Dash's Rainboom brung me back here, weren't too much later Pinkie first showed up, and me and her and Rarity, we just kinda hit it off in a weird way. Course, with Pinkie involved, couldn't be any way other'n weird, but still..."

Trailing off, Applejack shook her head, and Fluttershy realized she'd been holding her breath. She'd always wondered about her friends' lives before she'd moved to Ponyville, but she'd never wanted to bother them by asking. "It was fate," she whispered with a thrilling little chill.

"Y'know?" Applejack's eyes seemed to Fluttershy to go out of focus. "Used to be, I woulda guv you a big, round snort, talking that way. I woulda said fate was hooey, that the princesses keep the world running so we can go about our business on our own, and that there ain't nothing decided in a pony's life till she decides it for herself. But then—" She turned, her gaze focusing so sharply, Fluttershy could almost feel it brush through her bangs. "Then we all turned out to be perfect fits for the Elements of Harmony. And it turned out we all got our cutie marks at the exact same time 'cause of Dash's Rainboom. And when you showed me your true self, it turned out I'd been waiting for nopony but you my whole life."

Fluttershy's heart sped up, Applejack's eyes shining. "So," she finished with a sniff. "Don't reckon I'll be bad-mouthing fate too much anymore."

Not caring who might see, Fluttershy pressed herself to Applejack's side and spread a wing over her marefriend's back. Applejack sniffed again and tucked her head to Fluttershy's neck, and they continued walking along that way, touching as much of each other as they could manage, till they came around the corner to see Carousel Boutique.

"Consarn it!" Applejack said suddenly, pulling away and looking back over her shoulder. "I was gonna pick up a cake for when I apologize to Rarity."

"Oh! That's right!" Fluttershy remembered Applejack mentioning something while they were basking together in their very first afterglow earlier today. "You two had an argument?"

"Yep." Applejack stepped up to the boutique's door. "Oh, well. Reckon the promise of a homemade apple pie's better'n just about anything else in this world anyway..." She grinned over her shoulder. "Ain't like I had other things on my mind today, after all, is it?"

That made Fluttershy's face heat up again, then Applejack was pushing the door open. "Don't get yourself in a tizzy, Rarity! It ain't customers! It's just me and Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy followed her into the open space of Rarity's showroom, the unicorn turning from her workbench with a broad smile. "I shall get myself into a tizzy if I so desire, Applejack, and nothing you can say will stop me!" She gave a little giggle, and Fluttershy couldn't help joining in; when Rarity was in a good mood, the whole day always seemed to get brighter. "But do come in!" She cocked her head. "You're both looking chipper. All's well, I suppose?"

"Sugar cube?" Applejack put a hoof to her chest. "I recollect being a mite outta sorts last time you let me bend your ear, so lemme tell you right up front that I don't rightly know how anything could be any better'n it is right here and right now."

"Indeed?" Rarity blinked, and Fluttershy could almost hear her friend's mind working: other than Twilight Sparkle, Rarity was about the smartest pony Fluttershy had ever met. "I'm glad to hear it, of course, but what could possibly have changed since last we—" She gasped, her eyes widening. "Do you mean to say that your affair of the heart has—?"

"Has it ever!" Applejack grinned. "But y'know what I was saying about love and lust never going together, and how the pony I was lusting after didn't feel nothing for me?" She turned that grin on Fluttershy, and Fluttershy wanted to start singing again. "Turns out I was wrong on both counts."

The air seemed to hum, and from the way Rarity's eyes opened even wider, Fluttershy guessed she'd put the pieces together. The whole room flashed purple, and with a speed Fluttershy didn't think even Pinkie Pie could've matched, the 'closed' sign was dangling from the outside of Rarity's slamming front door, Rarity pushing the two of them into her sitting room and onto cushions around her table, her eyes blazing with glee. "Tell me everything!" she demanded.

Tea wasn't a drink Applejack much cared for. A good cuppa coffee or a mug of hot chocolate, something she could feel sliding down her throat and perking up her middle, that was always welcome afore a morning's work. But tea mostly just hit her as sour hot water.

Sitting in Rarity's parlor that afternoon, though, she gladly sucked down cup after cup of the stuff just to watch the way Fluttershy glowed under Rarity's careful attentions. Applejack could only marvel at how Rarity had managed to pull the whole story outta Fluttershy so far—well, not all the whole story, of course—and she marveled even more that Fluttershy had got through almost the entire thing without telling a single lie. Sure, not a word had passed her pretty lips about the luscious little wiggler she had tucked away inside her lacinia, but—

"And then?" Rarity was asking, and Applejack tensed, not at all sure how Fluttershy would handle this part of the story.

Fluttershy cringed, her gaze on her cup, and Applejack opened her mouth to jump in even though she had no idea what she was gonna say. Good thing Fluttershy took a breath and went on: "I was actually there, standing in the parlor with Big Macintosh, and—" She looked up, her eyes wavering. "I felt like such a fool! I mean, I didn't know him at all, hadn't ever said more than maybe a dozen words to him, had no idea who he was as a pony, or anything! I turned, and I...I ran, I flew, I just...just...just..."

Her voice trailed off, and Applejack almost shouted the honest truth: it was Mac who'd run from Fluttershy, not her from him! Instead, she lay a hoof over Fluttershy's while Rarity let out a gasp. "Oh, Fluttershy! You poor dear!"

"I...I kind of—" Fluttershy was looking at Rarity, but she set her other hoof gently over Applejack's. "I got kind of upset and wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and crashed a little bit through my living room window and—"

"What??" Rarity had leaped to her hoofs.

"It's all right." Applejack nodded toward the far wall. "We'll be stopping at Glazier Point's after we leave here."

Rarity cleared her throat loudly. "I was not concerned about the window!"

Fluttershy giggled, a sound that made Applejack start running the spell through her head to keep her lacinia from popping open. "It was all right, though. Because as soon as I looked up, there was Applejack, rushing in to save me. And the instant I saw her, I...I knew." Fluttershy swallowed, and the emotion in her voice made Applejack's throat get thick, too. "I knew that all the things I thought I loved about Macintosh were really things I loved about Applejack, and that...and that I was the one who'd broken Applejack's heart..."

At which point, well, there was nothing under Celestia's bright blue sky that coulda stopped Applejack from leaning in to kiss Fluttershy. And when Fluttershy turned to meet her lips, it took ev'ry bit of self-control Applejack had ever learned to keep her from easing Fluttershy over onto Rarity's deep plush carpeting to tease that gorgeous penis of hers out into the open.

Still, it took her nearly a minute to pull away from her perfect and glorious marefriend. "So, uhh," she said, not quite sure she remembered what they'd been talking about. "Just wanted to stop by and let'cha know." She turned to Rarity, the unicorn with stars literally twinkling in her eyes. "And tell you you was right and I was wrong."

"Never mind that!" Rarity leaped across the table and wrapped the two of them in a hug that woulda made Pinkie Pie proud. "I refuse to believe that there has ever been a happier moment in Equestrian history than this moment right now! That you two should have found each other when we were all so worried you would never find anypony—!"

"Hey, now!" It took some doing, but Applejack wrestled herself free enough from Rarity's grip so she could glare at her. "Just how much talking d'you all do about the private lives of your friends when they ain't around??"

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "No more than the usual amount, I assure you." She slid to the floor and padded around to her own pillow on the other side of the table. "Can I assume that festivities are being planned?"

"Oh, yes." The blush still hovering around Fluttershy's cheeks made AJ seriously consider giving up this whole party idea so she could head home with her marefriend and—

Home. To Sweet Apple Acres. To Apple Bloom and Granny Smith and...and Big Macintosh. And weren't that gonna prove to be an interesting set of conversations?

But Fluttershy was still speaking: "Seven o'clock tonight at Sugar Cube Corner. I know it's sudden, but we're very much hoping you'll be able to come."

"Darling?" Rarity had a fierce and solemn look to her that Applejack didn't think she'd ever seen. "The third coming of Discord could not keep me from attending." Her gaze moved to Applejack's, and the sudden waver there flashed AJ back to Miss Organdy's class so many years ago, the way she'd marched her little blank flank over to the couple jerkwads taunting the prissy but equally blank white unicorn filly and told 'em if they couldn't find something else to do, she'd be happy to buck a few suggestions into their heads. "I could not be happier for the both of you," Rarity murmured, and before Applejack even knew what she was doing, she found herself leaping up to throw her front legs around her friend's neck.

Sniffing, AJ pushed away quick as she could. "Now, me and Fluttershy better get on outta here 'fore this place ends up fetlock deep in eyeball drippings." She tugged at her hat and turned away, chanced a grin over her shoulder—fast so maybe she wouldn't get all weepy again. "Seven o'clock, now, y'hear?"

"Oh, I hear." Rarity's grin looked equally shaky. "You'd better believe that I hear."

Outside, Applejack managed to get some air into her lungs. "It's kind of a lot all at once, isn't it?" she heard Fluttershy ask beside her.

Nodding, she slid over to brush her side against the tip of Fluttershy's wing. "Worth ev'ry bit of it, though."

They stood that way for a moment, then Applejack figured her knees were steady enough to carry her. "Right! Window next!"

Glazier Point's glass shop was just down the road from Rarity's, and Applejack told him what was what. "No problem, Applejack," the silver-gray earth pony said, holding out a hoof. "I'll get the measurements this afternoon and have it ready to install tomorrow or the next day."

Applejack touched the brim of her hat, then touched his hoof. "Much obliged. And send the bill to the Acres, will ya? Whole thing was my fault, I reckon."

That got a little gasp from Fluttershy, peering in through the shop's doorway, and when Applejack joined her on the street, the two of them heading for the south side of town and Rainbow's place, she knew why Fluttershy was being so quiet. "No arguments, now, honeycomb. If'n I hadn't been so bone-headed as to let you go in to see Big Mac on your own, you never woulda got so upset and never woulda crashed through that window in the first place. So I'll be paying for it, and that's that."

"Oh. Yes, I..." Fluttershy had a way of swallowing that Applejack could practically hear. "Thank you, of course, for saying that, and I guess it's kind of true, but that...that wasn't...I wasn't...wasn't going to argue about anything. If...if that's OK with you, I mean."

Looking over, Applejack saw that same strange shivery tension hovering around her that she'd had when talking about how she wasn't good at thinking. Maybe a little humor to lighten her up? "Well, if'n you need the thinking cap back, you just lemme know."

She did giggle, and that loosened the little clench in Applejack's stomach. "Oh, it's just—" Fluttershy turned, that beautiful, serious look on her face. "You trotted right into Mr. Glazier's shop and...and told him what you wanted! You didn't spend three days trying to work out the words or write it down and practice it for a week to make sure you didn't accidentally say something that might offend him or...or anything like that!" Her already wide eyes got even wider. "It was amazing!"

The sheer adoration pouring out of her caught Applejack right in the chest, and she felt like she could walk straight up to Rainbow's front door and knock all by herself. Sidling over to rub her shoulder against Fluttershy's, she said, "Stick with me, honeycomb. You ain't seen nothing yet."